Kenneth Holbrook, September 12, 1937- March 9, 1941
Kenneth was born in 1900, his wife, Ruth was born
in 1898, both born in Ogden, Utah. Ruth served a mission and became a school
teacher. Ken worked for the railroad as a shop keeper, ordering supplies for the
railroad. They were transferred to Sparks Ogden
In 1933, JoAnn, their daughter, was born. Two more children came while living in Sparks. In between one of those births, Ruth suffered from a
terrible miscarriage. Due to complications they almost lost her.
When they
first moved to the area in 1933, Ruth was somewhat shy and quiet, keeping to herself. It
didn’t take long before she found great friendships with the sisters in the
branch. Those friendships proved to be very supportive and helpful during the
time Ruth was coping with difficult health issues.
President Holbrook wrote a bit about this period
of time while living in Sparks.
Home
“We decided we ought to build a house. We had
very little money but Ruth’s brother, Al Dickson needed a job so we hired him
to build our home. We bought a lot for $150 on the corner of Pyramid and
Prater. It was located on the outskirts of town at the time and currently has a
bank on it. We had $50 we could pay down on it and that was all. It was in a
nice area in Sparks and we paid for it a little bit a month.”
“Then I borrowed a truck and went up in the hills
and gathered big rocks we could put in to make a foundation. We built the frames and put in these big
rocks and poured concrete in to cover them.
Getting the rocks saved the amount of concrete we had to buy. It made just as good a foundation or better
because we couldn’t afford very much. When the house was finished it was one of
the sturdiest little houses in Sparks, and a really nice one, I think. A lot of our life was spent getting it built
and living in it half built. It really
wasn’t completely finished when we moved to Ogden ten years later.”
“When the children were still young, the
Spanish/Basque sheepherders would bring their sheep into town on Pyramid Road.
The children were afraid of them so they scurried into the house to watch from
the front room window. The herd would come down the street then make the turn
in front of our house and proceed down Prater Way.”
“Not only did the Basque have sheep herds but on
other occasions they herded turkeys. The turkeys were quite annoying to Ruth
because they came into the yard and picked the blossoms off her daisies.”
Branch President
Calling
“One day I was all black from soot, President
McDonald [California Mission President] from Los Angeles came over and told me
I was to be the new branch president. [1937] I
chose Harold Call and Milford Piggett for counselors, Brother Metzler for clerk
and William Schipper for the building chairman.”
“One of the first things I had to do as branch
president was register with the county clerk so I could perform marriages. They
told me I’d have to have business cards printed so they could give them to
people who came up. I was quite
perturbed that these young people would come over the holiday or weekend to
avoid the California three day marriage law.
I told President McDonald I didn’t particularly like the idea of
performing weddings sort of on a runaway basis.
He said, “Well don’t you ever turn any of them down because they came to
you and if you don’t perform the wedding, they’ll go somewhere else. Do the best you can in a 2 ½ minute service
before you marry them.”
“In 1939, Tracy Hauder was the head of the
Priests quorum so I had him baptize our daughter, June, in the Moana Hot
Springs. He later became the bishop.”
Prater Way Chapel
“I found a location that we liked for a church
building on Prater Way and made a $50 option deposit on it for sixty days. We wrote Salt Lake Los Angeles
“Finally in 1939 we had authority to go ahead and they sent
Lloyd Heeder out to act as a contractor.
When I signed the contract with him to pay him $5 [other written records
say it was $10] a day I was just frightened and wondered how on earth we were
going to keep up that part of the deal.”
“We poured concrete for the floors
of the church in November and had to make fires in drums to avoid it
freezing. We noticed that it was snowing
where we were but nowhere else. Then we
realized that it was the moisture rising and freezing and falling again in our
own snow storm.”
The Lions Group
“The Lions group asked if our Relief Society
could serve a luncheon at our new building to show members what we were
doing. I told them there was no heat,
and they couldn’t have coffee or smoke.
That night we built fires in steel drums.”
“Then the Lions group asked us again if we would
have a show where they could sell tickets.
I suggested we have a two day carnival and they put up a candidate for
queen, and every sale of baked goods, chili, ice cream and garage sale items
would count one point for the queen. We
put up Monie Richins and they put up the daughter of Carroll, the car
foreman. He had a lot of Italian workmen
and sold them a lot of votes, some of which they came and cashed in on. At the end I had Sweriski, the head of the
Lions, announce the winner. He said,
‘Only in America could a Jew announce a Catholic as queen of a Mormon
carnival.’ ”
Alexander Schreiner
[Famous organist]
“There was some criticism of the $400 organ we
bought. I wrote to Alexander Schreiner
that Ruth [Holbrook] would like to see him if he could stop on his way to or
from California, and that if he could stop overnight, would he put on a concert
for our town. It was a great success.”
“A few months after the dedication of the
building which had taken 13 months to build and pay off, the Reno Stake was
formed with Nate Hurst President, Harold Call Patriarch and Pete Ferguson and
Jim Cook on the High Council. Elmo
Humpherys was made bishop of the Sparks Ward.
I was made President of the High Priests quorum. I was ordained by John A. Widstoe.” [1941]
Corn Project
“There
was a quorum corn project in which the land next to the church was used. Only two men showed up besides myself. When it was time to harvest, two of the
sisters came and were upset to find out the corn was to be sold as a priesthood
fund raiser. Ruth was upset because
their husbands hadn’t worked on the project.”
“While
working at the shops and the store under trying conditions, Mr. Holley being so
nervous and upset about a lot of things, I would take off about once every
three months to San Francisco. We’d
watch the exposition building [and Golden Gate
bridge] going up there. It gave my
counselors a chance to take over”.
“There
was a Reverend who invited me to a meeting of the Ministerial Association to
discuss plans for Thanksgiving. When a
gospel minister saw me, he asked, ‘Are you a born again Christian?’ I made the
mistake of laughing and said, “What’s that?”
He got up and walked out”.
The family moved from Sparks in 1943.
Kenneth Holbrook was the last branch president of the
Sparks Branch. As a new era began in 1941, the branch became a ward and the
calling of branch president was replaced with that of bishop.
