Thursday, December 5, 2013

Showing Up Is 80 Percent of Life

"Showing up is 80 percent of life." Woody Allen uttered these words, and there is much wisdom behind them.

I'm not the smartest person, but I was able to earn good grades during school because I read a lot as a child and I consistently "showed up"--doing my homework well, even finding joy in learning. I was able to earn a respectable GPA in college because I kept showing up. I've been blessed to find good employment because I kept showing up. So that's my little thought for today: when you're tempted to sleep in or put off that important assignment, just keep showing up--that's 80 percent of the battle!

Monday, November 4, 2013

On Weakness, Grace, and Viktor Frankl

Yesterday we discussed an important scripture in Ether 12:23-28. Here are some thoughts on these verses. Moroni was recording his feelings on the plates but was worried that future readers (the Gentiles) would mock at his “weakness in writing” (v. 23). When he wrote his words, he noticed his weakness at placing the words, and he stressed himself out thinking how others would judge him! This smacks of insecurity in the face of peer pressure. Ironically, most of that pressure was coming from an imagined audience not even born yet!

The Lord reassured him that, although fools would mock at him, “my grace is sufficient for the meek” (v. 26). Then the Lord comforted Him with this strange thought: “If men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness” (v. 27). Normally, we don’t want to see our shortcomings, but the Lord clarified to Moroni that He gave us such shortcomings so we might realize the need for help and, in our hour of need, draw closer to Him. The Lord affirmed a second time that His “grace is sufficient” (v. 27). Sufficient means enough--enough to overcome mortal weakness. In other words, His grace is big enough and strong enough for all to overcome all things. But He lists a condition: we must humble ourselves and exercise faith in Him. The result? “Then will I make weak things become strong” (v. 27).

I want to clarify that whatever challenges we now face, personal or otherwise, were not caused by God. This is a vital concept to understand! For example, during the Holocaust, some people became enraged and embittered. “How could God have caused this catastrophe?” they asked.

The answer is, “God didn’t cause this event. People caused it!”

God does give people agency, and sometimes people misuse agency, making mistakes with painful consequences. The message is not to blame God for human mistakes. Let’s do what we can to make the situation better and live for a higher cause.

Viktor Frankl, Wikimedia Commons.

During the Holocaust, a period when many understandably chose to become bitter, some chose a higher road and reaffirmed their ability to channel their thoughts and attitudes for a cause higher than themselves (for example, Viktor Frankl). It's interesting to me that the English spelling of his name is "Victor." He truly become a victor by looking outside himself and helping other people to find solutions to their suffering.

Christ doesn’t cause suffering, but He can direct us to solutions if we allow Him into our lives. Let’s humble ourselves and exercise faith in Christ, praying for “faith, hope, and charity,” which will bring us unto “the fountain of all righteousness” (v. 28).

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Philo Dibble, Faithful Friend of the Prophet

Figure 1. Philo Dibble, who is buried in the Springville, Utah, Cemetery.

Philo Dibble showed faith and courage throughout his life. He was an early convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (nicknamed the Mormons) and a close friend to the Prophet Joseph Smith who recorded several miracles and important events in Church history in Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and Utah.

He was born in Peru, Massachusetts, on June 6, 1806. Marrying Celia Kent in 1829, the couple moved to the Kirtland, Ohio, area (three miles west of Chardon).

One fall morning in 1830, while the twenty-four-year-old Philo stood by his gate, two neighbors asked if he had heard the news about four missionaries with a new book called the Book of Mormon. One of those missionaries claimed to have seen an angel. Though the men ridiculed the idea of angels visiting the earth, Philo thought that if an angel had appeared, he wanted to know about it. He and Celia went to investigate.

The four missionaries were Oliver Cowdery, Ziba Peterson, Peter Whitmer Jr., and Parley P. Pratt, who were heading west to preach to the Native Americans on the western border of the United States. Attending a meeting in which Oliver taught the message of the restored gospel and bore his testimony, Philo, along with four others, believed and was baptized by Parley P. Pratt on October 16. That night, in the home of Frederick G. Williams, Philo could not sleep for joy and was filled with a heavenly influence “like fibers of fire” (“Philo Dibble’s Narrative,” 75).

Grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, he penned the words to “The Happy Day at Last Has Come.”

The happy day at last has come.

The truth restored is now made known.

The promised angel’s come again

To introduce Messiah’s reign.

The gospel trump again is heard.

The truth from darkness has appeared.

The lands which long benighted lay

Have now beheld a glorious day:

The day by prophets long foretold,

The day which Abram did behold,

The day that Saints desired so long,

When God his great work would perform,

The day when Saints again shall hear

The voice of Jesus in their ear,

And angels, who above do reign,

Come down to speak again with men.

(Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, no. 32)

Figure 2. Elsa Johnson, whose arm was miraculously healed in 1831.

Philo witnessed Joseph Smith calling on the power of God to heal the lame arm of Elsa Johnson of Hiram, Ohio, in 1831:

When Joseph came to Kirtland his fame spread far and wide. There was a woman living in the town of Hiram . . . who had a crooked arm, which she had not been able to use for a long period. She persuaded her husband, whose name was Johnson, to take her to Kirtland to get her arm healed.

