26- The Early Life of Ernest M. Chamberlain

In 1916 Harry Chamberlain Sr, living in Spencer, Iowa received a telegram from his son Harry Ellis Chamberlain of Salt Lake City. The telegram announced the birth of Harry and Annie’s first child. It was a boy!

It was April Fool’s Day, but this time Harry Senior would not be fooled. He located an empty pipe tobacco can and a corn cob pipe and mailed it as a gift. This would certainly prove that he hadn’t been caught by another one of his son’s jokes. However, he was soon embarrassed and dismayed to learn the announcement was genuine. His new grandson, Ernest Martin Chamberlain, was born at St. Marks Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, April 1, 1916.¹

Three years later, July 17, 1919, they became a family of four when their daughter Lois was born at home.²

Childhood games

In the 1920s, boys learned to entertain themselves with a multitude of outdoor games. Ernest obviously enjoyed playing these games, and lest they be lost to posterity, he described the rules of each in great detail in his autobiography.

One of his favorite games was rubber gun fights, with wooden guns and ammunition cut from rubber automobile tire inner tubes.

There were various marble games of rings or pots. In the most popular marble game each player placed several marbles in a 6-8 foot ring drawn in the ground.  The object was, using a “taw” marble, and by the flip of your thumb, knock other marbles out of the ring. In a game “for keeps” you would keep your opponents marbles if you knocked them out.

At this time, all boys carried a switch blade pocket knife. The games of “Mumble Peg” and “World” required the skill of flipping your knife so it would stick up at a certain location in the ground.

They also played touch or tackle football, baseball and soft ball. Ernest described his sports skill as average. However, in the classroom he was above average. He was proud of a “math bee” in which he participated. All members of the class stood and were asked math questions. The questions started simple and became more and more complex. The questions went around the room and when someone missed their question they were out and had to sit down. Ernest was second to the last person to sit down.¹

Ernest and the grade school bully

Ernest was patient and slow to anger. However, there was a limit to his tolerance and when that limit was reached, it could be quite startling.

In grade school, Ernest felt that he was “timid and very self conscious”. When an older and larger boy began to bully him in front of his friends he endured it for a while. Finally, he could take no more. “Fire flashed in my eyes”. With clinched fists Ernest lunged forward swinging wildly. A surprise blow hit its mark. The larger boy stepped back into a foot high railing which sent him sprawling on the grass. He laid there for a moment surprised and embarrassed. When he finally got to his feet he said, “You’re alright Ernie.,” and never bothered him again.¹

Summer and Winter activities

In the summer, Ernest would often go to Saltair and Lagoon resorts. He enjoyed Saltair the most. He especially enjoyed the ride to the resort and back in the open air railway cars.

Sometimes Ernest and the fellows would get on their swimming suits and walk to Sugarhouse. They walked passed the nice swimming pool in town and went up 13th East. They preferred swimming in “Pen Hole” a fairly large pond near the penitentiary in the middle of a cow pasture.

Dan Busath got Ernest interested in fishing. They gathered some night crawlers one night and Dan’s dad took them up Parley’s canyon where he caught his first fish. With a little stretching, the six inch trout was a keeper. Fly fishing became a life long passion for Ernest..

In the winter, the City closed Browning and Harrison Avenues to through traffic between 13th and 11th East for sleigh riding. The hills were steep and it was a good long ride. They would build jumps so they would literally fly through the air for some distance.

