Life Sketch of James Afton Harward
By Russell Lloyd Harward
Afton was the tenth child, the sixth son, of fifteen children born to Ozias Strong Harward and Francis Eva Curtis. Four of his siblings, two sisters and two brothers, died before Afton’s birth. The house in which he was born on June 20, 1902 was a large two room log cabin structure at “Lost Creek” located 2 miles east of the present day Aurora, Utah in Sevier County. He was blessed and given his name by his father, Ozias, on August 3, 1902. The following year, his family moved across the Sevier River to what was then known as Willow Bend but later the name was changed to Aurora. This made it easier for the family to attend school and church as well as community activities.
He started school at Aurora with three brothers, Orson, Harvey, and Sharland, and a sister, Almira. They were joined by several cousins at school. His oldest sister, Frances Eva, was out of school and married by the time Afton started school.
Afton had a fear of water all his life because he had some life threatening experiences crossing the Sevier River. On one occasion when very young, Afton and his brothers were late returning to Aurora from Lost Creek for the week-end. Rather than traveling to Sigurd where there was a bridge, they decided to swim their horses across the river. Afton was frightened, so they tied him in the saddle, took the reins and let the horse into the river. The experience almost scared him to death. But he was not afraid to go into the water at the Manti Temple on the 28th of June, 1910, to be baptized by Seborn J. Golden.
Ozias and Frances Eva had planned to build a house on the corner south of Day’s store, and construction had begun when Ozias died on the 7th of June, 1917, just 19 days before Afton’s 15th birthday. Ozias’ request was that the house be completed, a request that was fulfilled as Frances Eva and her sons with help from others built the house. The eldest son of Afton, James DeVere, said, “It still stands on Main Street in Aurora as of 1983. It is as sturdy and as nice as any home in town. Every time I see this house, I get all warm inside and feel it is a tribute to Grandmother Harwward and her family.” To the northwest of the house they built a granary, a smoke house, cellar, and planted a fruit orchard. To the north of the granary was located an ice house, filled each winter with ice from the river, and covered with sawdust to keep for summer use. People came from all around to get ice from the Harwards. A well had been dug by Ozias and his boys before his death. It took many days and more than once they might have quit, but Ozias insisted that they continue. At 320 feet under hardpan they were rewarded with some of the best water in the valley. On the south of the corral was a stable where they kept six horses. Ozias always had some of the best horses in the valley and his sons were as proud of theirs as he was of his. Afton shared his father’s love for good horses. A chicken coop and hog pen were located to the west of the corral, and they always had enough hogs and chickens to meet their needs.
Where the Spencer Store is now there was once a post office, barbershop, and a grocery store. Afton, his brothers and his sisters, used to trade eggs for licorice pipes there. One day while playing, Sharland threw a hoe and hit Afton in the head, cutting him just above the eye. To make amends, Sharland hurried to the store and soon returned with some licorice pipes just for Afton.
James DeVere, Afton’s eldest son said, “Dad has told me many times about the things he enjoyed doing when he was a boy. He said when the work let up in the winter they would catch jack rabbits in a bobsleigh, had town dances, and ice skated on the river. He told of the family camping trips to Maple Grove and Fish Lake. Dad was a fast foot racer, and loved to run, as did his brothers. While DeVere was working with Mel and Rulon at the Steel Plant they told him stories of how fast Afton could run. Mel said as a boy and a young man he would bum a ride to Aurora and neighboring towns shooting the breeze and betting. He said that he would bet that Dad could outrun anybody in the county. He said that many times they would sit in the shade of Day’s store and wait for Dad to get his day’s work done on Lost Creek and ride into town on old Tony. Mel would meet him and tell him that he would give Afton half of the betting money if he won the race. Mel said they always came out ahead. He said the most money that he ever won was when Dad outran a quarter horse for fifty yards. Dad loved animals, dogs and all kinds of farm animals. He especially loved horses and had some good ones. When he was 18 years old, he took a job helping to build the road from Scipio to Levan. He had a real good team of horses that could pull a road grader from Scipio to Levan and back again in 12 hours. Aunt Almira said that they both took their summer wages and bought their first car together. Afton didn’t have much schooling, because in those days, children didn’t have much schooling, especially boys. He graduated from the 8th grade, excelling in math. DeVere said I remember when I was having trouble with math in school, he was a big help to me. Like me, he was not too great when it came to writing and spelling.”
