as written by Lorias (Tommy) Thompson

Born October 1, 1906, in Escalante, Utah 3rd son of Edmund Albert and Ida Mae Smith Thompson. Attended school in Escalante, then parents moved to Boulder, Utah. Graduated from eight grade in Boulder. Attended one more year at school there.

Baptized at the age of 8 years. One occasion the family went by wagon to Henrieville to visit Grandmother Smith. When we started back to Escalante, as we got up over the Blues to the upper valley it started to rain and turned out to be a cloudburst. We had only gone a short distance on the road in the valley when we came to a wash and the flood waters had washed out the bridge. The water was still raging down the wash. So they stayed all night in the covered wagon. The next morning the flood had stopped and my father repaired the road so that we could cross with the wagon. As we traveled on down the valley beyond Liston's Ranch the road was washed out again. It would have taken a great deal of work to get a wagon across. So father went down the creek seeking for another route. The banks were 10 and 12 feet high. When he returned he said, if we took the wagon apart and letting it down on the Sandbar and put it together again we could travel down the creek for some distance and there was a place that we could get out where the banks were not so steep.

We tore the wagon apart and got most of it down on the Sandbar. All at once the water started to rise. Father started pulling the pieces of wagon back out of the creek and as the last piece came back up over the bank, there was a head of water that came down the creek about 10 feet high and we would all have drowned.

As I remember we went back and made a road at a higher place. After we had gone down into the valley, the creek spread out very wide where the water was not so deep.

Father put my brother Ira on one of the horses and sent him across the creek to a ranch to get some hay for the horses. We finally made it back to Escalante safely.

At 14 years of age I went to work on the King Ranch in Boulder. I also have recollections of living in Salt Gulch. Where we had to ride 35 miles to Boulder to get the mail.

At the age of 16 years father and mother decided that they should take the family to the Manti Temple and have us sealed to them. Another family by the name of Moyes accompanied us. We traveled in wagons over the Boulder Mountain now known as the Burr Trail to Manti, Utah. The trip took one week to go over and one week to go back.

My father and mother rented a farm in the upper valley while living in Escalante, Utah. Later father ran the Liston farm. Mother gave birth to twin girls and one died at the age of 8 months. Father did a lot of freighting. Hauling wool from Escalante to Marysville, Utah, and bring back supplies for the stores in Escalante.

While we were living on Black's Ranch my sister Serilda and I came down with "diphtheria" she died at the age of ten. Two years later we moved to the Delta Valley "Sugarville". Rented a farm, raising sugar beets.

During the depression years my parents moved to Rupert, Idaho. At this time I was living there and my folks stayed with us. Then father and mother moved back to Utah. Father ran Wrights Fruit Farm at Roy, Utah. Also dry farmed the ground where Hill Air Force base is now.

I married Luell Crawforth in Rupert, Idaho. We had 8 children: Berniece, Lamar, Lee, Don, June, Linda, Frank, and Connie. We built a home there and I worked for Campbell Produce Company.

In 1943 we were divorced. Lorias was drafted in the US Army Infantry. Luell and Lorias re-married during the war. I was sent to Camp Roberts, California for basic training, then I was sent to Germany. Connie was born while I was over seas.

We were shipped on a large boat the "Ald of France" to Scotland, England from there we landed on "Omaha" Beach in France on "D" day. We went through France, Belgium, Luxembourg and ended up at Frankfurt, Germany, I was in the "Battle of the Bulge". After 3 months and 11 days I was wounded by a sniper. I was put on a sleigh and then to a jeep, then a train and was transported to Paris, France.

When the war was over, I found out my father had passed away. I was sad because the Red Cross failed to let me know, I could have come home.

I was honorably discharged from the Army at Fort Douglas, Utah. We lived in Rupert for awhile then day job sent us to American Falls, Idaho. We sold the home and bought one there. Luell and I were divorced again.

I bought a small variety store in American Falls. I married Blanche Welch in July 1948. Our daughter Elizabeth was born in 1949. Our son Rodney was born in 1950, the baby lived 2 days. As time went on business became poor as people had new cars and plenty of gas and went shopping elsewhere. I did carpentry work to keep the store going but ended up selling out.

In 1953 we moved to Ogden, Utah lived with my sister Dora for awhile, then we rented a house.

I started working for the LDS Church building Chapels. In 1957, we bought a home in Sunset, Utah. 1958 we went to build chapels at: Indianapolis, Indiana, Battle Creek, Michigan, then to Buna, Texas. 1959-1960 we built a chapel in Pittsburgh, PA. On returning home we built the following chapels: Sunset, Utah, Snowville, Utah, Basin, Wyoming, Duckwater, Nevada, and I built a Seminary Building in Tremonton, Utah.

The Following was added by his wife Blanche Welch Thompson.

We were called on a building mission for the Church 1963-1965 by President David O. McKay. We went to Buffalo, New York, then I was sent to Cleveland, Ohio and worked in the Church Building Office.

When we returned home Lorias did carpentry work around the area. In 1976 he was in the process of building a home for his daughter Elizabeth and her husband Bobby when he had a stroke. Lorias couldn't read anymore, tell time, and his speech was affected. Lorias did improve quite well during the next three years. In October 1980, Lorias had a heart attack and passed away in his home.