From Anna and Wilmer Murray’s Journal January 2011

Wednesday, January 9,1980

Finished typing Anna’s history. It doesn’t look much better but will have to do. Picked up Fred to go to town. Dropped off Anna’s history to Shirley Mortensen then went over to renew our certificate at the bank. We added our savings to it making it $1,900.00 and put it on a 2 ½ year with 10.15% interest. There goes our rug or trip to Panama. Anyway Sister Talbot will be down to Panama until after March. Maybe we can go after the baby comes. Charlene called to tell us they have a sweet little boy. She sounded great. (Fred got a nose bleed while we were in Roosevelt)

Thursday, January 10, 1980

We don’t have much snow but we really had wind and it’s like summer. Today is John Tucker’s birthday. I intended on calling but waited too long so just went on working on the Mucukluk. Have John’s finished and will soon have LaVora’s done. Now I must get Charlene’s baby’s quilt done. I decided I better get the clover leaf on and send it to Boise so sister Talbot can take it to them, I will call her tonight. She wasn’t home so will try in the morning. And I forgot, Beverly Urisk called and said she would be at Afton Lewis’ getting her hair done at six.

From Anna and Wilmer Murray’s Journal December 2010

Monday 22, 1980
Still beautiful weather. I worked on the quilt binding today, got it cut, pressed and sewed on the machine. Darrell called this evening to tell us Mrs. Butcher passed away this morning. It really upset us as we thought she was better. They are having her funeral Wednesday at noon. Maybe we will go back with Neil when he comes tomorrow. We called LaVora, Neil and Dewey to tell them about it.
Tuesday 23, 1980
It is still beautiful weather. I did not get much done on the quilt today. Neil came about one thirty. Then Ross and Velma came. I called to see what Darrell and JoAnn thought about us coming out with Neil. Only Jodi was home. Shortly after, JoAnn called back, she said to stay home and take care of Dad. We felt that they were always here when we need them and when they need us we can’t go. So we have really been mixed up.
We had a good visit with Neil, Ella, Ross and Velma. Ross is a good comforter. Soon Neil and Ella were on their way home. Neil said they would go to the funeral tomorrow. Ross and Velma visited a while longer. We really enjoy them and hated to see them go,
Katherine Abegglen and her blazer boys came caroling and brought us a box of goodies. Ardis Davis brought a plate of goodies too. They visited a while with us and our company. We have good neighbors. John Urisk brought some shale for out yard. They tried to keep it a secret but Dean and Ramona came and Dad asked who was out in the yard. Then we went out. Wade was helping his dad.

The Butchers and Murrays


Santa

Family update--Adventure at Aspen Grove!

Dear Family December 31, 2010

Here it is the end of December and the end of the year and we are ready to start a New Year so Happy New Year everyone.

I would assume that everyone’s past month has been very similar to mine. We shoveled snow, shopped for Christmas, had Christmas Eve dinner and celebrated Christmas day etc. It is always good to be with family and it is epically nice this time of the year.

We made our usual trip to Aspen Grove. I think all of the family was there except for Van, Marc, Cami, Jordan and Joshua. It seems Marc needed to work and of course Joshua is on his mission. Things went pretty much the same as usual except that we added a slide presentation, Aspen Grove 1984 – 2010, which Reed and his family prepared and showed. Experiencing the presentation was a time when one needed to have tissues handy. Then we took an hour or so to let anyone, who wished, share a few thought with the group. Needless to say that this was another tender time as everyone remembered their grandmother and expressed their appreciation for the Aspen Grove experience.

