David Follick – 1860-1921
Maternal Grandfather of Jesse Grant Green
I was born in Egypt…not that Egypt, but Egypt, Iowa – That’s about 50-miles west of Nauvoo, Illinois. My family bounced around a little bit when I was a baby, living in Council Bluffs, Iowa and then to Denver, but I don’t remember any of that.
I do remember the bone jarring trip from Denver to Salt Lake City – I was about 6-yrs old. Indians followed that stagecoach most of the way. My mother kept me and my brother and my sister tucked away inside the stage but we ate plenty of dirt and it was a really rough ride. We went and lived with my Grandpa, my mom’s dad, in Tooele for a year before my dad finally made his way out to Utah. Grandpa had a sawmill and a lot of fruit trees. Grandpa had a lot of ways to keep us busy.
When I was 8, we moved to Cedar Fort, Utah. I got some schooling there and I really liked math; I got to where I could teach the advanced math classes. It was in Cedar Fort, when I was 10, that I was baptized as a member of the Mormon Church. My mom & dad were baptized at the same time. We worked hard when we lived in Cedar Fort. When I was 13, my little brothers, James & George Jr. both died of diphtheria. My dad gave in to mom’s wishes and we moved back to Tooele – so she could be with her mom. A few years later we moved to Montpelier, Idaho where my dad started a lumber mill and blacksmith business. The railroad was being built and there was plenty of business repairing freight wagons, shoeing horses, and hauling lumber. I even worked on the railroad to the east of here out into Wyoming.
I met my sweetheart, Marion, at a dance when I was 21 and it wasn’t long before we made the trip to the Endowment house in Salt Lake with two other couples from Montpelier. We started our married life in Dingle Idaho, where my older sister Isabella lived with her husband, Francis. Not too long after, my parents also moved to Dingle, it was a happy time and we enjoyed being with each other.
At the age of 27, I was called to serve a mission for the Church to the southern states. Hyrum Oakey from Dingle was also called, he was my companion until we returned nearly three years later. I had two living children when I left on my mission and Lorraine, my second son, was borne while I was gone. The reunion with my family was joyous but there was absent, my youngest brother, Abel. He had been accidentally shot just after I left, he was just 12-yrs old and he died from the wound. He was 17-yrs my junior, but he was my brother and I miss him.
I farmed, I mined, I hauled freight and worked on the railroad, but I really liked to build things. That’s what I have done for a living. I’ve built homes, schools, and even the dam in Montpelier Canyon. I guess that besides playin’ the violin, I have enjoyed staying busy and building things all of my life.
The home I built on 4th street here in Montpelier is my little slice of heaven on earth where our family gathers for Sunday dinners and just about any other occasion that allows us to get together. I expect this is where my sweetheart Marion and I will spend the rest of our days, and that’s something to look forward to.
