Family Grows up

Thelma Christensen tells of a story that occurred around 1930. Rebecca had just been called as the Work and Business Director for the Palmyra Stake Relief Society and she and the other board members made a trip to Logan, Utah to attend a seminar. Logan is well over 132 miles from Spanish Fork one way. The fog on this day was horrible and Rebecca agreed to sit on the hood of the car and direct the driver. They made it to Logan safely and attended the seminar. On the trip back the President, Mrs. Hughes, was going to sit in the front seat. Rebecca said, “no you don’t, I sat in the cold all the way there I get the front seat on the way back”. Thelma claims that President Hughes not only lets Rebecca have the front seat but she had much more respect for her in the future.

Olena Olsen, Rebecca’s mother had been very sick for some time. Rebecca had cared for her mother throughout her life especially when her sister Serena passed away from Typhoid fever. Olena passed away on September 22, 1933 in Spanish Fork, Utah. She was buried in the Spanish Fork Cemetery on September 25, 1933.

Einer was made a Seventy in the Spanish Fork Fourth Ward around the time that he and Rebecca were married. He was ordained a Seventy by Chas H. Hart on August 28, 1910. He was made a High Priest on March 15, 1936 by David B. Bowen. Einer was active in church and he and Rebecca lived like any Latter-day Saint during this time with their religion being the centerpiece of their family’s lives. [1]

Einer and Rebecca took in a young girl in the 1930s who was just 11 years old. Her name was Ruth Hansen and she was a cousin to Rebecca. Her parents had both died and she and her siblings had been farmed out to other family members. Rebecca had no daughters and I am sure she was happy, like most women, to have a girl to raise around all of those boys. Einer and Rebecca cared for this little girl raised her and educated her. Ruth at the age of 18 left the Christensens and never came back except, years later she came to see Rebecca and asked her to watch her son while she went to California with another man who was not her husband. Rebecca refused and Ruth never went to California. Rebecca felt that she in some way had saved her marriage.

Einer and Rebecca also had a chance to adopt a young girl, but after a while the mother came and took the baby back. Rebecca and Einer were heart broken as they had fallen in love with this baby as their own and hoped to have a chance to raise a girl in the family.

The 1930s were tough times as the whole country was suffering through the Great Depression. Einer and Rebecca’s family was hit as hard as most families of that time. However, they were lucky to have five strong boys who had been taught by their parents to work. They raised most of their own food and did not have to rely on paying for food or other needs. Rebecca was a great seamstress and sewed most of their clothes. What items they did not have they traded with others in their community.

During the Depression, Einer and Rebecca were about to lose their home because they could not make payments. Rebecca wrote to the President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt who had just been elected. She asked him to help her save her house and he was able to intervene and save her home. Floyd was able to get a job with the Railroad and worked on the section and was able to help with the house payments. [2]They never lost their home, however others in Utah were not as lucky.

While most people in Utah may believe that Utah was least effected by the Depression, this is far from the truth. In 1933 Utah’s unemployment rate was 35.8%. Utah had the fourth highest unemployment rate in the United States and for the decade it averaged 26%. By 1933 government relief programs were helping 32% of the people in Utah and business failure had increased by 20%.

Unemployment which began in Utah in 1938 and for those eligible for unemployment benefits 60% of them ran out of their benefits before they could find employment.  Many people believed that farms and farmers were safe during the depression but this is wrong as well. Between 1929 and 1933 Utah’s gross farm income fell by 60%. Most farmers found more success in trading their produce from their farms with other people for what they needed. This was how many people survived the Depression by moving to a barter system until jobs opened up and things began to get better for the average person.[3] The Depression for the Christensens was hard but may not have been as difficult for them as for others. Pete and Floyd were both old enough to date girls but could not find jobs to earn money to go on a date. Einer would give them both 50 cents so they could go out. Having spare change up to a whole dollar was a lot of money during these times. For example $12.63 today has as much buying power as $1.00 in 1932.[4] In other words 50 cents then is comparable to the cost of a movie ticket at today’s prices.

Einer was able to get enough money together to purchase his first car. He bought a Model T which, started by using a hand crank. Before that time they had used a horse and buggy and they must have thought they were in the big time with a Model T which could go up to speeds of 45 miles an hour or more.[5] These early cars were very different from the cars we have today. Model Ts did not have ignitions inside the car and as mentioned it needed to be cranked in the front of the car. Often times these cranks could be very difficult to use and sometimes would jerk away from the person starting the car and could break an arm if a person was not extremely careful. These cars usually had only a top over the car seat and could be very cold in bad weather. Rebecca used this car to get around but may not have been as knowledgeable about upkeep on this vehicle as the following story illustrates. Rebecca, who was still a trail builders leader, took a group of boys in the new Model T down to Arrowhead swimming. On the way back she had a flat tire. She had the tire changed but when she got home Einer was very upset with her. So she decided to fix the tire herself. She did what she knew best and took out her sewing kit and began sewing the inner tube of the tire back together. According to Thelma Christensen this made Einer more upset but he was so busy laughing that he had to step in and show her how to repair a flat tire.

