Master of Ceremonies - Wasatch Academy Alumni Day - April 21, 1990 - Class of ‘40 Show

Class of 40 at their 50^th
Reunion

It’s good to see a full house, a standing room only full house, because this show deserves a full house; it’s a great show and the price is right.

In keeping with my advertising background, I’ve got a commercial and a warning. All of the stars on this show are under contract to me. And while I hope you TV scouts, you movie directors and you theater producers in the audience can use their talents, I am their
agent and you must deal with me. I’ll be back in my office Wednesday in the Waldorf Towers.
That’s the Waldorf Towers, Fairview, Utah.

Lee's Waldorf Towers

Now we want you to sit back, relax and enjoy this great show. To you members of the Wasatch Academy Association, you need not worry about assessments in the future to cover this show. There are no hidden costs. All members of the cast have signed liability waivers.  Even if we strain a vocal cord reaching for a note we haven’t hit in 50 years, pull an aged hamstring or fall off the stage, we will not sue. So enjoy.

The star of our show, also the producer, the director, the choreographer, is Afton Anderson Mann.

Afton Anderson Mann

But her greatest achievement for this show has been as a talent scout, and her most astonishing find is a street musician from St. George, Roger Hansen. Roger, it is great to have you with us.

Roger Hansen

And now for the show.

I wouldn’t have told this story in 1940, but I’ve checked with Headmaster Loftin and he assures me that the students of 1990 can handle this. So I am going to tell you about my first sexual experience. It happened right across the street on the Alice corner.
It was late afternoon and I was just sitting there in my car waiting for something to happen.  I had borrowed the car from Steve Keuseff’s cousin.

Stephen Kueseff

 Some of you will remember the Keuseffs. Great Wasatchers. As I was sitting there Doctor Holman came by. Some of you may remember the Doctor.

Doctor Holman

More of you will remember Phyllis, Camille, and Leon Holman.

When Dr. Holman came up he said “Buddy, what you doing?” He called me Buddy.  And I said, “I’m waiting for something to happen.” He said, “My golly, you’re in luck, something has just happened. I’ve delivered a baby to the Olsens".

"Would you like to see the box babies come in?” I   said “Yup.” I was always very curious.  So he put down his black satchel, opened it and pointed to a small tin box. “That’s it,” he said, “The box babies come in.” I said “Yup.”        

LaMar Olsen (the baby in the box)

  I was talkative in those days.   He closed his satchel, picked it up and walked toward main street. I pedaled my kiddy car down the street where the Alice is now. And that was my first sexual experience. And they never got any better.

D Day Remembered By Lee

 2^nd  Div that replaced the 28^th Div as the  D+ 1 Div and hence my disappointment.    lee

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Kenneth Young 

  Kenneth Young may have been the first Mt Pleasant man to cross a Normandy beach following D Day .    Even then he was a few weeks behind the first men off a  landing craft  but a head of my unit and the Mt Pleasant unit both of whom went ashore mid-July.  Kenneth was in the 69^th Seabee Bn and their mission was to build ramps so us late landers could walk ashore without  wading thru the surf.  I’ve attached a photo of Kenneth from the North Sanpete High school  1940 yearbook.  He was a sophomore and the schools best trumpeter player.    lee

Photo showing the work of Kenneth's battalion on Omaha beach.

North Sanpete High School ~ 50th Class Reunion ~ May 1990

   This was the speech I gave at the 50th  class reunion of  North Sanpete’s class of 1940    I had gone to school with the Mt Pleasant students in this class for 10 years prior to switching to Wasatch  Academy for my junior and senior years.   These were my Hamilton Grade  school classmates of 1934.     Barto and Pinky were both Fairview and they came to North Sanpete for their  junior and senior years.   My dating Barto was when we were both sophomores ,she in Fairview and me in Mt Pleasant.   

   After high school Barto and Pinky married and lived happily every after in southern California.   

   North Sanpete’s ENN – ESS – AITCH 1940 yearbook was lent to me by Reva Cox Fillis  for scanning the photos of those mentioned in the speech.   Sorry I did not get a better photo of Pinky but he was not in the student section and I had to scan him off the basketball team.  Even there he is better looking than I remembered.    lee

Look For A Grandmother, Find A Vice President

Charles Curtis, the Vice President, was not, in the beginning, my problem. I was looking
for the ancestry of my great, great grandmother, Huldah Curtis (Parke) and knew nothing
about Charles, his father Orrin or his grandfather, William.

