Ethel Marie Bills Wheeler
Our lovely and beloved grandmother, Ethel, was born on September 10, 1911 to Charles Wesley and Annie Caroline Carlston Bills in Fairview, Utah.
Her dad was a sheep herder and was away much of the time, so Annie and her kids had much work to do to survive each day. Grandma Ethel, learned to sew, cook, garden, and she also had to study for school, from a young age.
Her mother took the family to church, and taught them the gospel. Her grandmothers Anne Marie Pederson Carlston, and Sarah Bills, also had a great influence on her. She talked about her Grandma Marie who walked across the plains and had an undying testimony of Joseph Smith and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She talked about the time when the grasshoppers were eating their crops, and the saints started praying for help. Then a miracle happened when seagulls showed up and gobbled up the grasshoppers. She told us about how her grandmother needed a black pair of pants for one of the boys who was turning 12 and priesthood age. They sheered this black sheep, carded the wool, and then wove it, all before cutting and sewing it into a pair of boy's pants for Sunday. She talked about the apple orchard around their house, and lamented that they could not even grow an apple tree in Milburn (elevation 6500).
Grandma also talked of the great love her dad and mother had for each other. She said, that even President David O. McKay and his wife, could not love each other more than her parents did.
It was when she was working in Milburn, as a young lady, that she met Grandpa Henry. She had been dating another guy from Provo, with whom she was fond of. But, Grandpa Bills didn't think much of him, and guided her towards Henry. He knew that she would never go hungry with the hard-working Henry. She must have listened because on June of 1932 or 1933, she was married to Henry.
It was the middle of the depression, so times were tough. But, she said her dad was right, they never did want for food. They sold eggs and butter or cream. They had meat, and vegetables from the garden. She did tell about their clothes getting very thin, but Grandpa George paid for her and Miranda to have a new dress and Grandpa and Uncle Bill a new pair of overalls every year.
She went to church in Milburn and took her family with her. She had not been married in the temple in the beginning, so she prayed and prayed that Grandpa would quit smoking. It was just before Ronald was graduating and going off to college, that they all went to the Manti Temple and were sealed. She was very happy about this.
It wasn't until Ronald was about 14 that they got electricity. He remembers it being "the happiest Christmas!" (They must have had electric lights for the tree).
I think Grandma was happy to move back to Fairview, her home town. She was busy serving in the Primary, and in Relief Society. She had many friends whom she enjoyed at the weekly Relief Society quilting day.
She made many beautiful quilts and afghans. She made most of her own dresses and suits. She was always doing handwork when she wasn't cooking three meals a day for Grandpa and the family. She cleaned every Saturday, so that she could keep the Sabbath Day holy. She was very particular about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. She would not do stitching or crocheting or any ordinary work that did not have to be done. She stayed in her Sunday clothes all day, and read and studied her Sunday School lessons. She taught us that we should do the same.
When the kids started growing up Grandpa was tending the sheep on the desert or on the mountain, she had many lonely days. However, she kept herself busy growing her gardens, vegetable and flower. She even kept her geraniums going all winter and replanted them in the Spring. She definitely had a green thumb. She canned (or bottled) everything imaginable. One of our favorite things was when she pulled out her plum juice, and added it to our Kool-aid. It was the most delicious punch! She kept an Azalea blooming most of the time in her living room (keep a bowl under it and water from below, she said).
She enjoyed each of the grandchildren as they came along. She was especially happy when we came to visit on Saturdays or Sundays, it seemed like every week. She would get busy and fix us dinner with meat and potatoes, fruit and a cookie at the end. Sometimes we watched while she made pies. She always gave us a pinch of dough to munch on. We would help grate carrots, or make the punch, but mostly we watched while she bustled around fretting about dinner.
Our favorite time, was when the granddaughters got to visit Grandma for a week in the summer and sew our school clothes. That was when we really got to know Grandma. She could tell story after story. She relaxed and helped us with our sewing. She had two sewing machines, so we both could work (the old treadle machine of her grandmothers, and her newer Singer sewing machine. She let us choose a radio station, but then would shake her head about how the songs said the same things over and over. She took us to Relief Society with her.
One of the favorite things in her lifetime was when she and Grandpa worked at the Manti Temple. She never felt she was very smart, but Grandpa told her she would have to get on her knees and pray for help to learn all the prayers and blessings. She did, and she was so happy when she was able to memorize so much material that the sisters needed to know. She loved attending and she loved the people she associated with.
She was sad when Grandpa got very sick and passed on. She lived another ten years or so waiting and wondering when Grandpa was going to come and get her. She died in December, 2002, after a short illness. She has been sorely missed!
--Mary Lynne Wheeler York, granddaughter
Recollections of Ethel Marie Bills Wheeler
Grandpa Bills (Charles) herded sheep, worked in the timber (which means sawing logs for the mills), ran his father's farm, and he worked for mother's brothers (Carlstons) who were contractors. He also worked in the temple in Salt Lake. He delivered groceries to people in Salt Lake until he became very ill with a ruptured appendix and it took him a long time to recover when he was first married. He also threw sprags out for the mine (that is, logs sawed certain lengths which were thrown in front of carts).
He was a very gentle man, a very loving father and had a nice disposition. So did my mother. They really loved each other until the very end. They never had much of the worldly goods, but were always free to give what they had and would always offer a meal. They just seemed to be an ideal couple when it came to showing their love for everyone. More people have expressed their love for them since they've been gone, than I can even remember. One lady said she didn't think President McKay and his wife loved each other any more than Uncle Charlie and Aunt Annie, and she wasn't related, but that's the way she expressed it.
I had three sisters and one brother. One sister died (Alice Bills) died at three years. She was bitten by a dog, who probably had rabies, and she died 36 hours after that. Mother thought the doctor gave her the wrong type of medicine. We were all very close as brothers and sisters.
Grandma Bills (Annie) taught school in the Clear Creek mining camp. She went to the BY Academy. Then she went to Snow College. She took sewing there. She did a lot of sewing for people. She sewed wedding dresses and such, and made quite a bit of money doing that. She also worked in the store for Uncle Alley (her brother) for two-three years.
Dad didn't have much of an education. He didn't have much more than a Fifth grade education. He went to herd sheep when he was 15. They had 12 children in their family and didn't have much chance to go.
Mother was a real geneologist. She had a lot of names-- Wilcox, Bills, and Carlston-- submitted to the temple. She did the temple work for them too.
Mother's mother (Anne Marie Pederson Carlston) had one of the first sewing machines that came into Fairview. She was a real seamstress too. She was sewing and making clothing the night her father came here from Norway. He arrived late at night and she was up sewing at that time. All she had to see by, was a saucer full of tallow (sheep grease) with a rag burning in it. When he came and found her sewing at that time of night with that light, he was so upset, he didn't know what to do. So, the very next day, he went right back to Salt Lake and bought her a sewing machine and a coal-oil light, so she could see. There was no electricity at that time.
