Ila Ruby Casto, my father's mother, was born Nov. 19, 1902 in the white stone house her parents had bought in Salina, UT. Ila was the 7th child of Abel Nephi Casto and Eliza Jane Manning. Her next oldest brother, Ferdinand, was 8 years old. He was happy to not be the baby anymore. She had lots of black hair and soon became the darling of the family.
Ila was her mother's constant companion. There weren't any small children around to play with. She learned many things from nature. Her mother taught her about which colors go well together by observing all the plants in the world around her. Ila spent summers at the Gooseberry Ranch with her family. She amused herself by using the caps off of the acorns for cups and saucers. The pine gum off of the Pinion Pine trees was her chewing gum. In the winter, her mother took the children back to the stone house in town so they could attend school.
She helped her parents with errands at the ranch. One of her first jobs was that of going down to the spring to get her father a cool glass of water when he came in from working in the fields. This involved getting a quart sized cup of water from the spring that was 75 feet down hill from the ranch house and bringing it back up the steep slope without spilling it.
As Ila grew older she was in charge of herding the family milk cows along the ditch banks and wherever there was extra grass. She needed to keep them out of the garden and wheat fields. It was a never ending job that always had to be done.
One of the fun things about living on the ranch was getting to ride horses. The family had one black mare who was exceptionally patient and faithful. They called her Blackie. She was the one on which every child in the family learned to ride. Ila became a good rider. If her work was finished, her parents allowed her to ride her horse to a friend's place for a while.
One year, in early summer, she took the laundry, on horseback, into Salina. Here she could wash it where they had a well and running water. She would often ride to town on Saturday; do the wash; pick up the mail; stay over night; go to church on Sunday; and then ride back to the ranch with the clean clothes for the family. She was told not to cross the creek if she could not see a certain rock. However, one day she thought she could see the rock and started to cross. But the water was so deep the horse had to swim, and Ila had to put her feet on top of the saddle to keep them dry.
During World War I, Ila had a brother, Edwin Casto, and a cousin, George Eveans, who were sent overseas. The young women were encouraged to help the Red Cross in creating bandages and packaging them. They were also encouraged to knit wool stockings for the service men. Ila joined in this project.
When Andrew Carnegie came through Utah offering to build a library building for every town who would be willing to donate a certain number of books that he would match, Salina was one of the towns that participated. Ila was one of the teenage girls called upon to go door to door asking people for their book donations. She was happy to help get a library in their town. Ila's father had quite a collection of books. He had bought them from a School Teacher who left the area and didn't want to take all his books with him. Ila loved to read and read every book they had more than once.
In Ila's junior year at high school, she contracted the dreaded 1918 flu and was out of school for the rest of the year. The effects of the illness held on for a long time, but Ila worked very hard her senior year and graduated with her class.
There was still time to have some fun in the summer. Able raised race horses on Gooseberry. Ila would have liked to have been the one to ride them, but her father knew that a jockey who was smaller would give him a better chance of winning. Ila was a good rider, but tall. Her parents took the stock to the fair a day early. Ila was able to take the train separately to visit a cousin, Pearl Chidester, in Venice. Pearl was acquainted with the Miller Boys, Janus and Carlyle, who were interested in a date, and they met at the fair. It was decided that Carlyle would take Ila and Janus would go with Pearl. Janus was going on a mission soon and didn't care to meet any new girls. The foursome had a good time at the fair, and Ila went back to Salina with her folks that night.
She decided to go to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Part of that time she stayed with her sister, Clara, who was a nurse. Other times she stayed at a boarding house. At one particular boarding house her folks could send produce from the farm: hams they had cured; butter and eggs. These commodities helped pay for Ila's board and room.
An activity she especially enjoyed while at college was taking the trolley out to Salt Air on the Great Salt Lake where they had a dance hall that hired the best bands. She also started corresponding with Janus Miller. She had only met him once, but she saw something special in him.
Ila graduated in two years with a Utah Teachers Certificate. She was given a job in her home town of Salina teaching 4th grade the following fall. Her niece, Allie Casto, and nephew, Boyd Curtis, were in her class. They dearly loved their Aunt Ila and had a difficult time remembering to call her "Miss Casto." She was a kind a loving teacher. All the girls in the class used to love to come to her house on their way home from school.
While Janus was on his mission in Hawaii he had a dream that showed him the girl he was to marry. That girl was Ila Ruby Casto. That is when he started corresponding with her. By the time he got home from his mission he was thinking strongly of asking her to marry him, but he had no money and had to borrow enough to buy a set of work clothes. He got his team of horses who he had left with his brother and started training them.
Janus and Ila continued their courtship through the summer. She often went with him in the evenings when he spoke at sacrament meeting in the neighboring towns. He would borrow his father's Model T Ford to come to get her. After the meeting he would bring her home. They liked to sit and talk a while before he went home. Ila's mother would get a little anxious after she heard the car drive up. She would wait a little while and then call to Janus and ask him if he would like a nice piece of Mince meat pie. Janus dearly loved pie. He and Ila would come in and have some pie and a glass of milk. It was a tight squeeze for him to get the milking done in time to clean up, drive 15 miles to get Ila, and get to his speaking engagement on time. He often skipped supper to make it.
One time Janus and Ila wanted to go to a dance, but Janus didn't know how to do the latest dance called the "Quick Step." Aunt Sarah (Janus' step-mother) willingly taught him how. All went well at the dance.
That same summer, Janus wanted to spend more time with Ila without having to drive the 15 miles to Salina all the time. Aunt Sarah suggested that she and her 6 young children could go along with them to Fish Lake for a week long camping trip. They were also joined by Janus' nephew, Ellis Hanson, who had walked from Monroe to Venice so he could be part of the fun. It was a two day trip by team and wagon. Everyone had a wonderful time camping out under the stars. Ila felt this vacation eased the relationship with her in-laws to the point there were never any problems.
Ila and Janus' wedding date was September 12, 1923. They were married in the Manti Temple in the morning. Ila's parents prepared a wedding feast for 75 guests. They could serve 25 at a time, so they had 3 separate settings. The menu was roast lamb, roast chicken, baked sweet potatoes, celery sticks, cabbage salad, home made rolls and lemon cream pie. Able butchered his choicest lamb for the occasion. Most of the vegetables came from their garden. The rolls and pie were baked in their kitchen. Ila made her own wedding cake which was a three layered dark fruit cake.
Ila's sisters, Janie, Grace and Clara were there to help as were the older nieces. The meal was served family style. Grace was in charge in the kitchen so her mother and father could greet the guests. The nieces were responsible for bringing the food to the tables. Her sisters loaned their china, silverware, and glasses plus cloth napkins as well as some borrowed from the neighbors so that they wouldn't have to wash dishes in between groups of guests.
Janus' younger sisters sang duets to provide some entertainment. The guests were relatives of the bride and groom with the exception of a few special friends. Janus and Ila sat with the first group and ate with them and the second group also. When the third group came in, they were too full to eat any more but they sat and visited with them.
After the guests left, Janus and Ila shared her room that night. The morning after their wedding, Janus and Ila took their turn at the dishes. Ila washed and Janus dried for two hours, and then someone relieved them.
This was the beginning of a union that lasted for 66 years in this life and an eternity to come.
