PHYLLIS TRUMAN &
ROYAL SAMUEL HUNT &
MURRAY G. BRACKEN
Royal Samuel
Hunt
Murray G. Bracken
Royal Samuel
Hunt
Murray G. Bracken
PHYLLIS TRUMAN HUNT BRACKEN
Life story as told to Mary Louise Hunt Hafen (daughter)I was born on the Magotsu Ranch, near Gunlock, Utah, to Florence Matilda Bowler and Henry Albert Truman on August 22, 1911. My mother told how my grandmother, Elizabeth Boyce Truman, was the midwife. Mother had a terrible time and was in labor for about 5 days. They finally sent for my Grandfather Bowler, who lived in Gunlock, and he came and gave her a blessing. It was then that I was born. Mother often told me this story about my birth.
I grew up on the Magotsu Ranch. I was 6 years younger than my brother, Rodney, therefore I had no one to play with except him and Claude Bracken, who my mother raised. They were so darn mean to me and would tease me all the time.
We had a sheep, a little bully sheep, that grazed in the orchard. Rod and Claude teased this sheep until he became so darn mean. Then when Mother would send me to the creek, about 2 blocks away, for drinking water, the sheep would run after me and bunt me over. I'd scream my head off and Mother would have to come and rescue me. the boys would be off in the orchard just laughing and having themselves one of the best times in the world.
The Magotsu Ranch is located north of Gunlock. People from California have now bought it. I was at the ranch about 5 years ago and there is little left there to remind me of my childhood. The house still stands and the old granary that my father built. There
are none of the trees in the orchard left. I remember that house. It was a 4 room house which had a living room, a huge dining room and a kitchen. At night Mother would make us kids a bed in the dining room and the living room. As I remember back it seems like it was such a large house and I thought, "Gee, those rooms were large." But when I went to visit there, I went in and I couldn't believe how different it was from the way I remembered it. The rooms were so small and looking at it, I wondered how Mother ever raised 11 children in it.I didn't like it on the ranch very well because I didn't have any playmates or anyone to see. We had no neighbors very close. We did have the Henry Hunts who lived about a mile and a half south from us. About 3 times during the summer, Mother would box us up in the wagon and we'd go down to the Hunt Ranch. The women would tie off a quilt or dry fruit. They had a pond and the kids would go swimming. Then Mae Hunt would put her kids in her wagon and she'd come up to our place to spend the day and that was the highlight of the summer for me. I just lived for those days when either the Hunts would come up and visit or we'd go down and visit with them.
My Grandma Truman used to come and stay with us. I never remember Grandma Truman at a place of her own. This she could have had, but she would come and visit with us. I dearly loved her. She really used to make quite a fuss over me and she'd tell
me what a good worker I was.When I was 6 years old my father bought a house in St. George, Utah. My sister, Viola, was born in that house. This was the first time Mother had a doctor with all of her 11 children. I remember it was old Dr. Woodbury that came and took care of her.
From then on we would live in St. George in the winter so we could go to school and then move back to the ranch in the summer. I hated those summers because it was so lonesome. Viola was 6 years younger than I was, so therefore, we didn't have much in
common as we were growing up.I will never forget what it was like when we'd come down to school. We'd have to stay alone without our folks for about 6 weeks to 2 months because it was too early in the fall for Mother to leave the ranch. Everything had to be harvested and taken care of. Then when the work was done, she and Dad would move down. In the spring early, it would depend on the season, but sometimes as early as March they would move back to the ranch again and leave us kids to batch it. Sometimes it wasn't funny. We didn't have all that much to eat. We managed, but we needed our Mother.
