Temple marriage sealing ordinance was done on Aug 17, 1991 in the Provo temple
with Amber Hilton, grandaughter, as proxy for Clymena Logan and Travis Hilton,
grandson, as proxy for Ora Almon Hilton. It was a special experience for Travis
and Amber
Ora Almon Hilton's great grandfather and several of his brothers came to southwestern Missouri in the 1850s from Scott County, Virginia. The same group had gone to California earliet during the gold rush. His Wiley ancestors had come to Missori a decade earlier from Guilford County, North Carolina. Dad's parents families lived almost side by side in Mars Hill, Barry County, Missouri. Three Hilton children married three Wiley siblings. His parents, Luther Hilton and LaVade Wiley, had four children: Hubert, Ora (Bill), Bonnie and Ruth. The family lived on a farm near Hurley, Missouri early on. We have a picture of the two boys sitting on horses in front of their house with the other family members close by. We have another picture of Dad in school at the age of probably three of four; his brother is there also; Dad told us he wanted to go to school while very young and his mother and the teacher allowed it.Personality wise, Bill was sometimes feisty and opinionated but friendly. Some said he was more like his mother; she was bit fiery at times, while his dad was calm and quiet. His sister Ruth had a similar personality to Bill. Bonnie was just the opposite, loving, friendly and unselfish. Hubert was more of a friendly cynic.
If Bill started schol early while small, he finished well; he was valedictorian of his small high school graduating class. He then when to Drury, a small college in Springfield, Missouri. After graduation he became a teacher and superintendent of school in his hometown of Crane. We have another picture of him with a small high school graduation class; his sister Ruth is in the picture also. He was either there as a teacher or an administrator.
During this time Bill and Clymena Logan married, on September 3, 1925. She was also from Hurley, and they had grown up almost neighbors. Her father owned a grocery store in town and their family had prospered.
Next, Bill decided to enter the University of Wisconsin and work on a Ph.D in American history. Mom worked while Dad completed school. His area of scholarly interest became dissent in the U.S. during World War I. He published numerous scholarly articles on this subject and was still collecting information on it for a book into retirement years. One time while visiting me in Montana after his retirement, he spent some time in Helena in Montana Historical Society Library reseaching dissent in Butte, Montana during W.W.I.
In the summer of 1940 Dad took our family with him to Washington D.C. while he did historical research. Our folks took us children to the sight in D.C. and nearby. Although young I remember visiting the Washinton Monumnet, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, the Smithsonian and Mount Vernon. So all was not work with him; he loved to visit historical sites also.
His first and main college teaching experience was at Oklahoma A. and M. College (Oklahoma State University today) in Stillwater, His children were all born in the early 1930s while living in Stillwater. Ann was born in 1930. The twins, Janet and Jerold, were born in 1934.
They lived in a small house on Seventy Street until the early 1940s when they moved into their long time residence on Third Street. After the family was grown Bill and Clymena bought a smaller, newer two bedroom house. They owned it for several years then bought a nicer house. They owned this house until Clymena's death, and Bill's move from Stillwater to Florida.
Early in World War II Dad joined the army air corps as an officer. Although in his forties at the time, he was patriotic and interested im military affairs. He had served briely in the army toward the end of W.W.I. I asked him one time what he did in the army during W.W.I, he said that he mostly enptied bedpans in Springfield for soldiers ill with the flue. During W.W.II he first taught airplane identifiction to young pilets at San Antonio, Texas. He next was a Third Airforce historian at Tampa, Florida; the family went with him both places. Because there was no available housing in Tampa, the family lived in Clearwater and nearby Indian Rocks Beach. Dad went in the service as a second lieutenant and came out a captain at wars end.
He returned to Oklahoma A and M after the War, and taught there until retirement in the 1960s. He then taught one year at the University of Tulsa beford retiring permanently in Stillwater.
Other than teaching what hobbies did he have? For much of his life he liked gardening and yard work. He loved reading and could often be seen at spare moments reading a book even when his eyesight became poor. Dad and Mom had many friends and belonged to a bridge club as well as a child study club early on. The family regularly attended church; Dad was an Elder in the local Presbyterian church. both Mom and Dad loved to travel. Later in life, when they had more resources, they traveled to Europe and other U.S. locations often; they loved to talk about their travels.
The delighted in their grandchildren, expecially Janet's who were in nearby Ponca City, Oklahoma, as well as Malinda Meador who attended Oklahoma State one year and was often at their house.
