Family Stories of Moving to Georgia

My Grandfather William M. Turner homesteaded in Jensen Utah just outside of Vernal around 1914.  By 1956 he was Married and had several small Children.  His father Harvey Turner asked William and his family to come back to Georgia and help run his chicken farm so by June of 1956 Grandfather packed up his family and moved back to Georgia.

The family packed up their entire household into a 1947 Dodge Farm truck and started for Georgia.  I imagine it looked something like this.

Here is an article in the Vernal Express about it.

Vernal Express 1956-06-07
by Mrs Nile Ainge

The Wm turners move to Georgia

The William Turner family left Saturday for Gainsville
Ga. to make their home en route they visited in Denver
with mr. turners sister Mrs Martha Reddick and family an other Sister Cozeta Thistle of Grand Junction also met them in Denver.
...............

My Grandfather had a sister in Denver and the family must have stayed with them.  I assume Grandma called  Mrs. Ainge to give them the information that appears in the Vernal Express newspaper since it references the stay in Denver.  The article did not address any of the rest of the trip from Denver to Georgia which is where things get interesting.

Driving across county in 1956 was slow, there was no interstate freeway system and most cars were unable to go fast.  The Dodge truck had a top speed on 45 miles per hour under the best of conditions.  Durign this trip it was loaded down with household goods which was a heavy load for the old truck.

The engine in the Dodge was 250 ci  Flat head Engine had around 82 HP.  The picture below shows two shift levers.  The taller lever was the transmission shifter, a 3 speed manual.  The second shift lever was for the rear axel,  the axel contained a set of gears that allowed a hi and lo gear.  Low gear would be used around the farm and to go uphill.  The higher gear would have been used on the highways.  Due to the relatively low engine horsepower and the leaf spring suspension it would have been a slow bumpy ride on the way to Georgia.

After leaving Denver the truck broke down before they reached the Kansas state line.  My Grandfather being my fix-anything pulled the truck to the side of the road, took the family car back to Denver for parts and overhauled the engine on the roadside, a few days later they were on the road.

Somewhere in  ? Nebraska ?  the truck broke down again and this time there was no saving the engine after some frustration they removed and replaced the engine with a 1953 Plymouth Engine, my father always gets excited  to tell this story because he helped his father with all the work and it was a very traumatic experience for him and the family.

I have heard this story many many many times from my father and he has even re-enacted the story at our first William Turner family reunion.