By her daughter Selina G. Hafen
Selina Gubler was born 17 June 1862, in Santa Clara, Washington County, Utah, to Kasper and Ann Katherine Gubler. She was the first girl born in the Swiss Company of 1861. She grew up in Santa Clara, and as a young girl they had to make all their own recreation. They would go up and down town singing in the evenings. All the young people would come out into the street to play games as they didn't have a square in those days. They also went riding on the hay racks in the summertime. Selina was a happy girl and had a very nice personality. She was a lover of music and singing. Whatever she was doing, she was always singing. She sang in the ward choir from a young girl till she was a middle aged women. At home she would sing with the children and teach them songs. When she was 15 years old she was 1st Counselor in the M.I.A. to Rose Ann Ensign.
Selina was married when she was 17 years old to Herman Gubler in the St. George Temple. She had started going to school that fall. Herman wanted to get married and he told her she could still keep going to school which she did.
They were married 11 Dec 1879. She said how she enjoyed her school that winter. In those days they didn't have much chance for schooling.
The following September a little baby boy came to their home. They named him Harmon. When the baby was two weeks old Selina took him and went to see one of her girl friends, Rosetta Atkin, who had just had a little baby girl, and who lived just down the street two blocks. She had been gone just a little while when she got word that their two roomed home had caught on fire and burned down. Herman had worked so hard to get their home and the lot they were living on. It must of been really hard for them to lose it and start all over.
Herman was away from home so much, peddling or trucking to make a living and Selina was left alone with the children much of the time. She had the garden and everything to take care of when he was gone.
Herman and Selina were active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They always took the kiddies with them. At conference time all the children thought it was a pleasure trip when they could all ride to St. George in a wagon. Selina would fix up a nice lunch and they would sit in the shade under a tree near the tabernacle to eat it.
Selina was the mother of eleven children, six boys and five girls. They were: Harman Jr. born 24 Sept. 1880, John born 23 Oct. 1882, then Selina Rosina 17 Nov. 1884. George Henry 4 Nov. 1886, Martin Jacob 1 Jan. 1889, Eunice Hortence17 Jun 1891, Edmund 24 Feb. 1894, Mata 28 Oct. 1897, Jetta 1 Aug. 1901, Dora 7 July 1904, and June 31 May 1907. All were nice and healthy children. In those days they didn't have doctors to deliver their babies. They only had a woman midwife or nurse, to help them, and take care of the mother and baby till the mother was well enought to do it. Selina had very hard times, but she always came out of it nice and happy. They had to depend on teir Father in Heaven to help them. Many times they would call in the Elders to administer to them.
In 1893 Herman bought a ranch south of the Pine Valley mountain. Each summer he would move Selina and the family up to the ranch. The climate up there was just wonderful. Selina was always busy, she would take her quilts that needed to be covered up there to do and she would knit wool hose for the whole family for winter. In those days everyone wore long woolen hose to keep them warm in the wintertime. She made lots of delicious cheeses and butter and would store some away for winter use. Herman had a nice big farm. He and the boys raised lots of potatoes, sweet corn, grain and all kinds of vegetables. When the vegetables were ready Selina and the girls would gather the sweet corn, peas, and string beans to can and dry for winter use. She also sold a lot of dried sweet corn to ladies in St. George.
Selina worked very hard and she had several really bad herrinies break out. She had two very serious operations, but with the help of the Lord and the two very skilled doctors, Old Dr. McGregor and Old Dr. Woodbury, she came out of them nicely. She was laid up for some time, but she got to where she was feeling really well again.
Later years Herman bought a white toped buggy, which was considered a luxury in those days. They would come down from the ranch for the fair and rodeo in September each fall.
Selina was a Relief Society teacher for many years and both she and Herman were very good to the poor and older people. When Herman killed a pork or beef, they would send the kiddies with a piece of meat to the poor people also potatoes in the fall when they were brought from the ranch.
In Selina's later years she came down with the terrible disease of diabetes and was sick for several years, just gradually getting worse. She was under the doctors care and he kept her under a very strict diet. She couldn't have any sweets and no white bread, just bran bread, which was really hard on her. At first she kept up and around trying to do her work. Her children were all married but the two youngest, Dora and June.
Gradually her health failed her, and her daughters took turns caring for her and cleaning her house. She was bedfast and lay suffering for a long time. On 26 Oct. 1929, at the age of 68 Selina died. She had been a wonderful wife and mother and tried all her life to set a good example for her children, and teach them the right way of life. She was buried in the Santa Clara Cemetery.
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