Steven Lloyd Fletcher--Nola Jean Heggie--Lois Valetta Barton--Valetta Oler--George Oler--
George Oler--George Oler--Philip Jacob Oler
Great great grandfather of Nola Jean Heggie Fletcher.
George
Oler (1849): His Ancestors and Descendants
(adapted from a previous
version, author unknown)
The census of 1790 for
Pennsylvania shows Philip Oler living in Philadelphia City. He had two sons over sixteen years of age,
three sons under sixteen, two females and his wife. Philip Jacob Oler was a passenger on the
ship, “Minerva”, which landed in Pennsylvania on 10 August 1768 (Rupps Thirty Thousand
Emigrants).
The Biography of
Maryland and the District of Columbia includes a short sketch of William B. Ohler, born
1818. It states, “Three brothers,
Germans, came to this country, one settling in Pennsylvania, one further west
and one in Fredrick, Maryland”. It is
quite definite that the one settling in Pennsylvania is our direct ancestor.
Historical information
about George Oler’s ancestors and about his early life is scanty. It would be interesting to know more about
George’s childhood and about his family’s conversion to The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints.
George Oler, son of
George Oler and Margaret Lancaster Oler, was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
on 29 August 1849. He began working for
others when he was only 8 years old. At
some point in time, George left Pennsylvania, and, for a while, went from place
to place getting work where he could.
Records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints say that
George was confirmed a member on 1 January 1858 when he was 9 years old. There is no mention of an Oler family in any
of the overland companies that traveled to Utah, however, he may have come to
Utah with his parents, who resided in Leeds, Utah in later years (see 1880
Census). Whether or not he came with his
parents, it is clear that George Oler was in Utah at least by 1867, at the time
when early members of the Church were still arriving in the valley in covered
wagons and with handcarts. As a young
man of about 18 years old, George received and accepted two assignments to
return to the east to assist groups of immigrants traveling to the valley. He was reluctant to make the second trip, but
knowing that acceptance of this second assignment would be the same as serving
a mission encouraged him; so he went again.
He received his temple endowment before serving this mission. Further proof that George Oler was in Utah before
1869 is that he was 19 years old when he married in 1868, after returning to
Salt Lake City with the second wagon train.
In the second group of
saints traveling to the Salt Lake Valley was Mary Squires, a young girl from
England. She became George’s wife. George often told the story about meeting his
wife on this trek across the plains. One
day the oxen and the covered wagon in which Mary and another girl were riding
became stuck in the middle of a stream that they were crossing. George, already in love with Mary, 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!
Only a few details about
Mary Squires’ childhood are known. She
was born 5 March 1852 at Front Street, Radford, Nottingham, England. She was the youngest of five children in the
family of Joseph Squires and Mary Davis Squires. Her father was a framework knitter by
trade. Joseph and Mary Squires joined
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints about 1850. Mary was baptized at the age of eight years,
on 17 June 1860 at Radford, ten years after her parents joined the church.
Mary had two very close girlfriends, also
members of the church: Ellen Widdison, who later married her brother, Joseph
Squires, and Ann Winterton. Mary, Ellen
and Ann often sang together and went to other nearby English towns with their
caroling. The three girls left England
together and came to Utah.
During the summer of
1868, before George and Mary were married, George worked on the Henry Chipman
farm at American Fork, Utah, and Mary helped in the Chipman home. George Oler, at age 19, and Mary Squires, at
age 16, were married by George Q. Cannon in the Salt Lake Endowment House on 11
October 1868, not long after they met on the plains. 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 Widdison, became the wife of her brother,
Joseph Squires. Mary must have had a
deep love and respect for her three brothers, George, Joseph and James, because
she named three of her sons after them.
Early in George and
Mary’s married life, they moved to Cedar Valley where they cleared 80 acres of
sagebrush for farming, but they soon moved to American Fork, Utah. Their home in American Fork was just back of
a sidewalk with a row of walnut trees in front and the railroad tracks on the
other side of the sidewalk. 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.
Mary was very tiny,
weighing less than one hundred pounds.
Few people in American Fork knew her as Mary, because she was called
Polly. Someone said how well her
nickname, “Little Polly”, suited her.
Her older children always remembered the low rocker she used to rock her
babies. When she sat on an ordinary
chair, her feet could not touch the floor.
George and Mary had
thirteen children, ten sons and three daughters, all born at American Fork,
Utah: George, born 9 August 1869; Joseph, born 26 July 1871; Mary Ann, born 27
March 1873; John, born 23 November 1874; William, born 23 September 1876;
James, born 15 April 1879; Leroy, born 15 November 1881; Margaretta, born 7 February
1884; Pearl, born 23 May 1886; Albert, born 25 February 1888; Oscar, born 26
October 1889; twins Elmer and Mark born 6 November 1891.
The household tasks of
each day were endless! There were babies
to care for, meals to prepare, house to clean, clothes to wash, iron, mend and
sew, water to carry, wood to bring in.
The children were taught to help, but the big job, the managing of the
home, fell upon the almost, always tired shoulders of Little Polly.
Some of the time, George
and his sons farmed. They rented hay
ground and put up hay. George spent long
hours in the field, and to help him, Mary would cook a hot dinner and carry it
to the field for her husband and sons with a baby on her back and small
children running beside her.
George attended church
regularly, but it is not known if he held offices in the church. As the years went by, it became very
difficult for Mary to go to church. Her
son, Joseph, said he often came home on Sunday afternoon to find his mother out
in the yard sitting on the woodpile just resting. Many times he would sit and talk with
her. No matter how busy the week, she
tried to make Sunday a day of rest.
George’s parents, George
Oler Sr. and Margaret Lancaster Oler, lived at Leeds, Utah, a small settlement
near St. George, Utah. (They can be
found on the 1880 United States Census, census place Leeds, Washington,
Utah. The 1880 census record gives
Margaret’s age as 55 years and George’s age as 62.) In July 1886, their son, George, received
word that George Sr. was very ill, so George, the son, went to Leeds and
brought his father to American Fork.
George Sr. was so ill that when they reached American Fork, the
conductor stopped the train right in front of the door of George and Mary’s home
and let them take their father off.
George Sr. lived with George and Mary for two or three months and passed
away at their home on 21 October 1886 at the age of 73 years. George Sr.’s wife, Margaret, must have died
between the time of the 1880 census and July 1886, because there is no mention
of her in the account of George Sr.’s illness and death.
On 14 October 1891,
George, who is George and Mary’s eldest son, married Annie Bertha Tillack in
the Logan Temple at Logan, Utah. Bertha
is a daughter of Johann Wilhelm Tillack and his wife, Mary Sophia Schultz
Tillack, converts who had joined the church in Australia and immigrated to Utah
in 1888. (Bertha is known on many
records as Bertha Helena Tillack, but her birth registration gives her name as
Annie Bertha Tillack.) George was 22 years
old and Bertha was 19 years old when they married.
For weeks ahead, Bertha
and her mother and friends worked hard to make the marriage day a happy and
lovely remembrance. The wedding cake was
four-tiered and was made three weeks before the wedding by Sister Clark, Peter
Clark’s mother. (Peter was a close
friend of George.) Bertha helped seed
the raisins (seedless raisins were unavailable at that time), and she picked
over the currants, washed them and put them in the sun to dry. Bertha’s wedding cake contained three dozen
eggs, four pounds of raisins, three pounds of currants and a pound of peel and
citron.
When George and Bertha
returned from Logan, there was a wedding supper waiting for them, and the
American Fork City brass band stood at the door and played. George and his brother, Joseph, were members
of this fifteen-piece band. After
supper, everyone marched up to the dance hall where the band played again
outside the dance hall door. The band
members gave George and Bertha a large cupboard, which Bertha used most of her
life. The Polls Orchestra from Lehi,
Utah provided the music for the dance.