I was baptized in the St. George Temple. I don't know who did it or much else about it but I do remember going down to the temple and being baptized into the Church. That was quite an occasion for me. I had to go without Mother because she wasn't very well
and couldn't walk and there was no other way for her to get there.I'll never forget, when we were living on the ranch, the first car I ever saw. It belonged to Ivan Bigelow. He used to come to our place and one day he showed up in a Model T Ford. We were going to Central to church that day so we all piled in to go in his fancy car. Every time we'd come to a little raised place in the road or any kind of a hill, we'd all have to get out and push the car. But boy, when we got to Central, and all the while going along, we thought we were so smart. Very few people in Central had seen a car
either so we were really in style riding along to church in the very first Model T Ford I had ever seen.All my schooling was here in St. George. I started in first grade and went on through high school. My first job was working at the old hospital in St. George. I would go after school and on Saturday. I can't remember the hourly wage, but I can remember that I
worked all day and sometimes got a dollar.My Grandma Bowler died before I was born, but I can remember Grandpa Bowler. He lived to be over 90 years old. He died just before my daughter, Nellie Rae, was born. I can remember him coming to our house and how I enjoyed having him come. He was a
little short man with a white beard and he smoked a pipe. I remember thinking as a kid, "Gee, when I get married I'm going to marry a man that smokes a pipe." He used to walk back and forth on our porch smoking that pipe and I thought it was the neatest thing I ever knew.Mother had 11 children. Mattie, the oldest married Raymond Cannon; Ester married June Chadburn; Mary married Chet Elmer; Bert married Ruth Foremaster and after she died, he married Idona Webb; Mabel married William Elmer; Richard married Gaylie Sprague; Rodney married Emma Green. Then Mother had a baby girl that died shortly after birth. She was named Ellen. I was born next. Another baby died at birth. The baby girl, Helen, was born and died shortly after birth. The baby of the family was Viola. She married Max Hannig, was later divorced and married LaVon (Bunk) Nicholls. Double tragedy struck when both Rodney and Viola died on the same day, May 27, 1975.
When Mabel died, she left a family of 5 children. Mary had never had any children so she took Mabel's family and raised them. That was such a sad thing, those children being left without a mother. But Mary and Chet took them into their home and loved
them and took good care of them.My parents and three sisters, Ellen, Helen, and Mabel are all buried in Gunlock. Also Mabel's son, Blaine. The others are mostly buried where they made their home. Rodney is in Pioche, NV. Esther is buried in Veyo, Utah. Dick is in Logandale, NV., and Viola is in Las Vegas. Mary, Mattie and Bert are all buried in St. George. It is quite a thought to be the only living survivor of this large family.
It seems like when I was a kid growing up we were awfully poor. However, I think mast everyone was poor then. I remember that I would have 2 new dresses a year. One for the Fourth of July and one for Christmas. That was really something to look forward to.
When I was a kid and lived on the ranch I had to help herd the cows. Dad would mow the hay and then he'd turn the milk cows in the field and I would have to herd them. A lot of times I didn't have any shoes. We'd have shoes when we started school in the
fall and by spring they would be worn out. We were too poor to buy more until fall so I'd herd the cows with my bare feet. I must have gotten pretty tough feet, walking over the stubble all the time. I'll never forget the day I got tired. I laid down to rest and fell asleep. I let one of the cows into the green pasture where Dad hadn't mowed yet and she ate too much. Of course, she bloated and died.Dad used to make molasses. He had a big vat down in the creek. He used a horse to run the mill to squeeze the juice out of the cane. Us kids would have to take turns riding the horse around and around. It seemed to me that I was the one that did most of the riding. Viola was too little to ride and Rod was too big. He was always helping Dad do something else. That left me to sit on the old horse and ride and ride. Sometimes I'd lay down and sleep. It didn't seem to matter just as long as I kept the horse going. Dad was known as being the best molasses maker in the country. After the molasses was made, we'd put cleaned peaches in big gallon barrels, pour hot molasses over them, and we would have molasses preserves.
After the molasses was made and the beans, apples, and potatoes were harvested, Dad would haul all this stuff to St. George to trade for things we needed. He would aIways get flour and cloth so Mother could sew. That is how he got Mother the first rug she had that she didn't have to make herself. When it was laid in the living room we thought we really had something.
Of course, at Christmas time we didn't have a fireplace. I can remember the first orange I ever got. We'd always get an apple, but that was no big deal because we raised them ourselves. Because we were the youngest girls, Viola and I always got a little doll. The boys would get a pocket knife. It was such a treat, that first orange. I guess I will never forget it.
