Sheep and Roosters

When Denece was about 3 her mother never needed to worry about her leaving the yard.  This was because there was a sheep and rooster that would chase her if she left the yard.

A Church Loving Family

From Dora Baty Argyle

One of our other prayers were answered when one Sunday we were attending conference in Soda Springs.  Doyle was called to go on a mission.  We had always hoped he would go but when he didn't before he got married we gave up the idea.  We were so happy over this even though it did mean leaving his wife and little girl, Julie.  He left for Salt Lake City, Utah on 8 May 1954 and he has labored in Norfolk, Virginia and Fayetteville, North Carolina.  He has been out for four months and was made Branch President.  We are very proud of our son and the fine job he is doing on this mission but we are looking towards the day he will be home, May 1956.

(1954 Joyce, Doyle, and Julie Argyle)

 

Alene brings much joy to us and she is now thirteen years of age.  All of my life so far has been made rich by the lives of my husband and family.  I enjoyed all of them.  I was Young Women's President in the M I A and Primary President for three years.  I now teach in Sunday School and Primary and love every minute of it.

(1954 Alene Argyle)

 

My life has also been made full by the work my husband does in the church.  Much joy came into our home when he served two terms in the Stake Mission.  He is now second counselor in the bishopric to Joseph Eliason.  All our married life we have been good companions to each other and our children's joys and sorrows are also ours.

(1954 Delbert Argyle)

Grandma's Bath Time

When Denece was a child, they had a bath every Saturday night.  They used a large wash tub.  It was set up in the middle of the kitchen floor.  The water was heated on top of the wood kitchen stove.  They always started with the youngest and went to the oldest, adding more hot water to keep the water warm.  They sometimes would have to use the homemade lye soap.  It was always nicer when they had store bought soap to use.  When the kids were done with their baths, they would stand beside the kitchen stove to get dry and warm.  Then everyone would be ready for church on Sunday.  Denece remembers when she was 10 or 12 and she got to try some real shampoo.

(1945 Denece Ann Perkins)

A Fire and Help

From Doris Alene Argyle Maughan

 

In November 1976, my parents had their home destroyed.  This time it was by fire.  It started in the garage and swept through the house so fast that there was little time to rescue anything.  About all they had left was the clothes on their backs, the television set, and a couch they had managed to pull from the living room.  Brent and I were settled in Soda Springs, Caribou County, Idaho at this time and they came to stay with us until they could get back on their feet.  I watched as they pulled themselves together and began plans for a new home. 

The people of Chesterfield Ward and other friends were so good to help.  They were given showers to replace the items that had been lost in the fire.  People made quilts for them and gave them housewarming parties.  My father was overjoyed when he was going through the debris, trying to find anything that could be salvaged, and found the first diamond ring he had given to my mother.

My sister and her daughters spent many hours trying to replace irreplaceable items.  My mother and father demonstrated so much courage, trust in the Lord, and thankfulness to family and friends at this time.  It will always be an example to us, their posterity, as we recall these times.  Never once did she (Dora) let any of us see how truly devastated she was at this complete loss.  Once again, I witnessed her busy hands as she restocked her shelves for her two year supply.  She left a legacy of good works, putting trust in the Lord and always making the best of what had been placed in her path.

 

(1976 Delbert Argyle)

 

A Lasso in Church

When Doyle was 4 or 5 he lassoed a deacon while he was passing the sacrament in church.

He would also lasso Denece as a kid while she ran around the house.  He did it so much she got a rope burn around her neck and their mother Dora made him quit.

(1937 Doyle and Denece Argyle)

A Runaway Horse

When Denece was a little girl, there was a horse that was running away with her on it.  She was sure that she was barely hanging on by one stirrup.  Her mother (Dora) saved her.  When Denece was older she realized the horse was an old work horse.  Her father (Delbert) said “that horse never ran away with you.  I had the reins the whole time.”  There is even a picture of her on the horse.

