Oh Brothers....

I asked Venna (Chadburn) Petersen to share some memories with me. This was a little while ago, I think something came up and I forgot to post this. But actually, I think it fits in nicely this time of year....

Here is the conversation via Facebook:

Me:  Aunt Venna, I was thinking about house in Veyo and the big bedroom. Just wondering if there are stories about trying to get all the kids to sleep at night. I would assume many shared a room?

Venna:  Well there was three bedrooms with a parlor. Later in life the Parlor became a fourth bedroom. The rooms were very cold with many blankets piled on top. No heat in any of them. So you got in bed fast in the winter, got your spot warm and stayed put. Sometimes even covering your head up. You could blow your breath into the air and it would cause steam it was so cold.

In the Summer months in the old Granery their were two beds and the boys would sleep out there when it was warm.Mother always made alot of quilts to keep us warm. Sometimes she woulf fix a hot water bottle, Or heat an old iorn on the stove and wrap a towel around and put in the bed to warm it a little bit. Very rarely did you ever have a bed alone. The boys would come in take you from the warm bed and put you in a cold one, when mother found out they were in trouble.

After I was the last at home then I had my own bedroom. It was a cold old farm house, with just the heat in the kitchen.
Hope this helps you some.

Me: brothers! :) Thank's that was a great help!

Loved this story/memory :) Thanks Aunt Venna!
(I photo napped this picture from FB- hope you don't mind :) [picture added March 2013]

Deer Hunt

This picture is of Grandma Eardley (Virginia) Russell Eardley, Chad Bunker (my brother) and myself, Jeanne Bunker (Miller). I have a vague recollection of this day, but I couldn't really tell you anything about it. I am going to guess I was about 5, but I am not sure. So lets say ait might have been taken about 1980-ish. I also know that we were camping at the "Deer Camp" with the "cook shack". It was up the high, scary, dirt road I always prayed we would not fall off of after we locked in the hub caps to put the truck in 4 wheel drive, but still it got a little swervey and I hated it!

I remember the people from California had their buildings there too, and the guy I remember most from CA. was the one who wore classic converse and kind of looked like an old version of John Denver. And of course the willow tree, the out house (not my favorite building) behind the place Grandpa Eardley's horse Speck stayed. The pretty part of the creek (crick) that was close to the road and you drove over it if you went down the hill. I remember sitting around the barrel with the fire some nights looking at the moon and stars after everyone went to bed, but decided that it got kind of creepy when I was all alone, so I turned on my flashlight to walk up to our tent trailer (my favorite trailer I think).

I remember when Russ accidentally shot his brother Kyle in the head with his b.b. gun. Coloring on the table in the cook shack. The kids helping wash and dry dishes with dish towels that were soaked before everything was dry. St. George Enchillada night (my favorite) and washing our hands in the enamel bowl before we ate. I also got my first tick on one of those campouts, and tripped on some cactus one day when we went to look for someone's deer. Then Russell and I went driving on the three wheeler looking for chaparral so my mom could soak it in water and put it on my leg with a cloth because it was really sore and not all of the cactus would come out for a bit.

Those are just some random memories I have. Maybe some time I will find more pictures that will stir up some more. Oh, I forgot Bud and Denise and how she always roasted pine nuts. I also found out on one of those occasions that Grandma Eardley used to chew pine sap like gum when she was a kid. I thought I much preferred Juicy Fruit.

Happy Fall!

Bunker Association Family Reunion 2012

Here's a link to the info:

http://www.bunkerfamilyassn.org/?p=249

Hey, This Is The Real Pine Valley Reunion!

 I got this info off of Bertie Schmutz Facebook page. She actually has some pictures, but I can't get them on here. Not sure if I can make this, but I'd sure love to!

Crosby Family Reunion -2011

Descendants of Joshua Alma & Lena Mathis Crosby



What – 2011 Annual Crosby Family Reunion

Where – Forsyth Picnic Area – Site 1

(Ask directions at the park ranger station, your fee has been paid)

When- Saturday, August 6, 2011

Time – Assemble at 10:00 a.m. to help prepare food

Lunch will be served at 12:00 noon

Traditional dutch oven potatoes& onions, homemade root beer, bring your favorite dishes to share with all the family.

Super program to follow!



This year’s program will be about you and your family and your responsibility to your posterity. Where would our Crosby family be without Jesse Wentworth Crosby’s Journal, without Uncle Sam Crosby’s book on Jesse’s life and all of Jesse’s descendants family history, without the records passedto us from Aunt Hannah Crosby Hall and from those preserved by our cousin Mildred Bunker Bowler. Also from the other written and oral histories of our grandparents and parents. We owe all of them a great deal of gratitude not only for their lives but what they have preserved for us.



Our cousin, Carlyle Savage’s son, Paul Savage will be at the reunion to tell you about his book, “From Switzerland to St. George: The John and Barbara (Bryner) Mathis Story”. Grandmother Lena Mathis Crosby was the daughter of John and Barbara Bryner Mathis, our maternal great-grand parents and along with their parents were the first Latter-day Saint converts in Switzerland. They were also the first Swiss converts to immigrate to the U.S.and original settlers in Utah’s Dixie.

