Virgil William Bullock

A History of Nancy Nellie Burr and Virgil William Bullock By Nellie Bullock, Virgil Bullock and Elaine Fielding *(This history is chapter 41 in A History of the Burr Pioneers, edited by Wesley R. Burr and Ruth J. Burr and published by the Burr Family Organization in 1995. The published book has other pictures of Nellie and Virgil’s family and over 1,000 pictures of relatives and ancestors that are not included in this version because this is just the text in the chapter. The larger book is available at the LDS Family History Library and the Church History Library in Salt Lake City, and the BYU Library in Provo, Utah.) I was born in Burrville, Sevier County, Utah, September 11, 1898, the daughter of Henry Uriah and Julia Caroline Beal Burr. I was the twelfth child of a family of eight sons and five daughters. Memories of childhood are few. We lived in Burrville, named after my grandfather, until I was seven. Then our family moved to Provo where the rest of my girlhood was spent. My early remembrances were of herding cows on the hillsides with my sister and brother just older, and how he made we girls do all the running after the cows. He used to make me fighting mad, because of the way he called me cotton-top. My hair was so white. One time I rode a horse under the clothesline, it caught me across the throat and nearly broke my neck. I remember feeling so sorry for myself. I must have been only five years old. I remember eating the curd when my mother made cheese, which she did very often in the summers up at Fish Lake; and seeing many rows of shelves full of cheese aging to be sold. I never tired of hearing my mother tell of the time when the dirt roof of the summer home at Fish Lake fell in nearly killing my mother and two brothers, and did kill my aunt and her boy. During spring cleaning, we filled the ticks we slept on with fresh straw. How good that felt to sleep on them; and to walk on the home-woven carpet after fresh straw had been put under it and it was tacked all around. When I was six I spent a summer in Provo with my oldest sister, how wonderful it was to pick fruit to eat, because we had none in Burrville. After our family moved to Provo I remember being baptized in a stream in Carterville. I had been very sick with tonsillitis and was afraid I should be sick again. But my father said the Lord would not let me get sick as I was doing what I should and I didn’t feel any the worse for it. I recall when I was ill, looking out the window and seeing the men lift horses to their feet with block and tackle because they had some sort of disease and this was the way to help them. My early school days I remember my father walking ahead of us children all the way to school, kicking a path for us in the heavy snow with his feet. He made quite a path. In those days we walked everywhere. The same distances the children have to be taken on a bus nowadays. When I was eighteen, I spent a summer in Canada with my oldest brother’s family—my first long train ride. I became engaged to a boy from there. When I came home my father said I should send the ring back and wait for my missionary. I did and I’m so happy I listened to my father. I also spent one summer with my sister Effie in Darlington, Idaho. They were really pioneering that place. I enjoyed great horseback riding with a young man who was there for the summer at his sisters. I remember high school days. The basketball games and the dances in Pleasant Grove. That is where I met my husband, Virgil Bullock. How he pushed all the other boys out of my life. My sister said, “Nellie, if you don’t want him I will take him.” While he was on a mission we corresponded and I learned to think a lot of him. We were married August 28, 1918 in the Salt Lake Temple. On September 5th he left for the Army. I remember how I thought my heart would break when I saw him leave on the train. For I thought I should never see him again. Soon after I went to California where he was at this time. The influenza epidemic struck and people were dying everywhere. We were so very lucky neither of us contracted it. In six months the war was ended, just as he was to embark for overseas. After we were married Virgil said he saw me for the first time across the dance floor and knew I was to be his wife. He didn’t even know who I was then. Soon after we came home we moved to Burley, Idaho. That is where our first son, Gale, was born. At his birth I had blood poisoning, but an excellent doctor soon had me well again. At this time depression number one hit us and we became discouraged with Idaho. We lost crops and bank accounts, so we moved back to Pleasant Grove. Our second son, Grant, was born here. Virgil worked in a store for a short time, then we moved to the Provo Bench, where we bought a truck and started hauling fruit. Elaine, Montell and Renee were born to us at this time. I almost lost my life from Bright’s disease with Renee’s birth. But again, the Father in Heaven blessed me exceedingly and spared my life to raise my family. For fifteen years Virgil was gone the biggest part of the time. It wasn’t easy to raise my children alone, with none of the conveniences I have now, as I had four children before I ever had a washing machine. When Renee was two years old we