Philbert acts as "Historical Consultant"

In the early 1970's, Dad acted as a historical consultant for several newspaper reporters in the Burley (Idaho) area.  Al Dawson and Arvetta Savage wrote for the South Idaho Press and would write articles about the history of the local area.  As they had questions about events or people, they would often call or make a trip to View and visit with Dad about his memories, the people in Lynn and the surrounding areas.  Dad enjoyed sharing his experiences and was able to date and document different events by referring to his journals.  As they'd visit, the questions would trigger other memories for Dad.  He started writing short articles and stories that he'd share with Al, Arvetta, the Oakley (ID) Herald and others (or just for his own enjoyment).  We've added a new section on the right side of the page under the "Other Writings" area to house these articles and short stories.  One of these writings was about the dry farmers in the northern end of the Junction Valley along the Utah/Idaho border.  You can view the story by clicking here.

The name of Al Dawson's column in the South Idaho Press was "Western Sagas" and around the time that Dad died, Al left Burley and moved to Boise.  He went on to publish articles in the Idaho Heritage Magazine and wrote a book called "Western Saga Guide Book" using some of Dad's writings as a reference.  This really pleased Dad that he was able to contribute.

A new addition - "The Black Hills"

On the right side of the page, under the "Other Writings" section is a new addition called "The Black Hills."  Dad (Philbert) wrote this about 1963 - 1965.  Most of this information is from his memory.  For other of his writings, he'd go up to the college library in Logan and check out books,  he'd come home to read, research and check the facts. Then he would write the manuscript in longhand and Mother would type it for him.  Basically, it is the story of the schools in the Junction Valley (including Lynn) and stories of the early settlers.  I typed the book into the computer and then we added some photos of the people and places that are mentioned in the book.  I hope you read and enjoy it.  You can also read a copy by clicking here.

Christmas in Lynn

L-R: Philbert holding Virgene, Aunt Julia, Ellen, Aunt Otilia, & Uncle Lawrence

Christmas was always an exciting time in the Lynn Valley.  I don’t remember as much as I probably should, but none the less we always had a good time.  One of the things we liked to do was to go caroling, we would get on a bob-sleigh and go from house to house and sing Christmas Carols.  We enjoyed doing this and the people whose houses we went to seemed to enjoy it also.  When Laurel Hill was teaching we took Dad’s horses and bob-sleigh, sleigh bells were fastened on to the harnesses.  Simon Baker Jr. was driving the horses.  We had quite a caravan, we had a big sheet of iron hooked behind the sleigh, it was about four feet wide and eight feet long, the front of it was curved up so that it would ride over the snow.  We also had some individual sleds tied on behind and we took turns riding on them.  When we got up by the reservoir, Laurel, tipped her little sled over and hit her forehead on the edge of the big metal slide and when her head started to bleed, we were sure she was going to die.  Needless to say, this stopped our fun afternoon.

The ward met in the school to hold church activities so it was kind of hard to remember which activities were church and which were school.  We used to always have a Santa Clause party and Santa would come with presents for the kids.  We would always try to guess who Santa’s helper was, Aunt Julia was always a dead give away because of her thumbnails which were short and squatty.  We didn’t have electricity, so everyone would bring a lantern or a lamp, or both, to light the school.

We had grades one through eight in the school and everyone would help decorate the room.  Mostly it was paper chains that went crosswise from corner to corner, pulled up in the center and a large bell hung in the center.  The chains would also loop from window to window.  The school program would consist mostly of stories or poems given by the children.  Some years we would put on a one act play.

The folks would generally make their last trip to town to get supplies for the winter sometime before Thanksgiving, then we would be snowed in until some time in April when they would plow the snow out of the road.  One year not long before Christmas, Douglas and I had gone upstairs to bed.  There was a knock on the door and Dad went to see who it was, it was Clement Simper, he said that he was going to Burley tomorrow and wondered if Dad needed any thing.  Dad told him that he had a coaster wagon layed away at Western Auto and he wondered if Clement would bring it home for him.  The next night we had gone to bed and there was a knock on the door.  It was Clement with the wagon.  A few days later the road was still open, so Dad and Mother decided they would go to Burley.  Doug and I stayed home, after the folks were gone, we decided we would find the wagon.  We hunted in the basement, in the garage, the granary, the sheds at the corrals and all the small building, but we couldn’t find any wagon.  Christmas morning when we went down stairs to see what Santa had brought, the wagon was under the tree.  Years later, I asked Dad where he had hid the wagon.  He said he knew we would be looking for it, so he had carried it up to some tall sage brush between our place and Uncle Raymond’s and hid it.

