Joseph and Alice Green Oler Family

JOSEPH & ALICE OLER

Compiled by Kenneth D. Oler

Shortly after the beginning of the last decade of the 19^th Century, on 10 February  1892, twenty-year-old Joseph Oler was married to seventeen-year-old Alice Green.

While this marriage took place at a challenging time in their lives, they were to begin their life together blessed with a great heritage from their ancestors.  They in turn blessed the lives of their descendants, through the lives they lived and the heritage they left.  It is the purpose of this writing, to not only review the lives of Joseph and Alice, but also, to explore and record the legacies they received and passed on.

Alice’s father, Alphonzo Green, son of Daniel Green and Nancy Crumb Green, was born 8 July 1810 in Brookfield, Madison County, New York.  He was the third child in a family of seven children, five brothers and one sister:  Tanner, Nathaniel, Delos, Carlista, Silas and Erastus.  Little is known of the early years of Alphonzo and his brothers and sister, but their father was probably a farmer working the rich farmlands of Brookfield.

Just across the town line from Brookfield in Hubbardsville, lived the John Murdock family.  The Murdock and Green families knew each other well.  When Mormon missionary Johnathan Dunham preached in this New York area, he often visited the Green and Murdock families.  Alphonso, Tanner, and Carlita  Green along with the entire Murdock family were baptized by James Blakesly in April of 1835.  There is no record of the remaining members of the Green family having ever been baptized.

Alphonso Green and Betsy Murdock, daughter of Joseph and Sally Bonney Murdock, were married on 29 December 1838 in nearby Hamilton, New York by Archibald Wilsey.  The next year on 15 September 1839, their first child Alva Alphonso was born there.  Alphonso’s sister Carlita, was shown to have been living with the couple in the 1840 census.

The 1840 census gives us further information on Alphonso’s family.  It is believed that Alphonzo’s parents, Daniel and Nancy Green, were living in Edmeston (one mile west of Hamilton).  Within the vicinity of Edmeston lived a Daniel Green, Jesse Green and Tanner C. Green with his wife, Razilla Macumber, and two children.  Nathanial Green was living in Brookfield with his wife, Anna Kenyon, and Daughter Phoebe.  Delos Green was living in Brookfield with his wife, Lucy Morgan, and young daughter Ellen.  Alphonzo’s brothers, Nathaniel and Erastus, eventually owned their own manufacturing businesses, dealing in farm implements.  Delos farmed and also manufactured farm implements.  Alphonzo farmed and raised cattle.  No information was disclosed on their brother Silas.

Alphonzo and Betsy Green, probably with Carlita, joined the Murdocks in traveling to Nauvoo, Illinois to join the other Mormon Converts.  Jonathan Dunham’s journal records his efforts to help them prepare for the trip.  He then helped escort them to Nauvoo.  It must have been an overwhelming challenge.  Land and property had to be sold, wagons built or repaired, clothing mended, made or bought, animals sold, and supplies procured.  They left New York on 23 July 1841 and arrived in Nauvoo two months later on 23 September 1841.

The homes in Nauvoo by this time were changing from log cabins to brick.  The bricks were made right there within the city.  During the 1842 census, Alphonzo and his family were living in Ward 3, Block 5.  Tax assessors’ records in 1843 show that Alphonzo’s land was worth $175 and taxes were paid in trade: horses $5 and other personal property $10.

While the agrarian economy, which was present in Nauvoo at that time, needed all the help it could get from the children of the community, education was valued among the Mormons.  The 15 December 1841 issues of the Times and Seasons noted, “the school of Wardens of the University for Common Schools are desirous to organize the schools of their respective wards….”.  Alphonzo’s brother, Tanner Green, was serving as a trustee on the school board in 1844.  We don’t know when he came to Nauvoo, but we do know he was actively involved in the Church and as a trustee was helping select teachers, arrange for their room and board and listen to recitations and examinations.

Work on the Nauvoo Temple began in 1841.  By 1842, at least 100 men were at work in the quarries, drilling and blasting the rough limestone blocks.  Other workers with hammers and chisels trimmed the blocks to a nearly uniform size right at the quarry.  The blocks were then hauled by wagons and carts to the temple stone shop.  Here they were chiseled and polished into their final shape, then lifted into position on the walls by hugh wooden cranes.  The temple required a great number of tools as well as different types of materials – brick, mortar, wood stone, and metal.  Woodworkers, tinsmiths, and blacksmiths were kept busy.  Alphonzo Green was among those who worked on the temple.  He received supplies in return from the Nauvoo Provision Store.

The temple, which was completed in five years, was a focus of pride for the Latter Day Saints.  It was the main topic of conversation and a showpiece to visitors.  Its commanding position made it the first thing to catch the eye of passengers coming by boat on the Mississippi River.  John Greenleaf Whittier noted that, when completed the Nauvoo Temple would be “the most splendid and imposing architectural monument in the New World … a temple as unique and wonderful as the faith of its builders”.

By 1843 there were 12,000 inhabitants in Nauvoo.  On 31 January 1844 a daughter, Sarah Annadella, was born to Betsy and Alphonzo Green. (Her untimely and tragic death mentioned later in 1864 in American Fork had a profound affect on her family.)  In February of that year Alphonzo’s sister, Carlita, and Newton Russel were married. 

But, along with these happy events was the growing mob violence.  Homes and buildings were burned, Saints tarred and feathered, gardens trampled, and animals driven from barns and stolen.  On 24 June 1844, Illinois governor Thomas Ford interceded by personally guaranteeing Joseph Smith’s safety, if he would go to Carthage Jail and answer charges made against him.  Joseph agreed to the governor’s conditions. He was accompanied to Carthage by his brother Hyrum, Willard Richards, and John Taylor.  But, the governor knowingly failed to live up to his guarantee resulting in the martyrdoms of Hyrum and Joseph Smith on June 27, 1844.

One of Brigham Young’s primary objectives following the death of the prophet was to complete the temple so that the saints could be endowed before they were forced to leave Nauvoo.  “We want to built the Temple in this place, if we have to do it as the Jews built the walls of the temple in Jerusalem, with a sword in one hand and the trowel in another” (Smith, History of the Church, 7:256)

The Nauvoo Temple was sufficiently completed in October of 1845 so that through the winter Brigham Young practically lived at the temple.  Accounts show that he slept only four hours a day and spent the rest of the time administering temple ordinances to the worthy Saints, and studying maps and explorers’ accounts of the west.  Alphonzo and Betsy received their endowments on 5 January 1846. 

By February of that same year mob violence had escalated.   Contrary to promises made previously to allow the Mormons to leave Nauvoo in April, they demanded that the saints leave immediately.   Fearing for their lives, many loaded what possessions and provisions they could in wagons and headed for Iowa across the Mississippi River.  Many of those who left early went by ferry, but late in February the river froze solid and the Saints crossing then drove their wagons across.  Both were dangerous crossings.  Many livestock and some of the Saints themselves lost their lives in attempting to reach Iowa in the bitter cold and snow.

Nauvoo had been home to Alphonzo and Betsy for almost six years.  As their wagon labored west in the winter snow, they left loved ones behind.  Betsy’s father, Joseph Murdock, had died on 9 October 1843 at age 60 years.  Alphonzo’s brother Tanner (his grave is still identified in 2002 in the old Nauvoo cemetery) (?), and three children, along with his sister Carlista and her infant son had died in Nauvoo. 

Betsy’s widowed stepmother, Sally Stacey Murdock was aided by her 12-year-old son Nymphas as they made their way to the west. He drove the ox-drawn wagon, which carried the family supplies. (In later life as a widower he married Alice Green’s widowed mother, Elizabeth Chadwick Green.). Sally drove a one-horse light wagon, in which she carried her precious spinning wheel and a large, brass kettle.  The kettle not only cooked stew over many a fire, but was used in making soap, dying cloth and washing wool as well.  This kettle now holds a place of honor in the Pioneer Memorial Museum in Salt Lake City along with her little stove which helped to warm the room where Mary Jane Dilworth taught in the first school in the valley.

Winter Quarters (now Florence, Nebraska) was the major stopping place for those who had left Nauvoo to wait out the winter and prepare for the next stage of their journey to the west.  The Vanguard Company , led by Brigham Young, left 5 April 1847 for the valley of the Great Salt Lake.  On 16 June 1847 the next group commenced their journey across the plains under the command of Captain Daniel Spencer of the first 100.  Ira Eldredge was captain of 50 and Hector C. Haight was captain of the second group of ten.  In the Company were the Murdocks and Alphonzo and Betsy Green with three-year-old Sarah Annadella and eight-year-old Alva.  Alphonzo was the only member of the Daniel Green family who went west from Nauvoo with his fellow Mormons.

From the time they left Winter Quarters until September, when they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, they traveled about 1000 miles.  Upon their arrival, they found that by grouping and attaching their homes to form a rectangle, the Saints, who had preceded them, were building a fort.  The east side of the fort was built of logs, and the other sides were made from adobe.  Brigham Young insisted on windows for ventilation, and on the careful disposal of waste.  The Green’s first residence was in the fort.

As in Nauvoo, Salt Lake City was divided into wards.  The Green family, after living briefly in the Old Fort, moved near the First Ward.  The boundaries of that Ward (both geographical and religious designations) were between 6^th and 10^th East, and between 6^th and 9^th South.  From 1848 to the fall of 1853 Alphonzo owned and operated a trading post in Salt Lake City.  Their second son, Joseph Daniel Green, was born here on 26 December 1852.  He died 19 days later on 14 January 1853.

American Fork creek was a favorite camping place for roving bands of Indians for many years.  The creek had a well-defined course as it issued forth from its canyon and traveled several miles bordered with cottonwood trees before reaching the broad, flattened, meadowlands, lush with grass and clumps of willows.  Here it entered what was to become known as Utah Lake.  The first white men coming to Utah County were the Catholic fathers Escalante and Dominguez, along with their party, in search of a route from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Monterey, California.  They entered the valley through Spanish Fork Canyon, later named in their honor, and camped at its mouth on September 25, 1776.  The next canyon north had an Indian name, Timpanogus, later changed to Provo.  American Fork canyon, the third canyon west, received its name in acknowledgment of the American trappers who sought the valuable furs found there in the early nineteenth century.