She came over from Norway when she was 20 years old (she and a sister). They all joined the church at the same time but Grandpa Pederson (her father) and her brothers were in the sawmill business in Norway and stayed to make money to come and also helped with the immigration fund for the church. He instigated this fund, and he made enough to hep 13 people come to the United States by boat. He sent these people and his wife and sons, and then he stayed a little longer and then came over. That is when he came and saw my grandmother and what poor circumstances they were in. She was a polygamist's wife. They lived in a one room house. Grandmother met her husband in Norway but she didn't marry him until she moved to Salt Lake. He was married before he left Norway and his wife died on the way over to Utah. He had four wives altogether. She had a hard time until her parents came, and then they helped her some, as well as her six sons and my mother (Annie Caroline).
I was nine years old when my Grandma Carlston died. She lived with us and mother took care of her. Dad bought her home, but she always stayed with us. She was 79 when she died. She would go and visit her other children but she would always come back and stay with us. She was a loving woman, just really a sweet person.
My mother (Annie) was a sweet woman. She was kind of the boss in the family. Dad was gone all the time, and she had a better education. She knew how to handle finances better and she was probably a better manager than he was. She taught Dad how to read and write, and she really taught him a lot. He always said that she was better than he, and that may be one reason he was backward, because he realized that he didn't have a good education. He wasn't around people very much either. Yet, he had a friendly disposition. He was scared to death to go to church for fear that they would call on him.
Dad and Mother met at a dance here in Fairview. He came down from Milburn (he lived in Milburn) and he danced with her. Then his aunt married her half-brother and she happened to be with her mother over here where the telephone office is, and he came over with his mother to see her sister there. He met mother again, and talked to her and that was the first real conversation she had with him other than just dancing with him. Mother thought he was really a nice-looking man. Well, he asked her for a date, and that's where it all began. She went back to school in Provo, for the winter, and then she taught school over in Clear Creek. He was over in Clear creek working in the coal mines. They really started to go together, that winter. They were married in October the next year. Laura was born in Milburn. They lived up there one year after he came back from Salt Lake.
One funny thing I remember, when I was in the first grade, Wendell came to school with Dad's boots on and Dad's hat. He was three years younger than me, and these boots went up to his knees and laced. I was so embarrassed. He had followed me to school. So, I asked the teacher if I could take him home.
When I was in the fourth grade, my feet would swell up every night and I couldn't get my shoes on in the morning. We couldn't seem to find out what was causing it. So, I would have to wait until noon to go to school before I could get my shoes on. My teacher would have me stay after school and would help me with what I would miss. She comes here occasionally yet, to visit me, and she's in her eighties. She always grabs me and kisses me. She was one of the most special teachers that I had. She was really interested in me and she saw that I got my work done. She had real compassion for me. This went on nearly all winter. They never found out what was wrong, the doctor said it was growing pains or something, but I bet it was rheumatic fever or something.
I went to the Fairview Elementary School, that is the Museum now. The first year I went to school, the roof burned off the school and we were cramped into a little narrow office in the Junior High. Once we sat down, we had to stay there until each kid moved out. We didn't have any room to wiggle or anything else. I remember it really seemed great to be back in the school again after the roof was rebuilt.
I always had a lot of friends, and boyfriends. We went to the picture show sometimes two or three times a week. But, not every week. We didn't always have the money to go. Henry was about four years older than me. We didn't go to school together. He went to Milburn, and I to Fairview. I knew his brother Bill. He started to come down to the dances, and we liked dancing together. When my dad bought the Bill's farm in Milburn, I guess he decided that I was going to move to Milburn and came and asked me for a date.
He also had a new car. We dated not quite two years before we were married. I worked in Provo one summer before we were married. I worked in a grocery store and cleaned people's houses and took care of their children. Then I came home that fall. It was getting to be depression time and jobs were hard to find, so I worked for Mrs. Oldroyd at their farm. They owned the sheep that we eventually bought, and they had a lot of men working there. I helped her cook meals for the men. Henry worked there too occasionally. I was 19 and he was 23 when we were married.
We were married in 1931, and Ronald was born in 1934. 1933 and 1934 were just about the worst years of the depression for us. We had a drought those years and that was worse than the depression for us. We lived on the old Wheeler farm. We had a few cows we would milk and some chickens and a few sheep. We raised our eggs and meat and flour and milk. We never suffered but we never had any money. We would sell people mutton for fruit. We got to where he had nothing in clothing before it ended. Henry's dad gave us some money, and we went and bought some clothing. I remember we bought Henry a pair of bib overalls and they cost 50 cents. But that 50 cents was as hard to come by than a $5 bill today and more so. We had a little money saved to pay the doctor, when Ronald was born. I guess, we sold a little cream each week and we had 400-500 chickens that we sold too. There were two families living there too. Bill and Marinda, and LaVon was born in May before Ronald in August. We divided everything 50/50. We shared a car together too. It worked out pretty well, until the kids got a little older and had to do a little work and started fighting over who did the most work. Then we decided we better divide. Henry's father lived there with us too until he died in 1936.
Elaine was born in February of 1936 and Grandpa (George Arthur) Wheeler died in July. He lived most of the time with Bill and Marinda, though. He would come and eat with us, sometimes. He had his bedroom upstairs.
We were married in the Provo Courthouse. Then in 1949, we went to the Manti Temple. There was a church in Milburn, in the old school and we were fairly active. I had tried to get Grandpa to go to the Temple for a long time. But, he was using tobacco at the time and he promised me he would quit. But he didn't. He got sick with pneumonia and after that, he couldn't take it so he just quit!
I was active in the MIA. They had it on Tuesday nights. I was president of the MIA to begin with. I was always active in Relief Society, either as a secretary or in the Presidency. I have enjoyed teaching Primary too.
Henry served in the Sunday School Superintendency while in Milburn also. We lived in Milburn until 1948. That is when we divided and we built this home in 1954. We rented for 4-5 years. We had a contractor build this home, but we did quite a lot of work on it ourselves, including Ronald and Ed.
I always thought Ronald was an obedient boy. We never had any trouble with him. Of course, I know he did things we didn't know about, but he was obedient to us. I thought about that when he blessed Mark. He mentioned in his prayer that he hoped Mark would always be obedient. He's always seemed more religious and thought more seriously than the others. Yet, we didn't do anything differently with him than any of the others.
Elaine wasn't quite so church-minded as Ronald. We have always been thrilled to death to have her, Tom and Brad come home from California! Tom has been a great help to Grandpa. And Ed, I think his troubles have been due to his marriages. Ed was always more affectionate to me than either one of the other two. He just always clung on to me from the time he was six years old. He always acted like he was just tickled to death to come home.
