Lewis Martin Hodgkinson and Mary Armina Haws Hodgkinson - ON THE JOB

Lewis and his son Grant

Lewis with his horse.

Lewis Martin Hodgkinson worked hard for a living.  He was a blacksmith, a sheep herder and a farmer.  Here is a quote from his history:
"Lewis was a skilled craftsman as a blacksmith.  He could do most anything with his tools and equipment.  He took pride in his forge, vice, drill, workbench, anvil and homemade grindstone.  His tools were always put away neatly.  He was an expert at mending harnesses, making horseshoes, repairing plows, cultivators, drills, harrows, mowers, building fences, making pitchforks, hammers, shovels, making headgate-boxes, dump boards, sleds, building coal bins, graneries, chicken coops and anything else that needed to be done on the farm, including killing pigs, treating sick cattle, etc.

This is a portion of a poem that was written at his death.

He was a quiet sort of person, not given much to talk,
He did all the little things in life’s daily walk;
He fed the pigs and milked the cows, kept our small farm neat,
He raised the common crops of alfalfa, corn and wheat.

He tended chickens, mended fences and cared for a garden too,
Did many blacksmith jobs, made old things last like new;
He was handy in the house, meticulous and grim,
A “picker-upper” for the rest - disorder worried him.

Mary Armina Haws had eight brothers.  She learned to work early and learned to work hard.
Her first job was working as a cook at a saw mill.  She did many domestic things for pay including cleaning and cooking.  As a young mother one of her more profitable occupations was raising turkeys.  That would enable her to stay at home with the 10 children and still be able to make money when she sold them in the fall.  When her children were a little older she went to summer school at BYU where she took classes in nursing.  Her later years were filled with midwifery skills and hospice skills as she would bring babies into the world and soothe those who were about to exit this world.