The end of the run was covered with sand and ashes to stop the sleds before they reached the 11th East traffic. It was exciting to hit the sand and bare road at night. When the steel blades hit the pavement, “how the sparks would fly!” Sometimes they approached 11th East at great speed. They turned, dragged their feet and rolled in order to make the stop.¹

The bullet

Ernest and Jack West were bosom buddies. Jack lived on 10th East three houses south of Ernest. They shared their fantastic dreams and talked about and lived their famous exploits and fantasies. One day  Jack found some .38 caliber bullets from his father’s pistol. In the game of “Cops and Robbers”, they gathered the younger kids in the neighborhood and lined them up in front of his garage. They placed a bullet pointed at them on a flat rock. Then they found a heavy rock that required both boys to lift, and dropped it on the bullet. There was terrific explosion. No one was hurt but afterwards, it haunted Ernest that the results could have been tragic.¹

Ernest’s Halloween ghost act

Ernest and his friend Jack were interested in magic. They read everything they could about Houdini and listened to Chandu, the magician, on the radio. As Halloween approached they modified their favorite trick to make an elaborate Halloween ghost act.

In the basement, they wrapped the straw part of a broom stick to make the ghost’s head. A light bulb and extension cord lighted the head from the inside. They covered the entire broom with a sheet and attached a string to the top of the head. It went to the ceiling, over a bent nail and extended to the controller hiding in a dark corner of the basement. The ghost laid on the floor with the broom stick end pointing towards the stairway. A coat covered the lighted head with a string attached to remove the cover. They now needed an audience. Ernest invited his sister Lois and her friends to the basement to see what they had found.

At the bottom of the stairs, the girls stared into the dark room. A light suddenly appeared on the floor. The glowing shroud slowly began to rise. It swayed gently from side to side, then suddenly lunged toward them.  With hysterical screams the audience quickly vanished up the stairs. As a result, Lois could not be calmed down for a long time.

A stern lecture from his parents followed, thus ending the ghost act.¹

Silent Movie Night

Ernest’s father Harry was the ward Movie Night coordinator. He was assigned to book the movies, pickup and return films, candy sales, getting piano players who would play in conjunction with the silent shows, and find someone to be the projectionist.

Ernest liked to climb up into the projector booth to watch the operation. The projectionist had to set up films on two projectors, then at the end of the first film change to the second projector without the audience even noticing. He then rewinds that film and sets up the projector again ready for the next change. There were two shows a night and the films were changed 7 to 9 times during each movie.

When the projectionist moved out of the ward, no one knew how to operate the large commercial Simplex projecting machine– except for Ernest. Before he left, the fellow told Harry that his son Ernest had been operating the projectors and knew procedures such as splicing broken film and changing the lighting element. So in the sixth or seventh grade, Ernest became the ward movie projector operator.¹

Witness in a murder trial

In 1925 Harry was a key witness in a Salt Lake murder trial. As he was walking home from movie night on October 11, 1924 he saw a man in an automobile parked in front of his house. In April 1925 he took the stand. His testimony stunned the Salt Lake Valley and beyond. See Chapter 25- Harry Chamberlain, Key Witness in Salt Lake Murder Trial.

A road trip to Visalia, California in 1926

Harry and Annie bought a Willys Overland automobile. The family was very proud of it. In 1926 they took a road trip to California to visit Harry’s sister Myrtle and her daughters, Bonnie and Bernice.

They had an Airedale Terrier named Bob that loved to ride on the fender. Ernest was quite amazed that he was able to do it on the rough roads.

They packed up and loaded the car. Harry rolled up some blankets and wrapped them in a canvas. He tied the bundle to the the front fender on the passenger side.  On this trip Bob road across the Nevada desert on the canvass roll. They crossed the Sierra-Nevada mountains and had just passed the summit at Donner’s pass.

The downhill road was steep and was nothing but sharp curves. One turn was sharper than usual and poor Bob was hurled like a sling shot off the fender. He disappeared over the steep embankment. Ernest was sure he had seen the last of his dog. Harry stopped the car. In a few minutes they saw Bob running up the hill to meet them. Not much worse for the experience, he jumped back up on the canvass roll and was ready to go.¹

My visit with Bernice 50 years later

In 1976, fifty years later, I visited Bernice Keese Noell, grandfather’s niece. I knew from my grandfather’s life story that she lived in Hanford, California. Since I was working in the Hanford area with Niagara Seed Company, I decided to give her a call.

