Grandpa was born on July 1, 1897, in
Smithfield, Utah. His mother, Margaret Emily Downs, was 42
years old. His father, Thomas McCracken, was 46 years old at the time.
Demar was the youngest of seven children. His older siblings, Violette,
Margaret, Bertha, Sarah, and Mary, were 21, 16, 11, 8, and 7 years old. His
brother Thomas had passed away as an infant.
Some of Demar's friends and
neighbors arrived with the Mormon settlers in handcart and wagon companies who
were escaping religious persecution in the east. Others simply sought their
fortune in a land rich with resources, as Utah's mountains and rivers made it a
great location for both agriculture and mining.
During Demar's lifetime, the United
States was beginning to establish itself as a world power, and began to
intervene in international affairs in places like the Philippines, Hawaii, and
Cuba. Unfortunately this caused a lot of tension, resulting in several
conflicts including the Spanish-American War of 1898. As a result the U.S.
emerged as a major player on the world stage. The citizens of remote Idaho
probably heard less than accurate reports about the war through "yellow
journalism", or newspaper articles that contained exaggerated information
to promote the war and sell subscriptions.
Though medical technology had
advanced quite a ways in the 19th century, Demar's mother still assumed
significant risks when she gave birth to him. At this time, the average
American mother gave birth to six children, and while doctors were more
available to help in these pregnancies than in generations past, a majority of
births occurred in the home. Although hospitals of the day made use of the
modern invention of forceps, chloroform as anesthesia, and advances in laceration
repair to reduce pain and risks, these were most likely not available to births
assisted by midwives and country doctors in 1897. A significant number of
infants and mothers died during childbirth from preventable infections due to
unsanitary conditions.
Demar's older sister, Margaret Emma,
passed away at the age of eighteen when Demar was only two.
Demar and his childhood friends lived on farms and ranches and were expected to help their parents with chores
from a very young age. In his spare time Demar enjoyed swimming, horse racing, card
games, checkers and board games, and hopefully reading.
During his childhood, Demar attended
public schools between the months of October and April, most likely with one
teacher assigned to multiple grade levels, depending upon the number of students.
Most public school systems included kindergarten by this time, but it was
optional. Subjects included math, history, science, spelling, literature and
geography. For most of the early to mid-1900s, black and white children learned
in "separate but equal" schools, but this was not a problem in the
Teton Valley where all of the students in Demar’s school were Caucasian.
Margaret Emily Downs passed away in
Tetonia at the age of 52 when her son Demar was only nine.
Demar lived in a time when the
importance of proper hygiene was becoming known to the average American.
Nevertheless, in Tetonia Demar probably continued to bathe once a week, or
even once a month in the winter, using homemade soap to get rid of dirt and
improve bodily odor. It became common practice at this time to regularly brush
teeth and dental floss was introduced, although it is debatable if it was available
in Tetonia. Deodorant was invented in 1888, although the McCracken family may not have indulged in
this luxury.
Demar's future wife, Lucille, was
born 13 years after Demar in Rigby, Idaho.
Throughout Demar's lifetime fashion
and clothing in the United States were constantly changing, but not on the
ranch in Idaho where the normal apparel for young men were denim jeans and a
button-down shirt.
Mormons made up the majority of
residents in the Teton Valley, although Demar was not a member of the
predominant religion.
When Demar was sixteen years old,
The Great War (World War I) began. By the time it concluded four years later,
more than nine million combatants and seven million civilians had died. On the
home front, most Americans questioned the United States' involvement in the
war, but when American soldiers entered the fray, patriotism ruled the day.
That year Demar's father, Thomas
McCracken, passed away in Tetonia at the age of sixty-five.
A terrible flu pandemic struck the United
States and the entire world in 1918 when Demar was twenty, killing over 650,000
Americans, as the medical community desperately searched for better treatments
or a vaccine. Fear caused many people to wear masks any time they went into
town.
During the 1900's, advanced medical knowledge and procedures trumped those from earlier
generations. Physicians administered many new vaccines that eliminated diseases
like diphtheria, tetanus, smallpox, and measles. In Tetonia, doctors most
likely still served the majority of their patients on house calls.
When Demar was twenty-two years old,
the United States Congress passed the 19th Amendment, allowing women to vote.
The film industry was developing in
the country in the 1920’s, but the majority of entertainment in Tetonia was
live community music and theater with some families enjoying radio news
programs which broadcast live theater productions, music, and comedy in their
own homes.
On July 12, 1926, Demar was
twenty-nine when he married Lucille Chase who was fifteen at the time. This was
not an uncommon age for a girl to wed. They were married in Tetonia. The
typical American couple started dating in their late teens or early twenties,
and married within a few years, although the courtship of Demar and Lucille was
a much shorter one. Once the knot was tied, the average American couple had an average
of three to four children, but the numbers were typically higher in Mormon
communities such as Tetonia. Divorce was very rare.
After the stock market collapsed at
the end of the 1920s, the United States experienced an economic free fall that
would come to be known as the Great Depression. Demar was in his thirties
during this period, and just about everyone he knew was impacted. The
unemployment rate for much of the 1930s was more than 25%.
That same year, on April 6, 1931,
Demar's daughter, Ramona Mary, was born in Tetonia.
In response to the struggling
economy of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed a
series of acts and federal programs known as the New Deal. These programs
included the Civilian Conservation Corps, which helped develop national parks and
forests across the country and provided jobs for young men, including Demar.
The world changed dramatically
during Demar’s lifetime. Monumental events such as the introduction of public
radio, women earning the right to vote, World War I, the Great Depression,
President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, medical advancements, quick access to
world news and the availability of the automobile and flight made the world a
different place indeed by the time Demar departed this life.
