Generation Three: Fruitful Branches

George Peter Garff, 17 Jun 1870 to 21 Feb 1928, was born in South Jordan (now Riverton), Salt Lake County, Utah. Both parents being Danish emigrants we must imagine the home he grew up in as one like others of that time  in Denmark, except... except that this was a pioneer home in Utah.

The first family home, described by Wayne B. Garff, a son of George, was a one-room home using logs to complete the room dug back into a low hill. It was furnished with a bed, some chairs and a table.  This home had a stove and improvements to the homestead brought fresh cold water from a spring that had been had been found on the 137 acres Peter had acquired. George and his next two siblings were born here.

Peter, George's father had completed Bible studies before leaving Denmark. Antomina, his mother, had spent her early childhood, as Peter had, in a successful farm. Piety and industry can be presumed. Both parents had a positive sense of their abilities and place in their community. Tidy homes being the reflection of early upbringing we might wonder how a home dug from a hill effected this young family, but the reports of their children and grandchildren let us know that this and every successive home was maintained in a manner that established pride and confidence in the children. The family account notes that in spite of the hardships of pioneering life, Peter and Antomina Garff were refined, well-mannered folk, always neat and clean.

When George was about seven years old his father was called to go on a mission in South Dakota and Minnesota. Being the eldest George stepped up to the expectations placed on him. We will see over and over in this family how expectations were always up, and it seems were always met. His father had planted one of the first orchards in the Riverton area, and later had successful farms in Draper.  The entire family contributed to this successful stewardship and industry, and George learned the skills that would be the seed of his own success later.

George had outstanding athletic abilities as he grew up and was active in ball and track sports. He attended the University of Utah and Utah State Agricultural College.  After his studies he became a teacher.

George Peter Garff married Tryphena Mayer Brimhall on December 19, 1895 in the LDS Salt Lake Temple. They served a teaching mission in the Hawaii islands where their first child, Rachel Minnie was born. He wrote later that a very important event while in the islands was attending a conference in the leper colony on Molokai where he found the ability to speak in the language in tongues "through fasting and prayer." He would have other significant spiritual experiences during his life, as during an emergency while lumbering above Wallsburg when he was shot by a falling revolver. These stories are learned from How Beautiful Upon the  Mountains, A Centennial History of Wasatch County  compiled by William James Mortimer and published by Daughters of Utah Pioneers.

When they had returned to Utah they heard of a teaching position in Wallsburg. A year later George accepted the principal position and a family home was built in that community. George and Tryphena, now with two girls after Grace Thelma's birth in Draper, were active in church and municipal activities. George served as postmaster and was ordained Bishop for the Wallsburg Ward. Five children would be born there: Mary, George Lynn, Mark Brimhall, Major Peter and Ina Tryphena.

George left the educational field and entered the business and farming fields. His church activity continued. Always musically gifted, he encouraged neighbors and youth in music, drama and also in sports. He organized celebrations for Pioneer and Independence day.

In 1911 the family moved to Lehi, Utah County where George continued in mercantile businesses. The last of his children were born here: Wayne Brimhall and Joseph Elmo. In 1928 George succumbed to a tumor- possibly sarcoma- in Salt Lake City. Tryphena followed in 1961 and they are buried at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park.

A Note on My Research

When we are introduced to the pedigree sheet, many of us refer to it as the family tree, perhaps because of its form: one becomes two, two become four, etc. You see that I have used those lines, the antecedents as the roots of the tree, and the common ancestors as the trunk of the tree from which we branch out.

My writing comes more from my family group sheets in which I tried to keep records of where I found the information I use. My research has been piece work and has time between searches. The benefit for me is that I stumble upon a new source and learn new information, however out of sequence it might be. And I return to sources- books, entries, films- that have been rich in  information before.

I have just for a week or so been reading The Mormon Trail, Yesterday and Today, by William E Hill. Published in 1996 by the Utah State University Press [ISBN 0-87421-202-2] it has provided me with some background on the immigration routes used into the west by many groups, with maps, guidebooks and diaries as well as photographic depictions of pioneering and modern points along the way. The author also points me toward other writing I had not considered or had not known existed before.

Researching in another project recently led me to the  BYU, Religious Education site online [www.rsc.byu.edu] which includes such titles as "Icelandic Conversion and Emigration: A Sesquicentennial Sketch" which gave me some insight to Gudmund Gudmundsen's journey to Utah.