I saw them as they passed my house on their way. She went to Joseph and requested him to heal her. Joseph asked her if she believed the Lord was able to make him an instrument in healing her arm. She said she believed the Lord was able to heal her arm.

Joseph put her off till the next morning, when he met her at Brother [Newel K.] Whitney’s house. There were eight persons present, one a Methodist preacher, and one a doctor. Joseph took her by the hand, prayed in silence a moment, pronounced her arm whole, in the name of Jesus Christ, and turned and left the room.

The preacher asked her if her arm was whole, and she straightened it out and replied: “It is as good as the other.” (“Philo Dibble’s Narrative,” 79)

Figure 3. The John Johnson home in Hiram, Ohio, where “the Vision” (Doctrine and Covenants 76) was received on February 16, 1832.

On February 16, 1832, Philo went to the Johnson home while the Prophet Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were receiving a marvelous vision of the Father and the Son and the afterlife. He said that although Joseph wore black clothes, his clothes appeared gloriously white, and his face glowed “as if it were transparent” (“Early Scenes in Church History,” 81). Philo offered a first-person testimony of these events:

The vision which is recorded in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants was given at the house of “Father Johnson,” in Hiram, Ohio, and during the time that Joseph and Sidney were in the spirit and saw the heavens open, there were other men in the room, perhaps twelve, among whom I was one during a part of the time—probably two-thirds of the time—I saw the glory and felt the power, but did not see the vision. . . . Joseph would, at intervals, say: “What do I see?” as one might say while looking out the window and beholding what all in the room could not see. Then he would relate what he had seen or what he was looking at. Then Sidney replied, “I see the same.” Presently, Sidney would say, “What do I see?” and would repeat what he had seen or was seeing, and Joseph would reply, “I see the same.” (Juvenile Instructor, May 1892, 303)

While Philo and the others waited in silence, Joseph and Sidney conversed with each other: “During the whole time not a word was spoken by any other person. Not a sound nor motion made by anyone but Joseph and Sidney, and it seemed to me that they never moved a joint or limb during the time I was there, which I think was over an hour, and to the end of the vision. Joseph sat firmly and calmly all the time in the midst of a magnificent glory, but Sidney sat limp and pale, apparently as limber as a rag, observing which, Joseph remarked, smilingly, ‘Sidney is not used to it as I am’” (Juvenile Instructor, May 1892, 304). Joseph seemed as “strong as a lion,” while Sidney was as “weak as water” (“Philo Dibble’s Narrative,” 81). However, Sidney stayed up that night recording the events. Their testimony is recorded in section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants:

The Lord touched the eyes of our understandings and they were opened, and the glory of the Lord shone round about.

And we beheld the glory of the Son, on the right hand of the Father, and received of his fulness;

And saw the holy angels, and them who are sanctified before his throne, worshiping God, and the Lamb, who worship him forever and ever. And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!

For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father—

That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God. (Doctrine and Covenants 76:19–24)

Although early reactions were mixed, the Latter-day Saints eventually embraced the vision:

Nothing could be more pleasing to the Saints upon the order of the Kingdom of the Lord, than the light which burst upon the world through the foregoing vision. Every law, every commandment, every promise, every truth, and every point touching the destiny of man, from Genesis to Revelation, where the purity of the Scriptures remains unsullied by the folly of men, go to show the perfection of the theory [of different degrees of glory in the future life] and witnesses the fact that that document is a transcript from the records of the eternal world. The sublimity of the ideas; the purity of the language; the scope for action; the continued duration for completion, in order that the heirs of salvation may confess the Lord and bow the knee; the rewards for faithfulness, and the punishments for sins, are so much beyond the narrow-mindedness of men, that every honest man is constrained to exclaim: “It came from God.” (“Joseph Smith, the Prophet,” Historical Record, January 1888, 402)

A Missouri Mob and a Miracle

In 1832 the Dibbles moved to Missouri and homesteaded on the Whitmer Settlement, where Philo worked a twenty-acre farm. Trouble soon erupted between the locals and the newcomers, who saw the Saints as a political and economic threat. Most of the Whitmer Settlement Saints were driven from the county by mid-November 1833. Many crossed the Missouri River north into Clay County or east into Lafayette County, while some fled elsewhere.

While fighting a Missouri mob in the fall of 1833, Philo was shot in the stomach, and the bullet lodged in the small of his back. In great pain, he went to the home of Joshua Lewis, where he spent the night. Fearing that the mob members would find him, he left to hide in Aaron Wild’s house in the woods. Ironically, the mob leader, James Campbell, knew Philo and brought a physician to attend to the wound. Dr. Marsh said it was hopeless; Philo could not possibly live.

Shortly thereafter, Newel Knight came by. Without saying a word, Brother Knight laid his right hand upon the head of the wounded man. As he did so, the Spirit of the Lord rested upon Philo, filling his body from his head through his fingers and toes. He later testified, “I immediately arose and discharged three quarts of blood or more, with some pieces of clothing that had been driven into my body by the bullets. I then dressed myself and went out doors. . . . From that time not a drop of blood came from me and I never afterwards felt the slightest pain or inconvenience from my wounds except that I was somewhat weak from the loss of blood” (“Philo Dibble’s Narrative,” 84). Thereafter he could feel the bullet under the skin of his back, but he never had it removed, keeping it as a reminder of his miraculous healing.

