Father's family cheated by the LDS church and my Father's childhood memories.

I want to share a little bit of family history about my grandparents on my father’s side. Recently the following story was sent via an email list that my aunts, uncles and cousins on my father’s side all belong to. First I need to provide some context about my father’s family. My dad was one of 11 children and was raised during the depression. Let me list out his family so you can get a clue to where he fit in and the timeframe these stories take place. These will be from my dad’s point of view.

Mother 1906
Father 1903 (died 1951)
1 M 1924
2 M 1926
3 F 1928
4 M 1930
5 M 1933 (twin)
6 M 1933 (twin) <- My dad
7 M 1935
8 F 1936
9 F 1940
10 F 1945 (twin)
11 M 1945 (twin)

All right, now with that set up, I’ve replaced people’s names with their number and M/F to keep things more anonymous. Sorry if that makes the stories harder to read.

1M wrote the following:

Dad was making pretty good progress building his contracting business. He had a large crew of men working during the depression and had contracts lined up for several months. The the 21st ward, of which he was a member, asked him to bid on a contract to paint the ward building inside and out. He submitted his bid and it was accepted. He was to be paid at the end of the contract.

The building was a fairly substantial size requiring scaffolding inside and out as well as large quantities of paint (two coats were required), tools and a good part of his crew. He bought the lumber for scaffolding, the tools and materials needed on credit with the promise that he would pay the bill when he received his payment at the completion of the contract. His crew had to be paid each week because the completion of the job would take about two months and they couldn't wait to be paid. He managed to pay them out of the proceeds from other jobs he had going. At the end of the job he went to the bishop to get his check and the bishop told him he didn't have any money for that purpose and that he thought dad would contribute this work to the church as a good member. Dad explained that he certainly couldn't afford to do that and that he had an agreement with the bishop to be paid at the end of the contract. But there was no way he could get paid.

The next year we moved over to 3rd Avenue and were members of the 27th ward. David O. McKay, who would become the next president of the church, lived in that ward as well. The bishop asked dad if he would bid to paint the 27th ward inside and out. Dad explained what had happened at the 21st ward and wanted assurances from the bishop that the money was on hand to pay for the work at the end of the contract. The bishop assured him that the money was there. So dad did the work on that ward. He got the same response at the end of the job as he had got from the 21st ward.

Dad painted and wallpapered the home of Heber J. Grant, who was president of the church at that time, and pleaded President Grant  to be paid for his work on the 27th ward. (I was present at the time, pasting wallpaper for dad as he was hanging it and heard the conversation.) President Grant said he would look into it. A couple of weeks went by during which dad heard nothing, So he talked to President Grant again. President Grant told him there was nothing he could do.

Dad was in a real financial bind. He had used most of his income to pay his crew.  The suppliers wanted their money for the supplies they had provided and dad could pay only a little bit at a time. He missed several house payments and lost our home. Later, while we lived in Idaho, 6M (Spots dad) contracted osteomyelitis and required  a lot of travel. They finally found a doctor at the Dee Memorial Hospital in Ogden who diagnosed the case and instituted treatment, i.e., a series of bone grafts that were unsuccessful. So the medical bills were staggering Then he had a series of heart attacks, the last of which killed him at the age of 47. For the rest of his life he never caught up from the fraud the church had perpetrated. The fraudulent methods by the bishops at the two wards were identical, just about word for word, so I became convinced that it was church policy to get their maintenance done during the Great Depression by these methods.

Dad worked extremely hard without ever having even a week's vacation for the rest of his life trying to dig himself out of that hole.

I wasn't present at the 21st Ward fraud, but I witnessed the negotiations at the 27th ward, the refusal to pay, dad's pleading with Heber J. Grant and Grant's failure (or unwillingness) to rectify the wrong. Dad talked to David O. McKay about it too, but got nowhere. (I was not present at that conversation.) So, I know firsthand what happened and the destitution it caused.

