I was born on 22 July, 1899, at Hyrum, Cache Co. Utah, in a large old rock home, built by my mother's father, Andrew Andersen. He was christened Anders Monsen, 22 Jan. 1836, at Onsoy, Parish, Ostfold, Norway. He assumed the name of Andrew Anderson on immigrating to Utah as a 19 year old boy in 1855, walking across the plains driving an ox team, or shortly after as there seems no record of just when he changed his name.
In 1902 my parents moved to Ogden, UT. My father had received a Civil Service appointment as a Rail Road Mail Clerk for the U.S. Postal Service, working on trains running out of Ogden. In the spring of 1904, because of a work transfer for father we moved to Salt Lake city. We lived in a small house on the west side of Windser Ave. about ˝ block south of 9th So. That summer a house was being built across the street from where we were living. Men were shingling the roof and dropped nails at times on the ground. I, with one or two other boys, gathered the shingle nails up off the ground and then climbed up the wood ladder to the scaffold and handed the nails to the workmen. As I handed a hand full of nails to one of the men, I slipped off the scaffold and fell to the ground, landing on a large red sandstone rock and broke my left leg just below the hip. As a result of this accident I spent part of the later summer in bed till my leg was better.
In the spring of 1906, our family moved to a red brick house at 1053 So. 8th East. My parents started to buy the place and a vacant lot next to it on the south side, where they built a duplex to rent after a few years. In September, 1906, I started to attend the hamilton Grade School on 8th East and 8th South. I attended this school through the 7th grade.
During the summer months of 1913, I worked in Hyrum, Utah, for my mother's brother, Uncle Hyrum, called “Hivy.” I had to milk cows, feed calves, pigs and learn to do a lot of farm work in the hay fields, with grain bundles and other work. Uncle Hivy lived in the old rock house I was born in. I received $30.00 for my first new bicycle. It did not have mud guards or a coaster break on it, as they cost more. Father wanted me to buy a secondhand bike so I would have money for other items but I wanted the new outfit.
During the summer of 1914, I got my first job using my new bicycle as a delivery boy for a neighbor, Mr. Fred Galigher, who ran the Goodyear Shoe Repair shop, on 3nd So. Near State Street. I had to call for and deliver shoes for repair, riding all over town. I received $5.00 a week. In the fall of 1913 I went to the Emerson grade school out near 10th East and about 1335 South, graduating from the 8th grade there, 12 June, 1914.
In August 1914, my parents traded their property on 8th East for a white brick home on a square acre of ground at 3396 So. 9th East and 33rd so., having 5 blocks each way to walk each day. My 3 oldest sisters next to me went to the Roosevelt Grade School on 9th E. and 33rd So. My sister Pearl and brothers Leonard and Leo were too young for school. Leo being about 9 months old. During the 4 years at Granite High School I studied agriculture subjects, math including trigonometry, chemistry, physics, and all the manual training in wood work courses given etc.
The summer of 1915, I spent in Hyrum again working on uncle Hivy's farms in Hyrum and College Ward in the Logan bottoms, about 3 miles away. In Hyrum we had 16 cows to milk twice a day, lots of new born calves to feed along with pigs, horses and other farm work, cutting wood for the kitchen stove, pumping water for the stock and the house. The time during the day was spent in the hay fields and grain areas in the Logan bottoms. I had to do a man's work cutting and hauling hay and grain etc. Most of the evenings I had to ride uncle Hivy's old buckskin horse bare back up to Hyrum to do the milking and other chores for the night and morning, while he worked out I the fields in college Ward.
After the morning chores I would take the cows down to the nearby pasture for the day, then ride the horse down to work all day with uncle Hivy in the fields bringing him his lunch for the day. I received a dollar a day and board for my work, and was glad I had a job. Sundays I would go to the Hyrum 3d Ward Sunday School to see and be with my cousins, the Miller and Andersons etc. Sunday afternoon I would join my cousins and we would go swimming in the Wellsville Canal west of Hyrum for our weekly bath.
During the summer of 1916, and winter of 1916-17, I carried 2 newspaper routes, the evening Telegram and morning Herald. The morning paper route extended from 33 so. To 39. So. And from 7th East to Highland Drive. That winter we had lots of deep snow and wind. Snow drifts would be from 3 to 6 feet deep. Some cold mornings I would hire Mr. Horn's horse for $.25 a morning riding bareback to deliver papers. Often I would have to walk, leading the horse in the snow to get my legs and feet thawed out. One morning in my chemistry class one foot began to pain me. I left the class and went to the lab where I could put my foot under cold running water. My foot was still not thawed out and the frost gave me trouble. As a result I have had trouble with the leg for several years after, in the winter.