When we went up the canyon on the 27^th the roads were bare and clear. On the 28^th we had a warm day with the sun shining, which made for an enjoyable day. The morning of the 29^th, however, everything changed as a storm moved in. For a while we were snowed in. This is the first time, on our last day at Aspen Grove that it has been storming like this as were leaving, so this was something new. What an opportunity, just think of the stories we can tell and they, depending on ones imagination, can only get better with age. It was not until in the afternoon, when we were getting down to our last steak and everything that they decided to dig us out. Then we had an interesting trip down the canyon. First I got to close to a snow bank on my right and got stuck. A kind couple, who Reed and Kerry had asked to watch for us stopped and helped. They and my grandsons soon got me going again. Then by cell phones we learned that they wanted us to turn in at Sun Dance so the emergency vehicles following us could pass. This we did and while we were turning around in there my grandsons decided to drive my car out of the canyon. We, however had not gone far until we found our selves behind a long line of cars. Here we leaned that a big tree had fallen across the road and as it went down it took the power lines with it. We were told that it was going to be a couple of hours before they could get the tree moved. So there we set in the snow storm talking to everyone up and down the road as well as our families at home. (Interesting invention, these cell phones.) I’m sure it did not take that long for soon they had the road open and we were able to continue down the canyon. Now, just think, couldn’t one with a little imagination really come up with a good story like: (You know how we were going down the canyon in our covered wagons and the sleet falling was as big as a baseball and the weight of snow on the pine trees was causing them to fall all around us causing our animals to go crazy and then alas one fell across the road in front of us stopping our progress. So now here we are, with our singe blade axes, chopping away at the tree in an effort to move it. I’m afraid we will be here for the night ---“) .Anyhow, a few of us, Brad, Brytni, Bridger, Lincoln, Kevin, Rebecca, Doug and my self, finished of the day with a meal at Chuck A Rama. It was a wonderful day and wonderful adventure and best of all I was with the very best people.

I hope this long note finds everyone well and in good spirit..

Love. Neil

Abby, Marie, Neil, Karly, and Mariel

Story Time -- Things are not always what they seem By Neil R

In the November story time item I mentioned that during the years I was in elementary school at Myton, as second and sometimes the only source of income, the folks took in borders. At first it was construction workers and then later school teachers. Over time these arrangements led up to some interesting and choice experiences. It seems, at times, we had three or four teachers staying at our house and two or three others that stayed at Zirker’s and had their meals at our house. Over time we became quite attached to most of these people. As a matter of fact they became like family. It seems that the time I’m thinking of there were three teachers staying at our house, two women and one man. It seems, when there was free time, the borders, including mother and dad, would sit around the dining table and play games. One game that was popular was Chinese checkers. Anyway to get on with the story there was this one night, after mother and dad and the rest of the family had gone to bed that the teachers, I think Helen, Thelma, Hazel and Purcell, were still at the table playing games, talking or just being young adults. Fast forward to the next morning when mother and dad got up there in the middle of the table was the water pitcher with a note in the top with the word written on it “contaminated”. Well mother took this personally. She thought they, and Helen in particular, was saying that mother was not adequately cleaning her dishes etc. This thought that mother did not keep a clean house built up in mother’s mind until she was, well very angry and she was seriously planning on asking Helen to move out. Mother must have mentioned her feelings to one of the other teachers because she, and I think it was Hazel, told mother “Oh Anna, Purcell drank out of that pitcher and that is why Helen put the note in the pitcher with the word Contaminated”. Ooops

Update

Thanks to everyone who fasted for Lyle and his family.  Just to update everyone, he has been working at a temp job, so hopefully this will be able to help out and until bigger and better things occur!  Thanks for keeping him in your prayers!

Grandma and Grandpa

Groom's Name: Wilmer Murray




Groom's Birth Date: 18 Aug 1902



Groom's Birthplace: Vernal, Utah



Groom's Age:



Bride's Name: Anna M. Winkler



Bride's Birth Date: 30 Aug 1906



Bride's Birthplace: Ferron, Utah



Bride's Age:



Marriage Date: 08 Dec 1923



Marriage Place: Uintah, Utah



Groom's Father's Name: James B. Murray



Groom's Mother's Name: Atta Ashby



Bride's Father's Name: Herman J. Winkler



Bride's Mother's Name: M. Verona Gardner



Groom's Race: White



Groom's Marital Status: Single



Groom's Previous Wife's Name:



Bride's Race: White



Bride's Marital Status: Single



Bride's Previous Husband's Name:



Indexing Project (Batch) Number: M74682-5



System Origin: Utah-EASy



Source Film Number: 481105



Reference Number: 1162



Collection: Utah Marriages, 1887-1966

Jerry Murray Family

Jerry Murray Family


While in Utah we took two trips to Myton to do a little work on the house. On one trip we noted there was an oil rig on the old farm. So we drove over to it. There it was as big as life. It was sitting on the 20 acre field where I have cut a lot hay. We were back out in Myton about ten days later so I thought we should go check it out again, and to our surprise, it was gone. It looked like it had been moved up on the north Myton bench. Our thought of getting rich quickly vanished.