I should mention that dad also did work for some of Heber J. Grant's daughters (he had no sons). I remember in particular Mrs. Lyman and Mrs. Cannon. They were all fine individuals on a personal basis. It was in Grant's capacity of church leader that he failed to rectify the wrong. That may have been because he was not free to override church policy.

2M wrote the following:

Our family moved from Salt Lake City to Twin Falls, Idaho, on 9 November 1941, 4M's birthday. 1M was 16 and had graduated from East High School. I was 14 and still in Bryant Junior High School. 1M had been working with Dad for years, summers and weekends, since he was 12 years old. I had been working with Dad only during the summers. So 1M was in on the activities he has reported on here. I was not privy to them, only their consequences.

Dad did have a large painting crew working for him, primarily in new construction. He even took in several relatives, gave them a job, and taught them the painting business. At Dad's funeral, I remember one of his former workers came and spoke with me. He expressed his very deep appreciation for what Dad had done for him, giving him a job, teaching him a trade, making it possible for him to earn a living and support his family.

But the consequences of the Church's cheating Dad out of the money he had earned from his own honest labor had terrible consequences on our entire family.

We arrived at Twin Falls, Idaho, on 9 November 1941. It was cold. What small amount of our household goods that were shipped from Salt Lake were placed in storage until the shipping fees could be paid. Mother rented an unfurnished house. Dad and 1M searched Twin Falls for jobs, but they were hard to come by there. They finally found painting jobs through John Kines' lumber company. Dad earned $8 per day and 1M earned $4 per day. They were able to pay for the shipping charges at the freight office. The cardboard packing cases came in very handy. They were used as mattresses for several of the children as there were not enough beds to go around for all. Our dinners were mostly boiled potato and onion soup. But no seconds.

In the Spring of 1942, 1M and Dad went to Spokane in search higher paying jobs. I joined them there in May after school ended. In the summer, we all went to Vancouver, Washington. Dad and 1M got jobs working for Keiser painting houses for the workers who worked in the shipyards building the Victory ships. I got a job at Jansen Beach north of Portland across the Columbia River from Vancouver.

While we were in Vancouver, Mother moved the the rest of the family to Idaho Falls, Idaho. Mother was raised by the missionary families that brought her to the U. S. They lived at Goshen just south of Idaho Falls.

Dad, 1M, and I moved to Idaho Falls in the Fall of 1942. 1M had previously enlisted in the U. S. Army Air Corps. In January 1943, 1M received his orders to report for active duty.

The family moved to St Anthony, Idaho.

So, instead of having a stable family life, at the same safe and and stable location in Salt Lake, our family was on the move and in a very dire survivor mode after the two church wards cheated Dad from the money they legitimately owed him.

The key point here is that these particular incidents were not of Dad's own making. He was cheated and the consequences described were the result.

Those are merely some of the consequences. There are others as well.

4M wrote the following:

We arrived in Twin Falls, Idaho on a very cold night, below freezing temperature.  Our mother found a room in a small hotel near the bus station.  The next day she found a room to rent.  I say she, because I don't remember our father being with us that night.  After Dad, 1M, and 2M left for Portland the rest of us lived with our mother for more than a year.  Our mother exercised no discipline over me for the next several years even though I was only 11 to 14 years old.  We moved from Twin Falls to Idaho Falls, where we lived when our father returned with 2M.  I don't remember 1M being with us at that time.  We then moved to St. Anthony.  2M and I worked with our father whenever possible.  I worked more in the Summer and on holidays, 2M worked more often.  I was still undisciplined and wondered about wherever and whenever it suited me.  Our mother decided to reign in control about my age 14 and my life became unbearable at home.  She and our father engaged in corporal punishment because that's what they had been taught in Norway.  After an unhappy three years I joined the Army with our parent's consent.

