This is Deadman lake lake in the Uintah mountains. This picture is the kind of country my grandfather Hyrum Rollo Jones liked and knew very well. I never knew my grandpa as he died at the at the age of 43, of a ruptured appendix in 1933, many years before I was born. I wish I had known the man because he represented many of the qualities I respect. I would like to relate a few instance in his life. Information is taken from his history which was written by my Mother, Yvonne Jones Perry.

Hyrum Rollo Jones was born in Hunington, Utah in 1890. He was the 1st child of Hyrum and Margaret Jones. The family moved to Heber, Utah in 1896 and lived in a granary while their home was built. Rollo recieved all his schooling in Heber but never completed the 8th grade. While in Heber, his Father made a trip to Canada by wagon and returned the same way. Hy being the oldest child was head of the house while he was gone. When Dad returned Rollo worked with him driving teams hauling wood, wool, salt, hay and grain to the soldiers encamped in Strawberry valley.
Rollo's first licking was given to him in Hunington by his mother because he took straw from the two tickings and put it down in the cellar under two setting hens. Rollo said his Mother used to give him a licking every Saturday night whether he need it or not. His Father never licked him. Rollo's last licking was given to him by his Mother in Heber because she became angry at him and his brother, Guy. Upon hitting Guy with a stick of kindling wood, he began to yell. When she started to lick Rollo, he guarded his face. She licked him until she was black in the face, but he was determined not to cry. She was sick for nearly a week from the effects. Rollo got his knuckles and head hit, but not his face. He never got any more lickings because he would hold his Mother's hand so she couldn't lick him.
In Wasatch county it was against the law to "cut shiners" in a sleigh. One night the Marshall caught a bunch of boys in bobsleigh cutting shiners. He said he was going to take them all to jail. Rollo happened to be in the bunch. They took the Marshall, tied him hand and foot, put him in the bottom of the sleigh and he took him for a "real" sleigh ride. After this they took him to his home, laid him on the doorstep and kicked the door so his wife could come and untie him, then they beat it.
The Ute Indian reservation was opened for homesteading in 1905. In 1906 Hyrum Jones came to the reservation and opened the first store in an area known as Stockmore. His sons, Rollo and Guy helped him. Stockmore lay on the east side of the Duchesne River and was the north end of Hanna. Two men, Stockman and Moore, claimed to have found gold in this area thus the name Stockmore. Because of the claim a town sprang up with general store, 2 hotels, livery stable, 2 blacksmith shops, four saloons, and quite a number of cabins and tents. The claim turned out to be a hoax and Stockman and Moore disappeared.
Rollo spent the winters on the reservation. The first winter they homesteaded he stayed alone. He had a cow that was milking and some chickens. He ate so many eggs that winter that he couldn't stand the looks of an egg for a long time.
In the winters of 1907 and '08, Rollo and his father, Hy got the logs to build a house on their homestead by Farm creek along the Duchesne river. The house was built the next summer and next few years were spent clearing land and farming.
The Hy Jones ranch house was a two story frame and log building with cedar shingle siding. It was the nicest and biggest home along the river with four rooms downstairs and four upstairs. The Jones family occupied the lower floor and the upstairs was used by the community. Here school, church services, dances and socials were held from 1908 to 1910 when a school and church were built.
At the ranch they raised cattle and sheep and hay and grain to feed them. Hy Jones had one of the best ranches and was as well-to-do as anyone on the reservation. The ranch was well equipped. His wife owned a millinery store in Heber and did a good business so helped buying seed when land was cleared and bought harnesses and equipment needed on the ranch.
Rollo met his "Water Loo" in the form of Miss Preal Michie in 1907 at a dance at Stockmore. Rollo's Dad owned the first buggy on the river and had a small team to go with it. It made a great hit with the girls. He could take his girl to the dance in the buggy and they didn't have to ride horses.
Miss Michie's family had the adjoining homestead to the Hy Jones ranch. They brought with them their pride and joy a Sears, Roebuck and Co. organ. This cabin was was not large enough for their 11 children and the organ. So it was placed in the upstairs of Hy Jones house where it was used for church and socials.
Rollo enjoyed living in this new area. He loved to fish and hunt and did lots of it. He used to break horses for people on the river. Many times people would bring outlaw horses just to see if he could ride them. Rollo was also a wrestler. He did a lot of wrestling. Many of the matches were arranged by his brother, Guy, who would make bets with the locals. Rollo would wrestle and win and Guy would collect the bets. Rollo had a good black horse he rode a lot. Rollo was known as "Tex" and was thought of by some of the older women as a rough and tough young man. He was well liked and respected by the youth.
