Dora Palmer Hatch, at age 72, holds her grandson, Kenneth Ray James, in 1967 in Phoenix, Ariz.

Essentials
Born: 3 October 1894; Snowflake, Navajo, Arizona
Daughter of: Alma Zemira PALMER and Alzada Sophia KARTCHNER
Baptized: 3 October 1902
Married: George Phineous HATCH, 2 October 1914
Died: 7 February 1987; Cottonwood, Yavapai, Arizona

Page contents
One-minute history
Fourth of July fireworks
Birth to marriage
Married years to 1960
"The Last Leaf"

BY DARYL JAMES
FROM 'JAMES/HATCH ONE MINUTE HISTORIES' (1994)
     Dora Palmer was born Oct. 3, 1894, in the fields between Snowflake and Taylor, Ariz. She was the eighth of 10 children born to Alma Zemira Palmer and Alzada Sophia Kartchner. She began school in Taylor while her family lived in a log house with a lumber lean-to on the side.
     Dora was protective of her younger sister, Rose. When the other kids began calling Rose "Dobby," Dora told them to stop. One day when Dora and Rose were walking home from school, a boy called Rose "Dobby.'' Dora told him if he did it again she would beat him up. He did, and she chased him and caught him and beat him up. Dora said the boy never called Rose names again.
     Dora was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint on her eighth birthday in 1902. When she was about 12 or 13, her family moved from the old log house to a new brick house in Taylor, where her father owned a store. While the new brick house was being built, Dora and Rose would run home from school and count the number of new bricks that had been added since the day before.
     The Fourth of July was the biggest holiday in Taylor. Dora and the other girls always tried to have new dresses and new boyfriends for the celebration. May Day was another big event because it marked the day spring really began. The town always had a picnic and ended by braiding a May Pole.
     Dora remembers her one guitar lesson. Her mother drove her to Snowflake in the buggy for the lesson, but on the trip home the mares rared up and began to run. The guitar fell under the mares' feet and was crushed. That ended the guitar lessons, so Dora began taking piano lessons instead. By the time she was 13 she was playing the piano or organ for all the school and church activities. She later learned to play the violin and harmonica as well. In high school she played the piano at the school dances to earn spending money. She also was captain of the girls' basketball team and the leading lady in some of the plays. She was a good student and studied hard. During the summers, she worked in the Taylor store with her dad.
     When Dora was a freshman, she noticed a senior on the boys' basketball team named George Hatch. She liked his long, white arms. After he graduated he went away to business college in Los Angeles for two years, but came back to Taylor when Dora was a senior. By the time Dora graduated from Snowflake High School in 1912, she knew she would marry George. They had a stormy courtship but finally worked out their problems and got married Oct. 2, 1914, in the Salt Lake Temple.
     Dora and George began life together in Los Angeles, where they had their first two children. In 1917 the family of four moved to Mesa, Ariz., where George had a job on a dairy ranch. Two more children were born in Mesa, and then the family moved back to Taylor. They stayed in Taylor until 1936, and together had six more children. Their final child was born in St. Johns, Ariz., in 1937, giving them a total of 11.
     Dora and George finally settled in Phoenix, where George died in 1980 at age 89. After George died, Dora sold the house in Phoenix and moved to Glendale, Ariz., near the home of her youngest daughter. She later moved in with her daughter Dixie in Cottonwood, Ariz., where she died Feb. 7, 1987, at 92. She stayed active in the Church throughout her life, and even held a Church position in Glendale when she was around 90.
-- Sources: 1. Firsthand knowledge of the author, Daryl Heber JAMES, a grandson; 2. 1992 telephone interview with Quola Mae HATCH James (youngest child); 3. Typed history by Afton HATCH Flake (printed below).

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Fourth of July fireworks

BY AFTON HATCH FLAKE
DAUGHTER OF DORA PALMER
TOLD IN 1957
     George was born May 1, 1891. Third son of John H. Hatch and Jane Standifird at Taylor, Arizona. Nine children in the family.
     Dora was born October 3, 1894. Daughter of Alma Z. Palmer and Alzada Kartchner at Snowflake, Arizona. Eleven children in family. Moved to Taylor shortly thereafter.
     Mom went to school on a horse. Dad had a one horse buggy to go to school in. When Dad was 10 years old his family moved to Thatcher and his father took him out of school to go to Nacko to haul ore. When they got there they didn’t get the job. When he was 16 his Dad took him out of school again and put him in the goat camp where he stayed for 18 months. He lacked 3 days of graduating from High School.
     First time they ever noticed each other that Mom remembers was in the summer of 1909. The Relief Society was serving ice cream during the 4th of July dance and to make things better this was served across the street from the church, where the dance was taking place.
     Mom’s brother, Arthur, and George Hatch were sort of pals and so were standing together looking the assortment of young ladies over and wondering if they might escort one over for ice cream and then if she suited they would give her a chance to let them take her home.
     Well Art thought he might take Elizabeth Morgan (Lizzie) and since Dad did not know who he wished to try decided with Art’s suggestion that since Lizzie and Mom were good pals he should try her--so that is when it all began.
     Yes, the courtship of a couple who in the course of the following five years had many sad interruptions like his going off to college (in 1912 at 21 he came to L.A. to attend L.D.S. Business College.) He left Mom to be a good old maid and go everywhere alone or stay at home while he was away but she didn’t always mind and so finally on October 2, 1914 they managed to get the knot tied.
     They arrived at the court house just before closing and his line got there after 5:00 o’clock so Dad paid $5.00 to get the license.
     All the people in the little town of Taylor were really worried about how long it might be before the divorce as they couldn’t get along single, they had no idea if they could married. You know the knot becomes tied rather firmly with the coming to their home of eleven offspring; consequently they are still very much married and intend to live happily ever after.

