Milburn Green and Verla May (Cook) Hix Part Three

Milburn Green and Verla May (Cook) Hix

We next moved back to Grant and Milburn rented the farm of his Uncle Warren Webster.  This farm was right next to the one Milburn had grown up on and we lived just down the lane behind where Junius Taylor now lives.  In the spring of 1948, a farm in Coltman came up for sale and we decided to buy it, which we did with the help of a loan from Wayne Boam and the bank.  We lived in a big old lava rock house which was too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, but it was ours and we were happy to have our own house for the first time.  We raised 25 acres of potatoes that first year and sold them right out of the field for almost enough to pay off what we owed for the farm.  It was the most money we ever made on the farm in one year.  

Milburn was not very active in the church during those first years in Coltman, but the people there kept encouraging him and inviting him and finally in 1958, he started going to church and never looked back after that.  When Veldon married Arlene Nelson in August of 1959, he had a recommend and was able to go to the

temple with them.  I served in all the organizations of the church, Primary, Sunday School and Relief Society and Milburn was a Ward Teaching Supervisor for many years and his group had 100% visits for a period of 18 months.  He also served many years Finance Clerk of the Coltman Ward.  

After Milburn retired from farming and sold the farm to Roger Stucki, we worked together for many years as custodians for the Coltman Church.  In 1978, we were called to serve in the Montana Billings Mission and spent 18 months working with the Indians on reservations in Browning and Lame Deer, Montana and in Riverton, Wyoming.  We greatly enjoyed our missionary service and learned to love the Indian people very much.  We didn’t have a great deal of success in converting them, but felt we left them with a positive picture of the church.  We were also privileged to serve as temple workers in the Idaho Falls Temple during the time when live sessions were used and all the parts were played by temple workers.  I was so proud of Milburn; he was able to learn all the parts to the temple ceremony and I never once heard him make a mistake. 

During our later years, we were able to travel some and we enjoyed this very much.  The highlight was to visit Hawaii and for Milburn to go back to the Schofield Barracks where he had served in the army as a young man.  As we grew older our health started to fail us.  I got so I couldn’t remember things very well and Milburn had to remind me of the things that needed to be done.  Then he fell one night and broke his hip and ended up in the hospital.  After surgery to repair his hip he needed to be in a wheelchair for a time and so we went to the Lincoln Court Assisted Living Center in Idaho Falls.  It took us a while to get comfortable there, but we grew to like it and decided to sell our house and stay there.  We eventually got to the point where we needed more care and went for a time to the Beehive Home on 1^st Street in Idaho Falls.  This was not a very good experience for us, as Milburn fell and broke his arm and was in the hospital and then had to go to the Good Samaritan Center for therapy. 

While he was there, I moved to the small rest home in Grant and Milburn joined me there later.  This was a good place for us, only a few other people and it was quiet and peaceful.  By this time, both of us were having a hard time remembering things, even sometimes didn’t recognize our family members.  I fell ill one night and passed away early on the morning of 25 July 1999 and Milburn followed soon after on 23 December 1999.  We are buried side by side in the cemetery in Grant, back home at last. 

Milburn Green and Verla May (Cook) Hix Part Two

Milburn Green and Verla May (Cook) Hix

I, Verla May (Cook) Hix, was born on 24 March 1915 at Taylorville, Bonneville County, Idaho the 4^th daughter and 6^th child of James Edward and Christine Magdalena (Buchmiller) Cook.  My parents had 6 more children for a family of twelve children.  I always thought being in the middle was a disadvantage because the older kids got to do things because they were older and the younger kids got to do things because they were younger.  Those in the middle got what was left;  not much.  With a large family, times were hard and we all had to work.  As soon as we were big enough to understand we were given chores to do and as we grew the chores did too.  But we had fun times too.  With a large family, there was always someone to play with and my parents made up for their lack of monetary things with a lot of love.  I remember one time my Dad gave my brother Virgil and I some marbles.  We decided to plant them in the ground and grow a whole bunch more.  We did, but nothing happened.  We had been told by our parents and in church that we should pray when we needed something and Heavenly Father would give it to us.  So we prayed our marbles would grow, but they still didn’t.  We asked mother why and she had to explain why Heavenly Father wouldn’t make the marbles grow.

As my older sisters went to school, they would come home and teach me what they learned.  By the time I was old enough to go, I already could do everything they taught in first grade.  I ended up skipping a grade later and that is why Milburn and I graduated from the 8^th Grade together even though he was a year and a half older than me. 

I remember when our family got our first car and how excited we were; the same when we first got a radio.  We moved around a lot when I was young and I had to make new friends quite often, which was hard for me as I was smaller than most of the other girls my age and quite self conscious about it.  I was baptized into the LDS Church on 30 June 1923, when I was a few months past my 8^th birthday.  After I graduated from the 8^th Grade, I attended Midway High School for one year and most of the second, although I never went until after potato harvest was over.  During the 2^nd year of high school, I was in a school bus wreck and my leg was injured and I didn’t get to finish that year.  After harvest the 3^rd year, I had an ulcerated tooth and so I quit going to school.  After the tooth got better, I went to work at the Canners Seed Company in Lewisville sorting peas and worked there for several years until I got married.

