Pearl Allgood Hammon Shelton

Story of Pearl Allgood Hammon Shelton

I was born in Wilford, Idaho in the year 1893. Our home at that time was a two room log house on a farm my father homesteaded. I had two brothers older than myself, and four sisters and four brothers younger than me. I received all my education at the Wilford school. I quit school at the age of 17, just a while before graduating from the eighth grade, to marry Delbert Hammond, 2 March 1910. Delbert worked for the railroad in Pocatello, ID during the winter months. After Nora was born and his winter job ended, Delbert and I filed on a dry farm up in Ozone ID. He built a one-room house in his "spare" time after the days work was done.

In the fall we returned to Pocatello for his winter job. The following spring, he became very ill. He was checked out by a Dr. in Pocatello, and was told that he had a bad heart. We made the spring move back to the dry farm but he became very ill, and we moved down to St. Anthony, ID. He died 13 October, 1912 leaving me a 19 yr old widow. "It seemed at the time all I had to live for was my ( 22 month old) baby daughter, Nora. We went home to live with my parents."

After Christmas I went to work in St.Anthony at a seed factory. I renewed an acquaintance with an old friend Jim (Shelton) and married him two years later. We too went to Ozone and homesteaded some ground. I, Deniece, and my sister Lynne spent a couple of weeks one summer with them up at the dry farm. Eventually they settled down in Idaho Falls, had a beautiful home there. Nora has two sisters, (Elva & Dorothy) and one brother (Leslie). Their greatest sorrow was when their only son Leslie was killed in a car accident, fall of 1950. In a way it was a good thing. They, Gma & Gpa Shelton, hadn't been to the temple yet. NOW it was the top 'must do'. AND a big decision for Nora. Should she be sealed to her stepfather? Yes! 24th of January 1951

The sad part was that Dorothy couldn't go to the temple with them, therefore was not sealed. Years later, while Mother was staying with us, (Deniece & Francis) she was just kind of reminiscing and mentioned that it was a year since Dorothy had died. A bell rang in my head," Mom, you can do her work", and she did the next week (in the Winter Quarters temple).

PS: one of my favorite memories of G'pa Shelton was watching him play with our son Tony. They really bonded.