Death info on Margret J. Merkley Hansen

Margret Jane Merkley Hansen was Asher's younger sister.

"Young Margret Merkley"
From personal albums of Delores Horton

According to this document, the following dates apply:

BIRTH: 14 Apr 1902- Vernal, Uintah, Utah

DEATH: 13 Mar 1989- Monroeville City, Allegheny, Pennsylvania*

She was almost 87 years old when she died.

Obituary:

SOURCE: Deseret News 1989, Mar 15-16, p.B5

Obituary transcribed:
Margret Hansen
Margret Jane Merkley Hansen passed away March 13, 1989.
She was born April 14, 1902 in Vernal, a daughter of Nelson and Keturah Petersen Merkley.  Attended Vernal schools, B.Y.U., and Utah State University.  Taught school in Vernal.  Married Rulon Kershaw Hansen in the Salt Lake LDS Temple, April 28, 1927.  Lived in Alamosa, Colorado; Farmington, New Mexico; Clearfield and Salt Lake City, Utah.
Survived by a daughter, Lois Chatfield, Orem; son, David, Murrysville, Pennsylvania; 11 grandchildren; 16 great-grandchildren, and a sister, Ellen M. Fletcher.  Preceded in death by her husband and one son, Reed*.
Bought Ivanhoe Apartment Building, September 1, 1950, paid for it and ran it until a year before her death.
Funeral services Friday, March 17, 1 p.m., Russon Brothers Mortuary, 255 South Second East.  Salt Lake City, where friends may call Thursday March 16, 6-8 p.m. and Friday, one hour prior to services.
*The name here should be Ruel, not Reed

Funeral program:

From the personal albums of Sarah Neilsen

"Margret M Hansen in SLC"
From personal albums of Lois Chatfield

* Family records indicate that she died while staying with her son in Pennsylvania, but she was buried in Utah.

Ezra Merkley & Alice Hacking

Ezra Merkley was an older brother to Asher.

Ezra married Alice Hacking (of Vernal) on 15 Nov 1913 in Vernal, Uintah, Utah.

Thus, she became Alice Hacking Merkley.

Photo from the personal albums of David Ahrnsbrak
Cropped from a larger photo

Marriage license:

SOURCE: familysearch.org

Erza and Alice were both reported to have independent spirits about them (colorful in one way or another) so it came as little surprise to find this article in the local newspaper a year after they married:

SOURCE: Vernal Express 1914, Dec 11, p.3

Article transcribed:

MERKLEY DIVORCE SUIT IS DISMISSED

Plaintiff and Defendant to Pay Costs....(highlight of following article omitted)...

The divorce suit of Alice Merkley vs. Ezra Merkley was dismissed by Judge Morgan in the district court.  Plaintiff and defendant are both required to pay their own costs.  This case was tried at the last term of the district court, since which time the court had the matter under consideration.

The math relating to their marriage date and the birth of their first child in March 1914 suggests a possible shotgun wedding- no doubt a reason for newlywed strife this early in the game.

Later news articles and family history indicate that they stayed married and had three children until Ezra's untimely death in 1918 of the Spanish flu.  Alice then remarried a man by the name of Wilson Murray and raised all of her previous Merkley children under her new husband's name.  More on that later...

Virginia's memories of Diamond Mountain

The following is an excerpt from the document, "Memories of Asher" written by his daughter, Virginia, year unknown.  It highlights her memories of their time on the Diamond Mountain homestead.  Photos included by me from additional sources:

"...When I was nine or ten years old, our family along with Grandmother Merkley (Keturah) and the Sander family (Aunt Mary) went to Diamond Mountain to homestead some ground.  Each family lived in a one-room log cabin.  Aunt Mary was worried about rats, so she had her sleeping quarters encased in small net wire.  We all thought she was pretty fancy.  In our cabin, Mother packed the dirt floor by putting water on it ever few hours.  When it was almost dry, we would walk over it.  We had a small garden in our front yard.  We had to carry the water from a creek to keep it growing.  We raised peas, beets, radishes, lettuce.  These are the things I remember.

"Merkleys on Diamond Mountain"
Photo from the personal albums of David Ahrnsbrak

Dad had cattle, horses and sheep.  He was the first landowner on Diamond Mountain to fence his land.  It made the sheepmen very angry.  They were used to driving their herds across and taking the best of the feed for their animals, leaving nothing much for the owner.