As I mentioned, we didn’t have electricity, so when we, Uncle Raymond and us, decorated our Christmas Trees, we put candle holders on them with candles.  We only put about six or so candles on ours, and when we lit the candles, Dad would have a big bucket of water handy, to put out the fire if one started.  Uncle Raymond had a lot more candles on his.  They were the most beautiful sight I had ever seen when they were lit.  We had our tree up from December 15 to January 6.  Santa’s helpers would come again New Year’s Eve and leave candy and nuts again.

Our Pet Deer

Having grown up in Junction Valley on the ranch, we were surrounded by the high mountains with the large reservoir, mountain streams and broad blue skies.  We enjoyed a country lifestyle with our cousins close by.  We had many adventures with wild animals, many varieties of birds, and fishing was a favorite pastime.  We liked to catch the crawdads at the creek and make willow whistles.  We had trap lines in the winter and in the spring we waited for the eggs in the magpie nests to hatch, for the bounty was better on the little birds.  It was a great childhood.

The folks first home was a little three room house near Grandma Lind at the Lind homestead.  The joy of having a pet deer began early in life, probably even with Dad and his brothers and sisters.  When Oscar was only about two years old, he liked to feed the bottle of milk to his pet fawn and walk around holding on to it’s tail.  They were friends.  Mother said that she always knew when Tom Sherry was in the neighborhood, because the hair on the pet deer’s back would stand straight up and then the dog would start barking.  For some reason the deer didn’t like Tom.

I remember us having several pet deer that we loved, one about every year.  Dad would go out riding and find a little spotted fawn laying under the bushes and bring it home. We would feed them on the bottle and they would follow us around and live around in the yard and pastures.  As they grew up they would take off to live in the wild of the hills.

One Sunday in the fall when I was about seven years old, we were on our way home from church at the school house and as we got up by Uncle Alex’s place we spied a buck deer with horns standing in the pasture by the side of the road.  We called for Dad to stop the car so we could get out to see him.  We were sure he was one of our pets.  Dad stopped, but warned us to stay back away from him because he was a wild animal and not one of ours.  But we were sure he was as we all hurried out of the car in our Sunday clothes and started toward him.  He stood still watching us and we were able to walked right up to him and pet him.  He remembered us!  We were so excited to see him all grown up.  We didn’t want to leave, but the folks finally convinced us to go home for dinner.

We always worried that our pet deer would get shot with the wild deer at deer season time.  We had one that we raised that had four prongs on each side of his horns and we wanted to protect him.  When deer season came along that fall, Dad got a big piece of red cotton cloth and tied around his horns so he had a big red bonnet.  It saved his live for that year, at least.

The habit of having a pet deer continued down through Virgene’s teen age years as well.

George Bronson Family Memories

In the Deseret News on November 4, 2010, we ran across the obituary of Mary Lou Bronson Salter Galer.  It included the following paragraph of her birth and younger years: “Mary Lou was born April 30, 1926 at the E. Y. Ranch near Almo, Idaho to George William Bronson and Luella Jones She was the third of seven children.  She grew up in a log cabin and endured many hardships as a child with her family in the mountains of Southern Idaho.  Through this difficulty she learned to be courageous and was loyal to the end.” 

It went on to tell of her accomplishments in life after moving with her family to Salt Lake in 1940.  Our thoughts turned back to the years that the family lived in Moulton, on the north corner of the road next to the school and were our friends.  Dwain, Doug and I reminisced yesterday of those days long ago.  Dwain remembered the day of his baptism at the Lynn Reservoir as he was joined for baptism by cousin Lucille, Mary Lou Bronson and her cousin Patty Lee Updike.  The Bronson family attended church with us at the Junction School.  George was a counselor in the Bishopric with Uncle Laurence as Bishop and Uncle Vance the other counselor.

