The Minor Family of Somerset

Baptism: Pleasant View Ward Records of Members #165 (GS F6456 p
t 2). Baptizedby his father in the Snake River on 3 Sep 1911
. As recorded by Charles Clyde Pulsipher. Before I was a yea
r old my parents, along with an Aunt HarrietMay Green and uncl
e William Pulsipher, moved from Arizona to Provo, Utah where w
e remained for several months. My brother, Lady David Pulsiphe
r was born in Provo but only lived a few hours. Not being abl
e to find work, my dad and my mother, and uncle and aunt left Pr
ovo for Kimberly, Idaho. My brotherGilbert Edward Pulsipher wa
s born in Kimberly. My father and Uncle Will secured work build
ing irrigation canals, as the US Government had just opened thi
s Idaho area to homesteaders. My dad and uncle took up 40 acre
s each in Burley, Idaho. With the few dollars they had saved wo
rking on the canals theywere able to buy farm implements and st
art clearing their 40 acre brush covered land, so crops could b
e planted. We lived in a tent at first but Father soon buil
t a house that filled our needs. My sister Melba was born in Bu
rley, Idao I was now 6 years old and I remember very well how an
cious I was to help my father. At the age of 8 my fater let m
e plow with the "sulky" as it was called -- just sit on the sea
t and raise a lever at the end of the row andthe 3 horses did t
he rest. Raising the lever lifted the plow up and the other plo
w would lower into the field to start another furrow. The horse
s were well trained and always knew when the end of the furrow w
as reached. If you were slow in lifting the lever to change plo
ws, the horses would hesitate until the blade was droped into pl
ace. They were not used to pulling an emptyplow. I attended S
chool at Starrs Ferry some 2 1/2 miles West and located nearer t
he Snake River. A one room school house with grades 1 to 8 -- w
ithabig potbellied stove near the first and second grad rows
. The winters werecold and wintry and we used our sleds to sli
de over the drifted snow as it would freeze hard during the nigh
t. The Snake River would freeze over and I have ridden across i
t with my father, pulled by a team of horses. The horses had sp
ecial caulks put on their shoes to keep them from slipping. T
o hear of the Snake River freezing over toDay would indeed b
e a miracle. Father cutice out of the river and placed it unde
r the straw stack where it kept nearlyall summer. We always en
joyed ice cream during the summer months, when it was so very ho
t. During these childHood years of 6, 7, 8 and 9 I did things t
hat the average boy did then. One of my toys, if it could be ca
lled that,was pushing a wheel, discarded from a small wagon o
r soemthing with a stick about 3 feet in length, that had a cros
spiece at the bottom. Running along pushing this wheel we woul
d race each other -- and we got quite proficient at it. If no w
heel was available, we used the metal bands that came with barre
l. If I had continued this exercise, or fun as it was then, I m
ight have become a long distance runner. I learned some valuabl
e lessons early in life, such as -- never disobey your parents
. Mother had always told me to come straight home from school
. But on one occasion I stopped on the way to play witha boy f
riend. As we were running and playin in his yard I slipped an
d fell and cut my left wrist on a piece of glass. I still hav
e the scar. Another time I was told not to visit a nieghbors ol
d brn that seemed to have an attraction to me. I went anyway an
d as I walked into this barn there was a snake that started slit
hering away. I did not wait to see which direction it hadtaken
, but ran home in world record time. On one occasion while on t
he way to school with my cousin Nina Pulsipher, walking along th
e railroad tracks,it was raining hard and we had the protectio
n of a large black umbrella. The country road ran along side th
e tracs. But s