Recollections

By Effie Erickson Hulbert (Carl A. Hulbert's Mother)

Foreword:

These writings contain the random recollections of Effie Erickson Hulbert recorded by her at various times during her lifetime.  On the pages that follow, the words, thoughts, memories, and emotions are of my mother.

My Great Grandmother

Elsa Marie Christensen Anderson was born in Skjove Wjoring, Denmark.  Her home was at the edge of a beautiful park.

When C.J. Christensen and James Frost were on a mission to Denmark, they visited this place.  They said it was the most beautiful place they had ever seen and knelt down and thanked God that their Mother had the courage and faith to leave her beautiful home and family for her religion.

Elsa Marie came to Utah later with her sons after her only daughter, Johanna Marie, had embraced the gospel and left her father, mother, and brothers. Her father never joined the church.  He died in the home that he and his wife, Elsa, had always lived.

Elsa's son, Andrew, joined the church and with his sweetheart, then left for America.  On the way, she took sick and was very ill.  They were married, but she passed away before she ever reached Utah.  Andrew came onto Utah and stayed in his sister, Johanna's home in Ephriam.  This is where he met and married Gertrude Madison.  They had 3 children, Andrew, Peter, and Caroline.  Then he was called on a mission to Denmark.  While he was away, his wife died, and it was a sad homecoming for him.  Later, he married Maron,  and had the following children:  Charles, Wilford, Mary, Byron, Esther, Iva and Clara.  Elsa's second and youngest son, Swen, also came to Utah.  Swen married Eliza Cook.

Elsa Marie Anderson died at the age of 66 and is buried in Redmond, Utah.  She was a sweet, loveable person.   She endured many hardships and trials, but at her death, she had not a gray hair.  She was always happy and thankful that she had the privilege of coming to Utah for the gospel.

My Grandmother

Johanna Marie Anderson Frost was born in Skjove Wjoring, Denmark, January 30, 1859. Her home was at the edge of that beautiful forest of which her father was the keeper.  Her father was a man full of life, very sociable, and played well on the violin and so became a great favorite with royalty.  Others came to the forest to hunt and he acted as guide.

Johanna Marie was the only daughter, there being three brothers.  At the age of 14, she went to a dress maker's to learn sewing.  She stayed three years, doing all kinds of work in the house as well as hauling manure and cleaning pig pens to pay for her learning.

After finishing her course in sewing, she went to work in a large estate as seamstress. One evening she was suppose to sit up and wait for the ladies - to assist them with their cloaks after a party.  She dressed herself up in a guest's cloak and muff and sat down to wait.  She fell asleep and the guests found her.  This caused much merriment, but she was greatly embarrassed.  It was while she was in this employ she learned of the Mormons. The house lady told the girls that missionaries were preaching that night at a family in the area.  Johanna Marie and two of the girls decided to go and hear them, just for a lark. The home proved to be some miles away and when they arrived, about 10 o'clock, the meeting was about over.  A young man, Jens Christian Frost was preaching.  Johanna Marie, being considered one of the most beautiful girls in Wjoring, naturally drew the attention of the young missionary.  It was love at first sight.  Through him she learned of the gospel and joined the church.

When her father learned of her intention to become a Mormon, he told her to leave his home.  He put her trunk out of the house and told her never to come back.

She went to the home of the Wheelwrights (Wheelmakers) and served them, helping them to get ready for a trip to America.  As Jens Christian Frost, his father and mother were among the people sailing on the same boat with the Wheelwrights (Wheelmakers), Johanna Marie being engaged to Jens, decided to travel with them to America.

She went to bid her parents goodbye.  A very touching scene occurred at this time.  Her father ran after her wagon and begged her to come back.  She went on her way and met Jens in Copenhagen.

They sailed on the "Benjamin Franklin" on April 6, 1862.  After a week, Johanna Marie and Jens Christian Frost were married.  They were on the boat nine long weeks.  During that time, measles broke out, fifty children and two grown people died and were buried at sea.

The Wheelwrights buried four of their children.  It was heart rendering to see the mother as one by one of her children were put on a slab and lowered into the water.  The drinking water was so bad that it was thick and stringy as molasses.  Many of the passengers were sick with dysentery and Johanna Marie was among the sick.  She had been so ill, for so long, that she was very weak when they landed in America.  After landing, they journeyed on to Council Bluffs, Nebraska.  Here they waited six weeks for the teams to come from Utah to take them across the plains.  Johanna Marie worked for two tin plates and two tin cups of which she was very proud.  There was only room for provisions in the wagons and all who were able had to walk.  Johanna Marie walked all the way from Council Bluffs, Nebraska to Utah, her only ride being on a horse behind an Indian, crossing the Platt River.

On their arrival in Utah, they went to Pleasant Grove for a short time.  From there they moved to Ephriam to join some of their Scandinavian friends.  In Ephriam, they lived in a dug-out.  It was here that Marie Elizabeth, their first child was born.  While she was sick in bed with her child, an Indian tried to get into their home but was driven away by a neighbor.  Shortly after this, a company of Saints consisting of the Wheelwrights, Wybees, and others, went to Salt Lake for their endowments.  Johanna and Jens Christian and their baby went with them.  When they returned home, they learned that seven men had been killed by Indians.  Some of these men were their neighbors and good friends.  As they neared home, they saw a group of horsemen whom they thought were Indians as their guns glittered in the sun.   The men drove their wagons in a circle to protect themselves. They were so frightened that Johanna begged her husband to kill her and the baby rather than let the Indians capture them.  As the horsemen came nearer, they proved to be scouts out looking for the Indians who had killed the men the day before.

