Valdemar Emil and Ida Ramseyer Hansen by Arthur R. Wakins written July 1994
Valdemar Emil, or "Emil," as he was called later in life, was born November 25, 1894 to Christian Valdemar and Olivia Nelson Hansen in Logan Utah, the first of eleven children. He was born 2 years before Utah became a state, four years after the Manifesto that ended LDS polygamy, and one year after the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple that had been under construction for 40 years.
His parents, both immigrants from Denmark, had met and fallen in love at 19 in Logan, but postponed their marriage for four years, during which time Christian Valdemar was able to acquire ground and build a house on it. Emil's parents' marriage was sealed in the Logan temple, which after Manti was the next oldest in the Church. Before marriage, Christian Valdemar had already given up his occupation as a teamster. He sold his wagon, harnesses and horses in order to buy ground and building materials for a house that for the most part he built himself. Once it was completed, he took up painting and paper-hanging, a trade that he had been feeling drawn to for some time.
Emil's mother had worked for Apostle Moses Thatcher in order to pay back the $70.00 lent to her for her transportation from Denmark to Utah. Prior to their marriage, she had been working for a bakery in Salt Lake City at $4.00 per week. Like Manti, Logan was a Scandinavian Town. Once a few Danish families had established themselves there, others moved there after their arrival in Salt Lake City. Knowing little English, it was easier for them to get started in a community with other Danish families. For example, when Emil's father and his grandparents arrived in Logan, they knew a Brother Nielsen, who picked them up at the station and took them to his home.
Emil's father had learned to read the Danish Bible when he was four years old. His mother had kept him out of Danish schools because she did not want him to become contaminated with the evils of the world until she could get him into a Latter-day Saint school in Zion. As it turned out, because of near-poverty in the family, he enjoyed just three years of formal schooling in Logan.
Emil fared much better. Since his father practiced a trade instead of farming, he was not taken out of school to help with the planting and harvest, as most of the other boys were. Until he reached his teenage years he was also too young to help with painting. In school he was good at numbers, learned to write and print legibly, but was slow at reading. As an adult, words on a printed page did not make sense to him unless he read them out-loud, which could have been a carry-over from the way he was taught. He had a distinct aptitude for music, both vocal and instrumental. He was blessed with a pleasant melodious voice that matured to a clear tenor that he later sang in quartets.
On the playground, Emil and his brother Oliver played the same games that some of us played a generation later: pomp-pomp-pull-away, dare-base, no-bears-out-tonight, fox-and-geese and ante-I-over. In the long Logan winters, he and the other children had fun playing in the snow and on the ice. Perhaps, because of the lack of public pools or suitable streams, he never learned how to swim. Later in life, when he spent so much time in a boat on Strawberry Reservoir fishing, albeit with a life-preserver, some of us felt a slight twinge of concern.
Ida Ramseyer, two years younger than Emil, was born on February 21, 1896, the year that Utah became a state. She was the oldest living daughter of Achilles and Marie Ramseyer, both converts and immigrants from Switzerland. Whereas Emil's father had enjoyed three years of elementary education in a classroom, Ida's had earned a graduate degree in medicine at the University of Bern and spoke three languages without accent. Without the bond of the restored gospel Ida's parents may never have met, fallen in love and married, for his native language was standard French, while her's was a severe German dialect from which she never completely escaped.
Ida's family had more difficulty blending with American culture than did Emil's, who lived in Logan that had a strong Danish admixture. In the early 1900's, Salt Lake City was quite cosmopolitan. Over the decades, it had absorbed immigrants from abroad and eastern parts of United States where missionaries had been active. Converts from abroad were generally eager to shed whatever made them different from the majority of their neighbors. Achilles Ramseyer, who had practiced medicine in the Bear Lake Region and had worked as a bookkeeper for a mining company and ZCMI before becoming a temple recorder, had no problem. According to Ida's sister Esther, their mother never became completely integrated in the Forest Dale ward in which she lived most of her life.
Both Ida and Emil lived on the edge of poverty and were probably not aware of it as children. Without expressing any regrets, Ida told her children that she was kept out of school one year because the family could not afford to buy her shoes that were adequate for walking through the deep snow. Emil was also kept out of school one year after they moved to Thornton, Idaho, because of the family's financial condition.
Ida and her younger sister Esther suffered socially because of the mischief that their smart aleck brothers Alma and Dave managed to get into. Emil and Oliver were kept so busy with chores and helping their father with his painting trade that they had no time to get into mischief, which leads to the speculation, Had Alma and Dave been forced to work with their father on a farm and at his trade, would they have stayed active in the Church and married in the temple?
From her mother, Ida learned to understand and speak Swiss-German. After she learned standard German in school, she was more apt to use it whenever she felt inclined to exchange a few phrases with her father, who spoke literary German with their mother. According to Esther, big sister Ida had a graceful elegance about her that made it easier for her to break into higher social circles of the ward and the LDS high school that the children attended. She would baby-sit for neighbors and do other chores in order to buy clothes that fit her well. With her outgoing personality, she was popular with the girls and especially the boys on the athletic teams.
The big thing in the lives of the Ramseyers was their cabin in Emigration Canyon. It was Marie's and Achilles' little piece of their beloved Switzerland. The cabin was too small for all of them to sleep inside. This was no inconvenience for the children. They slept outside under the stars and enjoyed the canyon all the more. In the evenings, Marie would get out her guitar and accompany them as they sang around the bonfire and ate roasted potatoes. None of them had commitments in the Valley that required them to return for Sunday meetings. Pious and committed as they were, they held sacrament meetings with their canyon neighbors.
