The Fourth of July Dorothy Mariam Miller
1903-1968

On the 16th of September 1903, Dorothy Mariam Miller was born, in town of Sunnyside, in Carbon County, in the state of Utah. Her parents are, John Edward Miller and Christina Marie Jensen Miller. Dorothy was the sixth child in a family of twelve. The first five children, Miles Edward (Miles), Charles Henry (Charlie), Anna Kathrine (Irene or Trini), Leland Lorenzo (Lee) and James William (Bill) were born in Emery, Emery County, Utah.

Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States having succeeded William McKinley when he was assassinated in 1901. The motorcar had been developed, but the Millers were still using a team and wagon for transportation.

The family had moved to Sunnyside to find work in the coalmines. They moved a number of times over the years, going where John Edward could find work.

Another child, Harvey, was born in Sunnyside on 9 Sep 1905. He lived for four months. He died of pneumonia on 7 Jan 1906 and was buried in Sunnyside. Later the coal company, that owned the mine, built coke ovens over the cemetery where he was buried.

While Dorothy was living in the town of Sunnyside, an Old Italian Lady gave Dorothy two China Frog Bottles that held vinegar. She gave one of the bottles to her mother's Aunt Matilda and kept the other one.

The family returned to Emery where they were living on a ranch outside of Emery when Harrison Morgan (Harry) was born the 24th of Jun 1907, before Hugh was born; there was a celebration, with a parade, in the town. Dorothy was five years old. The following September she would turn six. While the rest of the family went to the celebration, Dorothy stayed with her mother. Dorothy's mother was not feeling well with the birth of her baby only two weeks away. The cistern that supplied water for the household was about a block away at her Grandmother Jensen's home. Because her mother wanted a cool drink, Dorothy took a small bucket that had once held lard, and walked to the spring. A rock held a cover over the cistern to keep it clean. When Dorothy removed the rock, she dropped it on her toe. Her toenails didn't come off. However, it became thick and hard, very different from the rest of her toenails. That toenail remained that way for the rest of her life.

With a large family it was necessary for children to help out at an early age. Dorothy remembered washing dishes when she was seven years old. She had to stand on a chair to reach the dishpan.

When they lived on the ranch near Emery, her father John had to make dams in a creek and dig irrigation ditches to get water to his crops. If it rained very hard, a flash flood would wash out the dam and part of the ditches. He would have to begin again making a dam and digging ditches.

One night after it had been raining, the family heard an awful roar. They went up on a high knoll. They couldn't see very much because it was dark, but they could hear the trees breaking as the force of the water hit them. The water spread over some neighboring farms. It even washed some of the neighbor's livestock away. The Miller's home was high enough that the flood didn't reach them. They couldn't use the water from the creek to drink or cook with. John had to haul water from a spring about a mile away. Sometimes Dorothy had to take two small buckets with lids on to avoid spilling the water, and go to the spring for water.

One day Dorothy's mother Marie sent her to drive the sheep out of the alfalfa field. They had a big ram and when Dorothy went to drive the sheep out of the field, the ram began to chase her. She was butted and knocked down. Her mother told her to lay still and the ram would go away. Dorothy was too scared to listen. She got up and ran. Again the ram knocked her down. Her mother was finally able to chase the animal away. Dorothy was badly bruised but not seriously injured.

When the corn was ready to eat, John built a big fire. They picked corn and roasted it over the fire. The whole family sat around the fire and enjoyed the freshly roasted ears of corn. The family took great pleasure in doing things together. When the watermelons were ripe, they had a delightful time eating watermelon, and the older children held seed spitting contests.

John didn't think this ranch was large enough for his growing family, so he sold it and traveled in wagons to the Uinta Basin. Because they were traveling by wagon, it took a long time to reach their destination. At night John and Marie along with the baby, would sleep in one wagon. Dorothy and her sister Trini and some of the smaller boys slept in the other wagon. The older boys pitched a tent to sleep in.

John Edward filed on 160 acres on the Indian Reservation in Duchene County. The name of the community was Bluebell. The family lived in tents until John could build a house. Once again John was building dams and digging ditches.

The children had to walk about three miles to school and church unless their father took them in the wagon.

