THE HIEBERT FAMILY

This section contains pages 287 through 337

Page287

THE HIEBERT FAMILY

Peter Hiebert (1841-1895) Married Minnie Buller (1843-1915)

SPECIAL NOTICE: Minnie Buller was a twin sister of grandmother Mary Buller Wall born June 3, 1843 in Warsaw, Poland. On researching the Hiebert file there are different recordings on the first name of Minnie Buller's husband. Some family members say they believe it was John and other family members say it was Peter and some record the records as Peter or John.

On reviewing the book "A Meadowlark for Anna" written by Anna Violet (Sproed) Erdman, my cousin, and daughter of Anna Wall (1873-1960) she writes in chapter 1, that Minnie was wed to Peter Wall's cousin, Peter Hiebert.

Quote:

"Peter and Minnie had a bit of rough time. Pete was determined to have a son named after himself, same as his cousin, Peter Wall (my grandfather). Accordingly he named his first-born son Peter; but the baby was not strong and died shortly after birth. The next baby boy was also named Peter and he did not live past the first week. The third baby boy was named Abraham and he lived. So the next baby boy was again named Peter; and he was a sturdy, healthy little boy. So it was said of Pete Hiebert that he had to name one baby Abraham in order to get his Peter to live."

Peter Hiebert and Minnie Buller arrived in America abt. 1885. They had 10 children as follows:

(Their children are my 1 1/2 cousins plus other ties)

1. Peter Hiebert (unknown) died at birth

2. Peter Hiebert (unknown) died 1st week

3. Abraham Hiebert (1864-1925) m, Susanna Wall

4. Katherine Hiebert (unknown-1904) m. John Voth

5. Peter D. Hiebert (1868-1953) m. Katherine Toews.

6. John Hiebert (unknown-unknown) m. Maria Duerksen

7. Margaret Hiebert (unknown-1894) m. Frank Wall

8. David Hiebert (unknown-unknown) killed by train

9. Annie Hiebert (1881-unknown) m. Jacobs - Warneke 10. Susie Hiebert (1881-1939) m. Jacob Wedel

1st child of 10 of Peter Hiebert and Minnie Buller Peter Hiebert (unknown) died at birth

2nd child of 10 of Peter Hiebert and Minnie Buller.

Peter Hiebert (unknown) died 1st week

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Susanna Wall and Abraham Hiebert had 12 children. Aunt Susie said she didn't know how many children they would have had if they had not been careful!

1. Minnie Hiebert (1888-1900) died age 12 years

2. Marie Hiebert (1890-1974)

3. John Hiebert (1892-1976)

4. Abraham; Hiebert (1894-1894) died age 11 days

5. Susan Hiebert (1895-1898) died in infancy

6. Martin Hiebert (1896-1972)

7. Margaret Hiebert (1898-1900) died in infancy

8. Emma Hiebert (1900-1987)

9. Elizabeth Hiebert (1902-1989) <Betty>

10. Abe Hiebert (1904-1967)

11. Salome Hiebert (1907-1986) <Sally>

12. Leonard Hiebert (1909-1989)

1st child of 12 of Susan Wall and Abraham Hiebert. Minnie Hiebert Born December 5, 1888 and died Jan 23 1900.

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2nd child of 12 of Susan Wall and Abraham Hiebert

Marie Hiebert (1890-1974) Married Bill Gehersky (unknown-unknown)

Marie Hiebert born July 13, 1890 - Died April 7, 1974.

As the story has been told. Bill Gehersky romanced a lovely young lady, Marie Hiebert. They were soon married and this couple brought forth 4 children. Bill was a traveling salesman and he was out of town from time to time over the years. Marie was not pleased with this arrangement as he had a drinking problem when at home and this upset Marie to no end. However Bill always had the right answer to give her.

Sometime after their 4th child was born, Marie discovered that Bill had a little problem that he forgot to tell her. Bill was a "bigamist"; he was married to another woman and was also supporting her and the children he fathered with this additional wife. It's no wonder the guy was drinking, trying to keep both families apart and supported.

When Marie discovered this problem, she immediately threw Bill out of the house with instructions to never come back again. Marie needed to support herself and the children; fortunately she got work with Dr. Stout as a housekeeper and remained on this job for over the next 20 years.

From the letters she wrote to my Aunt Elizabeth Wall, of which I have kept, she said that she lived in the guest cottage in the middle of a 20 acre orange grove at Rancho Santa Fe, California. My father and I visited her in Los Angeles in 1947 when we went to bring home my mother who had cancer surgery there.

In another one of Marie's letters she stated that after 21 years of separation, Bill came back and asked forgiveness. He was very ill and did not want to go to his grave without making things right with her. Being the good person Marie was, she did indeed take him back and forgave all. She took care of him in his final days. He passed away 1 year and 4 months later.

Marie Hiebert and Bill Gehersky had 4 children as follows:

1. Vander Gehersky (unknown-

2. Urba Gehersky (unknown- Married Al Almany (unknown-

3. Dale Gehersky (unknown-

4. June Gehersky (unknown- Married Hickman (unknown-

There is a 1/2 sister called "Betty", Bill Gehersky's daughter with the other wife.

Page290

John Hiebert & Mabel Ponwith

John Hiebert and Mabel Ponwith had 9 children as follows:

1. John Jr. Hiebert (1928-1965)

2. Elaine Hiebert (1929-

3. Harlow Hiebert (1931-

4. Ronnie Hiebert (1932-

5. Wanda Hiebert (1935-

6. Linda Hiebert (1936-

7. Marilyn Hiebert (1937-

8. Marie Hiebert (1939-

9. David Hiebert (1942-

1st child of 9 of John Hiebert and Mabel Ponwith

John Alan Hiebert born July 28, 1928, married Marylin Green. He served in the US Air force, later was a bus driver. He passed away on May 8, 1965.

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2nd child of 9 of John Hiebert and Mabel Ponwith Yvonne Elaine Hiebert born October 28, 1929, married Herb Wolfsen They own Wolfsen farms and operate a large blueberry farm in McKinleyville, California. They have 4 children as follows:

1. Connie Wolfsen b. Oct 15, 1952

2. Laura Wolfsen b. Aug 13, 1954

3. Karen Wolfsen b. -Jan 29, 1959

4. Herbie Wolfsen b. Jun 22, 1961

3rd child of 9 of John Hiebert and Mabel Ponwith

Harlow Henry Hiebert born inarch 12, 1931. His works as a merchant seaman.

4th child of 9 of John Hiebert and Mabel Ponwith

Ronald Glenn Hiebert born November 4, 1932. He lives and works in England on a top security job. He is married to Linda _____.

5th child of 9 of John Hiebert and Mabel Ponwith

Wanda Nadine Hiebert born January 1, 1935. She married ______ Ranney. They live in McKinleyville, California.

6th child of 9 of John Hiebert and Mabel Ponwith

Linda Leone Hiebert born March 27, 1936. She lives in Arcata,

California.

7th child of 9 of John Hiebert and Mabel Ponwith

Marilyn Eileen Hiebert born August 24, 1937. She lives in Martinez, California.

8th child of 9 of John Hiebert and Mabel Ponwith

Maybelle Marie Hiebert born November 7, 1939. She lives in

Redding, California.

9th child of 9 of John Hiebert and Mabel Ponwith

David Lynn Hiebert born April 11, 1942. He works as a merchant seaman.

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Now go back to -the

4th child of 12 of Susan Wall and Abraham Hiebert.

Abraham Hiebert (1894-1894) died in infancy, age 11 days.

5th child of 12 of Susan Wall and Abraham Hiebert

Susan Hiebert (1895-1898) died in infancy/ age 2 1/2 years,

Susan Hiebert born July 6, 1895 - Died February 12, 1898.

6th child of 12 of Susan Wall and Abraham Hiebert. Martin Hiebert (1896-1972) Married Auda Mae Boorom (1900-1985)

Martin Hiebert born December 20, 1896 in North Dakota. Auda Mae Boorom born August 12, 1900 in Sparta, Michigan. They were married February 2, 1926 in Fargo, N. D. Martin passed away on July 8, 1972.

Martin Hiebert and Auda Boorom had 2 children as follows:

1. Minon A. Hiebert (1926-

2. Wayne Martin Hiebert (1930-

1st child of 2 of Martin Hiebert and Auda Boorom Minon A. Hiebert (1926- Married Bob Hamm (unknown-

1. Carol Elaine Hanun (1951- Married Lewis Cass Sonunerville (1951-

Carol Elaine Hanun was born on April 17, 1951 in Oriando, Florida. Lewis Cass Sommerville was born on November 4, 1951. They were married on May 5, 1973 at Collegedale, Tennessee. Carol is a nurse and also owns and manages a fast food outlet. Lewis is a medical doctor. They both live in Maryviile, Tennessee. They have 2 children, Jennifer and Lewis as follows:

Jennifer Lynn Sommerville, born November 6, 1977

Lewis Cass Soimnerviile 111, born February 28, 1980 Lewis goes by the name "Cort".

2. Robert Wayne Hainm (1949-1991)

Robert Wayne Haiiun born on May 30, 1949 in Miami, Florida. He was single, never married and had no children. He passed away on December 30, 1991 in Jacksonville, Florida.

3. Maria Vilma Jara born June 5, 1945, in Columbia. She married Dennis Raettig and they have 2 children as follows:

Christina Raettig born August 12, 1977. Rebecca Raettig born December 5, 1986.

2nd child of 2 of Martin Hiebert and Auda Boorom

Wayne Martin Hiebert (1930- Married Bette Lashley (unknown-

Divorced and Married Ligia _____(unknown-

Wayne was born on October 4, 1930 at Berrien Springs, Michigan. He and current family live in Prospect, Tennessee.

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A Short Sketch of Family History

Submitted September 11, 1997 by, Minon Hiebert Harom (in her own words)

My immediate family moved to Stafford County, Virginia, from Berrien Springs, Michigan in 1932. My parents, Martin and Auda Boorom Hiebert, had been attending what was then Emmanuel Missionary College (now Andrews University) since 1926, where Mother had attained a lifetime teaching certificate, and Daddy had taken whatever courses—geology, history, religion—caught his interest, both having completed the equivalent of junior college. Having arrived at college penniless, they finished with a small credit and two children, myself and my brother Wayne. We made the long trek in our Model-T car.

My parents moved to Virginia because Dadà‹à˙s elder brother, John was established at a village named Brooke; he and his father-in-law, Jethro Kloss, an herbal doctor who had marvelous cures to his credit and had written Back to Eden, a book still in demand among herbalists, operated a health food factory there, manufacturing the forerunners of all meat analogs. We moved into a small apartment in the factory building. Daddy did truck farming; he raised premium strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, and other vegetables which we packed in a fancy way and delivered to the market in Washington, D. C. / some 50 miles away, receiving top prices for them, even during the depression. By this means we barely eked out a living. Mother added to what he made by teaching a small church school.