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Birth to marriage

BY AFTON HATCH FLAKE
DAUGHTER OF DORA PALMER
     Dora was born 3 October, 1894 in the fields between Snowflake and Taylor. Her father was Alma Zemira Palmer. He was born in Provo, Utah, 12 June 1853, the son of Zemira Palmer and Sally Knight. He married Alzada Sophia Kartchner. She was the daughter of William Decator Kartchner and Margaret Jane Casteel and was born 5 January 1858. When they were married they went to Beaver where their first child was born. Two and half years later, first of 1878, a call came from President Brigham Young to go to Arizona and colonize there. Alma Zemira and Alzada Palmer settled first across the river from what is now Joseph City. Later Grandpa went to Snowflake with William J. Flake and bought the Stinson Ranch. They lived here for some years then lived about 2 miles south on a ranch. It was while they lived here that Mother was born. After they moved to Taylor this place was called the A. Z. Palmer Field.
     While in Snowflake they lived in a big hall called the “Old Willie Store.” This was the winter that they had troubles with the school in Taylor, the kids had to go to school in Snowflake. While here in this poorly ventilated building Grandma got asthma so bad that for the rest of her life she suffered with it. She partly blamed it to the fact that she kept things so closed up with not enough air for proper ventilation, but the Fort Apache soldiers were always going by their place. At night they stayed in the Frizley Hotel which was just across the street. They were usually on their way to Holbrook or on their way back to Ft. Apache. And to put it mildly Grandma was scared of them and worried because of her children and because of the habits they had--such as drinking. She kept her place locked. One of the things that mother remembers while they were here was studying Algebra. She was a little young--pre-school age but she would watch Uncle Jordan figure his algebra and copy it. Make her fingers fly as fast as his and get it all down. She didn’t watch where she was writing just that she was what he was doing and she would copy it.
     Once when she was tiny and shy she went someplace with her big sister Sally. Sally said good evening to the folks and mother stammered, “Good Dingling.”
     She started school in Taylor. They lived in an old log house with a lumber lean-to on the side and the back. Lived here until she was 12 or 14 before their new brick house was finished and they could move in. Ada Porter was her first school teacher and she started in the log school house on the church lot. The brick school house was built in 1904--when she was ten.
     The thing she remembers about Primary is listening to Grandma Hatch read them stories. She read slowly and the kids huddled around and could hardly wait to find out what happened. She was baptized on her birthday in 1902.
     Mother did a lot of walking during school years. It was a mile to the school and of course she came home for dinner! Quite a hurry to get back and not be late. Grandpa said she wore out more shoes than any kid he ever saw and wished she would walk instead of dragging her feet and wearing out the toes of her shoes.
     Aunt Rose and Mother were close pals and Aunt Rose said mother took care of her all the time. The kids at school started to call Aunt Rose “Doby”. She didn’t like it and would cry and of course that made it worse. One day they were walking home together when Arch Willis slipped and called her “Doby”. Mother turned around and told him if he said that again she would beat him up. He said it and ran and she chased him and caught him. She beat him up and he didn’t do it again. This was in the seventh grade.
     So many times when they came home from school they would get an ear of corn and go sit on the teeter while they ate it and really enjoyed themselves. They knew they should be in doing the dishes! Grandma was sick most of the time and it was their duty to take care of things and that included doing the washing. They would come home at night and start the washing. They did it by hand, later used a vacuum cup that made it much easier. They would hang it on the fence to dry and in the winter time it was quite an art to get them straightened out before they froze. Laura Willis said that she would do the washing for them if they would bring it to her and then come and get it. They tried it once but all they had to get it to her was in the little red wagon and once was enough for them. It was easier to do it themselves.
     Mother remembers one time that her Dad really had to get after her! She had lost the store keys in the sand pile! The sand pile was on the south side of the house and on the way into the house. She just knew they were in the sand and she was kneeling down going thru the sand a handful at a time trying to find them when Grandpa came by muttering--pushed her over on her nose in the sand with his foot. That was a hard thing to live down! She was 11 then--she found the keys there, too.
     Mother had a way with her sisters and all it would take from her to make them do what she wanted was a dirty look--Aunt Lulu calls it her “stern look”. But she didn’t like to play paper dolls with them. Sometimes they could talk her into it. On one of those rare occasions when she played with them her lady pushed some paper dishes off the table and said “Bang! Play those dishes fell of the floor!” She would never let her dolls swear.
     Mother and Aunt Lulu used to like doing the same thing a lot. They planned on some day having a shop with baby things, embroidery, gifts, etc. They have both done some selling but not together. Mother got up at 5 a.m. to do her studying. Aunt Lulu so much enjoyed working beside mother while she studied that she got her to take time off from her studies one morning to stamp an embroidery pattern on some material so that she could work with her an make her mother a foot stool for Christmas. One of the things she remembers about Mother was seeing her standing under the big bridge in Taylor watching her be baptized.
     Uncle Arthur says he was very diplomatic when Rose and Jimmy (that was the family name for mother) would go in and clean up his room. He would pretend that he didn’t know who had done it and say something like “Some little angel has been in my room and cleaned it up!” They would contend to see who would do it the next time. On one occasion they both became tired of the jobs they were supposed to do. She was tired of cooking breakfast and he of milking 7 or 8 cows, mostly before daybreak. They agreed that a change would be a good thing. One morning was enough to give them both the rest they needed.