I graduated from the Granite High School in June, 1918. In this spring of 1916, Mother started our home poultry experience by buying 132 day old baby chickens from California, shipping them here by R.R. express. I helped her with the raising the baby chickens so we could have eggs to sell. Father's wages did no go very far in keeping care of his big family of 7 children, as we needed some other source of income to help out. In the spring of 1917, Mother bought 500 day old chicks. Those days the baby chicks were not sexed, so half were roosters of those that survived. In the summer of 1917, I sold Fuller brushes in the neighborhood. The latter part of the summer I sold brushes in Delta, Deseret, and in the Tintic mining district with fair success for a boy 18 years old. I took my bicycle with me to ride in the small towns, shipping it from town to tow on the Rail Road express.
In the spring of 1918 we bought a thousand or more day old chicks. Then for a few years I worked with Mother in our poultry business. We would buy up to 4,000 day old chicks each spring. We would kill the roosters as 1 ˝ pound fryers, take their feathers off and sell them to stores and folks who came to the house, along with the eggs. Wednesday and Saturdays we had regular egg routes serving apartment houses in town and stores to sell our eggs and fryers and old stewing hens etc.
In 1921 a year of high prices we sold eggs for $.90 to $1.00 per doz. To our apartment customers. Wheat and corn was $5.00 to $6.00 per cwt. Our monthly grain bills would be $600.00 to $800.00, with a profit of $200.00 to $300.00 per month. It was a hay day we thought in the business for our family growing up and taking part etc.
On 25 Sept. 1918, I was ordained an elder in the Wilford Ward. Many young men were joining the army for the war. The Ward bishop wanted the young men to hold the higher priesthood if they were called in the service of our country.
At the end of September 1918, I went up to the University of Utah to register for school on a Saturday. When I got out of the long lines of registering students I found that I was in the army of Uncle Sam. I had signed to take the S.A.T.C. Course of the Student Army Training corps course. To my surprise I could not go home that evening, but was marched up to Fort Douglas barracks along with hundreds of other students. We were given an empty bed tick to fill with straw which we used a as a mattress to sleep on. A few bed clothes were issued to us and a green cotton army uniform in course of time. The next few weeks we were put through regular army drills. The flu epidemic started and we were all quarantined in our wooden barracks for a few weeks. The boy across the isle from me died along with many others, but I did not get the flu. After the armistice of 11 Nov. 1918, we were all anxious to be discharged. I received my honorable army discharge 10 Dec. 1918 at Fort Douglas.
During 1919-20 I worked at home with Mother in the poultry business. My 4 sisters growing up helped some. My two brothers only 7 and 8 years old were too small to help and the girls were busy tending them too.
In the fall of 1920 I entered the U. of U. registering in the school of mining engineering. I had taken a class or so in the winter of 1919-20. During the summer of 1921, I took a required mine surveying course out in the highland Copper mine in Bingham Canyon. We did mine surveying about 8 hours a day down in the various levels of the old mine, in the sloping tunnels or stopes etc. The mine had some 85 miles of ore car track in it. I had some very near brushes with death being missed by falling mine timbers in some of the steep stopes.
One time a large mine timber about 8”x10”x4' came tumbling down a stope I was in halfway between two levels and just got lodged in a narrow spot above my head. I could not see it in the dark but heard in falling at me. It it had continued I would have been knocked down the stop to my death. For lights all we had was a small carbide head light on our hats. They were like a small candle as for the light they gave out in the black walled mine. Most of the floors of the tunnels if level had water pools 6” to 8” deep we had to get around in which I did not like. So that fall at the U. I changed to mechanical and automotive engineering.
In the summer of 1923 I hit the road as a wool clothes salesman for the Salt Lake Knitting Co. with a case of wool clothes, dresses, blanket swatches etc. I traveled on the Union Pacific R. R. east of Colorado stopping at small towns along the way for a few days in each town, doing house to house selling. I went as far east as Missouri Valley, Iowa. The first two months I met with fair success. Then the styles changed so I spent some 6 weeks in Council Bluffs, Iowa, selling Fuller brushes. My season's profit was a good traveling and sightseeing experience etc. In the winter months I would be working with Mother in the chicken business. I continued my schooling at the U. of U. and graduated 10 June, 1924, with a B.S. Degree in Automotive Engineering.
The fall of 1923 I met my wife, Marva Norton for the first time going to a Halloween costume ball with her on a blind date, at the U. of U. We had some wonderful times together at school parties and hikes during the winter of 1923-24. She graduated with me from the U. of U. 10 June 1924. We were married in the Salt Lake Temple 20 June, 1924.
On 25 June, 1924 at 8:30 A.M. I left with Elder Lymen Moyle from Alpine, Utah on the train for El Paso, Texas, the head quarters of the Mexican mission. We arrived there at 12:30 P.M. 28 June, 1924. I remained in El Paso till 28 July, then I was sent to Brownsville, Texas as my first assignment. I spent about two weeks there then went to San Antonio, Texas on 15 Aug. 1924, to a mission conference. I was assigned to that district for the next 6 months. On 12 March 1925, I left San Antonio for Monterrey, Mexico, for a mission conference, arriving 13 Mar. 1925. On 17 March 1925, I left for Saltillo, Mexico to work with Elder Sorensen. I remained in Saltillo till 29 July, 1926 when I left for Laredo, Texas, as all American missionaries were ordered out of Mexico by 31 July, by the Mexican Government. We held a conference at San Antonio, Texas, 3 Aug. 1926 when I was released.