In the course of researching my Parke line I had learned that Huldah Curtis had married
Thomas Harris Parke in Dearborn county, Indiana 14 August 1825. She had been sealed
to Thomas Harris at the Latter Day Saints Endowment House Salt Lake City March 1852.
There Huldah gave her date of birth as 17 July 1805; her place of birth as White, Ontario,
New York.

I had also received from relatives, some very distant, three (3) copies of Thomas Harris
Parkes Logan, Utah LDS Temple proxy baptism record of 1888. The type written copy
I was using showed him to be a son-in-law of Thomas Curtis, a son-in-law of Betsey
Curtis and a brother-in-law of Eunice Peat. Additionally, I knew the LDS Ancestral File
showed Huldah’s parents to be Thomas Curtis and Betsey Curtis.

I started my Curtis line research with these two (2) documents. Over the years, while not
specifically working my Curtis line I had acquired additional background information.
Because Thomas Harris and Huldah had lived in Vermillion County, Eugene township,
Indiana I had the census records from there, 1820-1860. The 1840 census showed that
Thomas Harris and Huldah were neighbors to William Curtis and Noah Hubbard, William’s
father-in-law.

In correspondence with others on the Parke/Curtis line I had been given a copy of a 1939
interview with Joseph A Park(e) son of Oregon pioneers whose father, Joseph Park(e)
was a nephew of Thomas Harris and whose mother, Mary Curtis, was a daughter of
William’s. In the interview Mr. Park(e) mentions that his mother’s oldest brother was father
of Charles Curtis who had been Vice President.

Someone else had given me a partial group sheet that showed Philip Lunger, another
nephew of Thomas Harris, married to Ruth Hubbard sister of Permelia Hubbard, William’s
wife. This background information suggested to me that William and Huldah were
brother and sister.

This information also suggested to me that when I was serious about my Curtis ancestry
I had only to review a biography of Charles Curtis. When I did, much to my dismay, his biography
said nothing about his Curtis line earlier than William. It did say that the Curtises
like the Hubbards were thought to be from New England.

Because I continued to believe that a Vice President of the United States would have his
family history established earlier than his grandfather I contacted a researcher in Shawnee
County Kansas where William died and Charles was born. The researcher sent me some
family information, but again nothing earlier than William. I wrote telling her I could not
believe that a doctorate candidate, University of Kansas had not researched the family line
of the only Kansan to come within a heart beat of the White House.

I was now, in a sense, back to page one. Both William and Huldah had been born in upstate
New York so I studied the New York census records 1790-1810. Because William was
said to have been in Ohio before coming to Indiana and Huldah had married in Dearborn
County, Indiana, I studied the Southwest Ohio/Southeast Indiana census records 1810-
1820. I was looking for a family of unknown size, but in 1810 for example, with a young
boy and two (2) young girls; headed by a man with a very common name and in a large,
but specific area. Even using an area wide, multi decade, accelerated index microfiche I
was not certain I found the family. Mostly I was making notes.

As I was reviewing my notes and documents and comparing for the first time the three
(3) copies of Thomas Harris Parkes Logan Temple record I noticed the handwritten copy
differed from the two (2) typed copies. On this copy Thomas Harris said he was a brotherin-
law (not son-in-law) to Betsey Curtis and as on the others, a brother-in-law to Eunice
Peat. If correct, both I and others had been working from altered evidence. It also gave the
Thomas Curtis family three (3) daughters.

To check which Logan Temple copy was correct I wrote to Logan. The LDS Logan
Temple film like most LDS Temple records is a restricted film, not available in Family History
Centers. I asked for verification of Betsey’s relationship to Thomas Harris. Their reply
was that Thomas Harris was shown as brother-in-law.

While waiting for a reply from Logan I re-examined all my research notes on the Curtis
line. Very early in my research, while in Salt Lake City, I had examined all the Curtis
family books on file at the Family History Library. I noted from the book A Family Named
Curtis that “an untraced Thomas Curtis married 1790 a Eunice Peet.”

I now had a Thomas Curtis married to one of the names on the Logan Temple record and
in a time frame to be the parents of William and Huldah. I was also at this time comparing
given name patterns and noticed that both William and Huldah had named daughters Eunice
and sons Ira. This led me to think Eunice’s father was named Ira.

