Sylvia Ucilla "Gene" Gudmundsen

Sylvia Ucilla Gudmundsen, my grandmother, looms large in my mind. I am embarrassed to show how little I know of her.

Born in 1898, we share a birthday – November 27 – and that has always been meaningful to me; of her twenty grandchildren, I supposed that made me special. In reality, when you are special you can develop a sense of responsibility to maintain that designation. So I often felt I was disappointing her in some way. I have learned some things about us both, that all grandchildren are special, and also about how hard it is to disappoint a grandmother, no matter what.

All my life I heard Sylvia referred to as Gene. I understand she had performed in a role by this name at school, though I do not know the play or the school: was it high school or college? She met her husband while attending BYU.

Gene played the piano, and taught piano in her home. In Centerville my dad said she was piano teacher/confessor for at least one student. She did work in various positions throughout her life as her husband, James Arno Kirkham, moved the family through a succession of careers. She worked for ZCMI, Utah Association of Petroleum Retailers, See’s Candies and others.

Salt Lake City, Provo, Centerville were the communities my father grew up in, and it was the last home in Centerville I recall. Main street, view of the Great Salt Lake, Granny Smith Apple trees, Wringer Washing machine, barn complete with Calico cat. In 1960 Gene and Arno moved to California, near her sister Hazel, who had been there since the WWII period. They settled for a decade or more in Huntington Beach.

Gene was mother to three sons, Jim, Thad and Kreg. While both she and her husband passed away in California, 1975 and 1976 respectively, they are buried in Lehi, Utah.

LaGrande Gudmundsen

LaGrande Gudmundsen was born in 1903, in Lehi, Utah. I find a thoroughly enjoyable account of his life that he wrote prior to his death 1975; this account was given to his son Stewart L. Gudmundsen. I found it in FamilySearch.org.

LaGrande recounts moving to Payson when his father was employed at the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company there. Before this his father had a jewelry store and a bicycle shop and everyone had a bicycle. As he learned to ride the bike he tells of being able to only go straight, with a resulting accident of colliding with a teamster and wagon so that the wheel of the wagon rolled over his foot, breaking it. Fortunately, he tells us, the bicycle was uninjured.

At Petetneet School in Payson during his fifth through eighth grades he struggled with being “tongue tied” and shares some of the ramifications of that. He went to Los Angeles Polytechnic High School in California when the family moved there in 1918, after their first season of operating the Saratoga Springs resort on Utah Lake. They remained in Los Angeles over the winter.

The men, Abraham, Stan, Austin and LaGrande drove to California in a Model T Roadster (mother and sisters had gone done by train), the trip taking eight days. Without bridges the automobiles had to be ferried across rivers. Dragged across by horses, LaGrande wrote. When returning the following April, a snow, as Utah is known to have in late spring, dumped 17 inches on them. Without snowplows the family had to wait out the storm in Beaver, Utah. When they got on the road again they only made one mile an hour!

LaGrande became a competitive swimmer while the family ran the Saratoga Springs, working as life guards, laundry workers, yard and grounds keepers LaGrande says he went from a 65 pounds (aged 15) to 130 pounds. All the children were in good health for the activity there.

After leaving the resort the family moved to American Fork. At American Fork High School LaGrande was class president both his junior and senior years. While working candling eggs after high school he decided he wanted to follow his father and grandfather in jewelry and watch making. It was after developing this skill for a while that LaGrande met Genevieve Stewart at MIA functions. They were engaged for two years before being married in the Salt Lake City LDS Temple by LeGrand Richards. LaGrande continued to work in the poultry and creamery business for another year at which time he decided he was ready to get on with his own business. Setting up a small shop in Payson LaGrande was in that business for close to 50 years. An outdoorsman by nature, LaGrande volunteered time to the Scout programs for many years.

LaGrande and Genevieve had three children. Their first daughter, Betty Jean, died of diphtheria at age four. Their other children were Gloria and Stewart. LaGrande and Genevieve are at rest in the American Fork Cemetery.

Aaron Zebulon Garff and Mina Comfort Garff

Aaron Zebulon Garff, who lived to be 94 years old, never married and from the records I have located, worked well into his senior age. Born in 1881 in the Utah Territory, he lived until 1975; much of this time in farming. His experiences were certainly similar to those around him. Children working to build up a community with parents who came from somewhere else and often from other countries; large families on subsistence quality land where water neither flows freely nor abundantly; a community largely of the same religion with like expectations. Aaron did not abandon this, as those “unfettered” sometimes do; not having a family of “his own” does not appear to have offered him a free ticket to go to distant places with riches and opportunities.