It was quite a surprise for her when I called her from my motel room. I told her I was the grandson of Harry Chamberlain and asked if I could meet her. She called my parents in Salt Lake to check out my story and tell them how thrilled she was that I was coming to visit her. She told me she had not seen my dad since he was 10 years old, that would be 1926. We had a great visit and she invited many others of her family to meet me.

“I’m not going to church anymore!”

When Ernest was eight, he was baptized in the font in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. He was quite religious and read the Book of Mormon a couple of times in his early teens. As a Deacon, he had one of the best attendance records in his quorum.

He was quite excited about becoming a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood when he was 14. However, the Sunday following his 14th birthday passed and then several more. The bishopric did not mention anything about the ordination. He felt terrifically hurt inside. Then resentment set in. One Saturday he told his mother and father he was no longer going to church. No pleading nor threatening would change his mind.

After a while they suggested he go to another ward. He contacted Jay Banks who lived a couple of blocks away on 9th East and asked if he could go to Priesthood Meeting with him. He went to the Hawthorne Ward with him for several weeks. Finally the situation got straightened out and he returned to the Emerson Ward.¹

Ernest remembers Hugh B. Brown when he was the Stake President of the Granite Stake. He always enjoyed his talks in Stake Conference or when he came to their ward. Brown moved to Salt Lake in from Canada in 1927 where he became a successful lawyer. On April 10, 1958, he was called and became a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and later became a Counselor in the First Presidency to President David O. McKay.

Ernest’s Newspaper Route

Ernest grew up during the great depression. He was very fortunate that his father had a good job. Nevertheless, the times were tough and he learned the value of hard work. His family chores consisted of emptying the ashes from the coal stove and weekly scraping and removing the soot. In the summer every day, he emptied the water pan from the melted ice in the refrigerator. Every week he scrubbed the kitchen floor and mowed the front lawn as needed.

When in the eighth grade, Ernest contacted Joe Bush who gave him a Salt Lake Telegram newspaper route, It extended from West Temple to Rio Grande Avenue, and from 3rd South to 5th South. That summer he walked from his home on 10th East to the Tribune Building, walked his route, then walked home. By the time school started in the fall, he had saved enough money to buy a second hand bicycle. When the carrier on the route next to his quit, they added his route to Ernest’s.

Ernest folded the papers tightly interlocked so he could throw them quite a distance. He became skilled at hurling the papers on to each porch. However, one day he threw the paper to a third story porch and hit a potted plant and knocked it off the rail. After that, they had him walk up the three flights of stairs and leave it at their door.

One dark morning at about 5 am, he was delivering free sample papers in a subscription promotion. He selected his target home and let the paper fly. There was a terrific crash as the paper went trough the window in a door. He waited, but no lights came on so he returned that afternoon. The lady said the explosion woke them up, but they went back to sleep. She laughed about finding the paper in the middle of their living room. Ernest apologized to the her and paid for the window. They didn’t subscribe.¹

Walker Bank

Ernest’s father Harry was head of the department at Walker Bank in downtown Salt Lake City. He enjoyed talking to people and his jovial manner made him popular with everyone. The bank often had contests for employees as to who could sell the most safety deposit boxes. Harry often took first prize.

When Ernest was very young, he would sometimes go to the bank after hours. He would help his dad balance the receipts. Harry would read the figures and Ernest would check off the tapes or individual cards. This ended when Mr. Kelley, one of the vice presidents, suggested to Harry that it was not appropriate for his son to be behind the counter.

Harry often told Ernest that friends in a similar position liked to gather coins as a hobby. However, this did not interest him.¹

Update on the Chamberlain family in Spencer, Iowa 1910 -1930

After about five years in California, Harry Chamberlain Sr. returned to Spencer, Iowa. He was elected to another term as Mayor of Spencer on March 29, 1910, He won in a landslide, Chamberlain 324 votes to Hartman 161.³ He later became deputy auditor of Clay County, working for his son Alonzo W. Chamberlain who was County Auditor.

