Wednesday, July 13, 2011

JENSEN PETER HALVOR tape

HISTORY
of
PETER HALVOR JENSEN
Dad talked into a tape.
These are his own words.

Peter Halvor Jensen:  Born January 30, 1884 at Goshen, Utah, the oldest child of Nels Herbert Jensen (born Sallerup, Malmohus, Sweden) and Karen Maria Halvorsen Jensen (born Sindal, Hjorring,

Denmark).
  Nels Herbert Jensen and Karen Maria Halvorsen were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah.  They made their home in Goshen, Utah, where six boys were born to them.  They were:  Peter Halvor, Hans Frederick, John Henry, Alvin Joseph Herbert, Levi Bennett, and Sterling Woodruff.

As was the custom in those early days, the boy was given a team of oxen and Father came to Goshen driving those oxen over the sand hills.  The team was given to him by his foster father.  He and some of his neighbors built his home out of white adobe.  My grandparents lived on a farm between Palmyra and Spanish Fork.  The schooling I had was all in Goshen.  I went through the seventh grade.

My Mother and Father weren't very well off.  They had to work very hard for a living.  They had a family of six boys.  Dad had to work at the mines in Eureka.  He worked there in the winter time and I remember him going over to Payson.

The first grain I remember being cut on my Dad's place was cut by hand with a cradle, an implement similar to a scythe.  Each whack made a bundle and then it was bound by hand.  He and my cousin (who was older than I) bought a reaper.  Then they bought a deering binder with a bundle carrier attached to it.  I remember two women doing the gleaning in the field.

I remember the first washing machine that my Mother had. It was an old "Western" washing machine.  It turned over back and forth, just over and over and over - back and forth.  He bought one and brought it home as a surprise for Mother.  She was quite surprised about that.  It was new and it was the first washing machine that she ever owned.  She had washed on the washboard all the time before that.  I don't remember what she used for soap.  I don't remember anything about the soap. 

I remember him later going to Payson and bringing home a sewing machine for her.  It was a new Singer he bought.  He brought it home when she was in bed and when she got up the next morning she found that sewing machine there in the room.  She was very surprised and it came in mighty handy.


And I being the oldest, of course, I spent a lot of time with Mother, a lot of time in the house.  I used to scrub the floor, wash dishes and bake the bread and everything for her and I remember thinking, "Would I ever get that floor scrubbed?" which was made of nothing but hard pine wood rough boards.  Later when I went down to the old home, I was amazed at its size.  The rooms were small.  I don't know what size they were - I never measured them - but I think the large room was about 14 x 14 feet.

I was 15 when I worked on the railroad in Utah.  I worked on the section gang.  Doing just ordinary work the same as they do now, "joint ahead and center back while Jerry goes oil the car."  That's what we did.  The boss of the train crew said if you wanted to get a car of ties unloaded in a hurry, he would get Bill Davis' kid gang to unload them.  Bill Davis was the foreman; he was an older man, about 40 years old.


When we decided to come up here.  Dad had a friend from Santaquin help him load the machinery and household goods in the railroad car from the two wagons.  They held all of our supplies and machinery.  Dad and the other man drove the front wagon and I drove the second wagon.  When I got to the center of town, I stopped the team and shot my six-gun off into the air several times.  I was leaving the old town and wanted to give them something to remember me by.

Mother and Dad came to Idaho to visit Mrs. Forbush.,  That was Aunt Christine, Dad's sister; she lived there.  They came to Idaho in 1900, in September I think, on the train.  I remember them bringing back some grain, some apples and stuff and showing the people around there what they raised in Idaho.  Ben Davis Apples, they were.  They stayed in Idaho about a month before they went back home.
It was about a month later they sold out the entire farm except a little machinery he had and his horses.  I don't remember anything he had but a hand plow and a binder and a few things like that.  We had enough machinery to fill one end of the car and the horses in the other end.  We brought up a team - a grey and a black - about 1200 or 1400 pounds a piece.  Old Billy was the black one and Frank was the grey one.  I had a mare and a colt of my own and they brought the colt up here, too, and also two cows.  My job was the milk the cows.  First Mother came up with the rest of the family in the passenger car -

that was at the time we brought up the machinery and the horses  When Mother came up to Idaho, she had $2500 that Dad had sold the farm for.  She had it sewed in her clothing.  She brought it sewed in that way to protect against robbers.  I and Dad followed and came up on the freight train.  They made a hole in the machinery big enough for me to crawl back in and I would crawl back in there when the train would stop.  When the train would stop, Dad would say, "Get in your hole, boy!"  I was a hobo boy, I hoboed my way to Idaho.  I never was caught.  If I had been, I don't now what would happen, but I was never caught.