We have been home for nearly two months and have been working at the house and spending some time helping at the Mission Office. They have us doing apartment inspections - Not the funnest task as we find that some missionaries are better housekeepers than others. Marylyn is the sergeant of arms and the master inspector. I just make sure she gets to the apartments on time.

We had Allison here for Thanksgiving for a short visit and then she was off to Morgan Hill to stay a few days with Lisa and Bob. We only had a small group for Thanksgiving for a change as Susannah, Kevin , Allison, Jennifer and her dog represented the family. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we had the grandchildren and their parents. We ate too much and spent too many days eating. I guess that is what Thanksgiving is all about.

The Bishop asked me to be in charge of the ward Christmas party. It was a lot of work in a short amount of time. However, the ham was great and there was a lot of food. The only problem was that the High Priests provided pumpkin pies but no whipped cream. A rather dry dessert.

As soon as the party was over we headed down to Morgan Hill to help Lisa and Bob get unpacked in their new home. It is a new home but they have found there are a few problems with the house as it foreclosed before it was finished. They purchased it as is and so are responsible for fixing all the little items the contractor did not finish because they were not paid - like the gas outlet for the dryer did not have shut off valve ( a dad project). No code for the gate opener - still researching. One of the five bath room showers only has hot water - a major plumbing problem and a major leak in the sprinkler system. We were able to stop the leak but it will have to be fixed in the spring. A few other problems like trying to determine what all the light switches control. Other than that, it is a great house. We were there for five days and all tuckered out. It was good to be home in our small house where we did not have to walk so far to get from one end of the house to the other.

We will be picking Allison up tonight from the airport to spend Christmas with us and then she will head down to Lisa's to spend another few days. She just returned from an exciting trip to Prague and a side trip to Austria. She has become our world traveler. Jenn is off to Hawaii for Christmas. Lyle and family will join us here on Christmas morning to open presents. Susannah and Kevin are spending Christmas with Kevin's family this year. We will go to Lisa's after Christmas to work on their house some more.

Merry Christmas to all of you! We love remembering our time in Nauvoo with lots of the Murray family. Thank you again to the Tucker Family for making it all happen.

Just a side note regarding Neil's lunchroom story about me…Mom had been asked to work in the lunchroom and I was only 5 years old and she had no babysitter for me. She worked out an agreement with the principal that I would go to first grade at age 5, and that is the reason I was eating at the school lunchroom. Neil was right…Mom made sure that I cleaned up my plate because none of us would eat the "stuff" Neil brought home to the pig disposal!!!

Letter from Neil R

Dear Family November 24, 2010

Once again we come to the end a month and it is time that I wrote a note for the blog. It is always a challenge to know just what to write about, mainly I guess, because at this time of the year there does not seem to be that much going on in my life. Let’s see, I could tell you about my back ache or the leaves coming off my mulberry tree or Brandon taking his scouts for an outing at our house in Myton or the fact that winter is now here or ---.
Yes, last night, ahead of the storm which did not happen at our house, the cold front, which did happen at our house, caused the leaves to decide to detach them selves from the mulberry tree. As they did so the wind distributed a lot of them up and down the street to my neighbors. I’m sure they appreciated my contribution. Anyhow when morning came there was still a pile of them in the middle of the street so I took my blower and rake out and went to work. Soon, with the help of the neighbor we had them corralled and in the bag.
Brandon took the scouts from his Ward, which is in our Stake, out to the Myton homestead for a service project. You know when he was asking me if he could do this I did not realize that these kids all live in apartments and seldom if ever have and opportunity to experience such a large area with out bounds. I guess they raked leaves and could not help but jump and play in them before bagging them. I guess from all reports that they had a ball.
Also included with this note is a story time item that I hope Jerry does not mind me telling. As I was writing it I realized that it was all from my point of view and stories Jerry has told me so if you have a different point of view please let me know and we can make the appropriate change in the future.
In the mean time I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Love You, Neil R