My point in these few paragraphs is that I have not done scholarly study and research in my family's history; rather it has been personal, for love of the family and the story and is not yet complete. And that delights me no end! I invite you to to make such a journey for yourself.

Perhaps we will cross paths, as we have seen happen here:
Evan Stephens, who appears frequently in the LDS Hymnal, was in one of the down-and-back wagon trains that Peter Garff manned. Chapter 5 in the book Peter Niels Garff begins, "Peter did not realize that the twelve-year-old boy in the Stephens family would become the eminent Evan Stephens..." Letters From Home commented in this blog about a song that is included in the Garff book on pages 28 and 29 called Teamsters Chorus and is dedicated "to the teamster Peter Garff who drove the Welsh Ox Team". Letters From Home is a descendant of Peter, with whose family I will begin the next generation.

Our Roots: The Remaining Son

Isaac Gudmundsen has his birth place variously reported as Lehi, Salt Lake, Camp Floyd or Fairfield. It occurred on March 3, 1861. He was one of the sons whose leisure time led to the discovery of a cache of money which enabled the family to return to Utah. He grew to manhood in Lehi, Utah County, where he followed his father in metalwork and jewelry. With his brother and father he may well have had a long successful livelihood but his interests led him to branch out into other business options. He took up with the business communities in the early settling of the Snake River area of Idaho, first at Iona and then Burley. He managed the Iona Mercantile Institution, associated with the Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution in Utah, which in Idaho grew to include multiple branches. He was also active in LDS assignments in these communities, and served as postmaster in Iona. He relocated with his family to Burley in 1908.

There in Burley his family became well established and contributed to the economic growth as well as the social and municipal activities there. Several of his family are mentioned in the book History of Idaho, The Gem of the Mountains by James Hawley, published 1920. Isaac is also noted in the LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, vol 2, p 50.

Married in Iona on August 16, 1883 to the Fanny Ann Mulliner, a daughter of Samuel Mulliner and Mary Ann Richardson, they raised a large family, making them aware from childhood the place their grandfathers held in the building up of Zion, Gudmund as missionary to Iceland and Samuel as one of the first missionaries to Scotland.

Among their nine children, Isaac and Fanny counted businessmen, dentists, a state congressman and several poets. Their grandchildren reached out from Idaho to continue the development of the west. Isaac and Fanny ended their lives in Burley and are buried in the Pleasant View Cemetery there. Their children were Ray, Jacob, Irel, Fanny G. Brunt, Scott, Reed, Abraham, 'Gene' G. Kirkham and Hazel G. Lowe.

I must admit I needed to study this man as much as his brothers, having lived so far away from his family and have not known them closely. Isaac's daughter Sylvia, always known as "Gene" in my lifetime, tried to instill in me a sense of my heritage. Gratefully by the time of her passing I had shown some evidence of understanding and appreciation. In this I am now sure that good roots do much to form and nurture a sturdy family tree.

I have given a short biography of the sons of Marie Jacobsen, our pioneer grandmother. These have certainly been brief, hopefully to illustrate that there is much to be found out and admired about these men who in tun were our grandfathers. Search. Study. Learn. These roots have brought forth a family tree unique in the world of many trees: Our family tree. I will continue on to the next generations, showing something of who we are, and what we have done with the world around us.

Such Roots Have Invested This Tree

Abraham Gudmundsen followed his father into gold and silver smithing, running several jewelry businesses. He also displayed a skill for other manufacture enterprises, invention and business management. Business directories indicate jewelry and mercantile concerns, Lehi histories point out his bicycle shop and inventions. He seems to have shared social and business activity in Lehi with his brothers Garff. He did have similar training as his younger brother Isaac in civic and legal matters as well as being active in the community. 

Born February 10, 1860, he was with his parents as they made their moves throughout Utah and to California and back. Do such moves affect a child for long? Remember his older brothers came across half the known world. Perhaps it bears out that some challenges will only make us stronger. Abraham passed away in American Fork, Utah on March 17, 1940, aged 80. He is buried in Lehi City Cemetery.