The first night in Idaho, we stopped at Idaho Falls.  We stopped there overnight and I remember there was about 6 inches of snow on the ground and I remember there was a north wind a-blowing and I never felt the air cold like that.  It was colder than hell!  The next morning we shipped to Rigby, that being $10 cheaper than to unload in Idaho Falls, that was the reason for shipping to Rigby.  The next morning we started to unload the machinery and livestock.  After getting unloaded at Rigby, we took our belongings down to Aunt Christine's.  We all went down to Aunt Christine in Iona - where the KIFI TV Station is located.  It was on her farm and that was where we hauled everything.  The place that the folks kinda bargained for, they were unable to get at that time.  The clothing that we had was very meager.  I never owned an overshoe nor a coat until I came to Idaho.  I remember down in Utah when I was 15 years old, I worked on the station gang on the railroad all summer long and I saved up $40.00 which I brought to Idaho.  I gave the folks $20.00 and I used $20.00 of it to buy me my first fur overcoat and overshoes in Idaho.

After we got over there, Stan Forbush, my cousin, and I hauled wood from under Table Rock up by Heise across the river on the south side of the river.  We hauled wood from there.  I don't know how many loads we hauled, it was several loads.  We burned the wood to get warm.  Nobody had coal much in those days at all.  We hauled the wood over there and we stayed there for a month or two - I don't remember how long.  We stayed together - the whole family stayed there.  Aunt Christine was living in Idaho Falls.  After staying there a month or two, we went down to the palce that Dad wanted and Mother was set on, too.  Mother really wanted the place that they got and they bought it from W.D. Huffacker.  It was 86 acres and cost $2500.  That was what Mother had sewed up in her clothing.  It was in gold dollars.


A short time after that, we moved, I think in December sometime.  I went to work feeding cattle for Ben Davis.  He was up from Wales.  We fed on the place that Kenneth Olsen, my son-in-law, now owns.  I don't remember how many cattle, only that there were a bunch of them.  We used an old bobsled with horses.  I fed cattle there until spring and when spring came, I gave Dad the money I got from feeding.  I don't know what I earned, it seemed to me like it was $15 a month, but I am not sure as to that.  It wasn't very much.  Then I went on my own.

How I came to leave home was that Mother left me and Hans and Sterling who was a baby, while they went to a meeting.  It was a regular Sunday meeting.  They had a meeting those days at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.  Hans decided he would fry an egg for himself.  Mother told me if Sterling got to crying to give him an egg, and so I thought I would fry an egg for Sterling at the same time.  I don't remember how many eggs we fried.  All I remember was that Hans got mad and he grabbed the frying pan and hit me over the shoulder with it and when the folks came home I was gone and I have never been home to live since.  I was 16 years old at that time.

I started to make my own living when I was 15.  I went up to L.M. Christensen's - he was running sheep on the place that Les Gardiner's are on now.  I worked there all summer for $25 a month until about October sometime.  Then Roy Strong offered me $30 to come and work for him.  String lived right across in the old Strong home that is still there yet.
I worked for Roy and he offered me a 3-cornered piece of ground across the track.  He offered me a 3-cornered piece of ground if I would come and work for him and I told him I didn't want that little piece of ground.  That is the piece Miskin Scraper Works is on.  That fall I went to work for Mont Huffacker feeding sheep.  He lived in Idaho Falls but he had his farm up in Milo.  I remember the old circle shed that we had to get fixed before we lambed there.  I worked for Mont during the winter.  In the summer, I run Will Ritchie's place down where Alvin Ritchie lives now.  I worked for Monte as near as I remember in the winter time until 1904.

In 1904, I got married.  I don't remember many parties.  We made up groups and went to homemade parties.  I don't remember the first time I met Alice.  Probably it was in church or something like that.  I was about 17 or 18 when I met her.  But I met her before that because Dad bought hay from the bishop.  A.B. Simmons was the first bishop of Ucon.  He was well liked.  Dad bought hay from him to haul over to feed his horses until they could get hay down here.  The old churchhouse I used to go to church in was where Grand Andrus house stands today.  It was made of logs and I have a picture of the old church today.  Not many people went to church because there weren't very many people here at that time.


