George Hiibner ~ Index
I was born at Two Mile, Kanawha County, West Virginia, 15 April 1879. I am the 4th child and the son of John Leonard and Margaretta Parchent Hiibner.
My father, John Leonard Hiibner, was born in Bavaria, Germany, 11 March 1847. My mother, Margaretta Parchant, was born 11 October 1848, also in Germany. They migrated to America in the spring of 1872 and settled on a one-hundred and twenty-eight acre farm at Two Mile Creek, about seven miles north-west of Charleston, West Virginia.
They were married by the Reverend Alfred Tulley at the home of Vinton Z. Copen, Justice of the Peace, shortly after arriving in America. They built a log house in the timbered land where their nine children, Mary, Dorothea (Dollie), Jonnie, George, Annie, John, Wilhelmina (Minnie), Clara and Elizabeth were born. Mary passed away at the age of fourteen; Jonnie and Clara while they were very young. Father died in the home he built 25 June 1907.
They had a fine farm where they raised wheat, corn, oats, alfalfa, fruit and vegetables. Wild blackberries, grapes, persimmons, paw-paws and other fruits and herbs grew in abundance. We all worked hard, my sisters worked with us in the fields, pitched hay, hoed corn and helped with the harvest of crops. They were all good cooks. Dollie made the best apple cake I ever tasted.
I enjoyed dancing, my father said I danced the soles off of my shoes as fast as he could buy them. After the crops were harvested, neighbors would gather up and have husking bees, bean shelling's, pie suppers and dances. I played the harmonica, my brother John played the banjo. We often played for cottage dances. People would move the furniture out and we would dance the Virginia Reel and quadrilles.
My parents took us to church in Charleston, when we could get there. It was seven miles from home, so we couldn't get there very often. We never worked on Sunday but played games of horse shoe, marbles or ball.
I started to school when I was about seven years of age. I had been using the German language at home so it was quite hard to learn the English. My teachers were Tom Gillespie, Will O'Connor, Ira Casdorph, Annie Wallace, Dan Harkias, Lida Crew and Albert Tully. One teacher whipped me every day. When I was small I only went to school a little while in the fall. We had such severe winters my parents were afraid to let me go in the winter. I would always walk to and from school, two miles each way. We had to cross hollows and creeks that were so full of water, at times we couldn't cross them.
I had many friends: Doley Eaman, Henry Eaman, George Eaman, Chris Marion, Will Newhouse, Edgar Newhouse, Frank Myers, Will Myers, Bob Patton, Nelson Patton, Carnice Copen, Perry Copen, Ira Copen, Will Nartz, John O. Casdorph, John Haas, Comodore Burgess, Truman Bud Newhouse, Clif Edens, Denver Copen, Clyde Copen, Monte and Floyd Copen. I could name dozens of others.
Because the farm was so far out in the country we felt that some protection was needed so we trained the dogs to be watch dogs. Some of them were so mean no one outside of the family could get on the place. We often took them hunting rabbits and squirrels which were very good eating. We also hunted raccoons, foxes and opossums. Some of the dogs I remember were named Leed, Fido, Ring, Charley, Ball and Watch.
Our horses were named Fannie, Lucy and Katy. There were cattle, sheep, turkeys, chickens and geese on the farm. Mother used to pick the geese and make pillows and feather ticks with the feathers. My parents sold the eggs, butter and vegetables to people in Charleston. A lot of their customers were Jews.
Retta and I were married 17th of April 1907 at the home of her parents. We were married by Reverend J.E. Kieffer, a Lutheran pastor. The Copen farm and the farm of my parents joined so we had all been friends and neighbors all our lives.
We built a nice home on our one-hundred and two acre farm. We raised corn, oats, wheat, alfalfa, we also raised fruit - apples, strawberries, raspberries and etc. We always had a good garden and had plenty to eat. We worked hard but had plenty of time to visit with our neighbors.
In the winter of February 1912, Elder Jeremiah Baker of Mendon, Utah and Elder David Cheney of Blackfoot, Idaho- two Mormon missionaries called at our home. They asked if they could hold a cottage meeting there. We told them they could. During the evening they told us the world had been in darkness for 1800 years. We sat up late that night and talked about it. Elder Chugg of Ogden, Utah and Elder Hansen were the next missionaries who came. I came in from my work and the two Elders explained the First Principles of the Gospel. As they left they said, You will be baptized before we see you again.
The minute we heard their message we were impressed and felt that it was true.
The authority they preached seemed to interest me most. I studied about it and according to the Bible they proved the Lord had sent a Prophet. We were always glad to see the Elders, they would eat and sleep at our home. Sometimes we would have to make a bed on the floor but were glad to do it.
