I graduated from 8th grade and that same year we moved into Sugar City where we could attend high school and later, Ricks Academy. We enjoyed life very much in Sugar City. I was very active in the church serving in the Deacon and Teacher Presidencies.

The Wilding family lived on a neighboring farm and my sister, Merle, married Ellis Wilding. At that time, I started dating Ellis' sister, Leone. Once while courting Leone, I took another girl to a dance. On the way home, we fell asleep. The horse we always used with the buggy was used to going to the Wilding house. So it went there and stopped until Mr. Wilding woke to do his chores. He told us we better be gone before Leone woke up.

Leone and I were married 29 May 1918 in the Salt lake City Temple by Alvin F. Smith.

That same year, we moved to Chapin in the Teton Basin next to my folks. This was a bad one as it was a very cold winter and a flu epidemic broke out. Many people died. Mother, Dad and all my brothers and sisters fell ill. Norma and I were not living at home. Norma had been at the Academy studying to be a nurse. She cared for all the family and I helped all I could with the chores. We dug graves where we could get through the frozen ground. Sometimes we had to bury the dead in the deep snow banks until Spring. Merle's husband, Ellis, died leaving her with two small children. The rest of the family, with the blessing of the Lord, survived. That same year, World War I broke out and several of the younger boys went to war.