Thursday, April 28, 2011

Ernest Fountain Langford

  • Name: Ernest Fountain Langford
  • Born: September 5, 1888, Junction, Piute, Utah
  • Died: December 1, 1983, Ogden, Weber, Utah
  • Related through: Dan's grandfather Heber Langford

Ernest Fountain Langford was born September 5, 1888 in Piute County, Utah, son of James Harvey Langford Jr. and Rose Ellen Jackson.

Ernest and his brothers and sisters grew up in pioneering circumstances. He was only three or four years old when his family moved to old Mexico and he spent his entire boyhood and young manhood in Mexico. When the family was driven out of Mexico in 1912, Ernest and some of his brothers went back and forth between Tucson, Arizona and San Jose, Mexico bringing out the wheat crop they had been forced to leave behind them. Several times they just missed being discovered by the revolutionaries.

He married Zina Charlotte Chlarson September 24, 1914 in Tucson, Arizona. They were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple, October 8, 1916. She was the daughter of Heber Otto Chlarson and Ida Isabella Norton.

Zina Charlotte Chlarson is on the
right
Ernest and brother James Harvey Langford III
Just after their marriage they moved to Hurley, New Mexico where Ernest had a job in the mines. Soon after taking this job, he took a job in the mines as a plumber’s helper. He realized that although it meant a cut in salary it was an opportunity to learn a trade. With this in mind, and with his wife’s encouragement, he applied for and almost completed a thorough correspondence course in plumbing and heating.

In about 1919 or 1920, Ernest took his wife and his then three children and moved to Ogden, Utah. He took a job with a contractor doing plumbing but soon decided to go start his own business. When he first started he didn’t even own a truck, but from this humble start he built a successful contracting business. Except for an unsuccessful effort at homesteading during the depression years, he always worked in plumbing and heating contracting.

About 1937, he and his wife bought a ten acre piece of property during a tax sale. They paid for their new home as they built it and changed an old brick yard into a lovely home site. Since then they subdivided the ten acres and it became a nice residential district.

Charlotte was a wonderful helpmate to her husband. She was extremely good at sewing and always made the children’s clothes, even her boy’s shirts. Every fall she would make several shirts for each of the boys — blue for Ernie, green for Jim and tan for Heber. She was also good at remodeling clothes and when she was finished with them they looked completely new. She always had the best dressed children on the block and for very little money.

She loved to garden and they had a large garden every summer. Each fall would see her shelves packed with fruits, vegetables and meats that she had canned. She had a cow and would make her own cottage cheese, butter, ice cream and cheese. She also would make her own baby food.

Ernest and Charlotte always seemed to be helping a relative. Charlotte’s parents came to live with them in their old age. She was the oldest child in her family and had helped raise her brothers and sisters and Ernest and Charlotte’s home was kind of a second home to the Chlarsons.

Both were members of the LDS Church. The gospel was important to them and they encouraged their children to be active in the Church. Charlotte was seldom without some church job. She was especially active in the Relief Society but worked in Primary and Sunday School as well. They were certainly wonderful examples to their children, teaching them the value of hard work, honesty and thrift.

Charlotte kept busy crocheting and quilting until shortly before her death from cancer in 1966. Ernest lived alone in his home on Orchard Avenue in Ogden for many years. He continued to garden well into his 80s. He passed away in 1983. 

This article was taken from the book "The Progenitors and Descendants of Fielding Langford" by his daughter Ida-Rose Langford Hall.

Friday, April 22, 2011

George Allemann Sr.

  • Name: George Allemann Sr.
  • Born: August 6, 1840 Tschappina, Graubunden, Switzerland
  • Died: January 31, 1932 Logan, Utah
  • Related through: Dan's grandfather Lynn Crookston

George Allemann Sr. was born August 6, 1840 high in the Alps in Tschappina, Graubunden, Switzerland to Abraham and Sara Marchion Allemann.

On July 12, 1842 when he was two years old, his father died of pneumonia. January 20, 1843, about six months later his mother gave birth to a little sister, Elsbeth. His mother died five days after the baby was born. Thus four little children, Anna Barbara, Matheus, George, and Baby Elsbeth were left with no parents. Little George went to live with his grandfather, who was a widower with two grown sons. When he was old, he still remembered how his grandfather took him by the hand and led him to his home.