Our brother, 5M, was converted to a housewife while 6M (Spots dad) was in the hospital in Utah.  He was kept home from school for a year to keep the house because our mother didn't feel up to it.  There were two occasions in her life when she had difficulty dealing with reality.  One was in St. Anthony, Idaho and the other was in Sandy, Utah after the death of our father.

The next time I saw my family was at our father's funeral.  1M had purchased a small life insurance policy on our father when provided the burial funds.  Otherwise, there would have been nothing to pay funeral expenses.

I remember the problems with the Mormon church which happened prior to our leaving Salt Lake City from our father's comments.  There were additional conflicts with the faith in Idaho.

Outcome

I had no idea any of this had happened. I wasn’t told the above stories at all when I was a child.

Only three of my aunts, my grandmother and my father stayed in the church. Everyone else left as they became adults. I think it was because my father spent so much time (1 year at a minimum) alone in the hospital that he grew so strong in his faith (delusion.) The missionaries, local leaders, nurses and doctors (all LDS) were basically the only ones that visited him in the hospital, because it was too far to travel for my other aunts and uncles. Not to mention how impossible it was for them to find the money or time to go see him regularly. They were all trying their best to survive. It was during the depression and the aftermath, and they had just been hosed, not once, but twice by the church.

Memories from my dad:

The following statements were dictated by 6M(Spot’s dad) to his wife July 27. 1984

I lived in the 27th ward in Salt lake City from 1937 -1940

My grades in school were mostly F's and a few D's. We were supposed to get a dollar for D's starting in the 5th grade through the 8th grade.

5M and I were always the youngest in our class because of our late August birthday.

In the 5th grade I told a joke to the whole class I said - This kid had a headache, the doctor told her, to take an aspirin - so she went and sat on the stove. The teacher came down to where I was sitting at my desk and she slapped my face and sent me out of the classroom. I didn't think it was that bad. The biggest joke was on me because all the kids .laughed at me.

" There were fights every year in school - I had to defend myself."

" I had both my thumbs tore open from logger boots, clambering on me while playing soccer on the ice-packed play ground."

Every spring we would play marbles. 4M would never let us play in his circle, he would say " this is for big kids, not little kids."

" We would have rock throwing contests, kick the can, steal the bottle, and hike down the river."

" I lost the top layer of my tongue and lips on the frozen bridge wall."( in St. Anthony - Snake River)

" In winter we walked on the frozen 12' foam."

" We went any place we could to get money - we would walk down the highway picking up beer bottles, so we could go to see a movie at the saturday matinee."

" In late spring as soon as school was out we would take our sling shots and hunt for magpies - we'd get paid $0.10 a head. We'd go to the show, or buy candy."

" When I was 11 year old - I bought my own school clothes. A winter coat, two pairs of Levis pants which cost $2.50 a pain. Two pairs of socks, one pair of shoes. Mother went with me, - she put up a stink because I wanted to buy them myself."

"When I was 12 years old I used my own money to get my tonsils taken out. I worked hard for two weeks. Dr. Soule took them out. I got really sick."

" In october after the first frost I harvested potatoes. I bought my own logger boots. I could pick up 200 baskets of potatoes a day. Two of us worked together. Some days I made $2.40 a day, working from sun-up to sun-down. I rode the work-horse back to the barn, sweat pouring off the horse, it irritated my skin raw."

" I grew six inches in height between my 12th and 13th year."

" I remember 3F & 4M having knock-out, drag-out fights because we ate all the food before she could get it on the table. Everybody would eat the potatoes while she was peeling them. She would say " I can't get enough here to cook."

" We had a new electric stove, and a deep-well cooking pan. We ate a lot when it was there. We ate six quarts of mush for breakfast. Other times six quarts of hot cake batter was stirred up."

"The groceryman said he couldn't believe all the groceries we went through."

" There was four of us bringing the groceries in the front door, and two of us carrying the garbage out the back door."

" My Dad would cut our hair with hand-squeezed clippers. We hated it because it pulled our hair out, and nicked our necks."

