The following article was prepared by Peter Forsgren descendant (through his daughter Sarah),
Jean Tyson for her DUP camp meeting in May 2014. She gives a wonderful synopsis of the work, play and family life of children during the settlement period of Utah. She has given me permission to include her essay in our blog. Hopefully it will be fun for the children of YOUR family to see how "easy" they have it! [Photos & links added by Adele Austin. None of the photos is of a Forsgren child]
Peter Forsgren
and Anna Knudsen came across the plains at the same time – Peter from Sweden
and Anna from Denmark. They had become
friends during the journey across the Atlantic, and at the suggestion of one of
their leaders decided to marry, so they could travel across the plains
together. They were married in Keokuk,
Iowa by Peter’s brother, John Erik Forsgren, while the wagon train was making
preparations for their journey to Utah.
Six months after leaving their homelands, they arrived in Utah. It had been a very difficult trip, and hard
times would continue for some time.
Oscar #5 tells that their first home was in
a dugout, which they made. It was a hole in the ground about ten feet square
and four feet deep. A ridgepole was in
the middle to support the roof, which was made by putting poles across. Then willows, rushes, straw, and six to
eight inches of dirt placed on top of that. A fireplace and chimney were made
of rocks and this was used for cooking and warmth in the winter. When their log
house was completed, the dugout was used to store vegetables, etc. The children later used it as a place to gin
cotton. Oscar #5 says that a few years
later, the young family would build another dugout as a place to live when they
fled Johnston’s Army by going to Salt Lake and then to Payson, where they
stayed for two years. These two dwellings,
the dugout and the log cabin, were built in the Old Fort (Davis Fort). Later a small building was added for a
combination church and school room as part of the Old Fort. They stayed in or near the fort until the
Indian troubles were over, then set about building log houses in other parts of
the city; these were naturally very crude; Oscar mentions that one family used
an umbrella in the house to keep the rain off the babies.
Sample of an early pioneer dugout. Many were much more closed-in than this one, burrowing farther down into the ground so that you went down steps or a ladder to enter it. This one would have been too open for the harsh Utah winters. Families often shared their "home" with snakes & insects, but the shelter would have been better than living in a covered wagon box.
When they could
afford it, they built an adobe house (late 1850's or early 1860's). It was a room about 14 x 16 feet square. Later a lean-to was built for the loom. Next they built a kitchen, then added a
granary. North of the first room,
separated by the hall, was the bedroom. There was an upstairs used as a bedroom
and as a place where they kept silkworms. The boys would go for clay on the
hill near by. This was mixed with water
and used on the walls, both in the adobe house and previously in the log house.(See photo of adobe house and
other houses built by the Forsgrens; more about silkworms later.)
To Peter and
Anna were born 8 children, 6 of whom lived to maturity, 2 of whom died in
childhood (Mary, #6, cause unknown, when she was 16 ½ and Lenora, #8, of
diphtheria, when she was in her 7th year.) The name of Elias Peter Forsgren, who was the only child born to
Peter and Elize, his plural wife,
is included in this report as he was accepted and loved by the family – just
one more brother.
DIFFICULT
TIMES
There were many
difficult times. Two of those times
occurred in Sarah’s early years.
First, in 1858
when Sarah was 4 years old, Olivia, 2 years old, and Adolph, 10
days old, the family moved south because Johnston’s army was expected, ant
their intent was to put down a “Mormon rebellion.” Brigham Young sent word for the Saints to gather to defend their
homes and resist being driven out once more. Anna took her three children, and
began to walk to Salt Lake City. Peter
stayed behind to secure their property.
He also took up the board floor of their home to make a wagon box so
they could make trip, after which he rejoined his family. They were instructed
to go to Payson to defend
Zion. There they
made a dugout, where they stayed until the conflict was settled. When they returned to Brigham City, they
found all their grain and foodstuff had been taken by Indians. They had many troubles with the Indians in
both Brigham and Payson.
Page
1
Second, fear
of Indians coming was a torture to Sarah. Often at night their whoops or cries
could be heard. Her father was
frequently informed that Indians were approaching and he would leave his young
family to help fight them off.
Sometimes, when the boys were out on the salt flats herding cows, the
Indians would ride up on their horses and intimidate them. The boys would make mud balls on the ends of
willows and throw them at the Indians, who would then ride off. The children heard the story of Sister
Peters who was home alone one night, when she heard someone trying to open the
door. As she approached, an Indian shoved his arm through the doorway. Pushing a table against the door, she
grabbed a butcher knife and ran the back edge of it along the arm. The intruder
withdrew his arm and then left the premises as the woman screamed for her
husband, even though she knew he was nowhere near home. Brigham Young
encouraged the families to try to be at peace with the Indians, avoiding
conflict as much as possible, and giving them food when asked. In the Forsgren home, Anna frequently shared
the little they had when Indians came to their home asking for food and
sometimes clothing. The problems with Indians began as the Saints were crossing
the plains and continued through their early settlement. As time went by,
troubles between the Saints and the Indians gradually subsided.