I don't remember just how old I was when we moved off the ranch to St. George. Dad sold the ranch to Zerry Hunt. Dad went into several ventures. He bought a ranch in Mesquite, NV. That didn't work out so then he bought a service station. Rodney and Dick, who both worked with him there, were badly burned at the station as a result of an explosion. It seems like it was just one thing after another and then Dad went out on the strip to work for someone. When he came back he had the most terrible carbuncles
I've ever seen in my life. He was very, very ill for some time. From that time an his memory started to go. He eventually completely lost his memory. It was a rather sad thing. He could remember the past but he couldn't remember the present. At the very end he had gotten quite mean. He was hospitalized in Prove for a while. In his history it says that he died of a heart attach at age 72.After Dad's death, Mother lived alone in the old home for nearly all the rest of her life. She would stay with me periodically, then Viola, visit Florence and Jo (daughters of Mattie) in Santaquin, UT., also. Her health wasn't very good. Her legs were bad and
she couldn't walk very good. So she would take turns visiting all her children and stay a while with each one of them. Sometimes some of the grandchildren would stay with her at her house. Everyone in the family was willing to help tabs care of her. She was
with Mary when at age 90, she had a stroke. She died in the Caliente, NV., hospital.During my girlhood days, my friends were Dorthy Carter McAllister, Edith Fullerton, the Miller girls who lived south of us, the Ridings, and the Hemingways. The Hemingways had a pond back of their home up on the Red Hill and we used to spend all of our summer days that we could at that pond. That is where I learned to swim. That pond seemed to be the place for the neighborhood gatherings. We used to have real good times there. Those were the good days.
It was while I was a young girl after we moved to St. George and Dad had sold the ranch that he bought a car. It was quite an experience, but I learned to drive on that car. The driver was on the opposite side of where he is now. The shift was on the opposite side also. It was just backwards to the newer cars that came out, so later I had to learn all over again. Rod helped me learn to drive. I was determined that I would learn to drive, and I am so glad that I did.
I worked at several different places. I worked for Alma Clark, the Fosters and the Stauffers. I did domestic work for these people and then I got a job at the hospital. I worked for Mary Whitehearse at the hospital. Old Dr. McGregor was there then. I will always have a soft spot for all the McGregors. The old Dr. McGregor and Mary Whitehearse, the nurse, were very good to me.
I was working at the hospital when I met Royal Samuel Hunt. This was in October of 1931. He had had an accident and was brought to the hospital. Then we started to court and we were married in May of 1933. And again, I moved on a ranch. This time
to the Hunt Ranch just south of Central, Utah. I never was particularly happy on the ranch but it was a little different from when I was a girl. We had a car so we came and went a lot. All my life I've thought, "If I could just look out and see a neighbor's light." That was the thing, there was no one around and at night it was so still. I just didn't like ranch life. But I lived there for the first 10 years of my married life. Three of my children, Nellie Rae, Darwin, and Mary Louise were born while I lived there. When Mary Louise was 14 months old, Royal was brutally murdered. Of course, then we left the ranch. He was killed on Nov. 24, 1941. I happened to be in St. George at the time so Nellie Rae and Darwin could attend school. I have stayed right here in the same house I was living in then. I sold the ranch because I just could not go back there. It was too large for me to take care of but I couldn't go back anyway.While I lived at Hunt's Ranch I never participated much in the ward or with the people in Central. I always had the feeling that they didn't like me. Maybe that was just my feeling. I had a terrible inferiority complex and I just felt like I wasn't accepted. We did have some good friends. Tone and Irene Bracken lived down on the old Baker Ranch and we became very close friends. We used to visit a lot in the evenings. Sometimes we'd pack our kids up and go down there or they would come up to our place and we'd play cards. That friendship lasted all through the years.
I worked very hard when I was on the ranch. It was nothing to put up 1,000 to 1,500 quarts of fruits and vegetables. Of course, we raised them all and that was what we had to eat along with our beef. It was a very hard job. Then during the hay season, we always had a lot of hired men. Maybe 13 or 14 hired men and I would cook for them. Getting dinner for a crew that size was a real job. For all the years I lived there, we always had 1 to 2 hired men. It was a good life, but it was a hard life.