In 1973 Afton recorded, “In 1921, at age 18, I worked on Highway 91 from Nephi to Chicken Creek Reservoir, which was down by the Juab station that has been moved away now. That used to be as far as the railroad came in the early days where freight was picked up at the Juab station. It ran from Salt Lake Branch to Delta. I helped hard surface the road. I ran the grader with my big team. I’m not sure what they call that reservoir now, but it is located about 12 to 15 miles south of Levan. We just graded and put on the base of the road that ran from Scipio through to California. The team of horses I had, included one that weighed 1800 pounds and the other 1600. There were very few teams on the road that could equal them in moving loads. For a while I had my team on the “A” frame to help load gravel. Those teams bigger than my team would come and get stuck, so they would take their teams off and I would put my horses on and do the job. After I used my team to smooth the road, they used 8 head of horses to pull the roller after we watered it down. We camped at the Juab station from early April until November. I went to Aurora to get grain because feed for the horses was very scarce at Levan. We gave them alfalfa timothy hay when we could get it because it gave them more strength without bloating them.”
In the fall of 1929, after the farm work was done, Afton got a winter job at the Jumbo Plaster Mill in Sigard. While there he stayed at a boarding house in Vermillion, where he met Essie Knight, who worked there. He took her to a dance at the church amusement hall in Vermillion on their first date. On another date, during their courtship, Afton and a young man he worked with took their dates to a dance in Salina, where commodities were required as a ticket to get in. Essie rode with Afton in the back of a Model “T” truck. His friend had been drinking but was driving on the way home, when one of the tires fell off the truck. Afton tried to get his friend to stop, but he wouldn’t, so Afton jumped out of the back of the truck while it was still moving, picked up the stray tire, threw it in the back of the truck, and jumped in after it. They continued on their journey minus one tire on the truck or at least so the story goes.
Afton and Essie were married the next spring on March 28, 1924 in the Manti Temple, and bought a small house in Aurora, where their first child, James DeVere was born on the 5th of January, 1925.
In 1926, after years of drought and failed crops Afton’s brothers loaded up their families and moved to Provo in one day. He joined them with his family, and the next day started work at the Ironton Steel Plant in south Provo. He worked there until the spring of 1928. In the meantime their second son, Darr, was born on the January 18, 1927.
In the spring of 1928, Essie persuaded Afton to move closer to her family in Crescent, southern Salt Lake County, where their third child, another son, Conrad, was born on July 12, 1928. Afton worked for farmers in the area until the spring of 1929, when he moved his family back to Provo, and he returned to work at the Ironton Steel Palnt where he stayed until the plant closed in 1962.
On September 1, 1931, their fourth son, Sherman, was born, followed by two sons, Ned on the October 22, 1933 and Donald LeRoy on January 15, 1936, both of whom died shortly after their birth.
James DeVere said of his Father in the sketch he wrote, “our Dad was a good man and a good father, but like a lot of newly married couples making a living and starting a family, they were not active in the church. From the time that they married until we older boys started in scouting and Aaronic Priesthood, they were not very active. But when I became a scout, Dad was put on the troop committee in charge of first aid. That got him started and he was on his way into activity again.
In 1937, one year after the Church Welfare Program had been instituted. Afton was called to be the supervisor of the welfare project to raise corn, peas, tomatoes and green beans, because of his experience as a gardener. The produce was taken by ward members to the Sharon Industry cannery to be canned for the church welfare program. This project, along with othes such as the building program displayed his ability as an organizer and supervisor.
On May 4, 1944, their seventh son, Russell, was born, and their eighth son, Eldon, was born on November 25, 1946.
In April, 1947, Afton was set apart as Elders Quorum President, where he served until he was ordained a High Priest on the 16th of April, 1954, and sustained as second counselor in August of the same year. Again in December of 1954, he was called to be first counselor where he served until 1956, when he and Essie were called as Stake missionaries, serving there until December, 1958. When the Hillcrest ward chapel was built in the mid 1950s, Afton and two other men worked almost as many hours as all the rest of the ward members put together. That building became the Orem 12th and 24th ward building.
In 1956 Afton and Essie moved their two sons, Russell and Eldon, to a new house at 1425 South 640 East in Orem. After Afton retired from the steel plant in 1962, he worked as the custodian for the Orem 12th ward where he had so faithfully served during its construction. He worked in that capacity until 1969 when they purchased a mobile home and moved into and managed the trailer park at 320 South State Street in Orem. Afton could not stand to be idle so he started working part time for the Deseret Industries in Provo and later at the regional welfare distribution center in Lindon until 1981.