Abraham married twice. Jane Sarah Evans, his first wife was born in Lehi in 1865 and died there in 1888 just short of her twenty-fifth birthday. They were married in 1885, becoming parents of Abel G., Isaac S, and Mary Jane. Abraham married again about seven years later, in 1895 to Letitia Austin. Their children were Retta, Austin G, Stanley A, LeGrande and Emma Marie. Letitia passed away 17 January 1967, aged 98 years. Her grandson, Ralph Trane is noted as stating he grew up with Abraham as the only grandfather he knew in the biographical book that Peter Garff's family put together.

From Good Roots a Solid Stock: The Next Sons

Lauritz Nielsen Garff was born in Eskebjerg, Holbaek, Denmark on 13 Jan 1853, being a lad of 4 when his family left that native land for the frontiers of America. In America he would be known as Louis.  A pioneer, he would live a full life before his death, at the early age of 49.

An astute businessman, he commanded several properties in Lehi, where he made his home, as well as sharing several ventures with his brothers, as indicated in the Garff Brothers' Sanitary Market. Louis also made a name for himself.

Active in the community, which certainly included the LDS church, the politics as well as the business, he was well liked and highly regarded by his peers.

Louis was among early LDS Missionaries entering Mexico in 1875 who, as noted in LDS Church News, reported optimistically on prospects for church activity and growth. Among others, Louis taught the missionary lessons to the Papago Indians in the Arizona/Mexico border area, where he recorded enjoying abundant fruit from his labor. He also told of hostility toward himself and his companions which included being stoned by mobsters.

When he had returned to Utah Louis began his business career in earnest. He started  in the mercantile business as early as 1885 and expanded to such entities as the Garff Opera House which opened in 1887 with a gala, attended by approximately 200 couples on Christmas Eve. This two-story building on Main Street had the Garff's Hall in the upper level while the ground floor boasted a complete stock of dry goods, grocery, stoves, clothing and furnishings. Advertisements claimed safe refrigerated meat, which unfortunately became contaminated when the Arctic-Ice machinery leaked coolant into the food storage area.

Louis had a fine home on Main Street which was later incorporated into the Wing Mortuary.
Louis served on the Lehi City Council in 1891 and 1892, and was a long time teacher in Lehi Sunday School, where he assisted with the Theological classes. A tribute was presented by that program when he passed away, calling him 'a very efficient and faithful teacher...exceptionally well read' in church doctrine.

Louis' health made it difficult for him to continue his business activity after the turn of the century. Financial concerns also took their toll. He died 21 July 1902; his wife Amelia Bromley followed him in 1908.

Louis and Amelia married in 1890 and had five children, Erma Rosina G Cook, Mary G Featherstone, Louis B Garff, Cora G Wilson and Niels O Garff. Louis and Amelia are buried in the Lehi City Cemetery.

Decan Westmoreland Garff finds his birth reported in many accounts of Mormon immigration. We are fortunate to have a part of his story as our own. His birth was recorded in the ship's reports as 3 May 1857, Lat 46 45", Long 26 23". This being upon the Atlantic Ocean, for a tangible idea of his first abode, the LDS Museum in Salt Lake City has a display of the common ship accommodations at the time.

Decan lived near his brothers. He is found in Springville, Utah at the time of the 1880 federal census where he is listed as a brick maker. He was single at that time and no marriage records have come to notice at this point.

Many family records show Decan's death as September 15, 1886. Place of burial continues to elude this writer.

From These Roots: Our Stock, continued

Born in Eskebjerg, Holbaek Amt, Denmark on 23 Feb 1848, Christian Nielsen Garff was nine years old as a Utah pioneer. It has been my presumption that he and Lauritz made the several moves with their mother and Gudmund Gudmundsen. In fact I have no record to show this, as I have is for Decon. At any rate, Christian does appear to have lived in Lehi where the family finally settled, before he makes his ultimate move to Cache Valley. 

Christian Garff was to construction and development it seems, as Peter his brother was to horticulture. I mean to say that he was well suited, a natural. He is listed in various sources as a carpenter, but a history of Logan gives a glimpse of the level of his carpentry when it notes that in 1880 Christian and partner Gustave Lundberg petitioned city council to increase their use of water to generate electric power to supplant their steam driven machinery. This source, A History of Cache County, by F Ross Peterson (1997, Utah Historical Society), states that this electric  plant may have been Utah’s first. As early as 1884 the Deseret News reported that this partnership was completing a kiln with capacity for drying 30,000 feet of lumber. This partnership was Lundberg & Garff, Door and Sashing Factory.

