Vera Johanna Taylor
Vera Johanna Taylor was born on February 3rd 1908
in Chester, Utah, the 8th child of 12 children born to Roy and Roxa
Taylor.
In the Fall of 1915 they moved to the Uintah Basin that had been opened up to the white people for home-steading. At first they lived in Hayden, and moved to Lapoint in the Spring of 1916. Grandpa Taylor bought 80 acres of farmland and 40 acres of pastureland.
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| Roy Taylor home in Lapoint Photo from the personal album of Clayton Huber |
There were lots of Indians in the area that passed their
home everyday. The children were
afraid of them, and when anyone knocked on the door the kids would hide under
the bed for fear it was Indians.
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| Local Indian sitting with Roy Taylor (apparently Roy had a friendly reputation with the Indian population) Photo from the personal album of Clayton Huber |
Mom said Tom Hackford stopped by their house and asked if
she was a Mormon. And she said,
“No, but I’m gonna be!”
They rode horseback to school. Grandma Taylor said it got pretty hectic getting getting
them off to school with everyone trying to find their bridles, saddle blankets,
etc.
When she was in High School she lived in Bountiful, Utah
with her sister Cora and her husband, Coy. Cora was very good to her and sewed many clothes for her.
She said the first time she saw Roy, she and her girlfriend
Renna Stoker had gone up to the store in Lapoint in a horse and buggy. She waited in the buggy, and Roy was
standing by the window inside the store.
Every time she looked at him he would wink at her. She would turn her head away, but when
she looked up he would wink at her again.
He said he made up his mind that day, she was the girl he was going to
marry.
They were married on October 24th 1924 in Vernal,
Utah. She was 16 years old, and he
was 27.
Dad took a load of wheat to Vernal to the mill and had it
made into flour, and sold it to Zack Kump, who ran the store in Lapoint for
fifty dollars. That is how much
money they started married life with.
Their first home was a small log cabin with a dirt
roof. The ceiling was a heavy
canvas, and when it rained it sagged and dripped water, so we had to put pans
around to catch the water.
While living in this cabin June, Rhea, Dean and Doris were
born. They hired Abe Warburton to
build them a new house made of sawed logs. It had a kitchen, living room, dining room, and one
bedroom. Later they added upstairs
bedrooms. We got electricity about
1938 and in 1947 they added another bedroom, bathroom and laundry room. That is when we finally got running
water and indoor plumbing. What a
blessing that was.
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| "First House Built in Lapoint" with likely Vera's shadow casting onto 2 children. Photo from the personal album of Clayton Huber |
They only moved one time in their married life, from the log
house to the new one.
They were blessed with nine children, five boys and four
girls; June, Rhea, Dean, Doris, Dale, Larry, Clayton, Martin, and JoAnn.
Dale died of cancer when he was nine years old, during a
terrible electrical storm. They
couldn’t get Bessie Swain, the mortician, on the phone, so they wrapped him in
a sheet and Mom, Dad and George Bigelow took his frail little body to
Vernal. He died on the 18th
of August 1943, and we had to bury him on August 20th, as his body
was in such poor (condition) and since it was so hot.
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| Dale Huber Photo from the personal album of Rhea Merkley |
Larry had only been married 8 months to Theda Houston, when
he was injured in an automobile accident December 14, 1964 on his way to
work. It was a very foggy morning
and poor visibility, when a horse crossed the highway and he hit it. His spinal chord was severed, leaving
him paralyzed from the neck down.
He was rushed to the L.D.S. Hospital in Salt Lake, where he died on
January 30, 1965.
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| Larry Huber Photo from the personal album of Clayton Huber |
Mom was very good natured, always singing, humming or
whistling as she worked. She had a
lot of natural musical ability, and play the piano by ear, the guitar, and had
a beautiful alto singing voice.
She loved to sing and dance.
She was a very compassionate person, always taking meals to
people when they had sickness, or a death in the family. She served as president of the Primary,
MIA, and was Relief Society president for 8 years, and also served on an Indian
Mission for 4 years.
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| Vera Huber being silly with a family member or neighbor. Photo from the personal album of Clayton Huber. |
Both Mom and Dad were very industrious people, and very hard
workers. Dad was an exceptionally
good farmer and livestock man. He
ran large herds of sheep in the mountains, and was gone from home a lot. This placed a great responsibility on
Mom, taking care of all the chores, and keeping the farm running. As a result, all of us kids had to
learn to work hard at a very early age to help her. They always raised a big garden, strawberry and raspberry
patch, apricot and apple trees. We
sold raspberry for 2.50 a crate, they had to be picked every other day. Oh, how I hated that job. It was so hot and tedious. They were very generous with the
produce from the garden, sharing it with anyone that came along or that wanted
or needed it. No one ever left
their home empty handed.