I recalled the summer that the older Bronson girls decided that the Lind boys needed some “culture” in their lives.  Mother would drive Eldon and I down to the Lynn School.  Mary Lou taught us tumbling, bringing the mattresses from their beds to serve as mats.  Georgie Gay taught us tap dancing.  Doug doesn’t remember the dance lessons, but told of often attending the dances at the Moulton school and recalled that the Bronson girls could really dance.  Sometimes the dances were held at the Junction School.  We talked of the little local group who furnished the music.  The musicians included the Lloyds, George Bronson playing the violin and Chester Bullers who was known as the left handed fiddle player. Mother and Laura Pearl Bronson played the piano with the group.  Their music was great to dance to.  Laura Pearl always said her goal was to play the Tabernacle organ in Salt Lake City some day.

The Bronson Family were all girls and our family was mostly boys and we “ kind’a got paired up”.  VaLois was the oldest then Laura Pearl and Oscar, Mary Lou and Dwain.  Georgie Gay was paired with Doug and I “inherited” Ethel May.  George mentioned to Dad one day about the possibility of the union of the two families in marriage and Dad commented that that should be left up to the kids themselves, and it was.  One son was born on the end of the Bronson family and they named him Simon William Brennon Bronson.  We called him “SWBB” for short.

Mother was the postmistress and had the little post office on our back porch.  George Bronson was the mail carrier.  The mail was delivered three times a week.  George would ride his saddle horse to Oakley to get the mail and return home the first day. The next day he would ride up the valley to Lynn and deliver the mail to Mother, usually arriving “conveniently” just in time for dinner.  In the winter it was a long hard ride in the snow.  He would come into the kitchen and walk across the room and pick up our family hair brush and pull it through his tousled hair.  A thin leather held the wire bristles in place, but they layed down under the pressure of your hand.  Doug told that one winter day we decided that we needed to fix the brush “so it would get his attention.”  We set about to fix it by replacing the thin leather with a heavy piece that would hold the metal bristles erect.  We then waited for George to arrive on his next visit and to do his customary hair brushing.  He picked up the brush and brought it down applying the customary pressure which suddenly brought tears to his eyes.  The next time he used it he put it on his head very gingerly.  It became known as "George’s brush" after that. 

Doug remembered the Bronson family was having trouble with a leaky roof.  So they put a thin layer of cement on the shingles and that fixed the leaking problem.

The Bronson family left Moulton in 1940 and we lost track of them.  I remember Luella Bronson payed us a visit one time with her daughter, Ethel who had married.

Deer Hunting Memories

I was in the 2nd grade when Laurel Hill came to teach at the Lynn School and she began to live with our family.  It was probably that fall that the following incident happened:

One clear crisp Saturday morning in October, the family was making plans for a day of hunting.  Mother invited Laurel to go along with her for the day.  I was riding behind Mother on her saddle horse and Laurel rode alone.  We rode up on the West Mountain through Uncle Laurence’s pasture, high on the mountain near the River of Rocks.  We were riding along up Deep Hollow and I was the first to see him.  I said, “There he goes, Mum!”  She moved quickly from the saddle, pulling the old lever action 32-20 rifle from the scabbard hanging from the side of the saddle as she stepped down.  She moved back, took careful aim and BOOM, she got him with one shot!  She had learned to ride, hunt and handle a gum during her growing up years in Grouse Creek.  I was so excited and yelled, “Ya’ got him, Mum, ya’ got him”!  We rode over to take a closer look at our prize buck.

Then came the job of preparing him to take home.  All that Mother and Laurel could find to cut his throat was a little pen knife of Laurel’s with a tiny 1-1/2 inch blade and so they took turns hacking away at the bloody throat to let the big animal bleed out.  By the time they were ready to load him onto the horse Dad came along the mountain to give a hand.  We really went home that day with bragging rights!  He turned out to be the only deer bagged by the family that day.  It was really an exciting experience for a little boy of seven. 

Mother always shot left-handed and preferred to carry the old pump-action twenty two.  In the 1960's Dad bought Mother a new left-handed bolt action rifle, which later became mine, being another “lefty”.