“I’M
HUNGRY!”
There were
many hungry times in childhood days. It
was very difficult to get food enough to eat.
At one time a man from Salt Lake City drove some cows to Brigham City to
get food for them. One old cow was so
starved that she kept nibbling at the bull rushes that covered the dugout.
Peter asked permission of Brother Nichols to shoot it. He said that he might get into trouble if he
did, but if he saw that it could not possibly live, then he might shoot
it. This he did when the cow dropped
from exhaustion and starvation. That, together with a little bran, furnished
them food for some time. Another time
when a cow dropped dead it was determined that it had been poisoned. As hungry as the people were, they hesitated
to eat it. One Sister said to feed some
to her cat; if it didn't die, they would know the cow was edible. The cat lived; the cow was divided and
eaten. No one suffered ill effects.
Olivia #2: In her words, “I was a frail child due to starvation both before
and after birth.” The summer before her birth, another cricket scourge caused
severe famine, leaving mostly roots for food, such as sego roots and wild
tomatoes. She was baptized “for her
health” by chopping a hole in the ice when she was 7 years old. Later she tells that they had a cow, but
butter was a luxury, as most of it was sold.
She said that she scarcely knew what it tasted like until she was 16
years old.
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Sego bulbs were seldom larger than a walnut; more often the size of a marble
Eli #5 tells that food was so scarce, especially meat, that when
an animal died, the one who discovered it first would take the choice cuts of
the meat. Sometimes they had to boil the cowhides to make soup.
Sarah #1, herded cows on the mountains
east of town, and being fond of segos used this opportunity to satisfy her
desires. She ate them raw. However,
they were also eaten cooked. During the summer months after her work in the
home was finished, she would carry her father’s lunch to him in the fields and
often assisted with his work. Oscar #4
tells that before they had metal knives, forks and spoons, Father carved spoons
from white birch found in the mountains.
Neighbors traded food from their gardens and orchards with each
other. The Forsgrens raised sugar beets
and made brown sugar from them. They
ground wheat or sunflower seeds with a round rock on a flat rock and used it
for mush cakes.
Page 2
Lorinda,
daughter of Sarah #1 was known for her efficiency in preparing food well. One of her “delicacies” was head cheese,
which is made from pigs’ heads.
Lorinda’s grand daughter said, “Grandma knew how to utilize a whole
pig. I think she used everything but
the squeal.”
For photos & description of how to make it, click here: Head Cheese Recipe
Elias #9 tells
of picking peaches, cutting them and drying them in the sun. “Instead of candy bars, we would have dried
fruit to eat during the winter.”
Some “specialties”
mentioned were fruit soup, suet pudding, and head cheese. Gradually, gardens sprouted, fruit trees
began to bear, a variety of berries grew, and fields produced.
(I remember
asking my Great Grandmother Christensen how she got so old. I was probably 5 or 6 years old, and she
looked old as the hills to me. She
thought a moment, and then replied, “I ate a bowl of oatmeal every day.” I then made up my mind that I would not grow
old – I thought oatmeal was the worse of all breakfast foods. Now I believe her, and I eat oatmeal almost
every day.)
“ … AND WE
WORKED – AND WORKED – AND WORKED!”
Sarah #1, as the
oldest of a family of eight children, many of the home duties fell on her young
shoulders. She helped with the children
and also helped her parents weave cloth and carpets. She attended school when her duties allowed (at that time, school
was held about three months a year during the winter months), herded the cows,
cooked, and took care of her younger brothers and sisters. When crickets began to destroy their crops,
the children helped to get rid of them: two children, one at each end of a long
rope, dragged it over a field of grain to get the crickets to rise and move off
the grain where they could be destroyed more easily. She helped her father in the garden and fields. She didn't write much about her childhood,
probably because she was too busy.
Oscar #4, tells
that the children made tallow candles which their father used in his work as a
janitor at the Court House, theater, and for meetings. He cared for younger children and the cow,
worked in the garden, ginned cotton in the dugout, and gathered mulberry leaves
for the silkworms. It was interesting to learn that they raised sugar beets and
made brown sugar from it. They also
ground wheat or sunflower seeds with a round rock on a flat rock and used it
for mush cakes. Actually the children
helped with all the work, and all they had was produced at home. One of Oscar’s
sons later said, “I don’t know how much schooling Father received, but he kept
learning all his life.” The people were very united in everything and helped
each other. It was while working on a
farm in Ogden that Will #7 met the girl he later married after visiting back
and forth and some long-distance courting.