Indeed, on his WW I registration he is listed as working his own farm, and tells that his mother will always know where he is. This was 1918, when he was 37 years old. A quarter century later, on his WWII registration, 61 year old Aaron is working with his nephew Ken Garff’s automobile business. I see a man who did not abandon the family he did have; the same family that supported him in his turn.

This is a faint picture of Aaron Zebulon Garff, though we honor him still who know him least; I am sure the nephews and nieces in the Peter Nielsen Garff family have particular accounts, but I have found no record to put doubt what I have written.

Mina Comfort Garff, 1884 – 1974, was the fourth of five daughters, and would grow up with seven brothers as well.  I am relying on the account given in People of Draper 1849 – 1932, which account was given by her daughter Grace Mickelsen Payne.

Mina married Soren J. Mickelsen in 1907, and in this union her children would recall parents “as one” in purpose and taking an equal part in making a successful home. This home is reported to have been kind and loving, generous and dependable. The care taken inside was equaled on the outside; Mina’s gardens were worthy of local recognition.

In her early life Mina learned music sufficiently to serve others with her talent and skill as a soloist, in church callings and in community committees and activities. Mina was selected as Draper Queen one year, indicating that she was representative of what that community wanted in their young women. Later she served on the Jordan District School Board.

In marriage she served the elderly on the Old Folks committee, and with her husband we must believe she supported wholly the aid they gave to widows and others in need. Their business in lumber and hardware ‘gave back’, as we say today.

Mina was mother to five, four daughters and one son. Her husband Soren - S. J. – Mickelsen, passed away in 1936 and they are at rest in the Draper City Cemetery.

Stanley Austin Gudmundsen

Stanley Austin Gudmundsen was born in 1900 at Lehi, Utah. He pursued an education in mechanical engineering and was in the first class at Brigham Young University to graduate in that discipline. He also attended the University of Utah. His obituary in the Salt Lake Tribune lists his accomplishments.

Professionally he associated with the American Institute of Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers and the American Society of Lubrication Engineers, both of which denote his comprehension for the work of Kennecott Copper Mining here in Utah, for which he had been a master mechanic and was widely known. He had served as chairman of the American Society for Metals.

Stanley is reported to have brought the first diesel-electric locomotives to the Kennecott mines, and had worked with track shifters and track car designs. Those of us who, as children visiting that remarkable open mine may well have marveled at Stanley’s work (in addition to those gigantic tires on earth moving equipment).

Stanley married Bertha West (1902 – 1980) in 1922. They were parents of two.

Stanley passed away in Salt Lake City I 1975 after an illness. He was a member of the LDS Church, and his services were held in the Holladay 6^th Ward prior to internment at the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Christian Reed Gudmundsen, Abel Stanley Gudmundsen

Christian Reed Gudmundsen, Dentist, poet. Born in Iona in 1892, Reed began his studies at Brigham Young University after finishing the Academy in Rexburg, Idaho before going to Chicago to study dentistry. Returning to the West, he set his practice up in Salt Lake City. I am not certain where or when he met Margaret Andrews, an Idahoan from Rexburg, herself a dentist. Close family have told me of visiting their offices in the Tribune Building on Main Street. In addition to her practice, Margaret went into public schools to teach oral hygiene. They married in 1921 in Salt Lake City.

I do not know the projectory of Reed’s writing, whether it was life-long or a hobby that developed as his scientific profession did. Eventually it resulted in enough poems to be bound for limited circulation. I do not know if he had the widespread activity that his sister Fanny Gudmundsen Brunt did. 

As these children of Isaac matured and aged, several migrated to California. Reed passed away in Los Angeles in 1965, Margaret in San Mateo in 1978.

They had no children.

Abraham Stanley Gudmundsen, 21 -23 April 1896, Iona, Idaho.

Niles Odell Garff

Again, I find name variations used. I have our kinsman as Niels Odell, many records have N. Odell, his obituary is under Dell and then leads with Niles Odell Garff; his signature on the WWI registration has been read and repeated as Niels Adell.

