Returning Home from a Dance

Taken from "Experiences in the Life of Karl Lorenzo Probst"

"One night about the middle of April, our orchestra went to Duchesne to play for a dance. After the dance let out about 10:00 p.m., we started on our way home. While coming up Deep Creek in Dolph Duke's car, he was driving, he went to sleep at the wheel and I could feel the car swerve, going to the side, and the car tipped down against a quaken aspen tree and was braced across this tree. I opened the door on my side and crawled out and helped the piano player out, and then Dolph crawled out. Seymour Duke and Albin Hansen were in the back seat, and Albin said, "Seymour, don't step on my violin," and Symour said, "Hell, you have got it under your arm." At the same time, Albin was stepping in the middle of Seymour's drum. From then on, Albin carried his violin under his arm to protect it. We gathered some wood and made a fire. Seymour and I walked to the State Road Shed in Strawberry Valley about five miles away. We arrived at sunup and Ronald Johnson was the only man there working for the State. He got a state truck and equipment and we rode back with him to the wreck. He pulled us onto the road, and we got on our way, arriving in Heber about 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning."

Fishing with Karl

Memories of Karl as told by GWP:

Dad (Karl) and I were "fishing buddies" for as long as I can remember. He started me fishing at about age four. My first memories were of the Mahogany Spring at the mouth of Pine Canyon and not far from our cabin in Snake Creek––maybe a couple of miles. Dad took me in through the brush to a small stream and said, "Glen, come and look at this." I crouched over, went up to where he was, looked into the clear water and saw about a dozen Brook Trout feeding in the quiet current. That was my first experience and it "hooked" me on fishing. I was so excited. Then Dad baited his hook, dropped it into the stream, and I watched as one of the fish quickly took the bait, and Dad pulled it out and onto the grassy bank.

Now I was really excited. Those Brook Trout were so colorful. From that day on Dad and I fished several times a week. As I got older, we went to Deer Creek Reservoir, Strawberry Reservoir, some of the high lakes (Brimhall Lake, Lake Catharine, Pittsburg Lake, Blood Lake, Island Lake, Lake Mary, and others) in the mountains above Midway towards Park City and Brighton and Alta. We also fished the Provo and Weber Rivers a lot. Whenever we could, we went fishing.

My mother (Cree) both bottled and froze fish for use year around.

When Dad (Karl) was in his late eighties, he still wanted to go fishing with me, if only to watch me fish. I remember one day we went to Rainbow Bay on Deer Creek, one of his favorite places. I drove as close to the reservoir as possible and then helped him down the embankment and over to the edge of the lake, where I put him on a chair, and we fished and caught our limits. Dad loved to fish and so did I.

Karl's favorite places to fish at first were up Snake Creek--the stream that ran through our orchard and right next to the old cabin where he was born. In later years he liked to fish the reservoirs--Strawberry first, Deer Creek next, and then Schofield. He also enjoyed going with me to the Uinta Mountain lakes.

He mostly fished with bait--worms and cheese. He only fished with flies when he was with me doing evening fishing on one of the lakes. I tied many, many flies that were very effective, and Dad would use a fly and a bubble on his spinning outfit when we fished the lakes in the evenings or early mornings. Sometimes we would get up at 3:00 AM to go to Strawberry and fish with large streamers or bucktails, trolling them behind a boat with the motor running very slowly. This was very effective. We'd fish into the morning and catch fish as long as the fog and mist remained on the lake.

Dad was famous for being able to catch fish on the streams around Midway. This is how he taught me. He would walk into the most brushy places with a short fishing pole and line, sneak up to the side of the creek, drop the bait in along the undercut banks, and catch fish at will. He always told me this was the way to do it, because most people would not fight the brush to fish those places. He was right, I caught my limit of fish almost everyday doing this. We had fish regularly.

Dad used a spinning rod only, once they came on the market in the fifties. Before that he used a bamboo pole or steel telescoping rod to fish on the streams and rivers close to home--mostly Snake Creek, the Big Ditch behind our house, Mahogany Springs, and the Provo River. He never used a classic fly-fishing rod on the rivers and streams like I did.

