FARMING ON SHARES—A NEW VOCATION—FUTURE HOME SHOWN IN VISION—HOME RECOGNIZED WHEN FIRST SEEN IN UTAH—REPUTATION GAINED AS A FAITHFUL AND THOROUGH WORKER—PROVIDENTIAL FULFILMENT OF VISION—HOME VIEWED AS A SACRED HERITAGE.
For years after Brother Parkin arrived in Utah he worked land on shares, not being able to buy any. He had been a coal miner in England, his native land, and had no experience in any other line. Here, however, there was no demand for coal miners; in fact, the people of Utah all burned wood at that time, no coal mines being then developed. He readily adapted himself to the ways of the country, and made up by hard work for what he lacked in skill in whatever employment he was able to secure. He soon gained a reputation as a profitable person to employ, and was given the preference by a number of his well-to-do neighbors when they required help, and when he could work for others without neglecting the small farm which he was cultivating on shares.
Cradling grain (the method then in vogue of cutting it before mechanical reapers were introduced) was at first one of the most difficult things he ever tried to do. Until he acquired the knack of it, it was an awful tax upon his strength. He was determined to learn, however, having an idea that what others could do in the line of work he could if he only persevered. In course of time he acquired sufficient skill at cradling that quite a few of his neighbors who could afford to hire others to cut their grain instead of doing it themselves, relied upon him doing it for them, and paid him two bushels per acre therefor.
He had not been married long when, one day, as he and his wife were journeying to Salt Lake City by ox team to make a few necessary purchases she pointed out a certain corner field to him with the remark, "that is our farm!" "Oh, no," he replied, that is Monroe Perkins' field.". "Well," she then responded, "if it isn't ours now, it will be some day; I saw that place in a vision a year before I left England, and long before I ever thought of marrying you, and was assured that it would sometime be my home."
The incident passed without further comment at the time, the possibility of their being able to buy it if they could afford the price being too remote and uncertain to entertain the thought of, for Monroe Perkins was not disposed to sell land, and didn't have to, for he could afford to keep it.
Monroe Perkins' father was a very old man—a Southerner, who with his two sons and numerous grandchildren were early settlers in South Bountiful, and were the original locators of rather extensive and choice farms. Shortly before Father Perkins died, Brother Parkin, who was somewhat of a favorite with the old gentleman, induced him to sell him five acres of his large farm for the amount of his savings up to that period—$200.00, and after the deal had been completed the old gentleman remarked, sympathetically, that five acres was a pretty small and narrow piece of land for a man to try to make a living on, and if his friend wanted to part with a new cook stove which he had just purchased, he would exchange therefor another five acres, and Brother Parkin would thus have a square ten-acre field.
Brother Parkin didn't hesitate a second about accepting the offer, and considered himself specially blest in being able to obtain it. His wife also was content to return to the use of the skillet, in which she had done her baking ever since she was married, and for the purchase of which Brother Parkin had dug a well 68 feet deep, and walled it up with rock.
He was not only glad to have a ten-acre farm that he could call his own, but was determined to make it second to no ten-acre farm in the country in point of productivity.
Some years later, after both Father Perkins and his son Monroe had died, the remaining members of that branch of the Perkins family decided to remove to Arizona, and sold their real estate to Walker Brothers, wealthy merchants of Salt Lake City, who wanted the property for a country home.
Brother Parkin's little farm looked so attractive to the eldest of the Walker Brothers that he was determined to possess it at any price. Day after day he visited the place and admired it, appearing to be fairly enchanted with a fine field of timothy to which part of the small farm was devoted. The owner, however, was proof against all the tempting offers made him, declaring that Walker Brothers didn't have enough money to buy his ten acres.