The two little girls, Anna Barbara and Elsbeth went to live with an aunt, Katharina Marchion Brunett. She had a baby about the age of little Elsbeth so she nursed them like twins. Anna Barbara was about nine, so she was a big help. She tended babies, did housework, helped feed the cattle and gather wood. She worked very hard and often was wet and cold, she developed rheumatism at an early age and suffered of it all her life.

Matthew (Matheus) was about five, he went to live with his Godfather who had no children and somewhat spoiled him.

Little George became very close to his grandfather who became both father and mother to him. His grandfather, Matthew Marchion was a very religious man and taught him to pray, to be honest and upright in everything and to keep the Sabbath Day holy. They never did any work on the Sabbath Day. Little George slept with him and remembered him praying sometimes until he fell asleep. When beggars came to his house he would always give them something to eat, he would never turn them away hungry.

In 1848, his Uncle Benedict got married and brought his wife to live with them, so they finally had a housekeeper. When the babies came along George became a nurse and servant.

The four children lived with relatives for thirteen years, then all moved back into their parent’s home to live together and keep house for themselves.

In 1862, Elsbeth married Christian Tester and moved to Saffien, his home town. In December 1863, Elsbeth, like her mother, died giving birth to a baby girl. Anna Barbara was by then sorely afflicted with rheutimism, and couldn't go to see her in her sickness or attend the funeral of her only little sister. This was a sad blow to her.

May 8, 1863, George married Anna Maria Allemann. They were very happy and loved each other dearly. She was eight years older than him, very neat, intelligent and could write beautifully. Two years after their marriage, December 12, 1865 Anna Maria gave birth to a baby girl. Two weeks later December 26 she passed away. Losing his dear wife was a terrible a blow to him. The baby was named Anna Maria after her mother. Anna Barbara (Aunt Bassie) moved in to care for the baby the best she could with her afflicted body.

About eight years later he married Anna Maria Gredig, also born in Tschappina and the daughter of Johann Peter Gredig and Ellsbeth Allemann. March 10, 1873 their first son, John Peter arrived.

In the spring of 1873, a man named Buchli and his family came to father and wanted to rent a house from him. Father had heard that these people belonged to another church that was very unpopular, called the Mormon Church. He thought they would not take it if he would charge them a big price, but they rented it anyway. One day Father went up to see how they were getting along, he found the man reading the Bible. Father thought he couldn't be so bad if he was reading the Bible. They talked and Father soon found that Mr. Buchli knew more about the Bible than Father did. After that Father went to see him often. They talked about Mormonism and through the Bible he could prove the truth of his beliefs. Father believed it and told his wife and sister about it. They studied it together and soon wanted baptism. Their folks became very prejudiced against them. Mother's parents came and took her away and wanted her to leave father if he would join that church. She soon came back to him. May 5, 1874, he was baptized with his wife and sister by a missionary, Elder J. Keller. They wanted to go to Zion, but were unable to sell their property for several years.

April 12, 1875 their second child was born, they named her Sarah. She died in September of the same year. April 12, 1877, I was born to them and they named me Sarah also. Rulon S. Wells was in Switzerland and he blessed her. In the fall of 1878 a young man came to father and said he knew a buyer for his property, they agreed on a deal and made preparations to immigrate to Zion.

Their relatives became more prejudiced than ever and tried to hinder them in every way possible. An aunt to his little girl of his first marriage took her by force out of school and away to another town. Father followed her and finally located her. She clung to his neck and wanted to return with him but they tore her away by force. The law, the officers and everybody were against him and he was unable to get her back. Anna Barbara, father's sister who raised her from when she was a baby was heartbroken. She tried to follow her on the train but never saw her again.

May 11, 1879, their fourth child, Abraham was born. He was a delicate, sickly child and mother wasn't able to nurse him. They believed the midwife gave her something to dry her milk and prevent them from going to America. When he was only five weeks old Father, Mother, Anna Barbara, father's sister and their three children sailed for America, June 17, 1879.

They had no idea where they would settle when they arrived. A missionary, Henry Flamm advised them to settle in Bear Lake, a newly settled valley. They took the train to Evanston, Wyoming, where several teams were waiting to take the emigrants to Bear Lake. It was a very rough, frightening ride by wagon. This little immigrant family couldn't speak the language and the teamster was drunk, whipping the horses so they seemed out of control. Uncle Peter said a rider on horseback came along and knew they would not make it down the Laketown dugways. He took over and drove them the rest of the way. Uncle Peter knew the Lord was surely protecting them. They arrived at Paris, Idaho, at midnight on July 17, 1879.