In the years that followed, the Missouri Saints sought legal help to regain their lands, but to no avail. On July 4, 1838, the Saints gathered to speak of the freedoms they sought but did not possess. A liberty pole had been erected at Far West, but during the course of the day a thunder cloud passed over, and a bolt of lightning struck the pole, shattering it into splinters. As the Prophet walked around the shattered pole, he said, “As that pole was splintered, so shall the nations of the earth be!” (“Philo Dibble’s Narrative,” 88).

Tragedy in Illinois

In the spring of 1840, Philo moved to the Church’s new gathering place: Commerce (Nauvoo), Illinois. The next year his wife died and left him with five children: two daughters and three sons. Discouraged, he decided to find homes for his children and then travel and preach the gospel. On February 11, 1841, he married Widow Smith from Philadelphia. The Prophet Joseph performed the ceremony, and Emma Smith gave them a wedding supper.

On June 27, 1844, a mob stormed the Carthage Jail and killed Joseph and his brother Hyrum. George Cannon (father of future Church leader George Q. Cannon) cast the death masks of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and Philo kept the masks safe for forty-one years.

Figure 4. The death masks of Joseph and Hyrum Smith were kept by Philo for forty-one years. Photo by Kenneth R. Mays.

The Utah Years

Although the Saints began leaving Nauvoo in 1846, Philo and his family lacked money to travel, and they lingered there for many years. They eventually crossed the plains with Philemon C. Merrill’s wagon company in 1851 and settled in Bountiful, Utah.

Philo married three times and became the father of eight children. He served as director of a co-op store in Centerville, Utah (Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History, s.v. “Philo Dibble”). He also traveled around showing a gigantic mural of scenes from Church history along with relics from the time of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

In 1857, when President James Buchanan sent federal troops to put down a supposed rebellion in Utah, the Dibbles moved south to Springville, Utah, and decided to settled there.

Philo's oldest daughter, Eliza Ann, married Mormon Battalion veteran Henry Wells Jackson, who eventually fought and died in the Civil War, becoming the first known Latter-day Saint Civil War death and the only Utah battle death in that war.

Figure 5. Receipt showing sale of the death masks on November 1, 1885, to Harris (Harrie) Brown of Logan, Utah. Courtesy of Alexander L. Baugh.

Eighty-nine-year-old Philo Dibble died on June 7, 1895. That very day the Deseret News offered a fitting tribute to this faithful friend of the Prophet:

Elder Philo Dibble, an aged and respected Utah veteran, died at his home in Springville at 2 o’clock this morning. Elder Dibble had been failing for some time past and was perfectly resigned to his position. He was in the ninetieth year of his age, and had very remarkable career.

In his death it is thought the oldest member of the Church has passed from mortality. He was baptized [October] 15th 1830 by Parley P. Pratt. He was wounded by a mob during the troubled times of 1833 in Jackson County, Missouri. He was shot in the abdomen. The ball passed through his body and lodged near the backbone just beneath the skin where it remained up to the time of his death. On May 27th, he was visited by some Elders of the Church and among other things he said at that time: “I know, he said, the Church was established by divine revelation, Joseph Smith being God’s Prophet, Seer and Revelator. With him I was familiar and closely associated during his life from 1833 until 1844. When I beheld him as a martyr, shot with four bullets, even unto death; and I now lie here on my death bed with lead in my body at the age of 89, and I shall soon go to meet the martyr, for I now feel that my work here on earth is done, and my desire is that I may soon go in peace where I shall see many others who, like myself, have suffered many tribulations for Christ’s sake.”

References

“An Old Respected Veteran Passed to His Final Rest at Springville This Morning.” Deseret Evening News, June 7, 1895.

Dibble, Philo. “Early Scenes in Church History.” In Four Faith Promoting Classics. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1968.

———. “Philo Dibble’s Narrative.” In Early Scenes in Church History. Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1882.

———. Juvenile Instructor, May 1892, 303–4.

———. The Happy Day at Last Has Come.” Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, no. 32. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1985.

Garr, Arnold K., Donald Q. Cannon, and Richard O. Cowan, editors. Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint Church History. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000.

“Joseph Smith, the Prophet.” Historical Record, January 1888, 402.

Parkin, Max H. Missouri, vol. 4 of Sacred Places: A Comprehensive Guide to Early LDS Historical Sites, edited by LaMar C. Berrett. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2004.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

When Family Members Act Unlovable

Sometimes when our family members act unlovable, those are the times they need our love the most. Here I'm focusing on our relationship with teenagers when they sometimes act unlovable. When I say "act unlovable," I mean their outward behavior is sometimes an act--like good old high school drama. While inside, a teen may be desiring to belong to a family, sometime their outward behavior screams "I hate you!" In other words, while teens are forming their own values, separate from their parents' worldview, they can say things (intentionally or otherwise) that rile up parents' emotions, a kind of "I-dare-you-to-stay-calm-after-I-say-this" attitude. Why do they do this? Often while they are developing their own worldview, they experiment by bouncing controversial statements off a parent. Those are the times when we, as parents, can choose patience in order to prevent permanently damaging the relationship.

