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Condensed from the book "A Journey Back in Time" by Mary Olson Almond | |||||||||||||||||||
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YOUNG LIFE Moroni's fatherJoseph Almond was left to raise his children alone when his wife died. It was quite a handful for him to be father and mother both. Moroni was only three years old when Mrs. Ellen Sandberg and P. J. Sandberg, her husband, came to Logan to inquire about two little boys that a neighbor, Annie Allen, had told them about. Mrs. Allen said the father worked and had told her he would let someone take these little boys. When Mr. and Mrs. Sandberg came down to see about it, Joseph gave little Moroni to stay with the Sandbergs. He had already arranged for Lorenzo, five years old, to live with a family by the name of Roundy. Joseph Almond, Moroni's father, some time later, married the second time to Martha Scott, a widow, and they had three children, namely Joseph, Martha (Matty), and William (Bill). After Moroni was grown, he said, the Sandbergs were always good to him. Mr. Sandberg was always very busy in Church affairs. He was also a good businessman. He owned a hotel and other interests as well as the 400-acre farm where they lived. He was well off financially and did a lot of good in the community. He also paid the immigration costs for many Latter-Day Saint converts to the Church, who wanted to come to the United States and to Utah--and then he let them work on his farm or in the hotel to pay him back. The Sandbergs always planned on adopting Moroni some day. They kept hoping that some day his father would give his consent. Moroni stayed with the Sandbergs until he was grown. He had a good home, and was supported and treated well. He was always well dressed and had plenty of spending money, was taught the Gospel and was well disciplined. He was baptized in November 1889 after he had turned eight years old on the 28th of June 1889 by his foster father, J. P. Sandberg, and confirmed the following Sunday by Brother L. P. Nelson. During the time he lived with the Sandbergs, he had three or four of the nicest ponies in the country. He had a very good dog named Fido. He said that dog was as good a pal as any kid ever had. He was a big, wooly dog, with course hair, maybe part coarse-haired terrier. Moroni bought him from another boy for twenty-five cents. Moroni always had plenty of money when he needed it. He had several bicycles, had lots of ice skates--some imported from Sweden--and became a good skater. He worked hard on the farm doing the many chores and attending to a lot of livestock. When he first went to live with the Sandbergs, they lived in Sandberg, Idaho. By the time he started to school, they had moved to Weston, Idaho where he went through the Fifth Grade Reader, the highest grade they had there. It was called Grammar school. Moroni said, " The kids at the school were very rough--they had many fights. They were always `dingbumping' and pushing or something--one boy died with a hurt spine. They used hard and sharp weapons and were always stirring up trouble. They would throw rocks swift and high." He told me of how he remembered one rock came down and hit a boy in the eye, blinding that eye. "They played foolhardy tricks, and would also tease and torment cripples." Some of Moroni's best friends were Willard Bell and John Coburn. They were his pals. One day some older boys talked Willard and Moroni into fighting. It was one good fight, but after that they were better friends than ever. Another time the same big boys got another kid, Orson Kofford, to fight Moroni. They were both deacons and were supposed to be getting the firewood for Church. You see, the same building was used for Church, school and dances. Well, they didn't get the wood and Orson couldn't come to school for three or four days because of his two black eyes. As he talked to me, remembering the long ago, he told me many details. He talked on: "As I got older, I was able to do more things and could be more useful to the Sandbergs. I worked hard to prove to Mr. Sandberg that I was trustworthy. No one ever caught me in a lie. I took care of things at home each time, while Mr. Sandberg served two missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The first one was while he was in Sweden. The second mission was in 1897, after I was 16. Just before Mr. Sandberg went on this second mission, my own father died of pneumonia. It was in August 1897. I wanted so much to go to his funeral. Mr. Sandberg not only wouldn't take me, but he wouldn't let me go. He said it was typhoid fever and that I would carry it back to Weston. I was so hurt I just couldn't get over it, and I never did get over it. I also resented the fact that he didn't treat my father very well whenever he came to see me. Of course he was "sore" because my own father wouldn't give his consent for me to be adopted. I took care of the things on the farm and around the house for three more years until I was nineteen." The Sandbergs were wealthy. If Moroni had been adopted, he would have