The cabin was located near the old Mormon Trail that was traversed by some 70,000 immigrants who came into the Valley with covered wagons and handcarts before the railroad was completed in 1869. Often the children took hikes up this road, following pioneer wagon ruts that were still very visible.
For amusement in the late afternoons and evenings, the children would often plan and rehearse skits and plays that they would present to their parents, visiting relatives, and as many adults among the neighbors as they could round up. Their "Broadway Production" was Hansel and Gretel. They had persuaded Marie to play the part of the wicked witch, and she played it to the hilt. She knew the story in German from her own girlhood days and really put on a show by substituting phrases in the original language of the Grimm Brothers.
With the advent of the age of the automobile, the Emigration Railroad began to lose money. It was a sad day for the family, when it was taken out and sold to Japan for scrap metal. Later, Esther would quip, "We may have gotten it back at Pearl Harbor at the beginning of World War II!" Thereafter, until Esther grew up and bought a Model-T Ford, the Ramseyers either walked the six miles up the canyon, or arranged rides with neighbors.
Of all the children, perhaps Ida enjoyed the canyon the most. After she and Emil moved to Utah County, they bought a lot up North Fork of Provo Canyon and built a cabin on it that later was replaced with a small cinder-block house. Their daughter Ruth inherited "Swiss Canyon Love." With Emil's help, she and Arthur also built a cabin that they and their children have enjoyed over the the years.
In Logan Olivia gave birth to a still-born child, after which the following children came at regular intervals: Lucille, Emily, Irene, and Anita. In the meantime Christian Valdemar, or C.V. as he was beginning to call himself, became increasingly tired of the painting and paper-hanging trade. He looked with longing on farmers in the area, who had big farms and nice homes. Economically and socially, they seemed more substantial. Since most of the tillable land in the Logan area had already been claimed and was being farmed, he checked out Thornton, Idaho. where August Nelson, Olivia's brother was living. From August he bought acreage close to the Snake River and moved his family into a one-room, log house with a dirt roof.
Most of the farm was still in sage brush. With considerable effort he and the boys cleared it off and planted cash crops of hay, grain and sugar beets. They also worked on the house to make it more livable. The one large room they partitioned off to make three rooms. Fourteen-year Emil, who stayed out of school that first year "for economic reasons" wrote in his brief personal history: ". . . The first rain that came along proved how little dirt there was on the roof. It leaked terribly. We had umbrellas and pans on the beds to keep the rain off and waited until morning. When morning came we shoveled all the dirt off and covered the roof with tin." There was an old well at the side of the house that had been used for culinary water that had a taste so bad that they felt warned no to drink it.
C.V. dug the well deeper to get better water and then installed a pump. Good! Olivia no longer had to put up with the grinding and banging of the pulley wheels and buckets that were lowered and raised. Eventually, the neighbors also installed pumps on their noisy wells.
Emil wrote that they were not very good farmers. They needed formal instruction, but it was not available. As a result, they planted untreated seed-wheat that gave them a smutty wheat harvest. Around the thresher that fall, there was a dark cloud of smut-dust. Their cabbage grew well in the soil that was sub- irrigated. Some heads weighed in at 25 pounds, but there was no market for them. They planted fruit trees that never bore fruit because of the shortness of the season. When bills were due and there was little money to pay them, C.V. wept bitter tears and began to regret his decision to leave the painting- and paper hanging trade. Another bad memory of the farm was the death of Emil's little sister Emily, who passed away at eleven years of age. This was Emil's first experience with death.
A farm at that time was not complete without horses, cows, pigs and chickens. To shelter the cattle in the winter, C.V. and the boys made a structure with cotton-wood posts and willows. After the grain was harvested in the fall they covered the roof with straw. One of the chores of the boys was to help feed and water the animals.
In the summer of 1912 after Emily died, C.V. began scouting around for a way to get back into the painting business. Finally he obtained a job in Idaho Falls painting signs for a Mr. Elwood Graves. He sold his farm to a Mr. Robert Hill and moved to Idaho Falls in the fall. Emil was now 18 years of age and rich in farm experience. He was happy to be able to attend high school in furtherance of his interrupted education.
Needing employment when school was out in the spring, he went back to Thornton and worked on the farm for a Mr. A. Z. Fjelstrom. Soon after the Hansens' move to Thornton in 1913 Emil met a little Sister Rosina Anderson, who was born in Switzerland and had a sister, Marie Ramseyer in Salt Lake City. Mrs. Anderson took a liking to Emil and told him about her vivacious and pretty niece Ida. In the meantime she had written to Ida and told her about a handsome Idaho farm boy by the name of Emil Hansen. Emil writes, "Well, at that age things like that were dreamed of, but often came to naught. This was different. Ida and I met, fell in love and were married.
While Emil was working for Mr. Fjelstrom, his family moved from Idaho Falls to Rexburg. He returned to them and attended the LDS Ricks Academy until he graduated in 1916. At Ricks, he took courses in accounting, German and music among others. He played the french horn in the band and loved every minute of it. For his own amusement, he also learned to play the harmonica, which he continued to play in the Orem Senior Citizens Harmonica Band until shortly before he died. It was probably at Ricks that he discovered that he had a real talent for music. Performing on his instrument, singing in quartets and directing choral groups, all came easy.