George and Bertha’s
marriage was a significant event in the lives of George and Mary, because
George was their first child to leave home and establish his own home and
family. They must have been especially
pleased that George and Bertha were married in the temple, even though it was a
long trip to Logan from American Fork.
At the time of George
and Bertha’s marriage, George’s mother, Mary, was expecting her twelfth child.
She spoke to her eldest daughter, Mary Ann, who was eighteen years old at the
time, and told her that she felt that she would not live when her baby was
born. She asked Mary Ann to take care of
her smaller children. The five youngest,
Leroy, Margaretta, Pearl, Albert and Oscar, were under the age of ten
years. She especially asked her to care
for Albert and Oscar, who were two and three years old at the time. Mary knew that caring for all of the family
would be too great a responsibility for Mary Ann, so she said that the older
children would have to look out for themselves and assist each other.
Three weeks after the
wedding, on 6 November 1891, Mary gave birth to twin boys, named Elmer and
Mark. She called Mary Ann into the room
and told her not to worry about the care of the two new babies, because she
would call for them soon. An old granny,
the attending midwife, noted the seriousness of Mary’s illness and sent for the
men who were working in the field. When
Joseph took one look at his mother, he quickly hitched the buggy and went for
the doctor, but he arrived too late.
Mary died the same day that she gave birth to her twins, on 6 November
1891, at the age of 39 years.
The twins were so tiny
that they needed special care. Mrs.
Tillack (Mary Sophia), Bertha’s mother took both of them. Mark lived about a month, dying on 3 December
1891. Elmer contracted diphtheria at the
age of four and a half years and died on 7 April 1896.
Eterick Millar said of
Mary, “She was one of the finest women you ever met”. He remembers her home as a gathering place
for young people. The Indians often came
to the Oler home for food and Mary fed them.
When an Indian woman came to her home after Mary’s death and heard that
she had died, the Indian woman said, “She good”, and went down the street
leading her horse, dragging tent poles and chanting a death song.
Mary Ann had her own
wedding plans for the fall of 1891 as well, but she postponed her wedding until
August 1892. The other girls in the
family, Margaretta and Pearl, were only 7 and 5 years old respectively, so the
responsibility of caring for her brothers and sisters for the next few months
was largely Mary Ann’s.
In those days, the boys
often left home while they were still quite young and worked for other
people. They would return home whenever
there was no work. Joseph went to work
for others when he was about twelve years old, and it is probable that the
other boys did likewise. It is not known
if all of the boys were home during the winter of 1891-1892.
On 20 February 1892,
Joseph, the second son who was twenty years old, married Alice Green, the
eighteen-year-old daughter of Alfonso Green and Elizabeth Chadwick Green, at
American Fork, Utah.
Mary Ann, at age
nineteen years, married John Elijah Kelley, who was the twenty-two-year-old son
of John Philip Kelley and Elizabeth Clark Kelley. The marriage took place at American Fork,
Utah on 3 August 1892.
The marriages of George
and Mary’s three oldest children provided more homes to care for the young
children, so in May 1892, Pearl, who was 6 years old, went to live with Joseph
and Alice. She lived with them until she
married. At the same time, Margaretta
(known as Etta), age eight years, went to live with George and Bertha. Mary Ann and John took the two youngest boys,
Albert and Oscar, into their home.
Albert lived with Mary Ann and John until he married, and Oscar spent a
number of years in her home. Leroy, who
was ten years old, also went to live with Mary Ann and John; however he often
lived with his father and finally went to stay with Joseph and Alice until his
own marriage.
Albert and Oscar have
many memories of their childhood in American Fork. Mary Anns’ home was near the Beck
Stables. The boys liked to make the horses
buck. One day Bert walked up behind a
colt and was kicked in the eye. He got
up with his hand over his eye and asked Oscar, “Is it bleeding?”
“No, I can’t see any blood.”
Mary Ann sent for Dr.
Boswick. He looked at the eye and said,
“We’ll have to sew it up”.
Bert never forgot the feeling he had for he
thought they were going to sew his eye shut.
The doctor said there would not be a scar if they took care of it, but
shortly after this, Albert was watching Mary Ann as she vigorously blacked the
stove. Her elbow hit him below the same
eye and tore out two of the stitches, leaving a scar, which he always had.
The boys had a little
white mare they rode. One day Albert was
riding and Oscar held on to the mare’s tail.
Albert made the horse go fast, and when Oscar could no longer hang on,
he let go and the horse immediately fell.
They always laughed about Oscar holding up a horse.
George Oler, the father,
tried to make a home for his other sons, John (age 18), William (age 16) and
James (age 13), and sometimes Leroy lived with his father. William remembered coming home one night
after work and seeing his father standing at the stove frying potatoes. It hurt him so much to see his father trying
to keep things going, and he missed his mother so much that he went out and lay
by the railroad track and cried.
Widowed at age
forty-two, it is little wonder that George Oler married again. He married Lavina Jane Herbert Hansen, the
widow of Hans Hansen and mother of five sons and two daughters. George and Lavina were unable to blend the
two families; therefore, the marriage was unsuccessful. George later married Elizabeth Dorothea
Edlefson, the widow of a former officiator in the Logan Temple. Dorothy was a lovely person, and their
marriage together was very happy. They
had one stillborn child together.
Dorothy never had other children.
She was a good mother and grandmother to George’s family.
George loved the hills
and outdoors. He spent a great deal of
time, for about ten years after Mary’s death (1891 –1901), prospecting, mining
and lumbering. He purchased a mine at
Lewiston, near Bingham, Utah. In 1893,
George was hurt trying to get water out of the mineshaft. George tied a rope to a bucket and got into
it. As he prepared to go down, the air-rotted
rope broke, and he fell to an incline, which gave way under his weight, causing
him to fall about thirty feet into icy water.
Only James, his fourteen-year-old son, was with him. There are two stories told about this
incident. One version says that Jim had
to take the harness apart and let it down to help his father up to a small
incline. Then he had to repair the
harness and go down to American Fork for help.
Another story says that a ladder was made from boards taken from the
bunkhouse. However, both stories agree
that Jim was able to get his father to the incline above the water and to lower
dry clothing, a blanket and food for George.
Then, Jim went to American Fork for help. Joseph, and probably some of the other boys,
came back to the mine with Jim, and together, they were able to bring their
father to safety. George was very ill on
the trip back to town, so they stopped at Lehi, Utah where a doctor gave him
aid. The Oler sons took their father to
George and Bertha’s home. It was two months before he was able to be up and
around again.
For three summers,
George and his son, George, operated a sawmill in West Canyon in the mountains
west of American Fork, Utah. His other
sons and his son-in-law, John Kelley, also worked at the mill. During the winter, they hauled lumber to
Bingham. Bertha and other women ran a
boarding house for the loggers, and Alice and Mary Ann cooked some of the time.
At Thanksgiving one year
(1899 or 1900), the men were still up in the canyon getting logs for the mill,
and even though the men were living in a large tent, the families went to the
camp to be with them and enjoy their Thanksgiving dinner together. They stayed that night and made beds all over
the tent floor. During this stay, an
event that the Oler family remembered for a long time occurred. The living quarters for the loggers was
located near a creek, which entered a large flume carrying water to the power
plant at the mouth of American Fork Canyon.
Mary Ann and John’s little son, Floyd, who was two or three years old at
the time, wandered away from the camp.
Everyone searched frantically in the brush and in and out of the camp
houses to no avail. As time went on,
everyone became very tense, for there was a possibility that he could have
fallen into the stream and been carried through the flume and into the
powerhouse. In desperation, John Kelley,
the child’s father, mounted a horse and began to search farther up the
canyon. About a mile up the canyon, he
found little Floyd still traveling, none the worse for his experience, and
oblivious of the excitement that his disappearance had caused.
During the time that
George Oler ran the sawmill, he and his sons sawed and hauled all of the lumber
that was used to build the Lehi, Utah sugar beet factory, selling it for $13.00
per thousand feet. They also supplied
eleven thousand feet of lumber that was used in building the bridge across the
Jordan River at Lake, Utah. Members of
the Oler family purchased many of the things they needed at Racker’s General
Store at Lehi with lumber. Mary Ann got
her first baby carriage there in this way.