moved to Provo City in the home we had at 655 West 4th North. Soon after, depression number two struck the country. We saw some pretty hard times. We lost our home and Virgil’s truck. After two years we got our home back with a government loan, and remained there until 1976. When Renee was eleven years old our son Richard was born to us. At this time World War II broke out. It took my three sons, Gale, Grant and Montell. Space will not permit telling of their experiences and escapes. Suffice to say after all the worry and heartache about them, God again heard my prayers and returned them to me unharmed. About this time, one at a time, my children married good companions. This I am so grateful for. Being much younger Richard stayed with us as we began to get older. When Richard started school I got ambitious and went to work for school lunch. This I enjoyed very much for twelve years. I made many friends who I shall always remember, and I gained much knowledge. My mother lived with me for ten of those years and I gained much from her. She was so patient and ambitious and fair in her thinking. She was 101 when she died and I was happy to have her with me in those last years of her life. After the children were married Dad, Richard and I took to fishing. I have enjoyed it very much and still do. In 1963 we went to Alaska. This was a highlight in our lives, one we will always remember. Virgil had a glorious time fishing for salmon. In 1962 Virgil retired. We have spent two winters in California which were warm and very enjoyable. We also made two trips to Alaska, what fun it was. Richard married in 1959. And at the time of this writing I have nineteen grandchildren and one great- grandchild. All of my family are normal healthy children. And in this, I feel the Heavenly Father has blessed me. I have great faith in prayer, for mine have been answered many times. I only hope I can live worthy of all I have been blessed with. I have many regrets but I hope I can live a life that will recompense for my past mistakes. About 1969 I met, through the R.S. Magazine that I sent to the mission field, Diana Law, a sweet Chinese girl and through this correspondence we were able to help Diana come to the BYU to school. She was our girl and lived with us. This relationship helped us to know and understand and love the Chinese people. Diana finished college, married a fine Japanese boy and they reside in Hawaii. They are both L.D.S. January 1976. Many changes have taken place since my first writing. At present I have twenty-two grandchildren, twenty-two great- grandchildren, and nine married grandchildren. In October 1974 I lost my beloved husband after two years of very poor health. God help me to so live that he and I can be together in Eternity. 1977—I now have fifteen married grandchildren. In the past six months more changes have come to me. The church has bought our little home in Provo, along with other families, to build a new chapel there. I have had many anxious moments and worry and heartache. But I knew I should not say no to our church. Dear Virgil worked so hard to fix the place nice and comfortable. But I feel he understands. So now, I have had to buy a new home. It is in Orem, right on my father’s old farm. It is a very nice, well kept place and I am happy with it. But it was a hard thing to do to move and having to see to all the business and work alone. Elaine did come from California to help me move my belongings and transfer titles, savings, etc. She stayed for over a month to keep me company and help me. This past year, 1977, I have had nine great-grandchildren born in our family. It is now the summer of 1985 and since I moved to Orem many changes have taken place; some sad ones and some good ones. My four children, Gale, Elaine, Monte and Richard, have all come back from California to live in Utah. I only wish their father had lived for this. In July of 1975, after Virgil’s death, Monte’s wife, Phyllis died. It was such a tragic death and to this day I can’t understand why it had to happen. Then, two years later, Monte’s son, Phillip died in his sleep. It might have been from pneumonia but the autopsy did not reveal a cause. Monte is a very strong person to take these trials because last year, 1984, he buried his sweet thirty year old daughter, Kristin. Then last year LeEarl died. He had lived in the home next to me for the past five years and we had become very close as brother and sister. So his death was very painful for me. He was ninety years old. Renee has divorced George and now lives with me. She is changed from what she was a few years back. Also, Richard divorced Fay. In the summer of 1984, I wrecked my car and for six to eight months I suffered the strangest illness ever. Stress and nerves and I never want to be like that again. I just pray that when my time comes I can die quickly. Gale’s Vickie has her ninth baby and Gale is her greatest helper. He always has a child with him when he comes to visit me. Richard is also a grandfather. To date, four of my grandchildren have filled missions; Russell, Dean, Robin, and Brent, and Todd who is my great-grandchild. At this time I have twenty-two grandchildren, all married except four; and sixty-one great-grandchildren. VIRGIL WILLIAM BULLOCK I, Virgil