A few days after they arrived, Father and Mother were offered a job to milk cows and do diary work at Nouman. They moved out there in a little cabin with only their trunks for a table and milk stools to sit on. Uncle Peter, who was six and didn't understand English, remembered how some neighbor children played with him. They had a wagon and let him coast on the hill.

After a few weeks, they got some furniture and were quite comfortable. Later in the fall they moved to Montpeliar. The next fall in 1880, they bought a house and lot in Montpeliar. This was a very cold house, the windows froze during the winter. The children would sit on the stairs behind the stove to keep warm, but they all kept well. November 5, 1881, George was born in Montpelier.

Father worked in the Temple Saw Mill in Logan Canyon, as a volunteer from his Stake. He drove a team from the sawmill in Temple Fork of Logan Canyon with sawed lumber. At the Forks he would exchange his sleigh for an empty sleigh and return to the sawmill. Coming from the Alps in Switzerland he was familiar with the sound and wind of an approaching snowslide. On one trip he yelled to the other teamsters to abandon their sleigh and climb to the opposite mountain side. Teams were buried and killed.

Father took up a quarter section of land in Bern, down by the river. He built a little one room cabin with a dirt roof. In 1883 diphtheria broke out in Montpelier and many died. Just a day or two before the town was quarantined and the road closed, Father took his family to Bern. Here, daughters Elsbeth was born in 1883 and Maria was born in 1885.

June 5, 1887, Mother gave birth to a pair of twins, a girl, Anna Barbara and boy, Matthew. The little one room cabin they lived in didn't give them very much shelter any more as the roof leaked terribly. When it rained you would see our auntie holding the umbrella over Mother's bed to keep the rain off her and the babies. Father went up Montpelier Canyon and got out a lot of logs, had them sawed square and had a five room house built with a shingled roof. In the spring of 1889, we moved into our new home.

In 1889 the dreaded diseases malaria and scarlet fever broke out. All the children were sick. For six weeks Mother never had her clothes off except to change. Our two littlest girls died, Maria, and Elsbeth just a week apart. They are buried in the south west corner or the Ovid Cemetery.

June 16, 1890 another baby girl was born. They named her Emeline. Benjamin Martin was born in May 2, 1893.

Mother was a hard working woman and never complained. She spun the wool and knit all the stockings for the family and sewed the clothes by hand.

Auntie or Aunt Bassie (Annie Barbara) as we called her, helped with the children and the work as much as she could with her crippled hands. She was a dear soul and the only relative we ever knew. We all loved her dearly. She had a chance to marry into polygamy to J. Kunz. She decided not to marry but he wanted to have her sealed to him after her death.

Edwin Leonard was born September 7, 1895. Soon after, father bought a ranch up in the mountains by Montpelier, a little valley we called Ephraim. He traded a beautiful team of black horses to John Cozzens for this ranch. In the biography of Emily Almira Cozzens Rich, written by Ezra J. Poulsen, she tells about the severe winter of 1892 and 93. "Snow fell to the depth of 4 to 6 feet. John Cozzens hay gave out and there was none for sale in the valley. He and his animals were snowed in and he saw practically all of his live stock, seventy head, die of starvation and cold. In the spring of 1983 he disposed of his ranch as best he could and returned to Montpelier. He never recovered from his financial lose."

Father went there with his older children every summer to milk cows and make cheese. He took neighbors milk cows for the summer and gave them cheese in return. He and Peter spent some winters up there feeding the cattle. They skied all the way to the valley for supplies and mail. Mother and Auntie stayed with the younger children in Bern.

In the fall of 1899 Father and Mother with nine children went to Logan to the temple to have their endowments and sealings done. It took us two days to get there and two days back. The following spring in May, 1900, George took sick with diphtheria. One after another got it, some not as bad as others. Father and some of the children that were better went back to the summer ranch. My sister, Anna Barbara took sick on Decoration Day and died June 11, 1900. I was up at the ranch at the time. I shall never forget the time when we received word that she had passed on. This was a hard trial for us all. She was a sweet, loving girl. A week or so after she died, Benjamin took sick up at the ranch. They took him home to Bern. We thought he was getting better, but it left his heart bad and he died August 1, 1900. October, 1901 J. Peter left for a mission to Germany.

Father had left the Ephraim ranch and bought a ranch on Crow Creek from a "squatter." It was just south from Wells Canyon. Several of the children took up homesteads to make the land legal. Emeline homesteaded the ranch house and spring. Abraham homesteaded just south of the creek, Matthew the south fields, Sarah and Edwin east of the main road.