Nicknames were common in
the Oler family. Some of the family used
the conventional, shortened versions of their given names. Joseph went by Joe; William was known as Will;
James was Jim; Leroy was Roy: Margaretta was shortened to Etta or Ett; and
Albert was called Bert. In addition to
these common versions of their names, several of the Olers had unusual
nicknames, and some kept their nicknames for all of their lives. In some cases, the reasons for the nicknames
were forgotten. A Punch and Judy Show
came to American Fork, and the puppets were called Eli and Snow. For years afterward, the older boys called
Bert, “ Eli”, and Oscar, “Snow”. Joe was
called “Hans” for years, because he followed the example of a man named
Hans. Hans sold sand. One day, Joe went for a load and, while he
was loading the sand, Hans put hay for the horses to eat on the end of the
wagon tongue. When Joe arrived home,
instead of unhitching the team at once, he also put hay on the wagon
tongue. Will, for some reason, was
called “Mike”, and Jim was called “Jess”.
Roy was called “Lads”, and the children in a hurry to say “Mary Ann”,
always called her “Mirann”. Another name
for Mary Ann was “Jane”, after an Indian woman by that name who often came to
the Oler home. In Margaretta’s record,
she refers to her oldest brother, George, as Geodie, and as stated earlier, the
mother, Mary, was known as “Polly” or “Little Polly”.
*****
The Oler family were
willing to try different ventures, to acquire land and to seek better
employment. Beginning in March 1902, an
Oler “exodus” out of American Fork began.
Most of the families moved to Shelley, Idaho and two moved to Stirling,
Alberta, Canada .
In March 1902, George,
the eldest son, decided to move his family to Stirling, Alberta, Canada. He heard that carpenters were needed and that
wages were better. Bertha’s sister and brother
and their families had already gone to Alberta in response to a call from
church leaders three years earlier.
Bertha, George’s wife, in her record said: “So we sold our little house
with a picket fence in front, and our barn and water well, and cellar in
American Fork all for $500.00 cash and moved to Canada.” By this time, George and Bertha had six
children: Louisa, age 9; Mark Harold, age 8; Osborne Elmer, age 6; Malinda, age
4; Valetta, age 2; and Lloyd, age 4 months.
George’s sister, Margaretta, also came to Canada with the family, but on
1 December 1903, when she was seventeen years old, she went to Idaho where
others of the family were living.
George was a quiet, kind
man and found plenty to do to help the little ward in Stirling. He made coffins for nearly all who died in
Stirling. George did the carpenter work
on the coffins and Bertha and the girls covered them. Louie (Louisa) remembers staying up late many
times to have a coffin finished for a funeral the next day. No record was kept of the number they made,
but there were many.
George was the president
of the Young Men’s Mutual for about four years, and was also the chorister of
the Sunday School for some time. He was
appointed to the first genealogical committee in Stirling. George was also appointed chairman of the Old
Folks committee and held that office until his death. He was very enthusiastic in this work and did
all he could to make an enjoyable time for the “Old Folks”. George served as ward chorister from 10
January 1922 until his death on 15 March 1929.
Those who knew George Oler said that he put his whole heart and soul
into whatever he did. He insisted upon
being on time to perform his church duties and would leave his work and meals
at home in order to be there. He held
the office of Seventy in the priesthood.
George was active in
community affairs. He was the postmaster
and town registrar from 16 December 1908 until his death and he was leader of
the brass band two or three times.
He used his carpentering
skills to help build many of the homes and public buildings in Stirling. Among these structures were eight or nine of
the large homes in the village, the first brick schoolhouse, and the remodeled
old church, which became a recreational building. He was in charge of the construction of the
new chapel, which began in 1927 and was nearly completed when he passed away in
1929. George also went to Shelley, Idaho
to help build a home for his brother, Jim.
While George and Bertha
lived in Stirling, six more children were added to their family, making twelve
in all: Louisa, born 11 September 1892; Mark Harold, born 5 May 1894; Osborne
Elmer, born 20 August 1896; Malinda, born 21 April 1898; Valetta, born 12
February 1900; Lloyd, born 21 November 1901; Vida, born 10 May 1904; Delbert
George, born 29 November 1905; Allen Leroy, born 8 August 1910; Farrell, born
11 July 1912; Gladys, born 16 October 1914 and Dorothy Mary, born 23 November
1916. A stillborn son was born 6 April
1919.
The Olers in Stirling
always opened their home to others.
Besides their six sons and six daughters, they also welcomed into their
home, a niece, Elenora (Nora) Oler, the infant daughter of John Oler and
Elenora Meyer Oler, born 9 August 1908.
Nora lived with George and Bertha for eight years. Bertha also cared for
her sister’s baby for about six months.
George Oler died of a
heart attack on 15 March 1929 at Stirling, Alberta, Canada, leaving Bertha with
several of her children still at home.
He was 59 years old.
*****
John Oler, the fourth
child of George Oler and Mary Squires, was seventeen when his mother, Mary, died. His schooling was meager, typical of the
older family members and other children of those days. He also worked at the sawmill. It was while working there that he began his
friendship and courtship with Elenora (Nora) Meyer, and they were married 16 December
1896 at American Fork.
In the fall of 1902,
John and Nora planned to move to Shelley, Idaho and had their belongings
shipped there by train. When they got to Shelley, they changed their minds and
re-billed their things to Stirling, Alberta, Canada. Perhaps the reason for this decision was that
Nora’s father and sister lived at Stirling and Johns’ brother, George, and his
family were also there. At this time,
John and Nora had three children: Mary Elizabeth, born 19 September 1897;
Donald John, born 1 September 1899; Jennie, born 30 September 1901.
The first winter that
John was in Canada, it was very cold and work was scarce. John got a job hauling hay out on the prairie
to feed sheep. On one of these trips, he
got lost in a blizzard. Night came and
he tied his team to the hayrack and covered the horses with his quilts and
blankets. He walked around the wagon all
night to keep awake. He said it was the
coldest and longest night he ever remembered.
John and Nora had three
more children: Thelma, born 29 April 1904; Drue, born 9 August 1906; Elenora,
born 9 August 1908. One month before
Elenora was born, Nora contracted typhoid fever and one month after Elenora’s
birth, Nora died on 10 September 1908.
Another young mother in Stirling died the same day that Nora died. George Oler made the coffins for both. George and Bertha took the new baby into
their home.
It was very hard for
John to care for his family, and he constantly prayed for help. The next year (1909), John and his children
went to Shelley, Idaho for the winter, and there he met and married Mary
Christina Larson Kearney on 16 February 1910.
May, as she was known, was the widow of David Kearney and the mother of
three young children: Daniel Clyde, Edwin Leroy, and Mary Leona. John brought his family back to Canada. That year he only raised eighty bushels of
wheat on eighty acres, but he had some horses that they were able to sell, so
they got along fine. When they first
came to Stirling, John and May lived in two rooms with their eight
children. They built a home in Stirling
in 1912. John and May had four more
children together: Guardella Vilate, born 6 February 1911; Albert Eugene, born
5 February 1913; Darwin Harold, born 4 March 1915; Wanda Grace, born 26
February 1921. John and May managed very
well with their mixed families. There
were fourteen in their household at one time, but they had many happy times
together.
One night in the early
1920’s, John went into Stirling to play basketball. In jumping or throwing the ball his intestines
ruptured (probably a hernia).
Immediately, he was in pain. The
temperature was -45 degrees Fahrenheit, and there was no way to get to a doctor
in Lethbridge until the train came at ten o’clock in the morning. The doctor did not think John would
live. While John was in the hospital, he
got the hiccups, and the doctor said he could not live more than a day with
them, but they lasted several days. His
son, Donald, and another brother administered to John and the hiccups stopped
while their hands were on his head. He
began to get better from that time.