One way to not blow a gasket is to remember how much we love them and to focus on the relationship, using "not" statements to clarify our real intent. If a child becomes angry at a curfew, for example, we could say, "I'm not trying to ruin your life. I am trying to help you get rest so that you can do well in school."

Another way to maintain composure is to think about children's voyage into adulthood as a painful growing process from self-centeredness to interdependence. A child starts out self-centered, crying for food, diaper changes, and sleep, while providing little in return other than eventually smiling. They they gradually begin to give back to the family. Here's how this unfolded in my own life:

When I was born, I couldn’t care less that my mom hadn’t slept for twenty-four hours—I was hungry right then! I kept crying and fussing until she fed me. Over the course of the next weeks and months, she changed my stinky diapers and didn’t complain. It is true that hindsight is one thing that parents get too much of!

I didn’t know I was self-centered. I just had needs. Mom and Dad just kept on nurturing me. All I could offer her in return was the warmth of my smile and my hugs. Mom and Dad didn’t ask for more than that.

As a toddler, I fell down and scraped my knees. My parents fed and potty-trained me. I gradually began to learn that the world didn’t revolve around me. My siblings needed Mom and Dad’s time too.

As I grew, my needs increased in complexity. I needed reassurance when other kids at school didn’t treat me right. My parents’ expectations also began to increase. They gave me love and attention—but they began to expect to give back to the family. They asked me to work around the house and obey the family rules. They taught me to read and write, and they helped with my homework. Sometimes I became frustrated. They could be tough taskmasters. They had me weed our quarter-acre garden (but those strawberries were so sweet!) and hoe the seemingly endless rows of Douglas fir trees.

When I disobeyed or when they just had a bad day, I found out firsthand they were imperfect. They lost their tempers. They broke promises. But, despite a few rocky moments, they still showed love to me and my siblings.

After having my own children, I began to realize how much my parents had done for me. Fortunately, our relationship was not too damaged through the teen years to the point that we couldn't repair that damage and become great friends again.

I made it through that journey, and I believe that often when I was the most unlovable, I was calling out in anguish for my parents to love me unconditionally, to help me through the growing pains of teen angst, to help me form my own values in a very confusing world, and ultimately to become a mature adult who could get along with others (although a few people might quibble with that!).

I repeat what I said at the beginning--sometimes when our family members act unlovable, those are the times they need our love the most. These same principles might apply to a spouse, the one we should be closest to in all the world. It might include parents, the ones who brought us into the world. When our family members act unlovable, let's take a deep breath, be the adult, and preserve the relationship!

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Settling Preston, Idaho: The David, Serena, and Julia Jensen Family

R. Devan Jensen

America is a land of immigrants. People traveled here for a variety of reasons, including discontent with meager circumstances in their former homeland. Many came for religious reasons, including converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (nicknamed Mormons because of their acceptance of the Book of Mormon as scripture comparable to the Bible). Between 1850 and 1905, Scandinavia produced 22,653 Mormon converts who immigrated to America. Fifty-six percent were Danes, 32 percent Swedes, and 11 percent Norwegians.[i] This paper is a microhistory of the original settling of Preston, Idaho, by European immigrants, including Norwegian immigrants David Jensen (1835–1909), Bertha Sørine Simensdatter (anglicized as Serena or Serina Petersen, 1841–84), and Julia Konstance Simensdatter (anglicized as Petersen, 1851–1920). Preston was founded in northern Cache Valley, a semiarid valley straddling southeastern Idaho and northern Utah. This is a story of the American dream and of building the kingdom of God. It is a story of a complex struggle for survival, of unfortunately displacing American Indians from their own homeland, and of building homes, schools, and canals to channel water from the Bear River and Cub River to make the desert “blossom as the rose” (Isaiah 35:1).

Beginnings in Norway

What motivated a Norwegian couple to move from their homeland to Idaho? David was born 15 April 1835 in the farming district of Østre Toten, about 150 miles northwest of Oslo (Christiania). David moved to Oslo because of the difficulties of leasing land. David’s uncle Ole Olsen lived on a farm called Maridalen. While living with Ole, David became acquainted with Serena and Julia Pedersen, who lived a good share of the time with their grandmother Anne Christensen Hansen on her little farm, Breke Maridalen. David married eighteen-year-old Serena on August 20, 1859, and after the death of the first son, Sigwardt (1860–61), they heard a local Mormon congregation singing “O My Father,” a hymn that testified of heavenly parents and life beyond the grave. After joining the church, they chose to heed the call to gather with their fellow church members in America, receiving financial assistance from the Perpetual Emigrating Fund.[ii] The total number of members emigrating from Scandinavia that year was 1,458, plus returning missionaries.

