The Hyphen Family Lineage

[Biography courtesy of Jim Flack.]

BIOGRAPHY: Extract from - "The History of Lewis County, Washington, Pt 7 of 10: PAGES 251 - 284."
SIMON ALBERT MILLER AND MAMIE CATHERINE McKENZIE
Simon Albert (AI) Miller and Mamie Catherine McKenzie were married January 29,1912.
Al's mother, Melissa Catherine Wilson, came with her family across the country by wagon train from Missouri, as a little girl. They settled in Boistfort Valley.
She married John Henry Miller and they had 8 children; Will, Jay, Alice, Olive, Albert, Waiter and John. They lived in Boistfort Valley across the river from the present Boistfort school.
Al was born Dec. 23, 1882 and attended school at Boistfort, until he had to quit in the 10th year to support the family as his father had died.
Mamie was born December 19, 1889 in Blue Hill, Nebraska. She had 3 brothers, Ellis, Webster and Hugh. Also 2 sisters, Pearl and Ethel. Her parents, Kenneth and Sarah Catherine (Curry) McKenzie raised their family in Nebraska - where all attended school. Then came west by rail and settled in Lost Valley in the early 1900's.
Mamie and Al lived in Boistfort, and Alice and Henry, the first two of 10 children were born there. They moved to Idaho in 1915, where Al worked on a large farm driving as many as 16 teams of horses to pull a large combine, among other duties. This is where the term "Teamsters" originated. He stayed until after Irene was born in June of 1916, then moved to Onalaska in the fall to work
for Carlisle Lumber Co., where he had many different jobs over the years.
There were no houses available when they arrived, so they lived that winter in the log school house that stood where the old high school was.
In the spring there was a house ready, so they moved, so the school could be used, and stayed until after Louis was born in April 1918. The Co. sent them to Carlisle, Wash. where they also had a mill, and they stayed for 1 year. After which they came back to Onalaska in 1919 - Verne and Ollie were born here, and Alice, Henry and Irene started grade school.
In 1923 they bought a home with acreage at Alpha, WA and moved. Ellen, Paul, Nylla and Sylvia were born while living there.
All attended Alpha grade school and all attended Onalaska high school.
AI Miller was president of the Union, and when the strike came we moved to Boistfort in the fall of 1936 where we stayed 3 years. Al worked as a logger, usually away from home for other firms.
In the spring of 1939, after school was out, we moved back to Alpha where we lived until Al retired in 1951. After the war years, he and Henry, Louis and Paul logged a few years.
We lived in On alaska 4 years - when we went to MacMillan Rest Home, (Now Forest Manor).
Mamie died in April 1959. Albert remarried Lily and they lived at McMillan Rest Home. After Lily died, Al stayed at McMillan until he died in May 1965.

By Nylla Justice

Source: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wa/lewis/history/lch-pt7.txt 28 Aug 2014