History of Lee Anderson
(as written by his wife, Mattie Anderson)
Levi (Lee) Anderson
1923 holding daughter
Verle
Anderson Jewkes
Lee Anderson 1958
Fredrick Anderson and his wife Anna Johnanna Jensen Anderson had a large family, eleven in
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all, and Levi (Lee as he was called) was the youngest. Lee was born the 17 of December in
1898 in Castle Dale, Emery County, Utah. He had six brothers and four sisters.
Fredrick Anderson was a farmer and wool grower, son of Anders Hansen (Plough) and Anna
(Annie) Johanna “Hannah” Jensen. He was born in Denmark on August 29, 1850. He joined
the Mormon Church in 1871 and came to Utah, locating at Little Cottonwood, where he worked
in the smelters and at railroading. He then removed to Fountain Green and in November 1878
he came to Castle Dale. There he owned a farm of about thirty acres, a nice residence and
2500 sheep. He held the position of water-master and was a stockholder in the Blue-Cut and
Mammoth Canals. He was the President of the Ninety-First Quorum of Seventies and a
prominent man in church and civil affairs. He was married on April 5, 1875, to Hannah,
Daughter of Niels Christiansen and Karen Jensen of Fountain Green. They were married in the
Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah, and have eleven children, Fredrick, Anna C., Joseph,
Hannah C. Dena, Emma, James E. Niels C., Parley, Ervin, and Levi.
Fredrick had an experience one time with bears when he was going through some willows and
came face to face with a mother bear and two cubs. He just looked at her and said, “what are
you doing here” and they ran away. While he was with the sheep his boys did the farming on
what they called Pleasant Valley. He later obtained a farm west of Castle Dale and had a nice
brick home in town on the west end of town.
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The brick home was nice, but as of today's standards it would be frowned on. It had a large
living room, a large bedroom, a dinning room, a kitchen, and with an unfinished space for two
bedrooms upstairs. The stairs were built outside, but were sturdy. The walls were thick and
sturdy as well. I think that by the time he was able to build that home his older children were
married, as near as I know Lee was the only one born in that home.
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Fredrick died on the 23 of June 1925 of cancer of the stomach. On the 17 of December
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1898, Fredrick and Anna Johanna Jensen Anderson were blessed with their 11 child, a boy.
They named him Levi, but he was known through out his life as Lee. While Lee was just a
youngster, about two years, his brother Joe would take him to the pool hall and buy beer and
cigarettes for him thinking it real funny when he would choke on tobacco and strangle on beer.
On the farm they had honey bee's and Fredrick would extract his own honey and haul it to
Price, Utah to market it. One day as he was extracting, Lee was licking the honey off the comb
and smacking his lips, because he thought the honey so sweet, his father said “it is sweet, but
not nearly as sweet as a little boy”. He would go with his father to Price where he would sell the
honey for $2 for a five gallon can. It took them two days each way.
Lee's father owned a farm south and east of Castle Dale. They called it “Paradise”, Lee still
longed for that place long years after he was married. He told how he would have to drive the
cows up on the hill, and then stay there to see that the cows did not get down in the fields. He
was alone, and just a little boy, and lonesome, and he would watch the rest of the boys in the
field and he would lie down and cry and cry, but even the loneliness did not take the memory
of that place from him.
As he grew he must have attended Priesthood, been baptized, etc., because I have his certificates
although when I met him he was very “in-active” in the Church. I am not sure how old he was
(at the time he was down in the desert called “Sinbad”), but he was left alone while his brother
Joe returned home to get drinking water and supplies. The only thing he had to drink was
canned tomatoes, and while endeavoring to cut a can open with his pocket knife, the knife
slipped and cut his hand. It must have severed a vein, because it bled quite profusely. He tried
to stop the bleeding with flour and different things but could not stop it. So he gathered up
towels and anything he could find and wrapped around his hand, climbed on his horse and
headed home. I have no idea how far it is from Castle Dale, but quite a distance, like 15 or 20
miles, when he arrived home he tumbled off his horse. He had put his hand in the bib of his
overalls, and he was covered with blood all the way down his front, which frightened his family.
It took some time for him to get his strength back from that experience.
When he got to the age he figured he was a man, about 16, he hired out as a cook for a road
gang. One day he decided he would cook some rice. He had never had any experience in
cooking, especially rice, so he poured a whole sack in a large pan of water. When it started to
cook, it started to swell and run over; he started taking some out and putting it in other pans.
Wasn't long until he had every pot and pan in camp full of rice, then he had to start throwing
it away. He said it covered the hill side before it was under control.
