Earl Burbank Romrell
Earl's father and mother, Fred Romrell and Alba Burbank met when Alba came up to Wilford to take care of her half-sister, Esther, who was about to have a baby. Esther was married to Fred's brother Joseph, and Fred was living with Joseph and Esther at the time. Fred and Joseph had been given a hundred-acre farm in Wilford by their father, George Romrell. Each brother was to have 50 acres.
Fred and Alba fell in love and were married in the Logan Temple on October 20, 1898. After they were married, they lived in the same house with Joseph and Esther. This house consisted of a log home with a dirt roof Three children, Alfred, Fern and Dan, were born to the couple in this home. Fred later built a one room log home with a shingled roof on his 50 acres. Another log room was added later. It was in this home that Earl was born on Christmas Eve in 1906.
On the Christmas morning following Earl's birth, his older brother, Alfred, came into his mother's bedside with a very sad expression, and reported that Santa Claus had not left any gifts. His mother just pulled down the covers and said, "Yes, he did leave something for us. After she showed Alfred his new baby brother, Alfred remarked; "that's funny I didn't see him come.
Earl relates that as a child he and Dan shared the same bed. He observed Dan (his older brother) saying his prayers each night and he recalls asking Dan to teach him how to pray. Reflecting back, Earl feels Dan's example had a tremendous influence on him during his life in helping him ask for divine guidance. Earl also remembers well his brother Alfred telling him that prayer will overcome sin or sin will overcome prayer. Earl felt determined that sin would not overcome him.
Earl had many childhood experiences involving prayer and answers to prayer. Such experiences have strengthened his testimony and influenced his life. One such experience occurred at a very early age. Earl recalls that his brother, Alfred, had teased a buck ram so much that it was very mean. It enjoyed chasing the children all around the yard. This of course made Earl very reluctant to go out into the yard without knowing first where the ram was. He worried so much about it that he decided one day to pray and ask Heavenly Father to help him do something about that ram. He remembers hearing a voice come to him in the night which said "It's simple, when that buck sheep comes toward you just lie down and it will go away. The next morning he could hardly wait to go out into the yard. When he arrived in the yard, the buck saw him and came running after him gathering speed to knock him down. He quickly laid down on the ground. The ram came up really close to Earl. It stopped and looked at him and then walked away. It never bothered him again. Earl was gaining much faith in prayer by this time. He often knelt down in the orchard or near a current bush or somewhere private to pray. Earl also took every opportunity when he went into the mountains to kneel alone among the trees of the forest.
Earl grew up near lots of rivers and streams. He became very fond of sitting beside the bank listening to the splash made by muskrats and water4ife as they swam about. The Teton River became a special place for Earl, his brothers, and his cousins. Many hours were spent swimming in the Teton River, even swimming their horses. Earl loved the mountains, the rivers, the streams and waterfalls.
Earl worked at home performing the normal chores of a farm boy from Irrigation to hoeing crops, weeding crops by hand, thinning beets, pitching hay, and milking cows. Earl recalls spending a lot of time during his childhood herding cows on the family dry farm.
The dry farm located just north of St. Anthony, Idaho, consisted of approximately 360 acres of sagebrush and a little grass. There were few fences and generally open range which gave the cows a long way to wander. He spent a lot of his time while he was herding cows turning over rocks to see what was under them, trying to catch chipmunks, chasing rabbits with the dogs and things of this nature to entertain himself One incident Earl remembers which occurred when he was a little older involved a Harley Davidson motorcycle which he owned jointly with
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his brother, Hyrum. This was what today, would commonly be called a "roadhog." It had beenpreviously used as a police bike. Earl admits having it up to 102 m.p.h. which at that time was quite fast. One day when Hyrum and Earl were riding together, they stopped at a stop sign and Earl killed the engine as he started to pull away. He restarted it, revved the engine and started to turn the corner. Earl had gained too much speed too fast, however, and he failed to turn the corner properly. As a result, he lost some control with the motorcycle and ran into the judge's car that was parked unattended on the street. Earl and Hyrum walked up the block to the courthouse to tell the judge what had happened. He told them he would have it repaired and that they would have to pay for it. Earl recalls that at this time he was earning money "pea roguing." Pea roguing is the process of pulling out the rogue peas in a seed crop.