In Lehi, Portraits of a Utah Town, edited by Richard S Van Wagoner and published in 1990 by Lehi City, we find Christian as a promoter 1899 of electricity, the new energy that would replace candles and kerosine for public and private lighting. Christian also promoted electrical power in other towns.  The Cache Valley’s Utah Journal in 1897 reports Christian as investigating establishing a power plant between Preston and Franklin, Idaho. In 1904, listed as Garff & Son, The Deseret News reports he made an application for water from Alpine and American Fork canyon waters to develop power for generating electricity in that section of Utah County.

An article in the Logan paper in the late 1880s reports Christian was arrested for postal crimes after he sent an angry note to a hay dealer he discovered had sold him rotting hay. The hay purchase appears to have been large, for the interior bales to hide the bad product. I have not determined the need for a large amount of hay and wonder if Christian maintained livestock as well as running his mill business. It might also have had a use in his shop. I found this article through Utah Digital Newspapers online. I have not found any follow up to it yet, Christian claims he did not know the letter had been sent while he admitted writing the message in anger. Other articles also reflect his activities in Logan’s business community.

Logan city directories show Carl, Christian’s son as following in the carpentry business. Garffs will be seen to have strong business sense as  we go on with this family’s story. Anyone in the intermountain region will be able to name a few of the successful businesses associated with the Garff name. 

Christian’s family branched out from northern Utah. Widowed twice, he married first Augusta Elisabeth Hanson in 1874. A native of Sweden, she was born 1854. They were parents to four children before she passed away in 1898. Christian married again in 1901 to Caroline Fjeldsted who was born in Norway, and would pass away in 1925, two years before her husband. They were parents to one daughter. 

Christian Nielsen Garff passed away in Logan, Utah, aged 79 years. He and his wives are buried in the Logan City Cemetery.

From These Roots Has Grown a Great Stock

A quick note about my methodology in this blog. While I am a great grandchild of Isaac Gudmundsen, I will go down the birth order of Marie Jacobsen's sons, which means Peter, Christian, Lauritz, Deacon, Abraham and Isaac. I will go by generation, so that when I have given an account of each of these I will go on to their children, and then their grandchildren, etc. With Marie, Niels and Gudmund as the first generation I want to report up to my own generation- the fifth - before I consider my project complete. I hope to maintain an addendum beyond that point as long as I am able. I not only hope that I will learn of corrections I need to make, but I am asking you to let me know when that is in order. I truly want to give my best in this story of this incredible family. kk

THE SONS

Peter Nielsen Garff, born in 1843 at Saerslev in Holbaek Amt on the island of Sjelland, Denmark, was fourteen years old when his parents emmigrated with a company of LDS converts and returning missionaries and authorities. He had grown up in homes where servants and laborers were ever present, but we see no evidence that he was not familiar with labor or responsibility. His father is listed as a gaardmand in the census of 1850.  Perhaps he had been groomed to follow in his father’s work. He would later be known as a masterful horticulturist, as we read in Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah.

Peter certainly rose to expectations during the plains crossing, as has been noted already.  When finally he was settled in Utah, he planted the first orchards in Riverton. After his marriage to Antomina Sorensen in 1869 at the LDS Endowment House the family settled on Draper, across the valley at the base of the Wasatch front. Early on I heard of the Garff brothers taking their produce from Draper to Salt Lake City by wagon. Once a week this would have been an arduous task, could it possibly be completed daily? Whenever I travel between the two places I marvel at it anew. This is also related in People of Draper, Vol. I. Peter ran one of two water mills in Draper.

Peter was a thoughtful and spiritual young man, as well as the high qualities noted in his work ethics and business integrity. He went on to become a devout and reverent mature man, serving his church in many roles. He left his family to care for the farm twice to fulfill missions in Minnesota and Norway and at home he provided means for newer immigrants to come to the Utah settlements. Serving his community he was instrumental  in establishing the first free public school in Draper. 

Peter and Antomina were parents to twelve children. Peter was remembered as stern yet loving, leading an honest, orderly home. Is it any wonder he would be asked to assume leadership in congregation and community? Twelve children would provide a great posterity in numbers alone, yet Peter and Antomina’s legacy is known as much for quality as quantity. We will recount in later articles their descendants who have “lifted up” their community, church and country.

