CHILD #2 - Olivia Julianne Forsgren Lee and Descendants

The Severin Nielsen Lee Family

(missing are son Charles Peter who died just before his 10th birthday in 1896 and twins Lulu and Lola who died within a few months of each other before age one in 1898)

Lulu and Lola with their sister Olivia

Son Charles Peter Lee who died at age 9 

Charles P Lee's headstone - Brigham City Cemetery.  It was repaired and reset in 2010 with donations from members of the Forsgren Family Association

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Peter Adolph Forsgren's second child:  Olivia Julianne Forsgren 

[She is referred to in some records as Julianne Olivia]

The originals of these photos are in the possession of Olivia's grandson Lester Lee Knight, Meridian, Idaho

Olivia mother with Olivia daughter

Olivia daughter and Olivia mother by the side door of their home in Brigham City.  Lester Knight states that this is the door that was always used.  The front door, which opened into the little-used front room was just not used.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES:

"Olivia was the 2nd (polygamist) wife of Severin and during the first five years of her marriage, the two wives shared a home. Severin then bought a house for Olivia at 45 North and 4th West in Brigham City. . . . The two acres of land which belonged with the house were planted with many kinds of fruit trees: apricot, plum, prune, cherry, five kinds of apples, and seven or eight varieties of peaches."

Plural wives were watched constantly [after the anti-polygamy act in 1882] to be sure they were not with their husbands. Olivia was in constant fear of being arrested and on one occasion was.

When John A was 8 she took her four little boys and moved into a shed "down at the bottom of the field" belonging to her husband's brother....It was not long until word came from her husband that the marshals were on her trail and she must leave immediately. She left for Weston, Idaho where she could be near her sister and family. Their home was a small log cabin where they could raise a garden. They made do until the 1894 when Pres. Cleveland restored civil rights to polygamous familes and Olivia was able to return to her home in Brigham City.

Lester Lee Knight said that it is his understanding that Olivia and Emma were good polygamist friends. S.N. Lee was not much of a "social butterfly" so when they wanted to go to an event they would often go together without him.

THE LIFE OF OLIVIA FORSGREN LEE  (supplied by Lester Lee Knight)

     Olivia Forsgren, daughter of Anna Christine and Peter Adolph Forsgren, was born February 10, 1856, in Brigham City, Box Elder County, Utah, in one of the first log cabins built outside the "Old Fort." It was on the east side of First East one half block south of where the County Court House now stands.
     She was the second child in a family of eight children. Her older Sister Sarah, born July 23,1854, was the first white girl born in Brigham. After Olivia came Adolph Peter (1858) , Oscar (1860) , Knut Elior (1863) , Mary Magdeline (1866) , James William (1868) , and Rebecca Lenora (1872) .
     It was while Olivia was yet a tiny girl, age two years, that Johnston's Army came to Utah--June 26, 1858. She learned, when older, how her father took up the floor boards of the cabin to build a wagon box in which he could take his family to Payson. Baby brother Adolph had arrived and was now only 10 days old when the move came. In Payson they lived in a dugout until sometime in the following year when they returned to Brigham.
     In her childhood and early girlhood, Olivia was a frail child--sick three or four times a year and seemed not to gain in health and strength as desired. The cause of this may have been as she expressed it in later years, "Due to starvation both before and after birth." The previous summer there had been another cricket scourge which caused severe famine. The settlers depended mostly on roots for food. Looking to the time when her child should be born, Christine Forsgren had saved 10 pounds of flour. With this meager store the little family survived but the new child, frail at birth, remained so for several years. Finally on the recommendation of friends, her parents decided to have the little girl, now seven years old, baptized for her health. She was accordingly taken up to the "Mill Dam" just south of where Merrell's planing mill now stands, where a hole was chopped in the ice--it being December--and she was baptized and given a blessing for her health. She was then wrapped wet clothes and all in a warm blanket and taken home on the running gears of a wagon. She was put to bed in wet under clothes and sweated. A severe treatment, true, but strange to say, she suffered no ill effects and from then on gained in health and strength.
     At one time during her real early years she developed a very inflamed eye condition which would not respond to any of the home remedies. One day a transient peddler came by selling his wares. When he saw the child with the sore eyes he told her mother to make a pack with coffee grounds and bandage her eyes with it. In a short time a cure was effected.
     During her childhood her amusements were simple; swinging in home-made swings, playing games with brothers and sisters and listening to stories told by her parents of their homes and lives in the "old country."
     When she and Sarah were old enough to be of any help they would go with their father to the field and there gather in the hay. But always in the home there were duties to be performed and although Olivia was a delicate child she had her share of work to do. Each Saturday she had to scrub the bare, unpainted floor boards and steps till they looked bright as new. This was done with water, soft soap, clean sand and a home-made scrub broom likened to a whisk broom. The home-made unpainted chairs received the same treatment.
     Times were hard. Often they were without sufficient food. When the crickets came and devoured the crops, father would dig sego bulbs in the field and bring them home for food. It was said they had never been so big before, nor were they ever so big after as at the time of famine caused by the cricket siege.
     When Olivia was about ten or twelve years of age there came another cricket siege. Even the children were called to help drive off the pests. One method was for two children--one at each end of a long rope--to drag the rope over a patch of grain to get the crickets to rise and move off the grain. The family had a cow but butter was a luxury. Olivia said she scarcely knew what butter tasted like until after she was sixteen years of age because the butter must be sold to earn money to help emigrate relatives.
     There were still Indians around and they would come to the homes of the pioneers asking for food and sometimes clothing. Olivia told the following experience:
     "One morning I was over to grandmother Knudson's little adobe home across the street from us. She had her tubs and soiled clothes outside ready to do her washing. A big Indian came along and asked for 'biscuit.' Grandmother told him she had no 'biscuit.' Then he picked up grandfather's shirts to take. Grandmother told him, No! No!, he could not have the shirts, whereupon he showed anger and a determination to take the shirts. Grandmother quickly stepped into the house, secured the old empty gun and went out and aimed it at the intruder. He dropped the shirts and in a flash was off down the street running as fast as he could in a zig zag fashion to avoid being shot. Grandmother and I both were all ashake when he was gone."
     One time when Olivia and her mother were over visiting Grandmother, her mother sent her home on a little errand. Now there was a little blue pitcher on a top shelf of the cupboard that her mother had told Olivia never to meddle with, but here she was alone in the house and the little blue pitcher sat up there right in plain sight. She thought, "I'll just look." So she stood on a high stool and reached it. Inside were some little red pods. She decided to try one. One little bite and her tongue burned fiercely. She spat and spat but still it burned. She was frightened. She thought the devil was after her because she had not minded her mother.
     Olivia's father (Peter Adolph Forsgren) , weaver by trade in the old country, desired to return to his trade. So, with a drawing knife and hatchet, he made himself a loom on which was woven the first cloth in Box Elder. Through weaving accounts he paid for various things, among them his children's schooling. Olivia and Sarah went to school to Olivia Box (Mother of Elijah Box) one month each year for weaving done. They wore "home spun" clothes and had one pair of shoes between them. When Sarah went to school Olivia stayed home and when Olivia went Sarah stayed home. There was one store, Cotton Thomas, where things could be purchased that were not made at home.
     In school at Sister Box's the teacher had one primer from which each member of the class read. When thirteen years of age, Olivia went one whole school term to a Brother Crawford. For this she was the proud possessor of a Reader, an Arithmetic and a Speller of her own. This term ended her schooling, but these pioneer children were alert and learned many of their lessons from the world about them. Years later when there were regular schools, the older pupils would come to Olivia for help to solve their arithmetic problems.
     While still a girl at home she helped with the production of silk. About 1855 Brigham Young secured silk worms from France and asked for volunteers to take up silk culture. Anna Christine Forsgren was the first to produce silk in Box Elder. Olivia with the older children of the family were kept busy gathering mulberry leaves to feed the ravenous silk worms.
     At the age of 15, she was employed at the Rosenbaum Hotel where she did the cooking for two families—eleven members in all--as well as for out of town guests. Mrs. Rosenbaum would sent the orders to her for meals but with no directions. This was a big responsibility but her cooking evidently proved satisfactory for no complaints were ever given. She recounted how provoked she was at Charley Nibley because he came into the kitchen and helped himself to some of the food prepared for the following meals.
     When 16 years of age she found employment at the knitting factory to help support herself and ease her parents burden of support for a family of seven children. The Pioneer Woolen Mill built on the site of the present Baron Mills was established in 1871. Here Olivia worked for six years earning enough money to cloth herself and buy her first piece of furniture, a marble topped dresser. During these early years all her wearing apparel except perhaps shoes, was made at home. Two things of special importance occurred during these six years at the factory. First, she was baptized into the United Order after the first two years; second, she became well acquainted with a young man named Severin Nelson Lee.
     Amusements for young people in those early days were dances in the court house on holidays and certain week day evenings, and social gatherings in the various homes on Sunday evenings. Food was brought to the dances which started around 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. At midnight refreshments were served, then the dancing continued until three or four o'clock in the morning.
     Olivia did not lack for suitors, since she was pretty, dressed neatly, was a good dancer and furthermore a good cook. One suitor, she rather favored, was frowned upon by her parents because he "freighted" into Montana and had business dealings with the gentiles. One offer of marriage came from a member of the stake presidency. Another suitor was Severin Lee who asked her to be his second wife, he having married Emma Ensign previous to this time. To this proposal Olivia's mother objected very much. Young Lee tried in every way to get to talk with Sister Forsgren but she determinedly avoided seeing him.
     In the spring (May) of 1877 Olivia went to Salt Lake City to learn Millinery. She had been encouraged in this by Eliza R. Snow with whom she was well acquainted. Olivia's mother, being in the presidency of the Relief Society Organization of the First Ward, had had frequent association with Sister Snow who came often to visit the Relief Societies. Through this association, Olivia found a friend in Sister Eliza R. The place where millinery was being taught was centrally located but Olivia's lodging place was way out to the southwest in the 16th Ward. One rainy day when she was going to her lesson, Sister Eliza R. Snow saw her, saw that she had no boots and that her feet were wet. Sister Snow said, "You come with me. This is a shame you should walk so far and with no boots! I am going to take you right up to Sister Bathsheba (Smith) where I'm sure you can stay while you remain in Salt Lake City." This kindness was never forgotten by the young milliner.
     While she was at the millinery school Severin Lee continued to seek her company and urge marriage. Also he continued his efforts to see Sister Forsgren and get her consent. One day he caught her unawares, sought her permission which after much persuasion was granted. On November 14, 1877, Olivia Forsgren, age 21, was married to Severin Nelson Lee in the St. George Temple. The endowment house was closed at the time and the Salt Lake Temple was not yet finished. They traveled by team and wagon in company with another young couple. Fourteen days were required to make the trip to St, George and return.
     The first five years of her marriage the two wives lived together, then her husband bought a separate home for Olivia and she moved into the house which still stands at 45 North 4th West, Brigham City. It was here that her first four children were born, John, Oscar, William and Charles. The two acres of land which belonged to the house were later planted to many kinds of fruit trees as; apricot, plum, prune, cherry, five kinds of apple and seven or eight varieties of peaches. Olivia, with the help of her children planted raspberries of three different varieties.
     Each year in the garden were early asparagus and rhubarb, later all kinds of vegetables that will grow in this climate plus various herbs such as dill, parsley, garden sage, caraway and lavender. From this acreage she produced much to support herself and children. Near to the house were planted many kinds of flowers--annuals, perennials, roses, and ornamental shrubs.
     Olivia's trials as a wife in polygamy were many and hard. On Thursday, February 16, 1882, the Edmond's Anti-polygamy Bill was passed by the Senate. As soon as this became known in Utah three petitions were prepared asking Congress to send a deputation to investigate affairs in the Territory before undertaking any hostile legislation against the people. These petitions received 75,000 signatures. They were treated with complete indifference. Tuesday, March 14, 1882, the Edmond's Anti-Polygamy Bill was passed by the House of Representatives and a few days later signed by President Chester A. Arthur thus becoming a law.
     From here on persecution against those in polygamy grew more and more severe and was not confined to Utah but reached even back to Tennessee and into Old Mexico. Both men and wives were brought to trial and many men were sentenced to prison. Severin Lee was imprisoned May 23,1887, and discharged August 9, 1889. Olivia could not see her husband except secretly lest the Marshals issue a warrant of arrest. Nevertheless in 1887 when the Marshals were hot on the trails of the polygamists, Olivia with several other plural wives, with babes in arms, were arrested and taken to Ogden to be tried before the district judge. They arrived in the late afternoon, too late for court that day and were kept in the court room all night, where the air was blue from tobacco smoke. The mothers were frightened and the babies cried, partly from lack of sleep and partly because of irritation from tobacco fumes. Next morning the judge sent a deputy out to the street to see if he could find someone to "go these women's bonds." Ere long he returned with a man, a
non-Mormon,  who said he was willing to go their bond.
     "Do you know any of these women?" asked the judge.
      "No," answered the man.
      "And are you willing to go their bonds?"
      "Yes," answered the man. "I have gone the bond of many plural wives before and never lost a cent."
     So the wives with their babies were released and allowed to go to where they lived.
     At one time Olivia crawled along on hands and knees on the east side of a neighbor’s thick row of grape vines while the marshals on horseback were just a few yards away on the street to the west.
      Sometime after this she was sent down to Far West with her four little boys the eldest eight, the baby Charles Peter two. Here she lived in a mere shed "down at the bottom of the field" of her husband's brother. Her husband's folks were good to her and did all they could for her, but it was not long before words came from her husband that the Marshals were on her trail and she must eave immediately for Weston, Idaho where she would be near his sister and her family. At night she was taken to the Hot Springs depot by her niece and nephew, Dorothy and Joe Stephenson. While waiting for the midnight train she accidentally fell off the end of the depot platform. Much concern was felt for her because she was then pregnant, but later when the baby was born he was perfect in every way. She named him Eli. Three years later a yearning wish was fulfilled when a baby girl came to join the family of five boys. To this baby she gave her own name, Olivia.
     Life in Weston was livable but not easy. The home was a small log cabin. Being both mother and father to five little boys the oldest now about 10 required exceptionally strong faith to endure. She grew what she could in the garden. When she needed things from the little store she "traded in" dried peaches sent up from Brigham.
     Toward the end of the five years that she lived in Weston the little boy Charles Peter became very ill. When J. Golden Kimball came up for conference, she sent word and asked if he would come and administer to the sick child. He came soon and when he saw how very ill the little boy was he said, "Where is this child's father?"
     "In Brigham City," was the answer.
     "He'd better get up here as soon as he can," said Brother Kimball.
     The father arrived just before the little boy died, from what the doctor had diagnosed as spinal meningitis.
     Wednesday, September 24, 1890, the Manifesto was issued signed by President Wilford Woodruff in which the Saints were advised "to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the laws of the land." Wednesday, January 4, 1893, President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation of amnesty to Polygamists for past offenses but recommended vigorous prosecution against future infractions of the Edmund's Law. One year and eight months later, September 27, 1894, President Grover Cleveland issued a proclamation granting pardon and restoring civil rights to all persons who were disfranchised by the anti-polygamy laws. After the issuance of President Harrison's proclamation, Olivia was permitted to return to her home in Brigham City.
     Nearly three years later two lovely baby girls, twins, were born to her which filled a long cherished desire. They were named Lula and Lola. How she loved them! But they were not to be with her long. They contracted pneumonia and Lula died February 241898, at the age of nine months just as she was learning to walk. Lola seemed to pine away and followed her sister May 11, 1898, three months later.
     Three years passed and another baby came to bless the home, a boy whom she named Victor.
     As to church activities she worked earnestly in the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Association joining when it was first organized and remained in it until after marriage. She was a charter member of the Third Ward Relief Society being the Secretary and spent many years as a visiting teacher in that organization. She taught Sunday School during her youth and also after marriage. In later years, when her children were grown, she taught in Primary for several years.
     She was a lover of flowers. Every year from early spring until late fall her garden was filled with lovely bloom. Her garden contained most of the flowers listed in the flower catalog ranging from such modest ones a violet, mignotte, and Sweet William to aristocrats like the tea roses, peonies and choice Chrysanthemums. She shared freely of her flowers both in bouquets and "starts." Bouquets found their way to many homes and frequently her potted plants graced the stand in the Stake Tabernacle. There are flowers in gardens today which are offspring of starts she willingly gave away.
     While her children were little she made all of their clothes, took care of all her household duties, managed the planting, irrigation, and harvesting of the garden produce and fruit crop and still found time to do many beautiful pieces of embroidery, crochet and knitting. She was an expert quilter and she and Aunt Emma, the other wife, were in frequent demand at quiltings, some of which were in opposite ends of town from which they lived.
     When her family was grown and she had a little more time she began making hair switches, some she made from combings of her own luxuriant long hair which fell to her knees when let down. Some she made from other women's "combings" which at times were not too clean. It was a tedious painstaking work but it did provide a small income.
      She was a very good cook being an especial expert at making Danish dumpling soup, suet pudding, pork apple pie, home-made link sausage, as well as curing summer sausage and smoked ham.
     When her daughter Olivia came into girlhood and young womanhood, mother and daughter became pals, working together, sharing friends, exchanging confidences, enjoying trips together as to Lagoon, Saltair, Girls Home at Alta, to various towns in Idaho to visit relatives and a never-to-be forgotten trip to Yellowstone Park with son, Will and friends.
     At one time when she was perhaps about 50 years old she fell down the cellar steps and injured her leg. She refused to have a doctor--she never had had one when her babies were born and didn't want one now. But when her whole leg began to turn black, she decided she would have to have a doctor. She had always relied much on home remedies for herself and family and on a midwife when the babies were born. After midwife service, in those early days, a mother was cared for by neighbors or relatives. In this polygamous family, when Emma had a baby Olivia helped take care of her and when Olivia's baby came Emma helped take care of her.
     Aside from Rheumatism and many "sick headaches" Olivia's health was fairly good until when she was about 70 years old she developed Diabetes. Later at the age of about 75 she suffered a paralytic stroke. She recovered sufficiently to be able to be up and around and partly care for herself, But other strokes followed and May 25, 1934, she passed away. During these last years she was very patient in her illness. She was helped by a firm faith in her Savior and in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. At one time when she was bedfast she said to a friend, "The Lord has seen me through a lot of hard places and I have no doubt but he will see me through to the end."

From Heart Throbs of the West. pp. 292 & 294. "The Other Mother" Written by Maggie J. Lee [daughter in law]
   "Among the first company of Scandinavian Saints sailing for America were two courageous young people, Peter Adolph Forsgren, the first convert to be baptized in Sweden, and Anna Christina Knudson. This was a few days before Christmas when mosst people were preparing for their big celebration. During this long journey of eleven weeks a romance began. When they landed at Keokuk, Iowa, they were married, then spent their honeymoon crossing the vast plains, arriving in Salt Lake City on October 3, 1853. They went directly to Box Elder and lived in the Old Fort the first winter. In the Spring of 1854 they built a humble home. It was here that Olivia, the second of eight children, was born. It was just after the famine caused by the crickets. Sister Forsgren, anticipating this disaster, had saved ten pounds of flour. After this was used very sparingy they had no more till harvest. Was it any wonder that Olivia was a very delicate child?
   Olivia Forsgren was one who accepted the principle of plural marriage and Severin N. Lee was the man who asked her to share his home as a plural wife. With the consent of his first wife, Aunt Emma, they, in company with others journeyed by wagon to St. George Temple as the Endowment House in Salt Lake City was closed. They were married November 1, 1877 After their return, Olivia made her home with Aunt Emma for five years.
   Brother Lee was a skilled carpenter and soon provided each wife with a home, dividing his earnings and his time equally between them.
   On the seventh of July 1880, Olivia's first chld, a boy, was born. This filled her heart with joy for she had feared that she night never be a mother. Other children came, each being welcome and tenderly cared for. Then Olivia with her boys was moved to Weston, Idaho - among strangers and alone. Friends were raised up to aid and comfort her. These were hard years and required strong faith which only pioneer daughters could have endured. With a few visits from father, scanty provisions, sickness and death of one son, faithful and loyal to her husband she carried on.
   In a few years the family returned to their home in Brigham, four more children blessed their home. A pair of twin girls being among the group. They were not permitted to sstay long, only a year, when they passed away.
   Besides caring for her children and home duties she found time to labor in Relief Society, as secretary, in Primary, as a teacher, and a Relief Society teacher. She was a lover of flowers, every year from Spring till frost came her garden was alwlays full of gorgeous blossoms, and her windows filled with blossoming plants in winter.
   The two families lived within a block of each other, each raising their own garden, fruit, vegetables, chickens, etc. The children were taught to respect parents and to be congenial and helpful to each other. Both wives have passed away, but the children lovingly refer to them as Aunty.
   Olivia died in her home as she wished, when the roses were in bloom, May 25, 1934, at the age of 82 years. Grandpa is now past eighty-five years, drives his own car and makes his daily calls on his children and friends. He is lonely, looking forward to a happy meeting with his wives and children who have passed on."

The address given in Olivia's histories for the home she was supplied by Severin Lee was 45 N. 4th West, Brigham.  This is a photo I took of that corner sometime between 2006 and 2008.   I am unsure if it is the same home or if the original has been torn down

Olivia F. Lee home - Northeast Corner

OBITUARY from Daughters of Utah Pioneers Obituary Scrapbook (ancestry.com)
   Brigham City - Mrs. Olivia Forsgren Lee, 77, wife of S.N. Lee, died Friday at 2 a.m. following a stroke at the family home, 31 North Fourth West steet.
   Mrs. Lee was born here February 10, 1856, a daughter of Peter A. and Anna Christina Forsgren. She was married November 14, 1877 in the St. George LDS temple. She was active in the Relief Society.
   Surviving are her husband and six sons and daughters: John A., Oscar S., William N. and Eli F. Lee and Mrs. Lester Knight, Brigham City; Victor Lee, Salt Lake; 20 grandchildren; two brothers, Oscar Forsgren, Brigham City, and Eli Forsgren, Preston, Idaho; a sister, Mrs. Sarah F. Christensen, Brigham City.
   Funeral services will be conducted Sunday at 2 p.m. in the LDS Third Ward chapel. Interment in Brigham City Cemetery

BURIAL: Brigham City Cem B-16-18-6
 

Olivia and Severin Nielsen (or Nelsen) Lee were married in the St. George Temple the 14 November 1877. S.N. Lee (as he was most often referred to) was a handsome, involved man:  Music, civic leader and affairs, and active Church leader.



Photo courtesy of Diane Wagner



Photo courtesy of Diane Wagner

His first wife was Emma Lovinia Ensign who was born 22 Aug 1856 in Brigham City.  She passed away 14 June 1929;  They had 11 children together.  She is buried in the Brigham City Cemetery, plot B-16-18-5

[I am including information about Emma Ensign Lee because I believe it is important to the life and times of Olivia Forsgren Lee as well.  The two women were "sister wives" and good friends.]