     Mother and Aunt Rose were very interested in how fast their new house progressed. When they got home from school they would go count the number of bricks that had been laid that day. George Gardener was doing that part of it. When it came time to paint, Neils Hansen did that. When he was painting the ceiling to look like grained wood he locked them out so they couldn’t see how he did it. Said it was an invention of his and he didn’t want them to know how it was done. Mother found out, but doesn’t remember how. First he painted it yellow, when dry, put brown on and used grain combs and waved it a little and made knots on it too. There were five bedrooms in the house and every one had an outside door which opened onto a porch. Of course bathrooms weren’t dreamed of in those days! The east front bedroom was kept as a spare room and used by the drummers that passed thru and others on business that had to stay over. When Mother was 12 they moved in.
     One day at school she got peeved at her teacher Mr. Decker. She came home and was in the new house before it was finished. She leaned out of the windows, working off steam, way out over the window still singing loudly, “Decker this, Decker that, Decker’s a yellow cat.” Nathaniel Decker walked by.
     When in the 8th grade the whole class decided to play hookey on April Fool. There was only two or three “goody-goods” who didn’t go. The teacher, Charles Hansen, didn’t take to the joke and gave them all an assignment--to copy about 5,000 words from a geography book before graduation or they could not graduate. Mae and Mary Hatch didn’t copy the book and were held back and had to take another year to graduate--so he meant it! We have all heard of the boy in the back putting the girls’ hair in the ink wells! It did happen to mother. Rex Shumway and Logan Brimhall sat behind her and many times her long curls got in the ink well--if she didn’t sit up and lean a little forward all the time.
     During all these years the kids never missed the holidays for the folks there saw to it that each was celebrated fittingly. The 4th of July was the biggest day. They planned weeks ahead for this day and it was very important that they have a new dress--and a new boy friend! They went after them too. They woke in the morning to the cannon and the band. Later mother was the pianist, C.M.Jennings was the drummer. There was always lots of fireworks and big displays at night. May Day was the day that spring really came. The town had a picnic and usually went to some place of interest to have it. In the mornings they always had a program and ended with the braiding of the May Pole. Memorial Day there was program and sort of parade. No matter what the holiday, there was always some kind of celebration with emphasis on a good time for the kids.
     Mother remembers her guitar lesson! Grandma drove her to Snowflake in the buggy. The mares were frisky but that made it more fun. After her lesson they started for home. The mares reared up and lunged and did it again and then again and finally started to run. The guitar fell under their feet and got all busted up. That ended the guitar lessons. But nothing could keep her down and she took piano lessons from Mary West. She was supposed to take them and then teach all the other kids how. They didn’t want to play bad enough to practice and keep up with her. She didn’t have many lessons but she remembers her first one. She told her teacher that she wanted to learn to play the “tenor”too. From the time she was 12 or 13 she played the piano or the organ for nearly everything the ward or school had. When she went to high school, Mr. Crandell used her to play for the things the school had. She played for a lot of people to sing by including Aunt Rose and Uncle Arthur. He says he had the gift of the desire to learn to sing, and she would patiently struggle along trying to teach him. After what to him seemed like months he was able “in a very common way”, he says, to sing the base to “The Time is Far Spent”. She liked to play and was determined to play and went after it; she learned because she wanted to. While she was in high school she played for dances to make her “pin money”. Bert Allen and Quill Standifird played with her and for years were the dance orchestra. During the summer from the time she was 16 she worked in the store for her Dad and really enjoyed that.
     Uncle Wesley says that Mother was always busy but she had time to tease, especially her sister Ida when Johnnie was coming to see her. After he was married and living in Joseph City the family decided to go to see him. It took a long time with a team and wagon to get there. Grandpa said something that made Mother unhappy and she sulked. She wasn’t going to go with them. Grandpa climbed up in the wagon and the rest got in but not her. The kids were begging her to hurry up and come on. Grandpa seemed unconcerned and said it was all right with him if she stayed home and that she was going to if she wasn’t in the wagon before they got thru the gate. Just as the buggy cleared the yard and the gate she grabbed on and the kids helped her climb in.
     I asked Logan Brimhall to tell me something about her and he said it could be summed up in two words--wonderful woman. In grade school she was vivacious and athletic and could play with the best of them in the games that they all played together; steal sticks, stink base, run sheep run. She was as hard to catch as any of the boys. She came thru the ordeal of being organist and then of directing. Logan said she knew what she wanted and could get the people to do it. When she went to high school she left most of her tomboyishness and took on more lady-like dignity. She was a good student and always helped in the music. She was a good conversationalist and no matter the situation or the people she always held up her end and things were entertaining. She helped the music teacher tune up all the instruments in high school in the orchestra. She played the violin and the harmonica besides the piano.
     First two years in high school--which was known as the academy--she rode a horse to school. They put their horses in Frost’s barn the first year and the second year they kept them in McLaw’s barn up on the hill and had to walk quite a ways to school. The last two years she drove a buggy so that Aunt Rose could go to school, too. That was much nicer for they could put a hot rock in the buggy to keep their feet warm.