In an effort to involve other Curtis family members I wrote a letter to about twenty (20)
of them. Names for the most part taken from the LDS submitters file on the Huldah Curtis-
Permelia Hubbard lines. I had followed this practice a number of times with my Parke
line without results. The Curtis letter was also mailed to the Curtis Society whose address
 I found in the Family Registry file, Family History Center. In time, this letter, reached the
desk of Arthur Hutchinson who replied giving me a reference and a quote from the family
history John Peet 1597-1684 that identified a Eunice Peet who married a Thomas Curtis,
Huntington, Connecticut 1790.

In this first letter I wrote that Thomas Harris was wrong when he said he was brother-inlaw
of Eunice Peat and that he was in fact a son-in-law. Because Betsey was on the Logan
Temple record and I had found a Philip Curtis neighbor to William in the 1830 and 1850
census I added them to the family.

For this letter I guessed the family to be Thomas Curtis and Eunice Peet Curtis parents
of four children: Philip, William, Huldah and Betsey.

While the Logan Temple record had a heading for date and place of birth it was clear
that some of the entries referred to other events, perhaps date and place of death. Thomas
Curtis, for instance, had no date but Hamilton, Ohio as a place. Eunice Peat had no date but
Ray, Missouri as a place. I now started looking at early Ray County records.
One of the first volumes I examined on the Missouri shelf at the Family History Library
was the Index of Purchases-US Land in Missouri 1818-1837. I did not find Eunice Peet
Curtis. To my surprise I found Harris Parke, Philip Curtis, Noah Hubbard and a Charles P
Curtis none of whom I had known were ever in Missouri. I immediately asked a Jackson,
Missouri researcher to get the land descriptions and find out what the “P” in Charles P.
Curtis stood for.

Her response gave me the land descriptions and a referral to the Bureau of Land Management,
Springfield, Virginia. It did not tell me what the “P” stood for. The BLM response
had the complete property transactions and a plat map. There they were, most of the family,
Harris Parke, Noah Hubbard, Philip Curtis and with his full name, Charles Peet Curtis.
I now issued a second Curtis letter detailing the Missouri land record information and
adding Charles Peet Curtis to the family.

On the LDS International Genealogical Index I found both Charles Curtis and Elizabeth
Curtis marriages. Charles to Sarah Hubbard Vermillion County, Indiana, 29 March 1832;
Elizabeth to Henry Bailey, Dearborn County, Indiana, 12 Oct. 1826. Henry was also living
near William in 1830 and William and Huldah 1840. This I concluded had to be their sister
Elizabeth and Family.

Meanwhile I was studying a Nauvoo Illinois Temple proxy baptism record made in 1844
for Thomas Harris and Huldah. This record had been described incorrectly to me earlier
and I had decided that it was not my Curtis line. Again it was on a restricted film so I could
not order it. My Salt Lake City researcher, sensing my confusion, sent me a photo copy
of the pertinent information. It was certainly my Huldah Curtis (Parke) but it showed her
non-Curtis grandparents to be Gideon Pratt and Betsey Pratt. The given names agreed
with her Peet grandparents. The family name was dramatically different. I rationalized this
difference as a misspelling, incorrectly heard. It did after all start with a “P” and have about
the same number of letters.

In the face of this conflicting evidence I issued my third Curtis letter. I wrote that I was
satisfied that the circumstantial evidence established Thomas Curtis and Eunice Peet, married
1790 as the parents of Philip Curtis, William Curtis, Charles Peet Curtis, Huldah Curtis
(Parke) and Elizabeth Curtis (Bailey).

With the conflicting evidence there was likely to be skeptics who would not agree with
my rationalizations. I contacted a second Salt Lake City researcher, my first one had left for
research in England. I asked her to recheck the Nauvoo Temple record. It was, in my opinion,
so neatly and uniformly written it had to be a copy. The researcher found that it was a
copy and that the original was in the Church Historical Department not available for photocopying.
She had a researcher in the Department view the original and notate my copy to
match the original. Her notations were such that it was clear to me that the original entry
had been Peat and not Pratt as transcribed. While it certainly looks like “Prat”-one (1) “’T”
it must be evaluated by 1844 writing styles and the early history of the LDS Church-where
two Pratt brothers were prominent in the highest Church circles, neither of whom spelled
their name with one (1) “T”.

Thanks to a very conscientious researcher I had a plausible explanation for the Pratt
name. In my opinion my original theory had been reasonably established if only with circumstantial
evidence.

