In the year of 1919 Joseph sold off all their cattle. The land was cultivated and cotton was planted. Cotton was a new and very productive crop being planted by farmers. Beautiful were the fields with the tall green leaved stalks with delicate yellow color blossom which later developed into large pods and burst open into cotton. After the first frost the leaves and stalk would turn brown and all the pods on the stalk would burst into beautiful white cotton. The fields were a beautiful sight to behold. Colored people and Mexicans were hired to pick the cotton. Huge loads of now white cotton was hauled by team and wagon to the gin and sold. Many pay checks were received by Joseph for his months of hard labor.

Another accident, one morning Joseph was chopping wood for the cook stove. Clinging to the ax was a piece of wood going up on the ax and falling off on the downward stroke. With this downward stroke of the ax Joseph chopped into his instep with the sharp blade cutting a deep gash. He was immediately rushed to the office of Dr. Frank W. Brown where six stitches were taken to sew up the gash. The ax had severed deep into the instep bone. Again Joseph was on crutches for weeks.

Into the years Joseph continued hauling. Gravel, sand, and rock was hauled from the Salt River bed and loaded in a wagon with loose dump boards in the wagon bed to make it easier for unloading. Joseph would load the wagon by hand and shovel. He sometimes would haul as high as three loads a day. Joseph hauled gravel for the Mesa High School, the bank buildings on the corners of Main and McDonald Streets, for the Maricopa Inn building and numerous residential buildings. Joseph, accompanied by one of his grandsons, William Lane Pew (age nine years), hauled the first load of gravel to be used in the construction of the beautiful Arizona Temple, which was dedicated October 23, 1927. Most of this material was hauled from Tempe, a distance of seven miles by team and wagon.

After tearing down their old lumber house they built a new brick house. Since childhood Prudence had always wanted a red brick house. Now her wishes were granted. On June 13, 1927 they moved into the red brick house with modern conveniences.

In the early spring, March of 1928, Joseph, who had been in perfect health all his life except when he took the small pox, now had the flu becoming bedfast for three long months. His heart became very bad from this illness and dropsy set in causing his feet and legs to swell. With skillful attention given by Dr. Frank W. Brown, and by following strict orders of the doctor, Joseph regained his health.

During Joseph’s sickness, John Richins of Provo, Utah, came to visit at this home. Upon finding Joseph so very ill John proceeded to cultivate and till the farmland and planted it into cotton for Joseph. The crop was beautiful and very productive in spite of the fact that John knew very little about farming and had never seen cotton grow.

The following year his son, George and his wife, LaPrele, and baby daughter, Marian, took Joseph on a vacation trip. They went to Salt Lake City, Ogden, Henefer, and on to Blackfoot, Idaho. Here Joseph met and visited his eldest brother, the John Bond family, whom he had never seen before. On to California they traveled visiting his son, Joseph Bond Jr. and family. Here was his wife, Prudence, who had ridden to California with the F. Leo Willis family. George Bond and family came on to Mesa. Joseph stayed to visit longer coming back with Prudence and the Willises. This was their first vacation in many years together.

Love and happiness reigned in the new red brick house. Joseph and Prudence, now in their advanced years, were enjoying the conveniences they had worked for throughout the years, but for only a period of five short years. Sorrow came with the illness and death of his beloved wife, Prudence. A mother and life-long companion was called to the great beyond on May 5, 1932.

For three lonely years Joseph and his youngest daughter, Naoma, lived here in his home. He continued to do his farm work. The years were creeping upon him and he found he no longer could take the work and responsibility. He divided his property equally among his children and each assumed their duty of caring for this wonderful gift.

The City of Mesa had expanded in size, thus the farm Joseph had equally divided among his children fell within the city limits and acreage became a city flat and was subdivided into city lots to be known as the “Bond Acres.”

Joseph’s worries were over. He didn’t even have to chop wood for the cook stove. He would purchase loads of wood from the Indians who were his friends. The Indians would bring their wood from the reservation into town to sell. Joseph was a good customer of Juan Burton, the son of an old Indian man, Sawadick Burton, who in the early days would help Joseph on the farm. Through the years Joseph gave many an Indian work helping to irrigate the land, harvesting watermelon and cantaloupe crops, milking cows, and hauling and staking hay and grain.

In 1932 sixteen small citrus trees were planted in the back yard of Joseph’s home. Joseph loved flowers around each tree. The soil was cultivated and circles were made where zinnia flower seeds were planted. This was Joseph’s project beautiful were the flowers that grew beautifying the back yard. He loved zinnia flowers and the white ones were his favorite. Each year the zinnia flowers were planted until the trees grew large and their foliage covered the ground with shade.

Three years had passed since the death of Joseph’s good wife. On the day of his wife’s death, Naoma, his youngest child, had promised him she would never leave him to live alone. On June 4, 1935, Naoma married Robert A. Ball. They had planned an extensive honeymoon. Joseph was extended a very cordial invitation to accompany them, which he did. The honeymoon trip took them through ten western states. They were gone six weeks and Joseph, at eighty-three years of age, enjoyed every minute of the trip. He kept a diary of each day’s activity and travel. Upon their return home Joseph was indeed happy to know they were to live here with him and not in the “Shanty”—a little home Robert had purchased for them in Phoenix, Arizona.

Joseph loved and enjoyed his family. On each of their birthdays he always arranged for a little party or gathering. On one occasion, at the home of his daughter, Perilla B. Millett, he took his violin. He rendered several lovely dance ballads of which he loved to play, and his children always appreciated. He requested someone to sing a song, but no response. Then he told this story:

A few year before he was married, across the river from Grandfather Bishop Charles W. Richins’ home in Henefer, Utah, one and one-half miles toward the town of Coalville, President Brigham Young’s son, Brigham, had contracted to build a railroad from the head of Echo Canyon to Ogden, Utah, known as the U.P. Line. The contract was subdivided under other contractors. Sandy Glenn, Joseph’s brother-in-law, contracted to do one fourth of a mile of the railroad. Joseph was hired by Sandy to run a dumpcart drawn by a mule. It was while on this job of work that the men made up a song dedicating it to the contractor, Brigham Young Jr.

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At the head of the great Echo the Railroad’s begun
Mormons are cutting and grading like fun
They say they’ll stick to it until it’s complete
While friends and relations are longing to meet.

Chorus
Hurray, Hurrah, the Railroad’s begun
Three cheers for our Contractor
His name’s Brigham Young
Hurray, Hurrah, the Railroad’s begun
Three cheers for our Contractor
His name’s Brigham Young.

There’s Mr. Green, he’s a gentleman too
He knows very well what the Mormons can do
He knows in their work they are lively and gay
And are just the right boys for to build a railway.

The boys in our camp are light hearted and gay
They work on the railroad ten hours a day
They’re thinking of the good times
They’ll have in the fall
Take their pretty ladies and off to the ball.

Joseph sang the whole song through. It was beautiful to the ears of his daughters, for never before had they heard their father sing. This was Feb. 9, 1937.