"Buffie Sander, Ellen Merkley, Kathryn Sander, 1926
Diamond Mountain Homestead"
Photo from the personal albums of Ellen Fletcher

Dad taught me how to find my way home by looking at the mountains.  I would go out through the sagebrush and hunt pretty rocks.  I would fill the pockets in my jeans and a little salt sack, then I would have to come home.  Grandmother’s hill was about a mile away and every time I went to the east side I would find arrowheads and skinning knives left by the Indians.  I had a large collection.  I would get the two Sander cousins and we would walk to Grandmother’s (about two miles away).  Buffie and Katherine were afraid of animals and Indians.  They would cry and I would urge them on by telling them I knew where we were and they had no reason to be afraid.  To this day they feel I am very confident.  The big cousins would tell us to be careful when we climbed the mountains because there were hillside togglers everywhere.  The other cousins were really frightened, but I told them that I asked my dad and he said that there was no such animal, so I daringly led them up the mountains.

"Nile Murray and Ellen Merkley posing in center,
far left: Asher, Keturah, Kathryn Sander
far right: Aird Merkley, dog "Old Six"
on Diamond Mountain 1926"
Photo from the personal albums of Ellen Fletcher

Grandmother had a spring close by.  Dad built a house over it and we would put the milk and vegetables down in the cool water.  That was pure luxury.  I remember how wonderful it was on the Fourth of July to have our pop cool in the spring house..."

Work around the farm

The following are photos of Asher and his immediate family as a youth working hard in one way or another on the Merkley Homestead in Vernal, Utah.
Photos are from the personal albums of David Ahrnsbrak.

"Merkley homestead, early 1900s.
Ezra or Asher as a small boy on team horses."

"Nelson Jr, 1918 or so, old buggy shed in background, Vernal, UT"

"Nelson Merkley Jr with wheelbarrow
granddaughter Virginia inside"

"Possibly Asher driving team"

"Asher and mother Keturah"

"Asher and sister Mary in buggy, 1918"

"Margaret Merkley and mother Keturah
painting the buggy"

"Asher and trout caught in front yard canal, 1918"

"Nelson Merkley Jr. farm- Asher and/or Ezra on horse"

The next few photos exhibit the pride and joy felt in owning their first tractor on the property:

"Mary Elizabeth Merkley on tractor, Vernal, UT
Nelson Merkley homestead corn crib & smoke house in background"

"Asher on first tractor, 1918"

"Asher on first tractor"

"First tractor on homestead- possibly Ellen Murray/Merkley"

"Possibly Mary Merkley on first tractor-
grainary of Nelson Jr. homestead in background"

We Sail the Ocean Blue

In coming across this photo a few years ago, I've wondered what role Asher could have possibly been acting as to wear a costume like this:

Photo from personal albums of D. Ahrnsbrak
Still don't know who that girl is...

BUT, I happened to come upon this article from digitalnewspapers.com that I think may shed some valuable light on this query:

SOURCE:Vernal Express 1918, Mar 1, p1

This is an article on the upcoming local performance of the H.M.S. Pinafore as a benefit fundraiser for the Red Cross Military Relief (WWI was still going on at this time).

See how Asher's name is highlighted under the cast list of sailors & mariners?  And that's a local town theater sailor suit if I ever saw one.

It makes me happy to think that Asher had Gilbert & Sullivan lyrics burned into the memory of his brain, and that he probably danced around and sung a little something like this:

Just some food for thought...

Asher & Birda Honeymoon

AMAZINGLY, photos exist of Asher & Birda's honeymoon... or, at least they're alleged photos of their honeymoon outing as some of them are dated 28 July 1920, and they didn't officially get married until 2 Aug 1920... but what do I know?  Maybe that's how they did it last century, or maybe they were dated wrong.

Either way, these are of the same timeframe of when they were young and blissfully in love.

News clip:

SOURCE: Vernal Express 1920, Aug 6, p8

News clip transcribed:
"Asher Merkley, one of the popular members of the younger social set was married to Birdie Lewis, another of Vernal's younger crowd last week.  The happy couple are spending their honeymoon in the new-style, 'back to nature' way at the lakes of Old Baldy."

All photos are from the personal albums of David Ahrnsbrak.