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| Roy tilling field Photo from the personal album of Rhea Merkley |
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| Chet Dalgleish (left) and Roy Huber (right) Photo from the personal album of Clayton Huber |
They raised all of their own meat, eggs, milk, butter, fruit
and vegetables. The root cellar
was filled with potatoes, carrots, cabbage, squash, onions, apples, and
sauerkraut that she put in 5 gallon crocks.
The other cellar was filled with all kinds of bottled
vegetables, fruit, jam, jelly, pickles, and grape juice.
Dad always took a grist of flour to the mill in Roosevelt
and got our flour, germade cereal, pancake mix, to do us for a year.
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| Baby Clayton sitting on top of the root cellar Photo from the personal album of Clayton Huber |
We had an ice house that we stored big squares of ice in,
and it lasted until almost August.
We raised practically everything we ate.
Dad was a great fisherman. When he went fishing he had no intention of stopping with
his limit. That was the only law
that I ever knew of him to break.
The fish never went to waste as he shared them with everyone in Lapoint
that he knew liked good fresh trout.
And they were so good!!!!
Dad and mom always took us fishing up Whiterocks Canyon on
the 4th and 24th of July. This was to only time we ever had pop. They would buy a case with 24 bottles,
that was really a treat for us kids!
Dad’s brothers Elmer (Dutch) and Frank and their families
lived on farms within a mile of each other. They each had 5 children, and we played games together on
summer nights such as “Hide and Go Seek”, “Kick the Can”, and “Run Sheep
Run”. In the winter we played
cards, and a game of “Fox and Geese” which we played in the snow, went sleigh
riding, ice skating. We had such
fun times together.
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| Many of the Huber cousins together as kids. Photo from the personal album of Clayton Huber. |
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| Written below: "Hay Crew during War years" Uncle Frank far left standing, Roy directly below him sitting. Remaining boys are all Huber cousins. Photo from the personal album of Rhea Merkley |
Mom was an exceptionally good cook, and cooked big meals for
thrashers, haymen, corn men, sheep shearers, besides all the meals she cooked
for her large family. No one ever
left her home hungry. That was the
first thing she asked when anyone came to her home was, “Are you hungry?”
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| Vera with her famous rolls Photo from the personal album of Chris Merkley |
She had a way of teaching us kids to work and making us
think it was fun. I still love to
work. It was hard to see them grow older and not be able to do the things they had always done.
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| Older Vera and Roy Photo from the personal album of Clayton Huber |
In August of 1988 Dad caught a cold that seemed to linger
longer than usual, so Martin took him to the doctor in Vernal and he admitted
him to the hospital on August 28th. He steadily went downhill from there. He said he wanted to go home to die, so
I took him home on Sept 1st.
He got so he couldn’t eat and soon dehydrated. We took turns staying with him so mom wouldn’t be alone, as
she wasn’t able to take care of him alone. There was someone there 24 hours a day.
Doug and Rhea were serving a mission in Fair Oaks, CA and
were given permission to come home and see Dad. They arrived about 9:30 a.m. on September 21st. Rhea went in by the bed, and said,
“Dad, it’s Rhea, I’m home”. He
opened his eyes, smiled, and nodded his head like he understood, and went into
a deep sleep and peacefully passed away at 1:40 p.m. that same day. He was 91 years old.
Mom developed sugar diabetes in her later years. She scratched her leg somehow, and it
got infection in it, developing into a massive sore that the doctors couldn’t
heal.
We took her to the doctor in Vernal on February 28th
1990. She was in and out of the
hospital and the care center from then until May. This was very hard on her as she was so confused, not
knowing where she was most of the time.
We took her home, and everyone took turns staying with her, and helping
take care of her.
Clayton had a friend in Provo that was a specialist in the
Burn Center at Utah Valley Hospital, and asked Clayton to bring her out there
and see if he could heal her leg.
We took her out there and he tried very hard, but there had been so much
damage done to the blood vessels that he couldn’t do much for her. He told us they would have to amputate
the leg up to her knee. She begged
us not to let them take her leg off.
All of the family held a special fast, and went to the temple
together. This was a very spiritual
day.
The doctor had scheduled the surgery for May 8th
for the amputation. But on May 5th
a wise and gracious Heavenly Father called her home and she didn’t have to
suffer anymore. We were all grateful that she didn’t have to endure any more
suffering.
Dad and Mom had been married for 64 years, and only moved
one time.
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| Roy & Vera & Larene Jensen (wife of a nephew) sitting on porch Photo from the personal album of Clayton Huber |
I have always been grateful to our wonderful parents for the
great example they were to us kids, for all of the sacrifices they made for us,
for teaching us honesty, integrity, and good work ethics.
They also taught us to love our Heavenly Father. Dad didn’t get active in the Church
until Dale died. After that we
went to the temple and were sealed together as a family in the Salt Lake Temple
on November 12, 1943.
We had a happy, secure childhood with many loving memories
of both of our parents.
This brief history was written by a daughter, Doris Huber
Sessions at the request of our cousin Daun Taylor DeJournette.
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