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He told about Christmas, it seems that the Anderson's, with a large family were not able to
afford the Christmas gifts that our families of today indulge in so freely. He said that usually the
first one in the family to get up on Christmas morning got all the gifts if there were any, and
usually that was his brother Niels. Then he would put anything he could find in the younger
kids stockings. One year it was his mothers corset he rolled up and put in Lee's stocking, also
he said the first one up on Sunday or holidays was the best dressed, and that too was bother
Niels.
He often told me of the time he and his brother Joe were up in Joe's Valley, riding for their cows.
Lee was leading an unbroken two year old horse. He had the rope looped two or three times
around his left hand, they came to a small ravine, and without thinking he spurred his horse to
jump the ravine, which it did, but the horse he was leading hung back, causing the rope to be
pulled so tight on his hand that it nearly cut it off. He said the hand swelled up so badly that
he could run his finger across it and not feel the rope. His hand and fingers were stiff and
useless for more than a year, but eventually became all right, but he carried the scar to his grave.
Very few people escaped the Spanish influenza, when it poured over our nation in 1918, and
Lee was no exception. I learned from living with him that no matter what illness he contracted,
it seemed to hit him harder than anyone else, and so it was with the flu. He was so ill for so
long that they feared for his life, but he finally recovered.
It seems that he escaped some of the childhood diseases, especially the measles, which caught
up with him after he was grown up, and away from home working. When he took sick he was
staying with his sister Emma, she nursed him through his bout with measles which was rather
severe. Young children can take such things much easier that adults, especially men. He has
told me many times how sick he was when he had the measles, and how good his sister Emma
was to him.
In 1921 Lee and I met at his brother Ervin's home, where I had gone to help Naomi, before her
second baby was born. We seemed to like each other from the first, at least he did because he
spent his time there. At that time he was working two days a week for $8.00 a day. He talked
me into getting married. We had only known each other three months. We did not either one
of us have anything to look forward to, but where ignorance is bliss tis folly to be wise. We
married, and skimped, and the mine bosses liked Lee so they gave him extra work and we made
out quite well.
Lee had a rather nice singing voice, (which he never displayed after we were married) but he and
several of his friends (boys) use to get together and sing. Not a barber shop quartet, but rather
a street corner quartet. He said they were pretty good at it. He and my cousin Tina Jensen use
to sing -- sounded real pretty. I often wonder why I didn't encourage him to sing more, probably
because I couldn't sing at all, and felt, possibly envy, although I didn't think so.
Lee was a sweet, kind, tender hearted soul. He loved dogs. In fact he loved animals, and in later
years was surrounded by them. But dogs he loved. I always said, if Lee ever touched a dog, it
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was his. Every stray dog usually found a home at our place. I used to tease him by saying that
you could tell how poor people were by the number of dogs they had. The poorer they were the
more dogs they had. I disliked dogs, thoroughly disliked them, but I learned to tolerate them
for his sake, especially if we only had one or two. We did at different times have some that were
really nice.
Shortly after we were married he came home with a big ugly pup, I imagine it was about two or
three months old. It was a cream or dirty white color, and clumsy, awkward in getting around.
I am sure it was a retard. Lee was trying to pick out a name for it but none seemed to fit. After
watching its silly actions for a couple of days, (I was very much upset of having the thing around)
I suggested we call him “Simp”, because he was such a stupid acting animal. So Simp it was.
Regardless of his name, looks, etc., I think that dog gave us occasion for more laughs, that
anything I know of. Every time Lee went anywhere, he would come home and tell me about the
simple, stupid things that dog had done, and he would about laugh his head off. He did so
many laughable things it would be impossible to enumerate them all, but one thing in particular
we laughed about; we went down to my fathers ranch quite frequently, one day as we sat talking
we noticed the dog (big by this time - he was grown), mother had an old cat with kittens, and
that dog would take a kitten, one at a time, and dunk them in the swill bucket, then lay them
on the grass. It was a scream to watch him, then he stretched out to watch the kittens, if they
got up to run away he would take them back. What the idea was we couldn't find out.
Lee owned a little “Tin Lizzie” as they were called, that is a one seat Ford Coupe; one day as he
was going to work at Hiawatha, and just as he was entering town he stopped for some reason,
I don't remember, but “Simp” the dog was riding on the back of the car; when Lee stopped, the
dog jumped off and ran over to a man on the sidewalk, gave a gruff bark, took hold of his arm
and led him over to the car. The man was too frightened to be angry, and Lee felt so
embarrassed, he apologized and took off very quickly. I have often wondered just what was
wrong with that poor dog. He was kind, never sought for affection as most dogs do, but he just
was not teachable. He didn't seem to understand. I have wondered if he was deaf, because he
was inattentive, but he stayed close to Lee. He kept him for a number of years and I think he
gave him to my brother Glen. I never knew what became of poor old “Simp”.
