Leeson Ancestry: November 2013

When Arthur Frank Vanek and Mona Inez Leeson wed on August 31, 1949 they linked the following family trees, [Maternal ~ Muench and Leeson] [Paternal ~ Vanek and Gremaux].

Muench Ancestry ~ Leeson Ancestry ~ Vanek Ancestry ~ Gremaux Ancestry

Dorothy Lillian Murison

July 27, 1916 - March 30, 2012

Dorothy Lillian Murison, 95, died Friday, March 30, 2012, at her home near Mansfield, WA. She was born to Eli Papan and Lillian [Beckstrom] on July 27, 1916, at St. Mary's Hospital in Fort Benton, MT. She attended grade school in Everson, MT at a country school, continuing her education at Great Falls High School. After three years, her family moved to Springdale, WA, where she graduated in 1935. She began work at Purdy's Lodge in Spokane (a rooming house for senior people) and after a time, she moved to Mansfield, WA for a job with better pay.

She met and fell in love with George A. Murison. The couple married on September 21, 1936, in Spokane, WA. Geroge's parents homesteaded a farm six miles north of Mansfield and after their marriage, Dorothy and George moved there and lived until George died in 1974. Dorothy remained on the farm until she passed away.

Together they raised four wonderful boys. Dorothy was a Past Noble Grand Associate of the Mansfield Rebecca Lodge #281 and a member since 1936. She belonged to the Pamona Grange, as well as the Washington State Grange and National Grange Association.

She was a Past President of the Mansfield PTA and Charter member of the Bridgeport Eagles Auxiliary. She attended the United Protestant Church and was a past Chairman and Secretary of the Board, as well as President of the Women Fellowship. Among her many accomplishment with local and state organizations, she was a "Mom Taxi" for her four boys throughout their school days. She was an avid sports enthusiast and loved gardening. She raised wonderful raspberries and strawberries and shared with many of her favorite friends.

She is survived by three sons, Donald Murison of Mansfield, Arthur (Cindy) Murison of East Wenatchee and Richard Murison of Waverly, WA; seven grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; and five great-great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, George; one brother; one son; Robert Murison; and daughter-in-law, Cheryl Murison.

The family would like to express special thanks to Central Washington Hospice.

Funeral Services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, April 7, 2012, at Mansfield United Protestant Church, with Interment following at the Mansfield Cemetery. Visitation will be held on Friday, April 6, 2012, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Waterville Funeral Home. If desired, memorials maybe made to Mansfield Ambulance Fund, Mansfield Dollars for Scholars, or any cancer fund. Funeral arrangements are by Waterville Funeral Home.

Albert Leeson Connection.

Behind These Mountains Trilogy

When Arthur Frank Vanek and Mona Inez Leeson wed on August 31, 1949 they linked the following family trees, [Maternal ~ Muench and Leeson] [Paternal ~ Vanek and Gremaux].

Muench Ancestry ~ Leeson Ancestry ~ Vanek Ancestry ~ Gremaux Ancestry

"Murison place has been in the family for more than 100 years," published in Quad City Herald, Mansfield, Washington, March 26, 2009, by staff writer, Cheryl Schweizer.

"James and George Murison raised wheat and corn and ran some cattle and did whatever else they could do to make some money." (See also George and Elizabeth Murison )
Take the back road out of Mansfield, the road by the school, drive north (more or less) a couple of miles, not quite to the end of the pavement. The house over on the left ~~~ the big old two-story one that was built in the early 1900s ~~ that's the Murison place. And that's been the Murison place for more than 100 years.

"My grandfather homesteaded here," said Don Murison, who's the third generation to farm the Murison place. Grandpa was James Murison, a native of Scotland, who came to the United States in about 1889. James Murison and his brother George were among the young men from around the world who sensed opportunity in the New World.

"He was by trade a carpenter," Don Murison said. James plied his trade in his new country, but he and George wanted their own land. They staked their claim in the newly admitted state of Washington, in the Big Ben country not far from the Columbia River. They each claimed 160 acres, and with true Scottish thrift they built on house. Dorothy [Beckstrom] Murison married James's son and came to the ranch in 1936.

"They had a shack out here in the back yard, right on the section line, to prove up George Murison's claim," Dorothy remembered.

The old shack did not meet the approval of James Murison's bride, who came to the ranch about 1904 or 1905. Ethel Stone was from London; 20 years younger than James Murison, she was a friend of his and corresponded with him before James proposed marriage. (Her grandchildren called her Nammie.) James put his carpentry skills to work on a new house, two stories, with a big wraparound porch, one of the first indoor bathrooms around and high ceilings and a wooden staircase built around a newel post ordered from the Sears, Roebuck catalog. The family hasn't made many changes to it over the years ~~ can't really do much to it, Dorothy said. It's built tough.

"We raised our own vegetables. We had a few chickens, and if you could beat the magpies to the eggs you had the eggs," Dorothy Murison said.

James and George Murison raised wheat and corn and ran some cattle and did whatever else they could do to make some money; wheat didn't always keep the place going. James "followed the carpenter's trade," which took him away from home and left the ranch to his wife and children, including his son George (James named his son for his brother, and George returned the favor, naming his son James.) James was gone a lot; George Murison pretty much took over the job of running the farm in 1922, when he was 15 years of age. He ran the place until 1971, when he turned it over to his son Don.

George Murison worked hard and had his mom and sisters to look after, although he did manage to maintain his studies and graduate from high school. His busy life didn't leave him a lot of time for dating ~~ although there were some girls around Mansfield who had hopes, Dorothy said.