" Blesterburg. the groceryman at South Side Market in St. Anthony, cut my hair and 5M's three or four times, with his electric clippers, because we were so shabby."

" Once or twice a week I worked in his store, stacking shelves, and stacking boxes in the back room, taking the eggs to the boxes from the crates. It was just a little job, I got .25 - .50 In a great while I got $1.00."

" For April Fools Day,unbeknown to us, there were red chi li corns inside the shelled spanish peanuts, and ex-lax in the Hershey bar wrappers."

" When 5M and I were 12 years old, going on 13 - we went to Scout Camp. I ate 13 hot cakes and 11 fried eggs. 5M ate 11 hot cakes and 13 fried eggs. When we were driving home on the big open-flat potato truck we threw the left - over eggs at the cars going past."

"Mom and Dad took the whole family in our old 1933 Model B four-door sedan to Ashton. The car threw a rod, the car overheated, a chemical was put in the gas tank to clean out rings and valves, and it smoked all the way down the highway. It left a cloud of smoke for miles. I don't remembers how we got home."

" We had a fire in the house in St. Anthony. Dad remodelled it all. The house used to be a boarding house - so it was large. Cigar butts were in all the registers. There was a fireplace upstairs. We sanded all the floors, and repainted the whole house. The three porches were turned into bedrooms."

" 4M, 5M, 7M, and I slept in one sunporch room. It was only wide enough for two single cots. 4M slept in one. 5M, 7M, and I slept on the other cot. There was a fight every night between us, to see if I had to sleep at the foot of the cot. I always won because I could whip them both together."

" We had a pup tent that we would sleep in the summer time, outside on the lawn. We used to have rock throwing contests. Everyone thought we were asleep in the pup tent on our lawn. 5M, 7M and I and our friends would see who could break out the street light. Then we would all hide from the police. We would hide in garbage cans and the trees, and around the block. We needed the arch light out so it would be dark, and we could play kick the can. One would be IT and count 25 - 100. IT would find the others and jump oven the can. The others would try to get home by kicking the can. I can remember 4M played with us a couple of times."

EARLY BEGINNINGS of 6M(Spot’s dad) written by his wife from her memory on 9/9/97

6M told me he remembered getting lost at a very young age. (Seems like it was sometime before he was five years old.) The Jensen Family lived on the Avenues of Salt Lake City, Ut. He was crying his eyes out and bawling loudly as he wandered up and down the streets from house to house, looking for his house. His pitiful wailing stirred the kind heart of a neighbor. She came to his rescue, and took him home. He actually was only two blocks from home.

6M told me when he was give on six years old he went to see the movie "The Wizard of Oz," with his twin brother 5M. The wizard terrified him, and he let his feelings be known. At that point he became the attention of all within hearing. He got up out of his seat, and ran around the movie house, wailing loudly. He was assisted to wait outside . He remembered crying all the way home. It took him a long time to get oven this frightful ordeal.

6M told me he usually got into scrapes and fights at the beginning of each school year. Marking his boundaries. He didn't want anybody getting the best of him. He was ready to defend himself for one reason or another.

When the family Lived at St. Anthony, Idaho, for summertime fun. 6M, 5M, and 7M would go swimming in the fast-moving snake river, which was full of holes and jagged sticks. It was the height of their adventure to dive off the dangerously high cliffs into the treacherous river, dodging the unexposed boulders.

There is a story about 6M's bicycle, and his ice skates. Seems like he worked for a long time earning the money and saving it up. When he bought his bicycle he was required to share it with others members of the family, as a result the bicycle got wrecked. His ice- skates were banned to teach him a lesson.

There was one particular time that 6M remembered when money and good were very scarce. Apparently when the family first moved to St. Anthony all they had was fifty pounds of flour, and fifty pounds of potatoes, and some oil. He said they ate homemade doughnuts, and spudnuts for three months. This was all they had to eat.