In my profession we ask new residents what they prefer to be called, and I want that to be the case here. Please be assured that that is my intention.

Niles Odell Garff was born 1899 in Lehi, Utah. Educated in American Fork and Provo.

In 1917 one Salt Lake City Register lists him as "steno U S Fuel Co" rooming at Vadanis Apts. The WWI Draft Registration card says he is an office clerk at that company, as well as being married. This record was completed September 12, 1918, four days after the birth of his first child.

Dell's obituary tells us that for two years after graduation he worked for the Russell Tracy Company in their insurance and abstract departments.

He then worked with US Fuel until 1929 before moving to Spring Canyon Coal and Affiliates, Royal and Standard Coal Companies until they closed their operations in 1970 when he became president of Utah Coals, Inc. in Salt Lake City.

Further we learn that Dell was a member of the Oakridge Country Club and past president of the Lions Club.

Married twice, Dell was survived by three sons: Reid O Garff, Stephen Niles Garff and Gordon Hal Garff. Dell's death occurred in 1984, his repose is in the Mountain View Memorial Estates in Cottonwood Heights, Salt Lake.

Moses Soren Garff and Vera Marie Garff

Moses Soren Garff, born November 10, 1879 in Draper, Utah was a businessman in Midvale and Magna with his wife, operating several grocery and meat markets. Active in civic associations, he was enthusiastic in Scouting and served on the Midvale City Council for two years. He passed away in 1962.

Moses married Mary Rasmussen, an immigrant from Denmark, who came to Utah with her parents in 1883. Their marriage was solemnized in 1906 at the LDS Salt Lake Temple. Mary passed away in 1958.

They were parents to Newell K Garff and Beverly Garff Holt. They rest in the Draper Cemetery.

Vera Marie Garff was born in Logan in 1903, the only child of Christian Nielsen Garff and Caroline Hildestad of Norway. After a short marriage to Melvin O. Brown she married Turner Waddy St Clair in 1925 and in this marriage had two children, Turner Jr and James C. St Clair. On the 1930 Federal Census, Turner St Clair worked with the Street Rail lines of San Diego.

Vera passed away in Spanish Fork in 1931 of acute myocarditis, at age 28. She is buried in the Spanish Fork Cemetery.

There are, in our number, kin yet to be identified.

I have, throughout my studies of my family history thought, "There we are, I have found everyone."
And then a day like today comes...when I get that reminder, as clear as a post-it: You are not finished!

As I started to assemble information for my next group of Garff/Gudmundsen cousins I came across a 1930 Federal Census which showed a child in a family I had not included in any of my earlier records. Perhaps not knowing the link I had presumed that name was of a different family than mine, I don't know. For whatever reason I was sent back tracking and lo, an additional name came into my record, as well as another generation in that line.

I cannot express adequately the sudden pause, the awareness, the excitement I experience when this happens. I hope it never goes away. That "Ah-ha" is so rewarding.

Do not let me prevent you from such a moment! Dive in to your family history; it is unfolding even as you read this part o f it!

Austin Gudmundsen

Austin Gudmundsen 1898 – 1981, Born in Lehi and gaining his early life experiences there, Austin Gudmundsen was boy with an active mind. A tender and thorough biographical sketch is given by his granddaughter Joyce Gudmundsen Richardson on her blog, www.familystoriesjoyce.blogspot.com from which I have made a few notes to include here.

He was studious, and worked hard to extend his education even at an early age. An early job was at the Lehi Sugar factory, where he assisted the chemist. This type of work must have been intriguing and lasted well into his old age when he took up stonework and lapidary crafts.

Austin attended the Rae Automotive School in Kansas City (after which he set up a garage and put himself through college at the University of Utah), the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and took his Master degree at Carnegie Institute of Technology at Pittsburgh. Among these educational opportunities he also worked for Salt Lake City in the Smoke Abatement division and taught in the U of U engineering department.

While still in Utah he was approached by A. O. Smith Corporation of Milwaukee for their research and development division, which position he accepted after completing his course of studies at Pittsburgh.

When A.O. Smith discontinued their research Austin went ahead to start his own laboratory, Gudmundsen-Stratton Laboratories, and over several years filed a variety of patents. One item that I have not found a patent for was a method for detecting and silently tracking submarine combatants which he gave to the U.S. Navy. It was reported to him afterwards that the idea had been applied, successfully.

