Sunday, July 17, 2011

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.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

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.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

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.