Eventually my parents rented a farm, sharecropping for several years. The house was old—the "new" part was 150 years old, and the "old" part 250; it was being restored by its owner, a woman who lived in Washington. The adjacent woods were interlaced with Civil War trenches, where we often found civil war bullets. The yard was part of a Confederate cemetery. It didn't take much imagination to see those boys in gray battling the ones in blue on that land—we lived in the middle of a history lesson. But the land was only minimally profitable for fanning.

Finally my parents managed to buy a fertile 128 acres, half of it wooded, with Indian Moccasins and mountain laurel under the beeches and oaks. My mother made these woods a grand extension of her nature classroom, teaching us the lore of the forest.

There was a waterfall up there in the woods, too, where the temperature was always cool even on the hottest day. I remember the April day when a wild fire started in the woods. In spite of the help of the "CCC boys" the fire, swept by a stiff wind, roared relentlessly closer. We were all convinced that nothing but Mother's prayer stopped the inferno in its tracks. When she closed her eyes, the wind blew south, bringing the blaze rapidly toward us; when she opened her eyes it was blowing just as hard straight north. The fire burned the fence on our property line but spared our trees.

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The other half of the farm was "bottom land," with pastures and fields ideal for corn. Here we were to live until after I married and moved to Florida. Mother pieced out the family living by canning vegetables and fruits, and with the help of Wayne and me selling flowers on the streets of nearby Fredericksburg on Saturday nights. She also taught school, and eventually did "colporteuring" in Fredericksburg. One year she took a church school in Richmond, coming home only on alternate weekends. That left me, age eleven, to teach myself and my first-grade brother and keep the house tidy. à‹¨Ω

We had before this time been joined on a nearby farm by Dad's brother Abe and his wife Rose Holcomb. Abe's family consisted of a couple of girls, Avis and Zada, and eventually by Burl, Oren, Jim, and finally Margi. Uncle Abe added to their income by house painting at the marine base in Quantico; I remember their practically living, one winter in the Thirties, on sweet potatoes and canned tomatoes. Times were extremely difficult, but uncle Abe's sense of humor and trust in God's guidance carried them through every emergency.

Uncle John's family went a different way, no longer connected with the food factory. Uncle John rented another farm nearly adjacent to his brothers', though I don't recollect his farming very much, except for raising some goats and lots of children. Their family eventually consisted of John Jr., Elaine, Harlow, Ronald, Wanda, Linda, Marilyn, Marie and David, nine in all.

John's family didn't have to scrounge for funds as the other brothers' did, because John's wife, the former Mabel Kloss, was a talented secretary, who worked for a government office in Washington, D. C., and received a handsome salary, in our eyes, at least. Aunt Mabel could take dictation at a hundred words a minute, and typed at an incredible rate in the days before electric typewriters. She came home only about two weekends a month, which may have been a good thing, because when she became angry—frequently— we could hear her yelling from our house half a mile away through the woods. She boasted that she always scheduled her annual vacation in time for her to deliver the next baby, going back to work at the end of the two weeks, when the new baby was surrendered to the family farm down in Virginia, for Uncle John to care for. Such care as it got.

The extended family always felt it was a shame to leave the little one confined to its crib for a year or so practically all the time except for feedings, and then leave it pretty much to fend for itself while its father sat and read Ellen White's writings and schemed out fanciful theology and hypothetical last-day events according to the Book of Revelation. Uncle John was a loving father, but sometimes it would have taken a "thunderclap from heaven to rouse him from his books.

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My mother taught all these children who were old enough to go to school and a few neighbors kids in a little church school held in an upstairs room in Uncle John's farmhouse. There was no nearby Adventist church; we met in a "Branch Sabbath School" at our home (since only we had a piano).

Eventually a church was organized in Fredericksburg; of course, we attended faithfully--! remember once when no car would start and Junior, Elaine, Harlow, Avis, and Zada joined Wayne and me in walking the ten miles. I think someone gave us a ride home after the sermon.

Occasionally one of the brothers was favored with a letter from their mother/ Susan Hiebert, who lived in St. Helena, California. Daddy had not seen his mother since the family left North Dakota, where they had homesteaded in the early years of this century. It was the Depression time; money for a luxury travel was nonexistent. So these precious letters, written in "Low German," managed to keep the family together somehow. I guess spelling in "Low German" must have been an inexact science; anyway, it took the three brothers puzzling in long concentration to make out and translate their mother's letters.

Though she had never learned very much English, Grandma never forgot one of her grandchildren's birthdays. We could all count on receiving a special birthday letter in English. Once my brother and I received a hand-made game with many intricate pieces constructed of balsa wood or something similar. Daddy knew how to play this German game, and we cherished it carefully. I'm sorry that I don't remember what eventually happened to it. All I remember now about this game is that it included a game piece with a sharp point, which was to be twisted in the palm of the one who lost.

Eventually the entire family of eight siblings determined that Grandma should visit the three boys in far-away Virginia. They collected money and purchased her a transcontinental railroad ticket. But before the time rolled around for her journey, set for early September 1939 and breathlessly awaited by all the grandchildren in Virginia, someone received a telegram: Grandma had suffered a massive stroke and died. I still remember sitting on a low stool in the kitchen helping prepare peaches for canning when the sad news arrived. Did one cry for a grandma one had never met? I didn't know, but I can still feel the terrible lump of sadness that seemed to fill my chest so that I could hardly breathe.

That sad event nearly coincided with the end of my childhood; the following year I was off to boarding school. It had been a good childhood, growing up surrounded with the wonders of nature, lots of books, and plenty of cousins to play with, if not an overabundance of material goods. The lessons I learned there have stood me in good stead through the intervening years.

Page298

Personal Sketch, of Minon Hiebert Hanun

Submitted, September 11, 1997 (In her own words)

Though I was born in Michigan while my parents were attending College there, I grew up on a Virginia farm. My mother taught me to love the beeches and the oaks, the mountain laurel and trailing arbutus of our woods. It was my father who introduced me to books: I remember sitting on his lap, a pre-schooler, listening as he read Bunyan and The Congressional Record. My mother inspired me to become a teacher—I hoped as good a teacher as she was.

I attended a church-affiliated boarding academy, graduating as valedictorian of my class. College was my next goal. But since cash income from the farm was meager, after a summer of teacher training, I took a job as teacher of a rural school. My responsibility included driving a 1929 Model-A (antique even in 1944, but lovingly coaxed into running through the years of war) over some fifty miles of mountain roads each day, collecting children along the route. I taught all eight grades; some pupils were bigger—and older—than I. There were days when the Ford balked and we failed to arrive at the schoolhouse. But we finished the year triumphantly; car, scholars, and I.

After a summer of selling books house-to-house and counseling at summer camp, came, at last, college. But this was wartime. Friends were leaving campus, bound for places like Iwo Jima. We who remained seemed caught up in a frenetic urgency. It was necessary to cram all could of life into today; perhaps there would be no tomorrow. I married my junior theology student, Robert A. Hamm, and found another school; to teach, to stretch our slender resources until he could graduate.

The five years after "we" graduated were spent caring for two babies and helping in my husbandà‹à˙s pastoral work. Bob prepared me from the first to share the kind of life he wanted most; when we received a call to mission service I was as overjoyed as he. During our first tour of service, on the Caribbean island of Aruba, Bob pastored a congregation of West Indians from a score of islands. In Aruba I discovered an unsuspected ability for choir directing. From then on, wherever I went, I had at least one choral group, usually made up of youth who had never had cause to suspect the existence of musical notation. We learned together—they about reading notes and singing parts and I about blending voices, and I do not know who was more elated, They or I, when the first group won an invitation to sing on the local radio station.

I continued with my elementary teaching, finding it challenging to mold into a dynamic unit my multigrade segment of young humanity. By now I was distinctly aware of my limited preparation for teaching.

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Our happiest, years were lived in Colombia, our second assignment. A flair for languages stood me in good stead here, for though I arrived in the country with Spanish limited to Buenos Dias, after a month in the country I gave an informal talk in that language at a college devotional meeting, and soon I was teaching in Spanish. Now I began teaching on the second level. As an extra project separate from my mission-connected work, I taught English in Bogot¨ı¨‰ in a U.S. Information Services-sponsored night school, where a skillfully devised program was achieving near-miraculous results. I absorbed it eagerly, little dreaming how an adaptation of the carefully programmed approach would enhance my teaching not only in Colombia but also later in Nebraska, to beginning Spanish students on the college level.

As my husband traveled as director of mission youth activities, he had become haunted with the realization that a large percentage of Colombian youngsters had no opportunity for schooling beyond about second grade. He found families large, wages low, and older children needed as breadwinners. The most deprived of all were the country youth. Bringing them to the city for training would not solve the problem; once accustomed to city conveniences they would seldom return to their home regions. School would have to be taken to them.

We devised a plan for a school just beyond the limits of civilization, where older youth could defray their own expenses through their work. Supported only morally by our mission board, which had no budget for a school, we obtained a farm of several hundred acres in the eastern plains (llanos) of Colombia. Life was different now from that which we had always known. We lived, at first, in thatched buildings with dirt floors. Torrential rains made our "campus" a Red Sea of mud; dry-season winds parched our throats. Transportation to the nearest village—and mail—was a many-hour riverboat journey.

But the school grew steadily. Rice plantations paid part of the expenses; gifts from business friends pieced out the lack. My teaching was more enjoyable than ever before; I was instructing young people who had come to school for a purpose—they stalked knowledge as some men pursue gold. Although seriously lacking in formal preparation, I found myself more competent in most fields than the Colombian staff that made up the rest of our faculty;

Over the years I taught not only English but also music, religion, geometry, biology, geography, domestic arts and gardening. Every class was a thrill. But each day I became more aware that my present knowledge was not enough.

After a number of years the direction of the school was turned over to national teachers. Our children were teen-agers now, in need of stateside schooling. The family would settle in the United States, with my husband overseas only part of the time. At last had come my day to return to "college.

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Although keenly apprehensive at first about competing with younger students, I soon found I had no trouble maintaining a place on the Dean's List. The greatest of many thrills that opened before me was a course in creative writing—it transported me into a new world. Several of my class projects were published, one article winning first prize in a magazine competition. Meanwhile, I had definitely decided on college teaching in the field of English as my chief endeavor for the years ahead—years which should be my most fruitful and productive, the children no longer requiring mothering and my fuller energies channeled into the work I loved.

Thus it was within the decade, teaching English full time on a college campus, I found marching across a platform to receive my Ph.D. My son Wayne completed his doctorate a week before I did;

Daughter Carol had only weeks earlier completed a master's degree in nursing and was teaching in a university, married to a physician. My foster daughter, Vilma, had finished two master's degrees in nursing. Unfortunately, our home had disintegrated several years before; we did pay a steep price for our struggle to meet educational goals.

