ANNA MARIA ERICKSON
(Written by Anna Charlotte Anderson Larsen) Anna Maria Erickson (1833 - 1918)
My grandmother, Anna Maria Erickson was born at Courling Heer, Lena Parish, in Neugeborg, Sweden, October 14, 1833, the daughter of Eric Peterson and Lena Swenson. She was the third child of a family of seven; four boys and three girls whose names are - Christine, Maria, Peter, Svanta, Johan, and a boy and girl whose names are unknown. Grandmother's parents were very, very poor but hard working people. Each member of the family had to help earn their living though they were young. Her parents were also very strict with the children, allowing them few privileges that young children would need to enjoy. Her father made the home laws and enforced them by whipping. When she was seven years old, grandmother earned her part of the living by herding cows. Sometimes there would be a large herd while at other times there would only be a few head. One soggy, wet and rainy spring day, the herd of cows and one horse had sought shelter in some rocks. Grandmother crept under the rocks to keep dry. She became drowsy and fell asleep. Suddenly she was awakened with an unfamiliar sound. The herd had scattered and the horse was running away. A wolf had attacked the herd and was trying to drive the young calf across the marsh. Grandmother knew she just couldn't lose the calf so she found a stick and ran after the wolf. She beat him and yelled and so frightened it away enough to turn the heifer toward home. In the meantime the horse had ran on and her father knew something was wrong so he took his only weapon, a scythe, and ran to where grandmother was defending the herd. Together they frightened the wolf away and took the cows home. Grandmother was eight years old when she hired out to a soldiers wife as a kitchen girl and cow tender. Because her parents were so poor she had no educational advantages. She had never been to school and so had never learned to write, but she could read the Bible some. So her chances for choice work were few. She walked some forty miles to a home near Goteborg and found work. While she lived there, she met a Lutheran Pastor who helped with her reading. Later she became a member of his church and when she was sixteen years old and had accomplished so much in reading the Bible she went to the Parish for her confirmation. She borrowed a white dress from the lady for whom she worked. It was much too large but she wore it anyway, for she couldn't miss a chance to go and get honors from the Pastor. She had memorized most of part of the Bible so as to be a perfect reader. The people couldn't pay her so she left and went to another place for a year and worked hard as a barn girl, caring for the animals, cleaning and scrubbing the barn and caring for the milk. Her pay was only one pair of clogs, one pair of shoes, six shimmies (chemises/shirts), one dress and a few crowns. Then the people thought they had paid her too much, so they let her go. She then went to the house of Anders Nelson in Bordana and hired out for five years. (It was customary to hire out by the year or years.) There, she was a kitchen girl. The work was very hard, with so many heavy things to lift. When the five years were ended she went back to Boras and worked for a former employer. She enjoyed it there for she could go to her church again. She met Oscar Bertson, a Mormon Missionary. He interested her in a new religion. It had for her the very things she was seeking. Secretly she attended the missionaries meetings; carefully she read the available gospel material. It was what she wanted, so she was converted and on November 16, 1859, Elder Bertson baptized her a member of the L.D.S. Church. She was so happy but dared not share her joy with anyone else. She needed work and converts were very unpopular. She was afraid of what her parents would do. Later however the people for whom she worked learned of her conversion but they let her stay for a small pay because she was such a good worker. But then her parents heard she was a Mormon, they disowned her and forbade her to come home. She never saw her family again. One day she was returning from town along the Wetter Sea and two men in a cart overtook her and one man swore at her and threatened to drown her because she was a Mormon. The other man held him in the cart and the horse got frightened and ran away. Later she went and worked for a family by the name of Eliason who was interested in the gospel. She worked hard for the promise of a way to America. A young man was working for the same family, he too wanted to go to the United States. So on April 1, 1863 she, with this family, left their home and traveled to Goteberg where they went by boat to Copenhagen, Denmark and then on to Hamburg, Germany. There they rested for several days in a big house where soldiers lived. There she did the soldiers' laundry and mending, besides that of the Eliason Family. They embarked on a cattle boat, The Teger and for five days were tossed about on the North Sea. It was so rough that most of the cattle died, but the captain wouldn't turn back for he had faith that he would make the trip, because he had Mormons aboard. They landed at Grimsby, England and stayed there for three weeks. Then they took a train across England to the seaport of Liverpool. They set sail for America on the sailing vessel Kimball and were five long weeks on the Atlantic. Grandmother was so seasick that she would have died but for her faith. She worked hard on the boat for the Eliason family and