Our lovely and beloved grandmother, Ethel, was born on September 10, 1911 to Charles Wesley and Annie Caroline Carlston Bills in Fairview, Utah.
Her dad was a sheep herder and was away much of the time, so Annie and her kids had much work to do to survive each day. Grandma Ethel, learned to sew, cook, garden, and she also had to study for school, from a young age.
Her mother took the family to church, and taught them the gospel. Her grandmothers Anne Marie Pederson Carlston, and Sarah Bills, also had a great influence on her. She talked about her Grandma Marie who walked across the plains and had an undying testimony of Joseph Smith and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She talked about the time when the grasshoppers were eating their crops, and the saints started praying for help. Then a miracle happened when seagulls showed up and gobbled up the grasshoppers. She told us about how her grandmother needed a black pair of pants for one of the boys who was turning 12 and priesthood age. They sheered this black sheep, carded the wool, and then wove it, all before cutting and sewing it into a pair of boy's pants for Sunday. She talked about the apple orchard around their house, and lamented that they could not even grow an apple tree in Milburn (elevation 6500).
Grandma also talked of the great love her dad and mother had for each other. She said, that even President David O. McKay and his wife, could not love each other more than her parents did.
It was when she was working in Milburn, as a young lady, that she met Grandpa Henry. She had been dating another guy from Provo, with whom she was fond of. But, Grandpa Bills didn't think much of him, and guided her towards Henry. He knew that she would never go hungry with the hard-working Henry. She must have listened because on June of 1932 or 1933, she was married to Henry.
It was the middle of the depression, so times were tough. But, she said her dad was right, they never did want for food. They sold eggs and butter or cream. They had meat, and vegetables from the garden. She did tell about their clothes getting very thin, but Grandpa George paid for her and Miranda to have a new dress and Grandpa and Uncle Bill a new pair of overalls every year.
She went to church in Milburn and took her family with her. She had not been married in the temple in the beginning, so she prayed and prayed that Grandpa would quit smoking. It was just before Ronald was graduating and going off to college, that they all went to the Manti Temple and were sealed. She was very happy about this.
It wasn't until Ronald was about 14 that they got electricity. He remembers it being "the happiest Christmas!" (They must have had electric lights for the tree).
I think Grandma was happy to move back to Fairview, her home town. She was busy serving in the Primary, and in Relief Society. She had many friends whom she enjoyed at the weekly Relief Society quilting day.
She made many beautiful quilts and afghans. She made most of her own dresses and suits. She was always doing handwork when she wasn't cooking three meals a day for Grandpa and the family. She cleaned every Saturday, so that she could keep the Sabbath Day holy. She was very particular about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. She would not do stitching or crocheting or any ordinary work that did not have to be done. She stayed in her Sunday clothes all day, and read and studied her Sunday School lessons. She taught us that we should do the same.
When the kids started growing up Grandpa was tending the sheep on the desert or on the mountain, she had many lonely days. However, she kept herself busy growing her gardens, vegetable and flower. She even kept her geraniums going all winter and replanted them in the Spring. She definitely had a green thumb. She canned (or bottled) everything imaginable. One of our favorite things was when she pulled out her plum juice, and added it to our Kool-aid. It was the most delicious punch! She kept an Azalea blooming most of the time in her living room (keep a bowl under it and water from below, she said).
She enjoyed each of the grandchildren as they came along. She was especially happy when we came to visit on Saturdays or Sundays, it seemed like every week. She would get busy and fix us dinner with meat and potatoes, fruit and a cookie at the end. Sometimes we watched while she made pies. She always gave us a pinch of dough to munch on. We would help grate carrots, or make the punch, but mostly we watched while she bustled around fretting about dinner.
Our favorite time, was when the granddaughters got to visit Grandma for a week in the summer and sew our school clothes. That was when we really got to know Grandma. She could tell story after story. She relaxed and helped us with our sewing. She had two sewing machines, so we both could work (the old treadle machine of her grandmothers, and her newer Singer sewing machine. She let us choose a radio station, but then would shake her head about how the songs said the same things over and over. She took us to Relief Society with her.
One of the favorite things in her lifetime was when she and Grandpa worked at the Manti Temple. She never felt she was very smart, but Grandpa told her she would have to get on her knees and pray for help to learn all the prayers and blessings. She did, and she was so happy when she was able to memorize so much material that the sisters needed to know. She loved attending and she loved the people she associated with.
She was sad when Grandpa got very sick and passed on. She lived another ten years or so waiting and wondering when Grandpa was going to come and get her. She died in December, 2002, after a short illness. She has been sorely missed!
--Mary Lynne Wheeler York, granddaughter
Recollections of Ethel Marie Bills Wheeler
Grandpa Bills (Charles) herded sheep, worked in the timber (which means sawing logs for the mills), ran his father's farm, and he worked for mother's brothers (Carlstons) who were contractors. He also worked in the temple in Salt Lake. He delivered groceries to people in Salt Lake until he became very ill with a ruptured appendix and it took him a long time to recover when he was first married. He also threw sprags out for the mine (that is, logs sawed certain lengths which were thrown in front of carts).
He was a very gentle man, a very loving father and had a nice disposition. So did my mother. They really loved each other until the very end. They never had much of the worldly goods, but were always free to give what they had and would always offer a meal. They just seemed to be an ideal couple when it came to showing their love for everyone. More people have expressed their love for them since they've been gone, than I can even remember. One lady said she didn't think President McKay and his wife loved each other any more than Uncle Charlie and Aunt Annie, and she wasn't related, but that's the way she expressed it.
I had three sisters and one brother. One sister died (Alice Bills) died at three years. She was bitten by a dog, who probably had rabies, and she died 36 hours after that. Mother thought the doctor gave her the wrong type of medicine. We were all very close as brothers and sisters.
Grandma Bills (Annie) taught school in the Clear Creek mining camp. She went to the BY Academy. Then she went to Snow College. She took sewing there. She did a lot of sewing for people. She sewed wedding dresses and such, and made quite a bit of money doing that. She also worked in the store for Uncle Alley (her brother) for two-three years.
Dad didn't have much of an education. He didn't have much more than a Fifth grade education. He went to herd sheep when he was 15. They had 12 children in their family and didn't have much chance to go.
Mother was a real geneologist. She had a lot of names-- Wilcox, Bills, and Carlston-- submitted to the temple. She did the temple work for them too.
Mother's mother (Anne Marie Pederson Carlston) had one of the first sewing machines that came into Fairview. She was a real seamstress too. She was sewing and making clothing the night her father came here from Norway. He arrived late at night and she was up sewing at that time. All she had to see by, was a saucer full of tallow (sheep grease) with a rag burning in it. When he came and found her sewing at that time of night with that light, he was so upset, he didn't know what to do. So, the very next day, he went right back to Salt Lake and bought her a sewing machine and a coal-oil light, so she could see. There was no electricity at that time.