After time Austin joined McCullough Motors Corporation which moved their management to California, bring Austin and his family back west. They settled in Inglewood, California.

In 1921 Austin had married Myrl Goodwin, who generously, lovingly was his partner thereafter.

They were welcomed into the local LDS communities at every phase of their family life, when Austin was called for various branch, ward and stake positions. These assignments were given by such men as Heber J Grant, Marion Romney, Spencer W Kimball and David O McKay.

We see in these events a balance between the scientific and the spiritual, the thinking and the thoughtful. There was also the social. Austin and Myrl had four children, Richard A, Lois, Stanley E and Ruth, Lois passing away as a child of three.

After the years of labor in these technologies Austin ad Myrl became steadfast temple workers in the Los Angeles LDS Temple. Here they made new associations, including his cousin Alva Garff, and when they moved to Laguna Niguel Austin took up rock work, of which his grandchildren were happy recipients.

Austin passed away in 1981, followed by Myrl in 1990. They rest in Lehi, Utah.

Aaron Scott Gudmundsen

Aaron Scott Gudmundsen, 1892 – 1962, son of Isaac and Fannie M. Gudmundsen was born in Iona, Idaho. I am drawing heavily from an account in History of Idaho, Gem of the Mountains, vol 3. Like his brothers and his father Aaron had a mind for business enterprise. This publication refers to a young man “constantly watching out for favorable opportunities, of which he wisely takes advantage.”

In 1908 Aaron went to Burley where he did work with the Gudmundsen Department Store but in 1910 struck out on his own into the Real Estate business, opening offices at several locations in Burley as his ventures grew. This record attests that, like the other Gudmundsen men, Aaron had contributed in substantial measure to the growth of the Burley area.

Aaron married Lucy Maude Bassett of Rexburg, Idaho in 1907 at Salt Lake City. They were parents to four children: Gwladys, Dorothy, Margaret and Scott. Daughter Margaret passed away as a child.

The History of Idaho article concludes with a list of Aaron’s associations in the Southern Idaho area such as his support for the Republican political cause, BPOE, and Cassia County Fair Association, stating further that he was “keenly interested in everything that has to do with public progress.”

In retirement Aaron and Maude moved to California, where they passed away in Alameda, he in 1962 and she in 1968.

Royal Brigham Garff, Alva Helena Garff Wilson

Royal Brigham Garff, 1877 – 1967, married Rachel Ann Day 1902. From his obituary we learn that Royal Brigham Garff was an entrepreneur of great energy. Owner of Garff Grocery Store he was also listed as a Confectioner in one Salt Lake area business directory.  He moved in mining and automotive circles. One such, the Commonwealth Lead Mining Company and another in association with his son at the Ken Garff Company. He was inspector of weights and measures in the gasoline industry, as well, by the appointment of Governor Maw.

Royal also served his community through elected service, serving two terms as State Legislator and through church service, serving on the Liberty Stake High Council and through various service and civic organizations.

You can guess from this level of activity that like characteristics would be noted in his family. Royal Brigham Garff left a posterity of equal civic mindedness, and of successful industry.

 His wife, Rachel Ann Day shared in this influence. Born in Draper in 1881, she was characterized in the Henry Eastman Day Family history as physically strong, spiritually faithful and an educated, independent woman…very hard working, and taught by example the virtues and rewards of working long laborious hours. She passed away in Salt Lake City in 1956, where her husband followed a decade later. They are buried at the Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park in Salt Lake county.

Alva Helena Garff 1882 – 1977, was born in Logan the youngest of four children and lived there until she was about 8 years old. Her family has posted an autobiography that details some memories of her childhood on www.ancestry.com. Alva’s father operated a Door and Sash mill at that time and had selected, cut, planed and cured the lumber for their own home. Alva tells us that she was “born in a very fine, new two storied house, one half block from the main street” that had a concrete basement. This was a noteworthy structure, the yard in which it sat was enclosed with a picket fence “with poplar trees, evenly spaced, on three sides.” She recalled the fun the children had running through the leaves of those trees in the fall, and then raking them up for “the magnificent sum of ten cents.” Christmas and Mid-Summer celebrations, with their Scandinavian influence, were special memories for Alva.

Alva’s father lost his business in Logan through cross dealings of others, the family removed to Ogden. Alva tells us that they lived in a house “built on a tract of land given to father by the city of Ogden … Ogden was encouraging various enterprises to come … to stimulate growth and prosperity.”

