From Our Archives: C. W. Anderson Memories of the Original Pioneers

C.W. Anderson wrote this as second person version.  The red marks made on the original manuscript changes it to "first person".

In the year 1854 a company of people set sail from Scandinavia.  It took them nine days to cross the North Sea, with their sailing vessel.  This same distance with distance now with steamers can be traveled in less than three days.  On their way to Liverpool they were nearly ship wrecked.  They left Liverpool on Christmas Eve.  That same night they were driven on dry land on the other side of the English Channel (France).  Here they had to wait til the tide came in to carry them off the land.  They found their ship was damaged and had to go back to Liverpool for repairs.  On the way back, when in the middle of the channel, they collided with another ship and almost went down. After arriving at Liverpool, they had to stay at a boarding place for six weeks, waiting for another ship.  It took them nine weeks to go from Liverpool to New Orleans.
They were then driven by the tide as far south as the Isthmus of Panama.

On their trip they buried fourteen people in the ocean.  They were followed three days by pirates, who were at times so close that their faces could be seen.
The people on board got their guns, knives and four cannons on board ready for use, if needed, should an attack be made.  For some reason the pirates changed their minds.

In crossing the Gulf of Mexico there was a man who fell overboard.  When they arrived in New Orleans, the people were having a sale or trade on negroes.  In going up the Mississippi River in a steamer to St. Louis there were five people who fell overboard, but no attention was paid to them.  It took two weeks to make the trip up the river.

At St Louis the cholera broke out among them, and during the two weeks while the went by boat from St. Louis to Fort Leavenworth there were a great many that died.

While crossing the plains they saw buffaloes by the thousands.  The pioneers had to corral their cattle at night.  This was done by driving their wagons in a circle with the cattle inside the circle.  Sometimes in the day the buffalo were so thick that they would stampede their teams.  But they were not allowed to shoot them for fear they would fight.

The party reached Salt Lake on the 27th of September 1855.  During the winter of 1855-1856 it was very severe. The snow was three feet deep in Brigham City.  Many of the cattle starved to death, and their meat was all the people had to eat because the grasshoppers had taken their crop.  Therefore, when ever an animal died their meat was eagerly taken.  In the spring and summer about all there was to subsist on was sego roots and thistle stalks. One day mother, by mistake ate a poisonous sego, and results was convulsions and almost death.  They had no bread whatever from Christmas until the 24th of July.  The second year after arriving in Utah, however, was a better one, and they thought the crop was a good one.  It is strange to remember that they had been almost three years before a pig was seen.

One morning, during the first year, the mother and son of this family went out into the fields to look at their wheat and found it frozen.  They had started for home in dismay.  They became very hungry having not had anything to eat all day, and very little for previous days.  They came to a small spring of cold water, but before drinking, they blessed the water, and when they drank it, it satisfied their hunger, so that they were not hungry the rest of the day.

In the early spring of 1859,or March 20th, 1859, this family were among the original pioneers to Mt. Pleasant.  And since that time  have always had plenty and been happy and content.  Up to this time the men were mostly dressed in buckskin, both shirt and pants, and in many instances mostly bare footed.

The first construction in Mt. Pleasant was the fort which was built of rocks located on the block where the old Union Store and Opera House now stands (Madsen's Store) (2013 Recreation Center).  The first adobe house was built first house south of where the Armory Hall now stands (Wheeler's Drive In 2013).  The second house was where Mrs. Wise now lives (?), and the third by Nils Widergreen, on the block now owned by Wasatch Academy.  The adobies were made by John Waldermar.

Sometimes when people didn't have access to a cradle, they pulled the wheat up by the roots with their bare hands, and when this was done, the stacks would be as black as the ground.  The women and the girls always helped in the fields.  The Indians  often caused a great deal of trouble to the pioneers.

Plowing was done with ox teams, sowing by hand, reaping with a cradle, binding of bundles by hand, threshing was done by oxen stepping on the grain, and cleaning was done by the wind.

