Moses Josephat Christiansen

Mary Caroline Hartvigsen

Moses Josephat Christiansen pre-1900

The following history was entitled: Moses Josephat Christiansen and was written by his daughter, Nellie Rex C. Christensen.

My father, Moses Josephat Christiansen, born 21 January 1875, at Hyrum Cache, Utah, was the son of Lars Hansen Christiansen and Anna Sophia Rasmussen, who were both born in Denmark. His childhood days were spent in Hyrum, Utah. He lived much of the time out on the farm, which was located at Mt. Sterling a short distance southwest of Hyrum. His father's second wife, Anna Dorthea Sorenson, lived on the farm and his half brother, Peter, was his companion much of the time. In compliance with the Church at that time his father had two wives (a polygamist). His schooling consisted of the usual grade school education. During his teens and early twenties, he worked on various jobs on farms, on cattle ranches in northern Idaho, and logging in Bear Lake Country. His brother, Enoch lived up at St. Joseph, Idaho, and Moses, with his brother, Elias, worked for him for some time, logging and building shed and a house. Later he spent some time with Niels Hartvigsen working in northern Idaho country. After that, he and his younger brother, Jeremiah, spent some time trying to find land to purchase. As was customary in the early days to become a farmer, homesteading was the usual procedure. Moses, with his brothers, Elias and Jeremiah looked first for a home site in the Duschene Valley of Utah, in southeast and northern Idaho, and also in other parts of the country. They finally decided upon the Cherry Creek area which is about six miles southwest of Downey, Idaho.

George Salveson had come to this area in 1896, and he encourage these brothers to come also. So in 1897, they located a hundred and sixty acres each on the west side of the Cherry Creek area. Moses took the upper or most

Mary and Moses with baby Myrtle and Elvin circa 1906

southerly piece with Jerry and Elias taking pieces lower to the north. A few years later, Jerry bought Elias out and Elias went to Canada. Most of the land east of Downey, called Grant, was already taken. That is where George Salveson had located.

In 1898, Niels J. Hartvigsen came to this same area and located just east of Moses. As they had been good friends, Niels tried to interest Moses in a girlfriend. Niels told Moses of his cousin, Mary Hartvigsen, daughter of Johan Hagrup Hartvigsen and Maren Karoline Tomasen, both of Norway, who lived in Hyrum, Utah. Later, they also homesteaded in Cherry Creek, just north of Jerry Christiansen. After meeting the young lady and courting her, he married her on June 17, 1903. Later, in July 1909, they went to the Logan Temple where they were sealed for all eternity and at that time the three older children, Elvin, Myrtle, and Edna were sealed to them. Together they worked hard to raise a family of six children.

Moses built a nice home on the farm. There were four large rooms on the main floor and two rooms upstairs for bedrooms. They used the main floor as a kitchen, dining, living room, parlor and a bedroom. He also built a basement and over the basement was a large wash room. Water was piped down from the creek above the house to the west, down to the kitchen. Gasoline and coal oil lamps were used. A large barn was built with several sheds and granaries. A hand rotated washer was used. Moses used to help wash the clothes many times. Moses secured a job with the Telephone Line Co., as well as being a farmer. He installed many telephones in that area. The back room in the upstairs was used as a storage place for these telephones. Many hours of entertainment we children had upstairs playing with the telephone and dressing up in grown-ups's clothing. Lightning put our house on fire twice while we lived on the farm, but was put out immediately by our parents. We also witnessed a real bad cyclone in about 1918. It took up the roof of J.L. Hartvigsen's barn and also destroyed a cook camp built on a big wagon with all the belongings of Odd Hartvigsen and did other damages.

We children walked one mile to the school house many times in deep snow. Other times we walked part way and the children of N.J. Hartvigsen would pick us up in a sleigh drawn by horses and we would ride the rest of

the way. The school teacher, for several years, stayed at our home. In November of 1919, Moses bought a home in Downey, Idaho, where the children could go to High School. This was the first time the family had ever witnessed electric lights and any kind of town life. It was the first time his wife, Mary, had the joys of a nice lawn and access to the stores without long travel. But, alas, it did not last long. They were having two more rooms built on the new home because Grandmother Christiansen was going to live with them, when Mary fell into the basement from a open door in the floor. Mary was pregnant at the time and she hurt her hip very much. Pleurisy set in and she had to go to bed. In a another couple of days she had developed pneumonia in both lungs. Her brother, Hyrum J. Hartvigsen was the attending physician. He finally told Moses he could do no more for her. She died April 10, 1920, as her doctor was strapping her. It was a terrible blow to all concerned. Especially to her husband and the six children. The oldest, Elvin was just 16 years old, Myrtle was 14, Edna was 12, Nellie was 8, Eva was 6, and Johnnie was 4. In addition to operating his farm, Moses managed the Portneuf Marsh Valley Canal Company for the next 14 years. He had several housekeepers to take care of his home and family. After a great aunt and an aunt, there was a Mrs. Dyson and Mrs. Carrie Evans, also LaVina Anna Rose Murray, a young widow. In 1922, he married LaVina Rose Murray. She had a young son, Robert Ross, about seven years old, who come to live with the family. They were married on September 22, in the Salt Lake Temple. She was already sealed to her first husband, Robert Ross Murray, so it was just a marriage for time. To this union was born a girl, Merle Joyce, on 14 June 1924. At various times during his life he served on the School Board, the Village Board and different farm organizations. He also served as a Councilor in the Sunday School Superintendency in the Woodland Ward LDS Church.

Up until the time of his death he was industriously devoted to his field of labor in agriculture. He loved the outdoors and many times took his children or some of them fishing and hunting. After Mother's death, he many time took the three younger children with him as he attended his job as Water Master of the Marsh Valley Canal

Christiansen Family Reunion 1989

Elvin, John (back), Myrtle, Edna, Nellie, Eva

Company. In 1922, he took the four older daughters to Yellowstone Park on a camping trip. His sons, Elvin and John, spent many days on fishing trips into the Salmon country and other places with their father. His family meant a lot to him and even after the children were married he would take them on trips with him. Just two years before his death, even though in ill health, he took his four married daughters up to the Stanley Basin on a trip. We shall all remember his love and concern for us and we in turn loved him very dearly. He was very close to his two sons, Elvin and John, who farmed with him most of their lives. Since he didn't have a chance to attend much school, he encourage his family to get a good education. Moses always had very good health until 1944 when at the age of 69 suffered a stomach ailment which led to a major operation in September. He suffered nearly a year before he could be persuaded to see a doctor. So in consequences he had three-fourths of his stomach removed as a result of cancer. He recovered for a while but was not really very well. After two years in which he went right on trying to work as always, he died on 5 November 1946 at his home in Downey, Idaho. Survivors were his wife, LaVina Anna Rose Murray; two sons, Elvin Russel and Johnnie Modell; five daughters, Myrtle Mary, Edna Anna, Nellie Rex, Eva Ellenor and Merle Joyce; one stepson, Robert Ross Murray; one brother, Jeremiah Christiansen; a half-sister, Sarah Steffanhagen; thirty-two grandchildren.

Mary Caroline prior to marriage

The following history of Mary Caroline Hartvigsen was written by her third daughter Nellie Rex

Christiansen on February 19, 1980.

Our mother, Mary Caroline Hartvigsen was born on the 19th of July 1881 in Hyrum, Cache County, Utah. Her parents were Johan (John) Hagrup Hartvigsen and Maren Karoline Thomasen both of Dahle, Tromso, Norway. Johan or John as he was called was born 26, September, 1851 at Dahle Tromoso, Norway in Kvodjord Parish to Hartvig Nielsen and Johanna Fredrike Pedersen. Maren Karoline was born 15 June 1848 to Thomas Andreas Einsersen and Andrea Jacobsen. (our grandmother was three years older than Grandpa. As you will notice, in Norway the child always took their father's first name and added a "sen" on the end for their last name. [This concept is known as patronymic naming].

Mary Caroline had an older brother, Joakim Ferdinand born 26 May 1877 and three younger brothers, Hyrum Jacob (born 20 March 1885), John Henry (born on 16 November 1888), and Lester Edwin who was born on 18 August 1893. The eldest of these children was born in Norway, while the other four were born in Hyrum, Cache County, Utah. The two younger brothers died at the ages of 21 months and 2 1/2 years old. Mary Caroline spent her youth in Hyrum, Utah attending school there where she excelled as a champion speller. They used to have many spelling bees and she usually outspelled all the others. Her father was a farmer and as there was always lots of work on a farm and in the home she had to work hard. Her brother Hyrum said that is one memory of her is her doing so many things in the home. Helping her mother with the many tasks such as washing, ironing, cooking, scrubbing floors, etc. She also learned to be a good seamstress and sewed many clothes for her own family after she was married.

One incident I remember she used to tell us when we were young is that her brothers Joakim and Hyrum used to push her up in a big swing they had in their barn. One time they pushed her too high as she became frightened and fell out of the swing. She broke her arm as she landed. She would caution us kids not to swing too high. Her

brother also remembers how she used to love dolls and played with them along with her girlfriends when she was young. Her uncle's (Peter Hartvigsen) daughters, Selma, Hettie and Augusta came to visit here as they grew to be young women. Then some of the Christiansen boys courted these girls and so they would get together and have fun. Uncle Hyrum said that on the 4th and 24th of July the girls would be together at Mary's home in Hyrum and the Christiansen boys would come "sparking" the Hartvigsen girls.

Moses Christiansen was going steady with Annie Hartvigsen, who was Uncle Pete's daughter and worked in Logan. Jeremiah Christiansen courted Hettie Hartvigsen and Enoch courted Theresha Hartvigsen, Uncle Niels' daughter. While they still lived in Hyrum, Utah Mary had a boyfriend and suitor by the name of Lorin McBride, but when Mary's family moved to Idaho he didn't come to court her anymore. He probably figured it was too far away to court anymore with buggy and horses. Lorin eventually became a bishop in Hyrum, Utah. Three of the Christiansen boys (men by then) moved to Cherry Creek (which was located several miles southwest of Downey, Idaho) in 1897 to homestead some land. In 1898 some of the Hartvigsens came to Cherry Creek to homestead also. Mary's family came up this same year or soon after and took up an area just north of Jeremiah Christiansen. They had a two seater buggy without a top to ride in. Hyrum remembers when they took a trip back to Hyrum later in the buggy to visit with their Uncle Niels in Mount Sterling and Uncle Peter in Blacksmith Fork where they lived. Mary was about seventeen years old at the time they came to Idaho. She obtained work as soon as she could. Her father broke up 15 acres of land and planted Spring wheat at first. It turned out to be All Smut wheat. So the first winter they had very little to eat. The only kind of meat they could buy was salt bacon. Mary worked in Logan for a while. Later she worked with Mattie Evans on a cook shack. This was a covered wagon with a cook stove and table where they cooked and fed the men that worked on the thrasher machines during harvest time.

About this time a fellow by the name of Dave or Fred Stoker started courting Mary. As Niels Hartvigsen (who homesteaded just southeast of the Christiansen farms) and Moses Christiansen were good friends having worked together in Northern Idaho for some time, Niels thought Moses should get himself a wife. So he said to him, "Why don't you take my cousin Mary Hartvigsen out and court her. She is a very nice girl." Mary had dark blue eyes, brown hair and a fair complexion. She was 5 foot 2 inches tall and slender. Moses started courting Mary and as her brother Hyrum said and beat out Stoker. Mr. Stoker was a relative of the Woodlands and worked for the Hendersons and Evans in Arimo, Idaho. Moses Josephat Christiansen and Mary Caroline Hartvigsen were married on June 17, 1903 in the Logan Courthouse. After they were married they lived in the one room that her father had built off from his home, which was called the Summer Kitchen. This was the place her parents used during the summers to cook and eat in. One corner of the room was over the creek. Her father had piped spring water down from Jeremiah place to right outside the main house so they could hold a bucket and get their water this way. It was much better than hauling it in barrels. They lived in this room until Moses rebuilt a one room log cabin on his place.

Uncle Hyrum said their mother went to help Mary when she had her first baby along with a Mrs. Barger. This first child was a boy, a chubby, dark haired, and dark blue eyes. They named him Elvin Russell Christiansen and he was born at the Cherry Creek Farm on April 15th 1904. Sometime later Moses built a bigger home. There were four rooms on the main floor_kitchen, living room, a parlor and a bedroom. Then on the second floor or upstairs as we called was two bedrooms and a "black room" we called it, which was used for storage. It had no windows therefore it was dark inside with a small door opening to the outside, but no step up to it. As Moses was employed part time by the telephone company he kept a storage of telephones and equipment in this room. Later he added on a wash house and a basement or cellar as it was called. This was used to store the bottled fruits, pickles, jams, and fresh vegetables and potatoes. They also had a good garden spot and had planted some fruit trees.

The second child was a girl and was born on January 14, 1906 at the Cherry Creek Farm house. She was light complexioned with blue eyes and light brown hair. They named her Myrtle Mary. She was a happy dispositioned baby. Their third child was expected in a couple of months and in June of 1908 they took a trip to Hyrum, Utah

as they often did to visit relatives and Moses' mother who also lived in Hyrum. On this eventful occasion Mary became ill and gave birth sooner than expected. She had another girl. They almost lost this baby and had to feed her on Eagle brand canned milk to save her. She was name Edna Anna and had dark hair, dark blue eyes and a fair complexion. She was born on June 16, 1908. When these two daughters were born Mary's mother was still living and I'm sure she helped some with the new babies. She must have been with Mary and a midwife when Myrtle was born. Mary's cousin Niels J. Hartvigsen had married about a year or so before Mary and Moses to a lovely Hyrum girl, Lulaette Brown. They lived about a mile southeast from Mary's and Moses' home up Cherry Creek Canyon. Mary and Lulaette were very good friends and it was the same for their husbands. It seemed one couple would have a new baby and then the other couple would have a new baby. The children would call the others uncle and aunt. Moses' half brother Peter Christiansen lived about half a mile northeast of their home also. He and his wife, Nora Jensen were their closest neighbors. The George Webb family lived close to Peter's home also. So these families along with Jeremiah (better known as Jerry) and Emily Israelsen, his wife and the three Evans families C. R., Charles and John were the closest neighbors. Mary's older brother Joakim (Yak) Hartvigsen had married another friend of Mary's named Ellen Eilertsen and lived east over the hill about two miles. Her younger brother went back to Logan to college to become a doctor and he married Ellen's sister, Inga Eilertsen. This meant that both their brothers married sisters. Mary's brother Joakim and his wife had their children about the same time as Moses and Mary did.

When Edna Anna was about 1 year old Mary and Moses went to the Logan temple to be sealed for time and eternity. It was June 23, 1909 and they took their three children to be sealed to them also. At this same time Mary's parents went with them to the temple and had their children all sealed to them. Joakim also stood proxy for his brother Johan Henry and Hyrum stood proxy for his bother Lester Edwin as these brothers had died in their youth. Then on August 23, 1909 Mary's mother died of breast cancer. This must have been a sad time for her. Mary wasn't very well and needed an operation. She went to Salt Lake City and was operated on for female organ repairs. While there she met a lovely lady whom she became good friends with. This lady was Nellie Rex Nielsen from Wyoming and Woodruff Utah. She hadn't been able to have any children and asked Mary to name her next daughter after her. On February 5, 1912 another daughter came to Christiansen home. They named her Nellie Rex and Mrs. Nielsen sent her a beautiful gold ring with her initials (N. R. C.) on it. This new child had reddish brown hair and blue eyes with a fair complexion.

Moses hired help for Mary to make things easier for her. This girl who was hired was Mary's cousin from Hyrum. She was a Johnson. Mary had a Dr. Arnout from Downey to assist in this most recent birth. Mary's father had remarried on 29 December 1910 to a lovely woman from Norway by the name of Albertine Johansen. She had a daughter by the name of Anny Pauline. She became a welcomed sister to Mary and was loved by all the family. Her father's second wife didn't live very long and she died during childbirth and we believe the baby never lived. Then on 25 June 1913 her father married for the third time to another lady, Elida Eggen from Norway. She had a son by the name of Peter. Then on October 6, 1913 Mary gave birth to another daughter. This baby was a lovely blond, blue eyed doll that all the other children loved very much. The oldest daughter, Myrtle became a second mother to this little tot as she grew older. They named her Eva Ellenor. She would call Myrtle "Mama" as she took care of her.

Soon after this Moses bought the first car in Marsh Valley. It was a Model T Ford. Now they could motor to Utah to visit relatives. Moses' father had died when Elvin was ten days old on April 25, 1904. That left his mother a widow living in Hyrum. Her youngest son was still living with her as he hadn't yet married. He also had an older sister living there and so they liked to see her especially on the 4th of July or some other holiday. Many times on holidays they would take food and get in the big wagons with horses hitched to it and go up Cherry Creek Canyon along with the Niels Hartvigsen family in their horse drawn wagon where they would fish and have games and races for the children. Then they all enjoyed a picnic dinner. Prizes were awarded to the children as they won races or games. This was great fun for all.

Then on March 30, 1916 a much wanted baby boy was born. He was blonde and blue eyed and received much

attention and love from all the family. They named him Johnny Modell after Mary's father. Since the family had looked forward to having another boy in the family, this new baby boy was really loved by all. There was many pictures taken of him with the new Kodak camera that Moses had bought. (These pictures were later destroyed when a big box of pictures were burned as the home in Downey was being renovated.) Mary made such cute little white suits for Johnny to wear. They were knee length. She made lovely little checkered coats for the two youngest daughters. The family attended church in the Woodland Ward, which was about four miles north of the house. A school house was built for the children that lived in the Cherry Creek Area and it stood about 3/4 of a mile north of the house. This was where Elvin, the oldest child, attended all eight grades. Myrtle, the second child attended this school until the beginning of her seventh grade. Edna, the third child, started the fifth grade the last fall they lived in Cherry Creek and Nellie, the fourth child, had started the second grade. So in the fall of 1919 Mary and Moses bought a home in Downey, Idaho so their children could attend high school. Elvin had started high school that fall and was staying at Peter Christiansen's home in Downey until the family could be settled in their new home in Downey. Moses' brother Peter and Jerry had moved to Downey some years previous.