Contest were held at celebations like the 4th of July and 24th of July. Joe Rhodes had a nice team of horses, a big dapple gray team. He bragged he had the best team on the river. They had some wooden slips made and would put so many pounds of rock on them. Then the team would pull the slip. If they pulled it more weight was added. Joe Rhodes' team out pulled the rest. He was bragging about his team. Rollo said, "You don't need to brag about your team. I can hold them myself." Everybody said he was crazy. Rollo and Joe started to bet beginning at $5 and went up to $25. "You just give me the apparatus I want and I'll show you that I can hold your team."
Rollo got a rope and saddle. They brought the team up where they had a gate with two posts on each side. Rollo took one of the stout bars and put it across the gate. He hooked the rope onto the tugs of the horses, then up over the bar and down around the saddle which he put around his back. He sat on the ground and braced his feet against the gate and had the rope tied around the saddle where he could hold onto it. That team of horses tugged and Rollo just held back on the rope. You've have thought it would have broken his legs but he just held on and the team just dug into the road but they couldn't pull him up. Rollo held the team of horses! Joe didn't have the $25 with him but he got it for Rollo.
Rollo and Preal were married in Salt Lake City on Nov. 13, 1912. Rollo took his bride to the Jones ranch on the Duchesne river. His Dad spent part of the time at his Heber home. Rollo took care of the ranch. Three children were born to them including my mother. Rollo and Preal wanted a place of their own so Hy gave them 40 acres down by the river and they built a log cabin on it. In 1918 they moved to the Stockmore place so Rollo could put up the hay, sell staple goods to fisherman and campers on the river and furnish pack and riding horses and act as guide for those desiring to go to the Granddaddy Lakes. The Stockmore place was 10 miles closer to the lakes.
Even though Rollo would be gone a week at a time with the pack string, he made sure there was a large pile chopped wood for his wife while he was gone. He was thoughtful and helped her with many of the household chores. On wash day he would turn the hand cranked washer before going out to do his work. He helped tend the kids and would get up at night with them saying she had taken care of them in day and it was his turn at night.
In the fall of 1920 they moved back to the ranch as it was closer to school. Rollo's Dad and brothers were involved with a new ranch they had purchased in Wyoming. Rollo had an icehouse. He'd cut the ice in the winter, place it in the icehouse and cover it with sawdust. This way they would have ice all summer and made ice cream a frequent treat.
In December of 1920, Clinton, the sixth child was born. That winter a whooping cough epidemic hit the valley and many babies died. All six children and Rollo had it. Rollo seemed to have it worse than the rest of the children except the baby. Rollo would cough until he coughed blood. There were no doctors or medicine. Preal worked very hard with the sick children, trying to keep the baby alive. The baby cough and coughed and got weaker and coughed himself to death. He died on Feb. 25th 1921.
Preal bathed and dressed her baby and place him in wooden coffin his dad made. Coffin was taken to Tabiona cemetery. Lines were taken off the harness and with the lines the small coffin was lowered in to the ground. Clinton was buried on his Dad's 31st birthday.
The summer of 1921 was spent at the Stockmore place and in the fall Rollo took his wife and family to his Mother's place in Heber. He did this as there was no longer a widwife in Valley and Preal was expecting. Rollo could not find any work locally so he went to work in the coal mines in the Price area.
They went back at Stockmore in the late spring of 1922 and Rollo helped with the harvest and livestock at the ranch. His Dad had bought a ranch in Wyoming a couple years ago paying $60,000 for it and mortgaging his Utah ranch for it. They had paid $48,000 on the Wyoming ranch. Things did not go well after World War I as prices dropped and he lost both ranches. There went the 40 acres lots he had given to Rollo and Guy.
With the ranch being foreclosed, Rollo had some cattle but no place to keep them. He traded 35 head of cattle to Preal's brother, Marvin, for a Rolls-Royce car. Marvin had bought this $1600 car from the estate of Emar Kohler of Midway for $525. Rollo took the car to Provo shortly after he got it and traded it as a down payment on a 12acre apple orchard in Pleasant View which was just north of Provo. He hitched a ride back with a neighbor who was returning with a load of fruit.
With the ranch gone so was Rollo's means of livehood. The only thing he had left were two wagons and a team of horses. He loaded all their belongings into the two wagons and with a borrowed team headed for Provo. Rollo drove one team and his wife the other and my Mother held the baby as her Mother drove. They spent the first night just over the top of Wolf Creek and the second night at Rollo's parents place in Heber. The next day Sept. 21, 1922 they came down Provo canyon to their new place in Pleasant View.