One memory Alva recounts vividly is that of going by train from Ogden to Logan to be baptized. Her mother, she believed had remained devoted to their LDS Bishop Lewis in that place. The rite was completed “in the Logan River at the end of the street Aunt Emily lived on” (believed to be 4^th South).

The home in Ogden appears bleak in many ways, Alva wrote about it seeming unhealthy and attributing her sister’s typhoid fever and her own scarlet fever to that place.

The nearest neighbors were blocks away, and the area, near the railroad, was inviting to tramps, leaving the mother and daughters concerned about their safety. It was here that Alva’s mother died following a long period of poor health. Older brother Carl was in Sweden on an LDS mission and Father was in Hyrum building an electrical power station, leaving the three sisters to care for the failing and then sit with the deceased mother.

 Alva married Robert Emmett Wilson 1905 in Ogden. He was a native of North Ogden and their four children were born there. Robert was a sales representative for printing and wholesale paper businesses. By 1930 they were living in California, where they both now repose in the Inglewood Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Retta Gudmundsen Loveless and Fanny Gudmundsen Brunt

Retta Gudmundsen 1896 – 1978, first child of Lettie Austin and Abraham Gudmundsen, she would make the moves required in raising and caring for large families. Hers was a growing family, with two from her father’s first marriage, two from her mother’s first marriage and four following her. For all the innovative work her father did he yet needed to feed and clothe these children. Steady work would come from without, and finally the family would settle in Payson, Utah where Retta’s father worked at the Utah Idaho Sugar plant.

Retta married Parley Oscar Loveless of Payson and they raised their own family there, which consisted of Helen, Duane, Gordon and Austin.

Retta’s home encouraged the mind as well as the spirit, her children would demonstrate this through various career choices and active church membership. Qualities found throughout her siblings and cousins as well.

Fanny Gudmundsen, born in 1890, was the first daughter in Isaac and Mary Ann’s family. She would, by 1901 be the eldest of three, with six brothers (three older, three younger). She was the first of the Gudmundsen children to born in the community of Iona, Idaho, where there would be Mulliner cousins, as her maternal grandmother had settled there also.

An astute observer, Fanny produced a large body of creative writing, garnering awards and memberships in writing organizations. One book at least, that I have seen, was published by one G Lynn Garff! It has been told that Fanny’s literary activity kept her away from home often -something this writer can well imagine -  and this affected her children, though at least two daughters have left well written histories of their families. [LaVon Brunt Eyring’s children have submitted a history of their parents with a chart that shows connections with (other) notable families: think of Kimballs, Romneys and Kirkhams.]

Fanny married Joseph Alfred Brunt, a native of Kaysville, Utah in 1910. He was employed in management and sales in family businesses. His death came in 1948.

Fanny Gudmundsen Brunt passed away in 1970 in Riverside, California, and with her husband is now at rest in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

A blog of interest

I have come across a nicely done site dedicated to the families of Austin Gudmundsen.

http://www.familystoriesjoyce.blogspot.com

I will add two cents worth here as well in a few days - or so - but thank Joyce Gudmundsen for this large effort to keep a heritage alive. There are many ways to do so, and hopefully they need not distract from one another, but rather enlarge and correct if needed. (When/Where needed!)

This writer continually searches for new input and references.

Heber Nels Garff, Louis Bromley Garff and Sylvia Christine Garff Ball

Heber Nels Garff, born in 1876, died at age 73 in Salt Lake City, after a career in education throughout the Salt Lake area school systems. His obituary states that his teaching career began in 1899, and that even in this era of the harsh disciplinarian, those practices were not part of his philosophy. That his associates regarded him highly is evident in the number and quality that spoke for him, which number included the president of Brigham Young University, Howard S. McDonald. Heber’s interest in the youth he served, his understanding of the modern educational methods and needs were recalled years after by students and co-workers.

Some of the schools he taught in or administered were Ophir School, Holladay School and Roosevelt School, Burton School, Onequa, Jefferson and Washington schools.

Heber married Louise Murphy of Salt Lake in 1900. At the time of his death he was survived by his widow, sons Herschel V and R. DeVal Garff, daughters Viola Garff, Thula G. Olsen and Mary G. Mallory.