Karl's Fishing Hats. Originally these were his "Dress Hats" before they were commissioned as "Fishing Hats."

Karl's Tackle Box

Karl's Fishing Hat filled with flies tied by GWP.

Browne Lake Fishing Trip 1962

Memories of Karl as told by GWP:

Karl L. Probst - Browne Lake 1962

In 1962 Dad (Karl), Harold Hullinger (my father-in-law), and I took a fishing trip to Browne Lake. Browne Lake is north of Vernal, UT, on the eastern end of the Uinta Mountains, north slope near Flaming Gorge.

Karl would have been 65 years old in 1962. We went out to the Uintas specifically for this fishing trip and stayed in Harold Hullinger's camper.

The fish are Native Cutthroat fish, and each weighed between 2 and 3 pounds. We caught many fish that day. I don't remember what the limit was, but we kept only the larger fish.

Dad (Karl) always wore bib overalls. I still have his old hat and fishing license. In fact, I've used his old hat for years and have added some more of my home-tied flies to it.

Glen W. Probst - Browne Lake 1962

History of Karl Lorenzo Probst - Part IV

History written by Karl L. Probst in 1968:

"Besides teaching school and farming, I played for many dances, using the saxophone, trombone and guitar. we traveled in all kinds of weather playing in surrounding towns in and out of the valley."

Old Midway Social Hall where Karl and his orchestra played for dances.
(Notice the pot rock construction.)

"I was Sunday School and ward chorister approximately forty years and was Wasatch Stake Sunday School chorister for eight years."

"In the year, 1914, while attending B.Y.U., I was selected for the Wasatch Stake to take the Scoutmaster's Training Course that the Church had initiated. I was chosen Scoutmaster in midway and worked in Scouting for about forty years as Scoutmaster and on the Troop Committee. Also, I took a course for college credit that gave me the 'Scoutmaster's Key.'"

"I organized a male quartet composed of myself as second bass; Reed Kohler, bass; Rulon Huntington, lead; and Roy Huffaker, tenor. We did much public service, and sang for funerals, on programs, etc., for some forty years. This quartet took first place in the Utah Farm Bureau Contest. I organized other groups and put on about six or seven minstrel shows to help raise money to pay on the present Midway Second Ward meetinghouse., and after the money was matched, it made about $6,000 toward the chapel."

"My favorite sport was baseball, having pitched and won many games. I came by this naturally, because I could curve a ball when I was in the sixth grade. I have obtained a hunting and fishing license each year and never missed a year from the time I was fourteen years old."

"My wife and I served a six-months' mission in the East Central States from October, 1961, to April, 1962. We also spent several winters in Mesa, Arizona, doing temple work and enjoying the warm climate."

"Over the years, I developed the ability to do fancy handwriting and was asked many times to sign numerous certificates, invitations, etc."

"During my farm days, I got into the silver fox business and had a ranch of my own––about twenty pens. We made money for several years and had good luck, and then the styles changed, and the women weren't wearing fox fur. We sold the last ones for $10.00 a piece and got out of the business."

Fox Pens on the Probst Farm where Karl raised silver foxes for their pelts to be used for clothing, 1940's.
At the peak, he had about 500 foxes.

"I also had acquired by this time some black Karakul sheep; the first ram I bought from Texas at a cost of $250.o0. It was the only Karakul ram in Utah at that time, and I crossed him on Suffolk ewes, and their offspring were half bloods, and I kept crossing this ram until I got a 15/16th blood, almost purebred. I also purchased a ewe then, too, and kept inbreeding until I finally had a quality of pelt that was valued at about $25.00 to $30.00 a piece."

