Marian Greelee's grandparents

Part of this story was included in Marian's life story, but I wanted to put this in in her words.  There are always clues to be found when reviewing old writings. 

I can remember my grandfather telling me of his ancestors coming from Scotland. His grandfather, one Alexander McIntyre, had been a carpet manufacturer in Edinburgh, Scotland. Three children had been born to him by his first wife. One daughter whose name I do not know and two sons, one named Alexander after his father. The mother of these three children died and the father remarried so the three children left Scotland and sailed for America. The girl died coming over on the boat.


In Prince Edwards Isle, Alberta, Canada, Alexander married one Mary Jane Morden. To this union were born several children: Alexander, William, "Becky", Jim, Samuel, and Agnes.

from Charlotte:  Prince Edwards Isle is not in Alberta, Canada - so when looking for these people we need to find out if it happened in Prince Edwards Isle or in Alberta.

I remember my grandfather, William McIntyre, tell of the days in Canada when he was a small boy. How the father made them get up in the cold of winter and run around the house every morning barefoot in the snow. This must have been looked upon as a toughener for the cold Canadian winters. He often told of his father's beautiful logging horses. And also of the huge bears he used to see there.

When about sixteen years old, his family moved to South Carolina, this was just after the Civil War was over and he told of seeing many of the graves of the boys in the forest near his home and how the blood still showed in the floors of the school houses where they had nursed the wounded boys.

William became a schoolteacher there. When he was about nineteen, his father and the boys were hauling logs in South Dakota, when a heavy logging chain broke and the logs killed his father.

William became a freighter across the Dakotas and the Indian country and told many interesting experiences that he had while thus engaged. About the only one I remember now was the one where they accidentally came into an Indian camp at the time of a big wedding. The Indians asked them to stay for the feast, and as they did not dare make them angry with them, they agreed. The Indians had cooked several dogs and when it came time to eat they brought some of the dog soup to my grandfather and his companion. They had to be very careful not to anger the Indians, but had no intention to eat the dog soup. They watched carefully until no one was looking and then dumped theirs out. Another time, he told of the Indians trying to catch them, and they hid until night and then his companion, who could throw his voice, made the Indians think they were going one way when they were actually going another and thus they got away. I am sorry I cannot remember any more of these stories.

My grandfather, as I remember him, was short and of a heavy stature. He had always worn a large mustache, even as a young man.

He married my grandmother, Mary Whipple, and to this union five children were born. Mary died when my mother was six years old, and the other children very small. Their names were Nellie, Ida, Georgia, Agnes, and Joe. My grandfather died in 1937 or 1938. He was buried at Caldwell, Idaho.

His mother had lived until she was 91 years old. She also is buried in Caldwell, Idaho. I can remember of seeing her once or twice when I was about eight years old. She also was a large person. She was a strict Quaker, and I remember she said it was ungodly to wear silk stockings. She died about 1922 or 23.

My mother's name was Georgia Sarah McIntyre. She married my father, Walter Allen Greenlee Hixson in 1908 in Laramie, Wyoming. they had two children, my sister Evelyn, and myself.

I want to mention here about the Hixson being on my name and that of my father.

His mother and father, George W. Greenlee, separated and divorced when my father was three years old. His mother remarried a man by the name of Hixson. So my father's real name is Greenlee, not Hixson, although this was the name he went by as he never knew that it was not his real name for many years. He accidentally ran into a family in about 1925 that knew his relatives in Montana and through these people he found out where his real father was, and went back in 1926 in Independence, Missouri and visited his father. He was with him about two weeks and then came home. We wrote to his father until he died in the spring of 1932. He is buried at Independence, Missouri.

My father was a tall, rather angular sort of person, with black hair and steely, blue-grey eyes. He was very kind-hearted to all and had many friends. He never had great materially - seemed he was rather unlucky in many of his ventures, but he farmed the last years of his life. He was a very honest and hardworking man. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1938 after thoroughly examining it for himself and because he knew it was the right church and what he had been looking for all his life. He was an Elder. He died in Ontario, Oregon, 29 December 1940.

My one greatest testimony of the gospel was through my father. He lay desperately ill in 1935, and the doctor said that he was too ill to move to the hospital and not much chance for him to live. An Elder of the Church came to the house selling life insurance, and he asked about my father. I told him he was very seriously ill, and he went and held my father's hand and stayed and had dinner with us and prayed for my father. From the hour the Elder prayed, my father began to gain strength and the doctor was amazed to see him so much improved when he came again. I know now that Brother Tolman was sent to us at that time to help us and he was the means of myself and my family joining the Church. I know that my father was spared because he had work to do and he needed to join the Church.

My mother remarried about a year and a half after my father died. She married Ephraim Bendixen. She still makes her home at Vale, Oregon.

written by Marion Charlotte Greenlee Walker
6 February 1946
from Charlotte:  in 1946, Marian was still spelling her name with an O instead of an A... At some point after this time, she changed it to Marian and she is always quick to point out that it is spelled with an A - not an O, although legally, I think it probably is still spelled Marion.