William Bullock, was the son of William Alexander and Clara Ellen Marrott, who were children of Utah pioneers, Alexander and Emily Caroline Harris Bullock and William and Louisa Fowlke Marrott. In writing this autobiography of my life up until the present date, it is probably more factual than interesting. No doubt many things would have been different if I had possessed more foresight and not so much hindsight. I think this is more or less true in all our lives, but all in all, we have enjoyed life and I have been happy with my wife and family, for I have been blessed with the love of a good faithful, understanding wife, and we have reason to be proud of the six wonderful children our union was blessed with. Probably to many people, my life might have seemed uneventful and drab but mostly it has been a joy and a pleasure. I am thankful for the privilege I have had of living on this beautiful earth and upon this particular section of it. For our land is without a doubt blessed above all other lands, and as Latter Day Saints, we know and appreciate these blessings that we enjoy so much. Probably, my childhood was very little different than that of millions of other Americans at the turn of the twentieth century. I was the fourth child in a family of eight children. We were all born in Pleasant Grove, Utah in humble circumstances but, with love in abundance in our home. We only had two rooms in our house but they were large and we all managed somehow. Later three more rooms were built as well as a bath and utility room. Our wants were few. We had plenty of good food, clothing and shelter. Not so much entertainment, only good clean fun, and lots of work. Sleighing, skating, etc., in winter; hide and seek, kick the can and other games in summer; and we also enjoyed silent pictures. We heated our home with a coal stove, our lights consisted of coal oil lamps. Our beds were made from fresh straw mattresses and I can still recall how nice they were when filled to bursting with clean fresh straw. When old enough that was one of my jobs to change the straw two or three times a year. Our floor was also covered with straw and then covered with a “home made” rag rug. By today’s standards they were crude but at that time were very satisfactory. As a child in a small town my life was uneventful but a few things stand out in my memory. Mother trained my hair in ringlets, the fashion those days, which hung to my shoulders and I can remember when father took me to have my first haircut. I can remember crying because I looked so odd afterwards. When this happened I was about six years old and ready for school. I also remember changing from knee pants to long pants a few years later. When I became old enough, eight or ten years old, I used to gather all the neighbors’ cows and take them to the pasture and then go get them at night and this paid me 50 cents per head per month and I earned from $6.00 to $8.00 per month. Later on I thinned beets. On one occasion after I had thinned five acres at 50 cents a day the man wouldn’t pay me because he said I pulled the thinned beets out with my toes. I was sure angry and disappointed. Dad asked me to forget about it but I still remember it. Later, I and Milton Freeman, a friend, established quite a reputation as beet thinners and our services were very much in demand every spring. Also, I worked for Lafe Blackhurst on his farm as that was about the only work in our small community for boys at that time. I attended school regularly and though not a brilliant student I received good marks and enjoyed going to school. Mathematics and history were my favorite subjects. Although not an athlete, I enjoyed baseball, basketball and dancing. We used to take in all the games and dances and it was at one of these dances I first met my sweetheart and future wife. As a child I contracted all the children’s diseases and remember being very sick with Scarlet Fever and later with Typhoid, from which disease they didn’t expect me to recover. Those days with typhoid we weren’t allowed but very little water and I can remember how I longed for a good drink of water. Instead, I received a spoonful. Mother, solicitous for my comfort, put me in a feather bed, which absorbed the heat from the fever I had, and when I started to convalesce it was like being on a heating pad. As a result I have never liked a feather bed since. Going to church was a must for us those days so I attended quite regularly and upon being ordained a deacon I used to gather fast offerings. We pulled a little wagon around our district and collected whatever they had to spare for the poor. We collected very little money as that was a scarce commodity in most homes. My grandfather, Alexander Bullock, took care of all the fast offerings for our ward. My teenage years were more or less uneventful but upon my graduation from high school I was called upon to fill a mission. So, in June of 1916 I went to the Northern States Mission with headquarters in Chicago. I worked for a short time in Peoria, Illinois, and was then transferred to the Iowa District. I spent most of my time there. Iowa City, Keokuk, Cedar Rapids, and Davenport were some of the main places I worked. Davenport had the only organized branch and most of the saints there were