David Nathan Thomas (Part 14)

David Nathan Thomas

Part 1 (Introduction and Index)

Eventually, the power of those who opposed the colonizing missionaries/settlers was broken and peace was established. But the trials of wind, floods, harsh farming conditions and lawlessness had taken their toll and by 1894 only 20 of those colonization missionaries were left at St. Johns. [75] The mission calls to northern Arizona were of an undetermined length and many of the missionaries called to settle this hostile environment became discouraged, decided their missions were over and gradually moved away. 

Despite all the trials and tribulations, David and Adeline and their children, and Isaac and his family and others of that wagon train of November 1881 came to St. Johns and stayed. There they built homes and businesses, and there the children matured and married. [76] (Frances and Helen Gibbons have written a biography of Adeline Christensen Gibbons, Adeline Springthorpe Thomas’ granddaughter, which details some events and stories of St, Johns in the 1890s.)

 David established a blacksmith shop and when his daughter Frances Ann married in 1883, his son-in-law, Marinus Christensen, began to work in the blacksmith shop with David. After David died, Marinus continued to be the community’s blacksmith for more than twenty-five years. Frances or Aunt Fannie as most called her was known as an excellent cook and housekeeper and a good Latter-Day Saint. [77]

Marinus and Frances Thomas Christensen family

Isaac did not go into the blacksmith trade with his father. For a few years he lived in Egypt, a farming area about three miles north of St. Johns where he farmed and raised sheep and cattle. Later he became a mail carrier, hauling the mail from Holbrook to St. Johns. He sold the sheep and cattle, but continued to farm providing work for his family. [78]

David John Thomas

On December 31, 1887 David (Nathan) Thomas was ordained a High Priest. [79] That next year on August 14, 1888, David (Nathan) Thomas passed away and was buried in the St. Johns cemetery. Just seventeen months later his son, David John, died January 28, 1890 at the age of 25; family histories suggest he died of complications of pneumonia. 

Adeline Springthorpe Thomas

Sometime after March 12, 1890, when she signed the legal papers appointing her as administrix of her husband David’s estate, Adeline left St. Johns. [80] Perhaps Adeline had had enough and feeling her mission call was over, she moved back to the friends she had in Utah. There are no accounts of that journey to tell us if Manti was Adeline’s final destination. At that time she had two step-daughters, Margaret and Sarah Ann, who lived in Wales, which is about twenty miles from Manti. Did she journey to Manti to be near the Manti Temple which had just been dedicated May 17, 1888? Adeline had many in her family and David’s family for whom she would have wanted to do the temple work. Unfortunately, she died and was buried in Manti, April 16, 1891, with her dream unrealized. She is buried under the brow of the hill in the cemetery near the Manti Temple.  [81]

David Nathan Thomas (Part 13)

Part 1 (Introduction and Index)

At St. Johns the group from Kingston faced many of the same trials settlers in the other communities of the Little Colorado River Basin faced: the isolation and remoteness from the support and commerce of the church in Utah, lack of adequate water supplies, difficulty in growing enough food to feed themselves, floods from the chaotic rivers, unfavorable weather, and the wind. 

Legend has it that a company of pioneers back in the 1880’s were making their way down to the Gila Valley with their wagons and ox teams. They camped one evening on the banks of the Little Colorado River about due east of where the town of St. Johns is presently situated. By morning the wind was blowing so hard they decided to hold up a few days until the gale subsided. You guessed it—the wind never stopped. They are still here. [72]

David Nathan Thomas (Part 12)

Part 1 (Introduction and Index)

Many settlers regarded that portion of the trail from Sunset Crossing as the worst part of the journey. Here the trail led through an uninhabited desert. Water was the worst problem. Most of the time it was unavailable, and when it was, it was often bad tasting and dirty. In his diary, David K. Udall records the following:

We were hard put to make it from one watering place to the next. The women had to get very thirsty before they would drink the brackish, muddy water which often had wrigglers in it. But we let the mud settle and drained out the wrigglers, and it wasn’t so bad. [65]

Survey: The Springthorpe Family

Morgan Family

My father, sister, and I are working on documenting the Springthorpe family and figuring out which children listed on Family Tree belong in the family.

Here's a brief summary. First, the line we're working on:

Jessie Maxine Morgan Tanner

Jessie Christensen Morgan

Frances Ann Thomas Christensen

Adeline Springthorpe Sparks Thomas

James and Frances Springthorpe

Leicestershire countryside, Flickr.