Earl went to elementary school in Wilford. In times of good weather, he walked two miles to school and two miles home. In the winter his father, Fred, drove a covered sleigh which was called the "school sleigh. He used the sleigh to pick up the neighborhood children and take them to school. At 4:00 in the afternoon, he would get the children and take them back home. After completing elementary school, Earl attended four years at Ricks Academy, which was the equivalent of high school. After completing Ricks Academy he attended one year at Ricks College.
While at Ricks College, Earl played football and traveled with the team throughout Idaho, Montana, and Utah. On one occasion he hurt his arm and was unable to play. The team was losing badly and the coach pulled the team aside and gave them the proverbial pep talk and mentioned that he wished Earl was playing because he was the only one with guts enough to get in there and play hard. One of his fellow players commented, "The way the coach talked you'd have thought Romrell was the whole team."
While attending school Earl supplemented his money from home by working at various jobs in the school, getting up often as early as 4:00 in the morning to complete his work prior to the beginning of classes. Earl recalls on one occasion, his mother gave him $1.50 for his food to cover an entire week of school. This allowed him to buy a loaf of bread, ajar of peanut butter and milk. Of course $1.50 went a lot further then, but his willingness to work and to scrimp, in terms of the amount of money spent, showed his dedication to getting an education.
At about this time Earl was wondering where he would find a mate. He often thought to himself, "out there somewhere is a girl for me." He wanted a lovely person -- one with a strong testimony of the gospel and one that would be a wonderful mother for his children. He wanted to pick the best person that he could find. He felt that the Lord was preparing someone special for him somewhere. He desired the help of the Lord to find that special person and be able to know when he had found her. Earl hadn't gone with many girls in his life and he was worried. He went to his Heavenly Father in prayer for help and guidance. During the night, as he slept, a girl stood before him. She was a lovely girl. As he gazed upon her beauty and loveliness a voice said to him "this is only a dream, but you'd better pay attention to this girl so you will know her when you meet her -- she is to be your wife". That was all he needed to hurry and look into her eyes. They were warm brown. He looked at her hair and it was a beautiful brown. He stepped closer and measured her height. The top of her head came up even with his eyes. Then she disappeared. Thereafter it was always a comfort to Earl to think upon that dream and be reassured that some day he would find her
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One night, New Year's Eve, Earl met a girl that answered the description of the one in his dream. His brother Alfred was going with a girl from Blackfoot that he had met at Ricks College. She and her two sisters came up to Teton, which was a neighboring town), to go to a New Year's Eve dance. Alfred had invited them up and they were going to stay with another sister in Teton. Earl thinks Alfred had him in mind when he invited them. That winter night Alfred and Earl took a bobsleigh drawn by a team of horses and picked up the three girls to take them to the New Year's Eve dance. As Alfred introduced him to them, and as they climbed into the sled he felt a warm glow in his heart. One of the girls, Vera Josephine Murdock, matched the girl in his dreams. She was full of fun and Earl and Vera got along beautifully. She had no similar indication, however, that Earl was to be her husband. "I don't believe I met her expectations at that time," says Earl. "I believe that Vera was looking for a returned missionary. The two were good friends for the next 11 years. During those years she went with other fellows and Earl went on a mission.
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Elder David O. McKay had come to St. Anthony for a stake conference and while there he interviewed Earl for a mission. After the interview he ordained Earl tothe Melchizedek Priesthood and to the office of a Seventy. He was called to serve in the Southern States Mission and labored in the South Georgia area. Two of the Elders he labored with most were Dwight C. Stone from Driggs, Idaho and Burkley L. Bunker from Las Vegas, Nevada. Dwight and Earl became very good friends because they were from the same state. Elder Bunker, later in life returned to the Southern States as a Mission President. Elder Bunker also later served as a U.S. Senator from Nevada. Earl enjoyed these two Elders very much and traveled much of his time in the mission field with them. Earl was accredited with baptizing 15 people while on his mission.
After Dwight Stone passed away last fall his wife wrote the following:
From the beginning of our acquaintance, Dwight continually
talked of his mission and the companions he loved the best
which were Earl Romrell and Burkley Bunker in that order. He
could never say enough about Elder Romrell's humility and his
eagerness to serve the Lord. Dwight once told me that if Elder
Romrell had been a woman he would have married him or her. How
is that for being devoted to someone. As far as I know, they
never saw each other until they either traveled to the South,
or else they met as soon as they got there. But they must have
had some beautiful experiences together in the Lord's work. I
have always appreciated Earl's influence on Dwight's life.