Utahns going to Chiropractic school. We had a lot of very interesting experiences while preaching the gospel. I didn’t baptize anyone but I feel we made several conversions. At that time the policy was to make sure they were converted before baptism. If we were transferred to another city, the succeeding missionaries followed with our investigators. I had some fine companions and had a wonderful time while there. After twenty-six months in the mission field I received a call from our local draft board at home to report for military duty. Our mission president, Brother German E. Ellsworth, told me he could get me a deferment as a minister, but I felt that I should serve my country, as there were no members of our family in the armed forces. So, I was given an honorable release from my mission and arrived home about August 18, 1918. My sweetheart and I had been corresponding while I was in the mission field and upon returning home we set a date for our marriage, August 28, 1918, as I had been examined for the Army and was to leave on the 5th of September. What with the war on and everything being done so quickly, we didn’t have time for a reception or anything. To put a climax to it, my welcome home services were scheduled for the same evening of the day we were married, so we had a lot of excitement for one day. The next Sunday evening was another farewell party for a few of us who were leaving for the Army. That is one time in my life I wanted to stay home. Just married, and also just dreading to leave my parents, brothers and sisters again so soon, and not knowing if I would ever see them again, I was sent to Camp Kearney, California, about sixteen miles north of San Diego. It was a camp of over 30,000 men under intensive training. After I became settled there, it was our good fortune to have my wife come to San Diego, where we were permitted to spend each weekend together. We had a wonderful time, all the sights were so new to us and the climate was grand. We visited all the interesting spots and took our first ride on the ocean. While in Camp Kearney, the camp was quarantined for influenza as there was a real epidemic there. Many died and thousands were stricken with it. I was fortunate and did not contract the disease, but due to our prolonged quarantine and the Armistice having been declared, we decided it was better for my wife to return home. After some time winding up Company papers (I was company clerk) I, with others, were mustered out. I did enjoy the training and the experiences I had in the Army. You can imagine my joy and pleasure to be reunited with my wife and family. Soon after my return home my wife’s father passed away to our sorrow. I became employed by the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company where I worked for some time caring for a large acreage of beets. I was also kept busy in the church by acting as ward clerk of the Pleasant Grove First Ward under Bishop Edwin Olpin, Alroy H. West and Edwin Ocharson. It was while working for the sugar company that I first became acquainted with P. A. Millet who had married my wife’s sister, Effie, and who had moved to Idaho some years previous. It was through his persuasion and influence that we decided to try our luck there also, so we sold most of our possessions and moved to Burley, Idaho. I think perhaps it would be well to relate at this point in my history of how I met my wife, Nancy Nellie Burr. After our basketball games at high school they held dances and it was while at one of these dances I saw Nellie from across the room. The thought came to me that I wanted to meet her as some day I wanted her for my wife. So, the fellow she was with introduced us. Nellie lived in Orem, some seven miles away, and the only way of going to see her was on the interurban car or horse and buggy. I had to go on the interurban; I asked a fellow where he was going and he said “Nellie’s” I said, “I’m going there too” and I bluffed him out so he went on to a dance in Provo. I later found out Nellie liked the fellow and was mad I had beat his time. One night I missed my ride and had to walk clear home. We corresponded while on my mission and after coming home and being drafted we decided to get married right away. Our first child, Gale, was born in Burley. Nellie had a very hard time and it cut me terribly to see her suffer so much. We were both very happy though, with our new baby and soon all our troubles seemed to vanish. Uncle Paul, as we called him, was very busy in the church, he being in the Bishopric, so all the irrigating fell upon me and I didn’t take a very active part in church work while there. We lived three miles from town, with no car, so it was rather difficult to attend meetings regularly. Paul and I leased 240 acres of wonderful land and really settled down to farming. It was after World War I and prices were high and then came the bank failures which cleaned us out. We planted forty acres of potatoes which were worth $8.00 per hundred pounds and that fall we sold most of them at 40 cents per cwt. for No. 1 potatoes. No. 2’s we fed to cattle. I remember in the fall of 1920 I went to town and bought a sack of sugar for $28.00, coal $16.00 per ton, fruit $3.50 per bushel and the following Monday these dealers called up and