This is a picture taken about 1930 in Idaho Falls Idaho. This is Donald Edgar Sanderson, his wife, Hattie Maude Carrier Sanderson, their two sons, Dayle Aldon Sanderson and Wendell Carrier Sanderson. He was a real outdoors person. Grandpa Dayle Sanderson, "Sandy", often said that his dad, Donald Edgar, carried a handgun on his hip and one time used it to defend himself. Donald Edgar was raised with Indians when they lived next to the Indian Reservation on Fort Hall, Idaho where his mother, Mary Ann Joynt Sanderson, taught school. He learned a lot of the Indian ways and then taught his sons those ways.
At the funeral of Donald Edgar Sanderson, on November 16, 1945, Reverend Joseph I. Gulick, of the Presbyterian Church in Idaho Falls, Idaho, gave the following remarks concerning Donald Edgar Sanderson.
"There was no lack of color in his parental background. His father, John Henry Sanderson, was a restless, adventurous type driving the wagon train teams clear across the continent -- entering into the thrills and hardship of the gold seeking miners. Freighting needed supplies across the country to them, and finally starting a home in the pioneer section in the sparsely settled west. Home ties only temporarily held him.
"Donald Edgar caught some of the spirit of the "forty niners" from his father and it lived within him, too. He loved to prospect. To go out in the hills looking for gold and samples of other precious minerals. And many a strange rock and colored stone he picked up and brought back for closer examining. There had throbbed within him the strong pull of the prospector's urge. He had climbed the hills, and followed the trail, and had known the will-o-the-wisp beckoning him.
"But marriage usually settles a man and ties him to a new center of interest and affection called home. His work as a station agent at Shelley, and later when running a garage, and managing a sales company, was still interesting to him and gave him the economic security every home builder desires. But with a helpmate to share life with him and with two sons to look to him for protection and instruction and companionship, life took on a new fullness and a new satisfaction for Mr. Sanderson. He was a good husband, thoughtful of his wife and grateful and appreciative for the comrade in the home. Other men might prefer the club, the bar, the neighborhood rally, but Mr. Sanderson preferred his home and the comforts and happiness his wife's presence in it made for him.
"And to his sons, he was an unusual dad. He was never too busy to share life with them. All he had learned from his Indian youth, he sought to pass on to his boys -- games, tricks, knowledge of nature, archery and skating. He was a father, teacher and unfailing pal to them. Few boys have been more blessed in having a father who thought with them and shared their experiences and was a pal and inspiration to them.
"Here on the earth Mr. Sanderson's name meant "World Ruler, Protector". He was a world ruler, he was a prince and a chief in the kingdom for his sons, and in the home circle with his wife. And for them he protected the sacred heritage of home and of a wholesome childhood and boyhood for his sons. What he was, what he gave, it is all a rich heritage, a precious treasure of memory to them now.
"But he will have a new name over there, what it is none of us can know. But perhaps the Prospector, the dreamer, the planner, the searcher had found at last the inner object of all life's quest -- and the secret and the answer to all the soul's aspiring."
Donald Edgar Sanderson was another of our family's rich heritage. We can be grateful for what he has given to each of us. If you would like to learn more about him please let us know and we can duplicate the material we have.
