Dad's cousin sent an email recently, which gave an autobiography of Orville Andrew Hooper. He's my Grandpa Hooper's dad's (Morise LeRoy Hooper's) brother.
Orville A. Hooper (1889-1963)
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| Plum Creek ( Lexington, NE in 1889) http://people.kzoo.edu/ |
I
was born in 1889 in Lexington Neb. in a Sod house on the section of land my
father had. There houses were very
nice inside and were plastered with a white clay that was got about 6 miles
from where I lived. I lived there
until I was 8 years old and had to drive 5 miles in a cart with my oldest
sister, Lizzie, who was 2 years older than I. We had to drive in bad winters but we had a good old horse
that knew every inch of the road.
What a wonderfull horse he was as my Sister and I would sit close
together and cover our heads up as the snow blew very hard and the blizzards
were bad but that old horse would stay right on the road and bring us
home.
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| Sod House Museum, about 25 miles away in Gothenburg, NE |
Our school house was a
little white house and I will never forget it as it had cut oak wood and all
the farmers seen we had canned fruit, ham, or bacon and flour, sugar, coffee
& milk; all that was stored in for the winter in case a bad storm would
come up and we would all have to lye around on the floor around a big stove to
sleep and go in school the next day.
If the roads were good the next day we would go home. We had one of the old time phones? and
coal oil lamps but we all had a good time. My father had a large grove of Maple trees which in the fall
he would take the sap and he had a large kettle and cook the sap and make maple
syrup and cakes of maple sugar.
Dad would take his corn and wheat and take it five miles with his big
team and get his wheat and corn ground at the mill and give so much corn and so
much wheat for his corn meal and his flour as they did not have money, only
scrip tickets that come in books 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, 50 cents, $5.00
and $10.00. We had cows, hogs,
chickens and when we went to school we would get each a large piece of corn
bread and maple syrup and a bottle of milk for our dinner sure was good maybe a
piece of candy of maple sugar candy so we lived very good and dad would once in
a while bring back from a town named Bandcroft, Neb. a load of coal but we
always had lots of corn cobs and wood, all which keep us warm as we had a very
large stove in the front room and a small cast iron stove in the kitchen. The good old straw or feather ticks
that we slept on and they sure were warm.
I can see them all now and three legged stools to sit on and a
bench. I think we were all more
happy then than the children of today as they have fine clothes and we had a
suit each for to dress up on Sunday and overalls through the week a pair of
Sunday shoes and a pair of everyday shoes that was about all we had in
dress. Mother would get on a horse
and ride over to my uncle and aunts house about 3 miles as my father and my
uncle owned this land together. My
uncle and his family of 2 girls Pearl and Evelyn were about the same age as
us. When I was 10 years old we had
a pest that took all the crops and they were lockus [locusts] and the people
cut the wire fences to let the stock go where ever they could get something to
eat. Dad and uncle had about 500
head of hogs on hand which walked around just bones and skin. The cows a favorite we called Bessie
was skin and bones and these animals died all over (what a smell) and dad would
drag every day 10 to 20 hogs and one or two cows over to a place called coon
creek the air was bad but dad had about 20 tons of hay and some corn from the
last years crops. However, I
remember dad did keep the two horses and the old cow Bessie till the last. Then he sold the team and as he did not
have much hay left he shot our old Bessie cow as he did not want to see her
suffer at the last. We had parched
corn and corn bread mother would grind up the corn and make us our postum so
dad even looked thin from worrying so much. Then he got a chance to sell the land for 28 cents an acre
so they both sold out and my uncle went to the indian school as he got a job
taking care of the big house and dad packed up and we came to DesMoines, Iowa
and lived in a place called the Morison Flat down in the basement and we lived
there 6 years as dad got a job as engineer at two Tone brothers all spice Co.
on the west side of DesMoines across the DesMoines river which was a large
river.
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| http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/1312834 |
I used to go and catch fish
there they were called red horse fish but had lots of bones but we enjoyed them
as meat was high priced and dad only received $90.00 a month. I can remember when dad brought home
his first pay it was a happy home one thing I sure remember was dad give my
sister and I , 5 cents to get some candy and one could buy lots of candy for 5
cents. Well, we started to school
in a school call Webster school on Grand Avenue but it was quite different that
the school we was use to. Dad
worked at this all spice company quite a while and he got a better job at
Chemberlan Medison [Medicine Co.] and got $105.00 per month and then we moved
to the west side of DesMoines, Iowa and I had a route taking papers. Papers sold for 2 cents and I would
make about $2.00 a month so we thought we were rich. I bought my first long pants a suit it cost $5.00 and shoes
$2.50 a pair so I was quite proud of my long pants. I do not remember how long we lived there but I was about 15
years old and dad got a job in Carroll, Iowa at an Electric plant as engineer
and made $150 a month and it looked like the more west we went the more money
dad got again. We all started to
school and then we had another sister called Fay and later in that same house a
brother called Morise who is living in Ogden, Utah. Later there was another boy called Floyd which lived later
in California and died at the age of 52 with heart trouble at Reno,
Nevada. We also had another sister
that died when she was 9 months old that made 3 girls and 3 boys, at the
present time. In 1962 there were 4
of us children left 2 sisters and 2 brothers. Dad and Mother died in a place called Baker City, Oregon and
she was 39 years old dad died at the age of 72 in Baker Oregon. The date I do not know. I meet my wife in the IXL laundry in
Baker City, Oregon as I was engineer there. I followed my dads foot steps as mechanic and engineering
later. My sweet heart and her
folks moved to Salt Lake City, Utah and about one year later I went to Salt
Lake City and there we were married in the church LDS and also in the
temple.