Peter Nielsen Garff passed away on June 5, 1921. His wife followed him twenty years later in 1941.

A Few Notes Before Moving On

To the modern reader, even as a descendant of the subject we may see comparisons in contemporary events, productions or writings. For us who are based in Utah the film industry has given much we can use as examples for understanding our origins and immigration to Utah.

Perhaps you have seen the film Seventeen Miracles,  following loosely the Willie handcart company of LDS immigration history. We are fortunate to not have parts of that story in our own, indeed we may not have our story at all had some of those events occurred in 1857.

I have recounted the advance payment for wagon and team going to advance someone else, and a half share in another being wiped out when the partner turned around half way. Marie stood fast through these, having as her strength her faith and conviction. She meant to see her Zion. When the wagoneer unloaded her family's belongings upon the immigrant trail and departed she declared her commitment.

These stories reflect faith's response to commitment.

The wagon company needed to keep time, on the road westward. There was scant time for variation or personal side trips. One story (from another family line in my own history) has a wagon pulling out while mother was delivered of child and then pulling back in to continue the trek. Just so the Cowley company continued on a ways before the missing wagon was noted. How fortunate that someone was sent back to investigate, that the family Garff was located and places found for their persons and some of their belongings. Marie and the three youngest were offered space in the wagon company, and Peter given a job of helping an elderly woman in the handcart train.

Another time, newly widowed, nursing an infant, losing another child- daughter Trina- Marie went off to seek solace in the prairie. Setting her infant in shade she spent time in prayer and contemplation so deep she lost sense of time and when she became aware that the company had moved on she raced to across the land to catch it. She had gone some distance when she realized her arms were empty! Imagine the thoughts as she turned again to retrieve her child- every bush seemed the same, every sound or shadow may have meant harm. Deacon lay where she had gently placed him and together they meant to catch their company. Darkness over took them and then rushing a river further impaired their movement, Marie must have pictured any number of outcomes. Suddenly at her side a person she did not know was asking how he might help in her need. She indicated the urgency of crossing the river safely with her babe. He told her to get on his back and how she must hold him for safety's sake and then he walked across the river and placed her ashore. As she turned to give him her thanks he had vanished back into the night. Soon lights from the company approached, as searchers came looking for her. No, the rescue party told her, there was no one as she described the man among their number.

The history of Utah has many details of conflict. Our family left Denmark in April of 1857, arriving in Philadelphia thirty-six days later. In July a letter to the president of the United States declared that the Mormons were in rebellion there in the west and the Utah Expidition was ordered to go put it down. This army would later be put under the command of Sidney Johnston. Guerilla tactics would be employed by the Utah militia- still know as the Nauvoo Legion- to slow the advance and other defensive efforts made through the canyons approaching the Great Salt Lake valley. Feelings were running high. One wagon train, the Francher party, passing through the south-central part of the Utah territory was waylaid and set upon only days before the Christensen and Cowley companies came into Sat Lake. That event is now known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Many of the immigrant Mormons were being sent with the exodus out of Salt Lake valley. It was with or near these that Marie Garff and her children as well as Gudmund Gudmundsen came to Spanish Fork.

In the Valleys of the Mountains

 So many European immigrants had given all they had to come here, to this frontier of plains and mountains still scarcely charted. The Garffs, comfortable enough to employ a nurse for Marie’s impending  delivery, had been duped by an agent who was supposed to have secured the means to travel across the plains. They arrived at prairie’s edge learning he had absconded with their advance payment. They were able to go in with another family to get a wagon and team for their westward trip. We know now that Niels was ill. Marie, who had given birth during the ocean voyage would then lose husband and daughter in the frontier as well as this wagon. We can imagine Marie’s suffering the poverty of many woman in that era and those circumstances: poverty of supportive relations, of marital status, of home security. 

I have not learned anything of Gudmund Gudmundsen’s role in these dual immigrant companies under the supervision of Christen Christensen and Mathias Cowley.  The missionary who had brought the family into this fold seems at least to have been a confidant of Niels. In agreeing to care for Garff’s family as the dying friend asked, did he know what his skills could provide in this new place, among these new people? Gudmund had apprenticed in goldsmithing. My understanding of other skilled craftsmen coming to Utah is that they went without profit, trying to feed families and "build Zion" for some time before gaining a measure of independent success. 