"I sold a carload of sheep to Hemingway in California, keeping twelve yearlings that were the highest quality of broadtail type fur. I kept one ram lamb to breed on these twelve, having let the old ram go to California. I figured I had the best ram, and these twelve ewes were the best in America for their quality of fur. I figured now that I would really make some money. I had this valuable ram in the corral with some horses, and about two weeks after I had sold the other sheep, I went up to the barn one morning, and the ram was lying dead. He had been kicked by a horse and had a broken neck, so I had no ram to breed these twelve ewes with. so, I wrote to California to try to get the old ram back, and they informed me that they had already killed him because they didn't think he was worth anything. So, with this disappointment, it put an end to my experiment in the sheep business."

"We also raised peas for silage, sugar beet seed, milk cows, head lettuce and hay. Just recently, I have purchased two rare Mouflon sheep, almost extinct. The ewe now has a lamb."

"We also had a raspberry patch up Snake Creek in the apple orchard which produced berries very abundantly for some time. However, the State Park has now purchased this ground, but I have continued to lease it back since that time. This year is the last time I will take care of the raspberries up Snake Creek. The bushes are just about all dead."

"The last year I taught school, I decided to try making a guitar. I found a large log up Snake Creek, hauled it to my home and with an ax, chopped it down to size. I then took it to the shop in high school where I smoothed it and cut it to the pattern I had made. By the time school was out in the spring, I had finished a very good electric guitar. Later, I invented an instrument I called the Melody Harp. I have made many of these. Lately I have been making Spanish Guitars, and have been experimenting with different kinds of wood. I still have many ideas I want to work out."

Karl created this Trade Mark for his Melody Harp.

"Since retiring from school teaching, I have kept very busy with my hobbies––painting, guitar making, and fishing. I have painted many pictures, many of which I have given away, and some I have sold."

"At seventy-three years of age, I have very good health, enjoy life, and hope to live to be one-hundred years old."

Karl and his Guitars

Memories of Karl as told by GWP:

I was reading my father's history on the karlandcree web site, and noted that he played a trombone solo in the old Salt Lake Theater while in the band in training at the University of Utah. The name of the song was Just a Baby's Prayer at Twilight (for her daddy over there), probably the biggest hit song of 1918. You can listen to it HERE.

Dad was such a good musician. As a child (and even today), I didn't think anyone could touch him musically. He could play the trombone and saxophone so beautifully. I remember asking him on occasion to get the sax out and play it for me, and he did so. I remember him using trombone sheet music to play the sax and vice versa. He directed the Midway Swiss band for many years. I played trombone in that band, and we used to serenade in early mornings for Swiss Days as we rode around the town on a big flatbed truck. We then took part in the parade and later gave a concert on the Town Square. Later, they made a gazebo on wheels specifically for Dad and his band to use for the parade and concerts. That gazebo is still used today and remains parked on the Town Square when not in use.

It's no wonder Dad was chosen as the camp band leader in San Antonio. He told me that, among his other music studies at BYU, he had taken an elective class in transposing music, resulting in his being able to play one instrument using the sheet music for another. I used to sing solos in high school and remember on a number of occasions that Dad would transpose the sheet music to a lower key for my voice. Dad studied at BYU under Prof. Robert Sauer, composer of Springtime in the Rockies. You can see some old photos of the Prof. Sauer and his BYU band HERE. Click on the images to enlarge them.

Dad also played the Hawaiian guitar beautifully. We spent many a night, especially in the winter, playing together--he on the Hawaiian and I on my Gretsch guitar. Whenever I got out my Gretsch and amplifier, Dad would sit and listen to me as long as I would play. He dearly loved the Spanish guitar and could play it as well. As you may remember, he learned to make his own guitars. I still have one he made from a tree trunk he got up Snake Creek. I think it was Quaking Aspen.

Here's a picture of Dad playing his Hawaiian guitar. His paintings are displayed also. Notice his handmade baritone ukuleles and the unfinished guitar next to him on the floor.

He loved to play, and one of his favorite's was The Old Refrain. You can listen to it HERE

also by Deanna Durbin HERE,

also by Nelson Eddy HERE.

Another favorite of his was Just a Song at Twilight. Listen to it HERE.

Another was I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen , by Josef Locke. Listen to it HERE.

And there were many others.