In the meantime Ida came to Idaho, ostensibly to visit her Aunt, but perhaps subconsciously to check out Emil. The visit was prolonged so that they could go on dates. As it seemed to both of them that they were meant for one another, Emil went to Salt Lake to get acquainted with Ida's parents, who gave quick approval for a temple marriage. On May 27, 1917 they were married in the Salt Lake Temple by President Anthony N. Lund. They then returned to Rexburg to begin married life, and for a while Emil continued working with his father in the trade. Emil and Ida did not delay starting their family, and soon were looking forward to the birth of their first child.
As our country was getting closer to entering World War I, Emil grew tired of painting and took a civil service exam with a view toward working in a government office. He passed the exam and began working as a dispatcher in the Rexburg post office. After America declared war, he was deferred from military service because of his essential government employment. Since the cost of living had begun to rise and his salary remained low, he began to paint on the side to make both ends meet.
Ida's and Emil's first child, their daughter Ruth, was born on Nov. 6, 1918 just five days before the signing of the Armistice that formally ended the war in favor of the Allies. Germany and Austria were totally defeated.
As the 1918-1919 flu was entering its epidemic stage, their doctor was very busy making house calls in his horse and buggy. He responded to their call when Ida's labor began, but when it momentarily ceased, he ran off on another call. As a consequence, when Ida started in labor again, in earnest this time, the baby started to come without a doctor's assistance and supervision. Emil's mother Olivia had come over to help out as best she could, but had never seen a birth. She fell to the floor in a faint, and Emil, who was even more inexperienced, stood there wringing his hands. Fortunately, Ida had taken a course in nursing in Salt Lake that included training in mid wifery. She sat up, cut the umbilical cord and directed the activities of Emil and her revived mother-in-law in caring for the wailing baby. When the doctor returned, mother and daughter were doing well. Under the circumstances, they were disappointed that he charged them the full fee.
Their second daughter Esther was born on February 6. 1920, at the coldest part of an extremely severe winter. Since frost had begun to form on the inside walls of the bedroom, they moved their beds into the living room and kept the fire burning day and night. Ida, who had come from a much warmer climate in Salt Lake City, began to wish out loud that they could earn their living in a warmer area. Emil too, could remember that winters in Logan were not that bad. The upshot of this bad winter was that they began making plans to move south before another winter.
As Emil expressed it in his history, "Moving from one community to another is rather rough unless you have a job to go to, which I did not." On August 1, 1920, they were finally ready to leave and lease a railroad boxcar.
Talk of moving south put ideas in the head of restless C.V. The long, bitter winter was also hard on him, for his trade was suspended, and he had seven mouths to feed. Another incentive was that there was plenty of room in the boxcar. The contagion for going south infected Oliver and his wife, as well as Mr. Fjeldstrom. They all loaded their furniture in Emil's boxcar and set out for a better life in the south.
Emil was never quite sure why they chose Provo. When they arrived he realized that he had to compete with BYU students who were arriving for the fall semester and needed part-time jobs. He went immediately to Gessford's paint store and found employment for a year. Then on February 22, 1921 he began working in the furniture-finishing shop of the big Taylor Brothers' Department Store. With money borrowed from the saving account of Ida's father, Emil bought a lot and began to build a a house on it.
A few weeks before leaving Rexburg, Emil was ordained a Seventy by President Hark Austin. This meant that he pledged himself to sustain missionary work by making financial contributions or by accepting a call to serve on a mission within a stake or somewhere in the field.
Both Emil and his father C.V. moved into the pioneer ward of Provo that was located west of 500 West Street and extended to the Provo River from which the early settlers obtained their water. By riding his bicycle from 771 West First North, where his new home was located, he could easily reach Taylor Brothers' Store that was a mere 9 short blocks away. In fact, he could come home for lunch.
In Rexburg he had served as a Sunday School chorister, and was called to that position again, soon after moving into the Pioneer Ward. Because his smooth tenor voice was soon recognized by those who were in charge of musical programs, he was now often called to join quartets and choruses. in providing special numbers for funerals, anniversaries and other occasions. When he was not singing in public, he sang to himself as he worked at Taylor Brothers, and after work as he continued to build on his home. In fact, this spontaneous, joyful singing may have been the secret of his physical endurance, as he often worked 12 hours a day during much of his life.
In our Church, those like Emil, who have musical talent are called as choristers and often forego the experience of teaching courses in one of the auxiliaries. This, perhaps more than anything else, accounts for his lack of classroom experience. With regard to leadership, it was another matter, as we will see later. At Ricks Academy, a high school, he served as a student body officer his senior year, which gave him invaluable experience for executive callings in the Church.
As a mother and homemaker, Ida was in her element. There were no more Idaho winters. With the Orem railroad, she could easily travel to Salt Lake to visit her relatives. Emil had a steady, modest income, and they could live within their budget. Perhaps no one fussed around two baby daughters more than she. She dressed them in cute clothes, saw that they had dolls and toys, and when they were a little older, she got them little baby buggies for their dolls. Her girls were pretty to look at, Ruth with her blond, dutch-cut bangs that hung straight over her little round face, and Esther, just a year younger, with her beautiful golden hair. No wonder that they were frequently photographed by an admiring mother!
When Ruth turned four, Ida arranged for her to take dancing lessons. Dutiful and conscientious even at that age, she was soon performing, often with little partner Billy, for admiring audiences and proud parents. The culmination of her "career" was when she danced on the stage of the Paramount Theater in Provo. And oh yes, Ida had pictures taken of her starlet. They are framed and hang today (July 24, 1994) in Ruth's study.
