Harold R Christensen

My grandfather's ancestors come from Denmark. Many of them left their homes and followed the saints to a place where they could worship freely as they wished. They followed the advice of the living prophet and traveled with the Mormon pioneers to Utah. They settled in small towns in southern Utah where my grandfather was born. He entered this life on May 31, 1907 being born in Moroni, Utah.

My Life History

By Harold R. Christensen

I am starting to write the things that are vivid in my memory in the events and experiences of the short span of years that the Lord has permitted me to experience, in what we know is our second estate in his plan of life in the glorious and generous way he has planned for his Spirit Children - his plan to offer to all immortality and Eternal life to those who use their free agency wisely. Immortality to everyone - Eternal life and exaltation to those who choose to keep all of his commandments. This, we identify as the Gospel of Jesus Christ, restored again in our day as it was in the primitive Church with living prophets to lead and show us the way by revelation.

I know by this great truth of revelation that these things are true and that I had a part in accepting this plan in our first estate - raising my voice in approval and shouting for joy for the great privilege of coming to earth to recieve a mortal body amd to work out my own salvation. I am ever grateful that I was privileged to be one of our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother's spirit children. I also know that they loved me and all my brothers and sisters here on earth more than we can ever appreciate. Someday we can understand this great love. We can only compare it to the love we have for the children he permits to bring into the world to nurture and teach to walk uprightly in the great plan in his kingdom on earth.

As I begin to write this history I may forget to give credence and credit to those who have aided me and encouraged me to live my life in accordance to the commandents which are contained in the gospel and the covenants we have made with Him.

As I write I am 72 years of age and can only pray that the facts and events in my life are as correct as possible.

My blessed parents were Heber Christensen and Minnie Christensen. Father, having been born 7 December, 1878 in Moroni, Utah. Mother was born 16 October, 1879 in Freedom, Utah.

My paternal Grandparents were Niels Christensen born 25 April, 1832. My Grandmother Chritiana born 10 July, 1833. To them twelve children were born. (1) Caroline, (2) Andrew, (3) Christiana, (4) Niels, (5) Jeppe Eli, (6) Juliana, (7) Hyrum, (8) Amelia Christiana, (9) Joseph, (10) Emily, (11) Melvina, (12) Heber.

They had seven children. (1) Malinda, (2) Erastus, (3) Soren Walter, (4) Peter D., (twin), (5) Minnie, (twin), (6) Anthony, (7), Marie Bolettie.

My Father and Mother were the parents of ten children. The first born was Heber Darrel, born 27 July, 1899, He married Ella Leonora Nelson, 20 August, 1919. They had four daughters born unto them. They were Rachael, Lois, Arlene and Berniece.

Leora May was the second of Father and Mother's family. Born 15 May, 1901. She married Angus John Izzat 18th June, 1921.

Grant Odell was born 6 October, 1905. He married Violet Johnson 20th July, 1926. They had five children, Beverly, Jeannine, Don and Lynn.

Harold Ray Christensen, born 31 May, 1907. He married Ruth Zina Anderson 7th of November, 1928. They had five children, Carol, Harold Ray Jr., Heber Glade, Ronald A. and Newell E.

Louise, born 10th November, 1909. She married Neldon Rees Jacobsen 6 March, 1929. They had four children, Sharon, Gayle, David and Brent.

Edith, born 19 May 1911. She married Robert Hyrum Johnson, 6 July, 1932. They had two sons, Robert and Brian.

Lucille Christiana, born 10 July, 1913. She never married.

Ethel Minnie, born July 7, 1916. She married Donald Rosenlund 3 April, 1937. They had three children, Donna, Thomas and Paul.

Ruth, born June 6, 1920. She married Rex Lee Vance Jan 13, 1938. They had two sons, Richard and Gary.

Paul Elliott, born April 10, 1923. He married Esther Clark March 3, 1943. They had three children, Elliott, Craig and Colleene.

Father and Mother were married January 22, 1897. The two eldest children Darrel and Leora were three and one when Father recieved one of those magic and important letters from Box B, calling him on a mission to New Zealand.

Having inherited the old home when Father was born and with two young children, they were off course just getting established as a family and had not yet having accumulated much in worldly goods. Having some land and livestock which kept her family provided for, sometimes very meager, mother took care of her family until he returned 30 months later.

