Little Leah Williams Runs Away

Continuing with the Family History field trip Tracy and I took the kids on last summer...

After we got over the shock of Grandma Alta Jespersen lying about her age so she could get married, we headed up to Ogden so the kids could see where Grandma Leah Jespersen grew up.  Ooops! No such luck.  It turns out all of Mom's houses have been torn down and replaced by a gas station or shopping center.  However, we did retrace the path she would have taken from her house to her grandma's house when she ran away.  Mom was only 4 years old when she decided things weren't going her way, and headed off to her Grandma (Harriet) Williams a few blocks away for some love and attention. We drove the distance in the car, and couldn't believe a four-year old made it all that way by herself.

Little house on Madison Avenue

We were taking photos of the house when the resident came outside.  We assured her that we were not stalkers and told her our great-grandparents had lived there in the 40s.  She was really nice and invited us inside to look around.  We could not believe how tiny the kitchen was; there was a tiny stove, a little sink and a small refrigerator.  No counter space!  The basement was maybe seven feet high; I can't imagine spending a great deal of time there, but Mom and Jay stayed there for four weeks when Grandma went to St. Louis to see Grandpa during basic training in WWII.

Our hostess was kind enough to take us into the backyard and show us the storage shed/workshop.  She had found an old toolbox with old square iron nails that the owner said belonged to my great-grandfather.  We collected enough nails for all the grandkids, but they disappeared at some point.  If any of the Byron Jespersens or Van Horns have extras, let me know.

John and Hattie Williams, ca. 1956

Grandma Lied!

Last August Tracy and I decided to take her two kids on a little genealogy field trip.  I realize that genealogy may seem a little boring to teenagers, so we were careful to keep it interesting.  Mark is 12 and Shannon is 16, so I thought a story about someone who was their age might make a good start. First up was a trip to the Davis County Courthouse in Farmington, Utah.

Shannon, Tracy & Mark

When we arrived, I told them the story of how Grandma and Grandpa Jespersen eloped to this very courthouse in 1918. That got their attention.  I told them that Grandma and Grandpa met while they were at the Smithsonian School in Ogden, where they were both receiving vocational training (Grandma's dad died when she was not yet 13, so her mother needed some help with the family finances).  Great Grandma Fox would not have been very happy to find that the daughter she had just spent all this tuition money on would be leaving the nest, so they ran off to another county to get married. Since Grandpa had to report for bootcamp the next week (he was drafted in WWI), I'm sure they felt some urgency to get married before he left; however, they were so scared of Grandma Fox, that they both went home to their own houses after the wedding and didn't tell their parents for a week!

We went into the courthouse, and a very nice gentleman who followed us in asked if he could help us.  I explained that our grandparents had been married here in 1918, and we were hoping to get a copy of the marriage license.  He told us that they usually just order up the digital file, but since we'd come all this way in person, he would retrieve the original document for us. He took us down the hall and opened up a little room in which they kept all the licenses and minutes of the county meetings. He climbed to the very top of the ladder and retrieved the marriage license.

Tracy and I each paid for a copy of the license, and with some excitement began poring over the document. We both looked at each other at the same moment when we read the age of our grandmother on the license.  Grandma lied! We knew they'd been married the day before her 17th birthday, but she stated on the license that she was 18!

After thanking the staff at the courthouse, we wandered around this beautiful building; Mark and Shannon were drawn to the stained glass windows and the memorial to the soldiers who have served from the county.

Mark expended some energy in front of the courthouse on this colorful bison.

Seeing the place where Alta Eugenia Miller and Arthur Henry Jespersen eloped was a great start to our field trip.