Big River, Sask.
July 10, 1976
Dear Ward and Family:
I was so happy to meet you, and regret I wasn’t in my home, where we could have visited much longer.
My father’s father, Thomas Miller [Horatio Thompson Miller], born in Virginia of Irish descent. They were poor and didn’t own slaves or plantation. My father’s mother, Elizabeth Zolman born in Virginia. Her parents did own slaves and a plantation.
This young couple fled across U.S.As and crossed Mississippi into southern Iowa and prospered. He missed going to Civil war, perhaps to thinly settled. They had four daughters: Carrie Loutzenhizer, Hun Hoover, Virginia Warden, and Maggie Adair: then my father Henry, then John, Charlie, Bill and Bessie.
The sons all had college education. Charlie and Bill were doctors. Bill doctored and lived to be 90 some. Charlie was doctoring in Louisiana [Alabama] and took typhoid fever from a patient and died. John went to Spanish-American war. After war he taught Latin in Philippian Islands [Philippines] and he and another man wrote an arithmetic. In 1949 the Japs we’re still using it.
Bessie married Arthur Drake and moved to Texas barely south of Texas panhandle. They had two sons and two daughters. My father worried about them. It was so dry, no rain, water so scarce. They kept sheep, could mostly survive on dew on the grass. 1933 they discovered wells of a great depth. It cost 5 thousand dollars to dig a well and 5 thousand dollars to buy a tractor to pump water day and night to a farm 160 acres. Then northern Texas prospered.
My mother was born in Pennsylvania, her father went through the Civil War. She had one brother and two sisters born before Civil War. My mother born first after Civil war. Her mother Mary Cort born in England. Her father Nicholas Uglow an Englishman. My father was born April 1869. My mother was born Dec 1869. I was born January 1, 1895 near Mount Ayr, Iowa. My parents were slightly past 25 years old when I was born. They lost a baby boy before me. Fay was born April 1896. Wayne was born Feb. 5, 1898.
I was four years old when my parents left Iowa and took a homestead in Rock County, Nebraska, 9 miles north of Bassett. My sister Alta was born July 1901 a baby was born. I remember her crying most of the time, it died. I remember they sent its body back to Iowa for burial. My father’s father visited us the summer of 1902.
Frank Bechtel came to work for my father 1903 and worked more or less for three years. He taught the Scripture to Fay, Wayne and I. That left an impression I can never forget. During that three years my father took Fay, Wayne and I to visit his mother. I didn’t stay too long. I remember my uncle Bill putting me on the train in the care of the conductor. You see my father left me with his mother. Frank Bechtel’s wife died and he needed a job. He had two daughters and four sons. By 1906 I was 11 years old. Frank Bechtel’s son Ernest 16 years old came to work for my father and stayed five years and was a fine fellow.
About 1905 I was 10 years old my father sent me with some cattle to herd. I had my own pony and saddle and rope around the saddlehorn. I let the rope out for my pony to feed and lay on the ground studying my book. In the evening my father would see how much I had learned. We had three months school in the spring in three months in the fall. I finished grade 8 when I was 13 years old.
I think soon after Frank Bechtel came my father built a barn, but not a high roof or loft but it had lean-to on three sides, with pens for sows to have 100 pigs. Inside the barn we milk at 35 cows and had a room for the cream separator. In the fall when the cows start to dry up and the pigs were half-grown and the acorns began to fall. My father would turn his pigs loose and they fed up and down the creek on those acorns until they were nearly full grown, My father took them in and finished them with corn. The pork had a lovely taste. I think my father had about 200 head cattle and 50 head mares, some having mules and some having colts and 2 stallions of different breed.
My father shipped car loads of apples pears and grapes. There was always some left over to put in our cave. We didn’t have basements under our house but in outside the cave. Our cave had about six bins and lane between 3 on each side. We had two or three large wooden barrels. We had an apple crusher. We put the juice in jugs for cider and the pulp we put in these wooden barrels and filled with water and slimy mother on top and cover with a thick cloth. Them my father sold cider and vinegar. My father grew can, in the fall he cut the cat and loaded in on a wagon, sideboard filled high and hauled it to be crushed and brought home a 50 gal. wooden barrel full of sorghum molasses. My mother made lots of ginger bread cake out of sorghum molasses.