I remember being there to church one night to a young men's meeting when I first got here.  Chris Christensen was Mutual President.  He is one of the first men I worked for in Idaho.  He was President of the Mutual and one of the four people that  I knew in Idaho.  Mable and Cassie Woolf and John and Sheldon Cutler were all I knew.  The President called me up to dismiss the meeting.  I didn't know what to do but I went up and said something and they all went out and I always said "I guess I did a good job because everybody went home!"  That was the first time I had ever offered a prayer in public.  It was a regular mutual meeting and in those days it was held on Tuesday night.  We went there, we enjoyed one another because there were so few people around that we ever got a chance to see. We enjoyed being together.  We made our own fun and we had many a good time in different homes.  We went from place to place with bob-sleighs and team, sometimes in the buggy, or horseback.  Yes, even on foot.  Usually we went on foot in the summertime.  I never did ride Dad's horses in Idaho at any time.  The colt I brought up here grew and got to be big enough to drive on the buggy and I broke her to drive.  She was the first one I had.

In 1903, the first sugar factory in Idaho was built.  High Kirkham and I worked there the first winter.  In 1903, High Kirkham, myself, Mable Woolf and my wife Alice used to chase together.  Mable Woolf was Floyd and Harvey Woolf's sister.  We grouped together old and young and went to these house parties in the wintertime and that is the way we spent our time.  We had all kinds of games that everybody would think of - they would think of a game and we would play it.

1904 was when I got married.  I was 20 and Alice was almost 17 when we got married.  I had a buggy and a horse, alot of ambition and fortitude and that is what we got married on.  I remember I had $80 left after our marriage ceremony and we returned back to Idaho.  We were married in the Logan Temple.  We went down there on the train alone.  We went down there and I was baptized and she was baptized the second time because she had forgotten or the bishop had neglected to send with her her baptismal records, mine had been burned up.  I was baptized as a kid in Warm Springs at Goshen, Utah but all the church records were burned up.  We needed our baptismal information then, in addition to the temple recommends.  We were married in the Logan Temple in the afternoon.  Then we came up home and stayed at A.B.'s (Simmons') maybe a week or such matter and then we moved down to Eli Mikesell's on a place we had rented.  I traded around and I'd gotten hold of an old team that Gib Wright used to drive on his dray and haul lumber around with.  I bought that old team.  The place we rented from Eli Mikesell was down the street straight west of the Will Paul place.  There was a big grove of trees down there.  We lived in 2 rooms in the back of their house.  This was in the wintertime.


Then I got a chance to work for John Woolf and I used the team.  I got my dinner and $25 a month for myself and my team working for John Woolf.  When spring came, I rented 80 acres of Will Paul's down straight over south of where we lived.  It was just 1/2 mile down from the highway to the place.  I rented that 80 from him that summer - that was in 1905.  When fall came, I and my Uncle Andrew who lived east of us 1/2 mile on the old Uncle Henry place, went up in the hills about 35 miles east of Iona and haled down the lumber to build my first home with.  They had a sawmill at that time, but I don't remember where it was, but there was a sawmill at that time, but I don't remember where it was, but there was a sawmill up there somewhere.

My first home was built a quarter mile south - you know where the home is now.  It was about a quarter of a mile east of the present home only it was south.  We built over the creek bed.  Over there close to Thompson's - in the corner.  It was close to a canal of water.  I built that house there, I and Uncle Andrew (Andrew Halverson), he helped me build it, and it was built of 1 x 12 batton by 1 x 4 green lumber.  We hauled it from the sawmill.  We tacked it up there. We had one room 10 x 12 and one room 12 x 12.  The rooms were covered on the inside with factory.  We white-washed the factory and it made a very nice-looking home but the mice would play hide-and-go-seek with us and the wind would blow through the cracks.  Mother never did like mice and I don't blame her - I never did like them either  This house was built on the place that I bought a year before I was married.  I bought 40 acres when I was 19.  40 acres down there of sagebrush - I bought that from Will Yancey.  I bought 5 acres of land from Will Ritchie that let me over to the road directly west of Thompson's.  Ren and Brig Thompson's parents were living there.  They had homesteaded the place just east of there.  They had the place south and I bought that 5 acres to let me onto a road because there was no road running down to my place.


I hauled wood winter after winter, several winters off the lavas.  I and a group went to the lavas and hauled wood and sold it that we might have something to eat on the table.  We sold it to buy food to eat and clothes to wear.  I remember one time in particular.  Shortly after we had moved the house over and built on, that during the night a rain came up and it rained quite heavily.  We had a bottle of cherries - it was all the fruit - all we had to eat in fact - and we were sitting around the table and the plaster fell from the top and lit right down in that bottle of fruit and scattered it all over.  So that was all the fruit we had.


