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.