JOHNSON HISTORY FAMILY MANUSCRIPTS

OUR PIONEER MOTHER
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CHAPTER II

MARRIAGE

      Neils Christian Johnson of Denmark and I, Ann Willden of England, were married January 9, 1860.
      He was born October 3, 1832. I was not quite fifteen years old when I was married, but that was not unusual, for many girls married at an early age in those pioneer days.
      The president of that branch of the Mormon church was present at the wedding, and my father performed the marriage ceremony, the same ceremony as that used in orthodox churches.
      My brothers tried to celebrate by firing guns, but father soon put a stop to that.
      We rented two rooms in my father's home and went to housekeeping with - nothing - nothing, whatsoever. Mother made us a straw bed and two little pillows by taking feathers from her own feather bed.
      We cooked in pans, borrowed from mother, and did out cooking over a fire in the fireplace. Very little money was in circulation, se men traded work for supplies.
      My husband had always dressed well before we were married, but a wife and a home were an added expense and soon his trousers were looking quite worn. Mother was having some cloth woven, as was another woman in the community, so mother traded three yards of her cloth for three yards of the other woman's cloth, as she wished to make Neils a pair of trousers. She would not make the trousers of her own cloth, for she did not wish father to know about it, as she feared that he would not approve of her helping young married folks too much.

CHANGES

      As the months went on father thought it best that we move into a house of our own, so we bought a lot and built a cellar with one room, constructed a fireplace and moved in. We now had two horses and one saddle, but no wagon. If we went anywhere I rode behind my husband on the horse. The little wild horse would always whirl and twist when I started to mount, but I would manage to get on with my husband's help.
      My husband worked all the time but we could barely live on what he earned, so he and one of my brothers went to Salt lake to find work. When they reached there they pastured their horses, - and - they were stolen. It took two weeks to ride to Salt Lake and then they spent some time hunting for their horses, (which they never found), so it was four weeks before we heard from them. My brother, who remained at home, went up with a horse, and my husband returned, as there was no work at Salt Lake.
      We lived in our cellar home till fall, then went to Salt Lake. We now had two horses and a wagon. In Salt Lake we rented a house, where my husband, brother, and I lived all winter; but there was no work to do, so the men went out and shot rabbits to sell. They also dug up sage brush and sold it as wood to the people in the city.
      When spring came, the men found no more sale for rabbits and sage brush, and as there was no other work to be found, we packed up and started back to Cedar City.
      While we were away father had bought some land at Cove Creek and had written us to come back and help him farm, but we did not get the letter and so passed right by his land, not knowing he was there.
      We reached Fillmore in a terrific snow storm. We found my brother Charles there on his way to Salt Lake to find work. We told him there was no work there, so immediately he started back home. When he arrived at the next stopping place he remembered that there was a long stretch of road where there were no settlements or houses, and he knew that if the snow were deep when we reached there we would not be able to get through. He also knew that we were out of provisions so waited for us and told us where we could find some wheat that father had buried or, "cached," at Cove Creek. This wheat father was saving for his spring planting.