James Springthorpe married Frances Springthorpe on November 11, 1816 in Derbyshire, England.

James was born in 1785 in Leicestershire; Frances was born in 1797 in Lincolnshire. They tended to live in Leicestershire and Staffordshire after their marriage.

Leicestershire.

Lincolnshire.

Staffordshire.

Staffordshire, and West Bromwich in particular, were an active area for the early missionary efforts of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That may be where Adeline Springthorpe was baptized in 1854, and she may have known noted missionary Cyrus Wheelock, the author of "Ye Elders of Israel."

Here is the family in the 1841 England and Wales Census.

1841 England Census, Wednesbury, South Offlow, West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England.

Jas Springthorpe, 50

Frances Springthorpe, 40

James Springthorpe, 18

John Springthorpe, 16

Adaline Springthorpe, 15

Charles Springthorpe, 10

Thomas Springthorpe, 5

Wm Howe, 20

Mary [Springthorpe] Howe, 20

Hannah Howe, 2

Augustus Howe, 6 Mo

Thos Smallwood, 20

Geo Bentley, 20

Wm Smith, 20

James Springthorpe died in 1849 in Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire.

Here is the remaining family in the 1851 England and Wales Census.

1851 England Census, Thringstone, Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire.

Francis Springthorpe, 52

Adeline Springthorpe, 23

Charles Springthorpe, 21

Francis Springthorpe, 17

Ayashe Howe, 16

Problem: This census lists a male child, Francis. The next census lists Frances as a female, married name Matchett. (She was probably married to Francis Matchett. Yes, Frances married Francis. Is this the same Frances that later married David Thomas as his third wife? That Frances had two sons, reportedly with the last name Hewitt. We need to figure out more about Frances!)

Here are Frances and a few family members in the 1861 England and Wales Census.

1861 England Census, Whitwick, Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire.

John Springthorpe, 34
Jessie [Doman] Springthorpe, 32
Hyrum Springthorpe, 3
Francis Springthorpe, 64
Francis Matchett, 26

The census notes that Frances was blind due to old age. She died in 1862.

Adeline, now married to Elijah Sparks and probably widowed, was waiting until after her mother died to emigrate to America. A month later, Adeline was on the John J. Boyd, sailing for America. On the ship she met Welsh widower David Nathan Thomas. They were married in Utah.

Adeline's brother John Springthorpe and his family emigrated in 1869 and 1870.

I can't find emigration information for Francis Springthorpe/Hewitt and James and John Hewitt. 

And that's a brief summary of the current state of research on the family.

The Adventure of the Adeline Springthorpe Sparks Thomas Grave Marker

Adeline Springthorpe Sparks Thomas

Adeline Springthorpe was born in Leicestershire, England, most likely in 1826. (Many different dates are given in different sources.) Her parents were James and Frances Springthorpe.

At age 18, she married Elijah Sparks. Thomas family records note that Elijah died at sea, but nothing further is known about the circumstances of his death.

Adeline joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1854. After her mother died in 1862, Adeline left England for the United States. Her entry in the Mormon Migration database showing her voyage on the ship John J. Boyd can be seen here. Also on the ship was widowed Welshman David Nathan Thomas and his four children, Margaret, Isaac, Sarah and Mary.

According to family stories, the Thomas family and Adeline crossed the plains in the same wagon company. Adeline is listed in the rosters of both the Homer Duncan Company and the Lewis Brunson Company, but since the Thomases were in the Homer Duncan Company, it is most likely that she traveled with them.

At some point, probably after reaching Utah, Adeline and David were married.

David Nathan Thomas

The family moved south to Nephi, Juab County, where daughter Frances Ann Thomas was born. Shortly thereafter they moved to Kanosh, Millard County, where son David John Thomas was born. They remained in Kanosh until 1878 when they joined the Kingston United Order in Piute County, Utah.

After three years with the United Order, David received a mission call to Arizona. In 1881, he and his wife and two children, son Isaac Thomas, and brother-in-law John Springthorpe and his family, moved down to Arizona. Margaret and her husband Richard Price and Sarah and her husband Thomas Dyches remained in Sanpete County. Daughter Mary and her husband John Henry Beal seemed to be living in Pima County, Arizona.

David was a blacksmith, so he started a blacksmith shop in St. Johns. His daughter Frances married Marinus Christensen in 1883, and Marinus became a blacksmith as well.

