Nathen Elmo Thompson

  Generelle notater:

Nathan Elmo Thompson was born in Park City, Utah; a frontier mining town. Lawrence's family had moved here from Logan, Utah. In Logan the family is buried and recorded in the Logan Temple. Velates family also moved into Park City from Rockport, Utah for the work. Mining became the mainstay for many of Utah's families but it also was a rough place to live. Lawrence and Velate moved to Salt Lake City when Nathen was 3 years old. Here Nathan was near family and remembered the happy times with his Grandparents. His parents divorced and he experianced the trama of losing his father. Now, Nathan's mother was a single mom working to care for two young boys. In the summers he would go to his grandfather Gibbons ranch. Here he watched the cattle buyers barter over grandpa's stock. He had the fun of being free to explore and he loved fishing with grandpa, Thomas Gibbons.
He married Mabel Rollinger who was living in California when Velate moved there. Mabell, as she changed her name to, was a cute young girl who captured his heart. I, Susan said, "He spoiled her the way I want to be spoiled". He was offered a job in Blythe, California, his first daughter Marnet was born and he was managing a car loading company that began his career. He later was manager of Arizona Motor Transport Co.; then when I met his son John, he was managing Hopper Truck Lines. He knew and John met many of the cattle ranchers of Arizona. While he and Mabell lived in Blythe he would go hunting and fishing to help provide for their meals as they both enjoyed wild game. He took John hunting and fishing into the White Mountains to the Big and Little Diamond Creek's where John and I would fish and our sons too.
He and Mabell lived in Phoenix, Velate lived in Glendale then her son Leith built a home in Phoenix. John was born in Phoenix General Hospital. He and Mabell had another daughter Dianne and a son Lawrence. Nathan build several homes for his family and eventually he and John built a home in Camp Verde, Arizona on the Verde River. "The Ranch" they called the half section of land
he retired on. He and John grew three crops of alfalfa, sold it and they raised feeder calves. His children married; Mabell became allergic to the dust and pollen in the area so they moved to Austin, Colorado. Here Lawrence and his wife Jacqueline's family lived across from each other. His other children would drive from California or Utah, Arizona and Missouri to visit them. John and he would go fishing on Surface Creek and our boys camped in the beautiful Colorado wilderness. A creek crossed his property and he had a pond. He enjoyed raising animals and growing a garden and orchard but eventually the alfalfa field died when Colorado cut off the water rights. When John and I first traveled through Colorado near Austin; the town of Delta was verdant green with lots of running water.
Nathan died at age 101 and Mabell at 96 in Ausin, Colorado; the place of their dreams.


From interviews by John and Lawrence Thompson, Newspaper articles and my memories.
Nathan was born in Park City, Utah. The Thompsons had left Cache Valley where their Danish ancestors had settled in Logan, Utah. Their names are in the Logan Temple. Park City was a mining town in those days. When Nathan was 3 years old his family moved from Park City to Salt Lake City; they lived at 9th S. Jefferson 870. Great Grandmother Gibbons would visit them in Salt Lake. She was a big lady. She would set Nathan on her lap and tell stories about trading with Indians and how they ate potato like bulbs so as not to starve. Great Grandpa was a member of the Mormon Brigade.
When Nathan was age 12; he and a friend saw a large pelican in a drainage ditch; they lassoed it and brought it home. They put it in the chicken pen in a tub of water. Grandma Gibbons came out the next morning to feed the chickens and shouted,” Velate come here and see what these boys have done”! His dad, Lawrence, said after he finished laughing,” Boys we can’t keep that big bird.” So they loaded it on the truck and took it to Liberty Park and gave it to them.
While Nathan lived in Salt Lake City; when school was out, he would go to his Granddad’s ranch in Boulderville, Utah on the Weber River. It was called Boulderville because they had to remove Boulders to use the land. Brigham Young had asked his Great Granddad and 16 other families to settle on the Weber River. Grand Aunt Emma Stembridge married Nathan Staker and lived in Boulderville too. Uncle Than was the only one who wasn’t LDS and smoked. Nathan loved his Granddad Thomas Gibbons Jr. and spending those days there. The cattle buyers would come to Grand Dad’s ranch to buy his stock because they were so well fed. Nathan remembered him sitting behind the barn while he was whittling and would negotiate the price until he would get the price he wanted. His Grandfather Gibbons taught him to hunt, fish and work. They would put up a tent by the river and as a small boy; Nathan could hear all the wild animals and his imagination would run away with him. Granddad used a Percheron or Belgian horse; hook a chain down to a landing and load a full load on the wagon and haul it down to Boulder. Sometimes he would haul a load of lumber from Rockport to Salt Lake City. He would trade it for flour, shoes or whatever they needed. All the timber was cut by hand with an ax. Granddad’s house was a two story house made out of wood. It had a large parlor on the first floor and a large kitchen. Upstairs there was one long bedroom on one side and two on the other. Outside was a cool house make of rocks with thick walls. There was a stream running through the middle. It never froze in the winter and was always very cool. They kept milk and produce in there. They also had a vegetable house where they would put blocks of ice surrounded with saw dust. After his Granddad Gibbons died and Nathan went fishing on the Weber; he was stopped by a game warden and was asked if he had a license. Nathan told him yes and he asked if Nathan was Tom Gibbons son. Nathan told him he was his grandson. The warden said that Tom Gibbons was a master fisherman and he could catch fish when no one else could catch them. He then told Nathan “You fish like him”. Nathan remembered this little diddy from those days-”Come on time, rain or shine”.
At Jevens Candy Store there was a cute 16 year old girl named Mabel Rollinger. She was going to beauty school. He and Mabel went on double dates with her sister Clara. When he and Mable announced their plans to marry; Velate was surprised and said, “ I thought you were going to marry Clara!” Mable was miffed that Velate liked Clara better. Their parents were now living in California.
On his way to get married he was in accident. He bride-to-be was called to the hospital. A car had run into nathans vehicle; throwing him from his car and totaling the car. After treatment the bandaged groom and his wife; proceeded with their wedding. His friend sized up the appearance of Nathan, “ If that’s what happens when you get married ; I don’t want any part of it ”. They were married in Montebello, Californis in 1928. Nathan’s mother; Velate had 4 sisters: Aunt Sadie, Aunt Bell, Aunt Vera and Caroline Pearl who died as an infant. Aunt Bell married Joe Wilson who smoked a cigar. Nathan and Uncle Joe went on a roller coaster ride and on the first big dip he swallowed it. In City Terrace they bought their first house. They went to Blythe because Nathan was to manage a car loading business. Here their first child Marnet was born. While Nathan & Mabell She changed her spelling were in Blythe they let Aunt Bell live in their house. When they got back they had lost their home because she didn’t make any payments.
Then they went to Compton, California and rented a place. Velate and Leith were there. There was an earthquake and the front of a building broke off so they could look inside. Redondo beach was hit the hardest. There were tremors for weeks. They later moved to L.A. When he was offered work in Arizona they moved to Phoenix where their other children; John, Dianne, and Lawrence were born. Here he was general manager and past president of Arizona Motor Transport and then general manager of Hopper Truck Lines for 20 years. They retired on a cattle ranch the Bar Lazy T in Camp Verde, Arizona where his sons John and Lawrence lived with them; working together to remove mesquite trees, put in cement ditches, build a house, barn and out buildings, plant fields of alfalfa and raise cattle. John and his wife lived there for awhile. It was a beautiful place now with deer to hunt, wild geese flying overhead in the fall and huge cottonwood trees along the Verde River that bordered the land. Each evening the cows would walk down their road to be milked by John for their feeder calves. “Old Yeller” their dairy cow was milked for the families use. After 14 years; Mabell began to be ill from the pollen in the area and wanted to return to Colorado where she lived as a girl. They sold the ranch and moved there with their son Lawrance and Jacqueline’s family. Nathan and his son Lawrence worked to create another lovely place with Larry living across the alfalfa field from them. There was an orchard, stream & pond and Nathan raised the animals he loved. Their other children would come from Utah, Arizona and Missouri to see them. They lived at 21602 Kaiser Road in Austin, Colorado. Lawrence and Jacqueline took special care of them in their old age - Nathan died at age 101 and Mabell age 96. They were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where Nathan was the Camp Verde Branch President and having fund raising dinners to build the Camp Verde Ward building. They met in a little rock house on the Apache Indian Reservation in town. One Sunday the Stake Presidency came to visit. Nathan told one of the Deacons, “ Three chairs for the Presidency .” So the boy stood up and yelled Rah! Rah! Rah!.


