Gheen Hillman

Gheen Hillman was born on August 28, 1899 to Joseph Silas Hillman and Lydia Manette Robison. He was born in Mammoth, Juab, Utah. (Idaho 1960) In the year 1900, his family moved to Driggs, Idaho and he spent the rest of his life in Teton Valley. (Breckenridge 2013) He married Eva Buxton on October 27, 1924 in Idaho Falls, Idaho. (Idaho 1924) They were blessed with seven children, three sons and four daughters. (Breckenridge 2013)

Gheen was a firm believer in getting a good education even though he only finished high school. He was very gifted when it came to numbers and could logically think through any math problem until it was solved. (Breckenridge 2013) During his school years, he would ride his horse back and forth to school. To pass the time he would memorize short poems that he called memory gems. He kept the poems in small notebooks that he always carried with him. He always remembered these memory gems and would often quote them to his children during teaching moments. (Hillman 2013 )

Gheen was well liked by all who knew him. He was a tease and loved to pull jokes on others. He also enjoyed it just as much if the joke was pulled on him. He had a little electric box, which he would crank up to get an electric shock. He loved to get people to hold hands and feel the electrical shock. One of the jokes he loved to do was to pull someone out of bed and drag them to a nearby ditch of water where he threw them in. When the Darby Ward would go to the springs for a ward, party he dunked everyone young and old. (Breckenridge 2013)

Gheen was not a member of a church, but he would often say, “If you are not involved in church then you should be involved in community activities.” (Hillman 2013 ) He served as a member and chairman of the Teton County School Board for eleven years. He was president of the Teton County Farm Bureau. He served as secretary of the Garden Water Co. for about twenty years, starting at the age of sixteen. He was a director and secretary on the Darby Pipe Line. In Darby there was a community threshing machine. Gheen served as a member of the board and also assisted with the threshing. (Breckenridge 2013)

Although he was not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Gheen was very supportive of all their projects and activities. The church house in Darby, Idaho burned down on a Sunday morning in February of about 1946. Gheen was there and generously offered to let the ward hold meetings in the house he and Eva were remodeling. When the Darby ward asked for donations for a new church, Gheen was the first person to hand them a check for $1000.00. He was also the first to volunteer his time and also his team of horses to help haul logs from the canyon for the new church house. (Hillman 2013 )

Gheen was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in February of 1960. When the bishop was interviewing him before he was baptized he said, “Gheen, when you join, you have an obligation to want to join for yourself and not because your wife and children want you to join.” He replied, “I want you to know when I join the church I’ll join because I want to and not because someone has pushed me into it.” (Breckenridge 2013) Just two months later, he died of a heart attack on April 8, 1960. (Idaho 1960)

Works Cited

Breckenridge, Ronelle Hillman, interview by Mandee Hillman VanOrden. (March 13, 2013).

Idaho. Bonneville. (1924) Marriage Certificate, Gheen Hillman to Eva Buxton, 27 October 1924, Bonneville County, Idaho. County Recorder's Office, Idaho Falls, Idaho. Copy in possession of author.

Idaho. Ada. (1960) Death Certificate for Gheen Hillman,16 April 1960, File No. 58943, Idaho State Department of Health. Copy in possession of author.

Hillman, John Alfred, interview by Mandee Hillman VanOrden. (March 12, 2013).