Martin (Mart) loved his identical
twin brother Isaac (Ike). Curiously, when the brothers arrived at the age of
matrimony they married sisters from the Anderson family. Mart wed Elizabeth and
Ike chose Helena, who was two years older than her sister. All of their stories
begin in Fairview, Utah.
When Elizabeth was eleven, and
Helena twelve, their mother died “leaving a month old baby, Archibald Henry”
(EAA). With ten children in all there was quite a brood, but they managed to
pull through until their father married again about a year later (TRA, 1).
Their step-mother had three of her own children, but somehow they all made it
work (TRA, 1).
After their own marriages, perhaps
Elizabeth and Helena remembered their step-mother’s willingness to take on more
children when a returned missionary came to their doors. Fred Christensen, whom
the Anderson and Allred families knew well, introduced two little girls he
brought back from Denmark. Fred explained that the two youngsters, who spoke no
English, were immigrating to Utah, and that their parents would come the
following year. Could the sisters to care for one child each until that time?
Fred asked. Elizabeth remembered drawing straws to determine which child went
to which home. Helena ended up with Ollie, age 4, and Elizabeth, Victoria, age
6. The parents did come to claim their children, after twelve years.
When Mart and Ike were young they
were often found together. “One drove the oxen and the other held the plow” on
the farm, and they scythed hay side-by-side (IWAT). Ike remembered a troublesome
stag named Old Larry. He “would work well until he got warmed up, and then he
would lie down in the furrow until he cooled off; then he would get up and work
until warmed up again. This would go on day after day” (IWAT). The two boys also
chopped wood for their grandmother, as well as the two households of their
father, he being a polygamist. On one occasion the boys had the company of two
of their sisters while collecting wood. In the distance they noticed “a cloud
of dust” and the sound of horse hooves. Mart, concerned that it might be
Indians, dove into the nearby willows. Mart’s fears were validated when the
group of Indians harassed the family wagon and team, but soon left without any
harm. Mart exited his hiding place, glad to see his siblings were alive, and
then all the spooked children headed home without so much as a scrap of wood (IWAT).
Once the brothers married, they
built homes near one another in Fairview. Here they shared joys and sorrows—Martin
and Elizabeth lost two young children, and Ike and Helena one. But new prospects
were on the horizon toward the turn of the twentieth-century. Ike was lured to Alberta,
Canada with descriptions of new possibilities and frontier (IWAT). By 1900
Martin too was there with his family and the brothers partnered on a farm
(EAA). Tragically, in 1904, Mart died of appendicitis, “leaving Mother with a
family of five” (EAA). Two years later, while still in Canada, George Randall,
the oldest boy (age 16), “was accidentally killed in the Raymond sugar factor”
(EAA). Having had enough of Canada, Mart’s brother, Lawrence, escorted
Elizabeth and her four remaining children back to Fairview, Utah.
Elizabeth maintained her faith
despite sorrow and tragedy. She clung to the Word of Wisdom and regularly sewed
clothing for others, despite her battle with diabetes for the last thirty-five
years of her life. She also saw to it that the family pay their tithing,
despite their penury. One daughter remembered, “One Christmas, after Father was
gone, Mother told the boys they had just five dollars for Christmas gifts, and
they owed that for tithing. After some discussion, they decided to pay the
tithing. Sherm took the money to the Bishop. On his way back, Bill came running
to meet him, saying they already had the money back. The ward had given the widows
five dollars for Christmas” (EAA).
Another tragic blow came in 1920 when
her son, Charles William, then in his twenties, “was killed in a mine accident”
(EAA). Determined to continue on, Elizabeth dedicated her life to her remaining
family members. On 4 May 1945, seventy-eight year old Elizabeth passed away in
Provo, Utah.
Sources:
TRA=“Life History of Thomas Reese
Anderson,” available at www.FamilySearch.org>Sara Jane Rees [KWJ4-GK5]>Memories>Documents.
EAA=“Elizabeth Anderson Allred,” These We Honor: Archibald Anderson Family
(Salt Lake City, Utah: Magazine Printing, 1968), C-68.