The older Garff sons might have recalled the life of plenty in Denmark. Peter was about 15 years old at that time, already assuming heavy responsibilities when his mother and brothers were put out of the wagon they had managed to share when that partner turned back along the trail. Christian was 10, Lauritz, 5; they were moving further into a dramatic historical period with each step, now as handcart pioneers. 

At the very time that the Christensen hand cart company was finally coming into Great Salt Lake City in August 1857, the city had been preparing for the invasion of Johnston's army. This force had been sent by the president of the United States to put down the Mormon rebellion. Preparations that we have learned included putting defence works up in the canyons feeding immigrants into the valley, evacuating the citizens and filling buildings with straw to burn rather than yield to a mob, even if that mob was in uniform and marching at the government’s behest. 

Marie Garff married Gudmund Gudmundsen in 1858 in Spanish Fork. In their first winter they lived in a dugout shelter, as many immigrants did. Discouraged and perhaps perceiving little support from established Utahans, something came about that effected the commitment they felt toward their neighbors and church leaders. Gudmund took his new family to Cedar Fort and Fairfield where he found income from smithing for the army as it settled in at Camp St George (later to be renamed Camp Floyd).

A new voice in the community had begun to foretell things great and miraculous, stirring the feelings of  hurt, mistrust, isolation and perhaps hope. Joseph Morris seems to have been appealing as well as  persuasive to Marie and Gudmund. They took up with his group, following the Morrisites as they moved about the area. Eventually they assumed roles of importance: Gudmund as one of the apostles of this man proclaiming he was the rightful heir to the Mormon church’s Joseph Smith and Marie as a seamstress for the ornate outfits Joseph Morris required for himself and his mounts as he paraded before his congregation. A communal group, the Morrisites gave all their property to the cause or simply abandoned it; the end was coming, they were heaven bound. The group eventually arrived on the Weber River south of Ogden. They set themselves up at Kingston’s Fort, either by right or by squatting.

The leaders tried to keep their ranks from defecting and at this later point held two members in a livestock hutch turned prison, so that the men’s families called on the authorities to help free them. Morris did not give in, arming his group for defense of Kingston’s Fort and preaching heartily against the deputation outside the walls. A cannon was brought from Farmington to support the law's demands. Citizens from Ogden rode out to watch this spectacle from the Uinta bluffs above the Weber River. The outcome was that in a last flurry of gunfire Morris was killed and the group disbanded after its leaders were arrested, fined and turned out. Gudmund Gudmundsen was among these. Finding themselves without means, distrusted by and distrusting of their neighbors, some Morrisites chose to leave the area, following the army as it deserted Camp Floyd and Utah due to civil war breaking out in the United States. 

Marie and Gudmund moved to Sacramento, California, where reports of possible medical help for their son had come to them and where there might be work in Gudmund's trade. By this time there were two additional sons in the family, though Peter did not join his mother and stepfather in this move. Deacon, the Atlantic-born son had health problems which required medical treatment, even surgery I learn from my grandfather’s notes. He puts this at 1868.

After some time in California their circumstances had not developed for the better. Obviously it had been a time of contemplation on their previous actions and their current beliefs. One day the sons, playing among derelict buildings in the neighborhood discovered a cache of money and gold. Marie and Gudmund sought legal advice on dealing with this trove and were told they had as much right to it as anyone. 

It seems they considered that this may be a response to needs which they could not have resolved themselves, and perhaps of some more etherial hand. Medical debts were settled and they soon after rejoined the church community in Utah and endeavored to meet with Brigham Young to restore standing that had been lost. A home was built in Lehi, Utah, where Gudmund opened a jewelry business, the first in that community.

I know of no journal or diary which will give us exact accounts of feelings or discussions, and I hope my own self contemplation has not taken theirs too far afield. I have wondered about these ancestors and have tried to understand their lives more deeply but I remain a distant (five generations away) grandchild, in a different century. My hope here is to honor more than to analyze them.  

Marie's Children

We of the 21st century should never become so lulled by modern medicine  that we think of childbirth as easy or take surviving childhood nonchalantly. We are fortunate to have such advances since the 1840s, 1850s and 1860s. Marie lost children in infancy or childhood. This is true in today's generation, so we will ever keep a place in our hearts for grieving parents and siblings of infant angels.