She came over from Norway when she was 20 years old (she and a sister). They all joined the church at the same time but Grandpa Pederson (her father) and her brothers were in the sawmill business in Norway and stayed to make money to come and also helped with the immigration fund for the church. He instigated this fund, and he made enough to hep 13 people come to the United States by boat. He sent these people and his wife and sons, and then he stayed a little longer and then came over. That is when he came and saw my grandmother and what poor circumstances they were in. She was a polygamist's wife. They lived in a one room house. Grandmother met her husband in Norway but she didn't marry him until she moved to Salt Lake. He was married before he left Norway and his wife died on the way over to Utah. He had four wives altogether. She had a hard time until her parents came, and then they helped her some, as well as her six sons and my mother (Annie Caroline).
I was nine years old when my Grandma Carlston died. She lived with us and mother took care of her. Dad bought her home, but she always stayed with us. She was 79 when she died. She would go and visit her other children but she would always come back and stay with us. She was a loving woman, just really a sweet person.
My mother (Annie) was a sweet woman. She was kind of the boss in the family. Dad was gone all the time, and she had a better education. She knew how to handle finances better and she was probably a better manager than he was. She taught Dad how to read and write, and she really taught him a lot. He always said that she was better than he, and that may be one reason he was backward, because he realized that he didn't have a good education. He wasn't around people very much either. Yet, he had a friendly disposition. He was scared to death to go to church for fear that they would call on him.
Dad and Mother met at a dance here in Fairview. He came down from Milburn (he lived in Milburn) and he danced with her. Then his aunt married her half-brother and she happened to be with her mother over here where the telephone office is, and he came over with his mother to see her sister there. He met mother again, and talked to her and that was the first real conversation she had with him other than just dancing with him. Mother thought he was really a nice-looking man. Well, he asked her for a date, and that's where it all began. She went back to school in Provo, for the winter, and then she taught school over in Clear Creek. He was over in Clear creek working in the coal mines. They really started to go together, that winter. They were married in October the next year. Laura was born in Milburn. They lived up there one year after he came back from Salt Lake.
One funny thing I remember, when I was in the first grade, Wendell came to school with Dad's boots on and Dad's hat. He was three years younger than me, and these boots went up to his knees and laced. I was so embarrassed. He had followed me to school. So, I asked the teacher if I could take him home.
When I was in the fourth grade, my feet would swell up every night and I couldn't get my shoes on in the morning. We couldn't seem to find out what was causing it. So, I would have to wait until noon to go to school before I could get my shoes on. My teacher would have me stay after school and would help me with what I would miss. She comes here occasionally yet, to visit me, and she's in her eighties. She always grabs me and kisses me. She was one of the most special teachers that I had. She was really interested in me and she saw that I got my work done. She had real compassion for me. This went on nearly all winter. They never found out what was wrong, the doctor said it was growing pains or something, but I bet it was rheumatic fever or something.
I went to the Fairview Elementary School, that is the Museum now. The first year I went to school, the roof burned off the school and we were cramped into a little narrow office in the Junior High. Once we sat down, we had to stay there until each kid moved out. We didn't have any room to wiggle or anything else. I remember it really seemed great to be back in the school again after the roof was rebuilt.
I always had a lot of friends, and boyfriends. We went to the picture show sometimes two or three times a week. But, not every week. We didn't always have the money to go. Henry was about four years older than me. We didn't go to school together. He went to Milburn, and I to Fairview. I knew his brother Bill. He started to come down to the dances, and we liked dancing together. When my dad bought the Bill's farm in Milburn, I guess he decided that I was going to move to Milburn and came and asked me for a date.
He also had a new car. We dated not quite two years before we were married. I worked in Provo one summer before we were married. I worked in a grocery store and cleaned people's houses and took care of their children. Then I came home that fall. It was getting to be depression time and jobs were hard to find, so I worked for Mrs. Oldroyd at their farm. They owned the sheep that we eventually bought, and they had a lot of men working there. I helped her cook meals for the men. Henry worked there too occasionally. I was 19 and he was 23 when we were married.
We were married in 1931, and Ronald was born in 1934. 1933 and 1934 were just about the worst years of the depression for us. We had a drought those years and that was worse than the depression for us. We lived on the old Wheeler farm. We had a few cows we would milk and some chickens and a few sheep. We raised our eggs and meat and flour and milk. We never suffered but we never had any money. We would sell people mutton for fruit. We got to where he had nothing in clothing before it ended. Henry's dad gave us some money, and we went and bought some clothing. I remember we bought Henry a pair of bib overalls and they cost 50 cents. But that 50 cents was as hard to come by than a $5 bill today and more so. We had a little money saved to pay the doctor, when Ronald was born. I guess, we sold a little cream each week and we had 400-500 chickens that we sold too. There were two families living there too. Bill and Marinda, and LaVon was born in May before Ronald in August. We divided everything 50/50. We shared a car together too. It worked out pretty well, until the kids got a little older and had to do a little work and started fighting over who did the most work. Then we decided we better divide. Henry's father lived there with us too until he died in 1936.
Elaine was born in February of 1936 and Grandpa (George Arthur) Wheeler died in July. He lived most of the time with Bill and Marinda, though. He would come and eat with us, sometimes. He had his bedroom upstairs.
We were married in the Provo Courthouse. Then in 1949, we went to the Manti Temple. There was a church in Milburn, in the old school and we were fairly active. I had tried to get Grandpa to go to the Temple for a long time. But, he was using tobacco at the time and he promised me he would quit. But he didn't. He got sick with pneumonia and after that, he couldn't take it so he just quit!
I was active in the MIA. They had it on Tuesday nights. I was president of the MIA to begin with. I was always active in Relief Society, either as a secretary or in the Presidency. I have enjoyed teaching Primary too.
Henry served in the Sunday School Superintendency while in Milburn also. We lived in Milburn until 1948. That is when we divided and we built this home in 1954. We rented for 4-5 years. We had a contractor build this home, but we did quite a lot of work on it ourselves, including Ronald and Ed.
I always thought Ronald was an obedient boy. We never had any trouble with him. Of course, I know he did things we didn't know about, but he was obedient to us. I thought about that when he blessed Mark. He mentioned in his prayer that he hoped Mark would always be obedient. He's always seemed more religious and thought more seriously than the others. Yet, we didn't do anything differently with him than any of the others.
Elaine wasn't quite so church-minded as Ronald. We have always been thrilled to death to have her, Tom and Brad come home from California! Tom has been a great help to Grandpa. And Ed, I think his troubles have been due to his marriages. Ed was always more affectionate to me than either one of the other two. He just always clung on to me from the time he was six years old. He always acted like he was just tickled to death to come home.