John was president of
the elder’s quorum for a number of years. He also was a Sunday School teacher
for several years. May worked in Primary
for eighteen years, and John always cooperated.
Never once did he hesitate about taking her to Raymond, Alberta where
Primary preparation meetings were held.
May, John’s wife, said
that John was very helpful in caring for their large family. Children always liked John, and he liked
children.
George and John and
their families, as well as father George, whenever he was in Canada, visited
each other often and had many sociable times and dinners together.
John Oler died on 14
January 1944 at the age of sixty-seven years at Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada and
was buried 22 January 1944 at Stirling, Alberta, Canada.
*****
Heber Harrington, who
was John Kelley’s brother-in-law, lived in Shelley, Idaho. He wrote to John and Mary Ann to tell them
about the farming possibilities in and around Shelley. In February 1901, John Kelley and Joseph Oler
went to Idaho to look at the 160-acre Olsen farm, later known as the Chapman
place, northeast of Shelley. John and
Joe returned to American Fork for one year.
John and Mary Ann Kelley
sold their home in American Fork, and Joe and Alice Oler decided to sell a farm
that Alice owned to her brother, Ras Green, to make a down payment on the Olsen
farm at Shelley.
At nine o’clock at night
on Sunday, 9 March 1902, Mary Ann Oler Kelley arrived by train at Shelley,
Idaho with her five children (Mary Ellen age 9; Milton age 7; Floyd age 5; Ruby
age 3 and Sadie age 5 months) and her younger brothers, Bert (age 14) and Oscar
(age 13). Her husband, John Kelley,
traveled ahead of the family with their household belongings and stock in an
emigrant car, however, his train was detained, so he was unable to meet Mary
Ann and the children as planned. Sadie
was an infant and Milton had rheumatism and had to be carried. It was time for the railroad agent to lock up
the station, but seeing Mary Ann’s plight, he stayed open until she was able to
find a room behind a saloon across the street, where she and the children
stayed overnight. An acquaintance from
American Fork, John Jacklin, took Mary Ann and her family to his home the next
morning. Soon after, John Kelley
arrived. All of them stayed in Jacklin’s
two-room home that night.
One month later, Joe and
Alice Oler with their daughters, Avilda (age 5) and Edith (age 4 months) and
Joe’s younger siblings, Pearl (age 16) and Leroy (age 21), arrived at Shelley
on 5 April 1902. Traveling with Joe and
Alice were Will and Juliet Oler and their baby daughter, Vera (age 7 months).
When Juliet stepped off the train, looked around and saw that the wind was
blowing, she said, ”If there is a train going right back, I’m going on
it!”
The families spent their
first night in Idaho at the home of Heber Harrington, where John and Mary Ann
Kelley and family were staying while they built a lean-to to live in. My, it was crowded!
Joe Oler and John Kelley
divided the farm of 160 acres. John took
the south end of the farm, later known as the Bair farm, and Joe took the part
later known as the Chapman farm.
Joe and Will and their
families moved into a four-room house already on the farm. The Olsen family from whom they bought the
farm stayed in the house for a month also.
When Olsens moved out, Joe and Alice took two rooms, and Will and Juliet
took the other two. Joe and his 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 ten acres of Joe’s land. Will lived there for two years and then
purchased the Jacklin farm and moved there.
Joe Oler and John Kelley
kept this farm for seven years, and in 1909, they bought the John Herbert farm
of 160 acres south and east of Shelley.
Joe took the east part and John the west. Joe and Alice built a home there. While they built the home, Joe and Alice
slept in a cellar on the place and cooked in a buggy shed that they brought
from the first farm. In the fall, when
the cellar was needed for potatoes, they lived in a tent for a couple of
months. Joe’s brother, Roy, who had just
returned from his mission, designed Joe’s home.
Joe and Alice lived in this house the rest of their lives.
Joe’s home was always
open to others. Joe’s brothers, Jim and
John stayed with them quite often until their marriages, and Roy spent most of
his time with them. Pearl lived with Joe
and Alice from the age of six years until her marriage. Joe wanted to make Pearl happy on her first
Christmas with them, so he went out to the cedars, got a load of poles and sold
them to buy a doll and some dishes for her.
It has been said of Joe that no one had a bigger heart and that he would
rather be hurt than do a wrong that would hurt others. 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. It would be safe to say that no father ever
was more loved and revered by his family and respected by his friends and
neighbors than Joseph Oler. No matter
who came to their home, they were always asked to eat and share their
hospitality. His Mexican help, or even
tramps that often came, were invited in to eat at their table. It would be impossible to make a tribute of
this type to Joe without including his wife, Alice, who made such hospitality
possible.
Joe told his children
that he realized while still a boy the importance of controlling one’s temper,
and he certainly learned to control his and tried to help his children learn
self-control.
When the ward at Shelley
was divided, Joe was on the building committee for the new Second Ward. He was a high councilman when the Shelley
Stake was first organized. At one time,
he taught Sunday School and about 1916, he was president of the Second Ward
Mutual.
Joe was called the
neighborhood barber. For years, he cut
his brothers’ hair; later his sons, and still later, his grandsons.
On the farm southeast of
Shelley, Idaho, Joseph Oler lived for thirty-three years where he farmed
successfully. He passed away 6 May 1944
at the age of 72 years.
Joe and Alice had eight
children, two of whom died in childhood: Lydia, born 22 August 1892, died age
9; Alphonzo Green, born 30 December 1893, died age 3; Avilda Green, born 21
July 1897; Edith Green, born 28 November 1901; Clyde, born 26 March 1906;
Maurice, born 20 November 1909; Maurine, born 20 November 1909; Alice Elaine,
born 12 November 1912.
*****
Mary Ann, the oldest
daughter of George Oler and Mary Squires Oler, had enormous responsibilities
early in life. These experiences
prepared her for the many responsibilities she would have in her own home with
her large family. Mary Ann and John
Kelley had nine children: Mary Ellen, born 2 March 1893; Milton John, born 28
February 1895; Floyd George, born 2 April 1897; Ruby, born 17 July 1899; Sadie
Elizabeth, born 21 September 1901; Pearl, born 8 September 1904; Lois, born 7
October 1908; Leona, born 27 September 1910; stillborn daughter, born 7 June
1919. Mary Ann and John also raised
her two younger brothers, Albert and Oscar.
Leroy, who was ten years old when Mary Ann married, lived with Mary Ann
and John; however he often lived with his father and finally went to stay with
Joseph and Alice until his own marriage.
John Kelley, Mary Ann’s husband, was very busy with church and civic
affairs; therefore, the care of the family was largely her responsibility. For a number of years, he was a bishop, and
she always gave him her support and help.
She had seven daughters
and did most of their sewing herself, and she was an excellent cook. Her stepmother said that no one could make
better lemon pie than Mary Ann. She was
a very good manager and housekeeper, and was always willing to leave her own work
to go help others when she was needed.
Mary Ann was usually
calm and not easily excited. When the
children were ill, she cared for them well, but did not become emotionally
upset. Everyone who knew her remembers
how jolly she was and speaks of her keen sense of humor. She understood young people and had much
patience with children.
Mary Ann had much faith
in the power of prayer. When Floyd, her
second son, was called on a mission, she was very ill and only weighed 60
pounds. No one, not even the doctor,
thought she could live. Floyd was
advised to postpone his mission because of his mother’s condition. Mary Ann called him to her bedside and told
him he must not put off his mission and said that she would be here when Floyd
returned. The night of his testimonial
she was so low that his father did not attend.
In the first letter Floyd received from his mother after he arrived in
the mission field, she said that she had just finished sweeping the floor. She got well and lived several years.
Even though her family
was large, Mary Ann worked in Church organizations. At one time she was Primary president. She worked in Relief Society as assistant
secretary and also as one of the counselors at different times. She was also a Relief Society visiting teacher.