On the 31st of May 1911 Dorothy's Grandmother Annie Christine Jensen died in Emery. The family went back to Emery for the winter. Dorothy's sister Mary Marie Miller was born the 13th of April 1912 in Emery.

The family started back to Bluebell but stopped in a mining camp called Clear Creek where John cut timbers for the mines through the summer. They then proceeded to their home in the Uinta Basin. As always, when they traveled it was by wagon.

While they were living in Bluebell, Dorothy was baptized. The Bluebell Ward house containing the records was destroyed by fire. Years later when Dorothy was preparing to go to the temple for her endowments and to be sealed to her husband, Floyd Tassie, she had to be re-baptized so there would be a record. Her husband Floyd Tassie baptized her. The Bluebell Ward became the Mount Emmons Ward.

Dorothy and her sister and brothers went to school and church when the snow wasn't too deep in the winter.

Their ranch was in a valley between two hills. On Easter the children boiled and colored eggs. They packed a lunch and went across the ranch to the east side. They climbed the hill and found a nice sandy place to roll their eggs down the hill. When an egg broke the owner would eat it. One Easter one of Dorothy's brothers had a large egg with a tough shell. It was the only egg that survived the trips down the hill.

Dorothy remembered another Fourth of July on the reservation. Everyone went downtown in their Sunday best to the Celebration. Much to their surprise, it snowed! When she was older, and people around her would complain about the heat in July, Dorothy would say, "I've seen it snow in July."

On the 23rd of May 1915, John Jackson Miller was born in Blue Bell. That same year, John sold the ranch and moved with his family to Delta, Millard County, Utah. They arrived in Delta in December 1915.

Dorothy's oldest brother Miles Miller was married in September of 1915 in Beaver, Beaver County, Utah,

Two of the boys became very ill with either diphtheria or pneumonia. They had a high fever. There were no doctors where they were. John and Marie sat the boys in a tub of cold water and added snow until they were packed in snow. It broke their fever and the children recovered.

In Delta, John farmed on shares for one year. After the crops were in, the family moved to Leeds, Washington County, Utah. No houses were available for rent in Leeds, so they moved to Silver Reef, an old mining camp about two miles from Leeds. There were only two buildings standing, and the family lived in one of them. The other was the Wells Fargo Building.

They lived in Silver Reef in 1916 and 1917. Amanda Maudaline Miller was born in Silver Reef on 24 Dec 1917. However her birth was recorded in Leeds. Dorothy and the other children walked two miles to school, church, and the store and to get their mail.

Dorothy told about one member of the ward, Jeremy Leavitt, who would tell people he couldn't sing because he had lost his tune. One day one of the Miller children was singing off-key. Dorothy's mother asked him where in the world he got that tune. The Boy answered that that was the tune that Jeremy Leavitt had lost.

Dorothy was fourteen when her sister Amanda (Mandy) was born. She had to take over the cooking, washing and other chores while her mother recovered. There were nine children besides John and Marie and the new baby. Dorothy tried to cook chicken for Christmas dinner. She had so many things to do she forgot the chicken and it got a little burned. They ate it but it didn't taste like when Marie cooked chicken. With practice Dorothy became a very good cook.

There were some fig trees at the Silver Reef. Dorothy climbed the trees when the figs got ripe and ate them until her tongue got sore. The figs looked ripe but they weren't really ripe.

In 1918 Dorothy's Aunt Ann Johanna died. Dorothy's mother and father took Hanna's children to live with them until their father could care for them. Dorothy's mother Christina Marie and her Aunt Hanna were sisters. Dorothy's father John Edward and Hanna's husband William Ashmer were brothers. That made the children double cousins. Even into adulthood the children felt more like brothers and sisters than cousins.

One of the children, Forest, had a big appetite. Hanna's children called Dorothy's mother "Aunt Marier." She told Forest that she didn't know how he could hold so much food. She told him that a stomach only holds a quart. A few days later Forest said to her, "Aunt Marier, you haven't cut me down a pint yet."

