Jim Mikesell

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James Allen Mikesell

1927 - 1992

[son of Jefferson Osborn Mikesell & Florence Vivien Allen Mikesell]

Dear Leslie, I've been thinking about your project lately and wondering how I might contribute to it. I guess the best way is to sit down and write all I can think of about myself and our family.  So here goes:

I was born at Sam, Idaho, a mining camp that was located about 10 miles west of Driggs. Betty and I were born in the same shanty. It was right alongside the cook shack where mom worked as the camp cook. Betty was 2 years and some months older than I. Her birthplace is listed as Driggs. I don't think Sam was ever a town and it was a mix up that got it listed as my birthplace. Nevertheless, I think I'm the only one to be born at "Sam".  The Doctor had a drinking problem, I was told, and didn't show up until the next day or later, which didn't bother Mom until he wanted to be paid.

Dad was a miner there at the Brown [Black?] Bear. His brother, our Uncle Henry worked there in some capacity while Aunt Edna was a teacher in one of the nearby towns either Driggs or Tetonia. From a later time I can remember them and their boys, Harvey and Del. Henry and Harvey were badly burned some years later when the tipple at their own mine (The Black Diamond) exploded. I recall that we were all very concerned about it, as we were when Del committed suicide at about that same time. Del was a favorite of ours because he had lived with us for a time in Pocatello while he went to college.

We moved from Sam to Pocatello about a year after I was born because Dad got a job with the railroad at their Tie Plant. I can't remember those early years in Pocatello but I have been told that after a severe case of measles I contracted Rheumatic Fever which led to heart disease. I can recall in later years being treated as sickly, being required to rest often and being left out of any strenuous activities. I remember that I had to lie down during recess in school and was not allowed to play games because of the murmur in my heart. Mom told me years later after the condition had disappeared that she had been warned that I wouldn't live a long life.

At the time of the move to Pocatello the family consisted of Dad, Mom, Ernie, Betty and I. Mom had lost one baby.

Mom and Dad were married in 1919 at Dubois, I believe. The freeway now goes by Dubois but in those days it was very remote. An area up and out of Spencer and Dubois is known as Hawkin's Basin and it was in this mostly Mormon dominated valley that they both were raised. Mom's father, Conrad Allen, was related to the Aller fami1y through marriage and, in fact, Dad's sister and brother were too.  Both families, Aller and Allen, were large with many Aunts, Uncles and cousins.

When Mom was in the seventh grade her mother died, leaving her to raise her four brothers and two sisters, one just a baby. Grandpa Con, during this time, worked away from home at various jobs, leaving his family to fend for themselves. While he did send money sometimes and came home for visits, Mom assumed the task of providing a home for the family, even though still a child herself. She told us, while we were children, many stories about her Uncles and Aunts but nothing, to my recollection, about any contribution by them. She had her favorites among her relatives (from the bits and pieces of my memory of her stories they were really a group of characters) but her best friend was her cousin Della Aller, who later became the wife of Dad's brother Willard. They later lived in Pocatello where Uncle Willard, who had been injured in the war, was caretaker of the American Legion building. I remember that they had a nice home with nice furnishings and everything was kept neat as a pin. So much so that I hated to go there for fear of getting into trouble over spilling or bumping something. But maybe I had already and just can't remember it.

It may be that I could recall many stories of that period in our mother's life if I could see a tree of the Allen and Aller families. The names keep drifting away from me although some events are clear to me. As you know mom was a wonderful story teller and when we were small, before we had a radio or television, filled the time with stories of her life.

The greatest helper Mom had, before Dad, and even after, was her brother Carlos. He was the next oldest. He quit school at an early age to work and help provide for his brothers and sisters and was a great help at home, too. I always loved our Uncle Carlos when we lived near him and his family in later years. He was always good to me and he was one of my favorites. Uncle Carlos was the world's greatest teaser, although only slightly ahead of his brothers, our Uncles Clyde and Narvel. The only one off limits to his capers was Mom, whom he treated with great respect. Sometimes he would try to get me into the act but I was never quick enough on the uptake. He was most persistent with Aunt Nellie, who was no slouch as a tease either. I guess it was a good thing she loved him or she would have wrung his neck early in their marriage.

Since Mom dropped out of school during the seventh grade to raise her father's family and then at 18 married to start her own, she never had the opportunity for any secondary education. Dad was in about the same boat, although he told me that he completed all the school that was available to him in that area. I think that meant he had completed 8 grades. In spite of all her adversities Mom was one of the quickest witted and smartest women I have known. In a group discussion or in a church meeting she could really hold her own. During the years we were in Pocatello she held many posts in the church including Leader of the Relief Society, a high and demanding position in LDS Wards. She sold insurance at one time, Woodsmen, I believe, and I recall her getting an award for which she had to go to Boise. I remember us all being very proud of her. During the war she worked as a machinist at Fairchild Air Base.

As I told you, I have some difficulty with memories of my early childhood. Some things that I seem to recall I am sure I have been told, but I guess it's all the same now. On my first day at Roosevelt School I thought my school days had been completed at the first recess and so I went home. Luckily, Mom was there and she filled in the blank spaces in my thinking right away, while taking me right back. I do recall my first teacher. I thought she was the prettiest person I ever saw. I used to remember her name but not any more. In those days we had earthquake drills at school and I remember the earliest of those I went through. I seem to recall a real quake while at school, too, but it's very hazy.

 

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