At the age of 16, Oscar left home and journeyed to Colorado to work on the Denver Rio Grande Railroad. The winter snows halted work so he went on to Arizona where flour sold for $16 a hundredweight and times so bad that dogs were butchered to prevent starvation.
He got work on the Santa Fe RR construction gangs and worked until the road reached Flagstaff, Arizona. However, one and one-half years on the railroad were enough so he returned to Utah in 1881 and worked in the timber industry.
In 1887, he worked in the church quarry breaking rock for the Great Salt Lake Temple. These were also Grandfather's courting years and on 4 Jan. 1888, he married Adelle Boyce. Of the next years he said, "We built a comfortable home in Granite and spent 24 years raising fruit and 11 children, 6 boys and 5 girls.
He was also actively engaged in community affairs as town constable for 15 years. On the side, he continued to work in the canyon and in the rock business. (Grandfather was an excellent rock mason and wherever he settled, built monuments which still stand as a testimony to his skill.) In the spring of 1913, the family decided to sellout and try their luck in Idaho. For 4 years they located on a large ranch in Cache Valley raising pigs, wheat, beets and alfalfa but did not prosper. By 1917, they decided to move the family to Arizona.
They took a train to Salt Lake, bought one of the first Ford cars and a trailer, loaded the family and started for the Salt River Valley. After ten hectic days, the family reached Mesa the latter part of April. From Mesa, it was the mines and smelters at Miami; then to a cotton farm in Gilbert. After losing the farm during the 1921 depression, they moved to Prescott. Several years later they went to Chino Valley. During the rest of his mortal days, Grandfather worked as a mason in Northern Arizona, building when and where ever he could. He had a lovely stone home in Chino, built another in Prescott, helped built the large granite LDS and Baptist church houses in Prescott and kept busy.
The 26th of March 1936, Grandfather lost his wife and helpmate and she was buried at the I.O.O.F. Cemetery in Prescott.
In June, he and other members of the family took a three week trip to Idaho, Montana and Utah. In Prescott, he met and married Effie May Welch on 30 June 1938. They spent their last years at Mesa working at the temple during the winters and living at Prescott during the summers.