Ethel Marie Bills Wheeler
Our lovely and beloved grandmother, Ethel, was born on September 10, 1911 to Charles Wesley and Annie Caroline Carlston Bills in Fairview, Utah.
Her dad was a sheep herder and was away much of the time, so Annie and her kids had much work to do to survive each day. Grandma Ethel, learned to sew, cook, garden, and she also had to study for school, from a young age.
Her mother took the family to church, and taught them the gospel. Her grandmothers Anne Marie Pederson Carlston, and Sarah Bills, also had a great influence on her. She talked about her Grandma Marie who walked across the plains and had an undying testimony of Joseph Smith and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She talked about the time when the grasshoppers were eating their crops, and the saints started praying for help. Then a miracle happened when seagulls showed up and gobbled up the grasshoppers. She told us about how her grandmother needed a black pair of pants for one of the boys who was turning 12 and priesthood age. They sheered this black sheep, carded the wool, and then wove it, all before cutting and sewing it into a pair of boy's pants for Sunday. She talked about the apple orchard around their house, and lamented that they could not even grow an apple tree in Milburn (elevation 6500).
Grandma also talked of the great love her dad and mother had for each other. She said, that even President David O. McKay and his wife, could not love each other more than her parents did.
It was when she was working in Milburn, as a young lady, that she met Grandpa Henry. She had been dating another guy from Provo, with whom she was fond of. But, Grandpa Bills didn't think much of him, and guided her towards Henry. He knew that she would never go hungry with the hard-working Henry. She must have listened because on June of 1932 or 1933, she was married to Henry.
It was the middle of the depression, so times were tough. But, she said her dad was right, they never did want for food. They sold eggs and butter or cream. They had meat, and vegetables from the garden. She did tell about their clothes getting very thin, but Grandpa George paid for her and Miranda to have a new dress and Grandpa and Uncle Bill a new pair of overalls every year.
She went to church in Milburn and took her family with her. She had not been married in the temple in the beginning, so she prayed and prayed that Grandpa would quit smoking. It was just before Ronald was graduating and going off to college, that they all went to the Manti Temple and were sealed. She was very happy about this.
It wasn't until Ronald was about 14 that they got electricity. He remembers it being "the happiest Christmas!" (They must have had electric lights for the tree).
I think Grandma was happy to move back to Fairview, her home town. She was busy serving in the Primary, and in Relief Society. She had many friends whom she enjoyed at the weekly Relief Society quilting day.
She made many beautiful quilts and afghans. She made most of her own dresses and suits. She was always doing handwork when she wasn't cooking three meals a day for Grandpa and the family. She cleaned every Saturday, so that she could keep the Sabbath Day holy. She was very particular about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. She would not do stitching or crocheting or any ordinary work that did not have to be done. She stayed in her Sunday clothes all day, and read and studied her Sunday School lessons. She taught us that we should do the same.
When the kids started growing up Grandpa was tending the sheep on the desert or on the mountain, she had many lonely days. However, she kept herself busy growing her gardens, vegetable and flower. She even kept her geraniums going all winter and replanted them in the Spring. She definitely had a green thumb. She canned (or bottled) everything imaginable. One of our favorite things was when she pulled out her plum juice, and added it to our Kool-aid. It was the most delicious punch! She kept an Azalea blooming most of the time in her living room (keep a bowl under it and water from below, she said).
She enjoyed each of the grandchildren as they came along. She was especially happy when we came to visit on Saturdays or Sundays, it seemed like every week. She would get busy and fix us dinner with meat and potatoes, fruit and a cookie at the end. Sometimes we watched while she made pies. She always gave us a pinch of dough to munch on. We would help grate carrots, or make the punch, but mostly we watched while she bustled around fretting about dinner.
Our favorite time, was when the granddaughters got to visit Grandma for a week in the summer and sew our school clothes. That was when we really got to know Grandma. She could tell story after story. She relaxed and helped us with our sewing. She had two sewing machines, so we both could work (the old treadle machine of her grandmothers, and her newer Singer sewing machine. She let us choose a radio station, but then would shake her head about how the songs said the same things over and over. She took us to Relief Society with her.
One of the favorite things in her lifetime was when she and Grandpa worked at the Manti Temple. She never felt she was very smart, but Grandpa told her she would have to get on her knees and pray for help to learn all the prayers and blessings. She did, and she was so happy when she was able to memorize so much material that the sisters needed to know. She loved attending and she loved the people she associated with.
She was sad when Grandpa got very sick and passed on. She lived another ten years or so waiting and wondering when Grandpa was going to come and get her. She died in December, 2002, after a short illness. She has been sorely missed!
--Mary Lynne Wheeler York, granddaughter
Recollections of Ethel Marie Bills Wheeler
Grandpa Bills (Charles) herded sheep, worked in the timber (which means sawing logs for the mills), ran his father's farm, and he worked for mother's brothers (Carlstons) who were contractors. He also worked in the temple in Salt Lake. He delivered groceries to people in Salt Lake until he became very ill with a ruptured appendix and it took him a long time to recover when he was first married. He also threw sprags out for the mine (that is, logs sawed certain lengths which were thrown in front of carts).
He was a very gentle man, a very loving father and had a nice disposition. So did my mother. They really loved each other until the very end. They never had much of the worldly goods, but were always free to give what they had and would always offer a meal. They just seemed to be an ideal couple when it came to showing their love for everyone. More people have expressed their love for them since they've been gone, than I can even remember. One lady said she didn't think President McKay and his wife loved each other any more than Uncle Charlie and Aunt Annie, and she wasn't related, but that's the way she expressed it.
I had three sisters and one brother. One sister died (Alice Bills) died at three years. She was bitten by a dog, who probably had rabies, and she died 36 hours after that. Mother thought the doctor gave her the wrong type of medicine. We were all very close as brothers and sisters.
Grandma Bills (Annie) taught school in the Clear Creek mining camp. She went to the BY Academy. Then she went to Snow College. She took sewing there. She did a lot of sewing for people. She sewed wedding dresses and such, and made quite a bit of money doing that. She also worked in the store for Uncle Alley (her brother) for two-three years.
Dad didn't have much of an education. He didn't have much more than a Fifth grade education. He went to herd sheep when he was 15. They had 12 children in their family and didn't have much chance to go.
Mother was a real geneologist. She had a lot of names-- Wilcox, Bills, and Carlston-- submitted to the temple. She did the temple work for them too.
Mother's mother (Anne Marie Pederson Carlston) had one of the first sewing machines that came into Fairview. She was a real seamstress too. She was sewing and making clothing the night her father came here from Norway. He arrived late at night and she was up sewing at that time. All she had to see by, was a saucer full of tallow (sheep grease) with a rag burning in it. When he came and found her sewing at that time of night with that light, he was so upset, he didn't know what to do. So, the very next day, he went right back to Salt Lake and bought her a sewing machine and a coal-oil light, so she could see. There was no electricity at that time.