     The first year at school they left their lunches in the barn where the horses were and would go there at noon to eat. Many times her lunch was stolen and she didn’t always know who did it. Sometimes Logan and Rex used to hurry down there and spread everybody’s lunch out and if they weren’t there they would go ahead and eat--after all they had the table set! Logan says that she had the best squash pie in her lunch that he ever ate and was really glad when he got some of it. She rode a big sorrel that was called “Angus” a few times, but mostly it was a sorrel filly.
     When they got their new buggy with the white top Mother and Uncle Arthur went over to Brimhall’s and asked if they wanted to go buggy riding. Dicie got in by Arthur and Logan by mother and they rode all over town serenading everybody until nearly midnight. One night Logan took her to a dance and he found out that she tended to her business and let him know that he was to tend to his. He says no matter what she did, it was done right and that she was quite exacting in all she did. If she ever did anything wrong she was the only one that knew it. She was always helpful and very congenial and if there was any characteristic that she had that might not set right with everybody it was with those who did not know her for she insisted that things be done right.
     One Christmas Eve after a big party at the academy it burned down. For the rest of the year they met in the social hall, the old stake house, attic of Flake’s store and Roberta Clayton’s house. Mother says they may have had classes in other placed too, but that is the ones she can remember. She does remember picking up the lid to her sewing box outside one of the windows of the building. The rest of the box with her sewing in it was inside and burned up. She had been taking manuel art but after the fire she didn’t go back to that class. She had a table almost ready to take home. She had spent so much time on it and the legs were carved in the curly-que design. She lost heart in that class.
     One night after they got the buggy to ride to school in Mother and Aunt Rose went out to the ranch to see John and Wesley. They really felt brave to go that far. That ranch is in the flats where Overguard in now.
     Mother was captain of the basketball team in high school and one of their best players. That was practically the only sport that girls had. She spent the rest of her time in music, Mother says the Freshies the year she started were toughies. They started with 40 pupils which was about two thirds of the school. Only 14 graduated. Their class stuck together--it was one for all and all for one. One day the Freshies put their flag on the pole at the stake house. The seniors didn’t like it so tried to take it down. They even used pole climbers. But they didn’t get it down. And that was the first time that Mother made any impression on Dad at all as to her being a special person. He remembers seeing her sitting on one of the guys that tried so hard to get the flag down. There were two girls on him but he doesn’t know what happened to the other one that had been a pole climber. Principal Peterson almost expelled a bunch of them for this episode. Dad made an impression on Mother because of his long while arms when playing basketball. And he was the star player. He was in school there the first year she went, then he went to Business College for two years, and was home during her last year of school.
     Mother started her acting career in high school. The first play she was in was the school play her freshman year and she was the leading lady. The play was “Little Miss Nobody.” She was always in plays after that and always took the leading part. One play only did she ever do anything else and in that one she took the part of a silly old lady. Even after marriage and children she still took the leading parts.
     For graduation from high school Mother played a piano solo. She says she couldn’t memorize it and had to take the music with her. She led the class in their class song and was the organist for all the other parts of the program.
     All during high school Mother was a popular girl and went with all the fellows. She had the chance to marry three of them but she knew who she wanted and during her last year started doing something about it. Enough that after graduation she spent the summer getting ready to get married. From all I hear it was a rather stormy courtship. Both knew what they wanted but to want it at the same time was rather a tough job. She went to a dance with Dad once and before it was over he got mad at her and she at him and he went home. She went home with one of her brothers. One night Dad was late coming and Mother was supposed to be at mutual. She went on and met Dad half way. It took them two months to patch that one up. During this last year of school Mother was President of the mutual and she was very busy and in everything and I guess it was rather trying at times for Dad and it was so easy for them both to go their own way and pretend they didn’t care. I guess Aunt Rose was the only one that really worried about it for fear Dad would get away because she knew how much Mother wanted him. But Mother was sulky and Dad was bull-headed.
     It came as a shock to most of the town because they didn’t go together very steady and if they were at outs with each other, Mother would go with someone else. Once Dad got her a little worried when he went with Hallie Cummings for she was “that cute little blond”. Aunt Rose insisted that whoever married Mother had to have her consent. So one day Dad asked her if he could marry mother. She said if he did he would have to promise to do better in marriage than in courtship and not have so many flareups. He promised.
     Aunt Lulu says that as a Young Ladies President, Mother made the best and was an improvement over any they had had previously. She even had influence on the girls who were in the habit of dancing too close. They went on lots of picnics and were called the “Camp Fire Girls.” They had a lot of projects and if mother set a goal for them they most nigh had to do it. While she was in this job the Bishop told her he would give anyone a recommend to the temple that she would marry. Her standards were high.