Since then I have taught English, and a little Spanish, in two denominational colleges, serving as Chairman of the Division of Humanities in the second one. I retired in 1993.

IN 1994 my brother and I made a sentimental journey to search out the location of our grandparents' homestead. We located it near Sykeston, North Dakota. The sod house where my father and several of his siblings were born was no more, but we found there on the site a curious artifact, which is a cherished souvenir. What a debt we owe to those brave, hard-working grandparents who in effect by emigrating from Russia and carving out homes in America have handed us this wonderful land with all its potential for economic and educational development.

Now, as I see my grandchildren pursuing their college training and the oldest one anticipating further study in medicine, I am once more grateful for my sturdy pioneer German-Russian stock. I am glad they handed me a work ethic, which I could pass on to my descendants, which would enable us to reach high goals. Even more than that, I am grateful that they made available to me what I consider a heritage of priceless truth concerning the saving grace of my Lord Jesus Christ, and the knowledge that soon He is coming back for His children here on earth. I can scarcely wait to meet those ancestors personally in a better land and listen to their stories of life in Russia and of the early days in the new land. So many questions to ask, and so much history to share!

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7th child of 12 of Susan Wall and Abraham Hiebert.

Margaret Hiebert (1898-1900) died in infancy, age 1 yr. 7 m.

Margaret Hiebert born May 20, 1898 - Died January 16, 1900.

8th child of 12 of Susan Wall and Abraham Hiebert. Emma Hiebert (1900-1987) Married Louis Schwarz (1898-1980)

Emma Hiebert born May 27, 1900 in North Dakota. Louis Schwarz was born on June 30, 1898. They were married on August 23, 1923 in Los Angeles, CA.

Emma Hiebert loved doing things for others. If you were going somewhere she asked to take care of the children.

They were one of the first Pathfinder Leaders. She was a Dorcas leader for years at the Compton California church.

She also took care of foster children. Emma & Louis lived with family to Los Angeles area.

Emma Hiebert and Louis Schwarz 5 children are as follows:

1. Francis Schwarz (1924-1987)

2. Agnes Schwarz (1926-

3. Tom Schwarz (1933-1991)

4. Phillip Schwarz (1936-

5. Christine Schwarz (1943-

1st child of 5 of Emma Hiebert and Louis Schwarz

Francis Schwarz (1924-1987) Married Ralph Shands (unknown-Francis and Ralph Shands have 4 children as follows:

1. Tana Shands (unknown-

2. David Shands (unknown-

3. Dan Shands (unknown-

4. Chris Shands (unknown-

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2nd child of 5 of Emma Hiebert and Louis Schwarz Agnes Schwarz (1926-Married Norman Roberts (1924-

Agnes Schwarz born November 19, 1926 in Los Angeles. Norman Roberts born March 6, 1924 in Oklahoma. They were married on August 29, at Compton, CA. Norman worked for years for Baker Oil tools. Norman was the secretary for the California Masonic Home Endowment and the local Masonic Lodge. Agnes retired from the school district. They Live in Santa Fe Springs, California.

Agnes and Norman Roberts have 3 children as follows:

1. Paul Roberts (1951-Divorced & remarried <occupation. Live Sounds, lives in Redlands Ca>

Garrett Roberts (1979-

Kyle Roberts (1984-

2. Dale Roberts (unknown- Divorced no children. Occupation, carpenter & avid skier, lives in Santa Anna Ca. Traveled almost all 3rd world countries on a bicycle, studying to be a nurse

3. Nancy Roberts (unknown- Married (unknown-

Matthew (unknown-

Nancy divorced & remarried Jim Ishii (unknown a professional Musician, Nancy is a Legal secretary.

Nils Ishii (1989- is a professional musician and a computer wizard.

3rd child of 5 of Emma Hiebert and Louis Schwarz Tom Schwarz (1933-1991) Married Carol Atwater (1932-

Tom Schwarz born December 1, 1933 in Los Angeles. Carol Atwater was born in November of 1932. They married in 1952. Tom was employed as Fire Captain in Buena Park, California. Tom and Carol have 3 children as follows:

1. Susan Schwarz (unknown- Married Craig Wright (unknown- Renee White (unknown-

2. Marlene Schwarz (unknown- Married Pepe Lopez (unknown-

(Then divorced Pepe Lopez) Ruby Lopez (unknown-

3. Alien Schwarz (unknown-1989) died in Oahu, Hawaii.

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Abe Hiebert and Rose Holcomb had 6 children as follows:

1. Avis Arlene Hiebert (1928-

2. Zada Louetta Hiebert (1930-

3. Burl Warren Hiebert (1931-

4. Abe Oren Hiebert (1933-

5. James Lee Hiebert (1934-

6. Marjorie Joan Hiebert (1940-

1st child of 6 of Abe Hiebert and Rose Holcomb Avis Arlene Hiebert born April 21, 1928 at Loma Linda, Calif. Avis 1st husband was Deforest (Dee) Lamson. They had 2 children Janet and Julie. Avis and Dee divorced in 1989. Later Avis married John "Van" Swearingen. They live in _________________

Huntsville, Alabama.

Avis and Dee's 2 children as follows:

1. Janet Lamson (unknown-

2. Julie Lamson (unknown-

2nd child of 6 of Abe Hiebert and Rose Holcomb

Zada Louetta Hiebert born February 22, 1930. She married Malcolm MacGregor who had 2 sons. Zada and Malcom never had any children together. Malcom passed away in 1993. On June 28, 1996, Zada married "Age" Stein.

3rd child of 6 of Abe Hiebert and Rose Holcomb

Burl Warren Hiebert born July 16, 1931. He married Joan

Scott (unknown- they have 3 children as follows:

1. Lonnie Hiebert (1957-

2. Don Hiebert (unknown-

3. Dixie Hiebert (unknown- married John Carson and have 1 child Julie Carson (unknown-

4th child of 6 of Abe Hiebert and Rose Holcomb

Abe Oren Hiebert born March 3, 1933. He married Bette Jones and they have 2 children as follows:

1. Steven Hiebert (unknown-

2. David Hiebert (unknown—

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Biography: by Andrew Alan Brown Submitted, September 1997, in his own words

My name was chosen by Grandfather Abe Hiebert. Lived in Deer Island, Oregon from age 3 to age 8. Must have been 1969 to 1974.

During this period my parents were active members of the Rainier, Oregon Seventh Day Adventist Church. The pastor was Glen Stambaugh.

My dad owned a janitorial service.

We moved to Chehalis, Washington when I was about 8 years old.

Attended the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Onalaska, Washington.

Began first year of school at the Seventh Day Adventist School between Chehalis and Centralia. Incidentally, although it was my first year in school, I began in the second grade.

While living in Chehalis, at age 9, I was attacked by a neighbor's (the Clarks) German Shepard, a mutt weighing 120 pounds to my 60. The dog practically tore my scalp off as well as lunching heartily on my left arm. We conducted a lawsuit against the Clarks.

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At age 10, we moved to Oroville, Washington, where dad bought a dairy delivery distribution business, we lived on the south edge of town on 4.3 acres of alfalfa and pasture.

I entered the third grade in the Ellisforde Seventh Day Adventist School. I skipped the fourth grade. I returned for the fifth and sixth, and skipped seventh, eighth and ninth grades while living in Oroville.

I began taking piano lessons again from a local teacher, Elizabeth Grunst. I loved piano, practiced consistently for four hours daily, and won first place in the country piano ' competitions twice. When I was fifteen, I began taking lessons from Mary Toy, in Spokane, where we drove bi-weekly.

We were very active in the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Oroville. As Adventists do, our entire community consisted exclusively of Adventist friends. Mom usually managed Vacation Bible School. Dad was a deacon, elder, took the pulpit, led song service, and many other things. My best friend in Oroville was Jim Lyonais.

Entertainment and play in Oroville was very nature based, since Oroville was not very big. There were great mountains on both sides, rivers on both sides/ and Lake Osoyoos, which was great for swimming and ice-skating in the winter. I also enjoyed fishing with my brothers or Jimmy.

When I was about twelve or so. Grandma Hiebert and her second husband, Kofa Finfrock, moved to Oroville so we could care for them. Grandma had Parkinsonà‹à˙s disease. By the time I was fifteen, she left her husband, partly because of their differences, partly because her health and hallucinations were so severe, and moved in with us. About a year later, we placed her in a nursing home, where she died in 1983. Kofa died a couple of years later on Christmas day, at a senior citizens dinner. We did not like him much, so after we left Oroville, we had no contact.

In Oroville, my brothers and I worked for dad in his business. When I skipped school I worked on the dairy route two or three days per week. They were long days, especially in the summer. Dad would wake me at 2:30 AM and we would work together until 2, 3, or 4:00 P.M. I worked very hard, and enjoyed being an asset to my father. In 1981 Carnation ran us out of business, and we went into the forestry business. We contracted cleaning and thinning jobs from the US Forest Service. Dad gave me a small chainsaw/, which I used for a while. After my brothers and dad nearly cut themselves to death on numerous occasions, I lost my chainsaw privileges. Since this was work I hated passionately, I did not mourn this turn of events.

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I continued work however, since there was plenty to do that did not require chainsaw operation. I stacked and burned slash, carried gas and water, and when we had thinning jobs on the young forests, I used loppers with everyone else. I still hated this work. Other times I worked in the apple orchard for a neighbor, Mr. Petry, and some friends, Dave Buckmiller and the Kleins, from church. This work I did not mind so much. All my work experience led me to the conclusion that work was not for me.

While living in Oroville, I discovered reading. I loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and the nature stories of Sam Campbell, and read the series numerous times. I also grew into National Geographic and National Wildlife. Early, maybe at the age of ten, when I decided that I would be a Christian, I woke early when I could and read the Bible and the works of the Adventist prophet, Ellen G. White. I remember reading Steps to Christ, The Desire of Ages, and The Great Controversy by the time I was twelve. The strongest message I learned from her was how bad and dangerous Catholics really are. By the time I was fourteen or fifteen, I branched into reading other books like Does God Exist by Hans Kung, a Catholic, and Erich Von Doniken, a kook. Mom enjoyed reading and discussing these books with me, probably just to keep tabs on where I was going. She always played an instrumental role in shaping my spiritual and philosophical growth.