1964 Deer Hunt at hunting cabin

Through the years, Deer Season was always a gathering time for friends and family at The Ranch in Lynn.  The folks build the little family hunting cabin on the west mountain in 1954, so our dear friend, Dr. LeRoy Wirthlin of Salt Lake would have a nice place to stay when he brought his friends and family out for hunting season each year. He had covered several medical issues for our family while refusing any payment.   He’d drive out in his old Packard car loaded down with hunting gear, supplies and his sons, to meet his friends at the cabin, Steve Buckmiller, Bob Stewart and Abinadi (Bin) Tolman from Brigham City.  To them it was ten days of hunting bliss with no phones to interrupt their solitude.

One of my favorite memories of deer season and gathering at the ranch was in October of 1996.  VaLayne brought her little boys and came to Idaho.  Ellen invited us up to the ranch for the Friday night Dutch-oven dinner with the request to bring Mother along, by then in her 93rd year.  That afternoon we drove up to Lynn.  We sat in the old family kitchen, Mother in her favorite old rocking chair in front of the kitchen window.  A fire burning in the old fireplace and surrounded with love, laughter and great hunting stories.

As we drove down through the valley that evening, bright lights flickered from all the homes and yards. The roads were filled with cars and trucks pulling horse trailers coming in.  The valley had come to life once again.  Hunting season was in the air. It was a fun ride back to Burley as we sang old songs and reminisced.

Just ten days later Mother passed away suddenly at her little home in View leaving a pot of homemade soup simmering on the stove.

Some memories of World War II

I remember coming home from Church on December 7, 1941 and listening to the radio coverage of the attack on Pearl Harbor that morning by the Japanese forces. That event forced the United States to enter World War II.

Life at home went on mostly the same, but we had friends and family who left for military service. Gerald Lind went into the Navy. Keith Nelson married Ila in the Logan Temple just before he was drafted and she lived with her parents while he went into the service. My cousins, Verl Toyn and Rulon Kimber were both killed during the war.

You can imagine the fear and concern my parents felt when Oscar and Dwain were drafted into the Army. Dwain wanted to sign up for the Navy, but Dad said no. Before reporting for duty, Oscar and Dwain attended the Logan Temple with Mother and Dad. They left within a few months of each other. Oscar went to basic training at Fort Ord in California and Dwain went to Fort Hood in Texas. We posted our gold stars in the window and prayed we wouldn’t have to exchange them for black stars. Both ended up serving as cooks, Oscar in Japan and Dwain in Italy.

I remember being lonely and concerned when they left. We waited anxiously for their letters. Doug and I found ourselves busier around the place, especially after Dad got sick. Dad got really sick for a while with Inflamatory Rheumatism. It started out with stiff joints and swelled feet, but got worse and worse. For most of the summer and all winter, Dad couldn’t do much work. He spent a lot of time with his feet propped up in front of the fireplace. Doug was attending Bear River High School in Tremonton and came home as often as possible. Dad gave approval for me to take 8th grade again, so I could be at home and help that winter. We couldn’t have done it without the help of our extended family, friends and neighbors.

In 2001, Brigham Young University requested information from WW II veterans about their wartime experiences. My daughter, Paula, heard about the request and had information sent to Oscar and Dwain. Dwain mailed his information directly to BYU, but Oscar sent his information to Paula for her to forward on. I spoke with Kathryn last week and received permission to post Oscar’s experiences. You can read them by clicking here.

The Porcupine - "our best pet"

The porcupine was probably the best pet we ever had.  I don't remember that he had a name, maybe "Porky."  My older brother, Oscar, brought a gunny sack to school one day.  After school he was going to Buck Hollow (on the East Mountain) to see Heb (Heber) Simpson.  Heb kept his sheep in Buck Hollow and Oscar was going to go see if Heb had any leppy lambs he could have.  Leppy lambs have been abandoned by their mother and need to be bottle-fed to survive.  The sheepherders don't often have time or supplies to bottle feed the lambs and so will give them away.  Oscar was riding his horse toward Buck Hollow and noticed a mother porcupine walking with two baby porcupines following her along.  Oscar got off his horse, picked up one of the baby porcupines and put it in his gunny sack to bring home - but didn't go to get any lambs.  I remember that night when Oscar pulled a little black ball about two inches long out of the gunny sack.  We could hardly believe what it was.  I think my parents were tickled about having a porcupine to raise.