In the fall of 1908 I was 13 years old. My parents took me to Bassett, Nebr. to go to 9th grade school. My mother took me to board with an elderly lady, that washed clothes, on a scrub board, for her living. I shouldn’t tell this, but it is true. Every time my mother paid my board, she would argue with this woman, trying to jew her down in the price. My heart would ache and it still aches over that. You don’ realize how much your children remember of your conduct.
By that time I was quite religious. I read my Bible since I was 11 years old and before I went to school I would go into this lady’s outside toilet and pray. This is truth. I think about this time, the Wright Bros were demonstrating their flying in Gregory, South Dakota about 40 miles north of us. My father hooked up a team of horses to a wagon and we started early in the morning for Gregory, S. Dakota. I remember my parents sat on a seat that had springs, but we children sat on a board with a quilt spread over it. Anyway we saw the Wright Bros. demonstrate their skill in flying. I am 81 years old, how every thing has changed in 66 years. What will be here on earth in another 66 years?
I finished the 9th grade and studied Latin and German, but I don’t remember any of it. But I studied history and I remember lots of it. I still read my history books. I love history. God made this earth and put all these people here. What does God think of us?
Then I went back to Bassett to take grade 10. At Christmas-time I took sick with diphtheria and scarlet fever. My father hired a trained nurse to live in the home or I wouldn’t be here. I was unconscious for some time. She had been trained in Germany. I wasn’t able to finish grade 10. Our County Superintendent held teachers institute July and August and I went to that.
Charles Ammon, the County Supt. ask my father if I could teach a country school of 15 pupils for 3 months. I taught those 15 pupils for 3 mo. Before I was 16 yrs bornt. Then my parents put me on the train to go about 200 miles to Fremont near Omaha, Nebr, to go to normal for 6 months.
I had fallen very much in love with the hired man Ernest Bechtel, so I wrote him a letter. My mother got the letter out of the mail box and wrote me to never write him again. In a short time I wrote another letter, she would bring me home and tie me in the cave with chains! So I didn’t write any more letters.
July 1, 1911 I came home from normal. I had done well with all my work. But my mother persuaded my father to send Ernest away. When I came home he was gone [???]
Anyway I went to teaching, three month here and three months there. I managed nine months a year. I did enjoy teaching very much, the County Supt. Said I was secong best in the county.
I quit reading my Bible and I quit my prayers. I carried on for 1 1/2 years, now I am 18 Jan 1, 1913. My parents put on a big birthday party. A young fellow, jolly, handsome came. I knew I still love this other fellow I lost my good reasoning. I fell for John Woolhiser. He went to Montana, I hoped he would find a homestead. When my school was out I met him in Billings, Montana. We were married June 23, 1913 in Billings, Montana. We soon went back to Mills, Nebr. In the spring 1914 we obtained a covered wagon, my father gave me a team of horses and we started out with another couple that had 6 children and 2 covered wagons. The woman drove one wagon. By the time we got to the Black Hills, S. Dakota, the two men got into a quarrel over the children. My husband was too cross with children. We traveled alone north and west into Montana to Miles City, from there mostly west then north through the Judith Pass into the Judith Basin and my husband got a job from Henry Slack near Lewistown. This man had 1900 acres wheat and the first combine I ever saw. I washed dished for my board. I had lots of time to spare. So I walked 1/2 mile to a railroad track that ran along a ridge. I sat on this ridge and looked eastward to a Mennonite Colony. I saw them going to Church in family group. I talked with some of them. One man had responsibility cattle, another man the horses, another man the pigs and another man the sheep and so on. Girls were not allowed to do heavy work. So girls watched the sheep. Near the track where the girls watched the sheep there was a gravel pit and a man stationed there to see to loading gravel. This man went across the track talking to these girls. One day one girl came home carrying the other girls clothes. This man had bought a full outfit of clothes for the girl and got a station some where else, and took the girl. Those Mennonite didn’t prepare violence, but a number went to bring the girl back, but my then he married the girl, and they had to go home without her. I have so often thought of that girl and wondered if she had a happy life. World war I broke out Sept. 1914 while we were there.