On April 24, 1922, a son, Gordon Emil was born into the Hansen household. With this pregnancy Ida had suffered with morning sickness as much as she did with the first two, which put a crimp in her social life. Like his sisters, Gordon was a healthy baby, who required little special attention. Like Esther, he too was red-headed!. 'Where does all that golden hair come from?" Emil and Ida asked themselves.
What was Provo like in the early twenties? A new, paved highway across the recently incorporated town of Orem connected it with Salt Lake City. The main campus of Brigham Young University was located on University Avenue. A large, decorative water fountain stood in the intersection of University Avenue and Center Street. On the southeast corner of this intersection was located the Provo City municipal building, across the street the Provo Tabernacle, and on Center Street and First South, the Train Station, in front of which two taxis competed for taking passengers "to any part of the city." Taylor Brothers' Department Store dominated the west end of Center Street. It's owner, T. N. Taylor, was President of the Provo Stake that included Orem.
Emil's work at Taylor Brothers' included lettering, which he loved to do because it was more exacting and creative than painting furniture. When the Paris Company in Salt Lake advertised for a "lettering man, at a higher salary than he was getting at Taylor Brother's, he applied for the job and was hired. Leaving their comfortable home and moving in with the now widowed Marie Ramseyer while he tried out the job, was unpleasant, but a necessary risk for improving the family's economic status.
It was while living in Salt Lake City that Ida suffered through a fourth pregnancy and gave birth to another boy, Russell Herman. At the Paris Company Store, Emil soon became introduced to the less than honest ethics of the modern business world. When it became too much for his Mormon moral code and began to involve and compromise him, he decided to quit.
Taylor Brothers' liked him and fortunately had not hired anyone else on a permanent basis, so he got his old job back. The Hansens fit right back into the Pioneer Ward, where C.V. had begun teaching the high priests class and where Emil's younger sisters were beginning to date and marry off.
In 1927 Emil was called to be a counselor to Bishop Clarence Durrant, and on November 20th was ordained a high priest by Apostle Melvin J. Ballard. Bill Mitchell, who managed a jewelry store on Center Street, was called as the other counselor. Thereafter, a life-long friendship developed between the Hansens and Mitchells, who were about the same age. The "relationship" was so close that the Hansen children referred to the Mitchells as "Aunt Irma" and "Uncle Bill." Bishop Clarence Durrant also stayed close to the Hansens and attended Ruth's and Arthur's wedding ceremony in the Salt Lake Temple many years later.
Emil painted furniture and breathed in fumes in an enclosed area of the Taylor Brothers' store for a total of nine years. Although he was relatively healthy despite the environment, he wondered how many more years he could take it. More and more he thought of the good days on farms in Thornton, Idaho, where he had a variety of activities. He could remember that he fed the stock, irrigated, pitched hay, and helped with the sugar beet harvest. Remarkably, he had apparently forgotten the long hours and drudgery! Most of all he needed to get away from paint fumes and four walls! A farm could be a family enterprise. He could be closer to his family on an hourly basis. Gordon, who was now a boy of six, could tag him around and help him gather eggs.
After weighing the decision for months, Emil and Ida began looking at possibilities for farming in the Orem area. They liked a small farm owned by Julian Hansen on 1200 South just west of State Street. It had chicken coops, peach and cherry trees, and open land for row crops such as tomatoes and berries. The plan was to raise chickens and harvest peaches and cherries, as well as tomatoes. On the side Emil would begin practicing his trade. By selling their Provo home and using their equity as a down-payment, they were able to complete the deal. With high expectations and great gusto they moved to the farm in 1928 at the peak of the economic boom after World War I. The Great Depression was around the corner, and they did not know it!
Life was different on the farm. They needed a car, so Emil bought a panel truck, later dubbed "the silver streak" by the children. This truck with signs on the side that advertised his trade, was also used occasionally for transporting the family to Provo and Salt Lake City. Understandably, Ruth and Esther were embarrassed to be seen climbing out of the back end of it, and on a longer trip the children would get sick.
Russell was a restless little chap, who had to be tethered to their clothes line while Ida and the older children were busy with their chores. One day he got loose by squirming out of his coveralls that were left on the line. He crossed the street and went over to the Wilford Larsens, who, without children of their own, idolized the Hansen children.
Ruth was ten years old and very mature for her age. It was her job to do the house work during the harvest season. She hated the dust that was carried in from the yards and graveled Curtis Street that is now called 1200 South. Because Ida had suffered so much through her four pregnancies and now had two girls and two boys, she finally announced that she would not be having any more children. Nevertheless, motherly Ruth began to pray for a baby sister. She talked about how nice it would be to have a baby sister, and she prayed some more for a baby sister, and finally, Ida announced that she was expecting a baby. Ruth was absolutely elated. Her prayers had been answered. This last pregnancy was just as nauseatingly miserable as the others. The birth of Geraldine on, July 3, 1931, came at the peak of the Cherry harvest. Ida was badly needed, so she propted herself up in bed, and three days after the birth, began sorting cherries!
As the depression set it, things were not going well on the farm. The chickens were supposed to bring in enough revenue to make payments on the mortgage. Disaster struck when one of the chickens got chicken pox--yes chickens do get this disease-- and infected others. Soon the whole coop was infected, which meant that they began to default on their mortgage because Emil could only earn enough with his trade to sustain the family.