Afton and Essie were very missionary minded and supported four sons on full time missions and saw four grandsons fill honorable full time missions. Like his parents, Afton attended the temple faithfully and frequently, especially after he retired. He and his brother, Tom, lived as neighbors in the Golden Age Apartments in American Fork. They attended several temple sessions each week together the last few years of Afton’s life.
Afton and Essie loved to fish and spent many enjoyable days of their retirement catching trout, which they both loved to eat. Many of the fondest memories their family shared with them centered around fishing trips to such places as Deer Creek Reservoir, Strawberry Reservoir, Fish Lake, Yellowstone Park , and many other lakes and streams.
James DeVere wrote, “I have never heard Dad sing in public, and I don’t know that her ever did, but when he was busy working on the job, in the garden, or while he was doing housework, he was always singing or humming. As I sit and think of him, I can hear him half humming, half singing ‘My Wild Irish Rose’, ‘Oh, My Father’, or ‘In the Garden’. Not only did he carry his load in life well but he also did the washing, ironing, bottled fruit, quilted, and did the house work.”
On Christmas day, 1981, Afton called his son, Russell, in South Dakota, to wish him a merry Christmas. After visiting for few minutes, he bade Russ goodbye, telling him that he was going outside to shovel snow off the sidewalk, and turned the phone over to Essie. When Essie hung up the phone, she went to the door and found Afton face down in the snow, having suffered a stroke in his 79th year. Their son, Eldon, was quickly summoned, and he arrived in time to revive him with the emergency personnel. He was rushed to the American Fork Hospital and his sons were asked to hurry home; DeVere came from Chester, Utah, Darr from Las Vegas, Conrad from Portland, Sherman from Loomis, California, and Russell from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. All of them were with him as he came out of a coma briefly, looked around at his sons around the bed, then passed through the veil from this mortal existence just before midnight on the 30th of December, 1981. He was buried in the Provo City Cemetery on January 4, 1982, next to his two sons, who preceded him in death.
DeVere wrote that after their Dad’s death he came across a few lines that Dad had written down on September 7, 1978: “I, James Harward, will attempt to leave a few thoughts of my life. What is the purpose of life, more than to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ that Thou hast sent? As I turn back the pages of my life (76 years), I think of the beautiful June day, in 1902, the 26th day, the most beautiful day of the year with the most beautiful flowers on earth in bloom. It is most beautiful to me. It was my father’s choice also. I think of the song, ‘My Wild Irish Rose’, the most beautiful flower that grows. As we turn back the pages of time to our childhood, I think of the things I liked to do, such as singing to the cows and birds as I milked, and to see how far I could squirt the milk, especially if there was someone to hit, and in return have the cow hit me with her tail, or kicked the stool out from under me. Such was life. I used to enjoy hunting jack rabbits with my older brother.
Well, here is another day; it is 5:30 in the morning. I must write while my mind is clear and my body is rested. What I said about the cow, I was thinking that in this life we must pay the price for what we get either good or bad. I have been a lover of some animals – horses, dogs, and swine, which we always had when I was young.
I would say to you young people, be happy and keep a song in your heart and learn to sing the songs your Father in Heaven would have you sing. As we grow older we have responsibility to think about, learn to work, and take care of ourselves.
Well, it is a beautiful day outside to enjoy. I have been think about what I should say that would help you to know how I feel about life, with the temptations and unhappiness going on in this world at this time. I was thinking of the song ‘Have I done any good in the World Today?’ If we pray humbly to our Father in Heaven, He will show us the way. If you would read the 4th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, there are only seven verses in it, it could help you more than I could tell.”
How fitting that the Doctrine and Covenants, 4, is a missionary scripture. It sums up the work that Afton was involved in during his mortal years and now, undoubtedly, during his spiritual waiting years.
At the time of Afton’s death in 1981, he had 8 sons, six living, 31 grandchildren, and 6 great grandchildren. Among his descendants are members of Stake Presidencies, Bishoprics, High Councils, Melchizedek and Aaronic Priesthood Quorum Presidencies, Stake and Ward auxiliary organizations, teachers, social service workers, salesmen, business managers, and other professional and skilled workers.
Afton was not a rich many monetarily, or educated in terms of the world, but he taught his children to work and persist in doing the right things. He taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ in word and action. He never claimed to be perfect, but he did the best he knew how to do. For all this our father should have some credit. If not for financial help, and maybe not always encouragement, then by all means implanting in us the desire to work and the ability to work.