I might mention that I (GWP) also played in the BYU Marching Band (trombone) for two years--1955-56. Dick Ballou was the band director. He actually became the first full-time director in 1953. Under his direction the band became know as the "Incomparable Cougar Marching Band." We had about 110 members.

History of Karl Lorenzo Probst - Part III

History written by Karl L. Probst in 1968:

"On my arrival home, the first thing I did was to go over to the Midway School in my soldier's uniform. While I was talking with the principal, Mr. Sorensen, in the eighth grade room, a young lady by the name of Miss Wright came in the room, and he introduced her to me, and that was the first time I met the girl who later became my wife. During the remainder of the winter, we had sleigh riding parties and programs, and I started to date Miss Wright. In early spring of 1919, we became engaged."

Old Midway Grade School

"That fall, I went to Oakley and taught school and was principal. I organized a band of about twenty Oakley boys. They progressed very rapidly, and it wasn't very long until we were playing on programs. Occasionally, during the winter on weekends, I would go to Midway to court Miss Wright and see my folks. Sometimes, I would go down riding horseback and sometimes I would go down with a very fancy trotter outfit that was loaned to me by Mr. Jensen."

"One time I came to Midway, and didn't know it but the town was quarantined for the Flu. The roads leading to Midway from Charleson and Heber were blockaded, but I came by way of the River Road and stopped at my girl's place before going home, and she told me the town was quarantined for the Flu, so I made my visits short that time, and sneaked out Sunday afternoon unknown to anyone and returned to Oakley."

"While in Oakley, I boarded with the Peter Frost family, and they made me very welcome, and I enjoyed that first winter very much in Oakley."

On June 23, 1920, Miss Wright and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple. That summer we lived with my folks in Midway, and then in the fall, we returned to Oakley where I taught school the second year there. We lived in an old log cabin down on the Weber River where our first child, Bernard, was born the following spring, April 1, 1921. The old log cabin is torn down now, and a nice residence occupies the spot."

Karl and Cree Probst

"We enjoyed the winter very much, and in the spring there was an opening to teach school in Midway, my home town, so we decided to return. The people in Oakley offered more money for me to stay, but we didn't accept the offer."

"I taught school for twenty-two years in Midway, eight of which I served as principal, teaching several of my own children, and then was transferred to Wasatch High School in Heber City to teach English and Math in Junior High and some senior high subjects. I taught school for a total of forty years altogether. Lulu Clegg was superintendent during some of the time that I was teaching in the Wasatch High School. One day, she called me into her office and said she would like to have some art taught in the high school, there not being any at that time. "

"She said she thought I was the person who could do it, and she would give me all the help I needed to get started. She assigned me a small room, and the first year I had eleven students from different grades. The next year they had two periods of it, and I had thirty some odd students in each class. The third year, the room became too small, an they moved us down into the old Ag Room where we had five periods of art a day and about 100 students. Th Art Department kept growing until we had seven periods a day, including Junior High and Senior High. We did water colors, oils, handicraft and leather work. The Art Department is still functioning."

Karl and his Artwork/Paintings

"I retired from teaching school for three years, after having spent thirty-five years in the schoolroom. Finally when they couldn't get an art teacher, they urged me to return, which I did for five years longer, making a total of forty years in the schoolroom. In the meantime, I went to the Brigham Young University and got my bachelor's degree in both art and music, graduating from there in August, 1956."

"During my years of teaching, I attended summer schools and took correspondence courses to keep qualified for teaching. The first year I taught for $45.00 per month, and the year I retired I was making $5,600.00 a year."

"The year I started teaching school, my brother Vern and I purchased the farm, upon our father's advice, of G.F. Buehler, for the sum of $5,800.00, fifty-eight acres at $100.00 per acre. For sever years, we had a difficult time to meet the payments and live. Times were difficult, and only by my teaching school and keeping up the payments were we able to holdon to the place and meet our obligations."

