I was born March 15, 1900, in Paris, Idaho, to the parents of Joseph and Ethel Olive Davis Humpherys. My parents moved to Thayne, Wyoming, in 1901. I attended grade school in Thayne and two years of high school in Afton. I was then transferred and graduated from the L.D.S. high school in Salt Lake City, Utah.

During my childhood I helped my parents do all the things necessary on a sagebrush flat to turn it into a farm. I plowed, pulled sagebrush, harvested, and milked cows. After I graduated from high school, I was called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Eastern States mission. George W. McCune was my mission president. I labored in upstate New York between Glenns Falls and Rochester. There was considerable prejudice against the church so one of our objectives was to alleviate this ill feeling. My last six months I labored in Fairmont, West Virginia, and its surrounding area. I was released from my mission June 15, 1922, and helped on the farm until the fall of 1923.

During this time I was sustained as second counselor in the Thayne Ward Bishopric. I served with Bishop George C. Miller and Joseph I. Hart. In the fall of 1923 I went to Pocatello, Idaho, to seek employment. It was here in the spring of 1924 that I met my wife, Vera Stratford. During the winter I worked as a clerk for the YMCA and as an automobile salesman. In the fall I went to Idaho Falls where I rented cars and trucks for the Pocatello Auto Company. I did this for six months, then purchased a small grocery store. The following May 21, 1925, Vera and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple. Our first child, Allan Stratford, was born April 4, 1926, in the Idaho Falls L.D.S. Hospital.

In the spring of 1926 we moved to Osgood, Idaho, a small community slightly northwest of Idaho Falls. Here we operated a grocery store for about a year and a half. I also did some trucking hauling grain from the harvesters to the elevators in the Teton Valley. This was a time when they pulled large combines with horses. Our only daughter, LaFawn, was born September 19, 1927, just prior to our selling the store and moving back to Idaho Falls.

In the spring of 1928 we moved to Thayne, Wyoming, where I purchased a trucking business and operated between Star Valley and Idaho Falls. During this period we were blessed with two more sons, Keith Stratford born April 29, 1929, and DeVerl Stratford born August 20, 1931. We moved to Etna, Wyoming, in 1933. In addition to my trucking business, we operated a grocery store. I was sustained as a member of the high council in the Star Valley Stake. I served under President Clarence Gardner. I was also trucking coal out of Greys River. Here we had another son, Harold Lorraine. He was born September 23, 1936.

In 1937 we moved back to Thayne where I helped operate my father’s farm. Melvin Dee joined us here. He was born in the Star Valley Hospital July 31, 1938. After my father’s death due to heart failure on February 27, 1939, I took over the operation of the farm. I was in Rock Springs with a load of grain from the farm when the news of World War II was announced, December 7, 1941. In the spring of 1945 I began furnishing mine timbers to Anaconda Mine in Conda, Idaho. That fall I was appointed fertilizer dealer for Simplot Fertilizer Company located in Pocatello, Idaho. These two operations together with the cooperation of the family enabled us to send Allan, Keith, Harold, and Dee on missions and all our children through college.

In 1947 I was released from the bishopric and appointed Church Service Leader in the High Priest Group. I was also Genealogical Chairman. In September of 1949 I was set apart as a Stake Missionary. I served for two years. In the fall of 1959 we moved to Idaho Falls, Idaho, and lived here until August 1962 when we moved to Sacramento, California and lived with Keith. In 1963 we moved to Chico, California and in January of 1965 we moved to Benicia, California. Here we operated a service station. I was Superintendent of the Sunday School for three years in Benicia. This was the only church organization they had at the time.

In January of 1970 because of mother’s trouble with asthma, we moved to Paradise, California. The air here was not as polluted as it was in the bay area. We kept ownership of the station. I was High Priest Group Leader most of the time while in Paradise. In 1973 we moved to Sonoma (our present address) because we found it necessary to be closer to the station. I am again the High Priest Group Leader.