Harry’s  wife Mary Ellis Chamberlain died on October 19, 1917. Harry remarried about a year later. He married Inez Ethel Palmer on December 22, 1918.

Shortly before Harry Ellis Chamberlain’s mother died, he returned to Spencer from Salt Lake City to visit and comfort her near the end of her illness.

Harry was the only one of her children to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They talked together about their religion including Ernest C. Chamberlain’s vision of the after life in 1902. Harry wrote home to his wife and baby son. Here are a few excerpts from this letter written October 12, 1917:

My darling Annie and baby:  I got here safely last night and papa & Lonnie was at the train with the auto…. Mamma was so glad to see me…. I have talked all the time on the religion which is such a comfort to her…. What a blessing the gospel is to us… My heart bounds within me when I think of what she has done for me in bringing or accepting the gospel whereby I have been brought in closer touch to it…. All though I hate to think of her as she is, it has meant so much to her that I am here… With lots of love I remain, lovingly yours. Harry⁴

“Lonnie” Chamberlain

Harry’s oldest brother Alonzo W. “Lonnie” Chamberlain was born 6 Feb. 1877 in Spencer, Iowa. He married Lydia Schyles 19 July 1905. They had one son  Joseph A. Chamberlain 1908-1984.

Lonnie enjoyed sports in high school and played on the Spencer High School football team. (See story and photo of team in Class of ’96).

He served as Clay County Auditor from 1909 until 1930, and on the Spencer School Board from 1914 to 1929, where he served as President beginning in 1920. He was an active member of the Congregational Church where he sang in the choir for many years.

Alonzo was courteous and obliging and had a remarkable memory. They say he could recite offhand almost any business which had been handled in his office during the past two decades. He was a genius with figures and mathematics and possessed a clear thinking mind which brought him respect and admiration from all with whom he associated. He had surgery for stomach cancer in September and October 1930, and returned to the hospital in Des Moines, IA where he died 15 Nov. 1930.⁵

Myrtle Mae Chamberlain also died of cancer on January 20, 1928 in Visalia, California. This left Harry Ellis Chamberlain as the only one of four children who would survive their father.

Harry Chamberlain Jr. born October 26, 1929

Ernest went to Emerson Elementary School from 1921 to 1929. In the fall of 1929 he started Junior High School at Roosevelt Jr. High.

Harry Ellis Chamberlain Jr. was born in the LDS hospital on October 26, 1929.

Harry’s birthday was literally in the middle of the great stock market crash. The two worst days of selling panic were Thursday October 24th and Tuesday the 29th.

The road trip to Spencer, Iowa 1931

In 1931 the Chamberlains got ready to travel back to Spencer, Iowa to see grandfather Harry Chamberlain and the rest of their extended family.

“I don’t remember much about my grandfather, Harry Chamberlain”, Ernest wrote. Once he came to visit us. The other time we went on a trip to Iowa”.

Harry came to visit them in Utah in 1922. They took him in their Overland up the Alpine loop to show him the beautiful scenery. However, he didn’t see a bit of it. On the narrow winding roads along the steep cliffs Harry kept his eyes closed or looked straight ahead all the way. Being from the flat lands of Iowa, he was literally petrified.¹

On their Iowa trip, they went to Spencer to visit Ernest’s grandfather and to the farm of Betsy Warren Edwards and her husband William Edwards in Dickens, Iowa. They also went to Spirit Lake which was a favorite spot in the memory of Ernest’s father.¹

These photos tell the story of their trip:

“He brightened our lives for only a short time”

Little Harry Ellis Chamberlain jr. died on May 5, 1933 at age 3 after he was struck by a truck. He ran into the path of the west bound truck at 5:30 pm on Harrison Avenue near McClelland Street. The driver told police that he had momentarily taken his eyes off the road to wave at a butcher in a near by store. The driver took the child to the emergency hospital, then he was transferred to another hospital where he died at 8:45 pm.⁶

When Ernest returned from school that day, Mrs Korn told him to come over to her place. She mentioned that his little brother was badly injured and his mother had gone to the hospital. After a long wait, he received the news that little Harry had died of his injuries.