After Royal’s death I stayed in St. George. Two years later I married Murray G. Bracken. I had known Murray a lot of years. In fact, most of the years I lived in Central, he was a counselor in the Bishopric.
Three years after Murray and I were married we had a pair of twins: they were born July 15, 1940. Stanford Arthur and Sharon have always been a real joy to us.
In June, just before the twins were born, my sister Mary came to visit. My mother was with me at the time. As soon as Mary saw me she said, "Why, Phyllis, you're going to have twins." I said, "Oh, no I'm not going to have twins." She said, "Well, I'll bet you
do. And I said, "'Well, if I do, you can have one of them." She replied, "O.K., that's a deal." I said to her, "Well, I guess it's a deal. I couldn't take care of two.I was so sick and miserable all the time I was carrying the twins, I couldn't bear the thoughts of having two babies. As soon as the twins were born, Mary asked, "Well, which one is mine?" Of course, I couldn't give her one. Twins were never something I had hoped for but I've certainly never been sorry I got them.
Two or three years after Murray and I married, he bought a house by the VFW building over across from the rodeo grounds. I felt like I'd like to move over into it. However, the kids said no: no way would they move out of the old house. So Murray sold the house and we've stayed here ever since.
Murray worked very hard to keep the place up and keep It going. He improved it a lot. In 1980, he won second award statewide for the Tribune Beautification Award. We've always been very proud of our home. He always kept it looking nice and well kept.
After I moved to St. George, I began to work in the church. I had many different callings. I was on the Stake Sunday School Board for some time, in the presidency of the YWMIA. I've been in the School and the Primary. For 5 years I was Supervisor of the Visiting Teaching in our ward. I gave that up when my health began to fail. Of all the jobs I’ve had, I loved the Primary best.
Is far as travels are concerned, while we were raising the family, Murray won a free trip to Chicago once from the American Legion and he went so we paid my way and I went with him. We had a real good time. I kind of followed the kids around as they married
and moved off. Nellie Rae and Stan were in Los Angeles while Stan was in dental school so I went there several times. Sharon was in Oklahoma for a while so Murray and I went back there. Stanford moved to Page, AZ., and Mary Louise and Nellie Rae ended up in Henderson, NV., and Boulder City, NV., so we visited them when we could. Darwin moved to Fillmore, UT., and we visited there when we could. We were just kind of home folks and enjoyed staying put.After Murray's death in October of 1981, I had a real difficult time adjusting. I had several health problems the year after his death but gradually I began to adjust. It had been a hard thing, burying two husbands. One thing that helped me was getting involved in the Senior Citizen Program. With that group I began to travel around a bit. For someone who wasn't much of a traveler I have done quite a bit lately. I've been across the U.S. to New York and Niagara Falls, to Canada, into the deep south and to California. One of my favorite trips was to Hawaii. I had always wanted to see Washington DC also and enjoyed that.
When the twins were 8 years old, I went to work for Center Department Store for Lester Gubler. I worked there for 26 years. I had a lot of wonderful experiences with that job. I could write a book. That job helped me get over being so self conscious and helped
me get rid of some of my inferiority complex. I got to the point where I could meet the public just as good as anyone else and I developed a feeling that I was as good as anyone else. I learned to know people for the good and the bad. It was really a good
experience for me and I enjoyed every bit of it.I have never felt that I was a very talented person. I certainly had no music ability or hardly any other that I recognized. The only thing I could take pride in was my ability to keep a nice clean home. My mother taught me that as I was growing up. We didn't have much but she kept what we had clean and made sure we had a nice clean bed. Mother was a real quilt maker and kept us in nice bedding all the time,
She would always say, "Now, we mustn't leave the house dirty at night. Suppose someone gets sick in the night and we have to call in the Relief Society or the Bishopric." So we had to make sure the dishes were done and everything was picked
up off the floor.I also remember she would say whenever we went on a little trip or left the house to go anywhere, "Now, put on your best underwear, because if anything happens or if we have an accident, you will want your best, clean underwear on." It was from my mother that I learned to keep a clean house.