6M told me when the family moved to Union ( fifteen miles south of S.L.C.) He had a fight with his mother. He ran away from home for the summers. He hitched a ride to St. Anthony, where he stayed with his friends for six weeks.

When he went back to his home in Union he was too stubborn to go inside the house. He slept in the chicken coop for three months. His brothers, 5M or 7M would bring him bread and his Mom's homemade strawberry preserves to eat. ( Needless to say strawberry jam was not on the top of his list of favorites.) He did venture into the house when it got too frosty in the chicken coop. He slept on the hard cement basement floor for three years.

One day when he awoke in the morning he found he had the shell of a stink bug in his mouth. He made other sleeping arrangements after that tasty episode. Another time he told me about when he was growing up; He melted and ate a two pound block of velvetta cheese. He ate it all by himself, Yes, the whole thing! It made him sick. After that he never was big on grilled cheese sandwiches. This was a disappointment to me, because this was the only thing I knew how to cook when he married me.

He went to bed with his clothes on - especially his Levis pants. 7M his younger brother, who was the same size, had the habit of taking 6M's clean clothes and wearing them. They each were required to launder their own clothes, and 7M's clothes stood up in the corner by themselves. Stinky socks were a problem too. 6M would have to hurry and be the first one up in the morning to retrieve his clean blue jeans from the laundry line, that he had washed out by hand the night before.

The year when 6M was in the hospital, and wasn't able to attend school, 5M his twin brother stayed out of school too. 6M said 5M didn't want to go to school without him. 5M told me July 31, 1997 when I visited with him. He 5M, was needed at home that year. He had to tend the younger children while PaPa worked, and his Mom was off in the psychiatric department with her own health problems. 5M was responsible for washing the cloth diapers for the young twins-10F and 11M. 6M told me he took his turn washing their diapers too. Scrubbing them by hand in the bathtub, until his fingers bled.

It was their job to wash the big kitchen floor in their home in St. Anthony. It would take 5M most of the day to wash the floor on his hands and knees. He was very thorough, and when he got through it was spotless. 6M had other plans for his day. When it was his turn to wash the floor he was much faster than 5M, - only taking him forty-five minutes to get the whole floor washed. His Mom came in to take a look after he was finished. She took the bucket of water and threw it all over the floor and told 6M, "Now wash it clean."

While in the L.D.S. hospital Halloween night, 6M never forgot the trick that the doctors played on the resident nurses. The doctors went into the nurses quarters after the nurses left on their dates for the evening, and smeared gobs of honey on the toilet seats. The sounds coming from their quarters were none too sweet, later that evening when the nurses returned home.

While living in St. Anthony SOME BOYS would play mischievous tricks. Turning over out-houses Halloween Night was one of them. SOME BOYS... (so I was told)... would fill the contents of the out-house into a paper sack, and place it on the front poach of a house, and set fire to it. Another SOME BOY... would ring the front door and all the SOME BOYS would run and hide. They would peek out from their hiding places to see the owner of the house open the door and seeing a burning sack on his front porch would jump on the sack with both feet - trying to stomp out the fire. There was slipping and sliding and cussing, and then a yell to MaMa - "Get me mah gun." About that time the fun was over and SOME BOYS bolted home.

As a young man, before 6M was married he lived -in an upstairs apartment on the avenues. Not remembering it was Halloween there came a knock on his door. When he went and opened the door much to his surprise there stood two trick or treaters. He went into his kitchen to look in his cupboards to see what he could give them. A shredded wheat with honey on it is all he could find, so he gave them that. No more trick or treaters climbed his stairs that night. Suppose the word went out - "he was doing tricks"- not treats!!

When 6M's father was training his sons in the painting profession he told 6M he would never become a painter like his brothers, because of his short arm, and stiff shoulder. But 6M persevered and through his determination learned to use his left hand. When 6M was a young man of 32 years of age he had built up a very successful painting business, - he had thirty men on the payroll, working for him.