Mary Ann Oler Kelley
died 23 July 1926 at the age of fifty-three years in Salt Lake City, Utah,
where she had gone a few days earlier for an operation. At the time of her death it was said: “She
was deeply attached to her husband and family, and it would be difficult indeed
to find a more ideal home where the sweet influence of the mother was so warmly
felt and appreciated”.
*****
Much of William Oler’s
time after his mother’s death when he was fifteen until his marriage was spent
working for and living with a family by the name of Chipman. One of his duties was to get up and make the
fire in the morning, empty the teakettle and put fresh water in it. He also went to work with his father and
brothers at the sawmill. At one time the
sawmill was moved up above Round Valley where the small town of Wallsburg, Utah
is located. Will did not want to go, but
Bertha’s brother said, “You better go, Will.
You might find a wife over at Wallsburg.” Will could not imagine there being anyone in
Wallsburg who would interest him, and, besides, he was not looking for a
wife. Will went along when the mill was
established about six miles from Wallsburg.
He came in one night and said, “I guess I’ll go down to the dance at
Wallsburg.” Will went to the dance and
there he met Juliet Nuttall. He often
told that when he first saw her he said, “There’s my girl.” The next time the lumber team went back to
American Fork, Will sent for his best clothes.
William Oler, age 24, and Juliet Nuttall, age 19, were married in the
Salt Lake Temple on 19 December 1900.
Juliet is the daughter of William George Nuttall and Juliet Wall.
Will and Juliet moved
from American Fork to Shelley, Idaho on 5 April 1902, when they had been
married a little over a year. Both of
them, especially Juliet, were often homesick for Utah. Will farmed for a number of years, and in
1918 they moved into Shelley and later sold their farm.
William and Juliet Oler
had eight daughters and one son: Vera, born 14 August 1901; Irma, born 21
February 1903; Bessie Juliet, born 18 December 1905; Thora, born 19 February
1908; Connie, born 17 August 1909; Juanita, born 7 January 1913; Beulah, born
29 March 1914; Mildred, born 10 May 1915 and
Billie Nuttall, born 23 November 1920.
Will was president of
the Mutual at one time. At another time
he was called to serve a home mission for six months. He was sent to the Sterling, Idaho, near
Aberdeen, Idaho. Juliet took care of the
chores and family while he was gone. The
older girls remember holding the lantern while their mother did the milking and
that it was a very cold winter.
When the Second Ward
church in Shelley was built, Will hauled rock from Iona, Idaho with horses and
wagon.
One Christmas Eve, Will
was Santa Claus at the church party. The
Christmas tree was lighted with candles and somehow the cotton on Santa Claus’
suit caught on fire. Even the Christmas
tree caught fire. Will’s brother, Joe,
who was at the party, tore the suit off Will, but his face was burned. Will came to the big family dinner with his
family at Joe and Alice’s home the next day, but he could not eat.
Will was a kind, quiet,
gentle man with very few faults. After
Juliet died very suddenly on 12 June 1949, Will seemed to lose all interest in
living. He passed away on 17 December
1949 at the age of 73 years.
*****
James Oler was twelve
years old when his mother died. (For
years, long after Mary’s death, the family remembered important dates by this
event.) Jim helped at the sawmill and at
least once he was with his father when he was mining. Jim and John stayed quite a bit of the time
with Joe and Alice until they were married.
According to record, no
account of Jim’s baptism could be found, so he was baptized by John Sykes at
American Fork on February 17, 1898. Will
also was baptized this same year, perhaps for the same reason.
At the age of twenty
years, James Oler married Annie Delina Nelson, the nineteen-year-old daughter
of John Christian Nelson and Adaline Deline Richins Nelson, on 10 March
1901. They were sealed in the Salt Lake
Temple on 18 December 1901.
After their marriage,
Jim had various jobs and spent some time at the sawmill. Later, he studied the creamery business and
also worked at the brickyard in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Jim also graduated from a correspondence course
in electrical engineering from the International Correspondence School in
Scranton, Pennsylvania. He then worked
at the power plant at the mouth of American Fork Canyon as a switchboard
operator for several years until he left to go on his mission. During his off hours, he wired homes in and
around Pleasant Grove. He installed
streetlights for the town of Pleasant Grove.
Even though jobs were hard to find, Jim always seemed to find plenty of
work.
In the summer of 1910,
James Oler was called to serve a mission in the Western States with
headquarters in Denver, Colorado. He
accepted and left in October, leaving his wife and three children, ages ten,
eight and four. During his mission he
was instrumental in healing the sick.
Jim was made a conference president, made many friends and filled an
honorable mission, returning home October 1912.
In 1913, Jim went to
Shelley to purchase a farm. He bought
the Hans Larson place located across the road north of the Shelley sugar
factory property. In March of that year
he sold his home in Pleasant Grove, Utah and moved to Shelley, where he engaged
in farming and selling life insurance.
Shortly after moving to
Shelley, Jim was made the Sunday School superintendent. He held this position for many years. He was also a ward teacher.
Jim also found time for
recreation. He liked dancing and
swimming. Jim built Paradise Gardens on
the Yellowstone highway just north of Firth, Idaho. Eventually, the place was destroyed by fire.
In 1934, Jim and Annie
moved to Salt Lake City, Utah and were in the Eighth Ward. He served as a ward teacher. At the time of his death, James Oler was a
member of the Third Ward in Salt Lake City.
He died 26 December 1942 at Salt Lake City at the age of sixty-three
years.
James and Annie Oler
were parents of six children: Leah Merle, born 24 March 1900; James Earl, born
20 June 1902; Lois Pearl, born 24 February 1906; Dean Nelson, born 10 September
1913; Glen Elroy, born 7 December 1915; Rea June, born 19 June 1918.
*****
Leroy Oler, the seventh
child of George Oler and Mary Squires Oler, was almost ten years old when his
mother died. After his older sister,
Mary Ann, married, Roy went to live with John and Mary Ann, and later he lived
with Joe and Alice. When Joe and Alice
moved to Idaho, Roy went with them.
Joe and Roy farmed
together most of the time. They thought
a lot of each other and always seemed to respect each other’s opinions. Whenever they had a misunderstanding, they were
able to appreciate each other’s point of view.
In March 1906, at the
age of 25 years, Roy went on a mission to the Southern States Mission. Roy served his entire mission of thirty-one
months in the state of Mississippi. He
returned in June 1909.
In August of 1909, the
Shelley Ward was divided, and Roy was made the Sunday School superintendent of
the Second Ward. He held this position
for four years. He was also an Elders’
Quorum President and a home missionary.
Roy was a fine speaker and was often asked to speak in other wards and
at funerals. Leroy Oler was always
dependable in his church activities.
Roy was skilled with
carpenter tools, and he used his abilities to help Joe build his home. He and Joe also built Roy’s home. He only went to school to the seventh grade,
but he enjoyed reading very much.
On 5 June 1913, Leroy
Oler married Margaret Thomas, the twenty-three-old daughter of Preston
Moorehead Thomas and Mary Ellen Sant Thomas, in the Salt Lake Temple. Their son, Leroy Thomas Oler, was born 7
April 1914. At this time, Roy and Joe
were farming together. On 1 October
1914, Roy went out after dinner to plow out potatoes. He was standing in the doorway of the stable
waiting for a hailstorm to pass over when a bolt of lightning struck, killing
him. Leroy was twenty-seven years old
when he died.
*****
George and Mary
Oler’s eighth child is Margaretta, known as Etta or Et. She was only seven years old when her mother
died. A few months after Mary’s death,
Etta went to live with George and Bertha, and stayed with them until she was
almost twenty. In her own brief record,
Etta says: “Geodie, Bertha and family and I went to Canada in March 1902. I stayed in Canada one year and seven
months. I came to Idaho December 1,
1903”.
Most of the time after
she moved to Idaho and until her marriage in 1905, Etta did housework for a
Mrs. Patterson and also in the Heber Harrington home.
