Strength Of The Lind Brothers Remembered

1917: Back L-R: Herman & Raymond; Front L-R: Oscar & Philbert

In 1966, Junelle and I and our family moved to Heyburn, Idaho, where we became acquainted with Elmer Heiner.  He was raised in Oakley, Idaho and was well acquainted with the John Peter Lind family of Lynn, Utah.  He was about the same age as my father, Philbert and Uncle Raymond.

I was visiting with Elmer one day and the topic of the conversation became centered around the strength of the Lind Brothers.  He was telling me how strong they were.  He said that on occasion, he would haul grain from Lynn to Oakley with horses and wagon.  On one trip that he made, he had spent the night in the Lind home.  After eating a hearty and delicious breakfast that Grandma Lind had prepared, he started for the corral and barn to get his team ready to leave.  Dad and Uncle Raymond said that they would go and help him.  As they approached the corral, they saw there was a yearling heifer in the stackyard.  Dad ran the heifer down and caught her, Uncle Raymond picked her up around the legs, carried her to the corral fence and lifted her over the fence  into the corral.  Elmer said the heifer probably weighed at least 400 pounds.  His comment was, “I would never have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”

On another occasion, two men were trying to load a fifty-five gallon barrel of oil into the bed of a pickup.  They had a plank they were trying to roll the barrel up into the bed of the truck.  They would almost get it in and it would get away from them.  Uncle Raymond watched them for a while, then said, “If you will move, I will help you load your barrel.”  He walked over to the barrel, picked it up, and lifted it into the pickup.  It weighed about 450 pounds.

Some deer hunters borrowed a horse from Dad to bring a deer they had killed off the mountain.  After they left, Dad said, “Let’s go for a ride and see if we can find a big buck.”  We rode over the mountain to Chadwick Basin and Kimball Creek, we didn’t find the big buck, but we did find the two hunters trying to load the buck they has killed onto the horse.  They were really struggling, Dad offered to help them.  He picked the buck up and threw it over the saddle and tied it on, the hunters looked dumbfounded.