Guy Bolingbroke

Guy Bolingbroke was born 14 January 1901 in Malad, Oneida, Idaho, the tenth and last child of Charles and Margaret Roberts Bolingbroke. Charles was an original Arbon homesteader. His older sister Claribel married Lorin Bailey, another Arbon homesteader. When he was only eight months old, his parents took in their grandson to raise as Guy’s sister, Elizabeth Bolingbroke, died of typhoid fever when her baby, LaVern Munn, was only a month old. LaVern, later known as Vern, was carried to his grandparent’s home on a pillow as he was only three pounds.

Guy attended school in Arbon in the fall and spring months, and in Malad during the winter after his family relocated there during the worst and most isolating months to be in Arbon.

Farm work was challenging at that time, though we only know that looking backwards. The family sometimes had to harness up to eighteen head of horses a day to get the farm work done, depending on the season of year and what was needed to be done. The family was happy when in the early 1930s they bought their first tractor, a Caterpillar, which was a vast improvement in getting the work done.

At that time, Arbon had a baseball team that was known all around the area.  They plays other towns such as Juniper, Buist, and Malad. Guy was the pitcher for many years.  He also enjoyed hunting deer every fall, and fishing in Bannock Creek. He had some serious health challenges growing up, such as when he contracted small pox and later on had liver trouble. As a grown man, he also dealt with hepatitis and spotted fever, which is acquired from ticks.

Both family and friends had come to the conclusion that Guy was a confirmed bachelor, but he was just waiting for his future bride to grow up so he could meet her. Guy met his future wife at a Saturday night dance in Malad. Guy and Hazel Stone were married 4 July 1932; he was thirty-one while she was twenty-one. She was the daughter of homesteaders in the Daniels area northwest of Malad.   

They eventually became the parents of three daughters: Connie Ray was born in May 1933 in Malad, and was taken out to Arbon when she was one month old.  Later on, daughter Darlene was born in November 1936, and a third daughter in November 1947 named Judy Kay.

At first the young married couple lived with Guy’s parents until they could build a two-room log cabin not far from the Pauline store and school (now Arbon Elementary School).  Young couples had everyday challenges to live with that they didn’t even consider as challenges at the time, but that we today can hardly even imagine. According to Hazel Stone Bolingbroke’s history, written by herself, “After our house was completed, Guy dug us a well by the house and struck water at about fourteen feet.  Later we dug a deeper one and had the water piped into the house.  At first we had a Delco system for lights and power. We had an old-fashioned cook stove to cook on and had to heat all our water on it to wash with…It wasn’t too long before we added three more rooms to our log house, a kitchen, bedroom, and a bathroom. We finally got Electricity so we bought us an electric stove and refrigerator, which seemed wonderful.”

Hazel recalls that they went to Pocatello once weekly to shop and see a movie. Gone were the homesteading times when it would take two days to get to town!  

In 1947 Guy and Hazel bought a home in Pocatello so their oldest, Connie Ray, could attend high school.  At that time, the Pauline school went up to grade eight (now it is K-6^th grades, with two teachers).  In the fall of 1948 when they were residing in Pocatello, they received the shocking news that their beloved Arbon home had burned to the ground. “The only thing we saved was our piano which we moved to Pocatello that fall.”

Guy died on 5 April 1984 in Pocatello, Bannock, Idaho at age eighty-three and was buried in Pocatello. Hazel died 22 July 2000 in Pocatello at age eighty-nine, and was buried alongside her husband.

Sources:

Ward, Laurie Jean: Bannock Valley (Providence, Utah; Keith Watkins and Sons, 1982).

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/KWCB-2QR

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/43120507/guy-bolingbroke

These links will lead to links on other family members.