The Life Sketch of Emma Ensign Lee  (From notes made by Emma herself, her sister Effie and her daughters Florence, Amy and Camilla)

Retyped from a photocopy in possession of the Forsgren Family Association obtained from Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum

Emma Lovinia Ensign was born in Brigham City, Utah, the daughter of Martin Luther Ensign and Mary Dunn. She was born August 22, 1856 in an adobe house on the lot on the corner of Second North and Third East Streets in Brigham City.

Her grandfather and Grandmother Ensign joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in West Brook, Massachusetts where her father, Martin Luther Ensign was born March 31, 1831. He with his parents started to gather with the saints at Nauvoo. The saints had been driven out before they reached there, so they came as far as Winter Quarters where his father died. His mother, with five children, journeyed to Salt Lake City, reaching there in the fall of 1848, and settling in the Thirteenth Ward. [Note: The Mormon Pioneer Overland Trail index actually lists them traveling with the Daniel Spencer/Ira Eldredge Company which departed Winter Quarters 17 June 1847 and arrived in the SL Valley between the 19 & 22 of September 1847.]

Her Grandfather and Grandmother Dunn joined the Church in the town of Van Buren, Wayne County, Michigan where her mother Mary Dunn was born. They gathered to Nauvoo and went through the persecutions of the saints there. Her Grandmother Dunn died there. The family lived neighbors to the Prophet Joseph Smith. Mary Dunn played with the Smith children, was often in their home, and had a testimony of the gospel and of the calling of the prophet that was intense and very loyal. All of her days she was devoted and knew of a certainty that what Joseph Smith taught was indeed the truth.

Martin Luther Ensign and Mary Dunn were married in Salt Lake City in 1852 and about a year after they moved to Brigham City where they were among the families that lived in the old fort. They had moved from the fort where Emma was born in 1856.

Emma told of her early life and how hard they had to work. She says, however, that she never remembered going hungry. When she was about nine months old, her father was called to go on a mission to England. The call came while he was at April Conference in Salt Lake City, in 1857. He answered at once that he would go, but he had no means of support for his wife and three small girls, or to pay his own way. He was instructed to go back to Brigham in connection with Harvey Pierce, build a handcart and be back in Salt Lake City by April 29th, which they did. A small piece of bacon and about 50 lbs. Of flour were all the provisions left for his wife Mary and the three small children, Adeline, Georgiana and Emma. But the Lord did provide for them. While her father was on his mission, the call came for the saints to leave all their possessions and move south because Johnson’s Army was on the way. Grandmother Ensign went with her father Simeon Dunn, his wife having died recently. Before they reached Payson or the destination assigned them word came for them to go back to their homes, as the danger from the army had passed. Grandfather had been called home from his mission on account of the Army, and so was not gone very long.

Emma remembered that their living was very plain. When the grasshopper scourge visited the people she remembered that they ate up nearly everything green in the city lots. They used to get out and drive them with a cloth tied to a long stick to keep them moving so they could not get a chance to eat so much. Clothing was hard to obtain. Grandmother Ensign used to get factory, color it with bark and make dresses out of that because it wore good. The girls learned to spin yarn, color it, hire it woven into cloth, and then make their own dresses.

In Emma’s childhood, schooling was very meager, but she was trained in house work and sewing. Her mother’s health was poor due to the hard work necessary to provide for the family. Water had to be carried a long distance, wood chopped and carried. There was gardening, soap making, candle making, sewing by hand. The children were required to help with all of these chores. In order to get a clean floor, the mother would have each girl sweep it to see who could get the most dirt. There was competition between neighbors to see who could get out the whitest wash and get it out the earliest. The girls did beautiful eyelet embroidery on their underwear, knitted their stockings and mittens and did all kinds of beautiful handwork.

Stories were told of the Indians in the early days, how they would come begging for food and how they always fed them so as to keep peace for their leader Brigham Young had advised them to feed the Indians and not fight them. There were some friendly Indians and they gave help by bringing wild game to the friends.

The schools Emma attended were such as they had at the time, with slabs for desks and benches with no backs for seats. Beginners and all met in one room. School was held in the old Court House and Professor Moench was the teacher most talked of. There was no chance for Emma to go to school after she was fifteen years old.

When she was nine years old she attended a singing class taught by R.L. Fishburn. After two years he invited her to join the [Brigham City] Tabernacle Choir, which she did and was a member of for forty-two years. When she was thirteen years old she was invited to join the Relief Society to help out with the singing. When the Young Ladies Retrenchment Society was organized she joined that but resigned from that when her family started to come.

While attending Choir practice one night, a young man came in who had just come from Weber Valley. He had come to work in the furniture factory, then established as a cooperative venture. It was Severin N. Lee. Emma said it was a case of love at first sight, and he was reported to have said that she looked like an angel. Uncle John Roberts, the husband of her oldest sister Adeline, said, “She was the prettiest girl I ever saw. She had such beautiful, innocent blue eyes.” She became engage to marry S.N. Lee when she was sixteen years old but was not married until she was eighteen. When Brother Lee asked her father for her hand in marriage, the father enquired where they expected to live. Brother Lee said that he would rent a place. Brother Ensign told him that he could have his daughter when he had a home of his own to take her to. About a year later he came back saying he had a home, the same one they had all the rest of their lives. He had made the adobes and done much of the work of building the home. It stands today as one that was built to last forever.

On November 16, 1874, S.N. Lee and Emma L. Ensign were married in the old Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Daniel H. Wells officiating. From that union, 11 children were born, five boys and six girls; four boys and three girls living. All have been married in the Temple and all are faithful men and women.

S.N. Lee was choir leader for the Tabernacle choir for 30 years and Emma was a member, singing alto for the entire time, walking to the Tabernacle and back to the home on 1st North and 5th West every Thursday evening for practice, and twice on Sunday because at that time the [church] meetings were held in the tabernacle. Conference Sundays it meant walking the distance twice a day, as it was necessary to go home at noon to see to the children. Sister Effie recalled being at the home one night when the choir members came to surprise Brother Lee. They brought refreshments and a beautiful clock to remind him never to be late. He was known for being prompt so the reminder was just in fun.

Emma had great faith and would not deprive her husband of any blessings promised the faithful so when he took Oliva Forsgren to the St. George temple to marry her in plural marriage, Emma supervised an addition to the home and so shared her home with Olivia for many years.

When Emma and Olivia were established in their separate homes, they were each given title to two acres of ground and their houses. Severin paid the expenses on land such as taxes, cultivating, food for the chickens and cows, etc. The women reaped the harvests and took the profits. They used the money to clothe themselves and the children besides furnishing a good deal of the food for the home. The father bought the shoes for the children, which kept him wondering if a pair of shoes was not called for every day!

Emma’s sister Effie described her thus: “Emma was the tallest member of our family with blue eyes and a beautiful head of dark hair. She had a loving, patient disposition and was very unselfish. She labored unceasingly to make her large family comfortable. Besides the routine of house keeping, she did sewing for the whole family, even shirts and suits and coats for all of them. She made all of my clothes and hats until I was 18 years old and began teaching so I was able to hire my things done. When I was in possession of a piece of cloth, or hat to be trimmed I would hie myself to Emma’s and no matter how busy she was, she would listen to me, and figure out some way to make what would please a small girl most. In my poor way I tried to remunerate her by washing dishes, tending babies and other small jobs. I remember one time when I had a hat to trim I found her in the midst of washing. She dried her hands and sat down to trim the hat. I guess I felt plenty guilty and said so, but she assured me that she would much prefer to trim hats than wash clothes.”

When the present Third Ward Chapel was built, Emma was the president of the Relief Society. The women put on a three-day bazaar in the old Opera House. They made $600.00, which was very wonderful at that time, and the money values that prevailed then.

Emma had a large scar on her leg caused by falling on an axe when a child. It had not been sewed up and consequently made a wide scar. Her husband used to laughingly tell her that if he had known she had that big scar he would never have married her. And of course it could be that her leg was never shown as she said that the mere mention of “leg” was taboo. They were taught to say “limb”. And it was very daring to show an ankle.

Emma loved people and enjoyed being with them in socials. Her husband was not inclined that way. She said she learned early in life that if she was going anywhere, she would have to go alone. She and Olivia often went to meetings and socials together. She and Olivia gave many parties together, and the children, though they were of polygamous families, can look back to many wonderful entertainments in the two homes. There was always a big dinner for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, birthdays, at which chicken pie was usually the main dish. Then there were coffee cakes, doughnuts, mince pies, pumpkin pies, fruit cakes and so on and on. On Christmas Eve the two families would meet at Emma’s. The next day they had the big dinner at Olivia’s. New Years Eve they would meet at Olivia’s and then for a big dinner at Emma’s on New Years Day. Both were excellent cooks, and many were the treats of ice cream and cake.

Emma was Chaplain, and later Auditor of the Daughters of the Pioneers. She was in the first chapter organized in the Third Ward.

She had twenty years of heart trouble. Just prior to her son Norman’s departure for his mission to England, we had the family group picture taken. She was ill then. She had had pneumonia, which affected her heart and made the ensuing twelve years of her life a struggle to be about. She lived to celebrate her Golden Wedding. A celebration was held in the Sixth Ward Amusement hall. She lived some years beyond that and loved life in spite of her frailty.

She had two sons and one daughter fill missions in the world to teach the Gospel. The one son and the daughter filled two missions each. Her children were the fifth generation in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Some of them have denied the faith.

In the summer of 1883 she taught ten weeks of school in her home. She received a salary of $20.00 with which she bought six tablespoons of Rogers Wear, and feathers for a feather bed. Her father gave her the ticking for the bed. The spoons are still in use in the family and the bed was used many years, more than forty in fact.

When the Old Folks Committee was organized in the wards, she was appointed chairman, holding the position for some years, and was released Feb. 17, 1918. She was also assistant teacher in the Parent’s Class in Sunday School when they met in the old meeting house which was later used as an amusement hall.

Emma lived to within two months of being 73 years old. She passed away on the 14th day of June 1929 at a time when the roses were in full bloom. The friends and neighbors brought in banks of flowers, mostly roses which were a beautiful sight. She had dreaded that she might die in the middle of winter when it was so cold. The day she was buried was a perfect day if ever there was one. Thus came to a close a lovely life, which surely had been a light upon a hill.

Emma Ensign Lee's home at 421 West 1 North,  Brigham City

I do not know the identity of the women and the child on the front porch

SEVERIN NIELSEN LEE  31 March 1852-4 Jan. 1941

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF SEVERIN N. LEE

(Supplied by Lester Lee Knight)

Severin N. Lee was born March 31, 1852 in Vreilev sogn, Hjorring amt, Denmark, a son of Christian N. Lee and Inger Mogensen, The family depended on farming for a living, mostly dairying. The cows on the place were taken care of in a manner that was never practiced in this country until very recently. They were snugly housed and regularly and almost scientifically fed and were milked three times a day. They were not allowed to run at large and trample grass underfoot in the pasture, but were staked out in a limited area and had to eat everything within reach before they were moved to a new location. He says, "I never could, even after I was grown and had cows of my own or animals of any kind, stand to see feed wasted and I devised numerous ways of preventing waste."

He was baptized August 31, 1864 being at the time exactly 12 years and 5 months old. The ordinance being performed by Ove C. Ovesen, a missionary, and was confirmed a member of the church the same day by his brother, Nels P. Lee.

He says, "Father was friendly to the missionaries but never joined the church. At that time the talk was, 'Get to Zion whatever the sacrifice' ." Mother wanted to join the church and Father finally consented on her promise that she would not leave him as long as he lived. She gave him the promise that she would stay with him. One day a missionary took Mother aside and preached emigration to her. She told him she had promised not to leave, but he was over zealous and said it was her duty to go anyway. Father overheard this and was never the same thereafter in his attitude toward the elders. He made but very few welcome."

"Mother was converted at the first meeting she attended. She and Father had been members of the Lutheran Church but didn't attend. Father had a book of sermons for every Sunday which he read on the appointed date, also, singing a couple of songs. This ceremony he carried on all by himself. Mother never was interested in religion until she met the Mormon elders."

"Father was a miller. He had two mills, one a windmill and the other driven by water power. The windmill was used for making flour and Father gave his particular attention to that work while Mother looked after the water power mill which was used mostly for chopping grain. Father would take a load of flour by night to Aalborg, the nearest large town, and on one of these trips he contracted a cold, which was followed by pneumonia. While he recovered from this particular attack it so severely affected his health that he gave up milling and bought a farm. My brother, Nels, was on a mission so the work was left largely to me. I was not old enough for the responsibility and consequently I developed a distaste for farming and resolved that that would never be my occupation."

"The name "Lee" came into the family at a comparatively recent time. We lived on a gaard or an estate that was called Ligaard. The custom of the country permitted your choice of a name, under certain circumstances. We were qualified to make a choice, and all families on this gaard took the name of "Lee". Before that our name was Nielson and that is where I got my second name. A generation before that the name was Ericksen, so if the old custom had prevailed there is no telling what surnames and how many there would have been by this time."

"I was anxious to be baptized when I was twelve years old. As I have said, my brother, Nels, was a local missionary working some distance from home but he would come back occasionally and when he did I would coax him to baptize me. He refused to do this because he didn't have Father's consent but one time his companion, Ove C. Ovesen, said he would baptize me. Nels said it would be all right with him if Elder Ovesen would take the responsibility so I was baptized and confirmed as heretofore stated."

"Father died December 24, 1865. The following spring we left for Zion. We sold everything for what we could get, sacrificing about two-thirds of the value. I think the entire family estate was worth nearly $15,000.00 but we only got $5,000.00 and some of this was used to help other families emigrate to Zion."

"We sailed from Hamburg, Germany on the sailing vessel "Kenilworth" and were eleven weeks on the voyage to New York, arriving July 17, 1866 at age 14. This was an uncommonly lengthy time even in those days of slow travel and was caused mainly by heavy fog. The captain could not get his bearings and so we lay practically in a calm for the greater part of the time. We should have made the voyage in about three or four weeks. Our trip buy rail as far as the Missouri River was not so fast nor comfortable as the trip is made in these days. We were loaded into cattle cars and had to clean them out with shovels and brooms before we could live in them. We went north from New York along the Hudson to Albany and thence on into Canada. It seems that the rates on the railroads in Canada were much lower than in the United States which was the reason for that roundabout way. We traveled in companies and the railroad men knew who we were and a good many of the were antagonistic. They made thing about as uncomfortable as they could for us, treating us rough in their switching in the numerous yards that we passed through. We went by train as far as St. Joseph, Missouri, thence by boat up the Missouri River to the village of Wyoming, Nebraska, and crossed the plains in Captain Lowry's ox train. However, about the 1st of October we were met by new teams, sent out from Salt Lake City to lend aid so that the emigrants could get into Salt Lake valley before winter set in. We were accordingly transferred to mule trains and arrived in Salt Lake valley October 6, 1866 which was some time ahead of our schedule and nobody was there of our people or acquaintances to meet us so we camped in the tithing yard until my brother, Nels, came from Milton, Morgan County, where he had located, and took us up there."

"About two or three years later, when I was 16 years old, I went east with the church train to meet emigrants. We went as far as the Platte River. There were two trains and not enough emigrants to justify using both trains for that purpose so the Tooele train, with which I was associated, hauled freight for Walker Brothers Dry Goods Company. There were a good many adventures, especially for a boy of my age on this trip, that have afforded me a lot of pleasure. I was young and active and no matter how tired I got during the day I was refreshed by a good nights sleep and ready for the next day."

I was about fourteen and one-half years old when we settled in Milton. I worked here and there at odd jobs, working at farming and other things that I found to do, and then I began to learn the cooper trade --the making of barrels, churns, and all that sort of thing. I think I acquired a pretty good knowledge of that business but when the railroad came through in 1869 wares of this kind could be purchased cheaper than we could make them so I was out of a job and even out of a trade. I was assisted by friends and relatives and got work with H. 0. Magleby, a cabinet maker, and in connection with this work did turning of chair legs and spindles and all manners of things that could be turned on a wood turning lathe. I became skilled enough at this work to find ready employment when I changed my residence to Brigham City in 1872."

Part of his contribution to building of Brigham City Tabernacle was making the balusters--that is the small posts that support the upper railing leading from newel post to the pulpit.

While still in Morgan, having a good voice and considerable talent for music, he became a member of the Milton ward choir and also a member of the Morgan City Brass Band.

When he moved to Brigham City he immediately joined the choir and also the band and soon became leader of both organizations.

He held the position of choir leader at Brigham City for 32 years and at his request was released March 31, 1912 at the advent of his sixtieth birthday.

He joined the United Order, which had been recently organized in Brigham City, and remained in that organization as long as it continued.

"Shortly after coming to Brigham City I met Emma Lovinia Ensign to whom I was married April 16, 1874 and also met Olivia Forsgren who I married three years later November 14, 1877 in St. George Temple. Emma became the mother of eleven children, Severin Norman, Mary Lovinia, Martin Luther, Camilla Georgiana, Rawson Adams, Emma Adeline, Effie May, Amy, Florence, Karl Christian, and Joseph Lloyd. Of these children Mary Lovinia, Emma Adeline, Effie May, and Joseph Lloyd died in infancy. Olivia bore nine children, John Adolph, Oscar Severin, William Nelson, Charles Peter, Eli Forsgren, Olivia, Lula and Lola (twins) and Victor. Of these children Charles Peter, Lula and Lola died in their childhood."

With this breach of the Edmund Tucker law I became the guest of Uncle Sam in the State Penitentiary for three months and contributed to the coffer of the United States $100.00. This was a comparatively light sentence and the term in prison was shortened for good behavior. The good behavior consisted of compliance with the rules of the institution. There was a choir and also a brass band in the Penitentiary. It is worthy of mention that Brother Brigham H. Roberts was one of my students. I was given permission to go and come as I pleased so long as I reported for meals. If it had not been for the separation from my family this penitentiary experience would have been more like a vacation than punishment."

"I worked in the cabinet business and wood work of various kinds until April 25, 1885 when I became tithing clerk, an office that I held for 48 years, that is to say, tithing clerk and stake clerk were not always combined in one office but from the time I began as tithing clerk and until I was released as stake clerk I filled both offices at one time or another and for a long period of time simultaneously."

At the time of his calling as tithing clerk he was ordained a High Priest by Apostle Rudger Clawson and also made a member of the High Council. Finding it impossible to hold the two positions, he was released from the High Council after several years and remained in the office of Stake Clerk until he resigned after 25 years of service.

"It seems that the work of stake clerk and tithing clerk were not enough to keep me busy all the time so I ventured into business. The first electrical lighting system in Brigham City was a second hand affair and I was Secretary. Everybody else apparently quit so I looked after not only their books but later took over the entire line and did a lot of wiring of houses and strung lights on the streets myself. I nearly lost my life at this business. One day the station operator and I agreed that the electricity should be turned off until 6 o'clock in the evening to permit me to do some repair work on the line. Our clocks must have been out of agreement because just a few minutes before mine said to quit I cut into a wire with my cutters and was thrown violently to the ground. The wire fell across my body and the current burned a hole through my clothing and into my body almost directly over my heart. I was rendered unconscious but fortunately my son, John, who was working with me, had presence of mind enough to pull at the wire and pull it off of me. I felt the effects from this experience for a good many days thereafter. I think I have never been so near to passing into the beyond as is did on that occasion."

Besides being a stockholder and manager of the power plant, he was a stockholder in the first Flour Mill, First National Bank of Brigham City and Stohl Furniture Company.

The following are comments by a daughter, Olivia Lee Knight-

How well I remember the old tithing yard with its loads of hay and bins of grain. In those early days tithing was taken to the Tithing Clerk. I remember butter and canned fruit was brought into the tithing office and many other things from home production.

In the tithing yard were two or three large piles of coal too, but they were father's for he was a coal dealer and would buy coal by the car load. When a car arrived then it was a busy time--my brothers helping unload the car so father would not have to pay demurrage.

Father was never late to any meeting. His punctuality was well-known throughout the community. Rather than be late he would leave for meeting 1/2 hour early.

He was completely honest and expected the same from everyone else. One coal dealer in town, if he did not have the kind of coal ordered, would go to father's coal pile and load up and weigh his load, if father was not there, and settle later. And father's trust in him was merited. However one time father loaned a typewriter. It was gone so long he forgot to whom he loaned it. Wanting it back he put an add in the paper saying, "Unless the party who borrowed my typewriter returns it immediately, I shall be forced to prosecute." Soon thereafter the typewriter was returned.

Father always traveled on his bicycle until his later years when he owned a coal truck and later a touring car. While he was Tithing Clerk and Stake Clerk he would have to make visits to the various wards in the Stake, The Box Elder Stake then comprising all of Box Elder County, so he would travel from Willard on the south to Deweyville on the north and from Mantua on the east to Park Valley on the west. When my husband and I and son, Richard, went to a missionary farewell of a Palmer boy in Autumn 1954 a man who knew me came up and after greeting us said, "You know, I can remember when your father used to come out here on his bicycle to visit the bishop." I had heard father traveled thus and here was verification. In those days the roads were not "hard top"--just gravel roads.

After these travels to the various wards Father would work over the records for the entire stake and try to balance the books. He worked on reports days and into weeks after all records were in, and became so weary that his stomach reacted and he would live mostly on rice. Father was a business man and a proficient bookkeeper. He said about church records, "We could lose a High Priest but never a penny."

My father courted my mother and wished to marry her but her mother was very much opposed to that. Father finally secured grandmother's consent and father and mother with another couple traveled by horse and wagon to St. George to be married in the St. George Temple. The Endowment House was closed at that time.

He was not a farmer or gardener by either desire or knowledge. But sometimes when he came home to dinner and it was not quite ready he would go out and chop some kindling wood or hoe a little in the yard. One day when Mother sent me out to tell him dinner was ready I saw him hoeing along a small irrigation ditch where mother had planted gladioluses. The glads were up about 6 or 7 inches and Father was going along the row chopping them off.

"Oh" I exclaimed, "you are hoeing the gladioluses out."

“What?" he answered, stopping the hoeing. I explained and showed him some of the plants he had not yet come to.

“Well!" he said, "I thought that was some husky looking grass."

Father enjoyed good food and he said to me once, "When you get to be as good a cook as your mother you will be alright."

He enjoyed good health most of his years as I knew him except for a troublesome hernia which he endured till after he was 80 years old when he was operated on for double hernia. Some thought this would finish father's activity but he recovered sufficiently to dig the garden plot at Aunt Emma's place, and would walk to the homes of various children of his family.

He drove his old Oldsmobile till quite late in life. I remember going for a ride with him after mother's passing. We went to Perry to visit an old time friend of his and we traveled at a speed of 15 miles per hour. I wondered if it would be just as good to get out and walk.

He supported 5 missionaries, 4 sons and one daughter. Of his posterity up to 1974 over 28 have fulfilled missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He was a skilled workman and believed if a job was worth doing at all it was worth doing well. He was honest, punctual and well respected by his many friends.

He died January 4, 1941--faithful to his family and church to the very end of life.