From a newspaper clipping of an interview with Mamie Workman.
There were three churches in Park City when Mamie Workman lived there some 20 years ago. (article not dated) There were Mormon, Congregational and Catholic, " none of which criticized or made trouble for the others. They were so cooperative that when the choir of the Park City Ward, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was going to compete with the Coalville Ward choir and needed a couple of good tenors, John Baxter and Charlie Prisk from the congregational Church were recruted. They never missed a pratice and the Park City Ward won the trophy. Park City was one of the loveliest little cities anyone would want to live in". "The people there were among the salt of the earth and we were like one big family. There was a spirit of kindness, charity and love the whole time I lived there". She remembered the Daly West Mine explosion - the 30 persons that were taken to...the two mortuaries in town – and the Fargo Store fire. " I lose all my senses in a fire", Mrs. Workman chuckled, "recalling how she grabbed a box of candy from her son's store across the street and ran upstairs to put it in the coal bin". "...We were a jolly group of people...we could find lovely activities, church parties, card clubs, sleigh riding. The winters were cold but we didn't mind them because we were young and had plenty of go". Those were the times when the people of ParkCity were helping and having fun with each other. Today, Mrs. Workman's friends who still live in the community tell her it's not the case anymore. "They tell me the condominiums have spoiled the city. ...Today it's a tourist-recreational place – more worldly and there's not the congeniallity we had back then. ... the community spirit is not like it used to be".

The Life Summary of Nathen Elmo
When Nathen Elmo Thompson was born on 2 February 1905, in Park City, Summit, Utah, United States, his father, Lars Peder Thomsen, was 22 and his mother, Velate Gibbons, was 19. He married Annie Mabel Rollinger on 22 September 1928, in Montebello, Los Angeles, California, United States. He lived in Supervisorial District 2, Maricopa, Arizona, United States in 1940 and Austin, Delta, Colorado, United States in 2005. He died on 1 August 2005, in Eckert, Delta, Colorado, United States, at the age of 100, and was buried in Cory Cemetery, Orchard City, Delta, Colorado, United States.

  Begivenheder i hans liv:

• Bopæl: Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona, United States.

• Bopæl, 1910, Salt Lake City Ward 2, , Utah.

• Bopæl, 1920, Salt Lake City Ward 2, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States.

• Bopæl, 1930, Riverside, California.

• Bopæl, 1935, Same Place.

• Bopæl, 1940, Supervisorial District 2, Maricopa, Arizona.

• Military Draft Registration, 16 Okt. 1940, Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona, United States.

• Bopæl, 1 Aug. 2005, Austin, Colorado.

• Obituary, 2 Aug. 2005, Colorado, United States.