COVE CREEK

      My brother left us and went on home. We traveled slowly to Red Creek, nine miles from Cove Creek. It took us from the early morning till the late evening to make that trip of nine miles, for the snow was so deep we had to walk every step of the way. Near the journey's end, the brother who was with us, had to almost carry me as I was so exhausted.
      because of the deep snow I had to wear a pair of my husband's boots, the weight of which helped to tire me. My husband had to spend all his time driving and looking after the team.
      When we went into the house at Cove Creek we found there were no doors in the house, not glass in the windows, there was, however, a good fireplace and plenty of wood.
      We put blankets over the openings, and built a roaring fire and soon supper was ready. The worn out horses had to dig and paw under the snow for "bunch grass" for their food.
      We could not travel further for the snow had drifted into Wildcat Canyon and blocked the road, only horsemen being able to get through.
      The mail carrier came by, going south, and carried news to Beaver City of our helpless condition. About midnight I was awakened by a great yelling, shouting and shooting. I was terribly frightened for I was sure it was Indians. I awakened the men. They got up to investigate and discovered that it was a number of young men from Beaver City, twenty miles away, who had come with pack animals loaded with provisions for us.
      We sat up the remainder of the night and visited as we sat around the big warm fire. In the morning the young men breakfasted, then started on their journey home.
      Brother John stayed with us a day longer but felt that each day he remained with us he would eat up just that much more of our precious food, so he started out on foot for home, his heart heavy at the thought of leaving us.
      After a time our provisions gave out. Soon we found the "cached" wheat, or we might have starved. The wheat was all we had to live on. At first we ate it boiled, and then my husband decided to make a Danish mill of two flat stones. We ground the wheat and sifted it through my veil, then I made some "salt rising" bread; though it was somewhat gritty, - we did not care as it was far better than the boiled wheat.
      The house was so cold that we built a cellar and made a fireplace in it.
      The mail carrier returned bringing word from father for us to remain at Cove Creek and when the snow had melted to some extent, he and mother would come to us.
      A party of people from Salt Lake on their way to Cedar City stopped at Cove Creek. When they heard of our flour mill they had to see it. When they went away they left us all the provisions that they could spare. When they reached Cedar, one woman went to mother and told her how we were situated, but exaggerated conditions, so father and mother came to us sooner than we expected. Father brought doors and windows for the house, and soon they had a very comfortable home, while we were snug and cozy in our cellar. And into this little cellar home, came our first child, a darling daughter, Hanna Jane Johnson, April 29, 1861.
      My brother Ellott and his family moved into Cove Creek and built a house of two rooms. Ellott's wife was ill with a severe attack of rheumatism at the time of Hanna's birth so mother had her hands full, hardly being able to give either of us all the care that we needed.
      My small sister was permitted to see the baby a few hours after its birth. She came in with a rush and went out with a rush, slamming the door as she left, but not closing it, so it flew open and the wind stormed in with a swirl and blew the live coals from the fireplace right onto the bed, and had it not been for a big buffalo robe on the bed, the covers would have caught fire. I called, but no one heard me, so I got quickly out of bed, closed the door, brushed off the sparks and returned.
      The baby was born on Monday and before the end of the week I was up, baking my own bread and doing the washing.

THE OLD FORT

      My parents remained at Cove Creek, while we moved to the old fort. Here we found many vacant houses of which we chose a two-story one in which we used only two rooms. My husband worked at anything that he could find, and I did the washing for the neighbors at fifty cents a day. I received my pay in pork at twenty-five cents a pound, and eggs at twenty-five cents a dozen.
      While here we made in large quantities, a kind of unfermented beer from barley and wheat which we traded for more barley and wheat. We had no cow for milk and nothing to eat but dry bread and this beer. I weaned the baby, and had to feed her on bread and boiled beer. I ate just the bread as I did not like the beer, but it was not long before we had a cow. While we were in this season of "hard times" I wore no shoes, and our clothes were old and worn, patched and repatched, darned and redarned.
      Another dear baby girl was born to us, Mary Eleanor Johnson, November 30, 1862, at Cedar City, Utah.
      I had no help, excepting a woman who came in to do the washing. The baby came on Sunday and the woman came to wash on Wednesday and I was able to be up and help her.
      During the winter, the two babies had the whooping cough. Mother came down from Cove Creek and took Hanna back with her. My husband was an expert in "horse breaking," so he "broke" two horses, then drove them to mother's to get Hanna.
      One of the horses was quite wild and when we were going down a canyon, the breast strap broke and the tongue of the wagon fell; the horses became frightened and tried to run away. My husband stopped them by making them run up a hill. I was out of the wagon as soon as my husband. I spread a blanket on the snow and put the baby on it and ran to help with the team. We soon mended the harness and quieted the horses and were on our way again, arriving at Cove Creek the next day. We found all well. Hanna, fat and rosy, did not know me after six weeks absence, and this hurt my mother-heart, - oh, so much. I took her in my arms and held her a little while, then she laid her dear little head against me and would not leave me.
      On our return journey we stopped overnight with friends but the whole household was kept awake nearly all night from Eleanor's crying with a severe earache.

JOHNSON FORT

      When we were within six miles of home, we met a man who hired my husband to "break" horses for him.
      My husband did the work of breaking horses and I did the washing for the man's family. My work paid the board for myself and the two children. These people had drygoods to sell. I would wash a day and a half for a spool of thread, equal to seventy cents; everything else was just as expensive, but I managed to get clothes for my babies. My husband took stock, cows and horses, for his pay.
      The coyotes were so numerous and hungry that they would run the colts away from their mother down into the swamps where they could easily catch them, then kill them and feast.
      I went down to the swamp early one morning to learn the meaning of a great commotion. I found that some nine mountain lions and coyotes had killed a colt and they were all stirring around and feasting. I hurried away to the house and safety.
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      A neighbor, for whom I did washing, said to me, "I knew you would never finish spinning that nine pounds of yarn if you started it on Friday." She said this when she found that another little daughter had come to our home on Sunday. Maria Christina Johnson, January 24, 1864, in Johnson Fort, Cedar City, Utah.
      Later I did finish spinning the yarn, thus belying the woman's superstition.