During November of 1919 the family moved in a large wagon all the furniture and belongings. They had to make several trips. They had bought this house from Fred Fauteck for $3000.00. It had two bedrooms, a front room, a dining room, kitchen and bathroom. It also had a part basement. Moses' mother, Sophia Christiansen was coming to live in Downey with him since Elvira, her daughter and two children had been living with this widowed mother, and Elvira had passed away in February, the mother needed to live with one of her sons as she was not able to live alone. The children went to live with Moses' brother, Aaron and his wife in Hyrum, Utah. This caused Moses to build onto the existing home to add a room for his mother. In moving to Downey it made a change for Mary as she had never had electricity or a bathroom before. In Cherry Creek Moses had piped the water from the upper creek down to the house and had running water in the house. A water reservoir on the kitchen stove was the water that was heated in the Cherry Creek house, so it was great to have hot running water in the town house and a coal furnace instead of a wood heater.

Moses hired a man by the name of George Carspias, who was a carpenter to build a bedroom and a large laundry room onto the home. While he was doing this work on the porch or laundry as it is called today, Mary was out watching him for a few minutes and started to walk backwards. Behind Mary was a trap door to the basement that was open and she fell down the trap door and hurt her hip. This accident brought on pleurisy and later developed into double pneumonia. Her doctor at the time was her brother, Dr. Hyrum J. Hartvigsen. Mary was pregnant at the time with her seventh child that was due in August and she hired a lady named Mrs. Anderson to take care of her during this time. As her condition became more serious the two younger girls were sent up to Neils Hartvigsens' home to make things more quiet for her at home. Dr. Hartvigsen was very worried about Mary's condition as they did not have antibiotics to fight off the pneumonia at that time. Finally the doctor told Moses that he would have to call in another doctor or specialist because he could not do anything more for her. In those days they did not transfer patients to a hospital many miles away in an ambulance as they do now. Moses didn't have time to get another doctor and she died that afternoon. Her death took place on Saturday, April 10, 1920. It was a shock to the family and a sad time for her beloved husband and six children. Those surviving children were Elvin Russell, 16, Myrtle Mary, 14, Edna Anna, 11, Nellie Rex, 8, Eva Ellenor, 6, and Johnny Modell, 4. She had lived in the new home for only five months, so she never had much of a chance to know of an easier life than that of being on the farm. She was a quiet, loving, mild-mannered mother, and faithful, dutiful wife. We all missed her very much. There was a well attended funeral service that was held for her of Tuesday, April 13, 1920, in the Downey Ward LDS Chapel. She was buried in the Downey City Cemetery at Downey, Bannock County, Idaho.

This history of Lars Hans Christiansen was written by Bertha M. Christiansen who was a daughter-in-law.

A short life story of Lars Hans Christiansen, born 6 March 1844, in Harrested, Soro, Denmark. His father's name was Christian Johansen Christoffersen, who was born 15 December 1811, in Fuglsbolle, Denmark. His mother's name was Christine Pedersen, born 27 Mar 1809, in Jyderup, Hobeck, Denmark.

(Note: Very little about Lars life is known as shortly after his death in 1904, the family home in Hyrum burned down and with it the old family bible in which the family records were kept and all other records which had been accumulated.)

We are in debt to Christian Christiansen, his nephew, who with his father, Jens, a brother of Lars Hans, gathered much of this history. Also from the records of Peter's life history, we received a little insight of life in his father's house. His son, Jerry, who is still with us at nearly 100 years old, verified many things which will be told in this history. This and Jerry's own life story were told to Jerry's wife, Bertha, who wrote them down. Jerry is the only one alive of his ten brothers and sisters.

We know from records at hand that Lars had four brothers and two sisters. He was one in a family of seven.

Lars Hans Christiansen

Peter was born in Febeck, Bostrup; Niels, Hanna and Lars were born in Harrested, Soro; Jens, Hans and Marie were born in Slots-Bjergby, Soro, Denmark. Five of them together with their parents accepted the Gospel and immigrated to Utah (Hyrum). His father was a farmer in Denmark. Due to the feudal system which existed in Denmark, the land stayed in the hands of the people which first had it taken up and could only be sold among the landowners. Guess that is how aristocracy came into being in Europe. Common people had the right to rent or lease land when they had a chance. Lars' father was fortunate to be one of them. An episode was told to me by Mary Smith, a daughter of Peter Christiansen. The father of Peter and Lars had leased some land. The contract was for a long term, maybe for life. Sometime during that term, the owner came and wanted Christian to release the contract as he was short of funds and wanted to sell it. Christian refused several times to release the owner from the contract as his way of making a livelihood was at stake. After some more persuasion, he proposed to the owner that if he were willing to sell a certain part of the land to him, he would accommodate him. The proposal was accepted by the landowner after some argument. Christian Christoffersen became one of the first land owners among commoners.

Lars grew up like all normal boys do. A sister-in-law, the wife of Jens, told her children, "The Christiansen boys were known as the Longlanders. They were mischievous, and full of life and health." Their parents saw to it that they received all the education that was possible. The Bible was used as a textbook in school and religion played a big part in the Christiansen household. It is said of the boys' father that he was an ardent Bible student and his sons followed in his footsteps. They were members of the Lutheran Church. We have been told by the family of his brothers that Lars had considered becoming a Minister in that church. By the same families, we were told that he was the first to hear of the restored Church of Jesus Christ. According to the date of his baptism, 19 November 1862, he was not the first of his family to be baptized. His nephew, Christian, says of him: He was a great Bible student and knew the Bible as few men do". He served a mission for the Church when his family accepted the Gospel and migrated to the U.S. in 1863 and 1864. Lars came to the U.S. sometime in 1864 after completion of his Mission. We searched at the Church Historian Office for it and were told that many came in private companies and did not give the information to the office. According to information obtained from the Church Historian Office, Lars' fiance, Sophie Rasmussen, came in the same company in which his brothers, Peter and Hans, came, leaving Copenhagen on 23 April and arriving in Salt Lake on 15 September 1863.

They were married on 29 December 1865 at Hyrum (later sealed in 1867 in Salt Lake). To this union ten children were born, five boys and five girls. They had the misfortune of losing four of their girls who had diptheria which was not controllable in those days.

On April 26, 1874, he married Annie Dorothea Sorensen. To that union were born four children, the youngest son, Able, died also as a child.

Jerry tells us his father enjoyed music and especially organ music. Many times on Sunday he would get out their Danish song books and sing the songs of Zion with his sister, Elvira, accompanying him on the organ. Jennie Christiansen Shurtlif told me she was asked to take Elvira's place after she married.

He was a High Priest and a regular attender at the required meetings. Jerry remembers that he was a teacher in the Sunday School and he and his brothers were among the students to receive the benefit of his teachings. He would insist that they commit the scriptures in question to memory. He loved the Gospel and tried to carry out and live its principles. Jerry was asked many times to take the tenth load of the harvest to the Tithing Office. He also told me that his father took his oxen team and went to the canyon to bring out rocks for the building of the Logan Temple. His nephew, Christian, says of him that he was always interested in the education of his children and urged them after Grammar School to go on to the local Academy and later to the College in Logan. He also says he taught them honesty and integrity very successfully and left them with a firm conviction that their word must be as good as their note.

Again, I quote from his nephew, Christian: "He was a Pioneer in every deed. He was an extremely hard

worker, as generally known, he worked himself to death." It is told about him walking to the canyons about four miles, cutting on the logs all day, leaving the canyon when too dark to work any longer and then returning home walking all the way. This way he obtained material for a very outstanding fence around his 80 acre homestead. The fence was built by setting two posts with about eight inches between them, then boring holes directly opposite in which wooden pins were inserted. The logs were then layed on top of the pins. The fence was four poles high with about 18 inches between them. It was thought a remarkable accomplishment and it kept stock in or out. Part of it is still standing as a monument of endurance and ambition of the early pioneers. I quote further: "Uncle Lars was a pioneer of dry farming, a method as we understand it now of alternating the fallow principle with grain crops in successive years. He was also a pioneer in the field of farm machinery to modernize the farm." He was the first to purchase and operate with his mechanic minded brother, Jens, the self-rake, a fore runner of the twinbinder. In addition, he pioneered the use of other harvesting machinery such as the cropper and the moss harvester. He was the first to use a grain drill instead of broadcasting the grain by hand. His pioneering spirit carried over to his sons who pioneered the dry farming method very successfully in Marsh Valley, Idaho.

He liked and enjoyed carpentering, building his first home and barn in Hyrum and on his homestead. Many pieces of furniture in their home were the work of his hands. We still have a cupboard on the farm which he built and gave to Jerry after his marriage. When death visited the home he made the coffins for his little ones.

When his sons began their own homesteading they received a wagon and seedwheat to help them out. He died on 25 April 1904, in Hyrum, where his remains rest in the cemetery.

Addendum

During the years 1992-1996, additional research was conducted on the Christiansen Line by Allan Christiansen of Ogden, Utah and Vaughn Nielsen of Brigham City, Utah. They are both great-grandsons of Lars Hansen Christiansen. These additions to the life histories of Lars Hansen Christiansen, and his parents, Christian Johansen Christoffersen, and Christiana Pedersen, were written in February 1997 by Allan Christiansen. Vaughn Nielsen passed away in June 1996, but much of this additional information can be attributed to him.

In 1994 we made contact with David Barkdull of Dover, Delaware who is a great-grandson of Peter Christiansen, older brother of Lars Hans Christiansen. He compiled a life history of Peter Christiansen and sent us a copy, along with the "Temple Book Notes" made by Peter Christiansen during his lifetime. Peter's life history and temple notes gave us additional information on his brother Lars Hans and their father and mother. After reviewing many films in the Family History Libraries, we have located more information about when they joined the LDS Church, when they all emigrated to America, and more about their life in Hyrum, Utah.

Lar's older brother, Peter, said in his life history about when the family joined the Mormon Church. The following is quoted from Peter:

"One of Peter's younger brothers, Lars, had been the first in the family to join the Mormon Church. He was baptized on 19 November 1861. His father had been baptized on 3 June 1862, and his mother a few months later on 8 August. His youngest sister, Marie Dorothea, also joined the Mormon Church prior to Peter's conversion. She was baptized 24 Jul 1862. The following spring, on 26 March 1863, Peter was ordained an Elder by Elder Brent Jensen. After his ordination, he and his wife talked about the counsel of the Prophet Brigham Young, who told the saints they should emigrate to the new Zion in America. They decided this was what they should do and immediately began preparations. Peter sold his farm to a neighbor on the same conditions for which he and Anne had become the owners of it. He gave the house and lot his father had given him when he was married, to his brother and sister, Niels and Hanna, who had not joined the church but stayed in Denmark. In addition he gave Anne's parents $400.00 to help them. He also was able to pay the passage for twelve other new converts

The Monarch of the Sea (223' x 44' x 24') provided passage for Lars Hans Christiansen and his family

who were unable to pay themselves. One of these converts was Maren Olsen, their housemaid. She had also joined the Mormon Church with Peter and his family. Her family had disowned her after she became a Mormon. On 23 April 1863, Peter, Anne, their four children, Maren and Peter's youngest brother Hans, departed for America. They were leaving behind their family and friends whom they loved dearly and putting their trust and faith in their God. It was difficult for them to leave because they knew they would probably never see any of their friends or family again. However, they didn't look back but set their sights on their objective to gather with the rest of the saints in Utah."

In Peter's Temple Book, he is quoted as saying he was ordained an Elder by Brent Jensen and Lars Christiansen. The date that Peter says Lars was baptized into the Mormon Church is one year earlier than is shown on the church records. Since we have been told that Lars was the first in the family to accept the gospel and join the church, it is likely that the baptism date quoted by Peter of "19 November 1861" is correct and the date of "19 November 1862" in the church records is in error.

The Life History of Lars Hans Christiansen says he served a mission for the LDS Church in Denmark before he emigrated to America. This is probably true, but it would have been a short mission since he came to America with the rest of the family in April 1864. We found LDS Church records that showed the family members that joined the church in the Love or Sondre (South) Oredrev Branches of the Scandinavian Mission in 1862. Jens was baptized in Copenhagen in April 1864 by Lars Christiansen a few days before the family emigrated to America.

Peter and his wife and four children, younger brother Hans, and Lars' Fiancé Sophia Rassmusen, had previously emigrated in April 1863. Their mother Christiana remarried the missionary that converted them, Hans Olsen, in March 1863. In the next year, they sold Christian Christoffersen's farm to obtain the money necessary to emigrate to America. On 28 April 1864, a family of eight set sail on the ship Monarch of the Sea and arrived in New York City on 3 June 1864. The eight family members were Hans Olsen, age 33, Christine Olsen, 52 (Lars mother), Lars Christiansen, 20, Jens Christiansen, 18, Marie Dorothea Christiansen, 11, and two of Hans Olsen's sisters, Hedevig Olsen, 24, and Ane Olsen, 38. A widow also traveled with them, Ane Kirstine Pedersen, age 35.

Vaughn Nielsen found the church records showing that Lars Hans and Sophia Pedersen did not initially marry in the Endowment House as indicated in his life history. They were married in Hyrum, Utah on 30 Dec 1865. Two years later they went to the Endowment House in Salt Lake City and were sealed to each other on 29 November 1867.

We located an LDS Plains Crossing film that showed the family of eight joined a large company of LDS emigrants crossing the plains under the leadership of Capt. William B. Preston. The company arrived in Salt Lake City on 15 September 1864.

After locating the name of the wagon train that our ancestors crossed the plains "William B Preston Church Train", an effort was made to find someone in the company that had written a history of the plains crossing. Marilyn Christiansen Throckmorton of West Valley City, Utah, a great-granddaughter of Lars Hans Christiansen, went to the Church Historical Department in Salt Lake City to find more information on this wagon train. She learned there had been seven accounts written about this plains crossing. Five of the seven accounts were on file, but cannot be copied or taken out of the office. It is only possible to read through them and make notes. Marilyn was able to obtain a list of the "passengers" in the Capt. William B. Preston's Company. She also obtained from the Church Biographical Encyclopedia a summary background on William B. Preston, who was asked by President Brigham Young to go to Missouri and lead a train of saints to Utah in 1863 and again in 1864.

A letter written by Caroline Mortine Hansen to her husband Charles Hansen, who was serving a mission in Denmark, said that they sailed on a very nice ship from Copenhagen on Wednesday, April 13, and arrived in

Grimsby, England on April 18th. On April 28th, they left Grimsby and traveled by train to Liverpool, and arrived the same day. She wrote another letter to her husband on June 17th where she says they were on the water five weeks and arrived in New York on June 3rd. She later says they arrived in Wyoming, Nebraska on June 13th. [Wyoming, Nebraska is about 40 miles south of Omaha -Ed.] The next letter Charles Hansen received was from a traveling companion of his wife, Trine Marie Hold in Salt Lake City telling him his wife had died in Wyoming only six days before the trip ended.

From the History of the Scandinavian Mission. p. 181 we learn about the trip from Denmark to England.

"On April 13, 1864, the English steamer 'Sultana' sailed from Copenhagen, Denmark, with 353 emigrants from the different conferences in Denmark, excepting a few from Fredricia, who on account of the war [Germans were invading parts of western Denmark at this time --Ed.] had to go direct to Hamburg. This company was in charge of Pres. Jesse N. Smith, who was returning home from a successful mission to Scandinavia...A number of traveling Elders, who had diligently labored in the ministry, also emigrated with this company, which, like the preceding one, went by way of Lubeck, Hamburg and Grismsby [England], to Liverpool [England] where they were joined by the company that sailed from Copenhagen, April 10th."

"On Tuesday, April 26th, the ship 'Monarch of the Sea' cleared for sailing and on Thursday, April 28th, sailed from Liverpool, England, with 974 souls on board. Patriach John Smith was chosen president of the company with Elders John D. Chase, Johan P.R. Johansen and Parley P. Pratt Jun. as his counselors."

Emigration records from the European Mission for 1864 indicate that the cost of this voyage across the ocean was 4 British pounds, 8 pence per Scandinavian adult. The group totaled 974 with a breakdown as follows:

England 175

Scotland 28

Wales 5

Ireland 4

Denmark 389

Sweden 333

Norway 33

Germany 3

Russia 1

America 3

The journal recorded by Lars August Nelson, who was also in the same company as our ancestors, gives us some information about the journey across the Atlantic Ocean:

"The ship to America was a huge one. Before it was loaded, it stood so high above the water and we had to visit some time while the sailors loaded heavy freight into the hold. I have tried to forget the journey across the Atlantic. Our rations were raw beef, large hard soda biscuits, water, mustard, and salt. Sometimes we would wait most of the day for our turn to cook our meat. The winds and waves were so high sometimes that the flag on the main mast touched the waves as it rolled. Trunks and boxes had to be tied down. The vessel had three decks and there were bunks all around on the two lower decks. We saw many varieties of fish. Sometimes the passengers, men and women, helped bail out water when it seemed the ship might sink. During the voyage there was considerable sickness and a number of deaths, mostly children. On the morning of June 3rd, the ship arrived in New York where the landing of the emigrants at the Castle Gardens at once took place. In the evening they were sent by steamer to Albany, New York, and from there by rail to St. Joseph, Missouri, thence by steamer up the Missouri River to Wyoming Nebraska, from which place most of the Scandinavian saints were taken to the Valley by

the Church teams of which 170 were sent out that year."

The LDS Church Journal of History mentions this wagon train on three different dates:

July 8, 1864: Gave list of passengers in Capt. William B. Preston's company. This list includes Hans and Christina Olsen and Lars, Jens and Marie Christensen. The company left Wyoming, Nebraska [Wyoming was located about 40 miles south of Omaha -Ed.] on July 8, 1864 and arrived in Great Salt Lake City on September 15, 1864. We noticed the other three people in the "Olsen Family", Han's sisters Hedevig and Ane and a widow Ane Kirstine Pedersen, were not on the list of the passengers crossing the plains in this company. We know they were on the ship with the others, and apparently stayed in the eastern states.

August 10, 1864 Deseret News article: Capt. John Murdock's mule train passed Horse Shoe, and Capt. William B. Preston's train crossed the Platte at Julesburg on the 6th of this month. Both trains were making good progress, and the passengers generally enjoyed good health.

September 21, 1864 Deseret News editorial: Capt. William B. Preston's train, which arrived on the 15th of this month, brought many needed suppilies from the east.

The following are excerpts from the Journal of

Robert Bodily.