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Married years to 1960

BY AFTON HATCH FLAKE
DAUGHTER OF DORA PALMER
RECORDED ABOUT 1960
     When Mother (Dora PALMER) left to get married it was quite a crying good-bye at her home and Rose (Rosetta PALMER Brimhall) wanted to know why she wasn’t crying. She threw up her head and said “I’m walking off with the whole world, why should I bawl about it.” Dad (George Phineous HATCH) had sold his only cow to get money enough to get the engagement ring. Dad’s whole family and a lot of people went with them to Holbrook to see them off on the train. It was a two day journey then and it was a happy occasion and they camped out one night.
     The train was late getting into Salt Lake City and they found that the Temple wouldn’t open on the third, the day they planned on being married and they would have to move their wedding up a day. Hence they missed mother’s birthday one day but she didn’t want to go over the weekend not married, no place to go and no money. They rushed to the license bureau with another couple that had been on the same train. They were late but the clerk hadn’t left yet. He wouldn’t give them a license until they said they would pay him extra. He wrote it out and took $5. from each of the men for the overtime. That meant quite a bit in those days. That night she slept in a hotel alone and slept well. After they were married they spent two weeks honeymooning in Utah. They went thru the Logan Temple, too. There was lots of Dad’s folks up there and most of them were well to do and they enjoyed their stay. They offered Dad a job but he wanted to go back to Los Angeles and do things on his own.
     During this time and while on their honeymoon Mother was careful with her hands and did all she could to get them nice and white and as lovely as she wanted. They looked fine when they came back from their honeymoon and then they stayed at the ranch with John and Mary long enough that they were all tan before she got home.
     When they got back to Taylor, Grandma Hatch gave them a wedding reception. They got a lot of nice gifts and everybody came to it but her folks. They got enough tablecloths, towels, and sheets to last them 10 years. They stayed with Dad’s folks for 3 to 5 days. His folks accepted mother as one of their own and made her feel very welcome.
     Again they made the two day trip to Holbrook camping at night. Uncle Jack took them down this time. They got in L.A. early one morning and by noon had them an apartment with an old couple for $10. a month. They moved in and had dinner in their own place that day. Then the job hunting started and it went on and on and on and no job. It got so they had to eat rice and canned milk and couldn’t afford anything else. Finally Dad found some work--knocking cement sidewalks out. He didn’t have enough money to buy gloves so he got blisters. He had three beautiful suits and that was all he had to work in one of them for he had not money enough to buy overalls. The place they stayed was with people named Cathans and the man was blind.
     Finally Dad got a job picking oranges and they moved to an old house on an estate. Most beautiful place. There was a lake to go boating on and Mother saw her first water lily and the lawns were big and everything was wonderful. This was San Gabriel. The job ran out and they moved back to L.A. just before I was born. They lived a month in a new house and were the first occupants, then they moved into a house that Dr. Heywood had. He was just finishing up his school. The church in L.A. was just a little mission and Mr. Reeves was Bishop. Grandma Standifird came and stayed with mother at the time I was born and took care of things and picked out a name for me.
     Dad rented a horse and buggy and garden tools from a Mr. Hillman and kept up people’s yards and they lived pretty good for that year. A lady here tried to tell Mother how to keep from having any more babies. They then moved to Eastman’s and Glena was born. Mrs. Eastman was a nurse and she took care of things this time. She insisted that the doctor take out my adenoids so I would not make so much noise when I slept. When Glena was 3 weeks old they left and came to Mesa. They came to milk cows for Uncle John.
     Dad and Mother arrived in Mesa July 24th, the hottest day of the year. They came on the Southern Pacific. The ranch they went to, was at Baseline and Transmission Road. They had 30 cows and nearly all of the time they milked 25 or more. They, Mother helped with the milking, milked by hand and there was no shed. The corrals were like most corrals and when it rained they milked in the rain. Back in those days it rained much more than now; seemed they were slushing around in rubber boots in the muck most of the time. Dad farmed 40 acres of grain and corn for silage. However ten of it was in wheat that they used for flour, etc., they hauled it to the mill. When digging post holes down to 8 feet they would hit water. The water level was different then, too. Tempe was marsh land with tall grass and cattails.
     “In a shell of a house on the corner of Baseline and Transmission Road, SE of Mesa surrounded by pomegranate and roses, with the smell of the farm, the crow of the cock, the cackle of the guinea hen, and with Dr. Nelson and Nurse Taylor as battery; arrived the third leaf of this family tree. Because he had no say, they named him--Vloe.” This was taken from Dad’s poem. It was different for there was a doctor and for a long time after Dad called Vloe, “Doc.”
     The next year Dad rented 20 acres more land and planted cotton. When harvested he hauled a load to Phoenix with a team and wagon. He got $1800 for this and so made a down payment on 40 acres next to the one he was running. Vloe got sick that summer and Mother had to take him out of the valley. Must have had Valley Fever. They went to Taylor and stayed a month. While there he was fed plenty of milk and Grandpa always gave him some chow-chow afterward. Later they found out it was just what he needed. In 1919 on May 5, Dad was ordained seventy by Joseph McMurren.
     Again Dad records: “One fourth mile south of highway 60 on Transmission road was 40 beautiful acres. Here for the first time we planted our feet and called the place home. Here on a nice hot evening the fourth leaf appeared on this family tree. The same doctor and “Mom’s sister, Ida Standifird, composed the battery; maybe it was laziness or disgust with the heat, but a few spats and a douse of cold water started the howl of perpetual motion. We shall introduce him as--Keith.” While here they had a cow that would chase us kids that got out away from the house. We had a buggy that we used to ride to town and to church in. Dad had some gray horses to pull it and it was nice. He fixed it up, painted it, and added a fringe on top. One day he drove up in front of the house. It looked beautiful and I cried when he told us he was going to sell it.
     When the depression of 1921 hit they lost the beautiful 40 acres. Dad got an old Overland car and when they lost everything they put all they could get in the car, turned their 4 gray horses and a black colt out on the streets, three cows, too. They put their machinery, the household stuff, furniture, and the good harnesses in the granary of John Standifird’s place. They never was any of those things again, tho they came back for them later. All was gone and no one knew where.