After arriving in the Salt Lake Valley in 1849, Stephen Chipman and his son-in-law, Arza Adams, located their families in Cottonwood on Mill Creek.  In the early summer of 1850, Stephen Chipman with his son, William Henry, then a lad of fourteen, along with Azra Adams and his son Nathan, were desirous of doing some trading at Fort Provo.  As they traveled south they found themselves near dusk at American Fork creek.  Here they camped among the cottonwoods that grew along the creek.  When their two boys returned to camp for supper after scouting around, Nathan Adams commented, “I would like to live here”.

Upon their return trip from Fort Provo, they also camped on American Fork creek and were even more favorably impressed with the area.  After arriving back in Salt Lake City, Stephen Chipman, Arza Adams, and the Eldredge Brothers, Ira and John, went to Brigham Young and asked if it would be appropriate for them to locate at American Fork creek.  President Young, replied, “Go and take up what land you want”.  Heber C. Kimball was present at the time and requested that when they surveyed their tract that they identify a property for him also.

The survey was commenced on 20 July 1850.  After its completion, the individuals involved returned to their homes in Salt Lake Valley to look after the harvesting of their crops.  A mild winter was experienced during the late months of 1850 and the spring of 1851 allowing Stephen Chipman and Arza Adams to build log cabins and begin to establish themselves in American Fork.  Heber C. Kimball’s agent, or representative, Leonard E. Harrington also came that fall.  The following extract is taken from his journal:

            “In the fall of 1850, we moved to American Fork in Utah valley, Utah County.  Lived in a tent until we could build a house, which we did and moved into it about Christmas.  Farmed through the summer of 1851.”

The town was incorporated as Lake City that fall with the south boundary extending to Utah Lake.  The name was changed to American Fork in 1860 because of the confusion with Salt Lake City.

On 25 May 1851, the Lake City (American Fork) ward was organized with Leonard E. Harrington as Bishop, and Arza Adams and James Guymon as counselors.  The membership of the new ward consisted of about a dozen families, perhaps totaling some 58 individuals.

In the fall of 1853 Alphonzo Green moved his family to American Fork.  It was not without incident.  It was here their third son, John Murdock Green, was born.  He died the same day, on 2 October 1853.  Trouble with the Indians in the area had become so bad that Chief Walker refused to even talk with Brigham Young.  Hostilities had broken out with several raids on outlying farms and settlements. President Young, upon the suggestion of General Daniel H. Wells, had ordered the communities under attack to build forts and move all of their cabins inside for protection.  Unlike Arza Adams, who failed to comply and was disciplined by the church authorities, Alphonzo readily accepted the directive.  That winter was recorded as being severe.  A large herd of sheep, numbering 10,000 head, came into the valley on its way from Texas to California.  On November 17 a terrible blizzard struck – lasting three days and three nights.  The sheep grazing on the upper benches were scattered helter-skelter, many of them taking refuge in bunches of willows in the bottoms.  The sheep perished by the thousands, only 900 head survived.

By 1855, eighty-five families are identified as being at the fort in American Fork.  Among these were some individuals or their descendants who eventually were involved significantly in the lives of Joseph and Alice Oler.  In addition to Alphonzo Green, were Nymphas Murdock, Thomas Shelley, and Leonard Harrington..  Nymphas Murdock, Betsy Murdock’s step brother, eventually married the widow Elizabeth Chadwick Green, Alice Oler,s mother.  Thomas Shelley’s son, John, was the founder of Shelley, Idaho, where Joseph and Alice eventually established their home.  Leonard Harrington’s son, Heber, (?) was the advocate who enticed, John Kelley and Joseph Oler to come to Idaho for the “better life” that was available there.

After Brigham Young blessed his daughter, and she was healed from a very serious illness, Chief Walker finally relented and agreed to improve relations with the Saints.  As the Indian threat diminished, individuals began establishing homes outside the fort again.  Alphonzo built their home about two miles west of American Fork on the main road.  This adobe house, with a front porch running its entire length, became the stopping place for the overland stagecoach line running from Salt Lake City to St. George.  At conference time, they would have the “regular conference storms”, much the same as we do now.  The stagecoach could hardly get through the mud.  But, in spite of it, people came by in droves with many stopping to seek food and lodging. It was not unusual to have as many as twenty travelers and/or guests eating at Betsy’s table. 

Betsy and Alphonzo were good managers and, as the business grew, their hospitality was widely acknowledged, as evidenced by the following newspaper article:

            “A Pleasant Call – our overtaxed businessmen who want a pleasant drive

            for a few miles to momentarily relieve them from the cares of their wealth

can find as pleasant a resting place as they could desire at Brother Alphonzo Green’s, American Fork.  He does not seek business, he has plenty of it, but his house is comfortable, pleasantly situated, and the good lady’s table is not surpassed anywhere that we can think of.”

While Alphonzo oversaw the “hotel” arrangements, he was a farmer by trade.  In addition to having land under cultivation, which helped supply produce for Betsy’s cooking, they raised horses, cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys.  Also, they had a herd of about 25 head of sheep for a time.  They annually took them down to the millpond to have their wool washed before it was sheared, carded and spun into cloth.  The neighbors’ dogs got into the herd one night and that put an end to their sheep industry.

 In the fall they were busy putting up kegs of pickles and barrels of salt pork, curing hams and bacon, drying meat and storing vegetables in the cellar underneath the house.  Stores of sauerkraut, lumpy dick, cornbread, soda biscuits and molasses could usually be found in the Green home.  There was soap to make, candles to mold and bed covers to be quilted.  Rocking chairs with rawhide seats were present and the bare floors were scrubbed with sand to keep them clean and smooth.  It was an industrious household living in a comfortable home.

Sugar cane was grown by the good people of American Fork.  Samuel Wagstaff had a molasses mill and the children of the community had fond memories of enjoying the skimmings.

Alphonzo built an adobe livery stable that measured about forty-by-one-hundred feet.  It could stable 20 horses and seldom had fewer than 10 to 12 stalls occupied.  Hay filled the loft.  Water was drawn from a surface well, using wooden buckets with a pole and chain.  It helped to accommodate the replacements for the stagecoach horses, among other things.  The horses used to draw the stagecoach were beautiful animals.  They had been procured from the East. 

 Alphonzo appreciated good horses.  He drove a pair of sorrels to the city about every two weeks for supplies.  His first team he called Jim and Kit.  Every fall the men laid in the winter’s supply of cedar wood, a task that took about a month.  Sometimes they went through Provo Canyon to Coalville for coal, a distance of approximately 150 miles.

Alphonzo and Betsy were not only respected for their business successes, but were admired for the kind, hospitable people they were.  Food and care were provided for those in need, who stopped at their door; whether they were Indians wandering by or someone who might be down and out.  For a time, Joe, an old tramp, seemed to stop by for two or three days annually.  A woman by the name of Lawson was cared for with her family all of one winter.  During her stay she gave birth to a child.  When it was time to leave, she was sent away with half of a pig for good measure.  It was also not surprising when they took into their home an Indian girl by the name of Josephine and raised her as their own.

Their two surviving children were married on the same day, 25 December 1858.   Alva Alphonso married Elizabeth Buckwalter, and Sarah Annadella married James Chipman when she was still 14 years of age.  A memorable wedding supper was given for the couples that evening in the Green home.  Six years later, during which time Sarah had given birth to four children, on 17 December 1864, a terrible tragedy struck the family.

James had recently married a second wife, Salena Huntsman.   Sarah suggested that they all attend a pre-Christmas dance.  It was a cold, bitter night and Salena disagreed.  She decided that she and James would not attend, but would remain at home. 

Wanting to take the opportunity to be free of family responsibilities for a few hours, Sarah went to the dance alone.  It became apparent that this was not a popular decision in the Chipman home; for, when Sarah returned after the dance, she found that a jealous Salena had intentionally and deliberately locked her out of the house, to “teach Sarah a lesson”.  Her pounding on the doors and windows, and her screams for help all went unheeded.  Sarah finally dragged herself more than a mile on that cold, blizzardy night to her brother’s house west of town.  The Green family spent hours trying to warm her, but to no avail.

SARAH (GREEN) CHIPMAN DIES

 Sarah rapidly developed pneumonia, and died in four days on 21 December 1864.  At the graveside, completely overcome with sorrow, guilt, grief, and great remorse, James jumped in on the lowered coffin, tearing his hair, wailing and bemoaning the great and very sudden loss of his favorite young wife of less than 6 years.  Burial was in the old Pioneer Cemetery.

Family tragedy continued to haunt Alphonzo and Betsy as their Indian daughter Josephine died near this same time from diptheria.

With their only surviving child, Alva, married for six years now, Betsy became involved extensively in helping to raise with their father Sarah Annadella’s four children, Betsy, James, Alphonzo, and Stephen. 

Elizabeth Chadwick and her family arrived in American Fork from England in September of 1869.  One can only speculate on which of many possible reasons prompted Alphonzo at 59 years of age to take Elizabeth into his home as a second wife.  National opposition to plural marriage had induced Congress in 1862 to pass a law which prohibited polygamy and disincorporated the Church.  Later it was supplanted by the much more punitive Edmunds Act in 1887.   President John Taylor suggested in April conference of that year: “Let us treat it the same as we did this morning in coming through the snow storm – put up our coat collars and wait until the storm subsides … While the storm lasts it is useless to reason with the world; when it subsides, we can talk to them” (Francis M. Gibbons, Dynamic Disciples: Prophets of God, 79)  They were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City on 13 December 1869, less than three months after her arrival in American Fork.

Over the next, almost seven years, both wives occupied the same home, working together to meet the needs of the hotel and the families.  During this time Elizabeth bore Alphonzo three children: John Erastus, Edgar Brown, and Alice, who was born 18 February 1874.  Elizabeth and her children had two rooms of their own.  They remembered everyone joining together on Christmas morning in a large room, holding lighted candles while opening their gifts.