Lee had many dogs during his life time, but one in particular was special. I, with the rest of the
family, loved him. His name was “Chief”. Lee's brother Parley ordered a pair of Scotch Collies,
and he gave their female pup to Lee, and he kept the male. They planned on breeding and
selling sheep dogs, but things don't always work out the way we plan. We had the female pup
until she was half grown, our neighbor had a few head of sheep, and one night, whether it was
dogs or coyotes, got in his sheep herd and killed a number of them. He came over to talk to
Lee about it; he thought it might be our little dog. Lee convinced him that it wasn't, but he took
one of the dead sheep and poisoned the meat, I do not know where he put it but our little dog
got some, and of course it killed her. Lee felt so badly about it, that I doubt if he ever cared for
Louie Durrant after that. Anyway his brother Parley felt so sorry for Lee, that he gave him his
dog, “Chief”, that is how we got him. He was a pure bred and a beautiful dog. Verle at that time
was about 3½ or four years old, and how she loved that dog and he did her. We moved away
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from the ranch, where we had lived a couple of years, and brought a farm or ranch in Elmo.
I think of the time I was raising chickens, we were not equipped with anything to help make life
easy so I used to try to feed the young chickens, but the grown ones would come and eat the
food I gave them, I tried to walk between them to keep them separated, but it didn't seem to
work. That dog, Chief, noticed my dilemma, and came to my rescue, he would do as I tried, he
would walk between the young chickens and the grown ones, back and forth, and not one of
those grown chickens dared venture over, the young ones soon realized he was their friend, and
my problem was solved. Chief was one of the family for about sixteen years.
After we moved to Elmo, Parley, (Lee's brother) decided he would like to go in partnership with
Lee on the farm. He moved his wife there, and it seemed so good to have someone close, but
she (Elda) could not take farm life, so she insisted on going back to Hiawatha. They had lived
on the farm about two years. During the first year that they were there Lee and Parley decided
they could make some money to help out by buying some old ewe's (sheep) and breeding them,
wintering them, lambing them out, and selling the lambs and ewes back in the fall at a profit.
The idea was good, but things do not always work out the way we plan. They got 500 old ewes
from the bank, (in the fall), and Lee had the problem of taking care of them during the winter.
It takes a lot of feed for 500 head of sheep. Then there was the problem of where to keep
them, etc. The boys wanted them to lamb out in May, but the bank insisted it be April. Good,
because the winter had been very mild, so all looked pretty fair, only Lee had to spend his time
with the sheep. Favorable April came and so did nasty weather along with lambs. The first day
of April came with wind, snow, and sleet; the coldest April I had ever seen, and the lambs came
by two's and three's. We were not prepared for such; no shelter at all, and the poor little things
froze to death almost as soon as they were born. The boys carried the ones that did survive into
the house. I had twenty-five, I do not remember how many Elda had, but that experience proved
to be a disaster. We lost everything and had to move.
Our baby boy (our first boy) was three weeks old when we moved to Elmo. We survived the
winter all right, and here again as I think of it April came, and so did death, my beautiful baby
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boy died the 13 of April, 1927. It was April 1928 that we had our experience with the sheep.
We are told that God moves in mysterious ways to perform, after these many years I can
recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives. When we left Elmo, we moved to Cleveland, and
lived for a time in my; sisters home, because she was living in Wattis, Carbon County.
My father took pity on us and gave us a hundred acres of land, which I could not see any future
in at the time, but with the help of my brother Milton, Lee succeeded in building a one room
house, with a screen porch on the land, and we moved into that house. I was pregnant with my
third baby at the time. Lee was a very ambitious man and soon had corrals and out buildings
on the place. We really were pioneering it, we had nothing, I suppose we must have had faith,
but that was all, because my baby was born in the small house in July 18, 1929; a breach birth,
but we both survived, and through Lee's industry he accumulated a few head of cows and of
course we had our team of horses. We had chickens and he acquired a pig or two, and rented
the farm next to our land. At this time I am not sure just how long he rented the farm, but he
eventually bought it, at that time, an hundred acres of land, and most of it under cultivation, for
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$1,200. Of course those were depression times, and times were hard, but no matter how hard
things were he was never without work, oh, many times he worked for a pittance, but we made
it suffice. I do well remember the time I sent the last payment on the farm, it was mortgaged
to an insurance company in Kansas City. They sent a man out to see us, Lee was not home at
the time, I was sorry that he was not, because the man said that we were the only people in
Emery County that had paid their mortgage. That made me feel real good.