She came over from Norway when she was 20 years old (she and a sister). They all joined the church at the same time but Grandpa Pederson (her father) and her brothers were in the sawmill business in Norway and stayed to make money to come and also helped with the immigration fund for the church. He instigated this fund, and he made enough to hep 13 people come to the United States by boat. He sent these people and his wife and sons, and then he stayed a little longer and then came over. That is when he came and saw my grandmother and what poor circumstances they were in. She was a polygamist's wife. They lived in a one room house. Grandmother met her husband in Norway but she didn't marry him until she moved to Salt Lake. He was married before he left Norway and his wife died on the way over to Utah. He had four wives altogether. She had a hard time until her parents came, and then they helped her some, as well as her six sons and my mother (Annie Caroline).
I was nine years old when my Grandma Carlston died. She lived with us and mother took care of her. Dad bought her home, but she always stayed with us. She was 79 when she died. She would go and visit her other children but she would always come back and stay with us. She was a loving woman, just really a sweet person.
My mother (Annie) was a sweet woman. She was kind of the boss in the family. Dad was gone all the time, and she had a better education. She knew how to handle finances better and she was probably a better manager than he was. She taught Dad how to read and write, and she really taught him a lot. He always said that she was better than he, and that may be one reason he was backward, because he realized that he didn't have a good education. He wasn't around people very much either. Yet, he had a friendly disposition. He was scared to death to go to church for fear that they would call on him.
Dad and Mother met at a dance here in Fairview. He came down from Milburn (he lived in Milburn) and he danced with her. Then his aunt married her half-brother and she happened to be with her mother over here where the telephone office is, and he came over with his mother to see her sister there. He met mother again, and talked to her and that was the first real conversation she had with him other than just dancing with him. Mother thought he was really a nice-looking man. Well, he asked her for a date, and that's where it all began. She went back to school in Provo, for the winter, and then she taught school over in Clear Creek. He was over in Clear creek working in the coal mines. They really started to go together, that winter. They were married in October the next year. Laura was born in Milburn. They lived up there one year after he came back from Salt Lake.
One funny thing I remember, when I was in the first grade, Wendell came to school with Dad's boots on and Dad's hat. He was three years younger than me, and these boots went up to his knees and laced. I was so embarrassed. He had followed me to school. So, I asked the teacher if I could take him home.
When I was in the fourth grade, my feet would swell up every night and I couldn't get my shoes on in the morning. We couldn't seem to find out what was causing it. So, I would have to wait until noon to go to school before I could get my shoes on. My teacher would have me stay after school and would help me with what I would miss. She comes here occasionally yet, to visit me, and she's in her eighties. She always grabs me and kisses me. She was one of the most special teachers that I had. She was really interested in me and she saw that I got my work done. She had real compassion for me. This went on nearly all winter. They never found out what was wrong, the doctor said it was growing pains or something, but I bet it was rheumatic fever or something.
I went to the Fairview Elementary School, that is the Museum now. The first year I went to school, the roof burned off the school and we were cramped into a little narrow office in the Junior High. Once we sat down, we had to stay there until each kid moved out. We didn't have any room to wiggle or anything else. I remember it really seemed great to be back in the school again after the roof was rebuilt.
I always had a lot of friends, and boyfriends. We went to the picture show sometimes two or three times a week. But, not every week. We didn't always have the money to go. Henry was about four years older than me. We didn't go to school together. He went to Milburn, and I to Fairview. I knew his brother Bill. He started to come down to the dances, and we liked dancing together. When my dad bought the Bill's farm in Milburn, I guess he decided that I was going to move to Milburn and came and asked me for a date.
He also had a new car. We dated not quite two years before we were married. I worked in Provo one summer before we were married. I worked in a grocery store and cleaned people's houses and took care of their children. Then I came home that fall. It was getting to be depression time and jobs were hard to find, so I worked for Mrs. Oldroyd at their farm. They owned the sheep that we eventually bought, and they had a lot of men working there. I helped her cook meals for the men. Henry worked there too occasionally. I was 19 and he was 23 when we were married.
We were married in 1931, and Ronald was born in 1934. 1933 and 1934 were just about the worst years of the depression for us. We had a drought those years and that was worse than the depression for us. We lived on the old Wheeler farm. We had a few cows we would milk and some chickens and a few sheep. We raised our eggs and meat and flour and milk. We never suffered but we never had any money. We would sell people mutton for fruit. We got to where he had nothing in clothing before it ended. Henry's dad gave us some money, and we went and bought some clothing. I remember we bought Henry a pair of bib overalls and they cost 50 cents. But that 50 cents was as hard to come by than a $5 bill today and more so. We had a little money saved to pay the doctor, when Ronald was born. I guess, we sold a little cream each week and we had 400-500 chickens that we sold too. There were two families living there too. Bill and Marinda, and LaVon was born in May before Ronald in August. We divided everything 50/50. We shared a car together too. It worked out pretty well, until the kids got a little older and had to do a little work and started fighting over who did the most work. Then we decided we better divide. Henry's father lived there with us too until he died in 1936.
Elaine was born in February of 1936 and Grandpa (George Arthur) Wheeler died in July. He lived most of the time with Bill and Marinda, though. He would come and eat with us, sometimes. He had his bedroom upstairs.
We were married in the Provo Courthouse. Then in 1949, we went to the Manti Temple. There was a church in Milburn, in the old school and we were fairly active. I had tried to get Grandpa to go to the Temple for a long time. But, he was using tobacco at the time and he promised me he would quit. But he didn't. He got sick with pneumonia and after that, he couldn't take it so he just quit!
I was active in the MIA. They had it on Tuesday nights. I was president of the MIA to begin with. I was always active in Relief Society, either as a secretary or in the Presidency. I have enjoyed teaching Primary too.
Henry served in the Sunday School Superintendency while in Milburn also. We lived in Milburn until 1948. That is when we divided and we built this home in 1954. We rented for 4-5 years. We had a contractor build this home, but we did quite a lot of work on it ourselves, including Ronald and Ed.
I always thought Ronald was an obedient boy. We never had any trouble with him. Of course, I know he did things we didn't know about, but he was obedient to us. I thought about that when he blessed Mark. He mentioned in his prayer that he hoped Mark would always be obedient. He's always seemed more religious and thought more seriously than the others. Yet, we didn't do anything differently with him than any of the others.
Elaine wasn't quite so church-minded as Ronald. We have always been thrilled to death to have her, Tom and Brad come home from California! Tom has been a great help to Grandpa. And Ed, I think his troubles have been due to his marriages. Ed was always more affectionate to me than either one of the other two. He just always clung on to me from the time he was six years old. He always acted like he was just tickled to death to come home.