(1936 Denece Ann Argyle)

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa

From Doris Alene Argyle Maughan

The grandchildren always loved to come to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Denece's children often came to spend the summers working and storing up memories of the wonderful times they had.  Dora was always willing to watch the kids whenever she was asked.  She loved them dearly and showed this many times and in many ways.  During the last few years of her life, she acquired the hobby of making lamps with beautiful dolls for the base of each.  She made one for every granddaughter plus Denece, Joyce, and myself.  She spent hours fashioning clothes and making hair out of fake fur.  She would make individual curls on each doll.  She even made rings for the tiny fingers, necklaces for the delicate necks of the dolls and lamp shades of frilly lace and ruffles.

(1969 Denece Perkins, Dora, Delbert, and Doyle Argyle, and Alene Maughan)

 

(1976 Delbert Argyle)

 

 

One of Dora's Beautiful Lamps, this one as a Bride

 

Moving Time

From Doris Alene Argyle Maughan

In the spring of 1970, my parents (Delbert and Dora) moved once again to the ranch near the home they lived in until Doyle and Joyce got married.  They bought a mobile home and fixed the yard and area to be beautiful.  Mother planted flowers and trees and loved it here.  My father helped my brother farm.  They both owned cattle and it was a family affair every spring and fall as branding and marketing chores were carried out.  Mother and Joyce used to get the dinner ready for the crew whiled the rest of us worked.

(1970 Delbert and Dora Argyle's Home)

Always Fun

From Denece Ann Argyle Perkins

My folks worked hard clearing land and burning sagebrush.  I remember going out with them and how they kept telling me to stay behind mom so I wouldn't get burned.  They used to play hard too.  We would be snowed in all winter except an occasional trip to town after groceries in a sleigh but they kept our home life active and fun, with popcorn, candy pulls and always new games and Grandpa Argyle to tell us stories.

(1949 Dora and Delbert Argyle)

 

 

(1949 Doyle Argyle)

 

(1949 Denece Ann Argyle)

 

(1949 Alene Argyle)

A Fire in the Home

From Denece Ann Argyle Perkins

When I was about five I almost lost my mother.  Since there was no electricity on our dry farm, dad bought mom a steam iron to use in place of ones that you had to heat on the coal stove.  Well , anyways, the steam iron blew up and set the room on fire in which my mom was ironing.  All the rest of us were outside.  I decided I wanted a cookie that mom had baked that morning so I went in the house.  By that time mother was sitting on the table, the only spot of  the room that wasn't flaming.  I took one look and ran from the house to my father who was fixing some machinery and told him, "Come quick, mom is burning."  I never saw anyone move so fast.  I bet he set new records in racing the day.  My grandfather Argyle, who was milking cows saw dad running so he fell into a run to.  Somehow, Doyle, my brother had joined us also.  We all grabbed some heavy braided rugs mother had made and beat and beat at that fire.  We finally reached my mother and dad carried her outside and treated her burns which must not have been to severe for she healed without leaving any scars.  We were one thankful family that night and I remember dad getting us together and thanking God for sparing our mother's life.

(1942 Denece Ann Argyle)

 

(1940 Joseph Hyrum Argyle)

Penny and the Cow

In 1969, the family went to Idaho to drop Del off to work at Grandpa Argyle’s ranch.  The family took Penny, the dog.  She was a small dog and Delbert would take Penny out in the fields with him as he worked.  Penny had a great time chasing the cows until one old cow got tired of her barking and yipping.  The cow started chasing the little dog and Penny turned and started running.  She hopped up into Delbert’s arms and he started running to try to get into the truck.  Grandpa Argyle laughed so hard because he had locked the truck.  Delbert had to make a mad leap into the bed of the truck just as the cow hit the tail gate.

(1969 Denece Perkins, Dora, Delbert, Doyle Argyle, and Alene Maughan)

 

(1969 Delbert, D.Ann, Edwin, Edwinna, Billy Joe, Denece, and Darlene Perkins)

 

 

Summers with Grandma and Grandpa

Delbert Argyle’s grandson Delbert Perkins started staying the summers with him and Dora when he was about five years old.  He always wanted to go out ranching with his grandpa.  He was told he could go if he was up when the sun came up.  So he was.  He loved going with his Grandpa Argyle.  He would take his nap on the hood of the tractor.