One particular plow, and that was a good one, was made entirely by wood, with the exception of about 5 percent iron. Iron was very scarce..

At the first celebration in Mt. Pleasant 1860, an oxen was killed and a public dinner was given in the bowery, built just east of the now social hall. A pitch pine arch in  each corner of the bowery furnished light for evening, many dancing barefoot on the dirt floor.  Music was furnished by John Waldemar and James Hansen.  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

(The family referred to was the Niels Widergreen Anderson Family)

Caroline Christine Iversen Morrison ~ Third Wife of William Morrison

Compiled from oral narratives to her children and grandchildren and from memory by her son Walter William Morrison

Caroline Christina Iverson Morrison

 More than thirty eight years have passed since mother died.  It is pleasant to recall and to think of recording the changes, the achievements - even the hardships and adversities of a life so consecrated to the well-being of her companions and her posterity.  Her first-born, James Bruce, who came before her nineteenth year, would have done it much better.  But her youngest daughter, Lula, has confirmed and added to my memory of the stories that have become a heritage of her family.

She had inherited qualities of patience, industry, integrity, and self reliance from her sturdy Danish father and mother who, among the "pure in heart", accepted the message of the early missionaries in Denmark.  Being thrifty, with a trace of Jewish blood in the father, they were soon ready for immigration to Utah - a family of seven - two sons and three daughters.  Hans Peter remained to complete a mission.

They set sail from Denmark late in 1855, across the North Sea to England, then by rail to Liverpool.  They sailed from Liverpool on the John J. Boyd 12 Dec. under Canute Peterson.  They had a very stormy passage, being driven back to the Irish coast after about a third of the way across the Atlantic.  After eleven weeks and five days they reached New York and were warmly greeted by Apostle John Taylor.  President Petersen took his company by rail to points in Illinois and Missouri until ready for the journey across the plains.  Jeppe Iversen and family waited at Alton, Illinois a short distance north of St. Louis, where most of the saints waited.

The Canute Petersen company left St. Louis on the S.S.Arabia up the Missouri River on 2 June 1856 for Florence Nebraska where they made preparations for the journey by ox team to Uta.  William and Margaret Morrison and other saints were with the company from St. Louis.  They left Florence on 26 June, and reached Salt Lake City on 20 September.

Caroline Christine Iversen was bornb 15 December 1842 at Westbjerg, Song, Aarhus Amt. Jutland, Denmark.  She was not yet 14 years old when they reached Utah.  Jeppe Iversen went to live with a Danish Settlement at Ephraim.  William Morrison lived about two years in Salt Lake City.  He was called and served for six weeks in March and April, 1858 in the Utah Militia, sent out to intercept the U.S. Troops under General Albert Sidney Johnston.  When released he found that his wife had moved to Ephraim and followed them there.

In the interval since arriving at Salt Lake City, Jeppe had persuaded Christina to accept the proposal of a brother Gubler to become his plural wife.  The event proved to be a definite indication of her mental integrity and her self reliance.  Brigham Young, about to perform the ceremony, asked her if she wanted to marry this man.  She very decisively replied "No" and President Young said to Bro. Gubler, "Take this child to her parents".  Later events proved that our name was to be Morrison.  Christiana had been employed in the family of William Morrison, and in "eight or ten months she became with consent of Margaret, his wife - sealed to him by Apostle Amos M. Lymon, in the presence of Warren Snow, George Peacock, and Caleb  Edwards, 11 July, 1859.  This ceremony was probably performed in Ephraim because father's journal stated "I take two wives with me from Ephraim".

Mother began her life very young.  Infant William G.C. Morrison was only a year old when she was employed in the family, and Williamina was only four months old when mother was married.

William Morrison was called with others to settle at what later became Mt. Pleasant.  Jepper Iversen and family moved to Mt. Pleasant.  The next five years life followeed and even tenor; she learned to love Margaret, and all of her children have imbibed that sentiment.  James M. was born 7 November 1860; and Amanda Pusilla 10 September 1864.

