ENOCH SWAIN: Life History

ENOCH SWAIN

By Aileen Aurilla Swain Roundy (Teen)

Born:      26 Nov 1879

              Salt Lake City, Utah 

Parents:  Robert Henry Swain and Julia Ann Johanson

Married:  Florence Lorraine Hatch

                Date:  8 Oct 1899

                Place:  Vernal, Uintah, Utah

Died:  21 Sept 1929

           Vernal, Uintah, Utah

In 1879, Enoch was born at home just like everyone else during that era.  As he grew, so did his talents.  He was musical, very out going and very witty.  He was in the first generation of the Swains that were born in America.  His father and mother immigrated to Utah from England and Sweden.  He was born into a family that was very religious.  The family belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  His father was a polygamist who had four wives.  Enoch was one of twenty children.  It isn’t known how he felt about his father but he loved and respected his mother very much.  He would have like to have seen more of her.  Julia Ann lived in Heber and Enoch’s family lived in Vernal.  So there was not as much interaction as there was with Rilla Hatch (Florence’s Mother).  Transportation and communication was not as fast or as comfortable as it is now.

     When Enoch was a teenager, he and a group of friends were around a campfire.  Someone put a “giant cap” in the fire and it exploded.  Some of the other boys were injured.  Enoch received the worst injuries.  Brass pieces were removed out of his belly.  He was blinded in one eye.  That eye was removed.  He then was given a glass eye.  The glass eye eventually broke while it was still in his head.  He was brought to Salt Lake to have the glass fragments removed.  He chose never had a glass eye again.

Marriage between Enoch and Florence was happy although they had ferocious arguments.  The rafters would rise.  Teen remembers that she did not realize how funny this was until she grew up and married.  They would have a shouting match at each other.  Enoch would put on his hat and get ready to go out and slam the door.  He would get half way out the door and come back.  Mother was about 5'5" at the most.  He would pick her up, kiss her, then go out, and slam the door.  Mother would wipe her face and then wipe off her hand and say “Oh, that man!”  They liked to enjoy life also.  Enoch and his wife had the best sense of humor.  It was tremendous.

Enoch and Florence agreed that he would name the boys and Florence name the girls.  All of Enoch’s brothers were named after the people in the Book of Mormon.  Enoch was very careful about not to do the same thing.  Mac was named after an Uncle Mac Swain who was a silent movie actor in Hollywood.  He appeared in numerous movies such as “The Gold Rush” with Charlie Chaplin.   Shelby’s middle name is “Eteen” (pronounced e-tin).  There were friends of the family by the name of Patry.  When Shelby was born, Mr. Patry said, “why can’t his middle name be Eteen?  It is French for Stephen.  Bill Patry was one of the children of that family and he told Teen how to pronounce Shelby’s middle name.

The children gave each other nicknames.  Shelby was called “Moon.”  Aileen was named “Teen”.

There were all kinds of books in Enoch and Florence’s home.  In the kitchen, there was a  real strong oven and oven door.  It was safe to put your feet on the oven door without breaking it.  Mother would make honey candy or something good for us to munch.  Dad would read everything.  He was strong on reading.  The thing that Teen remembers most is Zane Grey’s book is “Riders of the Purple Sage.”  Enoch would read to the kids.  He would also tell the kids to read because they ”… may never be rich enough to travel around the world.  If you read, you will travel.  You will learn about the world.  Even if it’s not too good of a book you will learn to spell.”  He drummed into the children the value of reading constantly.

There was always music in the home.  Enoch played music and sang.  Florence could not sing a tune so consequently, she never sang to the children.  In the evening, they would gather around the old cook stove

It was scary for the children when Enoch was Sheriff.  Shelby also knew that he had better behave.  He never got into any trouble.  Florence had some half brothers that drank quite a bit.  They would get drunk and rowdy.  Enoch had to go arrest them.  They would be in jail over night.  He would come home and tell his wife.  She would get angry because he arrested one of her brothers.  He had to tell her because she would find out anyway.  She was madder at her brothers but took it out on her husband.  Teen did not understand why her mother got so mad and asked her father one time why Florence got so mad when he had to arrest uncle Jock.  Teen then said, “All you do is hold him on your knee like you do me when I am tired and you rest me.”