said the banks had closed their doors and would I come in and make the checks good. They wouldn’t take our crops as payment so I secured work from Mr. Gillette who had a dairy herd and worked for him at $75.00 per month to pay off my debts. So, in the spring of 1921 we decided to move back to Utah. Times were bad and the wind was worse so we packed up and shipped our possessions to Pleasant Grove, Utah. I secured work with a construction company building the county road from Pleasant Grove to Provo which was hard and dirty work, handling cement. After the road work was done I received employment with W. L. Hayes Department Store where I worked for the winter months of 1921-22. Our second child, Grant W., was born in October 1921 in Pleasant Grove. We were very happy to have two boys together to be playmates to each other as children. In 1922 I decided to start peddling fruit as it was quite a custom at that time. Many were doing it and seemed to be making a good living at it. So, I procured a Ford one-ton truck and started in the business, and I continued until 1932, and then again from 1935 to 1937 or 1938. We moved to Orem in the spring of 1922, as fruit was more plentiful. There we built a two-room home on my wife's mother's property. We built it so it could be moved; after living there a couple of years we bought a five-acre apple orchard located on the Canyon Road which had a small house on it. By joining our two rooms to it we had a comfortable home. While living in our two-room home at Grandmother Burr’s, our first daughter, Elaine, was born. That made five of us in the two rooms, an impossible situation compared with present day standards, but we were happy even if we were crowded. Our next two children were born while living on the Canyon Road. Montell was born while I was away from home. I had stayed home waiting until our finances were gone so I felt it was very necessary to leave. When I called from Duchesne he had been born. Our youngest daughter, Renee was born while living there, only mother took very sick with albumin and it was necessary to take her to the hospital in Lehi. There, after some days, they performed a forced birth; I was sick with worry over a very sick wife and a premature baby girl. Through faith and prayer they both recovered. Upon returning home I hired a good girl, Emily Lunceford, to care for my family and then I had to start earning again. Dr. Linebaugh told me later he never expected either of them to leave the hospital, only in a box. But he was proved wrong and how thankful all of us are. We lived on the Canyon Road until 1930 when we decided to move to Provo. We had a very poor water right for our farm and instead of the farm paying off itself I had to pay for it out of our earnings. So we traded our equity in the farm on our present home and signed a mortgage for $1,000.00 for the balance. Since then until the present time we have improved it in many ways, and have spent quite a lot of money, and a great deal of hard work to make it what it is. I could write a volume on the varied and harrowing experiences while trucking. The only paved roads at that time were here in central Utah, and as we went to all parts of the state we were continually plagued with flat tires, mud, slippery roads and everything else connected with bad roads. Many times we were stuck in snow banks and drifting snow and I wonder how we took it with no heater in the truck and some of it very cold weather. I trucked into Sanpete, Sevier, Wayne, Millard, Beaver, Iron and Uinta counties mostly, but for four years, in fruit season, I went to Star Valley, Wyoming and also to Daggett County, Utah. I think Gale and Grant will recall some of those experiences, as they went with me quite a lot in the summer. I also made many trips into Southern California for citrus fruits which we would bring back to Utah and sell. That was a long road those days with unimproved roads and with many stretches under construction. The first passenger service between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles was operated with large Buicks and then later came the bus system. There was very little trucking service, if any, as we know it today. Just a few independents hauling fruit like myself. LeEarl Burr and I built and operated one of the first, if not the first, refrigerated trucks on the road. We used a block ice and fan to keep produce cool. It was quite an idea, but the depression came along with cheap freight rates and high licenses, so we soon became discouraged and quit, but it has really developed into a flourishing business now. On one occasion while moving Perry Burr’s family to Susanville, California, I saw a hitch-hiker jump in front of a fast moving car and commit suicide. It was quite a shock to all of us but he was probably sick and tired of trudging from place to place seeking work when there wasn’t any. The conditions then were discouraging for all of us. On that same return trip, after going down to Visalia and buying a load of oranges and getting about ten miles from Baker, California, I broke a rear axle in my truck. I phoned from Baker to Los Angeles for a new one and I was there for two days and three nights before I received it. Believe me, I was just about as discouraged as a man can