"William B. Preston was our captain. Three teams, including his, were sent from Kaysville to the Missouri River for the emigrants. Buffalo were not so numerous as four years before (his first trip to Salt Lake). There being more people and the wagon loaded with merchandise, a good many people had to walk every foot of the way across those plains, both men and women across rivers, it made no difference, but they did not complain. But everyone could see how tired they were. In the start the days were long and plenty of grass and water and we could camp almost anywhere, but as we came on, the days grew shorter and water dried up in lots of places and the grass dry and not much for the cattle. It made it very hard on the people. Sometimes we would be very late coming into camp and then supper to get and children put to bed but when we got into camp in any decent time, we always had camp prayers and all would assemble together and sing a hymn and all seemed to enjoy it and forget the days hard work. And all seemed to enjoy good health so in due time we arrived in Salt Lake City on September 15, 1864. We unloaded and went home with joyful hearts. We were heartily received by the people."

Excerpts from History of Lars August Nelson

"Thus about 400 Scandinavians crossed the plains in Captain William B. Preston's company of about 50 Church teams, leaving in the beginning of July and arriving in Salt Lake City on September 15, 1864. The journey to Zion: In due time boys and wagons from Utah arrived and everything was loaded for the trip. There was a stove and tent in each wagon. Then the luggage and two families were piled in and we were off for Zion."

"At first there was an abundance of grass. I liked to watch the donkeys in the train. Day after day we traveled and the only living thing of any size was an occasional stage coach and the stations built along the way. One day I got out of the wagon and ran ahead until noon. After that I had to walk most of the way. One day two young women sat down to rest. All at once they screamed and jumped up. Then a man killed a large rattler where they had been. I have seen families take a corpse out of the wagon, dig a shallow grave and then hurriedly catch up to the train which did not stop. Then we got a glimpse of the mountains in the distance. We also saw large herds of buffalo. While camping one noon, a herd was coming directly towards us. Some men rode out and turned them. To avoid a stampede of our oxen, we started out and the teamsters were able to keep them under control."

"The first Indians I saw were at a stage station. There must have been several hundred of them and we could see their wigwams in the distance. We were now getting into great sagebrush flats and everybody was warned against fires. One day at noon we yoked up in a hurry because someone had let their fire get the best of them."

"Now we began to meet companies of soldiers. They generally led horses with empty saddles. Next we saw where a fire had burned some wagons in the company in which grandmother crossed in 1862. The whole country round about was black and the grass had not started. When we crossed rivers, if they were not too deep, the men and women waded. Two government wagons were caught in the quicksand near where we forded. As we got into the hills, there was a lot of elk, deer and antelope. One man on a gray horse did the hunting for the group. Several times the oxen tried to stampede. On parts of the trail men had to hold the wagons up to keep them from tipping over."

"The most interesting of all to me was at Echo Canyon where we were told how the Mormon scouts had marched round the cliff and made Johnston's army believe there were a whole lot of them when in fact there were very few. We found chokecherries along the road but they were too green. The last hill seemed the longest and steepest and we did not reach the top until late in the evening. Next morning everyone was happy. Cherries were riper and so good to eat they failed to choke. Happy beyond expression we hastened to get a view of Canaan and Joseph's land, where the Elders of Israel reside and Prophets and Apostles to guide the Latter-Day Saints. Having seen some of the big cities of the world, you may imagine our disappointment when we looked down from Emigration Canyon upon Great Salt Lake City by the Great Salt Lake. We saw Fort Douglas where some of the soldiers were stationed. One aged man exclaimed, 'Why, the children cry here as they did at home.' We entered the dear old tithing square and rested until noon. Now it was for us to decide where we wanted to settle."

Excerpts from Henry Ballard's Journal on William B. Preston's Church Train from Wyoming, Nebraska to Great Salt Lake City in 1864:

July 8 - 800 emigrants came from Wyoming (Nebraska).

July 9 - Traveled 4 miles.

July 11 - Heavy rain.

July 15 - Woman and child died in camp.

July 20-21 - Traveling on the Platte (River).

July 22 - A son was born.

July 24 - Another child died.

July 25 - Passed Kerney and camped 10 miles above. July 28 - Traveled 23 miles.

July 29 - Another woman died.

July 31 - Very hot, traveled 15 miles.

Aug 2 - A man died.

Aug 4 - Crossed So. Platte, decided to travel to Julesburg.

Aug 7 - Sunday - Rested the cattle in the fore part of the day. Mule bitten by a snake and died, cattle stampeded.

Aug 9 - Traveled 10 miles, cattle dying, telegraphed Pres. Young about route to take.

Aug 10 - Indian disturbances in area, next church train 60 miles behind

Aug 11 - More cattle dying.

Aug 14 - A child died.

Aug 16 - Had to camp without water, the creek sunk in the sand.

Aug 18 - Camped 180 miles from Julesburg, son born. Aug 22 - Unlevel country and wind blew very hard, very rocky country. Mentioned many times that they crossed over the Platte.

Aug 26 - Five horses missing, stolen by men at the station because of damage to their hay, eight men had to stand guard.

Aug 31 - Without water for many miles, a woman died who was 60 years old. Mentioned camping without water many times. Also mentioned several times about having a good feed.

Sep 4 - Thunder storm, son born.

Sep 5 - One of the teamsters broke the hind wheel of his wagon all to pieces and they loaded his load into another wagon.

Sep 9 - Two women died of dysentery (One of these was Caroline Hansen).

Sep 10 - Bad accident, a man fell off the temporary seat at front of his wagon and both wheels of the wagon ran over his neck and injured him badly. We had to leave him at the Bear River Station, he died three days later.

Sep 12 - A child died.

Sep 14 - Went to the top of Little Mountain and camped there.

Sep 15 - Arrived in Salt Lake.

Sep 20 - My wife had a son.

Extracted from the Church Biographical Encyclopedia concerning William B. Preston.

"William B. Preston and two of his brothers-in-law, John B. and Aaron Thatcher, left Payson, Utah in August 1859 and moved to Cache Valley and were the first to settle upon the present site of Logan. He helped to lay out the city of Logan in 1860 and was named the first Bishop of Logan. He served in the Territorial Assembly in 1861-1865 until he was called on a mission to England in 1865. When he returned from his mission on July 14, 1868 on the steamer Colorado, he was put in charge of a company of 600 saints and led them to Utah, arriving the following September. On April 6, 1884, William B. Preston was called to be the Presiding Bishop of the Church."

This history was written by Nellie Rex Christiansen Christensen on March 4-7, 1991 and is entitled "Christian J. Christoffersen Family History".

Christian was the father of Lars Hans Christiansen and the grandfather of Moses Christiansen.

I, Nellie Rex Christiansen Christensen, a great granddaughter of Christian Johansen Christofferson - will attempt to write a brief history of my Paternal Great Grandfather, Christian Johansen Christoffersen, (Confirmation Record) - as Christian Johansen Christiansen, (Branch Record). and as Christian Hansen (Military Record.) He was the son of Dorthea Nielsen and Christoffer (surname not known) - may have been Christiansen as shown for son on Branch Records. Christian was born the 9th of Dec 1811 in Fuglsbolle, Svendborg, Denmark - and died 19, Aug. 1862, at Slots-Bjergby, Soro, Denmark at the age 50 years 8 months and 4 days. Buried at Slots-Bjergby, Soro, Denmark. We learned from our Danish genealogist John Christiansen (no relative) that the Mother Dorthea Nielsen who was a daughter of Niels Hans Ryman and Hanna Christine Danielsen - was courted by a Sea Captain or Seaman who returned to Sea duty and never returned. As the Danish always used the first or given name and added "sen" - we feel his Father's name must have been Christoffer; hence the surname being Christoffersen on the early records for the son. The Mother Dorthea Nielsen was born in 1791 at Longelse, Svendborg, Denmark and died in between 1815-1820. Christian was raised by great aunt Hanna Ryemann. His mother Dorthea was never married to the Sea Captain as far as we can determine. The Father probably never knew about the son. We have never learned about his boyhood except his belief in the Bible Scriptures. The Church (Lutheran) where records were kept of his family burned down and the records were destroyed. (Our

Christian Johansen Christoffersen

genealogist found this out). Someday we hope someone may be able to search farther on his records, somehow.

When Christian was a young man he met and married Christiana Petersen on April 22, 1837 at Bostrup, Langeland, Svendborg, Denmark (Christiana Petersen). Her parents were Peder Hansen and Anna Marie Lisbet Larsen. Her father Peder Hansen lived to be 95 years old and when he was 94 he walked 12 miles a day. When visiting friends he would card wool. (No wonder I love to crochet or do sewing when I watch T.V., I've inherited this attribute.) When Christian was a young man he worked on a big estate that belonged to another man. He tended 8 acres and lived in two rooms. The cattle were stabled on one side adjacent to the living quarters. Later other families lived in the same house - probably workers on this same Estate. A few years after this Christian and family moved to another parish (Harrested, Slots-Bjergby, Soro, Denmark) where they had more land to work.

They always worked hard to make a living for themselves and families. They had seven children eventually. Namely Peter Christiansen born 30 Jan. 1835 at Fabeck, Bostrup Denmark. Niels Christiansen born 13 June 1838 at Harrested, Soro, Denmark. Hanne Marie Christiansen was born 8 May 1840 at Harrested, Soro, Denmark. Lars Hans Christiansen was born 6 Mar. 1844 at Harrested, Soro, Denmark. (He was my grandfather - Nellie's). Jens Christiansen born 19 May 1846 at Slots-Bjergby, Soro, Denmark. Hans Christiansen born 20 Jan. 1849 at Slots-Bjergby, Soro, Denmark. Marie Dorthea born 8 May 1852, (On some records her Surname is listed as Christoffersen and others as Christiansen.) at Slots-Bjergby, Soro, Denmark. The reason these children went by name Christiansen is because of custom in Denmark and Norway they always used as a surname the given name of the Father and added "sen". This is called patronymics. At one time the Father and some sons talked about sailing around the Cape of Good Hope into California, U. S. A. during the Gold Strike there. This never materialized due to health problems.

All the family were "Lutherans" by religion and spent much time reading and studying the Bible. The eldest son Peter told his life story to his daughter Mary Smith is his latter life and told about a time in his life when "he says he was always religiously inclined, and was an ardent Bible student." "The Bible was used as a text book in School." "He became so well versed that the Priest wanted him to become a minister, as he could answer many questions." When he was fifteen years old, he was confirmed by the Pastor. "He offered him a years support in college if he would become a Minister." "This the Father Christian would not let him do, as he could not afford to help him otherwise" Peter also told his daughter Mary Smith of Thornton, Idaho - about his brother Lars Hans Christiansen (my grandfather) had studied (some time later) for the Lutheran Ministry for about 3 years, when he came in contact with the "Mormon Missionaries".

After hearing their message and their testimonies of its truthfulness, he believed and was soon baptized in 1862. (My Aunt and I tried to find the exact date of his baptism, but were not successful.) (We do know he was the first to be converted in the family as his brothers have mentioned this several times.) The Father Christian Johansen Christofferson seemed to be failing in health and his son Lars Hans was anxious that he should receive the truth also. Therefore he took a Book of Mormon and went to see his Father and Mother. It took Christian only one day and one night to read the Book of Mormon after being told about the Missionaries. The Father was truly convinced of its truthfulness and was baptized on 3rd June 1862, into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Lars Hans was baptized November 19, 1862. The eldest son Peter became very concerned when he heard his Father had joined the `Mormons'. Let me quote here the exact words Peter wrote in his Biography given to me by his daughter Mary Smith.

It was the taunting words of the Village gossip that caused me to stop plowing that pleasant day in the Spring of 1861 or (62) and hastened to my father's home. "Hey Peter Christiansen" she called when in my plowing I came near to the Village street. "You wouldn't be holding your head so high or think yourself so great if you knew what I know about your parents." Plainly I heard her, waved a greeting and went on hurrying to get away from her voice. Along the fence she followed chuckling. Soon she called again "Oh, you may make it appear that you can't hear me or care, but other people know that your father and mother are very friendly with the Mormons." Determinedly I went on up the field from her amused laughter and loud taunting voice. I was not going to let her know that her words had disturbed me or that I paid any attention to her foolish gossip. But as soon as she was out of sight I went to the house calling to my wife to hurry and dress as we were

going to visit my Mother and Father. Plainly she showed her surprise that I would quit plowing in the early afternoon and go visiting. My best team was rapidly hooked to our carriage, and as we drove along the pleasant road, I told my wife what I had heard. Arriving at my parents house Christian Johansen and Christiana Petersen Christoffersen's home, we were greeted pleasantly. In a little while my mother had taken my wife to the kitchen to prepare a nice meal, for we must have the best when we came visiting. Silence reigned in my fathers sick room. Now that I was here, how was I to ask the hated question. Father turned and with a quizzical look asked, "What is it my son? What has brought you here this busy day?" "Is it true that you and Mother have become Mormons?" "Yes," he replied. "Why, oh why have you taken such a foolish step?" My father who was very ill turned and pointed to a book that lay on the table, said "I am too tired to answer your question son, but stay with me tonight and read that book and I believe the answer will be given to you." We stayed and when all was quiet and my father asleep, I picked up the book and read the title - "The Book of Mormon" - and began reading. When early morning light began to fill the room, I turned to my father and saw that he was awake and watching me. I laid the book down trying to appear uninterested. In answer to his query, "Well how did you like the reading?" I answered "Oh it is good as a history of many battles."

(I, Nellie, did not get the rest of this account as Dwinna Bennett (Peters granddaughter) had misplaced the rest of the account and we never went back to see if they'd found it at her home in Pocatello. I had read it before.) Peter sometime later joined the Mormon Church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). The Lars Hans Family Book says Dec. 29, 1862. Christian Johansen Christoffersen passed away on the 19 Aug 1862 and is buried in Slots-Bjergby Soro, Denmark. His widow Christiana (Christine) as she was called, remarried on Mar. 13, 1863 to Hans Olson in Denmark. Later she and her husband and other family members came to America and settled in Hyrum, Utah where her four sons - Peter, Lars Hans, Jens and Hans were living having come to America earlier. Peter and Hans came in 1863 - Lars Hans came in 1864 after going on a mission while living in Denmark. Jens came in 1864 - all settling in Hyrum, Utah. Marie Dorthea did come with her Mother Christiana as she was a young teenager at home when her Mother and Stepfather Hans Olson came to America. (Just an interesting note here - Hans Olson became the Father of Mrs. William Bickmore who lived in Downey, Idaho for many years - (by his 3rd wife). Christiana had died in 1884 - 6th of Nov. in Hyrum, Cache, Utah) Two children, Niels Christiansen and Hanna Christiansen never came to America or even joined the L. D. S. Church. Niels (2nd son) was in the military in Denmark and Hanna Marie (eldest daughter) was married and living with her husband Hans Christian Jensen, in Denmark. They had 5 children and they were all born by Aug 1864.

The eldest son of Christian and Christiana,(1) Peter Christiansen left for America April 30, 1863, accompanied by his 1st wife Ane Petersen and four children Elizabeth, Lars Peter, Hannah, and Hans Peter - a brother Hans Christiansen 14 years old, and possible brother Jens Christiansen 17 years old, as well as his brother Lars Han's fiancee Anna Sophia Rassmussen. Jens came to America in April 1864 immediately after his brother, Lars, baptized him into the LDS Church. They were with a large company of Saints enroute for Utah. In Utah Peter married in polygamy 2nd wife Maren Olson 2, July 1864 (a single lady who came with Peter's family from Denmark.), 3rd wife Ane Marie Hansen on 25 May 1867 in Utah. (2)Niels Christiansen married Ingerbore Jorgensen Kaae on 6 Feb. 1866 in Denmark. They had only one child Anna Christiansen. Niels died in June 1870 in Denmark. His wife died one year later. (3)Hanna Marie C. married Hans Christian Jensen on 17, July 1858. He died (no date) and she married a Mr. Poulsen - they had one son Charles. (I have a Photo of her and Poulsen and son Charles, but we don't have dates to have him sealed to Mother). Hanna Marie died 30 July 1912 in Denmark. (4)Lars Hans Christiansen came to America (after fulfilling a mission) in 1864 and married Anna Sophia Rasmussen on 30 Dec. 1865 in in Hyrum, Utah. He married Annie Dorthea Sorensen 26 April 1874 in polygamy. (5) Jens Christiansen came to America and married Martha Ericksen 23 May 1870 - died 9 Feb. 1907 in Hyrum Utah. (6) Hans Christiansen came to America - married Ane Marie Poulsen 29 Nov 1867 - He died 22 June 1879 at Hyrum, Utah. (7) Marie Dorthea Christoffersen came to America - married Jens Dragsted 17, Aug 1870 - and later to Wilhelm Andersen - She died in July, 1923 in Utah. (4) Lars Hans Christiansen (my grandfather) died on 25 April 1904 in Hyrum, Utah at age 60.

Addendum

Additional new information has been found on the life of Christian J. Christoffersen since the previous history was written. The LDS Church records in Denmark shows Christian's birth date as 9 Dec 1811. We believe this date to be correct and the previous date of 15 Dec 1811 is not the birth date but the date he was christened in the Lutheran Church. The first Parish Record found was when Christian was Confirmed in the church in the Fuglsbolle Parish in 1826, at age 14. At that time his guardian was Hanna Ryemann, who is a sister of Christian's grandfather, Niels Hansen Ryemann (Ryman). Therefore, we believe he was raised by his Great Aunt Hanna Ryemann.

The Military Levying Rolls are taken every three years in Denmark for all males. It shows their age, where they lived, and the name of their parent(s). The first entry Christian appears on is in 1812 before the age of 1, living in Fuglsbolle, only parent listed is Dorothea Nielsdatter. He is also listed in Fuglsbolle in 1815, 1821, and 1824. The record shows he moved to Skrobelev on Langeland Island where he resides in 1827, 1830, 1833, and 1836. In 1837 he moved to Sludstrup in Soro County where he was found in 1839 and 1842. The record in 1842 in Sludstrup has a line through the name Christian Hansen and written below it is Christian Johansen Christoffersen. In 1844 his residence changes to Slots Bjergby when he was age 33. This is the last military record we found.

In Denmark the census records jump from 1801 to 1834 with none taken in between. On the 1834 census it shows Christian living on a farm in Bostrup, Langeland Island, as an unmarried worker with ten people living on the farm. This entry is recorded in the Lars Hans Christiansen Book on page 5. The master of the farm is Anders Rasmussen, age 43, his wife, five children, a grandmother, and two unmarried workers with Christian being one of them. There is a marriage record in the same town, Bostrup, of Christian to Christiana Pedersen, age 28, on 22 April 1837. The Bostrup Parish records show that Christian and Christiana left the parish and moved to Harrested on 25 April 1837, only three days after they were married.