I have had five children. I am very proud of all of them. Nellie Rae, the oldest, has so many talents. She married Stanley Jones from Pioche, NV. He has practiced dentistry in Henderson, NV., for about twenty-eight years. They spent two and a half years in Japan right after he got out of dental school. They have four children and fourteen grandchildren. Nellie Rae was always active in the Republican Women of Nevada, DUP Chapter in Nevada, as well as auxiliaries in the Church. Even with the health problems that she experiences, she manages to keep busy with genealogy work. She is an inspiration to us all. All of Nellie Rae and Stan's children live in Southern Nevada, so she is able to enjoy having them around often.
Darwin married Kathryn Copper from Washington, Utah. They live in Fillmore, Utah, where Darwin has worked for the Utah State Road for nearly thirty years. He is getting close to retirement. They have four children and now four grandchildren. Each one of
his children are living in Utah so they also enjoy close ties with them.Mary Louise married Sherman Hafen from Santa Clara, UT. They have lived in Boulder City, NV., for twenty-eight years where Sherm has taught school. He will be retiring soon and they plan on returning to Utah. They have four children and now have three
grandchildren. Mary Louise has worked for the Clark County School District for ten years as the Dean's Secretary at Boulder City High School. They have beeb kept busy in the church as well.Stanford married Carol Durfey of Los Angeles, California. They met while Stanford was there in Optometry School. They now live in Page, Arizona and have five children. Stanford filled a mission to Germany, is now in the Bishopric in Page and served as
Mayor of Page for two terms.Sharon married Danny Pendleton from Coalville, Utah. They lived in Elk City, Oklahoma for almost 15 years. She and Danny were divorced and she moved to Boulder City, NV. She has worked as an RN since then. She has three children, the youngest just graduated from high school. She has done real well, keeping a lovely home, raising her family and working full time.
As to date I have 20 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. I feel that is a posterity to be proud of. As I look back over my 75 years I feel that I've made some mistakes, but maybe I couldn't have done better if I'd tried. I am really grateful for my wonderful
parents. I am also really grateful for my family. They are so special to me. I realize that I have had a good life in spite of everything. I am really grateful for all my blessings.(It has been very hard to convince Mother to write her life's story. Finally, we did persuade her to use the tape recorder, so that her memories would be recorded. It was then that I was able to transcribe that information and make it available in written form. Very little Effort has been made to edit the material as I felt to do so would change the natural flavor, or mood, under which it was given.)
(the webmaster was granted permission to publish this history by the author, Phyllis Truman Hunt Bracken)
ROYAL SAMUEL HUNT
by Nellie Rae Hunt Jones (daughter)
Taken from her book, As Time Goes By, and used with permission.The Hunt Ranch, located just one and half miles south of Central, was bought by Royal Hyrum (Hunt) from his father, Isaac, one of the original pioneers to southern Utah.
Here on the ranch, “little Royal” spent his childhood learning to hunt, fish and ride horses.Friends were easily made, and the small cluster of children in the Central area often enjoyed a game of softball together. Beth Barnum recalls how the kids in the area loved to go to “Royalies” to play because he was so fun to watch and listen to. Royal always seemed to have a few pennies in his pockets that he loved to jingle and jingle.
On Dec. 20, 1910, Royal Samuel was baptized in the St. George Temple by Ezra Rappleye. He was confirmed in the Pine Valley Ward by William H. Thompson.
A nickname tacked on Royal by some of his friends was “China Dick”. Royal hated it.
Royal Samuel began his education in Central, Utah. In the fall of 1909 the first school was held in a large boarded-up tent, and forty children ranging in grades from the first to the eighth were taught by Miss Josephine Sandberg. Other teachers Royal had were Claude Cannon, Olive Wolley, Mr. McAllister and Mr. Sherman Cooper, who ironically, was to become the father-in-law to Royal’s son Darwin. Later a small building was erected to serve as the school. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by storm and high winds. Private homes became the school site when nothing else was available. Royal’s mode of transportation to and from school was nearly always his horse. It was not an uncommon to see his horse tied to a post, patiently waiting to take Royal home.An old friend of Royal’s, Antone Bracken, remembers that he and Royal finished school in Central, passed a test administered them, and therefore graduated from “Normal School” in Central, Utah.