The following three or four summers after my husband Adolph Boss's death, I with my little girl Anna stayed at the ranch and milked cows. In the spring of 1910 just as we were going back to Bern, I found I wasn't feeling well. I went anyway. When I got back to Bern I broke out with small pox. They all got it. As soon as some got better they fumigated them and went to the ranch. I went again with Anna and stayed at the ranch.

I bought a lot in the Logan 10th ward and had a house built for five hundred dollars. Mother and Father came to live with Anna and me.

April 14, 1924, Mother took a stroke in the morning while she was still in bed. At first she couldn't speak, but thankfully her speech returned. It left her weak and ailing and often she got smothering spells and she had to be out in the open air in order to breathe. She lingered on in this way until the summer of 1926 when she got worse. She got dropsy again and was very sick all summer. Emeline and Byron lived a few blocks away and were a great help. We took care of her day and night until the last eight nights when I had to call the Relief Society sisters in to help. For many weeks she couldn't lie down. She died, sitting up in her chair, September 25, 1926. She would have been 78 in November, she was buried in the Logan Cemetery.

Father didn't go back to Bern, but stayed in Logan and worked in the temple continuously when it was open. Even at his advanced age, he walked almost a mile each direction. When he got too weak to walk to the temple, Brother Bowman took him over in his car.

On August 6, 1930, all his children went with him to the temple to celebrate his 90th birthday. There were thirteen in all, seven children, four daughter-in-laws and one son-in-law. President Shepherd made a nice speech in honor of Father and his family and mentioned him being able to come to the temple at his age. He held him up as an example to the young people. He had father dismiss the meeting. Father went to the temple two days after his birthday, then the temple closed for the summer.

He died January 31, 1932, at the age of 92 and was buried February 3, in the Logan Cemetery. The morning of his funeral there was two feet of beautiful fresh snow. The city opened the roads in our driveway and to the church and cemetery.

Most or the following is taken from a history written by Sarah Allemann Boss. Published in "History of Bear Lake Pioneers" 1968, by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Bear Lake County, Idaho. Some additions were made by Lynn Crookston. Thanks to Grandma Melva for sharing it with us.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Joseph Smith Nelson

  • Name: Joseph Smith Nelson
  • Born: December 20, 1838 Caldwell County, Missouri
  • Died: April 6, 1911 Star Valley, Wyoming
  • Related through: Dan's grandmother Elvira Wilde

Joseph Smith Nelson, son of Edmund Nelson and Jane Taylor, was born December 20, 1838, at Calwell County, Missouri. In his boyhood days he was well acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith. With his parents he came to Utah in 1850 and settled in Ogden, afterward at Mountainville. In 1857 he moved to Payson, then to Cache Valley in 1860 and settled in Franklin, Idaho where he was captain of the Minute Men for four years. He was married in 1861 to Hannah J. Patten. They went to Bear Lake in 1864. They settled in Star Valley in 1886 and lived there most of the time until his death which occurred April 6, 1911. Death was caused by organic heart trouble. He was the father of 16 children. He died a faithful Latter-day Saint.

From his obituary found in the archives of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers.

Friday, April 15, 2011

William Hazelgrove Pidcock

  • William Hazelgrove Pidcock
  • Born: January 18, 1832 Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England
  • Died: November 27, 1906 Ogden, Utah
  • Related through: Erin's grandmother Margaret Udy 

William Hazelgrove Pidcock was born January 18, 1832 in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. He was the only child of Thomas Pidcock and Martha Hazelgrove. Thomas Pidcock was a military officer, so during the war between India and England he took his wife Martha to India with him. After their return to England their son William was born. Both parents had been married before and had older, grown children from these previous marriages.

William’s father died when he was 12 and at 13 he became an apprentice to a man named Sam Vickers to learn the trade of whitesmith. The contract required him to stay until he was 21. In his journals he stated that the family he apprenticed with starved the help and he would go to his mother’s each day for food.

In 1847, when he was 16 years old, he stopped in the town square to hear some preaching. He listened to two missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He liked their message and attended Sunday night meetings. After reading and studying he soon knew the doctrine they preached was true and on May 2, 1848 he was baptized.

There was persecution and oppressive antagonism at work which he endured patiently until he was 20 years old. Then it became intense and he broke his apprenticeship and left with the approval of a lawyer and the owner’s son, George Vickers.