get. I continued to plod along for another year in trucking and then times became so bad that I lost my truck. Also, our mortgage became due and as you couldn’t borrow or beg money to refinance our home, we lost that also and moved into North East Provo. Here we rented a home for eighteen months and then the government came to the rescue of the homeowners and set up the Homeowners Loan Corporation. Through this agency we regained possession of our home again and paid off the mortgage. While living in the rented house I worked for contractors and while working, building road between Provo and the mouth of Provo Canyon, my dear mother passed away in August of 1934. It was a great shock and loss to all of us. During this depression I worked wherever I could secure work. I worked on the bridge crossing Provo River at the mouth of the Canyon, on one over the White River near Colton, on a road job between Provo and Springville, another one between Thistle and Birdseye and then when we couldn’t get work and went on the W.P.A. it really hurt our pride. Living costs were low and money bought a lot of food. The work at this time paid 50 to 65 cents per hour but we were only allowed to work thirty hours per week. We often said how well we could do if they would let us work forty-eight hours per week at those wages. One winter I pruned a large orchard in Orem at $l.00 per day plus gas—some income! But I was able to pay for fruit and vegetables with work and we had enough to eat but it was sometimes hard to find money for coal, utilities, etc. As I said, prices were low; flour, 75 cents per 50 pound bag, hamburger about 5 cents per pound, other meat correspondingly low, eggs 10 cents per dozen, overalls for the boys, 50 cents; just an idea of the cost of living. About 1936 we traded our Chevrolet sedan on a used truck and I started peddling fruit again, but times were still bad and this truck proved to be a lemon. About all I made I had to put back into it in repairs. It could break down in more different parts than I thought possible for a truck to break. After about a year of this I gave it up and through persistence I secured a job at the County Infirmary. This work started out at $65.00 per month with two nights a week home and the rest of the time on the job. Although the wages were poor we managed somehow and were able to put a bath in our home. Although this work, as an attendant there, was disagreeable, often dirty, it had its better moments, and I learned to love many of the patients. One’s heart filled with pity to watch their suffering and fortitude and I often said that no matter how bad some of them were there was always others to come who were worse off. It was here that death became quite commonplace to me as I saw a lot of it. While working there I witnessed another suicide. A young woman, subject to epilepsy, dove from the third floor window. I was standing there trying to call to her and discourage her from doing it but to no avail and I shall never forget the expression on her face as she was falling. I saw the County Infirmary remodeled from a dump into a very nice place for the old and indigent to spend their remaining years and we did our best to keep the place clean and attractive. While working there our last boy, Richard, was born, at the Utah Valley Hospital. He was a welcome guest at our home as it had been about 12 years since our last child was born, and mother and baby did fine. The girls were disappointed as they wanted a girl but they soon accepted him and he received all the love and attention that all babies receive. I stayed on at the Infirmary until the spring of 1942. War with Japan was declared December 7, 1941 and I was then earning $100.00 per month so I left and went to work in Salt Lake City for the Remington Arms Company where the pay was much better with better working conditions. Also, I felt it was my duty and obligation to get into the war effort to help out all I could in this grave crisis our country was placed in. Our oldest son had joined the Army in 1939 and our son Grant joined the Merchant Marine in 1940. Then in 1944 Montell, with our permission, joined the Navy. This was all our boys, but the baby, in the service. We were like most parents. Our worries were always about our boys, their safety and lives, but the Lord was good to us and they all survived the war and returned home in safety. Gale had a commission in the Army, Grant had one in the Merchant Marine and Montell had a motor machinist 3rd class rating in the Navy. We were so proud of all of them. Our work at Remington Arms, mother worked there also for a short period, was ended in the fall of 1943 and we returned to our home in Provo. Elaine remained in Salt Lake City as she had a good job with the government at Fort Douglas as a stenographer, and was receiving very good pay. While living in Salt Lake, my sister, Eva, died from cancer and later on our good father passed away from heart trouble. How I wish he could have lived and seen his grandchildren when they all got home. He would have been so proud of them. Also, later in 1945 my brother, Irving, died from kidney infection. It was such a great loss to his fine family. Upon returning home to Provo I received employment at the Provo City Power plant where I