I will be relating the stories of the sons that did survive and from whom Marie has a great posterity; I do not forget nor do I wish to diminish the loss she experienced in the children she grieved for:

Jorgen Fredrik Nielsen Garff (1844-1845)
Inger Katrine Nielsen Garff (1845-1849)
Jorgen Garff (1847)
Infant Son Garff (1850)
Niels Garff (1854)
Josephine Patrine Garff (1855-1857)
Joseph and Hyrum Garff (1856)
Jacob Gudmundsen (1865-1868)

Son Deacon Westmorland Garff, born as the family crossed the Atlantic Ocean died about age 29.

I desire that whatever I learn of the families that descend from the remaining children- her sons Peter Garff, Christian Garff and Lauritz Garff and Abraham Gudmundsen and Isaac Gudmundsen- I am able to relate it so that this simple woman of strength, resolve and faith, traveling around the world from stability of means to hardships of pioneering a new country can be seen in all we have done, and who we have become.

This will  not be an LDS record- and as it can be said that we would not have the record at all if Marie had not accepted and found faith with the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints - I have researched primarily the secular, or public records for the story I have learned of our family. A quick reading in any of these lines will show that many do continue today as active and contributing members of that church and faith, whether in Utah or the many places we have moved to as our times and our world changed and shaped our lives. Others have taken alternate paths.

The families of Marie's sons have served their churches, their communities and their country. We have built businesses, raised families, doctored and nursed our neighbors; we have served in active and reserve military positions, served in elected and volunteer positions, taught school, encouraged and protected the young, the disabled, and the homeless. We have moved the world!

Where Our Families Begin

The accepted record of Gudmund Gudmundsen has his ancestry firm in the Icelandic settlement, that is from about year 900. As those settlers were nordic, they could not have origins so very different that of Niels Jorgensen Garff or Marie Jacobsen. Here are small snapshots of their genealogy.

Marie Jacobsen was born 9 Dec 1820 in Bjergskov, Kobenhaven, Denmark to Jakob Nielsen (b 1793) and Inger Larsen (b 1793) where she was christened in the state church. She married 4 Nov 1842 at Saerslev, Holbaek, Denmark to Niels Jorgensen Garff.

Marie's paternal grandparents were Niels Hansen (1758-1831) and Margarethe Jacobsen (b 1763). Married 9 Mar 1783, they lived at Skibby Fredriksberg, Denmark. Marie's maternal grandparents were Lars Pedersen (b 1750) and Inger Abrahamsen (b abt 1774).

On 7 Feb 1908 Marie passed away on the train returning home from Iona, Idaho, where she had visited family. Cause of death is listed on the Utah death  certificate as unknown but natural. Death occurred about twenty minutes south of Ogden. The certificate however was completed in Salt Lake City. She was 87. Marie is buried in the Lehi City Cemetery, not far from one of her sons.

LDS Church archives have records in the fourth, fifth and sixth generations for Marie. I found these at www.familysearch.org and then searched Trees; some records are duplicated, others have multiple parent records. As you search you may be able to extend your own pedigree further.

Niels Jorgensen Garff we know died on the Pioneer trail near Fort Laramie- in the present day Wyoming and Nebraska border region. He was born 20 Jan 1811 at Eskebjerg, Sjelland, Denmark. His parents being Jorgen Nielsen Garff  (1777-1858) and Maren Olsen (1784-1857).

Parents of his father were Hartvig Wilhelm Garff  and Margrede Nielsen (1747-1816) and of his mother Ole Larsen and Elsie Marie Olsen. I find nothing more of Niels' maternal line than this.

Gudmund Gudmundsen was born 23 Mar 1825 in the Westermanjar region of Iceland. He followed the living of his family until going to Denmark (at the time the center of government of his country) to apprentice in a skill. Here he became familiar with and joined the new church that had recently sent missionaries.  He was encouraged to return to his homeland to preach and establish this faith there. He had a companion in this effort at first and they are credited with being the first Mormon missionaries to Iceland. When his companion died Gudmund continued to share his faith, encountering aggressive resistance.  At some point it seems he returned to Denmark and with a large body of fellow saints heeded to desire to gather with the church, coming to Utah where he died 21 Sep 1883 in Logan, Cache Valley. He lies interred in Draper Utah, in the older - or Pioneer- cemetery.

