Dallas Max Schneider Memories by Kristen Moh

Dallas Max Schneider

Memories of my Dad by Kristen Schneider Moh

Memorial Service 3-12-11

 

When I was growing up, I loved going to Jack in the Box with my dad. As we’d go thru the drive thru, he would delight in confusing the attendant by ordering outlandish foods like gofer loaf and avocado milkshakes. As he ordered these foods that were obviously not on the menu, our whole family tried to stifle uncontrolled giggles.

I don’t think my dad ever tired of this joke because he did it over and over again.    

 

Another memory I had was when I was 10. Our family went snowmobiling. My sister Paula and I, being inexperienced drivers, eventually crashed. The motor wouldn’t start. We tried pulling the snowmobile out of the bank of snow… but we were definitely stuck!  We called for help but no one answered..

 After an hour of waiting, it was obvious that no one was going to come to our aid. We decided to say a prayer. No sooner did we open our eyes, when off in the distance, we saw the answer to our prayer…..It was our dad! With one super heave he dislodged the snowmobile from the snow bank and got the motor to start. I couldn’t believe how strong my dad was!  To my child’s eye, he was like a super hero!

 

My dad continued to be a super dad his whole life.

About 10 years ago, I remember talking to my dad on the phone about some trouble I was having. I had hired a  technician to fix my piano, but after months of trying, he just couldn’t seem to get it right. I was beginning to lose all hope that my piano would ever get fixed.

           

To my surprise, a few hours after talking to my dad, he showed up on my doorstep all dressed up in a nice suit and tie.

I said, “Dad, I didn’t know you were coming today.”

He responded, “I’ve come to give you a father’s blessing”

I couldn’t believe he had traveled almost 2 hours to give me a blessing…… just .because I was upset about my piano. Most people would consider my worries over my piano a trivial matter, but my Dad knew this was important to me.

           

I don’t know how many times I heard him say to family or friends,

” Call me any time you need a priesthood blessing. I don’t care if it is 2AM,…..I will come.”

 My dad was the kind of man who was always there when needed.

           

I will always be grateful for a father who made me laugh and who was such an example of service.

 

I have faith that the resurrection is real and that I will see him again!

Ditch Defenders by Dallas Max Schneider

Ditch Defenders by Dallas Max Schneider (Added to and edited by Bryonny Van Camp)

(Original info Provided by Dallas Max Schneider and added/edited by Bryonny Van Camp- I figured Grandpa Max wouldn't mind as he loved improving a good story).

There was a ditch from the mountain spring that Orval Dallas's Father, Frank William Schneider, has built to irrigate part of the farm on their 400 Acres in Burley Idaho.  This ditch was very important to the family, not only because it was their source of water and irrigation, but because their father had built it before he died.  Frank William dug this 30 ft cistern by hand because there were no utilities in the area at the time (an impressive feat for any man, and especially impressive while he suffered from tuberculosis).   He often would take Orval Dallas and Les, his sons, to the mouth of the spring and he would tell his boys to put their ears to the rock so they could hear the rushing water.  Side Note:  Dallas Max Schneider (son of Orval Dallas), at the age of 14, went to visit the old Idaho family farm and the ditch was still there, Max marveled at the strength of the grandfather, Frank William, he had never had the privilege of meeting in this life).

Life on a new farm was very hard, especially after their provider Frank William died and they were a long way from the help of their other relatives in Missouri, where they had moved from just a couple years before.  The little family was struggling and had 2 years of crop failure during this time.  Times were very tough and desperate for all the farmers in the area.

It soon came the the families attention that, someone up stream was diverting and siphoning off some of their water, however they didn't have any difinative proof.. yet.  Obviously this was extremely unacceptable and called for drastic measures to be undertaken as the family survival depended on this life giving water. 