I discovered politics. Although I have faint early memories of Nixon and Pandas, the voyages to the moon, and dad calling John Dean a liar, politics and world affairs broke through to me in a big way in Oroville. I remember the first time the pastor prayed for the hostages in Iran. I had no idea what Iran was or anything else that he was talking about. But I soon learned about Iran, the Soviet Union, Vietnam, Israel, Anwar Sadat, and everything else I could learn from reading Time Magazine and the Wenatchee World newspaper. I loved reading Jack Anderson and other columnists. I took to my politics passionately. Dad reprimanded for drawing aggressive US/Soviet war scenes during church. At school, I was reprimanded for creating an Ayatollah Komeini dartboard, whose face I exchanged for Brezhnev's and Quaddafi's. I took to geopolitics quite nicely. When Ronald Reagan came along, I was so ecstatic; I probably felt that Christ should feel comfortable postponing his return, since Reagan was sure to save the country. Reagan formed me as a Republican in a strong and irrevocable way. Although I no longer agree with everything he did, or with every stand the Republican Party takes, my political identity remains firmly with the GOP.

Our family's spiritual formation experienced foundational change during our stay in Oroville. In the early 1980's the Seventh Day Adventist Church went through severe tremblers. Corruption and mismanagement of money was disclosed. The prophet, Ellen G. White was exposed as a plagiarist.

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Many people in the church across the world came to believe that the church, by observing itself as God's only true church, with Ellen White as a super biblical source of guidance, and a number of extra-Christian doctrines, bordered on being a cult, or at least wildly inappropriate in some of its teachings. Several theologians, including one with profound impact on our family, Australian Desmond Ford, led a movement out of Adventism and into mainstream Christianity. This exodus had no small impact on our family.

Being exclusively Adventist, in a cultural, social and spiritual sense, we were open to ostracism and rejection from our friends and community. Our confrontational style probably did not endear us to other members of our church. We were not shy about expressing doubts and quoting scripture that was contradictory of Adventist doctrine. It did not help others perception of us that when I chose to be baptized, I chose our former minister. Glen Stambaugh, to baptize me. He had been recently fired as a minister and was no longer an Adventist/ but a Methodist minister. But while this time was very upsetting, especially I think, for my parents, for me it was a time of great spiritual growth. The turmoil inspired me to search and to read the Bible for myself.

In 1984, after my grandmother passed away, and our church provided no reason to stay, we decided to move to Spokane. Laurie and Barry were in college, and Bryan was living in Portland, so it was just mom, dad and I. The reason we went to Spokane rather than back to the west coast is a bit funny. The way I saw it, we moved to Spokane because that was where my piano teacher lived. The real reason I chose Mrs. Toy to be my piano teacher is that she had a student from Spokane who was my first girlfriend. So, in a way, I think we moved to Spokane for Julie Mantyla, who shortly after I broke up with her, became a dike. I have always thought that to be unusually funny.

So we ended up in Spokane, living on North Ash Street. I was 17 and skipping another year of school. I don't remember what dad was doing for a living at first. I know he got a horrid job in a machine shop at some point. I went to modeling school and landed a few jobs co-coordinating fashion shows and even got into a couple of catalogues.

I remember one particularly tough day. I was riding my bike to a cattle call (an event where models are chosen for shows) and had forgotten to put on deodorant. I solved that problem by going into Rosauers and putting on deodorant. In the process, I created another problem by getting arrested for it. Calling dad to come discuss it and take me home was quite awful.

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The ABE HIEBERT Family Story /

As Seen Through the Eyes of His youngest child, Marjorie Joan (Margi)

Submitted January, 1998

My father, Abe Hiebert, born

On June 14, 1904, in a sod house in North Dakota, was the 10th child born to Abraham Hiebert and Susan Wall Hiebert, with four of those ten children already deceased.

One of those was a baby boy named Abraham who died when he was only 11 days old. Apparently their father wanted a namesake, so the new baby boy, Abe, was named after his father and his brother also.

He was most likely named Abraham, although he was never called anything but Abe, and as there was no birth certificate he only knew his name to be Abe Hiebert. In later life he felt the need of a middle name so he gave himself the middle name, Oran.

Abraham and Susan Hiebert had a long and rich Mennonite history, but had converted to Seventh Day Adventism some years previously. I have been told that the first Sabbath keeper in this line was a Hiebert in Russia during the time of Peter the Great. So it appears that there was a history of interpreting the Bible along those lines.

Dad didn't talk much about his childhood or his family; in fact he wasn't much of a talker about anything. I didn't even think of any questions about his family until he was gone many years, so consequently, my information is sketchy.

On occasion, he would get talkative when we were husking large quantities of corn or some similar task and I loved to listen to him. At these times he would talk about Bible characters or tell some story from his childhood.

He recounted the length of the prayers in his childhood church. As a little boy he would sneak out the back door during prayers, go to the outhouse, play around outside and when he returned the same person would still be praying!

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When he talked about his childhood, there was an amused, little boy quality about him, quite different from his usual somewhat somber demeanor. If only I had known how precious were his reminiscences, I would have listened more closely and asked questions to keep him talking. But as with most of us, our heritage is mostly lost by our own lack of perspective.

That boyish amusement was never more evident than when he told about being in some program where children were given recitations. Young Abe went up and recited apparently extemporaneously—"Kaiser Bill went up the hill to take a look at France, Kaiser Bill came down the hill with bullets in his pants." He said that the audience, which consisted of German-Russian immigrants, was deathly silent when he sat down!

He also told about being placed in school when he was four years old and recounted that he just sat there and did nothing or played around until about age 6 when he was ready to apply himself to school work. Though I have forgotten most of the details, I remember his amused affect, which I found delightful.

I do not remember him saying much about his parents. His father died in Minnesota on March 2, 1925 at the age of 61, when Abe was 20. I don't know the last time he saw his parents, but he certainly did not see his mother after he moved from California in 1928 when he was 24. Her children bad purchased a train ticket so she could visit her sons and their families in Virginia, but she died from a massive stroke shortly before the trip was to take place, to the great disappointment of her children and grandchildren, whom she had never seen. Abe's oldest child was eleven at the time of Grandma Susan's death, August 20, 1939.

My mother mentioned Grandma Susan a few times in rather negative terms and because I was so young I never questioned her or asked my dad about his mother. She told me that dad's mother ruined his stomach with her cooking/ she also said that Grandma Hiebert always wanted a grandchild named after her and that Jim would have been Susan Marie if he'd been a girl, but fortunately he was a boy and Grandma died before I was born so I didn't have to be named Susan Marie! Looking back, I do not know why Aunt Elizabeth's daughter, Susan Wedel wasn't sufficient.

Maybe it was because my dad was so quiet and rarely expressed his feelings, but it appears that my dad lacked closeness to his parents for whatever reason. Because he seldom talked about them and they both died before I was born. I learned very little about my Hiebert grandparents. The consequence is that I was given scant connection to my family tree, to my great loss.

Abe went to Hinsdale Academy in Hinsdale, Illinois. He was on his own financially by then, working his way through school and eating only one meal a day to keep expenses down. At the academy he met Rose Marie Holcomb, who he married on August 18, 1926 when he was 22 and she was almost 19.

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One of my dad's greatest loves was music and singing. Unfortunately, he was tone deaf and was unaware of it. As a practical joke, his classmates at Hinsdale, set him up to sing a solo and at that embarrassing time he learned that he was a monotone. His girl friend Rose was a party to this or at least knew of it and didn't inform him. Abe was deeply humiliated and as well as hurt by her participation, and my mother indicated to me that this was almost unforgivable.

Nevertheless, in future years singing was a large part of their home. Mother played the piano a bit and she helped Dad find the notes. To him, one of the great delights of heaven would be the ability to sing beautifully.

Apparently his family lacked enthusiasm over Abe's marriage to Rose, which is understandable because Rose was so religiously fanatical and rigid that his family could never measure up to her standards. The Testimonies of Ellen White were as the air she breathed. There was nothing more important to her than what one ate, "health reform" was at the top of her list, but it didn't end there. "Sister White says,à‹¨› ruled their home, which was as encompassing as the voluminous writings of Mrs. White on every imaginable subject from photographs to bicycles to vinegar.

Nevertheless, my father, who never took his religion lightly, was, for some reason, drawn to her brand of religiosity and enabled it, as well as participated in it at some level, however, I never sensed the attitudes in him that she exhibited, nor do my siblings indicate it.

Abe had one year of college theology. Family members differ on when and where this took place. Some think it was at Emmanuel Missionary College at Berien Springs, Michigan before his marriage, another thinks it may have been at La Sierra College in southern California, and others favor Pacific Union College in northern California, the latter would have been after their marriage. Apparently this brush with theology qualified him to preach, as some of the siblings recollect.

After their marriage, they did move to California. If it wasn't for further education it may have been because Abe's family lived in California. Their first child, Avis Arlene was born at Loma Linda, California on April 21, 1928. Before she was six months old they moved to Virginia, possibly to work in Uncle John Hiebert's health food business.

Zada Louetta was born at the Adventist hospital in Takoma Park, Maryland, on February 23, 1930, 22 months after Avis was born.

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It must have been some gene pool trick or the humor of God to place these two girls as close in age sisters. Avis, the happy go lucky, adventuresome child with ample ability for power and control/ and Zada, overly sensitive, easily manipulated and melancholy personality. Poor Zada was quite tormented by Avis who wielded her power to her own advantage. Nevertheless, that was a childhood thing and they are quite good friends now.

Ironically, the next two children, boys, had a similar situation, only reversed. Burl Warren was born July 16, 1931 and Abe Oran, Jr- was born March 3, 1933. Oran, as the family called him, was quick, bright, at least for a time larger than Burl and lorded his advantages over his older brother. Consequently, Zada and Burl, partners in suffering, got along excellently, and provided comfort for each other!

From "Sister White" Mother gleaned that children should never be given too much attention or they would have too high an opinion of themselves, therefore she informed her brother Ora that when he visited he was not to show the children any physical affection because they would think themselves too important. While Mother took her rule of life from Ellen White, this was likely influenced by popularly taught child psychology of the era, which theorized that children would be ruined by affection.

From most indications from my older siblings, they grew up not only in material poverty, but also some degree of poverty of spirit. They are also quite agreed that mother was the source of this deprivation, nevertheless at least some of my siblings remember a happy childhood as do I, and Mother was at the heart of our lives. It is easy to focus on her negatives, but she also had many positives and she gave us much of value as well.

When Burl was about a year and a half old, Zada three, and Avis five, the two girls fed Burl the poisonous Jimsonweed. The girls thought it Hilarious that he would eat something that tasted so terrible, and they would feed him more and more. Burl became seriously ill and had to have his stomach pumped. Jimsonweed is a hallucinatory poison and Burl has been plagued with the after effect of that all his life.

Sometime when Oran was a wee little guy, the children were playing outside under a tree during a storm and Oran was struck by lightening. He remembers being terrified and mother running out to pick him up.

In 1934 the family of six moved to Michigan, near Resets family. Dad worked for Battle Creek Foods a health food company, which made a cereal called Zoe, which was similar to Grape Nuts.