     With what they could put in the car and a tent they started out on another phase of their life. It was a happy time and they enjoyed it. They had all they wanted to eat and wear and few cares in the world. They started the nomad life at Desert Wells shearing sheep. Then to Flagstaff, a place close by Grand Canyon, place west of Pine Dale, George Scott’s, Sandy Jaques place close to McNary, and Bordens. They finally ended up in Taylor in two east rooms of Grandpa Palmer’s house and Dad got a job as a timekeeper in the woods at McNary. In the fall they moved in the south side of the house up on the hill. Perry Pearce lived in the other side. He and dad went fishing once with pitchforks and caught all the carp they could eat or give away. The next summer Pearce’s moved and we had the whole house. Uncle Wesley still owned the house and every summer they came up to see us. Summer was a lot of relatives and friends from the valley and of course we liked it.
     When the Cooley Lumber Company sold to McNary, Dad lost his job. In 1922, we moved to Holbrook where Dad sold cars for Whiting’s and then Howards and Bill Franklin. It was here that we kids like to go up on the Hill to the water tank and pick up the tar and had us some good gum. We used chalk and wrote on the flat rocks and jumped and hopped from one to the other. It was windy up there, too. One April Fool Mother made a cake and put card board in it--it was hard to cut! In the fall we went back to Taylor, in time for school. I was nearly 8 then and time I started. Dad got a model T Ford truck, with Ruxell gear. In the spring Chad was born. Like Dad put it, “the fifth leaf started with a squawking; head down and his feet in Dr. Heywood’s hands and Grandmother Hatch waiting with a blanket. His temper was red--demanding a short name, Chad.”
     It was Chad that sat on Grandpa Palmer’s knee to have his picture taken, at the time of the Golden Wedding celebration. He was 7 months then.
     Dad worked at odd jobs until he started operating an ice cream parlor in the corner of Grandpa’s store. Gradually he worked into the store. He worked with Uncle Art. Then when he went on a mission he worked with Uncle John. Dad was still doing some trucking and in the late fall he moved Grandma and Grandpa Palmer to Mesa. Grandpa had been sick for a long time and getting worse and he wanted to have a place down Mesa for Grandma since she had asthma so badly and it did help her when she was taken there. He didn’t last long and in January of 1925 he died.
     In moving the grandparents to Mesa there was a lot of experiences. Dad used the old truck and it was loaded. Hill Top was the top of the mountain and we stayed there one night. We got there before dark and had fun playing around, under the trees. It rained that night and it was really muddy the next morning. What a dreary day. The truck wouldn’t pull up the hill with the load on. Dad went back to HillTop and got a pickup truck and unloaded some of it on it. On the way up the hill the truck would go a little way and then we would block the wheels, then up a little farther and block again. We got up the hill and loaded again and it was night. We slept on top of the truck that night and when Dad woke us the next morning he took a tarp off of us that he had put over us during the night when it started to snow and carried us over to a fire that he had going. He thought it was fun and wondered how he got wood to burn with so much snow around.
     When we got back Dad and Uncle John went to Holbrook and took the civil examination to become post office workers. Uncle John failed and tho Dad passed he was appointed assistant and Uncle John as post master. Dad made all the reports and took care of all the work there. In 1926, he started buying the store. When Grandpa died in January he had written a note in a book for his will and gave it to Uncle Art. No one ever saw it and he acted as administrator. John got the home, Art the farm, the other two boys, Jordan and Wesley got $5,000. Mother got one-ninth of the store and then she and Dad started buying it from the rest of the family. Grandma lost her home in Mesa, and Uncle Henry and Aunt Lulu bought it and helped her out.
     “Now the pattern seems to be revolving itself into a permanent shape. With the same Dr. Heywood and Mother Hatch, with the wind rattling the shingles and beating its head against the window; the sixth leaf, a wide eyed, all curious, wriggling boy was added to the family tree. No one could guess that was--Dahl.”
     In 1925 Dad was made Mutual superintendent and served two years. During these years and the rest of them in Taylor Mother was either chorister or organist for the ward (organist when she was horse). She was a teacher in Sunday School and Primary President one year. Later Dad was scout master, about 4 years. In the summer of 1930 he went on a Gypsy Hike for scouters and went to California. Remember the picture of him and the car going thru the biggest tree in the world?
     Talking to Logan Brimhall about this time he said that when Dad went into the mutual and mother working in it too that nothing could stop them. They knew how to work together. It had been years since the mutual had been anything but a flop (his words). But it soon picked up and became the leading organization in the stake. People from all over came to see how it was done and why. The opening exercises were always entertaining and before anything was presented it had to be just right--this took lots of practicing. They brought into the mutual refinement and the little niceities--like a vase of flowers.
     January 6, 1928. “This was one of those cold crackling night; the after effects of a white Christmas. Looking from the window, the moon and snow seemed to kiss in the blending of a vanishing horizon. The dancing rythem of the different shapes, that only flakes of frost can make. Where the plaintiff call of the coyote or the hoot of an owl can be heard from hill to hill, the echo circles the valley round. This babe was a patient lad. His mother his refuge, his shield and protector. This leaf has the name--Loy.”
     Dad was appointed postmaster, and got in the bishopric and neglected his own business. On the 13th May 1928, he was ordained a high Priest by Apostle Melvin J. Ballard and set apart as second counselor in the bishopric to Logan Brimhall. Uncle Marion Gibbons was first counselor. When Uncle Marion moved to St. Johns Dad was made first counselor and Rex Shumway second counselor. While Dad was in the Bishopric President Heber J. Grant came to that part of the country and traveled around and spoke in all the little towns around. President of the stake, Bro. Smith, said to Dad, “you are delegated to see that President Grant gets to where he is going and where he is staying.” Dad took him and those with him and Mother drove another car and we went around to all the towns and listened to him speak. No wonder we remember his theme: that which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed, but that our power to do has increased. We heard him a sing a song, too.
     Again Dad says, “This is another one of those night when the world is clothed in its temple robes of white. As you open the door, a quick breath, one that is involuntary--you gasp, step back, take a glance at the pitch fire as it leaps up the chimney and vanishes into the night--then with bowed head you make a dash for the garage. From there it is a slippery three miles to Dr. Heywood (no telephones, but the veil so thin you can hear music on a night like this.) Then an agonizing trip across town to awaken Mother Hatch. A warm bed or the warmth of a cozy home is nothing to her when someone is in need. So the eight leaf is added. The family tree seems to add leaves at all times and seasons. This babe seems to partake of the temper of the warm fire and then of the cool of the night. This leaf we will call--Jean.”