 I don't remember how long we stayed there, but I remember when we hooked the four teams on the house to pull it.  We chained on some logs over west of Thompson's house.  Then when we traded that piece back to Will Ritchie, we put logs under it to move the house back.  And I remember when we pulled it back.  We took the dishes out and everything that we figured would break and tipped the cupboard on its back, laid it on the floor and then we hooked the 4 teams up.  This was the first time we had done that.  We hooked the horses on the outfit and pulled it over in the extreme northeast corner where the old cistern was.  I bought that 40 acres west of me.  Fred Jones owned the 40 that I bought from Will Ritchie.  Fred never did pay Will and I got it from Will and I traded Will that 5 acres back that I got for a right of way.  I traded that back to Will on the 40 that I bought from him.  That gave me 80 acres.  We hooked the horses on the house and pulled it 1/2 mile over on the northeast corner of that 40 but before that was done, I had met with the County Commissioners and got a bunch of fellows to help and we got that road opened up, that 2 miles opened from the highway straight down to my place.  That was the reason I moved back on my 40 where I moved the house.  I moved twice.

We had one or two children then.  We had Mina anyhow, because Mina was born when I first built the house.  Mina was born in the first home.  Mary was born in the Will Paul place.  Well, I bought that 80 down there.  Will tried to help his brother-in-law out.  But they took advantage of poor old will and that is how I got the extra 40.  Then we took and moved Will Ritchie's house which was built of logs.  We moved it up and we had a 3-room house on that 80 for a while.  We lived there quite a while and when I got money enough ahead, we built the house down below that I still have.  I don't know what year I built it but Alta was about a year old.


We built a cistern at the old house which held water enough to last pretty near all winter.  I would take the kids to school with the team and sleigh and take barrels and bring home water for the stock.  The old cistern was 10 or 12  feet across.  We had an old pump there and we would store water there in the summer for winter use.  It would never freeze.  I built it of concrete all the way up and I filtered the water through a box filled with gravel and dirt to keep trash out so it was pure, clear water going through to the cistern.

I planted the trees and everything down there.  I bought that farm when it was sagebrush.  I got it and I scraped it, I diked it and I got the place cleared.  Various ones helped us rail it.  I put 4 horses on a rail and that was about 12 feet in length.  We'd put a pole on each end of the rail then we would put branches across that we stood on.  It took 2 men each driving a team to rail the sagebrush.  I railed that 160 acres down there and diked it all.  After the railing, that's when the work starts.  I was railing in the daytime and my wife and I would burn the brush at night and then we'd come in and she'd pick the woodticks off because it seemed like they took a fancy to her system.  Then she would pick the woodticks off me.  We never had any wiener roasts or anything like that.  We didn't know what a wiener was then.  We were mighty lucky to have bread and "with-its".  I remember eating bread spread with grease and sugar sprinkled on it - and it was mighty good when you were hungry.  Sometime we had some meat, sometimes we had some bread, we had bread, meat and mush, stuff like that.  Fruit was a main part of our meals.

I and Alma Jensen, my cousin, bought that 80 from Will Ritchie.  I took the north 40 and he took the south 40 making me the 120 acres in a square that I have at the present time.  And on that I have done pretty near all the work with a sip and one of those fresno scrapers and it was "Walk, you sucker, walk!"  I got a sulky plow one that I rode.  I had a hand plow the first one and after that I got a sulky.  We raised wheat, oats, and hay a while and then I got started in spuds.  I have been growing spuds for I don't know how many years.  For 50 years down there, I guess.


I had one of those old shaker sorters.  I used to throw the potatoes up and shake them down.  We didn't have the inspections and things you have now.  I had an old potato digger that had an old Model-T motor on top and it would drive the digger.  I had that type put on later.  That was my second or third that I had that engine mounted on top and that was to shake the dirt out of the spuds a little better.  The old ones didn't run fast enough.

I remember the first tractor I had down there was a Fordson.  That was the first  tractor I remember having down there.

The horse I brought from Utah I traded off, I guess.  I was a pretty good horse trader.  I used to come home with a new horse pretty near every night when I was hauling beets for the sugar factory.  We used a hay rack with sides on and when we unloaded, the railroad cars were about so high as this house and as we unloaded the beets, we had to throw them way up over into the railroats
d cars.  I think the best outfit I ever had was that pair of sorrels and greys.  I think all in all, that was the best outfit I ever had.  That was old June and Dais and the greys.