Turning to Joseph’s family now, we find that George Oler and Mary Squires arrived in American Fork in the summer of 1868, the year before Elizabeth Chadwich and her family.  They both worked for the James Chipman family that summer, he in the fields and she in the home.  They were married in the Salt Lake City Endowment House 11 October 1868.  George was 19 and Mary 16 years of age.

It must have been one of the happiest days of Mary’s life; for on that same day her father and mother also received their endowments, and her friend Ellen became the wife of her brother Joseph.

For our knowledge of George’s history we turn to the census of 1790 for Pennsylvania. We find that Philip Ohler was living in Philadelphia City.  He had two sons over sixteen years of age, three sons under sixteen, two females and his wife.  Philip Jacob Ohler was recorded to be a passenger on the ship, “Minerva”.  It landed in Pennsylvania August 10, 1768. (Rupps Thirty Thousand Emigrants)

The Biography of Maryland and the District of Columbia includes a short sketch of William E. Ohler born 1818.  It gives the following: “Three brothers, Germans, came to this country; one settling in Pennsylvania, one further west and one in Frederick, Maryland.”  It appears quite definite, that the brother settling in Pennsylvania is our direct ancestor.

Beyond a sketchy pedigree sheet presented elsewhere in this document, very little is known about George Oler before he arrived in American Fork.  Records show that he was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 29 August 1849, the son of George Oler and Mary Lancaster Oler.  He began to work for others outside his home when he was only 8 years of age.  When and how George and his parents joined the Church is not known.  It is thought that George arrived in Utah about 1866.  It is also presumed that his parents eventually lived in the small settlement of Leeds, Utah near St. George.  It was from here in July of 1886 that George went to retrieve his father who was ill and bring him to American Fork to care for him.  Reports are that Mary Lancaster’s grave has been identified in Leeds.

It is known that, after George had arrived in Utah, he responded to a request to return east to assist another wagon train of saints make their way to the Valley.  As a strong, healthy unattached young man, he was pleased to be able to be of assistance.  However, wanting to begin to establish himself and get on with his life,

he was somewhat reluctant to return east when asked to assist another wagon train.  However, when he was told that this was considered to be a mission type-call, he agreed.  This required that he receive his endowments, which he did in the Salt Lake Endowment House.  It proved to lead to one of the greatest blessings of his life.

Traveling in that second wagon train George helped to make its way to the Valley was a lovely, young lady named Mary Squires.  He often told the story about meeting his future wife on this trek across the planes.  One day the oxen and covered wagon, in which Mary and another girl were riding, became stuck in the middle of a stream they were crossing.  George, already in love with Mary by then, carried her to safety on the shore of the stream.  He also went back and got the oxen, but he left the other girl in the wagon all night.  “My! How she cried!

Mary Squires was born 5 March 1852 at Front Street, Radford, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England.  It is located almost in the center of that country.  She was the youngest of five children in the family of Joseph and Mary Davis Squires.  Her father was a framework knitter by trade.  Mary’s parents joined the Church in about 1850.  She was baptized 16 June 1860 at eight years of age in Radford.

Mary had two very close friends, who were also members of the church, that came with her and the group from England to Utah:  Ellen Widdison, who later married Mary’s brother Joseph, and Ann Winterton, who was the mother of Anna Barrows, a long time resident of Shelley, Idaho.  Ellen and Ann sang together and were often requested to perform together in nearby towns.

Early in their marriage, George and Mary moved to Cedar Valley, on the west side of Utah Valley.  Here they cleared 80 acres of sagebrush for farming, but their venture did not prove to be successful.  One wonders if this is the reason they are not found in the 1870 census of American Fork.  They returned to American Fork and are recorded in the 1880 census, with George identified as a laborer.  He and Mary had thirteen children, ten boys and three girls.  All of the children were born in American Fork:

 George -         9 August 1869                       Roy -               15 November 1881

 Joseph -         26 July 1871                          Margaretta -  7 February 1884

 Mary Ann -    27 March 1873                      Pearl -             23 May 1886

 John -             23 November 1874                Albert -           25 February 1888

 William -        23 September 1876               Oscar              26 October 1889

 James -          15 April 1879        Elmer & Mark     6 November 1891

Mary must have had a deep love and respect for her three brothers, George, Joseph, and James, because they named three of their sons after them.

Without any special skills, a trade, or family connections, George worked hard, but found it difficult to provide for their family.  As a consequence, necessity required that the children work at an early age to contribute to the family’s welfare.

George was involved in many types of work, mostly whatever he could get.  He worked for a Mr. Hunter at one time, caring for and driving horses for him.  It was reported that Joseph also worked for Mr. Hunter when he was twelve years of age.  He was very proud that he could, at that age, drive a hitch of six horses. 

Another time, George contracted to raise hay on the bench land above American Fork.  He and his older sons were involved in irrigating, cutting, and stacking the hay.  In order to help them, Mary would cook a hot dinner and then carry it to the fields.  She would come carrying the dinner with a baby on her back and the small children running beside her.

Mary was small, weighing less than a hundred pounds.  She was so short that her feet could not touch the floor when she sat on an ordinary chair.  Few people in American Fork knew her as Mary.  She was called Polly.  Someone remarked how well her nickname “Little Polly” fitted her.  Her older children long remembered the low rocker she used to rock her babies.  Eterick Millar remembered her as “…one of the finest women you ever met”.  He remembers her home as a gathering place for young people.  The Indians often came to their home for food and Mary fed them.

The development of mining in Utah was a project of Non-Mormons or “Gentiles” as they were called.  Brigham Young had advised the Saints to attend to their farms, stock, and mechanical pursuits, as the surest way to get rich.  Nevertheless, a flurry of excitement ran through the community when ore was discovered in American Fork Canyon in the beginning of the seventies.  The following observation appeared in the Deseret News dated April 6, 1871: “The fact is unquestionably demonstrated that rich mines are in abundance in American Fork Canyon.  A great amount of ore is already on the dump.”

This mining enthusiasm resulted in the Aspinwall Company building the first railroad in American Fork from the town up American Fork Canyon to the mines in 1872.  The engine for this railroad was brought from Lehi on Skids.

The next year, 1873, however, saw the Utah southern Railroad reach American Fork.  Passing immediately in front of the Alphonzo Green home/hotel, it had a major negative effect on their business and lives.  The demand for lodging and food for passengers in the hotel and horses in the livery stable all but disappeared.   But Alphonzo continued farming and raising cattle.  While pursuing these activities, he was kicked in the head by a horse and died on 6 August 1875.  His funeral was held in the old bowery about where the city hall stands.  In September of this same year, his son by Elizabeth, Edgar Brown Green died.  Alice, who was only one and one-half years old at the time, never remembered her father or brother who died that year.  She grew very close to Erastus, however, as they grew up without their father.

While there were considerably fewer boarders now, Elizabeth and Betsy worked together to provide for them.  One of the drummers who boarded with them, a Mr. Keprick, was remembered because he gave Alice money with which to buy candy.  In time Elizabeth and her family had to involve themselves in other activities to provide for themselves.  Elizabeth worked for a time for Emily Adams.  As the children grew older, they too were called upon to help.  Erastus and Alice herded the cows.  One day while herding cows on the horse, Alice was struck by lightning and thrown off the horse.  She was always afraid of lightning after that.  The two children also milked the cows, and helped churn the cream to butter.  After accumulating enough, they would carry it to town where they could sell it. 

Elizabeth and Alice took in washings and ironings.  They had to carry by hand for two blocks all of the water that was used.  Each trip they carried one bucket each in one hand and the boiler in the other hand between them.  As Alice got older, she worked for Betsy Preston, her step-niece, doing housework, tending children and packing water.  She also spent a summer working for her step-brother, Alva Green, doing housework at Wallsburg.

With no father and the necessity of working, Alice did not attend school for many years.  But. she did remember attending school in the same building in which they met for church.  At the time, it was the only ward in American Fork.  There were no desks, just long benches on which to sit.  The boys sat on one side and the girls on the other.  Her teachers, Mr. Forbes and Mr. Henrod, were very strict.  She felt that at times Mr. Henrod even became cruel.

Since Alva was Betsy Murdock’s only surviving child, she was especially fond of him.

One fall day, 1 October 1883, she saw him pass her home on his way to Lehi.  She hoped he would stop by on his way back to share an especially nice melon she had in her home.  When she missed his return, she decided to walk up to his house, about one mile to the east, to invite him over to enjoy the melon with her.  She walked up the road to Curry Slough and then went onto the track to cross the creek.  Being very hard of hearing, she did not hear the fast approaching freight train.  She was struck and killed, being knocked off to the side of the track.  She was 73 years of age.

George Oler built a home for his family in American Fork next to the railroad track, about a half a mile away from the Alphonzo Green home.  A picture taken in the fall of 1890 or the spring of 1891 shows all of the family except the twins, who were not yet born, standing near the house.  The house appears to be about thirty yards from the railroad tracks, and a row of walnut trees is next to them.  Behind the trees are a sidewalk, then a picket-fence, and finally a lawn at the front of the house.  Every time Mary heard the train whistle, she would drop whatever she was doing and run out of the house to see where her children were.

George attended church regularly, but what church offices he held we do not know.  Mary seems to have been a pillar of strength to him and their family.  But as the years went by it became more difficult for her to attend church.  Joe, her son, said he often came home Sunday afternoon to find his mother out in the yard sitting on the woodpile, just resting.  Many times he would go out, sit with her, and talk together.  No matter how busy the week, she tried to make Sunday a day of rest.

With only one ward and one school in town, and living fairly close to one another, Joe and Alice would have been acquainted early in their lives.  They were both baptized in the same millpond; Joe one year before Alice.  At what age they became romantically attracted to one another was never recorded.

While only a small town on the frontier, the citizens of American Fork appreciated the presence of a local band.  They began early with a martial band of fifes and drums to assist the young men in marching.  The community was especially delighted in 1858 with presentations by members of the famous Pello Band and Nauvoo Band during their sojourn here in response to Johnson’s Army and “Buchannan’s Blunder”.  Salt Lake City was abandoned by its citizens with the advance of the army into their community.  Many of them took up temporary residence in American Fork as they waited out the resolution of the conflict.

