I found this story recently in a stack of papers I was going through & wondered it everyone else had a copy of it. It supposedly was written by Denza Aiken Wright, but the handwritten name at the bottom "Denza Wright"looks more like Loa's handwriting than Denza's. Either way, here it is [I'm breaking it into 3 parts, since each will take awhile to type up]:
Denzel Nelson Aiken
He was born April 9, 1901, the fourth child of Lorenzo Wilson Aiken and Mary Jane Nielsen in Spring City, Utah. He started to school Sept 1907. Thy lived in the mountains the summer of 1911. Grandmother Nielsen took him to Manti to be baptized in the temple. Old Fly and the buggy was the means of transportation--18 miles. He couldn't remember of starting school on time or going until it closed because of having to herd cows. The summer of 1918 he went to Castle Gate to get his first job, away from home. That winter he went to Snow College with his sister Opal until the flu epidemic. Because of school closing, he worked at the Moroni Sugar Factory until it was over, and then went to Castle Gate. He lived with his brother Evan and his wife Ruth. [They] dug coal together. That winter he attended school at North Sanpete 1919-1920 and drove the Nash school bus.
The summer of 1920 he tended his dad's farm until he came from shearing. His brother Vero went to Malad, Idaho to work on a farm. After that, he went to Castle Gate driving a mule pulling coal. On March 23, 1921 he married Sophia Rees in the Manti Temple. They left immediately for Davenport, Iowa. He graduated from the Palmer Chiropractic School Oct 6, 1922 with a D.C. Ph Degree. He bought a sign making business which put him through school along with his wife Sophia working at Griffin's Cafe and Palmer's school cafeteria. He was secretary of the Sunday School there in Davenport.
Oct 1922 they went to Alliance, Nebraska. He started practicing Chiropractics with James O. Meeks. Verna their daughter was born 17 April 1924. When she was 6 weeks old, they took a vacation to Utah in a Model T Ford. They got in a bad snow storm in Wyoming and were worried about the baby getting too cold. They drove on and the weather improved. Later the wiring under the hood caught on fire and took 4 hours to fix. As they came into Weber Canyon, the whole valley was so beautiful--covered with fruit trees in bloom. They felt like they were in the Garden of Eden.
After a nice visit with their parents and families, they went back and enjoyed a good practice for several years.
There was a good Sunday School back there with 50% converts. The missionaries were in their home often and always welcome. They saw Pres. Coolidge in the Black Hills of South Dakota at his summer "White House." On the way home a terrible rain storm made the roads muddy. The spokes of the car were filled with mud and people got out, took off their shoes, sox and rolled up their pants to push the cars up the hill. Denzel was lucky as their car had disk wheels that worked better.
The next few years were uneventful other than the usual business and church work. In the Spring of 1929 they bought a new car, an Oldsmobile, and took a vacation to Utah. [They] just got back when the stock market crashed, and the banks failed. Businesses went broke and what made it worse, they were in the dust bowl area so the crops were poor or failed completely.
Denza was born 23 Dec 1929. It was a really cold winter. Verna was in school and got whooping cough. Denza took it too. It was the most severe of the childhood diseases. During that winter, Verna had a accident with a car running over her, but actually she was between the wheels and did not get hurt. Denzel was so thankful she was not hurt. Verna said that Heavenly Father was sure watching over her. The family agreed. [end of part 1]
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