The Great Depression was on, and Ida was suffering mental depression. She needed to get away and 13 year-old, motherly Ruth was able and willing to take care of the baby. Once Ida arranged to travel to California to see her brothers, but was involved in an accident near Nephi and returned battered and bruised. On other occasions, she would catch the Orem train down the street and travel to Salt Lake to visit her mother and sisters.
By 1934 the Hansens were so far in arrears on their mortgage payments, that they turned the farm back to its owner and moved into a little one-room, rock house with a lean-to at about 500 south State in Orem, all seven of them and their dog Fritz. They were down to nothing! Emil wrote: "It seems like we've had nothing but failures, but that's not all together right, because we still had our fine family and a faith in the future."
But things began to brighten up a little. Emil was appointed Orem town clerk at $26.00 per month. Since Orem did not have a town hall, people came to the little rock house to pay their water bills. The clerk's desk stood in the corner of the "combination room" which crowded them all the more. After the business of collecting for water bills was consolidated with the record keeping department, Emil assumed responsibility for both positions and was paid $41.00 per month. In establishing a bookkeeping system for the Town, he used the principles that he had learned in an accounting class at Ricks many years before. When people stopped by at all hours to pay their water bills, the family took care of them. Emil was out with his trade earning the other half of their living.
That they were reduced to this "pioneer level" did not continue to bother Ida, for after all, other people were hurting during the Depression. People living in apartments back east were evicted and living on the streets! She planted their yard to beautiful flowers and even made a lily pond. When a $25.00 prize was offered to the family that made the most improvement in beautifying their yard, the Hansens won it, much to the joy of those who had seen and admired their yard.
The Hansens were well-liked in the Old Timpanogos Ward and in the Orem community. Emil was known as the painter and paper hanger who did a good job and sang while he worked. In the Ward he was called to be the chorister, and he continued to sing a funerals and other special occasions.
Ida made friends as easily in Orem as she did in Provo, but had a phobia about standing before a group. Since she lost part of her thumb on the right hand in an old-fashion wringer while drying clothes Ida was even more sensitive. She became reluctant to stand before a group for fear of exposing her "defect." Even reaching for the emblems of the sacrament with her right hand was difficult for her. For a while she stopped attending Sunday School while Chester Graff was teaching the gospel doctrine class, for fear that he might ask her to stand and read something. Otherwise she was true-blue to the gospel and upheld its principles at every turn.
In the thirties it was fashionable for women to wear hats. Ida loved them and since they did not cost much, she would buy a new one now and then to perk up her spirit. She also bought hats for her teen-age daughters Ruth and Esther. Many of these were kept in a closet and after her passing, Ruth took them for sentimental reasons. In more recent years, her little great grand-daughters have used them to dress up in.
The Hansens lived in the rock house for about three years and got to know almost every citizen in Orem who paid a water bill in person. Because they were cheerful and did not lament about losing their home and farm, people admired and liked them, including John Fowers, one of Orem's more well-to-do citizens. Without mortgage payments they were also doing better financially, and could see the day when they might leave the little rock house and build another home of their own.
One night Emil dreamed that well-to-do John Fowers agreed to lend him money to buy a half-acre lot on State Street with an old packing shed on it. He told his dream to Ida, who prevailed on him to test out the dream by actually going to Mr. Fowers and asking for the loan. Emil did this, and the response was positive!. With her nice way, Ida was also able to borrow funds from her relatives in Salt Lake City.
Everyone who knew the Emil Hansens, began watching what was happening to the old E. C. Olson packing shed. Emil and Gordon, in their spare time, began taking it down board by board and stacking the lumber according to size. I was one of those who took an interest in their enterprise. With amazing versatility, Emil began drawing sketches of the house with its dimensions on blue-print forms.
Without modern caterpillars and back-hoes, digging the basement was arduous. Some hard spots were blasted. Lloyd Sundquist, a laborer, was hired for part of it at $2.50 per day. Finally the basement was excavated with a big pile of "Orem gravel" in front that the PWA (Public Works Administration) obligingly hauled away as fill for sidewalk construction. After the forms for the basement were poured, the house began to take shape according to Emil's blue-prints. He worked on it during evenings and periods when he was not working as Orem City's recorder or at his trade.
The family moved from the little rock house into the basement sometime during 1935. Since this was the plan from the beginning, Emil had built a comfortable apartment in the basement that consisted of a living room, large kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroom. Later, one of the bedrooms served as a furnace room. A picture snapped in 1935 shows a stylish-looking, unpainted frame home that was obviously made of the old packing-shed lumber, for some boards with parts of the original advertising signs, "E. C. Olsen, manufacturer & Jobber, bushel baskets, berry cups, spray materials," etc. were plainly visible.
The concrete floor of the packing shed, now located behind the house, was used as a driveway between the house and a garage-shop that Emil constructed. Without delay lawns and flowers were planted and eventually another lily pond. As the townspeople already knew, Ida loved flowers and over the years gave many of them starts from her Iris gardens. Behind the house and garage, there was enough land on the half-acre lot for fruit trees, raspberries and a vegetable garden. Right away, Emil built a shed for the family milk cow and chicken coops in the southwest corner of the lot.
The house may have looked like "old Sam Scratch," but people in Orem admired Emil for his ingenuity in converting the old shed into a home at minimal cost. And now that the family had moved into the basement, they admired the lawns and flower gardens that sprang up around it. I was one of those admirers, but my attention was focused on their cute blond daughter Ruth, a junior at Lincoln High School. As a BYU recruiter, I called at the Hansen home one evening and found her alone, at the ironing board in the basement kitchen, and interviewed her about attending college.
