Cora Lee Johnson, Springville, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, March 6, 2002: Saving the legacy tape no. 433 and 434

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CORA LEE JOHNSON MARCH 6, 2002 COR: Yes, they did. In fact, the two younger boys, they came to California. They didn't want to be farmers. And they were typical Californians: Uncle Robbie was a maitre d' at a big place out in Santa Monica. He taught Sheldon the ropes. A couple of them became car dealers but I think there were three ofthe boys that actually clung onto that land. Now when Claudia and I would go up, we would go up and because our father was a railroad man, he could get us a pass on the railroad and we would go up and we'd spend about a couple of weeks when we were in high school. But Grandma's home was just a farmhouse. It wasn't modem or anything like that. I know she used to chuckle because Claudia and I didn't know how to make the feather beds. And there was an art to it. She'd come in and she'd take one end and flip it, then go to the other, then flip it, off there and then mound it up in the middle and they'd put the counterpane on it. Our grandfather passed away in 1926 so Grandmother was the head ofthat family, head of those boys, the head of that family and they kept that farm going. But I know Uncle Lester, he had four boys and no daughters and he finally bought the rest of the land away. There was nothing divided up as far as my mother or Aunt Cora Lee or anything like that. They were the first family and they didn't stay there and my mother moved back here in 1910 and Daddy, he wasn't satisfied to be a homesteader in Canada, things like that. He wanted to come home to Springville. My great-grandfather, this is his town; he settled this town-Aaron Johnson. So we have our roots deep here. BEC: You do. You have such a rich history. It's interesting. So tell me, then, how did your dad get to Canada? COR: Well, the name ofthe man was Seymour Mendenhall. They lived just two blocks around here on the comer. And Daddy had made his home there so when the 9