inherited a lot of money, for the Sandbergs had no other children. Moroni was never adopted, so as a result they left all their money to the church. Every one of Moroni's children got a keepsake from them. I was so happy, because that meant a memory of them forever. This beautiful dish from Austria that Moroni's son, Jim, and I, Mary, received, I hold up for my grandchildren to see, as I tell the story of Moroni's life. MORONI MEETS ADA CHRISTENSEN Moroni said he started going with girls when he was about 14 years old. Many times he went to Mutual with Lottie Jensen, but usually a group of Moroni and friends went to Mutual together. They went in pairs to go ice skating, sleigh riding, dances, and parties. Sometimes a group of these young folks would go to Logan to a Circus or something special. Moroni then told of the following: "One very special girl, Ada Christensen, came to visit her cousin, Ann Jensen. The Jensens lived in Weston. The two of them went to Mutual. My friend, Jack Coburn, and I walked up behind the two girls. I was anxious to see what this strange new girl looked like. It was winter and already dark, so I struck a match and held it in front of her face, but it was so close it singed her eye brows. Then in Mutual, we sat close to these two girls. I was trying to get acquainted with this pretty new girl. After mutual, I walked her home. She was sixteen and I was eighteen. After my new girl friend went back home to Newton, Utah, I wrote to her and she wrote right back. From then on we kept writing steady. The first time I went to Newton to see her, she told another boy friend that I was her cousin." "Soon after this, Ada's Aunt Boletta and Uncle Soren Jensen moved from Weston to Hawkins Creek, west of Downey, and Ada's family moved to Weston to take care of the Jensen's ranch." "Now that the Christensens were living in Weston, we started to go steady. That was the first of the year, 1900. We went steady until we married the 29th of July 1901. She was eighteen and I was twenty. At first we lived with the Sandbergs; next in a little house the Sandbergs owned. Then we bought a house and lot and worked 80 acres of land on the Sandberg ranch in Weston. We stayed there over two years, until two sons had been born--Oscar Merlin and Burton Moroni. At about this time the Sandbergs bought a place in Salt Lake City and sold the Weston place. We, Ada and I, started to buy twenty acres of hay land there in Weston and began to build a house." "However we let it go and went to Chris Peterson's place to work for Uncle Nephi Christensen in Elwood, which is down close by Tremonton, Utah. We were there about a year, when we moved to Newton, Utah, Ada's old hometown. Ada's mother gave us 5 acres in Newton and we built a house there. Here we stayed until 1915. Ellen, James, Eunice and Bernice were born in this Newton home." THE DRY FARM--DOWNEY--AND WORK "In 1910 we filed for a homestead--a dry farm. We stayed on this dry farm, south of Downey, Idaho, on the foothills of Oxford Peak, in the summer and would move back to our Newton place for the winter. In 1915 I bought an old abandoned school, moved it just west of Downey, remodeled it completely throughout and installed water and lights in it. Here Karen, Phyllis and Gayle were born. When Phyllis was born, Ada was in the home of her sister, Zina Johnson in Logan. Phyllis was a twin and the other baby was still born. After we lived in Downey, we gradually let the dry farm go. I could make much more working as a laborer. I had already worked in Salt Lake City for two years, when Burt was a baby, in a freight depot and later for Utah Gas and Coke Co., putting in the pipes. I spent three or four summers helping maintain the cemeteries in Marsh Valley. I helped in the improvement of the Downey City Water Works. Sometimes I would go away from home on a job, like when I worked on the highway to Idaho." "Most of my work consisted of farming, carpenter's work, and cement and plaster on houses. I also worked on thresher machines and headers (harvesters) and unloading coal for coal yards in Downey. I tended service stations for seven years in Downey, both for Utah Oil and Tesado, ltd. I helped build the Downey High School, Grade School, the L.D.S. Church, one grain elevator, the Downey Hospital, the Sego Milk Plant, and many homes." "I built three homes for my family--one in Newton and two in Downey. It seemed that we always worked hard, but we were always poor. This, too, I remembered when I was only fourteen years old I helped quarry rock out of Chris Hansen's Rock Quarry two miles south of Weston. I would go on the trip to help haul rock fifteen miles to Preston and back. Some of these trips were made with ox teams and others with horses. This rock was used to build the old Oneida Stake Academy. The Oneida Stake was from the Utah line north to Oxford, Idaho. The Academy was built in 1894 at Preston, and it still stands." "In Weston, our first new Chapel was red brick. It contains 125,000 bricks. I helped make the brick--clay adobe first, then we used old house logs and scrap lumber to burn