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Avis recalls some of the houses, or more accurately shacks in which they lived. One was full of wasps, which they never eradicated completely. She remembers another shack in the woods with no finished walls, no plumbing of any kind, and of course no electricity.

The fifth child, James Lee was born in Battle Creek, Michigan on June 9, 1934.

Jim told of living near the airport and the pilots flying low in attempt to scare the cows in the field by their house. This was a dangerous game as Burl recalls that a plane knocked bricks off the chimney of their house! Jim, who remembers Mother talking about it, verified this.

A notable memory from Michigan is the boys were beating on a German Shepherd with sticks. Apparently the dog decided to teach them a lesson, it bit Jill, then Oran, and when unable to catch Burl, turned and bit Oran again. The bites were significant, because Oran was taken in an ambulance for medical treatment.

Burl recalls that Dad came home jubilant one day because The Depression had caused a downsizing but he had retained his job. Nevertheless, it was a temporary reprieve, because Battle Creek Foods later closed down, which was likely why the family returned to Virginia.

The family of seven moved back to Virginia with belongings piled in an old wood panel truck. Enough room was left so the children could lie on top of the goods. Burl remembers that it was quite a vehicle, it had to be cranked and there was no windshield wiper, which presented serious problems in rainstorms.

Avis recalls stopping at a store where only she went in and she was given her first ice cream cone! She questions whether or not she shared it, stating that she wasn't the most sacrificial big sister.

Back near Fredericksburg, Virginia the struggle to survive continued. These were hard years of share crop farming. During this time they moved from farm to farm, hoping for greener pastures, which failed to materialize. They raised peanuts, sweet potatoes and corn. At times there wasn't even adequate food, one winter all they had to eat was milk from their cow and dried corn. At least part of the time Dad worked at other jobs and brought in some money.

It was 1938 or 1939, still depression years, and Dad worked hard to provide for his family. He was paid $10.00 for breaking horses, however, one man refused to pay Dad for his work. Jim tells that Dad, desperate for the money to support his five children took the man down on a chopping block, holding an axe over his head and told him to pay up or he'd chop his head off! That is completely inconsistent with the man I remember, but I suppose desperation can create incongruities!

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Jim recalls the family visiting people who owned a bull that had killed a man; they kept the dangerous animal penned in the middle of their field. Someone said, "Where's Jimmy?" when they noticed that he was missing. They found him in the pen petting the homicidal bull!

While Jimmy escaped harm then, he wasn't so spared when at six years of age he got behind a horse at a granary and blew a police whistle! He was kicked in the head and knocked out and to this day he carries a "horseshoe" on his head.

During these years the family lived near Uncle Martin, Aunt Auda, Wayne and Minon, as well as Uncle John, Aunt Mabel and their many children Aunt Auda was a teacher and she conducted a small church school some years for all the cousins in the area. The children played together and Burl and Wayne were best friends.

On one occasion, Wayne, whom Burl found quite persuasive, talked Burl into overcoming the effects of poison ivy by eating it! It was a lesson never to be forgotten!

On one of Wayne and Auda's visits the children walked across a log in a ravine unaware of a yellow jacket's nest in the log. Because Jim was the smallest and therefore the last child in line as they were running away, he v/as severely attacked and stung with over 100 stings.

During the warm months wells were sometimes used for refrigeration. A jar of cream had somehow fallen out of the bucket and was floating in the well, so Burl was lowered into the well to put the jar back in the bucket. When the bucket was raised, there in the bucket with the cream was a coral snake! Dad quickly disposed of it; he had no love for snakes.

My siblings recall that Dad and Uncle John, and sometimes Uncle Martin, argued religion constantly when visiting. Mother, who was horrified at any conflict, real or imagined, would not let them argue in the house, but would send them outside for their discussions. When the children would come near they would switch their arguments to German!

Uncle John was quite talented in his creation of "health foods" and was eventually bought out by Worthington Foods, for his recipes, which were used many years, and some still may be,

I was born on November Q, 1940, the setting was grim. The Great Depression may have been over but their depression continued. There were already five children going without necessities. My mother undoubtedly was already tired from extreme poverty, endless work, five children and now another baby! My father was likely overwhelmed and in constant anxiety with the pressure of trying to provide for his large family.

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In my early teens my mother told me that I was such a blessing to the family, that they really needed a baby, but that assessment did not come with my arrival.

Burl remembers Dad leaving to get the doctor on an extremely dark night. It was a long and excruciatingly painful labor, but for whatever reason, no anesthesia was administered. Many years later, after Avis had her children, mother told Avis that because the birth was so painful she did not want anything to do with me.

Avis, who was 12 1/2, was relieved of working in the fields and other distasteful chores so that she could take care of the new baby. Although she did not know the reason, she was delighted.

Avis doesn't recall caring for me at night, so I assume my Dad did. My poor father! Engulfed with work and care, and now his sleep disturbed as he cared for the infants needs at night. I can picture him, holding me; his wife's back turned, and his compassion and love enveloping me. I wonder if that beginning is why I always felt so bonded in soul to him and limited in my identification with her.

I knew nothing of this infant rejection until Avis told me when I was in my mid-40s. She said that I was about a year old before Mother took full care of me. It was surprising that in spite of the lacks in our relationship, I ended up closer to her than my five siblings. There is some evidence that she may not have been overly nurturing with any of her children and that she was more tender toward me as a child because not only was I the baby, but also because life had become less harsh for her. Also, she had never given up on the level of "Sister White" tyranny that the older children had endured. This was probably some mellowing, and also that it simply had not worked with the older children, some of whom had rebelled quite extensively.

Dad's last farming venture (until he was nearly 60) was a chicken farm with a more financially secure Mr. Carter. Our family lived in the large Carter farmhouse and Avis recalls that though there was a bathroom in the house it didn't work well, so they had to use the outhouse. Mother was upset because she had to use the same outhouse as the Negro hired man! How differently people thought about race in those times!

On the Carter farm they built three large chicken houses and stocked them with chickens. What a crushing disappointment it must have been when disease wiped out this dream. Now, added to his already heavy family responsibilities was the debt incurred in this enterprise.

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Burl recalls that Mr. Carter greatly favored Oran, which made it hard for Burl. Oran though younger, got all the privileges, even driving the tractor, but Burl, in Mr. Carter's estimation did everything wrong and he got all the blame. In addition, the younger Oran was now bigger and would beat Burl up as well as other boyish tormenting.

Nevertheless, Burl's view of his childhood is that it was generally happy. As a boy, he just worshipped Dad, thought he was the best looking and most wonderful man in the world, consequently. Burl did everything that he could with him. He got up early to do chores with him and skipped school to do farm work. While still on the farm Dad was teaching him to plow with a horse.

Burl also remembers that in some places they lived the children found wonderful antiques in the old buildings, muskets, sabers, and old buggies with nice leather upholstery, which he fears they damaged in their play.

After the chicken disaster Dad got a job painting at Quantico Marine Base and he earned $1.00 per hour! Burl remembers how proud he was of his Dad making more money than anyone they knew. Soon Dad even bought a two-year-old car.

From the farm life they soon moved to Takoma Park, Maryland, just two blocks from the huge Sligo Seventh Day Adventist church. Dad and a man named Mr. Albertson began a contract painting business, even mixing their own paint out of lead, linseed oil, and turpentine.

My memories from that era, when I was three and four, are, I had a "cupie" doll. I played with Mango seeds, combing their hair, pretending that they were dolls, and a Scarlet Fever epidemic, Jim was quarantined and they thought I was coming down with it also, so I was put in the same room with him. I did not have Scarlet Fever, nor did I become ill with that exposure.

Life seemed to be going better until Dad contacted lead poisoning. He became very sick and could not continue painting indefinitely.

Dad had always wanted to move west. Now with painting for his vocation impossible and feeling a need to get his teen-agers and children out of the city - especially Avis, who was getting a bit out of control - he began to plan a westward move.

First Mr. Albertson drove my mother, Zada, Burl Jim and me across the country. I was now four and I remember only a man driver, my mother and myself. My place to sleep was that large shelf in the 40's cars under the back window. My most clear memory is rolling off it onto the empty back seat, so that is probably why I don't remember the presence of my sibling, as they would have been out of the car when that happened.

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Jim recollects that whenever he earned some money he bought Audubon prints for ten cents apiece. By the time they went west he had collected an entire set of over 116 prints. Because they were allowed to take almost nothing with them, he left his precious prints behind. Recently, he saw those same prints that he had collected as a ten year old child at an art gallery priced at $350.00 each!

In Oregon, we stayed a few months with mother's brother Evert Holcomb at Molalla until Dad arrived. Avis had determined not to move with the family, however, in the end she decided to come with Dad and Oran. Avis believes they went west via Michigan and attended Mother's Dad's funeral as she remembers seeing Grandpa Holcomb in his casket.

After they joined us, a newly constructed large chicken house in a woodsy setting near Estacada became our home. My delight was only dampened because Avis and Zada got the rooms with the chicken's nests. I Zada, however, was devastated, a young socially insecure teen-ager, those living conditions overwhelmed her with embarrassment. Mother obtained a job teaching in a small church school, and Dad worked in a nearby sawmill.

During this year I remember the boys built a wonderful tree house in the woods, but they would not allow me in it. Jim would chase me with those huge nasty slugs so prevalent in Western Oregon and Washington, and I would run screaming to Mother.

My first distinct memory of my father is at this time. Mother and I came home from school to find my Dad mopping the floor on his knees with one hand because he had had his thumb smashed off at ' the sawmill that day I

Because of the character of my father, when the women's liberationists of the l960's began their male - bashing, they struck no chord of response in me. This self-sacrificing man inoculated me from their venom! .

In 1945 we moved to College Place, Washington, where Dad was hired by Walla Walla College to work in their dairy processing plant, where, in contrast to his previous work record he remained for 18 years. He was soon made manager and the business prospered and expanded under his management, diligence, integrity, service and commitment to a superior product. All his products were high quality, but the College Dairy Cottage Cheese was superior to any in the market at that time, even bringing prizes in Washington State Dairy competitions. He was a perfectionist in his work and would cut no corners in making his cottage cheese, refusing to use preservatives, which the industry at that time generally used to ensure "freshness", but which made nasty tasting cottage cheese. Instead, his was kept fresh by simply making sure that what he marketed was actually fresh!

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Mother found employment at the college cafeteria, and my brothers and sisters were enrolled in the nearby Adventist schools. At five I was the original latch key child! My Mother worked only half a dozen blocks from home and Dad worked across the large school playground and while I was allowed to visit their places of employment I spent much of my time sitting in my yard/ watching the children on the playground.