  Beginning in late 1866 and continuing for twenty years, a local band was formed that attained prominence as a musical organization.  It was invited by President Young to play at a party in Salt Lake City given by him.  Next to the Ogden City band, it was considered to be the musical dean in the state in priority of organization.  This was followed in the nineties by a new brass band consisting of younger men, with Isaac Wagstaff as president.

It is recorded that both Joseph and his brother George joined the 15 piece American  Fork City Brass Band. George served as the director for a time.  They played with them for several years, for holidays and programs.  At Christmas time the band went caroling.  The band assumed a significant role in a very special event for the Oler family.

On 14 October 1891, George, the oldest son, married Bertha Helen Tillack in the Logan Temple, which had been dedicated in 1844.  The Salt Lake Temple was not dedicated until the following spring, at Conference April 6, 1892.  Bertha was a young girl, whose family had joined the church in Australia and only recently had come to Utah.

This was a big event in the lives of his father and mother, George and Mary.  Their first child was leaving home to establish a home for himself.  Bertha, her mother and friends worked hard to make the event a happy remembrance.  Their wedding cake was four tiers and had been made three weeks before by Sister Clark.  She was the mother of one of George’s close friends, Peter Clark.  Bertha helped remove seeds from the raisins, as they couldn’t get seedless raisins then.  In addition she picked over the currants, washed them and put them in the sun to dry.  Her cake contained three dozen eggs, four pounds of raisins, three pounds of currants and a pound of peel and citron.

When Bertha and George returned from Logan, there was a wedding supper awaiting them.  The American Fork City Brass Band stood at the door and played for them.  After supper they all marched up to the dance hall where they had band music again outside the dance hall door.  The band members gave George and Bertha a large cupboard which Bertha had for many years.  The Polls orchestra from Lehi furnished the music for the dance.

Less than four weeks later, a great tragedy came to the Oler home.  It proved to be a challenge for all family members, but especially to George their father.  Mary was expecting her twelfth child.  One day, near the time for her delivery, she took her oldest daughter Mary Ann aside to talk with her privately.  She told her that she felt that she would not live when her baby was born.  She asked eighteen year old Mary Ann, who was small like her mother, to take care of the smaller children, especially Albert and Oscar.  They were three and two years of age respectively.  Aware that Mary Ann was planning to marry John E. Kelly that fall, she said it would be too great a responsibility to care for all of them.  The older ones would have to take care of themselves and assist with the others.

Instead of having one child, Mary gave birth to twin boys, Mark and Elmer.  She called Mary Ann to her again and told her not to worry about the care of the two new babies, as she would call for them soon.  The attending midwife, an older granny, noted the seriousness of Mary’s condition following her delivery and sent for the men who were working in the field.  Joe took one look at his Mother, hurriedly got the buggy, and went for the doctor.  He was too late.  Mary died that same day on which she gave birth to her twins, 6 November 1891.  The twins were so tiny they needed special care, so Mrs. Tillack (Bertha’s Mother) took both of them into her home.  Mark lived about a month and died 3 December 1891.  Elmer survived until he contracted Diphtheria at age four and one-half.  He died 7 April 1896.

Mary Ann helped her father care for the entire family, postponing her wedding almost a year until 3 August 1892.  Then, honoring her mother’s request, she and her husband John E. Kelly took Albert and Oscar into their home.  George and Bertha took seven year old “Etta”, Margaretta, into their family that had been established less than two months.

On 10 February 1892, three months after his mother’s death, twenty-year old Joe married eighteen-year old Alice Green, daughter of Alphonzo Green and Elizabeth Chadwick Green, in American Fork.  They started out living in two rooms of Alice’s mother’s home.  Grandma Green had a farm she inherited from her husband that Joe farmed in the summer.  In the winter he worked with his father and brothers.  Three months after their marriage, they took six-year old Pearl into their home to raise her.  She became like a daughter to them and a sister to their children.  She lived with them until she eventually married twelve years later. 

At Christmas time that first year, they were so poor that they couldn’t purchase any presents for Pearl.  So Joe took a team and wagon and went to the canyon where he obtained a load of wood.  He sold the wood to Tubby Grant and used the money from the sale to buy Pearl a doll and some dishes.

No record was made of when he began, but Joe spent many hours during his life cutting hair.  He began with his brothers.  They were joined, as they came into the family, by brothers-in-law.  Later on, as his sons and grandsons arrived, Joe cut their hair also.  Most of them never received the services of a commercial barber, until they were well on their way to adulthood.

The first of Joe and Alice’s four children to be born in American Fork arrived 22 August 1892.  She was a lovely little girl.   It is not recorded why they named her Lydia.  However, it was obvious that their first son, Alphonso Green Oler, born 16 months later on 30 December 1893, was named after Alice’s father.  Sadly, neither of their first two children would survive to be with the family, when they moved to Idaho. 

 Roy, Joe’s brother who was only ten at the time, stayed sporadically in the family home, with his father and older brothers. At other times he would stay at Mary Ann and John Kelly’s home.  Eventually, he went to live full time with Joe and Alice until his marriage in 1913.  Other of the brothers, especially Jim, also lived with Joe and Alice at times. 

George Oler Sr., the father, tried to make a home for his other sons, John, Will, James, and occasionally for Roy.  Will remembered vividly coming home one night to see his father standing at the stove frying potatoes.  It hurt him so much to see his father trying to keep things together, and he missed his mother so much, that he went out, laid down by the railroad tracks and cried.  It is little wonder, with the loss he had experienced and the responsibilities he still had to meet, that George married again.  He married Lavina Hanson, a widow with a family of boys. Unfortunately, for what reasons we do not know, the marriage did not succeed.  He later married Elizabeth (Dorothy) Edlefson, whose former husband had been an officiator in the Logan Temple.  Dorothy was a lovely person, and their marriage together was very happy.  They had a child, but it was born dead.  Although, she had no other children, she was a good mother and grandmother to George’s family.

George loved the hills and outdoors, a trait, which time has shown has been passed on to many of his descendants.  Somewhat disoriented and at a loss, after Mary’s death, he spent a great deal of time during the next ten years of his life prospecting, mining, and lumbering.  He purchased a mine at Lewiston near Bingham.  It became evident that, in order to properly work the mine, he must find a way to empty the shaft of the water collected there.  There was a small shed next to the mine opening where materials and equipment were stored.  Taking a rope and bucket from the shed, he tied them together in a manner intended to allow him to lower himself into the mine.  As he began to descend into the vertical shaft, the rope broke.  He fell to an incline, which gave way letting him fall about thirty feet into icy water.  The only person with him at the time was fourteen-year old Jim (James). 

Various accounts of what took place then have come down from the family through the ensuing years.  One says that Jim had to take the harness apart and let it down to help his father clamber up to an incline that was out of the water.  The harness, then had to be reassembled before Jim could go back to American Fork for help.  Another account says that a ladder had to be fabricated from boards taken from the bunkhouse.  But all accounts agreed that Jim was able to get his father to an incline above the water and then lowered dry clothes, a blanket, and food to him, before setting out for help.  His older brother Joe, for certain, and perhaps some of the other brothers with them, returned and completed the rescue.  However, the fall and exposure had taken their toll.  George was suffering sufficiently extensively that on the return trip to American Fork they stopped in Lehi to seek the assistance of a physician for him.  He was then taken to George and Bertha’s home, where it took him two months of recuperating before he was able to be up and around again.

Following this mining experience George Sr. and his oldest son George began the operation of a Sawmill in West Canyon.  Some reports indicate that this operation continued for three years, others six years.  Other Oler sons joined them along with John Kelley, Mary Ann’s husband, and at times their families.  With help from other family members, Bertha ran a boarding house for the loggers.  Alice and Mary Ann cooked at times. 

The men felled the trees, hauled them to the sawmill, sawed them into lumber, and, then in many cases. they also transported the lumber with teams and wagons to the purchasers.  Many loads were hauled over an extensive period of time to the Bingham Copper Mines.  The construction of the Lehi sugar beet factory required large quantities of lumber, which was sold at $13.00 per thousand.  A bridge over the Jordan River at Utah Lake was constructed using eleven thousand feet of lumber furnished by the Oler sawmill.  Items needed by the family were often times purchased by bartering lumber with Rooker’s General Store in Lehi.  Mary Ann obtained her first baby carriage there in this manner.

The family has a number of memories, associated with the sawmill.  One year at Thanksgiving time the men folk were still up in the canyon getting logs out.  Even though they were living in a tent, the families went up and had their Thanksgiving dinner there.  They stayed that night and made beds all over the tent floor.  It was remembered for the fun and excitement of the family sharing a special time together.

Another time while living up in the canyon, Lydia, Joe and Alice’s young daughter, dropped a pair of scissors on Alice’s hand.  At first it didn’t appear to be too bad, but soon her hand began to swell.  It was infected and very inflamed with red streaks running up her arm.  They were not near a doctor, so Joe decided they had better lance it.  He went to borrow a razor from Jim Barrett who was working there.  Jim suggested that they put some salt bacon, which was plentiful in those times, on it.  Then, if it wasn’t better in the morning, they’d better take her to American Fork to the doctor.  The next morning the swelling was beginning to reduce and the infection was in check.  For many years after that, until antibiotics became commonplace, many infections with swelling were treated this way by the Oler family.

Another incident that was remembered for years by many of the family, involved Mary Ann’s little boy Floyd.  At the time he was only two or three years of age.  The living quarters for the loggers were located near a creek.  The creek entered a flume at this point carrying water to the power plant at the mouth of American Fork Canyon.  On the day in question, Floyd’s whereabouts became unknown to everyone.  A frantic search was immediately launched involving everyone present.  They searched the surrounding brush, up and down the creek, the surrounding canyon, everywhere; they were unsuccessful!  Everyone became very tense, for there was still the possibility that he could have fallen into the stream and been carried through the flume into the powerhouse.  At last in desperation, John Kelley, Floyd’s father, got on a horse and began a search further up the canyon.  About a mile up the canyon and still walking he found Floyd, none the worse for his experience.  As an aside, Floyd was eventually the Bishop who conducted Joe Oler’s funeral nearly fifty years later.