Sept. 19 I told my mistress that I felt that I would have my baby. She told me to lie down on her bed. She said “It takes a long time to have a baby.” Before too long again and again she said the same thin. Finally the third time she got excited and called a woman. The woman arrived just in time to look after the baby. It was an easy birth.
My husband and I started a store and post office near there, but it proved to be a poor location. Then we moved to Moore, Montana in the Judith Basin.
Our second son Leonard Alfred was born there June 3, 1916. Our first son Dennis William. Then my husband had an appendix operation. We sold everything and went back to Mills, Nebraska. We had been gone 3 years. We lived with his widow mother on her farm. Willard was born April 1918.
Terrible flu hit the country. People were dying in almost half of the homes. We were very sick. Willard was 11 months old was passing blood. I quit nursing him and found my milk was green. I have him doses of castor oil often. He passed castor oil in his diaper. Finally I gave him diluted cows milk. He slowly recovered. Dennis and Leonard kept quite well.
Then I got appendicitis and went to Omaha for operation and nearly died of pneumonia. Those days they made one lie so still. Now it is so much better, they exercise one soon after an operation.
Opal was born Mar. 14, 1920.
I still so much wanted a home of our own, or homestead. My father offered to pay our fare to Canada. I so much wanted to go. I was 26, 1921. We had been near Mill, Nebr. three years. We arrived in Shellbrook, Sask. Feb 5, 1921. My husband filed on a homestead 1 mile north of Fay and 1/2 mile north of my mother. Thelma was born Aug. 30, 1922. My husband hated Canada. But I loved our little home on the homestead. My husband wasn’t too interested in our five children. He left us Jan. 1924. Naturally I felt very sad. I turned to my Bible every day. I knelt on my knees to pray many times a day. I looked to the God I had forsaken. Everyday I read the song “There is not a friend like the lowly Jesus.”
I grew a big garden, sold potatoes. Dennis Leonard and I picked raspberries for two weeks 15 ct a lb. Dennis and I could pick 25 lbs a day. Leonard could pick 30 lbs a day. Then I canned 100 qts raspberries. We cleared the bush off 6 acres and built a fence around it. We cut down trees to build corrals, bins and sheds.
My mother gave us 4 cows on shares. We put bells on them so we could find them. The feed was good and they didn’t go far. Fay loaned us a team and wagon to gather screenings around his straw piles and would get enough o feed our chickens a year. I was very strong and healthy. The children were good to help.
The government told me if he stayed away 2 years, I could file on the homestead. In 4 years time I proved up on that homestead. When I went to prove up they told me I must be a naturalized Canadian and my husband must naturalize me. I said, I don’t know where he is. I wrote Carrie Woolhiser, my sister in law, Colome S. Dakota. She said he was in Omaha. I had to go to a lawyer in Prince Albert. He wrote a lawyer in Omaha, my husband said I could have a divorce, if I payed for it. He hadn’t sent one cent to the children. The divorce cost me $100.00. Then I naturalized and proved up my homestead. Now when I think of all this I know God answered my prayers and took good care of us.
I married Peter Hyllestad Dec. 18, 1929. I would be 35 Jan 1 and Peter 50 Jan 20, 1930. He was a bachelor, never married before. He was born and grew up north of Bergen Norway. Olaf was born Oct. 20, 1930. We moved to Big River district Aug. 1937. My husband died of cancer Feb 7, 1951. Andrew was 17 and Olaf 20 when their father died. My husbands last words, “Stick to my boys”. Olaf soon left for Saskatoon. Andrew stayed with me. Peter loved his boys. It was a pleasure to me to see how he loved his boys.
When Peter died we had horses and horse machinery. Andrew wanted a tractor and machinery to go with it. So he went to work in oil wells in winter and I did the chores. Andrew was a good boy and we prospered. Olaf married and had two little boys, but he didn’t prosper in Saskatoon. He came home with his family August 1959.