David Nathan Thomas died in 1888 and was buried in St. Johns. David and Adeline's son David John died in 1890 and was also buried in St. Johns.

After the deaths of her husband and son, Adeline traveled to Manti, Utah, probably to do temple work, but before she was able to do the work for her mother or other relatives, she died suddenly on April 16, 1891, and was buried in the Manti Cemetery in a donated grave.

The Manti Temple

In the 120 years since Adeline's death, a lot of temple work has been done for the family, but the family records were not in very good shape, primary vital records have been hard to track down, the family of Adeline's daughter Frances Thomas Christensen did not know details about the family including Adeline's first marriage, and little was preserved in the family records about the Thomas and Springthorpe families in Wales and England.

This changed when Margaret Thomas Price descendent Helen Rigby began looking into the history of the family. She did a thorough job, traveling to Wales, St. Johns, and Manti. I got to know Helen when she contacted me for permission to use the picture of David Nathan Thomas from this blog. It has been a real delight to get to know her by long distance and to get to meet her when I was recently in Utah.

Helen had mentioned during a phone conversation that Adeline's grave in Manti was unmarked, so when I was in Utah, I traveled down to Manti with a friend and made arrangements for a grave marker. Originally, it was going to read "Adeline Springthorpe Thomas," but after meeting Helen and her husband the next day and thinking about the story she told about tracking down the marriage record for Adeline and Elijah Sparks, the stonecutters made a change to the order and it will now read "Adeline Springthorpe Sparks Thomas."

The marker is granite and should be set on Adeline's grave site within a month or two. In keeping with the look of her husband's plain grave marker in St. Johns, it is an unadorned memorial stone, and it will be placed by a local business, so the cost is fairly modest, but if any of Adeline's descendants would like to assist in remembering our common pioneer ancestor, I would appreciate help with the project. Thanks to those who have already donated!

I can be contacted at the email address listed on the blog sidebar.

December 18, 2012—Here is a picture of Adeline's grave marker. The picture was provided by a kind volunteer at FindaGrave.

———

Additional Notes about Adeline's Descendants and Springthorpe Genealogy

I do not have contact with many of her descendants outside my grandparents' family, but Adeline would have descendants through the following children of her daughter Frances Thomas Christensen and son-in-law Marinus Christensen:

• Adeline Christensen Gibbons and her husband Andrew Smith Gibbons
• David Thomas Christensen and his wife Iness Jolley Christensen
• Marinus Elmer Christensen and his wife Hilda Garnatz Christensen
• Jessie Christensen Morgan and her husband Harold Morgan
• Francis Lee "Frank" Christensen and his wife Nellie Vanetta Christensen
• Joseph Lawrence Christensen and his wife Susan Worthen Ellis Christensen

There is still a lot of research that needs to be done on the Springthorpe lines. It will be a couple of years before I get around to doing more research on these lines, but I would be glad to see any more information on the family.

The bit of the Minerva Teichert painting of the pioneers is from a photo of the painting I took at the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah. The photo of the Manti Temple is from www.flickr.com/photos/midiman/2923101011/ with permission given to use, share, and remix the work.

Morgan 12 & 13: Jens Christensen and Karen Marie Johannesen Christensen

Some of the next ancestors in the Morgan line are Jens and Karen Marie Johannesen Christensen. However, I will not be posting biographies here for the simple reason that they are also ancestors on the Tanner line and I have already posted a short biography of them and a note about their emigration to the United States.

Their daughter Mary Kjerstine Christensen married Ove Oveson and shared many of his adventures in Ephraim, Utah, and St. Johns, Arizona. They were my grandfather's great-grandparents.

Their adopted son Marinus Christensen married Fanny Thomas. They were my grandmother's grandparents.


Picture of Lonely Dell Ranch at Lee's Ferry from www.flickr.com/photos/7202153@N03/2477559604/. Lee's Ferry is where these pioneers would have crossed the Colorado River into the region of Arizona that would be their home and eventually, their final resting place.