The new house was a 2 room brick house with a little shanty on the southeast side of the house. The canal ran just below the house and south of the house was a large garden spot. The apple orchard was up the draw east of the house.
No work was available in Provo so Rollo went to Carbon county to find work in the coal mines. In the little town of Rollapp he asked the same man seven times in one day for a job and he got it. He said he had wife and family and he had to have a job. He worked at several mines over the years but finally ended up at Kenilworth as a professional driller. He would drill the holes in the mine walls so that explosives could be loaded to blast down the coal. In addition to drilling he would load coal on the regular days.
Rollo batched it for a few years until housing became acute and only men with families were allowed a house. He took his wife and some of the kids with him one summer, but that did not work out and he had to go back to the boarding house. He didn't like it so in a few years when his brother Varro, moved to Kenilworth, Rollo arranged to live with him.
Rollo was gone during the winter months to the mines and only able to come home once or twice during the winter. In the summer when the mines were closed he worked on the farm and at local jobs. He worked for Provo Brick and Tile hauling limestone from the mouth of Rock canyon. He also worked at Pacific States Cast Iron Pipe Co.
Rollo had good health. Once he was injured in the mines in 1925 when he backed over a lump of coal and broke a vertebrae in his back. His brother-in-law, Marve Mitchie who was working in the mines was asked to take Rollo to the hospital. They went by train to Salt Lake City. Preal was only able to visit him a couple of times during the 6 weeks he was in the hospital. She had a new baby and a large family to care for.
Rollo was known as the "Outlaw Miner". He drilled the coal to be blasted. He developed his own patterns that were different the Company drill patterns. He was able to break the coal with less holes. The coal would be sawed across the bottom of the face while Rollo was drilling. When the sawyer was finished he would load his cutting machinery on a flat car to go to the next heading. Rollo would have his drilling done and he could haul his heavy drill with the saw to the next heading. That way he did not have to carry the drill to the next working places. In this way he could finish his drilling ahead of time. He would catch a train out of the mine. One day a foreman met him as he was coming out early and asked him, "Why he was leaving." Rollo replied that "He had the drilling done." Foreman replied "You used your Outlaw drill pattern didn't you." Rollo replied "Yes and that is why I am finished. If it does not break to your satisfaction I will come back and do it again." It always broke the coal. The Company was not smart enough to find out what he was doing and how he did it and have him teach the other drillers a better way. Because of his drilling skills he made good money and was able to support his family with 10 children.
Rollo loved his children and was concerned about their welfare. His oldest boy and friends were tampering with smoking and drinking. Rollo told them if they wanted to smoke to come in the house, put their feet up on the oven and do it like a man. None of this sneaking out back of the barn. If they wanted to drink, he would get them some good liquor. He didn't want them getting bootleg stuff that would blind them. This took all the fun out of it for the boys.
In the spring of 1932 the Bishop called a meeting of the men in the ward to see what they could do to raise money to finish paying for the new Pleasant View Church so it could be dedicated. The amount was somewhere around a thousand dollars. Rollo stood up and said, "If that is all we owe, if three or four of you will help me, we can pay it off." This they did and the church was dedicated on June 5, 1932.
Rollo at age 42, had blue eyes, light brown hair, was light complexioned, weighted 180 lbs and was 5 feet 11 inches tall. He had a straight, narrow nose and his was getting very thin. He was strong in the back and legs. He was a loving father but stern.
On Saturday, 14 October 1933, Rollo and Preal left for Eureka to peddle a truckload of apples. Sales went pretty well. In the evening they got a room. In the middle of night Rollo became sick. He was sick at his stomach and in lots of pain. Preal spent some anxious minutes trying to find a phone and then a doctor. The doctor couldn't decide what the trouble was. He gave Rollo a pain killer and a laxative. In the morning Rollo insisted on selling the rest of his load. He also insisted on driving home.
Rollo did not want to go to the hospital. Norris, his brother was sent for who had trained as an intern. Norris was sure it was appendicitis. He was taken to the hospital and operated on. His appendix had broken. Liver trouble followed and he turned orange. He died on October 27, 1933. He was 43 years old.

Rollo, the next to youngest son was named after his dad. This is the Uncle Rollo that went on mules with me into Deadman lake. My son Guy's middle name is Rollo named after my Uncle and his Father.