By Russell Lloyd Harward
Afton was the tenth child, the sixth son, of fifteen children born to Ozias Strong Harward and Francis Eva Curtis. Four of his siblings, two sisters and two brothers, died before Afton’s birth. The house in which he was born on June 20, 1902 was a large two room log cabin structure at “Lost Creek” located 2 miles east of the present day Aurora, Utah in Sevier County. He was blessed and given his name by his father, Ozias, on August 3, 1902. The following year, his family moved across the Sevier River to what was then known as Willow Bend but later the name was changed to Aurora. This made it easier for the family to attend school and church as well as community activities.
He started school at Aurora with three brothers, Orson, Harvey, and Sharland, and a sister, Almira. They were joined by several cousins at school. His oldest sister, Frances Eva, was out of school and married by the time Afton started school.
Afton had a fear of water all his life because he had some life threatening experiences crossing the Sevier River. On one occasion when very young, Afton and his brothers were late returning to Aurora from Lost Creek for the week-end. Rather than traveling to Sigurd where there was a bridge, they decided to swim their horses across the river. Afton was frightened, so they tied him in the saddle, took the reins and let the horse into the river. The experience almost scared him to death. But he was not afraid to go into the water at the Manti Temple on the 28th of June, 1910, to be baptized by Seborn J. Golden.
Ozias and Frances Eva had planned to build a house on the corner south of Day’s store, and construction had begun when Ozias died on the 7th of June, 1917, just 19 days before Afton’s 15th birthday. Ozias’ request was that the house be completed, a request that was fulfilled as Frances Eva and her sons with help from others built the house. The eldest son of Afton, James DeVere, said, “It still stands on Main Street in Aurora as of 1983. It is as sturdy and as nice as any home in town. Every time I see this house, I get all warm inside and feel it is a tribute to Grandmother Harwward and her family.” To the northwest of the house they built a granary, a smoke house, cellar, and planted a fruit orchard. To the north of the granary was located an ice house, filled each winter with ice from the river, and covered with sawdust to keep for summer use. People came from all around to get ice from the Harwards. A well had been dug by Ozias and his boys before his death. It took many days and more than once they might have quit, but Ozias insisted that they continue. At 320 feet under hardpan they were rewarded with some of the best water in the valley. On the south of the corral was a stable where they kept six horses. Ozias always had some of the best horses in the valley and his sons were as proud of theirs as he was of his. Afton shared his father’s love for good horses. A chicken coop and hog pen were located to the west of the corral, and they always had enough hogs and chickens to meet their needs.
Where the Spencer Store is now there was once a post office, barbershop, and a grocery store. Afton, his brothers and his sisters, used to trade eggs for licorice pipes there. One day while playing, Sharland threw a hoe and hit Afton in the head, cutting him just above the eye. To make amends, Sharland hurried to the store and soon returned with some licorice pipes just for Afton.
James DeVere, Afton’s eldest son said, “Dad has told me many times about the things he enjoyed doing when he was a boy. He said when the work let up in the winter they would catch jack rabbits in a bobsleigh, had town dances, and ice skated on the river. He told of the family camping trips to Maple Grove and Fish Lake. Dad was a fast foot racer, and loved to run, as did his brothers. While DeVere was working with Mel and Rulon at the Steel Plant they told him stories of how fast Afton could run. Mel said as a boy and a young man he would bum a ride to Aurora and neighboring towns shooting the breeze and betting. He said that he would bet that Dad could outrun anybody in the county. He said that many times they would sit in the shade of Day’s store and wait for Dad to get his day’s work done on Lost Creek and ride into town on old Tony. Mel would meet him and tell him that he would give Afton half of the betting money if he won the race. Mel said they always came out ahead. He said the most money that he ever won was when Dad outran a quarter horse for fifty yards. Dad loved animals, dogs and all kinds of farm animals. He especially loved horses and had some good ones. When he was 18 years old, he took a job helping to build the road from Scipio to Levan. He had a real good team of horses that could pull a road grader from Scipio to Levan and back again in 12 hours. Aunt Almira said that they both took their summer wages and bought their first car together. Afton didn’t have much schooling, because in those days, children didn’t have much schooling, especially boys. He graduated from the 8th grade, excelling in math. DeVere said I remember when I was having trouble with math in school, he was a big help to me. Like me, he was not too great when it came to writing and spelling.”