When he opened the letter containing his call, Mother did not wonder if they could afford the expenses and the great responsibilities that would be hers. She merely said to Father in a great question, showing her faith and acqiescence to the call,"When do you leave? We had better be ready by that time."

The times were difficult and trying to them while Father was away and Mother, brothers and sister-in-law helped through these years.

When Father returned he began the farm again. He learned how to be a barber and operated a confectionery store in connection with it, and as their children came they managed very well to meet the challenge of such a large family.

I remember very vividly many responsible church positions. Mother, also being a willing and qualified teacher was in many of the women's auxilliaries.

I remember very vividly when I was four and five years of age. I especially remember not being able to reach the door knob when I wanted to go outside and play. There was always a need for all of us as children to learn our duties in doing the chores and learning to work without complaint as your duties increased.

Mother, having six daughters, once remarked,"One girl is worth two girls, two girls is half a girl, and three girls is no girl at all."

I remember the day I started to school in 1913 at the old school house on the hill just north of the old Eliason home.

This was an exciting time for a large class of boys and girls of this age. A Methodist school was also in operation on the Eliason property and some of the children attended that school.

I am grateful for the teachers I had in the first five years of school. Phonics was the method taught to learn to read and spelling and the alphabet was taught the way it should be compared to todays methods.

I did learn to read and spell and took part in many spelling contests and stood with the best spellers in my classes.

During my sixth and seventh year in school the high school was being constructed on top of the hill where the city park used to be.

When the new school was finished and ready to accomodate the seventh and also the four high school grades, we moved to the new school in 1921. The high school had taken up most of the rooms in the old school and it was exciting to move into a new building here.

It was quite a change to move to a new high school with so many new facilities. We had a stage and all the necesarry faculty to make it an interesting new addition where we could stage musicals and dramatic presentations. It also necessitated the need for new teachers to help the students in self expression in drama and orchestra as well as choral presentations and orchestra instruction. The campus was also larger and it was soon equipped with athletic and outdoor games such as baseball, track and field for body building. By the way, the new school also had a gymnasium large enough for basketball, volleyball and could accomodate quite a large assembly for the community.

It as during my first year that my mother gave me my first suit with long pants. I had, up to this time wore short knee pants and I thought I was really somebody.

During the next few years, or until the ninth grade, it was a period of many new teachers. Ray Anderson was our music teacher, James Prestwich was our drama and english teacher, Albert B. Allen instructed us in science and laboratory instruction. Mr. Powell and Mr. Parter were instructors in business. Howard Starr taught us writing and business.

Our math teachers were Othoniel Kellett amd Leander Olson. Another english teacher was Connie Nelson, later to become Mrs. Leroy B. Morley.

I was quite timid in the first part of high school, but some of my teachers soon discouraged this failing by giving me an opportunity to overcome this by giving me the opportunity to participate in dramatic at, particularly Mr. Prestwich and Ray Anderson. Mr. Prestich gave me a part in the play "The Big Idea", a part of a middle aged business man. I made up my mind to put all I could into the part and consequently recieved many more assignments in drama.

I joined the school orchestra and played trombone and during my senior year, Mr. Anderson told me he would not give me a singing part in the opera production, but he wanted me to play trombone in the orchestra. This was a great experience because during this year I also played in the orchestra at the Fountain Green Elementray School in their operetta production under the direction of Mr. Millett.

At this point of my life I must pause and go back a little-yes, I must not forget the example that was set for me and my brothers and sisters by our parents. Many of my friends and associates, both boys and girls, were an influence for good. I learned to pray by my mother's knee and have always had faith that my prayers would be answered. My testimony had formation at this early age and it was no problem for me to attend to the responsibilities that came to me in church activities. Some of the greatest teachers and examples of leadership were working in the one ward in which we lived. We belonged to the North Sanpete Stake at this time. Orlando Bradley was our Bishop, with James Larsen and Jabez Faux as his counselors. They were faithful men and in the ward.

Bishop Orlando Bradley was released about this time and Ephraim Nelson was sustained as Bishop, with Leroy B. Morley and N.P. Sorensen as his first and second assistants. Brother Faux gave me the responsibility of keeping records and especially attendance records as secretary of the Sunday School. I enjoyed this very much and I was also asked to be an assistant teacher.

About this time in my life I became interested in mingling with and becoming aquainted with the girls in our ward and also in the school.

