HELGA OLSEN POULSEN KINGSFORD

By a granddaughter, Hazel Poulsen Snow Tippetts, with Zella D. Kingsford assisting with some information.  Arranged by Nora Lund, Historian of Nibley Park.


My grandmother, Helga Olsen Poulsen Kingsford was born May 6, 1836 at Holtsong, Holts, Norway.  Her father was Ole Jorganson, born about 1800, at the same place.  The meager information on the family record sheet we have gives Helga as the only child in the family.  Research has been hard for us in Norway.  It is regrettable that we know nothing of her early life.

We have the date of June 24, 1852 as the time she was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  At the age of 21 she left her native land and crossed the plains in the Christian Christiansen Company, who left Iowa City, Iowa, June 15, 1857.  There comprising 330 souls, arriving in the Valley 13 Sept. 1857.  There were only three wagons with this company to carry the very necessary, heavy things for the trip.  We know that those who came in that year walked every step of the way from Iowa to Salt Lake Valley, pulling their belongings in hand carts.  After arriving in Utah she made her home in Spanish Fork with friends, a new community in Utah County.  We have always thought that Grandma Helga and Grandpa Niels Christian Poulsen had become acquainted with each other when Grandpa went to Norway from Denmark as a missionary.  Grandpa had only been in Utah 46 days when he and Grandma were married, Aug. 25, 1858.  (He arrived with the Horace S. Eldredge Co. July 9, 1858.)

After they made their home in Salt Lake City, their first child, a son, was born April 28, 1859.  They gave him the name of Christian Hyrum.  Soon after, perhaps the next spring, they moved to Cache Valley where their 2nd child, Elgena was born Sept. 22, 1860 at Richmond, Utah.

 They started farming in the Franklin, Idaho area, just over the Utah line.  The soil was good but the winters were very cold.  What a sad day for Grandma when Grandpa took pneumonia, after getting soaked in a rain storm, and died June 28, 1861, leaving her with two little children, Christian and Elgena, to provide for.  They had accumulated a few head of livestock on the farm, two oxen, two cows, four sheep and a few chickens.

In the same town of Franklin lived a good man by the name of Edward Kingsford.  His first wife died Oct. 26, 1861.  It was quite a chore to take care of his three small children.  One was a baby under a year old.  He went to see grandmother the next day after his wife’s funeral to get her to take care of the family for him.

The arrangements seemed to have been a pretty good one, because on Christmas Day, 1861 she and Edward were married.  Their first child, George Albert was born Nov. 15, 1862.  Next came William Richard, 26 Jan. 1865, followed by James, 23 Nov. 1866, Joseph Henry, 19 Apr. 1870 and Benjamin, 21 Aug. 1872, all in Franklin, Idaho.  She was the mother of six sons and one daughter.

The first year of her marriage to Grandpa Kingsford was a hard one.  The winter was so wet and damp that the grain wasn’t thrashed until in March the next spring.  The dirt roof of the house leaked to add to their troubles, so there was plenty of work for and careful planning for the new wife and mother.

One of the important happenings to the people of Franklin was the Battle Creek Massacre.  It might be interesting to the younger members to know about the Indian troubles.  I quote from page 242, Vol. [?] of the book "Our Pioneer Heritage":
"The Indians in the vicinity of Franklin at the time of its settlement, were under Chief Kittemare who welcomed the whites to the land, water and timber.  Kittemare and his band were great beggars and exacted beef, grain, flour, potatoes, and other provisions from the settlers quite often.  Their requests were complied with, but at times became very burdensome.  By fall there were sixty families in Franklin.

"During the fall and early winter of 1862, large bands of Indians under Chief Bear Hunter, Sagwitch, and Pocatello had collected at the mouth of Battle Creek, about 12 miles northwest of Franklin, on the west bank of the Bear River.  Events occurred between the settlers and the Indians, climaxed by the killing of a white man and wounding of several others while they were returning to their homes from Leesburg with needed supplies, which brought about the battle of Battle Creek.  Many Indians were killed, and a number of soldiers under Colonel Edwards Conner from Fort Douglas, Utah who had been sent there to subdue the Indians, were also killed and wounded."

After the Battle Creek Massacre the soldiers stopped in Franklin for the night.  They hired Grandma Helga to cook their supper.  They furnished the food and she prepared it.  Remember, in those days she had no stove to do the cooking on.  However, the large fireplace in her home was equipped with grates, bars and hooks to make cooking as convenient as possible.  Being a good cook, she prepared this delicious meal for 60 hungry men.  Each paid fifty cents in cash.  Thirty dollars seemed a large sum of money in those days.

Note: (Grandma later owned the first stove brought to Franklin.  Grandpa got it in Salt Lake City for her.)

With all this money they decided to drive to Salt Lake City, 120 miles to the south, to fit out the family with warm clothing.  On their way back they got snowed in in Sardine Canyon, south of Wellsville.  The men had to walk to Wellsville for help.  The horses had no food and were give out.  Grandfather Kingsford had some beets and carrots in the wagon, and Grandmother, not knowing what for, fed them to the hungry, weary snow bound horses.  When grandfather got back, his seed vegetables were gone but the horses had the pep to get through the snow.

The church leaders were practicing and preaching polygamy along about this time.  Grandfather Kingsford, always ready to obey council, married Annie Peterson in 1864, and in 1870 he married Annie’s sister, Carrie Peterson.

In August 21, 1872, Grandma gave birth to Benjamin, but complications through the birth of her child caused her death.  This was a sad blow to her little family.  She was 36 years old.  I have heard my father, Christian Hyrum Poulsen, who was then 13 years old, say many times how he missed his mother and grieved for her a great deal.

The fourth Kingsford wife, Carrie, took tiny Benjamin and proceeded to raise him.  When he was a few months old, he was found dead in bed one morning likely smothered to death.



August 20, 1999:  Converted to HTML by Matt Young from a computer transcription by Quinn Young.