Born to Johannes and Cecilia Nielson Anderson in Millville, Utah 20 Oct 1877. The ninth child in a family of ten. When he was about 9 years old his father left for Canada with his third wife. This was during the time of Polygamy. His only sister Christina was married and he was left to care for his mother. She had very poor health at that time, so he had all the responsibility. [He] had to do washings and most of the other household duties. His two Brothers, John and Henry lived out on the farm and took care of that. When he was 17 years old he got Typhoid Fever and almost lost his life. It left him with what they called"milk leg," and he had to have his leg elevated for three months and was not able to walk for a long time or do any work and it troubled him all his life, if he had to do very much
walking.
I have been informed that Martin Woolf was the only school teacher at that time.
They built a frame building above the canal. Then Miss Frances Wood taught the lower grades. The first building was the Rock school house which was used for a long time. Then they took it down and built a Brick house which was used till [t]here was an earthquake that cracked the walls. Then it stood till the ward started to build the new church house. Then they used some of the bricks and of the other material. His chums were Alma and Orson Larson, Olof Olson, Joe and Ernest Neves, Carl and August Larson.
When he was fifteen he was ordained a Deacon by John King [on] the seventh of Jan. 1892. [He] was Ordained an Elder by Hyrum S. Hulse the 4th of Feb 1902. Then in March 27, 1902 he married Hidvie Caroline Nielson in the Logan Temple by [Apostle] Marriner W. Merrill. He was asked to be Secretary for the Elders Quorum and did that for several [years]. Then in 1908 he was called to Sweden on a mission so he went to Salt Lake thinking he was all prepared on the 18 July, but was turned down on account of his bad leg. He could not pass the test as they told him he would have to do a lot of walking and the Church could not be responsible for him.
He held several responsible positions in the town. He was clerk in the board when
they put the Street Car line through town and he was Mayor when they put the Electric
Lights in the Town.
He run his farm and raised most of the living on it. When they built the Sugar factory in Logan he planted beets and that was real hard work as they did not have the equipment to do with like they [do] now days.
In the Year 1926 they had a Mayors Convention at the Cutler Dam. Had a banquet and thru something he got poisoned and was very sick for six weeks and was not able to work for a long time at anything that was hard to do.
Then he started to go to the temple and he went most of the time for a year. Then they asked him to be an Efficiator [sic - officiator] in the temple, so he stayed with that for 21 years. He was ward clerk for over 24 years. Was a counselor in the Bishopric for six years. He was in the Superintendency for a while and he taught the Adult class in Sunday School for three or four years. He had his Priesthood traced down to Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris. He was the Father of Ten children and they are all married, that is eight of them, as two passed away when they were babies, but all have been to the temple and received their endowments.
He had many wonderful friends in the Temple. They had some nice [?]. There were ten or twelve couples that got together and played Progressive Rook some times twice a month. They took it in turns, having them in their homes and would serve lunch. Several of them have passed away since then. Some of them were Bro. and Sister A[???] and Reachel Fuhriman, Bro. and Sister Charles and Fanny Goodsell, Bro and Sister Daniel and Kathleen Reese, Bro and Sister Frank E. and Dottie C. Sorensen, Bro and Sister J. E. and Maranda L. Millard, Bro and Sister E Ray and Ida D. Guyman, Bro and Sister Ira Hayward, Bro and Sister Lewis Lillywhite, Sister Jasmine Miller, Sister Elvira Austin and others at different times.
All the time he worked in the temple he run his farm. [He] had three or four cows he milked night and morning. He would get up at four o'clock in the morning and go out to irrigate on the farm then come home and get ready and go to the temple. When he started to go to the temple he did a lot of carpenter work. He built several big barns and some garages. He was busy working hard all his life. At one time when he was younger he had an accident with one of his horses. He went up to harness him in the stable and the horse got unmanageable and started to kick and almost killed him. One of his ears were split and he had a bad bruise on his stomach. The Dr. had to sew up his ear and he was in bed about a week. One of the boys got up there and helped him into the manger.
The last two years he had trouble with his heart, but kept working in the temple any way. Then on March 1st, 1949 he took a bad Heart attack and did not go back to the Temple and on the 10 of March he passed away. |