I’ve written my Topeka, Kansas researcher and detailed the Curtis/Peet ancestry of
Charles Curtis, Vice President. I’ve told her that when the eventual doctoral candidate
shows up let him browse through some old records before she shows him the completed
file.

I’ve had the documentation supporting my theory that Thomas Curtis and Eunice Peet
are the parents of William Curtis, grandfather of Charles Curtis, Vice President of the
United States 4 March 1929 - 3 March 1933 bound. I’ve distributed seven (7) copies to
major genealogical libraries and the Curtis Society.

Eunice Peet’s ancestry appears to be clearly defined. Not so with Thomas Curtis. It is
thought that he descends Nathaniel, Nathaniel, Zachariah, William, Widow Elizabeth. This
has not been clearly determined. We still have a challenge.

CURTIS, Charles, (1860 - 1936)

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Senate Years of Service: 1907-1913; 1915-1929 
Party: Republican; Republican 

Library of Congress

CURTIS, Charles, a Representative and a Senator from Kansas and a Vice President of the United States; born in Topeka, Kans., January 25, 1860; attended the common schools; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1881 and commenced practice in Topeka; prosecuting attorney of Shawnee County 1885-1889; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-third and to the six succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1893, until January 28, 1907, when he resigned, having been elected Senator; chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Interior (Fifty-fourth through Fifty-seventh Congresses); had been reelected to the Sixtieth Congress, but on January 23, 1907, was elected to the United States Senate as a Republican to fill the vacancy in the term ending March 3, 1907, caused by the resignation of Joseph R. Burton, and on the same day was elected for the full Senate term commencing March 4, 1907, and served from January 29, 1907, to March 3, 1913; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1912; served as President pro tempore of the Senate during the Sixty-second Congress; chairman, Committee on Indian Depredations (1905-11), Committee on Coast Defenses (1911-13), Republican Conference (1924-1929); again elected to the United States Senate for the term commencing March 4, 1915; reelected in 1920 and 1926 and served from March 4, 1915, until his resignation on March 3, 1929, having been elected Vice President of the United States; Republican whip 1915-1924; majority leader 1925-1929; elected Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket headed by Herbert Hoover in 1928, was inaugurated on March 4, 1929, and served until March 3, 1933; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1932 for Vice President; resumed the practice of law in Washington, D.C., where he died on February 8, 1936; interment in Topeka Cemetery, Topeka, Kans.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Unrau, William E. Mixed Bloods and Tribal Dissolution: Charles Curtis and the Quest for Indian Identity. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1989; Schlup, Leonard. “Charles Curtis: The Vice-President from Kansas.” Manuscripts 35 (Summer 1983): 183-201.

 Lee's great Great Grandmother Hulda Curtis Parke  who was a Grand Aunt  to the Vice President Charles Curtis .  
She was born in  1805 and died in 1887 in Idaho.    

Coach Brunger and Lee

Lee's additional comment:   Again I’m attaching the photos intended to go with page 320 of “Buddy”.  Little or no improvement.  When your eyes are closed improvement is nil and  the dark dullness remains but if usable along with the story  they are yours .     lee

Lee R. Christensen's Heritage

Fred Christensen ~ Photographer and Lee's Great Grandfather

Below are some of his photographs.

Also see: http://heritage.uen.org/companies/Wc26ba8c3baa32.htm

A John H. Stansfield Painting

KATHY: Here is a photo of the Christensen Family’s Stansfield. Paid for with an old pool table from the Lundberg bldg. about 1934. lee

Lee's Adventure Climbing Mt. St. Helens

View of Mt. St. Helens  Two or Three Years Later

Friday, March 19, 1976

Left Seattle,5:30 p.m. for St. Helens.  Drove to Chehalis where I stopped for coffee and pi a'la mode - which I wouldn't find on the mountain.  Then on to the parking lot above Spirit Lake.  Scanlon was waiting for me, and had been since 6:00 p.m.  He lives closer, drives faster.  Said he left early because he did not want to put chains on in the dark.  We drank hot chocolate - he had a Coleman stove in his 3/4 ton pickup with canopy - and talked for a few hours, then into our sacks.  Wind howling, snow falling.  One other car in the lot.

Climbing Party

We had planned to start climbing at 5:00 a.m., but weather was cold, blustery and mean.  Half heartedly, we started our climb at 9:00.  We needed the exercise after two gallons of hot, sweet chocolate.  By now, some other parties around, including a bus of mountaineers from Olympus who were hiking to Windy Pass to practice snow camping.