Nicknames were prevalent, for some unknown reason, in the Oler family over a number of years.  Some family members kept these names all of their lives, long after they had forgotten how the name first started.  A “Punch and Judy” show came to American Fork.  The puppets were called Snow and Eli.  Years after, the other brothers called Bert, “Eli, and Oscar, “Snow”.  John was “Hans” for years.  There was a man in Lehi named Hans from whom they got sand.  Will for some reason was called “Mike”, and Jim was called “Jess”.  Margaretta’s name was shortened to “Etta or Ett”.  Roy was “Ladds”.  Mary Ann was often called “Jane” by her siblings, after an Indian squaw with that name, who often came by her home.  The children, often in a hurry, contracted her given name, to “Mirann”.

In the Joe Oler family, Edith’s name became “Teed”.  Maurine was known in her family as “Sis”.  Most people who knew him called Maurice “Buzz” all of his life.  In the Eli and Avilda Searle family, knick names were widely used: Earl – “Twerp”, Wendell – “Windy or Wennie”, Winona – “Noan”, Leon – “Gump” early on, after Andy Gump of the funny papers, and “Awney” later on, Karl – “Speed” or “Cark”, and Merwyn – “ Butch”.  Leon blamed Clyde Oler for most of their titles.  A name that lasted for years was given to Duane Searle, son of Leo and Maurine Searle.  It began as “Buttercup” but was shortened eventually to “Butter” and finally just “Butt”.

At the end of the logging season in 1896, Roy came down with the measles.  On the ride home, he got chilled, but, in spite of that, recovered nicely.  About a week later, little two year old Alphonso also became ill with the measles.  He too seemed to recover without incident.  A few days later Joe, his proud father, took his first son to town and bought him a suit.  That evening, after returning from town, Alphonso became very “restless”.  The family was sufficiently concerned that they called the doctor, who pronounced him to be all right.  Alice always questioned his judgment because it was her feeling that he was inebriated at the time.  The next morning, Grandma Green cared for Alphonso in his cradle, while his mother fixed breakfast for everyone.  “Aunt Alice”, who had experience as a midwife, dropped by  to look in on him on her way to Lehi.  She also reassured the worried family that he would be all right.  Later on that day on 8 December 1896, he passed away.  No one ever knew exactly why, but in his mother’s mind he had a weak heart.

With the high infant mortality rate that was common in the 19^th century, the family accepted the loss of Alphonso, and life went on.  As was also common at that time, a new baby girl arrived at the old adobe house, where the family still lived with Grandma Green on 21 July 1897, just 8 months later, They named her Avilda.

It was decided in 1899 that it was time For Joe and Alice to have their own home.  They decided it would be a brick house.  So Joe approached his older brother George, who had some skills in this area.  He developed the plans for the home and did all of the carpentry work.  Joe obtained and hauled all of the materials.  He gave as much help as he could.  A bricklayer was engaged to lay the brick.  When completed the family was very proud of their new house.

In the fall of 1901, the year the Second Ward was created in American Fork, a Millar girl came home from school one-day sick.  The next morning she was pronounced dead from diphtheria.  With the previous disasters the community had suffered from this disease in both 1879 and 1884, school was closed and other public gatherings minimized.  Lydia came home from school feeling fine.  However, the next morning she awakened feeling very poorly.  When the doctor arrived, he diagnosed her as also having diphtheria.  Further, he said that the disease had “eaten the lining of her stomach”.  Their beautiful little nine-year old daughter passed away on 23 October 1901. 

But, with no other choice, the cycle of life at the dawn of the twentieth century ground on.  Only five weeks later, on 28 November 1901, a new daughter arrived in the home of Joe and Alice Oler.  She received the name of Edith.  She was their fourth child and the last of the eight children they would eventually have to be born in American Fork.

Nine years before Joseph Oler’s birth, John Franklin Shelley was born 30 August 1862 in American Fork, Utah.  His youth was spent working on his father’s farm in this same community.  He was privileged to attend Brigham Young Academy in Provo as a young man.  He did especially well in mathematics and had the ambition to become a land surveyor.

He married Theodocia Chipman in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City 30 August 1882.  They lived in an adobe two-room house with a lean-to, belonging to John’s father, Thomas Shelley who at one time lived in the fort with Alphonzo Green some thirty years earlier.

Seeking better land and improved opportunity, John along with James E. Steele and George Steele traveled north in the spring of 1885 to the Snake River Valley of Idaho.  They traveled in a light wagon loaded with a month’s supply of provisions.   They found the grass tall and green with high sagebrush lining the roadway.  Wild flowers were blooming everywhere.  Impressed with what they saw, each staked out a homestead at Iona and returned to move their families to their new location.

It was late August before they completed the arrangements to leave this place that had been home all of their lives.  On the day they left, the whole town, including the band turned out to send them off.   When they arrived it was extremely hot and dry.  There had been no rain, everything was dry and dusty.  Weary and discouraged, they remember wanting to turn around and go back, but they nonetheless decided to stick it out.

To help provide for his family, John taught school that fall in Menan and Lewisville, Idaho.  When the school superintendent found out that he was one of those hated Mormons, (two years before the Edmunds-Tucker Act was passed by Congress) he refused to pay his salary, as there was a ruling that Mormons could not receive school funds.  On their own initiative, the parents of the children came to John and made a bargain that he would be paid one dollar by the parents of each child he taught.  In addition, they would also give him one day’s work with man and team for each child.  He taught school that winter, and in the spring the men came to his farm.  They plowed, harrowed and planted, putting his new land under cultivation for the first time.  While he farmed here for three more years, John learned that he wanted to a businessman more than he enjoyed farming.

So, in the fall of 1888 he moved to Eagle Rock (Idaho Falls), where he functioned as a bookkeeper for the branch ZCMI.  With his job, he was able to obtain a loan from them with which he established a one-room store in Iona.  He was very proud of the sign “Iona Store” on the face of his store.  But, he could not forget, when coming into the country, a tract of land that had impressed him, It lay nine miles south of Eagle Rock.  After making several trips down to this area, he could see the possibilities of the land, and the prospects to irrigate it.  So, since he had already used his homestead right in Iona, he had Theodocia file on a 160-acre tract in her name. 

John built the first house in what is now known as Shelley on their land.  Chris Mickelson and his wife moved into it and Chris put the land under cultivation.  Frank and Lee Priest plowed the first of their land from the native prairie.

A few settlers were scattered about the surrounding area.  Realizing the potential and following his true love, he decided to establish a mercantile business here and lay out a town site.  In his daughter Lottie’s personal history she wrote: “Father now needed lumber for the store, livery stable and a house to live in.  It was a long haul from Eagle Rock so he wrote the railroad officials asking them to stop long enough to unload a carload of lumber.  They consented if men would be on hand to unload it in 20 minutes, which they agreed to.”

“On that specified afternoon, John and his brother, George, were enroute to this point, traveling in a light buggy pulled by a blue horse.  “Old Blue” was known everywhere John F. was known.  When they were within two miles of their destination, they saw the smoke from the approaching train and a race began.  They had to be there when the train arrived or it would not stop.”

“With the help of Chris Mickelson and others, the lumber was thrown off the train on both sides of the track.  Later, the railroad company put a spur in here.”

“Now they needed a name for the town.  Mother suggested Shelco: Father said, ‘Shelton’ so, they drew cuts and Mother won.  Shelco was submitted to the railroad company and they replied: ‘Call your town what you wish but we have already named the spur, Shelley.”

“That is how our town got its name.”  The store, livery stable, and house were constructed in the spring of 1892 using the lumber tossed off at the sides of the railroad track. 

John began to sell the first lots in town that fall.  By 1893 a branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was established in Shelley including together some members who had previously been attending church in Taylor and Basalt.  John F. Shelley was the first Branch President.  He became the Bishop, when it became a Ward on 10 February 1895.

John was always interested in making the community a better place in which to live for it also improved his business interests.  People, who were using water out of the ditches running past their homes, were becoming ill, often times with typhoid fever.  Hauling water from the river was a long, laborious task.  So, John dug the first well for the community by blasting through lava rock to a depth of 150 feet.  He built a gristmill, the “Shelley Roller Mills”, on the river where people took wheat and traded it for grist receipts.  These in turn supplied them with flour and cereal for the year.  He also built a large grain elevator by the railroad track.  His financing of the Shelley Power and Light Company eventually led to its sale to Utah Power and Light Company.

 He owned several farms and assisted in bringing the sugar factory to Shelley along with helping the Idaho Russet become a staple in the California market.  As a philanthropic effort to assist the community, he donated the land for the city park and the cemetery.

With the dawn of the twentieth century came the realization to the Oler family, as it had to others in American Fork,  that their prospects for improving their lots in life would be better served in another locale.  Reports, from those who had migrated to Alberta, Canada with Ora Card in 1885 to escape government persecution, were extolling the virtues of the farm land laying at the eastern base of the Canadian Rockies, immediately north of the American border.  John Kelly’s brother-in-law, Heber Harrington (a descendant of one of those early settlers who resided for a time in the American Fork Fort) sent glowing reports of the Snake River Valley in Idaho and in particular Shelley.

The Blackfoot News printed the following about Shelley around 1899:

“The little village of Shelley is as modern as the early wild flowers that bloom in the fields near it…. A few years ago its site was flourishing in luxuriant sagebrush, now it is studded with business houses, pretty homes and other buildings.”

“A few years ago its founder, J.F. Shelley, taxed his imagination for a picture of a town built by his own enterprise, energy, and pluck.  The village is growing … The country tributary to it and near it is being rapidly settled and improved … If the census enumerator were to go there today, he would find four mercantile establishments, not including the drug store, one saloon, one boarding house and restaurant, one jeweler, one physician and a good school house for eighty pupils.  He would also find a pottery whose products are much admired and for which there is great demand.  A three-story, water-powered flour mill running at its full capacity to grind the grain for the ranchers in the valley and surrounding country.  The press brick company will begin its spring and summer work the first of May…”

“…Shelley is expecting a prosperous year.  The railroad company has just added another side track and will erect a new depot building before the summer comes and goes.”