Marva had been teaching at the Brigham City High School as a gymnasium teacher with a few other subjects to pay for her college expenses of the past. We had planned that she would come to Texas to meet me when I was released from my mission. She arrived at San Antonio 8 Aug. 1926 to spend a few days there with me before we returned home.
Going back to early 1924 the following took place: Early that spring as I was finishing my U. of U. studies I had sent a request to the Westinghouse Mfg. Co., in Pittsbourgh, Pa. to be considered for a year of graduate engineering work and training they were offering college graduating students. Many other students were submitting their applications too, and some of the General Electric co. in the east. These companies were accepting only 2 students each year at that time. To my surprise, I was one of the two selected by Westinghouse Co. that year.
Then later that spring after I received my mission call, I wrote to them asking for a 2 year delay. They then requested me to write to them in 2 years. Early in the spring of 1926 I inquired of the Westinghouse Co. if they would renew their offer, which they did.On 24 August 1926, Marva and I left for Pittsburgh, Pa. Where I worked for the Westinghouse Mfg. Co. as a student engineer for some 15 months. During this time I worked at their Mansfield, Ohio plant for 2 months where electric stoves and kindred items were made. I was at the Baltimore, Maryland plant for one month.
During June 1927, Marva returned home as we were expecting our 1st child. I remained in the east working to see if I would get an assignment to one of the western sales offices as we were being trained to be Westinghouse salesmen of their electrical products etc. In the fall there were no prospects to be transferred to a western district sales office. At the end of November, 1927, I decided to quit and return home.
Our 1st child Margaret was born 25 Dec. 1927 in the L.D.S. Hospital. I was out of work till the spring of 1928. I had a few odd jobs till September 1928 when I started to work for the Baldwin Radio Mfg. Co. in East Mill Creek as a designer and patent office draftsman for Mr. Nathaniel Baldwin, owner and inventor. Due to lack of business I was released from the Baldwin Co. on 20 July, 1930. I worked at odd jobs from then to March 1931. On 24 March 1931, I received a 6 weeks temporary job as a architecture draftsman for the U.S. Forest Service at Ogden. I continued temporary work until 8 June, 1931 when I received a probational appointment as a blue printer for the U.S. Forest Service engineering section in Ogden. In the end of June I moved my wife and family, Margaret, Lowell and Elwyn to Ogden. In the fall of 1931, we moved to 2958 Jefferson Ave. in the Ogden 18th Ward. On 21 April, 1933 we lost our little angel Margaret, as she died of heart failure from thyroid trouble.
In August 1933 we moved to 536 13th St. in the Ogden 7th Ward. In May 1936 we bought our first home in Ogden at 1229 Porter Ave. a small frame building. By 5 June 1940 we were clear of our $3000.00 home debt. On the 1st May 1941, we bought Henry Barker's old white brick home at 537 13th St. with some 2.97 acres of land extending to the rear of 14th Street. About 2.5 acres was in orchard. Most of the orchard was large apricot trees and the rest in cherries with a few peach and apple trees. The orchard was a big help in giving the growing family extra work at home as they grew up. In 8 years we had realized enough from the orchard and garden along with my little pay checks to pay for the whole place.
11 Dec. 1969, Thursday Marva passed away this evening at 9:15 P.M. at home. Elaine and Lamar were here with me as we were trying to get Marva ready to the ambulance to take her to the L.D.S. Hospital.
15 Dec. 1969 Monday funeral services were held for my dear wife Marva at 12:00 noon in the Mt. View Ward Chapel, directed by our bishop Thomas R. Muir. All our family were here. Marva was buried in the Wasatch Lawn Cemetery in our family plot.
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Horace married Merle Southwick Chipman on 12 June 1972 in Salt Lake City. “Aunt” Merle was born on 14 January, 1897 in American Fork, Utah. She died on 10 December 1975 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
From Father's journal, we knew what some of Father's activities had been on Monday, March 19, because he kept a daily journal, and March 19, 1984 was his last entry. The following is what we think he did on Tuesday, March 20, 1984, the day he died. Father probably left home in the morning to attend two sessions at the Salt Lake Temple. That is what he usually did on Tuesday, and a ward member had seen Father at the temple on March 20. He attended as a patron on Wed., Thurs., and Friday. After finishing at the temple, Father caught the bus for home.
Sometime between downtown Salt Lake and 19th East and 19th South, Father suffered a heart attack or became unconscious. The bus driver and a young boy passenger were the only other people on the bus because they were at the end of the line. Father appeared to be asleep in his seat with his arms folded and head down. When neither the driver nor the boy could awaken Father or find a pulse, the bus driver radioed for emergency help. About five minutes later an ambulance arrived and began emergency treatment on him and transported him to the University Hospital, arriving there close to 4 p.m. The doctors in the emergency room treated him for heart attack but could not revive him. He was pronounced dead at 4:57 p.m.