In 1973 Afton recorded, “In 1921, at age 18, I worked on Highway 91 from Nephi to Chicken Creek Reservoir, which was down by the Juab station that has been moved away now. That used to be as far as the railroad came in the early days where freight was picked up at the Juab station. It ran from Salt Lake Branch to Delta. I helped hard surface the road. I ran the grader with my big team. I’m not sure what they call that reservoir now, but it is located about 12 to 15 miles south of Levan. We just graded and put on the base of the road that ran from Scipio through to California. The team of horses I had, included one that weighed 1800 pounds and the other 1600. There were very few teams on the road that could equal them in moving loads. For a while I had my team on the “A” frame to help load gravel. Those teams bigger than my team would come and get stuck, so they would take their teams off and I would put my horses on and do the job. After I used my team to smooth the road, they used 8 head of horses to pull the roller after we watered it down. We camped at the Juab station from early April until November. I went to Aurora to get grain because feed for the horses was very scarce at Levan. We gave them alfalfa timothy hay when we could get it because it gave them more strength without bloating them.”
In the fall of 1929, after the farm work was done, Afton got a winter job at the Jumbo Plaster Mill in Sigard. While there he stayed at a boarding house in Vermillion, where he met Essie Knight, who worked there. He took her to a dance at the church amusement hall in Vermillion on their first date. On another date, during their courtship, Afton and a young man he worked with took their dates to a dance in Salina, where commodities were required as a ticket to get in. Essie rode with Afton in the back of a Model “T” truck. His friend had been drinking but was driving on the way home, when one of the tires fell off the truck. Afton tried to get his friend to stop, but he wouldn’t, so Afton jumped out of the back of the truck while it was still moving, picked up the stray tire, threw it in the back of the truck, and jumped in after it. They continued on their journey minus one tire on the truck or at least so the story goes.
Afton and Essie were married the next spring on March 28, 1924 in the Manti Temple, and bought a small house in Aurora, where their first child, James DeVere was born on the 5th of January, 1925.
In 1926, after years of drought and failed crops Afton’s brothers loaded up their families and moved to Provo in one day. He joined them with his family, and the next day started work at the Ironton Steel Plant in south Provo. He worked there until the spring of 1928. In the meantime their second son, Darr, was born on the January 18, 1927.
In the spring of 1928, Essie persuaded Afton to move closer to her family in Crescent, southern Salt Lake County, where their third child, another son, Conrad, was born on July 12, 1928. Afton worked for farmers in the area until the spring of 1929, when he moved his family back to Provo, and he returned to work at the Ironton Steel Palnt where he stayed until the plant closed in 1962.
On September 1, 1931, their fourth son, Sherman, was born, followed by two sons, Ned on the October 22, 1933 and Donald LeRoy on January 15, 1936, both of whom died shortly after their birth.
James DeVere said of his Father in the sketch he wrote, “our Dad was a good man and a good father, but like a lot of newly married couples making a living and starting a family, they were not active in the church. From the time that they married until we older boys started in scouting and Aaronic Priesthood, they were not very active. But when I became a scout, Dad was put on the troop committee in charge of first aid. That got him started and he was on his way into activity again.
In 1937, one year after the Church Welfare Program had been instituted. Afton was called to be the supervisor of the welfare project to raise corn, peas, tomatoes and green beans, because of his experience as a gardener. The produce was taken by ward members to the Sharon Industry cannery to be canned for the church welfare program. This project, along with othes such as the building program displayed his ability as an organizer and supervisor.
On May 4, 1944, their seventh son, Russell, was born, and their eighth son, Eldon, was born on November 25, 1946.
In April, 1947, Afton was set apart as Elders Quorum President, where he served until he was ordained a High Priest on the 16th of April, 1954, and sustained as second counselor in August of the same year. Again in December of 1954, he was called to be first counselor where he served until 1956, when he and Essie were called as Stake missionaries, serving there until December, 1958. When the Hillcrest ward chapel was built in the mid 1950s, Afton and two other men worked almost as many hours as all the rest of the ward members put together. That building became the Orem 12th and 24th ward building.
In 1956 Afton and Essie moved their two sons, Russell and Eldon, to a new house at 1425 South 640 East in Orem. After Afton retired from the steel plant in 1962, he worked as the custodian for the Orem 12th ward where he had so faithfully served during its construction. He worked in that capacity until 1969 when they purchased a mobile home and moved into and managed the trailer park at 320 South State Street in Orem. Afton could not stand to be idle so he started working part time for the Deseret Industries in Provo and later at the regional welfare distribution center in Lindon until 1981.