am presently employed. I started there as a coal and ash handler and have progressed until I am turbine operator, shift foreman part of the time and assistant operator the other part. My pay has increased from a starting salary of $160.00 per month to a present salary of $400.00 with other increases in sight. These past years we have really enjoyed living and have been blessed in many ways. With our children all married and with families, it has been our privilege to visit them often. Elaine and our son-in-law, Keith Fielding in Vernal, Utah and now in Fresno, California, Grant and Billie in Fresno, California, Montell and Rhea in Bountiful, Renee and son-in-law George Gappmayer in Orem, Gale and Maxine in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Richard we have enjoyed very much living here at home with us. It has been a great pleasure for us to visit places such as Yellowstone Park, Arches National Monument, Mesa Verde National Park, Yosemite National Park, Boulder Dam and Zion National Park. If we continue to be blessed with health and strength, we hope to see many more of the natural wonders of our state. Our greatest source of recreation and pleasure has been fishing. We have had a lot of wonderful trips and spent many days relaxing on our streams and reservoirs. [Virgil stopped writing his autobiography here and the following has been added by his daughter, Elaine.] Many changes took place in the lives of Virgil and Nellie’s children and in the moves they made. Gale and family moved from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Utah and then to Concord, California, and then back to Utah after he retired. Elaine and Keith returned to Utah after Keith retired and Monte moved to California and then back to Utah and at present, 1985, is still traveling with his employment. Grant and wife live in Friant, California after making a move back from Morro Bay, California. Richard also moved to Torrance, California after his marriage to Fay Clements and then back to Utah. He and Monte, both had divorces in their lives and remarriages. So changes took place and probably will continue in the lives of their children. Virgil continued to work for Provo City Power until his retirement in 1963 after twenty years of service. After his retirement they traveled to visit their children and made two trips to Alaska where they did some salmon fishing and probably had one of the grandest times of their life. Also, he helped Gale build a new home in Concord, California, and did a lot of remodeling for Elaine in their home in Fresno. He also helped Grant with building and George in putting up steel fences. We all felt Dad worked too hard after he retired but he just didn’t seem to be able to be idle. He raised a large garden and gave most of the produce away. We loved him so much. He died October 5, 1974. GALE BULLOCK Gale was born in Burley, Idaho in 1920, however his schooling took place in Provo, Utah. When World War II came he enlisted in the army. He was commissioned as a major. About that time he was married. He taught electronics to soldiers as part of his duties. He served in Panama, New Guinea, Alaska, Japan and in El Paso and Albuquerque. Later he served in the Korean War. He retired with twenty years of service. He attended BYU and graduated with a teachers degree and taught in California. In later years he and two of his brothers formed a construction company and Gale worked at that until he retired. GRANT BULLOCK Grant was born in Pleasant Grove and went to school in Provo. Like his brother Gale, Grant wanted to serve his country during World War II. He enlisted in the merchant marines, and was commissioned an ensign. He made sixteen trips in convoys to Europe. He lost two ships under him. He experienced many sad, terrible things during his service. He shipped out to India, New Guinea and Australia. After his service was over he worked at ranching and for the Southern Pacific Railroad. He was injured while with the railroad and left that employment. Grant has had several serious accidents, but has always fully recovered. He joined his brothers in doing construction work until he retired. ELAINE BULLOCK FIELDING I was born in Orem, Utah November 10, 1923 to Virgil William Bullock and Nancy Nellie Burr. I was raised in Provo, Utah and attended Provo schools. Upon my graduation from Provo High in 1942 I went to Salt Lake City to work. I worked at Fort Douglas until April of 1945 at which time I moved back to Provo. I then worked at Utah Co. Welfare Dept. and for the Forest Service and in December of that year I met Keith. I was the Gold and Green queen the year of 1945-46 and Keith was the king. So by going to dance practice and the dance festival we spent a lot of time together and fell in love. We were married in June of that year. Two weeks later on July 4th at the Freedom Festival in Provo we won a new black Chevrolet car. That was probably the most exciting thing ever to happen to us as Keith didn’t even have a job then and you couldn’t buy a new car even if you had the money. Our first daughter, Barbara, was born in 1948 and a few months later Keith transferred to Vernal, Utah, working for the Phone Co. We were there for the birth of our son, Russell and daughter, Patricia and then in 1957 