This story is from the book called the Escalante story.
In 1892, the Thompsons and Osborns left Escalante together but each family was in a separate wagon, on their way to Boulder, Utah. They followed the Escalante Pioneer road toward Thurber and turned East on the road Haws and Baker used. They were on the road three days. They crossed the Boulder Creek, pulled up the dugway to the Safely and Simon homesteads, crossed their land, and stopped to settle on the land just South of them. Willis Albert Thompson and his wife Louise, a handsome woman called Louie, and Children by his first wife Isabell Simpson: Malinda, Edmund Albert, Sarah, Richard, William and Hyrum, stayed in the cove on the west side of Deer Creek. They made a log cabin with a Willow and dirt roof, a fireplace, a dirt floor and a dug-out back in the hill for the boys to sleep in. It was late in the Summer when they arrived so that was about all they got done before Winter set in.
In the next few years Willis and sons cleared a little land and ditched water out of Deer Creek with which to irrigate it. The family enjoyed games and would happily play cards or checkers by the hour.
Willis freely gave his time and talent when ever there was sickness in the valley. He used many herbs for medicine, brewing the Bitter Brush, Yarrow, Brigham Tea, and Catnip for a Spring Tonic. He recommended Kerosene and boiled Sagebrush for Sprains. Willis set fractured bones and pulled teeth. He used a Poltice of Sap from Pine Trees for infection. He doctored colds with a mixture of Kerosene and Sugar.
In 1898, Willis and Louie Thompson with all the children except Will and Dick, moved back to Escalante for the Winter. All though the valley was theirs, there seemed to be a fear that if they left the homestead for long they would lose it. The boys stayed in the dug-out where they kept warm. For months the ground was covered with snow and they sometime ran out of food. But the boys had a gun and a few bullets with which they hunted deer.
In 1899, precipitation was far below normal. Then too, more settlers had come and each ditched a stream out of the Boulder Creek, or Deer Creek to irrigate their homestead. Angry disputes over the water become more frequent and a Law-suit was impending. Rather than become involved, Willis and Louie Thompson traded their homestead to Joseph Liston of Escalante for a team of horses and a wagon.
That year the Thompsons pulled out of Boulder in a covered wagon on their way to Idaho. On the main traveled road there was a number of covered wagons northward bound, each with a big sign on the side which read--" Idaho or Bust." The Southward bound wagons had a sign which read--"Busted."
In 1905, Willis and Louie Thompson and family came back to Boulder from Idaho. They did not look quite so jaunty now, for they had found the winters in Idaho long and cold, and where strangers felt no concern for them. Willis' hair and beard were white, but Louie hadn't aged. The Thompsons fenced up an acre or two of ground South of the Ranger Station where they built a cabin, raised a garden, and a small patch of Tobacco. Willis had made a loom on which he wove rugs for customers in Escalante and Boulder.
William Thompson married Alice Baker of Escalante, but they were soon divorced. Will found employment in Boulder during the Summer months. He stayed with Dick and Ellen Thompson in Boulder and on the Osborn Ranch in Salt Gulch. William Thompson who was born December 2, 1881, died in Escalante on August 2, 1956. Service and burial were in Escalante.
In 1907, Willis Albert Thompson and sons Will, Dick, Hyrum, and Edmund Albert, were employed by Frank Haws to fence the Haws Dairy. They fenced the three hundred and twenty acres with a stake-and-rider fence. The timber they used was very small because of the fire which had swept across the mountain and was out of control, the time the Indians burned the forest. Willis' father Edmund camped with them. After the land was fenced Frank Haws summered a herd of cattle here each year and it became known as Haws Pasture.
Louise Nelson Thompson died of natural causes in the spring of 1923, Bishop C.V. Baker conducted the service at the school house. She was buried in Boulder.
Willis lived alone one summer, then moved to Escalante where he lived with his daughter Sarah Osborn.
Edmund Albert and Ida Mae Smith Thompson arrived with their children: Ira, Lorias, Velma, Earl, Sabina, Dillard, and Dora in 1920. Edmund had purchased the house and lot South West of the School house from Alma Wilson. The Thompsons moved to the log cabin, where Ida, who was an immaculate housekeeper, kept the rooms spotless. Every day her children swept the door yard. Edmund found employment throughout the spring and Summer months at various ranches.
Sabina died while they were living in Boulder. She was buried in Escalante. The Thompsons sold their house and lot to Lorin and Uvada Moosman in 1923 and moved to Henrieville.
Richard (Dick) and his first wife were divorced. They had two daughters: Merna and Minnie. Richard and Mary Ellen Peterson of Collingston, Utah, were married, October 18, 1911. They came to Boulder the following Spring in a white-topped buggy with trunks full of Ellen's beautiful clothes. Their home was the log cabin North-West of Thompson Hill and was built upon a ridge. Richard had proved upon this land. The US Patent was recorded to James Richard Thompson September 13, 1923.
Richard and Ellen are parents of seven children. The Thompsons land could not support them, so Richard found employment with different ranches. Ellen, who wanted to become a nurse, was especially gifted in caring for the sick people.
About 1931, the Thompsons opened a little snack-bar west of their home on the corner by Arthur Alvey's. The young folks congregated here on Sunday afternoon to visit and enjoy the
Ice-cream, Candy, and Sandwiches, Ellen had made to sell. This snack-bar was open two Summers.
Richard drove the lower Boulder School Bus a few years, Freighted for E. H. Coombs, and the Thompsons rented the Osborn Ranch in Salt Gulch and lived there in the early thirties.
Ellen was offered a good job the Summer of 1947 in Lehi. By fall she was still working.
Richard joined her and they stayed there. Later they purchased a house and lot.
Richard and Ellen celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary at the Lehi Riding Club October 18, 1961. Shortly after this Ellen, who had always nursed the sick, became ill. She passed away in 1962. At the service she was called an angel of mercy because of her devotion to those she nursed.
Richard, who was born January 20, 1885, celebrated his eighty-sixth birthday at his home with his children and grandchildren in 1971.