The following is an excerpt story from their son Bryce's memoir, "Some Remembrances of My Mother", written May 2001:

"...They decided to go to the “Ballies” for their honeymoon.  The following information came from J. Clive Davis...  J. Clive was dating Jennie Lewis who later became Jennie Hullinger.  Asher, Birda, J. Clive and Jennie loaded up pack horses and riding horses and started for the “Ballies” to fish.  After arriving there and fishing for a couple of days, Asher came to Clive and asked him if some different sleeping arrangements couldn’t be worked out.  The men had been sleeping together and so had the women.  Asher decided that it was time to work out some other arrangement..."

These next two I'm assuming are from the same trip (based on the clothing similarities),

but I wasn't aware that more than four were on this trip together....

maybe they tagged along at the beginning or end?

Either way, I don't know who they all are, but you CAN pick out Birda in the white dress.

(Birda on far left)

Asher Merkley & Birda Lewis

Asher Merkley (of Vernal, UT) married Birda Lewis (of Vernal, UT) on 2 Aug 1920 in Uintah County.

Thus, she became Birda Lewis Merkley.

"Birda and Asher at the Homestead, June 1917"
Photos from the personal albums of David Ahrnsbrak

Photo from the personal album of David Ahrnsbrak

Asher & Birda's son, Bryce, had this story (from "Some Remembrances of my Mother- Birda Lewis Merkley", written May 2001) to correlate with the photograph above:

"...There is one picture of them sitting on a bench together before they were married.  When Asher showed the picture to his father, Nelson Jr., who was the Patriarch, he said there was more room on that bench, they didn’t need to be sitting so close together..."

Marriage license:

SOURCE: familysearch.org

Photo from the personal album of Doug Merkley

Hard-Working Man

The following is an excerpt from the writings of Asher's son Bryce, entitled, "Memories of Asher"- dated July 1995, and found in Bryce's genealogy books:


"As I think of my father the first thoughts that come into my mind is a man of work.  And I do mean WORK!  From early in the morning until late at night Dad worked.  His life was one of mixed roles trying to earn a living and support his family.  Because his lifestyle was one of a livestock man, farmer and dairyman there was always more than enough jobs to be done and the pressures of the seasonal demands that had to be met in connection with each of these jobs.  As an example, for fifteen or twenty years he was a dairyman milking twelve to twenty head of cows morning and night, rain or shine, snow or heat.  Many of those years they were milked in the corner of the pasture or out in the open.  The last ten years he milked them in a barn and had a milking machine, but he was along during that time and had no one to turn to for any time off or relief.  If he was sick or tired or injured the cows still had to be milked twice a day.

"Asher & wheelbarrow"

 The milk was strained and placed in 10 gallon cans which probably weighted about 80 pounds each.  These were placed in the ditch on the North side of the barn.  This would chill the milk until it was picked up by a truck each morning.  Lifting these cans for many years caused Dad to have a hernia that he had most of his life.  He wore a truss to hold the hernia in place.  He only had it surgically repaired after he was sixty years old.

"Asher and Jay Merkley (cousin)
Slaughtering a pork by old smoke house
Vernal, about 1923"

Now with the backdrop of a dairyman, he was also a farmer of his 80 acre farm.  After the morning chores and milking, he would have to plow, harrow, plant, cultivate corn, cut hay, harvest & stack hay, take water turns day and night to irrigate his crops, and harvest them when they were ready.  Many of the crops were harvested by trading work with other farmers."

"Asher at work"

*All photos from the personal albums of David Ahrnsbrak.

Asher and siblings- photos

Following are select photos of Asher with his siblings over time.
(*This post has been updated Oct 2013 to include further photos found)

"Ezra Merkley, 14 years old
Asher Merkley, 2 years old"
From the personal albums of Delores Horton

Photo from personal albums of Bryce Merkley
Margaret and Asher Merkley as children

Mary E Merkley
From the personal albums of Delores Horton

Helen (12) and Mary (6) Merkley
From the personal albums of Delores Horton
and also Sarah Neilsen

Photo from personal albums of David Ahrnsbrak
Mary Elizabeth and Ezra

Photo from personal albums of Bryce Merkley
Brothers: Asher, Ellis, Ezra

Photo from the personal albums of Bryce Merkley
Asher and siblings at Merkley Park about 1952
Helen, Margaret, Asher, Ellis, Mary