Bob and I climbed for about two hours.  I think we were climbing.  Mostly we floundered about on the windy, snowy slope.  Wind gusting to 80 knots (so a party we met headed for their car told us).  We had no reason to doubt their estimate, which, if anything was low.  Snow shooting straight at us and when it hit Bob's beard, it stuck.  When it hit my chest, it penetrated.

Summit

After struggling upward for two hours and not getting very high (how high we couldn't tell as the visibility was less than 50 feet).  When you looked up to where you thought the mountain should be, you saw nothing but wind driven snow.  We headed down.  Recognized as down because it was less work than what we had been calling up.  We drifted down on a compass bearing of north, hoping to hit the parking lot.  We missed it by 200 yards to the west.

With the snow, the wind, the blustery mean weather, missing by 200 yards could have been disastrous except we stumbled upon a ski lodge and got in out of the weather under its front porch roof.  I don't think either of us could have walked far in snow up to our waist, which it was when we meandered from the wind-packed ridge.

From the ski lodge, Bob heard the whining engine of a car working its way up the mountain road.  Looking in the direction of the sound, we could, through the driving snow, occasionally see the road.  From the road, it was no problem for two tired  lostees to hike to the parking lot.  

Headed home, disappointed (did not summit) tired, but alive, about 2:00 p.m.  Long way to drive for such a short hike.  I guess there will be days like this. 

Sunday, I drove up to Snoqualmie and put in 10 miles cross-country skiing.  Good day, overcast, but warm.  Show was heavy.  Waxless skis took some pushing.  Enjoyed the workout.  Relieved of the cold, blustery, mean residue of the St. Helens climb.

On Friday, April 30th, 1976, I left Seattle at 5:30 p.m. for a drive to St. Helens about 160 miles away.  I took my time, stopped to pick up beer in Toledo.  Arrived about 9:30.  Slept in Bob's pickup.

One View Looking Back

On Saturday, May 1, 1976 Scanlon and I started climbing at 4:45 a.m.  The alarm went off at 3:30.  We reached the top at about 12:00 noon.  We hiked around the crater, ate lunch, started down about 1:00 p.m. and reached the parking lot at 4:45 p.m.  That was a 12 hour day.  We're not very strong or fast hikers.  Could have come down much faster by sliding, but both of us walked.  We needed the exercise.  A very exhausting day.

When I left home, I had planned to drive on to Hood and climb.  Bob was not willing nor physically able.  I was willing and foolhardy.

The climb was made in clear, sunny weather, but with a very strong wind from the 8500 level to the top.  I had forgotten how steep St. Helens is.  A beautiful mountain.  One I should climb every year just 

for the physical joy of going up and coming down.

There She Blows

What Blew?

1927 Honor Battery ~ 222nd Field Artillery

Turning the Hearts of the Children to Their Fathers

In 1926 the 222^nd Field Artillery Battalion, Battery D , Utah National Guard was organized.  Prior to this time  the local National Guard was a Calvary Unit  

This new battalion consisted of young men, some of them not yet married. The photo above represents just a few of the children who were born much later and who are very proud of their fathers because of their many accomplishments

The photo they are holding is  Battery D, 222^nd .FA.  It was taken  at  the annual summer encampment held at Jordan Narrows  every summer. Their commander was Lee R. Christensen Sr.  The accompanying photo  was reproduced from one that is displayed at Utah National Guard Headquarters in Draper.  The donor of the picture is Lee R. Christensen Jr., who now lives in Washington State.  Lee had it reproduced, framed and sent as a contribution to the Mt. Pleasant Relic Home. He, himself joined the group in 1937, just shy of his 16^th birthday.  He has told us that it was standard practice back then to join during your sophomore year in high school.  Lee tells us that Elmer Fillis and Billy Hansen joined at the age of 14.

The brass label on the photo says this group of young men were  an Honor Battalion and here is why.  They earned Silver Cup for appearance, discipline, sanitation, quality of mess, speed and accuracy in firing works, control of instruments, close order drill, customs and ceremonies of the service.  In 1927 this group was also honored for having   best program at the camp and for the greatest percentage of attendance.  First Sergeant A. W. Peterson was awarded a cash prize for general efficiency during the encampment and  Earl Beck was awarded a small loving cup for boxing.  Captain L. R. Christensen was highly commended for the splendid showing of Battery D. 

