Herman Miller's Childhood Memories

Voris Jane Miller, LaDonna Cunningham, Richard Herman Miller, Luella Hutchins - 1923

Childhood Memories from Herman:

Herman Miller, 1937
in front of Swen Peterson's

My greatest memories are going to Grandma and Grandpa Hutchins.  We spent every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Holiday there.  They had a big old barn and all us kids had more fun  playing in it.  There was a ladder inside that went up to the loft and that was the best place to play hide-n-seek.   Out on the side of the barn was a basketball hoop.  Voris, Morris, Phil Reynolds, and I played a lot of basketball there.  Also there was an old pitcher pump; we loved to get water.  It would run into a big trough which was a hollowed out tree for the horses and cows.
I being the oldest grandson had the job of mowing Grandma’s lawn.  Every Saturday I would go over and mow it.  Grandma had nine big apple trees and they seemed to be loaded every year.  They were Whitney crabs, cherry crabs, and one was a big winter apple; boy they were good.  Grandma had us kids pick the apples; she was very particular.  We would put a ladder up into the middle of the tree and pick each apple and carefully put it in a bucket.
I loved going into their big under-ground cellar.  It was full of everything and had a lot of nice shelves in it.  It always smelled of apples and potatoes and everything looked so good.
Grandpa was the one who got Sanford’s first Flag Pole.  This had been a very much anticipated event in town.  The newspaper carried the story for several weeks; telling of the progress.  The pole stood in front of the old stone church for as long as the church was there.  It was painted white and set in a block of cement.  He brought it down from the lower La Jara Canyon on double wagons; as it was about 60 feet long.  The first pole he tried to bring out broke at “Shuller Crossing”; as the turn was too sharp.  So he went back up for a second pole.  This was quit a job.
I think of Grandpa every 4th of July.  He was a dynamite or explosive expert.  So he would set three big sticks of dynamite out in his corral.  At 4:00 a.m. as day was breaking in the east, on the 4th of July he would wake the whole town up.  The blast would shake windows all over town.  He did this as long as I can remember.  After we would get up we couldn’t wait to get down to Grandpa’s to see the three big holes it would make out in the corral.  They were so big; they would have to shovel them back in.
Also Grandpa is the reason for the big rock in the middle of the Conejos River, up above Broyles’ bridge just before you get to Fox Creek (it has Lee’s Texaco painted on it).  They had Grandpa come and dynamite the mountain when they were building the road up there.  Well the dynamite blew the big rocks off into the river and no one could move them out; or they didn’t want to try.
I remember when Dad and Grandpa run a saw mill over at Pagosa Springs.  I was just a little guy about 3 or 4 years old.  Voris and my job was to go to the river for a bucket of water.  Then Grandpa would blow the whistle for lunch.  Momma cooked for all the men.  You could never go in Momma’s house for even 5 minutes; but she wouldn’t give you something to eat.
Momma always had a big garden, her chickens, pigs and cows.  We always had plenty of eggs, bacon and pork, beef, and milk & butter.  We ground our own wheat, grew our own potatoes, onion and vegetables.  We ate good and the food was natural and a lot better for you then; as compared to all the prosperities in it now.
In the fall Dad and Grandpa would go up after wood for our fuel.  They would go up on “Pot Mountain”.  We would expect them home about 7 or 8 o’clock after dark.  But sometimes it would be 10 or 11 o’clock before we would hear the old wagons coming in; we were sure glad to see them come in.  I remember they would wear duffs to protect their arms when hauling the wood.
It would get so cold in the winter.  I remember seeing frost on Grandpa’s mustache.  He would always call it “Bitter Cold”.  At night Dad, and I’ve seen Grandpa too, whittle shaving off a big board; so they would have something to start a fire with in the morning.  The old stoves we had wouldn’t hold a fire must past 12 to 1 o’clock in the morning.  We would have frozen water in the buckets every morning.  Dad usually used coal and that held the fire about three times longer.  But I remember Ma saying, “Don’t get up until the house warms up.”  We sleep with so many covers on us that we couldn’t hardly turn over.  Now days we don’t have any idea what hard ships are, and I don’t want to have to know.  We are so lucky to live with all are modern ways; such as to just turn the heat up or down with the turn of a dial.  But those days made good strong people who were hard workers.

Herman Miller and Maggie Jane Hutchins Miller

Voris Jane Miller Cornum's Childhood Memories

Voris Jane Miller, age 11

Voris Jane Miller, age 10

Voris Jane Miller, about 16

Written by Voris Cornum:

A few fond memories I have of Mom & Dad, were when us kids were growing up. I especially recall some of our Christmases; we had lots of good ones. I don’t remember any that were very bad. Seems that Santa always found us.

Maggie & Bill Miller, & baby Voris

My first memory was when my little brother, Herman, was so sick with pneumonia. He was about 2 years old and I was 5. I did not realize the seriousness of his illness. I know Doc. Chambers came to our house quite a lot and momma’s Aunt Lula Wilkenson, stayed with us day and night. She kept putting onion poultices on Herman’s chest and back. This was a good old home remedy for pneumonia as drugs we have today, such as penicillin were unheard of then.

The day before Christmas, the doctor had given Herman very little chance to live. I was not aware of this, but I knew something was very wrong. We had hung our stockings on nails behind the little pot-belled heater. Aunt Lula’s daughter and son-in-law, from California, Ollie and John Wesmath, were staying all night too, sleeping in chairs. I saw Dad take Herman’s little stocking and go outside. When he came back in he had tears in his eyes. Later momma told me he had gone outside to pray for Herman, as they did not think he would live through the night. Even though I was just a small child, this has helped me be a strong believer in prayer. 

