Author Archives: ehoopes

Rocena Platt Chidester: Personal Record

The following personal record is found in Rocena’s Book of Remembrance: Name in full: PLATT, Rocena Father’s name: PLATT, Walter Lysle Mother’s Maiden name: CAMPBELL, Alice When born: 29 Mar 1931 Where born: Kanarraville, Iron, Utah When blessed: 3 May 1931 By whom: PLATT, John William When baptized: 3 Sep 1939 Where baptized: Cedar First and Fifth Ward House – Cedar City, Iron, Utah Baptized by: WILLIAMS, Preston P. When confirmed: 10 Sept 1939 By whom: WILLIAMS, Wells A. Married […]

Letter from Elmer C. Anderson seeking information about John Madison Chidester

Members of the Chidester and allied families. Dear folks: I think that you either know me personally or have heard of Thelma Chidester Anderson and myself and so we need very little introduction. However, if you haven’t heard of us, Thema’s father was John Nicoll Chidester and mother Mary Elizabeth Workman Chidester. As a hobby, I started writing a history of the Chidester Family in America about fifteen years ago. Today I have amassed a collection of over 14,000 Chidester, […]

Anna Johanna (Hannah) Nielsen: Grandma Brown and the Chicken Coop

Grandma Brown told us many stories when we were kids.  One story that I remember her telling us was about the chicken coop.  One night Grandpa Brown was out of town on business and Grandma was home alone with the kids.  As she was working around the house, it was getting late and she heard a noise outside.  She opened the door and could hear a noise in the chicken coop.  She lit the coal oil lantern and went outside.  […]

Anna Johanna (Hannah) Nielsen: Death & Memorial

Just before Hannah died: She had her own milk cow.  It was fed and herded with Jims cows, but Hannah milked her morning and night.  One morning, she came into the house after milking the cow and said, “I can’t milk this cow anymore.”  Eli, Manilla’s husband came down and took the cow home with him. She didn’t live too long after that. She died of dropsy.  Dora was with her when she died. Anna Johanna (Hannah) Brown died 21 October 1940. She was 87 years […]

Anna Johanna (Hannah) Nielsen: Poetry

Hannah was, like most of those who came from the Scandinavian Countries, a great lover of nature.  She took much  pride in beautifying her home surroundings.  She was a great reader, studied the Church books and magazines, and kept up with the daily newspapers. Being a natural poet, she composed a number of wonderful poems and was able to call them to mind at any time.  This gift was one of her greatest blessings.  Many have enjoyed listening to her recite the poetry she had written. Four […]

Anna Johanna (Hannah) Nielsen & Christian Christensen Brown: Births, Illnesses, Deaths, Growing Up & Growing Old

The children had to help on the farm.  When Manilla was five years old, she went with them to the fields to haul hay.  It was a hot day, so Manilla would lie down under the wagon in the shade.  As the wagon moved along she followed, staying the shade. One time she got too close to the wheel and was run over, breaking her leg. Hannah lost her oldest son, Christian, during an epidemic of Diphtheria and tonsillitis.  He was twelve years of age. A […]

Anna Johanna (Hannah) Nielsen & Christian Christensen Brown: Homesteading & Marriage

Hannah’s sister, Mary and her husband, met them at the end of the railroad and took them to Richfield where she lived.  They traveled by wagon.  Hannah found employment from a man named Jensen who ran a store in Elsinore.  Hannah helped Mrs. Jensen in the home.  With Hannah and her father both working, they hired a girl to come and sit with her mother.  Hannah’s father worked at cutting stone to earn money to build a home and buy a farm. Her father bought an […]

Anna Johanna (Hannah) Nielsen: Emigration

Hannah’s family wanted to come to America.  They did not have passage money for the whole family so they decided to send her sister Mary first.  Mary arrived in Utah and went to Richfield and later married a man named Hans Peter Nielsen.  Hans was a Miller and had a flour mill on the west side of town. There was a family going to America that wanted Hannah to go with them, but she did not want to leave her invalid mother.  She let her two […]

Anna Johanna (Hannah) Nielsen: Early days with the Mormon Church

As Hannah did not join the Church until she was 19 or 20, there is not much to say about her church attendance.  The adults attended cottage meetings and went to church twice a year to partake of the sacrament.  The children attended church only when cottage meetings were held in their own homes. There was no persecution in Denmark toward those who joined the church and no bodily harm was inflicted.  They were scoffed at, however, when attending school. Once, when Hannah was a child, […]

Anna Johanna (Hannah) Nielsen: Childhood

Anna Johanna Nielsen, (Hannah as she was called) was the daughter of Hans Nielsen and Kirsten Marie Pelsen.  She was born under humble circumstances into a family of six children; two daughters and four sons.     Maren or Mary     Anna Johanna     Niels (lost at sea)     Jens (died at age two)     James (Jens)     Christian Hannah lived in a small town in the country near the western ocean.  Her father was a stone cutter.  Her […]