Winter in Buckeye 1957

Winter in Hyrum about 1965

Story Time--Garbage

Story Time -- Garbage
By Neil R

It seems that the talk shows on radio spend a lot of time discussing School lunch programs and the unhealthy eating habits of our school children. While Jerry was here we also took the opportunity to discuss, from days gone by, our school lunch experiences. Now, myself I never did eat school lunch at the elementary nor do I remember what we did for lunch while we attended school at Las Vegas. We however, must have had a lunch period because I can remember the activities we had after lunch. Jerry, however, had lunch room experiences at Myton. As I recall after we returned form Las Vegas Dad worked out here on the front for about three years while the family continued to live in Myton. It seems that Mother either had the opportunity or took the opportunity to work in the lunch room and teach school. When mother taught it must have been the first grade because she got permission to take Jerry to school with her. Jerry was but five or less at the time. So, for how many years I don’t know, Jerry was under the watchful eye of his mother both when she was working in the lunch room and teaching in the school room. Now I know just a little bit about Jerry’s plight due to this situation because when I was in school at Myton Elementary my teachers were living at our house. This put me in an interesting situation where there was not a thing I could do without Mother knowing about it. This is the term my Mother always used on me “Neil, that does not become you”. Well back to Jerry, and we will just talk about the lunch room here and save the school room for another time. It seems in that day, even though they had wonderful food they still had the challenge of getting the children to eat their food. I guess it is because as children we let our eyes do the tasting. As a result a lot of the food ended up in the garbage can. Well it seems that mother would monitor what her son did or did not eat. According to Jerry, mother was continually sending him back to clean up his plate. Well, like I found in life, people, and in this case the children, soon came up with an innovative way to solve Jerry’s problem. One of Jerry’s friends, I guess it was a friend, said to Jerry “Put the food you do not want to eat on my plate”. This is what they did. The friend would discard the food in the garbage and walk out and Jerry with a clean tray would also be allowed to leave and I’m sure mother was really pleased with her son who no longer wasted any of his food.
Now just a little side note, in those days the food disposal unit, as we know it, had not as yet been invented and I’m not sure it’s invention was a good thing, but we did have a disposal available to us. It was called a pig. When mother was working at the lunch room, to help her, in the morning before school I would go to the lunch room and start the fires in the cook stoves and in the evening I would go to the lunch room and get the garbage can which was always full and bring it to our house. What would I do with it? I would feed it to our disposal unit. I must say that pig never did turn up its nose at this offering and he or her was a very healthy pig.


Dinner Time at the Murray’s


Our Disposal Unit

From Anna and Wilmer Murray’s Journal November 2010

Thursday 1, 1979

We went up to the landfill to dump our cans. Visited with Ralph Ive and told him we would call George Merrett about his cat not starting. We went out to Clyde’s, then rushed back to get ready to go the funeral of Allen and June Roper who were killed when their Jeep rolled of the mountain. We forgot to call George,

The funeral was big and a nice one. We saw Garn and Barbara Gilbert and Grant and Syble Peel. He sang, “I need thee Every Hour”. We saw Bernard Winkle, Velma and Ross, Verona, Bud and Doug Holgate, sat by Lola Jones, Mary Dump and Merion Monson.

Don Brokaw called to say they were going to the Temple in Bobbie Kynenston’s place. They will pick us up at 9:30 tomorrow. So I pressed Dad’s robe and packed out clothes to go to the Neil’s or the Darrell’s. Called Ella, she is down with the flu but said
she is better. Then called Darrell’s. Dad said he didn’t want to stay out there but we decided we would. We went to bed early.

