Soren Dahl–Personal History

A personal history narrative by Soren Dahl:
I was born in Midvale, Utah, March 24, 1866. My father was Alexander Dahl and my mother was Ellen Yorgason. My oldest sister died when an infant. My oldest brother was Niels Paul. He died at fourteen. The next sister, Elizabeth, died when three years old. Then came Alexander. He was born March 18, 1864 and died in 1936. My next brother was David Theodore, born March 1872. The two other brothers were twins born in 1877. They were named Peter Clarence and James J. Peter died at the age of six months. Louise, my youngest sister was born in 1878 and died January, 1924.
My first recollection as a child was when I was about four years old. Father and his family with Uncle Sanders and his family, each rigged up two covered wagons for a trip to Sanpete to visit our relatives. It took us three days each way and we camped out at night. Father and Uncle Sanders married sisters. Uncle Sanders was a brother to Ellen Sanders Kimball, one of the three first women to come to Utah.
I started school the day I was six years old. My teacher was Ben Cutler who taught in the West Jordan Meetinghouse. The building was later remodeled by the West Jordan Daughters of Utah Pioneers and used by them and others for entertainment purposes.
My parents families moved to Spanish Fork at the time Brigham Young requested that the Saints move from Salt Lake County. Mother and Father were married in Spanish Fork by Bishop Butler. It was while living there that Father was called by Brigham Young, along with other young men, to become stationed at Echo Canyon in order to stop Johnson' s Army, who they thought to be their enemies. The army, however, went through without stopping. When Father was released he walked home. He was so hungry and exhausted on entering the valley that he felt he could go no further and stopped and asked a woman for something to eat. Her reply was, "I am sorry but we just ate the last we had in the house for dinner." Father said he believed this and traveled for twelve more miles. The family then lived in Lehi. This was the first and the last time he ever had to ask for food. A short time later the family moved to Midvale.
In Midvale, the family bought the property where the Midvale Smelter now stands. They owned twenty-four acres there. They also ran a meat marker in Midvale and owned land on Sugar Street. Father was a carpenter by trade, but there was little work for him in this country so he farmed and purchased some cows and sheep.
As a boy I had to walk seven miles each way to the West Jordan range to herd cows. I was not compelled to do this, but I wanted to help. It was a long time before Father consented to this. I can remember how anxious I was for the grass to grow in the spring. The last day I went out, I drove my own herd of cows to the range. That morning it had been raining and I consented to go with some of the other boys to their dug-out. Some of the boys had horses so that they could gather the cows that were far away and we were to get the ones nearby. My cows had gone up where the grass was good and as the boys didn't keep their word about helping, I started out barefooted as fast as I could go after my own cows.
I found them alright, but I was then seven miles from home and the sun was going down fast. I saw someone coming on a horse and as he came nearer I saw that it was Ben Brown. His cows were with mine and he said to climb on behind him. I thought my troubles were over, but he was riding a race horse and just as we started out, a red fox jumped out (the only one I have ever saw) and Ed started after him as fast as the horse could go. All of a sudden the horse stepped in a badger hole and we were thrown off. We were both knocked out. It was almost dark when I started to come to, Ed was still in a stupor. After awhile, I got him to his feet. Now I had Ed, the horse and the cows to help home. Our folks met us but it was nearly midnight. We were too stupid that night to tell them what happened.
The next morning my little sister, Louise, didn't know me and said, 'Do we have two Soren's?" I must have looked tough.
Father and Mother were good providers for their family. They also helped many immigrants. After Aunt Annie Sanders died, Mother helped raise her family. The two girls, Rose and Mary, lived with us for some time. We never knew what it was to be hungry. There was never dry bread at our table. There was always plenty of bread, milk, cheese, fruit and meat. Father raised pet lambs so we had sheep. Mother corded wool and would also weave, spin and knit so that we always had good warm clothes and woolen socks.
Mother always would have some way to make money. There was the time when Father broke his leg. He was driving a span of mules for a load of grain. He was coming down the hill when his wagon tipped over. He was a cripple for almost a year. Mother took in boarders. There was also the time that Father needed enough money to buy a wagon. Mother had the money saved and she bought the wagon.
I remember the Indians camping down on the Jordan River. They would come to beg at the door. Some were full of nerve and would get angry if they didn't get what they asked for. On day an Indian tried to force his way into the house. Mother stood in the doorway. She was cleaning fish and he tried to push her, but she hit him in the face with a fish. He left, but not before telling Father that he had a bad squaw.