When Margaretta was 21
years old, she married Meshach Spencer Williams on 12 July 1905 at Blackfoot,
Idaho. For a while they lived in
Shelley, but most of her married life was spent at Bone, Idaho, which is
located in the mountains. First Spencer
and Margaretta farmed, and later they ran a general store. Her brothers and sisters in Shelley and their
families took outings to her home. All
of them remember interesting times they had at Aunt Etta and Uncle Spence’s
home.
Etta was unable to
attend church very often, but she had a deep love for her church. She was a good homemaker and an excellent
cook. Her leisure time was spent
crocheting, and she did very lovely work.
Etta had three sons. Her
youngest was only three when he died.
Etta could never quite reconcile herself to her baby’s death. Her two older sons are Jessie Leroy, born 22
March 1906 and Vacil Spencer, born 6 June 1910.
Margaretta Oler Williams
died 8 November 1940 at Idaho Falls, Idaho at the age of 56 years.
*****
In her own history,
Pearl says, “ My mother died when I was five years old, so I don’t remember
much about her except for disobedience, and a wonderful kiss for having two
teeth pulled by an old man with big pincers.
“I lived with my
brother, Joseph, and his wife, Alice Green Oler. They saw to it that I attended public school
and church during my growing years
“I attended Primary
until I was twelve years old. I often
gave recitations on programs both in Primary and Sunday School. I was editor of a Primary paper, which was
made up of true stories of faith and prayer written by the Primary
children. I copied them all in a pretty
book. There were quite a few each
week. Sunday School activities and programs
were wonderful to me.
“I was nearly sixteen
years old when I left American Fork and would have received my eighth grade
diploma on my sixteenth birthday. A year
later in March 1903, it was suggested I go to school for the remaining six weeks
of the school term and graduate. I
passed the exams with an average of ninety percent in all the subjects and one
hundred percent in arithmetic. I surely
was happy to have a diploma.
“My church activities
before I married included being secretary of the Sunday School and secretary of
the YWMIA. I also taught a class in
religion.
“At the dances of this
time, we had basket parties. The girls
made fancy baskets and put lunch in them.
The baskets were auctioned at the dance to the highest bidders. My partner was determined to get my basket,
and to do it he bid twenty dollars. He
won it and paid the auctioneer a twenty dollar gold piece. I had also taken a kettle with a large lunch
to go along with the basket. I hid the
kettle but the auctioneer found it and sold it to Cy Davis for $2.50.
“I started to work for
the Shelley Merc. Company, a general merchandise store in September 1903. I clerked for a year, then went into the
office for the second year. I kept the
day book in which I copied all the sales slips from which the bookkeeper, Soren
Yorgensen, copied the records in the Big Book.
“I also made all the
change in cash purchases. They installed
the first slide cups to send money to the cashier at that time. (A few times the cups came up, I found mice
in them.) It was also then the first
telephone booth was put in the store.
“When a theater came to
town, I sold reserved tickets at my desk.
It was a lot of fun meeting people from all over the valley.
“I was married November
28, 1905, to George Howard Lawrence of Shelley.
He was a farmer; therefore, we lived on a farm during our married life.”
Pearl and George had ten children, one dying in
infancy: George Andrew, born 26 August 1906; Dorothy, born 16 April 1908, died
at age 1 month; Ione Elzada, born 6 June 1909; Clair Russell, born 1 September
1911; Clifford Dean, born 1 September 1911; Reid Stanley, born 11 November
1913; Daniel Fred, born 19 March 1917; Robert Allen, born 17 November 1922;
Joseph Eldon, born 17 March 1924; Anita Marjorie, born 27 June 1926.
George Lawrence died in
1933. Pearl wanted her children to have
a college education, so in 1939, Pearl moved her family to Logan, Utah. At least six of her sons are college graduates.
Pearl was living with
her son, George, in Salt Lake City, when she died on 29 September 1978 at the age of 92
years. She is buried at Shelley, Idaho.
*****
Albert Oler, the tenth
child and next to the youngest son of George and Mary Oler, came to Idaho with
his sister and her husband, Mary Ann and John Kelley, when he was
fourteen. He helped mostly on the farm,
but in 1910, he attended Ricks College to take a short missionary course. He was called to fill a mission in the
Southern States and left 6 June 1911. He
contracted malaria fever in the hot climate and also had typhoid. Unable to finish his mission, he returned
home 20 December 1911. Heber J. Grant
was touring the mission when Bert was ill and in a letter to Bishop Mallory of
the Shelley Second Ward, he said that Elder Oler would live to complete his mission
and that it was the wishes of the Lord that he return home at that time. He also said he had, in his short mission,
contacted people other elders had failed to contact.
The next year on 20
December 1912, Albert Oler, age 24, married Nellie McGary, age 18, in the Salt
Lake Temple. Nellie is the daughter of
John McGary and Elizabeth Harker McGary.
Bert worked at various
jobs throughout his life, first for the Sugar Company for a number of
years. At the beginning of World War II,
Bert and his family moved to Henderson, Nevada where Bert worked at the
magnesium plant. Later they moved to La
Vegas and Bert worked at a creamery until 1945, when they returned to their
home in Shelley. In Idaho, Bert worked
at Zion’s Wholesale in Idaho Falls and again at the Sugar Factory in
Shelley. In later years, Bert worked at
the LDS Hospital.
Bert was always a
dependable, hard worker. He was a good
neighbor. He loved music and enjoyed
singing the church hymns. Reading became
a favorite hobby for him and most evenings he spent reading and studying the
gospel.
Bert and Nell always
beautified their home with lovely flowers and lawns, and they always grew
excellent gardens.
Albert had a great love
for his family and each vacation he had was used to visit some of his children.
He was a Sunday School
teacher and a ward teacher. At one time
he was secretary of YMMIA. He held the
office of high priest.
Albert and Nellie Oler
had three children: Rulon Floyd, born 29 October 1915; Cleo, born 17 November
1920; Ada Lee, born 13 October 1931.
Albert Oler died at the
age of 80 years on 23 November 1968 at Las Vegas, Nevada.
*****
Eleventh in this
family of thirteen, Oscar was born at American Fork, Utah on 26 October
1889. When he was almost 3 years old, he
went to live with John and Mary Ann Kelley.
While living with Kelleys, he often went with them to Mercur to sell
produce at this small mining town.
Another incident he remembers vividly is the Jubilee he attended in Salt
Lake when he was nine. His father told
the four small children, Oscar, Bert, Pearl and Etta, that he would take them
to Salt Lake to the celebration. Pearl
told the other kids that they had bananas in Salt Lake, and along with their
eagerness to attend the celebration was anticipation of seeing and tasting
their first banana. They slept outside
the night before they left, and although Oscar’s eyes were swollen shut from
mosquito bites, the trip was a huge success and the kids tasted their first
banana.
Oscar also helped
his father, George Oler, and his brothers run a sawmill in West Canyon near
American Fork. It was while working in
West Canyon that he became acquainted with the girl he later married.
At the age of 13, Oscar
moved to Idaho with the Kelleys, arriving in Shelley 9 March 1902. He attended grade school in American Fork,
and after coming to Idaho, he attended Stanton School.
In 1905, Oscar left
Kelleys and went to live with his father and step-mother, who had also moved to
Idaho and had purchased a farm east of Shelley.
Oscar’s brother, John, who was visiting in Idaho, persuaded him to go to
Canada and farm with him. Oscar went to
Canada with John and stayed until the summer of 1908 when he returned to
Shelley and lived with his brother, Joe.
In the winter of 1909-1910, Oscar attended Ricks College in Rexburg to
finish his elementary schooling.
In the fall of 1910, he
went to Pleasant Grove to visit his brother, Jim, who was leaving on a
mission. There are two versions
concerning this trip. Olive (Oscar’s
wife) tells that as she was walking down town after singing at Relief Society
Conference, she saw a young man with a suitcase coming up the sidewalk. He looked very familiar, so she stopped,
stared and was about to speak, but went on, thinking perhaps he was not the
person she thought he was. When she got
home, Jim and Annie sent for her to come over.