The men mustered into the charter group were:  Officers, L. R. Christensen, Chesley P. Seely, James F. Jordon.   Enlisted men  were: Morris C. Pallard, Waldo M. Barton,   Evan A. Beck, Alden V. Borg, Milo Brewer, Arthur W. Brewer, Ray C. Brotherson, Ernest G. Brunger, Guy L. Candland, Grant Coates, Alvin H. Christensen, Harold Q. Christensen, Earl G. Christensen, Andy J. Draper, Robert L. Ericksen, Harold E. Frandsen, Othello P. Hansen, William Hansen, Harold Glen Johansen, Peter Jordan, Theron L. Jorgensen, Cannon Jorgensen, Drannen Kolstrom, Farrel Larsen, Ervin (Chris) Larsen, Joseph Larsen, Evan McArthur, Perry F. McArthur, Kent Nielsen, Edgar E. Olsen, Seymour J. Olsen, Mont Olsen, William M. Orrock, Axel W. Peterson, Ferry W. Peterson, Ray Prinera, Francis J. Rackman, Que E. Rasmussen, James Howard Rasmussen, Paul F. Reynolds, Peter W. Reynolds, John H. Rosenberg, Hyrum Carlton Seely, Harry Simpson, Gordon Staker, Alden C. Syndergaard, Fern Truscott, William Radford Wagstaff, Daniel LeRoy Wall, and William M. Williams.

 A quote from the Mt. Pleasant Pyramid, our local newspaper, in 1927 states “Battery D is trying hard to be your protection and your pride in times of trouble.  It expects you to give it support and encouragement in times of peace.  ….. With scarcely an exception fathers and employers of these boys said to them, ‘We will make the sacrifice, you go to camp’. “Battery D  extends to those fathers and those employers its sincerest thanks.”  And from a 1933 Pyramid we quote, “During the past eight years’ competition for the regimental merit cup, Battery D has won the coveted honor five times, the last three years in succession.

 Mt. Pleasants’ National Guard Unit Btry D was called up for Federal Service 3 March, 1941 and ultimately fought for our nation in World War II.       

Our Mt. Pleasant Community can be very proud of these men for generations to come.  Mt. Pleasant Pioneer Historical Association and Relic Home appreciate Lee R. Christensen’s very meaningful contribution.

I'm Off To Yakima

For a week or ten days......

     1. I will not be seeing much of this!  

2. nor doing any of this and........

 3.  hopefully shoveling none of this ? 

      But visiting with Tracy, David, their 3 dogs, 5 goats, 3 cats and two horses.    Lee

Dear Hal (Harold Graham Christensen, a cousin to Lee.)

May 20, 1996

Dear Hal,

Of all the Christensens I know, I’m the one most prone to reminisce about family history
so I very much enjoyed your letter to Bruce. Over the years I’ve corresponded with Ruby
Cox Smith, a cousin of our fathers, and I’ve shared your letter with her. She has been my
reminiscing correspondence, though I’ve never met her. It was her father, Bruce Cox, who
built the three big lambing barns at the Oak Creek farm/ranch.

While I’m calling the barns “lambing barns,” I don’t know that that is what they were built
for. I do remember a winter or two when J.W. did not sell his lambs in the fall, but kept
them and perhaps bought others to feed into the winter - a feedlot operation. What I remember
most vividly about the barns is how immense they were to a small boy and how
my mother considered the lamb manure to be pure flower growing gold.

Bruce may have lived for a time at Oak Creek place. During the early days of the Depression,
A.D., Tobey Candland, and Harold Swan all worked for J.W. Steve and Elsie lived at
Oak Creek, but either Alice/Tobey or Maud/Harold may also have lived there. I doubt the
Swans stayed in Fairview for more than a year before returning to California. A.D. and
family left the area for Nevada about 1937. J.W. lost the Oak Creek place about 1935-36.
You were very young so you probably do not remember when all of J.W.’s boys homesteaded
in the Sunnyside area of East Carbon County. I don’t know that any of them but
L.R. bought sheep. They built at least two cabins, Bill’s and L.R.’s. Because Tracy and
L.R. were WWI veterans, they had some advantages over the others. I think all but L.R.
dropped out early. L.R. was challenged when he came to “prove up” and he lost his place.
This forced him to buy in the Schofield area. He may have been there ahead of J.W. It also
forced him to merge his herd, six or seven hundred head, with J.W.’s.