OBITUARY: Salt Lake Tribune - Sunday. Jan 5, 1941 p. A-13

NATIVE OF DENMARK HAD BEEN ACTIVE IN VARIOUS FIELDS
BRIGHAM CITY - Severin Nielsen Lee, 88, prominent civic and LDS church worker of Brigham City, died at the family hom, 421 W. 1st North St, Saturday noon, of causes incident to age.
   Mr. Lee was born March 31, 1852, in Vreilev Sogn, Hjorringamt, Denmark, to Christian N. and Inger Mogensen Lee. He was educated in Denmark, where he joined the LDS church August 31, 1864. Two years later, he emigrated to America. Arriving in New York in 1866 he crossed the plains in Captain Lowry's ox train, arriving in Salt Lake City Oct 6, 1866.
   He settled at Milton, Morgan county, where he was a cooper. In 1868 he drove an LDS church team to Fort Benton, Mont. to bring in emigrants. He then manufactureed furniture at Milton, where he became a member of the LDS ward choir and a member of the Morgan City brass band.
 FILLED CHURCH POSTS -
   He came to Brigham City in 1872, where he had resided since. He joined the Box Elder LDS stake choir of which he was a member for 40 years, and leader for 35 years. Other LDS church activities included Box Elder LDS stake clerk for 42 years, and service as a member of the high council. He was Brigham City coal dealer for more than 25 years.
   He married Emma L. Ensign in the Salt Lake LDS Endowment House in 1874. She died June 14, 1929. In 1877, he married Olivia Forsgren in the St. George LDS temple. She died May 25, 1934.
SERVICES TUESDAY
   Surviving are the following sons and daughters: Severin, Norman, John A., Oscar and Rawson A. Lee, and Mrs. Amy Lee Phillips of Brigham City, Mrs. Camilla G. MacDonald and Karl C. Lee of Salt Lake City, Victor Lee of Denver, Colo., and Mrs. Oliva Lee Knight of Oklahoma, also 32 grandchildren and 38 great grandchildren.
   Funeral services will be conducted Tuesday at 1 p.m. in Brigham City Third LDS ward chapel by Bishop William H. Stayner. Burial will be in Brigham City cemetery, under direction of the Harold B. Felt funeral home of Brigham City.
   Friends may call at the home of S. Norman Lee, 113 North Main Street, Monday afternoon, and Tuesday until time of services.[Obit contains a photo].

ORDINATIONS: Elder 1874; High Priest 5 May 1893 ( Brigham City 3rd Ward Recs (SL film #0025,675)

Severin and his family did not escape the persecution engendered by the Edmund's Anti-Polygamy billed signed into law in March, 1882. Severin was imprisoned May 23, 1887 and discharged August 9, 1887.

IMMIGRATION:
Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868 http://lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneercompanysearch/1,15773,3966-1-2068,00.html
This website connects to several trail accounts of the company's journey
Lee, Severin Nielsen age 14 (traveling with his mother Inger Mogensen Lee, age 53 and sister, Hanna Nielsen Lee, age 10)
Birth Date: 31 Mar. 1852
Death Date: 4 Jan. 1941
Gender: Male
Age: 14
Company: Abner Lowry Company (1866) [Departure: 13 Aug 1866 from the outfitting post at Wyoming, Nebraska - abt. 40 miles sousth of Omaha); Arrival SLValley 7,22 October 1866
Pioneer Information:
His name is "Severene Nielsen" on the roster.
Sources:
"Boxelder Stake Clerk Celebrates Golden Wedding Anniversary," Deseret News, 22 Nov. 1924, 3:VII.
FamilySearch
Journal History, 22 Oct. 1866, p. 3
Perpetual Emigrating Fund, General Files


Courtesy of Diane Wagner

CHILDREN OF SEVERIN NIELSEN & OLIVIA JULIANE FORSGREN LEE

(For further information on descendants of these siblings please contact me.  Because there are still living individuals I will not post personal information on this blog)

Child 1 - John Adolphus Lee  Born 7 July 1880, Brigham City, Box Elder, Utah;  Died 13 Sept 1944, Brigham City, Box Elder, Utah;  Married Maggie Viola Jensen (8 Jun 1885, Brigham City-23 Jun 1963, Brigham City) on 16 Dec. 1908 in the Salt Lake Temple.  They were the parents of  8 children: Roma, a stillborn son; John Ellis, Cora, Viola, Delbert Severin, Miriam, & Marcus Eli

OBITUARY: [paper unidentified. Printed in Pam Hickman Lee's, "The Lee Family . . ." May 2002, p. 137] Brigham City - John Adolphus Lee, 64, died at Brigham City hospital Wednesday at seven-twenty p.m., following an extended illness.

   Mr. Lee was born July 7, 1880, at Brigham City, a son of Severin N. and Olivia Forgren Lee. He was reared and educated in Brigham City, where he spent most of his life.
   A member of the LDS church, he fulfilled a mission in New Zealand from 1903 to 1906. He was a high priest in the LDS Fourth Ward.
   He married Maggie Jensen December 16, 1908, in the Salt Lake LDS temple.
   Surviving, besides his widow, are the following sons and daughter: J. Ellis, Miriam and Marcus E. Lee, Brigham City; Mrs. Cora L. Higginson, WAVES, Hutchinson, Kan.; Mrs. Viola L. Dickamore, Clinton; Delbert S. Lee, navy airforce; also eight grandchildren and the following brothers and sisters: S. Norman Lee, Oscar Lee, Mrs. Amy L. Phillips and Mrs. Florence L.S. Baird, Brigham City; Mrs. Camilla L. McDonald and Carl C. Lee, Salt Lake City; Mrs. Alvinia L. Knight, Pawnee, Okla.; R.A. Lee, San Diego, Calif., and Victor Lee, Provo.
   The body is at the mortuary in Brigham City. "

BAPTISM: By his father, S.N. Lee
MISSION: New Zealand, 1900-1902, laboring in Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand. [I see this information differs from that given in the obituary.  Anyone able to correct me??]

This is the home of John and Maggie Lee

Brigham City Cemetery, Plot B-50-25-2 & 3

OBITUARY: Box Elder News - Tuesday, June 25, 1963

DEATH CLAIMS LIFE-LONG BC RESIDENT
   Maggie Jensen Lee, 78, 132 North Third East, died Sunday at 5:10 p.m. of causes incident to age.
She was born June 8, 1885, at Brigham City, a daughter of Jacob and Mary Althea Wight Jensen.
She was married to John A. Lee on Dec. 16, 1908, in the Salt Lake LDS temple. He preceded her in death in 1944.
   She had been a teacher at Thatcher, Brigham City, Deweyville, Honeyville and Black Pine, Ida. She was an active member of the LDS Church and a member of the Deseret camp of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. She was a visiting teacher in the Relief Society for 35 years.
   Survivors include the following sons and daughter: J. Ellis Lee, Delbert S. Lee, both of Brigham City; Mrs. DeVern (Cora) Rasmussen, of Honeyville; Mrs. William E. (Viola) Dickamore, Hereford, Ariz: Mrs. Carold (Miriam) Baker, Santa Maria, Calif.; Marcus E. Lee, Garland: 40 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
   Funeral services will be held Wednesday June 26, at 1 p.m. in the Brigham City Fourth ward chapel. Friends may call at the Blaine Olsen mortuary Tuesday from 7-9 p.m. Burial will be in the Brigham City Cemetery.

Roma Lee Jensen 1910-1942

[John]Ellis Lee and Roma as children

Ellis 1914-1978 (md. Iris LaRue Hopkins)

Cora Lee Higginson Rasmussen 1916-1999

Viola Lee as a baby

Viola Lee Dickamore in 2004 at the Forsgren Reunion

Delbert Severin Lee, born 9 Sep 1921 in Black Pine, Oneida Co., Idaho;  Died 24 Dec. 2000 in Ogden, Weber Co., Utah.  He is buried in Brigham City Cemetery plot B-51-67-3;  He married Leda Grace Peterson on 4 June 1942 in the Salt Lake Temple.  They have 6 children.

Delbert Severin and Leda Grace Peterson Lee at their 1942 wedding

Delbert and Leda

OBITUARY: OGDEN - Delbert Severin Lee, 79, died Sunday, Dec 24, 2000 at the McKay-Dee Hospital of compllications following surgery.

He was born on Sept 9, 1921 in Black Pine, ID, a son of John A and Maggie Jensen Lee. He was reared and educated in Brigham City.
   Delbert married Leda Peterson on June 29, 1942 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. He served in the US Navy for 3 years during W II.
   Delbert had been employed at Hill Air Force Base and retired from the US Postal Service on Sept. 9, 1976.
   He was faithful member of the LDS Monroe Branch and former member of the Westwood Ward in Farr West, and Brigham City 9th Ward. He served with great devotion in many positions in the church including, member of the Stake Seventy Presidency, a member of High Priest Group Leadership and he served a two year Stake Mission.
   He loved gardening, golfing and fishing.
   Surviving are his wife, Leda P. Lee, Ogden, four sons, Terrence D (Kathy) Lee and Ryan S. Lee, all of Syracuse; Marlo J. Lee, Los Angeles; Kevin P (Nancy) Lee, Salem, Utah; 19 grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren. Also surviving are two sisters and a brother, Miriam Baker, South Jordan, Viola Dickamore, Ogden; and Marcus (LaRee) Lee, Garland.
   He was preceded in death by two daughters, Susan and Kristi, a brother and two sisters.
   Funeral services will be held on Thursday at 11:00 a.m. at the Myers Mortuary Chapel in Ogden. . . . Interment, Brigham City Cemetery where military honors will be accorded.
[Newspaper unidentified. Printed in Pam Lee's, "The Lee Family," May 2002 p. 176.]

John and Maggie Lee's child #7

Miriam Lee, born 10 June 1925 in Brigham City.  She married Carold Arnol Baker (14 May 1912, Jameston, Bingham, Idaho-27 Oct 1999, Salt Lake City) on 4 Jun 1952 in the Salt Lake Temple.  Miriam passed away on 14 Nov 2007 in Garland, Box Elder Co., Utah

Miriam was born in Brigham City while the family was still living in Blackpine, Idaho. When she was 4 yrs. old they moved back to Brigham City.

   Miriam graduated from Box Elder High school in 1943. She played violin in the orchestra. After graduation from HS she attended Weber College, graduating in 1945. She worked for Mt. States telegraph and Telephone Co during college, then returned to live with Maggie and worked at the Box Elder Co. Welfare Dept. She served a mission to the Central Pacific 1949-1950, laboring in Hawaii and taught the Japanese people the gospel. Maggie joined her there at the close of her mission.
   She was married to Carold Baker in the Salt Lake Temple by Harold B. Lee and they lived in the Lee home for a year after their marriage.
   She had been told by her doctor that she probably would not have any children, but Harold B. Lee gave her a blessing promising her that she would. She was expecting within two months after that, eventually giving birth to 5 children.
   They moved to Moses Lake, Washington and lived there for 8 years, then to California where they lived until 1992. Miriam worked at San Diego Trust and Savings in Escondido and 12 years at the San Diego Co. Welfare dept. Carold and Miriam have served as temple workers in the Los Angeles, Logan, and Ogden temples. After a few yers living in Garland they settled in a townhouse in Ogden.

Carold Baker
DEATH: "The Lee Family" book by Pam Hickman Lee says that Carold passed away on 27 Nov 1999 and is buried in the Honeyville Cemetery. Honeyville Sexton's records say 27 Oct 1999; An Ance. File record says 26 Oct 1999, SLC with burial 30 Oct 1999 SLC

Miriam and Carold were the parents of 5 children, Renee, Janet, Mark, Bruce and Joleen.  They are all still living.

BURIAL: Honeyville Cem Sec 9 Blk 6 Lot C#8

John and Maggie Lee's child #8 - 

Marcus Eli Lee, born 14 June 1927 in Black Pine, Oneida Co., Idaho; he married #1, Cloyette Jo Crabtree, daughter of  William Wardy and Merle Haswell, on 28 July 1953 in Elko, Elko Co., Nevada.  They were later divorced.  Marcus and Cloyette had two children, both of whom are still living.  Marcus  married #2) Laree Rhodes on 19 Aug 1960 in Salt Lake City.  They also have two children, still living.

Marcus Eli Lee 1927- & LaRee Rhodes Lee at the 2004 Forsgren Reunion

Child 2 - Oscar Severin Lee, Born 20 Dec 1881 Brigham City, Utah;  Died 22 May 1952 Brigham City;  Married Lettie Rose (8 Sep 1888, Park Valley, Box Elder, Utah-27 July 1975, Brigham City) on 1 June 1912 in Brigham City.  They were the parents of 5 children:  Ralph Weston Lee, Lettie Rose Lee, Morris Kent Lee, Ruth Nina Lee and Scott Norman Lee.

Photo courtesy of Diane Wagner

Oscar, Charles Peter, John and Will Lee as Children

Oscar Lee - date of photo unknown.  This is a very small picture (about 2 inches square). 

This photo included in the 1998 Forsgren Family Assn. Newsletter

I have no other photos of Oscar Severin Lee nor any of Lettie Rose.   Can anyone out there provide them??

Brigham City Cemetery:  Plot B-56-3-4

Children of Oscar Severin and Lettie Rose Lee

Ralph Weston Lee 30 Mar 1913, Brigham City - 11 May 1975, Brigham City

I have no other photos of Ralph Lee other than this one.  He married a Doris Murphy in 1937.  They later divorced and had no children.  He remarried but I have no records of that marriage nor any knowledge of possible descendants.  Can anyone provide other information for this son?

Brigham City Cemetery B-56-3-2

Lettie Rose Lee, born 5 April, 1915, Brigham City.  Died 6 Oct 2004.  Married Lloyd Brain Hust on 1 June 1938.  (Lloyd was born 22 Jan 1909 in Salt Lake City and died 24 Dec 2003 in American Fork, Utah).  Both are buried in the Brigham City Cemetery

I have no photos yet of Lettie Rose and Lloyd nor of their headstones. Can anyone help???

OBITUARY:   Date of Death: OCTOBER 6, 2004

Lettie Rose Lee Hust, 89, passed away on Wednesday, October 6, 2004 from causes incident to age. She was born on April 5, 1915 in Brigham City, Utah, a daughter of Oscar Severin Lee and Lettie Rose Lee. She graduated from Box Elder High School and received a degree from Weber College. She married Lloyd B. Hust on June 1, 1938 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. She taught school at Park Valley. She was an avid gardener, a water color artist, and a talented quilter. She was the absolute best pie maker in the world, and her cinnamon rolls had no rivals. She was active in the LDS Church and had a variety of callings in the Brigham City First Ward as well as serving as Box Elder Stake Primary President for a number of years. She is survived by five children: Jean Hust, Salt Lake City, Ken Hust, Salt Lake City, Stephen Hust (Irmi), Vienna Austria, Dianne Hust McCullock (Robert), American Fork, David Hust, Salt Lake City, five granddaughters, Shannon, Erin Katie, Carly Rose, Lettie Elizabeth and Allison Keeley McCullock, two brothers, Kent Lee, Brigham City and Scott Lee, St. George. Preceded in death by her husband, Lloyd B. Hust, a son, Joel Roger Hust and a daughter-in-law, Gail Hust (David), a brother, Ralph Lee and a sister, Ruth Lee Humphrey. Funeral services will be on Saturday, October 9, 2004 at 1:00 p.m. at the Gillies Funeral Chapel, 634 East 200 South, Brigham City, Utah Friends may call at the mortuary one hour prior to services. Burial will be at the Brigham City Cemetery.

OBITUARY:
" Lloyd Brain Hust, 94, passed away on Wednesday, December 24, 2003 from causes incident to age. He was born on January 22, 1909 in Salt Lake City, Utah, a son of Frederick Hust and Alice Brain Hust Anderson. He married Lettie Rose Lee of Brigham City on June 1, 1938 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple.
   He was a stepson of Nels Anderson of Bothwell, Utah. He graduated from Bear River High School and the University of Utah. He taught Typwriting, German, Spanish and Radio Electronics at Box Elder High School for 40 years until his retirement in 1973. He also owned a television repair business in Brigham City, and he enjoyed performing at fairs and rodeos with his trained dogs. A man with a wide variety of skills and interests, he took up violin making at the age of 79 and became quite proficient at this, even inventing a device used in making violin bows. He was active in the LDS Church and had a variety of callings in the Brigham City First Ward. He is survived by his wife, Rose, five children: Jean Hust, Salt Lake City, Stephen Hust (Irmi), Vienna, Austria, Dianne Hust McCullock (Robert), American Fork, David Hust, Salt Lake City, a brother Nicholas Wayne Anderson, Tremonton, a sister, Shirley Jones, Clinton. Preceded in death by a son Joel Roger Hust and a daughter-in-law, Gail Hust (David). Funeral Services will be at Gilles Petereson Funeral Chapel, Brigham City on Monday, December 29, 2003 at noon . . . Interment will be at the Brigham City Cemetery."

Excerpt from: Letter written in response to newspaper article requesting personal accounts of earthquake experiences in the Intermountain West
Submitted by: Lloyd B. Hust
Brigham City, Utah  December 1995
Location at time of earthquake: Salt Lake City, Utah
November 1995
     At the time of that quake I was living in Salt Lake in a home just west of what is now Third West. When the house started to shake, I thought at first that it was a freight train switching two or three blocks west of the home. Then as the shaking became stronger, the light which was hanging from the ceiling in the room where I was, began swinging violently back and forth. It was at that time that I realized that the shaking was caused by an earthquake.
     There was no damage to the home at the time, and the only damage I heard of was done to a school building at Kelton, which is not far from Hansel Valley. The building wasn't destroyed, but it suffered sufficient damage that the school board decided that it wouldn't be safe to continue using it as a school house, and from that time on, the small school in Kelton was held in a railroad car, which was on a siding there. The interior was remodeled and it worked out well as a one room school building.
     A month or so after the quake, some friends and I visited Hansel Valley and I snapped a couple of photos of the terrain there. I was 25 years old at the time. As I remember it, I believe there was a newspaper article which indicated that the center of the disturbance was at Hansel Valley, and I believe it gave directions as to how to reach the place. As far as I know, there weren't many people who visited the place at the time.
      Regarding the length of the shocks: As I remember it, I would estimate that the first shock lasted not more than two or three minutes.
     Regarding damage: there was none done in any of the homes in our area. No objects fell during the shocks.
     Regarding location: The address of the house where I was living was, and is, 325 Ouray Avenue. Ouray Avenue runs west from third west between what was then third and fourth north. I believe the streets are now numbered fourth and fifth north.
     I do remember that there were several "after shocks" in the days following the quake, which kept us "quaking in our boots" to use a pun to express the situation.

Morris Kent Lee, (known to most as Kent) born 10 Dec 1916, Brigham City;  Died 3 April 2005, Brigham City.  He married Oreta Pearl Hawkes (1910-2001) on Sept 21 1940 in Reno, Washoe Co., Nevada.  (Oreta's second marriage);  I have fond memories of Morris attending most of the Forsgren Reunions.  A nice, gentle man.

This photo of Kent and the following headstone photo are taken from Findagrave.com - a submission by Chad Kendall

Morris and Oreta are buried in the Brigham City Cemetery, Plot B-8-24

MILITARY SERVICE: Kent served in World War II as a Fighter Pilot in the Air Force

DEATH: Photocopy of Funeral Program (with photo) in possess. of Forsgren Family Assn. Services held
in the Brigham City 3rd Ward LDS Chapel 11 a.m., Thurs. April 7, 2005
OBITUARY:  Morris Kent Lee, 88, passed away Sunday, April 3, 2005 in Brigham City UT. He was born in Brigham City, Utah Dec. 10, 1916 to Oscar Severin Lee and Lettie Rose Lee. Kent graduated from Box Elder High School and Weber State College. Kent served as a pilot in the US Army Air Corps and in the United States Air Force from 1939 to 1945. During WWII he was stationed in California, England and Florida. He was a member of America's Greatest Generation. Kent was later employed for 34 years by the Utah State Department of Transportation as a Civil Engineer. He married Oreta Pearl Hawks Morris on Sept. 21, 1940. They raised five children together; Jerry Morris, Janet Morris Williams, Charles, Douglas and Rebecca Lee. Kent was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He served in many callings and was a faithful home teacher. Later in life, he enjoyed attending the temple regularly with his wife, Oreta. Kent is survived by his children, Jerry A. & Audreen Morris of Centerville and Janet and Leland Williams of Brigham City; CharlIes K. & Bonnie Lee of Campbell, CA; E. Douglas & Elisabeth Lee of Anchorage, AK and Rebecca Lee of Ogden. One brother, Scott Lee of St. George as well as 22 grandchildren, 41 great grandchildren and 8 great great grandchildren also survive him. His wife Oreta, his brother, Ralph and two sisters, Rose Hust and Ruth Humphrey, preceded Kent in death. Funeral Services will be held Thursday, April 7, 2005 at 11:00 a.m. at the Brigham City 3rd Ward Chapel, 200 North 200 West. Friends may call on Wednesday from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Gillies Funeral Chapel, 634 East 200 South, Brigham City, UT and on Thursday from 10:00 to 10:40 a.m. at the church. Interment will be in the Brigham City Cemetery, where military honors will be accorded by the Combined Veterans of Box Elder County.

Ruth Nina Lee, born 10 Feb 1921, Brigham City;  died 4 Sept. 1995, Brigham City.  She married William R. Humphrey (1918-1971) on 28 Aug 1968 in Elko, Nevada.  There were no children born to this marriage.

Burial in Brigham City Cemetery .  He is in plot B-57-36-5.  I have no photos of this couple.  Can anyone help?

Scott Norman Lee (still living as of 2011), married to Myrtice Joyce Jeppsen.  Five Children.  Attended the 2010 Forsgren Reunion.  Lovely people in face and spirit!

Scott and Joyce protraying Jacob and Priscilla Hamblin

Child 3 - William Nelson Lee - Born 6 July 1884, Brigham City.  Died 7 February 1936, Brigham City.  Buried 11 Feb 1936 in the Brigham City Cemetery, lot E-2-71-5.  Married Loverda Ercell Valentine on 15 Nov 1922 in the Salt Lake Temple.  Three children:  Barbara Lee and William Orvid Lee and Fay Stanley (Loverda's daughter by a previous marriage - sealed to Wm. Nelson and Loverda Lee)

OBITUARY: Ogden Standard Examiner, 9 Feb 1936

Wm. N. Lee, 51, Dies At Brigham City

Brigham City, Feb. 8 - William N. Lee, 51, for many years a Brigham City official, died suddenly at his home, 225 North Fourth West street, Friday evening. Mr. Lee had gone to tend to a flock of hens and had suffered a sudden heart attact while in a building at the rear of his home. He was found dead.

"Bill Lee" as he was known by his many friends, was seen about Brigham City yesterday, apparently in the best of health and his unexpected passing brought sorrow to his many friends in Brigham City.

Born July 6, 1885

Mr. Lee was born in Brigham City, July 6, 1885, the son of S.N. and Olivia Forsgren Lee and has resided in Brigham City all his life.

As a young man he served a mission for the LDS Church in Sweden and upon his return married Verda Valentine in the Salt Lake temple, Nov. 15, 1922.