we transferred to Fresno, California and Keith worked for the Pacific Bell Telephone Co. there for twenty-four years. We had our last daughter born to us there and named her Marilee. We now have thirteen grandchildren, ten boys and three girls. We moved back to Orem in September of 1980 and have been busy in various projects since then. At the present we do Italian name extraction several hours a week and are Temple workers two days a week. Being a Temple worker is surely a beautiful experience and we hope to be there for many years. MONTELL BURR BULLOCK Montell was born June 9, 1927, in Orem, Utah. At the age of four the family moved to Provo. His early childhood and education was in Provo through 1944, when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He served his country in the Pacific Theater Philippine Liberation. He returned to the U.S. in 1946 and married Rhea Jean Madsen in Manti, Utah, on July 17, 1946. Montell and Rhea had four children: Phillip, Brent, Kristin and Sherene. They now have sixteen grand-children and one great-granddaughter. With his education completed in 1949 at BYU in Provo and the Art Center in Los Angeles, he moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, and began a successful forty-five year career in construction contracting and industrial sales. Most of this time was spent in California with a junket to Port Orchard, Washington in 1981. His sales territory covered the entire USA, so he saw all the states numerous times as well as ten foreign countries. He was divorced from Rhea in 1963, and married Phyllis Wilson in 1967. She had one son already, Brian West. They lived in San Bruno, California and in a house Monte designed and built in Morro Bay, California where Phyllis died in 1975. Monte did not marry again, but sold his property in Corona, California and retired in 1992. He now lives in West Jordan, Utah, where he can enjoy the fruits of his labors and his many hobbies. RENEE BULLOCK GAPPMAYER Renee was born on May 31, 1929 in Lehi, Utah. She was the fifth of six children born to Virgil and Nellie Bullock. She was a premature baby and the family was concerned about her welfare for some time. When she was two years old the family moved to Provo, where she attended school and graduated. She married George Pierce Gappmayer on August 27, 1951 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They have three children: Susan, born on November 2, 1952 in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Craig, born March 17, 1955 in Provo, Utah; and Marc, born September 14, 1967, also in Provo. Renee and George were divorced in 1982, and she now lives with her son Marc in Orem, Utah. She has seven sweet grandchildren to enjoy. RICHARD HENRY BULLOCK One of the pleasant memories I had while growing up, was going out to Orem to visit my sweet grandmother Burr, mothers' mother. I recall she had her bed set up in the middle of the living room, as her son Henry was living with her at the time and his bed was in the upstairs bedroom. She was very immaculate with her bed, no wrinkles or folds, and absolutely no touching her bed was allowed! She would bake a wonderful brown bread made with honey and molasses, nearly every day, and serve it with every meal or just for snacks. When the bread was baking, the aroma filled the house. It was a special treat to get the heel of the loaf and smother it in homemade butter and pour honey on it. One of the many joys I experienced as a teenager was fishing at Strawberry Reservoir with my dad and mother. We would usually rent a cabin and boat on the south end of the lake. Many fond hours were spent trolling around the lake and catching fish. Mother and I would be huddled with a blanket wrapped around our shoulders and snuggled close to keep warm. In a matter of a few minutes we would be fishing and if the fish were biting we soon forgot the chill fog, if they were not biting we would just bear it out until the morning sun would burn through the fog and start to warm us. On September 18, 1959, Fay LaRae Clements and I went to the Salt Lake Temple and were married. We settled in Provo where I started my college studies, with a desire to obtain a degree as a chemical engineer. After awhile we decided to drop out of BYU and go to a technical school where I studied electronics. My first job was with Thiokol in Brigham City, Utah. Then, after a layoff, we moved to Provo to live with Fay's parents. I was then hired by Geneva Steel. I next applied for a job at Memcor/Montek and was hired. Fay and I were divorced sometime later, I then moved to California, but after a year Fay and I were remarried, and the family moved to California with me. The death of my father occurred while we lived in California. This was hard on me because I had lost a good friend and teacher. Fay and I had three daughters, Dorothy Fay, Rebecca Sue and Kathleen Nancy. Fay and I eventually went through another divorce, and sometime later, on April 23, 1983, Erma Barton and I were married. With the inclusion of Erma's two daughters, Cathy and Cindy, our family grew to five daughters. Erma and I have traveled many places together during our short marriage. We are totally at peace with each other's presence and look forward to many more years of shared experiences.