Milburn and I had dated a few times before he went into the army and exchanged a few letters while he was away.  When he came back we started dating again and we were married on 3 December 1938 by Bishop George Christensen.  Our good friends, Ralph Jardine and Artell Randall were married at the same time and we left on a honeymoon to Malad, Idaho.  It was storming and the roads were bad so we stopped in Pocatello and stayed in a motel for 50 cents.  We went to a grocery store and bought wieners and buns and had hot dogs for our wedding supper. 

We stayed the rest of that winter with Uncle Joe and Aunt Julie Ellis and then Milburn got a job working for Frank Martinsen just up the road and we moved into a converted granary in the spring.  That summer we traveled to Logan, Utah and were sealed in the temple there on 2 June 1939.  I was pregnant with Veldon at the time and a few months later decided his time had come.  I walked down the road about a quarter of a mile to Aunt Julie’s house and Veldon was born there on 5 September 1939.  We then moved about a mile west on Grant Road and for the first time, lived in a house all by ourselves.  

For the next few years we moved around a lot, to Coltman, the Ucon, back to Grant, and later to Garfield as Milburn found work with various farmers in the area.  We were living in Grant when our 2^nd son Delray was born.  He had a heart defect and was only able to stay with us for about three weeks.  We were heartbroken because he was a beautiful baby, but we were comforted by the knowledge that we could be with him again and we are.  We then moved to Lewisville where Milburn rented land from Aunt June Walker and from Bertha Sauer.  For the first time in his life he was finally farming on his own.  We were living in Lewisville when our beautiful red-haired daughter Garna May Hix was born on 29 December 1946 at the McKee Maternity Home in Rigby.

To be continued next week

  

Milburn Green and Verla May (Cook) Hix Part One

Milburn Green and Verla May (Cook) Hix

You may have heard of us, but may not know much about us since our time on earth ended about 15 years ago.  We thought we would tell you a little bit about our lives and show you some pictures so you will know us better and can see what we looked like.  I think we’ll let Verla tell our story since she always claimed to be the smarter one.  She graduated at the top of our 8^th grade graduating class, Milburn was at the other end. 

Milburn was born 3 August 1913, in the family home at Grant, Idaho, the fifth child of Rolla Constantine and Eda Ellen (Webster) Hix.  He joined 3 older brothers; Leland Webster, Ray Constantine, and Lowell Rich, and one older sister, Severn Eda.  Two more sisters; Edna Almeda and Zelda Irene and one more brother; Max Gayle came after Milburn.  Both Leland and Gayle died of appendicitis, Leland at age 13 and Gayle at age 9.

When Milburn was about 3 years old, his father homesteaded 160 acres of land out in Monteview.  They had to live there for 6 months a year for 3 years to gain the title to the property, so every summer his Mother and the younger children lived in Monteview and his father and older brothers farmed in Grant.  Milburn started first grade in Monteview in a little one-room school with all grades under one teacher.  They didn’t have enough chairs or desks so the first graders just sat in the corner and played quietly, being ignored by the teacher.  Luckily, this only lasted for a few weeks and they moved back to Grant and a regular school.  They proved up on the claim in Monteview, but couldn’t raise a crop because there was no water, so the land was sold in 1948.  Now wells and sprinkler irrigation have made the area into great farm country. 

One time Milburn’s mother sent him to the dentist with a neighbor and gave him 2 dollars to get two teeth pulled.  The dentist said it would cost a dollar per tooth if they were deadened or 50 cents each without.  Milburn reasoned he could have a dollar to spend if they weren’t deadened so he told the dentist to go ahead without the novocaine.  The dentist reached in and pulled the first tooth but they never caught up with him to pull the other one.  Another time his sister Severn took him to a play at the Grant Hall.  She only had one nickel and the tickets were a nickel, so she told the man at the door that her little brother was almost blind and he let them both in for the nickel.  She told Milburn to close his eyes if anyone looked at him. 

Milburn was baptized on 7 August 1921 in the Burgess Canal behind the Dabell Home on the Lewisville Highway, and was ordained a Deacon on 4 January 1926.  He loved to pass the sacrament and never missed an opportunity to do so.  Milburn was almost 12 years old when his mother passed away.  The next few years were pretty lonely for him as he had always been his mother’s right hand man, helping with the garden, milking the cows, feeding the chickens and gathering eggs, as well as hitching up the white-top buggy for her when she had some place to go. 

In the fall after graduating from the 8^th grade, Milburn had to help with the potato and beet harvest, so was not able to start high school right away.  By the time the harvest was over some of his family had scarlet fever and the whole family was quarantined in their home for six weeks.  By the time he got to go to school it was after Christmas and the principal told him he was so far behind, he might as well quit, so he did.  That was the end of his formal schooling, but he learned a lot from the “school of hard knocks”, which he attended quite often.

