"from News and Views by Grandpa Van"
Florence Eva Rees was born on Sunday, May 7, 1899 at Erie, Weld County, Colorado. She was the first child born to Elizabeth Anderson Rees and Albert Rees. She moved, with her family, to the small coal mining town of Reliance, Sweetwater County, Wyoming in about the year of 1912 when she would have been twelve or thirteen years of age.
Florence Eva, John William & Agnes Elizabeth Rees
She completed her formal education in Reliance which was through the eighth grade, after which she went to work at the local US Post Office in Reliance and also helped out at home where her parents took in boarders.
It was while the family was living in Reliance that Florence decided to run away and marry the fellow who was living next door, a guy by the name of Joe Devich. She was nineteen years old and Joe was twenty-one. They obtained a marriage license on June 15, 1918 from the County Clerk at Green River, Sweetwater County, Wyoming and were married on Sunday, June 23, 1918.
Florence’s parents, Albert and Elizabeth Rees, didn't like Joe Devich which is probably why she had to run away to marry him. By the time her father got home from work that day he had already been told what had happened and he came home hopping mad! Florence was home telling her mother what she had done when her dad came home, and Joe wasn't with her and probably for good reason.
Albert wouldn't let Florence leave the house and he also wouldn't let Joe Devich come into the house. Finally, Joe sent for the sheriff to help him get his bride back. When the sheriff showed up Albert was at the door to meet him. The sheriff explained that Florence and Joe were legally married and that he had come to take Florence back to her husband. Albert told him to "come ahead if you think you're big enough". The sheriff could see that Albert meant what he said and was dead serious that his daughter was not going to leave and go with Joe Devich, so he decided to leave them alone and let them settle the situation for themselves. Albert then proceeded to have the wedding annulled.
Florence Eva Rees
After the wedding fiasco, Florence coerced her sister, Agnes, into smuggling notes back and forth between her and Joe until the day that Agnes got caught. Then, Florence and Agnes were both in very serious trouble with their parents, their father was especially upset.
Shortly after they got caught passing notes, the family made a trip to Ohio under the pretense of visiting Elizabeth’s parents and family but the real reason was to separate Florence from Joe Devich.
When the family returned from their trip to Ohio they could not go back to their home in Reliance because the town was quarantined due to a flu epidemic. So they stayed in Rock Springs for a few more days until the quarantine was lifted. Several of the Reliance residents, some of whom were family friends, lost their lives during this epidemic.
Right after the trip to Ohio the family moved to Dines, Wyoming another small coal mining community, just a few miles north of Reliance. This was another measure to keep Florence and Joe apart. They moved to Dines in 1918.
Florence found a new love in the little town of Dines, a fellow who boarded with the family by the name of Galen Briggs Van Valkenburg.
Galen Briggs Van Valkenburg and Florence Eva Rees were united in holy matrimony on Sunday, May 30, 1920 at Ogden, Weber County, Utah. The wedding was solemnized by D. M. Sanderson, a “minister of the gospel.” Witnesses to the ceremony was the mother of the bride, Mrs. Albert Rees, and her mother’s sister, Mrs. J. Dominiske, whose maiden name was Margaret Rebecca Anderson. Assuming by the names of the witnesses, who were Florence’s mother and her mother’s sister, Margaret, this wedding must have had the blessings of her parents.
Galen was twenty-eight years of age and Florence was twenty-one. He was the son of Mary Rebecca Crouch V V and Galen B. Van Valkenburg and she was the daughter of Elizabeth Anderson Rees and Albert Rees. The marriage certificate indicates that they were both living at Dines, Sweetwater County, Wyoming at the time of their marriage.
The couple didn’t go on a honeymoon but returned directly back to Dines where they made their home for a few short months and then they moved to Megath, Sweetwater County, Wyoming, two or three miles north of Dines, where they stayed for at least a couple of years. Galen worked in the coal mine and Florence stayed home and kept house.
Their first child, a daughter, Eva Agnes Van Valkenburg, was born at Megath on June 12, 1921. The second child was a boy, Galen Thomas Van Valkenburg born on November 4, 1923 in the same town as the first child, Eva, but the name of the town had now changed from Megath to Winton.