David and Serena left Norway on 13 April 1863 with Serena’s twelve-year-old sister, Julia. That day they started a trip to a new land of opportunity. The journey was long, hard, and tragic. They sailed from Oslo on the steamer Excellencen Toll,[iv] arriving two days later in Copenhagen, Denmark.[v] They remained in Copenhagen until 30 April. The next leg took them from Copenhagen to Kiel, Germany; and then on to Hamburg, Germany. Serena’s second child, Josephine, was born on 5 November 1862. She was not yet six months old when they started for America. They had to travel third class. At Hamburg, they changed to the steamship Roland, which took them to Grimsby, England. They spent twenty-seven days crossing the choppy North Sea on the Roland. The Roland had on board six hundred immigrants, forty steers, and several hundred sheep. A small ship, steerage passage, a small child, and a cargo of sheep and cattle made this ride most unpleasant.

Trains took them from Grimsby to Liverpool, a journey of thirty-seven days. The Scandinavian-speaking members traveled together so they communicate. A contemporary letter described their journey: “While the majority of the emigrants left Grimsby for Liverpool, May 6, 1863, the Norwegians remained in Grimsby in charge of Elder Carl C. N. Dorius until May 20th, when they also traveled by rail to Liverpool, and on the same day went on board the ship Antarctic, on which also 60 passengers from Switzerland and many English emigrants went on board, making a company of 450 passengers. The Antarctic, which was a fine ship and well equipped for the voyage, sailed from Liverpool May 23rd. . . . Several deaths occurred on board, and several couples were married. The ship arrived in New York July 10, 1863, and the same day the journey was continued via Albany, Niagara, Detroit, Chicago and Quincy to St. Joseph, Mo., and thence by steamer to Florence, Nebraska.”[vi]

They traveled during the American Civil War, hearing cannon fire along the way. The Scandinavians crossed the plains in Captain Peter Nebeker’s company consisting of fifty wagons. This company arrived in Salt Lake City on 24 August 1863. While crossing the Great Plains, two adults and seven children died and were buried by the wayside. David and Serena’s second child, Josephine, died on 13 August 1863 at Holt County, Missouri. Their loss must have been extremely disheartening; still they pressed onward.

Settling in Franklin, Then Preston

Arriving in Utah Territory, the Jensens lived three years in the farming community of Lehi, where Serena gave birth to another son, David Henry Jensen, who also died in 1864. Church president Brigham Young asked colonizers to move northward to Cache Valley, where the population swelled from 2,605 to 8,229 between 1860 and 1870. During that same period, immigrants from Scandinavia tripled from 120 to 367. Immigrants from Great Britain doubled from 756 to 1,853.[vii] So European immigrants formed a large part of the colonizers of what is now southeastern Idaho.

In 1866 David and Serena moved to a fort called Franklin,[viii] thought to be part of Utah Territory but just north of the border. Shoshones had long lived in the area and had become alarmed with the number of new arrivals.[ix] After reports of attacks on immigrants, in January of 1863 Colonel Patrick Connor and men massacred around four hundred Shoshones at Battle Creek, northwest of today’s Preston.[x] The Mormon colonists nursed both the injured Indians and soldiers,[xi] for local Mormons tried to follow their leader Brigham Young’s policy of feeding the Indians rather than fighting them. That practice often required distributing tons of food during times of shortage.[xii] However, receiving food from the Mormons did not save Shoshones from a prolonged retreat from their own ancestral homeland.[xiii]

Franklin became the mother of small surrounding settlements, and Mormon colonists spread outward from there, looking for grass for their cattle and building summer homes to protect their squatter claims.[xiv] The area consists of rolling hills with Bear River to the west and Worm Creek and the Cub River to the east (then called “The Muddy”). William Head and David Winn settled in 1866 in “the Flat” (now Preston), flat land covered with sagebrush, rabbitbrush, and bluegrass. David worked at the Howarth sawmill in Franklin, frequently interacting with other settlers and with the Shoshones.

With Serena’s permission, David married her sister Julia as a second wife on 18 November 1868.[xv] David and Serena were sealed a few days later, on 23 November. Around that year, David scouted for land and settled in the eastward area called Worm Creek or “Egypt” because wheat grown there was used to provide food, like Egypt of the Old Testament period.[xvi] As in Egypt of old, water provided life-giving nutrients. When the Jensens settled in Worm Creek, David built a ditch on each side of the creek, and the two ditches made up the earliest water right there. Irrigation would become a lifelong project for Jensen.

Schools and Churches

David, Serena, and Julia reared fourteen children to adulthood and served as community and church leaders. Franklin had the first school in Idaho Territory,[xvii] and the children had difficulty walking the eight miles to Franklin. They had the same problem getting to church on Sundays. Thus, E. R. Laurence, William Garrison, Anne Lundgren, Joseph Clayton, David Jensen, and others met and decided to ask the bishop of the Franklin Ward to organize a branch of the church on Worm Creek. The request was granted. The Worm Creek Branch was organized with E. R. Laurence as the presiding elder.[xviii]

David and other settlers met in 1878 at the home of Anne Lundgren to plan construction of a combination school and church. Episcopal bishop Daniel S. Tuttle, another Cache Valley school builder, described the early Mormon schoolhouses thus: “It is true that they called their church ‘schoolhouses,’ and day-schools were kept in themma. But they were under the control entirely of the ‘Church’ authorities, and payment of tuition was exacted. Besides they were very elementary affairs.”[xix]