the kiln to bake the brick for this building. I also helped haul brick to the site about a mile away. They were made on Weston Creek about a mile below town. Ludwig Erickson and two sons, Joe and Adam, and I made the brick. It took all summer. And by the way, I served on the jury at Pocatello seven or eight times." "The last eighteen years here in Downey, I worked, and raised chickens. We sold chickens and eggs. In about 1935, when all the kids were gone except Phyllis and Gayle, we started to build a five-room home on five acres of land over in town (Downey) across the railroad tracks and close to the Church. We moved into our new house in 1936. This was a small but beautiful house with modern plumbing and other conveniences. We still had our old coal heaterola which we liked very much. Our chickens lived in back of the house. "All the time I lived with the Sandbergs I went by the name of Moroni Sandberg. When I met Ada Christensen, I was Moroni Sandberg. When we were married, we were Mr. and Mrs. Moroni Sandberg. We remained Mr. and Mrs. Moroni Sandberg until we had three children, Oscar Merlin, Burton Moroni, and Ellen. Just before our son, James Clayton, was born, we had our names changed back to the rightful name, Almond." "We had become very used to being Mr. and Mrs. Moroni Sandberg for about seven years. However, after our first three children were born, we decided to drop the name of Sandberg, and so we had to have everything changed legally to Mr. and Mrs. Moroni Richard Almond." "While I, Moroni, didn't have to have my name changed legally back to Almond (for it never was changed legally to Sandberg) I had to have my legal documents changed from Sandberg to Almond, such as property documents." "Other things had to be changed such as signatures at the bank, our mailing address, and the names of Moroni, Ada, Oscar, Burt, and Ellen changed in the Ward list at the Church and at the school." "The Sandbergs found it very hard to give up the idea of adopting me. They even wanted to have me sealed to them in the Temple after Ada and I were married, but couldn't, of course, because I was not legally adopted to them. The Sandbergs were wealthy and had no other children, but I would not be sealed to them and accept the Sandberg money in their will, because I felt that would have been robbing my dear dead mother of her son." "I have never lost my testimony that this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only right and true Church. I have had that testimony ever since I was a young child because I had that environment in the Sandberg home. I am an Elder. Ada and I were sealed in the Temple at Logan. Our marriage has always been and is a good one--we have never stopped loving each other. Our life together was all hard work--there were no luxuries. When our neighbors all had new cars, we never did own a car. The only new thing we ever had was a new baby." As he came to the end of relating all these things to me, he looked up, remembering with a big smile, and said, "I couldn't have made it without Ada. She was such a beautiful girl. I've never seen a more beautiful girl than she was when she was young. She had such beautiful hair, beautiful eyes, beautiful smile and she was beautiful within. God was good to me, to give her to me to be the mother of all my posterity, and to help me through all the trials of my life." HOW GRANDPA MORONI ALMOND CAME FROM ENGLAND You will remember that Grandfather Moroni Almond came to America with his mother when he was only three years old, and of course had no memory of it. After I talked with Sylvia Lundgren, daughter of Lucy Almond Dowdle, Moroni's older sister, I learned more of the details of their story. I learned that Sylvia was a first cousin to my husband, James Clayton Almond. Sylvia gave me the records of her mother, Lucy. Lucy Almond, sister of our Grandfather Moroni Richard, was born at Breachwood, Green, Heath, 20 miles from London. Lucy, nine years old and James Almond, eleven years old, and Rhoda Groom, their Auntie, (mother Elizabeth's sister) who was twenty-three years old, sailed from Liverpool, England, on the ship Abyssinia. The London Conference was October 21, 1882. Albert Carrington, Mission President sailed with 416 Saints, Saturday, October 21, 1882, including 28 missionaries under the direction of George Stringfellow. They landed in New York November 3, 1882, and arrived in Salt Lake City, November 10, 1882. The train took them to Ogden. As I told you before, Joseph Almond, the father of this family came from London Conference May 6, 1883 on the ship Nevada. Elizabeth, age 36, came from London Conference November 1884 on the ship Arizona, with her children Arthur the oldest, 17 years old, and Moroni the youngest, three years old. On May 7, the following spring, 1885, Lorenzo age five, came with Annie M. Groom Fayter, another sister of Elizabeth. After Elizabeth's accident and drowning, because travel was hard and very slow in those days, the older children never got to see their mother again since London. |
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