The people learned how to store their crops. Everyone had a knife and a piece of flint, which they used to
strike, sparks to make fires with. When
necessary, they borrowed coals. They
hauled winter wood from the canyons.
Eli #5 attended school about three
years. He learned to sign his name,
read a little, and was very good at figures.
They made many of the implements they used for farming, some of which
were plows made out of old iron. These
were used to rake and scrape the ground.
They made their rakes of blocks, which they split and fit teeth of metal
into. They raised many pigs to
sell. These were hauled to Salt Lake
City by ox teams, and flour and a little furniture were brought back.
Elias #9, tells
two great stories:
1) “Peaches in those days were called ‘seedling peaches’,
not much over one inch in diameter. The trees were large and the method we used
in harvesting them was to take a long pole and knock them off the trees, which
was my lot. Then we picked them up and
haul them to a shady place where we would cut them and dry them in the
sun. My parents had long scaffolds on
the
South side of the house filled with trays of peaches. It was a common sight to go through the
streets
Page
3
and see all kinds of sheds, even on the slopes of houses,
covered with peaches drying. We would
dry several hundred pounds, which we would use for winter consumption. The surplus fruit was exchanged for cloth to
make dresses and shirts and for other household necessities.
2) The silk
worms had to be fed twice a day. This
is where I come into the picture. It
was my job to get my wagon, climb the mulberry trees, of which there were
hundreds in Brigham in those days, and pick several burlap sacks full of leaves
to feed the worms. When the silkworm
season was about to begin, we would clean out one of our three rooms of all
furniture to make room for the worms, which were placed on trays, reaching from
floor to ceiling.
[This link will take you to a fascinating YouTube video of silk worm raising]
One of Sarah’s grandchildren tells more
about childhood work: We made bars and bars of soap. We went to the wheat fields and gleaned every head of wheat we
could find; then we would help Father thresh it with clubs. Next we would fan
the chaff out by holding it in a pan or large vessel above our heads, and the
wind would blow away the chaff as we poured it down to the ground. I was a proud little girl when I had gleaned
enough wheat to sell and buy calico to make me a dress.”
Another child
about Sarah’s age tells of her duties:
“Very young children were given important responsibilities. As soon as
my younger sister and I were large enough to hold an ax, we chopped all the
wood, milked sixteen cows morning and night, and cleaned stables. When I was nine, I was sent out on the
hillside to herd the family’s sheep. I
taught myself to crochet lace, braid straw, and to make hats for my family and
friends. I never had any childhood. It was work, work, work.” (This didn't seem
like whining as much as just stating a fact.)
Lorinda,
daughter of Sarah #1, tells that part of a child’s education was that children
were to be seen and not heard. Children
were taught at school when possible and by parents and older siblings. Strict
religious instruction was given by parents in the home. Children also learned
from the world around them. Sarah
herself tells what treasures books and papers were to this, since her father
had to bring them from Salt Lake City by ox cart.
Olivia #2 tells
about helping Father gather hay in the field.
She also scrubbed the bare unpainted floorboards and steps every
Saturday with water, soft soap, clean sand, and a homemade scrub broom (like a
whisk broom. Chairs also were cleaned
this way.
A BIT MORE
ABOUT THE SILK INDUSTRY
Peter Forsgren
was a skilled weaver and brought this talent with him when he emigrated from
Sweden. Both of his wives – Anna and
Elize – were talented weavers as well.
When Brigham Young encouraged the Saints to become self-sufficient, he
encouraged occupations such as the production of silk. Soon Peter, his wives, and his children as
they grew old enough were involved in this home industry. It is stated in the Forsgren Family
Association Archives: “It must have
been a picturesque scene to see our Grandfather weaving carpets, with a clothes
basket suspended by ropes from either side of the loom in which was a little
baby, which he would rock with his hand while weaving.”
Oscar #4 reports:
When they could afford it they built an adobe house. Later additions included a lean-to for the loom and an upstairs
used as a bedroom and as a place where they kept silkworms. When Oscar was
about 11 years old, he made the silk reel used by Aunt Elize when she
demonstrated spinning and weaving at the Colombian Exposition in Chicago,
1895. Father got his warp from the
East. It was one of the first items to be imported. He wove cloth for people in
other communities, even from Idaho. And Olivia #2 adds that Father sold some of
the cloth he wove to pay for the children’s schooling.
page 4
The girls in the
family helped with the production of silk. Their mother was the first to
produce silk in Box Elder. Family
history tells that Peter and his wives wove yards and yards of silk carpeting
and draperies in the Logan Temple.
