Some of the life of Merthan Glenn Ellis
Early days:
Merthan was born to Glenn and Nettie Ellis on the 13th of September 1925.  He was born in their home in Riverside Idaho.  The home that they were living in at the time was the home of Grandma Sophronia Wolfley Ellis.  He was the second child born in the family, first was his sister Ruth Mariam, then Dad, Marilynn, and last was Gerry who is about 16 years his junior.

Dad work hard with Grandpa Ellis on the farm driving the team of horses doing various farming tasks with the team and different implements.  He said that after Grandpa got the first tractor in the county he would plow the field and Dad would follow along behind with the team of horses and the harrow.  He mentioned that Great Grandpa Leo Turpin bought a young team from Horace Elison and sent it to Grandpa Ellis to train.  Dad said the team would continually act up tipping over the harrow and Dad would have to have Grandpa come and help him turn it over.  Grandpa was afraid to have dad ride the harrow for fear the horses would bolt and tip it over on top of dad who was very young at the time.

He would tease Ruth until she was so mad at him she would lock him in his room in the attic.  He would have Marilynn leaver her window open so he could climb down from the attic and get outside.  Ruth would see him outside and could never figure out how he got out.  It sounded like the his little sister was his confidant in all of his antics.   I remember him being a tease to Ruth even when they were grown.  A side note that I remember: During potato harvest all the family would work in the harvest.  Aunt Ruth drove truck one year when mom was pregnant.  At the end of harvest we would all get paid for our work.  Dad wrote out Aunt Ruth's check then signed it "TRY AND GET IT".  She took to the bank to cash it and was madder then a hornet when the teller would not cash it with that signature.  I remember her coming out the farm and I think she was angry enough to shoot dad if she had a gun.  But Dad along with everyone else was waiting for her to come back and had a proper check already made out for her.  That was how Dad has always shown his love through his antics.

As a child he would take care of the farm and the animals.  While going to school he would go home for lunch to feed and water the cows and horses.  Because of that he did not participate in any extracurricular activities in school.  Dad was athletic however, and had learned to box while in grade school. He had a teacher who took a liking for him and taught him to box.  (that brings up a story I will include a little later)  Something that I should include here is that Grandpa Glenn had an immunity to electric shock.  Electricity never bothered him.  One day Merthan was out irrigating and was standing barefoot in the ditch.  Grandpa and Grandma were leaving to go on a trip for a few days, so he went out to say goodbye to Merthan.  He grabbed ahold of the electric fence and kissed Dad on the cheek.  Dad said he could feel a bolt of electricity from everyone of Grandpa Glenn's whiskers.     So he got his teasing honestly from his own dad.

During beet harvest he would drive the beet wagon to the dump. His team was named Chubb and Bally.  They were a strong team and would not have much trouble pulling the wagon up on the dump.  But others teams were not quite able to do it  so he said he would make extra money pulling other teams up on the dump.  That story he has told me often and has changed from time to time with the telling of it.  But this is the latest version.