During all of this, Ida was one of Orem's social elite, for she belonged to the Orem Literary Club along with ladies from well-established families such as the Parks and Pynes. She and Emil also got together with Bill and Irma Mitchell, their old friends from Provo's pioneer ward. On a weekend evening, they would often sit and play "rook," "rummy" or "canasta."
While working for the City, Emil got acquainted with a Mr. Stewart, who owned land in the north fork of the Provo River above the present ski resort of Sundance. With Ida's enthusiasm and urging, he bought a small lot on the "creek," on which he erected a tent and a small wooden structure on a platform. Later, he built a comfortable cinder-block cabin on the site.
Ida continued to enjoy her excursions to Salt Lake and occasional trips to California to visit her brothers Dave and Wientz. She could be away with restful assurance that all would go well with Ruth in charge. Of course,Emil and Gordon would be away with the trade.
When he was not in school, Gordon became a competent helper both in painting and paper hanging. Snap shots show him in his white painting clothes standing a head taller than Emil. He was undoubtedly a reason for the rising standard of living of the Hansens. Ruth and Esther helped also. Like most teenage girls in Orem, during the summer months they had jobs in the berry patches of Orem and were able to buy their own clothes.
Another sign of the rising standard of living of the Hansens was their purchase of an Oldsmobile that they could all ride in. Ida also learned to drive it. She was so short in the deep, front seat that she had too look through the top of the steering wheel when she occasionally drove. After the old Chevrolet panel truck wore out, Emil bought a trailer in which he hauled his paint-equipment. It was inconvenient to hitch and unhitch it, but it was cheeper than buying and maintaining a second car.
Emil continued to work on the interior of the upper stories of their home. Teenage Ruth had prevailed on him to widen the windows on each side of the fireplace. Orem rejoiced with the family when gray stucco was applied to the outside walls. From now on nobody could tell that the house had been built out of used lumber.
The family moved to the upper stories and promptly rented out the basement apartment. They now had a living room, a dining room, a large kitchen with a dinette, a bedroom and a bathroom on the main floor. Upstairs, they had a large and small bedroom plus a bathroom and a small storage room. Their home was more modern in style and conveniences than most homes in Orem. The Emil Hansens "had arrived."
Like most families during the late depression, they were frugal. Emil got four new tires for his birthday. One Christmas Gordon got a "new" used chair for his bedroom. Their cow, chickens and garden furnished them "half their living." In the small closet of the master bedroom hung Emil's one Sunday shirt and suit, His work clothes hung in the back closet.
On June 8, 1941 Emil and Ida went with Ruth and Arthur to the Salt Lake Temple, where the latter two were sealed "for time and eternity." This was the first of five temple marriages that Emil and Ida would witness in the ensuing years. In anticipation of the wedding reception to be held in their home, Emil had cut a new, curved entrance into the front of their home and poured a spacious, concrete landing with steps leading up to it. Around the edges of the landing, he installed beautiful wrought-iron guard rails.
Another juncture in the story of Emil and Ida was the marriage of their second daughter Esther to Clyde Asay just before World War II ended. They were sealed in the Temple on March 26, 1945. Like Arthur and Clyde, Gordon had also served in the War. He fell in love with LeLa Christensen and took her to the Temple on June 10, 1946. Russell met Ramona Rainwater at the end of his mission and married her on June 29, 1949. Jerry, the last one to leave the nest, married Keith Farnworth on June 9, 1954.
In 1946 the town of Orem became a third-class city. Clerk and recorders offices were combined and Orlin Pyne was appointed in place of Emil. Perhaps there was a feeling in the mayor's office that the expanding City needed for its accounting procedures more of an expert than a jack-of-all-trades, which was Emil. For fourteen years, he had worked eight hours a day for the city as its clerk. Then, each day, he worked four more hours at his trade. That is how he could afford to build and embellish his home, one of the nicer of the new ones in Orem.
The loss of his city job did not bother Emil so much. for now he could work full-time at his trade, and there was plenty of work. But it bothered Ida, who felt that the old-time influential families, some of whom were in her Orem Literary Club, were jealous of Emil's apparent prosperity, and had maneuvered a younger Orlin Pyne, who needed a job, into the position. This feeling grew on her to the point that she resigned from the Club, claiming that she was busy with other interests. Most of the ladies were surprised and disappointed. Zestful Ida was the heart and soul of the Club. Year after year, they asked her to join them again, but to no avail.
At this juncture, Emil and Ida decided to get into the paint business. At the southeast corner of their large lot, they built a cinder-block structure that became the "Hansen Paint and Decorating Company." The idea was for Ida to run the store, while Emil worked at his trade. As business was slow, she would hang out a sign, "Back in two hours," and go on an errand.
Emil claimed later that the paint venture prospered, but that it "worked Ida too much." Eventually, they moved their paint supplies into a back room and rented out the front to First Security Bank. Now the building was bringing in as much or more income than the paint store without encumbering Ida.
Ida and Emil were spending more time in the canyon, where Bill and Irma Mitchell were building a cabin next to theirs. With a knack for architectural patterns, heavy-set Irma would sit in her chair and direct her inexperienced, jeweler husband in how to lay out the walls and where to nail the boards. Emil also helped out in the supervision.