Friday 2, 1979

We were ready when Don and Dorelda came and we were soon on our way. We had a good trip out, no storms. We ate our sandwiches as we were going down Daniels Canyon. They ate theirs in Provo Canyon. We went to the 12:20 session and the 2:00 session. They were enjoyable. Then we went to eat and then to the sealing. Superintendent Law was our officiator. He was Superintendent when the Myton School was built. We sealed 160 children to parents. There were two couples besides us. We had just started good when Hallis Hullinger came in with a young couple who had a sealing to perform. So we witensed the sealing of the Spanish boy’s great grandparents. He and his wife were proxies and his step father and Wilmer were the witnesses. During the sealing I had a great felling in my breast, I’m sure it was being accepted. This was while I was proxy for a child. When we were through Brother Law said these dead people could have been right in the room.

We had to wait for our lockers. I got dressed first so went to call Neil. He wasn’t home but Ella said to wait there for him. When I talked to Dad he said lets go home. So we called Ella back, she seemed disappointed. Don would have taken us to Neil’s but Dad is getting like Grandma Winkler, he wants to be home. We arrived about 9:45. Lester called to see if we wanted to kill the lambs tomorrow. I talked to Raija, she and Perry are there. Called Darrell’s, Darrell says they will come next week to get their lamb.

Mother and Dad - Myton

LaVora, Dad and Mother - Orem

My first post!!

Well it's taken me way too long to post on this blog...but since the weather has been getting colder recently, I've finally broken out my winter apparel.

I love my warm winter socks! Aunt Charlene custom made these socks to fit my feet. They are comfortable and warm, but most of all they remind me of a fantastic aunt who loves me a lot--so much that she made me awesome socks.

I love you, Aunt Charlene!

And I love the whole Murray family!

History: A story about LaVora and Clyde: School Days

This took place in about 1933 or 1934




There used to be a school house at Altonah. As a matter of fact there was at one time a fair sized town. There was at least two stores, a gas station, church house, a school, a cheese factory, a Post Office, etc.



Probably all or at least most of the Murray children went to school there. This town of Altonah was located about two miles or so south east of where we used to live. The most I remember was when I used to go for the mail when living with Grandmother and Grandfather Murray during the summer months. At any rate the story as I remember it as told by LaVora.



To get to school, in the summer, LaVora and Clyde used to ride a horse named Twin. Uncle Boyd was the proud owner of this horse but it seems that one time or another all of us have ridden him. LaVora said that Grandfather Murray used to see that she and Clyde were on Twin, then he would take the rope that was tied around Twin’s neck, make a half hitch knot and slip it around Twins nose and hand the rope to the children. This rope with the loop on Twin’s nose was their means of guiding the horse. We used to use this concept quite a bit in place of a bridal and bit. I’m sure the reason why Grandfather used it was so that the horse would not have to stand all day at school with a bit in his mouth. For when the children would get to school they had a little enclosure, a corral, they would put Twin in, close the gate and go to school.



LaVora said she used to worry about Twin standing in the corral all day without food or water. But when they got out of school Twin would still be there waiting for them. LaVora said she and Clyde would push and lead Twin up to the pole fence then climb up on the pole fence and then climb over on to Twin’s back. I can just see them going through this procedure. I would guess they at that age was just about as tall as the under side of Twin’s stomach. So not being tall enough to reach Twin’s nose, they would not be able to put the loop on his nose and once on the horse they could not reach the rope that was still on the ground. No need to worry, however, Twin knew the way home and where there was no way for them to control him there was only one place he wanted to go, Home! So they, having no control would just sit back and go along for the ride.



The ride usually went like this. First there was the stop at the canal where Twin took care of his thirst and then he would head straight for home with the rope dragging along behind. They must have been all of 6 years old. This is the way it was done in the good old days on the farm in Altonah.

Up date - August 21, 2000

While riding with LaVora and John after visiting Perry and Raya on the 6 August 2000. LaVora was telling of her school days in Altonah. Following the time that Grandfather and Grandmother Murray’s home burned they rented a house in the town of Altonah. While going to school during the week LaVora would stay in town with her Grandparents. On Friday after school let out she would walk the two miles home and spent the week end with her family. Can you visualize a six year old, now days, being allowed to walk two miles alone with out anyone knowing about it?