Morgan 6 & 7: Marinus Christensen and Frances Ann Thomas Christensen

Marinus Christensen

b. 6 June 1863 Torslev, Hjørring, Denmark
m. 6 June 1883 St. Johns, Apache, Arizona
d. 23 July 1927 St. Johns, Apache, Arizona
b. 24 July 1927 St. Johns, Apache, Arizona
Wife: Frances Ann Thomas
Father: Jens Christensen; Mother: Karen Marie Johannesen

Frances Ann Thomas Christensen
b. 4 May 1864 Nephi, Juab, Utah
d. 17 August 1950 Flagstaff, Coconino, Arizona
b. 19 August 1950 St. Johns, Apache, Arizona
Husband: Marinus Christensen
Father: David Nathan Thomas; Mother: Adeline Springthorpe

For information on the early life of Marinus Christensen, read the entry in the Tanner section on Mary Kjersten Christensen and family. Mary married Ove C. Oveson. Her mother and adopted brother Marinus lived with her family.

Marinus continued to live with the family, moving with them to St. Johns, Arizona, in the summer of 1880, and was considered by neighbors as the oldest child, being generally called Oveson, until his marriage, when he took his proper name of Christensen.

Marinus and Frances Christensen.

Marinus Christensen was married to Frances Ann Thomas, daughter of David Nathan Thomas and Adeline Springthorpe, June 6th 1883, at St. Johns, Arizona. She was born May 4th, 1864, at Nephi, Utah.

A page from the 1900 census of St. Johns, Apache, Arizona, showing the Christensen family. (Marinus was not born in Utah.)

David N. Thomas was a blacksmith by trade and owned a shop in St. Johns, where he died August 14th, 1888. His son, brother of Frances (Fanny) died there, too, and not long between the two deaths. Marinus Christensen took over the blacksmith shop and was caring for the mother (Adeline S. Thomas), but she decided to go to Utah, to do work in the Manti Temple. Not long after leaving St. Johns she was taken suddenly ill, and died, and was buried at Manti, April 6th, 1891.

(L to R) David, Marinus, Addie, Jessie, Frank, Fanny, Elmer.

Marinus Christensen and Frances Ann Thomas Christensen had the following children:

• Adeline, born July 1, 1884, St. Johns, Apache County, Arizona. Married Andrew Smith Gibbons. Died 1975, age 91.
• Anne, born July 26, 1886, St. Johns. Died 1887, age 1.
• David Thomas, born August 2, 1888, St. Johns. Married Iness Jolley. Died 1949, age 61.
• Marinus Elmer, born November 26, 1890, St. Johns. Married Hildegarde Garnatz. Died 1959, age 68.
• Jessie, born June 13, 1893, St. Johns. Married Harold Morgan. Died 1980, age 86.
• Francis Lee, born April 18, 1898, St. Johns. Married Nellie Vanetta. Died 1962, age 64.
• Paul Anthon, born November 26, 1901, St. Johns, died May 9th, 1908, St. Johns. Cause: Children built a bonfire. Paul’s clothes caught fire. Burns and shock.
• Joseph Laurence, born September 8, 1903, St. Johns. Married Susan Ellis. Died 1984, age 80.

The blacksmith shop. Marinus is standing on the right.

Marinus Christensen was a blacksmith all his life, and his shop was a place where the men of the town loved to gather and spend an idle hour. The blacksmith was always jolly and entertaining and his happy laughter was good to hear. He was a law enforcement officer many years, and was noted for his ability to deal with offenders, and his kindly yet firm stand for right. He was a leader in the Band, and also in the Sunday School Choir. He was Sunday School Superintendent in both Ward and Stake for many years, and dearly loved that work, and also the children. But the thing that he will be remembered by among the townspeople more than any other, was the Comic Recitations he used to give, and the Character parts he played in home theatricals. He was a splendid Comedian, and a great hit with his audiences.

Frances Christensen and children at Marinus' funeral.

He died at St. Johns, Arizona, July 23rd, 1927, and was buried there.

Frances Christensen, Jessie Morgan, Addie Gibbons.

His wife, Fanny, lived for many years after her husband’s death. She was in the Relief Society presidency for many years, and was one who was always on hand to help in sickness, take charge of making clothing and dressing and preparing the dead for burial. In those days we had no undertaker, and neighbors and friends attended to this work. The last few years of her life she visited among her children a part of the time, though she did not give up her home, and enjoyed to be alone there sometimes. She was visiting her children in Flagstaff when she had a paralytic stroke, from which she died August 17th, 1950 and was buried at St. Johns, Arizona.

[Note: the middle article seems to be from a Flagstaff paper rather than the Tribune, and why do two articles call her mother "Caroline"?]

Marinus Christensen and Frances Ann Thomas have a posterity of progressive and intelligent citizens, good neighbors and trustworthy friends.