A letter dated 15 November 1864, from Apostle Orson Hyde to Bishop Seely, directed a call for William Morrison to lead 29 other brethren of Mt. Pleasant to settle on the Sevier River, as soon as they could prepare for the move.  On January 29, 1865, Father drove up to the meeting house at Richfield while Sunday meeting was in session, and by request of Bishop Higgins, bore his testimony.  It seems that Christiana and her two children mus have been with him, because he records that he purchased a  house which he could occupy in three weeks.

Under date of 2 September 1865 he writes: "Here at Mt. Pleasant all is well" and stated that he is in receipt of law books for Sevier County - Probate Judg.  Arriving so early in the year at Richfield, no doubt father and mother planted a garden; but there is no other means of support mentioned except in appointment as Probate Judge.  Father had taken another wife in Mt. Pleasant - Anne Marie Hansen, who had  lived next door in Mt. Pleasant for more than a year.  Hementions going to the grave of her  second  daughter, Hannah, while on this visit.

Mother's third child wss born at Richfield 25 November 1866, a son  named Alexander.  They were  not to enjoy peace for long.  The  Indians under Chief Black Hawk were driving their livestock away and killing the settlers when too few to oppose them.  Three were killed while on their way to Glenwood to do some shopping.  On 20 April 1867, Richfield was abandoned.  All of the settlers in Sevier returned to their other homes in larger settlements.

During this time Annie Christiana was born at Mt. Pleasant, 4 May, 1869.  She was named for grandmother Iversen.  Evacuation due to Indian depredatios lasted four years.  Father with mother and four children were among the first to return.  It was necessary for father to return to Mt. Pleasant, so for a few weeks mother and children and Jamse Petersen, age 21, tending livestock, were the only white inhabitants in the settlement. Baby Annie subsisted largely on milk the young man brought daily.  Soon there were eight families and two single men in the village.

(The foloowing incident is referred to the time of this first settlement as Juanita had heard it from her father.  My impression has always been that was when Annie was the baby.)  The Indians were uigly.  One young buck came to the home and demanded bread.  Mother was on her knees scrubbing the floor.  When she told him she  had no bread he lashed her with his riding whip.  She ignored him and he went out saying "heep brave squaw".

After the settlement was re-established, mother's home became a civic center.  Father mad application for a post office and became the first postmaster, as he had been in Mt. Pleasant.  The office was in her home, and the room was always thereafter called the office.  Later, when the Deseret Telegraph Co. extended their service to Richfield, the office was installed in the former postoffice room.

Hannah Jane Spencer came from Salina as Telegraph Operator.  She taught Amanda telegraphy, and when Mrs. Spencer left Richfield, Amanda became operator at age thirteen.  Mother and Amanda purchased the first reed organ in the village.  Choir rehearsals were held at our house.  This was at the time of the United Order - 1874 (19 April) to 24 November 1877 - when Elder Orson Hyde recommended "Prompt and decisive winding up of the Order."  The ward chorister requested  pssession of the organ, but mother vetoed the request.  This narrative already indicates that Christiana had little inclination for public service.  Pioneering, homemaking, child care, nursing, and the virtues essential to such activity made life worth living for her.

George Charles was born 8 September 1871 - one day after father's fifty first anniverseary.  Walter William was born 3 February, 1874, while father was representing Sevier County in the legislature.  William was born about 1877, and died in his second year, of scarlet fever.  Walter was in bed from a relapse of the same disease when Willie was buried.  This was the first death in the family, of the only child mother did not live to see married and with children, Lafayette was born 10 October 1880, and marriages began the next year.

Amanda P. Morrison married John August Hellstrom in the St. George Temple , 28 September 1881.  I remember the delicious grapes (pickled) they brought home with them.  James  B.  followed his fiance, who had moved to Tuba, Arizona.  He remained for some time to work for  John W. Young as coachamn driving four horse team between St. John and Flagstaff.  He married Caroline Amanda Foutz in the St. George Temple 30 January 1882, on the way home.