Our lovely and beloved grandmother, Ethel, was born on September 10, 1911 to Charles Wesley and Annie Caroline Carlston Bills in Fairview, Utah.
Her dad was a sheep herder and was away much of the time, so Annie and her kids had much work to do to survive each day. Grandma Ethel, learned to sew, cook, garden, and she also had to study for school, from a young age.
Her mother took the family to church, and taught them the gospel. Her grandmothers Anne Marie Pederson Carlston, and Sarah Bills, also had a great influence on her. She talked about her Grandma Marie who walked across the plains and had an undying testimony of Joseph Smith and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She talked about the time when the grasshoppers were eating their crops, and the saints started praying for help. Then a miracle happened when seagulls showed up and gobbled up the grasshoppers. She told us about how her grandmother needed a black pair of pants for one of the boys who was turning 12 and priesthood age. They sheered this black sheep, carded the wool, and then wove it, all before cutting and sewing it into a pair of boy's pants for Sunday. She talked about the apple orchard around their house, and lamented that they could not even grow an apple tree in Milburn (elevation 6500).
Grandma also talked of the great love her dad and mother had for each other. She said, that even President David O. McKay and his wife, could not love each other more than her parents did.
It was when she was working in Milburn, as a young lady, that she met Grandpa Henry. She had been dating another guy from Provo, with whom she was fond of. But, Grandpa Bills didn't think much of him, and guided her towards Henry. He knew that she would never go hungry with the hard-working Henry. She must have listened because on June of 1932 or 1933, she was married to Henry.
It was the middle of the depression, so times were tough. But, she said her dad was right, they never did want for food. They sold eggs and butter or cream. They had meat, and vegetables from the garden. She did tell about their clothes getting very thin, but Grandpa George paid for her and Miranda to have a new dress and Grandpa and Uncle Bill a new pair of overalls every year.
She went to church in Milburn and took her family with her. She had not been married in the temple in the beginning, so she prayed and prayed that Grandpa would quit smoking. It was just before Ronald was graduating and going off to college, that they all went to the Manti Temple and were sealed. She was very happy about this.
It wasn't until Ronald was about 14 that they got electricity. He remembers it being "the happiest Christmas!" (They must have had electric lights for the tree).
I think Grandma was happy to move back to Fairview, her home town. She was busy serving in the Primary, and in Relief Society. She had many friends whom she enjoyed at the weekly Relief Society quilting day.
She made many beautiful quilts and afghans. She made most of her own dresses and suits. She was always doing handwork when she wasn't cooking three meals a day for Grandpa and the family. She cleaned every Saturday, so that she could keep the Sabbath Day holy. She was very particular about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. She would not do stitching or crocheting or any ordinary work that did not have to be done. She stayed in her Sunday clothes all day, and read and studied her Sunday School lessons. She taught us that we should do the same.
When the kids started growing up Grandpa was tending the sheep on the desert or on the mountain, she had many lonely days. However, she kept herself busy growing her gardens, vegetable and flower. She even kept her geraniums going all winter and replanted them in the Spring. She definitely had a green thumb. She canned (or bottled) everything imaginable. One of our favorite things was when she pulled out her plum juice, and added it to our Kool-aid. It was the most delicious punch! She kept an Azalea blooming most of the time in her living room (keep a bowl under it and water from below, she said).
She enjoyed each of the grandchildren as they came along. She was especially happy when we came to visit on Saturdays or Sundays, it seemed like every week. She would get busy and fix us dinner with meat and potatoes, fruit and a cookie at the end. Sometimes we watched while she made pies. She always gave us a pinch of dough to munch on. We would help grate carrots, or make the punch, but mostly we watched while she bustled around fretting about dinner.
Our favorite time, was when the granddaughters got to visit Grandma for a week in the summer and sew our school clothes. That was when we really got to know Grandma. She could tell story after story. She relaxed and helped us with our sewing. She had two sewing machines, so we both could work (the old treadle machine of her grandmothers, and her newer Singer sewing machine. She let us choose a radio station, but then would shake her head about how the songs said the same things over and over. She took us to Relief Society with her.
One of the favorite things in her lifetime was when she and Grandpa worked at the Manti Temple. She never felt she was very smart, but Grandpa told her she would have to get on her knees and pray for help to learn all the prayers and blessings. She did, and she was so happy when she was able to memorize so much material that the sisters needed to know. She loved attending and she loved the people she associated with.
She was sad when Grandpa got very sick and passed on. She lived another ten years or so waiting and wondering when Grandpa was going to come and get her. She died in December, 2002, after a short illness. She has been sorely missed!
--Mary Lynne Wheeler York, granddaughter
Recollections of Ethel Marie Bills Wheeler
Grandpa Bills (Charles) herded sheep, worked in the timber (which means sawing logs for the mills), ran his father's farm, and he worked for mother's brothers (Carlstons) who were contractors. He also worked in the temple in Salt Lake. He delivered groceries to people in Salt Lake until he became very ill with a ruptured appendix and it took him a long time to recover when he was first married. He also threw sprags out for the mine (that is, logs sawed certain lengths which were thrown in front of carts).
He was a very gentle man, a very loving father and had a nice disposition. So did my mother. They really loved each other until the very end. They never had much of the worldly goods, but were always free to give what they had and would always offer a meal. They just seemed to be an ideal couple when it came to showing their love for everyone. More people have expressed their love for them since they've been gone, than I can even remember. One lady said she didn't think President McKay and his wife loved each other any more than Uncle Charlie and Aunt Annie, and she wasn't related, but that's the way she expressed it.
I had three sisters and one brother. One sister died (Alice Bills) died at three years. She was bitten by a dog, who probably had rabies, and she died 36 hours after that. Mother thought the doctor gave her the wrong type of medicine. We were all very close as brothers and sisters.
Grandma Bills (Annie) taught school in the Clear Creek mining camp. She went to the BY Academy. Then she went to Snow College. She took sewing there. She did a lot of sewing for people. She sewed wedding dresses and such, and made quite a bit of money doing that. She also worked in the store for Uncle Alley (her brother) for two-three years.
Dad didn't have much of an education. He didn't have much more than a Fifth grade education. He went to herd sheep when he was 15. They had 12 children in their family and didn't have much chance to go.
Mother was a real geneologist. She had a lot of names-- Wilcox, Bills, and Carlston-- submitted to the temple. She did the temple work for them too.
Mother's mother (Anne Marie Pederson Carlston) had one of the first sewing machines that came into Fairview. She was a real seamstress too. She was sewing and making clothing the night her father came here from Norway. He arrived late at night and she was up sewing at that time. All she had to see by, was a saucer full of tallow (sheep grease) with a rag burning in it. When he came and found her sewing at that time of night with that light, he was so upset, he didn't know what to do. So, the very next day, he went right back to Salt Lake and bought her a sewing machine and a coal-oil light, so she could see. There was no electricity at that time.