It was lovely Sunday afternoon, 9 June 1912, when Retta, myself, Bertha Miller, Lightburn Edens, Ottis Mayers, Bessie Edens, John Mays and others were baptized and confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Two Mile Creek. John Mays, a neighbor had smoked a pipe for years, he threw it away and asked to be baptized. Elder David Cheney baptized us and Elder Leonard R. Bailey confirmed us. A group of neighbors and one-time friends (about fifty of them) sat on the opposite bank of the creek and laughed and scoffed at us. We had walked for two miles to be baptized, now we walked about two blocks to Retta's aunt Clara Casdorph's home to change into dry clothing.
Some of the missionaries I remember are: D.C. Stuart, Daves, Wiggins all of Ogden; Milton Noble, a seventeen year old boy of Millville, Utah; Elder Mayberry of Hooper, Utah; Thomas of Kaysville; Brown of Lehi; Swapp of Provo; Tyler of Teton, Idaho; and Elder Bair of Millville, Utah.
My father-in-law, Henry F. Copen, donated some land to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We built a nice little chapel there and had some wonderful times at our meetings. I was the superintendent of the Sunday school.
Because of the bitterness of our friends and neighbors when we joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we became dissatisfied and thought of moving somewhere else. In 1913 two of our neighbors who had settled in New Mexico had written about that part of the country. Henry F. Copen and I decided to go there. We went to Nara Visa, New Mexico and stayed there for three days but were not pleased with it so we went back to West Virginia.
In 1915 we sold our farm for $2,000.00 (paid $5.00 an acre for it) and set out to find a new home. We were going to the Top of the Mountains.
Together with my wife and our four children: Odie, Frona, Luetta and Wayne, Mr. and Mrs. Henry F. Copen, (my mother and father-in-law) and their four youngest children, Dollie, Monte, Floyd and Opal, also a friend and neighbor, Alonzo Holmes, we set out for Utah.
We traveled by train for three days and two nights and arrived at Mendon, Utah, 24 September 1915. We stayed at the home of Jeremiah Baker a few days then moved to the Lallis home for a month. The Copen family moved to the Abraham Sorensen home and we moved to the Elias Davis home. We rented this place from October till March then bought it.
I was a ward teacher for many years, I have worked in the temple, and have been on four home missions, two in Wellsville and two in Mendon. I was a member of the ward Old Folks committee for about ten years, on the missionary committee for many years. Was a city council member for two terms.
I have gone back to West Virginia to visit friends and relatives five different times, twice by automobile, twice by train and once by airplane. There are many changes, the well kept farms that I once knew are now grown up and covered with timber and etc. The rolling hills and the flowers are still the same and the people that I once knew have grown a little older but I enjoy going back to see them.
Additionally…
When George was young there was a hanging in Charleston. They went and someone held him up on their shoulders so he could see it.
When my dad (George) started school he only spoke German, so had a hard time. His teacher was mean to him and gave him a good spanking every day. He only went to about the third grade in school. After he and my mother (Retta Ann Copen) got married, my mother taught him how to read and he was a good reader.
Grandpa Hiibner cut his little toe off before he was married. He was splitting wood or trimming the trees when it happened. He picked it up and threw it down over the hill and went home. His mother doctored it up and he went on working.
My dad and his brother John would play for the dances. Pa played the harmonica and Uncle John played the banjo. They would go to the homes and move all the furniture out of the room then they would square dance. Grandpa and Grandma Copen (Henry and Agnes) would never let my mother (Retta Ann) go to dances so she never danced.
My father was a good dancer and never missed a dance in Mendon. He would always dance with us kids and his daughter's-in-law. The ladies that went to the dances would say, I hope Brother Hiibner dances with me.
Grandpa (John Leonard) Hiibner was in bed with kidney trouble at the time my mother and dad got married, that was in April. He died in June. Grandpa sent a keg of wine over to Grandpa and Grandma Copen's house so they could all celebrate at the wedding. Beatrice Atkinson was Ma's brides maid and Will Nartz was Pa's best man. Bee and Will are their cousins. (Will's son Willis Nartz is our millionaire cousin that lives in Oregon and comes to Mendon.)
One day Pa and his brother-in-law Clyde S. Copen heard there was going to be a meeting in town with the Mormon missionaries. They went and listened and liked what they heard. Then they took Ma to hear and she didn't like it and told Pa not to go back. He went anyway. She told Pa not to bring the missionaries home; he brought them anyway. One time the missionaries came to the house and Pa said he couldn't listen because he had to get his hay hauled. They went out and helped him haul it. When the missionaries came one would help Ma with the dishes and preach to her and one would help Pa with the chores and preach to him.
I remember one time Grandpa Hiibner came up to see us while we were living on the farm. He told me that quite a while after he had joined the church and living in Mendon that he was out working in the hay field one day and his bishop saw him and stopped to say hello. Grandpa didn't see him coming. He said he had a big plug of tobacco in his mouth and he couldn't spit it out because he knew the bishop would see it. He said he swallowed it. He told me it made him really sick and that was the end of his tobacco chewing!
Once I ask Grandpa why he joined the church and he said, Because it felt good.