In about 1919, John took his family and moved to Blue Valley, Wayne County, Utah. Blue Valley is between Hanksville and Kanesville in Wayne County. It was named because of the blue tint to the soil in the area. Later the name of the town was changed to Giles to honor its first Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Earlier, the President of the Church, Brigham Young, had called pioneers to settle the region. They built a dam on the Fremont River. The settlers called it the "Dirty Devil River." Every spring between spring runoff and spring rains, the river flooded and washed out the dam. The people nearly starved. Finally, the community met with a visiting General Authority who released them from their call. Within a short time, nearly everyone left the area.

It was several years after the town was abandoned that John Edward was hired to work one of the few remaining farms. It was so cold that winter of 1919 that the cattle froze to death standing up. Dorothy was about sixteen years old. During the spring and summer she loved to hurry through her chores and then climb the hills behind the house. With nine brothers and sisters it's easy to understand her desire for some time alone. She gathered pine gum from the trees on the hill and chewed it while she wandered about.

The summer of 1919 the family took Dorothy's brother Charley from Kanesville, Wayne County to Emery to work for his uncle, Marie's brother. They had to cross the desert. John, Marie, baby Mandy, Jack, Mary and Dorothy made the trip with Charley. Dorothy rode a horse most of the way. She was sunburned by the time they got to Emery. It took about a week to make the trip.

Dorothy went to a dance in Kanesville with one of her friends, a girl named Vengoline, who rode a horse from Kanesville to Blue Valley to pick her up,. After the dance Dorothy spent the night with Vengoline who read a story out loud. When she came to a word she couldn't pronounce, she would substitute any word that came into her head such as butcher knife. It sure made a story sound funny.

Dorothy had fond memories of this time they spent in Blue Valley. The family created their own entertainment. One of the activities the children enjoyed was when their father read to the family in the evening after the chores were done. Two of the books Dorothy remembered best were, "The Call of the Wild," by Jack London and "Desert of Wheat," by Zane Grey. Their father also read from the scriptures.

The family moved back to Delta. Dorothy thinned beets or sometimes she would help a neighbor wash, iron, clean house or tend children for 50 cents a day.

Dorothy loved the dances. She would go to a dance and dance until early in the morning, then get up early to do her share of the work. It was usual for a young married couple to chaperone the activities of the young people. Among other activities, besides the dances, they would hold taffy-pulls and hayrides. A taffy-pull includes making the candy and then two people pulling it between them until it cooled. One would hold the hot candy the other would grab a handful and pull it out. Then that person would hold the candy and the first one would pull it out.

Dorothy recalled an incident when a young man in the area was accused of indecent behavior. Someone came to her father with a petition to make the young man leave the community. Her father asked Dorothy about the young man. She told her father that the boy had always treated her with respect. Her father said that was good enough for him and he would not sign the petition.

Dorothy went to work in a boarding house, cooking and cleaning. One morning, one of the boarders told her, "Stir my coffee with your finger and it will be sweet enough." In modern vernacular, her answer would be interpreted as "get real."

Dorothy's father got gangrene in his foot and it had to be amputated. He said that it felt like walking on mush just before the surgery. He walked with crutches or was in a wheelchair, until he died.

When her father died in the spring of 1922, Dorothy was working in Price. Her father died in Wellington in Carbon County. The funeral was held in Wellington. The only way Dorothy had to get there was to walk. Her cousin Forest walked with her from Price to Wellington. Dorothy was wearing high top high-heeled shoes. They walked down the railroad tracks. By the time they got to Wellington, Dorothy's feet were in bad shape. She had to wear slippers to her father's funeral. John Edward Miller is buried in Wellington.

That December, Dorothy met Floyd Addison Tassie who was working in a mine near Price. He worked as a "bone picker." They were introduced by Dorothy's niece, Delilah, the daughter of her sister, Anna Kathrine. They were married on the ninth of December in 1922, in Price, Carbon County, Utah.

After they were married they traveled to Centerfield where Dorothy met Floyd's father James for the first time. She was afraid she didn't make a very good first impression. They had traveled for many hours and she was so sleepy she could hardly stay awake.

The couple decided to move to Salt Lake City where Floyd could get work. He got a job working for the MUTUAL CREAMERY. They lived in an apartment over a grocery store between Seventh and Eighth South on Main Street in Salt Lake. The apartment was above a small grocery store. Their first child, a son, Rolland Floyd Tassie, was born there on 7 December 1924.