Ida was having health problems that her herbs and pills didn't remedy. Often she would say, "I need to go down to Dr. Cullimore and get a shot." Finally, the diagnosis was that she needed a hysterectomy. As she sat playing 'canasta" with Bill and Irma one evening, she said with her typical wit, "Tomorrow I will be neuter gender."
A year or two after this operation, she suddenly went into convulsions one evening and was rushed to the Utah Valley Hospital in Provo. She had developed adhesions that were strangling her. After this second operation, she began feeling much better and was her old self again.
Almost no one knew the workings of Orem City government better than Emil with his fourteen years experience. In 1951 he was prevailed upon to run for the city council, and he was elected, after which he served 6 1/2 in that capacity. This was a period of board meetings that would often last until after midnight. Because of a sense of civic duty, he did not complain, but Ida did. On evenings of the weekly board meetings she would lie awake and wonder when he would be coming home.
Although the new Hansen home lay within the boundaries of the Sharon Ward, the family continued to attend the Timpanogos ward. Now that Emil was an elected official of the City of Orem and his older children were getting married and leaving, he and Ida succumbed to Sharon Stake pressure and switched their I membership. Id said that she did not enjoy Sharon Ward as much as Timpanogos. She complained that the sacrament meetings were noisy.
In Sharon Stake, he had served for some time as director of music. After Orem Stake was split off from Sharon, he served on the Orem Stake High Council for five years. Like some of the other "old timers" on the council, he did not enjoy speaking assignments in the other wards. Later, he was a member of the high priest quorum presidency for several years and enjoyed it more.
Emil had joined the Mendelssohn Chorus that was now being directed by Elvis Terry of the Lincoln High School music department. This was an activity that he enjoyed. The Chorus practiced regularly and sang at various functions throughout the year. It seemed to Ida that Emil was either at meetings with the City or singing functions of the Chorus.
In 1957 Orem's Mayor Luzzel Robbins died suddenly after being in office for a few months. Emil was appointed to take his place and served for 18 months until a new election could take place. In his Book of Remembrance, there are pictures of his role in an expanding city government. He was photographed with Governor Clyde at the opening of the new sewage treatment plant, at the Alta Ditch Pipe Line, the inauguration of the I-15 Freeway through Orem, at banquets, cutting ribbons for new businesses and Fourth of July parades. Despite the publicity and honor that grows on most public servants, Emil remained an "Idaho farm boy" at heart. He declined to throw his hat in the ring to run for mayor at the next election. Thereafter, over several years. he received a number of recognition awards for his service to Orem City and continued to ride in Orem's parades as one of its former mayors. His affiliation with the City continued when he was appointed a member of the Metropolitan Water Board and in 1961 became its executive secretary.
In 1955 Arthur and Ruth began to build their home on 351 E. 720 South Street. Anticipating this, Emil bought a table saw. They had excavated and were nailing in the forms for the basement walls when Emil appeared one Saturday morning and began to help. As the home neared completion the following year, he laid the stones for the planter box in front of the house, built the banister along the stairs to the basement, the book cases in the living room, chests of drawers and shelves in the bedroom closets. He also helped partition off two bedrooms and a bathroom at the foot of the stairs in the basement. Later he helped finish the family room in the basement and build a desk.
Esther and Clyde had bought a frame home that was moved on to a foundation on their lot at the brow of the hill in the Grand View Area. Emil also helped them remodel and make it comfortable.
December 25, 1956 was a special day in the Hansen home. They had just received word that they had paid out their mortgage. In the family album there is a picture of the two of them holding the property deed while standing at the desk under the telephone. Much earlier they had paid back John Fowers and Ida's relatives. With Jerry married and on her own, they could take it easy.
In 1959 Emil turned 65 and could begin drawing social security checks. Now he could officially retire. Because he was so well known in his trade, requests continued to come in. He took just a few jobs in order to stay under the maximum earnings that Social Security would allow.
In the meantime, Irma had passed away and Bill had married again. This terminated a long-lasting friendship because Bill sold his cabin and his second wife was different. They took to fishing at Strawberry Reservoir and enjoyed it so much that they built a little cabin so that they could stay several days in a row. I. J. Burr and 0. J. Farnsworth whom Emil had got to know on the City Council were new fishing companions.
Now that he was getting older, Emil began to have health problems. The "old man's disease" was satisfactorily taken care of with prostate surgery, after which he was his old self again.
"Old self" meant that he was always helping somebody or making something. One day at his table saw, he said, "You know, if I had it to do all over again, I would work with wood instead of paint. This was after he had stopped singing with the Mendelssohn Chorus. In his "Sketch of Life Events" he said,
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If I could start life over again with what I know now, I would study music and make that my career. The good Lord blessed me with an ear for music and a natural ability to conduct and I failed to see it in my younger years to the extent that I should have followed it. I have always felt that the other fellow was better than I. In my later years, I have come to realize that the efforts one puts into the task is what counts.
The following summer they traveled to Seattle and visited the International Exposition. On top of the "Space Needle" they had a good view of the City below with its picturesque waterways. From Seattle they traveled northward to Canada and enjoyed its rustic scenery.
These tours were the beginning of several more that they took with the Provo Senior Citizens. With her outgoing personality, Ida saw to it that they became acquainted with the other tour members whose company they enjoyed on several tours. Like Emil and Ida, these senior citizens had worked hard all their lives and were enjoying the rewards of leisure time and financial resources that made touring possible.