Hattie Barnett Schneider, the widow of Frank William Schneider, was not to be messed with, she needed to be tough in this harsh frontier land and she was very concerned about protecting her water rights.   So one night Hattie, with her sons, Orval Dallas and Les, crept up to the ditch and lay there all night by the ditch with a loading 30-30 riffle waiting to see who the despicable person was that was taking their water.  At the dark of midnight under the pale moon, they saw outline of a figure approaching, and as he came closer they recognized their neighbor that had came with a shovel to steal the water. 

Fearless Hattie called the man by name and bellowed: "This is the widow Schneider.  Don't steal my water!" 

The neighbor, surely not afraid of a single women, said "Who's going to stop me?" 

She said "This gun and my boys" and to back up the claim, the sound of a riffle being cocked and then a single shot being fired rang out in the silent evening and it was all the proof that the neighbor needed that now was not the time to start a fight.

The neighbor said, "Now.. don't do anything rash!"  as he turned around and ran back to his house like a frightened coward.

They had to take him to court to make him stop permanently, but that incident showed that Hattie Barnett Schneider and her family was not one to be trifled with.

Horsing Around by Dallas Max Schneider

Orval Dallas Horsing Around by Dallas Max Schneider and added to by Bryonny Van Camp

(Original info Provided by Dallas Max Schneider and added/edited by Bryonny Van Camp- I figured Grandpa Max wouldn't mind as he loved improving a good story).

Orval Dallas Schneider was always on the look out for a good deal.  During one child/teenhood summer in Burley Idaho he made an agreement with a farmer to plow the farmers fields all summer long in return for a horse.  This would have been ideal situation for young Dallas, as he always had a dream in his heart that he would someday be a cowboy with his own ranch, and you can't very well be a cowboy with out a trusty horse.  Dallas really liked this particular horse because it was great jumper-because really what other qualifications would you be concerned with as a young boy.

After many long, hard, bistering hot days under the scorching Idaho sun, the work of the summer finally came to a conclusion and Dallas excitedly came to collect his well earned payment. 

However fate was not on his side that day when he asked for his payment, the farmer flattly refused to give him the horse as they had previously agreed.  Perhaps he underestimated the hard work ethic of the boy when the original deal was made and thought he would quit before the job was finished or it was just very rough in the the frontiers of Idaho and people went back on their word frequently and thought Dallas had no way of forcing a collection.  Whatever the case may be, the shear injustice must have been a absolutely crushing blow to Dallas; that had worked his hardesst all summer with now nothing to show for it.

He quickly ran home and told his mother, Hattie Barnett Schneider Austin, and stepfather, Hirum Austin, what had happened.  Hirum was a good man and took very seriously his fatherly duties.  He stepped in and went to the farmer and "made him give up the horse".  How he made him give up the horse will remain a mystery, but it would have been interesting to be a fly on that barn wall to hear that battle of words and wit.

Dallas was thrilled to have this horse as his own and he went everywhere in town by horseback.  Although he did not realized the dream of being a cowboy with his own ranch (instead he became an owner of a drycleaning business in Los Angeles), he turned out to be an excellent horseman and never forgot his first horse.

Orval Dallas Champion of the Weak by Dallas Max Schneider

Orval Dallas Champion of the Weak by Dallas Max Schneider

 

Orval Dallas had friends in Burley, both girls and boys. They associated as a group rather than dating one another. Among that group was a shy girl who had terribly bucked teeth and one of the boys liked to make fun of her. He was a bully type of boy who ridiculed anyone who had abnormalities about themselves. 

One evening this heartless boy was so derisive and jeering of this poor girls teeth that she started to cry. Most of the boys were embarrassed but said nothing. Then from the crowd, up stepped, bold, brave, Orval Dallas to confront this calloused boy. The boy was large and ugly himself. Orval said, "You make fun of everyone, don't you?"

"What if! do? Who is going to stop me?"

"I guess you would make jokes about my sister?"

"If she had funny teeth, you bet I would," and he gave Orval a shove.  The gauntlet had been thrown down and a challenge made. Orval Dallas had a mercurial temper that was well backed up with a fighting courage that was nothing short of heroic. He never looked for a fight but when pushed-there he was-pugnacious, like a lion-unafraid and equal to the task.