Sometime after I turned six in November, it was decided that since I could already read, I would be better off in school, rather than left without supervision. This decision, while providing a baby sitter for me, proved to be an educational disaster. It replaced my child like confidence with insecurity because, not only was I placed where I was among the youngest and most immature, I had the added disadvantage of beginning the year after the educational and social systems were in place. The unsuccessful patterns set in motion not only clouded my elementary years, but also gave me a lifelong distaste for school.

This setting in an Adventist college community provided the full measure of Adventism as a sub-culture. Not only did Dad and Mother work full time to provide us with exclusively Seventh Day Adventist schooling, there was family worship twice daily, regular Sabbath School and church attendance, Friday night vespers and camp meeting. All social life, entertainment, and recreation were provided by the church, of course, worldly entertainment, such as movies and dancing was forbidden, as was jewelry and make'-up. Our family was strictly vegetarian, but we also followed, Ellen Whitens health prescriptions so we consumed no vinegar, pepper, mustard, baking powder, and we felt guilty for eating eggs, milk and cheese! Dad even developed a Honey Vanilla ice cream to get around Ellen White's prohibition of the "milk and sugar" combination.

Because these years were mostly happy for me, I was reasonably content with my strict upbringing. Further, my world consisted of nothing that was not conservative Adventist so I knew nothing else.

During these years we were quite disconnected from the extended family, my parent's attitudes and actions conveyed the idea that family was not important, in fact the church was our family.

The one family member with whom we had contact was Dad's sister, Aunt Sally Goset, who lived in Kelso, Washington. Her husband died when she was 40 and pregnant with her second son, Frederick (Fritz). Because she was a widow in need, we visited her every summer and Dad helped her with repairs, house painting, and other jobs difficult for her.

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But while I was a contented small child, big sister Avis was "kicking over the traces" and checking out on her own. She ran off to Chicago with Deforest (Dee) Lamson the summer of 1947, and they were married some time later. Although they were a bit shocking, they remained Seventh Day Adventists.

Oran disconnected himself from Adventism in his early teen years. He got himself in a little juvenile trouble, which while causing pain and embarrassment to our parents, created a fascinating bit of notoriety to me at eight years of age. He also spent his latter high school years at Walla Walla High School' rather than the Adventist academy.

My mother complained to my siblings that they had vied to give me attention when I was tiny, but when I got older they didn't pay any attention to me. But that was not how I viewed the situation. I adored my older brothers and sisters and considered myself privileged to have such a large, fun family. At Christmas and birthdays they gave me great toys, which they never had as children. Burl made me a wonderful doll high chair in shop class that I treasured.

The grueling hard years were over, and although we never had much, our world was in sharp contrast to the harsh poverty that was the life of my older siblings; consequently the world of my childhood was much friendlier. And while my parents continued to work hard, they enjoyed a comfort and security not previously known. They bought a house, remodeled it and lived decently.

Dad loved to garden and always had a large, beautiful vegetable garden, which was a showplace. His own property was never big enough, so they gardened on neighbor's property as well. He followed the organic gardening methods and the results were impressive. We canned and froze enough produce to eat all year.

My mother, though yet rigid and legalistic, relaxed considerably and did not make me miserable with her views. Somewhere in time, Dad replaced his useless legalism with a live, genuine Christianity, but he never shared the transformation of his inner life with his family. The reason I conclude that there was a change, is because although one cannot see the wind, it is possible to see what it does.

But some of the changes in my parents were over corrections. While they had been rigid and strict with the older children, they did little to restrict me. At age 16 when dating 19-year-old Duane Brown, we would come and go as we pleased. More than once as we left the house Duane said, "If you were my daughter, I would ask you where you are going and when you would return! "

In August 1956, Burl married Joann Scott, a girl he met at college. Their first child, Lonnie was born in July of 1957, while Burl was still in college. They have three children, Lonnie, Don, and Dixie, and five grandchildren.

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Jim went to Alaska to work and at age 20, married 23 years old Bella Lauth, on January 26, 1956, a native Alaskan girl with Japanese, French, and Indian as her heritage and an interesting family history. They have four children, Duane/ Floyd, Susan, and Gerald (Jerry), and seven grandchildren.

My mother graduated from Walla Walla College in elementary education in 1958, the same year that I, her youngest, married.

Duane Brown and I were married on May 29, 1958 at the ages of 20 and 17 respectively. We have four children, Laurie, Barry, Bryan, and Andrew and have five grandchildren, but that is a presently growing number!

Zada married Malcolm MacGregor on February 22, 1961, a man with two sons. They had no children together. Malcolm passed away in 1993 and Zada remarried Age Stein on June 28, 1996.

Abe Oran married Bette Jones on April 25, 1963; they have two sons, Steven and David.

Avis and Dee had two girls, Janet and Julie. They divorced in 1989 and Avis remarried John Van Swearingen.

In 1963 Duane and I with my parents together bought a 30-acre farm near St. Helens, Oregon. The purchase price was accessible because it had been devastated by the hurricane level storm of October 1962.

At this time my father quit his rewarding and satisfying managerial job at the College Dairy and took a janitorial job at Portland Adventist Academy. Although he had always had the farming bug, he dreamed about having a farm, and shared our desire to raise our children in the country. I believe that the actual change of occupations from one that engendered respect and authority to a menial position that involved increased physical labor and a twenty-five mile drive to work was a difficult change at age 59.

My mother taught school in a nearby church school. We all worked the land, but I am sure it wasn't easy for them to work evenings and Sundays on the farm at a time in life that they were getting tired.

Duane worked nights in plywood mill and worked incredibly hard every day on the farm. Our third baby, Bryan, was born shortly before we moved to the farm, so all of our plates were extremely full. It was a hard time with the struggle to transform old pastureland full of perennial grasses into row crops with no capitol and minimal equipment. All of us had a full time job without the farm, but we all worked in the fields on our hands and knees, painstakingly removing the grass roots by hand.

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My parents, nearing retirement age, were back to the survival mode. Living conditions, while having indoor plumbing, were far more primitive than their comfortable home in College Place. Although they made the life altering choice for reasons that they felt important, it doesn't mean that the choice was easy.

Our hard work enabled survival and in a few years we were ready to make money farming the tried and true way, selling off parcels of land! However, Dad did not benefit much from that.

In August of 1966 we had a family reunion to celebrate my parents 40th Wedding Anniversary. At that time I was expecting our fourth child.

That fall my mother took a teaching job in Portland and my parents purchased a mobile home and placed it on the property of Portland Adventist Academy so that they could be near their work, and they came to the farm on the week-ends.

My childbirth labor began on December 30, 1966. Shortly after I went to the hospital. Dad was admitted with a heart attack. It was a small town hospital and my small town doctor was on call so in addition to being my baby doctor, was also my father's heart doctor! In fact when I was on the delivery table, a nurse came in asking for medication saying, "Mr. Hiebert is in a lot of pain."

After the birth of our robust baby boy, Duane and I went to Dad's room and gave him a couple of names to choose between and he chose Andrew.

After his heart attack Dad lived only 2 1/2 months, never really recovering. The birth of Andy will always be tied to the death of his precious grandfather, whom he never got to know. Dad was only 62. He outlived his own dad only one year.

His autopsy revealed a long history of heart problems. His heart was full of scar tissue and his body had set up a whole alternate circulatory system. Dad had a great faith in Ellen White's health reform prescriptions and said that because he lived a healthy life-style he would live to be 110. Likely, he was in massive denial over the physical symptoms he undoubtedly experienced and might have lived longer had he sought medical intervention earlier.

Although Dad was quiet and unassuming he touched many lives as was evidenced by the unbelievable huge funeral where hundreds of people attended that we never realized noticed his presence.

At this writing it has been over 30 years since he passed from this life, but reviving his memory overwhelms my emotions. What a loss his early departure has been to his children and grandchildren.

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Dad was an excellent father and grandfather; he was kind/ patient, industrious/ self-sacrificing, peace enhancing, and deep and had a quiet joy. I never questioned my position with him, I was always acceptable. He was never crude, course, inappropriate, vindictive, or cruel. But like any human, he had failings. What he lacked was expressiveness, affection, romanticism, enthusiasm, passion, and a zest for life. While being with him was comfortable, pleasant, and enjoyable, one couldn't say that he was fun. Nevertheless, his steadiness, commitment, and high character gave stability to my life that has been invaluable.

From the school year book where he worked the last years of his life was a tribute, which speaks poignantly about who Abe Hiebert was.

IN MEMORIAM

The- quiet, earnest face is gone, but the memory remains. Friends cannot forget the candid smile of the firm but gentle man who kept the household of our school. The halls are full of his atmosphere, and lives are blessed because he walked this way with us a little while.

God, who notes the need of rest, has given rest - a rest with such a promise that we who go on still at Portland Union Academy may look to the day when the smile will reappear, and we shall walk the shining hall of eternity together.

Mr. Cecil Roy

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Leonard Hiebert and Clara (Mabel) Wedel Family

By: Opal Lemmer August 10, 1997

Leonard was born in North Dakota and did not speak English until he was 8 years old and went to school. He told rather dramatic stories about hitching rides on freight trains. Before his marriage he worked in hospitals and once worked in a mental institution. He said if he had worked there much longer he would have been insane too.

Clara was born in Farmington, Washington. Her birth certificate reads "Mabel Wedel" but there are legal papers dated 1966 showing her name as Clara Mabel Hiebert. She married Leonard in 1930 when she was 15 years old. She and Leonard had 3 children; Opal born in 1932, Eugene in 1935, and Denis in 1945.

Leonard completed the 9th grade and Clara finished the 10th grade. Clara was extremely bright, learned to read when she was four years old, and spoke Spanish fluently.

They lived in Los Angeles after they were married. Leonard worked in a laundry. All his life he took great pride in how well he could wrap a package as a result of the laundry training. They moved to Napa County in 1934. Leonard had a series of jobs, mostly farm type jobs. The whole family worked in the fields picking tomatoes, grapes, peaches and prunes. At one point Leonard worked for the WPA. To escape that he began raising chickens.

Leonard and Clara's mother both died in 1939 so I do not know as much as I would like about either of them.

Susan Wedel was my maternal grandmother. When I was a child she lived in the Dry Creek area. I remember that she was appalled when the family became vegetarian. I remember the game warden coming to the place looking for an illegally killed deer. It was well hidden, he did not find it. Susan died of breast cancer and I remember her showing the cancerous breast to my mother. Peggy, my older cousin/ remembers being jealous because she held me on her lap and I recall her threatening to poke my brother Gene with a needle for some misbehavior.

Mostly, I remember feeling that she was the mean grandmother. She had a hard life, widowed with young children, always poor, but she treated my mother in an unforgivable manner. She favored the boys and had wanted another boy when my mother was born. This is .how it came about that my mother was called "Johnny" for many years. Johnny was made somewhat of a scapegoat in the family, her mother told her she was ugly, and she could not speak of many of the things that happened to her in that family for many years.