She came over from Norway when she was 20 years old (she and a sister). They all joined the church at the same time but Grandpa Pederson (her father) and her brothers were in the sawmill business in Norway and stayed to make money to come and also helped with the immigration fund for the church. He instigated this fund, and he made enough to hep 13 people come to the United States by boat. He sent these people and his wife and sons, and then he stayed a little longer and then came over. That is when he came and saw my grandmother and what poor circumstances they were in. She was a polygamist's wife. They lived in a one room house. Grandmother met her husband in Norway but she didn't marry him until she moved to Salt Lake. He was married before he left Norway and his wife died on the way over to Utah. He had four wives altogether. She had a hard time until her parents came, and then they helped her some, as well as her six sons and my mother (Annie Caroline).
I was nine years old when my Grandma Carlston died. She lived with us and mother took care of her. Dad bought her home, but she always stayed with us. She was 79 when she died. She would go and visit her other children but she would always come back and stay with us. She was a loving woman, just really a sweet person.
My mother (Annie) was a sweet woman. She was kind of the boss in the family. Dad was gone all the time, and she had a better education. She knew how to handle finances better and she was probably a better manager than he was. She taught Dad how to read and write, and she really taught him a lot. He always said that she was better than he, and that may be one reason he was backward, because he realized that he didn't have a good education. He wasn't around people very much either. Yet, he had a friendly disposition. He was scared to death to go to church for fear that they would call on him.
Dad and Mother met at a dance here in Fairview. He came down from Milburn (he lived in Milburn) and he danced with her. Then his aunt married her half-brother and she happened to be with her mother over here where the telephone office is, and he came over with his mother to see her sister there. He met mother again, and talked to her and that was the first real conversation she had with him other than just dancing with him. Mother thought he was really a nice-looking man. Well, he asked her for a date, and that's where it all began. She went back to school in Provo, for the winter, and then she taught school over in Clear Creek. He was over in Clear creek working in the coal mines. They really started to go together, that winter. They were married in October the next year. Laura was born in Milburn. They lived up there one year after he came back from Salt Lake.
One funny thing I remember, when I was in the first grade, Wendell came to school with Dad's boots on and Dad's hat. He was three years younger than me, and these boots went up to his knees and laced. I was so embarrassed. He had followed me to school. So, I asked the teacher if I could take him home.
When I was in the fourth grade, my feet would swell up every night and I couldn't get my shoes on in the morning. We couldn't seem to find out what was causing it. So, I would have to wait until noon to go to school before I could get my shoes on. My teacher would have me stay after school and would help me with what I would miss. She comes here occasionally yet, to visit me, and she's in her eighties. She always grabs me and kisses me. She was one of the most special teachers that I had. She was really interested in me and she saw that I got my work done. She had real compassion for me. This went on nearly all winter. They never found out what was wrong, the doctor said it was growing pains or something, but I bet it was rheumatic fever or something.
I went to the Fairview Elementary School, that is the Museum now. The first year I went to school, the roof burned off the school and we were cramped into a little narrow office in the Junior High. Once we sat down, we had to stay there until each kid moved out. We didn't have any room to wiggle or anything else. I remember it really seemed great to be back in the school again after the roof was rebuilt.
I always had a lot of friends, and boyfriends. We went to the picture show sometimes two or three times a week. But, not every week. We didn't always have the money to go. Henry was about four years older than me. We didn't go to school together. He went to Milburn, and I to Fairview. I knew his brother Bill. He started to come down to the dances, and we liked dancing together. When my dad bought the Bill's farm in Milburn, I guess he decided that I was going to move to Milburn and came and asked me for a date.
He also had a new car. We dated not quite two years before we were married. I worked in Provo one summer before we were married. I worked in a grocery store and cleaned people's houses and took care of their children. Then I came home that fall. It was getting to be depression time and jobs were hard to find, so I worked for Mrs. Oldroyd at their farm. They owned the sheep that we eventually bought, and they had a lot of men working there. I helped her cook meals for the men. Henry worked there too occasionally. I was 19 and he was 23 when we were married.
We were married in 1931, and Ronald was born in 1934. 1933 and 1934 were just about the worst years of the depression for us. We had a drought those years and that was worse than the depression for us. We lived on the old Wheeler farm. We had a few cows we would milk and some chickens and a few sheep. We raised our eggs and meat and flour and milk. We never suffered but we never had any money. We would sell people mutton for fruit. We got to where he had nothing in clothing before it ended. Henry's dad gave us some money, and we went and bought some clothing. I remember we bought Henry a pair of bib overalls and they cost 50 cents. But that 50 cents was as hard to come by than a $5 bill today and more so. We had a little money saved to pay the doctor, when Ronald was born. I guess, we sold a little cream each week and we had 400-500 chickens that we sold too. There were two families living there too. Bill and Marinda, and LaVon was born in May before Ronald in August. We divided everything 50/50. We shared a car together too. It worked out pretty well, until the kids got a little older and had to do a little work and started fighting over who did the most work. Then we decided we better divide. Henry's father lived there with us too until he died in 1936.
Elaine was born in February of 1936 and Grandpa (George Arthur) Wheeler died in July. He lived most of the time with Bill and Marinda, though. He would come and eat with us, sometimes. He had his bedroom upstairs.
We were married in the Provo Courthouse. Then in 1949, we went to the Manti Temple. There was a church in Milburn, in the old school and we were fairly active. I had tried to get Grandpa to go to the Temple for a long time. But, he was using tobacco at the time and he promised me he would quit. But he didn't. He got sick with pneumonia and after that, he couldn't take it so he just quit!
I was active in the MIA. They had it on Tuesday nights. I was president of the MIA to begin with. I was always active in Relief Society, either as a secretary or in the Presidency. I have enjoyed teaching Primary too.
Henry served in the Sunday School Superintendency while in Milburn also. We lived in Milburn until 1948. That is when we divided and we built this home in 1954. We rented for 4-5 years. We had a contractor build this home, but we did quite a lot of work on it ourselves, including Ronald and Ed.
I always thought Ronald was an obedient boy. We never had any trouble with him. Of course, I know he did things we didn't know about, but he was obedient to us. I thought about that when he blessed Mark. He mentioned in his prayer that he hoped Mark would always be obedient. He's always seemed more religious and thought more seriously than the others. Yet, we didn't do anything differently with him than any of the others.
Elaine wasn't quite so church-minded as Ronald. We have always been thrilled to death to have her, Tom and Brad come home from California! Tom has been a great help to Grandpa. And Ed, I think his troubles have been due to his marriages. Ed was always more affectionate to me than either one of the other two. He just always clung on to me from the time he was six years old. He always acted like he was just tickled to death to come home.
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