     In the fall of 1931, Dad lost the store and we moved up on the ranch southeast of Taylor. Mother was in the mutual then. We were here about two years. Dad raised some beautiful truck gardening vegetables but no place to sell them. He worked hard and long. I can remember walking to the corner of Perkins’ place by the red school house on the hill to catch the bus. Always ran most of the way and there were several times when I missed and walked on to Snowflake. If a car came along I would get off the road until it passed so always had to walk all the way. After Glena and Vloe got to going to high school too we didn’t get off the road and usually got a ride. We didn’t miss the bus too often then for Logan Brimhall was driver and he would wait for us to run a quarter of a mile to catch it. We moved back to Taylor Christmas Eve 1931. That was a night of confusion, but us kids didn’t mind--it was Christmas Eve! Got a tree in the snow when it was almost dark.
     The last day of school that year! Just before I left for school mother told me to go over to see Dr. Heywood and tell him to some see her. But I wanted to go home when the bus came at the end of the day so I sent Glena over to tell him and she came on the later bus. Then this is what Dad wrote, “A breath of spring is in the air, it is the planting season. The time when faith is at its noontime. It is the rejuvenation of all creation--the passing of the night and the awakening of the day; dawn! The rising of the sap, the life germ, the opening of the buds, the forerunner of the bloom, the mother of the seed. So again, Dr. Heywood and Mother Hatch are busy aiding the ninth leaf to the family tree. This lass has dimples in her chin and a very catching, fetching smile; one that received the willing service from others. Did you guess this might be--Dixie.”
     Dad now worked in the health Department with offices in Snowflake. He did a lot of traveling and took care of the checks and hours etc. of the WPA. Then in January 25, 1936--”Another cold date; but urgent. Pre-destined? No altogether. An even keel? Yes. Today at its best is the day I choose. What comes is best for all. Faith in self; faith in others; faith in today; faith in the future. Patiently this mother waited for the regular team of Dr. Heywood and Mother Hatch. A female she is--too young--too old. We nicknamed her “Pete” but recorded--Anita.” In 1937 they moved to St. Johns. Dad was WPA foreman. He was made first counselor to Loren John Allen in the Stake Mutual. He was that for two years then in 1938 he was set apart as second counselor to Albert Anderson of the High Priest Quorum. In the last of 1937 Dad records, “Tonight we are assured of a white Christmas. This babe which is the eleventh leaf on the family tree seems to hesitate; to sense the chill of the white world, the frozen water mains, the inconvenience of hauling water from a broken water line miles away. The move of the family tree. Her birth is a hesitating, wearing, tiring one. The mother is suffering but patient. No doctor and the nurse, McLoy, is getting quite nervous. The tension is growing but faith and hope must win. Yes, signs of relief are coming. A babe is born. She is a squirming, wiggling, and athletic type. She seems to have a strain of humor, a ready tongue, and a knack of making catchy thoughts. Why did we choose the subject of this thought--on a Father’s Dad card in 1955 appeared this; the last leaf--Quola.
     Then they moved to New Mexico in 1940. Steve went into the service for two years. It was five before he came back. While in New Mexico, Dad sold cars again for Whitings. He had 40 acres of farming land and Keith got in on some of the work. Dad wasn’t home too much of the time here. Mother was in the Relief Society and led the Singing Mothers. She was organist in the Sunday School--learning to play the organ better than ever. Dad started working in the Ordnance Department in Wingate and soon Mother and the family moved to Winslow, 1941. Dad worked for the Sante Fe and Keith started working there, too. In the spring of 43 they moved to Provo. Dad sold real estate and insurance for Robertson and Bushman. In a year he became a broker and then started selling Life Insurance for National Public Service/ mother was Co-ordinator for the Jr. Sunday School. She was in the Mutual, too. Worked at Taylor Brothers’ Department Store. Some of the things that happened while they were here were good and some bad. I only know from what was told me and what I saw. We were in Idaho when we got the letter from Mother telling about Dixie losing her eye. That caused many sleepless nights and a hard time for the whole family to adjust. I think she did better than the rest of us, faster. Keith and Dahl both went into the service. Remember the hot water bottles that were used every night in the winter to keep feet warm? Remember the Brigham tea that was always on the back of the stove? And the clothes that hung in the hall upstairs? That was in the winter. Remember when Dahl became an Eagle Scout, and then Loy? Remember when Dahl came home a few days after basic training before going overseas? Remember his narrow escapes with a bullet and a dagger? Remember Chad joined the navy and sailed away and before he came back he had a permanent girl? Remember when Keith came home with Malaria?
     In 1945 they moved to Phoenix. Dad was till selling insurance. They bought a place but soon Grandfather Hatch got sick, they sold the house and moved to Taylor. They stayed with them until after they had both died. I don’t know much that happened here but when it was over they came back to Phoenix and bought the house at 515 E. Portland. Dad went to work for Shumways. He started out selling real estate for them, renewed his broker licence in 1847 and then went to work at the park where he still is. Since he has been here he has worked first in the Aaronic Priesthood work. He has always done some ward teaching work. Then Mother and Dad started on 4 ½ years of stake missionary work. In 1955 Dad was made secretary to the High Priest Quorum. In 1956 he was made second counselor to Jim Shumway in the High Priest Quorum. The next year he was second counselor to A.C. Call. In the last of 1958 he was made President to the High Priest Quorum. Mother in the meantime was Relief Society supervising teacher. Then she taught the adults in Sunday School for a couple of years and then in 1960, she was put in the stake Sunday School.
     In April of 1957, Mother started to work in the LDS Clothing store. In 1959 they moved over on Sixth Avenue in the back of the store. They stayed there a year and then came back to 515 E. Portland. During this time there has been a lot of marriages and they have all been in the Arizona Temple. All have been married in the Temple except Keith. Some of the things that have happened here will have to be added by the kids who lived here. Most of them were married and gone before I remember much here. Quola wasn’t and has made a name for herself in tennis and table tennis. Dixie was in the a cappella chorus of the college. Dahl was in everything where there was work or tinkering. Steve has stayed with the diamonds and watches most of the time.