The country of Denmark is made up of many islands between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. The two main islands where our ancestors lived between 1800 and 1863 are Langeland and Sjaelland. Langeland is a small, long, and narrow island about 20 miles long and 3 miles wide. It is a short distance southeast of the island of Fyn (Odense). Further to the northeast is the island of Sjaelland, which is a large island with the capitol of Copenhagen on the east coast. On the southwest side of the island is the county of Soro, where the family lived between 1835-1864. The island of Langeland was in Tranekaer County prior to 1807 and in Svendborg County after 1807.

In Peter Christiansen's Life History, compiled by David Barkdull, is more information about their family life in Denmark. The next five paragraphs are a direct quote from that life history.

"When Peter was born, his parents were living in Faebaek, on the Island of Langelands. Peter's parents had seven children, Peter being the oldest. Their first home had only two living rooms for the entire family to live in. Like most farm houses in those days, the farm animals were stabled in the house but in another section. In addition, two other families lived in the house. Peter's father was a hard working man. He farmed eight acres of land. The farm on which they lived was part of the estate of a rich landlord. They lived in Faebaek for a few years after Peter was born. By 1838, Christian had moved the family to Harrested on the island of Sjaelland. While living in Harrested, three more children were born to Christian and Christiane. Two boys and a girl. Niels, born 13 June 1838, Lars Hans born 6 March 1844, and Hanna Marie born 8 May 1840.

In 1844, when Peter was nine years old, his father again moved the family. This time, it was not as long a move as the one from Faebaek had been, because they were moving to the small village of Slots Bjergby about one and a half miles away. In Slots Bjergby, Peter's father Christian, had twice as much land to work as he had in Harrested. Even though this meant more work for Christian, the family was better off because of the added income he was able to earn. Christian was a very religious and God fearing man. He was a diligent student of the

Bible and would gather his family together for regular scripture reading and prayer.

In 1862, Mormon Elders, missionaries, were preaching their new gospel to the people in the area. Most people didn't accept or even want to hear what the Mormon Elders had to say. Many stories were going around about these strange ministers. Many said they had come from America to try to lure them to their secret places in the mountains. However, Peter's parents became interested in what these men of God were preaching and invited them to their home."

From Peter's history is two paragraphs about when Peter learned his parents had joined the Mormon Church. Nellie quotes Peter in Christian Christoffersen's life history. At the point where Nellie says she did not get the rest of this account because Dwinna Bennett had misplaced it, a complete copy of Peter's life history gave us the missing part as follows:

"Later, the Mormon Elders visited Peter and his family who had become interested in this new religion, the "restored gospel" of Jesus Christ. The Elders left tracts with the Christiansen family which they read and studied and prayed about. Peter's brother Hans, had also been deeply impressed by what the Mormon Elders had been teaching. So on 29 Dec 1862, Peter, Anne and Hans were all baptized into the Mormon Church." This is the end of the quotes from Peter's Life History.

In the Slots-Bjergby Parish Records are birth records for the three youngest children of Christian Christoffersen who are Jens, Hans, and Marie Dorthea Christiansen. The date of births was the same as on the Family Group Sheet. There is confirmation records on Jens and Hans on this film, but Marie Dorthea was too young (11) before they left Slots-Bjergby and came to America. We found a death record on Christian Johansen Christoffersen at age 50. The date of death is 22 Aug 1862 and the burial date is 27 Aug 1862. This date is a little different than we previously had recorded, which was 19 Aug 1862. Vaughn says the births and confirmations for Niels, Hanne Marie, and Lars Hans Christiansen are in the Sludstrup Parish Records.

On the film of the Probate Records in Soro County in 1852-1865, are three different places in the records that refers to Christian Johansen Christoffersen. On the date of 4 Sep 1862 there is a short paragraph with 12 lines that mentions his name. On the date 24 Sep 1862 is a second paragraph of 10 lines that mentions Christine Pedersen and Christian Johansen Christoffersen. On the date 11 Feb 1863 is the complete probate records containing all the numbers and signatures. It lists all of Christian Johansen Christoffersen's children and at the end of the last page is the following signatures: Christiane Pedersen, Peder Christiansen, Niels Christiansen, Lars Hansen Christiansen, Hans Christian Jensen (Husband of Hanne Marie Christiansen), Jens Pedersen Hansen (Vaughn determined this was the sheriff).

The following section is about Dorthea Nielsen, who was the mother of Christian Johansen Christoffersen.

We have been unable to find a birth or death record on Dorothea Nielsen, mother of Christian Johansen Christoffersen. On the 1801 census records for the island of Langeland, we found the family of Dorothea Nielsen in the town of Longelse, but Dorothea (at age 10) was not listed with the family. Her father, mother and two younger sisters were listed. We have been unable to find out where Dorothea Nielsen was living when the 1801 census was taken. It could have been with her aunt, Hanne Ryemann who raised Christian Christoffersen, but this has not been found on the 1801 census.

On the Fuglsbolle Parish Records in 1815 we found a birth record for a Daniel Jorgensen. The mother is listed as Dorthea Nielsdatter Rymann of Fuglsbolle and the father is Jorgen Hansen of Tullebolle. The record says they were unmarried and Dorthea's two sisters, Karen and Kirsten are listed as witnesses. This information seems to indicate that Dorothea did not die in 1811 or 1812 as believed. We also found the boys death record in 1820 at the age of 4 1/2 years. The death record has another lady as the mother, but the Parish Index shows the birth and death records as being the same person. The mother listed is Dorthe Kirstine Rasmus Datter. Vaughn

This history was written by Nellie Rex Christiansen Christensen on March 29, 1993 and is entitled "A History of Christiana Pedersen Christoffersen. 1809 - 1884".

Christiana was the mother of Lars Hans Christiansen and the grandmother of Moses Christiansen.

Christiana (Christine) Pedersen was born on March 27, 1809 at Jyderup, Hobeck, Denmark. Her parents were Pedar Hansen and Ane Marie Lisabeth Larsen. It is told her father walked twelve miles a day and when visiting friends he would card wool.

Nothing is known about Christiana in her youth and as she was growing up, therefore her known history starts at the time of her marriage. She married Christian (Johnsen Christophersen) Johansen Christoffersen on 22 April 1837 in Bostrup, Langeland, Svendborg, Denmark. He was also known as Christian Hansen on the Military Records and as Christian Hansen Christoffersen on confirmation records and as Christian Johansen Christiansen on the Branch records in the L.D.S. Church. He was the illegitimate son of an unknown seaman who after courting Dorthea Nielsen went to sea and was never heard from again. Christian was brought up by an Aunt and grandparents who taught him well. He became a hard worker and an honest good man who read the Bible often, He was born the 9th of December, 1811 in Fuglsbolle, Svendborg, Denmark. His father's given name probably was Christoffer, as in Denmark the sons went by the father's first name with an added "sen" or "son", hence Christoffersen. His mother, Dorthea Nielsen, died between 1815 - 1820.

Christiana was a very good wife and mother according to some of her son's histories. This family was devoted

Christina Pedersen Christoffersen

This history was written by Nellie Rex Christiansen Christensen on March 29, 1993 and is entitled "A

History of Christiana Pedersen Christoffersen.

1809 - 1884".

Christiana was the mother of Lars Hans Christiansen and the grandmother of Moses Christiansen.

Christiana (Christine) Pedersen was born on March 27, 1809 at Jyderup, Hobeck, Denmark. Her parents were Pedar Hansen and Ane Marie Lisabeth Larsen. It is told her father walked twelve miles a day and when visiting friends he would card wool.

Nothing is known about Christiana in her youth and as she was growing up, therefore her known history starts at the time of her marriage. She married Christian (Johnsen Christophersen) Johansen Christoffersen on 22 April 1837 in Bostrup, Langeland, Svendborg, Denmark. He was also known as Christian Hansen on the Military Records and as Christian Hansen Christoffersen on confirmation records and as Christian Johansen Christiansen on the Branch records in the L.D.S. Church. He was the illegitimate son of an unknown seaman who after courting Dorthea Nielsen went to sea and was never heard from again. Christian was brought up by an Aunt and grandparents who taught him well. He became a hard worker and an honest good man who read the Bible often, He was born the 9th of December, 1811 in Fuglsbolle, Svendborg, Denmark. His father's given name probably was Christoffer, as in Denmark the sons went by the father's first name with an added "sen" or "son", hence Christoffersen. His mother, Dorthea Nielsen, died between 1815 - 1820.

Christiana was a very good wife and mother according to some of her son's histories. This family was devoted

Bible students and belonged to the Lutheran Church. Christian and Christiana first lived on a big estate owned by another man. They took care and worked eight acres of land, living in a two roomed house. The cattle were stabled on one side adjacent to the living quarters.

A few years later they moved to another parish where they had more land to work. They always had to work hard to make a living for themselves and family. They had seven children. Their first born was named Peter Christiansen as all the sons took the father's name and added "sen". This is called patronymics. Peter was born 30 January 1835 at Fabeck, Bostrup, Denmark. Next came another son named Niels Christiansen born 13 June 1838 at Harrested, Soro, Denmark. A daughter named Hanne Marie Christiansen was born 8 May 1840 at Harrested, Soro, Denmark. A son Lars Hans Christiansen was born 6 March 1844 at Harrested, Soro, Denmark. (This was my Grandfather) A son, Jens Christiansen was born 19 May l846 at Slots-Bjergby, Soro, Denmark. A son, Hans Christiansen was born 20 January 1849 at Slots-Bjergby, Soro, Denmark and finally Marie Dorthea Christiansen a daughter was born 8 May 1852 at Slots-Bjergby, Soro, Denmark, On some records her surname is listed as Christoffersen.

At one time the father and some sons talked about sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to California during the Gold Rush of 1849. This travel never came to pass as the father became seriously ill and died 19 August 1862 at age fifty and a half years old.

The Bible was used as a text book in their home and the family seemed to be religiously inclined. Two sons Peter and Lars Hans were offered help from the Priest in the Lutheran Church to become ministers. The father declined this offer as he could afford to help Peter, otherwise. Later, Lars Hans studied some, for about three years, then he came in contact with the Mormon Missionaries. This was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints commonly called the Mormons. After hearing their message and their testimonies of its truthfulness, he was baptized and became a member in 1862, the first one of his father's family. The eldest brother Peter told about this to his daughter Mary Smith of Thornton, Idaho, as she was recording Peter's history. Other family members have acknowledged this, also. At this time the father Christian was failing in health and his son Lars Hans was anxious that he should learn of the what he considered the new and restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, he took a Book of Mormon and went to see his parents. It took his father only one day and one night to read the Book of Mormon and become convinced of its truthfulness. He was baptized 3rd of June 1862. Christiana was baptized 8 August 1862.

In a biography written by Peter, the eldest son, he tells of the event of his father becoming baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Peter had become very concerned when he heard his parents had joined the "Mormon Church". Both Aunt Bertha Christiansen and myself have copies of Peters Biography, in part, which was obtained from a daughter of Mary Smith, Devinna Bennett, a granddaughter. Peter writes, "It was the taunting words of a village gossip that caused me to stop plowing that pleasant day in the spring of 1862 and hastened to my father's home. "Hey, Peter Christiansen", she called when in my plowing I came near to the village street. "You wouldn't be holding your head so high or think yourself so great if you knew what I know about your parents." Plainly I heard her, waved a greeting and went on hurrying to get away from her voice." Along

the fence she followed chuckling. Soon she called again, "Oh you may make it appear that you don't hear me or care, but other people know that your father and mother are very friendly with the Mormons." Determinedly, I went on up the field from her amused laughter and loud taunting voice. I was not going to let her know that her words had disturbed me or that I paid any attention to her foolish gossip. But as soon as she was out of sight I went to the house calling to my wife to hurry and dress as we were going to visit my mother and father. Plainly she showed her surprise that I would quit plowing in the early afternoon and go visiting. My best team was rapidly hooked to our carriage and as we drove along the pleasant road, I told my wife what I had heard."

"Arriving at my parents house, Christian Johansen and Christiana Pedersen Christoffersen's home, we were greeted pleasantly. In a little while my mother had taken my wife to the kitchen to prepare a nice meal, for we

must have the best when we come visiting. Silence feigned in my father's sick room. Now that I was here, how was I to ask the hated question? Father turned and with a quizzical look asked, "what is it my son, what has brought you here this busy day?" Is it true that you and mother have become Mormons? "Yes". Why, oh why have you taken such a foolish step? My father who was very ill turned and pointed to a book that lay on the table, saying, "I am too tired to answer your question son, but stay with me tonight and read that book and I believe the answer will be given to you." We stayed and when all was quiet and my father asleep, I picked up the book and read the title - The Book of Mormon, and began reading. When early morning light began to fill the room I turned to my father and saw that he was watching me, having awakened. I laid the book down trying to appear uninterested. In answer to his query, "well, how did you like the reading?" I answered `Oh, it is good as a history book of many battles.'"

This ended my copy of Peter's biography. After I had copied this much of the biography of Peter Christiansen, I asked for the next page and Mrs. Divinna S. Bennett of Pocatello, Idaho, where we were doing the copying, said she had mislaid the rest of the article and would look for it later. We never went back to see if she found it. That was our big mistake. Divenna was Peter's granddaughter, her mother being Mary Smith, a daughter of Peter Christiansen. Aunt Bertha and I had read this article weeks and months before, we remembered that Peter finally became convinced of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was later baptized and became a member of the Church on December 29, 1862 and in 1863 immigrated to America and Utah. He took his wife and four children and youngest brother Hans, who was 14 years old, with him. Also, the fiances of Lars Hans, Anne Sophia Rasmussen, came with Peter to America or at lest in the same company. Lars Hans stayed in Denmark to go on a mission for the L.D.S. Church and come to America later in 1864.

Christian Johansen Christoffersen was baptized 3rd of June 1862. Christiana was baptized the 8th of August 1862. We feel sure Lars Hans was baptized early in 1862 before his father Christian, as his brothers all said he was the first one in the family to hear the L.D.S. Missionaries and join the Church. Then he went to his parents with the message of the Restored Church. The date of Lars Hans's baptism that we found was 14 November 1862, must have been rebaptized just before he was to go on his mission in Denmark. This was a common occurrence in the early years of the Church.

Jens was baptized 10 April 1864 by Lars. Hans was baptized 29 December 1862 same day as Peter. Marie Dorthea was baptized 24 July 1862. The other two children a son Niels and daughter Hanne Marie never joined the Church and stayed in Denmark. Hanne Marie married Hans Christian Jensen in July 17, 1858 at Slots-Bjergby, Soro, Denmark. They had five children. Niels served in the Military and later married Ingeborg Jorgensen Kaae February 1866. They had one child, a daughter, Anna, who married Hans Peter Gram.

Peter was married to Anna Petrina Peterson on 8 November 1856 and they had four children born in Denmark. Later he married Maren Mary Olsen, a convert to the Church and disowned by her parents for joining the L.D.S. Church and came to America with Peters family, on 2 July 1864 in Salt Lake City, Utah and had eight children. On May 25, 1867 he married Ane Marie Hansen and had ten children.

Lars Hans married Anne Sophia Rasmussen 30

December 1865 in Hyrum, Utah. They had ten children. Later he married Dorthea Sorensen on April 26, 1874 in Salt Lake City, Utah and they had four children.

Jens married Martha Ericksen on 23 May 1870. They had ten children. Hans married Anna Marie Poulsen on 29 November 1867. They had three daughters. Marie Dorthea Christoffersen married Hans (Jens) Christian Dragstedt 18 November 1868 and had two sons and later married Wilhelm Anderson in 1878 and had one daughter.

After Christiana's husband, Christian, died on 19 August 1862 in Denmark, she and her son Jens and 14 year old daughter Marie Dorthea immigrated to America and Hyrum, Utah in 1864 according to Jen's History. She

Addendum

Some new additional information has been gathered on Christiana Pedersen since her life history was written in 1993 by Nellie Christiansen Christensen. Most of the new information has been summarized beautifully in a letter that Vaughn Nielsen wrote to Nellie Christensen on 25 January 1995. The following nine paragraphs are quoted directly from his letter:

Dear Nellie, Allan and I enjoy your letters which he shares with me. Your continual interest in family history and temple work is an example to all of us. Thanks for preserving information on our ancestors, particularly Christian Johansen Christoffersen and Christiane Pedersen. I'd like to tell you what I have found out about Christiane after she came to Hyrum with Hans Olsen, his sisters and our Lars Hans, Jens and Marie Dorthea.

After Christian J. Christoffersen died in Denmark, his property could not be probated and kept in Christiane's control as women were not allowed to hold property in those days in Denmark. Hans Olsen had been one of the missionaries responsible for the conversion of our family. He baptized our Lars. Hans Olsen had been baptized in 1854. He had married in 1852 but was widowed and childless at the time he met our family.

It was the custom in Denmark for a widow to quickly remarry in order to have her deceased husband's property transferred to her new husband. Hans Olsen and Christiane decided that they should marry so that they could sell our family's property and use the money to immigrate to Utah. Therefore, early in 1863, about the time Peter was preparing to depart for Zion, Hans Olsen and Christiane were married. The home and property were sold and the OLSENS were ready to come to Utah by early 1864.

When they arrived in Salt Lake City, they had already determined that Hyrum would be their home, as two of Christiane's sons were already there. Faithful Hans Olsen remained by Christiane's side until she passed away in early November 1884. One month after Christiane's death, Hans Olsen married a widow named Hansine or Sena Iversdatter, who had immigrated with her children and parents and brothers and sisters in 1882. Sena was the mother of five children, including the Mrs. Bickmore you talked about in your letters. Her name was Elna Cathrine Nielsen, future wife of William McArthur Bickmore.

When Hans Olsen married Sena Iversdatter, he was 54 yrs. old. He became a father for the first time at 55 in September of 1885. By the time his 5th child was nearly nine, Hans Olsen died and is buried in the Hyrum Cemetery by our Christiane. His wife Sena, who died in Rupert, Idaho 34 yrs. after Hans, and the first three of their five children are buried there, too. The first three children died at six, two, and three years of age. Only the last two girls lived to become mothers themselves.

Hans Olsen and Christiane arrived in Utah with Lars, Jens, Marie Dorthea, and two of Hans' sisters. After getting established, our Lars married Sophia Rasmussen 30 Dec 1865. Though I remember Aaron's boy LaGrande telling me that they were married in Hyrum, they very well could have been married in Salt Lake City, perhaps by a ward bishop, but not for time and eternity. There were no marriages for time and eternity during the Christmas holidays in 1865. The probability is that Lars and Sophia picked up their courtship at the home of Sophia's parents in Mantua, over the hill from Hyrum.