One time, Moon & Teen (was young) went to a movie.  In the movie, a man was going to be hung.  Teen started to bawl and ran for home like a jackrabbit.  Not too long after that, there was a trial going on in town.  Enoch (the sheriff) was there.  His brother Frank was on the jury.  When Enoch came home for lunch, Florence asked what happened at the trial that day.  He said, “a hung jury.”  Teen bawled.  She did not want her Uncle Frank to be hung. 

        When Shelby was a teen, he had a close relationship with his parents.  The children had to be careful not to joke around too much.  If it got out of hand, he would have taken it very seriously.  Florence and Enoch were very strict.  The kids walked the line.  Garn and Gilbert rebelled the most as teenagers.  Shelby started to smoke as a young teen and did it all of his life.  It was pretty daring though if one drank beer.  Hard liquor was a very rebellious act.  Drugs were nonexistent then.  As Shelby got older, he started to drink with Garn and Frank.  It was just to be social and to be accepted by them.  He hero-worshipped his older brothers Gilbert, Frank and Garn.

       The dominant religion was L.D.S.  Enoch and Florence were not active in the LDS church.  Enoch however did a lot of volunteer work on church buildings.  Some of the children were baptized while others chose not too.  It was their individual decision.

Christmas was the one time of year that Enoch went bizerk.  If he had been a millionaire, who knows what he would have bought his children.  When he was growing up, Christmas was very sparse.  If he got an orange or something that someone made, that was great.  They just did not celebrate Christmas in his home as a child. 

After Thanksgiving around December 1, he would come in and have a big seamless sack over his shoulder almost like Santa Claus.  That would be full of mixed nuts.  He would give each child a handful.  They would leave it alone until Christmas.  A few days later, he would come in with a wooden bucket about four or 5-gallon bucket.  It would have layers of candy in it.  Beautiful candy.  There would be all types of fantastic shapes such as a horse on a pedestal rearing up etc.  There would be cremes, peanut brittle and so much more.  The kids got a taste of it.  They then left it alone until Christmas.  They never raided it.  Christmas morning, the children would have their socks hung up.  They had a Christmas tree but no candles on it because of the fire danger.  Enoch was very concerned about that.  Christmas was the time of year that he really celebrated.  He or Florence did not pay much attention to birthdays.

On Thanksgiving, there was always a turkey cooked with other good stuff.  Thanksgiving was thought of more as a food time than a spiritual time.  The family was big enough that they were a party in themselves.  Usually families stayed home during those days.  It was a family day.  This was for Christmas and Thanksgiving.  Easter was the time that Florence took charge.
July 4 was another big day in the family’s life.  Enoch would get up before daylight and go up to the divide on the hill.  He would set off three blasts of dynamite just as the sun was coming up.  That would signal the 4th of July celebration to begin.  He took this upon himself.  He enjoyed it.  There would be parades, horse races and other activities at the fair grounds.  He would order a 5-gallon container of ice cream from Caulders Creamery.  No one on earth made ice cream as good as Caulder’s.  No one ever made cinnamon rolls as good as Fern Evans either.  It was a nice holiday for the family.  The children in the family, all got a shining silver dollar to spend.  The boys were allowed to run freer than Teen who stuck around her parents.

Family vacations consisted of going fishing on the opening day of fishing season in the spring and the hunting season in the fall.  This was when the boys were older.  The best spot they like to fish on opening day was at Jones hole.  They would drive as far as they could and then hike the rest of the in.  They would camp.  That was a real celebration for the men in the family.  Florence and Teen stayed home and got ready to start eating fish.

They did not really take vacations per se because they had a big garden to take care of and Enoch was running the brickyard.  There was not time to take an official vacation while trying to eek out a living.