Father was plagued with stomach trouble; but to evade the U.S. officers harassing the L.D.S. elders who had plural wives.  He purchased a ranch in Millcreek Canyon,  a tributary  of Clearcreek.  Mother pioneered with him this first summer (1883), really enjoying it when there was no Indian Trouble.  At the end of the harvest she returned with daughter Amanda.  Juanita, born 12 July 1883 came to care for mother and Lula and I tended Juanita.  I could never thereafter sit near a cradle without keeping it in motion.

Lula was the ninth child, and the end of that function proved very hard for mama.  She became so ill that all the family gathered about her in tears.  Annie took me aside and asked me to go by myseld and pray for mama.  Young as I was,  about 10, I went where a clump of wild currant bushes grew and offered such a prayer as a child would, and returned to find the family still weeping.  Unnoticed, the climax had passed.  Days before mama  "Cad" had been amused at a soap figure of a man nursing his toe.  Mother said, "Cad", look at that sap man".  That set them all laughing.  In a few days she was active both indoors and out, as she had always been.

Amanda's second child was born and died 3 July 1885, named Celeste.  Zitelle was born 21 August 1886.  John August Jr. was born 27 January 1889 and Amanda died of puerperal fever.  This was a year of great trial for mother.  Grandmaother Ivesen died 14 February; thirteen days after Amanda.  She had lived for years with Aunt Elizabeth Salisbury. She had been almost a daily visitor with Christiana.  She walked four blocks morning and evening, but at this time was growing weaker.  Five year old Lula would meet her and go part way home with her almost until her death.  Father died 26 August 1889, at his ranch, and was buried 28 August at Richfield - the same day as little Johnny, who had been cared for bhy cousin Hannah Salisbury.

John A Hellstrom was soon called to the Swedish mission and Juanita and Zitelle lived as part of our family.  Soon after he returned he married a convert who had preceded him to Utah.  They lived in Richfield fo some time and then moved with his family to Salt Lake City, where he found employment at Z.C.M.I  He was an expert accountant and penman.  Juanita returned later and grew up  with Lula.

During the eighties, Martin Andersen, a cousin of Christiana, came as a convert to Utah, from Minnesota.  He lived as one of our family several years.  Being  a skilled mason, built of stone two rooms replacing the "office" and one bedroom, with bedrooms in the half-story overhead.  His sister who lived in Arizona sent a teen-age son for Martin to care for during the summer.

Another summer in the eighties mother had a respite from unusual cares.  She paid a visit to her older sister living with her daughter Ardena Leslie in Salt  Lake City.  Aunt Maria was working in the Temple.  Another family living nearby was caring for an orphan boy from British India, heir to a small fortune.  The  child seemed to be neglected, and now entertained him with storiesof farm life.   Bert learned when mother would return home.  After she was on the  train and well on her way he came into the car where she  was.  She brought him home with her, and kept him until his guardians came and got a court order for his custody.  Mother told her story to Judge Nephi J. Bates.  Bert was remanded  to the care of his relatives, who were admonished by the court as to his care.

Uncle Peter Iversen, eluding the federal officers who were making it very distressing for those who had plural wives, came to our house very sick with pneumonia.  Mother made him as comfortable as possible.  She prepared a bran poultice to cover him completely except his head.  This home remedy proved very effective.  In a few days he was able to go on his way.

Mother and Annie financed my course in the Normal School of the Deseret University, now the Utah University, from November 1888 to June 1891.  Bishop Joseph Pollard, of the fifteenth ward and father were converts and close friends in England and in St. Louis.  I boarded at the Pollard home.

Annie married John W. Orrock 23 December 1892, in Manti temple.  She had been teaching beginners' grades in Richfield School.  When viva was just old enough to stray away one block down to Main Street, (Annie was teaching again) and mother was tending Viva)  this happened a second time.  Her mama said to her "Didn't I tell you I'd spank you if you ran away again?"  Viva replied "I didn't run mama, I dis alk, I dis alk."  She didn't get a spanking.  A few years later while John was on a mission Annie was teaching again and mother was with her children either at their home or ours.