promised to work for them a year in America to pay for her boat passage and trip to Utah. There was much sickness during the voyage and every member of the Eliason family was stricken. Grandmother was nurse to them as well as hired girl. One of the boys died and they buried him in the New York harbor yard. They were too close to land to bury him at sea. America at last. A dream came true. Then they learned that their journey was far from ended. From New York they went to St. Joseph, Missouri on a hog train. It was so filthy that before long they were all lousy and were forced to delouse on the prairie behind bushes. On June 23rd they boarded a steamboat at St. Joseph and went to Florence, Missouri. They were there for three weeks preparing for their journey west. They joined the Independent Train led by Captain Joseph Young. The Eliason Family had a wagon and oxen. They were stingy people and selfish and most inconsiderate of grandmother and the hired man. Grandmother had to take care of the entire family. The woman wasn't well and so rode in the wagon. Grandmother walked all the way and carried a baby (it made the baby sick to ride in the wagon), a bucket, a parasol, and a sack with her few personal things, besides she led a cow. A friendly Indian wanted to carry the baby for her but she would not trust him, but allowed him to carry her sack. He carried it all day but when night came he gave it back to her and returned to his camp. Days later the baby became critically ill and despite grandmother's loving care, it died. They buried it in a crude grave on the prairie. They burned sage over it so the coyotes wouldn't rob it. One of the oxen died and they put the cow in its place so grandmother was relieved of leading it. Soon they met the church train and grandmother met a girl her age. They became very good friends. One morning early the two girls left camp and climbed upon a rock rim above camp. There they sat watching the camp's movements and enjoying a break from yoking the oxen and packing. The young man, whose name was Peter, missed the girls. He looked for them and when he couldn't find them, he reported it to Elder Bernson, he in turn reported it to Captain Young. He mounted a horse and went searching the country. He feared the Indians had stolen them. The girls were delighted over the concern they were causing. The captain found them and reprimanded them for being so careless and foolish and delaying the journey. Mr. Eliason wouldn't give grandmother any dinner that day and she had to walk until after 11 p.m. The captains of the two trains decided the people were mixing too much so the companies separated a day's journey apart. So grandmother lost her girl friend. Peter was kind to grandmother and helped her whenever he could, but Mr. Eliason watched him closely and wouldn't allow them many favors. One river they had to cross was too deep for her to wade so Peter let her ride the wagon tongue. Some how her skirt caught in the wheel and she would have drowned but Peter tore it loose. At one place the oxen stampeded and a woman was killed. It was peculiar, for similar trouble had occurred to other trains at that particular place. When they entered Emigration Canyon, they were very much impressed with its beauty and elated at the change of country. The mountains were inspirational and majestic, such natural wonders they had never seen. Grandmother was walking beside Peter and they allowed the oxen to wander off the trail and tip the wagon over into the creek. Nothing was damaged too badly and they were soon righted up and on their way but separated. At sundown on the evening of Saturday, September 11, 1863 their company entered Tithing Yard in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sunday, September 12, Captain Young said he would marry anyone from his company for he was leaving to go back. So Grandmother and Peter were married that Sunday night, September the 12th, 1863. Her year wasn't up in working out her passage, so Grandmother was obliged to go with the Eliason family to Grantsville and work until October. Then her debt was paid and her promise kept. She walked back to Salt Lake. Night overtook her and she was afraid to cross the Jordan River so she sat by a rock all night. She walked in to Salt Lake the next morning and found Peter who had found work. Her first home was a dugout in a dirt bank. They had to pay rent on it too, which was $4.00. They had no money for rent, so she gave her four extra dresses to pay it. The only bedding they had was what she had made from some extra underwear. Their bed was made of cattails she had gathered from the swamps. That winter and the following summer she did the washings for the soldiers at Fort Douglas Camp. She washed sixteen uniforms by hand every day and was paid one dollar. She also did weaving and made many yards of cloth. Her pay for weaving was sometimes potatoes or flour, not very much though because flour was $14.00 for a hundred pounds and wheat was $5.00 a bushel. She wove some material for one of Brigham Young's wives and was paid with a potato and was later charged for it. They decided to move to Logan, Utah to make their home. Grandfather went ahead to get located. In August he sent word for her to come. So she gathered together their few possessions and started walking. President Snow (An apostle then) gave her a ride into Brigham City, on a wagon load of potatoes. The next day a man took her baggage on the running gears of his wagon and she walked. He let her ride the gears across the river. She