Samples of his weaving were found under layers of cloth covering a table
when their adobe brick home was recently renovated. Photos of Peter’s work can be found in the Forsgren Family
Archives. Very interesting!
Eli #5 helped
with the raising of silk worms. He
helped to gather the cocoons for others to weave into cloth. Definitely, every member of the family was
involved in this home industry.
AND NOW – AT LAST – ABOUT THE FUN
TIMES!
A history of
Olivia #2 says the children had simple amusements: homemade swings, playing
games with brothers and sisters, listening to stories told by parents. Young
people enjoyed dances, in the courthouse on holidays and certain week day
evenings; brought food; dances started about 8 or 9 p.m., with refreshments
served at midnight; then dancing continued until 3 or 4 a.m. Admission was paid for with farm
produce.
Marbles have always been popular. In pioneer times they were often river stones,
or made of clay or wood.
Oscar #4 taught
himself to play the clarinet and the violin.
Eli #5 told that in the winter it was fun ice skating on the old pond
when the ice was good; children also enjoyed sleigh riding. Elias #9 comments, “We youngsters didn't
have much time for recreation. Our main
amusements consisted mostly of playing baseball, spinning tops, and playing
marbles.” [Bands & choirs were formed. Brigham Young believed the pioneers needed recreation and was careful to send people of all talents to the various settlements.]
Another of the
writer’s ancestors from this same time period says, “My brothers made a very
large swing between two very large cottonwood trees, with a pole placed between
them with a large rope fastened on it.
Two of the young men would swing us with long ropes on each side. We spent many happy hours in my girlhood
days.”
From The History
of Brigham City: Peter and Alexander
Baird organized a dramatic association. Peter A. Forsgren was stage manager.
They performed during the winter seasons for about 20 years and sometimes
traveled to other communities to perform.
They had rehearsals 4 evenings per week most of the time. Surely Peter’s
family got to see and maybe even participate in some of the performances. And
the tallow candles they made helped to light up the stage.
MISCELLANEOUS
1.
Oscar #4: Silk
wasn't the only fabric produced. Sheep,
flax, and cotton were grown, so wool, linen and cotton cloth could be made.
Cloth for the boys’ overalls was made from the coarse and darker outside part
of the flax; sheets, etc., were woven from the better and whiter part. When clothing was worn out, the material was
used for making rag rugs.
2.
Eli also recalls: In the summer time we never wore
shoes, and it wasn't long until our feet would get so tough that we could run
over the rocks and not even realize we didn't have shoes on. One time the crickets were so thick that
when we walked along the sidewalk, the crickets would squeeze up through and
between our toes.
Page 5
3.
Sarah’s
daughter, Lorinda often helped others with their health problems. Mentioned in
her history are some of the medical remedies used including mustard plasters,
hot mustard footbaths, hot lemonade, paregoric, and lots of tender loving
care. Olivia #2 tells that later in
childhood she had an inflamed eye condition.
A passing peddler told her mother to make a pack with coffee grounds and
bandage her eyes with it; the condition was cured in a short time.
My reflections: I have put so much time into gathering
information for this ancestral history for our DUP meeting May 2014. But it
won’t be complete until it is actually given. I will miss peeping through the
windows of the beautiful home Oscar built, holding Mary’s silent hand, looking
for nourishment for Olivia (including lots of butter), munching sego roots with
Sarah as we sit watching the cows on the hill, helping Mother carry baby Adolph
as they walk toward Salt Lake City, knowing it was the right choice to name my
grandfather for his Uncle Eli, taking a closer look at Lenora’s doll, holding a
sack for Elias as he climbs the tree to pick mulberry leaves, riding with Will
as he goes a’courting his girlfriend, standing in reverence as I watch Peter
rock a sleeping baby with one hand as he sits weaving at his loom with the
other hand – then if I still have
strength at the end of the day, dancing the night away at the Court House with
all the young folk and by the light of tallow candles. I have indeed walked with Sarah and her
siblings!
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
Prepared by Jean Tyson.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
Bibliography
Ø
Peter Adolph Forsgren Family Association,
Adele Austin, Archivist
Ø
The History of Brigham City, published by
the Utah State Government
Ø
Brigham City History Project: Box Elder Fort
Ø
Box Elder News Journal: About Brigham City
Ø
Jean Tyson’s personal collection histories
and other information as received from other descendants of Peter Adolph
Forsgren page 6
NOTE: see also http://historytogo.utah.gov/ for many more articles on pioneer times and Utah history.
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