From Margaret Godfrey Jarvis Overson. George Jarvis And Joseph George De Friez Genealogy. Mesa, Ariz: M.J. Overson, 1957.

[Note, February 15, 2014: changed the spelling of Inez Jolley to Iness, at the request of her granddaughter Laurel Christensen.]

Picture of the horseshoes from www.flickr.com/photos/tombothetominator/2792049406/.

Morgan 3: Jessie Christensen Morgan, Part B

On Childhood and Marriage

I got married the 28th of March and I wanted to be different. But I was just a woman and I got married and left immediately for Holbrook to go through the temple and we went back and went through the temple and it took us all day at that time to go through the temple. It took us all day long and we never had anything to eat—we didn’t eat anything and when we got out Harold was so sick. Got in a taxi and it was kind of hot in there. The Salt Lake Temple.

I remember one big snowstorm we had in St. Johns. Boy it was cold. And mother had gone to Phoenix to visit Addie and left we children with Dad and Dad had run out and the cellar was built on top of the ground with the double wall and little windows and he would go out there and cut off a piece of meat, it was frozen stiff, put it in the kettle and make some soup. We sure had lots of soup and the potatoes were frozen—just frozen and we’d have to peel the potatoes and put them in some water to take the frost out and put them in the soup and my little brother Paul had some boots and he had a boot jack to pull off his boots and he sat there and pulled off his boots and put them on until it froze his heels. We were in a mess when mother got home. All of the fields frozen. Then we had a big fire. Everybody in town was in it trying to…haystacks burnt up, trying to get the horses out—you know you can’t hardly get a horse out of a fire. They’d pull on the horse and pull on it and finally they would get them out, but they won’t go out of a fire, they want to stay there. This fire started on the Conrad Overson side. I think he was smoking and threw a cigarette down and started the straw and that started the hay and there was no water in town, they turned the city ditch water down and ran buckets of water down but it didn’t do much good. They didn’t have a fire department or anything. Someone said St. Johns had grown clear out to the Mexican graveyard. … I’d hate to live out there—if the reservoir broke, boy, would they ever go down.

Did the reservoir ever break when you were little?

Yes, it did. I remember all the houses floating off and one house cracked right in two, furniture going down.

Sister Greer had her home just above us and they opened her house for a mortuary and it was full of dead people. One woman I remember, mother told me, this woman had this long hair and it was just full of cockleburrs and they had to just comb it the best they could and then cut it off so they could fix her hair. Yes, that was a terrible sight. Never will forget that.

Where did you live after you were married?

In the Aircastle. It was just an old house. It was just a slim house with an upstairs and they called it the Aircastle and they had a little room built on the back and we lived in the little room on the back—in St. Johns. They had an apple tree out just by my door, I lived…so I would take those apples that fell on the ground and peeled them and dried them and I had a flour sack half full of dried apples and then I took some of the crabapples and made jelly and bottled them whole, and I didn’t pick any, I just took what had come from the ground, and when they come over and saw what I had, they charged me for it and then we moved. We were paying them rent and they were so mad to think I had got some of their apples, they charged me for them. The rest of the year they just lay there and rotted.

Dad was a blacksmith and Brother Udall asked him if he would take some apples on part of his pay and Dad said he would do that, so he said for me to go up and get the apples, and Brother Udall said there they are on the ground, you go and pick your wagon full. So I took the apples home and mother said, well these are all bruised. I said, well she had me pick them up off the ground. So mother said well, you stay here, I’ll be back in a minute, so mother took the wagon, spitting fire when she left, and she went and dumped them in Udall’s lot and she went to the door and said I brought your apples back, there they are, she said, I’ll take money for what you owe my husband. The Udalls were just beside themselves. Nobody could get the best of mother. She said you better get it, I’ll take the money. I’m not taking rotten apples. Mother was a regular businesswoman.

If Dad had let her do the charging and collecting he’d have been rich, but he was so good to people. I don’t know whether that is good or not. I guess they didn’t have any money—if they needed something from the market, I guess they’d charge it. He did keep books, but he never collected much, until after he’d call. Mother sure collected.

Where was your first baby born?

In St. Johns. Mother’s home. Helen, oh she was cute, oh she was pretty. Everybody in town came to see her. She was the prettiest thing—well, I thought so, I was her mother. She laughed. I used to take her to choir practice with me. I used to keep my babies clean. Sister Brown would come down and say what’s the matter with Jessie. And mother would say, why. And she would say well all the other girls take the babies out but I never see Jessie take any of them out. Mother asked why I didn’t take the babies out and tend them for the mothers and I said because they stink. The babies did stink. They didn’t keep them clean. Mother said well that is excuse enough, I don’t blame you.