walked the rest of the way into Logan, down the main street where she found Grandfather working. They purchased a small farm in Logan, their first child John Emil, was born January 7th, 1865. In the spring Grandfather cut logs on shares in order to get enough to build a house. Grandmother carded wool and spun yarn to exchange for flour and wheat, etc. Matches were then 75 cents a box, muslin $1.25 a yard, nails $1.25 a pound. Grandfather worked away from home on a threshing machine. Grandmother kept the house repaired with clay from the land. She gleaned grain from the fields. Often she would put the baby to sleep and cover him with grain while she carried the gleanings home. She would flail the gleanings for the whole wheat and keep the straw to make bed mattresses. From her first gleanings she had ten bushels. With that she purchased her first three dinner plates for $1.25 each, 2 yards of calico, $4.00, and one yard of bleach, $1.25. In the summer of 1869 they went to Salt Lake with some other couples by oxen teams and wagon and received their endowments. Grandfather put in a great amount of his time doing donation work for the building of the Logan Temple, Tabernacle, roads, irrigation canals and the churches. He cut one hundred acres of wild hay with a scythe and cradle. For cutting twenty acres of wild hay he received one cow. In 1871 they moved to another lot nearer town. It cost them $125.00 for a team of mules and a cow. The location was more favorable, though they lived in a dirt-roofed log cabin with very little furniture. Grandfather worked on the railroad then. One day sometime later grandfather was herding cattle in the swamp and suddenly found himself surrounded by a group of yelping Indians. They prepared to scalp him. He offered a silent prayer that his life might be spared. Then there appeared a friendly Indian and commanded the others to stop molesting. The Indian knew grandfather. One time grandfather had given the Indian food and helped when he was near death. The Indians never troubled grandfather again. For three months the entire family was quarantined because of small pox. People were afraid of it so no one would stop in and offer aide. Their food supply ran low, also other things until they were in serious need. One brave neighbor sensed their conditions and called a doctor. He was as much afraid of the disease as anyone else and when he made his call he wore a mask and continually told the children to stay away from him. He and the mayor wanted to put the afflicted ones in the pest house. It was an open shanty near the cemetery, but the parents objected so they remained home and the quarantine flag stayed tacked on the house until all had recovered, then a thorough fumigation of carbolic acid given. This ate up their clothing, rugs, and bedding. Then they were on their friends' mercy for help, but grandmother never doubted her convictions that God had favored her family with many blessings. When her youngest child was nearing ten years of age, grandfather received a call and accepted to go on a mission to Sweden. Although grandmother knew what sacrifices it meant, she encouraged him to go. She had been blessed with a wonderful family of three boys and four girls, so with them she worked hard to keep grandfather on his mission for two years. While he was in Sweden he returned to his old home and saw his mother. He wanted her to come to Utah with him, but she said no, she wouldn't come over to where she would have to pull a plow. He tried to find grandmother's parents but couldn't. After he returned from Sweden, they built them a nice brick house in 1904. When they burned down the log house the carbolic odors were still strong. They enjoyed their new home. Grandmother continued to weave carpet and card wool. She made many beautiful quilts. Grandfather had an accident while stacking hay and broke his hip. From that day on he never recovered. He died March 4, 1911. Seven years later Grandmother died, December 24, 1918. She was small in stature; so very much alert, gentle, gracious and very wise. She was loved by all who knew her. She loved and supported the things that stood for better living. My grandmother made a dress for my mother out of the two yards of calico all hand made and I (Charlotte) have this dress today.
John M. Anderon (great grandson) wrote: I shall always remember my little Great Grandma. She always did have something nice to eat whenever I used to visit her. She was a member of the Church for ten years when her sister came to Zion. These two were the only ones of her family to join the Church. (Great) Grandpa was the only one in his family to join. He wanted to bring his mother back with him from his mission, but she refused, saying, "I don't want to go to Zion to pull plows and be a slave in my old age!"
Christean MATTISON is Christina ERIKSSON, sister of Anna Marie Erickson Eliason 1880 CENSUS
| NAME | RELATION | MARITAL STATUS | GENDER | RACE | AGE | BIRTHPLACE | OCCUPATION | FATHER'S BIRTHPLACE | MOTHER'S BIRTHPLACE |
| Andres MATTISON | Self | M | Male | W | 60 | SWE | Labr | SWE | SWE |
| Christean MATTISON | Wife | M | Female | W | 49 | SWE | Keep House | SWE | SWE |
Census Place: Logan, Cache, Utah Family History Library Film: 1255335 NA Film Numbr: T9-1335 Page Number: 141D
LINKS
Record of Voyage to America from Mormom Immigration Index CD ROMRETURN TO ANDERSON HOME PAGE Anderson Photo Index Anderson History Index Immigration Page Pioneer Page History of Anders Peter Eliason (husband)
10890 Bohm Place
Sandy, Utah 84094