Heber and Louise are buried in the Elysian Burial Gardens in Holladay, Utah.

Louis Bromley Garff, 1894 – 1959, migrated to the Pacific Northwest after marrying Zentha Myers, a Park City native, in 1917 in Salt Lake City. Two children were born in Salt Lake City prior to Louis settling in the Tacoma, Washington area.

In Washington Louis was engaged in the Electrical trades, working for the Tacoma City Light department and later having his own electrical business.

Louis and Zentha had two daughters, Nedra Luella (Bell) and Norma Lorain (Bresch). Their deaths occurred in 1959 and 1980, respectively and they have their rest in the Eternal Hills Memorial Gardens at Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Sylvia Christine Garff, 1879 – 1960, was born in Logan, Utah. In 1906 she married James H Ball, an attorney in Salt Lake City. His biographical sketch in the History of the Bench and Bar of Utah indicates the busy life that Sylvia and her family had. After associations that took them to California, they settled in Salt Lake City where James developed a partnership with Hyrum L Mulliner (Ball and Mulliner) which continued for some years. Sylvia was a patron and benefactor of local symphonies and the Westminster College music programs.

Two children were born to this couple, Dorothy Ball Campbell (1908 – 1998) and James Robert Ball (1919 – 1944).

James Henry Ball passed away in 1947, Sylvia Garff Ball passed away in 1960, and was laid to rest in the Shrine of Memories at Larkin Sunset Lawn, Salt Lake City.

Sons of Isacc Gudmundsen

Jacob Gudmund Gudmundsen 1885 – 1886

Irel Joseph Gudmundsen (1887 – 1961) We find a great biography for Irel Joseph Gudmundsen in History of Idaho, Gem of the Mountains, 1920, vol. 2 and related through Idaho Genealogy Trails.

Irel was born in Lehi, Utah before the family relocated to the Iona area north of Idaho Falls. Active in the family business ventures, Irel became an important partner as manager in the Gudmundsen department store, Gudmundsen & Sons, in Burley.

Prior to achieving this level of distinction he studied at BYU in Provo, Utah and fulfilled a mission for the LDS Church in the Swiss German mission from 1908 to 1910. [I have also seen this referred to as Swiss French Mission].

Irel married first, in Salt Lake City, Elsie Jane Taylor (1890 – 1935) and together tthey gained prominence in the southern Idaho region around Burley. They were active in civic affairs and this activity progressed in to leaving the family business and entering “commission work” through real estate and investments, he was especially known with oil lease/development lands.

Irel and Elsie had four children, the eldest died by drowning in his 20s and the next two, young men, served overseas in WWII, the elder, Max serving as a medical officer and the younger, Dick being shot down over Belgium. The fourth child, a daughter Luasanne.

Irel served on the Burley City council as streets committee chair. In the fall of 1918 Irel was elected to the Idaho State Legislature, where he served as chairman of the Railroad and Corporations committee.

After Elsie’s death Irel married in Wyoming, her sister Althea Taylor Smith (1896-1976). They are buried in the Pleasant View Cemetery in Burley, Idaho.

What's in a name?

As I was researching Irel Joseph Gudmundsen for this record I discovered that he was noted under a variety of spellings. A Hubbard Family record had the spelling as Gudmundson, several sources omitted the 'D' so that the name became Gudmunsen  or Gudmunson.

Names, as I said in the piece on Mary Jean, add to the interest in Family History. Also the challenge.

Consider Niel, Niels, Neal, Noal, Nyall, Nels, Naihl. Or John, Jon, Owen, Ewan, Jen. Some of what names tell us is who we are; they tell us where we come from.

And then there is the age old dilemma of poor spelling skills. For this latter, I apologize in advance, in arrears, and in the steady stream of the present.

I want to know who we are, but more importantly I want to introduce us correctly. I believe a correct record is the best, and I hope I can enlist your help in that by letting me know my errors.

Two children of Abraham Gudmundsen: Isaac and Jean

Isaac S Gudmundsen 1887 – 1889

Mary Jean Gudmundsen Sager Stone, 1888 – 1957, has been a good example for me regarding double-checking information and records. I cannot prove my record is correct, but in all goodwill I offer the results I find. Examples of the challenge here are that I have always had Mary Jane in my record, but find others have Mary Jean and one source states our kinswoman “always went by her middle name, Jean.” I want to honor my family with a correct record, and also to use the name they chose to use. So I do so here.

