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)

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)

 

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)

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)

 

 

 

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.

Flooding in Bancroft

Written by: Doris Alene Argyle Maughan on June 9, 1968

Six months after my marriage, I returned home to stay with my parents while Brent went on a six month Mediterranean Cruise.  It was a very eventful February, 1962.  There was a flood that completely covered the town of Bancroft.  I remember working into the evening and then into the night and early morning hours putting things up higher in the basement as the water began to creep higher and higher on the foundation of the house.  We couldn't imagine the water getting any higher so we couldn't believe the sight that came to our eyes the next morning when the water began to run in the back door and down the steps, filling the basement in a matter of minutes.....completely filling it.  The water stopped on step short of coming into the main floor.  I was ready to give birth to my first child.  The people of Bancroft were so considerate of each other, taking refuge with other families whose homes were spared or taking temporary residence in the school and church.  Some men helped my father evacuate my mother and myself on an implement wagon pulled by a tractor.  We were met about three miles east of Bancroft by Brent's parents, William Guy and Laura Pearl Cornelison Maughan.  We went to stay with them in Ivins on their ranch.  Sure enough, it was a wise move because Pamela Joy was born 14 February 1962.  We call her the "Flood Baby".  I remember the shock and horror and disbelief when I came home from the Caribou Memorial Hospital in Soda Springs, Caribou, Idaho where Pamela was born.  I found mud and silt had soaked belongings and destroyed keepsakes.  My mother's two year supply of food had been stored in the basement.  The wheat had begun to sprout along with beans, rice and other items.  It was completely destroyed.  My mother didn't let this get her down and it wasn't long until she had it all replaced.  This same scene was repeated the next year.  This time there was much damage done to the house.  My  parents spent much time and money repairing walls that separated from the floors and ceilings.  They put a retaining wall of cement completely around their property for protection.   We all held our breaths for years after when February was warm and it began to rain.

(1961 Brent and Alene Maughan Wedding)

 

(1961 Dora and Delbert Argyle)

 

It was during this flood that Dora lost many of her photos from her childhood. 

A Surprise Sister

Doyle and Denece were met by the Sessions one day at the school bus.  They went home with the Sessions and had dinner and played games until their father (Delbert Argyle) came for them.  He told them he had a surprise for them, a little baby sister.  Denece was seven and did not even know their mother was pregnant.

 

(1942 Denece Argyle)

 

 

(1943 Doyle, Alene, and Denece Argyle)

 

A Bit of Lipstick

Denece remembers how embarrassed she was one time when Edwin had brought her home after a date and Alene was out in the yard on her trike.  She taunted her that “Edwin’s wearing lipstick!”
Alene started singing "Edwin's wearing lipstick, Edwin's wearing lipstick" to the whole neighborhood.

 

(1951 Edwin Perkins and Denece Ann Argyle)

 

 

 

(1950 Doris Alene Argyle Maughan)

Left Behind

This next story from Denece happened on the day of Joseph Hyrum Argyle’s  funeral (their grandfather).  After the funeral Dora and Delbert were in the family car and Denece and Alene got left behind.  They were standing on a corner near the school.  Uncle Leonard saw them, picked them up, and drove them down to Bountiful, Utah for the burial.

 

 

(1950 The Argyle Family's New Car)

 

 

(1950 Joseph Hyrum Argyle)

 

A Trip Through the Caverns

Alene, Delbert, and Dora came to visit Edwin and Denece while they were living in El Paso, Texas.  Edwinna was about a year old.  They brought Grandma Baty with them.  They all went to Carlsbad Caverns.  Delbert was carrying Edwinna and she liked to lay over his arms.  People would comment, “look how that man is carrying that baby.”  So he’d try to hold her another way and she would howl.  While going down into the cavern, Lettie Baty started to lean backwards.  Her son told her she was leaning and to stand up straight.  She said, “I am, Delbert.  I am standing up straight as I can!” A tour guide said they should take her out of the cave before she fell over backwards.

 

 

(1953 Denece Perkins, Dora Argyle, Lettie Baty, Alene Argyle, Edwinna Perkins, and Delbert Argyle)

 

 

(1953 Carlsbad Caverns Brochure)

 

Aunt Delphia

From Denece Ann Perkins Butchart:

 

Mom’s (Denece Argyle Perkins) family took a trip to Payette to visit her Aunt Delphia whose husband was Roy Aston.  They stopped at King Hill to sleep in a Motel.  Mom thought the water must come from the ocean because the water tasted so bad.  She was about eight.  Her aunt and uncle owned a furniture store there in Payette.  She would go down to the store watch her Aunt Delphia repaint her beautiful long fingernails.  Aunt Delphia always dressed in black.

 

(1897 Delphia Elizabeth Argyle as a little girl)

 

 

(1943 Doyle, Alene, and Denece Argyle)

A High School Crush

A History from Doris Alene Argyle Maughan

 

During my Senior year, I dated my "high school crush", William Brent Maughan.  He was in the Navy at this time and we began to write to each other.  I remember walking to the post office each morning to check the mail to see if I got a letter that day.  We were married 4 January 1961 in Bancroft, Idaho.  We were married in the LDS Meeting House in Bancroft, Idaho by Bishop Glen Yost.  I remember how happy my mother was when our marriage was later solemnized in the Idaho Falls Temple, 6 June 1964.  Our first two children together with the rest of the family were there that day.  My father and mother were very happy.  Now all of their children had been married in the temple.

 

(1961 Brent and Alene Maughan)

 

(1961 Brent and Alene Maughan)

 

 

 

(1961 Brent and Alene Maughan's Wedding Reception)

A History Written By Denece

Written by: Denece Ann Argyle Perkins

 

During my second year of school, we had an addition to our family, it was a little girl who we named Doris Alene Argyle.  She was born May 4, 1942.

 

 

(1942 Denece Ann Argyle)

 

When my little sister was about a year old, she took sick and really scared us because the doctor said that she wouldn't live.  She pulled through after a tough time.  After she got better we moved to town and there I spent my third year at school.  We lived in town about four years.

My fourth year in school was a very busy year for me.  I got sick and had to have my appendix out.  I was in the hospital for a week.  While I was there my class wrote me a letter.  RaNae Yost wrote me another one.  I also got some get well cards. Here are the letters and cards I got while in the hospital.

 

 

 

 

 

When I was eight, Doyle twelve, and Alene one, we had our picture taken.  Before we had it taken Alene cried and cried.  Finally the photographer told her he would give her a nickel if she would stop crying and let him take her picture.  She finally was quiet and here is the picture he took.

 

 

(1943 Doyle Argyle, Alene Argyle, Denece Argyle)