Milburn continued to work on the farm with his dad and brothers and during the winter of 1932, stayed with his Webster Grandparents and did their chores and helped take care of them.  The next summer he joined the Civilian Conservation Corp.  This was a government program to offer jobs to those who were unemployed and they were paid to work on conservation projects.  They built roads in the forests, made campsites and accomplished a lot of good work.  He was first sent to Victor, Idaho where he worked for about 3 months and then was sent to Horseshoe Bend, just north of Emmett, Idaho.  He enjoyed the work because he was used to doing hard work, but was surprised at how many of the men from other parts of the country had never learned how to work, many had never done a day’s work in their lives.  He came home in April and for the next couple of years worked summers putting up hay in Montana and for various farmers around Grant.  He worked for a time for Rube Boam and was sent to accompany a load of Rube’s cattle on the train to Los Angeles.  He saw Las Vegas when it was just a few buildings and spent a day at Long Beach, California marveling at all the sights of a big city, which he had never seen before.  

That fall, Milburn and Leo Gneiting joined the US Army and, after a few days in Salt Lake, boarded a train for California.  His father died while he was on his way to California and it was two weeks before he got word of it from his family.  After basic training in San Francisco, they were sent to Hawaii and spent the next 18 months at Schofield Barracks north of Honolulu.  They were discharged and arrived home on Christmas Day in 1936.  Milburn found many changes in his family when he arrived; Lowell and Edna were married and his sister Zelda was living with Ray and his wife Florence, and his Webster Grandparent had both passed away while he was gone.  For the next couple of years he stayed with different family members and worked for farmers around the area. 

To be Continued next week

Verla May Cook-Life Sketch Part Three

Life Sketch of Verla May Cook 

Written by Herself - 1961
Thanks to her son, Veldon Hix for sharing this.

1915-1999

 I was married to Milburn Green Hix 3 December 1938 at Grant, Idaho by Bishop George Christensen.  Next summer 2 June 1939 we were sealed in the Logan Temple at Logan, Utah.

Our first home was with Aunt Julia and Uncle Joseph Ellis.  During our first year of marriage Milburn and I taught a Sunday School Class.  Our first child was born to us at Aunt Julia=s house 5 September 1939, named Veldon Max Hix.  We moved around at Grant and then moved to Coltman for one winter and summer 1940.  We moved to Ucon one winter and Milburn sorted potatoes.  That was a hard winter for us.  Work wasn=t steady and not much pay, 25 or 35 cents and hour, with another baby on the way.

The next spring we moved back to Grant and our second child was born at Ray Hix=s home on 22 April 1941, Del Ray Hix.  We were only privileged to have him with us for four weeks.  He died of congenital heart disease on 17 May 1941. 

We moved from Grant to Garfield and rented a farm and then to Lewisville. We farmed two small places at Lewisville.  It was here our third child, Garna Mae Hix, was born 29 December 1946 at the McKee Maternity Home at Rigby, Idaho.   Veldon began his schooling here.  We moved from Lewisville to Grant again and farmed for Uncle Warren Webster. 

Then in January 1948 we moved to our present home at Coltman, Idaho.  While living here I have held many church positions: 2nd Counselor in YWMIA for 3 years, Sports Director in YWMIA for one year, Asst. Coordinator of Jr. Sunday School for 5 years, Coordinator of Jr. Sunday School for 1 year, and Secretary of YWMIA for one year.  I also served as 2nd Counselor in PTA.  I have served as a Relief Society Block Teacher for 8 years and am still serving there.  I am presently a Primary Teacher, which I have been doing since being released from the Jr. Sunday School about 2 years ago.

My son Veldon has grown to manhood, has married a lovely wife in the Idaho Falls Temple and we have a sweet granddaughter, all of which we are very proud.  Veldon is graduating from the University of Idaho in June and going on to school.  He has been active in the church all his life and still is. 

Our daughter is growing into a young lady and has also been active in the church and still is.  They have both achieved good grades all through school and that makes us proud.   I am proud of my family and of my heritage. 

I have seen many of my prayers answered since my marriage and before my marriage.  My mother and father taught us to pray and I will always remember our big long table at home with all of us kneeling by our chairs for family prayer.  I believe my sister is alive and grown and has a family today through my mother=s faith and prayer when she was choking with whooping cough. The doctor had pronounced her dead when my mother took us into the bedroom and we knelt in prayer.  She came out of it and is alive today.    There are many instances I can remember her prayers in sickness, also my dad=s priesthood prayers and faith.  I owe a lot to them.  I only wish I was as good a mother as she. 

[Much has transpired since Aunt Verla wrote this history.  I will be posting another life history of her and her husband that Veldon wrote.  So stay tuned for more to follow on this elect lady and her family.]