The next morning I was so happy because Santa had come, and there were lots of toys. I especially remember the building blocks, because John Wesmath was on the floor helping me build castles. Gee! But I thought he was sure a fun man. They said Herman had passed the crises. I did not know just what that meant; but I did know he was much better. I got the toys and piled them on his bed and crawled up there to play with him.

When I was quite young we must have spent most of our Christmases at Grandma Hutchins’, as she always decorated a big tree lit up with candles as this was before electricity. We kids all knew better than to get very close to the tree or we could catch on fire.

Luella and I were more like sisters than, niece and auntie, and I did live a lot at Grandma’s. I usually called her "Wellsma" meaning Luella’s Ma. I really thought her name was “Wellsma” for years. We would find Wellsma’s long cotton stockings and hang them behind the old heaters. And always Christmas morning we would find them stuffed from toe to top, with goodies, besides dolls dressed just alike. We generally got the same thing for Christmas.

Aunt Nina Johnson, Bill Miller
and Voris Jane Miller, age 3

Another Christmas that stands out in my mind was when I got a big doll house and Luella got one just like it. Herman and Jerome got barns just alike. Aunt Nina took care of Jerome Johnson after his mother died, until Uncle Ren married Clara. And Aunt Maud Reed keep Cally. So since Nina and momma were together so much Jerome was like part of our family. Dad made creates for the pea sheds in La Jara, so he had lots of slats and that is what he built the little barns and houses from. He painted them all green with gray tops. We spent many hours playing with them making farms, we used potatoes and matches for our animals, and sticks and twin string for fences.

I’m sure that our Christmas’ could not have been too elaborate, but to me it was always happy times and Santa never missed us.

When I was a teenager and we were living on the Hyde Ranch. The grain had been hailed out, with Christmas coming I’m sure the folks were worrying about money.  Uncle John Reed was taking a truck load (Model-T truck) of pigs to Alamosa to the sale. So dad had a few pigs and he put one of them in the truck; so we could have a little Christmas money. Well about half way to Alamosa the other pigs got to fighting our pig and he jumped over the side boards and broke his neck and died. I can remember how bad moma felt. Uncle John felt so bad about it that he gave her a $20.00 bill for the pig. And that bought our Christmas that year.

I well remember the dolls, buggy, red wagon, and many other toys we got. Usually the Christmas presents were hid in a corner behind the old organ. I caught on to this at a rather young age, so I would peek and I generally had a good idea what Santa was going to bring. One year I got fooled; Momma had got me a cute little cooking set all with blue handles. They were hid on the top shelf in the cloths closet. Christmas morning the little cooking set was not there with my other presents. I peeked in the closet and there they were still on the shelf. Oh! What to do. I moped around playing with my new doll and a little blue trunk. Finally momma asked me what was wrong. I said I liked everything I got; but I asked Santa for a little cooking set and he did not bring it. I saw the surprised look come over momma’s face and she sent me out to the well to get some water; when I came back in she said, “Now Voris, go get all your Christmas thing and put them up, so we can clean up the mess.” There laying on top of the little blue trunk was my cooking set. Of course I was so happy and momma said, “You must not have seen everything.” Ha! Ha! I thought; who’s fooling who!

I guess my most memorable Christmas was Dec. 24, 1936 when Duwayne and I were married. We went down to Uncle John B. Reed’s home, he was the Stake President then. We had to wait for him to finish milking the cows, before he could come in and marry us. Then we went on to Alamosa and spent the night in the old “Victoria Hotel”.

Other memories I have are: I was having a birthday party when I was 14 years old. All the Nortonville gang came to our house. Two boys got to shuffling and Lee Hamilton tipped over his chair and busted all the fancy front of Dad’s new RCA radio; one of his most prized possessions. Did we feel bad; yes Dad, Lee, and me.

Another memory I have was one evening at the “cat house” (I rather call it the Hyde place). Momma and Dad had had a good quarrel. As I recall; two horses had gotten into some grain and had eaten it. Dad had given Momma orders to watch, so this would not happen; but she had forgot. Anyway, they both threw a lot of non-mentionable words to each other. So Momma grabbed us kids and said, “We are going up to Uncle John’s and tell him just what you have said and how crazy you are.” I was very reluctant about going. I didn’t really want to leave my dad all alone; and I certainly didn’t want to tell Uncle John; especially when he was the Stake President. But we took out through the field; it was about a quarter of a mile to Uncle John’s. We soon found out that Momma had no intentions of going to Uncle John’s. She had us all lay down in a ditch and wait for Dad to come and find us. Well after about 30 minutes us kids were begging to go home. I remember Enid, quite small, was bawling and needed to go to bed. So finally we snuck back to the house and peeked in the window. There sit Dad in his big easy chair listening to his new RCA radio; enjoying his piece and quiet. I’m sure Momma’s pride must have suffered that night as she tried to make him think Uncle John would soon be there to give him a good talking to. I’m sure Dad was not a bit worried about it.

Yes, my folks had a good life together. Lots of ups and downs; but no serious problems. I’m thankful to be their daughter.

Herman, Voris, Morris, Bill Miller, Enid, Maggie Miller, and Janice
1937 - Sanford, Colorado