I once asked L.R. how J.W. managed to hold onto his herd while so many big spreads went
under during the Depression. He said the banks could have foreclosed on J.W. and most
other herds in Sanpete County, but that J.W. owned some unmortgaged pasture land that
made his less insolvent, if that’s a description, than others. The banks, of course, had more
sheep than they knew what to do with so were not pressing foreclosures. There was always
the hope and the promise that Roosevelt and the Democrats would turn the economy
around. Which they did, of course, with a big assist from WWII.

Lee

The following is taken from "Utah History To Go" and written by John H.S. Smith.

With its high, dry climate, abundance of bunch grass, excellent breeding program, and "near-perfect transhumance cycle," Sanpete County had proved an ideal place to raise sheep. Unfortunately, the worldwide depression that began in 1929 sent wool prices tumbling. On May 31, 1929, the Manti Messenger had reported that wool was selling at the highest price ever--about a dollar a pound. Then things suddenly changed. Rudolph Hope "related a story of two men who were dickering with a commission man after the peak of the season. Not content with a dollar they were trying for more, but during the bargaining a telegram arrived for the commission man who promptly refused to buy at any price and left. This was the start of the slump and soon wool was fetching as little as five cents a pound, irrespective of quality." The industry would never fully recover.
At the turn of the century Utah had some 2.7 million sheep, and Sanpete was the heart of sheep country. By 1994 the state had only 445,000 sheep and lambs and a wool clip of only 3.8 million pounds. Sheep remain an important element in the state's and Sanpete County's agricultural economy, but the glory days of the 1920s are gone forever.

Sources: John S. H. Smith, "Localized Aspects of the Urban-Rural Conflict in the United States: Sanpete County, Utah, 1919-1929" (M.A. thesis, University of Utah, 1972); History of Sanpete and Emery Counties, Utah (Ogden: W. H. Lever, 1896); Wayne L. Wahlquist, ed., Atlas of Utah (Provo: Weber State College and Brigham Young University Press, 1981).

The entire article will post tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hal was Harold Graham Christensen, a cousin of Lee R. Christensen

Harold Graham Christensen

(Hal)

http://www.starksfuneral.com/obituary?o=670-I8vXQ0aER6

February 28, 1991

Dear Dale,

That was some story you told your mother. The Army runs you off the street at 6 PM.
What will you tell her when you show up back in Centerville with a 4’-8” Korean bride?
You’re mother will want to know how you had time to court her. Better have an honest
story ready. You and I know you’re living a jazzed-up version of your Flint fraternity days
minus the final exams.

I’m just back from the hills with my old dog, Dudley. Actually, he is Robyn’s old dog, but
I take him out every day for 1 1/2 to 2 hours of hiking either along the Yakima River or
Manashtash Ridge. The first two miles from the house1 the latter 10 miles. I prefer the
ridge because I get a more strenuous workout - on a warm day, some sweating. Dudley
doesn’t care. Along the river - rain, wind, sleet, or snow - he’s in the water. On a cold
day, he’s practically a walking ice cube.

The Yakima is a mountain river on its way to the Columbia sixty miles east. It starts fifty
miles west of here. By the time it reaches Ellensburg, it is fifty yards wide and moving. In
the summer, it will have rafters soaking up the sun above and the water below. By the time
they float through the Canyon, they’re water wrinkled down and sun baked up.

Until last June, I hiked with two dogs, Dudley and Wyndam, both flat coat retrievers.
Wyndam was Robyn’s champion - confirmation, obedience, and tracker trained. A truly
great dog. Unlike Dudley, he was not interested in jumping into the river after sticks. He
wanted the real thing. Along the river, I had to watch him so that he did not challenge a
beaver, a muskrat, or a 90-pound king salmon. Just a super dog. But, at age 12, he was
seriously ailing, so we put him down.

In addition (the dogs live with Barbara, my ex-wife), we still have Kitty’s dog, Mollie,
a sheltie. Mollie won’t (never has) hiked with us, but she is always there to welcome us
home. Barbara tells me she loves Dudley’s stories about the wolf he chased and mice the
size of elephants. Dudley can be wild with his stories. Then there is Harold, Barbara’s cat.
Harold is almost as big as Mollie. Here in my apartment I have only Harlem (Little Fleece),
Tracy’s rabbit. He objects to me calling him Little Fleece. Claims I’m threatening him. I
tell him not to worry. I prefer wool in my moccasins and rabbits are to damn stringy to eat.
I’ve also told him that if I slip one more time on one of his little black ball bearings, I’ll
introduce Dudley to him.