I made a down payment of a farm, two quarters, 10 miles north of Big River. It had a fair house on it. Olaf prospered there and is contented but now in poor health. His son Vern 20 last Mar. 2 will be married one year Aug 2, 1976. He built a house 20 x 24 in Olafs yard. Kim 18 last Sept. 1975 is saving all his earnings to take flying lessons. He can fly his own plane but he wants more lessons.
Andrew and I worked on that farm 12 years. When he was 30 years July 1963, he married Marlene Myers 18 years old and now have two lovely little girls Lynn 8 yrs and Lori 7 yrs. I thought I should leave the farm, although I wept many secret tears.
Nov. 1963 about the time Kennedy was shot I started out on the bus. I went south from Winnipeg to Minneapolis to visit Peter’s relatives. Then to Colome S. Dakota then to Bassett, Nebr. then to Texas then to Denver, Colorado, then Scott Bluff western Nebraska then to Beaverton, Oregon, then back to Canada (I omitted San Francisco) to British Columbia for two weeks visit with Willie Stubbs sister Mary and their mother. Then to Savona to visit Ella Kingsley and family, then to Edmonton to visit Freda and Rex and family, then home to Olafs, ten miles north of Big River. Andrew lives 17 miles south east of Big River. I visit Andrew, Marlene, Lynn, and Lori often. My heart thrills every time I go to the old home. I arrived May 1964 after traveling about six months. I saw many places but I like Big River best and I was glad to get home.
Leonard and his wife lived near Beaverton. They chummed continually with another couple. Leonard’s wife divorced him and married the other man. Leonard had 3 daughters. Verelene Cook husband and 4 children live in Campbell River. And Marilyn Kyler, husband and 3 children living in Hillsboro, Oregon. Barbara Woolhiser, single in Hillsboro. Leonard came to Canada Dec. 1964 prepared to stay. I bought a trailer and lived with Leonard 4 years on his farm 1 1/2 mile north of Olaf. Then Leonard went to Yukon to do carpenter work, he only stayed 5 mo and came back and built a small house. He now takes care of his cattle and farm and works at the nursery. After Leonard went to Yukon Olaf moved my trailer to his yard. I lived in Olafs yard 4 years then Mar 1, 1974 I moved to Big River Senior Citizen apartment. I am very comfortable and happy here. The 4 years I lived with Olaf. Eight years I enjoyed teaching Scripture to Vern and Kim and they were good boys to learn.
Dennis died Nov. 1957 a blood vessel burst on his brain. He left one son Ron Woolhiser 30 years last June and teaching computers in Massachusetts. Willard had an accident that left a soft spot on his head. He couldn’t take part in World War II so he went to Aleutian Island Alaska to build landing for airplanes. He learned cement. In the fall of 1944 Andrew was 11 years old, he and I went to Dallas, Oregon to visit Leonard and family and Willard came from Alaska. Willard soon went to Cyprus with a construction company as cement man. He was there 4 years and married Alex Popondraile. She was born in Athens, Greece. Then they went to Bogota, Columbia, S. America, 4 years and Wayne was born there. Then to Pakistan, my granddaughter was born there. Finally Toland, then from there they came to Canada to visit us March 1968. I hadn’t seen Willard for 19 years.
Opal married Willie Stubbs Oct. 11, 1941, and live near Shell Lake. In 1975 they sold their farm and moved to Kelowna, B.C. Then Terry will be 25, Sept 1976 and Esther will be 20, Oct 20. Thelma married Henry Reimer Oct. 24, 1941. And has lived south east of Big River every since. They had Ann born Feb. 5, 1945. In 1956 Ann was 11 years old we went by train to Beaverton Oregon to visit Leonard and family. At that time Barbara was 12 years Marilyn was 13 and Verelene would be 15 July 1956. They were my first grandchildren. Thelma’s son Billy was born April 1952. Billy was married to Carol Bergen Aug. 30, 1975.
I am very happy, healthy and contented and comfortable her in Big River Senior Citizen apartment.