Not long after the birth of Galen Thomas the family moved Winton to Rock Springs, Sweetwater County, Wyoming where Galen went to work at the Blairtown Coal Mine and it was in Rock Springs that their third child, Albert William Van Valkenburg was born Why there is a gap of almost nine years between the birth of Albert and their next child, Robert, is a mystery and will forever be unknown. But the family again began to grow in numbers and on August 19, 1933 Robert Leo Van Valkenburg was born at home.
Florence Rees Van Valkenburg
On September 14, 1934 another son, Howard Ray Van Valkenburg was born and he too, was born at home where the family was living at Number Six District in the town of Rock Springs, Wyoming.
On September 28, 1937 a daughter, Jane Ann Van Valkenburg was born into the family. She was born in the Sweetwater Memorial Hospital and on October 23, 1939 another daughter, Mary Rebecca Van Valkenburg was born into the family. She was the last of seven children born to Florence Eva Rees and Galen Briggs Van Valkenburg. She was born in the Sweetwater Memorial Hospital. She was named after her paternal grandmother, Mary Rebecca Crouch.
Florence’s husband, Galen, became ill in the early 1940’s and was hospitalized on several occasions. Children were not allowed, as visitors, in the local hospital but Florence got permission to take her children, Robert, Howard, Jane and Mary to see their father on the evening of July 29, 1947.
We were shocked when we entered the room and saw Dad under what was called an “oxygen tent”. He had needles in his arms with tubes connected to them and to bottles hanging upside down on a metal tree. He looked very weary and had dark circles around his eyes but he assured us he was doing fine and pushed the oxygen tent aside so he could talk to us. He took each one of us, (Robert, Howard, Jane and Mary) one by one in his arms and talked to us, telling us to be good kids and to do whatever our Mom asked of us. He told us how much he loved us and kissed each of us several times.
We left the hospital and drove straight to our home; it took no longer than fifteen minutes. Just after we walked in the house the telephone rang, it was the hospital. They informed Mom that Dad had just died and needed her to come back to the hospital. We were dumbfounded; we thought surely this was a mistake because we had just talked with him less than fifteen minutes ago.
Mom went back to the hospital and we (Robert, Howard, Jane and Mary) sat on the kitchen floor in a circle and cried. We kept telling each other that soon Mom would return with better news. When Mom finally returned she told us it was true, Dad died just after we had left the hospital. This was July 29, 1947.
Florence had to go to work to support the family because Social Security didn‘t pay enough and there wasn’t much of a benefit from the United Mine Workers Labor Union. She had only an eighth grade education, which was normal in her day, but it meant that she could not qualify for the best paying jobs. Aunt Esther, a sister of Florence’s mother, got her a job at the Park Hotel where she worked in the laundry. Florence’s job was making beds and cleaning rooms.
Aunt Esther was a bad influence on Florence. She liked to drink and almost every day after work she would stop across the street from the Park Hotel at Hector’s Bar and get half smashed before she went home. Her husband, Joe Dominiske, died in 1953. It wasn’t long before she had Florence stopping at the bar with her where she spent more time and money than she should have. This went on for a few years until Florence changed jobs.
Jean’s father, John Firmage, died in 1957; ten years to the day that Dad died and her mother took a job cleaning the Sage Room Bar which was located in the Park Hotel. She talked Florence into working with her at the bar and this pretty much shut down the drinking with Aunt Esther although they still got together occasionally.
Florence’s oldest daughter, Eva and husband, Bill Tolar, lived next door and when they became interested in looking for arrowheads they took Florence with them. This was something she enjoyed and it became a routine thing for them to do. Eva and Bill took her with them nearly everywhere they went; hunting, fishing, arrowhead hunting and trips to Ogden, Utah to visit her sister.
Florence always had a close relationship with her sister, Agnes Burdess, who lived in Ogden, Utah. They would visit one another regularly and she too was an arrowhead fan and accompanied them on many arrowhead, hunting and fishing trips. Florence and Agnes had some real fun times together; they each had a great sense of humor.
Agnes Burdess alias Pedro (left)
Florence Rees Van Valkenburg alias Jose (right)
A picture of arrowheads is hanging on the wall.
With old age Florence got to the point that she could no longer care for herself even though Eva and Bill lived next door and helped her a great deal. She reached the point that they could not give her the care she needed and was admitted to a rest home in Rock Springs. Here she lived out the remaining months of her life and passed away on October 27, 1985.
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