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Salt Lake LDS Temple, 1930
Utah Capitol Building was completed in 1916
(the year Orville and Eva married) |
I worked in the Model
Laundry for 4 years and as I have been working on the railroad before I went
back to rail roading as engineer runing from Ogden to Pocatello, Idaho but my
wife did not want me on the rail road as she said I was away most all the time
so to live with her I had to quit the rail road and really left a good job. So I got a job in Portland, Oregon
pulling a 4 car train street car which I was home every night. I bought an acre of ground and built a
4 room plain house and there my boy Edwin came along which she did not want to
have any children and my trouble did start with her and never quit tell we
moved back to Salt Lake City and there I worked as Engineer in Mrs. McDonalds
Chocolate Co. for 6 years. I had
her brother Edwin and my brother to raise along with my son Edwin and put them
in school till they growed up and got married but still my troubles went on
nothing I could do right. I gave
her my check each month and she give me $5.00 for each month. Later I bought the home on Pugsley St.
west of 2nd West one block and lived there 8 years and then I went
to work for Fair Banks and Morise Diesel and Gas Engineering Co.
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Fairbanks Morse Train Engine
http://www.divisionpoint.com/ |
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| http://www.american-rails.com/ |
Later they sent me to take over the
maintenances in that part of California.
Later a man came in to see if the Co. knew of a master mechanic that
they could get, and as times were hard the Co. told me they had a good job for
$700.00 down in South America room and board and told me they were a good Co.
and a chance in my life so I went home later that night and told my wife and
she said take it and then she would come down later, I worked one month and
told my boss about my wife and he said send for her as they had a beautifull
house for us all electric set up.
I told Eva to rent the house but never could get an answer in regards of
what she would do with the house always putting it off until I came home at the
end of a 2 years contract. The
bishop in the 22nd ward told me to go on a mission while I was down
there. Then I thought I could get
Eva to go and work with me on a Mission but still she would not come and later
she sold the house and bought this one house and as I sent her money $400.00
each month. She bought the big
house and then built the small house so when I came back on my vacation to see
them all she told me about the houses and said they are all in my name so after
I thought I would have a nice nest egg in our old age I found out I had nothing
so I just stayed over to Edwin’s house.
We had never had cross words but just could not live peacefull together
so that is the way it stands. So I
went back and keep on my mission and she would always would right me a letter
telling me what I should preach on but I never said anything. She wrote me she needed $1000.00 to
finish paying on the house so I sent it by check to her and many times I sent
it like $500.00 $300.00 in many checks.
Now my mission was more to me as there was no troubles and hard feelings
among the natives I loved them and they loved me. Many nights I would go out at night to administer to the
sick. One lady I administer to her
little girl about 5 years and this is what she said.
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Heber J. Grant, Prophet at the time Orville served in
South America, served in Japan. http://www.ldsces.org/ |
Come please, my baby is dying so I went and got my partner
and went there. The child had a
feaver of 104 as I check her and gave her quinine to give to her after the
fever went down. So then next
night I went down and as the child had been sick for 4 days I went in the house
and there the child was sitting on the bed, a board, that is what she sleeped
on with a blanket. As I went in
the child was white and looked very sick so the mother came in and threw her
hands up and said it was like god had sent me and she could not thank me enough
but I told her only to pray each night and god would bless them but the little
girl did not pick up very good so I had one of my machanics take her to the Co.
hospital and I payed for her and the doctor did not want to charge me so I gave
him $5.00 for 5 days she was in the hospital. I later got her a piece of cloth and they made her a red
dress and a red ribbon in her hair.
She did look nice. Many
sick I have come for and put them in the hospital as the Co. knew I was doing
good and made lovely friends.
These things one can’t forget as they come in my mind all the time and I
could write a big book but I am not a book writer but as I say I should tell
the story of my lovely friends there and the little children I made happy. I will never miss what I spent on those
dear children and they could never pass the shop and they would run in if they
seen me and grab me around the neck and give me a big hug and this kind of love
they showed for me I never will forget as it went along with my mission.
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