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It was child abuse, plain and simple. My mother believed that it had not always been this way that something happened to her mother that forever changed her. Needless to say, my mother left that home as soon as she could and she said that her brother Ted and sister Kathryn had always been wonderful to her, sort of saved her from disaster.

My grandmother Susan Hiebert, on the other hand, was viewed by us children as the good grandmother. She lived in a very small house in St. Helena. At this time we were living near Yountville, between Napa and St. Helena and attended church in St. Helena and every Saturday after church we went to see her. Leonard was her youngest, and there was a close connection between the two of them. My mother loved her as well. In fact, it was my mother who was with her in the hospital the night she died. She had smallpox when young and was hard of hearing. At some point she lived with my parents for a time and my mother learned German in order to talk to her. My feeling has always been that she was greatly beloved by her children even though she did not see some of them for many years.

In 1942, Leonard and Clara bought 40 acres of land far up in the hills above Napa for $400. There was nothing on this land. It was two-thirds brush and a creek ran through it. Leonard built a house and many chicken coops on this property. At one point they had two thousand chickens.

Life was not easy in that place and in 1946 disease hit the chickens. Every morning Leonard would carry out dead chickens. It was the children's job to carry the dead chickens out to a spot where the buzzards would eat them. Eventually the buzzards could not keep up.

Leonard had to go to work in town. He had a number of jobs but eventually he got into the construction business which he did until he retired. He loved to build but he was always a farmer as well. His two sons worked with him. Eugene has built several houses and Denis now works remodeling old historic houses.

Leonard had a tendency to do things from scratch. He bought a well rig and drilled a well on the 40 acre farm, then sold the rig back to the man he bought it from* He bought a truck and chainsaw, went to his sister Betty's place in Trinity County and cut down logs, had them sawed up in the mill, and hauled them back to Napa to build chicken coops.

Shortly after the war ended John Hiebert, Leonard's oldest brother, came to visit and brought with him a message that the Seventh Day Adventists were doing things contrary to the writings of Ellen G. White and maybe the Bible as well. There was also a lot of talk about the ark having been found somewhere. John had left behind a wife and nine children, a fact that Eugene revealed to visitors one day.

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The news caused quite a stir since some people did not feel a man should leave nine children and run around the country in a panel truck talking about the ark. He did go back home and at one time came back with his oldest son.

In some ways this visit was a disastrous event for the family. John persuaded Clara that Ellen G. White had declared that she ought to wear dresses nine inches from the floor. This probably does not sound like such a big deal now but in those days there was far less individualism in dress than today. There were no young men with long hair, only one skirt length, and certainly no one wearing a dress nine inches from the floor.

Not only did Clara wear it that day, she wore it for years, in fact she never again wore a skirt less than a foot below her knees. The nine-inch skirt caused members of the church to tell her she was becoming a laughingstock. It also caused her children to walk several paces behind her. It became somewhat of a catalyst for leaving the church. Years later Leonard said that that skirt certainly did teach him something about people.

People came to our house way up in the mountains and there were terrible arguments about doctrine. When it came to doctrine Leonard was always right and God was on his side. It was the beginning of an alienation from mainstream religion that persisted all their lives. They became involved with the Reformed Seventh Day Adventist Church. This movement had started in Germany and there were many people with strong accents in the group. It was a very strict, demanding faith. Eventually they became somewhat separated from that group as well but all their lives they had friends and visitors who felt deeply about certain articles of faith. Perhaps as the result of this approach none of the children practice any religion.

But understand this. Leonard and Clara did not just preach religion, it permeated their lives. They practiced it every day. Helping others was an article of faith. At one time 3- elderly widowed neighbor was badly burned and was in the old folk's home. When Leonard and Clara visited the bandages stunk so badly that Leonard asked the doctor why they didn't change them. He replied, "Why bother, he's going to die anyway". Leonard took him home and twice every day, until the man died, changed those bandages. After the war they sent food to Europe. While their children were young they took in a homeless teen-ager. After their children were grown they took many trips to Guatemala in a pickup loaded with clothing for the poor. They eventually built a house there so Clara could work in a clinic. They took in many older women who were down on their luck. Clara nursed the ill and elderly. When Clara died a 90-year-old woman was living in the house and a homeless family with two small children was living in a camper the property. They were very, very good people.

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There was one more amazing thing. Perhaps because the family had à‹¨Ωto work together to survive there was no limiting attitude toward women. When Opal began to take classes that other girls were not taking, physics, trigonometry, they were not particularly encouraging but they did not discourage her either. In fact, at one point in her life Clara went back to school. The school officials noted that she was very bright but did not have a high school diploma. In those days there was no such thing as an equivalency test but there were many returning veterans who had not quite finished high school but were granted a diploma. After some thought they did the same for Clara, an unprecedented action.

Eugene and Opal had somewhat sporadic schooling. Opal began school at eight and attended public school for a year, then went to a Seventh Day Adventist school in Napa. The next year Opal began public school but the family moved to the mountains where the school was a number of miles from their home. After that the schooling for the children was mostly at home through correspondence courses although they did attend school several months a years. By the time Denis was in school the family lived near town and he had a more conventional schooling.

In 1947 they left the chicken farm and bought property in the flat land about five miles from Napa. Here they became involved with an Adventist doctor who had a clinic in Guatemala. They made a number of trips there, eventually bought property and built a house. Clara worked in the clinic, delivering babies, pulling teeth, stitching people up but most of all, teaching people how to live. They lived there for four years until Leonard felt he could not endure the climate.

In 1966 they bought 3 acres of land near Sacramento. Leonard built a house on the property. They planted many grapes and fruit trees, had a large garden, raised a few chickens. They nearly always had some elderly lady who needed care living with them.

Somehow people in Africa learned about Clara's work in Guatemala and wrote asking for Bibles. This resulted in a large printing operation. They acquired an offset press and printed Bible lessons and pamphlets on this press. They founded a non-profit organization and various people helped them in this effort.

When Clara was about 65 a group in Nigeria paid for her and a friend to come there and visit. They went to Kenya as well. On the day of return departure Clara fell ill but boarded the plane anyway and that was the last thing she remembered until she woke up in an intensive care unit of a hospital near San Francisco Airport. It turned out she had cerebral Malaria and could have easily have died.

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1st child of 3 of Leonard Hiebert and Clara Wedel Opal Hiebert (1932- Married Robert Lemmer (1924-

Opal and Robert were married in 1953. They live in Cupertino California. Opal worked at NASA in Mountain View, California for over 23 years.

Opal Hiebert and Robert Lemmer have 3 children as follows:

1. Ronald Lemmer (1954- Married ________________

Barbara Jenkins (1961-

Ronald and Barbara married in 1985. They have 1 child.

Jacob Lemmer (1993-

2. Janice Lemmer (1956- Married Michael MacLeod (unknown-

Janice and Michael married in 1984. They have 2 children as follows:

Jonathan MacLeod (1986-

Gabrielle MacLeod (1993-

New son (1997-

3. Linda Lemmer (1958- Married Larry DeYoung (1948-

Linda and Larry married in 1983. They have 2 children.

Matthew DeYoung (1986- Michelle DeYoung (1989-

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MY LIFE and FAMILY

By Opal Hiebert Lemmer October 1997

When I was a junior in High School a Community College was established and for the first few years it shared space, time, and sometimes teachers with the High School. This allowed me to begin taking college courses and the following year to attend the college, which by then had its own, building. We were even able to ride the school buses. I took Math and Chemistry and a neighbor suggested that I apply to Cutter Laboratories in Berkeley for a job, which I did. I tested drugs and hospital solutions and I absolutely loved the job. This was during the McCarthy era and there was a tremendous amount of political discussion in my section. It was a very new atmosphere for me.

While at Napa College I met Robert Lemmer and we were married in 1953. Bob had attended the UC Berkeley and at that time was working at the University of California.

In 1954 our son Ronald was born and, when he was four days old, we moved to Palo Alto and Bob went to work for Stanford University. When Ronald was 9 months old I went to work as a Math Aid at Ames Research Center and worked for the Theoretical Aerodynamics Branch for almost a year. At that time Frieden calculators were used for computations. One department had a computer and we began to send some data there.

In 1956 Janice was born. By this time Gene was in Alaska and we had always wanted to go there. When Janice was three months old Bob accepted a job with the CAA (later the FAA) in Alaska and we moved to Oklahoma City while Bob went to training. A pattern was set by now, a new baby, a new move.

In the fall of that year we drove, first to Napa, and then to Anchorage, Alaska. This was before the days of disposable diapers and our first stop in Anchorage was at a laundromat. We slept in the open except for one night when we put up a tent. It was along hard trip. As soon as we entered Canada the road was unpaved. The dust was so bad you could not see to pass the car ahead of you. Bob had wrapped the gas tank with cardboard to keep the rocks from breaking it. We towed a trailer and our furniture was shipped. We did not own a lot in those days.

Housing was very scarce in Alaska. Interestingly, in spite of its scarcity there was no hesitancy in renting to families with children. This was true even if the apartment had only one bedroom. We lived in Alaska for nearly three years and we lived in eight places there but the first one was the absolute worst. It was a converted army barracks.

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Thatà‹à˙s what they said. With my background it looked like two rows of chicken coops. At any rate there was one bedroom and no doors. No bathroom either. No refrigerator. These things were shared in a central location. The sound from neighbors came right through the walls and our neighbors fought. We did not stay there long but it sticks in my mind. While in Alaska we took a trip to see my brother Gene in Wrangell and later I took Ronald back to California for eye surgery. We were in Alaska when the vote on whether to become a state took place. We were registered voters and stood in a line two blocks long.

Our youngest daughter was born a month prematurely in late 1958. We decided to return to California, which, true to form, we did when Linda was less than three weeks old and weighed less than five pounds. It was a trip to remember. We had shipped our car by truck. It was loaded so that there was only space for the driver. Everything we owned was in that car bound for Seattle. We had sold everything else. The plane did not land in Seattle and the airline arranged for a bus to take Bob to Seattle while I was stuck in the Portland airport with the children. Eventually I got to Napa and Bob arrived with the car and found a house, which we moved into. It was the day of Christmas Eve and all the gifts were at the bottom of the stack.

All of the children were in Scouts and while they were growing up I worked with the Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts, was a scout leader of some kind for nine years. I liked doing this and in later life, when people worked for me, I used to say there was no finer management training.

Bob had a number of jobs and we lived in quite a few places. In the first 14 years of our marriage we lived in 22 houses and apartments. Eventually Bob went to work for the Wall Street Journal and worked for that company for 23 years. The most memorable place we lived was in Tamalpais Valley, near Mill Valley. For four years we lived in a large old house in the country on half an acre. There was a basement, and an unfinished upper floor. The main floor was big and included a big dining room, and a kitchen designed by the devil. It was a wonderful place for children and as adults they have all visited this house. In 1967 we moved to Cupertino. We chose the town because of the reputation of its schools.