Mom and Dad spent much time together. As stated earlier,Dad was intelligent, but sometimes opinionated, quick tempered and judgemental. Mother was almost the oposite; although intelligent enough, she was patient, kind, considerate of others and nonjudgmental. Mother seemed low geared while Dad had to keep busy; they usually worked well together.
Mothe died a slow death in 1981 from bone cancer; Dad exhausted himself caring for her. After her death he sold his Stllwater home and moved to Florida near daughter Ann. He lived in a trailer home park for awhile then sold that home. As he grew older and more feeble, he found it necessary to live in an assisted living apartment. He did not seem to endure old age and life away for Stillwater well. He once complained to me that he did not like Florida because it had no seasons and was green all the time. Perhaps part of the problem was he did not have the respect in Florida that he had had in Stillwater. Undoubtedly, loneliness without his life time companion contributed to his unhappiness; along with old age. He died April 6, 1988 and was survived by three children and twelve grandchildren.
by Jerold Hilton, February 1998.
Clymena Logan wa raised in Hurley, Stone County, Missouri, a little town in sourthwestern Missouri. Her father, Loren Almon Logan, had been raised in neighboring county in the now almost non existent town of Logan, near Marionville. The town was partly founded by his grandfather, William Logan, who along with his family had moved from Lincoln County, Tennesse in the mid Ninteenth Century. Loren opened a store in Hurley. Since the small town was on a railroad, he like may others in small railroad town, hoped that the community would soon boom and he would become wealthy. It did not, but he did make a good living off the store. He owned one of the nicest two story homes in the community and his family was well taken care of.
Her mother, Sarah Viola Stafford Logan, was from a family that has their roots traced thirteen generation to William Stafford born in England and lived in Virginia in the 1600s. Clymena's maternal grandmother, Ann Elizabeth Turner can trace her ancestry four generation to William Turner in 1700s, also of Virginia. Clymena's paternal grandmother, Lavina Arbella Patterson, had Mormon connections in the Hendricks family. Lavina's grandfather, Abraham, had not joined the church in Independence, Missouri, but his brother James did in the 1830s.
Clymena, nicknamed "Crum" because she like to eat crumbs as a child, was born the first of four children. The other three all boys were: Leon, Lyman and Kenneth. Leon prospered as a manager of Sears stores. He once managed the store in Havana, Cuba, and at the time of retirement ran one in Arlington, Virginia. Lyman was a stockbroker in New York. Kenneth was the postmaster in Hurley and later a mail carrier in Springfield, Missouri.
Clymena went to college in Georgia, and later married a former Hurley classmate, Ora "Bill" Hilton. He was then a school pricipal in the neighboring town of Crane. Following marriage the couple went to Madison, Wisconsin were Bill began work on a Ph.D degree at the University of Wisconsin. Clymena worked while her husband completed school.
Following graduation the couple took a job at Oklahoma A and M College (now Oklahoma State University) in the history department. They lived the rest of their lives together in Stillwater, and had three children: Ann and twins, Janet and Jerold. The family lived in several different homes in Stillwater, spenting most of their tenure in an older two story frame house on Third Street. After the children were raised and gone, the couple bought two different homes in Stillwater.
Clymena was mostly a housewife but was also an active advisor of her college sorority for many years. After the children were in high school, she worked in the homemaking department at the College, which she enjoyed much. The couple had many long time, mostly college faculty, friends; they often met together in their bridge club or child study group. The family would usually visit family in the Ozarks several times a year, Christmas and summer, for many years; it was a memorable time for the whole family. Clymena and family were active members of the local Presbyterian church.
Clymena's children all graduated from college, Ann and Janet from Oklahoma State University, Jerold from Brigham Young University. Ann married Rob Roy Meador from Clearwater, Florida. Ann and Roy met when the family lived in Clearwater, Florida during WW II where Bill was stationed as an Air Force officer in nearby Tampa. Janet first married Charlie Hollar from Stillwater; they divorced.She then married Bill Heitsmit from Denver where they now live. Jerold first married a BYU classmate, LaNore Olsen. After she died he married Elaine Miller for Rexburg, Idaho. where they now live.
Clymena was usually a quiet, kind women in somewhat of a contrast with her husband who was more talkative and opinionated. People loved her.
By Jerold Hilton, March 1999.