Despite conditions, we never did have to go on charity. I have always been very grateful for that.
We lacked the comforts of life that people have today, but we were just as happy as if we had
good sense. In the summer of 1934 things began to look real bad. We had a bad drought, and
our crops were almost a complete failure, but we had been living in town for a year or so, and
that made it better for me, because Lee was asked to be a supervisor over the boys in the what
was known as the CCC (three C's) and he accepted. That was a year to be remembered. I am
not sure that I can recount things as they happened during those years, so many things did
happen.
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In 1931, on September 19 our third baby girl, and fourth child was born. She was rather a
cross baby, but I am sure, had I have known then what I have learned later in life I could have
avoided many difficult things such as a cross baby. But due to her being cross I was wonderfully
blessed, because in the spring, while Lee was in the field working I of course was taking care of
household matters, and tending babies; Betty at that time was about two and one-half years old,
Kenna about five months. The only way I could get Kenna to sleep was to rock her, and of
course when I sat down with her Betty would climb on my lap, and soon I had two babies asleep
on my lap, and if I moved Kenna would wake up, and make a big fuss, and so I had to do some
thinking which was to put a pillow on each arm of the rocker and put a baby there, then I could
read, and the only thing I could find in the house that I had not already read was an old Book
of Mormon. I decided to see if I would enjoy reading it, because I loved reading, I had not read
very far in it when I felt I just could not put it down, but I had to take care of dinner and
children, etc. But every chance I got to sneak a moment to read I did, and then I felt the most
wonderful feeling of joy and peace that I have ever experienced. I just could not put that book
down, and by the time I had finished reading it I knew I had to go to church. The Lord says
something about he who thirsts after righteousness shall be blessed, well that was the way I felt,
I just had to go to church, so I talked my sister Lucile into going with me, oh, I was so happy,
but after three times she told me she could not go any more, because it caused too much
contention in her home. Well I was devastated, I never dreamed that my husband would
consider driving the team to town on Sunday after they had worked all week, but he said if you
want to go I will take you, and he did, and during that time little Betty Lee loved Sunday School
(“Tunny Tool” as she called it) and I could not have been happier. One day in June, Lee came
home, he had been in town for something, and told me some real bad news. It seems that three
or four little girls about Verle's age had gone out to a pond and got on a raft to have some fun,
and one of the girls fell into the pond. A neighbor, Soren Peterson, and his son were working
a short distance away, and heard the screaming and came running, the boy, without even
looking jumped into the pond to save the girl, who was already dead, and he drowned too.
When Lee told me about it I sat down on a step and could not control my tears. When the
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funeral was held, Peterson's wanted to have a double service, but the other people would not.
Just about two months later my little Betty Lee took sick, we rushed her to the hospital, but she
did not survive. The Peterson's hearing about our trouble drove up to our farm to see us, and
on the way their little girl took sick and died. They had lost a boy in January, one in June and
now this one in August. We asked them to have a double service, and they were happy. I was
so grateful for the Gospel. I did not understand it very well, but this I did know that little
children are saved in the Kingdom of God; I was so very happy for that knowledge. That fall
(1932) when Lee went to work in the mining camp he moved me to town.
In July 2001 at the Anderson family reunion, I found out about
Grandpa Anderson’s brand. I made a rubbing of it from one of
Grandpa’s old fashioned drills that Leo Foy had at his home and
brought to donate at the raffle. There were 2 drills donated and only
1 has the brand mark on the handle. Two of his grandsons, Rick Foy
and Brad Anderson ended up being the new drill owners, with Brad’s
drill having the mark on the handle.
Grandpa used to use this brand on his livestock and apparently used
it on some of his tools and equipment as well. His son Paul described
this brand as an upside down A with a bar. Brad also has rifle that
used to belong to Grandpa. It too has a brand mark on it but it looks
more like the bottom brand.
The first picture is the rubbing of the brand and the second one I
traced from the rubbing. I think that the bar is supposed to go
through the upside down A, not just be on the sides. The third is one
that I made from Brad’s description of the brand from the rifle. I’m
not sure which one Grandpa actually used, but its possible he changed it slightly over the
years.
Tammy Rae Cox Thomson - great granddaughter
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