 1909 - 1985 (76 years) Submit Photo / Document
Has 4 ancestors and 6 descendants in this family tree.
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| Name |
Robert Moss Lewis |
| Suffix |
Jr |
| Birth |
16 Mar 1909 |
Lewiston, Cache, Utah, United States  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Initiatory (LDS) |
5 Dec 1969 |
LOGAN |
| FamilySearch ID |
KWCP-9NG |
| Death |
6 Jul 1985 |
Preston, Franklin, Idaho, United States |
| Burial |
Preston Cemetery, Franklin, Idaho, United States |
| Headstones |
 Submit Headstone Photo |
| Person ID |
I273 |
mytree |
| Last Modified |
25 Feb 2024 |
| Father |
Robert Moss Lewis, b. 28 Jul 1890, Lewiston, Cache, Utah, United States d. 2 May 1909, Lewiston, Cache, Utah, United States (Age 18 years) |
| Mother |
Effie Dean Woolley, b. 27 Jun 1892, Alton, Kane, Utah, United States d. 18 Dec 1980, Preston, Franklin, Idaho, United States (Age 88 years) |
| Marriage |
17 Jul 1908 |
Logan, Cache, Utah, United States |
| Family ID |
F288 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family |
Carmen Benson, b. 4 Nov 1911, Preston, Franklin, Idaho, United States d. 17 Aug 2001, Preston, Franklin, Idaho, United States (Age 89 years) |
| Marriage |
13 Sep 1936 |
Preston, Franklin, Idaho, United States |
| Children |
| | 1. Ann Lewis, b. 20 Dec 1937, Preston, Franklin, Idaho, United States d. 7 Aug 2016, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States (Age 78 years) |
| | 2. Colleen Lewis |
| | 3. Robert Moss Lewis, III |
| | 4. Harold Benson Lewis |
| | 5. Carmen Lynne Lewis |
| | 6. Elizabeth Lewis |
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| Family ID |
F98 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
5 May 2024 |
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| Event Map |
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 | Birth - 16 Mar 1909 - Lewiston, Cache, Utah, United States |
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 | Marriage - 13 Sep 1936 - Preston, Franklin, Idaho, United States |
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 | Initiatory (LDS) - 5 Dec 1969 - LOGAN |
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| Death - 6 Jul 1985 - Preston, Franklin, Idaho, United States |
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 | Burial - - Preston Cemetery, Franklin, Idaho, United States |
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| Notes |
- Robert Moss Lewis, was born in Lewiston, Utah on March 16, 1909. His par e nts were 18-year-old Robert Moss Lewis (the first in what would becom e se veral generations with that name) and 16-year-old Effie Dean Woolley . Tw o months after my father’s birth, his father died of a ruptured appe ndix . Years later, grandmother would remarry, but my father would remai n he r only child.
As dad’s mother was just a child herself, she invested little of her ti m e and energies in being his mother. Therefore, dad was passed from on e re lative to another as he was growing up with little in the way of a s tabl e permanent home. My impression from the stories I’ve been told by m y mot her (dad never spoke to me of this period in his life) was that h e didn’ t receive much attention or the best of care. As an example, whe n he wa s 6 years old, he fell from his grandmother’s porch breaking hi s left elb ow. It was some time until he was taken to the doctor to hav e the arm set . As a result, his arm was frozen in a straightened positio n. Ultimately , the doctors had to re-break the arm and set it at a 90° a ngle. His ar m was frozen in that position for the rest of his life. Fort unately, it w as his left arm and he still had use of one good arm. You c an imagine ho w difficult it was for him to farm with just one arm. I ca n never remembe r my father wearing a short sleeve shirt. He was always s elf-conscious o f his left arm in that there was absolutely no muscle bet ween the shoulde r and the elbow, just a bone covered with skin.
Dad was uncomfortable with gifts and holidays because he never receive d g ifts as a child. He told mother that he only remembered receiving on e gif t as a little boy, a toy horn one Christmas when he was 6 years old . Hi s grandmother took it away from him before the day ended because h e was m aking too much noise. Dad was never very good at buying present s or at c elebrating holidays. He left those things exclusively to my mot her. In fa ct, I can never remember my father buying a toy or present fo r anyone unt il very late in his life. In his last years, he used to bu y gifts for m y mother, which always surprised her.
