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Show MAY Stmur (Enunttj iHnnitor 22. 1997 The Life of Mj Grandpa, Mitch Fisher Sesquicentennial Essays 2nd Place winning By Derek Carter "Milford is a lot different than when I was a kid," said Gilbert McCulIey. "For instance, there were many hotels when the city was at its peak. These hotels had many rooms and big cafeterias. These cafeterias were so good people didn't bother going to restaurants, they just ate at the cafeteria. This caused many restaurants to go out of business." "My parents owned a small store, and we lived behind it in a very small house. My family never went w ithout, and my father would save for weeks so he could give my brothers and me a nickel to buy something." el re re f: byNisha Livingston twenty-fir- st day of January in the year 1916, 1 was born. in a were mining camp in a small town. I was born in living My parents a small room in the back of the Post Office. My mother always said 1 came "Special Delivery '. When I was two years old there was a flu epidemic that plagued many places in the area: Frisco, Milford, and Minersville. My parents told me that I had caught the flu, and for a while 1 was really sick and in bed (but I didn't die, though). We were at the time living in Frisco for the winter. I kept on saing "BINERS VTLLE" (Minersville). My dad made me some cardboard horses with a rope tied to my bed for a "wagon". Ever since then, as I w as getting better I was driving my "wagon" back to Minersville. We moved to Milford w hen I was about six years old and in the second grade. There were quite a number of stores along Main Street. In fact every building, on Main street had a store in it. We had a coffee shop, two barber shops, and a couple of movie theaters, just to name a few. When we could afford it, my brothers and I would go and watch movies at the theater. We would try and go at least once a week. This was in 1923, and my brothers and I just loved to watch cowboy movies. At this time my dad was working at the mine. The wages were about three to five dollars a day. It seems weird now that people could work for so little and still be able to support a family. Yet, my father and many others did this at that time. I graduated in 1 933 from Milford High School. There were about students in the school then. Mr. Andrews was the ninety to There were principal. quite a few classes offered to us then. There was home chorus, band, economics, math, history, English, and some shop, business classes. The only sports I remember were basketball and football. I only played basketball, though. There also might have been baseball. When we were little there were all three of those sports in town. The city was divided into "North" and "South" teams. We always loved to play whenever we got the chance. I went on a mission for my church to the North-easter- n United States (Michigan, Minnesota etc.). It was there that I met my lovely wife. We both returned to our homes and I wrote to her for a while. Then I finally asked her "the big question". Oh, by the way, she said "yes"! During the Depression and World War II, I was a farmer and worked on the local dairy ( which means I supplied food for the community), so I didn't get drafted. This is when the opportunity to teach school came up for me. The principal of the elementary school came out to our house and wanted to know if I could teach. I told him that I hadn't graduated from college yet. I had only taken a couple of quarters before my mission. He said that it would be okay and could finish my education by correspondence and during the summer time. I taught from 1945 to Gilbert McCulIey J essay- - My On the Milford old timers shared memories of earlier days with Milford High School students. The students then wrote historical essays as a Sesquicentennial assignment. Following are the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winning entries. Derek Carter, 1st place winner was selected as Milford Valley Healthcare Services Competitor of the Week. "My dad owned the store for about ten years, then sold it to a man maned Brawn or Brown, 1 can't quite remember. Brawn owned the store for about five years, then it was transferred to Ellingsworth." "Another thing I remember is the old school. It was located where the LDS Church is located now. It w as a two-levbuilding that w as pretty worn down." "Milford had a few show houses. The first was a silent-pictutheater that was located next to my dad's store. This show house went out of business when another went in on the other end of town. This and we thought it was the neatest thing we was a talking picture-theate- r, had ever seen." "Milford has known some crazy characters over the years. O. F. Hubble wasn't too eccentric, but he owned a goods store. Joe theater and Murdock, a rather wealthy man, took the old silent-pictuit turned into White Market, the second biggest store at the time. Mrs. Okahara, an older Japanese lady, owned a restaurant. She had a pegged-le- g and kept geese in her back yard for some odd reason. Bill Martin takes the cake for being the town nut. He is the reason we have a Test Hill. (The real Test Hill is not by the drugstore as many think it is, but it is next to the Masonic Temple and just below the old swimming pool.) Bill owned a garage and would take a car, fix it so that only one wheel would have the power, then he would drive it up that hill. He was so sure of his mechanic skills, he would tie a cable to the rear wheel of a car, and it would pull itself up the side of his two story garage." "Milford also had a few different businesses in its time. It had about three pool halls, a confectionery, many garages, many small markets, a J. C. Penney store, a bank, a doctor's office, a creamery, a lawyer's office, dentist office, a barber shop and beauty shop, an opera house, a dance house, many show houses, and a bowling alley." "1 remember when radios were first coming out the people that owned the hotel would take one and put itpn the balcony of the Atkin Hotel, where it could be heard for many blocks. This was our only source of current news and live sporting events." "Once, there was a boxing match on Main Street. The people in charge set up the ring in the middle of the street, an the whole town miraculously crowded itself into three of the town's blocks." "I remember when the railroad had its roundhouse and water tank in Milford. These two things created many jobs in Milford because of the manpower it took to maintain the engines. When the round house was dismantled, many people moved away." PAGE 4 1981. I taught just about every grade in the elementary school. I was also the principal there for