For many years Mr. Lee has served Brigham City in the electrical, water and street departments and was only released from city employment the first of this year. For two years he served as chief of police.

He is survived by his wife, father, S.N. Lee and the three children, Fay, Barbara and Orvid; also the following brothers and sisters: John and Oscar Lee of Brigham; Mrs. Lester P. Knight of Ogden; Victor Lee of Salt Lake City; half brothers and sister, President S. Norman Lee, Mrs. N.A. McDonald of Salt Lake City; Mrs. John W. Phillips, R.A. Lee and mrs. Andrew Suiter of Brigham and Karl Lee of Salt Lake City.

BURIAL: Brigham City Cem E-2-71-5

Brigham City Cemetery Lot E-2-71-4

Children of William N. Lee and Loverda Valentine:

Fay Stanley Lee, born 24 Feb 1918, American Falls, Power Co., Idaho;  Died 10 March 2006 in Salt Lake City.  Buried in the SLC Cem. with her husband James Chipman Fletcher whom she married 2 Nov., 1946 in the Salt Lake Temple.  Four children were born to this marriage.  Information found on Findagrave.com states that she was adopted by her stepfather William Nelson Lee.  (I have no photo of Fay Stanley Lee Fletcher)

This is the reverse side of the James Chipman Fletcher stone in the Salt Lake City Cemetery - Plot 110945 West-7-41-W-4 

OBITUARY & BURIAL:

Birth: Feb. 24, 1918, American Falls, Power County, Idaho, USA
Death: Mar. 10, 2006, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, USA
Daughter of Rush George Stanley and Loverda Ercell Valentine. Fay's father died in 1919, and she was adopted by her stepfather William Nelson Lee.
Obituary, Deseret News, March 13, 2006
Fay Lee Fletcher 1918 ~ 2006 Passed away Friday March 10th in Salt Lake City of ovarian cancer. Born February 24, 1918 in Idaho Falls, Idaho; raised in Brigham City, Utah. Daughter of Laverta Stanley Lee and George Rush Stanley. Attended the University of Utah and Brigham Young University and worked at the Federal Reserve while living in California.
Married to the late James C. Fletcher, former president of the University of Utah from 1964-1971, and the Administrator of NASA from 1971-1978, and also 1986-1989. Resided in Mclean, VA from 1971-2006 where she served her community, church, and family with enthusiasm and dedication. Surviving family includes daughters, Ginger Fletcher, Mary Sue Mc-kenzie, and Barbara Fletcher Rush; and son, Stephen Fletcher. Funeral services will be Wednesday, March 15, 2006 at 12 noon in the Larkin Sunset Lawn Mortuary, 2350 E. 1300 So., where family and friends may call from 10:45-11:45 a.m. prior to services. Interment, Salt Lake City Cemetery. Online condolences: www.larkinmortuary.com
Parents: Rush George Stanley (1881 - 1919)   Loverda S. Valentine Lee (1893 - 1980)

DEATH INFORMATION & OBITUARY FOR James Chipman Fletcher
Birth: Jun. 5, 1919  Millburn, Essex County, New Jersey, USA
Death: Dec. 22, 1991, District Of Columbia, USA
Son of Harvey Fletcher and Karen Lorena Chipman. He married Fay Lee  2 Nov 1946 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Obituary: The New York Times, December 24, 1991
   James C. Fletcher, the former head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration who sold the space shuttle program to Congress in the 1970's, died Sunday at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington. He was 72 years old and lived in McLean, Va.
   Dr. Fletcher died of lung cancer, his wife, Fay, said.
   He was the only person to serve twice as NASA Administrator, first from April 1971 to May 1977, then from May 1986 to April 1989.
   A tall, distinguished man, Dr. Fletcher presided over the agency during two of its most critical periods: in the early 1970's as NASA struggled to redefine the space program after the Apollo missions, and in the aftermath of the explosion of the shuttle Challenger in 1986. Initiated Voyager Program
   "In both circumstances, he took a cautious, thoughtful and ultimately productive approach," said Dr. John M. Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at Georgetown University.
   Dr. Fletcher oversaw or initiated virtually every major space project of the last two decades. Although the missions were planned before he took over, he was Administrator during the three Skylab missions in 1973 and 1974 and the two Viking probes that landed on Mars in 1976.
   He also initiated the Voyager space probe, the space telescope program and the Apollo-Soyuz mission, which in 1975 linked American and Russian astronauts in space.
   Dr.. Logsdon said that in the 1970's Dr. Fletcher strove to make NASA's mission one of using space technology to solve problems on Earth, placing special emphasis on communication and weather satellites. Returned to Head NASA.
   But his greatest imprint was on the shuttle program. He sold it to the Nixon Administration and to Congress, arguing that it would pay for itself in a time of shrinking budgets for space missions. His projections did not hold true, but the shuttle program flourished until Jan. 28, 1986, when the Challenger exploded, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
   At the request of President Ronald Reagan, Mr. Fletcher returned to head NASA in May 1986 to piece together an agency not only demoralized by the accident but suffering from severe managerial problems. But he said it was only reluctantly that he left his aerospace consulting company, James C. Fletcher & Associates, and a teaching position at the University of Pittsburgh.
   Over the next three years, in his usual low-key style, he rearranged NASA's bureaucracy and returned the shuttle program to flight in 1988.
   "He brought a sense of calm and purpose to an agency that was very troubled in the aftermath of Challenger," Dr. Logsdon said.
Accusations of Conflict:  But during the intense scrutiny surrounding the accident, Dr. Fletcher was caught up in accusations that there was waste during his first administration and that in 1973 he helped steer a contract for the shuttle booster rockets to Morton Thiokol Inc. of Brigham City, Utah. The company's flawed booster rocket design was blamed for the explosion.
   In November 1987, Dr. Fletcher was cleared by Congressional investigators of violating conflict-of-interest regulations. Questions had been raised about his membership on the executive committee of Pro-Utah Inc., a lobby group that sought to promote industrial growth in Utah, at the time he joined the space agency in 1971.
   James Chipman Fletcher was born on June 5, 1919, in Millburn, N.J. He received an undergraduate degree in physics from Columbia University and a doctorate in physics from the California Institute of Technology.
   After holding research and teaching positions at Harvard and Princeton Universities, he joined Hughes Aircraft in 1948 and later worked at the Guided Missile Division of the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation.
   In 1958 he co-founded the Space Electronics Corporation of Glendale, Calif., which after a merger became the Space General Corporation. He was later named systems vice president of the Aerojet General Corporation, an aerospace company in Sacramento, Calif.
   In 1964 he became the eighth president of the University of Utah, a position he held until he was named NASA Administrator in 1971.
   Aside from his wife, Mr. Fletcher is survived by a son, Stephen; three daughters, Ginger, Mary Susan and Barbara; four brothers, Paul, of San Diego, Robert, of Boston, and Stephen and Harvey, both of Provo, Utah, and six grandchildren.
Correction: January 14, 1992, Tuesday
An obituary on Dec. 24 about James C. Fletcher, former administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, misstated the affiliation of Dr. John M. Logsdon, an aerospace authority. He is director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.
Parents: Harvey Fletcher (1884 - 1981)
Spouse: Fay Lee Fletcher (1918 - 2006)
Burial: Salt Lake City Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, USA, Plot: 110945 WEST-7-41-

Barbara Lee, born 18 March 1924, Brigham City;  Died 21 Jan 1966, Salt Lake City;  Buried 25 Jan 1966 in the Brigham City Cemetery Plot E-2-71-2;  Married William Holmes Call 20 Nov 1942 in Salt Lake City. (Sealed on same day in 1958 in the Salt Lake Temple).  They have one son:  William Lee Call.
I have no photo of Barbara or William Holmes Call.   Can anyone help?

Brigham City Cemetery Plot E-2-71-2

This photo was taken in 2004, shortly after a phone conversation I had with William Holmes Call. He passed away 19 September 2009.   Ancestry.com has the following information in their Obituary Collection:

Deceased: William Call

Gender: M (Male)
Age at Death: 87
Death Date: 29 Sep 2009
Obituary Date: 1 Oct 2009
Newspaper Title: The Salt Lake Tribune
Newspaper Location: Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Birth: 13 Jul 1922, Brigham
Spouse's Name: Barbara Lee
Parents' Names: Barbara and Winnifred; William Cornell Call and Nathell Holmes
Childrens' Names: David Remington (Shirlene), Doug Remington (Bonnie), Don Remington (Christine), James Bean (Chris), Audrey Allison (James), Karen Bean (James), Evelyn Homer Sheehan (James); W. Lee Call (Mary); William Lee Call
Marriage Location: Salt Lake City
Number of Grandchildren: 34
Number of Great-grandchildren: 23
Military: US Army
Source Citation: The Salt Lake Tribune; 1 Oct 2009; Publication Place: Salt Lake City

William Orvid Lee, (Known in life as Orvid) born 2 July 1927 in Brigham City, Utah.  Married Maxine Jorgensen 10 June 1949; Parents of 4 children - David, Katherine, Douglas and Linda [Since they are still living no further information is included here]

OBITUARY: Corvallis Gazette Times, April 05, 2007 12:00 am

William Orvid Lee  July 2, 1927 - April 2, 2007

    William Orvid Lee passed away at his home in Corvallis on Monday
    He was born in Brigham City, Utah, to Loverda Ercell Valentine and William Nelson Lee.
   Orvid served in the U.S. Navy toward the end of World War II. He then attended Utah State University, where he met Maxine Jorgensen. They were married June 10, 1949, in Logan, Utah.
    In 1957, the family moved to Corvallis, where Orvid earned a Ph.D. in farm crops and spent his career working as a research agronomist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He specialized in weed control in grass-seed fields.
    He was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, providing service in many capacities, including a mission to Adam-ondi-Ahman. 
    Orvid loved his family, friends, farming and fishing. He was generous and caring to many.
     He is survived by his wife, Maxine; son David and wife Kay of Salt Lake City, Utah; daughter Kathy and husband Spencer of Aloha; son Doug of La Habra, Calif.; daughter Linda and husband Kelly of Canby; 16 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Sisters Barbara Lee Call and Fay Stanley Fletcher preceded Orvid in death.
    A viewing will be held from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Friday, April 6, at the LDS Walnut Chapel, 1205 N.W. Walnut Blvd.   
    A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 7, at the LDS Corvallis Stake Center, 4141 Harrison Blvd. Interment will be at the Twin Oaks Memorial Gardens.
    In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to LDS Humanitarian Services in care of McHenry Funeral Home, 206 N.W. Fifth St., Corvallis OR 97330.

Death Notices (Crop & Soil News and Views, Oregon State Univ., 2007)
During the past year, we received word of the death of these former students or employees.
     William Orvid Lee – weed specialist with the USDA in Corvallis and recipient of the Diamond Pioneer award, passed away on April 2, 2007 at the age of 79.

Child #4 - Charles Peter Lee, born 3 Dec. 1886 in Brigham City, Utah;  Died 22 March 1896 of Spinal Meningitis in Brigham City where he is buried in plot B-16-17-6.    See photos of him at the beginning of this blog post.  This is the headstone after it was so ably repaired and reset by Bott Monument Company in 2010 with contributions of members of the Forsgren Family Association.  It had fallen and lain cracked for many years.

Child #5 - Infant Lee, This was probably a stillborn child.  My information lists year of birth as either 1888 or 1890 - both calculated.    I have no other specific information.

Child #6 - Eli Forsgren Lee, born 17 August 1891, Weston, Oneida Co., Idaho;  Died 24 August 1934 in Brigham City, Box Elder, Utah.   Married Alice Morrison (15 May 1893, Brigham City-5 July 1975, Ogden) on 28 June 1916 in the Salt Lake Temple.  Parents of 6 children (one stillborn)

Eli F. (in hat) with his brother Charles Peter Forsgren

This photo (in the possession of Lester Lee Knight) I have labeled Eli Lee (the toddler) with William Robert.  I do not know who William Robert might be.  If he is a Lee I have no record of him in my files

OBITUARY: Salt Lake Tribune - Sunday August 26, 1934 p. 8-B
ELI F. LEE - Brigham City - Eli Forsgren Lee, 43, head of the comercial department of the Box Elder high school, died Friday at 10:30 p.m. at a local hospital after a gall bladder and appendix operation. The body is at the Stohl mortuary.
   Mr. Lee was born August 17, 1891, at Weston, Idaho, a son of Severin N. and Olivia Forsgren Lee. He came to this city when 4 years of age and grew to manhood here, receiving his education in the public schools and at the Utah State Agricultural college. He married Miss Alice Morrison June 29, 1916, in the Salt Lake LDS temple. He taught in South Cache high school seven years. He then returned to Brigham City to become head of the commercial department of the local high school. He was active in the LDS church, being an officer in the Second ward Sunday school and a former member of the stake MIA board. He also engaged in poultry raising and was president of the local branch of the Utah Poultry Producers' Cooperative Association. He served as city auditor the past two years.
   Surviving are his widow and five sons and daughters, as follows: Robert, Elizabeth, Marjorie, Alice Mary and Kirkwood M. Lee; his father and the following brothers and sisters: John A., Oscar S. and William N. Lee, Mrs. Olivia Lee Knight, Brigham City, and Victor Lee, Salt Lake City; half-brothers and half sisters, S. Norman Lee, R.A. Lee, Mrs. John W. Phillips, Mrs. Florence L. Souter, Brigham City; Martin L. Lee, Mrs. N.A. Macdonald and Carl Lee, Salt Lake City.
   Funeral services will be conducted Tuesday at 2 p.m. in the LDS Second ward chapel. Interment will be in in Brigham City Cemetery.

This photo was copied from Eli's Obituary photo, thus the poor quality


Brigham City Cemetery, plot E-2-68-5

Children of Eli Forsgren Lee and Alice Morrison:

Robert Eli Lee, born 4 Apr 1917, Brigham City;  Died 23 Feb. 2003, Las Vegas, Clark Co., NV.  Married Alice H. Hansen (6 Feb 1914, Teton, Fremont, Idaho-June 2004, Las Vegas) on 27 May 1938.  Parents of 7 children.
Obituary from Las Vegas Review-Journal 26 Feb 2003:
   "Robert Eli Lee, 85, of Las Vegas died Sunday in Las Vegas. He was born April 4, 1917, in Brigham City, Utah. A resident for 36 years, he was a construction project manager and an Army verteran who served in the European Theater.
   He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Alice; two daughters, Lilnda Nelson of Hendrson and Barbara Lee of Woodland, Washington; two sons, Tom Lee and Steve Lee, both of Henderson; two sisters, Marjorie Hancey of Clearfield, Utah, and Mary Youngfield of Sunset, Utah; one brother, Kirk Lee of Ogden, Utah; 33 grandchildren and 55 great-grandchildren.
   Services were scheduled at 11 a.m. today in the LDS Gateway and Wyoming Chapel. Burial will be in Brigham City."

Deseret News, The (Salt Lake City, UT) - February 27, 2003 (this is the obituary attached to the entry on findagrave.com)
Robert E. Lee 4/4/1917~2/23/2003
Robert Eli "Bob" Lee, 85 passed away on February 23, 2003 in Las Vegas, NV.
He was born on April 4, 1917 in Brigham City, Utah, a son of Eli Forsgren and Alice Morrison Lee.
He attended Box Elder High School in Brigham City. Bob served in the Army Signal Corps during World War II.
He married Alice Hansen on May 27th, 1938 in the Logan Temple. They have been married for 64 years.
He was a Construction Project Manager retiring after 54 years service.
Bob loved music, electronics, carpentry and dance.
Surviving is his wife, Alice Lee of Las Vegas, Nevada; four children, Linda Nelson, Tom Lee, Barbara Lee, Steve Lee; 33 grandchildren, 55 great-grandchildren. Also surviving is two sisters, and one brother, Marjorie Hancey of Clearfield; Mary Youngfield of Sunset; Kirk Lee of Ogden.
Funeral services will be held Saturday, March 1, 2003 at 11 a.m. at the Gillies Funeral Chapel, 634 E 200 South, Brigham City, where family will meet with friends Saturday, from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Interment will be in the Brigham City Cemetery, where military honors will be accorded by the VFW Post 1695 Honor Guard.

Robert Eli Lee and his sister Elizabeth.  Isn't this just the greatest picture in the world???

[Let me interject here that Bob Lee was a wonderful, gentle, kind, courteous and optimistic man. We met in the same LDS Ward Building in Las Vegas for a while so got to see each other from time to time in the hall. I had much respect for him and for his daughter Janice (whom I used to Visit-teach during her early battles with cancer and Janice's daughter Allison Williams who is a genuine and faithful spirit!]
 

Front and back of the Lee stone in Brigham City Cemetery

 
Elizabeth Lee, born 24 May 1918, Brigham City, Box Elder, Utah;  Died 9 Nov 1998. Buried in Fillmore, Utah.   Married John Lear Scottorn (12 July 1915, Fillmore, Millard, Utah-12 Sept 1986, Fillmore) on 23 Nov 1937.  Parents of 5 children.  I have no photos (other than the one above with Robert) for Elizabeth or John, nor of their headstones and no personal information about their lives.  Anyone out there able to help with obituaries or family information??
 
Marjorie Lee <living>, born 1921 in Hyrum, Cache Co., Utah.  Married Jack Elmer Hancey (3 Feb 1918, Amalga, Cache Co., Utah-26 Mar 2003) on 30 Mar 1941 in Farmington, Davis Co., Utah.  Paraents of 4 children.  I have no digitized photos of Marjorie and Jack, nor very much up-to-date information on this family.  Can anyone out there help?
 
Alice Mary Lee, born 13 Jan 1924, Brigham City, Utah;  died 22 Sept 2003.  Have no information on her burial.  Married Harold Douglas Youngfield on 5 Dec 1945.  Parents of 6 children.  I have very little up to date information on this family.  No photos
 
Kirkwood Morrison Lee , born 1925, Brigham City.  Wife:  Aleta Knight.  They have 4 children;  He has one by a former marriage.  Even though Kirk has been to Forsgren reunions I cannot find a picture of him.  Need more information about his children and grandchildren as well.
 
Adele Lee, stillborn 9 Dec 1928, Brigham City
 

Child # 7 - Olivia Lee, born 7 August 1894, Weston, Oneida Co., Idaho;  Died 11 August 1976 in Ogden, Weber, Utah.  Buried in Brigham City Cemetery on 13 Aug 1976 ;  Married Lester Pool Knight (2 Mar 1896, Ogden - 26 May 1986, Boise, Ada Co., Idaho) on 11 August 1926 in the Logan Temple.  They are the parents of two sons:  Lester Lee Knight and Richard Earl Knight.

Olivia Forsgren Lee seemed to highly prize her beautiful long hair.  Mother and daughter were very close.  Perhaps Olivia F inspired this photo of Olivia (Eva as she was often known to distinguish her from her mother) to have a similar picture taken.

(See additional photos of Olivia with her mother Olivia at the beginning of this post)

 

In some records Olivia's birth place is given as Weston, Franklin Co., Idaho. This is incorrect; Franklin County was not formed from Oneida County until 1913.

Life History of Olivia Lee Knight

By Olivia and her sons, Lester Lee and Richard Earl Knight
Ancestry
     My father, Severin Nelson Lee, was born March 31, 1852 in Vreilev Sogn, Hjorring Ampt, Denmark, the son of Christian Nielson, a miller by trade, and Inger Mogensen. After his father's death, he came to America with his mother and younger sister, Hannah, as converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, arriving July 17, 1866, a boy 14 years of age.
     My mother, who's maiden name was Olivia Juliane Forsgren, was born February 10, 1856 in Brigham City, Box Elder County, Utah. Her birthplace, one of the first log cabins built in Brigham City, still stands at 59 So. First East. She and my father were married November 14, 1877 in the St. George Temple.
     Her father, Peter Adolph Forsgren, came to America from Jefla, Sweden as a convert to the church, being the first person to be baptized into the church in Scandinavia. He was a farmer and weaver and wove the first cloth made in Box Elder County. Her mother, Anna Christina Jensen Knudson, was born on the Isle of Moen, Denmark and was one of the very first converts to the church in Denmark. She came to America in the same company as Peter Adolph Forsgren; they became acquainted, were married at Keokuk, Iowa and crossed the plains to Utah together.

Family
     I was born the 7th day of July 1894 in the little town of Weston, Oneida (now Franklin) County Idaho, with the help of a midwife, in a little unpainted frame house where my mother and five brothers lived during part of the time of the polygamy persecution. The brothers were: John Adolphus, who was 14 years older than I and on whose birthday I was born, Oscar Severin (2O Dec 1881), William Nelson (6 Jul 1884), Charles Peter (3 Dec 1886) and Eli Forsgren (17 Aug 1891). I was described as having brown hair, brown eyes and a fair complexion. Charles Peter died 22 Mar 1896. I was about two years of age when we moved back to Brigham City, Utah.
      Some of my very earliest recollections are in connection with my baby twin sisters, Lula and Lola, who were born [3 May 1897] when I was three years old. I recall giving them a ride in the black baby buggy and of telling other neighborhood children, just in front of our home, that Lula was my baby and Lola was my brother Eli's. Eli was then six. Lula died 24 Feb 1898 and Lola 11 May 1898. I recall how my mother cried when Lola, just a year old, died. She was laid out on a little table Father had made for me out of a 12 inch board with legs made from old broom handles. We went to the funeral in Thomas Slater's hack, a covered convayance with seats along the sides to carry passengers, from the O.S.L. [Oregon Short Line] depot on 9th West to Main Street. The little casket stood in the aisle between the seats.
     Last to join our family was a baby boy who was given the name of Victor (4 Aug 1900). I remember how the midwife handed him to me after he was dressed and said, "You can be the first to hold him." He was a wee one then but later in life attained the height of over six feet and weighed two hundred pounds.