[ I will talk more about this later, as this is neither the first instance nor the last! kk]

Jean Gudmundsen was born in Lehi, Utah and there she began her family with marriage to Gilbert S Sager (1885 – 1920) in 1907. Gilbert was a sheepherder, born in American Fork, Utah. I am uncertain if it was with a family operation or if he managed sheep for others. Jean and Gilbert were divorced according to the information found in www.findagrave.com, from which I have gleaned much of my information of this family.

Jean’s children from this marriage were Thomas Gerald Sager, Lorraine Sager Stone, Dorothy Sager and Wilma Sager. The 1940 US Census refers to the three children listed as adopted children of Jean’s second husband Lloyd Candland Stone (1894 – 1983). They were married in 1921, in Ogden, Utah, remaining in that community the rest of their lives. 

Jean and Lloyd are buried in the Aultorest Memorial Park in Ogden.

Mary Garff Featherstone

Mary Garff Featherstone (1893 – 1981), born Lehi, Utah and died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, daughter of Louis and Amelia Garff.

Married to Thomas Maurice Featherstone (1893-1960) about 1918, I find record of two children in this marriage which ended with a divorce, the petition being filed in October of 1929. 

In the 1940 US Census Mary is in Salt Lake employed in sales in the hotel industry. Her daughter June is living with her. I have not found an obituary for Mary which may shed light for me on why she was in Wisconsin at the time of her death in 1981; further muddling my record is that the Utah Cemetery Index shows her death in Wisconsin in 1981 while burial in Lehi is in 1983. Nonetheless Mary is buried in Lehi, Utah County, near her daughter June F. Britton Berryman, while her son Fred Garff Featherstone is buried in American Fork. 

Mary was predeceased by at last three grandchildren.

Hedvig Elizabeth Garff Brown

Hedvig Elizabeth Garff Brown (1877 – 1962) 

Married to Ernest Porter Brown, whose death at age 34 in 1909 left Hedvig to raise their children alone. Their children were Vendla, Carl Ernest, Max Porter and Virginia. Ernest was a native of the Ogden area and they are buried there in Ogden City Cemetery, beside daughter Vendla (1903 – 1966). Prior to his passing he was recorder for Ogden City. Hedvig maintained a Boarding House in Salt Lake City.

Hedvig passed away in 1962 in Kearn County, California where she had lived with or near son Max P. Brown, a long time Funeral Home owner in Taft, California.

Carl E. Brown (1905 – 1965) passed away in Chicago, Illinois; Max P. Brown (1908 – 1991) passed away in Provo, Utah; Virginia Brown Allen (1909 – 1950) died in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Matilda Jane Garff Crossgrove

Matilda Jane Garff Crossgrove, 1874 – 1940, is given delightful treatment in the book People of Draper, 1849 – 1932 volume three of the history of Draper, Utah. I found this resource in the Family History Library in Salt Lake, but am sure there are copies in Draper City Library, perhaps if there is a special collection.

There is a good biography of Matilda Jane Garff, her husband Bayard Mousley Crossgrove and one of their daughter Hulda Mae Crossgrove – Susan as she was known.

Matilda was born to Peter Niels Garff and Antomina Sorensen, both of whom crossed the veritable width of the United States as Mormon immigrants. With this background Matilda, who was their fourth child learned the operation and care of a tidy, loving farm home. Bayard had similar roots, though his family traveled from Pennsylvania.

When they married on December 21, 1898 in Salt Lake City, Bayard had been the care giver for both his parents, with his mother having recently passed away. Matilda quickly slipped into this caring role with her new husband, as well as keeping up the homestead and farm his family had built in Draper.

Matilda and Bayard were active in their community, likely the typical Mormon village at that time. Bayard had worked prior to marriage as a butcher but found work afterwards as Road Supervisor for Salt Lake County while bringing up five children and managing farm and poultry concerns. They were on committees for the Old Folks, church positions for young men and women, caring for neighbors, and development of the area.

Three sons and two daughters grew up in the home that Bayard’s father built, to which their mother moved as a new bride and which Susan cared and maintained during her teaching career and her retirement. Her brothers were Avar, Paul and Ralph and her sister Helen.

Matilda passed away July 7, 1940 and her husband followed April 14, 1948. They are buried in the Draper Pioneer Cemetery.