(1959 Delbert Perkins)

 

(1958 Dora Argyle)

Herding Cows

From Doyle Argyle

 

One of Denece and myself jobs was to herd the milk cows out on the sagebrush during the day time. We would bring them back in the evening ready for milking.  My Mother used to make the best homemade root beer that there ever was.  About once a week we each used to get to take a bottle of this root beer with us to herd the cows.  One day when we were herding these cows, I left herding these cows to Denece and went over the hill and found some young rock chucks and spent a lot of time playing with them.  One thing and another and I let time slip away from me.  I was almost too late to get the cows back to the barn for milking.  In my hurry to get back and stay out of trouble, (Denece was young, not even in school yet and was not to be left alone) because one of our rules was that the cows were always in the barn when it was time for milking.  Anyway I gave my sister Denece, both of the empty root beer bottles to carry.  The only thing I could think of was getting those cows home as quick as I could using both feet and reins and whacking the horse everywhere I should I guess, to try to get home in this rapid succession.  When I came in my Dad looked at me and I could see something was wrong.  I thought boy I’m going to get balled out for being late and making the cows run.  Thus getting a very short supply of milk when milked.  The only thing he said to me was “Do you think your sister could hold on to the rear end of that horse behind the saddle with her hands full those empty root beer bottles and not fall off?”  I never thought of that.  All I knew was that she was always there.  This was the concern that Dad had for each of his children.  He wanted the best he could get for each of us.

(1943 Doyle, Alene, and Denece Argyle)

 

The Family Grows

From Dora Baty Argyle

 

I think Denece enjoyed the house in town more than any of us.  She could walk to school and to all the activities she wanted.  She had lots of friends and we enjoyed the days and evenings when she and her friends would come home for a party or a quick lunch.  We let her go to Pocatello, Idaho, to spend some time with her cousin, Veah Jean Van Orden.  Here she met a swell fellow named Edwin Lamar Perkins.  He brought her home on a Sunday in a green convertible.  She said to me, "How do you like my convertible boy?"  We all had a good laugh but she was embarrassed... Later she married this fellow in the Logan Temple on 16 May 1952.  She has two lovely children at the present time, a girl they call Edwinna Louise and a boy they call Delbert Lamar.  The only thing, they are living in Seattle, Washington, and we don't see them as often as we would like.

 

(1950 Veah Van Orden and Denece Argyle)

 

(1951 Edwin Perkins and Denece Argyle)

 

(1955 Edwin, Delbert, and Edwinna Perkins)

 

Grandfather Joseph Hyrum Argyle

From Dora Baty Argyle

 

When Doyle and Joyce's marriage was about to take place, we bought a lovely new home from Newell Call in Bancroft and went there to live.  Doyle and Joyce made their home on the ranch.  We all went to Logan with them and left father Argyle to tend Alene and to do the dishes.  When we got home we were saddened to hear that our hired man had had to take father Argyle to the hospital.  He had suffered a stroke.  The following 25 September, 1950 he passed away.  He was a grand person and we still find ourselves missing all the nice things he did for us.

 

(1947 Dora and Delbert Argyle)

 

(1949 Joseph Hyrum Argyle)

 

(1950 Joseph Hyrum Argyle)

 

 

 

The Best Chalk Around

From Doyle Argyle

It seems Delbert’s home on the flat was kind of a mark or gathering place for the neighbors around there, the Nelson’s, the Kingston’s, the Sessions and so on seemed to use that as a target place for social times.  Back then there was no electricity so the lighting was done with kerosene lamps and gasoline lights, but through the foresight of my grandfather when he built the home he put in what was known as a carbide system.  This consisted of a tank of carbide periodically being dumped into a large vat filled with water and causing carbide gas to burn and make the brightest lights in the valley.  Everyone told him this was a dangerous thing that shouldn’t be done.  I remember him going to my Dad and saying “Do you think we ought to change this Delbert?”  Dad would reply “What do you think?”  Grandfather would always reply “As long as it is taken care of properly it will be alright.”  So one of my fond memories as a child is cleaning out this vat every fall and getting the white carbide from the bottom that had crystallized, man that stuff made the best chalk you could ever get hold of.  I chalked up the barn and the corrals, and granary.  It would last for a period of three or four days until the rain came and then it would be gone.  It sure was wonderful chalk.

