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- Memories from son, Melton Bryan, December 1999
Howe Brolyer Bryan was born on May 9th, 1894 in Summerfield,Kansas. He moved to a farm 10 miles northeast of Council Grove when hewas 7 years old. He went to school 1st thru 8th grade at the FairviewSchool about 1 1/2 miles southwest of the farm he lived on. This endedhis schooling. He was taught by Frank Manning who was mostly selftaught. Mr. Manning wrote a beautiful hand.
Howe married Daisy Pearl Melton on Sept. 26, 1915. They had gonetogether for 5 years they told me. They are the parents of 6 children,Melton, Reuben, Norman, Oliver, Margie Lou, and William Jennings. Hefarmed with his father until 1926 when he moved to Brownsville Districtsouth of Brewster, Kans.
They moved to Colby in March 1927 where he worked for Symes & Shaferwholesale grocers as a truck driver until July of 1929 when they moved toSection 14 northeast of Gem, Kan. They lived there until Aug of 1931when they moved to Section 23, 3 miles east and 3 miles north of Colby,Kan. They lived there until Aug of 1934 when they moved to McCook, Nebr.where he drove truck for Symes & Shafer. They were there just 1 yearwhen they moved back to Colby and he went to work driving a gasolinetransport for Harley Melton, his brother-in-law. They moved to GreeleyColo. in 1937 where he hauled gas from Cheyenne, Wyo. and Denver toConsumers Oil Co. in Greeley. In April of 1938 he bought a unit fromSefer Markley which consisted of a new 1 1/2 ton Dodge truck with a 6cylinder engine and a 2500 gallon Semi-tanker. We were hauling gas fromCheyenne to Allen Oil Co. Stations in Salt Lake, Sandy, Odgen, Logan,Brigham City, Salinas and other towns up and down the Valley. Thefurthest point we hauled to was Jerome, Idaho. Rube drove Dad's truckfrom Evanston to Medicine Bow, Wyo then Roy White would take the truckand go to Cheyenne and load it and bring it back to Medicine Bow. Thistook 8 hours and then Rube would take the truck to Evanston. My Dadwould take the truck to destination and unload it and then back toEvanston and do whatever needed doing on the truck.
I was diving truck for Sefer Markley and Roy White would load mytruck and Dad would unload it, When Rube was going east I was headedwest. This worked real good. I drove there until April 1939 when Itransferred to Denver. Dad later bought four new Internationals K7trucks and had them leased to Allen Oil and was doing real good. Sefercalled him and asked him if he would come to Greeley and manage MeltonTransport which he intended to buy. Dad said he had a real good deal inSalt Lake as he had sold his trucks to Allen Oil and was truck foremanfor Allen Oil. He told Sefer that he would consider coming to Greeley ifhe could own 50% of the company. They applied to the I.C.C. to buyMelton Transport. They were turned down because Sefer already owned M &M Truck Co. Dad made application in his own name and it was approved.They paid Uncle Harley $35,000.00 for the company and Dad eventually paidSefer $50,000.00 for his half interest.
Mom and Dad moved to Greeley in May of 1944. They moved to Cheyennein 1946 and lived at 3415 Dillon in Cheyenne. They moved to 208 W.Pershing in 1953 and lived there until they moved to Tucson, Ariz. in1967. Dad lost his health in 1952 and sold Melton Transport to DickWilson in 1953. Dad and Mom moved to Tucson in 1967 and lived thereuntil he passed way in June of 1977. He is buried in Greeley, Colo. Momlived until June 1978 when she passed away. She is buried beside Dad inGreeley, Colo.
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