To be continued...

Morgan 3: Jessie Christensen Morgan, Part A

Excerpts from an interview of Jessie Christensen Morgan, April 1, 1977, Salt Lake City, Utah. By James Tanner.


On her childhood

I remember going to school and I remember my geography class more than anything because Lyle Greer was my teacher and see the top of the map was North and he’d say right up at the top and I thought he meant right up in the stars, and I would say how far up, how far up in the stars, and he’s say come here. Come here to me and I’d go up to him and he’d put a chunk of ice down my back and every noon when I’d go home for lunch, mother would have to change my clothes cause I’d be so wet clear through with ice down my back and she told him if he did that again, she would have him barred from teaching and so then he would have me hold my hand out and he’d strike it with a ruler and I’d shut my hand like this so mother couldn’t see. It was just bleeding where he had hit my hand with the ruler and I’d go this way so mother couldn’t see. Oh, he was mean. I would have liked to have choked him.

And I remember they used to pay their tithing with eggs, fruit and all this stuff, grain, and over at the tithing office they had a cellar with a door that opened out and some boys pushed me down on the grain and threw a mouse down there, and I screamed and screamed and finally had a regular convulsion I was so afraid and that made me afraid of mice. That was mean. I was just scared to death. They used to have lots of mice in the homes. I’d go home from Mutual or something and see a mouse and I’d jump from one chair to another.

I had a little Shetland pony that was mine. I used to go out to the sheds once in a while. Dad would let me ride it with an Indian blanket and a loop on his nose—just a rope and a loop on his nose. And I’d go out with the calves and there were a lot of prairie dog holes and whenever he’d see a prairie dog hole he’d stop and I’d go over his head and sit on the ground and then I’d get up and pick up my blanket and get back on and then we’d go on. I guess I’d go over his head about four or five times every time I rode. Dad said he would give me a dollar if I would milk the cows and oh, that dollar was big, he pulled it out of his pocket—silver dollar it was. So I went down to the corral and he sat on the granary steps and I started to say, so, just as I started to climb through the rail fence to get in to milk the cow, and I got up to her and I said so, so, so and she turned her head to look at me and I ran for the fence. And then any time I did anything that was big or important, he’d give me a fat calf. When I was married I had seven head of cows. I had one old jersey cow that was so tame, and when I had got her she was so mean I had to tie her legs together to milk her. I was scared to death of animals.


To be continued...

Morgan 3: Jessie Christensen Morgan, Part VI

Just before Helen was born we heard the Lyman Dam had broken and we went up to see the water. It took all the houses over in Mexican town and we could see them floating down the water. Several people were killed.

I was married about 15–16 months and I had Helen. She was born in St. Johns. I thought Helen was so cute. I came home one day from meeting carrying Helen and Charlie Wright’s wife was walking in front of me. Her baby was talking and she put her baby down and it walked. Helen wouldn’t do anything. She’d just sit like a dummy. I put Helen down. Mother and Daddy were sitting on the porch, and said, “Here’s this dumb kid. Anybody can have her. I don’t want her.” My Dad said, “Shame on you. What’s the matter?” I said, “She’s so dumb she can’t do anything. I don’t want her.” He said, “The problem is—you never teach her anything.” He said, “Let me take her.” He took Helen and stood her out and said, “Come to Grandpa.” She ran up to him and he said, “Say Daddy, Mommy…” He kept asking her words to say and she’d repeat them. Then she started to sing “Catch The Sunshine.” Daddy said, “See, all you have to do is teach her.” Oh dear, I thought she was precious then. She was smart as a whip.

Helen, Maxine, and Alta.

Grandpa came back to St. Johns when school was out and taught school in St. Johns. They had a big banquet up to Patterson’s Hotel and all the teachers had to go. I didn’t have any shoes. I didn’t have anything to wear. We had to put all of our money into Harold so he could go to the banquet.

Helen and Alta.