Dorothy is a native of Fort Benton, Montana; she graduated from high school in 1935, when there weren't that many jobs around. She went to Spokane in search of a job. She found a job at a lodge "called Purdy's Inn on the South Hill." The boss insisted that workers wear white ~~ dress, stockings, shoes, the works, Dorothy remembered. that by itself was enough to make a young woman look for another job. Dorothy's aunt Pearl was from north central Washington, and Dorothy's cousin had found a good spot and passed the word along to "come to Mansfield. There's a lot of work for single girls."

"The Murch Melodeers played dances all over the region, down in Moses Lake, over in Coulee City and at Grand Coulee Dam construction site."

"There were some eligible bachelors around too, including the guy who played violin in one of the local bands. "I met George at Withrow. He was playing the violin in the orchestra, with the Murch Melodeers." Every town had a place to go dancing in the late 1930s, and lots of guys put together their own bands to make a little money on the side. The Murch Melodeers played dances all over the region, down in Moses Lake, over in Coulee City and at Grand Coulee Dam construction site. "We'd all go in the dame car," Dorothy remembered.

Dorothy really liked the violin player. He had "good looks. Good personality," she said. "We could visit and talk for hours," she remembered. "It seems like our minds ran in the same channel." But it wasn't just his good looks. "He had a brand new Plymouth. And it had a hearer in it too, you know." George was 29 years of age, and Dorothy 19, when they married.

"I've seen a lot of changes in this valley," Dorothy said. When Dorothy moved to the farm there was just the house, George Murison's old house, "and one old tree out here." They didn't' make many changes in the old house, but Dorothy did get cupboards in her kitchen.

Dorothy planted more trees and raised a garden. "We raised our own vegetables. We had a few chickens, and if you could beat the magpies to the eggs you had the eggs." Like his father before him George Murison raised wheat but he supplemented the income with alfalfa (when he had irrigation in the 1950s; it's since been turned off) and cattle and pigs and whatever else he could raise or grow and sell.

Back when he was a kid, Don Murison remembered, it seemed like the years that wheat prices were bad, cattle prices were pretty good, and when cattle were in the tank wheat was good. "You always had something." The pigs weren't penned, Dorothy remembered, which was good when they went to the feedlot; "The Wenatchee Packing Company, they loved to get our pigs. They made good hams."

Wheat harvest always required a big crew, up to and into the 1950s. They were still using horses when Dorothy first moved to the ranch; she still remembers the time the horses bolted, with the machinery bouncing through the flied and the guy who sewed the wheat sacks shut hanging on for dear life. (Then as now wheat was cut and threshed in the field, but back in the day it was stored and transported in cloth sacks.)

"Wheat harvest always required a big crews, up to and into the 1950s."

Don Murison recalled the harvest crews of his youth, which included the "cat driver, the header puncher, the sack sewer and some kid pulling the rope to dump the straw."

George and Dorothy had four sons (Don, Robert, Arthur and Richard), and they wanted all their kids to go to college. Their sons did. Don Murison pursued a career in electronics, ending up in Los Angeles, and later in Seattle. The career was satisfactory, but the living conditions were not. "I came back. I didn't like the big city." He wasn't all that interested in climbing the corporate ladders.

"They wanted me to Bridgeport, Conn. I didn't want to go to Bridgeport, Conn." He ended up in Wenatchee, and in the late 1960s his father-in-law retired, and wanted somebody in the family to keep farming his land. In 1971 George Murison retired; he worked the Murison place for 49 years. Two of George's sons were still in school, and his oldest son had pursued a career that took him away from the farm. But there was Don, who bought the property from his father. "It just kind of happened to work out for me, in a way," he said. Don and his wife raised their two sons in Mansfield, and they went off to college and away from the farm. But just like his father and grandfather, "Brad Murison came back.

Brad graduated from Washington State University and started a career as an agronomist, working with wheat farmers to determine the best chemicals for the best yield. It was interesting work and a good career, but. Working for somebody else didn't give him much chance to build a legacy of his own, he said, something for his family and himself, Brad said. "You invest in it. You don't have the cash, but you pass it on," Don said.

Farming provides variety; "Every year is different," and farming gives him a chance to use all the skills he's acquired, Brad said. It's also more fun to be outside. Brad's wife, Nikki, got a chance to work for Central Washington Grain Growers, which was a job she wanted, and so Brad and Nikki decided to move back home; Brad and Nikki are purchasing the farm from Don. "I'm going to work for him," Don said.

"100: But it's still true that farmers don't get rich, and farming is still something of a gamble."

But it's still true that farmers don't get rich, and farming is still something of a gamble. "You have to enjoy it, I think," Brad said. Advances in technology have reduced the size of the crew needed to harvest wheat ~~ it's down to the guys who drive the combines and the truck drivers. But the equipment is expensive and so are the seeds and fertilizer and everything else that goes with farming. The price of wheat was at historically high levels in 2008 and that helped farmers make up some lost ground, but "I don't think anyone is rich," Brad said. He estimated that wheat prices should be at about $6 per bushel to make the kind of profit farmers need to really maintain the operation. Prices are not quite there now.

But wheat farming is still a good way to live. Don Murison said he's never regretted his decision to come back to the farm.

If you have a copy of the aerial photograph taken of the Murison place and will send a .jpg to mtscribbler [at] air-pipe.com, I'll be happy to include it with this story. The original photograph is in Dorothy Murison's collection.

Any and all additional information to any branch of the Murison ancestry is welcome.

Albert Leeson Connection.

Behind These Mountains Trilogy

Leeson Ancestry

Friday, November 15, 2013

Dorothy Lillian Murison Obituary March 30, 2012

Agriculture ~~ Murison Place Homesteaded in 1916

Paternal Ancestry of James William Murison beginning in 1744