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The Last Leaf

BY GEORGE PHINEOUS HATCH
HUSBAND OF DORA PALMER
     Is it a story or a legend; is it inscribed from the past pages of eternity? Is it the breath of a pure breeze, as it threads itself through the needles of the pine, whispering peace.
     Does it come from where the lacy clouds of the evening touch the mountain top; as the sunset, like the northern lights, give a glow of gold to the leaves of the quaking aspen.
     Does it roll like the fog from the highest peaks, where the eagle in the gnarly limbs of the battered oak, builds its kingdom.
     Is it the breath of the spring dressed in the colors of the rainbow bursting with life.
     Is it the desert with her cactus waxed and polished, shining as though the hand of God had worked the miracle.
     Or is it the mature ripening grain, the smell of new mown hay, the noon of all the beckoning hands of the west; when the golden leaves of fall comes fluttering, twisting and lighting like a breath, until they touch the ground with a soft bounce, seeking that silent resting place among its kin. Is this the whole story or the end of the legend? Or is each a part of the whole?
     To find a beginning we must turn back the clock hands of time and the pages of memory. The leaves of the Callander of life; we gently, but with a firm determination thumb the pages of a yellow diary.

Page 1. Salt Lake City. October 2, 1914

     The infusion of two souls into one--bound by the bark of love, wound with the ribbon of hope, tied with the knot of faith and with dreams, colored with the urge of youth; in septs the roots, the life, the color, the shape, the size, the bud, the flower of the leaf--the beginning of this family tree.

Page 2. Los Angeles, October 15, 1915

     In a little cottage surrounded by flowers, the trailing honeysuckle sending an invitation to the bees with it’s perfume to come gather the sweets of life, all nature seemed to be at peace. No hospital smell, no surgeon; just the faith and skill of a grandmother, “Mary A. Standifird”, herald the first leaf on this family tree--AFTON.

Page 3. Los Angeles, June 15, 1917

     In a pleasant room on the second floor overlooking the beautiful landscape the itself to the breakers of the mighty Pacific, the second leaf arrived in the storm of protest. She was ushered in by Mother Earton, a nurse with skill and a pleasant smile. This lass has the name -- GLENA.

Page 4. Mesa, September 17, 1918

     In a very poor shell of a house on the corner of Base line and Transmission Road, S.E. of Mesa, surrounded by pomegranate and roses, with the smell of the farm, the crow of the cock, the cackle of the guinea hen, and with Dr. Nelson and Nurse Taylor as battery; arrived the third leaf on this family tree. Because he had no say, we named him --VLOE. (STEVE)

Page 5. Mesa. August 4, 1920

     One-fourth mile south of highway 60 on Transmission Road was 40 beautiful acres. Here for the first time we planted our feet and called the place home. Here on a nice hot evening the fourth leaf appeared on this family tree. The Doctor and “Mom’s” sister, Ida Standifird, composed the battery. Maybe it was laziness or disgust with the heat, but a few spats and a douse of cold water started the howl of perpetual motion. We shall introduce him as--KEITH.

Page 6. Taylor, May 31, 1924

     Ill judgement and a depression forced the transplanting of this family tree to Taylor, Arizona, where the fifth leaf started with a squawking; head down and his feet in Dr. Heywood’s hands and Grandmother Hatch waiting with a blanket. His temper was red-demanding a short name. Our host for the day--CHAD.

Page 7. Taylor, January 6, 1926

     Now the pattern seems to be revolving itself into a permanent shape. With the same Dr. Heywood and Mother Hatch, with the wind rattling the shingles and beating its head against the windows; the sixth leaf, a wide eyed, all curious, wriggling boy is added to the family tree. No one could guess that was--DAHL.

Page 8. Taylor. January 6, 1928

     This was one of those cold, crackling nights; the after effects of a white Christmas. Looking from the window, the moon and snow seemed to kiss in the blending of a vanishing horizon. The dancing rhythm of the different shapes, that only flakes of frost can make. Where the plaintiff call of the coyote or the hoot of an owl can be heard from hill to hill, the echo circles the valley round. This babe was a patient lad. His Mother his refuge, his shield and protector. This leaf has the name--LOY.

Page 9. Taylor. December 30, 1929

     This is another one of those nights when the world is clothed in its temple robes of white. As you open the door, a quick breath, one that is involuntary--you gasp, step back, take a glance at the pitch fire as it leaps up the chimney and vanished into the night--then with bowed head you make a dash for the garage. From there it is a slippery three miles to awaken Dr. Heywood (no telephones, but the veil so thin that you can hear music on nights like this). Then an agonizing trip across town to awaken Mother Hatch. A warm bed or the warmth of a cozy home is nothing to her when someone is in need. So the eight leaf is added. The family tree seems to add leaves at all times and seasons. This babe seems to partake of the temper of the warm fire and then of the cool of the night. This leaf we will call--JEAN.

Page 10. Taylor, May 20, 1932

     A breath of spring is in the air, it is the planting season. The time when faith is at its noontime. It is the rejuvenation of all creation--the passing of the night and the awaking of the day; dawn!--the rising of the sap, the life germ--the opening of the buds, the forerunner of the bloom, the mother of the seed. So again Dr. Heywood and Mother Hatch are busy adding the ninth leaf to the family tree. This lass has dimples in her chin and a very catching, fetching smile; one that receives the willing service of others. Did you guess this might be--DIXIE.

Page 11. Taylor. January 25, 1936

     Another cold date; but urgent. Pre-destined? Not altogether. An even keel? Yes. Today at its best is the day I choose. What comes is best for all. Faith in self; faith in others; faith in today; faith in the future. Patiently this mother waited for the regular team of Dr. Heywood and Mother Hatch. A female she is--too young--too old. We nicknamed her Pete but recorded--ANITA.

Page 12. Saint Johns. December 23, 1937

     Tonight we are assured of a white Christmas. This babe is the eleventh leaf on the family tree, seems to hesitate; to sense the chill of the white would, the frozen water mains, the inconvenience of hauling water from a broken water line miles away. The move of the family tree. Her birth is a hesitating, wearing, tiring one. The mother is suffering but patient. No doctor and the nurse McLoy is getting quite nervous. The tension is growing but faith and hope must win. Yes, signs of relief are coming. A babe is born. She is a squirming, wiggling, and athletic type. She seems to have a strain of humor, a ready tongue, and a knack of making catchy thoughts. Why did we choose the subject of this thought--on a Father’s Day card in 1955 appeared this; the last leaf--QUOLA.

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Phoebe DRAPER
John LOTHROP (aka John Lathrop or Lothropp)
Samuel LATHROP
Alma Zemira PALMER
Dora PALMER
George PALMER Jr.
Zemira PALMER

CHILDREN WITH GEORGE P. HATCH