Karl and Cree Probst at the Snake Creek Orchard

"We were also involved in the cattle business and had about 100 head of cattle. There was no money to be made in the cattle business, however. One year, we sent a carload of cattle to California to be sold. After paying the freight and yardage, they only made us $13.67 a piece for big three-year old steers. We got a Federal Land Bank Loan on our place that gave us smaller payments to make at a lower rate of interest that was streteched out for a period of thirty-two years, but we finally paid it off on the twenty-ninth year, and as of then, the property was in the clear."

"My brother Vern went on a mission to Germany, and I took care of the business along with tmy father, and we supported him on his mission. We got a few sheep along with the cattle, and they were making us much more money than the cattle did, which enabled us to keep going and help Vern on his mission."

"When my brother Vern got married, we decided to divide the property. Vern took one-third of the propberty and assumed one-third of the obligations. I took two-thirds and assumed two-thirds of the obligation. He took the Snake Creek farm that is cultivated ground and the Bunnel pasture and wire grass pasture. I took the Buehler farm and the Bunnel ground across the road from it, and the range ground, including the fats and Bonner Hollow ground, and two-thirds of the range permit which when was about seventy-five head of cattle."

"By this time, I was living in my present home that was built by my brother, father and myself from the pot rock that was quarried near it."

Probst Home in Midway, Utah, with Pot-Rock Construction circa 1950

"When World War II broke out, Bernard was married and was called to the Army, and I had the responsibility of looking after his cattle and farm, which was leased to him from my brother Vern; and Eugen was called into the Navy. Some years later, I sold the farm to Bernard and Eugene. Bernard too the Snake Creek land, and Eugen took the Buehler property."

History of Karl Lorenzo Probst - Part II

History written by Karl L. Probst in 1968:

"In May of 1918, at the close of the school year, I was the first school teacher drafted to leave for the Service June 1. So, the school board gave me the last two weeks off from teaching that I might get ready to go to war. The night before I was to leave, my friends gave a party for me, and they gave me a wonderful camera as a gift. I got to bed about 12:00 midnight, and was supposed to be at the Heber Depot before 7:00 a.m. the next morning, as the train left that early."

Private, Karl L. Probst, 1918

"About 3:00 a.m. in the morning, I woke up with a severe pain under my jaw. I called my mother, and she said, "It looks like it might be the mumps." She immediately called Dr. Wherritt, and he came over and diagnosed it as the mumps and said that I would have to be quarantined for one month. In that case, my cousin, Elmer Huber, was the alternate and was ready to go in my place and leave on the train at 7:00 a.m. He was in the 145th Field Artillery, a unit from Utah. He went overseas and fought all the way up through the Aragon Forest in combat against the Germans and was very fortunate in returning home safely."

"On the other hand, I was quarantined for one month and left July 1. By this time, Clarence, my cousin was also drafted. We left together for the University of Utah where we studied for eight weeks as carpenters and builders of bridges. While at the U. of U. we both got into the Military Band which was led by Claud Cornwall. I was selected as assistant band leader and had the experience of playing a trombone solo in the old Salt Lake Theater, (the solo was "Just a Baby's Payer At Twilight," with band accompaniment), the night before we left for Camp John Wise in Texas. I will never forget how frightened I was to look out over that vast audience in the gallery and main floor."

"The next morning, we left for Texas, traveling on the train east as far as Topeka, Kansas and then south through Oklahoma for Texas to our destination in San Antonio. We were met there by three large army trucks, and the men in charge ordered us to get in. We had a suitcase and barracks bag that would hold all of the belongings a man could think of to get along."

"We traveled about three miles to get to Camp John Wise which was a balloon camp. Until now, we thought we were carpenters and going to build airplanes. As they were just having mess or supper as we came in through the front gate, all of us standing in those three trucks (there were about thirty Utah boys) as we passed along, the men made all kinds of snide remarks about us such as, "Where are you from?" "Where are your horns?" "Look at the ears on that one." We just kept on going down the main road in the camp and passed all the other soldiers and landed at the far end of the camp about one mile from the mess halls. They ordered us out of the truck then. We set down our suitcases, and they marched us up away to a straw stack and gave us a straw tick and said, "Boys, fill them up," which we did. Then, we went back down to where our other belongings were and spread out for the night. They said, "But be careful and shake your socks in the morning and empty your shoes to be sure there aren't any rattlesnakes or tarantulas in the area." Then, they marched us up to get our supper and back again where we reported in for the night with the open sky above. In the morning, one of the boys found a tarantula in his sock."