When dad was a kid, he was often self-conscious about not having any mon e y at all in his pockets. His friends said that dad would mysteriousl y di sappear if they were ever going to buy a treat or a soda. He would d rop b ack behind the group and then slip away because he had no money. H e use d to walk with his head down because he was always searching for st ray co ins along the sidewalk or path.
Dad worked at odd jobs from the time he was a little boy in order to t r y to earn spending money. When I was growing up, he always made sure th a t my siblings and I had an allowance and a little bit of money with u s wh enever we left the house even though we were very poor.
Dad dropped out of high school when he was about 16 years old. He ha d a v ariety of jobs, some of which seem quite surprising and unusual i f you kn ew my dad. For example, for some brief period of time dad ra n a restauran t. (I really can’t imagine it but apparently he did.)
Dad developed addictions as a teenager. He started smoking when he was a b out 15 and smoked 2 or 3 packs of cigarettes a day until he turned 60 . H e also started to drink in his teens and had a drinking problem for m os t of his life. Fortunately, he didn't drink every day, at least not af te r he married my mother. Instead, he would go several months (sometime s a s much as a year) without having any drink at all. Then, all of a sud den , he would disappear for 2 or 3 days binge drinking .
In spite of his failings, dad was a great father. He was unfailingly ki n d and patient with his children. I can never remember dad yelling at m e o r spanking me. And, unlike his mother, he was always there for us . I hav e come to believe that the Lord judges our performance in this li fe relat ive to what we have been given. My dad grew up without a famil y and, whil e he had his problems, he was always faithful to his family a nd there fo r us. He never attended any of my school or church activities , but I alwa ys knew that he loved me and in that, he never let me down . That is far m ore than he received from any of his family when he was g rowing up. So , I believe, he was a resounding success as a father in th e Lord’s eyes . He certainly was in my eyes.
When I was growing up, we farmed the 120 acres that dad owned, plus anot h er 120 acres that he rented. On the 240 acres of farmland, we raised a t l east 100 acres of alfalfa hay every year. We harvested 3 crops of alf alf a each year. The harvesting of the hay required firstly that it be mo wed , then bailed 3 or 4 days later after it had dried in the wind row, a nd , finally, loaded onto wagons and hauled into the hay yard where it wa s s tored for the winter.
Since we owned a dairy farm, it was imperative that we have top grade h a y for our dairy cows. This required cutting the hay at precisely the ri gh t time, getting it bailed before it got rained on or before it got to o dr y, and storing it in an area where it could be protected. All of ou r far m was flat, with the exception of one field on the northeast corne r of th e rented property. That corner of the farm was very steep and w e flood ir rigated it. Because of the steepness and the use of flood irri gation, i t was always possible that gullies would develop in that field.
One year when I was about 16 years old, I was just completing the mowi n g of our first crop of hay. It took about 3 days to mow all of the ha y wi th our John Deere tractor. Since the John Deere was the only tracto r tha t we owned that we could use for mowing and bailing, we worked it 1 6 to 1 8 hours a day while we were mowing and bailing hay. As I was goin g to th e last field to complete the mowing of our hay (the steep northea st corne r of the farm), dad told me that he had seen gofer holes in th e ditch ban k that had led to the erosion of steep gullies in the field . As a result , he asked me not to cut the 2 or 3 steepest acres of hay i n the norther n end of the field.
As I started mowing, I complied with my father’s instructions. However , a s I completed the southern end of the field I couldn’t help noticin g tha t the thickest, best hay was along the northern portion of the fiel d. Rec ognizing the danger of hitting a deep gully, yet wanting to harves t all o f the hay I could, I decided to cut that portion of the field tha t dad ha d warned me to avoid. I put my tractor in first gear so I was mo ving ver y slowly. I stood as I drove so I could try to see the ground an d avoid a ny holes. The hay was so tall, thick, and tangled that it was i mpossibl e to see the ground.
The John Deere tractor was a tricycle model, meaning that there were 2 r e ar wheels and only one front wheel. As I was slowly driving across th e st eep part of the field cutting the hay, my tractor suddenly fell forw ard a nd I heard a tremendous crack. The whole wheel assembly had falle n int o a deep hole and the forward momentum of the tractor sheared the a ssembl y from the tractor frame. I had had many accidents working with eq uipmen t but nothing could compare to the damage I had done to the tracto r.