It was not surprising then that Joe Oler and John Kelley traveled together to Shelley in February of 1901.  While there they looked very carefully at an area northeast of Shelley and immediately north of Taylor known as the Stanton area.  A 160 acre tract, the Olsen Farm appealed to them.  They returned to work in American Fork.  During the course of that year, Joseph and Alice made arrangements to sell their recently built house and a farm that Alice had inherited to her brother Erastus.  This enabled them to obtain a down payment to purchase the Olson farm up in Idaho.

The first of the Olers to depart from American Fork permanently were George and Bertha.  They left in March of 1902 for Sterling, Albert, Canada.  Bertha’s sister and brother along with their families had been called by the Church to go there three years before.  They heard that carpenters were needed and that wages were better.  Joe, Will, Mary Ann, and John went to Shelley.  But, when John and his family arrived there in the fall, they changed their minds and went on to Sterling to join George.   

 Joseph and Alice had a most important responsibility to their family that had to be completed before they left for Idaho.  On 2 April 1902 Joseph and Alice traveled to the Salt Lake City Temple.  Here they took out their endowments and were sealed with their two girls, Avilda and Edith, along with the two children they had buried in American Fork, Lydia and Alphonso, as a family for time and eternity.  While they were away to the temple, Roy crated and packed things to make them ready for shipment when they returned.  Roy, like Pearl, was to become a part of their family and went with them to Idaho.

Riding with their possessions in a freight car, while sending their wives and families in passenger cars, Joseph and Will Oler, and John Kelley came to Idaho in the spring of 1902 arriving April 5^th.  They had previously made arrangements to complete the purchase of part of the Olsen farm with Joe and Alice’s down payment.  Characteristic of the type of people Joe and Alice always were, Will was given 10 acres, John 35 acres, and Joe took 40 acres and the farmhouse.  When they arrived at the farm, the Olsens had not been able to complete arrangements to move out.  So, for two months they all remembered when Joe and Will with their families shared the house with the Olsen family. 

When the Olsens finally moved out Joe and his family took two rooms and Will’s family used two rooms.  Joe’s family had to go through Will and Juliet’s rooms to get outside.

They lived this way for two years, until Will built a two-room house on their ten acres.  Will lived there two years and then purchased the Jacklin farm. He moved his house and family to the new farm at that time.  Joe’s farm later became known as the Chapman farm.

In the throws of the dog days of a late summer afternoon, on 4 September 1902 occurred an event that shocked the small community of Shelley.  The Yorgesens recount the devastating fire which burned their pottery store and nearly wiped out the little town of Shelley:  “…One windy afternoon in the heart of the summer, a fire started in a small grocery store operated by James Jensen.  It did not take long until the wind was fanning a flame that wiped out quite a long string of buildings – two saloons, restaurant, Odd Fellows Hall, Post Office and Confectionery, Grocery Store, and dwelling.”

Wanting to further enhance their fortunes, Joe and John Kelly decided to make an investment in a grocery and dry goods store.  Heber Harrington, John’s brother-in-law, ran it for them.  They were humbled a bit, when it didn’t prove to be as successful as they had hoped.  So, they sold it to Joseph Holland.

On 26 March 1906, a son came to the home of Joe and Alice.  He became their oldest surviving son.  They named him Clyde and he was the first of four children to be born in Idaho.  Their home was doubly blessed at that time, for it was also in that year that Roy, Joe’s brother, departed for a church mission to the Southern States.  Even though he was twenty-five by that time, Joe provided the financial means necessary until his return in June 1909.

The July 9, 1909 edition of THE SHELLEY PIONEER contained the following excerpt:

“Last Thursday night about 200 Latter Day Saints, and a number of invited guests, assembled in the L.D.S. hall to welcome home and honor one of their brothers and missionaries, Roy Oler.  The banquet was presided over by Howard Young, who proved a very entertaining host, and the following program was rendered preceding the subject’s interesting address:

                              Song                     Choir

                              Prayer                   O.P. Jensen

                              Organ Selec.        Miss Edith Hansen

                              Duet                      Miss Myrtle Thorn &

                                                            Dr. Cutler

                              Welcome             Bishop John E. Kelley

                              Address Roy Oler

“Although only a boy in years and appearance, Elder Oler’s thirty-one months” experience in the field of missionary work has given him much experience that he could have in no other way acquired.  He is a young man of good address, sincerity of purpose and a fluent talker, and will undoubtedly as a missionary favorable impress many with the teachings of the Book of Mormon.  The thirty-one months of his first missionary work was spent in the state of Mississippi where his work consisted of a house to house canvas preaching the gospel, selling tracts, and distributing Latter Day Saint literature.  Like all missionaries, whose paths are not strewn with roses, especially in the land of Dixie, Elder Oler was very successful and received many congratulations from his senior   

co-workers.  His experiences in the land of cotton were varied and many, and the one in particular that tested his proselyting was the sight of bare-footed girls chewing tobacco, and as they gathered about the fire place to expectorate, he was much disgusted, and although possible Saints, was satisfied they could never expect to rate with the comely and modest maidens of his beloved Shelley.

“A very pleasant evening was spent, and after partaking of ice cream and cake, the guests dispersed.”

This would have been a very proud day for the Oler household. Many of Joe’s grandchildren never realized that he and his family must have been fairly active during this time. On 6 December 1905, Burton S. Rupp ordained him to the office of Seventy in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

After farming the Olsen farm for six years, Joe and John Kelly wanted to enlarge their opportunities, so they bought 160 acres immediately east and south of Shelley.  It was the John Hebert farm. The warranty deed shows the purchase was completed 18 November 1908. Floyd took the west eighty acres.  Joe took the east eighty acres for which he paid seven thousand dollars.

There was no house there when Joe and Alice moved on to the farm.  While a house was being built that summer, they slept in a cellar that was on the place and cooked in a buggy shed brought with them from their previous farm.  When it became necessary in the fall to use the cellar for storing potatoes, they lived in a tent for a couple of months until the house was completed.  Roy, who had just returned in June after 31 months on his mission, was, like his older brother George, especially talented as a carpenter.  He designed and helped build the house for them.  It became the home in which Joe would spend the rest of his life.

There was only one ward in Shelley when they first moved to town from Stanton.  However, on 1 August 1908 under the direction of David O. McKay, the Shelley Ward was divided into the Shelley First and Second Wards.  Since their farm was east of the railroad tracks they became members of the Second Ward.  Their new Bishop was Warren James Mallory.  He served until 1914, when John E. Kelley, Mary Ann’s husband, succeeded him.  Oliver Humphries followed John in 1929. On 31 December 1930, the Shelley Second Ward had 751 members, including 148 children.

When the ward was divided, Elder McKay gave council to the local brethren that the road from the railroad tracks to the top of “church hill” and from the block north of the church to the top of the hill should be graded.  Shortly, thereafter, a call was made in priesthood meeting on a Sunday for help.  On Monday morning forty-four men and teams were at work on the roads.  Part of them continued for several days until it was pretty well completed.  The result was the provision for the eventual building sites for the Second Ward Chapel and Stake Tabernacle.

Joe was called to be on the building committee for a chapel in which the new ward could meet.  His efforts were appreciated and acknowledged at his funeral, which was held in the same building he helped to build.  He also served the ward as a Sunday School teacher and YMMIA president.

In the fall of 1909, as the family was attempting to complete the building of their new home, harvest their first crop on their new farm, and survive living in the cellar and a tent, the twins arrived on November 20^th.  While this would seem to have required a super-human effort on Alice’s part, she never complained about it or held it up as a sacrifice on her part to her family.  As was so typical of her, she just made the best of what was asked of her, and met her family’s needs.

It was at about this time that a man by the name of Henry Clark had a lasting impact on the farmers in the Shelley area.  He had been working, helping to build the railroad into the Yellowstone area in Montana.  Seeing the Shelley area, he felt it would be an improvement for his wife and two children if they were to live there.  So, he purchased a forty-acre farm in the Taylor area.

Working out of the area in the wintertime, he was paid in part with some sacks of Netted Gem Burbank Potatoes.  He brought them home and was the first person to plant Russet Burbank potatoes, as they came to be known, in the area.  He sold his first carload of potatoes to Chris Mikelson of Shelley for fifty cents for a hundred weight.

After returning from his mission, Roy joined with Joe, who was ten years his senior, in farming together.  This proved to be a very successful arrangement for them both.  They did have one problem, however.  They were always trying to be sure they never got the best of one another.  The story is remembered when they were trying to divide up some cows.  They both were so set on giving the other the better and larger half of the cows that they each had tears streaming down their cheeks by the time they were finished.

Everyone was pleased for Roy when, at age 31, three years after returning from his mission, he was married on 5 June 1913 to Margaret Thomas.  Their son LeRoy (?) was born 7 April 1914.  Six months later, in the midst of the fall harvest, on 1 October 1914, Roy left the dinner table after the noon meal to go get a team of horses to begin to plow out some more potatoes for picking.  As he went out to the barn, a hailstorm came up.

 Standing in the barn door waiting for the storm to pass, he was struck by lightning and killed.  This was especially tragic, for Roy was not only a brother, but was almost like a son, having lived with them for the past twelve years.

In March of 1913 another of Joe’s brothers, Jim (James) chose to bring his family and join Joe, Mary Ann, Will, and Roy in living in Shelley.  He bought the Hans Larson place which was near the Shelley Sugar Factory and the Joe Oler farm.  Here he engaged in farming and selling insurance.

Jim was only twelve and one-half years old when their mother died and because so many of his younger brothers and sisters were in the care of others had to make his way pretty well on his own.  He had many different jobs and enjoyed a measure of success in most of them.  Using his initiative he graduated in a correspondence course in electrical engineering.  This gained him employment at the power plant at the mouth of American Fork Canyon where he was a switchboard operator for a number of years.