Growing up
     My two playmates during my earliest years were my half-sister, Florence, and my cousin, Connie Forsgren. Connie and I made many mud pies, one day putting in angleworms for raisins for a neighbor man we didn't like. Near her house on south 5th West where the irrigation ditch was wide and the ground had a gentle slope on the west side we made beautiful lagoons with tiny walks and bridges and miniature canoes. Where the bank sloped was made a tiny waterfall. Connie and I were bosom pals till we were of high school age. Then she went to S.L.C. to stay with a sister, Laura, and our friendship was never quite the same. Florence and I had several episodes of interest together but too detailed to mention. I often played with Miriam and Hortense, the Evans children.
     Growing up in a family of boys it would be natural to expect that I would be able to do some of the things boys do, for example - climb trees. I could climb trees as well as any of the neighbor boys and better than my brothers, consequently I knew where all the bird nests were. I knew where the mourning dove had her nest on the crotch of a limb in a locust tree, a nest made of a few tiny twigs, and in which were laid two little snow white eggs. Then there was the robin's nest in the cherry tree, made of mud and lined with bits of soft material and in which was laid four beautiful robin's egg blue eggs. And the woodpeckers nest in neighbor Marble's poplar tree, a nest so deep down in the trunk of the tree that I had to reach down to the depth of my elbow to touch the eggs, of which there seemed to be a dozen. And there was the tiny humming bird nest no bigger than half a walnut shell and lined with soft cotton. It was on the end of a low flung apple tree branch and contained two tiny white eggs no larger than a small green pea. Here is where my interest in birds began, which has grown through the passing years. I could do tricks on a trapeze bar made of a broom handle hung by two ropes from a tree limb. I could hang by my knees, or feet, and "skin the cat", etc.
     One real special event was when President Lorenzo Snow came to Brigham City. All the little girls, in their white dresses, were lined up on each side of Main Street by the Tabernacle and we scattered flowers in the road in front of his carriage.
     Also held in happy remembrance are the annual ward and stake outings at Dock’s Flat south of Mantua. Sometimes the whole Third Ward went by team and wagon, with plenty of lunch, and stayed all day. Ball games were played and races run. I well remember one race with other girls my age. I ran hard and my garter broke. We had garters (long white ones pinned to a garter belt) to hold our long stockings up. I was so embarrassed when my garter went flapping around my leg. I didn't win the race but they gave me an orange anyway. Other happy occasions were Sunday School and Ward outings to Saltair [a resort on the Great Salt Lake] and Lagoon which at that time were new and beautiful.
     In my little girlhood days there weren't refrigerators nor could we buy ice cream in the stores. If we wanted to have ice cream we would have to take the express wagon and a burlap sack and go down to the ice house - a large barn on the south of Forest Street across from what is now Rees Pioneer Park. In this barn were stored, in lots of sawdust, large chunks of ice which had been cut in winter and stored for summer use. We would get a block of the ice, take it home and proceed to freeze our ice cream. There was one place up town where we could sit to a table and order a dish of ice cream. It was called The Ice Cream Parlor. We could get a good sized serving for 5 cents and a little larger for 10 cents. After awhile we were real pleased to have a wooden icebox (or refrigerator). It had shelves for food storage and in one upper section was a metal compartment where a block of ice was placed, thus providing refrigeration. This was a real luxury. On certain days the ice wagon would come round and we would buy our block of ice. Much later there was the little horse drawn ice cream wagon or cart that would peddle ice cream cones. As soon as the tinkle of the little bell on this cart was heard all the children on the street would tease their mothers for a nickle to buy a cone.

Home Chores
      I gained my love of flowers in two ways. One was by growing up in a flower garden, for my mother, a natural florist, had flowers everywhere around the yard, all kinds, from violets and buttercups to lilac bushes - a hundred different kinds. The other way was by taking the cow to the pasture. Often I had to take the cow down to my Uncle Joe Knudson's corral. If the boys didn't get the cow milked in time for the herd boy, Percy Knudson, then I had to take her on down to the pasture. That was a route that took me to 6th West, thence to 2nd North and from there on down across the railroad tracks and on west into the fields below. But I didn't mind this too much for here in the tall, thick meadow grass I would pick long stemed violets, johnny junp ups, shooting stars, larkspurs and others. Meadow larks and blackbirds filled the air with song and in boggy grass swamp areas I could jump and feel the carpet under me surge up and down.
     As a little girl I learned early to do household tasks that sometimes were big for a little girl. My mother told me that I did all the plain ironing (pillow cases and Mothers plain aprons) while she was 'carrying' my brother Victor and since he is only 6 years younger than I, I was not yet 6 when doing this ironing. Later I mopped the linoleum floors, scrubbed the wooden doorstep (done every Saturday), besides washing dishes and helping weed the garden by hand weeding. There was raspberry picking at which I earned my first money at age seven and paid tithing on it, which was 10 cents.
     Gathering eggs was another task of mine. It was more fun than labor – hunting in the hay in the big barn for hidden nests and climbing to the small hay loft above the horse and cow mangers where hens especially liked to hide their nests. Sometimes I would find a hidden nest used by several hens before I would find it. Then I might find six or eight eggs in a nest. This was as much fun as finding colored eggs left by the Easter Bunny on Easter morning. There were nearly always more eggs than we need for our home use. These surplus eggs Mother would have me take in a basket to Bishop Blackburn's little store up town. There I would trade them for groceries that Mother had listed. There were always one or two extra eggs for me to spend on candy -and what good candy! - coconut beans, natural size marshmallow type bananas, licorice (called nigger toes) round hard balls called jaw breakers and several other kinds.
     The churning seemed a very heavy job. We did the churning in the cellar; the cellar was what would now be called a basement. It was a large cool room under the house: the walls were rocklined and white washed with lime and the floor was made of red brick. It was clean and real cool, so cool that it was here the pans of milk were kept on shelves to let the cream rise. Here too, the winter supply of flour and all the canned fruit, preserves, etc. was kept. Mother would skim the cream from the large pans of milk and keep the cream in a large stone jar or crock till there was enough for a churning. Then it was put in a barrel type of churn with a dasher on one end of a handle, which handle extended through a hole in the lid of the churn. Sometimes, when I had pulled up and pushed down on that handle for what seemed hours, I would think the cream would never "break" - that is, separate the crumbs of butterfat from the buttermilk. But finally - Oh, happiness! - there was the butter and what good butter and buttermilk.
      Two or three years later I picked cherries and strawberries for my uncle, Connie's father. Even though a back breaking job it had its time of delight when we ate luscious fresh strawberries and cream with our lunch in the shade of the creek bed willows.

Grade School
     At the age of seven my school days began at the little, three room, tan, frame, Third Ward elementary (Emerson) school house with Miss Wilkinson as teacher.  Memories of this year are limited to a great amount of visiting both in the schoolroom and in the school yard. This school adjoined the 'lot' of the old Third Ward 'doby' meeting house on the corner at 238 North 3rd West. This building has since been converted into the Millory Steed Apartments. In the old 3rd Ward meeting house I said my first piece in Primary and attended my brother John's 'missionary farewell' prior to his departure for New Zealand. Since the curtain partitioned class rooms were not enough, some of us marched over to the school house for classes. Here one of the most embarrassing moments of my life occurred. While marching in my Sunday best through the big gate into the school yard a button came off and my panties dropped to my feet. This experience so upset me that I wouldn't return to Sunday School for months.
     Second year of schooling was in the old, adobe 4th Ward Columbia School, located at 139 East 3rd North, the southwest corner of the block where the 8th Ward chapel now stands. This year was memorable for three things: one, the teacher took our apples and gum and we knew she ate our apples and we suspected she chewed our gum; two, our recess pastime was sliding off the roof of the little entrance to the school basement or cellar and later picking out slivers; three, that year I had earache nearly every night of the year. Warm salt bags held to the cheek and tobacco juice in the ear was the treatment. There were no happy memories here.
     Third year school was back down at the little 3rd Ward Emerson School with Lola Nichols as teacher. She was so much loved that Florence and I and others wanted to stay every night after school to help her. Some very fond memories here. From here I had a special promotion to the fifth grade.
     Fifth, sixth, and seventh grades were spent at the old Central School on South Main between 2nd and 3rd South. There the grounds were covered with shade trees, the outdoor toilets smelled terrible of chloride of lime and the punishment for being tardy was to march from the first floor to the third then back down and repeat 10 or 12 times. This school was destroyed by fire August 9, 1949. When in fifth grade I was not well and was taken out of school for part time. In the seventh grade of school was one of my best teachers, Ralph Jensen.
     My eighth year was at old Whittier School, located on the southeast corner of the area where the 2nd Ward chapel stands.

High School
     My four years spent at Box Elder High School on 4th East (now Junior High School) were happy ones as a whole. But I think now I should have spent more time on activities and a little less on study - but A grades were very important to me. During my senior year I studied hard and neglected my health which resulted in a nervous collapse. As a result I was out of school for a month in the spring, but back again about a month before graduation. One of my teachers told me I had been considered for validictorian but due to my health and absence from school it was considered inadvisable. I graduated in 1915. After graduation Principle A. M. Merrill, who was chairman of the library board offered me the job as first librarian of the new Carnegie Library. But my heart and mind were set so much on going to college that I did not accept this good offer.
     The year after my high school graduation seminary was instituted and three times a week I walked from 4th West to 4th East just to take seminary .The most valuable gain from this class was encouragement and inspiration from Brother Able S. Rich.

Utah Agricultural College
     College I loved. I entered Utah Agricultural College at Logan in September of 1916. My first year I was so thrilled and in extacies that my mother said, “Don't get too, up in the air about it. It may not last." She was right. The years following were not such a fairyland. I was rushed by and joined social sorority Sigma Theta Phi (later national Chi Omega). My first year in college was wonderful as a fairy story. Everything was so exciting. Interesting classes, new friends, school dances, sorority rush parties and initiation, and sorority and fraternity parties and dances were all like a beautiful dream come true. Many dances where all the fellows were wonderful dancers, but a few were extra special. One exciting experience was when I, a little freshman, had a lovely date with the studentbody president. I lived with three other girls in an upstairs apartment where we did our own housekeeping and took turns about at the cooking. I had very little money to spend so brought some of my food from home. This year my expense account ran to $300.00 including food, clothes and school expenses.
     Next year [1917] School Superintendent Skidmore asked me to teach a fourth grade at Central School. I told him I had no teacher training. He answered 'We'll give you better training in a year than you can get in two years of college training." Because I had to earn my way to college I accepted this job at $50.00 per month. It was an overflow grade and I had 35 students ranging in age from 8 years to 14. They had already had three substitute teachers over the previous month, so I had a real heavy job. But it was too much of a strain and my health gave way again before school closed in the spring. However, by the next fall [l918] the superintendent offered me a contract with a $10.00 per month raise. This I refused but I did become a substitute teacher in Collinston and Brigham City for a year. This school teaching gave me enough funds to return to Logan for two quarters of the 1919-1920 school year. The following year [1920-1921] I worked first as a milliner [a person who makes, trims, or sells women's hats] at the Pitt Hat Shop in Brigham and later as manager.
     Later college years, coming not in succession, since I had to remain out three different years to earn more money, were not so buoyant but were filled with hard work, some of which was nevertheless very happy work. My last year I was Botany Lab Instructor. I was also invited to be secretary to my botany professor but I did not know shorthand. I was thrilled to be invited to join the national honor scolastic society, Phi Kappa Phi. Membership was awarded to the ten highest scholars in each graduation class. I felt honored to be the first girl to graduate with a major in botany and also to be invited to be a member of the Botany Club, a club composed heretofore of men only.

Teaching School
     After graduation in 1923 with a BS degree in Biological Science I had teaching jobs offered me by Granite High School in Salt Lake City, Utah and Teton High School of Driggs, Idaho. I accepted the one at Driggs and the first year taught General Science to the freshmen (two big classes), Physical Geography and Geology to the sophomores, Botany and Zoology to the juniors and Physiology and Hygiene to the seniors. The second year a Typewriting department was established and I was given that in place of the freshman classes. I was also a substitute teacher for one month at Driggs Elementary School in 1927 and for a month at the Pawnee Indian School in Pawnee, Oklahoma in about 1943. I also substituted for one week in five biological classes at the high school in Price, Utah in 1945.
     It was in November 1923, my first year in Driggs, that I met Lester Knight at a dance. Our first date was November 11, 1923, Armistice Day. We "kept company" from then on, became engaged in February 1926 and were married in the Logan Temple August 11, 1926 by President Sheppard. Our first home was in Driggs.
Church
     I was blessed and given a name, in my mother's home, by my father July 9th, 1894 - two days after my birth - in Weston, Idaho. I remember well my baptism. Mother had talked to me about it and explained its importance. On the 26th of July 1902 my father and I walked from our home, 45 North 4th West in Brigham, down through our lot to 5th West, then on down through the "stray pen" [the city Pound] to the North Pond, now part of Reese Pioneer Park. There I was baptized and afterward walked back up home, two blocks away, in my dripping wet clothes. My baptismal date was just 19 days after my birthday and 52 years to the day after the baptism of my grandfather, Peter Adolph Forsgren. I was confirmed the following Sunday, August 3rd by William Jeppson. This record is in the family record book which my father kept so accurately and diligently.
     My church activities began early with my attendance at Sunday School, Primary (1901-1906), Y.M.M.I.A. (1906-1912) and Religion Class. The first years were in a large, one room, adobe meeting house where class rooms were separated by curtains or drapes drawn on wires. There was also a vestry or prayer room where classes were also held. This church was heated by coal stoves. Here was where we had ward dances, picnic suppers and other ward functions. While in my early teens I was appointed an "aide” in Primary. I became a Sunday School teacher while still in high school (6 June 1910). Later I became Assistant Secretary and served at that for almost five years (12 February 1911-14 October 1915). I was a Religion Class Stake Board Member after high school graduation. [In September 1921 she received a letter part of which reads: "In behalf of the Religion Class Board I want to extend to you our sincere thanks for the splendid co-operation which you have given us in the season which has passed We especially desire to thank you, Miss Lee, for your willingness to co-operate with us in whatever was necessary to be done and make visits at any place any time."] One disappointment occurred about this time. I was asked by my cousin, Elsa Christensen, if I would like to work on the Box Elder Stake M.I.A. Board with her. I told her I would. But when Bishop Valentine was asked for me, he said, "No, we need her more in the ward." Later I was asked to serve on the Stake Sunday School Board but ill health did not permit it. During college years I was a faithful church attender but did not hold many positions.
     My patriarchal blessing, received June 8th 1916 when I was 19 years old, was given by Patriarch Ole N. Stole at his home on about 1 1/2 North Main. I had had a long and serious nervous illness in my last year in high school and Mother suggested that perhaps a patriarchal blessing would give me strength and courage. It was a great help and I carried it with me when I went away to school and to teach and many other times, I read it many times and it has truly been a source of comfort and strength to me.
     After I was married and while we were living in Castledale, Utah I taught the Guides, at that time the last class in Primary, and for two years was Second Counselor in the Primary Presidency. I was also a member of the Old Folks Committee and Visiting Teacher. The Bishop asked me to take the Presidency but I was having such a bad time with sick headaches that I thought it would be unfair to the Primary. Later this illness developed into a ruptured diverticula. Also in Castledale I was a member of the P.T.A. and a member and, one year, president of the Friendship Club.
     In Brigham City 4th Ward after our return in 1950, I taught Primary for three years, the little girls then called Larks. In Relief Society I was the Visiting Teacher Class Leader for some time and for many years a Visiting Teacher. When the Brigham City 13th Ward was organized, I was asked to take charge of the Sunday School library which was not very much, but later when the wards were told to establish meeting house libraries I was given that big responsibility. With the help of my husband we established the 4th/13th Ward meeting house library on which we received many compliment and on which we spent many long hours and much labor. I was a member of the Missionary Mothers Club while son, Richard, was on his mission and was and still am a member of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers organization. I have done genealogical research for my ancestors and ordinance work and sealings for the dead in the temple.
     My hobbies have been sewing, flowers and nature study.
[The remainder was written by her sons, Lester Lee and Richard Earl Knight.]
Education
Olivia's high school records verify her commitment to good grades. She took:
         English 4 yrs, all A's Domestic Science 3 yrs, all A's
         History 3 yrs, all A's German 2 yrs, B and A
         Domestic Arts 2 yrs, B and A Vocal Music 2 yrs, B's
     She also took a year each of Sewing, Botany, Public Speaking, Reading, Geography and Algebra. Grades were a mixture of A's and B's, more A's than B's. The last semester of her senior year all grades were B's, a result of her many absences due to ill health. In the Box Elder High School yearbook of 1914, The Boomerang, she is in the Junior Class group picture. Her senior picture is in the 1915 yearbook and the entry in the Class Roll reads:   "Appearance Hobby Chief Fault"  "Olivia Lee.... Dignified....English......A's"
     Her picture appears in the Agricultural College of Utah yearbook, The Buzzer, of 1917 in the freshman class and Sigma Theta Phi sorority.
     In 1920 it is in the sophomore class, Sigma Theta Phi and Home Economics Club.
     In 1922 it is in the junior class, Sigma Theta Phi and Beau Arts Guild.
     In 1923 it is in the senior class, Sigma Theta Phi, Beaux Arts Guild, Botany Club, Girls' Rifle Team and Phi Kappa Phi.
     The Beaux Arts Guild's purpose was "... to develop aesthetic tastes ... to maintain higher standards of beauty and to encourage art production." The Botany Club's purpose was "To develop the tendency of research ... by reviewing botanical literature and holding round table discussions."
      The Girl's Rifle Team consisted of 10 members who qualified for the team by competitive elimination. They shot in the prone, kneeling and sitting positions.
     Olivia was an average marksman with scores always a few points above or below the average for the team, which was about 256 out of a possible 300. In competition with other teams and schools the girl's won three meets and lost four. They beat the Men's Rifle Team both times they met in 1923.
     According to her transcript of credits at Utah State Agricultural College, Olivia took the following types of subjects:

      Hrs Gpa          Hrs Gpa              Hrs Gpa

Art 11 3.5   English 26 3.6   Business 21 3.6
Phys. Ed. 8 3.0 History 9 4.0 Home Ec. 23 3.3
Biological Sci. 56 3.7 Physical Sci. 14 2.8 Education 13 4.0
     Her second year was her worst year in which she remained only two quarters. She took at least 16 hours and maintained at least a 3.6 Gpa each year except in her second year when it was 12.5 hours and 2.9 average. She took English by correspondence in 1920 and chemistry in the summer of 1922. She accumulated 181 quarter hours with an overall Gpa of 3.6.
     The account book in which she and her roommates recorded their expenditures for food etc. show that for at least part of the 1916-1917 year her roommates were Eliza Hurd, Muriel Horsley and Bessie Morrison, all freshmen. Bessie, Muriel and Olivia were also sorority sisters. Typical entries were: 6 quarts fruit .90, 1 pt jelly .20, bread .10, can opener .05, butter .40, kindling .35, Cream of Wheat .20, coal 2.00, meat .15, fish .05, bananas .15, condensed milk .10, dried corn .15, cocoa .10, matches .05, nine eggs .35.