When our relatives came to visit they would stay for weeks at a time. Those were the good old days when we took time to visit. We attended church in the West Jordan Meetinghouse, now Pioneer Hall. Father hauled the first load of rock for this building and Mother worked in the Relief Society. Mother was a natural nurse and did much to help her family, neighbors and anyone else who might be in need.
Our families would meet at each home and have parties and dances. We always had a gay time. After Goff's Hall was built, we held dances there and later on church services. I acted in some of the Ward plays, served as Mutual President and as a Counselor to Bishop Wright in the Midvale First Ward.
Christmas eve some of the boys would shout, drink and do mischievous things like on Halloween, I wasn't allowed to do so and I had no desire to engage in these wild parties.
I was six years old when the first train came to Midvale. It ran through our property on Sugar Street. Mother, Father, Mrs. Hannah Anderson (Neil Anderson's mother) and my brother Alex, and myself had a free ride to Salt Lake in a boxcar. I guess this was because the tracks ran through our property in Midvale. Alex lost his hat. Guess we weren't used to such a fast and fancy ride.
When I was twenty-two I made my first trip to California to visit our cousins that I had never seen. They were Uncle Larson and Aunt Louise and family. Aunt Louise was father's sister. I was anxious to go and visit them. I spent three months there. I was there two months longer than I had intended to stay, but my cousins said if I would stay they would come home with me.
I worked for Uncle Larson and bought my first saddle. Uncle Larson paid for my hotel and train fare home.
In the year 1884, Uncle James Yorgason (Mother's brother) was on a Mission to Sweden. He wrote home to Mother and said one of her cousin's had died and left two little girls and two little boys. He said he was sending them the two girls. Their names were Johanna and Annie. They lived with us until they were married. Their one brother came to Cardston, Canada. He and his wife did temple work. The other brother stayed in Sweden.
Father raised a flock of sheep that he had raised from pet lambs. He kept them until he had 24 and let them out on shares until they accumulated to 224. We boys had about the same amount.
One day, I started to get the sheep on the Sandpitch Mountains. I rode a little bailey-face horse. It took me four days to reach the camp. A Mr. Harker rode with me from Idianola the last day. I was on the trail home five days and I went a day and a half without food. When I got to Mapleton, I traded horses. This was a much better horse so I had to give one sheep to boot. We kept these sheep on the Park Ranch in Summit County.
I lived on this Park Ranch months at a time in a little dug-out. We had cattle and raised hay to feed them and also to sell. One morning I started out with a load of hay for Salt Lake. It had been snowing so we put two horses on the wagon and two on the sleigh. It was a hard pull and it took us all day to get to the summit. We went back to the ranch and stayed all night. In the morning, we just needed one team to go down the summit.
One week my brother James stayed on the ranch while I went down to Salt Lake. I stayed in town one night and it happened that Will Anderson was staying at the same place. We became acquainted so we went up town together. We were walking along and he said, 'I have a sister here I should go see". He invited me to go along. I had heard she was a beautiful girl. We found her and she was beautiful. She invited us to go along and there was a crowd there, but believe me, she was the best looking girl there. I didn't take her home that night but I arranged a later date and since then she has never been able to get rid of me. We were married June 27, 1900 in the Salt Lake Temple.
We built a four room brick house near the road on the folk's property in Midvale. Our first baby, Ella Louise, was born in this house. We named her after Mother and my sister Louise. She was born July 26,1901. She was the first grandchild in the Dahl family.
In 1902 the smelters which surrounded our farm had, by now, damaged us to such an extent that we were forced to prepare to move away. Our first trip was to Round Valley, Oregon. We found some good places there and decided to move. As our property didn't move too fast, we decided to wait. The next year (1903) my wife and I and baby Ella moved to our ranch up in Summit County. A house had been built then and it was fairly comfortable. Our first baby boy was born there September 6, 1903. We named him Conrad Soren. He was named after Conrad Land and I was very happy to have a son. Grandma Anderson (Edith's mother) was his first nurse.
In the year 1904 we had the opportunity to trade for some property near Holladay in South Cottonwood Ward. The smelters were damaging our crops and stock more and more. The horses died and we had some fancy horses, too. We couldn't keep a team to haul crops. We had thirty-six cows at that time but many died and the milk was getting so scarce we hardly had enough for our own use.