He left Mansfield on foot with two pence and his spare clothes in a box. At Chesterfield he stopped at a lodging house and found an LDS family that helped him. He soon had work and preached in different towns. After two years, having saved enough, he bid his mother goodbye and left for America on the ship “Marshfield” The ship left Liverpool, England on April 8, 1854 and were bound for New Orleans. Four days after setting sail he married Hannah Blench, an LDS girl he had been courting for awhile.

From New Orleans, they traveled up the Mississippi and traveled emigrant style in covered wagons to Salt Lake City in the William A. Empey Company. They arrived in Salt Lake City October 23, 1854.

He started a blacksmith shop on Main Street in Salt Lake City and lived there for a year before the family moved to Ogden. Here he purchased a lot on 27 Adam Street and a tent to live in. He eventually built an adobe house on this property.

He was a member of the Weber County militia and was involved in the Utah War of 1857. In 1860 he was among the volunteers to drive an ox team to Omaha to help bring more emigrants to Utah. In Omaha he met George Q. Cannon who asked him to return with a handcart company, which he did. There were 21 handcarts and eight wagons in this company. They arrived in Salt Lake City September 24, 1860. Then he joined his family again in Ogden.

In Ogden, they started a store and sold all kinds of medicinal herbs. Hannah had training as a nurse and William became knowledgeable in the use of herbs. Their store was very successful and William also became manager of the Ogden branch of the ZCMI store when it was run a co-operative store. He proved to be a very successful merchant.

William returned to England in 1869 and 1870 for another mission. He labored in the area where he had lived and helped many of the converted families come to Utah.

Both William and Hannah loved the gospel and had gone through much for it. After talking it over, they decided to live the law of polygamy and Hannah gave her consent for William to take other wives. He married Fannie Branson August 5, 1870. On October 31, 1870 he married Annie Burton and on December 23, 1872 he married Annie’s sister Sarah Burton. Each family had their own home. We are descended from Sarah.

Both Burton sisters married William just after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley. They were also from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England, where William was from. He made rooms from them in the upper level of his store on Washington Avenue. In 1873 the balance of the Burton family came to Utah including their mother and father and some brothers.

When the government started cracking down on polygamy, William was sent to prison for “unlawful cohabitation.” He was sentenced for 13 months but was released after six months possibly for good behavior.

When the Manifesto was given and approved my members of the Church in 1890 Hannah met with the other three wives. At her suggestion they decided that William should stay with Annie since she had the youngest family. She also advised them to each get her home in her own name before having the marriage dissolved.

Annie and William decided to move to Cardston, Alberta, Canada. They arrived there in 1885 and remained there for seven and a half years before returning to Ogden. In Ogden, William acquired a small store and adjoining house where this family lived. He died at his home on November 27, 1906.

This article is based on two articles I found in the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers archive. One was written by a granddaughter Mary Pidcock Jordan and I don’t know the name of the other author.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Henry Getz

  • Name: Henry Getz
  • Born: December 19, 1935 Bonfeld, Wurtemberg, Germany
  • Died: September 13, 1914 Monte Vista, Colorado
  • Related through: Dan's grandmother Melva Castleton

Our first ancestor to come to America from the Getz family was our great grandfather, Henry (Heinrich) Getz. He was born in Bonfeld, Wurtemberg, Germany, son of Peter and Katherine Kres Getz.

In Germany, his occupation was dying materials. On November 7, 1854, he came into Peoria, Illinois on the "Rocket," a wood burning locomotive which pulled the first passenger train into Peoria, from Rock Island, Illinois. He was 19 years old and traveled to America with the George Wenger family. They were of the Apostolic Christian religion; he married their daughter, Hanna, February 9, 1858.

After coming to America, he became a farmer. When he was first married, he and his wife lived near Roanoke, Illinois for a short time, and from there they moved south of Morton, Illinois, to the farm now owned by Frank Hoffman (this book was compiled in the 1940's by Hanna M. Koch, of Tremont, Ill., she probably knew all the farms in the area) Next they lived south of Tremont, Illinois on the Benjamin Getz place. About 1879 they moved to Greenwood County, Kansas, and lived there five years, and then they came back to Tremont again and lived on the farm now owned by J. C. Schweigert. In the year 1906 he and his wife moved to Monte Vista, Colorado, and spent their remaining years there with their son, Peter.

Henry died September 13, 1914. He was buried back in Tremont, Illinois at the Mount Hope Cemetery. He was known to be an easy going, quiet, gentle, loving man.

Thanks to Grandma Melva for writing this history and sharing it with us.