Correspondence with her mother
     While at college Olivia and her mother corresponded almost weekly. Some of those letters have been saved. The following extracts from those letters tell something of Olivia’s concerns, fears, hopes, aspirations, and character.
Second Year:
    From her letters to her mother in Jan.-Feb. 1920 we learn that Olivia was living at 228 South 2nd East, didn't think she would have enough money for the next term, complained about her roommate's boyfriend's constant presence, gave instructions for a piece of clothing her mother was going to make, told of an interview with Mrs. Widtsoe [wife of the former president of the college and an Apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] for a journalism class and told about social events. Postage was two cents. She signed her letters, "Eva". Because Olivia and her mother were both named Olivia, she grew up being called Eva.
Third Year:
     During the 1921-1922 school year Olivia lived at 205 East 3rd North and batched with Henrietta Bott, a freshman. In her letter of Oct 30, 1921 she said, "You know I told you our landlady was charging us twenty dollars per month rent. Well Mrs. Bell has been trying to get us to come up and live with her. She offered us those two good sized rooms to the east downstairs and offered us pretty good terms, but there was no bath and an outside toilet. We had half a notion to move but before deciding we talked to our landlady. As a result our rent is now $18.00 per mo. We have almost exclusive use of the bathroom, have the use of the front room when necessary, have installed a little two-holed stove which is a dandy, have our coal and wood not only furnished (at Mrs. Bell's we would have had to buy our own wood and coal) but whenever our scuttle is empty all we need to do is set it outside our door and Mr. Oscar fills it with coal and kindlings. Besides these things Mrs. Oscar has promised to do our washing (not just pillowcases, towels, and sheets, but our underwear, etc.). She gives us free use of the ironingboard and iron and we have half a promise that we may have the telephone later on."
     Jan. 8, 1922, "Day before yesterday when we awoke in the morning it was so cold that columns of steam, I mean water vapor, arose from our breathing. I arose and tried to light the fire but it was so cold the matches kept going out. Finally I succeeded in lighting the fire. Then the paper all burned out and did not light the wood.... Well after further struggle I got it going and then crept back into bed to freeze till the fire warmed up a bit." She asked her mother to send her ice skates so she could skate on the frozen canal nearby.
      Feb. 12, 1922, "I believe I told you about how I went to the college play last weekend and how I went to the Federal men's fraternity dance at the Hotel Eccles. Last Sunday the geology teacher I mentioned (no, not the one I stepped [dated] with the first of the year, that was Botany) called here just after Sunday School and asked me to go schoonering that night. Well the Ladies Glee Club from the A.C. (did I tell you I am a member?) had to sing in one of the wards that night so I told him if he would go down there I would go schoonering after.... He agreed. So about 8 o'clock we left meeting, came home, dressed in hiking clothes and the party which was already out came around for us. There were two long schooners tied behind and automobile. Well we went allover town, half way out to Providence and back. Four different times we were spilled off into the snow. Then finally we went to the fraternity house and had chocolate and cake and returned home. It was all fun, quite thrilling and new to me."
      A note in the account book on the page for May 1922 (end of school) reads: Total together $117.91 food;  135.00 rent;  352.91
Summer Term
     In June of 1922 Olivia was living at 66 East 4th North. She wrote to her mother:
     "As you know I left Dagmar's and came up here. For taking care of the place and overseeing things I get my room free of charge. I have four downstairs rooms and a hallway to keep clean, and a hallway and my own room upstairs, besides getting my own meals, taking care of the two big lawns and doing a little shopping every day. Thus you see I have quite a little to do aside from my chemistry on which I spend from six to eight or ten hours per day.... As I mentioned before there are seven girls here besides myself. They are all nice girls and I like them fine so far. They come to me for advice upon anything from their clothes to their beaus [Olivia was 26 by this time]. The other night while I was out strolling with my friend some fellows called to take three of the girls riding. The girls were not very well acquainted with the fellows and one of them told me later how they had wished and wished I was home so they could ask me what I thought about them going."
Fourth Year
     In the winter of 1922-23 Olivia was living at 236 North 1st East. In a letter dated Oct. 21, 1922 she complained: "Here I am alone again facing 'blues' but I don't think I shall let them get the upper hand tonight. Anyway I'm not enthusiastic about school just this minute.... Last Wed. there was a formal dance (ball dresses & dress suits). Henrietta's friend of old, Wilford you know drew my name for partners (?). I'll tell you more about this some time. This much I will say this time, fellows are absolutely the most fickle creatures in existance."
     Oct. 25, 1922 her mother responded: "I received your letter was a little surprised to learn you are still bothered with the blues remember this is the last year and it will come to an end and also remember there never is a road but what it has a turne somewhear and though you may think it is dull at present that will pass and times will be brighter You must not expect eny thing from the felows then they wont seam so fickle."
     On Jan. 4, 1923 she was still batching alone. "When I came here the door was not locked thank goodness! My room was all cleaned and the stove filled all ready to light. I started the fire but when I crept between these sheets they froze me stiff. I succeeded in warming the bed by morning however but, Oh! it was a cold night.... Received a letter from Connie [her cousin] to-night to say again she guessed she wouldn't come and Cederlunds have been playing weepy pieces on the phonograph all evening so you can imagine how cheerful I feel. I'll try not to be a baby tho.... I suppose Connie will not come. Don't know what I'll do."
     Jan. 18, 1923, two weeks later, "Did Miss Hyde [from the hat shop] call you up and tell you she had called me. I was sorry I was so rushed. Guess she will think I'm a nice one but it was the evening before the Theta Ball and we were simply rushed to death....
     The ball was one huge success. We worked every night after I came back, making the decorations then spent Friday night and Saturday putting them up. There was just as big a crowd possible and still have food and dancing.
     Absolutely everybody raved about it, and many said it was the 'swellest' thing at school so far this year. I did not expect to go, in fact came almost not going, but I'm glad I got there after all seeing as we had worked so hard and it was my last Theta Ball. I went with - guess whom - the fellow who was writing to me this summer.... Anyway we had a good time at the dance, in fact a delightful time, had a little party at the sorority house after and finally got in at 2 A.M. Don't be shocked. I was never better behaved in my life....
     Do you remember my saying I would rather be asked to join the Botany Club than any other club in the school? Yesterday I received an invitation to come to their meeting to-morrow night and was told to be thinking of a subject to give a paper on so I could become a member. I am very grateful and do hope I'll be able to make it....
     I'm still living alone.... Better not send me any more butter till I let you know. This spring weather soon makes it strong. That I brought back with me became so strong I almost had to tie it down to keep it from driving me out....
     Dr. Richards is back so all my classes are going now and believe me I've three that are particularly stiff. They are beginning to worry me. Dr. Richards called me into his office the other day and scolded me good for my lack of self confidence. I had told him I couldn't get the math. and chem. of my Botany courses and he declared that I could."
     In the letter of Jan 27, 1923 she explained a dilemma and asked for advice. "I am going up to sleep with Velma (Dave's sister) tonight so that I can see how I like their place. Im having difficulty deciding what to do.... There are three or four things for me to do; they are; stay here and bach, stay here and board, go to the sorority house, or go and live with Velma.... If I stay here and bach my board and room will come about $15 to $17 per month. I will have to have her do my washing and by her charging 3 cents a piece my laundry will come to about 60 cents per month.
     She wants me to board and would charge me $10 per month for one good cooked meal (supper) per day. I would have my own egg and toast as I do now for breakfast (furnish & prepare it myself as usual) and put up my own lunch which would come around $5.30. $10 for board & $8 for room plus $5.30 for breakfast and lunch would make $23.50 without any candy and other miscelaneous I would have more time to put to study. I could do my own laundry.
     Next to consider is going to the sorority house. You remember I tried it once before. But then none of the kids were really my friends, I went there without considering whether or not the kids wanted me, and there was no cook. Now the kids keep after me and after me to come.... The chances for study would probably not be so good as here or down at Velma's, however its little I get done here nights. I get so sleepy getting up every morning at 6. There might be more of a chance for social life and there might be more of a chance to feel blue seeing the others step and me staying home.... Either Cederlunds or the sorority house is near to town and the car line [street car].
     Oh yes board and room at the sorority house would be about $25-$27.
     Now as to living with Velma.... She is a seemingly very nice girl, plays the violin and piano. She seems to want me to come and live with them (she and her younger brother). They pay $20 rent for their house buy their own coal, wood, lights, telephone & rent a piano. Then board would be somewhere between fifteen and twenty dollars for the three of us.... Their place is on the island east from town about five blocks. There is no access to the car. It is about six or seven blocks from school. I do not like the location but there would at least be companionship.... If I lived with her I might get to Sunday School and Mutual once in a while because she goes.
     Sunday afternoon: - I stayed with Velma last night. They have a cozy little place, not much more than a bird nest but so cozy. There is a little front room, a clean little kitchen done in white (and having a real range) a bath room with hot & cold water, a bed room, a screen porch and a basement."
     Feb.4, 1923, "You were about as definite in your opinion of what I should do, as I was.... I had not said a word to my landlady about moving and I felt it would be rather small to leave without notice so I told her I'd board (at least try it). I told her I had only enough money to pay for my board and room till Feb. 15 which is true. Maybe between now and then I can find the courage to tell her I'm leaving. But my how I hate to. She is just lovely to me, and the whole family seem to like me, I don't believe they could pretend so perfectly for the small amount of money they are getting out of me. I just have a feeling tho that they'll hate me if I leave in mid year like this.... But really do you think my living alone is wise when week in and week out I come home and study alone in this room and never step even to Sunday School? Of course the family is grand to me but if I lived with Velma I might have a pal at school as well as at home.... Last Wednesday night the Botany club finally met after three postponements.... Well I was [not planning to go] because no one had made any arrangements with me to go. And I hated to go alone being the only lady member.... Lovell here at the house is president and he just acted as if it was naturally supposed I should go down with him and Horace.... After club meeting Horace and Lovell insisted that I go to the show with them....
     We are having twenty below over here. 20 below, my light weight coat, and a cold (in my head) don't seem to go well together. I used all the tablets you sent and wrapped a wet stocking around my neck. That took the sore throat away....
     I have gone thru half the year and spent half of the money I figured I have to have. You deposited $200 for me and it's gone. If you can put another hundred in within the next couple of weeks I will be so grateful. I still have about six dollars to go on. I'm being just as careful as possible. Only had one bar and a cone in just two weeks. You see thats for lunch for two plain cheese sandwiches isnt quite enough to carry one from 7 A.M. to 6:30 P.M."
     Feb. 18, 1923, "I've been studying steadily all day and then have been unable to get it all done. I simply haven't half time enough.... To-morrow our botany class takes a hike up the canyon and I the only girl. Anyway Howard will be along so I'll not feel all alone....
     Next Wed. night is the Military Ball. Yes, and I'm going. Guess with whom? Henrietta's friend, you know.
 To-morrow night I'm going to Hyrum to tend kiddies while Eli and Alice go to the High School opera."
     Mar. 8, 1923, "I moved down here to Velma's the last day of February. Velma went with me up there the night before about ten o'clock (every one had gone to bed) and we moved everything but my trunk and fruit. You should have seen us trudging along. Velma had a traveling bag full, my hat box, a hat in a bag and that bucket of walnuts. I had my pint box of jelly under one arm and my hiking boots. Next day I went up when the drayman came and moved my trunk and fruit.
     We havent had too much fun since I've been down here tho. Velma's brother was just getting over the flu...then I got it. Never before in my life have I coughed so hard and so long. I coughed steady for one day all night and then all the next day. It was awful.... So here I've been now for three days the most I've stayed out of college in one stretch I think.
     Tomorrow night is the Junior Prom but both Velma and I are staying at home.... My address is 518 East Center."
     Mar 20, 1923, "Yesterday was registration day. Just imagine I now registered for my final term before graduation. Here's hoping all goes well and that I graduate without any trouble. Next worry is to find a position. A thing which no one is absolutely sure of....
     Well I've been living down here on the island now for over two weeks and don't like it a bit better than I did the first day. At the end of this month I'm going back to Cederlund's if my former landlady will take me back, and she said she would. Velma's brother is going to Salt Lake at the end of this month or the first of next and we are going to break up housekeeping.
     I think I would have had to move if we hadn't been going to break up housekeeping because the piano is going constantly sometimes till 12 o'clock at night on week nights and as many as eight hours steady on Sunday. The first few days down here I thot it would drive me to nervous prostration. It doesn't bother me so much now but it makes study difficult and I've so much to do. I don't blame Velma at all because she is in school too and is taking piano lessons so must practice."
     Apr 15, 1923, "I have a chance to teach in Driggs, Idaho next winter at $1300 for eight months. The position is there. I have an old school mate who taught there last year and will be there again this next winter. One of the fellows from school (married) is going up. I can have the place just by accepting."
     Her mother wrote on April 29, 1923, "I feel I must write you to tel you not to take eny more special work no matter who askes you for nobody but yourself knows what afect it will have on your helth Norma Hanson told Eliza last weekend that you wer overdoing and Eliza told me last monday ... so I have woried a week about it and tried to make myself think you are strong enough but I haven’t forgotten how you wer when you graduated from the high so do take care of yourself for nobody else can...."

Teaching in Driggs
     So, Olivia had two reasons for going to teach in Driggs, Idaho rather than to Granite High School in Salt Lake City. Her good friend (at least as far back as 1919-20 when they were both sophomores and both in Beaux Arts Guild 1921-22), Edna Crookston, was also teaching in Driggs in 1923-24 and the pay was evidently better. An item in the Teton Valley News, about the high school, in October 1923 states: “Miss Lee, in charge of the Science Department, has some of the largest, and if we are to believe the students, most interesting classes of the school. Special equipment is being installed, a microscope and lense; also frogs for experimental work has been sent for.”
      In the Teton High School Annual Catalog for 1924-1925 she is listed as teaching Science, English and Typewriting. Her schedule of classes was: 8:30 to 9:15 Typewriting 1:15 to 2:00 Study  - 9:15 to 10:00 Typewriting - 2:00 to 2:45 Physiology and Hygiene - 10:45 to 11:30 English 2:45 to 3:30 Physiography -
11:30 to 12:15 Biology
     From Olivia's mother's letters to Olivia we get glimpses of what was happening in Driggs. In her mother's letter of Jan 23, 1924 we read: “you are geting quite daring I think when you dare go skeing hope you dont get reckless and get hurt or take to much cold ....
     I think the principals brother was quite cleaver the way he planned that drawing part if he had taken you there he would have had to let someone else draw you or he would be acused of not carrying out the araingment right....”
      In her letter of Feb 14, 1924 Olivia's mother wrote (evidently in response to a proposed several day trip to Jackson Hole to get the Mormon missionaries): “In regard to the trip you mentioned I think would be fine if you can go without taking cold or having an axident I wouldent think of going alone with a fellow as that would give peopel a chance for gossip. would you go by horseteam and how long will it take to make the trip....”
     Feb 20, 1924, “I think you had better do like pa always said dont pay any atention to the gossep and it will soon dye out I think Mr Night is a little odd to cary such stuff to you if he turned a def ear to the goseper it would seam more manley but show it isent worth thinking about. I hardly think I would take that trip I think there must be someone that is jelous of you that might make some thing of it but you understand conditions so you decide for yourself.” Olivia made the trip with Lester Knight, Lester's mother, a girl friend and another fellow.
     Mar 17,1924, “I received your letter today am glad to learn that you are well and enjoying yourself. but you have certenly asked some big questions that will be hard for me to ansuer I hardly know how to begin you say you are getting tiard of boarding I will say like mother used to tell her boys when they complained about the cooking it was time to look up a new cook.... you are getting good pay up there but if you could get in here at home you could save more than the diference in the monthly pay and monthly expense but you might not have the good times you are having.... if I knew where the right one for you could be found that would be the place I would sugest but we arent able to see so fare....”
   Now you know of course I would like you a little closer to home. Now if you think Knight is interested and you are why not incourage him in his colage work. or if you like the other beter tel him in a joking way you are sorry you didnt take him up on his offer of a trip. I cant guerss what you would like to do you said where you wished he would go on with his colage work....
     Now you know how you feal and you know the conditions up there you will be beter able to decide what to do.... I almost wish they knew your age [27] then they would be beter abel to decide what they want to do.... You must make these questions a subject of prayer they are worth the guidance of the spirit of the Lord and you are entitled to that spirit what a blessing to be able to trust in the Lord that knows all things and will help us if we live for it and all will come right in the end....
     Well two months will be gone before you know it so make the most of your time glad you enjoyed the trip to Jaxon you have surely had some lively times...."
     April 4,1924, "I am like you in one way when I read that you had disided to teach there agin next year it made me sick to my stomace so I went down to see Verda [her son, Will’s wife] and baby and felt a little beter and hope it will all turnout for the best of course it is quite tempting to receive good wages the big objection it is so far away as well as out of the way but it went allright this past year so I guess it can be lived another year.
     Is nice to have peopel glad for your presence especialy if you like them and James said the Knites are very nice peopel so that is worth something....
     I was just thinking it is certenly nice of Mr Knite to try to help his mother educate the other children but it looks rather hard to give up his own chance to prepare himself for his lifes and still it often hapens that such sacrafices brings great blessings if he is ambitious and the rest of the family will do their part it will work out alright....
      I like the idea that he is in love with his mother that means if he gets a wife that is good he will be in love with her and consider her welfare, tell him to go fishing agen....
     I would not begin to worry about what might be next year or what the new teacher might be you would not have to live with her if you didnt like her. O yes if Mr Knight has to do for his brothers and sister he aught to cutout some of the movies you dont care for them enyhow."
     For her second year at Driggs Olivia received $158.33 per month for the 9 month school year. This was quite a change in financial status from her second year at Logan when she and Henrietta together spent only $352.91 for the school year. She sent her tithing home regularly.

Leigh Fulmer Remembers
     In Driggs Olivia and Lester Knight double dated with Leigh Fulmer and Addie Harris. Leigh remembered Olivia this way: "The girl referred to as Olivia, we referred to her as Eva most of the time.... Olivia had a great desire in her life and in her living for - just a real desire for peace and for education, for unity. She was a teacher at heart; she was very influential and inspirational as a teacher with our young people. And she participated in the ladies auxiliaries in the church in our ward and was active and especially was very dependable. And as for activities, we had quite a lot of different kinds of activities with them, as dancing and things of that sort. She loved the mountains. She was not a mountain climber, she didn't climb cliffs and mountains, but she appreciated the flowers and the good people that she met, the common things. And it was not hard for her to have a good time with the common things of life, with common people, and always left a desire for better things whenever she left you. She was a good listener. She was very modest and she had a lovely disposition."
      Leigh continued: "But Eva was always considerate of others and was very quietly helpful to other people. We had one close by favorite spot. She was - she always tried to be very economical and make their life very inexpensive. And we would often go to what you would know as the Three Creeks out of town like a mile and a half, in the evening, take hamburgers, whatever we were going to have, mountain trout in the Dutch oven, or chicken in the Dutch oven. And she loved to go, not with big crowds but just like two or three couples and sit on the logs with - around the bonfire. And always in the spring of the year was the mating time for the owls - and every night just before dark we'd listen for that 'Hoo, Hoo, Hoot' of the hoot owls. And later on it would be the call of the young owls. And she would enjoy that and the wild flowers and the common things of life. She was not an expensive wife.
     "I can never remember Eva having a problem with anybody, even with her children. I'm sure she - when I say children I'm thinking of students. But I think she never had problems with her students. I think she always managed and quietly suffered though and did the best she could with problems she might have had and didn't air them to the public. I think Olivia had a very definite encouraging influence on the life of Lester Knight....." I think he didn't have the opportunity of getting into high school as most of us did. And when she came and they started going together, she had a very definite influence on getting an education and advancing in the world of education because he became a very fine outstanding teacher."

Her Sons Remember
     Olivia's sons can not remember a time when Olivia's health was not something of a problem. She had 'sick headaches' which put her to bed for a day or two at a time. Green tea seemed to be the only thing to relieve this condition. It was because of these sick spells that her sons learned how to do the washing, mop the floors, vacuum, dust, etc. Her children learned how to do other things around the house such as; simple cooking, weeding the garden, churning butter, bottling fruits and vegetables, and washing dishes. In her later years and as a result of her diverticulosis, her diet was quite restricted: lettuce was the only raw vegetable she could eat; she couldn't eat roast beef if an onion had been cooked with it; she couldn't drink softened water.
     Olivia never raised her voice and was not physical with her children. In Ogden during the winter of 1936/37, when Lester Lee was in the fourth grade, he came home from school several days in a row with his shoes soaking wet. Each day Olivia told him not to do that. Finally she warned him that if he did it again she would have to punish him. When he did it again, she took a ping pong paddle, had him drop his pants and under pants and gave him a couple of swats, not hard. Her every action told how she hated to do this. Lester Lee didn't come home with wet feet again that winter.
     Olivia learned from her mother how to be a good cook. She enjoyed making foods common to her Swedish and Danish heritage. Her sons fondly remember sweet soup, aebleskivers, chicken soup with dumplings, oyster stew on Christmas eve. Her dinner rolls were famous. Because of her influence her sons now enjoy a wide variety of foods including smoked and pickled herring and smoked oysters. She continued to bottle pickles and fruits and to make jams, jellies and preserves until the last couple of years of her life. When Lester Lee and his family visited from out of town, she always sent 10 - 12 bottles of food back with them. Her mother and her mother's parents went through periods of want and near starvation as a result of the cricket plagues during the pioneer period in Utah. This heritage as well as the shortage of funds while growing up and in college made Olivia frugal. Lester Lee remembers her quoting her mother about not wasting food, "If a bird can eat it, you can eat it." After her marriage and for many years thereafter she continued to keep detailed records of expenses in order to control unnecessary expenditures and avoid debt.
     When her health permitted she sewed for herself and for her grandchildren. She made matching dresses for herself and for Rebecca, her first granddaughter, when Rebecca was two or three years old. She also made quilts both sewn and tied. Some were plain, made from pieces of worn out wool suits and trousers, etc., made strictly for warmth as bedding. Others were made from hundreds of pieces, scraps of cloth left over from past sewing projects, sewn together to form colorful, intricate patterns. These were for show, on top of beds.
     Olivia’s patriarchal blessing states: “... that your life may be spent in the service of the Lord in bringing souls unto him both of the living and the dead. Many of your kindred dead who have died without the Gospel are anxiously waiting for some kind person to perform ordinances for them in the Holy Temples of the Lord that they may receive their deliverance and enjoy eternal blessings." True to this blessing, Olivia was very active in genealogy in searching out her Scandinavian ancestors through correspondence and at the Genealogy Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. She also kept birth, death, marriage and church ordinance records of the children of her nieces and nephews, all the descendants of her parents, and also the descendants of Lester's parents. She fell heir to old photographs of her ancestors and relatives. These along with pictures of her growing up and college years she kept identified and orderly in albums. She wrote brief biographies of her parents and grandparents. While the family lived in Mescalero, New Mexico and Pawnee, Oklahoma the family made vacation trips back to visit relatives in Utah and Idaho. Keeping contact with the extended family was important. An effort was made to take different routes each time to learn more about the country. In later years Lester and Olivia made numerous trips to Teton Valley to visit relatives and to give Lester a chance to fish. On some of these trips they also visited Olivia's mother's relatives in Star Valley, Wyoming. They also took an extended trip to California with Lester's brother, Donald and his wife, Louise, and daughter, Kay. On this trip they went sight seeing and visited Lester's youngest brother Wallace and wife, Ann in North Hollywood. They also made at least annual trips to Billings, Montana and later to Richland, Washington to visit Lester Lee's family. When peach season was on they would bring a bushel basket or two full of peaches and helped bottle them. During one visit, when Dorothy was busy with things, she heard Olivia say to Lester, "The windows need cleaning, let's do them and give Dorothy a boost."
     Olivia's knowledge and love of plants and birds affected her family. During the year the family lived at the agency on the Mescalero Apachie Reservation in southern New Mexico, they took drives on the back roads through the mountains to see the flowers and animals. Olivia could identify the flowers by their scientific names. Even the desert became attractive because of her love of plants. Trips up into the mountains in Utah and Idaho were highlighted by her appreciation of and identification and explanation of the flowers that were blooming. When Lester Lee was attending Brigham Young University, he enjoyed taking a botany taxonomy class because he wanted to know plants as his mother did. The classification of plants was not a class commonly taken to fill groups. Olivia and Lester made numerous trips to the Bear River Bird Refuge west of their home in Brigham City, Utah to see the birds as they migrated through the area. They took their children and grand children there when they visited. On one occasion Dorothy, Lester Lee's wife, was going to scrape the remains of cooked cereal from the pan into the garbage. Olivia said, "Oh, I take that outside for the birds."
     Her membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had a constant effect on Olivia. While the family was living in Mescalero, she gave a report on the church at the ladies club at the agency. The family attended church on the infrequent trips to El Paso, Texas (location of the closest L.D.S. church) 115 miles from Mescalero. When they lived at Pawnee, Oklahoma, as often as possible they drove the 35 miles to Stillwater to attend the nearest church. Her Mormon pioneer ancestry was a frequent reminder to her children of their responsibility to act in a way to honor their heritage.
     On her 80th birthday, a Sunday, she did not feel well enough to attend church.
      When she asked what had gone on at church, she was told that the Bishop had announced that today was her 80th birthday. She frowned and said, "The Bishop didn't need to announce my age to everybody."

J.C. Haws’ Memories
      Lester and Olivia did part of the work in building their home at 123 North 9th East in Brigham City, Utah. J.C. Haws, School Superintendant and Lester and Olivia's Home Teacher, remembered: "And Olivia , Sister Knight, was proud also how they selected the timber, how they selected the wall paint and how they hammered many of their own nails, and how they did much of it themselves and how they loved that particular dear home."
      "But when I knew these dear people, they raised a beautiful garden. They had every particular type of vegetable that you'd want to imagine. They would pay close attention to its cultivation, its watering; and then if a crop was used and they had time to plant another, they would replant and grow a second crop. And then, of course, none of us neighbors ever went without if we needed something that they had in terms of vegetables.”
     "And then their flowers, what beautiful flowers they grew. And, of course, their great love would be their many roses that adorned the line between them and the neighbors on the south of them. I remember them telling me many times of the pedigree that adorned many of those particular roses. One was a beautiful white rose, as I remember, and I presume it must have been years and years old and come up through the family and was, possibly first cultivated by Sister Knight's mother. Those particular flowers around the house grew in abundance. Not only did they have flowers on the outside but they had flowers in the kitchen."
     "And then your mother's health was - became a problem. So often, I'm sure, she was ill and didn't feel good and I would receive a call up to the school where I was and Brother Knight would say, 'Could you come and administer to Olivia? I know she would feel better if you would. I've called Brother Willy.' President Willy he would call, and we would come down and administer to Olivia. And she would always say, 'I do feel better. I do feel better.'"
     "And then I remember the last time that she was in her home. The time had come when she had to be hospitalized and two or three of us, because her condition was such she couldn't walk, we carried her out into the car and the pain was so great that she cried every step of the way. And how tears would be shed by all of us because we knew that we couldn't do it without causing her some pain."
Lester Pool Knight's Memories
     In an interview Lester remembered: "Mama was ill for about two years and didn't feel very good. We were unable to do very much visiting or traveling around. And finally came to the point where we had to take her to the hospital. And she was in the hospital and very, very sick and suffered a lot of pain for a long time. She went in there in the first place because she had phlebitis. And they treated her for phlebitis and later on why they said that she had infection in the blood.
     "And during that time we'd bring - have the Elders come and administer to her and she'd be suffering something terrible and after administration that way why she would be relieved of her pain and a lot of times she would be asleep in a matter of 10 to 15 minutes after the administration. And as time went on you couldn't always get the Elders when you wanted them and I decided that I could kneel down beside of the bed by - with her and I could give her a blessing, or ask for a blessing for her. And I found out that even when my blessing that way, it would cause her to be relieved of her pain and suffering and many times would be asleep."
     "One thing that we used to do, she would call for a nurse to come and give her some pain killer. They could give it to her, in a half an hour to an hour and a half or two hours later the pain would still be going and she'd still be suffering. Later on she used to say - well she called me Daddy all the time. And later on she'd say, 'Daddy.' And I'd go to the bed and she'd say, 'Do something! Do something!' And there I was and I felt so helpless that I figured I was unable to do anything. But later on I did find out that by exercising her arms and also her legs, and do that - exercising them for around 8 to 10 minutes or 12 or whatever it may be, that when I would quit she would settle down, and a lot of times in 15 minutes she would be asleep or relieved of her pain. And she did that until the hundredth day. She was taken on the hundredth day and it was also our Golden Wedding day (August 11, 1976).... And she was 81 years old when she passed away.”
Sources
Autobiographical Sketch by Olivia Lee Knight.
Box Elder High School yearbooks, The Boomerang, 1914, 1915.
Correspondence between Olivia Lee and her mother; Olivia Forsgren Lee, 1920-1924.
Interview of Lester P. Knight by Richard E. Knight September 4, 1978.
Interview of Lester P. Knight by J.C. Haws September 1, 1981.
Leigh Fulmer Remembers Lester and 01ivia Knight, an interview of Leigh Fulmer by James Price September 16, 1990.
Patriachal Blessing of 0livia Lee by Patriarch 0. N. Stohl June 8, 1916.
Remembrances of Richard Earl Knight and Lester Lee Knight.
Reminiscence of Lester and Olivia Knight by J.C. Haws January 26, 1992.
Utah Agricultural College yearbooks, The Buzzer; 1917, 1920, 1922, 1923.
Various of 0livia Lee Knight's papers, notes, record books, newspaper clippings, etc.
1998


********************
DEATH: A copy of her funeral program is in Forsgren Family Assn. files.  Her services were held Saturday, Aug 14, 1976 in the Thirteenth Ward Chapel. Victor Lee offered the family prayer, Grave was dedicated by Lester Lee Knight.