We decided to move and bought the Dilworth Brinton property and home in South Cottonwood for $10,000. It had a nice large brick house with many rooms. Mother, Father and Louise lived in one apartment, and my wife and I and family lived in the other. We built a cow-barn, horse-barn, milk house and really made a home there. This place had fertile soil, flowing wells, and pasture for our stock. My other brothers stayed in Midvale and continued in the meat and grocery business. Later, we sent James on a Mission to Sweden. We brothers kept his family while he was gone. When he came back he took over the Park Ranch and David moved to West Jordan. Alexander stayed and ran the meat market in Midvale.
Our second daughter, Elsie Edith was born February 11, 1906 at South Cottonwood. She was named for my wife and Grandma Anderson. Well do I remember that. We had a big snow storm and I had to stand on the corner with a lantern to direct the doctor to our home.
We moved to the Ranch at Park to change off with the boys for years. It was while we were there that our baby Carl William was born, November 20, 1907. He was a big husky baby, we thought, but he contracted pneumonia and died at six months. Elsie had to be our baby again.
While on the ranch, I took a trip to Chicago with Ben R. Eldredge (my partner in the milk business). The business was located at 2nd South and 5th East. While there, we attended the World's Fair. After spending some time there, we went up to Milwaukee to see some of the most up-to-date dairies that produced certified milk for the high-ups in the city of Chicago.
While in Chicago, I had a chance to visit my relative that I had never seen. I had two cousins there, Alexander and Carl Strom. They were the sons of Hans and Marie Amelia Strom, Father's youngest sister in Norway. They came to Chicago to see me. We visited with both families. Alex had four children and Carl had ten children, none have joined the Church.
We moved back to Cottonwood and it was here that our youngest son, Ivan Parl, was born, October 22, 1910. Now we had two boys and two girls, we were indeed happy.
In the year 1914 we bought a farm and dry farm in West Jordan. We built a house, barn and milk house there. The farm had 120 acres and the dry farm had 160 acres. We got it paid for and then the drought came and the canal almost went dry so it was hard going from then on. We managed to send both the boys on a Mission which we were happy to do. They were both called to the Eastern States.
When Charles and Ella with their sons DuWayne and Donald moved to Mount Pleasant from their home in East Midvale, they kindly invited us to stay in their home in East Midvale. We appreciated it very much. I was getting slow and Edith enjoyed being able to walk over to the Church to Relief Society and Singing Mothers.
Ivan, Helen and their family lived in our home on the farm and I could go up and putter around a bit and enjoy being with them most of the day. This move gave us more time to reflect back on our by-gone days and thus far I've enjoyed it very much along with my wife, relatives and friends.
I was returning from the farm on Christmas Eve of 1942, when my car was hit by a Troop Train at the crossing in Midvale. I had been choring up on the farm as usual. I spent some time pin-feathering the turkey for Helen for our planned Christmas Dinner which was to be held the next day, but my Christmas was spent in the County Hospital. For twenty days I couldn't remember anything and it took months before I could put things together at all. Our prayers were answered and though it left me not as spry as I was before, I'm thankful.
On my Eightieth birthday, my family had an open house for me at the East Midvale home of Charles and Ella (they had moved back to East Midvale and we had moved next door to the east). Many relatives, old acquaintances, and new friends came to see me. It was indeed a wonderful day.
On our fiftieth wedding anniversary, June 27, 1950, the family held an open house for my wife and I. It too, was wonderful to see all my friends again. This was held in our own home in the Allen Bateman home just east of Charles and Ella's as mentioned before. This house is just right for Mother and me. I will be eighty-seven the 241h of March. I still walk over to see Ella every day and most of the time make it up to the canal and back.
I am still here at Ninety and going to have another open house next week. I enjoy my meals, sleep good and enjoy my family.
Of course, we have had rough times compared with what we have now days, but we were taught that nothing great was gained without hard work. We appreciate the blessings that have come to us.
I have written this bit of history for my family, my wife, sons, daughters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law and grandchildren. I am thankful that you all belong to the Mormon Church and hope you will all continue being faithful as you've been in the past. If you do so you will be blessed.
Soren Dahl died after a long illness at the age of 91 at his home on Greenwood Ave. (8400 So.) at 6:30 on Wednesday, September 18. 1957. His funeral service was held at the Goff Mortuary Saturday, September 21, 1957 and he was buried in the Murray City Cemetery.