My sister Ellen was about four years old and she donated her "Betsy Wetsy" baby bottle to the cause and we fed him with cows milk.  When we first got him, he had black coarse hair - kind of like horse hair.  As the porcupine got older, his hair grew to about one inch long and then the quills started growing up through the hair.  After the quills grew in, we couldn't pet him like we had before.  He liked to be petted on his head.  We would hold out our index fingers a few inches apart and the porcupine would come over and put his hands on your fingers.  Then we could lift him onto our laps and pet his head.  He was a very good pet and never tried to strike us.

I don't think Uncle Raymond was "tickled" we had him.  Uncle Raymond had just planted a row of pine trees and our porcupine liked them.  He'd climb up in the trees and nibble on the bark.  Uncle Raymond would bring him back to us in a bucket every now and then.

Laurel Hill was our school teacher and she began planning a pet show at school.  Our porcupine was about a year old and we wanted to take him to the show.  After school, we decided we didn't want to take the porcupine home and we'd play with him the next day.  So we walked around the school yard checking the fence.  We plugged any holes in the fence, so he would be safe and stay put.

The next morning we found him laying dead in the road.  He was in the middle of the road where there is the main road through the valley and then it branches off and goes over the mountain to Grouse Creek.  We were so sad.  We'd left him at school and he'd been trying to come home when he got hit.  Before school started that morning, we held a little funeral and buried him in the school yard.  We found out later that Curtis Nelson had been in Burley that day and was on his way home that evening and ran over our porcupine in an unfortunate accident.

Through the years, we had lots of wild animals as pets: coyotes, bobcats, owls, deer, and lots of lambs - but the porcupine was our favorite.  I think we tried more kinds of wild animals as pets than anyone else did.  The Baker's had deer pets.  Uncle Raymond's family didn't have wild animal pets, but one year he had the Brownies write us a note at Christmas time asking us not to chase Uncle Raymond's geese.

Cora's Trip Scrapbook

In 1941, Mother went on a trip with Laurel Hill, her mother, sisters and some cousins.  Laurel was the school teacher at the Lynn School for several years and boarded with our family.  Mother and Laurel were good friends.  Laurel's brother, Jack, was on a mission in Missouri and joined the vacation for several days.  I really didn't realize that she was going anywhere until right before she left.  Things at home didn't change for us, but I got to do all the cooking while she was gone.  When she came back she told us stories and showed photos of the things she'd seen.  I think her stories are what gave me the desire to see the places she told us about.

The last few years Paula has been scanning family photos and we found many photos of Mother's trip.  She asked me questions, but I couldn't remember much information about the trip.  Recently, we were happy to have the opportunity to borrow the scrapbook that Mother put together about the trip.  We scanned the scrapbook and you can see a copy of it, and relive her adventures, by clicking here.

Introduction

We started this blog as a way to share family stories, photos, writings, histories and memories of Philbert and Cora Lind - along with stories about their ancestors, siblings, family and friends.  I hope you'll enjoy it and suggest additional ideas.  I think it's important for us to know about our family and what they wrote.  After Dad died, Mother talked to the (LDS) Church about their interest in acquiring his writings for their historical department.  However, since they were mostly family related, the Church suggested that they be maintained within the family.  Mother gave Dad's original diaries, small daybooks, spiral notebooks,and other collected histories to me. She also made available other family histories to me.  I've spent many years typing his diaries and other writings.  As long as they're just on my computer or in boxes, they aren't useful to the entire family.  With the advances in technology, it's now possible to share the information easily with the family. Please feel free to share the information with those that would be interested. I'm not a fast typist, so I'm still typing up Dad's diaries.  As I get items completed, we'll get them loaded for you to enjoy - so please keep checking back.  If you have stories to request or information to share, you can contact me at mnjlind@gmail.com.

When you click on a link to access saved files, they are hosted on an external website that will allow you to view the files. If you try to download the files, it will ask you to download some software before you can download the files.  The files and photos on the website are, by necessity, lower quality than is on my computer.  If there is a specific file or photo you'd like to request, please let me know and I'll make sure it is sent to you.