Yes, it was Oscar, her childhood playmate whom she had seen that
afternoon.
Oscar’s version goes
this way. “Walking from the depot to my
brother Jim’s, I met a girl who apparently became very interested in me. She was about to speak, but passed by,
watching me as far as she could see me.
I thought to myself, ‘The girls are already falling for me, I will really
enjoy myself in this town.’” The
childhood friendship developed into romance, and Oscar Oler married Olive
Adaline Nelson on 7 June 1911 in the Salt Lake Temple. Olive is a sister of Annie Nelson, who
married Oscar’s brother, Jim.
Oscar and Olive lived at
Shelley, Idaho where Oscar worked at odd jobs until he began farming with Jim,
who had moved to Shelley in March 1913.
He later farmed ground belonging to Soren Yorgeson and John F.
Shelley. Oscar also worked for the
Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, drilling beets, and working as a lab chemist and
sugar boiler in the factory.
In their early married
life, both Oscar and Olive were very active in their ward, both serving on the
MIA activity committee with Margaret Oler, Leroy’s widow, who was MIA
president. They helped with several
plays and comedy entertainments, which were given in the ward and later were
taken to other wards in the stake. Oscar
took part in a minstrel show put on by the stake, with Lester Holland
directing. Many and varied were the duties
of Oscar and his wife, both in musical circles in the ward as well as stake
duties.
Oscar related an
incident, which happened when his two oldest children were desperately ill with
measles. Using the last $3.00 he owned,
he bought a thermometer to keep check on their temperatures. When he got home, he dropped the thermometer,
breaking it before he had ever used it.
Although heartsick at the time, he remarked later, “The best $3.00 ever
spent, as I never realized how very ill the children were.”
Another incident
happened when Oscar was hauling wood from the hills. He had his youngest son, Morris, then about 8
years old, with him. In the course of
their work, they molested a hornet nest, and Oscar who was always allergic to
bee stings or insect bites, was stung more than a dozen times about his head
and face. Within an hour, Oscar’s eyes
were swollen to mere slits and his mouth and nose were so swollen that he
looked almost grotesque. All the way
home Morris watched his dad and kept saying to him, “Are you sure you are my
dad, you don’t look like him?”
Oscar was a versatile man. In later years he turned more to carpentry,
and in 1926, he built his own home.
About this time, he began working for Bingham County as a road and
bridge builder and cat driver. He worked
for the county for about fourteen years.
He began operating the projection machines at the Virginia Theater and
doing carpenter work in the daytime. He
worked about eight years at the theater and also built several nice homes in
Shelley during this time. Later, he
devoted his time to carpentry.
Oscar and Olive Oler
were parents of five children: Leo Gean, born 29 October 1913; Fern Leone, born
3 December 1917; Grace Elise, born 3 September 1921; Helen Dawn, born 20
September 1923; Morris John, born 13 April 1929. Oscar enjoyed his association with his
family, especially the antics and witty sayings of his children. He held a unique spot in the hearts of his
family, for his ever-ready willingness to help in time of need; for his wise
counsel and advice in times of stress; for his unassuming manner and for his
dry wit that could never be duplicated or replaced.
Oscar Oler died on 6
June 1967 at Idaho Falls and is buried at Shelley. He was 82 years old.
*****
In about 1907, some of
the Shelley relatives took a trip to visit the Canadian relatives. Oscar and Bert stayed at Shelley to take care
of chores for John Kelley and Joe. Mary
Ann and John and four of their children, Joe and Alice and their three
children, Jim and Annie and their two children, (they came from Utah to be part
of the trip), and Will all took the train and went to Canada. At Great Falls the train stopped, so they
went down on the banks of the Missouri River to “wash up” and eat the lunch
they had brought along. That night they
slept on the train, making beds everywhere—on the seats and in the aisles. The conductor passing through the car said,
“Where are you folks going?”
Someone spoke up, “Oh,
we’re going to Canada to visit our relatives”.
The conductor was heard
to express his opinion as he left the car, “I pity the relatives!”
From Shelby, Montana to Canada they had to go
by narrow gauge train.
Will made the trip
without his family, and during the return trip, he seemed over anxious to get
back home. He was small, so he always
appeared much younger than his actual age.
The conductor said,
“Well, Sonny, so you’re going back to the States?”
And Will answered,
“Heck, no! I’m going back to Idaho!”
*****
George Oler, the father
of this amazing family, did not leave Utah when most of his family did, but he
and his wife, Dorothy, did come to Shelley in 1904 and bought forty acres on
the Taylor road, where they built a home.
They lived there only a few years and raised chickens. George then went to Sterling, Idaho, where he
farmed some and also ran a lumberyard.
He moved back to Shelley and owned a home north of Joe’s home. He later built a small home, located a block
or two away on the canal.
George, the father, was
very careful about his clothes. If he
had to go to town, he always dressed up.
He always wore a bow tie and nearly always a derby, and he always wore a
ring. Men in those days wore vests, and
George always wore a fancy one with his gold watch chain across the front. Dorothy, his wife, was also careful about her
appearance. One who knew her remembers
her beautiful black skirts and her snowy white blouses.
George Oler died on 21
February 1916 at Shelley, Idaho at the age of sixty-seven years.
Sources
- The
original version of this history, author and date unknown.
- 1880
United States Census
- new.familysearch.org
George Oler
His Ancestors
and
Descendants
Adapted from an earlier history, author unknown,
by Nola Jean (Heggie) Fletcher, great-great
granddaughter.
December 2008
Timeline for
George Oler (1849)
29 August 1849 George Oler born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1 January 1858 confirmed a member of LDS Church
11 October 1868 marries Mary Squires
9 August 1869 birth of son, George
26 July 1871 birth of son, Joseph
27 March 1873 birth of daughter, Mary Ann
23 November 1874 birth of son, John
23 September 1876 birth of son, William
15 April 1879 birth of son, James
After 1880 death
of Margaret Lancaster Oler, George’s mother
15 November 1881 birth of son, Leroy
7 February 1884 birth of daughter, Margaretta
23 May 1886 birth
of daughter, Pearl
21 October 1886 death of George Oler Sr., George’s father
25 February 1888 birth of son, Albert
26 October 1889 birth of son, Oscar
14 October 1891 son, George, marries Annie Bertha Tillack
6 November 1891 birth of son, Elmer
6 November 1891 birth of son Mark
6 November 1891 death of wife, Mary
3 December 1891 death of son, Mark
1891-1901
George
engages in mining, prospecting and lumbering
George marries Lavina Hanson
George marries Dorothy Edlefson
20 February 1892 son, Joseph, marries Alice Green
May 1892 daughter,
Pearl, lives with Joe and Alice
May 1892 daughter,
Margaretta, lives with George and Bertha
3 August 1892 daughter, Mary Ann, marries John Elijah
Kelley
August 1892 sons,
Leroy, Oscar & Albert, live with Mary Ann & John
