My Great Grandmother - Ethel Bunker Miner - "Sis, How Did You Know?"

Ethel Bunker Miner

This is a true story about my great grandmother Ethel Bunker Miner and great granduncle Ralph Clyde Bunker. There are many lessons one can learn from this story, but the biggest lesson for me is a reconfirmation that divine intervention is real and it happens. It helps strengthen my faith in God and prayer. Here are my father Jim Hartley's words who prepared this and made it available through FamilySearch.org:

"For people of faith, there are often “coincidences” in life that cannot be explained except by divine intervention. Those coincidences can involve feelings and actions that defy all reason and common sense, yet they are so powerful, miracles happen. Through them, God’s personalized love and tender mercies are manifest, and there can be no other explanation. Such was the case with Ethel and Clyde Bunker.

Ethel & Clyde in
their younger years

Ethel and Clyde were the children of Edward Bunker, Jr. and Arimenta Zarada McClellan. There were 13 children born into their family, but only six lived beyond early childhood. Ethel and Clyde were the youngest of the surviving children. Clyde was six years younger than Ethel, so it’s reasonable to assume that while growing up, Ethel was as much a little “mother” to Clyde as she was his sister. That could explain why Clyde turned to Ethel in a time of extreme need.

In 1914, when the United States entered World War 1, the call was given to “go to war or take a farm.” Ethel and her husband bought a farm. Clyde was drafted into the Army.

On December 20, 1912, Ethel Bunker married Paul Chase Miner. When America entered the war, Paul was 25 years old and considered to be too old to be drafted. So Paul and Ethel bought a large number of acres in Manila, Utah, a remote area in the extreme northeastern corner of the state. There, they planted many acres of field and garden crops and raised 1,000 chickens, 500 turkeys, and some ducks and geese. They had a few horses, including Ethel’s favorite horse, “Buckskin.” They also had a pet Jersey cow named “Flossie.” They didn’t own a car or a tractor, so “Buckskin” and the other horses were their only “horsepower” for plowing, hauling, and transportation.

In January 1917, 22-year old Ralph Clyde Bunker registered for the military draft. Eight months later, he married Evelene Sorensen. Then, eight months after his marriage, on April 28, 1918, he was called up to join the Army. Sadly, he left Evelene one-month pregnant with their son. Because of the war, Clyde would not see his first-born until the boy was five months old.

Private 1st Class Bunker was assigned to the Army’s 362nd Infantry Regiment and the 91st Division—the “Wild West Division.”

On September 7, 1918, Clyde’s unit joined approximately 550,000 other Americans fighting the Germans at the Battle of St. Mihiel in France. The four-day offensive that began on September 12th was successful, but it cost the Allies approximately 7,000 casualties.

But the Battle of St. Mihiel was only a warm-up for the largest and most decisive battle of World War 1, the Battle of Meuse-Argonne. It was the final Allied offensive of the war and it spanned the entire 400+ miles of the Western Front through Belgium, France, and part of southwestern Germany. That brutal 47-day battle was fought from September 26th until the Armistice on November 11th 1918. Along with British, French, and Belgian troops, it involved 1.2 million American soldiers. The battle took more than 26,000 American lives and wounded nearly 96,000 others, making it the largest and bloodiest operation of the war for the American forces.

At one point during the battle, on October 3, 1918, Clyde’s unit was pinned down under nearly 10 hours of intensive enemy artillery fire. Without adequate cover many were wounded or killed that day. In addition to explosives, both sides outfitted artillery shells and grenades with mustard gas and the battle fields were blanketed with clouds of poisonous gas. Clyde was among those who were gassed. Nevertheless, he was able to continue with his regiment until the end of the war.

On April 16th, 1919, five months after the war ended, Clyde and the “Wild West” 91st Division returned to the states. Thirteen days later, on April 29, 1919, Clyde’s 362nd Regiment was demobilized at Fort David A. Russell [now Francis E. Warren Air Force Base] in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

But, Clyde wasn’t ready to face his wife and son yet. Shortly after arriving in the States, Clyde sent a letter to his sister, Ethel, asking if he could stay with her and her family for a while. He had been gassed during the war and his nerves were very bad.

More than 124,000 tons of chemical weapons had been produced during the war and were heavily used by both sides, especially during the final two years, 1917 and 1918. Phosgene Gas was code named “White Star.” Chlorine Gas combined with Phosgene Gas was code named “Red Star.” And, the most widely used and most damaging gas, Mustard Gas, was code named, “Yellow Cross” because Germans would mark their mustard gas artillery shells and grenades with a yellow cross. An estimated 1.3 million soldiers were poisoned with gas during World War 1. Few were actually killed; the gasses were meant to injure and disable.

Mustard Gas, for example, caused severe burning and blistering of the skin, eyes, throat, and lungs. It was absorbed into the body through inhalation, ingestion, or by coming into contact with the skin or eyes. Victims required many weeks to recover. Sadly, some remained permanently disfigured or blind. Others developed respiratory diseases or infections that were fatal. The gas also damaged DNA in human cells, rendering victims at great risk for certain types of cancers. The effects of the poisonous gas and the trauma of the war were physically and emotionally disabling for many who returned home. Clyde was one of them.

When demobilized from Fort Russell in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Clyde and hundreds of other soldiers boarded trains for home. For those traveling west, the first railroad transfer point was Green River, Wyoming. From there, trains headed either northwest or southwest. Clyde hoped that he wouldn’t have to transfer at all. Instead, he hoped that his sister, Ethel, would pick him up at Green River. But a terrible storm rolled in that damaged telephone lines between Green River and Manila. Clyde couldn’t get a call through to notify her. He had no other option but to endure the night at the station and on the next day, travel home in his fragile, weakened condition.

That next morning, across the border in Utah, Ethel announced to her husband, Paul, that they weren’t going to Sunday School that day. She insisted that they had to borrow a car and drive to Green River and get Clyde. She told how she saw her brother in a dream during the night. She saw that he was trying to reach them, but for some reason couldn’t. A dream? Paul said, “Ethel, it is 60 miles and we can’t go there on a wild goose chase!” Ethel began to cry and insisted that she absolutely knew that Clyde was at the train station. Very reluctantly, Paul agreed to go and he borrowed a neighbor’s car.

As they came into view of the railway station, a distant train was approaching from the east. “Drive faster, Paul,” Ethel exclaimed. “We must get there before that train does because Clyde will leave on it.” Paul just shrugged his shoulders and drove a little faster. They arrived at the station before the train and found hundreds of soldiers milling around. Frantically, Ethel and Paul circulated among the soldiers inquiring after Clyde Bunker. Just when they were about to give up, Ethel spotted her brother and yelled, “Clyde Bunker, I’m here!” There was immense joy as they fell into each other’s arms. Clyde was astonished. “Sis,” he asked, “how did you know I was here?” Ethel then told him of her dream. Clyde responded, “The Lord truly heard and answered my prayer! I vowed that if I didn’t see you here before this train came in I would have to go on.”

Clyde stayed with Ethel and her family for a few weeks while he recuperated and gained strength.

How did Ethel know her brother was at the Green River railroad station? In circumstances like this, there is no such thing as coincidence. It was divine intervention pure and simple—a providential response to the desperate prayer of a sick and lonely soldier."

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Adapted by James E. Hartley from an autobiography, “Life and History of Norma Miner Hartley,” written by Norma Miner Hartley (daughter of Ethel Bunker Miner). (Norma was with her parents at the Green River railroad station when “Uncle Clyde” was miraculously found there.)