Ernest went to school the next day, but he couldn’t keep his mind on class. When the teacher learned what happened, she suggested that it would be alright if he went home. He couldn’t think of anything to do at home, so he stayed at school.

While sitting in the ward at the funeral, the only thing Ernest remembers being said was something about being sorry for the one who hit him. As years passed, Ernest often thought of, and felt sorry for, the torment it may have caused the driver.¹

Harry Ellis Sr. wrote many years later, “Harry Ellis, Jr… brightened our lives only for a short time. This has been the only sorrow in our lives, but a joy to know we still will have him.”²

Ernest’s Tribune truck delivery

Ernest graduated from East High School in the class of 1933. In his last year in high school the  Salt Lake Tribune gave Ernest a larger morning newspaper route. It was from 13th to 17th South and from 11th to 13th East, all up and down steep hills.

In the fall of 1933 Ernest began his studies at the University of Utah. His supervisors at the Salt Lake Tribune liked him and asked him if he would fill in while they were negotiating with a trucking company. He would drop off the Salt Lake Telegram up the canyon from Spanish Fork to Price, Utah six days a week, and on Saturday night at 10 pm pick up the “Bulldog” (Sunday morning edition) of the Salt Lake Tribune for delivery in Ogden.

With school and his morning paper route it would be difficult. However, it would only be for three to six weeks, so he figured he could do it. The company would provide the truck and the extra money would certainly come in handy.

He soothed his parents worries about his safety when he told them that the truck had a governor on it set at 50-55 miles per hour. However, he failed to tell them that gravity power down the canyon hills could boost the speed to 70 mph and the momentum would carry it a long way toward the next hill before it was under the control of the governor.

He was conscientious about getting the job done, and as fast as possible. Good judgement was often secondary. He faced sharp winding curves and steep cliffs in the canyon with patches of loose gravel and rocks that had fallen on the road. Coal trucks and police cars were always a great concern to him. He had an exciting experience almost every night including a number of very close calls.

The pickup truck often stalled at lights and had a problem with starter lock, so he timed the traffic lights to get through without stopping. While driving south on State Street approaching 33rd South at about 45 mph another car was traveling east toward the intersection. When his light turned green he calculated that he could just get behind the other car without slowing down.

His maneuver worked perfectly until he saw the chain. It was towing another vehicle! For the next few moments, Ernest was fully occupied. Some how he managed to get behind the second car. His truck, however, ended up against the curb on the south-west corner facing traffic on 33rd South. Also, the truck stalled and it wouldn’t start! By this time Ernest was shaking and his teeth began to chatter. Finally, he got out of the truck, rocked it back and forth to get it started and proceeded on his way.

In autumn it was still light when he started up the canyon. He would watch for rocks that had fallen on the highway and made mental notes to remember their location. These menacing rocks were hard to see on the return trip in the dark. One particular day he had not seen any rocks on the way and was now returning in the dark at 50 mph. The glare of oncoming head lights obscured his view of a large rock that recently tumbled onto the highway. His left front tire hit it and blew out. The truck jumped into the left lane narrowly missing a head on collision.

On another dark night he was coming down the canyon making up lost time, as often was the case. As he came around a bend, he saw loose gravel on the road surface on the curve ahead. There were steep cliffs along the road in this area. White posts connected by a wooden rail protected the highway on both sides. His speed was too great for the gravel covered road curve. He hit the brakes and spun the steering wheel. The truck, however, slid straight through the gravel toward the guard rail.