22 August 1892 birth of grandchild, Lydia, Joe’s daughter
11 September 1892 birth of grandchild, Louisa, George’s daughter
2 March 1893 birth of grandchild, Mary Ellen Kelley,
Mary Ann’s daughter
30 December 1893 birth of grandchild, Alphonzo Green, Joe’s son
5 May 1894 birth
of grandchild Osborne Elmer, George’s son
28 February 1895 birth of grandchild, Milton John Kelley, Mary
Ann’s son
7 April 1896 death of son, Elmer
16 December 1896 son, John, marries Elenora Meyer
2 April 1897 birth of grandchild, Floyd George
Kelley, Mary Ann’s son
21 July 1897 birth of grandchild, Avilda Green,
Joe’s daughter
19 September 1897 birth of grandchild, Mary Elizabeth, John’s
daughter
21 April 1898 birth of grandchild, Malinda, George’s
daughter
17 July 1899 birth of grandchild, Ruby Kelley, Mary
Ann’s daughter
1 September 1899 birth of grandchild, Donald John, John’s son
12 February 1900 birth of grandchild, Valetta, George’s daughter
24 March 1900 birth of grandchild, Leah Merle, Jim’s
daughter
19 December 1900 son, William Oler, marries Juliet Nuttall
10 March 1901 son, James marries Annie Delina Nelson
14 August 1901 birth of grandchild, Vera, Will’s daughter
21 September 1901 birth of grandchild, Sadie Elizabeth Kelley, Mary
Ann’s daughter
30 September 1901 birth of grandchild, Jennie, John’s daughter
21 November 1901 birth of grandchild, Lloyd, George’s son
28 November 1901 birth of grandchild, Edith Green, Joe’s daughter
March 1902 son, George,
moves to Canada
9 March 1902 John and Mary Ann Kelley
move to Shelley, Idaho
5 April 1902 Joseph and Alice
Oler; Willliam and Juliet Oler move to Idaho
20 June 1902 birth of
grandchild, James Earl, Jim’s son
Fall 1902 son, John,
moves to Canada
21 February 1903 birth of grandchild, Irma,
Will’s daughter
1 December 1903 daughter, Margaretta,
moves from Canada to Shelley, Idaho
29 April 1904 birth of
grandchild, Thelma, John’s daughter
10 May 1904 birth of
grandchild, Vida, George’s daughter
8 September 1904 birth of grandchild, Pearl
Kelley, Mary Ann’s daughter
12 July 1905 daughter,
Margaretta, marries Meshach Spencer Williams
28 November 1905 daughter, Pearl, marries
George Howard Lawrence
29 November 1905 birth of grandchild, Delbert
George, George’s son
18 December 1905 birth of grandchild, Bessie
Juliet, Will’s daughter
24 February 1906 birth of grandchild, Lois
Pearl, Jim’s daughter
March 1906 son, Leroy,
leaves for a mission to Southern States
22 March 1906 birth of grandchild,
Jessie Leroy Williams, Margaretta’s son
26 March 1906 birth of grandchild, Clyde, Joe’s son
9 August 1906 birth of grandchild, Drue, John’s son
26 August 1906 birth of grandchild, George Andrew Lawrence,
Pearl’s son
Summer 1907 Shelley,
Idaho relatives visit Canadian relatives
19 February 1908 birth of grandchild, Thora, Will’s daughter
16 April 1908 birth of grandchild, Dorothy, Pearl’s
daughter
9 August 1908 birth of grandchild, Elenora, John’s
daughter
7 October 1908 birth of grandchild, Lois Kelley, Mary Ann’s
daughter
6 June 1909 birth
of grandchild, Ione Elzada Lawrence, Pearl’s daughter
June 1909 son,
Leroy, returns from mission
17 August 1909 birth of grandchild, Connie, Will’s daughter
20 November 1909 birth of grandchild, Maurice, Joe’s son
20 November 1909 birth of grandchild, Maurine, Joe’s daughter
10 September 1908 death of Elenora Meyer Oler, John’s wife
1909
son,
John Oler, goes to Shelley
16 February 1910 son, John, marries Mary Christina Larson
Kearney
1910
son,
John, moves his family back to Canada
6 June 1910 birth
of grandchild, Vacil Spencer Williams, Margaretta’s son
Summer 1910 son,
James leaves to serve a mission in Western States
8 August 1910 birth of grandchild,
Allen Leroy, George’s son
27 September 1910 birth of grandchild, Leona Kelley, Mary Ann’s
daughter
6 February 1911 birth of grandchild,
Guardella Vilate, John’s daughter
6 June 1911 son, Albert,
leaves for a mission in Southern States
7 June 1911 son, Oscar,
marries Olive Adaline Nelson
1 September 1911 birth of grandchild, Clair
Russell Lawrence, Pearl’s son
1 September 1911 birth of grandchild,
Clifford Dean Lawrence, Pearl’s son
20 December 1911 son, Albert, returns from
mission, unable to finish due to illness
11 July 1912 birth of
grandchild, Farrell, George’s son
October 1912 son, James, returns
from mission
12 November 1912 birth of grandchild, Alice
Elaine, Joe’s daughter
20 December 1912 son, Albert, marries Nellie
McGary
7 January 1913 birth of grandchild,
Juanita, Will’s daughter
5 February 1913 birth of grandchild,
Albert Eugene, John’s son
March 1913 son,
James, moves to Shelley, Idaho
5 June 1913 son,
Leroy marries Margaret Thomas
10 September 1913 birth of grandchild, Dean Nelson, Jim’s son
29 October 1913 birth of grandchild, Leo Gean, Oscar’s son
11 November 1913 birth of grandchild, Reid Stanley Lawrence,
Pearl’s son
29 March 1914 birth of grandchild,
Beulah, Will’s daughter
7 April 1914 birth of
grandchild, Leroy Thomas, Leroy’s son
1 October 1914 death of son, Leroy
Oler
16 October 1914 birth of grandchild,
Gladys, George’s daughter
4 March 1915 birth of grandchild,
Darwin Harold, John’s son
10 May 1915 birth of
grandchild, Mildred, Will’s daughter
29 October 1915 birth of grandchild,
Rulon Floyd, Albert’s son
7 December 1915 birth of grandchild, Glen
Elroy, Jim’s son
21 February 1916 death of George Oler,
father of the family
23 November 1916 birth of grandchild, Dorothy
Mary, George’s daughter
19 March 1917 birth of grandchild,
Daniel Fred Lawrence, Pearl’s son
3 December 1917 birth of grandchild, Fern
Leone, Oscar’s daughter
19 June 1918 birth of
grandchild, Rea June, Jim’s daughter
17 November 1920 birth of grandchild, Cleo,
Albert’s daughter
23 November 1920 birth of grandchild, Billie
Nuttall, Will’s son
26 February 1921 birth of grandchild, Wanda
Grace, John’s daughter
3 September 1931 birth of grandchild, Grace
Elise, Oscar’s daughter
17 November 1922 birth of grandchild, Robert
Allen Lawrence, Pearl’s son
20 September 1923 birth of grandchild, Helen
Dawn, Oscar’s daughter
17 March 1924 birth of grandchild,
Joseph Eldon Lawrence, Pearl’s son
27 June 1926 birth of
grandchild, Anita Marjorie Lawrence, Pearl’s daughter
23 July 1926 death of daughter, Mary Ann Oler Kelley
15 March 1929 death of son, George
Oler
13 April 1929 birth of
grandchild, Morris John, Oscar’s son
13 October 1931 birth of grandchild, Ada
Lee, Albert’s daughter
1933 death
of George Lawrence, Pearl’s husband
1934
son,
James, moves to Salt Lake City, Utah
1939 daughter,
Pearl, moves family to Logan, Utah
8 November 1940 death of daughter, Margaretta Oler Williams
26 December 1942 death of son, James Oler
22 January 1944 death of son, John Oler
6 May 1944 death of son,
Joseph Oler
12 June 1949 death of Juliet
Nuttall Oler, Will’s wife
15 September 1949 death of John Elijah Kelley,
Mary Ann’s husband
17 December 1949 death of son, William Oler
17 June 1951 death of Meshach
Spencer Williams, Margaretta’s husband
2 April 1955 death of Annie
Bertha Tillack Oler, George’s wife
25 June 1958 death of Annie
Delina Nelson Oler, James’ wife
28 January 1960 death of Alice Green
Oler, Joseph’s wife
21 January 1963 death of Mary Christina
Larson Kearney Oler, John’s wife
6 June 1967 death of son,
Oscar Oler
23 November 1968 death of son, Albert Oler
16 January 1972 death of Olive Adaline
Nelson Oler, Oscar’s wife
26 July 1972 death of Nellie
McGary Oler, Albert’s wife
29 September 1978 death of daughter, Pearl
Oler Lawrence
18 September 1984 death of Margaret Thomas,
Leroy’s wife
