Pike Township Family Stories
HARVEY AND BELVA JUNE MILLS BURR
Nichols, Iowa Centennial Book 1884-1984, page 266-267
By Belva June Mills BurrBelva June Mills was born 1 June 1925, the daughter of Frederic David Mills and Odetta Frances Arnold Mills. On 26 April 1947, she was married to Harvey William Burr, born 17 January 1921, the son of Clarence Nelson Burr and Irene Isabel Smith Burr. They are parents of two daughters, Dorene Ann Burr, born in Iowa City, and Vickie Lou Burr, born in Iowa City.
June tells of remembering her dad (Fred Mills) telling that he quit school when he was sixteen years old. He enjoyed helping his Dad and brothers hitch the horses to the sleigh, and off they would go through the snow to the timber to cut wood for their wood burning stoves. They stacked the wood in a circle six feet high for a wall and threw the rest inside the circle. The next chore was to go to the timber to cut creed ice for the ice house for use in the summer. This was all stored on the home place, where Gary Mills and his family live now.
There were thirteen children in Dad’s family, and each one had chores to do. I remember how Grandma Laura Mills braided rugs and made wool quilt blankets, her beautiful flower garden, her chickens and her refrigerator, which she wheeled up out of the ground with a crank.
Back in the 1930s, Dad was a farmer and a truck farmer. I remember all the large sweet melons he raised – watermelons and muskmelons, sweet potatoes, sweet corn, tomatoes and pickles. He worked late at night getting his pickup truck loaded so he could leave at 4 o’clock in the morning for the city. He usually sold out and was home by 10 o’clock. Dad always milked, had pigs and calves, and he raised corn and oats.
Mother worked hard, too. There were five of us to wash for and do all the rest that goes with raising a family. I guess I’ll always remember how we would chase a couple of chickens down for dinner, pick beans and dig potatoes and all the other good things you can think of. I remember how my job was to wash the separator. All of us would carry in the wash water for the boiler on the old wood burning stove. We filled the reservoir on the stove with water and two rinse water tubs. When I was young, Mother had a crank washing machine. Then she finally got a gas washing machine, and she had to be a mechanic to run it. Mother also had the basement full of canned corn, beans, tomatoes, peaches, pickles, jelly and whatever there was on hand to can.
We also had kerosene lamps, which we took turns filling every night with kerosene. Mother washed the glass chimneys. We all had chores. The boys milked and filled the wood box. I cooked and baked. Mother liked the outside chores, gathered eggs and fed the chickens. We were a busy family. And Dad always had that circle wood pile for many years in the back yard. We worked hard in those days; no big machines, just horses, plows and a lot of work done with a hoe.
Harvey has been a mechanic all his life. I stayed home with Dorene and Vickie. We sowed garden, cooked, canned and baked together. We entered projects at the Fair and took home lots of blue ribbons. When the girls were almost out of high school, I worked part time for Pioneer Seed Corn for several seasons. Then I worked full time for Westinghouse Learning Corporation in receiving – opening school tests sent to us. We assemble them ready to be logged and computerized. Now Westinghouse Learning Center has been sold to National Computer Service, and we do the same work. I have been there for thirteen years.
Harvey worked as a mechanic in Iowa City for 37 years at Freswick, McGurk and Meyers, where he is now [1984], and also at Bob Lightner’s shop on radiators and mechanic work. He also had an interest in the garden in earlier years; he raised prize winning potatoes, winning blue ribbons at the West Liberty Fair. Now in his spare time he builds projects out of junk parts. He has built a steam engine, cannon, helicopter and a toy bee. Now he is building a helicopter with an engine that weighs 35 pounds that will have remote control. He fixes old lamps and other broken things around the house.
Our girls, Dorene and Vickie, have shared many projects together – piano lessons, swimming lessons in the West Liberty pool, Bible school, Sunday school and church in West Liberty.
For fun they had a tent in the yard, 15 cats to keep them busy, a fire in a hole for a cookout with their cousins, and fishing with Grandpa and Grandma Mills in their timber. Grandma and Grandpa always liked to fish. We had cookouts in the timber with my brothers and their wives and families.
Dorene got out of high school when it was hard to find jobs without experience. She almost completed one year of college. She worked at Sandy and Doug Goodfellows as a printer and did paste up. She worked at The University of Iowa as a secretary for several years. She is now working at University Printing Service. Dorene had a jaw operation to correct her bite, and her jaw was wired shut for six weeks. She drank liquids through a syringe. By Christmas the wires were removed and she is happy that it is all over.
Vickie graduated from high school and from beauty school in Iowa City. She worked in a shop but could not make a go of it financially. She went to Westinghouse Learning Corporation, where I worked. She took key punch lessons and now is senior clerk over data processing.
Dorene and Vickie live in Iowa City. They have a cat and do cross country skiing.
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