David, William Garrison, E. R. Laurence, and Emil Petterborg went to the canyon and brought back logs to build the house. They built the house to the square by the winter of 1878–79, but it remained unfinished for the balance of that summer and the next. While the building was under construction, people on the east and west sides of town met to establish a more central location for the school and church. Francis Wilcox, Nathan Porter, Elam Hollingsworth, Thomas Heller, Martin Johnson, Ben Lamont, Israel West, and Augustus Canfield met with Anne Lundgreen, William Garrison, E. R. Laurence, Emil Petterborg, Joseph Clayton, and David and decided to move the unfinished school to the top of a hill east of Worm Creek on the south line of Soren Peterson’s homestead. In 1879, the logs were moved to the new site on the top of Creamery Hollow. More logs were brought from the canyon to finish the house. The new house was twice the size of the first one. The finished house was sixteen feet by thirty-two feet.[xx]

With limited resources at hand, the schoolhouse hosted community activities such as socials, dances, weddings, and so on. Edward Clayton would set the pitch with his tuning fork and lead community singing. For dances, Nels and Baltzar Peterson would play their violins while Clayton, George and John Taylor played the accordion or mouth organ, and Soren Peterson “called” the dances. There were games, readings, and parties for many occasions.[xxi]

The presidency of the Cache Stake [xxii] at Logan met on 21 October 1879 to form the Worm Creek Ward with boundaries “commencing at the South of Mink Creek, thence running in a southerly direction through the foot hills to the Lewiston Canal, thence westerly along the bank of said canal to Worm Creek, thence to Bear River to the Railroad bridge, thence north and northeasterly along Bear River to the place of beginning.”[xxiii] Nahum Porter was bishop with David as first counselor, Elam Hollingsworth as second counselor, and Israel West as clerk. David also ran the local Sunday School.[xxiv] They soon organized the Female Relief Society [xxv] with Rachel Porter as president, Serena Jensen as first counselor, and Anne Lundgreen as second counselor.[xxvi] Two years later, they formed the Primary organization for children [xxvii] with Jennie Wilcox as president and Julia as first counselor. Julia later served as first counselor in the Relief Society presidency.[xxviii]

Preston received its name at a special meeting at the schoolhouse on 14 May 1881. Church leaders in Salt Lake City expressed concern that the word “worm” was inelegant for the name of a church unit. Rachel Porter, wife of Bishop Nahum Porter, suggested the ward be named “Preston” to honor William B. Preston, a bishop in the Cache Stake who later became the Presiding Bishop of the Church. Thereafter, Preston became the name of the ward and the community.[xxix]

Hard Labor to Build Canals

Although farming in the semiarid Cache Valley was difficult, the settlers achieve remarkable results by forming private canal companies, many of which continue to the present. Reflecting a communitarian rather than capitalistic goals, those companies placed the needs of the community above the needs of private individuals or corporations.

In the early 1880s, the settlers decided to bring irrigation water to the Preston bench, where the main part of town is located today. Jensen discussed the water problem with Joseph Clayton, Charles Spongborg, and Ole Petterborg. The men formed the Cub River and Worm Creek Canal Company, filing for water rights on 11 April 1880. Thirty-six men filed articles of incorporation in the Oneida County on 5 May, recording intentions to dig a canal ten feet deep from Cub River over the divide into Worm Creek. Those listed were Nahum Porter, F. L. Wilcox, William H. Head, David Jensen, W. C. Garrison, I. A. Canfield, and J. J. West. The company set up strict rules, and “no man could be admitted as a member of the company that had entered land any way except by the homestead and peremptory right. No man was allowed to sell his capital stock in the company to anyone that was objected to as a member.”[xxx]

For the months that the men worked on the ditch they camped on the river. Some took their wives up to cook for them. Many of the men grouped and had one woman cook for them, sharing everything in common.[xxxi]

Jensen took a contract to dig through Sand Rock Point. No one else seemed to want to do this work. All the work was done by hand without the use of drills, powder, or power machines. Cutting through the sand rock by hand was a slow process. Four to seven feet a day was a long and hard day’s work.[xxxii] He surveyed the canal with a spirit level, giving the canal an inch fall per rod. Serge C. Ballif described this canal work: “The real history of the work will never be written. As one old timer expressed it they ‘dug a little ditch to get a little water to raise a crop to get bread to get strength to dig more ditch.’”[xxxiii]

A history of Preston records that “after much manual labor of building fires to crack the rocks and leveling the canal, the ditch was completed by 1 July 1881. The entire community turned out to celebrate. Thomas Heller led a parade of settlers as they followed the water along the ditch. As the water made its way along, the people removed weeds and debris from its path. Where needed, the weak banks were hurriedly reinforced. When they saw the first water move over the hill, they took off their hats and gave the “Hosannah Shout” three times.[xxxiv] This sacred shout is normally reserved for dedication of temples, indicated local regard for the sacred, life-giving water. “With water now available on the Preston Flat, ditches could be made and additional acres cultivated. The hard work with hand tools and plow would now pay off in productivity as long as the water flowed. Despair was felt many times when the ditch would run dry and slides were discovered on the hillsides. Hasty repairs had to be made.”[xxxv]

