Life Sketch by Wayne Bushman

Sharing our Links to the Past
by Wally and Frances Gray

Life Sketch by Frank Wayne Bushman

I was born May 13, 1918 at Lehi, Utah to John M. And Elfreda Farquharson Bushman. My father was a dry farmer. We had some irrigated land to raise hay for the horses, but the dry farms were near Camp Williams and at Cedar Valley ten miles west of Lehi. The first important job for me was to help plow and harrow and plant the grain. At age twelve I drove the 8 horse team on a large combine to harvest the 200 acres of grain we farmed each year. When I was about seventeen years of age we purchased our first tractor. It was an iron-wheeled one and it made farming much easier as we didn’t need to haul hay and water to take care of the horses.

In 1931 conditions were very difficult. Drought and cut worms destroyed our crops. For seven years we planted but never harvested a single crop. Finally we lost our farms and started out again by leasing irrigated farms in the Lehi, Alpine and American Fork areas. In 1940, upon returning from a mission to Texas and Louisiana, Dad, I, and a younger brother began farming 450 acres of irrigated land, and 300 acres of dry land where we raised grain, hay, peas, sugar beets and corn. We also ran a large herd of cattle.

On October 2, 1941 I married Shirley Tobler in the Salt Lake Temple. She was cashier at the Temple Square Coffee Shop. I met her through my best friend.

In 1943 we divided up the leased ground and I went into farming for myself, milking a few cows and raising all the crops I could. At this time I was called to be M. I. A. Superintendent of the Lehi First Ward. This job lasted three years, then I was called to the Stake Sunday School Board. After two years I was called to be in the superintendency where I worked five more years.

In 1945 I decided to go into the dairy business, so I borrowed money from Arden Dairy to do this. As time went on, I enlarged the herd, stopped raising peas and sugar beets and began just raising feed for the cows.

In 1953 I was set apart as a President of the 68^th Quorum of Seventy and about six months later was called on a Stake Mission. This calling I thoroughly enjoyed and we had much success. I worked in the mission presidency for eighteen months, then was called Feb. 12, 1956 to be Bishop of the Lehi First Ward.

Our farm was all in the city limits of Lehi City and as we wanted to enlarge, and it was difficult to get building permits, we decided to try to move. We went to Montana and Idaho where we had friends looking for us, but we weren’t satisfied with what we saw. After much prayer and looking, we decided to move to this area [Payson].

I was released as Bishop in June 1961, and thought we would move right away but we first had to build a barn and corrals. As we also had trouble with our well it was much later than we planned when we finally moved. We hauled the cows, but drove all the equipment around the lake through Goshen. We really felt like pioneers after that long hot day.

In December of 1961 I was called to serve as group leader of the High Priests in the West Ward. After serving for nearly four years I was called to the Nebo Stake High Council where I served until October of 1970 when I was called to be first counselor in the Nebo Stake Presidency.

Our experiences in Nebo Stake and the West Ward have been very happy, and we really love all you people and value your friendship highly. The older I become, the more I know and appreciate that we are all our Heavenly Father’s children, and that at best life is very short. When we work together in the Lord’s work we are happier than we can possibly be in any other way.