GatheringGardiners: Farmington Adobe 1944

The Farmington adobe home and one acre was scouted out by Emma Bachman and bought by June Gardiner on June 18, 1943 for $1,600. He bought it from Harold and Marvel Mayfield. Marvel's father Albert Hess had lived there with his 15 children.

June and Elaine Gardiner sold it to Emma Bachman Scoll on July 6, 1946 for the same amount June and Elaine had bought the property. This was 4 months after Kent was born.

Emma sold her orchard and adobe September 30, 1965. In 2016 four homes sit on the land.

Buying the Farmington Orchard
Emma: I stayed in Utah all summer. June had told me he would like to buy a place in Utah if I could find one for the money he had saved. I prayed about it and later asked Harold and Marvel Mayfield if they would sell us the acre and adobe house where Marvel's father Albert Hess and his wife and 15 children had lived. They sold it to us for $1600, and as soon as the tenants moved, I went there to live. I had a wonderful feeling of peace, as if Marvel's dead (the Hess family from Switzerland) and my dead had prayed for Harold and Marvel to let me live in that sacred place. Edward Clark, Stake Patriarch, came up and my sister and I asked him to dedicate it. He dedicated it as a place of prayer, a place of learning and a place of refuge. He also blessed the land that the water would always flow freely. I only got an hour water turn but I have always got it watered except late in summer when water is low, it didn't go to end of rows.

James: February 29, 1944 I have just returned from a trip to Farmington. I hitched-hiked down and back. To start with the most interesting part first, I’ll tell you I was delighted with our place. I wish I could go there tomorrow and start fixing it up. When I got the door unlocked and went in I was almost thrown back by surprise. I expected to see a dingy interior, but to my surprise the front room was quite colorful with the new linoleum on the floor and nice paper on the wall. The front room and bedroom which are original adobe are quite substantial and certainly good enough that with some fixing up, they will be a permanent part of our home. The granary, which I looked into, will make an ideal little workroom. It’s quite substantial and even painted. The ground is nice. You’ll be surprised how big an acre is. It will be very easy to irrigate with some changes in the present system.

Elaine Sees the Adobe
Emma: May 23, 1944 Elaine had not seen the place she now owned in Farmington. I doubt if she would have liked to live in the house as it was in winter. She loved the orchard and in July she and I picked the cherries. We sold the Royal Annes to Smith Cannery Co., 50 lugs at 10 cents a lb. Brother Earl Spencer sold the dark cherries for us. July 19th, we had a three day east wind which put all our Lamberts on the ground, but we picked them up and Brother Spencer got 10 cents a pound for them. Elaine could climb the trees and was surely a good picker. We also picked strawberries and raspberries for Mr. Engstrom. Elaine got $300 for the cherries and had no expenses to pay out of it. She put screens on the windows, tar paper on the kitchen roof and shingles on the other part of the roof where it leaked. But the greatest thing she did was to go to the temple. She looked beautiful in her wedding dress. This was the happiest summer of my life to have Elaine to go to the temple with me. Bertha went with us.

Emma Buys Adobe
Emma: 1948 Elaine and Kent came down in May. I was so glad to see them once more. Elaine was pregnant so she couldn't pick cherries. June decided to buy a place in Providence. I asked him to sell his place (Farmington) to me. Audrey had given me $300 to buy a lot several years before, which I still had, also money I received for cherries the past two summers. Audrey gave me $400 more and I paid June the same as he paid for the place. (In the summer of 1946 James and Elaine bought their Providence home. They needed cash and sold it to Emma on July 6, 1946.)

Emma spent most summers at the Farmington home and orchard. She picked and canned thousands of quarts of cherries, apricots and peaches. She also dried apricots in the sun, packed them up and sent them to Elaine in California.