His headlights flashed on the guard rail ahead. It looked like “white crosses in a military cemetery” coming toward him. Within a few feet of the rail the tires hit solid earth and caught traction. This sent his vehicle across the road toward the other guard rail. Then back again to the other side. He saw those white crosses coming toward him four times before he regained control. Ernest then gave a short prayer of thanks that he was still on the mountain and that no coal trucks crossed in his path.

One night Ernest’s parents parked at the bottom of the steep decline from the point of the mountain where the highway enters the Salt Lake Valley. They planned to follow him to the Tribune building to give him a ride home. Ernest didn’t see his parents waiting there as he passed them at maximum gravitational speed. And they didn’t see him again until he arrived home on the bus. Needless to say, he heard about his story of the 50 mph governor.

After six weeks, this extra activity took a toll on studies at the University of Utah and his regular morning paper route as well as his dating and social life. With some prompting from his folks, he told the company he had to discontinue truck driving. The replacement they found to drive the truck was a much more mature man. Ernest took him on the route one time. “I guess I shook him up a little,” Ernest wrote.¹

“There is no way I will push it this hard,” the driver told him. “So what if the paper is a half hour or more late?”¹ 

The farm in South Dakota

Harry Chamberlain’s father wanted him to become a lawyer, but Harry wasn’t interested. This was a disappointment for his father.

However, Harry was the only son who liked farming. At one time his father promised to give Harry a section of 640 acres of wheat land he owned in South Dakota. It looked like he would soon give him the land or that he would inherit it. When Ernest was about 13, he went to the library to read about the wheat land of that area. The weather did not much appeal to him.¹

John Harry Chamberlain died January 29, 1935 of heart failure. He had a stroke causing some paralysis near the time his son Lonnie died in 1930. Nevertheless, he continued to stay active until December 1934.⁷ He had been a resident of Clay County Iowa for 63 years.

However, the promise of the land fell through. Harry never received it. In fact, all Harry inherited was one dollar, a round trip train ticket so he could attend the funeral and an Odd Fellows mug. His father’s wife Inez got everything.¹

While at the funeral Harry got to see his nephew Joseph Chamberlain who had traveled there from South Bend, Indiana.⁷

It is unknown what happened to the land when Inez died in 1963. My grandmother Annie Chamberlain, expressed great disappointment that the land was not passed down to the family. My mother, Fay Barney, on the other hand, believed this was a great blessing. For If Harry had inherited the land and moved to South Dakota with his family in 1935, my mother would have never met my father.

Richard and Robert

Two more sons joined the Chamberlain family two years apart. Both were born in the L. D. S. hospital in Salt Lake City. Richard Phillips Chamberlain was born in 1934 and Robert Ellis Chamberlain in 1936.

To be continued….

Chapter 27- Fay Barney Chamberlain: Dating and Marriage

To see other stories click here:  Table of Contents. 

Thank you, Dennis Chamberlain

© Copyright Dennis D. Chamberlain, The Chamberlain Story, 2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the written content of this site without express and written permission from the author and owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that credit is given to Dennis D. Chamberlain and direction to  www.thechamberlainstory.com.

References:

1- Autobiography of Ernest Martin Chamberlain, unpublished.

2- Life Story of Harry Ellis Chamberlain (Given to Martin and Genene Chamberlain in October,1972)

3- The Spencer News, March 29, 1910

4- Ernest M. Chamberlain Sr., My Constant Companion and Prayer

5- “Death Calls Co. Auditor Chamberlain”, Unidentified Newspaper article from Spencer Iowa. Bernice Keese Noell gave me a copy during my visit in 1976

6- Salt Lake Tribune, Thursday Morning, April 6, 1933, page 24

7- “Former Mayor H. Chamberlain, Succumbs Here”, Unidentified Newspaper article from Spencer Iowa.  Bernice Keese Noell gave me a copy during my visit in 1976