Edward and Rhoda Frei were married Dec. 12, 1917 and they were the fifth family to move into Ivins. Before they were married Edward worked on the farm and peddled produce and also worked on the Ivins canal. In September 1921 Edward and Rhoda moved up to the Shivwits Band of Paiutes Reservation where Edward taught school and Rhoda taught the girls homemaking. Each day she prepared dinner for the school children. Edward always told his own girls that their mother was a wonderful cook. In February 1922 they moved onto the bench (Ivins). Each family had a tract of land where they raised hay and grain and each family had a garden plot next to their home. They all had several cows and a few chickens.  Most of the families shipped their cream and eggs (to northern Utah). Edward Frei, along with Milo Ence, hauled wood from the West Mountain and sold it in St. George. They were able to get a contract to furnish wood for the temple, elementary, and high school. This helped make their living in the winter months.  

 

Rhoda enjoyed playing the piano and even sang in many programs. Edward was a hard worker and always provided for the family. In 1924 a baby girl was born and in 1927, another daughter was born. In January the following year when their baby was one month old she came down with pneumonia and was seriously ill. Grandma Frei came up to help care for the baby. With her constant care and with mustard plasters she used, Grandma Frei was able to break the fever and save the baby's life. In the summer of 1930 Grandma Agnes Frei became very ill so Edward and Rhoda rented their house in Ivins and moved to Santa Clara to care for Grandma Frei, who later passed away. They had been trying to buy a home in Santa Clara since they moved down from Ivins and in December 1930 they signed the final papers. In 1931 their youngest daughter was born. Rhoda became seriously ill the next spring and summer. It was a very sad day when Rhoda died of blood poisoning on August 1, 1932 at thirty three years of age leaving three little girls - eight, four, and ten months old.  Edward had a long prosperous life, he remarried and had three more children. He passed away in 1984 when he was eighty-eight years old.  

 

The Santa Clara Bench Canal was an important project for the prosperity of the families that would someday live in Ivins. Many of the local families that lived in Santa Clara helped with this project. Leo A. Snow and Clarence S. Jarvis (both civil engineers), conceived the idea of bringing water from the Santa Clara creek onto the Santa Clara Bench for irrigation purposes. They made a survey and filed an application in 1908 for thirty second feet of water. The water was to be taken out about one fourth mile above what is now known as the Winsor Dam near the site of the old Shem smelter. The first ground for the canal was broken in June 1911. Work did not commence in earnest until that fall, when most of the spring and summer work was over on the farms. This was a great undertaking, since there were eight miles of canal to be built, some of it along steep mountain sides, and some over deep ravines that would have to be flumed or siphoned. However, they went courageously to work. They had no modern equipment, as there is today. Teams of horses, plows, and scrapers along with shovels were used. During the winter months, men and boys from Santa Clara left home on Monday mornings with primitive tools and scant provisions to spend the week working on the canal. At times, inclement winter weather would delay their efforts. Leo Reber wrote − “I worked on this canal for many days, I was only fifteen years of age but we worked hard, and instead of getting money we subscribed for water stock at fifty dollars per share”. Friday or Saturday evening, they would return to spend Sunday at home and again stock up with provisions for the next week. The canal was completed in 1914, Leo wrote “It was a very thrilling experience when the water was turned in the canal and it flowed through the canal out on the large plot of land known as the Santa Clara Bench.”