They soon built their first house, a three room adobe with a mud roof.  Two rooms had mud floors and one room a board floor.  A fireplace was used for cooking for a number of years.  Then one day, Jens came home with a little four hole stove on a wheel barrow.  How happy they were to have a real stove.

Two more wives were added to the family and in this little house, eighteen children were born.  The women did all the spinning, weaving, soap making, candle making, and many other things.  Johanna Marie did all the sewing for the entire family.  Even making cloth shoes and braiding hats.  The second wife did all the weaning.  The third wife and all the girls did the cooking and cleaning.  They went to the tannery and got cow hair which they washed, carded, spun and dyed and wove into a beautiful carpet.  It was sent to Salt Lake to a fair and won first prize.  It lay on their parlor floor for many years.  Later, a large new home of 12 rooms was built.

Johanna Marie, while caring for such a large family of eight, still found time to do a great deal of church work.  Her husband made coffins and she sewed burial clothes.  After the third wife, Sena died, Johanna took her family of children and cared for them. Johanna's husband went back to Denmark on a mission for the church.  Her oldest son performed a mission in Norway.

Johanna died very suddenly July 12, 1907, at the age of 68.  Jens Christian died two years before her.   Johanna lived to see all her children married in the temple.

A reunion of the Anderson family was held in Vernal, Utah, in September 1939.  Record shows 198 descendants from the Hans Anderson family, the parents of Johanna Marie.

My Mother

Eda Martine Erickson, was born in Ephraim, Utah, February 22, 1867.  She married Carl Wilhelm Erickson, also known as "Charles William" September 12, 1888, in the Manti Temple.

Mother and father with their three children moved to Richfield in 1896.  My sister, Coral, was eight years old and me, Effie Lena, two years old.  Father went to work for the railroad and he bought a home for the family.  There were now six children:  William, Coral, Effie, Donna, Kenneth, and Webber.

Father was the son of Sven Peter Erickson and Nicolina Erickson.  He came to Utah with his parents and brothers (a sister had died in Norway).  Father was born in Oslo, Norway, and was eleven years old when he moved to Ephriam, Utah.  His family was a hard working family of Swedish descent.  Father had a nice bass voice and all of us enjoyed his singing.  My fondest memories are of the evenings we gathered to sing hymns.

Mother was blessed beyond her share of 'art ability.'  She made beautiful organdy flowers for funerals.  She took an old chisel to the blacksmith and drew on it a forget-me-not flower and asked him to cut it out for her.  She then used it as a cutting press and cut her organdy flowers by the dozen.  I am sure that many people remember her lovely flowers.

She made beautiful hats she would braid from straw.  She took me to fields to select the finest straw we could find after the farmers had harvested.  She was very particular and we had to show her each straw before we placed it in our basket.  She soaked the straw in water for several hours and then split them to make flowers for our hats.

Mother loved flowers and we had both a lovely flower garden and vegetable garden.  Mother use to bleach celery long before it was sold on the market.

Mother was chosen as the first counselor in the Relief Society and they built a new brick meeting hall by collecting all the eggs the chickens laid on Sunday.  I use to take a basket and go door-to-door collecting the eggs and if they had no eggs, they donated money.

She made an accordion pleating machine or board.  She either pleated the material for the people in the town or loaned it to them.  Along these innovative lines she helped my younger brother, Kenneth, make a contrivance that made hooks and eyes.

Mother died very young following an unsuccessful goiter operation.  Father remarried Ida Jensen Hicks, but was divorced a year later.  Father died of cancer in 1924.  Both mother and father are buried in Richfield, Utah.  I loved them very much and their memory is very precious to me.

Effie Lena Erickson Hulbert

I was born in Ephriam, Utah, on February 19, 1894.  I was named and blessed by my grandfather, J.C. Frost, on the 3rd day of May, 1894.  We moved to Richfield, Utah, when I was two years old.

God had given me a special gift - that of a voice.  I tried to show my appreciation by singing when and where I was asked:  hundreds of church meetings, hundreds of funerals, Salt Lake and Idaho temples; the first singing mother's group, conventions and at the dedications of new ward and stake houses.

Lizzie Westman Hansen was a wonderful woman and was especially gifted in music.  She spent many hours teaching my brother, Bill, and me duets, and we sang for many occasions.  I am grateful for the many hours she gave us so generously.

When I was very young, I was the primary chorister.  I was so short they had me stand on a stool so the children could see me.  I taught primary and Sunday school while still in my teens.

I have enjoyed working in Primary, MIA., but mostly Relief Society - holding both Ward and Stake positions as well as musical positions.  I served as Stake Missionary for 29 months.

On July 12, 1916, I was married to Arthur Davies Hulbert in the Manti Temple.  We were blessed with six children.  Richard, Eda, Carl, Eleanor, Gerald, and Patricia.

Arthur, my husband, took ill on December 4, 1957, and passed away on January 18, 1958, at the age of 64 years.

I am very blessed and I love my children.  My prayer is that I have taught them to walk uprightly before the Lord.