The family had two wild cats as pets.  The two older boys went out to Willow Creek.  The mother was killed  leaving three kittens.  Two of the kittens came home to the family and a man in Roosevelt took the other kitten.  They brought the cats home hanging over their arm.  Teen felt that Enoch would not let them have the wild cats.  Garn said that he would let them have the cats.  Garn was right.  It surprised many that Enoch said yes.  Duff and Teen thought they were wonderful pets.  It got to be that they were the only ones who would dare to go near them.  It was Duff and Teen who handled the wild cats.  Florence would "sweat blood" with fear that they would get hold of someone's child.  They were chained up in the back.  It was made so they could go in a circle.  A house had been built just for them for shelter.  One night, the tomcat escaped and raided the neighbor’s chicken house.  Just at daylight, Enoch and Florence would hear in the neighbors corn patch, the chicken squawking and carrying on.  First, they woke up Duff to go get the tomcat.  He would not let Duff approach him at all.  They came then and woke up Teen.  They were hoping that the cat would go to Teen.  She went to climb over the fence, and he raised his claws and fangs to attack.  Enoch said “Okay, that’s it.”  He went in and got his gun and shot the wild cats.  Duff and Teen would not eat at the same table with their dad for a week for shooting their wild pets. 

        There of course was the wild bunch (Butch Cassidy & them) that was around in the mountains of Vernal.  Shelby loved the Wild West atmosphere.  He was a very fine shot.  He and Duff went and saw a show about Jim Bridger or some character like that in history.  In the show, he would put a cup of whiskey on his head and his friend would shoot it.  He would reach up and put his fingers in the hole.  Then they would switch positions and the same thing would happen.  Duff and Shelby would get small tin cans and shoot them off of each others head imitating what they saw in the show.  One time, Shelby was aiming his 22 and was just about to shoot when Duff said "Await a minute. Stop!  You are aiming right between my eyes."  Shelby said, "No, I'm not."  Then he went and shot the can off of his brother’s head.  Then they switched positions.  Garn found out about this and told his parents.  Needless to say, it ended right then because they weren’t Jim Bridger.

Life was not boring for Enoch with such adventurous children.

Teen remembers her Aunt Olive (Olly).  She asked her one time, why they married all Swain men.  There were three sisters and a brother who married three brothers and a sister.  She said it was because they were the best looking men.  She also said that there was no one else but the Brooks family.  The Swain men were all very tall and very good-looking men.  Therefore, they are all double cousins.  Growing up, Enoch’s children along with their cousins would laugh and say that they were more closely related than they were to their parents.

They would all go out to dances and parties as a group.  It was a very safe situation.  Teen being a girl felt safe.  If it were not a six-foot brother, it would be a six-foot cousin watching over her.  Six foot being the smallest of the lot.  Enoch would say, “For heavens sake, children remember that sometimes cousins marry but you are the same as brothers and sisters so don’t get any notions because you are so closely related. “

Enoch’s children had a wonderful time growing up because the families would get together.  The families were very talented musicians and there was playing singing and laughter going on. 

When Kirk was born, Jeremiah  (Enoch’s father) denied that he was the father.  This was a big blow.  This was because Kirk was born just a little short of 9 months when his mother gave birth in Salt Lake City.  The older children also denied that he was Jeremiah’s child.  Kirt said that he would rather be a Swain than a Hatch anyway.  Kirt always stayed with Florence’s family.  Enoch was extremely good to Kirt.  He cherished Kirt.  Rilla Hatch said that it was definitely his child.  This went on for quite awhile and really hurt Rilla Hatch.  She was scandalized.  This was truly unjust to her.  Florence was very angry through out her life because of this experience.  On his deathbed, Jeremiah Hatch confessed that he knew better and that he allowed his older children to influence him. 

One time Enoch and Florence decided to go somewhere.  They went to go get their horse and buggy when they stopped.  Their huge, mean bull had gotten into the yard and was loose by the woodpile.  Florence was petrified.  Enoch who was about 6'4" decided that he was going to scare the bull with his tuba.  He was going to sneak up on the bull and make a loud noise.  He thought the bull would go running.  Florence said it was funny watching her tall husband with a big tuba sneak up on the animal.  He put forth sound from the instrument.  He was surprised when it just made the angry bull scared!  The bull chased Enoch into the house.  The tuba was Enoch’s baby.  He took care of it very well.  That day, he had polished it and was babying it like he usually did.  As he came running through the door, the tuba became stuck in the door.  The tuba bell became bent.  He was horrified to see what happened to his prized possession.  Florence said that “pride cometh before the fall.”

He died from a perforated ulcer after he had surgery in Vernal, Utah.  Florence said that any other man was as interesting as drinking dirty dishwater.  After having him for a husband, no one else compared.