BURIAL: Brigham City Cem B-36-15-1; The Sexton's records list her date of birth as 7 July 1894
and her death and burial dates as 8/11/1976 and 8/14/1976

.

LIFE SKETCH ~ LESTER POOL KNIGHT

by Lester Lee Knight -1996

     Lester Pool Knight was born March 2, 1896 in Ogden, Weber County, Utah, the second son of George Richard Knight and Alice Pool Knight. The other children were George Franklin(1894) , Vera(1898) , William(1900) , Charles Donald(1905) , James Wallace(1907) and Ruth(1912) .The family rented a house on west 20th Street. When Lester was three years old the family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah to a brick house his father had had built at 528 West 4th South, next door to Lester's grandparents, Oswell and Ellen Knight. Lester's father, George Richard, worked for 23 years on the railroad, mostly as an engineer; after he quit the railroad and before moving to Idaho he ran the miniature steam passenger train at Lagoon. Lester remembers that his first paying job was at Lagoon where older brother, Frank, led the horses that turned the merry-go-round and Lester turned the crank that worked the organ that provided the music. Wages were $.50 per day. He also began his love for fishing at Lagoon where he caught sunfish in the pond using string, bent straight-pin and grasshopper. His first four years of school were at Lincoln School on 5th South between 3rd and 4th West. Fun activities he remembered were roller skating, playing ball, and going on family picnics to Liberty Park and up the canyons. To go up the canyon they went under Eagle Gate and in later years Eagle Gate always brought back pleasant memories of these excursions. When they went up the canyons, his father fished and Lester followed along and learned more about fishing, more especially about using a fly hook. The family attended church at Salt Lake 6th Ward.

George Richard and his brothers, Oscar and Charles, bought land in Teton Valley all in a row along the west side of what is now state highway 33. George Richard's parcel, the most northerly, was located on the south side of Packsaddle Road. In the late summer of 1906, when Lester was 10 the family moved to Clawson, Teton County, Idaho. The new five room frame house his father was building was not yet finished so the family lived for four months in a two-room log cabin ¼ mile north and 1/2 mile west of the new home. The house was finished enough to allow the family to move in the day before Christmas. The one-room Clawson school had eight grades in one room and was located south and east of Clawson Church House. The children walked or rode horses the 11/2 miles to school, but often got there in the winter in a horse-drawn sleigh built by their father. They took hay for the horses to eat during the day and drove them home again after school. The family attended church meetings and activities at Clawson Ward where George Richard was Bishop's Counselor for some time. Lester's friend, Leigh Fullmer, said of Lester, ". . . I admired him when I'd both fight against him and with him in snowball fights. And he could help build a snow fort as quick as anyone could. He had a very strong arm. He could throw swift and was always very enthusiastic in every thing that he did."

Lester and Frank played on the church baseball teams for several years (from their teens into their twenties) with Frank playing first base and Lester alternating between pitcher and shortstop. After playing on the junior team a few years, Lester and Frank were happy and flattered when they were asked to play on the senior team, known as the "Tom Thumbs." There they continued to play the same positions. Leigh Fullmer, who also played on the team, reported that the players had a very close relationship and the team won 37 games without a loss. Lester loved Teton Valley. Some of his favorite stories were of the good fishing, hunting and trapping experiences that he had there. He continued to enjoy fishing and hunting (deer and birds) all his life.

For several years the Knight and Poulson families owned a steam powered threshing machine and went around threshing grain for other farmers. Mr. Poulson ran the separator and George ran the steam engine. Frank and Lester drove the water wagon hauling water to the steam engine and also learned to run the engine.

In 1913 Lester, Frank and Bryan Fullmer went to Rexburg, Idaho where they batched in an upstairs room of what was known as the Osborn House while attending Ricks Academy (now Ricks College) .During the school year their father became ill and at the end of the school year Lester quit school to help work the farm so that Frank could continue his education. Concerning his father's sickness, Lester said, ". ..I guess it was typhoid and he was sick that way for quite a long time and then that seemed to change over to something else and it left him so that he was partially paralyzed." In the fall of 1916 the family, all except Frank, Lester and Will, took George Richard to Long Beach, California in hopes that a warmer climate and better doctors would improve his health but he died February 17, 1917.

The United States entered World War I April 6, 1917. Leigh Fullmer said that when the railroad workers went on strike, he, Lester, and Lawrence Little went to Pocatello the following winter to work as "scabs" on the railroad. As a result of his experience with steam engines Lester was hired as fireman after just one training run. Lester worked out of Pocatello on runs west to King Hill, Idaho and east to Montpelier, Idaho. Later he was sent into Lima, Montana.

While working on the railroad he learned of men from Teton Valley being drafted. He feared that his older brother Frank (who had more education and was better able to take care of the family) might be drafted. He also felt that he would rather join the Marine Corps than be drafted into the army; therefore, he enlisted at Idaho Falls, Idaho and was sworn in June 21, 1918. Pay was $15.00 per month. His basic raining was at Mare Island, California, following which he was stationed at Galveston, Texas where he was in the Third Brigade, Ninth Regiment, Second Battalion, 125th Company. It was during this time that his left shoulder was injured while playing football (a mandatory activity). It didn't heal properly and as a result it was very painful to raise that arm all the way over his head. Because he could no longer go back to work as a fireman on the railroad, he received a small disability pension each month the rest of his life. He was awarded a Good Conduct Medal, and after World War I ended, November 11, 1918, he was honorably discharged February 18, 1919.

He returned to Clawson to work on the family farm. Of this period his cousin Ed Lee wrote, "I remember him as the best farmer I have ever known, or can imagine up at 3 am to irrigate . . . often going up to the canal headgate to divert the water down the proper ditch, and, almost every time, taking a few hooks and a fishing line (his pole was a willow cut from the canal bank) and coming home with a beautiful catch of trout; his work on the hay stack during haying season; his shoeing horses and taking care of a bloated calf. In short, doing about everything that needed to be done on an active farm operation. I remember . . . several of us going up the canyon to stay for a day or two, at which time Lester would go down to the crystal clear, cold stream . . . and soon come back with wonderful trout . . . . This was something he did better than anyone else I have known."

Lester started cutting his brothers' hair and then the neighbor children's hair. During the summer of 1919 when the water was very low and there was not much work on the farm irrigating, Lester, Frank and Will took two teams of horses and worked on a construction crew on the road over Teton Pass. The following winter Lester and Will went with the crew to Tonapah, Nevada. There were 12-14 men on the crew and they asked Lester to cut their hair. Eventually Charley Corden, a barber in Driggs, asked Lester to come to work for him, which he did over a five year period until 1927. During this time he had the opportunity to cut the hair and trim the whiskers of Apostle George Albert Smith. Haircuts at that time cost 25 cents.

Because employment opportunities were few in the fall of 1921, Lester and Leigh Fullmer went trapping at the head of Jackson Lake in Wyoming. They lived in an abandoned cabin and did quite well getting good quality pelts of muskrat, mink and beaver. Leigh remembered times when they slept in beaver lodges when they were too far away to get back to the cabin before dark. On one occasion they tracked a big bull moose down to Snake River. When the moose charged him, Lester killed it with one shot to the forehead. Leigh measured 17 feet between where the moose fell and where Lester knelt to shoot. When they ran low on food supplies they decided they had better get out and go home. The trip turned into quite a strenuous adventure. With one military overcoat between them and each pulling a toboggan loaded with furs, guns, etc. and travelling on homemade skis they made the difficult climb up out of Berry Creek drainage, over the Teton Range and down into Conant Creek drainage. Snow measured 9 to 10 feet deep on the top. During this time low temperatures in Teton Valley were -35 to -40 F. They expected to take three days but took five (Leigh says it was 8 days). They ran out of food and after several days they met two men who were cutting railroad ties. The men offered to let them stay at their cabin and eat what they wanted. They were so hungry that they ate leftover cold oatmeal mush before fixing anything else. After no shaves or haircuts for 21/2 months they looked rather fierce. They came to the railroad at either Judkins or Lamont and rode the train to Driggs, arriving the day before Christmas.

In the Fall of 1923 Olivia Lee, a young lady from Brigham City, Utah, came to Driggs to teach high school. Lester met her at a church dance and by the middle of January she was writing home to her mother about him. Dates were dances, movies, church socials, picnics, etc. In the latter part of February or the first part of March, Lester and Olivia, another couple and Lester's mother made a several-days trip over Teton Pass to Jackson Hole to get the Mormon missionaries. Travel through the deep snow was in a horse drawn, canvas covered sleigh. Lester and Olivia went together until school ended and Olivia went back to Brigham City.

Olivia liked Lester but was evidently concerned about his lack of education. In a letter dated March 17, 1924 Olivia's mother suggested that Olivia urge Lester to continue his education; so, at Olivia's urging Lester started taking classes at Utah Agricultural College (now Utah State University) at Logan, Utah during the summer term in 1925.

When Olivia came back to Driggs and taught for the 1924-25 school year, they continued going together and became engaged in August 1925. During the summer term in 1926 they were married in the Logan Utah Temple on August 11, the same temple where his parents had been married August 26, 1891. Lester recalled, "Olivia and her mother came over and we were married and we spent the day together. And then the next day Olivia and her mother came back to Brigham City and I went back to school." They went back to Driggs to live and Lester continued working in the barber shop. Their first child, Lester Lee, was born in Driggs on July 1, 1927.

Before the winter term of the 1927-28 school year they moved from Driggs. Part of the next few years they lived with Olivia's mother at 40 North 4th West in Brigham City and part of the time in Logan. Lester said, ". ..I barbered part of the time in Driggs, part of the time in Ogden, and part of the time in Logan while I was going to college." He also said, ". . . we lived in two different houses while in Ogden . . . ." Lester's sister-in-law, Louise Perrins, says that the family lived at 884 East 23rd Street (23rd and Quincy) in Ogden. Of the time he was attending the UAC Lester said,

". . . Olivia used part of her money that she had made and saved while teaching school. She paid the rent and I furnished the groceries."

He accumulated the following quarter hours of credit: Agronomy 15 Natural Science 24 - Animal Husbandry 44 Physical Education 10.5- Chemistry 10 Woodwork 10.5 - Economics 9 Other 24.5 (including 6 hours
Education 38 Military Science from English 14.5 the Marine Corps) - Mechanical Arts 22 Total 222 hours

He earned the following grades: A 95.5 hours C 13.5 hours B 105.5 hours D 7.5 hours a GPA of 3.30.

In 1929 he won the John M. Richie Trophy as best student judge of horses. In spite of completing only one year of high school, and at the same time supporting the family by barbering in Driggs, Logan and Ogden he graduated in May 1930 with a major in Animal Husbandry and a minor in Agronomy.

From his classes in woodwork Lester produced a number of beautiful pieces including candlestick holders and an end table made of black walnut inlaid with box elder wood. The black walnut wood came from a tree planted by Olivia's father and grown in front of Olivia's mother's place. One of the legs on the end table exhibited an old scar in the wood that was about 3/8 inch in diameter and was surrounded by darker wood. When his son, Richard, asked what it was, he said it was from when Indians shot at Grandpa Lee; a bullet had hit the tree. After having fun with that, he admitted that it was a nail hole. He had to use the piece with the nail hole because there wasn't enough good wood to make another leg.

During the summer and fall of 1930 Olivia and Lester Lee lived with Olivia's mother in Brigham City and Lester barbered in Soda Springs, Idaho. Lester Lee remembers being in Soda Springs.

According to Logan City School district records Lester taught high school in Logan during the 1931-32 school year. Lester Lee also remembers living in Logan.

The "Great Depression" was on when Lester graduated and jobs commensurate with his education were hard to find. In 1931 or 1932 Olivia's mother, Olivia Juliane Forsgren Lee, suffered a paralytic stroke, so, until her death on May 24, 1934 the family lived with Olivia's mother in Brigham City so that Olivia could care for her. At least part of that time Lester commuted daily to Ogden to work at the Dee Barber and Beauty Shop on Harrison Boulevard, across from the old Dee Hospital.

A second son, Richard Earl, was born in Brigham City August 24, 1934. Lester got a bird dog puppy, ¾ Chesapeake Retriever and ¼ Rat-tailed Spaniel, while in Brigham City but had to give it away when, in the summer of 1935, the family moved to 1264 East 23rd Street in Ogden about a block and a half from the barber shop. The five room house was heated by a coal stove in the front room and the coal range in the kitchen. Unable to afford a refrigerator or even an icebox, Lester built an evaporative cooler in the half basement. This was a wooden frame suspended over an open window and draped with sheets which were kept wet. Milk and other perishables were kept here.

Near the end of November 1937 Lester received a letter from Washington, D.C. stating: "You have been appointed by the Secretaryof Interior . . . an Instructor of Agriculture, Grade 8, in the Indian Service at a salary of $1800 per annum . . . . You will be required to pay from personal funds your traveling expenses to your post of duty, and you are expected to report for duty to the superintendent or other officer in charge at the Mescalero Agency, New Mexico at the earliest practicable date." About the middle of December he received a letter from the superintendent at Mescalero stating, "I have your letter of December 4, 1937, advising that you have your notice of appointment as Instructor of Agriculture at this agency. In reply thereto I will say that you will be furnished with quarters, and while they are not extravagantly furnished there is sufficient furniture to make them comfortable . . . . Your work will be at the agency in connection with the Junior High School. ...The Christmas holidays will be in two weeks, therefore, if you wish to report for duty on January 1, 1938, it will be all right to do so." Lester and Olivia bought a new 1938 Plymouth for $900 from his brother, Donald, who was a car dealer in Ogden, and in order to break in the new car properly Lester drove it most of the way at 35 miles per hour. Lester taught agriculture and wood working. Two of his students were grandchildren of the Apache chief, Geronimo.

The family lived in a nice new six room house just north of the hospital in the second row of buildings up the hillside on the west side of the main road. The house had beautiful hardwood floors, a refrigerator, a wood kitchen stove and was heated by a wood furnace in the basement. Water, electricity and wood were furnished but the family had to chop the wood to fit it into the stove and furnace. Later in the year electricity was not available for an extended period of time and large gas mantle lamps were furnished. The family planted a garden in a community field behind the home of Jeter Lester, an Indian policeman.

Government employees were allowed to hunt on the reservation along with the Indians, and Lester brought home several wild turkeys, one of which was used for Thanksgiving dinner. Lester Lee remembers it as being tough. Several trading posts were located on the reservation but their prices were too high; so, the family went each week to nearby Tulerosa (18 mi.) or Alamogordo (26 mi.) for groceries.

The agency at Mescalero is located in the mountains at about 6,600' elevation (therefore cooking took longer) and is surrounded by pinion pine and sagebrush covered hills. The surrounding area, off the reservation, is desert and seemed drab and desolate when the family first arrived. Olivia had graduated from Utah State Agricultural College in 1923 with a degree in botany, and partly as a result of her interest in all plants everywhere, the family took drives in the mountains along the back roads of the reservation to look for flowers and animals. As they learned about the desert plants, the desert also became interesting.

In one of the drives in the mountains, they came around a bend in the road to find a car with Oklahoma license plates parked in the road. As they approached, the driver of the car sped off down the road and around a bend. At the same time Lester saw some motion on the hillside among the trees. As he slowed to a stop two men in the trees ran over a ridge in the direction the car had gone. Driving slowly around the bend they saw the Oklahoma car take on its passengers and quickly disappear down the road. Lester speculated that they were poaching wild turkeys. He thought he had seen the man in the trees drop something; so, he walked up the slope and picked up a 22 caliber rifle and a turkey. Back at the agency, Lester took the gun and turkey to the superintendent of the Indian agency and told him the story. The superintendent laughed and handing the rifle back to Lester said, "I don't think they will be coming back to get their gun. It looks like you have yourself a rifle and a turkey."

The nearest Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was in El Paso, Texas 115 miles away. The family went to church two or three times in a year, going down on Friday or Saturday and staying over to Sunday. Lester Lee remembers El Paso as very hot. One of these trips was to see a foot doctor. Lester suffered from pains in his feet, which he attributed to the years he spent standing all day in the barber shop. Special orthotics proved helpful but a few years later he discovered that wearing high-heeled cowboy boots solved the problem.

From the 1st to the 5th of July the Mescalero Apache Indians held a big celebration, a sort of coming of age debut, for teenage girls. Indians came from allover the reservation and camped near the agency. Bowers of branches (for cooking shelters), food booths made of slab lumber and a large tepee made of branches (where the girls danced) surrounded an open area. Each evening men and women did dances around a huge bonfire, including the Apache "Devil Dance". These things were new and very interesting to the family.

White Sands National Monument (a large area of dunes composed of gypsum sand) was about 40 miles away and the family made several trips there. As Lester said, "We went out there and enjoyed rolling around in the sand."

The principal of the school and Lester were not compatible and after a year Lester was transferred to the Indian school at Pawnee, Oklahoma. During the previous school year Joe Tortilla, one of the older Indian boys, had threatened Lester with a knife during woodwork class when Lester insisted that Joe do something he didn't want to do. While talking to Joe, Lester reached to a shelf behind himself and picked up a partially completed bread board to use as a shield, but he didn't need to use the board. In preparation for the move Lester had an 8' long, two wheeled trailer built. On the day the trailer was being loaded Joe Tortilla appeared at the house unexpectedly and spent several hours helping.

At Pawnee the family lived in an old, but good, high-ceiling frame house at the Indian agency just east of town. The house was heated by natural gas with heaters in four of the eight rooms. It also had an enclosed back porch and a screened in front porch.

The school was a boarding school with a couple of hundred students from many plains Indian tribes. Some of the tribes represented were: Pawnee, Kaw, Otoe, Potowatame, Tonkawa, Ponca, Osage, Sauk and Fox. Lester taught agriculture and in the process managed the school farm. The boys learned farming while working on the farm. Lester described the school, "It was interesting there because it was a boarding school and they had the school and the service offices were on the land there. And they had 300 acres of land. A big part of this was range land but we had some of the land where we raised grain, some where we raised alfalfa, and we had around 6 to 7 acres of garden. We would study about planting a garden in class and then go out and do the work, plant it . . . they milked around 35 head of cows all the time. And we had a man that took care of the dairy and had the Indian boys help him do the milking. And we had around 75 to 80 head of beef cattle. And we kept 10 brood sows, had 100 head of sheep . . . we kept anywheres from 500 to 1000 chickens. We'd get the chickens, baby chicks, from the hatchery and then raise them up to maturity. And we used to go out and judge the poultry. Those that . . . wouldn't be good layers were butchered and taken to the school kitchen. We used to butcher hogs and also beef that went to the school kitchen to feed the Indian students." Thus, all types of work necessary for a large farm were learned.

Lester didn't just supervise; he worked. Chiggers (almost microscopic red bugs that abound in the grass and weeds and burrow under the skin and raise itchy welts like mosquito bites, except worse) were a problem especially during haying and thrashing. In an attempt to avoid the chiggers Lester would tie his pants legs to his ankles in the mornings and dust them inside with powered sulphur. At the end of each day he would put his clothes in the laundry, bathe and put on all clean clothes. During the hot humid summers he would come home for lunch and dinner and lie down on the floor for a brief nap in front to the oscillating electric fan.

For a while Lester bowled each week in a nearby town with friends from the school. He had been a proficient and avid stream fisherman in Teton Valley, but in Pawnee, after trying fishing for catfish at night, trawling from a boat, and sitting on the bank watching a float, he decided they were not his kind of fishing. Each summer from 1939-1942 the family went on vacation back to Utah and Idaho to visit relatives. A different route was traveled each year and Lester did all the driving. In order to stay awake he drank cups of coffee several times a day.

At age six, in the first grade, Richard began experiencing petite mall epileptic seizures. When treatment by all local doctors proved ineffective, the family was advised to take him to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. In the summer of 1942 they drove to Rochester and stayed one to two weeks while Richard went through observation and testing. The result was implementation of a ketogenic diet; a diet very strict in both content and amount (measured in ounces). During the stay in Oklahoma Lester began experiencing abdominal pains and a trip to specialists in Oklahoma City produced a diagnosis of a stomach ulcer. As a result he took "powders" (consisting mostly of baking soda) several times a day to relieve symptoms. At first these were purchased, but later Lester began mixing his own at much reduced cost. This practice he continued for about 12 years.

The nearest Latter-day Saint Church was a small branch in Stillwater, Oklahoma, 32 miles away. The family went regularly until World War II brought on gas rationing; then they were able to go only about every five weeks.

A barn and chicken coup were on the house lot. Lester bought and milked a small, pretty Jersey cow which provided milk, butter and cottage cheese. High quality purebred White Plymouth Rock chickens provided eggs and fryers to go into a frozen food locker in town. The chickens were purchased as day old chicks and were reared for several weeks {until they grew feathers) in a back room of the house in a large cardboard box that was heated by a light bulb. They were then transferred to the coup. Some of the better of these chickens the family cleaned up and groomed and entered in the Pawnee County Fair. They took all honors in their class.

The electric lights in the coup were controlled by a standard wall switch in the enclosed back porch of the house. In order to provide more light so that the chickens would eat more and grow faster, the lights were turned on before daylight in the mornings. Lester made this semi-automatic by fastening a windup alarm clock to a shelf above the switch, tying one end of a string to the alarm windup key of the clock and the other end to a fountain pen cap which was then slipped over the wall switch. When the alarm went off the string wound up on the key, pulled the fountain pen cap up and turned the switch on. The cap then slipped off the switch. It was very simple, neat, effective and inexpensive.