As I stood on the tractor, I looked out over the farm and saw over 100 a c res of hay drying in the wind row. I knew the hay would start to deteri or ate in the morning if I wasn’t up early bailing it with my John Deere . Ob viously, the John Deere would be out of service for a very long time . I c ouldn’t believe what a horrible mistake I had made. Then, I saw dad ’s pic kup truck driving through a lower field toward me. It must’ve bee n obviou s from the pitch of the tractor what had happened. I got off th e tracto r and started to walk toward my father. I don’t remember ever fe eling s o sad, embarrassed, and heartsick as I did at that moment.
As dad reached the tractor, he got out of the pickup and the only thin g h e asked me was if I was okay. Physically, I was, but I had never fel t wor se. As dad surveyed the damage, he never reminded me of his instruc tion s or his warning. He knew that nothing he could say would have mad e me fe el worse than I did at that moment. I am sure he also knew tha t I would n ever again disobey him when he gave me that kind of counsel . So, all he d id was set to work to dig the tractor out of the whole, an d find a way t o load it on the truck to take it to town to be repaired.
It took us a day or 2 to find a replacement tractor to rent. By that tim e , some of the hay had dried to the point where it had diminished in val ue . The combination of the cost of renting a replacement tractor, the co s t of repairing the John Deere, and the loss in value of the hay was a t er rific expense to my father. But, he knew how terrible I felt and neve r ch astised me for my terrible mistake .
While dad was far from a perfect man, he was the most perfectly kind m a n I have ever known.
In the fall of 1969, Benson wrote to dad and told him that he intende d t o get married upon his return from his mission. He asked dad if he wo ul d get himself ready and go to the temple for Benson’s wedding, and als o t o be sealed to the family. When dad received that request from Benso n, a t the age of 60 dad stopped smoking cold turkey. I will always remem ber t he 3 or 4 weeks while dad was recovering from smoking. It seemed t o me th at his skin had turned a pale gray. It must’ve been incredibly pa inful, b ut he just stopped. And, he never smoked or drank again for th e remainin g 16 years of his life. When Benson returned from his missio n later tha t fall, dad and the whole family went with Benson to the temp le to be sea led.
Having made a commitment to come back to church, dad became an active me m ber of the church for the first time in his adult life. He was give n a ch urch calling – – – the gospel doctrine teacher (much to my mother’ s horro r). In the following years, dad served faithfully in the church t eachin g his unique version of the gospel of Jesus Christ, much of whic h had bee n conveyed to him by his “colorful” mother and his less than st ellar frie nds. Naturally, my mother was supportive; however, she was ver y nervous . Before church each Sunday, mother would take a Valium to hel p her get t hrough the Gospel doctrine class. I understand the class wa s quite a hi t because no one, especially mom, knew what dad was going t o say next.
Dad was an unfailingly kind, pleasant person. He had many quirks. One th a t I recall was his determination not to change our clocks to daylight s av ings each spring. So, for 6 months out of the year, dad operated o n a sch edule that was one hour different than the rest of humanity in th e Mounta in Time Zone. In his defense, it didn’t seem to matter to the co ws. I’v e always thought it was dad’s way of “putting it to the man”.
My father always really loved my mother. And, while there were many tim e s that my father disappointed my mother, I am confident that she love d hi m as well. Dad was seriously injured in an automobile accident in Oc tober , 1983. For the next 21 months, dad was in and out of hospitals bef ore hi s death in July 1985. During that time, my mother was his unfailin g compa nion and caregiver. It seemed to me that for the first time in hi s life d ad really needed someone to care for him, and someone was ther e to do it . It was during that period that the love between my parents d eepened, an d I believe that the Celestial bond was sealed .
I have no doubt that their marriage has been sealed and that they wil l b e sweethearts throughout the eternities. It is a remarkable thing t o cons ider what the 2 of them went through to get to that point. When th ey marr ied, Dad was ill prepared to be the kind of husband that my mothe r expect ed and deserved. She struggled with his inability to communicate , his add ictions, and the great poverty in which they lived for the firs t 33 year s of their marriage. He, on the other hand, struggled to fulfil l her expe ctations, having never experienced the love and closeness requ ired of a s uccessful marriage relationship. It is a tremendous credit t o both of the m that neither of them ever gave up, and, at the end of the ir lives, the y loved each other more than they had ever known or expecte d.
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Submit Photo / Document
Has 4 ancestors and 6 descendants in this family tree.
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