We built the new home and moved into it.  In those days, it was quite an elaborate home.  But it was built on the installment plan.  We built on that so as to give us plenty of room.  We had so many kids, we didn't know what to do with them.  We built so we had the room.  We had the upstairs which wasn't finished and the bathroom wasn't finished.  But we had the room there.  And I know we used to have an old rubber bathtub that we packed out and we had the water in but it was awkward to pack.  We used to have an old round tub, to, and that is what we used to bath in.


The washing machine that I bought for your mother was an old wooden type that had a handle to push and pull it back and forth to rotate the basin.  That was much later and was much more improved than my mother had.  I think she knew she was going to get it, I don't know.  I also got a gas motor to put on one to run it and pumped the exhaust outside on the old porch.  I did that to save your Mother.  She was sickly all the time - all her life you might say, from Edna's life on, your mother was a sickly woman.  I remember having the old radios and other things.  We have grown with the country, that's what we did.  The first car that I ever owned was a secondhand Dodge.  I bought it from Fred Boam.  I remember when we were struggling to get along and make a go of things, I used to borrow money from the bank, then I would borrow from Gib Wright to pay the bank, then borrow from the bank to pay Gib Wright.  I worked it that way several times and was able to keep my credit good.

After the home was built, I went on a mission.  I was called to the Western States and I went to Denver first -Denver,Colorado.  I was there two weeks and then President Knight called us in and we had a priesthood meeting and he said, "Some of you will be moved out of here.  Some of you may go way up in the Dakotas..." and I figured I would get the Dakotas and that's where I went.  I spent my mission in South Dakota.  I thought I would have enough money, but I went there and in about a year it was all gone.  The mission was a tough mission.  Things were high and the money was about gone - anyhow we skimped around and skimped around.  But the time came when Mrs. Hitt told my wife, that's when we had our hard going and the banks were not lending any money, and Mrs. Hitt told her one time at the bank, "I've let you have all the money you could have."  In some way, some unforeseen reason, your Mother went back to the bank and Mrs. Hitt called her to the side and said she would let her have the money, enough to finish the mission.  My companions were Elder Pratt, the first companion that I had, and I had him in the Black Hills.  He was there I believe, until he was released, anyhow he was released from the Black Hills and after that I had Wilford Saeger from Oakley, Idaho.  He came over and we spent the winter together, that first winter, and then John Rindlisbaker was my companion.  His home is in Logan.  Then H.B. Richardson of Salt Lake City and James B. Nye of Paris, Idaho.  We worked there for 1 1/2 years together.  They were all young fellows.  But I'll tell you, I want this to go down, I never was around a better bunch of fellows, and today we are still friends.  It was an experience and something always to remember.  I would say I wasn't satisfied with my mission entirely - I guess we did all we could - but things were different then - we had a lot of hardships different times.  We walked from place to place.  We packed our suitcase and walked.  People were hospitable - we never had to sleep out one night.  We walked all one night, I and John Rindlisbaker walked all one night though to keep from sleeping out.  We walked all night going to Lead and got in there before the people were up, just before the sun came up.  We sat on the doorstep and waited for the people to open the house.  In the country, we had good luck in staying with people.  I guess we called it successful - but I think I baptized four boys and their Mother and another lady - 6 or 7 would be my limit in the two years I was gone.  It was in a mining district, the largest gold mine in the world.  At lead, we had miners, they would sleep in the day time and work many of them at night and they were all mixed races - there were a few white people.


Your mother was sick all her life.  She had a hard row when I was on my mission.  I don't know how, I don't know why I ever left here, but I did.  She agreed on it.  It was a whole month before I would tell Bishop Robert Andrus I would go. Then I told them I would go.  I remember our work days were our best.  I remember walking down to the Post Office one day coming from Lead when we were staying with Mrs. Muhlfeit and I said, "I am going to get a bunch of letters today and one of them will be from the Bishop."  I don't remember which one it was, whether it was Richards or not that beat me to the mailbox first and he got the letters and I remember him going all through the mail and I did get a bunch of letters - I don't know how many - and one was from the Bishop.