I talked with your mother last evening. I thought she had sold all your cars, but she tells
me she still has a small pickup and a big bike for sale—cheap. I told her if I could find my
old black leather jacket, I would buy the bike. Not until warm weather, of course. But I’ve
had second thoughts. Now-a-days, you’ve got to wear a helmet, keep the headlights on,
even be licensed. I like the old days when you could ride with nothing but your oily levies,
a red bandanna and a tattoo, hair a blowing, girls a screaming, cops a chasing. Those were
the days. There was nothing like a 60 yard skid on your side to test the paint job on the old
Harley. Even thinking about the old days calls for a nap.

Hang in there.



Lee

Dale

(Dale is a nephew and a veteran helicopter pilot Iraq)

 Two Photos.  Trying to help King Felix win one>?  I’m sitting one seat left of the left field foul pole (yellow   line ).  My high hard   one is not what it once was but the flutter ball still fools them.   lee

http://mlb.si.com/2013/06/21/king-felix-and-teammates-pay-classy-tribute-to-yocum/

Unknown

KATHY; Until a year or two before WW2 the National Guard Officers wore this uniform. Both Univ of Utah and Utah State had ROTC programs and their grads would wear this uniform. I do not recognize this officer but two who were in the Guard, there were others, that I do remember were Ray Tanner and Harold Frandsen but would not recognize them.



The building bricks look like the Library>? lee

Two Wars ~ Two Troopships ~~ Two Sinkings

TWO WARS-TWO TROOPSHIPS-TWO SINKINGS




World War One SS Tuscania

When the United States declared war on Germany in April of 1917, my father, L R Christensen, was herding sheep for his father, J W Christensen. When the Draft Act passed a few weeks later he became a prime candidate, age 27 and single, to be drafted. He started looking for a military unit he could join that would take him overseas. At some point, he heard about an engineer unit recruiting experienced mill and forestry workers to cut and mill rafters and planking for the trenches. He had worked for his father at his mill up Fairview Canyon and this experience qualified him for the 20th Engineers (Forestry). He reported to American University, Washington D C, December 1917 where the unit was mobilizing. The unit did not spend much time on military matters; they were, after all, going to do in the military what they had been doing as civilians. They sailed for France on the 24th of January, 1918 on the SS Tuscania. Their troopship was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland, early evening 5thof February. This disaster is covered in detail on the internet. Go to:

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~carmita/

To read my fathers’ biography on this website: click on “Archives”, click on “24 January Passenger list”, click on “20 Engineers Co F”, scroll down to Utah and click on “Private Lee R Christensen”

Private Lee R Christensen December, 1917

(center, with receding hair line)

World War Two His Majesty’s Troopship Rohna

Just as in WW 1, it was the passage of a Draft Act that got my father back into the active military. He had been a member of Mt Pleasant’s National Guard unit, Btry D 222nd FA Reg since it was reorganized following WW 1. The Draft Act of August 1940, some 15 months before Pearl Harbor, called for the drafting of men 21 – 35 and the mobilization of all National Guard units. Mt Pleasant’s Btry D with the rest of the 40th Div Utah/California National Guard was called up 3 March 1941 and reported to Camp San Luis Obispo early April just as carpenters drove the last nail completing their mess hall.

A renewal of the Draft Act of 1940, passed in August of 1941, gave the military permission to send draftees and National Guardsmen overseas. The ink on this new Act was barely dry when the 2nd Bn of the 222nd FA Reg that included Btry D was alerted for assignment to the Philippine Islands to sail from San Francisco 10 December. In preparing for this overseas post a number of the older officers considered too old for a combat unit were transferred. My father was one of them.

After Pearl Harbor, and following a number of assignments that included Ex officer of the MP Bn at the Japanese Relocation Center, Santa Anita, he was assigned to train and take overseas a stevedoring Bn (men that load and unload boats). They trained spring and summer of 1943 on the Seattle docks and sailed for Oran, Algeria late September. After a short stay in Oran where the war had moved on, they sailed for India with sections of the Bn on a number of different troopships. My father and his staff were aboard the Egra directly behind the Rohna with a clear but nervous view of the sinking. Like the SS Tuscania in WW 1, this troopship disaster is covered in detail on the Internet. Here are links for more information on the sinking of the HMT Rohna.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMT_Rohna



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glide_bomb

KATHY:  I have now heard from the American Battle Monuments Commission.  There are thirteen Utah  men MIA from the sinking of the troopship Rohna, none from Sanpete County.  lee