Hans Olsen and Christiane are listed at least four times in the Hyrum Ward Record, the first time on page 15. In the 1870 and 1880 Census of Utah they are listed together, with no other family as part of their household. I had thought that Hans Olsen was a polygamist, but he wasn't. On 4 Jun 1873 there is an Endowment House sealing of Hans Olsen and one Ellen Petersen, deceased. On this day Christiane did baptisms for her mother and two sisters. Hans did baptisms for his father and other family members. They were loyal to each other and faithful Latter-day Saints.

Christiane lived long enough to see the opening of the Logan Temple. During the summer of 1884, after the temple was dedicated, Hans Olsen and Christiane Olsen did the endowments for her mother and two sisters and Hans' family that they had done baptisms for in 1873. It was a thrill for me to know that Christiane was able to go to the Logan Temple those few months before she died.

I feel grateful for our heritage, a part of which is Hans Olsen, who baptized my great grandfather, Lars Hansen Christiansen, and became his stepfather. I admire Christian Johansen Christoffersen, an orphan boy raised by a great aunt that Allan and I have searched diligently for and so far have not found except as the foster mother at the confirmation of Christian Hansen

This article is entitled "Memories of Cherry Creek" and was written by Nellie Rex Christiansen Christensen on July 1, 1994.

These are things I can remember about our life while living in Cherry Creek on the farm of our parents, Moses Josephat Christiansen and Mary Caroline Hartvigsen Christiansen, who were both born in Hyrum Cache County, Utah of Danish and Norwegian parents (pioneers).

We lived in a two story house of four rooms on first floor and three rooms upstairs. There was a large kitchen with a stairway leading to the second floor, a large living-dining room, a parlor and one bedroom on the main floor. Upstairs consisted of a boys bedroom and a girls bedroom, also a room with no windows; we called the "blackroom", used for storage of telephones and big balls of torn rags for rug making and other items. Built onto the house on the southwest side was a wash house and storage for flour, sugar and other dry commodities. Underneath this wash house was a cellar to store bottled fruit, fresh vegetables, milk, cream, butter and pickles.

The house proper faced the north with a large window in the living room on the north and a door and window on the east, also a window on the north in the kitchen and a door on the west. "I don't remember the windows in the parlor or bedroom".

Our father with help from other families had built this house a few years after his and mother's marriage in 1903, 17th of June in Logan, Utah. It was sometime later he built the wash house, about 1916 as I can remember him doing it. Near our house and on a slopping hill to the west, "Papa" (as we called him) built a large barn for hay and attached to it corrals for horses, cows, calves and a few sheep. There was a tool shed and machinery sheds and out door toilet a little closer to the house also on west side. Just above the barn ran a creek that was diverted from the natural "Cherry Creek" that ran below our house on the east in a northerly direction from the canyons to the south, near "Oxford Peak", a landmark in our valley. We had water piped down to our house

Cherry Creek School

from the creek on the west into our kitchen. No electricity.

There were pig pens to the northeast of our house where we emptied our dish water for the pigs as it contained much food washed from plates and kettles. Further to the north we had a granary and a garden, watered from the creek above (west.

Between the west creek (ditch) and the garden, Elvin and some friends dug a large hole for a swimming pool, but it was too muddy, so only the boys ever used it for a short time.

The road from the house went north a short distance, then turned east about two tenths of a mile and again turning north where it soon crossed the main creek and a little farther came into the main road going north also. Down the road a little farther and near the big hill (as we called it) and a mile from our home was the new school house across the creek on the west side.

The oldest children Elvin and Myrtle had first attended a school on the hill to the northeast of our home in Uncle Peter Christiansen's vacant house, as he had moved to Downey earlier where he had built a home on 4th North and 2nd East. (Note this home was burned down by Halloweeners many years later when no one was living in it and owned by Var Alder). Their teacher in this house was Mr. Dave Christensen, who later became a rural mail carrier. He also lived at our home on the farm the year I was born 1912 when he saved my life after my folks had given me up. I had whooping cough and had stopped breathing when he took a cup of cold water and threw it in my face as he held me by the feet at age 10 days old. I came out of it! Breathed again after a big gasp.

The four older children attended this one room school house across the creek. There were six children in our family at Cherry Creek, Elvin Russell, Myrtle Mary, Edna Anna, (myself) Nellie Rex, Eva Ellenor and Johnny Modell. The two younger children were not old enough to attend school before we moved to Downey in November 1919.

We all loved living on the farm and had lots of fun in the winter riding homemade sleighs and toboggans. In the summers we played baseball, horseback riding and many games such as "kick the can", "no bears are out tonight", "anti I over", "run sheep run" and others. We also played "fox and geese" in the snow.

Our neighbors were the George Webb's, the Niels Hartvigsen's, the Owen's, the Charles and John Evan's, with

Moses and family circa 1914

Moses and John up front, Myrtle, Edna, Mary holding Eva

Joe and Hiram Jensen's and J. F. Hartvigsen's (mother's brother) a little farther east. Also the Guidinger's and Ghering's farther north and a little west. Our grandfather John Hartvigsen and wife lived near the Ghering's.

We were especially close to the Niels Hartvigsen family as he and our father were very good friends before our parents came to Idaho, and also a cousin to our mother. His wife Lulletta was a dear friend of our mother's having both lived in Hyrum, Utah.

We always called them Uncle Niels and Aunt Lule. With this family we spent many holidays picnicking up Cherry Creek Canyon south of our home and on the southwest of Oxford Peak, the prominent landmark in the south end of Marsh Valley. I remember the many times we use to watch out our living room window to see our car lights come over the big hill to the north as papa would come home after going to Downey for business or for groceries and supplies. Mama would sometimes be with him. They'd bring a little candy.

We had a very special dog named "Ole Watch". Our father found him as a pup near a badger hole on the farm and brought him home for us. He grew to be a great dog and would go after the milk cows for us when we call to him and say "go get the cows", and point to them up in the far field south.

The mountains were nearby all around us on the farm, especially to the west, south and east. Although the creeks running on the east and west sides of our place, they came from the main Cherry Creek canyon as one creek had been diverted at the far south side of our farm into two creeks. The east one is the normal creek. It is still used down north where some farms use it for irrigation.

Our father was the manager of the independent telephone line that connected most of the families up to one another in the Cherry Creek area and south end of the valley. That is why there were telephones in our upstairs black room. We all had fun playing with the old telephones after the Bell Telephone took over the lines or put in their own lines.

I remember one time when our big sister, Myrtle, was trying to walk our fence by holding on to the telephone line above her. She fell off ripping a long gash on her leg. Our parents were gone to town at this time and we bandaged her leg as best we could by pushing the gash together and wrapping it. We were afraid to tell our parents how it happened. Myrtle carried a wide blue scar for many years. I can't remember what our folks said when they found out about it later. Another time mama told Edna to go get Myrtle and Elvin for supper as they were skating on the lower creek in the wintertime. Edna went to the creek and stood on the ice holding out her arms to stop the skaters. They knocked her down on the ice as they ran into her and she got a big gash on her forehead where she hit the ice. In those days we didn't go to a doctor when we got hurt to be sewn up. The doctors were too far away and we took care of ourselves.

Another time I remember when we had the cows up the canyon road grazing during the summertime and the two older girls took turns going to get the cows on a pony, taking one of us younger girls on behind the saddle. It was Myrtle's turn and she took me (Nellie) with her. She suddenly decided to go in the house to get something and got off the pony and tied her reins to an old tin boiler. The pony (Ole Bally) stepped backwards a bit and heard the noise made by the tin boiler and became frightened. Ole Bally started bucking and running in a circle with me hanging on to the saddle horn. I was screaming and holding on for dear life with my legs dangling when my mother finally got the pony stopped and me in her arms. I wouldn't get near a horse for many years after that, I was only 4 or 5 years old at the time. I'm afraid Myrtle got a good scolding for that.

Another time papa had bought a new car (Studebaker), it was the second car we had. Our first one was a Model T Ford bought in early spring of 1914. We have a picture of this car with all the family in it. Eva is the small baby wrapped in a blanket and being held by our mother. She was born October 6, 1913. Anyway, papa was teaching Myrtle to drive the car. We three younger girls were in the back seat. The road was gravely and we were going south. Eva at about age 3 was standing up in the seat and the top of the car was down, when all of a

Myrtle, Nellie, Edna, and Eva pose for a group picture at Jerome, Idaho in 1946

sudden she fell out over the back and lit in the middle of the gravel road. We were afraid she was hurt, but she jumped up and started running after the car calling "mama, mama", as she thought we would leave her. She always called Myrtle mama as she was the one who took care of her so much. When we knew she wasn't hurt we had a good laugh.

On Christmas our papa would dress up like Santa Claus and get into a big sleigh with sleigh bells ringing on the harnesses of the team and drive up to our house, then come in and give each one of us an orange, a sack of candy and nuts. That was the only time I remember we had oranges. In the morning when we'd get up there would be just one present for each of us and we'd be very happy to get it, especially if it would be a doll or something like that.

Our father was quite a jokester and liked to have fun with us. One Christmas we had been told if we weren't good we'd be sorry. Then that Christmas our brother Elvin got a rotten potato and a piece of black coal in his stocking. I'm's sure he relented later and gave Elvin a Christmas gift. Elvin used to put on papa's big fur bear coat and hide after dark, then scare us badly when we went outside to play. Our youngest brother Johnny was very young, only 3 years old when we moved to Downey in 1919 in November so he was not involved in much of our "Tomfoolery".

On Halloween the big boys in Cherry Creek would get on horses and do a lot of mischief, such as turning toilets over, dragging machinery around and scaring people to pieces. One time one of the men over by the Ghering place took a gun out and shot it in the air to scare the Halloweeners away. That did the job.

One time papa let Edna ride one of the horses that pulled the harrow in the garden. Papa had the reins and was driving the horses. Edna fell off the horse and landed in the harrows. Papa was able to stop the horses before she was seriously hurt—just scratched and frightened.

Edna reminded me of another incident that happened on the farm. We all loved to play ball and especially "anti I over". We girls and boys were playing this game where you choose up sides and someone throws the ball over the house for the ones on the other side to catch it. Myrtle reached up to catch the ball as it came over the house and "Ole Watch" our big black dog jumped to catch it also. In so doing his teeth went into Myrtle's forehead and cut a big gash. That was quite an accident as we all thought he was one great dog.

Other things I can remember were the Basket Socials and programs held at our schoolhouse for the public in the evenings. The Basket Social was where the women would bring a delicious lunch in a decorated basket. This

basket would be auctioned off and the man that got it would have to eat with the lady who made the basket and lunch. He wouldn't know which lady brought it until he opened it up.

Our parents attended church at Woodland Ward about 4 miles north and west of our home. We went there in a big buggy pulled by a team of horses. Then in early 1914 our papa bought the first car in Marsh Valley. We have a photo of us all sitting in the new Ford car. Johnny wasn't born at this time. He came 2 years later.

I remember the socials and dances we all attended at the Woodland Church house. The parents would take the whole family and put babies and small children on chairs and benches around the sides of the room to go to sleep. My sister Eva remembers how she would swipe baby Johnny's bottle and how good it tasted. That was the "Good Ole Days"!

Our family consisted of six children, Elvin, Myrtle, Edna, Nellie (myself), Eva and Johnny. Uncle Niels and Aunt Lule Hartvigsen had ten children, the last one born in Downey in 1920 after we all moved from the farm to town, Downey, Idaho. This Hartvigsen family were all very close to our family. Elvin and Vernon pulled together, Myrtle, Jennie and Amelia were close friends, as well as Nellie and Luetta, also Eva and Delores. This close friendship existed until each of us were married and went different directions, although Eva and Delores have always stayed in contact with each other.

Both families kept in contact with each other for many years after moving to Downey in November and December of 1919, so the children could attend high school. We did go back to the farm to cook for men in the summertime. Of course we did miss many friends of the Guidinger's, Evan's, Barnes', Jensen's and other families, as we lived in Downey several years before they moved to Downey also. These Cherry Creek families will always be special to us all our lives.

Edna and Myrtle used to dress up in mama's clothes when she and papa were gone someplace. Mama could always tell what had happened when she came home, as I guess they didn't always put everything back just right. They would pretend Eva and I were their children.

One time while playing in the garden I picked a dry bean and put it in my nose. Mama had to get it out with a crochet hook, that really hurt.

Mama was a great seamstress and used to make us very lovely clothes, dresses, slips, coats and etc. We had white stockings for best and big ribbon bows in our hair. I especially remember when she made Eva and I some lovely "small plaid" coats with blue and pink collars. We loved them. Mama wore mostly skirts (long) and blouses for best. She was a very pretty lady with dark blue eyes and brown luxurious hair, was about 5'2" tall of medium weight. Papa had blue eyes and dark brown hair, was about 6' and always a very thin man. We loved both of them very much and missed them very much after they were gone.

John (as we call him now) reminded me sometime ago of the Indians that used to come over the mountains on the west side of our farm and come down the road that crossed the upper creek on a bridge and on down east going pass our house. They would sometimes go to the house and ask for bread or something they wanted. Mother would usually give them bread if she could. As little as John was he remembers how one big chief came down the road while we were all out playing in the yard and we girls all took off for the house and left baby Johnny. How frightened he was trying to get to the house also until mama came out and got him. Shame on us girls.

The mountains that surrounded our farm on the south and the west was always beautiful year round. Snow capped in winter and early spring, green and colorful in spring, summer and fall. We used to hike to the far southwest side of the farm on the mountain side

to pick flowers such as "curly cups". They smelled so good in the early spring as the snow melted away. Also

there were sweet smelling sego lilies, lady slippers, Indian paint brushes, buttercups, daisies, prickly pear flowers, and wild roses, etc. during the summers. Beautiful bluebells and larkspurs. We used to pick choke cherries and wild currants each fall to make delicious jelly and jams, also wild gooseberries.

The crops our father planted on our 320 acre farm was alfalfa, wheat and barley — "dry farm". We all had a hand in the harvesting and cooking for the men who helped papa during the spring, summer and fall seasons on the farm, along with our eldest brother, Elvin. First they used reapers and thrashers, which required many men to operate them efficiently and later horse pulled combines.

I well remember when Odd Hartvigsen's (a cousin of mother's) came up the road with his big machine blasting a loud sound that almost frightened us as he came into our property to harvest grain with a thrasher machine. Also a cook-shack followed—men from neighboring families would come to help. Those days are long gone.

If you don't know what a cook shack is, it is a covered wagon with stove and table where meals are served to harvesters by a lady. My mother worked on one with Mattie Evans for awhile, probably before marriage Mattie told me.

One of the most spectacular things that ever happened in Cherry Creek when we lived there was during the summer when I was about 6 years old (1918). There was a very big cyclone that struck just south and a little east of our place on the hill where Jacob L. Hartvigsen had a farm with a large barn and other buildings. Our parents had gone to Downey and left Eva and myself (Nellie) over to George Webb's place to play with Ellawease.

Eva, Mrytle, Nellie, Edna at the Grand Canyon in 1985

My Early Childhood Memories by Edna Anna Christiansen Nelson edited and typed from notes and family histories by Colleen Apgood.

My father, Moses Josephat Christiansen, was born in Hyrum, Utah on 21 January, 1875. He was the son of Lars Christiansen and his first wife (of a polygamist family), Ann Sophia Christine Rasmussen. Both were converts to the Latter Day Saints Church and immigrants to Utah from Denmark. My grandmother lived in Hyrum City, and Grandfather's second wife, Anna Dorthea Sorenson lived on the family farm west of Hyrum. My father lived on the farm most of the time, as he helped with chores and farming. He enjoyed the companionship and friendship with Peter Christiansen, a half brother from the second wife, who was born 28 July, 1877 in Hyrum. My father was the sixth child in a family of ten children who were all born in Hyrum to his first wife. From the second wife, Peter was the eldest of four children also born in Hyrum. Both families lived in the same area as they were growing up, and seemed to respect each other and called their father's other wife "Aunt." During his teens and early twenties, my father worked on various jobs on farms, cattle ranches in Northern Idaho, and logging in Bear Lake country. He also lived for a time in about 1895-96 at St. Joseph, Idaho where his older brother, Enoch, had a homestead. With his brothers, Jeremiah and Elias he helped build a home and sheds on Enoch's land.

As was customary in that time, homesteading was the usual procedure to get started in farming or ranching. Moses, with his brothers looked for a home site in the Duchesne Valley of Utah, in northern Idaho, and finally decided to settle in southeastern Idaho in the Cherry Creek area, which is about six miles southwest of Downey, Idaho. He and his brothers, Jeremiah and Elias each made claim to one hundred and sixty acres. From the Jeremiah Christiansen autobiography: "In the spring of 1896, I heard that the Uintah Reservation would be opened up for homesteading. My brother, Moses, and I made up our minds to go there and find out if we would like to homestead there. Some exciting experiences were ours on that trip. Our mode of travel was a covered wagon and a pair of horses to pull it. We traveled from Hyrum, through Brigham City, Ogden, Salt Lake City to Provo. From there we went east through Strawberry Valley and the Duchesne Country. We crossed many hollows and small rivers. The cedars stood higher that our covered wagon for miles and miles. At one time we lost our horses for days after we had turned them loose for the night. We finally found them with outlaw horses and separated them. Another time we ran into Indians, and we could not understand their language, and were scared, but as it turned out they were not hostile. When we met them it was night and darkness was upon us, and we were hundreds of miles from anywhere. We traveled for several days until we came to the Duchesne River. When we came to the banks, we received a prompting to examine the river before going in it. I only got a rod (about 16 1/2 feet) when the horse lost ground. I urged it on and swam across in the cold water. It was the first days of June but in that country spring had just started. The snow was melting that had brought the river to its height. I hunted for some time to find a better place to return to the other side where my brother was waiting. As it turned out, it was not any better. The water was foaming and rushing. I was worried the horse would miss the clearing, but luckily, it did not. In some time we were back where we started. The horse was exhausted, and I was wet to my armholes with no change of clothes. Moses and I built a fire with grasswood and sagebrush, and I dried the best I could. We rested during the night in the covered wagon. The next day we spent all day trying to find a more suitable place to cross the river, but in vain. We were forced to turn back to our home in Hyrum."

About the next year, 1897, these brothers along with their brother, Elias, met George Salveson, who had homesteaded in Marsh Valley, in southeastern Idaho. He told them there was more land available not far from where he had located and invited them to come and check it out for themselves. They were anxious and soon on their way. His homestead was about seventy miles north of Hyrum on the east side of Marsh Valley. He had told them the land was all claimed on that side of the valley, but there was plenty of land on the west side. Directly under the mountain, they found the soil was excellent, but thought there was not enough for the three of them as the land was fenced. The place was called "Cherry Creek" and two of them decided to file, staked out their claims, mapped the location and headed for Blackfoot, where the Land Office was located.

