My mother was born January 24, 1872 in Brigham City, Utah. She was a daughter of Jens Anderson and Betsy Swenson. My mother was one of ten children born to them. I think that much of my mother's life was very hard. When she went to school she would run home at noon and roast an onion by the fire and eat it with a piece of bread. She said how good it tasted and thought the reason she was so healthy was because she ate so many onions.
One time the children were stricken with red measles and I guess because of lack of beds, she lay on the drafty floor and became very sick. The infection settled in her ear and her hearing was affected. It became worse as years went by.
She was only able to go to school through the third grade then had to live with a family to do house work for them. Times were very hard and it made one, less mouth to feed at home. She was married at seventeen to John Swenson who was about thirty years old. They lived in Salt Lake then moved to Smithfield to live with and care for her grandmother. Mother inherited the home when Great Grandmother died.
They had five children: Alice Viola, born August 28,1890, died April 27, 1895; Rachel Jeanette born June 28, 1894, died November 4, 1899; John Wilford, born March 21, 1897; Mable Loreen, born September 6, 1895; and Rulon Fielding, born September 5, 1905.
I was born two months premature in the log cabin my grandfather built. Rachel died when I was only two months old. In 1912 our family moved to Salt Lake. Then father tried to dry farm in Park Valley, Box Elder County for a year but the farm was a failure so we returned to Salt Lake.
Mother loved pretty things. Wherever her home was,
no matter how humble, it was always spotless with pretty
furnishing. She was a very good dressmaker and tailor. She was a wonderful
cook and was always in charge of Ward Dinners and Relief Society Socials.
She died March 7, 1938 in Salt Lake City, Utah