Annielived only a few days after the birth of her fifth child, which was named for its mother.  Christiana now cared for the children of her second daughter during their tender years.  There wer four - Viva, Cyril, Beatrice, and Annie.  Leal had died in infancy.  Artificial feeding was not so common then as now, but Annie faired well.

Lulu married Lorenzo Barr, and when  they had four children, moved to Illinois.  Her husband  contracted tuberculosis and they moved to Arkansas.  Here they became destitute, and mother sent fare for  them to come  and live with her.  The father went to his own people.

Mother had me build two houses on the old homestead; one a five room place for rent, the other one  a small home for herself, with a cellar for milk, butter, etcl, and shelving for cured meats, fruit, and vegetables.  She was well known for her excellence of  these things; and a cellar was essential  for her kind of living  comfort.
Later she sold the new homes to Alex and returned to the old one.

This is where Lula and her four children shared the home with her; Lula worked for the White Sewing Machine Co. and mother cared for the children of her youngest child.

On the 27th of January 1916, after the children were all in bed, mother and Lula went to a cottage meeting in ghe home of Samuel G. Clark, on the corner west from our own home.  A blizzard came on which would have made it disagreeable if they had to go far.  Lula slept in the bedroom down stairs and mother upstairs.  To make the picture realistic, I let grand-daughter Roma tell the final story quoting just as it was received from her 5 April 1955.

"I remember the family story, and it is hard to sort out my own memories from that.  I do know that grandmother came to the big room over the kitchen on her way to bed.  She did arrrange the covers over me, and I think Enid.  I remember the way she took the top cover by one corner and shook it over us so that it settled down to cover us.  I also remember waking the next morning when the school bell rang.  I think it was 8:30.  I think I went into her room and realized something was wrong, and that I went downstairs for mother.  I'm sure I had very little realization of what it meant, because it was my first experience with death."

No sweeter tribute could be told than this recital of mother's solicitation for her grandchildren before lying down for her final sleep.  When Dr. Neill came to see her he  said; "She never tasted death".
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"WHY DOES MOTHER TEACH US TO SERVE THE LORD?"

This lesson assignment may be suitable for a final tribute to mother.

To analyze this question is to answer it.  "God's work and His Glory" is to lead man to eternal life; and eternal life means growth, progress, and increase without end.  Whatever is true service of God.

And who is mother?  She who faces death to give  us life or birth; who, when racked wit so great that the death would be sweet relief, yet clings to life to shield and nurture us; who counts no task too great, no do too long.  If we be made happier or better; who shares every sorrow, shields from every danger, sympathizes with us in defeat, glows with pride at every triumph - the guardian angel always with us.  This is Mother !

"Behold the handmaid of the Lord."

This is why she teacxhes us to serve Him.  

At the death of Amanda P. Morrison Hellstrom, the verses below were written by Maria Miller, then telegraph operator at Beaver, Utah, as attribute to her friend of childhood and this at the time of mother's death.  She also shided me for saying in the account I gave the "Reaper" that she was experience left little to be desired.

MOTHER

Sweet friend of the needy kind helper of youth, 

Firm guardian of virtue, bright lover of truth,

Thy sleep shall be peaceful, unbroken they rest;

Thy spirit disburdened, shall sleep on God's breast.

In songs with the angels thou takest thy part,

The Glory of heaven now filleth thine heart.

Earth's woes now may languish - no more for thy brow

Their thorns shall they weave, Thou art slumbering now.

The river of heaven now laveth thy feet;

Fair angels shall twine the a bridal wreath sweet,

And am'ranth immortal shall crown thy fair head -

In heaven they deem the not, loved one, as dead.

Sweet,  sweet be thy welcome to life with the blest,

Where loved ones rejoice and warm peace is thy rest.

God grant we may meet thee on heaven's bright shore,

To part with thee, dear one, in grief never more.

(First two lines of last verse revised by W.W.M.O.)