I was only five years old, when he died. We had him such a short time, my
memories are few, but I do remember many things my mother told me about him.
His parents were Catherine Mathews and George B. Zimpelman. He was born in
Austin, Texas, and was the youngest son. At an early age, he was curious about how
things worked. He told my mother that once his father gave him a watch for a gift.
He took it all apart to see what made it "tick". He was educated in the A. and M.
College in Bryan, Texas. His field was Engineering.

     He related to my mother that his mother was a very charitable person, often he
would take groceries and clothing to the poor with his mother. They would drive their
horse and buggy to deliver these things, also he told, that when my grandmother died,
money was found hidden in different places in the old home. She had been saving it to
give to the poor.

     My grandmother died when my father was in his early teens. At this time the west
was developing great mining interests. As a young man he went west to Utah and started
working in the mines as an Engineer. He boarded and roomed at a rooming house. The
owner said he told him, "he would like to see the color of the eyes of the girl he
would marry. That he wasn't interested in women", but when he met my mother, he said,
"well I have seen the girl with the eyes I want to marry".

     Mother told of their courtship. Said my grandmother, Ann L. Reece, thought any
one who wasn't a Mormon and who came from Texas, was not a suitable beau for her
daughter. So she more or less fought the courtship with disapproval. If my father was
not on his way by 10:00 P.M.,  grandmother was handing him his hat.

     My father and mother were married in May 1898. They bought a little three room
home in Mammoth, Utah. I was born a year and seven months later on December 14,
1900.

     It was a hard birth for my mother. I weighed 10 pounds and there were no anesthetics
to ease the pain in those days. This was hard on my father to watch, as he was a very
kind hearted and warm person.

     My father was a gifted musician. In his early youth, grandfather gave all of the
Children piano lessons. The teacher would say to my father, "George you are playing
the music correctly, but you are not looking at it". He had the great gift to play by
ear, he could hear anything and sit down and play it. He was the pianist for the dance
orchestras in Mammoth. Mother said she could picture him coming home from the mine,
and the little children from Primary running up to him and asking, "Mr. Zimpelman, will
you play for our dance?".

     Aunt Sadie was also living in Mammoth at this time. She could hear a song and
remember the words. She and my father spent many happy hours singing and playing at
our little organ.

     Mother loved to hear my father play the John Phillip Sousa Military Marches, said
he could just make the piano talk, when he played those stirring marches.
She told of his generosity to others, said he would give the shirt off his back,
if he felt someone needed It. He was always bringing a surprise guest home to a meal.
He delighted in bringing my mother gifts.

     My grandmother Reece grew to love my father for his kindness. When my sister
Lela was born. She came from Canada to help my mother. The railroad lost her trunk
with all of her clothes, father put his arms around her and said, "don't worry
mother, we'll buy you some new clothes".

     My sister Lela was born in 1902. I have always loved her dearly. A short time
before my brother George was born, there was a great deal of gold excitement in
California and Nevada. A large group of my father's friends and relatives were going
there to seek their fortune. My father also wanted to join them and prospect for
gold. He didn't want to take mother there until the new baby was born. He moved us
to Evanston, Wyoming, so mother could be near a doctor and her brother Joe and his
wife Edith Reece. George was born July 3, 1905. When he was about three months old,
mother and her three little ones went on the train to join my father in Nipton,
California. This was eighteen miles from Searchlight, Nevada, where we had to get
off the train.

     This is one of the memories I have of my father, I can still see him walking
down the aisle of the train to gather up his little family. He was overjoyed to
have us with him. After we got off the train at Searchlight, we had to all get in a
wagon to drive to Nipton. There was quite a camp there of relatives and friends.
Father had set up a large two room tent with a wooden floor and sides that were wood
half way up. It was true pioneer life. Mother often told me that was the happiest six
months of her life. Father's brother Lee, mother's sister Sadie and her husband
George were all living in Nipton. In the evenings my father and Uncle Lee would
play their harmonicas. Both mother and Aunt Sadie had lovely voices and the rest of
the camp would join in the sing along.

     There were no stores in Nipton and someone had to go to Searchlight, Nevada,
which I stated was 18 miles away, to buy supplies periodically. I can remember this
one time my father took me. While driving home he was stricken with a terrible spell
and was in intense pain. I was so little and frightened. I tried to rub his back, he
told my mother, with tears in his eyes, "my little girl tried to rob my back and make
me comfortable".

     At this time we didn't know what was causing the pain. The spells became more
frequent and since there was no medical help in Nipton, my Uncle Joe Reece said he
would take my father on the train to Salt Lake City. Uncle Joe felt father was quite
comfortable when he retired for the night in his berth. The next morning when he went
to check on father, he found my father had passed away with a heart attack. This was
just as the train neared Black Rock Beach. This was May 12, 1906.

     My grandfather Zimpelman was heart broken to receive this sad news. He sent a
telegram to my mother begging her to bring my father's body back to Austin and asked
that she and her three children come and live with him in the old home. He wired
money for us to make the trip back to Austin.
This was the beginning of our life in Texas.

                                                          Waldine Zimpelman Riches