I was always interested in M.I.A. and I liked to participate in one, two, and sometimes they had three act plays. Also in musical and dramatic productions. They did get good support from all those of mutual age. We produced several musical and dramatic productions. I had the privilege of singing lead parts in them.

When Jabez Faux was released as Superintendent of Sunday School, Leroy B. Morley was sustained and I became one of his assistants.

In March of 1923 in February a group of my age of boys sponsored a party after Mutual at the home of Urwin Morley. His sister Zelda, I suppose, was responsible for it, as she had some of her girlfriends there.

We had a nice time playing games and having refreshments and when it was time to go home, I singled our Ruth, my wife. Her name was Ruth Anderson at the time and of all the girls, she was the one that appealed to me. She was a most outstanding, beautiful and intelligent girl. I had noticed her for sometime and having known several girls and dating them at this time, I saw her as a clean, beautiful young girl. She was two years younger than me and she was the one I wanted to get better acquainted with. Well, I asked her to let me take her home. She lived only a few blocks away. She said she would, so we walked slowly home. This night I asked her to be my partner at the Junior Prom which was to be the next week or so in March. She said she would be my partner. This was the beginning of our romance and we were soon taken up in all of the school dances and activities, both having great times in school and in the ward programs.

We were both interested in church activities and always had to attend them.

I remember having reserved seats for us at the Old Kozy Theater every month when a traveling theater group would produce dramatic productions. We also went to many picture shows.

I learned to love her very much and she was the only one that I had become aquainted with that would make me happy as my future wife.

She would have two more years of high school and she wanted to graduate and I wanted her to. We both graduated from Seminary and have both had many responsibilites in the Church.

On Christmas Eve of 1927 I gave her a diamond ring and soon after, toward spring and early summer we set our wedding day for November 7, 1928.

She was very loyal to her parents. We could have gotten married sooner, but at that time her father needed all the help he could get in the beet fields. My wife and her brothers had done all the beet thinning and weeding and harvesting for many years. Ruth wanted to see her father through the year's work. So we waited until November to be married.

The spring before we were married we made a trip to Salt Lake to visit with my brother Grant and his wife Violet. Vernile Jensen had some business to attend to in Salt Lake and I asked him to let us ride in with him.

We had a good visit with them for a couple of days and when it was time to come home he sold me a 1922 Model T Car.

We had a hilarious time driving home. At the point of the mountain my hat blew off and we stopped and tried to find it. It must have been blown off the hill.

This is the car we used to go to Manti to get married the next November. It was a cold blustery day and we had to put on the side curtains. There wasn't a heater in the cars then.

My Father and Mother went with us to the Temple and despite the weather it was a day we will cherish and always remember as the day we were sealed for time and all eternity.

We stayed at my parents home on our wedding night and the very next day began our life together in my wife's Aunt Serena Ostler's home. They had taken their family to Tooele to work and make a living. John and Ivy Anderson, my Brother and Sister-in-law, invited us to a dinner in our honor at Ivy's Father's home that evening. Our first night was at my parents home, and the very next day, began our life together in my Ruth's Aunt Serena Ostler's home, which we had rented and made arrangements for. The Ostler's had taken their family to Tooele where the family had moved to provide for their children.

It was in this home that our daughter, Carol was born on August 8, 1929. As we look back on the experience at the firth of our first child, we wonder if we were wise in having Aunt Art, as she was known in the Moroni area, to help with her birth. She had been a midwife to many mother's and for many years had been successful in bringing many babies into the world. She gave Ruth very good care, and we were thankful for her.

We lived in the Ostler home for over a year and were very happy in this home. At this time of our lives together, it was very difficult to provide for our needs as it was the beginning of the great depression, and in 1929 work was very hard to find.

We rented several homes in Moroni during the next few years, including the Otis Bradley home, and the Laura Tidwell home. Carol learned to walk in this home.

During this time I had been sustained as Superintendent of the Ward Sunday School and was very busy getting this organization staffed and operating.

While living in the Ostler home, I was employed by George W. Tucker, operating a threshing machine in and around Moroni and vicinity. Here we got well aquainted with his three counselors. George W. Tucker Jr. (we called him Webster or Web for short. Also Clarence and Ernest.)

The following year they gave me an outfit of my own to operate and we moved to Otis Bradley's two room home. I operated this for two years or more and had several local men on my crew.