The settlers decided to enlarge the ditch in 1883–84. The original ten-foot ditch seemed too large an undertaking and it was reduced to six. Solid rock was a problem for which blasting was the only solution. They voted in 1883 to make the ditch ten feet wide in the bottom; all contract work was to be done by 10 May 1884. The work was divided into horse-team work and pick-and-shovel work. A contract was comprised of fifty feet. Each man who took a contract was compelled to take as much pick-and-shovel work as he did team work. One man found it advantageous to use a horse and a slip scraper on his pick-and-shovel contract. He was forced to discontinue using the horse. The pay was either in cash or irrigation stock.[xxxvi]

Although the people had earlier celebrated a small stream running in 1881, the canal was enlarged until a substantial amount ran in 1885. From 1885 to 1890, things went on quite smoothly. The minutes of the canal company reported that “by the fall of 1888, another canal known as the Preston, Mink Creek and Riverdale Canal was surveyed, taking its water from the Mink Creek. David Jensen, David Eames, James Johnson, and John A. Woolf were the directors. This canal follows the hill to the east, and like its predecessor on the Flat, washes out in the sandy soil occasionally. It was constructed at a cost of about thirty thousand dollars and took several years to complete.”[xxxvii]

The year 1890 was exceptionally dry, and for the first time the companies which were taking the waters from Cub River found there was not nearly as much water as had been counted on. The minutes of 27 December 1890 state, “The business of the meeting was then stated by Pres. Dd. Jensen, it being the choosing of a committee to meet with a committee of the Lewiston Water Ditch Company, to try and come to some understanding with regards to our claims.”[xxxviii]

At that point, contention over water rights broke out among the four ditch companies taking water from Cub River. Lewiston (Cub River Irrigation Co.) argued that they had the prior right against Whitney (Cub River Middle Ditch Co.), and Preston (Cub River and Worm Creek Co.), and Preston (Cub River Creek Canal Co.). The Franklin company later joined the struggle. From 1890 to 1905, the sentiment rose almost to war. As men worked their ditches in the spring most of the talk centered around the other company stealing their company. The affair naturally ended in court, and on 5 December 1905 District Judge Budge issued a decision allocating exact amounts of water to each company.[xxxix]

Because of David Jensen’s early efforts to form canal companies in southeastern Idaho and northern Utah, Einar O. Hammer called him the father of Idaho–Utah irrigation in a magazine published by the Sons of Norway, a historical society headquartered in Minnesota.[xl] Although this title likely overstates his contribution, it demonstrates Norwegian pride in those irrigation efforts. Years later, another Norwegian convert and immigrant, John A. Widtsoe (1872–1952), became director of the Agricultural Experiment Station at Utah State Agricultural College and wrote US national best-selling books on irrigation and dry farming.[xli] These two men are fine examples of Norwegian contributions to the irrigation of the American West.

Prosecution for Unlawful Cohabitation

During his canal-building years, Jensen experienced a setback when federal marshals began hunting him for unlawful cohabitation. Although the US had passed the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act in 1862, it was enforced until the Reynolds case of 1879 opened the floodgates of prosecution in Idaho.[xlii] “At the beginning of 1885 two political factors significantly increased the prosecution of Mormons,” wrote historians Fred Woods and Merle Wells:

The legality of the Edmunds Act, tested the previous year, had led to the arrest and conviction in Utah of Mormon leader Rudger Clawson for practicing polygamy. This success encouraged increased “polygamy hunting” for political agendas. The second major political factor that increased Mormon prosecutions at this time was the alignment of a vast majority of southeastern Idaho Mormons with the Democratic Party. They therefore demonstrated great political influence when they voted as a bloc. The anti-Mormon Republican Party led by U.S. Marshal Fred T. Dubois launched an all-out crusade against polygamy in an attempt to curtail this political power. An anti-Mormon Democratic faction joined his bipartisan crusade. Dubois and his deputies organized raids and were responsible for arresting many Mormons on the charge of violating the Edmunds Act.[xliii]

Serena, his first wife, had died in 1884 (the year the Idaho Test Oath disenfranchised Mormons from voting), so technically David was a monogamist, but hid for a year from federal authorities who were trying to arrest him for unlawful cohabitation. While in hiding, he stayed at Marriner W. Merrill’s farm in Richmond, Utah Territory. Jensen was arrested in January of 1886 on the charge of unlawful cohabitation with his wives. The trial was to be at Blackfoot, Bingham County, Idaho. He was driven to trial by his fifteen-year-old son Oscar, who describes being traumatized by the ordeal and the long, lonely ride home alone. Jensen and the others were tried by a jury that was bitterly prejudiced and that was backed by Marshal Dubois for the express purpose of convicting the Mormons. He said while in the witness box and under oath that “he had a jury impaneled to try unlawful cohabitation cases that would convict Jesus Christ if he were on trial.”[xliv]