The taller, bigger boy rushed at him and young Orval stepped to one side and hit him hard in the stomach-just below the solar plexus. It doubled his attacker up so he could not defend himself and Orval hit him at his pleasure until he knocked him down. The mocking boy laid on the floor with a hand over his bloody mouth and said, "I quit," and that was

Orval Dallas's baptism of fighting with someone other than his bigger brother Les.

Frank William "Willy" Schneider

Frank William Schneider

Frank William Schneider was the son for Frank Xavier (or Zavier) Schneider and Anna Josephina Noerthmann, and was Born on the July 21, 1876 in West Plains Howell County Missouri and died on October 6th 1913 in Burley, Cassia County, Idaho.  Frank married in West Plans on September 24th 1898 to Hattie Barnett, the daughter of James Dallas Barnett and Tennessee Gunter.  Hattie Barnett was born January 28, 1881 in West Plains and died June 16, 1955 in Santa Ana, Orange California.  After the death of Frank, Hattie remarried and had one child by a second husband Hyrum Clarence Austin.--By Brock Guernsey

Memories of Frank William by Dallas Max Schneider

He (Frank William, also known to friends and family as Willy) came from a large family and was in the middle.  His father (Frank Xaiver Schneider) was a civil war veteran.  We know Willy could add and subtract, since he ran a little store later, but not much else about his childhood.  In the winter he also worked as a traveling salesman.  He was tall about 6'4".  He picked up tuberculosis or "consumption", so the doctor told him to move to a dryer climate. 

He went to Burley Idaho and bought 400 aces for farmland, then built a house on it.  There were no utilities, so he dug a trench from a spring in the mountains for irrigation.  Orval Dallas, his son, was 6 years old when they moved from Missouri.

He would take his sons,Orval Dallas and Les, to the mouth of the spring and he would tell the boys to put their ears to the rock so they could hear the rushing water.  He told them that some day he would harness electricity to take care of all of Burley.

He felt better in Idaho, but slowly failed from the tuberculosis.  He died at age 37.  The family was so badly frighten that they all ran outside-except Dallas.

Max (Dallas Max Schneider-son of Orval Dallas and grandson of Frank William) never saw this grandfather but always felt close to him.  He had a dream at one time that Dallas and Willy came to Grande Cleaners (Dallas Max's Dry Cleaning Business) and the looked just alike.

Relatives told Max that Willy was the kindest man that ever lived.

A little about Maren Larsen

Excerpt from A Sketch of the Life of Hansine Larsen Anderson

by her daughter, Lillie Anderson Zilles

Niels mother, Maren Larsen lived in Hyrum. She had married again, to a man by the name of Jensen, who was several years older than she. He was her third husband. Maren was an immaculate housekeeper. She kept her stove and old brass and iron kettles polished until you could see them shine from the road if the door happened to be open.

Hans and Maren Larsen

Excerpt from A Sketch of the Life of Hansine Larsen Anderson

by her daughter, Lillie Anderson Zilles

(These excerpts tell us a little about the early life of Hans and Maren Larsen and the process of their immigration from Denmark to America in 1876.  Our direct ancestor Niels Larsen (brother of Hansine Larsen) was 8 years old at the time of their immigration.

Hansine Larsen Anderson was born the 23rd of August 1866, in Aesentrop, Holsbeck County Denmark; the seventh child of eight children. The two oldest children, Jacob and Anna were from a former marriage. The six children of this marriage were Christian, Christena, Hanna, Jens, Hansine, and Niels.

At the age of eleven she immigrated to America. Her father and oldest full brother died in Denmark. Christina was 17 years old at the time of his death.

The oldest half-brother, Jacob, was serving in the army of his native land when the rest of the family left. He came to the United States later, but not to Utah.

Hansine’s father was a butcher by trade. His home was one long building which housed the family on one end. The meat shop and slaughtering part were in the center and the livestock quarters on the other end. Everything was kept clean and spotless. After landing in the United States of America, her mother and six children came to Utah. They made their home in Hyrum, Utah.