We than moved to the Helena Christensen (Dane) home and lived there for a year. Times were very difficult during these years (1931-32) We had to find work in the beet fields, the grain fields and whatever work we could find.

My wife worked in the Primary and the M.I.A. during this time and I continued on as Sunday School Superintendent.

We than moved into the East ward temporarily, in the home of Laura Tidwell. My brother-in-law Jacob and his wife lived in part of the house with us. It was here that their daughter was born.

This was in the early years of the great depression of the early thirties. I worked many times for farmers for $1.00 a day.

We lived in the Tidwell home one summer and then moved into part of the home of Peter Olson.

This was a move that was welcome. We had a large kitchen and one bedroom and one bathroom.

My experience in the beet fields paid off at this time. Elmo and John Irons contracted fifty acres of beets to me for harvesting for fifty cents a ton. I hired three other men to help me and for the next three or four years I contracted to harvest their sugar beets. I also helped Lars Johnson and his son Rulon and Merril harvest their beets.

It was in the Peter Olson home that our oldest son was born November 29, 1931. We lived in the Olson home for two years.

During this time I was ordained a Seventy by Rulon S. Wells and shortly after was ordained a High Priest and set apart as Second Counselor to Bishop Ephraim Nelson. This was a humbling experience in my life as well as for my wife. She was called into the Relief Society to serve for a few years.

It was during this time that I continued to work in the beet fields for the Irons brothers.

In 1934 we moved into the Edgar Frandsen home. Our son Glade was born in this home on December 13, 1934. The summer before he was born my father and I worked for Whiting Construction Company of Springville, Utah, constructing the new slate road from Moroni to Pigeon Hollow. This was a big blessing to us and we were able to manage very well in providing for our family.

We were thankful for all these blessings amd with our responsibilities in the church we were very happy.

In the fall of 1934 Dr. H.E. Dice was elected Mayor of Moroni and I applied for the position of Superintendent of Water Works for Moroni. Mayor Dice appointed me for a second two years. My salary was $40 a month for the first few months and for the remaining time was $30 a month. This work was full time and the culinary water distribution systen was wood pipe-most of pipe ten-eight size and four inches in diameter, reinforced with steel wire, wrapped spirally around the pipe. The pipe frequently leaked and had to be repaired by driving wood plugs into the cracks and holes. This was my responsibility to keep them repaired. The water for the system had to be pumped to a head house above town by a heavy duty pump from the spring on Julius Christensen's property on the West of the town. I also had to keep this in operation night and day and collect the water bills of the homes connected to the system. This was Moroni City's only source of revenue.

In the meantime we had moved to the Alvin Sorenson home for two years, then Hyrum Erickson bought the home and we moved to my father's home for a short time. My sister and her husband Rex also lived with us in this home. We lived there for a short time when we again moved into the Otis Bradley home.

All this time I was still in the bishopric and this calling was a blessing to our family. Working with the Aaronic Priesthood boys and the other duties of the Bishopric gave us an opportunity to be close to our own family and set the proper example to our boys and our daughter.

We then moved into the Jabez Faux Sr. home. My wife did the washing for brother Jabez Faux and his wife for part payment of the rent.

We lived here for the next eight years and here is where Ronald and Newell were born. Dr. Dice was our doctor for Ronald and Dr. Dodson for Newell. Alida Christensen was the mid-wife for both of them. While here I went to work for the Moroni Feed Company and for two years ran the machinery and mixed the feed for the turkey industry.

I then went to work for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad . The section of track we maintained was from Ephraim to Nephi. I worked for several foremen, including Andrew Jensen, Hyrum Erickson, Fred Simmons and Lionel Jensen. In 1949 the branch line from Ephraim to Nephi was abandoned by the Rio Grande and I was transferred to Fairview and worked there for two years, until November 1951.

At this time I had major surgery on my stomach after which I retired from the railroad and received an appointment by the North Sanpete School District as a custodian at the Moroni High School.

My Grandpa suffered from poor health most of his life. He has had several operations on different parts of his body. He always worried about providing for his family and when he could, worked very hard. He taught his children to work and they have all been successful. Grandpa always grew a garden. The family lived next to the railroad tracks in Moroni. Many times hobos would get off the train and stop to see if they could get a bite of food. Grandma and Grandpa would share their food with these strangers and then send them on their way. The family never had very much, but they never went without the basic needs.

Harold's mother Minnie Christensen

Harold's father Heber Christensen

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