Married in 1899, he accepted a mission call to the Western States Mission headquartered in Denver, Colorado in 1910.  He had to leave behind his wife and three children but served a very successful mission, eventually functioning as “Conference President”.

Shortly after his return in October 1912, with no other family members remaining in American Fork, they began making plans to move to Shelley, Idaho.

James did well in Shelley and was very entrepreneurial in nature.  He was successful in his business ventures and active in the church serving as Stake Sunday school President for a number of years.  Joe and his siblings enjoyed a very close relationship during these years.

At a stake conference of the Blackfoot Stake, held 16 August 1914 and attended by Apostles Francis M. Lyman and George F. Richards, the Blackfoot Stake was divided.  The north portion became the Shelley Stake, with Joseph H. Dye as president, Warren James Mallory first councilor and Wilford M. Christensen second councilor.  The following wards constituted the new stake: Basalt, Goshen, Jameston, Kimball, Shelley 1^st, Shelley 2^nd, Taylor, and Woodville.  Joe was called to be a High Councilor and served in that capacity for the next ten years.  This author was surprised to discover this period of activity in the church in Joe’s life.  Few grandchildren ever saw him attend church.  The reason for his inactivity was never disclosed to them.  They were only aware that he dealt with a word of wisdom problem, as they were growing up. In spite of that he was loved, respected and admired by them all.

When he was a boy, Joe was impressed with the problems created for him and others when his father did not control his temper.  Further, he vowed that he would not allow this to be problem for himself or others around him as he grew older.  Those who were acquainted with him knew he was successful in keeping this vow.  Further, he made a concerted effort to help his children to learn the value of not being a slave to their anger.

It was said of Joe that he would rather be hurt himself than to do a wrong that would hurt others.  Etrick Miller said of him, “No one ever had a bigger heart than Joe Oler”.  His brother Jim once said that Joe made money, but he gave it all away.  Many times he loaned money or gave away valuable possessions to make others happy. No one who worked for or with Joe Oler, or who had any dealings with him ever felt they were short-changed.  Some have said that no father was more loved and revered by his family and respected by his friends and neighbors than Joe Oler.  He was also appreciated for his sense of humor as a practical joker.

No matter who came to their home, they were always asked to eat and share their hospitality.  His Mexican help or even the tramps that often came by were invited in to eat at their table.  It would be impossible to make a tribute of this type without including his wife Alice, who made such hospitality possible.

The Delgado Family were migrant workers from Mexico.  They came over a period of many years to help Joe and his family on their farms, especially with the sugar beets.  Beets required a lot of hand work involving thinning, hoeing and eventually topping.  The Olers extended the Delgados respect, dignity, and appreciation, never taking advantage of them in any respect.  No one was surprised when they came to Joe for help with a family problem.  Their oldest son had been found guilty of a crime, which had resulted in his being imprisoned in the Idaho State Penitentiary.  When he became eligible for parole, he could not be released unless he had a job and was sponsored by a U.S. citizen.  Even though the request came at a time of the year when there was not much farm work to be done, Joe agreed to meet both of their needs until the parole period had been fulfilled.

The Delgado family was appreciative of their relationship with the Olers.  An expression of this appreciation came in the form of an invitation to attend the wedding of another of their sons, Sallee in Salt Lake City.  Joe, had passed on by then, but Clyde and Ruth attended.

The last of Joe and Alice’s eight children, and the fourth to be born in Idaho arrived on 12 November 1915.  She must have seemed very special to her parents, for she was the child to whom they gave her mother’s name, Alice, and then to it added Elaine. While her mother was only forty-one years of age at the time, Alice acknowledged that she could only remember her mother, as a child, as always being old.  Certainly, helping to meet adult responsibilities as a child and the rigors of motherhood in pioneer type conditions would have had their impact on aging one.  However, it had been six years since Maurice and Maurine, and eleven years since Clyde had been born.  To everyone else in the family baby Alice must have seemed very small and young.  She was usually referred to in her childhood as “Little Alice”.

George Jr., the father, passed away in Shelley at the age of 67 on 21 February 1916.  He did not leave American Fork when most of his family did, but he and his wife came to Shelley in 1904.  There he bought 40 acres on the Taylor road where he built a home.  They lived there only a few years and raised chickens.  Then, encouraged by George and John, he went to Sterling, Alberta where he farmed some and ran a lumber yard.  After a few years he returned to Shelley and lived in the house just North of Joe’s home.  He then built a small home a block or two away by the canal.  (Probably on a lot given him by Joe and Alice)  It was here he died.  He was interred in the American Fork Cemetery joining his wife Mary, his father, and the twins Mark and Elmer.  A new headstone was placed there in their honor by their appreciative descendants in 2001.

Mother Alice, too, was active in the Second Ward.  She served in the presidency of the YMMIA under Lucy Young.  In 1918 she was called by Bishop John E. Kelly to be President of the Relief Society.  She served with Emily Miller, Emma Hansen and Mary Ann Kelley.  She functioned in this position for seven years.  One of the challenges they faced occurred when the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company shipped in a group of Mexican families to labor in the sugar beets.  Upon their arrival in the spring, the weather was especially cold and they were poorly dressed.  Influenza was always a problem at that time of year.  The Relief Society sisters gathered bedding and clothing, helping and ministering all they could.  But, in spite of their best efforts, a number of babies died of pneumonia and the flue.  Burial arrangements were especially difficult because of the language barrier, cold weather, and the lack of undertaking facilities.  They were interred in a corner of the Shelley cemetery.

Sometime after being released as Relief Society President, Alice served as work director.  In this capacity, she and Sister Effie Yorgensen made temple clothes for the dead. At age 56, she accepted the call to be Primary President in 1930.  Her daughter Alice was 15 years old at this time. (One wonders if Alice, her daughter, remembered this when she became a Primary President at age 80)  Never shirking her duty, she served as a visiting teacher for thirty-five years.  Many of the visits in the early years were made using a horse and buggy over some fairly long distances.

Alice found it rewarding to help others, and she served her neighbors over the years in another capacity.  As a mid-wife she helped deliver some 35 babies.  She must have assisted both Dr. Roberts and Dr. Cutler, the two physicians in town at that time.  But, sometimes, as happened with one of her daughter Maurine’s twins, the delivery occurred before the doctor arrived.

 It had become evident, as the Church sought to improve the economy in the inter-mountain west, that the first factory built by the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company in Lehi, Utah in 1891 had been a success.  When the sugar-factory in Lincoln, Idaho went into operation in 1903, its success initiated a strong lobbying effort from Shelley residents to have a factory built in their community.  Joe Oler and John Kelley signed the first beet contracts in the Shelley District.  Having come from American Fork, which is immediately adjacent to Lehi, they were somewhat familiar with the method of growing sugar beets.  They planted practically all that were grown in that district for five years.

Then, in 1916 John assisted the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company in purchasing the Grant Hubbel farm, which lay immediately south of their farms, as a building site for a factory for the Shelley area.  The factory was completed in the fall of 1917 at a cost of $600,000.  That first year produced 30,563 bags of sugar.  Operation continued, excepting for closures three years due to plant diseases in the crops, until 1942.  1940 was the peak production year, when 334,073 bags of sugar were produced.

As the eventful year of 1917 drew to a close, another first occurred in the Joseph Oler family.  The first marriage of a family member occurred on 19 December 1917.  Avilda married a striking young man, Eli Searle.  He had been born and raised in the community from which they had come as a family fifteen years previously, American Fork, Utah.  It was in January of 1919 that Joseph and Alice became grandparents for the first time with the arrival of Earl.

Joseph loved and enjoyed his children. He never wanted to travel anywhere without them.  So they were blessed with many memories of family centered trips and activities.  At Christmas time, especially as the grandchildren came along, he was known to have some dimes and quarters in his pocket to hand out in the holiday spirit.  He also started the tradition of early morning visits to family members on Christmas morning. 

Some time in the later years of her life, Alice’s mother, Elizabeth Chadwick Green, came to live with Alice and Joseph and their family before her death in Shelley on 19 January 1921.  Granddaughter Alice remembers her as a very proper lady who made it a point to teach the grandchildren manners.  Alice didn’t especially appreciate grandma’s insistence that she become more proficient with her Saturday dusting assignment by dusting between each of the piano keys.  But, she also fondly remembers sitting at that same piano with her father singing songs together.

One of the reasons for Eli Searle’s (Avilda’s husband) first trip to Shelley was to visit Donald Crooks a boyhood friend from American Fork whose family had moved to Shelley.  Little did he know then that in 1924 they would become brothers-in-law when Don married Edith Oler, his wife’s sister.

In 1926 a project was completed that brought pride to all of the Oler family.  Jim, a very entrepreneurial type, wanted to build a dance hall.  He later added a swimming pool.  The project was sufficiently ambitious that he made an offer his brother George couldn’t refuse to come down from Sterling, Alberta and supervise the construction for him. Joe and many family members assisted to the extent their work would allow them.  It was located on the Yellowstone Highway four miles south of Shelley not far from the Snake River.  The following was reported in THE SHELLEY PIONEER 1 April 1926:

            “The opening dance at Paradise Gardens, four miles south of Shelley, was the biggest success that

has ever occurred in this part of the state of Idaho.  There must have been 2500 people present and the proprietor, James Oler, was surprised himself at the large crowd that attended on opening night.

Everything was conducted in a proper manner and the vast number of dancers had a good time.  This pavilion is certainly a credit to this part of Idaho and deserves the patronage it received  the opening night.

The next dance will be held next Saturday night, when it is expected that there will be a larger crowd than was there Tuesday, as this is the largest Dance Pavilion in the state.”

Unfortunately, Paradise Gardens burned to the ground a few years later and in 1934 Jim and his family moved to Salt Lake City.

The Joseph Oler family was especially proud when their first child to complete his high school education, C;yde, was graduated 26 May 1926 with the largest class in Shelley High School history to that date.  It had not been easy for him, however, because work absences had forced him to have to attend a fifth year of high school in order to gain his diploma.  But, his determination was rewarded.  Maurine was the only other of the Joseph and Alice Oler children to graduate from high school.

