The following is from the pen of Lola Eliason, granddaughter of Anders and Annie
Marie, written 20th of February, 1924:

     At the time my grandparents were married there was not much work to be had,
however, my grandmother obtained work at Grantsville, weaving cloth, doing washing,
and other such jobs. That winter they lived in a dug-out. When the rent was due for their
cellar apartment, they had no money, so my grandmother gave the only three dresses she
had to pay for the rent. The only things she had left was 18 pairs of underwear. They
were of very light material.  Bed clothing was a necessity, so she made pillow cases and
sheets out of them. The bed was made of cattails gathered from the swamps.  All that
winter, until the following fall, she washed for the Fort Douglas Army Camp.  She also
did weaving.  Her pay was one to two potatoes and sometimes a little flour, but not much,
for flour was $14.00 per hundred. In August, 1864, she walked to Logan. They built their
home on Fifth North and Second West. While there, their first child, my father, Andrew,
was born.  They lived there until May, 1865, and then by cutting logs and sharing the,
they purchased a lot on Fifth West and Fourth North. They lived here in a tent. He started
to build a house but it was still unfinished by winter, so they put the tent in the house and
thus they spent the winter.

     Grandma spun yarn and carded wool for a little flour and wheat. The lot on which
they lived was very damp and swampy.  Due to hard work and these conditions. Grandma
became very sick. Help was scarce and expensive and Grandpa was away, so she was
there most of the time alone. She was sick for over two months. She had had a bad case
of typhoid fever.

     In the summer Grandpa worked away from home threshing wheat. Grandma would
get up early and gather clay to fill up the chinks in the walls. In the afternoons she would
go out in the fields to glean. She would put the baby to sleep under a shock of wheat and
take her bundle of wheat in. Then she would come back for the baby. After gleaning, she
would flail the wheat. The total amount of her gleaning was 10 bushels; this purchased
her first 3 dinner plates at $1.25 each, two yards of calico at $2.00, and one yard of
sheeting for $1.25.

     The men at this time were all out doing donation work for the Temple and
Tabernacle, roads and canals. The women stayed at home earning a livelihood and caring
for the family. At the end of that fall Grandpa had cut 100 acres of wheat and wild hay
with a cradle-scythe. For 20 acres of hay he received a cow.

     On October 11, 1866, the second child was born, Anna Charlotte, and the next spring
and a year later, the third child was born. May 16, 1868.  It came in the early morning. 
That afternoon Grandma crept on her hands and knees to the pig-pen to feed the little
creatures some bran. No one else was there to do it so she risked her own life that a little
pig should not go hungry. Later that summer, they with another couple journeyed to Salt
Lake and received their endowments. This was one of the happiest days of their lives. In
1870, another child, Selma, was born.

In 1871, they moved to the present home at 207 West Second North.  The lot was
purchased for $125.00, a team of mules and a cow. The living conditions were better
although there was dirt roof and very little furniture. In the spring of 1872, on the 6th of
January, Amanda was born. Shortly after, they moved into this new home. Grandpa
worked for the railroad. When he finished he was only paid 8 cents on the dollar. About
this time their third child, now seven, contacted diphtheria and died.

     One time Grandpa was herding cattle in the swamps. Suddenly he was surrounded by
a band of Indians. They were going to scalp him. He uttered a prayer and one Indian
made the others stop. He said Grandpa had once saved him from starvation. He wasn't
troubled by them again. Soon after, the family contracted the small pox. They were
quarantined for three months. No one would offer help for they were all afraid. The
doctor was also afraid. He wore a large mask, and made the children stay away from him.
He and the mayor were going to take the children to the pesthouse, but the parents
objected too strongly. This house was way up east of the cemetery at the foot of the hills.
Everything had to be fumigated, even the dogs and cats. A hole, eight feet by six feet by
six feet, was dug.  In it went all the clothes and carpets and furniture.  Acid was then
poured over all of it and, of course, it was ruined.  Each one had to take a disinfectant
bath in a hot room (two of the family bathed in the barn), and then, from the bath, they
had to run into the shanty and dress in old clothes that had been given them by the
neighbors. They had to live all winter in an old rock chicken house. It was so cold that
icicles formed in my Aunt Annie's hair. Before the small pox, their horses and chickens
had died and the cow broke her leg. It was extremely hard during all these troubles.

     Grandpa was then called on a mission to Sweden. He was there two successful years.
Grandma, with the help of my father and the other children supported him. At one time,
Grandpa was called to bless Sister Jos. E. Cowley. Immediately after he lifted his hands,
she arose and was well from her sickness. Grandpa was a Sunday School teacher for 40
years. He officiated in the Temple for a year and a half and was a home missionary for
three months. He fell from a load of hay and crushed his hip socket and was bedridden
for 20 months and died in 1911. Grandma was an ardent Relief Society worker and died
of old age at the age of 85 years.

LINKS
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History of Anders Peter Eliason


History of Anna Marie Erickson:(wife) 


Eliasons by Amanda Eliason