The lot was big enough for a large garden which Lester plowed and tilled using a team of horses and equipment from the school. The vegetables were of good enough quality that some were sold to one of the grocery stores in town. The yard had a large lawn of Bermuda grass, three large oak trees (canopies 30 feet in diameter) , a redbud bush and a hedge of climbing roses along part of the front fence. It also had two pie cherry trees, a couple of peach trees, boysenberries and strawberries. A large pecan tree stood in the barnyard.

Lester's brother, Wallace, went into the army during WW II and gave his black cocker spaniel dog, Mitzie, to Lester's family. The family also had cats (and kittens) and crows as pets at various times.

Lester and Olivia were well respected by neighbors and employees at the school. Overmans, next door neighbors, were especially good friends. Olivia belonged to a "Stitch and Chatter Club" which included some ladies from town. Lester's efficiency ratings were always "Very Good" and by October 1941 he was making $1920 per year; two years later it was $2040.

One day Knights and Overmans were working in their gardens across the fence from each other. The clouds in the sky were strange looking and the sunlight seemed strange. In the distance toward the west was a sound like rumbling of thunder except that it was continuous and gradually moved along the horizon. Lester noticed that Mr. Overman had stopped working, was listening intently and looking toward the west. Lester commented that it sounded like thunder. Mr Overman replied, "Thunder, Hell! That's a tornado." Mr. Overman was from Arkansas and he had had experience with tornados. A tornado had indeed passed near the western edge of the town of Pawnee and the family went in the car to see what it had done. They saw corrugate metal from barn roofs wrapped around tree trunks and chickens wandering around the yard with no feathers except tiny ones around the ears and a tail or wing feather or two. At one place there had been a barn and two houses all in a row a couple of hundred feet apart. The barn was totally collapsed except where a small part was braced up by a stack of sacks of feed. In there was a small calf contentedly eating the spilled feed from the broken sacks. The house in the middle was undamaged except for perhaps a shingle or chimney brick or two. The second house had been totally destroyed so that none of it was higher than the foundation. Nearby was an uprooted tree with a whole fence line of hog wire wrapped around its trunk. Lester observed that it was rolled as neatly as a roll of wire in a store.

By 1942 Lester Lee was in high school and beginning to date girls. This became a concern to Lester and Olivia because there were no girls around that Lester Lee could date who were members of the church. The need was felt to return to Utah or Idaho where the family could be closer to relatives and to the church and where Lester Lee could date girls who were members. Thus, in late February Lester received a letter dated February 16, 1945 from The Soil Conservation Service in Albuquerque stating, "We today are requesting Civil Service authority for your transfer from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Pawnee, Oklahoma to our service as a P-2 Soil Conservationist, $2600 plus $563.40 overtime per annum at Price, Utah." Later he received a memo dated March 7, 1945 stating, "Your separation from the Indian Service, by transfer to the Soil Conservation Service, was made effective March 26, 1945. We regret that you found it necessary to leave the Indian Service. May we take this opportunity to express our appreciation for the very valuable service you rendered as Instructor of Agriculture and the interest you evidenced in furthering the general agricultural program at the Pawnee Indian Agency." By about April 1, 1945 the family had moved to Price. They lived in a basement apartment in a house a couple of streets north of the park.

Lester Lee graduated from high school in 1945 and joined the navy shortly thereafter rather than be drafted into the army. To do so he had to go to the recruiting office in Salt Lake City. Because he was still 17, parental permission was necessary. In order to save money Lester hitch hiked to Salt Lake City to sign the papers. Lester Lee reported to Salt Lake City for active duty August 8, 1945.

World War II ended a few days later and late in 1945 Lester was transferred to Castle Dale, Utah. Here the family rented a five room, white, frame house at 246 East Main Street. The house had central heating (a coal burning stove in the living room and a coal burning range in the kitchen) .The lot had a garage and a small barn and the yard was big enough for a garden. There was also an outhouse toward the back of the lot. This was used part of one winter after the toilet froze and broke during a family absence. During their stay in Castle Dale Lester got another bird dog, a pale eyed German Short Haired Pointer who was named "Sack", short for "Sad Sack", because of her forlorn look.

Lester's efficiency ratings continued to be "Very Good" and by April 1946 Lester was making $3090 per year; two years later it was $3773.40 and in 1949 it was $4228.80. In 1947 he was the Utah state winner of the safety limerick section of the Soil Conservation safety contest.

Lester Lee returned from the Navy in August of 1946 and immediately enrolled at Brigham Young University. He attended there for four years and after graduation with a BS in Mathematics in 1950 he was immediately called to serve in the New England States Mission from July 1950 to July 1952. He labored in Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. He returned to Brigham Young University in 1952 and graduated with a MS in Geology in 1954.

Lester received a memo from the State Conservationist dated March 3, 1950 which stated: "This will acknowledge the receipt of your statement advising that you will be available for transfer to Brigham City . . . . At the present time, it appears that it may be at least two months before we will need to make the transfer." Late in the summer of 1950 Lester was transferred to Brigham City as District Soil Conservationist to open up the South Box Elder Conservation District with offices on the second floor of the Howard Hotel. The district ran from the Box Elder-Weber County line on the south to the Cache-Weber county lines to the east, north to about two miles north of Brigham City, west to Highway 91, south to Sixth north street, then west to the Bear River Bird Refuge.

The family lived in a basement apartment at 315 East 1st North. The entrance was in the back of the house. In 1955 they built a house (the only one they ever owned) at 123 North 9th East in Brigham City for about $12,500 (the lot was $800) .To save money Lester and Olivia helped extensively in the construction of the two bedroom red brick house with a full basement. They put up all the wallboard upstairs and down, laid the hardwood floors in two rooms, sanded hardwood floors, and put in wiring for appliances. The front half of the lot was landscaped with lawn, shrubs, and flowers and the back contained a garden and fruit trees. Grape vines grew on the back fence. Lester and Olivia enjoyed living there for over 20 years.

In January 1956 Richard was called to serve for two years in the California Mission laboring in California and Arizona. He attended BYU from August 1953 to 1956, again from 1958 to 1963. He graduated with a BS degree in Business Management in 1960 and a BS in Geology in 1961. Lester Lee married Dorothy Sue Melton in 1954 and moved to Denver. Richard married Maxine Poole in 1960 and they lived in Provo while Richard finished attending BYU.

J.C. Haws remembered, ". . . my office as school Superintendent was in the Court House here in Brigham City and it wasn't long till I made acquaintance with a man who wore cowboy boots and a Stetson hat. Not too large in size but great in character and personality and who became a good friend through the years. Little did I realize, when I first shook that man's hand and learned that his name was Lester Knight, how close our lives would intertwine through the years to come."

Lester and Olivia enjoyed flowers and kept their home and yard beautiful. J.C. Haws commented, ". . . you would never find any weeds on this particular lot . . . . I would see Brother Knight as time went on out on the lawn digging up the dandelions with his pocket knife. He just couldn't stand to see a dandelion or any other weed grow. He would dig it out down on one knee going from plant to plant." In winter Lester and Olivia rooted geranium slips in pots in the south and west basement windows. J.C. Haws added, "His tools were always sharp, free from rust, free from dirt. He took pride in everything he had."

Lester didn't collect things as a hobby; he made things. He started tying his own fishing flies in Ogden and continued it for years. Lester had been mustered out of the Marine Corps with his model 1898 Springfield 30-40 CRAG rifle. While in Brigham City he had it "sporterized." He had a gunsmith cut off some of the long barrel and replace the military sights with buckhorn sights. Lester then remodeled the stock by shortening the front end, carving cross-hatched designs into both sides, and finishing it beautifully. Later he took up leather work and made beautiful, durable purses for Olivia and his two daughters-in-law and wallets for grandsons. He made pictures and planters from thin copper sheets, and made trivets using ceramic tile. He built a carport/storage shed in the back yard and partially finished the basement. J.C. Haws observed, "I never remember Brother Knight doing much walking, as far as walking was concerned he was always on the run. He seemed always to be in a hurry to go somewhere and do something and to get something accomplished."

Lester was always active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Significant dates include:

Baptism July 2, 1904 in the Salt Lake Tabernacle
Ordination to Deacon August 2, 1908 in Clawson
Ordination to Teacher May 15, 1911 in Clawson
Ordination to Priest June 30, 1913 in Clawson
Ordination to Elder June 1918 in Clawson
Patriarchal Blessing June 1918 in Clawson
Ordination to Seventy April 15, 1934 in Brigham City
Ordination to High Priest November 20, 1960 in Brigham City
His first church responsibility was in the 8th grade at Clawson as secretary of the Friday afternoon "religion class." At various times and places over the years he was secretary, teacher, counselor and president in both the Sunday School and in the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association.

In Brigham 4th Ward in the Seventies Quorum he was successively secretary, teacher, one of the Seven Presidents of Seventy and then Senior President. In Brigham 13th Ward High Priests Group he also served as secretary, teacher, Group Leader's Assistant and Group Leader. He has served as Home Teacher and Ward Clerk (June 22, 1958 to January 24, 1960) .Lester worked at the welfare farm near Tremonton hoeing beets; he helped recover the pews at the church; over the years he and Olivia made many trips to do work for the dead in the Logan temple. When a new library was installed in the ward building, Olivia was called as Librarian and she and Lester put in much time together on the project. He did what was right and couldn't understand why others didn't.

Lester and Olivia loved the outdoors and often went to the Bear River Bird Refuge west of Brigham City and into the canyons. They made frequent trips to visit friends and relatives throughout the western states. For years they enjoyed a group of friends, 10 to 12 couples, which met on Sunday evening weekly or biweekly at various homes as a "study group". He was a member of the Sons of the Utah Pioneers.

Lester retired in 1966 at the age of 70. It was mandatory to retire from the Soil Conservation Service at 70 years of age. Lester was in excellent health and enjoyed running up the steps to his second story office in the Brigham City Courthouse in spite of the protests of his associates who said he would have a heart attack. It irritated him that he had to retire at 70 in good health when other government officials such as judges, congressmen and senators could keep working past 70 years - sometimes in poor health.

Olivia died August 11, 1976 at the age of 81 years, 1 month, and 4 days (on their 50th wedding anniversary) after spending 100 days in the Dee Hospital in Ogden. Lester was always a devoted husband and cared for Olivia through the years when her health was poor. He stayed by her bedside all day in the hospital and exercised her arms and legs to relieve her pain. He often remarked about the help and kindness shown him during that time and afterward by his sister, Ruth, and her husband Wilford and by friends and neighbors in Brigham City.

Following Olivia's death Lester lived alone for six years. He used to say that he specialized in cooking black rice (burned). .He would cook rice, vegetables and a chicken in the pressure cooker and eat from it for a week. He always had Cheerios for breakfast.

As his eyesight and hearing slowly failed it became harder for him to live alone and to drive his car. He became involved in car accidents more frequently and his friends and family worried about him. It was uncomfortable riding with him. His children urged him to give up driving, but he was very reluctant to give up his freedom. He did not quit driving until the state requested a test (instigated by his children) to renew his drivers license and was found to be legally blind. J.C. Haws commented years later, "But next to the loss of your dear mother, I'm sure the thing that hurt him the most was the loss of his car. He went through a few accidents . . . when his sight and hearing was failing to some extent and he knew the inevitable was coming. And I remember calling up the road patrol and begging off for a few weeks because he had a cold. He didn't want to go down and face what he knew was inevitable, that he was going to lose his license. And when that day came and he had to give up that car and he no longer could drive, he was a very dejected man." Neighbors looked after him, especially his Home Teacher for 20 years, J.C. Haws. A cherished activity was to go with J.C. to J.C.'s son's dairy at Bear River to build calf pens. The relationship between Lester and J.C. was described by J.C. as very close and that Lester was like a brother.

During the last four years of his life he spent winters with his son, Lester Lee, in Boise, Idaho and summers with his son, Richard, in Bountiful, Utah. He was very easy to get along with and was never a problem. In spite of poor sight and hearing he attempted to help around the house and yard. He exercised by walking daily (weather permitting) and sometimes kept track of the miles, reaching 86 miles in one month.

After having been absent from his home for almost two years it became necessary to sell the house. This was a very sad occasion, selling the home that he had helped build and which he and Olivia had enjoyed for so many years. After Olivia died Lester would say, "It's no longer a home. It's just a house." He sold it May 7, 1984 on a 20 year contract for $61,000 and had the monthly payments deposited into his sons' checking accounts. He contributed to his grandchildren on missions and gave each $1000 for college or missions.

His general health was good through the years except for such things as stomach ulcer, arthritis and prostate surgery. While they were living in the basement apartment in Brigham City, Lester took a "milk drip" cure for his ulcer. For 24 hours a day for a month, milk from a container ran through a tube down his throat and dripped into his stomach. It didn't get rid of the ulcer but he gained 10 lbs. during that month. In about 1960 he had an operation to have his ulcer removed. He said he wished he had had it done 20 years earlier as he could now eat anything he wanted. In about 1982 he was diagnosed as having senile diabetes, but this was questionable. After several falls and episodes of garbled speech (minor strokes?) he was diagnosed as having restricted blood flow to the brain and a blood thinner was prescribed.

In November 1985, at age 89, he felt unsteady, so his grandson, Neal walked with him. During the night he suffered a stroke and when he awoke the next morning his right side was paralyzed. His doctor commented that Lester was more likely to recover than many of his younger patients because he was so positive and agreeable to work with. After several days in St. Alphonses Hospital in Boise, he was transferred to the Elks Rehabilitation Hospital in Boise where he worked hard and became able to walk a little again with assistance, but he spent most of the time in a wheelchair. Here he began to have a problem with fluid in his lungs. After discharge from the Elks hospital, having achieved only limited recovery, his usual cheerful and optimistic attitude was gone. Because Lester Lee's home was not built to accommodate wheelchairs, Lester stayed for several months in a nursing home across from St. Alphonses Hospital; there he was visited daily by family members. In the spring he was able to move to the new Veterans nursing home on Fort Street in Boise. On Thursday, May 22, he was transferred to the Boise Veterans Hospital with pneumonia. The following Sunday Lester Lee and Richard gave him a blessing for either a speedy recovery or a peaceful resolution of his problems. On the following day, May 26, 1986, at 4:30 AM he died in his sleep at an age of 90 years, 2 months and 24 days.

During his last few years he often said that he was thankful that he had two homes to live in, not just one. He was thoughtful of others and continued to make friends even after he was almost helpless. He also expressed regret that he had to live so long when he had to be a burden on people. He often said that he looked forward to a "grand reunion" with Olivia, his parents, other family members and friends who had gone on ahead.

SOURCES
Interview of Lester P. Knight by Richard Knight Sep. 4, 1978.
Interview of Lester P. Knight by J. c. Haws Sep. 1, 1981.
Leigh Fulmer Remembers Lester and Olivia Knight, an interview of Leigh Fulmer by James Price Sep. 16, 1990.
Reminiscence of Lester and Olivia Knight by J. C. Haws Jan. 26. 1992.
Life History of George Franklin Knight by George Franklin Knight written 1962 -1979.
Various of Lester P. Knight's papers and letters.
Correspondence between Olivia Lee and her mother, Olivia Forsgren Lee, 1923-1924.
Letter to Ruth Knight Young from her cousin Ed Lee, 1986.
Logan City School District Records, 1887-1951.
Remembrances of Richard Earl Knight and Lester Lee Knight.
Revised February 1998


Children of Olivia Lee and Lester Pool Knight:

Lester Lee Knight , born 1927 in Driggs, Idaho.  Married Dorothy Sue Melton in 1954.  They are the parents of four children in addition to the two sons by Dorothy's first marriage.  Because they are still living no more detailed information will be given here  (other than to say that these are just two of the best people in the world!  Lester has served 3 terms as president of the Forsgren Family Association and has been a wonderful help adding photos to the Association's files.  He has most of the photos that were kept and identified by his mother and great grandmother (The Olivias) and we have had many wonderful discussions together at his home in Meridian, Idaho.

The dashing Lester Knight in uniform

Lester and Dorothy in a photo of a photo - thus the poor quality

Lester and Dorothy at the 2004 Forsgren Reunion

Richard Earl Knight, born 1934 in Brigham City, Utah; Married Maxine Poole in 1960 in the Logan Temple.  They are the parents of 4 children.

Richard and Maxine at the 2010 Forsgren Reunion
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Children # 8 & 9 - Twins Lola and Lulu Lee.  (See photos at the beginning of this blog post below the family portrait of the Lees).

The twins were born 23 May 1897 in Brigham City.  I do not know which girl actually came out first.  Lola is listed first on the family group sheet I have of the family.  The girls were both blessed by their father Severin Nielsen Lee in the 3rd Ward on the 4th of July 1897.   Lola died on 11 May 1898, just before her 1st. birthday.   Lulu died before her sister on 24 Feb 1898, a day after her nine month birthday.  I do not know the cause of death.  They are buried in the Brigham City Cemetery (see photo at beginning of blog) in plot

B-16-17



Child #10  Victor Lee, born 4 August 1900, Brigham City, Utah;  Died 8 November 1978 in Provo, Utah.  Buried on 11 Nov. 19978 in Centerville, Davis Co., Utah  plot A-22-3-7.   Victor married Ruby Linn (27 Juy 1911, Centerville, Utah-25 July 2004, Salt Lake City) on Feb 21 1935.  Their marriage was later sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on 23 Jun 1942.  Victor and Ruby were the parents of two children:  David Allan Lee and Mary Diane Lee (known as Diane).



So how did little boys of that era like being dressed in dresses?  Isn't this a great picture (courtesy of Diane Wagner)

I love this picture.  It gives so much of the flavor of the old home.  The original is in the possession of Lester Knight.  It is labeled "Victor, Karl, Florence & Olivia in front of Olivia F. Lee's home, 1907."  (Karl and Florence are the children of Severin and Emma Ensign Lee).  I like that it shows that half brothers and sisters in a polygamous marriage are also friends.  I like the non-manicured lawn!  And the cool lounger on the right.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES: (from records in the possession of Diane Lee Wagner, daughter)

Education: BS, Electrical Engineering, 10 June 1924, University of Utah. Photocopy of diploma in possession of the Forsgren Family Assn. 

Death: Funeral program, Berg Mortuary Drawing Room Chapel, Saturday November 11, 1978 11:00 a.m.:
In memory of VICTOR LEE
Date of Birth: August 4, 1900, Brigham City, Utah - Date of Death: November 8, 1978, Provo, Utah
Interment: Centerville, Utah
Bishop Neil R. Cardon, officiating, Bonneville Ward
Family Prayer: Lester Lee Knight [nephew]
Funeral Record obit statements, typed. Original in possession of daughter Diane Wagner. Photocopy in possess. of Adele Austin
   Victor Lee received his education in the Brigham City Schools and graduated from the University of Utah in Electrical Engineering.
   Following his marriage to Ruby Linn they made their first home in Salt lake City where they lived for four years. They moved to Provo in 1941 where he has lived since. He began working for the Telephone Company in 1924 and retired in 1964 after 40 years service. He retired as District Traffic Superintendent.
    Brother Lee was an active member of the LDS Church - Bonneville Warad and was a High Priest. He served as Secretary of the Elders Quorum, also served in the Presidency of the Utah State Hospital Branch. He was a member of the Timpanogos Gem and Mineral Society. He was a member of the Provo Chamber of Commerce. He was also a member of the Mountain Bell Telephone Pioneers.
   Mr. Lee was interested in lapidary work, hunting rocks and enjoyed fishing and hunting.

Ruby Linn Lee

Ruby Linn Lee

OBITUARY: Salt Lake Tribune 28 July 2004 (with photo)
     "On July 25, 2004, Ruby Linn Lee passed quietly into the next stage of her life. She had been living with her daughter and son-in-law in Salt Lake for the last six months.
     She was born July 27, 1911 in Centerville, Utah to Robert Linn (Charles Hancock) and Laura Campbell Linn. She worked as a cosmetologist before her marriage. She married Victor Lee on February 21, 1935. Their marriage was later solemnized in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. She was preceded in death by Victor on November 8, 1978, and by their two-year-old son, David Allen Lee on September 12, 1940.
     After their marriage, Ruby and Victor lived in Denver, Colorado for a few years, and then moved home to Provo, where Ruby lived for over 60 years. She loved flowers, playing bridge, crocheting, going to lunch, and spending time with her family. She served in several capacities in the LDS Church and was an active member of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers. She was a good friend, mother, and grandmother who gave freely of her love, her time, and her resources to those around her. She loved her grandchildren dearly and provided a listening ear and a home-away-from home for each of them as they attended college.
     Survivors include her daughter Diane (Arnold) Wagner, Salt Lake; six grandchildren: Gregory (Lisa) Wagner of St. George; Richard (Megan) Wagner of Salt Lake; Rebecca (Glen) Crandall of Salt Lake; Ted (Leslie) Wagner of Boise, ID; Elizabeth (Curtis) Rowley of Santaquin, UT; and David (Jessica) Wagner of Provo; 18 great-grandchildren.
     Graveside services will be held Friday, July 30, 2004, at 11:00 at the Centerville City Cemetery, 4th South 700 East. Friends may call at the Berg Mortuary of Provo TThurs. evening from 6-8 p.m. We love you, Grandma!!"

This photo was taken on the morning of Ruby's funeral when I was passing through Utah....that is why her death information had not yet been carved into the headstone.  

Children of Victor and Ruby Linn Lee:

David Allan Lee, born 21 April 1938 Denver, Colorado.  Died 12 Sept 1940, Denver.  He is buried in the Centerville Cemetery plot A-22-4-5.  (I do not have a photo of that headstone)

These two photos courtesy of Diane Wagner

Victor and Ruby Lee holding David.  Other family in the photo are Ruby's mother (Laura Campbell Hancock), followed by Olivia and Lester Pool Knight with their son Richard Earle Knight standing in front of them.  (Photo in possession of Diane Wagner)

Mary DIANE Lee, was born in 1943.  She married Howard Arnold Wagner in 1964.  They are the parents of 7 children.

Diane and Arnold Wagner at the 2004 reunion

That's a LOT of fine descendants for Victor and Ruby Lee!!

Diane surveying the meat choices at the Central Market in Santiago, Chile.

And doing what she and Arnold did best!  Greeting, teaching, loving and then bidding farewell to hundreds of missionaries who went on to do great things in their respective missions.  I so admired their work.  Arnold was born and raised in the Colonies in Mexico and spoke flawless Spanish.  Diane had brought with her a great background in nursing which served them well at the MTC.  (By the way.  Notice the bright, warm sunny day.  That's what it is like in Chile around Christmas time!  Never did quite get used to that!)

Now back to "normal (civilian) life" we continue our friendship.  Arnold and Diane with my husband Victor at the Ethel M candy factory's Cactus Garden, Nov. 2010 just as they began decorating for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

That about does it folks for now (July 2011).  I will continue to add and update as I receive information and photos.  So, please, check back often and share what you have so that we might all benefit.  I welcome corrections and explanations!