Alta had the thickest hair. I used to curl Helen’s hair, it wasn’t as thick, for Sunday school. I’d just cut Alta’s hair off in a dutch cut. Mother would say, “Shame on you. You always curl Helen’s hair and fix her up and that little darling Alta you never do anything for her.” I said, “Do you want to curl it?” So she started in and until she got to the first ear she’d say, “Turn your head, darling.” After she got past there she’d say, “Turn your head.” And then as she got near the back she’d say sternly, “TURN your head.” I’d say to Mother, “What’s wrong with the precious little darling?” She’d say, “Hush up.” Alta’s hair was so thick and when she’d curl it, it would stick right straight out. She looked like the devil.

Alta, Maxine, Helen, Joan, Paul, and Calvin.

When Alta was a baby we moved up on the hill to H. Udall’s house. His wife had just died and he wanted me to move up there. She had five rooms and we just took the three and I was afraid to stay up there because Ruth had just died. He rented the other side to George Brown and Amy.

I stopped working at the phone company when my children came. I had to nurse them and stay in bed for a long time. They didn’t even let me dangle my feet for two weeks. I sat up on the side of the bed one day after I had Helen and mother caught me. She thought I was going to die. It was just the law that you stayed in bed. I stayed in bed for two weeks and Mother took care of my baby.

Calvin, Paul, and Maxine.

To be continued...

Morgan 3: Jessie Christensen Morgan, Part IV

I’ll tell you my mother was a dressmaker. She used to sew for all of the Mexicans in town and half the white people. She sure made me some pretty dresses. She had one pattern and she made everybody’s pattern from that. They were all different dresses. She had a pasteboard and everybody’s size was punched in holes on it and she just put her pencil in and drew all the holes and then cut the pattern out. She was sewing on her machine all the time. She even made wedding dresses. I had the prettiest dresses in the school.

Marinus Christensen on the right in front of his blacksmith shop.

My Dad was a blacksmith and he was also Superintendent of the Stake Sunday School. My brother Elmer was his secretary. One day Elmer told Dad that if this certain brother came in and slapped him on the back that morning and said, “Good morning, Brother Christensen,” he was going to leave. He didn’t like anyone paying attention to him. He sure was a good secretary. So pop just busted to get over there before the meeting so he could warn the Brother but just as they walked through the door, he slapped Elmer on the back and said “How are ya Brother Christensen?” Elmer got up and left. That irked Elmer because people would call him Brother Christensen. Then they put me in as Stake Secretary. But Elmer did all the work. He was excellent in figures. I knew my figures but I wasn’t as smart as Elmer.

In St. Johns during the dances we couldn’t hear the orchestra for the feet a scraping on the floor. The orchestra was just Brother Mineer playing his fiddle and somebody else played the guitar. We had wonderful dances. One night Joe Jarvis came in a cart with two horses hooked on it. He stopped and got me first and then he went up and he stopped and went in and got Ethyl Greer. It just tickled me so much and I thought it was funny. Ethyl just sat there with a solemn face. So we got to the dance and he said, “Well, I’ll tell you, Ethyl. I picked Jessie up for the dance first so I’ll dance with Jessie first and then I’ll come and dance with you.” Ethyl was not too happy. As we were going down to dance Joe said, “I’m dancing with you first because I’ll never get another chance.” He didn’t.

Jessie is second from the right, next to Albert Anderson, her boyfriend at the time.

The desperados used to ride through the town in St. Johns when I was a young girl. One time they came up through town shooting up the town. I crawled under the steps of the old school-house as they passed and they just shot in the air and everyplace and rode back and forth through town shooting. They shot out over these pastures in St. Johns. They weren’t all wet and soggy like they are now. They rode out over there and then a posse of men went out after them and the desperados shot Willey Berry and killed him.

I had the worst time in my life trying to be educated in music. There was nothing I wanted to do more than play some instrument or take music lessons. So I went down to Uncle Andy’s sister Naomi Gibbons and I washed and scrubbed floors for two days to get a piano lesson. She was good. The problem was I never got a very good lesson. Her kids were always jumping up on the stool and screaming in and out and yelling and pounding on the upper part of the piano until I quit. I said I wasn’t going down there anymore and Mother agreed with me, I still enjoyed singing. I was always in a quartet or a double mixed quartet either in church or school. I was singing all the time.