Gudmund's parents were Gudmund Benediktsson (b 1779) and Gudrun Vigfusdottir (b 1789) both of the same region on the south coast of Iceland. Paternal grandparents were Benedikt Arnason (b 1750) and Sigrid Gudmundsdottir (b 1752); his maternal grandparents being Vigfus Magnusson (b 1749) and Gudlaug Jonsdottir (b 1754).

The famous published Sagas of Iceland give the colorful tale of Gudmund's family heritage; I found on one family group sheet in the Icelandic Family Project a note that one father in the line "could not be" and whether there was an adoption or other arrangement I do not know, it could also have been that person's error or the author of the form. I do not believe it was within these three generations.

In various records of these three honored ancestors one finds many variations in the names. Jacobsen, Garff, and Gudmundsen have been the adopted use in America and I will use only these. If I should refer to a record with an alternate spelling or different name I will note that to better enable your own researching. One name which I find repeated for Marie is the name Sabey, but I can learn no source for that name (it is also attributed to her father on some records). In Iceland Gudmund would naturally be referred to as Gudmundsson, but Gudmundsen  has been our use since we came here.

Why I Begin Here

My father commented recently that the big twelve room house is more work than he can keep up with. As we try to make it easier for him we thin out a file here, a box there. From one I was given an envelope addressed to him from his father in 1971, with such distinctive penmanship, noting "Printed Matter". Another notation, also in a distinctive hand: "Family Pedigree/ Story of Gudmun Gudmundsen" is that of my dad's.

My paternal grandmother, dad's mother, Sylvia Ucilla Gudmundsen Kirkham was known as Gene after a part from a play. She married into a family that would become known for genealogy research and study. So there is paper stapled to paper to tell me where I come from. However, while I enjoy this I want to know more: what have we done since we got here?

Believe me, we have done much!

This story will reflect my knowledge and understanding of Marie Jacobsen's sons and their families. With her two husbands, she is the pioneer ancestor we have in common and her sons the sources of her posterity. Marie had a daughter, buried now for more than 150 years in a grave, perhaps no longer discernible along the trail the Christensen handcart company used in 1857 coming to the Great Basin, to the valleys of the mountains. Other children, including another daughter died before the family left Denmark.

Let me start my story there:

"Among his converts in Denmark was a family by the name of Garff, well-to-do people and highly respected," the historian refers to Gudmund Gudmundsen of Iceland, at that point a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Mormons, "but as soon as they joined the church they became objects of special hatred on the part of their nearest relatives and their neighbors generally. The Garffs decided to leave for Utah in 1857 on the same ship as Elder Gudmundsen. Sister Garff went to bid her parents goodbye, but none of her relatives, of whom there were many, would have anything to do with her, except her mother, who came to the wharf and bade her daughter farewell with all the feelings of a loving mother. Sister Garff was at the time in a delicate condition. In embarking the family took with them a nurse and a mid-wife. Sister Garff gave birth to a baby boy in mid-ocean, May 3, 1857, and by request of the Captain of the ship, the infant was given the name Deacon Westmorland Garff, the given names of the Captain and of the ship."

After landing in America the immigrants started across the continent. On the way Brother Garff became ill, and loving his family, called Elder Gudmundsen to his death bed where he asked Gudmund to care for his wife, Marie, and his children, consisting of four boys and a daughter. He was determined that the family go on "to Zion and be with God's people." Brother Garff was buried along the pioneer trail, and just a few days later Sister Garff would bury also her only daughter, Josephine Patrine Garff.

After arriving in Utah, Gudmund Gudmundsen married Marie Jacobsen Garff, and the family was increased with three more sons. The preceding came to me from my grandfather James Arno Kirkham, and has also been attributed to the research and writhing of Ralph Abraham Trane, in the biography Peter Niels Garff published 1983 by the family of George Peter and Tryphena B. Garff. [FHL us/can 921.73 - G18g]

I do not suggest that I am an authority on any aspect of this story I hope to relate. Indeed I have only that knowledge that comes from reading and studying what others have recorded. I may cause you, reader and kin, to develop more questions. Before I put any information before you I hope I have faithful sources for it. Nordic peoples, as we are have the great history of recounting the family story. I shall stay as true to it as I can.

Today I have a deeper affection and honor for this family and feel a great sense of pride in it. Such commodities I hope I can foster in you as well.