Pete had been dating Thelma Larabee from Springville during this time and they decided to marry. Thelma, following Rebecca’s example told Pete that if he wanted to get married to her that he would have to marry here in the Salt Lake Temple. Pete had been smoking for sometime and agreed to quit. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple on December 21, 1933. Pete unlike his father was unable to give up this habit and was a chain smoker most of his life. He finally gave it up in the late seventies when he was told to quit by his doctor for health reasons.

Pete was able to obtain work on the section for the Rio Grande Railroad. This was hard work as most of their work was preparing track bed and laying tracks for new railroad lines or repairing old rails. Pete loved to tell his grandchildren how he did this type of work for $1 a day. While I don’t know if that is what he was really paid the story’s message has always been the same. “You don’t know how good you have it now days”. [6]

Thelma and Pete lived with his parents for 8 months and then they moved into the old farmhouse. Thelma was so happy to finally have a home of her own.  She spent several days cleaning her home and then they finally moved in. She loved this home and felt proud of the fact that she finally had a place of her own.

Thelma tells of a time when LaVoy crept up behind her to scare her. When he did scare her she turned around and hit him not knowing it was him. It really hurt him but either because of pride or the fact that it really hurt, LaVoy walked away but he hit a table on the way out. Thelma was surprised at her own strength but did not mean to make LaVoy mad.

Pete and Thelma had three children. Joan was born first and Thelma claims that Einer and Rebecca were so happy to have a grandchild. Rebecca was even more excited to have a granddaughter, as she had always wanted a daughter.  Karen was Pete and Thelma’s second child who passed away from pneumonia at 18 months on February 23, 1938 in Spanish Fork Utah. Einer claimed that he knew that she would pass away as a personage had come to their home and he knew this was a sign that Karen was not going to live.  Thelma and Pete were to have a third child, a son, Larry who was born the following June. Pete had moved his family up Spanish Fork Canyon to be closer to his work. Because they were away from town and especially church, Rebecca would often have Einer drive her up the canyon to pick up the grandchildren to bring them down to Spanish Fork.[7] Joan lived with them while she attended Kindergarten and first grade. Larry and Joan spent almost every summer with them for many years.

Einer added to his farm around 1935 when farmland he had been renting from Nels Anthon on the Mapleton bench was purchased to raise peas, grain and hay. Floyd who never married, helped his father out on the farm along with his other brothers and from time to time Floyd would get a job when the farm work had slowed down.

Lavoy was the second son to get married. He married Elva Christensen in Provo, Utah on November 29, 1938. LaVoy and Elva lived with his parents for about two weeks and then moved into the Farmhouse. Lavoy and Elva had 3 girls, Lavern the oldest and twins Lois and Lacy.

In 1939, Rebecca was about to get the church calling that she would have for the rest of her life until she died. In January of 1939 the bishopric of the Spanish Fork Forth ward came to meet with her. They came to call her to be the Primary President of the ward. A Primary President was to oversee the spiritual training of all children from 18 months old all the way to 12 years old. She was still suffering from the effects of Typhoid Fever, which nearly took her life. Her bishop gave her a promise, that if she accepted this calling that she would never miss a Primary meeting because of her health. She never did miss a meeting because of her health. When she was sick it was always in between her meetings.

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     [1] Spanish Fork Forth Ward Records, film #0027315, LDS Family History Library Archives.

     [2] Thelma Christensen, History of Rebecca Christensen, pg. 11.

     [3] John S. McCormick, The Great Depression, www.media.utah.edu/UHE/d/DEPPRESSION%2CGREAT.html.

     [4] William G. Hartley, Trinity Calculations relative Value of $1 in 2000 vs. $1 in given year, Writing Family Histories, Brigham Young University, 2001 pg. 233.

     [5]  Wikipedia.org, “Model T” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Model_T.

     [6] Thelma Christensen, Oral History Interview,  December 28, 2005, In Authors possession., Thelma Christensen, History of Rebecca Christensen, P. 12.

     [7] Thelma Christensen, History of Rebecca Christensen,  P. 12.