I LaVell Brown, was born April 15, 1927, at 7:45 a.m., at Grandma Starrs home in Richfield, Sevier County, Utah. My parents were Verlie Roena Hatch Brown & William Eugene Brown. Dr. T. R. Gledhill attended the birth. He also blessed an named me at that time because he didn't think I would live long. I was later told I was small weight. When I was about 2 years old I was running in the house with other kids. My fingers were caught in a door. The third finger on my hand was nearly severed. I don't know who sewed the finger. I still have the scars. My earliest memory was when I burnt my stomach. I was 5 years old. It was winter. I had finished a bath and I did not yet have pajamas on. I stood by the heater in the living room to get warm. There was a child's cupboard, (about 30 inches tall) between the wall and heater stove with clothes on it to dry. I stepped between the cupboard and stove and the cupboard tipped pushing me onto the stove. The stove was very hot. My entire stomach and chest area were burned. I don't remember who treated me, but I wore bandage into Spring. On April 17, 1933, our baby sister, Roena was born at Grandma Starrs in Richfield. Dad phoned this information to his parents. Grandpa and Grandma Brown lived in the 1st house at the north end of Koosharem. The only phone in Koosharem was at their house. Messengers, usually grandkids, would deliver phone messages to people in town. It was Sunday morning when we received the news of our Mother's death. The family sent me to the church to tell aunt Enza that our mother had died. I was six years old. Mother was brought to Koosharem. The casket was placed in the north bedroom. The funeral was in the Town Hall diagonally across the main street from our house. As we all know, our Dad made cheese at the Creamery in Koosharem. From the time I was six to ten years old I would go to the Creamery frequently. When the first milk truck arrived at the Creamery, Dad would take 2-10 gallon cans of milk and put them in a boiler. The boiler would heat the milk and turn it into buttermilk. This buttermilk was poured into the big vat with the milk to start the process of making cheese. There was always a little buttermilk left in the can. Dad would pour a cup full of buttermilk for me. I liked this buttermilk, and I would have a cup of buttermilk whenever I was down to the Creamery in the morning. The Creamery was three-forths of a block south of our home. One morning when I went to the Creamery early I remember it was very cold. Dad and the milk haulers were talking about how cold it was. They said it was 40 degrees below zero. it was good that I was dressed warm. The bricks of cheese were kept on shelves in a room on the north side of the Creamery. This room was kept cool for storing the cheese bricks. Periodically these cheese bricks were turned 90 degrees. Some times uncle Rulon would have me help him turn the cheese. One time uncle Rulon went to the De Lange store and got some olives and soda crackers. We had olives, crackers and cheese for lunch. When I was 7 or 8 years old, I was at the Creamery. Someone came to the Creamery to tell Dad that Owen Bagley's hay stack was on fire. Some kids had been playing with matches out by the hay stacks. There was a large metal tank set high on a frame work stand. This tank was near to outside of the Creamery. When the cheese was cooked the whey was pumped into the tank by the Creamery. The milk truck drivers would fill the customers cans with the whey and deliver it back to the farmers to use for pig feed. At the time word came that Owen Bagley's hay stack was on fire, one of the milk truck drivers was filling the cans with whey. Owen Bagley's corals and haystack were a half block west of the Creamery. The truck driver took his load of whey up to Owen Bagley's back yard, and with the help of other people they put the fire out. One summer the health people were giving typhoid shots to the people in Koosharem. They selected our home as the place to give the shots. They were giving the shots on the front porch. I walked up to the nurse and got my shot. When they told Helen it was her time she didn't want a shot. She ran to the outhouse (toilet) and locked the door. When I was 10 years old, Dad married a widow, Linda Hatch. Dad moved into her home in Koosharem. Linda didn't want to raise Dad's children, so we stayed at the home in Koosharem. Then some of us kids were moved in with other relatives. Roena age 5, was taken to our sister Genevieve in Manti. Helen stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Brown for awhile. Helen also lived with aunt Enza in Kooosharem an then she ended up in Provo with sister Luella. I lived with Grandma and Grandpa Brown for two years, age 10 to 12. When I was 12 in October 1939, I went to live with Wesley and Verda Johnson in Fayette, Utah, as their foster son. This was arranged by Wesley's sister Erma Hatch who lived in Koosharem. I lived with Wesley and Vera until I became an adult and got married. They became my Mom and Dad and we had a very close relationship. When I turned 8 year old, its time to be baptized in the Mormon Church. My sister Helen, had been baptized in a large vat that they have in the Creamery. So, when I was 8 years old, I said, I wanted to be baptized in the Creamery. I was baptized by my father, Eugene Brown, in this big stand-by water vat. There was a brother Olson that was there with him and confirmed me. I don't have his name. Therefore, I was baptized and confirmed into the Church on my 8th birthday. Written by LaVell Brown January 30, 2001