(His father) had now purchased a home from the Milne family at 167 W. 100 S. in St. George, Utah. This would make it more convenient for Royal to go to high school in St. George. During those years, the family went back and forth from the home in St. George to the ranch. At times, Gandma Hunt lived with (his parents) at their “winter home”. When not in school, Royal, spent his days on the ranch, working and learning the skills of his birthright.
On 2 Jun 1921, Royal Hyrum, at age 49, died of pneumonia. This left Royal Samuel the responsibility of caring for his mother as well as assuming the (care of) the ranch. Royal always had a strong sense of duty as well as a devoted relationship with his mother.
Just one year after his father’s death, Royal received a call to serve a mission the L.D.S. Church in Chicago, Illinois. Perhaps as much to please his mother as to prove his own testimony, he answered the call. He was set apart by Rudgar Clawson and thereby left to fill an honorable mission. It has been said of him that he had a particular talent for public speaking. On July 15, 1924, he was released and returned home to his mother and the family ranch.
Royal continued his service in the L.D.S. Church. Bishop Ivy Stratton was one of the first Bishops of the Central Ward which had been organized in 1918. He had as his counselors, Murray G. Bracken and Royal S. Hunt. The ward was small but there was important work to be done.
From time to time Royal hired different men - mostly family and friends to help on the ranch during busy season. All spoke highly of him.
Royal Samuel and Hettie Burgess were married 10 February 1925. To them was born a son, Royal Kay, on 29 August 1927. One can only imagine the joy that must have been felt over the birth of this baby - at least the Hunt family was growing: Hettie, Royal, and baby Kay continued to live on the Hunt ranch. This marriage ended in divorce on 24 June 1930.
In October 1931, Royal was traveling south in his pick-up truck from the ranch to Veyo. His left arm, resting on the open window, was struck by a stray bullet. His plans now changed, he drove himself to the hospital tin St. George. The source of the bullet remained unknown, but since it was deer season it was supposed to have come from a hunter in the area. It was while he was in the hospital for this injury that he met Phyllis Truman, a young girl working there.
Royal and Phillis were married 7 May 1932 by Vernon Worthen at the Truman home (her grandparent’s) on (300 W. and Diagonal Street in St. George.
The ranch was home for Phyllis and Royal. On December 28, 1932 a baby girl, Nellie Rae was born. Now Nellie Kay (Royal’s mother) had a name sake. Darwin Samuel joined the family on 20 Jun 1934. How each of these children were loved. On October 5, 1940 another daughter, Mary Louise, was born. Royal was so proud of each of his children and loved to show them off.
This good life filled with love, hard work, and friendships was drawn to an abrupt end on 24 November 1941. Phyllis was at the family home in St. George with the children so that Nellie Rae and Darwin could attend school.
A few days before (this) Royal had left the ranch early in the morning. He had business in St. George to attend to - mainly that of visiting his family. While in St. George, he stopped to buy gas at a local gas station and happened to observe a young man (Vae Monroe Fernley, age 17 and a former CCC enrollee of San Pedro, California) looking for food in a garbage can outside the nearby cafe. Royal’s compassionate and loving nature would not allow such happenings. He approached the young man and offered to buy him a good breakfast inside. From there, the two returned to the family home.
Phyllis remembers her immediate concern that Royal was returning to the ranch with the young man as “hired help”. She recalls that she pleaded with him not to take the young man home, (but) Royal’s good will prevailed. On the ranch a couple of days later, a neighbor, Max Cannon, relayed his feelings of concern also. Royal sluffed it off.
(Those various concerns were realized on November 24, 1941, when Royal was fatally shot by Vae Fernly, with the possible motive being robbery.) The funeral for Royal was held in the St. George Tabernacle. The building, filled to capacity spoke as a tribute to the number of friends he had made in his life. The spoken tributes were filled with admiration for a man full of kindness and love for everyone he knew.
History of Murray G. Bracken (not available at this time)
Created: 15 Aug 01
Updated: 14 Sep 07
Owned and Maintained by Paul E. Price
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