One time my mother went to Phoenix to visit Addie and we were left alone with Dad. While she was gone we had one of the biggest snow storms that ever hit St. Johns. My brother Paul wore some boots and he had a boot jack that would help him pull his boots off. He’d just sit down and pull his boots on and off. He kept them off so much pulling them off and on that I let him freeze his heels. I didn’t know his heels were frozen. Mother came home and Paul had his heels frozen and I’d never made the bed because Elmer wouldn’t let me in the bedroom. He’d get up in the transom and take a broom and if I started in the bedroom to make the bed, he’d swing the broom and hit me. We’d have soup every day when Mother was gone. We had a cellar that was built on top of the ground with windows. It was just as cold as ice inside. Dad always had half of a beef hung in there and sheep and there was a rug for the pans of milk. Dad would go out and saw a piece of meat and put it on to boil and then he’d bring some potatoes in and I’d have to peel them and put them in the soup. It seemed to me like Mother was gone forever.

When she returned she brought a trunkful of oranges home from Phoenix. Just to tell you the kind of Mother I had, she sent a little bucket full of oranges to all of the neighbors and then we had a taste. She said we had enough and she didn’t want the neighbors to go without.


To be continued...

Picture of oranges from flickr.com/photos/thepma/443241604/.

Morgan 3: Jessie Christensen Morgan, Part III

St. Johns Academy Class of 1911 with Harold and Jessie marked.

We used to do some funny things. Mother would have fainted if she would have known them. One day some of my girlfriends and I went to Berry’s and borrowed some men’s suits and hats and put them on and went downtown past the ice cream parlor. These Berrys in the ice cream parlor saw us pass and they came out and they started to chase us. So we ran and I just heeled it up and started to crawl under Tenney’s fence and my pants came off. They were too big for me anyway and I just mopped the top of the fence on the pickets. I crawled out of my pants and hid back in the current bushes. The boys finally left and I went home.

I remember that I just hated school because of the teachers I had. I couldn’t understand a map and I thought north was straight up in the air. I didn’t know it was on the paper. I couldn’t get it in my head. I’d raise my hand up (I didn’t have sense enough not to raise my hand anymore) and I’d raise my hand and go up and ask the teacher if north was straight up in the air. My teacher would say to hold out my hand and he’d hit it with a ruler.

Some of my friends were Mary Ann Jones, Viola Thomas and Ethyl Greer. I had a lot of friends.

The first group of "Beehives" in St. Johns with Jessie Christensen on the left.

I used to walk in my sleep. Mother and Dad used to lock the door at the top and the bottom. But I’d get up (I was asleep when I did it) and unlock the screen door at the top and the bottom and walk out, I woke up one night and the moon was just going down and I looked down and I was on top of the tithing office barn. I was scared to death. You had to go up these high steps just to get up to this little platform to sit down. I went down as fast as I could and sent home and mother said, “Where have you been?” I said I was up on the tithing office steps. She asked me what I was doing up there. I said I didn’t know but I had woken up and saw the tithing office barn so I came home. She sent up in the morning and there was my quilt, I had taken it with me. If I hadn’t left it on the tithing office steps they wouldn’t have believed me.

Main Street, St. Johns.

On the 4th of July they’d have quite a celebration. They’d have a program in the morning and a little dance in the afternoon. At the dance they’d have a great big tub full of candy. They’d get up on the stage (there was a stage in the old schoolhouse) and throw the candy on the floor. Then the kids would have to get down on their hands and knees and scramble on the floor for the candy. I never would scramble but I wouldn’t have to because all the boys would bring me some. I wasn’t going to be humiliated by getting down on the floor.

We never had a Christmas tree in our house and all we had to do was go up on the hill and cut one. Not until Joe was left home alone did they put up a tree. We would hang up our stockings and my brothers would hang up their pants. They would tie the legs at the bottom. They got a .22 Rifle once. The card said that it was to both boys. We owned a half of a block in town and down below was just the alfalfa and over to the side was the coral and then the wood pile and then the house. One day Dad said he was going to go out and show the boys how to shoot by the poplar trees. So he told them to do just as Daddy did. They went out in the poplar trees and he was going to show them the gun and how to handle it. Just as he shot, the old milk cow, Bossy, walked out. She fell down and all her legs went up in the air and she was dead. The neighbor across the street came over and they skinned the cow and brought into the house a big chunk of meat and my mother said they could just take it out because she wasn’t going to cook old Bossy.

My Dad was the constable and he was called up if there were big fights in town. One time they had a big row up in Mexican town and one fellow was shot. Well—Dad was gone a long time, Pretty soon he came back and threw a big chunk of meat down on the table. He had gone to a butcher shop and bought the meat but when he threw it down on the table my mother thought it was the Mexican and she fainted.


To be continued...