Cupertino has a wonderful Community College, De Anza College, with an outstanding program for anyone who wants to become a programmer. In 1969 I started taking classes there. I took calculus over again since most of it had left the brain, learned Fortran, and several other programming languages. I loved programming but there where very few jobs in those days. I went to work at NASA/Ames Research through a work-study program while continuing to go to school. At the end of that program I thought that if I could get a job there I would never ask for anything else.

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I did get a job and worked there until 1996. It was not easy as the kids were still home and I went to school at night for years. For a number of years I had the great good luck of working with researchers involved in the study of the effect of vortices on aircraft. I did a lot of work writing programs that divided the wings into small boxes and analyzed the strength of the vortices. When I travel I still like to sit in back of the wings and watch the flaps.

Eventually I had to quit having quite so much fun and do real work writing programs for test in wind tunnels and in 1981 I became the Group Leader of the Application programmers for the Large Scale Wind Tunnels. I could not have asked for a more rewarding career.

Our children all went to college and have done well. All of them started out at the community college. Ronald went to Chico and got a degree in accounting and works as a Management Information Systems Manager. Janice studied Business at San Jose State. For many years she ran a cleaning business. She has three sons. Linda got her Bachelors degree at Davis and a doctorate in Chemical Pharmacology at UCSF and currently works as a researcher for a company developing specialized inhalers. We are very fortunate to have six grandchildren all of whom live nearby.

Shortly before my mother died I went to Guatemala with her. We were met by her friends and taken to many of the places where she had worked and lived. As a result of that experience I have a connection with the people she knew and loved and I have been able to help some of them. I have been there twice since and the last time I went I met one of my mother's friends whom we had not seen when we were there together. When I walked into her house she instantly knew who I was and held me and sobbed. It was a moving experience.

I think I resemble my father more than my mother in many ways. I have his work ethic. "Keep going until you drop". Like him, I'm more than a little stubborn. But from my mother I have this intense love of gardening, almost an obsession. Like her, I do not have a neatly organized garden, just lots and lots of different kinds of flowers. Some days when I go out in my yard and see a particularly lovely flower my first instinct, even now, is to go in and pick up the phone and call her and describe it.

It was tough to grow up in my parentà‹à˙s home. The chaos of the changing religion, the very strict discipline, the isolation, and the hard work, being so different from our peers that we never had friends all made it difficult. Still, I can only hope that when I 'm gone I can continue to have as much influence on my children as my parents still have on me.

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2nd child of 3 of Leonard Hiebert and Clara Wedel

Eugene Hiebert (1935- Married Marjorie Lauth (1930-

Eugene Hiebert went to Wrangell, Alaska to work in the Hiebert mill when he was 18. He married, had five children, and worked in the mills for many years. In those days working in the mills required very long hours. He built a house for his family. He went out on fishing boats for a number of years and worked on the clean up of the Alaskan oil spill and currently works on the Alaskan Ferry.

When he was 50, he wanted to make a change and came to California and studied welding, auto bodywork, and barbering. While he did not go into those field, after he returned to Alaska he used his skills to cut hair in the convalescent home. He worked in the Valdez oil spill clean up and, later on the Alaska ferry. He lives in Wrangell, Alaska.

Eugene and Marjorie were married in October of 1954. Marjorie is a sister of Bella Lauth, cousin James Hiebert's wife. Eugene and Marjorie divorced after 25 years of marriage. Eugene and Marjorie have 5 children as follows:

1. Marcia Hiebert (1958- Married Greg Miller (1953-

Marcia and Greg were married in 1978. Both Marcia and Greg have degrees in teaching and have taught elementary school. Greg worked at the mill in Wrangell, Alaska until the mill closed. The family belongs to the Mormon Church and in the summer the children gather agates and sell them to the tourists.

Marcia and Greg live in Wrangell and have 7 children as follows:

Laura Miller (1979-

Sally Miller (1980- Monica Miller (1982-<A-4> Alice Miller (1985— <A-5> Katie Miller (1988-<A-6> Levi Miller (1990-<A-7> Holly Miller (1992-

2. Valencia Hiebert (1959- Married Terry De Lay (unknown-

Both Valencia and Terry graduated from Oregon Technical Institute. Valencia has a degree in computer science and manages computer systems for the Alaskan pipeline. They live in Sitka, Alaska. Valencia and Terry have 1 child as follows:

Christian De Lay (1995-

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3. Theresa Hiebert (1962- Married Jay Spires (unknown-Theresa and Jay live in Ketchikan, Alaska.

4. Eugene Hiebert Jr. (1964-

Eugene Hiebert Jr. works as a counselor and coach in a native Alaskan boarding school in Eugene, Oregon. His mother works there as well.

5. Allan Hiebert (1966-1984) - deceased

3rd child of 3 of Leonard Hiebert and Clara Wedel

Denis Hiebert (1945- Married Deanna _______ (1945-

Denis Hiebert has had a varied work life. At one time he was a craps dealer in Las Vegas. He traveled to Mexico a number of times, speaks Spanish to his Latino neighbors. He is into music. He spends most of his free time playing the piano and the guitar. He lives in downtown Sacramento, works restoring old historic houses.

Denis and Deanna married in 1964 and have 2 children as follows:

1. Dean Hiebert (1964-1989) deceased

2. Duane Hiebert (1967-

4th child of 10 of Peter Hiebert and Minnie Buller

Katherine Hiebert (unknown-1904) Married John Voth (1869-unknown)

Katherine Hiebert and John Voth were the parents of father's first wife, Mary Voth. John Voth was a grandson of Daniel Unruh (1820-1893) and Maria Wedel (1821-1894) - see the Daniel Unruh and the Voth sections for details

5th child of 10 of Peter Hiebert and Minnie Buller. Peter D. Hiebert (1868-1953) Married Katherine Toews (1874-1965)

Peter D. Hiebert born August 29, 1868 in S.E. Russia. He was 19 years of age when he came to America with his parents, where they settled in Dakota Territory. Katherine Toews born in Russia on March 18, 1874. Katherine was the eldest sister of Aunt Anna Toews Wall and Dad's 3rd wife, Helen Toews Penner Wall.

Peter and Katherine's three young daughters, Alvina, Minnie and Annie all died during the diphtheria scourge within a few days of each other. Peter and father-in-law, David Toews, built one simple casket for the three girls in which they were buried together.

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The following account submitted by, Margi Hiebert Brown. (Daughter of Abe Hiebert and Rose Holcomb)

Peter D. Hiebert and Katherine Toews moved to Irrigon, Oregon along the Columbia River near Umitilla. They owned and operated a large truck garden farm. Peter was known as the "Water Melon King". Margi remembers going with her parents to visit her Great Uncle and Aunt, Peter and Katherine Hiebert loading up a load of the most delicious watermelons and bringing them home to eat and sell.

Details of the familyà‹à˙s losses are as follows. Peter and Katherine's three sons owned and operated a logging company and mill in Wrangell, Alaska. Sons, Winfred (Windy), Daniel and Lawrence all drowned off the Alaska Coast. Daniel and Windy drowned in the spring of 1951, when their boat capsized in heavy seas, off Vank Island, Alaska. There were 4 men in the boat and only one man made it to shore. Daniel, Windy and the other man were never found.

After the brotherà‹à˙s death, Lawrence and Art continued the logging operation. On the morning of September 21, 1953, Lawrence picked up a Seattle businessman on Vank Island and brought him back to Wrangell. Lawrence called his wife, Francis, and told her that he would not be home for lunch. A storm was brewing and he was going to take the tugboat and secure a raft of logs, tow it across the bay while the tide was still high.

Around 4:00 P.M., Francis was sitting in her rocking chair darning a pair of socks, when suddenly she heard a voice say "Pray for Lawrence". A short while later she looked out over the bay and saw the tugboat going around in circles with the skiff floating upside down beside it.

Investigators believe that Lawrence, who was all alone, got in the tugboats skiff, which was tied to the tugboat and the high waves capsized the skiff, throwing Lawrence into the raging ocean. Lawrenceà‹à˙s body was never recovered.

At this time/Francis age 38, was 6 months pregnant. Lawrence was 46 years of age. They had 3 daughters as follows:

1. Marlys Hiebert attending Walla College.

2. Vaughn Hiebert attending Upper Columbia Academy, Spangle/Wash.

3. Pauline Hiebert age 11, at home with parents.

The next day after the drowning, brother Art with Francis and young Pauline went to Washington to be with her daughters when they learned of the loss. However, someone from an Adventist community in Texas called Marlys at college and told her of her fatherà‹à˙s tragedy before her mother could get there.

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Francis and Pauline stayed with my parents (Abe and Rose Hiebert) until they stabilized and found a place to live in at College Place. The baby was born two months after the father's accident, a boy, Lawrence Linden, and they called him Lindy.

Three years later Francis married Howard Venable, a 40-year-old bachelor who was an employee on Vank Island and who was on hand when Lawrence disappeared.

Daughter, Pauline died at age 30 after several years of unbelievable suffering with a horrible and debilitating disease of the Pituitary Gland in which surgery and medical treatment were unsuccessful.

Francis and Howard Venable now reside in Boise, Idaho. End of Quote. .

This final tragedy was thought to have brought on Peter's heart attack. He passed away at College Place, Washington on December 5, 1953. Katherine died in 1965 at Vancouver, Washington.

Peter D. Hiebert and Katherine Toews had 13 children as follows:

1. Alvina Hiebert (1893-unknown) died young (diphtheria)

2. Marie Hiebert (1894-unknown) Married Bill Penner

3. Minnie Hiebert (1896-unknown) died young (diphtheria)

4. Annie Hiebert (1898-unknown) died young (diphtheria)

5. James Hiebert (1900-1961) Married Kathryn Wedel

6. David Hiebert (1902-unknown)

7. William Hiebert (1903-unknown)

8. Esther Hiebert (1905-unknown)

9. Lawrence Hiebert (1906-1953) drowned off AK coast

10. Clarence Hiebert (1909-unknown)

11. Windy Hiebert (1910-1951) drowned off AK coast

12. Daniel Hiebert (1912-1951) drowned off AK coast

13. Artwell Hiebert (1915- Married Lorraine Praul (1915-1968) 2nd Marriage Elizabeth Johnson (1925-

Now go back to the

6th child of 10 of Peter Hiebert and Minnie Buller

John Hiebert (unknown-unknown) Married Mary (Maria) Duerksen (1874-1924)

Maria Duerksen daughter of Abraham Duerksen (1843-1886) and Sarah Funk (1843-1886) Maria died at Portland, Oregon. Her father was killed by a lightening in a severe rainstorm in 1886.

See the Duerksen section for family.

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