Dr. William L. Jellison Reminiscence undated

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Rocky Mountain Laboratory Hamilton, Montana

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My birthday was February 28, 1906. I was the sixth member of a family of seven. I have one younger and an older sister who are still alive. We are all that remains of our family of seven. I went to a rural school--a one room school. There was one teacher for all eight grades. Later, the school was reduced to four grades. One of my teachers, a Miss Durning, had a master’s degree from a university that included a lot of biology. She encouraged me in biology and in entomology. Living on a farm, I was in contact with such things from the time I was able to walk. I went to Flathead County High School. As far as I know, I was the only graduate there that was a freshman for three years. I lived in the country--I missed a lot of the diseases that the city kids had, and when I got into high school, I contracted many. I had to quit two times and go back to the farm to regain my health. The third time I went straight through with very little missed time. I stayed out one year after high school and worked on the farm, worked for neighbors, and worked in the orchards at Flathead Lake to save a little money. I started off to school with only about $200 but with a lot of ambition. After doing manual labor for a year, I said, there must be some other way.

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