Remembering Nathaniel (Nat) Greer

Nathaniel, the fifth child of John Harris and Orpha Greer, 

was born 27 Oct 1893 in Concho, Arizona. At the time, his oldest sister Myrtle was seven, brother John was six, Bina was four, and Lillian was two years old. They enjoyed their baby brother, whom they called Nat, and it is known that their father was loving, attentive, and playful with his little children.

Nat grew up on the Greer Ranch. Having learned ranching

in his youth, he continued that kind of work until he joined 

the Army in 1917 during World War I. In Laurie Jo Greer Rhoton's book "The Greer Trail," she has printed some of the letters Nat wrote home from his base in Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. 

Soon after returning home from the war, he married Edith Viola Thomas 27 October 1920 in St. Johns. They made their home in Holbrook for a few years. During that time, Nat worked as a store clerk. Nat and Edith ran a cafe at Peach Springs and later operated the Phantom Ranch in the bottom of the Grand Canyon for Fred Harvey. They had no children and were later divorced. Nat stayed several months with the George E. Crosby family and helped his sister Florence operate the Crosby's lodge at Greer.

Nat later moved to Yuma, Arizona, and then to Whittier, California, where he worked in a welding shop with his brother Jim. He married a young widow, Marjorie Akers, who had two sons, Michael and Robert, and they lived in Seal Beach, California. In 1956 Nat developed cancer of the throat. He died 2 April 1958 and is buried in Costa Mesa, California.

Remembering Lillian Oasis Greer Parks

Lillian Oasis Greer

by her sister Florence Leoma Greer Crosby

Born in 1891, Lillian Oasis Greer joined three other siblings in the Harris and Orpha Greer family. Her middle name was after her father's younger sister. Lillian had beautiful, curly red hair. She learned to be an expert rider as well as a fine hostess for the many travelers to her father's Apache County ranch. Grandmother Greer taught Lillian and her sisters to sew and to make hats. Lillian graduated from the St. Johns Academy. 

At age 25, she married Gordon Arthur Parks, who was born 6 November 1896 in Longmont, Colorado, and whose family had moved to St. Johns sometime before 1912. Gordon and Lillian lived at the site of the Lyman Reservoir where he was employed as one of the chief engineers. Their first child, Maxine, was born 11 December 1917 in Holbrook. Lillian brought the baby and visited often with friends and family in St. Johns. When in St. Johns, Lillian taught teenage girls to sew and display their work at the county fair.

Remembering Sabina Ann Greer Law

Sabina Ann Greer was born on 9 October 1889 in St. Johns, Arizona. She was raised on her

father’s ranch where she learned to work hard making 

butter, gathering wood, weaving homemade rugs, and wrestling teams of horse. As one of the older daughters in the family, she was often put in charge of her younger siblings. But Sabina’s father wanted his children to also know the finer things in life, and she particularly enjoyed singing and dancing.

She could ride, in her words, “like nobody’s business” and became an excellent shot with a gun. She tells of a time travelling home to visit her parents during the summer of 1916 when she “shot clothespins right down the line from their wagon with a .22 caliber rifle.”

While working at a rooming house at the age of 22, Sabina met and married a railroad engineer who went by the name of Harry Love, but whose real name was Guy Pinkerton. They had a daughter Cathleen in 1911 but were later divorced in 1915.

Remembering John Harris Greer, Jr.

John Harris Greer 1887-1967

by his sister Florence Leoma Greer Crosby

  

John with Bina & Lillian on their horse Strawberry

John, the oldest son of John Harris Greer and Orpha Elzetta Nicoll, was born

21 Aug 1887 in St. Johns, Apache County, Arizona. When the young family was living at Concho, school was held at their home half the year and half the year at Udall's. D.K. Udall's daughter was the teacher of ten children.

John married Mary Ellen Heap, daughter of John Henry and Mary Ann Heap, on 24 Dec 1908. From 1900 to 1950, he operated the Greer store, service station, cafe, and motel on the south side of Commercial Street in St. Johns. John and Mary Ellen's beautiful rock home wasn't far from their business. Mary Ellen cooked roasts, pies, and bread for the cafe in her home kitchen. For a time around 1912, John was involved in another venture when he bought the town's water-powered electrical plant. During that time electricity was only delivered in the evening hours. 

Remembering Myrtle Greer Brown

Myrtle Greer 1886-1965

by her sister Florence Leoma Greer Crosby

Myrtle was the first child born to John Harris and Orpha Nicoll Greer. She was born 18 February 1886 in Concho, Arizona. Her brother John and sister Sabina were close in age and her sister Lillian was born when Myrtle was five, so the “young’uns” had built-in playmates to grow up with. Myrtle learned to play the mandolin, to paint, and to do many kinds of handwork. She attended school in Concho and in St. Johns. 

 

It was in St. Johns that she met Benjamin Brown. Ben and Myrtle kept company when Ben took a missionary preparation class at the LDS Academy in St. Johns in 1904. Ben served a mission in Liverpool, England, and on his way home from England he stopped at the Greer Ranch to visit her. After Ben proposed and Myrtle accepted, Loe Burgess drove a team and wagon to take them and Jay Burgess & his fiancee, Jessie Wiltbank, to Holbrook. At the Holbrook train station, the two couples entrained for Salt Lake City and were married in the Salt Lake Temple 9 October 1908.  

After their marriage they lived in Eagar until 1920. Ben was elected treasurer of Apache County and the family moved to St. Johns with their five children. Their last child, Benjamin, was born in St. Johns in 1924.

In 1923, Ben discovered he had diabetes. It became worse and in 1933 he was admitted to a Los Angeles hospital for several weeks to get it stabilized. He died 14 July 1935 in St. Johns. Myrtle raised the family in her little home in St. Johns just west of the elementary school. While visiting her sister Bina in Salt Lake City in March of 1965, Myrtle fell ill and told the doctor she had a gallstone that hadn't passed. She was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday 24 March and died 45 minutes later.