After Earl's full-time mission, he was called by the Stake Presidency to fulfill a Stake Mission. He went to Egin and Parker wards, and there remained with the Saints until he and his companion had visited all of the membership in those wards. This was a very enjoyable winter spent among the members of the church.
After he returned from the Southern States, Earl dated other girls, but he kept Vera in his mind. On one occasion, he even became quite serious with another girl. He records that event in his journal as follows:
I went with one girl from our community quite often, forgetting,
for the moment, the experience of my dream. As I sat with her in
her front room one evening, I opened my mouth to propose to her
but no voice came out of my mouth. I did it a second time and a
third time with the same results. I then said in my mind a little
prayer, answering the promptings of the spirit. All right, Father,
I won't if you don't want me to. I always felt that my Father in
heaven was stopping my mouth from proposing to that girl. I have
been so happy and glad ever since that I have Vera. I felt that
night that I had my hand in the hand of the Lord and that he
guided me.
After his stake mission Earl went to BYU to school for the fall and winter quarters. It was about that time, that the Stake Presidency called him in and interviewed him to see if he would serve as Bishop of the Wilford Ward. They asked him if he had a lady friend, and he told them yes. They said for him to ask her if she would like to be a Bishop's wife. Vera responded that she would be glad to be a Bishop's wife. Earl and Vera were already engaged and had their wedding date set for April 30th. On the evening of the 29th of April, the school board had planned a display that the teachers were in charge of; so it was late that night before Earl and Vera could get away. Vera, at that time, was teaching school in Shelley, Idaho. They drove to Blackfoot to get Vera's recommend and had to get the Bishop out of bed at 1:00 a.m. They wanted to keep their wedding date. With recommend in hand, they left for Logan, arriving there at 5:00 a.m. They checked into separate rooms at the hotel, changed their clothes and proceeded to the Temple, where they were married. After the ceremony they checked into a single room at the hotel. The hotel, being understanding of these matters, only charged them for one room, however. After their marriage the couple returned to Wilford where they lived in what was commonly known as the Dayton house.
It was while they were living at the Dayton house that a beautiful daughter, Gay Marlene, was born to them. It was nice, that the first child was a girl, so that Vera could fuss over her and put beautiful dresses on her.
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At this time, Earl was ordained a High Priest by Elder Stephen L. Richards andalso ordained to the office of a bishop of the Wilford Ward.
Earl and Vera then moved into Alfred's home for a period of time and later moved
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into Fern and Andrew's home inasmuch as Fern and Andrew were living up in Yellowstone Park most of the time. Then Earl built a two4oom house across from the old Wilford Ward meetinghouse where their son, Larry E. was born. He was a beautiful brown-eyed black haired baby boy. After living there for approximately two years Earl and Vera and their two children moved to Rexburg where Earl worked for Smead's Lumber. While in Rexburg their family increased by one more, a fine looking dark complexioned son, named Glyn Kittredge. Earl also worked in Rexburg at the O.K. Rubber Welder's store where he learned the trade of tire recapping. In 1943 Earl and Vera and their three children moved to Kemmerer, Wyoming.
One of the stories their family tells on gatherings is about the trip from Rexburg to Kemmerer. If you just visualize today what we commonly call the "okie" move B The family left for Kemmerer in a rattley, broken down truck that stopped repeatedly along the way. Earl and Larry, who was very young, rode on top of the load. When it appeared that the truck had stopped for its last gasp Vera took all of the children to the top a hill where they prayed that their truck would make it to where they waited and that they would be able to continue there journey and arrive safely.
After Vera and the children had prayer at the top of the hill, the gentleman driving the truck got in, and the truck started right up and ran very well. Earl asked him what he had done to start it and he answered that he didn't do anything. Later Earl learned that Vera had prayed with the children that there wouldn't be any more trouble while they rode on to Kemmerer. Their prayer was surely answered. The trip was completed without further incident.
In Kemmerer Earl leased a Sinclair Station in which he set up a tire recapping business. Vera had told all her friends upon leaving Rexburg that if Earl's business did well in Kemmerer they would like to have another child. After arriving there, they started a banking system which consisted of putting spare coins, savings bonds, etc. into a fishbowl shaped jar. The fish shaped jar was a baby bank. After an appropriate saving time, Randy, their third son, came along. His complete medical expenses, including hospital which consisted of a 10 day stay, doctor bill and supplies were paid for from the savings jar which amounted to approximately $150. He was born in 1944.