A Memory From My Childhood

I remember one year that we were at Grandma Eardley's house, Heather and Hollie were there too, and of course Russell and Kyle were over there and we were playing good guys and bad guys (cops and robbers- in my memories we always seemed to play that game).
Kyle figured out how to get on top of Grandma and Grandpa's camper, and was using it to "shoot" at us (our guns were our hands and we made sound effects) We all started to get up there and Grandma came out. I'll admit it wasn't the safest place to be in hindsight so it wasn't a surprise that she yelled at us. We all got down but we were snickering because of what she yelled at us. She said, "You kids better get down from there! If your grandpa saw you up there he'd skin ya alive!"  Somehow we didn't believe her that Ferle would actually do anything but tickle us. I think he had seen us up there before her and didn't say anything actually.
The other thing I remember is how badly Hollie was teased by Chad and Russell about her gun noises, "Pe-oom, Pe-oom!" Sorry Hollie, but I can't share one memory without the other.

Chadburn Family Reunion write up about Fred Chadburn July 10,1982

   Fred Samuel was the sixth child born November 14, 1886. As in any pioneer family, as the family grew, so did the house. In those days, when a room was added on and the walls were to be plastered, you didn't run down to the hardware store and get the plaster or the wallboard. You made your own. Father Henry made his own plaster from lime. One of the ranch hands would help him keep the pit fires burning night and day to boil the lime. One day Ben and Fred were alone, the older men had left to water the horses for a few minutes. Ben and Fred were playing near the pits and little Fred fell in. Ben ran to the house to tell mother. She returned and pulled him from the pit badly burned. She worked frantically to save little Fred, removing the clothes from his burnt body and breathing life into his mouth. But Fred was blessed to survive and he did. For two years he could not see or speak. He eventually gained his sight, but always had a speech problem. Years later, his brother George said he always felt this was the reason Fred stayed away from Church. he was afraid to speak in front of people, feeling embarrassed at his speech.
   Fred grew to do the things necessary for boys that age in those days. He used to water the horses for the stage coaches and help around the farm. He helped his mother wait on folks who stayed at the ranch. As he grew to be a man, he did many odd jobs. He planted trees for the other farmers, he broke horses.
   Fred settled in Central for a while, but moved to Veyo, being one of the first settlers there. When Fred moved to Veyo it was all cedars and black rocks. Over the years he planted hundreds of trees. In the early days he supplemented his income trapping but as the trees began to bear fruit, ends were easier to meet. Fred would comment, "I growed everything from sage brush to pine trees." He spent all of his years on that farm and sold his fruit right at the door.
   Fred's first wife, Tina (Parthina)died at childbirth. Fred was heartbroken as he loved her dearly.His first son Arnold, was raised by Tina's parents as Fred could hardly raise an infant and work at the same time.
   His second wife, Harriet, was quite a bit younger than Fred. She was 17 and he was 31, when they were married. But Harriet had taken quite a fancy to Fred. She knew he was a good man. Harriet would come by and tell him, "I'll make a good wife, Mr. Chadburn. I'm a good cook and I'll take good care of you." Well they had 10 children in the little house in Veyo. And all were raised to be honest people. Fred was proud to be honest and proud that his family was, too. Just after the youngest, Venna Ann, was born, Harriet became very ill. She had been advised not to have anymore children and this last birth had been rough. Harriet was near death, her body poisoned by urea due to a kidney failure. Fred had a dream that the angels were looking through his and Harriet's books of life. He was pleased that in his book it was written, "Fred Chadburn was and honest man." They were talking about the fact that it was a shame to take Harriet and leave the baby without a mother.
   As Harriet fell worse, Fred asked his brother George, to start making some arrangements for him. He was too grieved to do them himself. George and another man visited Harriet in the hospital. While they were there, the nurses told them she was about to go and they should see her quickly. George felt moved to bless her to live and finish raising her family. She began to recover and was sent home shortly after to her family. She lived to see her youngest grow to 12 years, before being killed in an auto accident.
   Fred was married a few years to Bernice Pendleton and spent his last years with his fourth wife, Cleora Horseley, who died a few months after his death.
   Fred had been sealed in the St. George Temple to both Tina and Harriet and all his children were sealed to him. A humble man, he always knew his most prized possession was his honesty. he lived to be fifteen days short of 93. He lived from the pioneer days to see the space age. His family is still growing, 40 grandchildren and 46 and counting great-grandchildren living from coast to coast. There is a granddaugther in Washington, D.C., a grandson in Lost Angeles, a granddaugther midway in Dallas. Most of the family is still in Utah, Arizona and Nevada.

Edward Bunker 411

This is the link on the Edward Bunker Association's website

http://youtu.be/5AOEWeTJ54M

My Family Tree

I couldn't find a good fill in family tree maker set up the way I wanted, so I created this one on Picnik, my favorite, cheaper than photoshop, picture editing website.

About This Blog

Dear Family, I had a thought late one night and wrote it down in my journal, which is a good thing because I forgot about it, then came across it a week or so later. The idea was to have another family reunion in St. George, or Veyo next year sometime and that everyone should bring stories written down that they have heard or remember. But then I thought, "Hey, wouldn't it be easier to have everyone just contribute stories on a family blog or something?"

So here it is, the family blog for Bunkers, Eardleys, Crosbys, Chadburns...etc. Everyone can share stories, memories, pictures; whatever you think the family would enjoy. I will probably add some pictures later, and if anyone has any ideas about how to sort posts... I think if we use the "labels" in the posts then we can sort by subjects or names. This post will have "About the Blog" beneath it and it will be it's label. If you need any help I will volunteer myself, or Danelle, or Brett and Jenn because I know they all have blogs! :)

If there is an email I don't have (if you haven't got an invite to be an author then I don't have your email address) just let me know so we can get people swapping stories. I might make it private if we get spam, but right now it will be open. Please let others in the family know about this blog, and have them send me their email so I can add them to the author list.

I hope we can all enjoy this!