Now to quote again: "We traveled to Downey, Lava Hot Springs, Chesterfield, along the Blackfoot River to Blackfoot. At the Land Office we found out the land under the southwest mountains was not filed on, but it was

fenced. We were told if we desired, we were welcome to file on three adjoining homesteads, which, of course, we did. When we got back to our homesteads, our neighbors gave us plenty of discouragement and opposition. They had fenced most of our land for the purpose of grazing their livestock. When we told them we intended to raise wheat, they were sure we would starve to death in our undertaking. But we were not easily discouraged because we knew our father had successfully dry-farmed for many years in Hyrum. My brother, Moses, joined my homestead on the south and Elias on the north."

For the first summer the covered wagon was to be their living quarters while a dugout into the mountains served as stable and shelter for their horses. They worked very hard, having to go into the canyons located five or six miles west on the Malad Divide to get logs for their cabins. These were Pine and Balsam tree trunks, and they helped each other in the building of their cabins. For the roofs and floors they needed sawed wood, and had to go fifteen miles east to a sawmill where they could get the green pine sawed into lumber. The price for sawing was half of the lumber. The cabins were 14 feet by 14 feet as prescribed by law for homesteaders. When they were finished they put in their belongings and called it "HOME." Winter arrived early that first year as a big snowstorm came the end of October and brought their activities to an end, so they piled the hay they had bought from their neighbor, Charley Evans, in the cabins and headed for Hyrum to spend the winter with their folks. At home they worked for their parents and hauled ice for the Hyrum Plants.

Spring came early in 1898, so they all headed back to Marsh Valley. They gradually cleared more land and were blessed with rain in June and able to harvest "30 bushels to the acre." However, the fall grain was ruined because of the appetite of the squirrels and rabbits. When they first arrived in Marsh Valley, there were disputes with the settlers for the water rights. They were told they had "no right to use the water for themselves or for their animals", but there was no problem with the use of the land they are filed on. "The settlers in the vicinity where we were located were: The Charles Evans, the Edmund Webbs, the Owen Barnes, and the Rasmus Bloxhams. We tried not to work on Sundays, and when we could, went to church in Woodland, a community about five miles north of our homesteads. Henry Wakley was bishop of the Woodland Ward. We were told he had been a bodyguard of Joseph Smith. The people were friendly and made us welcome. We got acquainted with many more families including many young people. (Note: Mrs. John Walkey told the writer several times the girls were always happy when the Danish boys showed up. The socials and services were more interesting because those boys were more refined and wore Sunday clothes.)"

The neighbors soon became friends, and they visited them whenever they were able. Soon they were able to put in division fences. (Uncle Jerry tells of an incidence when the wire while he was fencing broke and the whole length of it ran through his palm and "Made sausage out of it", but he held it tightly with his right hand and ran to the Goehring home where Mrs. Goehring took care of it. She poured carbolic acid in the wound, which disinfected it and also cooked it. Then she bandaged it and it healed with only a small scar. (Later on Elias married Polly Goehring, a daughter of this neighbor on 18th November, 1898 in the Logan temple.) This information was from the autobiography of Jeremiah Josiah Christiansen, as written in the "LARS HANS CHRISTIANSEN FAMILY" book, and was written as it included some history of Moses Christiansen and his beginnings in the Cherry Creek area. My mother, Mary Hartvigsen, was a daughter of Johan Hagrup Hartvigsen and Maren Karoline Tomasen, both converts to the Mormon Church and emigrants to Utah. My maternal grandfather was born in Dahle, Kvaefjord, Troms, Norway on 26 September, 1851. My grandmother was also from Norway in Bogen, Kvaefjord, Troms on 15 July, 1848. They had one son, Joakim who was born in Norway 26 May, 1877. My mother, Mary Caroline arrived 19 July, 1882 when they were living in Hyrum, Utah. There were later three more children in their family - Hyrum Jacob on 20 March 1885, John Henry on 16 Nov., 1888, and Lester Edwin on 18 August, 1893. The two youngest died when they were very young. My Uncle Hyrum became a doctor and lived to his late nineties. In 1898, Neils J. Hartvigsen homesteaded in the Cherry Creek area near our Uncle Elias's land. As he was a good friend of my father, he tried to interest him in a girlfriend. His cousin, Mary, was visiting him and he introduced them. After meeting her, they courted for a time, and were married on 17 June, 1903. Later, in July of 1909, they went to the Logan Temple where they were sealed for time and all eternity, and at that time we three older children, Elvin, Myrtle, and I (Edna) were sealed to them. My mother was a pretty petite lady with

blue eyes and dark brown hair, while my father was a tall good looking man over six feet tall. They made a very handsome couple. To this union, six children were born - two sons and four daughters. It is interesting to note that my oldest brother, Elvin and myself had dark brown hair like our mother, while Myrtle had light brown hair, and Nellie was a redhead, then the two youngest Eva, and Johnnie both were blondes. Our family arrived within a few years and all were born in Cherry Creek, except me. I arrived on 26 June, 1908 while my mother was visiting relatives in Hyrum. Our birthdates were as follows:

CHRISTIANSEN, Moses Josephat 21 Jan, 1875 Died 5 Nov, 1946

HARTVIGSEN, Mary Caroline 19 July, 1881 Died 10 Apr, 1920

CHRISTIANSEN, Elvin Russel 15 April, 1904

CHRISTIANSEN, Myrtle May 14 Jan, 1906

CHRISTIANSEN, Edna Anna 26 June, 1908

CHRISTIANSEN, Nellie Rex 5 Feb, 1912

CHRISTIANSEN, Eva Ellenor 6 Oct, 1913

CHRISTIANSEN, Johnnie Modell 30 Mar, 1916

I was the third child of Moses and Mary Christiansen and the only one of their six children not born in Cherry Creek, as my mother was visiting in Hyrum when I arrived earlier than expected. I had an older brother, Elvin Russel, and an older sister, Myrtle May, then during the next few years Nellie Rex, Eva Ellenor, and Johnnie Modell arrived giving us a family of six children.

We had a good youth life in Cherry Creek, and wonderful parents. They were strict and taught us to be truthful and honest and set an example for us to follow. Our farm in Cherry Creek was bordered by mountains on the south and west. We belonged to the Woodland Ward which was about six miles north and most of the other settlers were also from the Hyrum area, and homesteaded there. Dad had a beautiful wheat farm, hay field, big vegetable garden, cattle, sheep and chickens. We eventually had a six room home with a part basement added. The house had two bedrooms upstairs, and an unfinished room we all called the "dark room" as it had no windows and only a little door in the north end. My dad kept a lot of telephones in there when he was "telephone man" for the area. Mother also stored sacks of rag balls there until she used them to make rugs. Downstairs, there was a large kitchen, dining room, parlor, bedroom and a screened porch. Later a cement basement was added to replace the dirt cellar, and a washroom was built over it. This had a "new fangled" washer operated by a belt from a motor in the basement. This was an improvement from the one we used to operate by hand. We all had taken our turn being its power supply. We also kept the milk separator in the washroom besides many other things we needed to store. Part of the house (I think the kitchen) was the folk's original home. Dad had built with the help of his brothers shortly after he made claim on the land. It had been built west of the creek on the hill and later moved down to a better

Children walking from the Cherry Creek School

location where additions were made as our family grew.

In the summer we could wade in Cherry Creek after the snow had melted on Oxford Peak. During this time we could pick chokecherries, wild gooseberries, currants and serviceberries. All kinds of wild flowers grew around us in the spring. First came the yellow curly tops, then sego lilies, rock lilies, bluebells, larkspur, Johnnie-Jump-Ups, and prickly pairs. As I remember life on the farm was fun, but also hard work. We had about twenty head of horses all the time, a herd of milk cows, some sheep, hogs and chickens. Most of our food was homegrown.

We very seldom went to town except when necessary to get supplies or see a dentist. Our dad could "cure" a toothache by putting a drop of carbolic acid in the cavity. Of course, it killed the tooth as well as the ache. We mostly used home remedies for all illnesses, especially castor oil or salts as Dad figured all illnesses came from the stomach or bowels. I guess it "kept us going" pretty well. Most of our shopping was done through Sears catalog, and in the summer a salesman from Baron Knitting Mills came around to all the farmers and took orders for sweaters, socks, blankets, underwear and such as was needed in those days. I especially remember some black wool underwear my dad wore over his winter garments when it was so cold since most of his work was outside.

A fruit peddler from Utah would come by each fall with peaches, pears, and other fruit and my mother would buy and can lots of fruit, jams, jellies for family use. Dad would butcher hogs in the fall and they would smoke the meat to preserve it for winter use, and we could always kill a big rooster for a special meal. I remember the mutton, too, but never liked it because of the greasy texture. We made our own butter, as everyone did at that time, but Elvin and I never used butter in those days. I remember that Elvin liked cream and sugar on a homemade piece of bread. I never liked milk or cream so had to just drink water and sometimes it was pretty dirty especially in the spring. Our dad built a cistern so the water could settle before it came to a tap in the house. Outdoor plumbing was the style for everyone then. We had a huge hay barn with an attached shed for the cows and horses and a place to milk the cows. I never learned to milk a cow but I could saddle a pony by standing on the manger. We all learned to ride a pony as we could go after the cows in the evening and take them to the pasture up in the canyon in the mornings. We also had a tool shed, chicken coop, a shed to protect the buggy and farm machinery and finally a place to keep our car in winter. Cars were not used in the winter after the snow came, then the sleighs came out for use. There were several wheat granaries on the farm too. One was log and the others were metal. My mother worked very hard but I never heard her complain. I never heard my folks quarrel so our home was peaceful. My mother had a hired girl to help her during the busy season as it was hard for any woman to do all the cooking and work for all the men that helped with the harvest.

Before the combine came into use, the wheat was cut and stacked and a big thrasher machine operated by a steam engine came around and did the thrashing bringing along a crew, and also a cook shack where someone did a lot of the cooking. A good woman cook followed and did the cooking for the crew. "Odd" Hartvigsen, my mother's cousin, usually owned and operated the thrasher. There are several happy memories and interesting incidents that come to my mind when recalling my "Cherry Creek Days." As I have said before, my mother sometimes had a hired girl as her helper as we were all too young to be of much help. Sometimes it was one of her cousins from Hyrum. Being much older than us, she would have dates now and then with the hired men. They would come home with a box of chocolates sometimes and treat us, then give us girls the pretty boxes, which we used to store our "treasures" in. I recall the time my dad decided to shave off his mustache. I stood by the washstand and felt so bad as I had never seen him without it. One time Elvin and I both had pneumonia at the same time. I was very sick with a high fever for days. It was winter and the only connection with a doctor was by telephone. When I was recuperating, my mother gave me a dish of stewed prunes and a slice of toast. I even got to sit in the "parlor" to eat it. Our parlor was only used on special occasions. It had a player piano, and Edison cylinder phonograph with a large horn, two pieces of overstuffed velvet furniture, a square table with a velvet brocade picture album on it, a hand-woven rag rug on the floor with straw underneath for padding, and lacy curtains on the windows. We thought it was an elegant room.

I was still rather weak that year by the 4th of July when all the neighbors and relatives at Cherry Creek got together

and went up the canyon in white topped buggies. Some were also on horseback. We would pick a nice grassy spot where the men could fish, then the women fried the fish, and the boys helped freeze homemade ice cream, and made lemonade from the creek stream. The little kids ran races, but I wasn't very strong so had to sit on a blanket and watch all the fun. Playing house and dressing up in our mother's clothes (when she was not home) were our favorite activities, but I guess we never got her clothes put away properly as she could always tell when we had used them. Summers were fun on the farm as our cousins who had moved to town for their older children to attend school came back after school was out in the summer to live while the crops were planted and harvested. The storms in Cherry Creek were sometimes disastrous and very frightening. One time we had winds with such velocity that the cook shack was taken up in the air and dishes, utensils and pans and pieces of the shack were scattered all over the area. We picked up tin dishes for a long time. One time we had a hail and lightening storm that completely wiped out the wheat crop that was being harvested. It had been an exceptionally good crop. The lightening would come down the chimney onto the old cook stove and out the oven door. This particular time blackness came over and the hail washed out the creek above our house destroying everything in it's path. Our crop was a total loss and had to be used for feed for the cattle. One bright event was that the crew got busy, gathered up the hail and made a freezer of home made ice cream. That cheered everyone up a little.

I was always so frightened when it stormed that I would often hide in the closet behind a 100 pound sack of sugar until it let up. We had several narrow escapes of our house almost going up in flames when the lightening was so violent. We went to school in District 62. At first the home of Uncle Peter Christiansen was used as a school as he had moved to a home in Downey. When I started school we had a new one room building. I attended school in Cherry Creek for my first four years.

The school house was a good mile from our house. In bad weather Dad would take us in the sleigh, but sometimes the snow was so deep that the horses could not pull it through the drifts. We could walk over the crusted snow which was higher than the fences through Uncle Jerry's fields. Sometimes they had to let school out as many of the students lived further from the school than we did. Our school had forty-two students, eight grades, and only one teacher. Many were so ignorant to them that they would quit midyear and they would have to hire another one. Dad was chairman of the board, so they would have to come to him to resign, I got good grades and never gave the teacher any problems. I was a shy girl and always afraid to answer oral questions. I probably could have done better if I had been a little more outspoken. My cousin, Alice Hartvigsen, and Rhoda Evans were my favorite friends at school. We used to spend a lot of time on a little green grassy spot near the creek where it ran through the school year playing "for girls only" marbles or Mumbly-peg, a pocket knife game.

The school house in Downey

The following is the talk and life sketch given by Izola Vincent at the funeral of her mother, Myrtle Jensen which took place on January 27, 1994 at West Valley Utah.

Our mother Myrtle Mary Christiansen Jensen was born Jan. 14, 1906 in Cherry, Creek, Idaho which is about 6 miles S/W of Downey. Idaho. Her early life was spent on the farm with her parents and brothers and sisters. Her first schooling was in a one room school house for all grades.

I recall Mother telling how during the winters when there was deep snow that her brother Elvin would go first to make a foot path for the others as they went to school stepping in his footsteps. Mother loved riding horses, playing baseball and basketball. She considered herself quite a tom boy as a young girl. She spoke fondly of her early life on the farm in Cherry Creek and how much she knew her parents loved their children. In 1919 her parents purchased a home in Downey so the children could have a better opportunity for an education. Just a year later in 1920 tragedy struck when her mother passed away from pneumonia. Mother was 14 years old at the time and the oldest girl with I older brother. She became mother to her brothers and sisters for many years. She talked about how she had her chores each morning to do as well as getting her three younger sisters hair combed and ready before leaving for school. Mother talked about how much fun she had with her brothers and sisters and how she loved school and her many friends. Mother talked about how most of the things they purchased were done through the [Sears] Catalog, and how much they enjoyed looking through it and dreaming of all the wonderful things it contained.

Mother courted Dad while he was attending the Tech in Pocatello, Idaho. When they decided to marry and had set the date her father drove her to Salt Lake and dropped her off at the Salt Lake Temple where she met Dad and they were married July 1, 1927 with no other family present. Short of a year later their union was blessed with a son, LaMarr. Soon the family increased when Marlene came then myself and Audrey followed by Ronald, Carval, Calvin and then after she had become a grandmother of 5 she had her youngest son Kevin who was born 4 months after her 50th birthday. It made a span of 28 years from her oldest to youngest. She was a hard worker all her life working to do everything she could to see her children had the necessities and comforts of life. Seldom did she complain. She was not only a mother to her children but to many throughout her life. All through her married years there were others that lived with her and Dad. Dad's younger sister lived with them for a long time as did many other family members. Calvin and his three older children lived with mother and dad for some time, mother being the care taker of the children. She provided kind, loving care to each of them, sewing cooking and doing all she could to make it easier for them. She continued to worry and pray for them when they left to join a special union with their new Mother, who took them in and loved them as her very own. Mother helped each of us to the best of her abilities (which were many) to achieve our goals in life. The many hours she tireless spent in reading for us or with us in doing homework, the guidance we received as we learned the art of sewing, cooking skills, playing ball with us, taking us shopping (it seemed a constant weekly excursion to take one child at a time for new shoes), and an ice cream or soda often followed. She was always taking care of our daily needs, not worrying about her own needs. She taught us through her example the great art of compassion that she had for everyone. Mother loved the out of doors and being short of money, she so often had a picnic ready when Dad came home from work and we would go to Liberty Park or the canyons for dinner and a game of baseball.

Mother wanted and kept a clean and tidy home and taught us the necessary skills to accomplish it. I well remember the day I was to clean our bedroom. Stubbornly I did what I thought to be a A+ job. When she came for inspection she looked around, then bent down, ran her finger along the baseboards and just looked at me and then her finger. Yes, I did the baseboards to meet her approval. Surprisingly my own daughters tell me when they routinely clean their baseboards.

Reading in her diary she tells of a time when she had taken Dad to work and brought the car home. Later that day Dad called her and ask her to bring the car to town and leave it at a certain place so he would have it to

come home in as he would be working a little later than usual. She did as asked, taking the bus home. When Dad arrived home from work, he came on the bus, forgetting he had asked Mom to bring him the car then quickly blamed Mom for leaving the car in town. With money being very tight Mother found it necessary to work outside the home to be able to have a few things around the house. In 1942 and 43 she worked most evenings and some afternoons at American Linen running the big ironing presses. Then wanting to be home more she decided to take in boarders. This necessitated doubling up and sharing bedrooms with more than two brothers or sisters some of the time. We had a father and son live with us for quite a while, then a mother and daughter then several sets of boys attending the University of Utah. Having only one bathroom it was a constant juggling act to even find a few minutes when it was free. I frequently took my bath and washed my hair in the middle of the night. Mother prepared wonderful meals for the boarders and I think that what little she made with them there was always spent on groceries.