That same spring Clyde was called to serve in the Australian Mission for the church immediately after his graduation.  The following is another excerpt from THE SHELLEY PIONEER dated 29 April 1926:

“A farewell party was given on Wednesday evening in the High School in honor of Orval Johnson, Clyde Oler, and Edwin Johnson who will leave to fulfill missions for the L.D.S. Church.  It was successful from every point of view.

There was a large attendance and the program arranged was a good one.  After the program dancing was enjoyed until 12 o’clock.

All the friends of these young men wish them success in their labor of love for the gospel.

Clyde remembers his parting from Joe to go half way around the world for the next two years.  With the state of travel and communications in the early twentieth century, it was almost like leaving for another planet.  But, true to his father’s nature, all he did was to wish him well and offer him a handshake.  Physical affection was not displayed very extensively at all in their family.  Nevertheless, every family member knew that their parents cared for them deeply and would always be there for them, especially when the need was great.

This was especially demonstrated when, as an upper classman in high school, Clyde wanted to go with some of his friends one summer to Dillon, Montana to work in the hay for one of his friend’s uncle.  It would give them a chance to earn some real money, and, subconsciously, would be an expression of their evolution into adulthood.  While his mother had strong reservations, she did not intercede when his father consented to allow him to go.  He did caution him, however, to stay out of the “red-light district”.  They traveled to Montana on the train.  Clyde remembers the letter he received a few weeks later indicating Joe’s love and concern, when he suggested that if Clyde had the need to be sure to write out a check on the family’s bank account.

After about six weeks, the glamour of their independence wore off and the reality of the work to which they were committed faced them.  They began to have second doubts about just how great their adventure really was.  So, they returned home early with another great adventure in mind.  Clyde informed his father that they were going to go to San Francisco, since there still was time before school started.  They had it all thought out.  By riding the railroad cars like the hobos did, so that there were no transportation costs, the money that they had earned haying would meet the rest of their expenses.  Joe was very concerned, especially about the danger involved with their desired mode of transportation, but undoubtedly he was also worried about how these young, country boys would deal with some of the situations they would face in the big city.  So, father and son arrived at an impasse.   Joe suggested they sleep on it and make their decision in the morning.

The next day when Clyde approached his father again, his father said he would consent to his going if he complied with one condition.  The family would sell their only milk cow to enable them to purchase a ticket so that he could travel in the passenger cars.  Clyde later remarked, “He had me!”  That cow was the only source of milk, butter and cheese for the family.  And, if he went, everyone in the family would have to suffer for what would be a very selfish act.  But, there was no doubt in his mind with his father’s response that his father truly cared strongly for him.

The beginning of the paving of Main Street in Shelley was announced in the 21 July 1927 edition of THE SHELLEY PIONEER.  Not only would this convenience those who chose to shop in Shelley, but it would complete the longest continuous stretch of paved highway in the State of Idaho at that time. 

On 17 August 1927 the community celebrated the completion of the paving project.  The activities started at 2 p.m. with a baseball game culminating in a big get-together street rally.  A large platform had been built on West Pine Street for the speakers and other activities.  There were numerous contests, involving roller-skating, whistling, and harmonica and ukelele playing.  Blind-fold boxing bouts were especially entertaining.

At 7 p.m. in the evening, amateur boxing and wrestling matches were held.  A big dance on the new paving started at 8:30 with the music being furnished by the Gibbons and Reed Construction Company, contractors for the project.

Over 1000 cars were counted in town that day.  The Chamber of Commerce was so impressed that they decided to initiate a previously discussed idea.  The first Spud Day was held on 19 October 1927.  Every year since then, on the third Saturday in September, the annual “Spud Day” celebration has been held.  The only exception was one year skipped because of WWII.

Also occurring at this same time was the opening of the new Riverview Bridge over the Snake River west of Shelley.  The Utah-Idaho Sugar Company in 1920 had purchased some 2000 acres west of the Snake River. Beginning under the direction of John E. Kelly, they developed the land starting as dry farms and then, after creating an irrigation system, functioning as irrigated tenant farms.  Small houses were built and each farm rented on a share-crop arrangement with the tenant farmers.  In addition to an income source, the project also insured the company of a source of sugar beets for the Shelly factory as each farm was given an annual acreage allotment that had to be planted to sugar beets.  The sons and many of the grandsons and great grandsons of Joseph and Alice have lived and farmed over a period of many years and several generations on the Hays Project and other farm land west of the river using the access provided by that Riverview Bridge completed in 1927.

An announcement in THE SHELLEY PIONEER newspaper in conjunction with the completion of the paving and bridge projects is expressive of some of the heritage the Oler family received by growing up in Shelley.  “Shelley, as far as we are able to see, is making wonderful progress.  This progress has been slow, but sure, and we are able to pay the bill when the work is completed.”

Unfortunately, within the next two to three years all communities and their residents were having difficulty paying their bills.  As the third decade of the twentieth century began the United States found itself in the throws of the “Great Depression”.  Nevertheless, 1931 was the year in which three more of Joe and Alice’s children chose to be married.  On March 13^th, Maurine was married another young man from American Fork, Leo Searle, in the Salt Lake Temple.  They made their first home in Salt Lake City.

Clyde upon returning from his mission soon discovered a lovely young lady who had moved to town while he was away.  It was a mutual discovery, but since she was still in high school they waited until she was out and working for the telephone company before they were married on 23 September 1931 in the Salt Lake Temple.  Since it was harvest season and economic conditions were so bleak, they had to go down all by themselves.

“Little Alice”, who would turn 16 on 12 November 1931, decided she and her boyfriend would accompany her cousin, Buelah Oler and her boyfriend, Eugene Christensen, to Logan, Utah, when they got married on 7 November 1931.  As she was leaving the house that morning, she alerted her mother that she and Veryl were going to get married that day also.  They came home married by a justice of the peace.   Fearful to face her father, she realized she was forgiven when a wedding reception involving a dinner and a dance was given for them by the parents of the couple a few days later.

As his sons grew older and were able to help more, three large chicken coops were built in the farm yard.   Selling eggs and chickens became common place for a number of years.  They were also a good family food source. 

Later, Joe expanded his farming operations and took both boys in with him.  When Clyde returned from his wedding, he and Ruth immediately went up to Roberts to help with the potato harvest on a farm the family was farming there for a short time.  Also included at one time was some acreage they rented north of Shelly adjacent to the stockyards. Eventually Clyde was given the opportunity, through his Uncle John Kelly, to operate a farm on the Hays Project west of town.

In the winter they would feed cattle to finish them out for sale to the slaughter houses.  With the construction or a large corral, ample room for hay stacks, and their proximity to the sugar beet pulp and molasses the operation became very practical venture for them.  A side benefit was the supply of manure this made available each spring as they prepared for the next years planting.

An article in THE IDAHO FARMER dated 16 March 1939 recognized the success they were realizing:

“Ask who is one of the good sugar beet growers in the Shelly district, and along with a list of others, your informant is most likely to mention the name of Joe Oler.  The Olers – for the farm is under the joint management of Mr. Oler and his two sons, Clyde and Maurice – do get good yields and a few minutes observation reveals that the results the get are no mere happenstance.

…Good gains are possible with the ration fed to the whiteface cattle the Olers usually get, and with the greater part of the feed being produced on the place, either as a general crop or a byproduct, the efficiency of the operation is high.

 Even though Clyde was married and Maurice was still single, with their father they ran their farming operation together and from only one bank account.  No one ever felt abused by the others.  This has been a magnificent expression of the love, respect, and consideration found in Joe Oler and extended to his family.  Further, every one has always felt the responsibility, when dealing with one another, to see that the other person’s interests were met before and to a better degree than their own.

 One time when Joe and Alice went down to visit Maurine and Leo in Salt Lake City, they found them struggling under the conditions of the depression to provide for themselves and their beginning family.  So true to his nature, They offered them the chance to come to Shelley to farm.  They lived with Joe and Alice and worked around on the farms, as had most of their other children at one time or another, until they too were able to gain the opportunity for a farm on the Hays Project.  There,    Leo, however, set up his own farming operation under very humble circumstances, but with support from the rest of the family.

It was not surprising then, that every Sunday after church all their children and grandchildren would gather at Joe and Alice’s home for Sunday dinner.  Large tables would be set in the kitchen and dining room so everyone could enjoy Alice’s delicious meal.  Afternoons were enjoyed together until it was time for Sacrament Meeting or chores, or “changing” the irrigation water.  It was on these and other gatherings at grandma and grandpa Oler’s that the grandchildren looked forward to the butterscotch candy grandpa would make in a pie plate on the stove.  They also learned, after their first experience, to stay away from his vinegar fizzes.  Grandpa was always a great practical joker.

As the effects of aging and increasingly poor health began to reduce Joe’s participation in the farming operation, Clyde and Maurice made plans to purchase the Joe Dial brick home in town for their parents to live in.  It was a smaller, attractive, more modern home than the old house built on their farm in 1908.  The intent was to insure their comfort in their sunset years.

Unfortunately, Joe died passed away on 6 May 1943 at 72 years of age of congestive heart failure associated with an enlarged heart, before moving into the house purchased for them.  Clyde and Ruth purchased the house at that point and moved Alice in with their family.  She was given the master bedroom and resided with them for 13 years.  Then, following a major automobile accident which left Ruth severely injured and Maurice’s wife, Isabelle injured beyond recovery, Alice lived at different periods with Avilda, Maurine, and Alice until her passing on 28 January 1960.

The last twenty years of her life she silently bore the discomfort and inconvenience of an ulcer.  Many meals of a baked potato with milk were consumed to appease the ulcer.  But, in spite of the ulcer, she could always be heard whistling as she worked, and she was never idle.  Until the end she maintained the character she had established with her very proper mother of being clean and well-groomed with freshly washed, starched and ironed clothes, and always wearing a clean apron.  Clyde’s family treasured the many pies she baked for them and for which she was famous throughout her family and the community.