"We stayed in this location for about two weeks. Then they moved us up nearer the main barracks and gave us a cot to sleep on. We stayed here two or three weeks and then they moved us into a tent with cots. Still later, they moved us up into a barracks where we had a wooden floor, and it was a much better place. It was all a process of evaluation. We had some wonderful experiences in this camp. We had to serve on balloon duty. It took fifty-eight men to handle a balloon, and they were organized into two groups to take care of each balloon. Every man had a place and knew exactly what to do. Some jobs were much easier than others. We took these balloons out in the morning by holding onto large ropes seventy feet long, and there were about six of these on each side with three men to the rope. Some carried the basket; others carried the rip cord. Others carried the metallic V cord. These were easy jobs, and you were lucky if you got one. We came in at night with blisters on our hands in taking this balloon clear across country and back again. At noon time while we ate our lunch, the balloon was fastened to a winch in a big army truck. The basket was fastened on; two cadets or officers would get in it, and the balloon would be allowed to ascend up about 5,000 feet. While up there, these officers drew maps and watched for positions and activities of the enemy. The average life of a balloon in a front line was only an hour. I was privileged to go up in a balloon with a commanding officer just before being discharged from the army."

"When we arrived at Camp John Wise, there were several posters up wanting musicians to sign up for band. There were several of us Utah boys who signed up when we first got there, but months dragged on and we were never asked to play in any band. One morning as we were ready to go for balloon drill, the Sargent said, "Private Karl L. Probst, you are wanted up at headquarters." I couldn't imagine what I had done or what it was all about, but he said, "Shave, and dress up your very best, and go up to the Adjutant's office." I went up and saluted him and told him why I was there, and he said, "Major Lambert wants to see you just across the aisle." I went in and saluted and said, "Private Karl L. Probst reporting, Sir." He said, "oh, yes, sit down there." He was a rather old man about seventy-five years, wore large thick glasses with a very kind and pleasant look on his face. I learned later that he was a millionaire and was volunteering his services to the Unites States Government because he was a chemist and an expert authority on ballooning. I also learned that he was the inventor or discoverer of Listerine that had made him so much money. He was a very kind, sympathetic man, with a great deal of understanding. He said, "I have a record here that shows that you were assistant band leader at the U. of U." Then, he asked me a lot of questions about my musical experience and playing in bands and orchestras, which I gave him gladly."

"He said, "I think you are the man we have been looking for for a long time. How would you like to organize a camp band?" I told him I would like that very much, so he gave me a list of about 300 names of men who had signed up as band members. Some had gone overseas; some were still there. By giving them an audition, I picked out about thirty-eight men, eight of whom were Utah boys. Then he said, "there is a good set of band instruments down in San Antonio Music Company. We will buy them if they meet with your approval." Then he ordered his sports model convertible car out in front, and together we went to the San Antonio Music Company to look over these instruments and to get some music. The instruments were okay, and he ordered them brought out to the camp that afternoon, and gave us a large place to meet and practice in. With about a week's practice, we gave a little concert in one of the barracks, and the Commanding Officer, Col. Bowers, and Major Lambert, sponsor of the band, and most all of the officers of the camp, numbering about 150, came to hear us play and were very enthusiastic and pleased with the results after just one week's practice. From then on, the band served a very important part in our camp. We played guard mount every afternoon, gave about three concerts a week and went with the football team on Sunday. I had a saxophone quartet organized within the band and we played for many entertainments."

"The war ended November 11, 1918. I was discharged at Ft. Logan, Colorado, the latter part of February, 1919. They gave me $50.00 and a pair of shoes."