Mother was a wonderful seamstress, her talented hands always busy making darling dresses for us girls as well as shirts, coats, pants, little suits for the boys and the many costumes she made for the various plays, activities, Halloween, dance programs and so forth. She did beautiful handwork, whether it be embroidery, crochet or quilting. There are many who this very day are enjoying a quilt made by her. Just 2 months ago she finished tying a quilt and beautifully finishing the edge. Mother loved bowling and bowled in a league for many years even at the age of 82. Mom and Dad belonged to a study group for more than 50 years. Most of which have now passed away. She loved to travel and she and Dad went on vacations every year where Mother collected souvenir plates which she displayed around her-family room and elsewhere in her home. Mother loved her sisters dearly and for many years they took a vacation together, usually traveling to California where the youngest sister lived. At first Mother drove the car, then they used the train and graduated to air travel. Even this last year they all gathered together in Idaho and Salt Lake and enjoyed each other. Mother was a Visiting Teacher for over 50 years and was a Visiting Teacher Supervisor at the time of her death. She was a member of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers and loved the meetings. Mother also taught Primary when we were little and later worked in the Relief Society mostly, with the Homemaking, always being a leader when it came to sewing and quilting.

Mother made the best chocolate cake ever. We all looked forward to a piece when she baked one. Also one of the meals I remember a lot was when she would serve pigs in blankets with Liptons chicken noodle soup with potatoes added. I always made it the same way and one of our daughters ask me why I always put potatoes in the soup and I told her because my mother did. She then asked her grandmother why she did it and Mom told her is was because the soup was too salty and the potatoes absorbed some of it. Also I remember how our children loved going to grandma's when they lived on 11th East. They thought she lived in a castle and thought it was so much fun to slide down the cloths chute, one of two stories and land in the pile of cloths. They also loved sitting under the quilts being done and playing house or princess. It was fun for them to have an Uncle that was so close to their age. They often called him their little Uncle.

Mother being a choice daughter of our Heavenly Father accepted the challenge and responsibility she knew would be hers while serving her probation in mortality. Mother was a special lady, a champion among women. I believe that during her life with each gift of love she gave she was mixing the mortar and cementing the stairway that lead her back to her Heavenly Father. I know with no doubt that she was met with open arms by her Mother who for so many years she longed to see and by many family members there waiting for her.

Those we hold most dear never truly leave us. They live on in the kindness they showed, the comfort they shared and the love they brought into our lives.

We will all miss mother and her many talents. But they will all live on with us and her posterity.

The following is a transcript of a video tape interview of Edna Nelson that was done on December 19, 1989. B. Nelson, her grandson conducted the interview.

Bert: Start from the beginning, where were you born?

Edna: I was born in Hyrum, Utah on June 26, 1908. I just lived there for a little while until my mother was strong enough to take me home, because they lived on the farm in Cherry Creek. She was just down there visiting when I was born. I came a little quick. I was born in my grandmother's rock house down there. I have never seen the place, it was burned down years ago, so I never did get to see it. But then we lived up in Cherry Creek out south of Downey on a farm and my mother's name was Mary Hartvigsen and by dad's name was Moses Christiansen. I was the third child of the family. Myrtle was two years older and Elvin was about two years older than Myrtle, I was the third one. We lived up there on the farm. When we were little, when I was only about a year old, my parents went to the temple in Logan. They had never been sealed in the temple and they stayed in Hyrum and visited. My grandmother, I don't know how they did that in those days, she had a sofa pillow with our picture on it, us three kids. I remember it on her sofa there and I have thought about that because they are doing that kind of work nowadays a lot. A photograph of us on that...in color, on a sofa pillow. Well, anyway, most of my life was spent on the farm until I was 12 years old, 11 1/2 or 12, and we had...oh, we had a few conveniences. Dad tried to fix up things so we had a washer with a motor on it so my mother wouldn't have it so hard. In the earlier part, oh we had one of these hand washers you had to push back and forth. We had to churn butter and my dad had cows to milk, so we just had our own milk, cream and butter and of course he raised animals...he had quite a head of horses...about 16 head. It took about that many to run a combine in those days. Get out and run the combine.

Bert: Did you help out a lot with the chores and what not..around the?

Edna: No. We helped in the house but I didn't go out and do any barn work. I never learned to milk a cow. I was scared to death of a cow. I learned to ride a pony. We had saddle horses so we could ride and we played together and got along. Only thing, Elvin was the big tease. And he would make us kids bawl so much and then we'd get paddled for it.

Bert: Well, what was one of the...can you remember any of the things...

Edna: Oh, I don't know what he was teasing us about, but he would just torment us enough so we would bawl and make our dad mad and he'd paddle us and our mother...oh, you know, she just cooked everything. We had the thrashers there and my mother always had a hired girl in the summer. They would bring up one of her cousins or somebody from down in Hyrum. That was the way the girls did in those days. They would go out and do housekeeping work because girls weren't trained to do anything else. Her cousins and relatives...one of them would come up and we always had in the summer, a hired girl. My mother couldn't do all that work and she wasn't...she was a frail lady. And to cook all those meals for the thrashers, and everything, it was really a job.

Bert: What are thrashers?

Edna: They'd cut the wheat. We had a big wheat farm and they'd cut the wheat and put it in a stack and then a great big thrasher machine with a big...great big engine on it...used to scare me to death..it belonged to Art Hartvigsen. He would go around and do commercial work and come up in our place and he would get that big belt on there and get that thrasher going and they would throw the wheat in there. It was run by this big machine.

Bert: And it would...what...separate?

Edna: Separate the wheat and somebody had to be there. It took quite a crew. Somebody would throw the wheat...the straw into be thrashed. It was a big machine that it run. Looked like a big thrasher. And they would throw it in there and somebody had to be there...they had a place where it would come out of a spout and then they would sack it and usually sew the top of the sacks. If they had more than they could get sacked, well, they would haul it up and put it in the granary. They had a big steel bin and several granaries on the farm and we had a big barn on our farm.

Bert: How big was the farm, can you

remember?

Edna: Oh, it was 360 acres of wheat that we would put in every other year. They had the summer fallow up and put part of it in at a time. In those days they didn't have the commercial fertilizer and stuff to build the soil so they had to lay it over. So they would plant half of the farm one year and half the next. But he always had to

have help and we got combine that was pulled by horses, so we didn't have to have this big machine come in. That way it would do all the work and our farm...part of it was quite sidling and hilly and that was kind of hard to get around. But us kids had plenty to do around. We...girls in those days played house and played dolls. We had our dolls and when my brother, John, was a little baby we took him and dressed him up and put him in the doll buggy and we would...or else we would dress up a cat and put it in the doll buggy. We were all housekeepers. But we helped our mother, we washed dishes. We had some aprons made out of oil cloth we would have to put on over our dress. That was my dad's idea. We would get that on and stand on a chair and they would get the hot water in the pan. They had to heat it over on the stove, you know, and bring the tea kettle over and pour it in the big dish pan for us to wash the dishes. I can't remember if we ever rinsed them or not. But we washed them and we had to use that awful homemade soap, made out of lye and lard and stuff.

Bert: You used to make that?

Edna: Yeah. Our mother always had to make a big batch of that soap every summer. They would cook it outside. They would have an old tub outside and then put some rocks down there and build a fire in it and cook that and we would go out and help stir it. Oh, they'd mix lye and scraps of grease from butchering pigs. They would mix that together and that made our soap. We didn't use it for hand soap, but I guess we had some other kind, but we used that and oh, let's see...we would...

Bert: What were some of the things you would do for entertainment when you were on the farm?

Edna: Well, we mostly made our own entertainment, like those games..like kick the can... like mumbly peg. I don't know if anybody knows how to play that in these days. I have taught some of it to some of my grand-kids. You play it with a pocket knife and...you tip it over into the grass and you get so many points. A lot of kids don't know how to play that. But I have taught some of the grand-kids how to play it. You have to do it to show you how.

Bert: What about playing ball. Tell me how you would get...

Edna: We would get a ball...we had to make our own ball out of wool socks when they were old and couldn't be mended any more, why would take and wind them. Start out with a little ball, an old piece of paper in the middle or something and then just keep winding until we got a ball about the size of a baseball. One thing about it, if it hit you it didn't hurt very bad. Myrtle, she was a real good ball player and the boys around the neighborhood that lived out there on the farm, they would come there...I didn't play it so much, I watched. They would come over there to play ball with Elvin and Myrtle. Myrtle, she was a regular tom boy and she could really play just as well as those boys. And we had a dog, a black dog named Watch. And it was born about the same time as Elvin was. It was born in an old badger hole, my dad said. And it just came....he found it and brought it home and we called it Watch. It was just...it would play ball with the kids and it would jump to catch the ball and one day it caught it's tooth in Myrtle's forehead and cut her so she always got hurt. Then we had...you know...we got to sleigh ride a lot and all living up there. Dad made us some sleighs out of some old wood and put a piece of steel underneath for a runner and all and we could go way up on the hillside and come down and once dad took and tied...fastened about three sleighs together and we went way up in the field a couple of miles and we came down riding that. He lost most of us on the way, it was going so fast. But we...you know...in those days people made their own entertainment, their own things. They didn't have a real school house up there, but my Uncle Peter moved to town and so they took his house and took some of the partitions out and made a big nice school room because they had about 40 kids up there. That's where they had school. They had the school desks and things, books and blackboards. They fixed it up. That was the first school I know of that was up there.

Bert: How old were you?

Edna: I didn't go to it because I wasn't old enough yet. This was before I was old enough. I went over and visited school, Myrtle took me over once. But when I started school they had a new school house and it was down on the creek and about a mile from our house, and we had 42 kids in there...all eight grades...one teacher. Most of the teachers they had were from back east somewhere...or in Kansas and in that area and not...

Bert: Why is that?

Edna: I don't know why. There was one teacher that we had that was from Utah, Floyd Hyde, he was kind of a distant relative somehow there and they had him in there for a teacher and he was sitting there with his feet up on the desk reading a story to us once, and the county superintendent walked in and my dad was chairman of the board, and she went to him and made him fire Floyd Hyde. Then we had other teachers there that couldn't

handle the kids. You can't imagine how big the boys were, those that were in the eighth grade. To me they were just men. When I started school in that new school house that was my first grade and we just...it was just really rough kids, you just had to watch out. Of course I had our brother...we had our brother that they didn't bother us girls. Some of the girls they got..yanked their aprons or something...tear their apron. Everybody wore an apron over the top of their dress, because you only had one school dress. You had to wear the same dress all year... all school year and you just had an apron on it. We would take our lunch in a dinner bucket. Elvin says he will never forget that I always had syrup on my bread and by the time we would get ready to eat it, it was all soaked up. We had a big potbelly stove in school room. In the winter when we would get there we would be ringing wet and we wore leggings over our socks and we had boots on we would have to take them off and we would have to hang them all over the school room to get them dry so we could have them to go home, because they were just covered with snow...we wallered through the snow all the way to get there. There wasn't a road, not unless somebody come down in a sleigh. Once in a while some of them that lived farther away would come in a sleigh and we would meet them about half way and they would let us ride with them. But if the winter was real cold...we had a real cold spell and then a thaw and a freeze, we could walk on top of the snow and we could cut through from our house and go through my Uncle Jerry's land and come down to the schoolhouse. So that's the way the school was there, when we lived up there and then it got so the bigger boys had to go to college [she meant high school] so the people started to move into Downey so that their kids could get into high school. Elvin went down one year before we moved and stayed with my Uncle Pete...that's my dad's half brother... and stayed with him and went to high school. But they couldn't go to high school until after the farm crops were in so they didn't start school...they didn't get to go a full year. They had to leave in the spring and go back and help on the farm. But they got credit for a year in school. They weren't like they are now, you have to have so many hours of this and that. When we moved to Downey, the second year that Elvin was in high school and had...we moved in about November the 5th, we moved down there and I was in the fifth grade and ...while I lived on the farm, I meant to tell you...I got pneumonia real bad and I had forgotten about. I guess I almost died it was so bad. It was pleurisy pneumonia and I didn't know anything for days and days, just out...such a high fever. In those days the doctor couldn't get out there and we couldn't get to a doctor, and they would just talk to him on the phone and what they...their remedy was mustard plasters and castor oil. I guess I got plenty of them, but I don't remember much of it because I was out of my head so much. I remember I got to sleep in my mother's bed downstairs instead of upstairs in the bedroom. I guess I was clear to the fourth of July, I couldn't even walk without help, I was so weak. We went up the canyon. Everybody there in the community up there would go up the canyon and have a...the men would go fishing and the women and kids would make homemade ice cream and the mothers would have it ready and they would churn the ice cream and they would have a fish dinner and there was four or five families that would meet on the creek. It was called Neilson's crossing. It went up to Neils Hartvig's place. The men would drag in plenty of fish and we went up there in a buggy and I remember that they lifted me out of the buggy and laid me on a blanket on the ground and here I was 7 or 8 years old, I guess, and I was still too weak to play up there. They were playing all kinds of games and races but I couldn't get in on that. But anyway, after we moved to town we moved in November, as I told you and it took us while to get used to going. When we moved down there, I don't know if they all got sick or not, but I did. Every time I would go from the farm down to Downey, down town, I would get a sore throat and would get sick. So I was home sick for a week or something before I could start school. So when I got in school...I met a lot of the kids...I was kind of a backwards girl and everybody looked different to me down there. Some of my friends had already moved, so that helped out and we went there to school. Then in April after we had moved, then my mother died. She got pneumonia and died and there were all six of us kids.

Bert: Tell me a little bit about your mother. Let's back track a little bit. What kind of a person was she from what you remember?

Edna: Oh she was not too large a person. She was only about 5'2". She had blue eyes and brown hair and she was a real hard worker. She could sew anything. She had an old sewing machine, a Singer sewing machine. She could sew and she could cook things, but she had to have help at times when you had to much to do because her health had been kind of bad. That was kind of hard work for her. So we just ...after..when we moved to town. She wanted to move to town so bad for so long..she coaxed dad to move to town...let's move to town. Everybody else is going, let's us move. But dad just couldn't get around to doing it. Finally he decided he

would have to because the kids were soon going to be in high school, you know, the older ones. So when he went to town and he bought this house from the banker, Kopeck, his name was and he bought it for $3,000.00 and it was about a 6 or 7 room house and it's the first time we had ever had a house with a bath tub and running water and all of these conveniences in, and there were quite a few lots there because there was a big barn on it and there was a garage and there was a garden spot and a raspberry patch.

Bert: What did you think of all these modern conveniences?

Edna: Well, I really like them. I remember at Christmas my dad gave my mother an electric iron, but she didn't use it because we were using the stove to heat water and on anyway all the time and to help heat the house. We had a furnace in the house. So she was economical and she just wanted to use her old flat iron that they had, that you would put on there and she hadn't ever used it before she died. It was still in the box. She was just being careful, not running up any electricity if she didn't have to.

Bert: How hard was that on the family, when your mother died?

Edna: Well, I know it was hard on all of us, but we...and awful hard on dad. Dad was only in his forties when our mother died and she was 38. So you see, that would be awful hard on us. Of course we had some aunts and uncles around there that kind of brought things home. Dad got housekeepers right away, had somebody...our mother's half sister was there from Ogden and she stayed for three or four months, because she took the place of our mother. I remember when he took her to the train, we all followed her up there, crying you know, because she was leaving us and trying to get dad to marry her and she was engaged to marry a guy down in Ogden. So we had to let her go and then we had different other housekeepers. There was Kerri Evans, she was a divorced woman from out at the farm, that lived out there.

Bert: Now, was she more of a housekeeper or did she mother you a little bit?

Edna: Oh, she had to do the cooking and everything, see we weren't very big. I was only...I was just 11 and Myrtle was about 13 and Elvin was 15, in high school.

Bert: But I mean, was she like a mother to you, or anything like that?

Edna: Oh, not really. She had an awful temper and her daughter Rhoda was my age and she had to come there and live too. And her son Carl. And I don't know where we ever slept, all of us, that many. And if she would get mad at Rhoda, she didn't do it to us, she would take the broom at her and hammer and hammer with that broom. Dad fired her, she didn't stay too long. I can't remember some of the other housekeepers that came there, then my ... then LaVina Rose came there. LaVina Murray. She had been a Rose and she was married and had a boy and she came there and stayed and then a few years later she and dad got married and that didn't work very good. She wasn't really a mother. We learned a lot from her. She was a good housekeeper and she was a good seamstress. She taught me a lot about sewing. I loved to sew and I used to..in the summer when school was out...I would make Myrtle and Eva and myself, I would make us two dresses for school, petticoat and panties and everything for school to start in the fall. And that would be put in the trunk in the basement until school started, in the fall. So I learned a lot and she directed me and helped me on all that. And it was just kind of a natural talent for me to sew. So I could get to do that and.

Bert: Let's talk about when you went to high school?

Edna: Well, I enjoyed high school. I made all my own clothes that I wore to high school, and I took all the sewing and cooking classes that they would let me take in high school, because that's what I liked. They was good to let me take the sewing class for the whole four years. I learned a lot of things in the cooking classes that I wouldn't of learned there. I had a lot of good friends. We had quite a crowd of us, of boys and girls that chased around together and came to the dances together, went to the movies together, but we didn't date. We was just in high school. What else...I went to every school dance that they had. Besides the dances down in Hyde's Hall. Downtown they had a dance every Saturday night in Hyde's Hall. It was up above the first store that was ever built in town for a store. It's still there. By this time, some times we were getting a date once in a while to go over to dance. Sometimes we would just go to the dance and get a date to go home with. Somebody to walk us home, we didn't have cars.

Bert: Tell me about, can you remember your first date.

Edna: Oh, when I graduated from eighth grade there was a boy named Alcott Sessions and he walked me home from the eighth grade exercises and he gave me a hanky and a little bottle of perfume. He was in my class but that's all I knew about him. He was just a friend in our class. I never went with him or anything. We were just

eighth graders, but I thought that was kind of cute of him...

Bert: When was your first date when a guy...

Edna: Took me out on a date?

Bert: Yeah, just all alone, it wasn't with the gang or anything, it was just you and him. Can you remember?

Edna: I can't remember that kind of a date. We always went in groups. We didn't very often, because you know we had to walk. We didn't have any boyfriends that had a car. When I started going with...how I met Dad, I was to a...my cousin Dora, that was my stepmother's niece, she had a date with the a guy from Arimo, this Clifford Evans that Dad was talking about, and she said that he had a friend and she wondered if I would be his blind date. So, I said I would. I had to go to the dance. We didn't go to the dance with anybody. He came and I met him at the dance. He didn't come and get me or anything. We met at the dance and they said, oh this dance is kind of boring. Let's go down to Swan Lake and it was in the dead of winter. Let's go down to Swan Lake to the dance. They were having a dance down there. And that was about, golly, how far from Downey to Swan Lake. Anyway he had this car...I can't remember what it was that Dad was telling about...and we went and got in that and there was just one seat so I had to sit on his lap and Dora in the middle and this guy crowded over there and we got stuck. So many times they just had old tires and no chains on them. Well they had some kind of chains anyway and they would keep breaking and they would have to keep stopping and wiring them up. We finally got down there and the dance was out. There was a store down there, the Thomas Mercantile...it's still there. They stopped there, went in there and they got the guy to help wire their chains together good enough to get back home. Oh, the snow was a foot deep or so, no snowplows or anything in those days and we finally got back home and I don't know, Dad said it was about 2:00, which it probably was. That's my first date...when I went with a guy, I didn't kiss him and he didn't kiss me.

