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.
I have discovered that I have been mis-identifying Christian Nielsen Garff's second wife i throughout my record and will correct it future references. Her rightful name in Caroline HILDESTAD, and is found first on the ship manifest of Alien Immigrants coming into Boston in 1901, S.S. Commonwealth. A seamstress, C Garff of Ogden is the U.S. resident listed here. I have also read her Utah Death Certificate which lists her birthplace as Boden, Norway, but does not name her parents. This record spells her name Hilstad.
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