Afton and Essie were very missionary minded and supported four sons on full time missions and saw four grandsons fill honorable full time missions. Like his parents, Afton attended the temple faithfully and frequently, especially after he retired. He and his brother, Tom, lived as neighbors in the Golden Age Apartments in American Fork. They attended several temple sessions each week together the last few years of Afton’s life.
Afton and Essie loved to fish and spent many enjoyable days of their retirement catching trout, which they both loved to eat. Many of the fondest memories their family shared with them centered around fishing trips to such places as Deer Creek Reservoir, Strawberry Reservoir, Fish Lake, Yellowstone Park , and many other lakes and streams.
James DeVere wrote, “I have never heard Dad sing in public, and I don’t know that her ever did, but when he was busy working on the job, in the garden, or while he was doing housework, he was always singing or humming. As I sit and think of him, I can hear him half humming, half singing ‘My Wild Irish Rose’, ‘Oh, My Father’, or ‘In the Garden’. Not only did he carry his load in life well but he also did the washing, ironing, bottled fruit, quilted, and did the house work.”
On Christmas day, 1981, Afton called his son, Russell, in South Dakota, to wish him a merry Christmas. After visiting for few minutes, he bade Russ goodbye, telling him that he was going outside to shovel snow off the sidewalk, and turned the phone over to Essie. When Essie hung up the phone, she went to the door and found Afton face down in the snow, having suffered a stroke in his 79th year. Their son, Eldon, was quickly summoned, and he arrived in time to revive him with the emergency personnel. He was rushed to the American Fork Hospital and his sons were asked to hurry home; DeVere came from Chester, Utah, Darr from Las Vegas, Conrad from Portland, Sherman from Loomis, California, and Russell from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. All of them were with him as he came out of a coma briefly, looked around at his sons around the bed, then passed through the veil from this mortal existence just before midnight on the 30th of December, 1981. He was buried in the Provo City Cemetery on January 4, 1982, next to his two sons, who preceded him in death.
DeVere wrote that after their Dad’s death he came across a few lines that Dad had written down on September 7, 1978: “I, James Harward, will attempt to leave a few thoughts of my life. What is the purpose of life, more than to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ that Thou hast sent? As I turn back the pages of my life (76 years), I think of the beautiful June day, in 1902, the 26th day, the most beautiful day of the year with the most beautiful flowers on earth in bloom. It is most beautiful to me. It was my father’s choice also. I think of the song, ‘My Wild Irish Rose’, the most beautiful flower that grows. As we turn back the pages of time to our childhood, I think of the things I liked to do, such as singing to the cows and birds as I milked, and to see how far I could squirt the milk, especially if there was someone to hit, and in return have the cow hit me with her tail, or kicked the stool out from under me. Such was life. I used to enjoy hunting jack rabbits with my older brother.
Well, here is another day; it is 5:30 in the morning. I must write while my mind is clear and my body is rested. What I said about the cow, I was thinking that in this life we must pay the price for what we get either good or bad. I have been a lover of some animals – horses, dogs, and swine, which we always had when I was young.
I would say to you young people, be happy and keep a song in your heart and learn to sing the songs your Father in Heaven would have you sing. As we grow older we have responsibility to think about, learn to work, and take care of ourselves.
Well, it is a beautiful day outside to enjoy. I have been think about what I should say that would help you to know how I feel about life, with the temptations and unhappiness going on in this world at this time. I was thinking of the song ‘Have I done any good in the World Today?’ If we pray humbly to our Father in Heaven, He will show us the way. If you would read the 4th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, there are only seven verses in it, it could help you more than I could tell.”
How fitting that the Doctrine and Covenants, 4, is a missionary scripture. It sums up the work that Afton was involved in during his mortal years and now, undoubtedly, during his spiritual waiting years.
At the time of Afton’s death in 1981, he had 8 sons, six living, 31 grandchildren, and 6 great grandchildren. Among his descendants are members of Stake Presidencies, Bishoprics, High Councils, Melchizedek and Aaronic Priesthood Quorum Presidencies, Stake and Ward auxiliary organizations, teachers, social service workers, salesmen, business managers, and other professional and skilled workers.
Afton was not a rich many monetarily, or educated in terms of the world, but he taught his children to work and persist in doing the right things. He taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ in word and action. He never claimed to be perfect, but he did the best he knew how to do. For all this our father should have some credit. If not for financial help, and maybe not always encouragement, then by all means implanting in us the desire to work and the ability to work.
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