Jensen and the others were sentenced by Chief Justice J. B. Hays on 24 May 1886 to six months at the new Idaho Territorial Penitentiary and to pay a $300 fine.[xlv] Each person before sentenced was given the chance to recant and put his wives away and go free. Three promised to do this, and they were set free. Jensen refused to recant and thus became one of forty-seven men from southeastern Idaho who spent in the Idaho penitentiary due to unlawful cohabitation.[xlvi]

His experience offers a window into the legal trials and penitentiary experience. Those sentenced to Boise left Blackfoot on 31 May in charge of John R. Richards, the warden. They arrived at the penitentiary on the morning of 1 June. The penitentiary was situated about two and one-quarter miles south of Boise. They were ushered into the large stone building. They stood in line while two guards searched them carefully, taking watches, knives, pocketbooks, and money. Then they took their place of birth, height, complexion, age, weight, single or married status, and number of children. Jensen’s prisoner register number was 144.[xlvii]
The guards shaved off the prisoners’ beards—humiliating for the Mormon men—and told the men to put on the striped suits. These men were ushered into the yards with about seventy-five other prisoners. At 11:30 a.m. the whistle blew, and the prisoners were expected to go to their cells and be locked up until 8:30 the next morning. The prison was a double building; the outside wall was stone, and the inner wall or “cell house” was brick. The outside building was seventy feet long and forty feet wide and was thirty-seven feet high and covered with a sheet iron roof. The brick wall was about 14 inches thick, and the stone wall was about two feet thick. The floor was of stone flags. The structure was east of the center of a courtyard four hundred feet long, enclosed by a board fence twelve feet high, upon which are three guardhouses—one on the northeast corner, one by the north side, and one of the south side. The prison had a heavy double door in the north end. Between the stone and brick walls was a hall about eight feet wide and extending all around the cell house. The inside building was composed of forty-two cells, each six by eight feet and entered by means of a heavy flat iron, barred door. The cell house was divided into three stories, the upper ones being reached by an iron staircase leading up the north side of the buildings. Each cell was numbered and contained one double bunk (intended for two), one small table, two stools, one wooden bucket lined with earthen ware, two tin cups, knives, forks, and spoons.[xlviii]

Daily life involved mostly confinement with occasional opportunities to walk or engage in recreation. Alexander Nephi Stephens noted in his diary the following concerning himself and his cell mate Elijah Wilson, “We staid in our cells most all day, we went out about an hour and a half around the Prisoners. . . . Spent the rest of the day in reading and sitting around, could not get much exercise in our cell [as] it is about 6xl0ft.”[xlix] After serving his six-month sentence, he returned home to Preston. One can imagine the relief he and his family felt.

Oneida Stake Academy and Benson Park

Congress passed the Edmunds-Tucker Act in 1887, which disenfranchised the church, ended the Perpetual Emigrating Fund company, initiated federal control of the polls, pronounced children of polygamous marriages to be illegitimate, and denied Latter-day Saints the chance to serve on district school boards.[l] Consequently, in the spring of 1888, Church President Wilford Woodruff formed a General Board of Education. Woodruff, chairman of the board, sent a letter dated 3 June 1888, asking stakes to form private academies to teach a variety of subjects, including religion.[li] Thus began a series of thirty-three stake academies from Canada to Mexico.

Concluding a decade of intense federal prosecution, President Woodruff issued the Manifesto of 1890, ending the church official practice of plural marriage. Around that time, the Oneida Stake Academy first began meeting in Franklin, but the building was inadequate for the needs of the students. When the community decided to start construction of an academy building in Preston in 1890, Jensen became one of the largest donors.[lii] The academy building was completed in 1895 and provided the early education for the young people of Preston, including noted Mormon leaders such as church postle Matthew Cowley, church president Harold B. Lee, and Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson (who later become church president).

Jensen also donated money for the Preston Square (today’s Benson Park, where the academy building now stands).[liii] Ten men, one of which was David, were to contribute ten dollars apiece. The former owner of the land had agreed to sell this site for one hundred dollars. One of the original ten men paid ten dollars, and the other eight failed to do so. Jensen made up the balance.[liv]

In 1896 Julia’s feelings toward David were strained enough that she moved from the homestead into the southern part of Preston. David then married Leonore Agnete Olsen Finland (1864–1903) on 2 November 1897 in the Logan Temple, a post-Manifesto marriage that must have complicated Julia’s feelings, especially after David and Leonore made their home on the ranch.

After Leonore died on 5 June 1903, David’s health declined. During the last six months of his life, Julia cared for him in her home, and he died on 9 January 1909.[lv] At his funeral a soloist performed a moving rendition of “O My Father,” the important song that inspired the Jensens’ conversion.[lvi]

Preston in National News

The settling of Preston is a complex story of displacing Native Americans while pursuing the American dream. It is a story of building the kingdom of God in the American West. During a difficult struggle for survival, the European and American settlers of Preston would build canals, homes, and schools that enabled the town to blossom like a rose. This new homeland for immigrants would produce a bumper crop of national and church leaders who knew how to tame the West through hard work. As a quirky conclusion, national attention focused on Preston after filmmaker Jared Hess shot Napoleon Dynamite on the original homestead of Norwegian immigrants David, Serena, and Julia Jensen.[lvii]