a while. But that was quite a while ago. I think that there was more control back then. Probably due to the fact that there was more discipline. Yes, 1 had a paddle. It was all right back then, and most of the time it worked! I wasn't a mean teacher, but I think I was respected. Now, in schools, there are so many more computers and typewriters. There are also busier schedules. There's not enough time spent in school and the organization of events and activities is done poorly. I would love to see a band in our school again. I would also like to see more economy in our community. All of these new people moving in will help create jobs for others. I think that this could be very good for our town. My life hasn't been easy, but I've had it better than some. I am thankful for all that I have and everything that I have accomplished. Milford is a great place to live and I am glad to have the opportunity to be a part of it. 1 look forward to seeing it continue to improve and grow! iHj i ri 1 ": a. V iA re j 3 ' l l fool 3rd Place winning essay - by Ernie Thieme is Olive Root I wasn't bora in Milford, but I have name My here most of my life. In the next few pages I will describe how I lived have lived in Milford all but ten years of my live. I remember the floods and all the stores and restaurants that have come and gone in Milford. Milford has changed a lot in the years I have lived here. The population hasn't changed much but everything else has. My family came to Milford in 1916, just after I had turned six. My father I wasn't born in Milford; I was came here to work for his brother-in-laborn in Sevier County. . , The town is a lot different than when I was young. There used to be a lot fewer buildings on Main Street and there were also less boarded up ones. We had a drug store, and next to that was Mr. McCully's store. We also used to have a hotel and a rooming house next to each other on Main Street. Back when I was in high school, I used to work at the drug store, and I got paid a dollar every two weeks. There was a bank, and behind the bank there used to be two little houses. Back when I was young, the students at Milford High school used to do lots of things for fun. We had basketball games, dances every Friday, lots of parties, and progressive suppers. We also went ice skating and to football games. One of my most memorable moments in high school was when I was Sophomore. My class decided to initiate the Freshmen. My classmates and I got some buckets and some pans, and we filled them with syrup. Then we took the feathers out of the pillows. Next, we got starch and green paint, and we went down to the bottom hall of the school and covered the Freshmen with feathers, syrup, and starch, and we painted a green'T" on their faces. We did just fine until one girl came to school in a new cress. Her mom came to school mad, and the principal made us clean the whole school. After that there were no more Freshman initiations. We could only paint a green "F" on their foreheads. During school we used to go to the mountains for the day. the whole school would play different games all day and have a cook out. In my graduating class there were four girls and five boys. There is only one left that isn't dead. I still talk to him to this day. I graduated from Milford High school in 1928. When I moved to Milford, there were 1,000 to 1,500 people living here, just about like today. I was married to my husband for forty-fiv- e years, and for those years he worked for the railroad. There were also floods back then that I remember, some that even filled up Main Street. When I was working at a store, it filled up waist deep with water. While we were trying to clean it up everbody kept driving up and down Main Street making waves, making it hard to clean. These are just some of my memories of Milford. I hope you enjoyed them because I sure enjoyed sharing them with you. Early Industries of Minersville Dairying Submitted by Minersville Historical Committee Dairying has By Reva Albrecht: alw ays been one of the chief industries of Mmersville. In the early days a few people had large herds, but every family had a cow or two that supplied milk. Jehu Blackburn had a herd on pasture land that is located up by the Butter and cheese were reservoir. made on Blackburn Ranch for commercial sale. Everyone drove their cattle upon the foothills and herded them on this range in grass that was knee high. Shoes were very scarce so the children would walk over the stones and thistles barefoot and they herded the cattle. As the Dairy Industry grew people purchased cream separators. These were turned by hand. The milk and cream were separated by disks and ran out of spouts into cans, a small cream can and large can to the skim milk. The skim milk was usually fed to the hogs and the cream made into butter or shipped to Beaver. William Wood had a horse and buggy that he used in gathering milk and cream. He would drive up to the house and right there while the owner was w atching would take a sample of cream from the can and ; put it in a little bottle to be tested. In March of 1929, Warren Shepard built the creamery in j Minersville. It was completed and ready for operation in June 1929. It was in operation until June 30, 1932. It was operated by Hyrum and Newell Iverson. They handled between 6,000 and 7,000 lbs. of milk. The milk was separated and the cream was shipped to Beaver where it was made into butter. They took the skim milk and made casine from it, which was shipped to Beaver, where it was dried and then shipped away. ..... I u 1 Mandy Muir received two 1st place awards as well as a 2nd place. Mrs. Osborne's Art students received an invitation from Beaver High School to participate in an art competition held last Wednesday. The winning entries are on display in the window next to the Home Economics room. Name is lllite I Blair Solomon - Honorable Mention. Michaela Wright- - 3rd Place. Angie Moore Honorable Mention. Heidi Mayer - 5th Place, . i HoMetown Lindsey Baxter - 6th Place. Spirit has been chosen by the U.P.E.C. for the theme of this'years ' i 'v M f 33 Oulylth g. Celebration , We are currently taking orders for anyone that would like a this year. Please contact Mary Jo.Holm at 4 by June 3rd. Price is $1 1,00 forj regular sizes and $13.00 for XXL or larger. irt 387-227- irt Special Orders for Organizations & Reunions. Proceeds will be used for fireworks display. ( :, UNION PACIFIC EMPLOYEES, CLUB Is a Proud Sponsor of Milford's July 4th Celebration Crystal Smith, Genelle Cox. and Lindsay Barnes received Honorable Mention Awards for their entries. Gretchen Romans received a 1st Place, 2nd Place and Honorable Mention Awards. |