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