They said I never talked religion to anybody -I'd talk with them about pigs, cattle, sheep and they said pretty soon they would apply for baptism.  I remember the first street meeting we ever held, the first one I attended.  There were four of us.  We went out and I prayed and I prayed and I prayed silently until I couldn't pray any longer.  I didn't know what to say.  I had studied my lesson, I had read and reread.  We were going to preach that night and we had it all figured out and we were walking down the street and two of them would start preaching.  Saegers and Johnson came over to our mission.  Saegers was the Conference President.  They came over to our mission and we had this street meeting - I and Saegers and Pratt and Giles - the four of us.  Saegers and Pratt, that was before Pratt had left, Saegers and Pratt stepped out on the street and started to sing and pray and preach and I and Giles stepped out to the side.  And I remember just as plain as if it was today, I held on to an old car - onto the fender of the car until it came my turn.  He introduced us first.  He introduced Pratt as a hod carrier and he wasn't big enough to pack a good hod, he introduced Giles as a cow-puncher, he said if you have any cows to punch and any broncos to ride after this meeting, then he'll ride them.  And when it came to me he said, "We have Elder Jensen, he's a sheepherder" and I don't know what all he said," who will now speak to us," and I didn't have a doggone thing on my mind.  I got up and all I remember saying was, "My friends, inasmuch as I am a sheepherder, you needn't expect anything from me but a blat."  I held them on the street until they blocked the street.  I preached on the Book of Mormon, something that was foreign to me as far as studying - I had never prepared it at all.  I spoke on the Book of Mormon, but I don't remember just exactly what I said - those words came to me and went right out that way.

I came back from my mission and I was in debt head over heels.  I owed everybody and I was afraid to go to town, ashamed to show my face.  But the day came when I got them all paid and was I happy!  And I tell you kids to get out of debt.  That is the happiest time you will ever have in your life.  Be honest, be truthful and stand up for what you think is right no matter what else comes.  I had a good wife and through her I was able to pay up my bills.  Through her workmanship and kindness and all, she worked hard all the days of her life.  I can remember many days she would walk around on a chair, one knee on one chair and a leg on the other in order to keep things going.  The thing I know she was happiest about was when I got everybody paid off and we could look everyone in the face and say we owe not any man.


We moved up to Rigby one year to let the kids go to High School.  We had four of them going to High School and we moved up to Rigby for that reason.

I enjoyed being County Commissioner.  I can't say I enjoyed the people that we had to take care of.  That's one thing that has always been in my craw since, was this relief because I have seen people come up there in rags and all kinds of shapes and I have seen the same ones in town dressed up in better clothes than I could wear myself.

During World War II, I was on the draft board of which I am glad I am not on today.  I would hate to serve on another draft board.  During this time, fellows came in and they would buy land and buy it to keep their kids home and they would expect us members of the draft board to let them off.  But I tell you, we couldn't do it.  We had members from Boise come over to look over our books every week or two and we'd go through the records in the office.  They would meet with us at night and only once were we called on that they took exception to our decisions.

During this time of World War II, I also worked with War Bonds, Red Cross, etc.  I have a Certificate of Commendation from President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

I have served about eighteen years on the Harrison Canal Board and the same length of time on the Fairview School Board.  I was Chairman of the Old Folks Committee in the stake for 25 years. 

I remember one or two traits of my parents.  The one was, Dad said, "Honesty is the best policy."  He repeated that and repeated that in our minds until it don't matter what happens, it will never run out of my head.  And Mother and Dad had some friends that lived down in Goshen that were real friends to them.  They said to me, when I was leaving, "Too bad you are leaving a home that you have started and are going to Idaho to freeze to death; may God bless you."  My mother was always among the sick around here - she was going from door to door all the time, whenever she was asked and many times when she wasn't asked.

I remember I was sleeping with my grandad (Peder Halverson) once.  He had his pipe and bottle of whiskey in the window and I remember asking my Grandma to give him his pie and a little snack.  She gave them to him.  That's all I remember.

We have nine children:  Mary, Mina, Louie, Edna, Vernal, Alta, LaRue, Roy, and Don, in that order.  We have grandchildren totaling 31 and great-grandchildren totaling 24 with some new ones expected in the near future which are not included at this time.  That is quite a few.  I am not sorry about any of them.

In summing it up, I would like to leave this with you as it is your Mother's and my wish that when I pass on, I hope you kids will all get together and will settle things, the estate what there is left, fairly - its all left for you - to be fair and I hope you will be fair with one another.  There is nothing to be tangled up in any way.  Everything is on an open scale - its open and its fair for all of you.  This time I will say this, that you kids have all been treated as fair as I can ever figure out, you have been treated the same from me and Mother and you should treat one another as brothers and sisters, and the way you would like to be treated yourself.

History tape recorded August 1963--P.H. Jensen - 79 years old--Two years before he died



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