(1930 Delbert and Dora Argyle)

 

 

(1935 Doyle Argyle)

 

 

(1936 Joseph Hyrum Argyle)

A Move to Chesterfield

From Dora Baty Argyle

 

When the kids were still young, we left the dry farm three miles northeast of Bancroft where we enjoyed ourselves for four years.  All this time, father Argyle lived with us and he was very good to the children.  We bought his house.  We lived in it on the dry farm and then moved it to the ranch in Chesterfield where we lived for six years.  We purchased the farm from my mother.  Life was comfortable here as the Utah Power and Light put electricity throughout the county and everyone made their homes modern.  The children had buses to go to school in.  The schools all consolidated and had one big school in Bancroft.  Doyle was a Senior in high school now and he fell in love with a lovely girl named Joyce Jenkins.  They were married on 12 June, 1950 in the Logan Temple.  Their home was blessed with our first grandchild on 1 November 1952.

 

(1948 Argyle Ranch Home)

 

(1950 Joyce Jenkins and Doyle Argyle)

 

A Long Night and Day

From Dora Baty Argyle

 

When Alene came to our family she was healthy but one day she took sick with a cold.  It was winter time and the roads were blocked with snow.  I sat up all night with the heater and rocked her all night.  About daybreak my prayers were answered because I heard the snowplow.  We hurried to the doctor and he told us she would never live.  They put her in an oxygen tent and gave her a Sulpha drug which was just new.  A nurse used to come in her room.  She would take a spoon and work her jaws.  One time they were so set they bent the spoon double.  This lasted for sixteen long hours in which I was constantly praying for her life.  The Lord answered my prayers again and she got well.  She had measles and pneumonia.

(1945 Denece and Alene Argyle)

Three Children

From Dora Baty Argyle

 

Ten months after our marriage our first child was born.  It was a boy, our pride and joy.  We called him Doyle J.  He used to spend lots of time in his grandparents home as he was the first grandchild on my side.  His Grandmother Baty taught him how to drive a car.

 

(1935 Doyle Argyle)

Four years later a little girl came to our house.  She also was a joy to us because we dreamed about a girl like her.  She weighed seven pounds and had lots of dark hair and eyes.  People told me she was a living doll and I named her Denece Ann.  I would fuss over her.   Her hair was always curled and she had two clean dresses on a day.  When she was ten months old she had "gathered ears" and she started to suck her thumb.  She and Doyle got along well.

(1937 Doyle and Denece Argyle)

 

Seven years later our home was blessed by the arrival of Doris Alene, a sweet baby of five pounds.  All my children were born at home and my mother took care of me.  A couple of months before Alene came, my father was taken in death from a heart attack on 17 March 1942.  This was our first experience with death in our family and it was hard to take but we realized the work of the Lord.  Dell and I rented the ranch from my mother.  She moved to Farmington, Utah.  Later we bought the ranch from mother.

(1943 Doyle, Doris Alene, and Denece Argyle)

 

Denece remembers her mother telling her that she had "gathered ears," but she never did know what that meant.

Delbert Kynaston Argyle and Dora Alene Baty

From Dora Baty Argyle

 

One day in the summer I wanted to go to a dance so I coaxed my mother to let me stay the night at a friends.  I came to town with the mailman.  That night I told a fellow named Delbert Kynaston Argyle I had to walk home.  He took pity on me and offered to take me home.  Of course, I  accepted and knew that night he was the guy for me.  I went with him for about a year and a half and then married hem in the Logan L D S Temple in Logan, Utah, on June 11, 1930.

We went to live with Dell's folks, (a sister, Alice, and his father).  The hard thing was leaving my folks and twin sister, but the Argyle family was very good to me.  I soon learned to love them dearly.
 

 

(1930 Delbert and Dora Argyle)

 

 

Logan Utah Temple