History of
Wallace Calvin Brough (1891-1946)
Quoted from the 1980 RBFO book:
Samuel Richard Brough, 1857-1947: His History, Ancestors & Descendants
Originally written by Laura Adeline Brough Bradshaw in 1979
Wallace Calvin Brough, the fourth son of Samuel Richard Brough and Phoebe
Adeline Cherry, was born September 27, 1891, at Porterville, Morgan County,
Utah. He was blessed by William Deardon on November 22, 1891. He spent
his early childhood days as most little boys do, playing, doing chores,
carrying water from the canal.
He moved to Lyman, Wyoming with our family when he was about seven years
old. He worked with his father and brothers clearing sagebrush and wood
off the homestead, pond, then at night all the family would go out and
have a big bonfire. He started school at the old log Woolsey school house.
We had to walk about two miles. He was excellent in arithmetic and his
other subjects but language and grammar, as we called it, and I was poor
in arithmetic and hated doing it, so he would do my arithmetic for me,
and as I liked language, I would do all the diagramming of sentences for
him. He had a very happy, pleasant personality and got along fine with
all of his friends. He learned to play the guitar very well and played
in a string band with other friends for programs and parades, and often
played in a string band with other musicians with violin, piano and his
guitar for the dances at Lyman, Wyoming.
When he was about 15 years old, he started working with William Phillips
in a blacksmith shop and did so well he was soon a partner in the business,
but he took time each winter to go to the BYU college at Logan, Utah.
He loved horses and had a beautiful riding pony that was a pretty good
race horse. He also had a team of mules named Sal and Jane that were used
for much of the hard work on the farm. I remember he had the mules on
the sleigh the night he took mother and Clyde and I to the train station
at Carter, Wyoming, to come to Salt Lake to be married in the temple.
He also carried the U.S. Mail from the train station at Carter, Wyoming
to Lyman on horseback for several years. He was active in church and social
work until he enlisted in the U. S. Army, on June 1, 1918. I have a certificate
of an honorable discharge from the United States Army that gives me all
of this information. Wallace Calvin Brough enlisted at Laramie, Wyoming
June 1, 1918 and was sent to Camp Knox, Kentucky and assigned to duty
as a horse show specialist and in the cavalry. His release states: Given
for faithful and honest service and is hereby honorably released from
the United States Army April 2, 1919. His health is very good and of excellent
character.
After returning home, the girl who was his sweetheart and had promised
to wait for him had married another boy. So he didn't stay home very long.
He went to Casper, Wyoming and was foreman of a big ranch there for several
years. Then he acquired a small ranch and some cattle for himself at Alcoa,
Wyoming not far
from Casper and lived there alone, his nearest neighbor being about three
miles away. He was a friend to everyone who knew him.
Each year before Christmas he would get his horse and go to the mountains
and cut a beautiful Christmas tree and take it to a friend. He also learned
to be a taxidermist and was very good. He tanned many hides and many deer
heads and other animal heads were beautifully mounted by him. He was found
dead in his lonely cabin by his closest neighbor, of a heart attack. The
neighbor called me and told us of his death December 16, 1966. We met
his brother Jesse at Lyman and drove all night to Alcoa, made arrangements
at Casper to have his body shipped to Salt Lake City, Utah where a beautiful
funeral was held in the garden room of the Desert Mortuary. It was like
being in Paradise, with ferns, flowers and little singing canaries that
sang along with the music. He was buried in the beautiful cemetery on
our lot at Bountiful. The family all helped to put a lovely headstone
at his grave.
All the years he was away he would come home once a year for a visit
with the family and loved ones, usually at Thanksgiving, and we were happy
to see him and had so much fun. My children were small and they remember
him taking them to the store and buying them candy, gum and anything else
they wanted. Eleene says she still has a little Indian doll he gave her.
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