Bert: What were your impressions of Grandpa on that first date.

Edna: Oh, I liked him. I had seen him up at Arimo to conference once and I didn't ever meet him or anything, but all the girls were crowded around him talking to him out there, when conference was out.

Bert: Sounds like he was quite a playboy or something.

Edna: And he was dressed, I'll tell you. He had these lace up boots to here and his pretty pants on, and a cap. Always had a cap on, and I thought, gee, I would sure like to meet him. That was the first time I had ever seen him until he come and he was my date, well it was great.

Bert: How did he act on that first date? Was he real shy?

Edna: Well, he was kind of shy and so was I. I had to sit on his lap and that was awful. I had never sat on a guy's lap before. Sat on his lap and he had a girl he was going with in Arimo and had...and we went out a few times. He would come in his uncle's car and come up to Downey and pick me up and take me to Arimo to dances once in a while and then he would come up. Lots of times he came on the train and he would have to go home on the train. There were enough passenger trains going there would be one in the evening then one about one o'clock at night and he could catch that and go home. So this girl..he had her ring or something and he put it on my finger, let me wear that ring. And she heard about it and she wrote me a letter and wanted that ring immediately. I didn't know whose it was. I had never heard of it. Anyway she...I mailed it to her. I didn't want her ring to wear. I don't know she married a school teacher somewhere, Dad says. We went together until he left school in the spring, when school was out, but I didn't see too much of him after he went to Weston. They were having a dance down there, and he wrote and ... or called me or wrote, I don't know, and asked me if I could come down to that dance. And I asked Dad and he said sure, you can go down there. But he never said how I was going to get there. So it come time for that dance and Dad had gone off to the farm and he didn't give me any money and when I went to the post office that day, why, we had some Utah Power & Light stock Dad had bought for us with some money that my mother would have inherited from someone and he bought us kids stock with it. And there was my $1.75 interest, and so I cashed that and I went got ready and I was happy. I went down on the train and I went to the dance down there and Norman's mother didn't think I ought to stay over at there house, they didn't have it nice enough and all this and that. She didn't want me to come over there. I went to the house and met her and then we went to the dance. So he got me a room up in a hotel, an old hotel there in Weston. Only hotel they ever had. And I stayed up the house kind of scared to be up there alone in there. I stayed up there and then next day he took me home on the train. We went back on the train, then I didn't see him too much until he when he started teaching down in Swan Lake, see he went from there to teaching in Swan

Lake and I went to Salt Lake because I was going to go to school. Packed my trunk and I was going to stay at Myrtle's and go to school. I hadn't even got registered to go to school or anything...I was going to go to that LDS Business College, we just got to writing back and forth and decided to get married. So we didn't tell anybody and he came down there from Swan Lake down to Salt Lake on the train and it was a Saturday when there wasn't school, you know, and we went down to the courthouse and got married. We went and bought a ring and paid $15.00 for it and we must of got a license somewhere. I can't remember that part. But we went to the courthouse, so it must now of been a Saturday, anyway. Then we went to Myrtle's house and stayed that night and then we went back on the train to Swan Lake and shocked everybody that we were married and they went up to Downey...my friends had a shower for me at our house. LaVina let them have a shower and I think she even made me a quilt and the girls gave me some gifts. Then in those days they always wanted to shivery you, you know. They would take the guy one direction and the girl another and make them try to get home.

Bert: What do you mean, just take them out in the country somewhere?

Edna: Well, yeah. And they took. The guys took dad or some of them, there was quite a crowd of them and they took him to Swan Lake and left him. They took me up north of town, oh somebody by the name Dewey's place up there and they were going to let me out, and I said I don't have anyway to get back. I just begged at them so they took me back to Downey. You can't leave me here. And so they took me back to town. That's the way they always did.

Bert: That was just a thing they did at that time?

Edna: Oh, yes. It was called a shivery.

Bert: Sound's like punishment to me.

Edna: Yeah. It was like initiation.

Bert: So did Grandpa ever propose to you or anything or was it just through letters and that?

Edna: Oh, we just got talking through letters mostly. He didn't get on his bended knees. We had talked about getting married before he went to Swan Lake and then when Dad wanted me to go to Salt Lake and go to school, why then I didn't say much, I didn't tell anybody. I didn't even tell Dad until after I was married.

Bert: Well, what did your dad thing of all this. My gosh it must have been kind of a surprise for him.

Edna: Well, I guess it was a surprise for him. When I told him he came down to Swan Lake and met Norman's mother, you know. And he was...you just did all right, that's a wonderful family and you've just got a good mother now. And just thought the world of Aunt Annie, you know. So then Dad taught school there and then Colleen was born the next year in Weston...or no, I went back to Salt Lake when Colleen was born. Stayed with Myrtle and at the hospital there. Myrtle couldn't go with me. She was going to have a baby of her own in a few months. So we stayed down there until I could come home and come back up...so big, and all this and that and the other, and got to have rings and things. I didn't care about any of that. I just had him and then I got my little girl and she was just like my doll, you know. I made her the cutest dresses and embroidered them and fixed them and then I did have trouble when Norma come though.

Bert: Now, you were telling me about that one time. What was it, was it from the delivery you said he wasn't clean or...

Edna: Well, he forced the birth. He forced ...I never remember her being born. He gave me a shot of some kind and when he come I was scrubbing the kitchen floor. We had called him and told him that I had some labor pains and he came right up and he didn't wait to check...

Bert: You were scrubbing the floor when you were in labor pains?

Edna: I was scrubbing the kitchen floor when he came. And he had me get washed up and get right to bed and gave me shots and I always brag to the other girls who haven't had there's nothing to it...nothing. It's easy you know, no pain, nothing. But he give me something and when Norma was born...when I came to he was putting his coat on to go home...to to...and Dad had just given him the check for $30.00, that's what they charged, and he was ready to leave.

Bert: So, what were you saying how important that you work things out. You have been married, what, 63 years now?

Edna: 62 I think.

Bert: 62.

Edna: 62 or 63, I have to look it up .

Bert: You were talking a little while ago how important it was to work it out, why don't you talk a little bit about that?

Edna: Well, I think another thing too, I haven't mentioned that we both worked in the church. We never turned a job down, we worked in the church when we could. I worked in the Primary and I've worked in the Sunday School, and I have been on the Stake Sunday School Board in Aberdeen and I have been in the Relief Society for many, many years as a visiting teacher and I have been in the presidency of the Relief Society in Parma and I've...we've always worked in the church and I think that this is one thing that has helped pull us through and always think of each other, the things we have learned in this. I think having the priesthood in our home has been wonderful and we have accepted and it saved my life many times. The priest, because I have had a lot of good blessings, and I think that we have always thought of each other and tried to be kind to each and never tried to bawl each other out or anything like that, just tried to be kind and say nice things to each other.

Bert: You told me, Grandpa never told you a bad word to you...

Edna: Grandpa has never said a bad word to me. He has never bawled me out, he has never criticized me. If I don't get things done just right, that I don't thinks right like burn the bread or burning the roast, he says that's just the way I like it. He's always done that. He's never criticized me for anything like that. And I have tried to be good like that with him and I think that helps an awful lot in a...and I hope that my kids to treat their husbands and wives kind and good. And I think a lot of them do in the family. I don't think they have problems. Some of them have but they haven't ...we've tried to help them but hope that they do the right things. You don't want to leave this world and regret this and regret that. I wish I had done this, I wish I had done that. Try and do those things when they're here. Because one of us or the other is going to go first and we don't want to be thinking that way. We have just got to think of the good things that happened, not of the sad things, just the good things we tried to do for each other. I don't know of anything else. Got my family out, I just hope they all stay faithful in the church. That church is the big thing back of all of it.

Bert: What about your testimony of the church?

Edna: Well, I have a testimony of the church, I know it's true and I've always known and I have had a lot of reasons to because I have had a lot of sickness and help and I know it is through the church and the power of the priesthood and that we believe in the church and always have since I was old enough to work in the church and learn about it. I didn't have one when I was little girl, anything like that, because we didn't go to church too much then. We lived too far away and couldn't go to church, but I did go when we were in Downey, we went to church. We did have very good examples set for us, because my dad didn't go and I don't think my stepmother went much. But when my father and mother were alive, why they went all the time and took us kids, when they could, but you couldn't go in the winter. You just had to go in the summer, because it was too far, to get in a sleigh go that far. I don't know, it just seems like a testimony grows in you, in your family, you know, the way live and the jobs that you do and the things we have learned in Relief Society and Sacrament Meeting and all these things I think, helps build your testimony. I know this church is true, I just know, I know I am alive, that it is and I hope that all my family does.

The following is a collection of stories written by John Christiansen concerning John's brother-in-law,

Norman Nelson. These stories were written in March of 1995.

As I was growing up in Downey, Idaho in the 1920's I was the youngest of a family of six children. Some of us were born in Cherry Creek on our parents (Moses, and Mary Hartvigsen) homestead located seven miles southwest of Downey, Idaho. They had homesteaded there in 1897.

In the fall of 1919 the family moved into Downey on north main street with modern bathrooms, hot and cold running water, electricity, and lights. Our mother fell through an open stairway and injured herself -- dying a few days later leaving our Dad (Mose) with six Children. Elvin was 16 and I was 4 years old with four sisters between us. Our dad remarried a widow from Wellsville, Utah with a son age 6 in 1922. In 1924 our half sister Merle was born. Our step mother did not like us children and dad and her had problems throughout his life. Dad died on November 5, 1946 and our step mother died two weeks later.

Elvin and Myrtle both married and left home in 1927. I was told that my sister, Edna had met a wonderful guy -- his name was Norman Nelson. It think they met at a dance. I believe Norman was teaching school at Ron in a small school west of Arimo, Idaho. After Edna and Norman were married I soon visited them at their various homes as Norman taught school at various schools. His home had been in Weston - 4 miles west of Preston, Idaho where he was living with his "mother" [mother to Norman was his aunt, Annie Olsen since his mother died when he was a baby].

I have visited Norman and Edna lots of times in their lifetime. Norman was a very congenial guy and had a pleasant personality. Once while they were living in Weston he said he had a good looking girl that he wanted me to meet. I was in High School in Downey. I was scared of girls at this time in my life, so I just said "maybe" - end of romance.

As time went by I remember when Norman's boy, Keith got spinal meningitis and he asked Elvin and I to come to the Preston hospital to give blood. Later on through the years Norman would come up help us in the summer with the grain harvest. Norman at first would be the sacker on the combine, and later hauled the grain to the elevator. Elvin would be the tractor driver and I was the platform operator. I remember one particular time we were cutting grain in Cherry Creek on the Owen Barnes place. We had a fifty bushel crop and although the combine went slowly Norman was tying sacks as fast as he could. As he got one tied another would be filled and so he was one busy guy. Elvin thought he would have some fun so he just kept going a little faster and faster, faster -- Norman did not have time to tie the sacks of grain, so he just kept standing them upright. He hollered at me to tell Elvin to slow down but he couldn't hear or was just going to have some fun. I left my seat and started to help Norman, but soon we had no room for the untied grain sacks and spilled grain, it was ankle deep on the sacking platform. We were both hollering at Elvin to slow down and finally he did. By then Norman's temper had gone sky high and he was so mad at Elvin that would not even speak to him. He was ready to hit Elvin over the head with a hammer. Elvin said he was just having some fun and helped us clean up the mess. Then we all had a good laugh. We always went in the Barnes house for dinner, which was served by three old maids, but they sure could cook. After a real big meal then they brought out the cake and pies and homemade ice cream. Norman and I would go out on the lawn afterwards and lay down for over an hour to get over our stress. When we would come in for dinner the "maids" would have a tub of cold water and insisted we dunk our heads in it to get rid of the grain chaff. I remember Norman would shudder with the ice cold water on his head. We would all laugh our heads off.

Many years when we were harvesting at our McCammon ranch we always stayed up at the cabin. Norman didn't care to cook much, so the rest of us did the cooking. There were some pack rats up in the attic and dad told Norman and I to climb up in the attic and get rid of their nests. We found many things in their nests --spoons and forks, matches, cigarette buttes (not ours) chewing tobacco (one hired man chewed) pennies, dimes, and nickels, paper, and chewing gum. The rats at night would come out on a rafter where there was a hole in the ceiling

we would send them to heaven with a blast from the 97 shot gun. It would wake up those sound asleep. Norman would just say, "You darn guys! No one can sleep around here."

Another incident about Norman. Norman and I had been at the cabin alone when dad rode up. He noticed some 3 range cows in the wheat acres on what we called the Long Piece 80 acres and a mile long. I had my .22 rifle and I had been shooting at ground squirrels. Dad said to shoot over that way and see if you can scare those cows and make them leave the field. Well, it was about a half a mile to them so I just shot a rainbow and the middle cow reared up and her hind legs and fell backwards and just laid there. The other two men stood in disbelief -- a .22 at that range -- it must have had a heart attack. Dad turned to Norman and said, "That darn kid killed one of them." Norman just said, "Well I guess we better go butcher it out and use the meat." Dad said, "No, just leave it there the cattle men will just think she bloated." Norman said that some beef would taste pretty darn good since all we got around here is sages hens and trout. The sage hens were so tough you can't put your fork in the gravy -- Ha! Ha!

One fall dad said if we get done cutting wheat by September that he would take us fishing, so we would worked hard and fast and finished by September 1. The next day dad put on fishing gear in the car and way we went. Dad, Norman, Ross (stepbrother) and myself. We ended up in Meyers Cove on Camas Creek (a tributary to the Salmon River). Just as we got there and started to make camp and some boys walked into camp packing a 38 pound salmon. They were from Malad and had speared the salmon and it had gone down into a tree root. They dove into the cold water and finally got it out. This really excited Norman, so we planned on spearing some salmon, however the next day we went down Camas Creek to catch some trout. Norman did not fish as he hadn't a fishing licence and fishing was not his cup of tea. Norman and I went along the creek and noticed many dead salmon along the blanks, they had come up the salmon river and up the river back to the place they were born to spawn and then die. We counted over 40 that day that had died and lay along the banks. Norman and I were going along the creek and I got ahead of him and stopped to wait for him. The creek made a big S turn and all at once I heard Norman screaming and make some other noises not usual in his speech. I could hear limbs break and more noises and all of a sudden came Norman out of the bush and made a short cut across the S bend the creek. He kept grabbing at his clothing and acting like a wild man. I was laughing -- it wasn't a laughing matter to him. He had knocked down a large hornet nest and they were really mad after him. He finally splashed water on him and the hornets left. Ha! Ha! Ha! For an hour he would grab his pants -- stings I think.

That night we had blue grouse for supper. Dad was frying the grouse (out of season) and in walked in a forest game warden. Dad had seen him coming and told the rest of us to just remain calm and he would think it was a tame chicken. Grouse cooking can be smelled a mile away. Anyway, dad had just kept on talking to the game warden turning the grouse over and over in the frying pan. Norman kept looking at dad. Soon the warden left and we knew that he knew the kind of "chicken" in the pan, but didn't say anything about it. After the warden left we laugh and laughed. Norman just couldn't believe what he had done.

Night came and we got on our old clothes and shoes and fixed the gas lantern to reflect the light ahead of our spears (made of pitch forks) and started up the creek. Soon we saw a large salmon wavering back and forth in the water which was up to our knees. I made the first throw with my spear and made a glancing blow -- then all ??? let go. The salmon first turned around and went between my legs. I dropped down trying to pin him. Then he threw me aside and then Norman had him between his legs and then he threw Norman off. Both of us thought we were going to drown, there was so much splashing, etc. going on the salmon in its desperation jumped out on the bank where dad was. Dad had a gas lantern and had to find a place to put it down before he could try to catch the salmon, but he was long in finding a place to put the lantern down and Mr. Salmon leaped back into the water. We expected to get wet to our waist, but Norman and I were soaking wet and had to go back to camp. The next night we went again we speared several salmon. Norman got one of these fish.

I always liked Norman. He was a gentleman at all times and had a very good personality.

The following history was written by Norman Nelson in 1990 for the book, The Legacy of Norman Nels Nelson. Norman died on April 11, 1993.

BRIEF STORY OF NORMAN NELSON, GRANDSON OF CHRISTIAN OLSEN

I was born July 19, 1904, at Weston, Idaho, at my Grandfather Olsen's home. My mother was Amelia Olsen Nelson and father was Nels R. Nelson. My mother died 3 months after I was born. She had asked her sister, Annie, to take her children and raise them before she died. I also had a sister, Ella, who was 2 years older than me. She died of diptheria when she was 6 years old. This was real sad for Aunt Annie, now our mom, as she loved her so much.

Mother (mom) got married to John Palmer and we moved to Vernal, Utah, where he had a ranch. The marriage did not work out, so we came back to Weston. She took care of her father [Christian Olsen] until he died and Mother inherited the Olsen home.

I now had finished my grade school and high school in Weston. We had a hard time making ends meet but Mom was a good manager. We raised chickens, pigs and had a cow for our milk and butter. I got jobs whenever I could. I even worked on the railroad while in high school.

I went to Albion Normal School and got a teaching certificate. I worked at the school to earn my board and room. My first teaching position was in Robin, a small community west of Arimo. My Uncle Wilford also taught there.

I met my wife, Edna Christiansen, to be, on a blind date at the Downey High School, at a dance. We dated until Fall and got married in November in Salt Lake. In 1940, we took our 4 children and got our endowments in the Salt Lake Temple.

The next year I started teaching in Weston for 5 years. The depression came along so some teachers were cut, so we left and taught in Glendale, above Preston, and several other schools in the area. In 1941, we moved to Gooding, while there I was President of the M.I.A for several years and also Bishop for a time. I also taught in Parma, and Aberdeen before moving to Blackfoot where I worked for the [Idaho] State Employment Agency until I retired. Edna and I have been active in church work all our life and raised two daughters and four sons. We are very proud of them. They have gotten good educations and are all married in the temple, have nice homes and good positions. We also have 19 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.

Norman and his wife Edna were married over 65 years