Boyd and Twin

From Anna and Wilmer Murray’s Journal October 2010

From Anna and Wilmer Murray’s Journal October 2010




Thursday, October 11, 1979

This morning, Dad cut sweet peas all day. I pulled some beets and put them on to cook. Fixed some rice to go with the chicken soup. It was good. Slade and Even come over to play. I’m too sleepy to write. I have had cramps all day. Had the trots and vomited. Really don’t fell sick only cramps off and on. I finally took some peptibismol, that helped. I meant to go to Relief Society this evening but didn’t have enough ambition, so I tied on the quilt after getting it on the frames. We went to bed early.

Darrell called and said they would be here tomorrow and to meet them at eleven O clock to go after wood.

We finally received a letter from the Jerry’s. They received Susannah’s pictures okay.



Friday October 12, 1979

We are still having wood hauling weather. Tomorrow would be Deward’s fifty fifth birthday. We were awake at 4:15. I wrote to the Jerry’s and then went down to get the chicken out of the deep freeze and thaw it out and fix it. I cleaned up a little and made a sheet cake. After breakfast I fixed tomatoes, cucumbers and sandwiches. Before we knew it the clock said 10:15 so we rushed through the dishes and were on our way to meet the Darrell’s. We stopped for gas in Duchesne. No one was at the turn off so we went to the Strawberry River turn off. No one there either. I mended my gloves on and finished them befor anyone showed up. Finally after waiting half an hour a brand new Dodge Truck drove up and honked. It has a club cab so everyone had room. We were looking for a little red car or a blue ford. Soon we were at the wood place and had a load on. We ate our lunch on the back of the new truck. Then carefully loaded a couple of big sticks on, being very careful nor to scratch the new body. Darrell had a rug in the bottom. Little Jon rode to the woods with us. He is so cute. He also rode home with us and worried because his dad was out of site. He was afraid his Dad was going to fast and a cop would get him. Darrell had tried to split one of the big pieces of wood but couldn’t get it onlyu a few chunks. He got all the wedges in and couldn’t get them out. By the time we got here they, he and jeff had the log unloaded and split. We unloaded the wood and I tied on the little quilt for a while. Then started supper. Dad and Darrell dug strawberry plants. Then after we ate they were on their way back home. Surely hated to see them go.

We cleaned up the dishes and put them in the dishwasher. Called to see if Sister Balford wants to go to Vernal with me tomorrow to the D.U.P. convention or not. She doesn’t, so I called Thema Perry. We talked for some time. Soon we were in bed and fast asleep after a good day.

Dad and Mother Going for a load of wood   abt October 1979

Pictures from Neil

The Hunters  about 1949  Jerry, Dewey and Neil – Ella took picture

Logan, Utah   Shawna, Kerstin and Sharon   abt 1960

Dear Family

Dear Family October 29, 2010


This month, like many before it, has gone by fast leaving in it’s wake many fond memories. It was fun having LaVora, Jerry and Marylyn here. While they were here we attended the Temple, shared meals, picked apples and grapes, dried apples, and tripped to the Basin. They have returned home now and I was glad to receive word of their safe arrival. It leaves it a little lonely but there is still plenty to keep me busy.
While they were here Jerry picked my apples and helped me pick the grapes. So all the time LaVora was here she was helping me do apples. She wanted me to do the grapes too but I decided that I would do them later. I should have taken her up on her offer because they, the grapes, started to spoil by the time I got to them. I however salvaged them and they are now in the bottles in the form of juice. I only have a few apples left I have been wondering if I want to dry them.

We were able to attend the Provo and Timpanogos Templs. It is always nice to attend the Temple with family. It seems they have made a few changes in the Temples. There is not as much carpet as there used to be. Maybe the tile is easer to keep up.

For the trip to the Basin Jerry decided to go by way of Wolf Creek Pass. It is always a nice drive because there is lots of beautiful country to experience. I was a little disappointed because when I told Marylyn to watch for the Elk, there wasn’t any. They were gone. We stopped at the Bluebell Cemetery. While there Jerry did a little pruning on the bush by Grandmother and Grandfather Winkler’s grave. Before going to Myton we stopped at the Frontier for dinner. Yes, we all had a scone with our meals.


I hope this note finds everyone well.

Love,
Neil