The few jobs that Emil took after retirement were for the most part "sign painting." A few years after he had retired, he was observed lettering a sign at the top of 15-foot ladder in front of a laundromat. Whereas most men his age, and even younger ones, would have hesitated to ascend to the top of a six-foot ladder, he had been standing at 15 feet for an hour or more! If the observer had been closer, he probably would have heard him singing while he worked.
Now that Emil did not paint every day, his glasses were usually free of paint specks. Over the years he got used to the specks and would not bother to wipe them off with turpentine when he finished a day's job and washed his hands. Ida used to say, "That's how he advertises his trade."
During the last ten years or so, he painted for Woodruff and Moroni Jensen, who built dozens of beautiful homes in Orem. They liked his work and paid him at an hourly rate. Many years later, Wood Jensen would say, "We had a pleasant association with Emil. His work was always first quality."
Gordon Hansen reflected on more than one occasion: "Dad learned the trade from his father C.V. Hansen and taught it to Russ and me. I taught my boys the trade and they used it to work their way through chiropractor school. I taught Bob Howlett how to hang paper and he taught it to his son Jeff, who is a great great grandson of C.V. Hansen!"
Emil and Ida were happy when in 1965 Ruth and Arthur were finally ready to start building on their canyon lot that they had owned since Ruth bought it during the war years. Now that Bill and Irma were gone and Strawberry Reservoir was their focus, they had sold their cabin a short distance down the creek. "Jack-of-all-trades" Emil had had experience laying cinder blocks that they planned to use in the construction. They had acquired these blocks from Russell Hansen, who had them given to him for dismantling the old Scera Swimming Pool.
After Emil had drawn out the dimensions according to Ruth's sketches that included a bedroom for Ida and Emil, the work proceeded at a leisurely pace with Arthur handing and lifting up the blocks to Emil, who troweled them into place, This caused Arthur to explain, "He is the brains of this project and I am the brawn!" Although Clair Bliss and Ed Booth were hired to do the carpentry and electrical work, Emil insisted, one afternoon, on helping with laying the floor in the loft, which meant hoisting up 4x8 plywood plates.
About four o'clock in the afternoon, Emil said, I am feeling a little woozy. I think that I had better have you drive me home. As he got out of his car and walked into the house, he felt a little better, but turned very sick several hours later, and had to be taken to the hospital. He was having a heart attack!
Without an operation, he seemed to be recovering nicely in the hospital when Arthur visited him one afternoon. Ida happened to be there, and the three of them were talking, when suddenly he began groaning with great distress. He was having another heart-attack! Dr. Cranney, their family doctor, happened to be in the hospital and came right over. While he gave him an electric cardiogram, Ida, beside her self with anxiety, massaged his arms with one hand and fanned him with a plate. Emil recovered, and later supervised the construction of another room of the cabin.
For several years Ida had been (literally!) shoving money under the rug for a trip to Europe to visit her Ramseyer cousins with whom she and her sister Esther had been in contact. Their children jokingly said that she stretched her grocery money by feeding her hungry husband beans. Emil neither confirmed it or denied it! He was sure about one thing: he had no interest in traveling to Europe.
When Ida's "travel fund" got large enough, she took off for Switzerland and stayed for several weeks, first with one relative and then another. They had heard about their Uncle Achilles, who had given up his medical career so that he could join the Mormons in America.
After Ida's visit two of her relatives came to Utah and visited various members of the family. One day while Ida's Cousin Reynold Ramseyer was seated in Ruth's and Arthur's house, he looked out into the field and saw their milk cow. "Do you have a farmer come and milk that cow?" he asked. "No," Arthur replied, "I milk her myself!" Reynold opened his mouth in utter amazement that a professor could and would milk a cow! He must have thought, "These strange Mormons!"
This exchange of visits whetted Ida's appetite for more travel. She got ready to go again a year or two later and persuaded her sister Esther to go with her. They got as far as Washington D. C. when they received a call that Esther's husband had had a heart attack. Esther returned to Salt Lake, and Ida went alone. When she got back, she began saving for still another trip.
Eldon got well, so the two sisters started out again. This time they got all the way to Switzerland and had a glorious time. They had heard so much about Switzerland, and felt right at home. In conversing with those who knew little English, it was fun for them to use the Swiss-German that their mother had used in their Ashton Avenue home.
As pets, Ida loved canaries, parakeets and mostly dogs. There was big Fritz, a German police dog, who would perk up his ears when he heard Emil's car turning the corner. He died after he got old and was hit by a car. The first "Brownie" looked like a miniature German police. He would sit up to beg for food and slept with Russ out in the garage during summer months. For grapes that he loved, he was taught to jump from one overstuffed chair to another, halfway across the room. The second Brownie was a female that gave birth to Arthur's and Ruth's "Ringie." Ida's last dog was a medium-size, nervous French poodle called "FiFi." who would run and stand by the door when she saw Ida pick up her purse.
In 1966 Arthur, Ruth and family left for their mission in Austria. While they were away, Emil came to the rescue again by arranging to have a new gravel roof put on their home. Ida kept up a lively correspondence with her mission family, and would send them needed items. Before the end of the Austrian mission, they came to Vienna with Ida's sister Esther. This time they traveled to Denmark to see the native country of Emil's parents. Ruth seized the opportunity to travel with them to Villeret.
When the Watkins family returned from Austria in 1969, they saw big "Welcome Home" banners hanging from the roof and windows of their home. The lawns were cut, flower gardens were weeded and fresh food was in the refrigerator. Some of the rooms in the house were also freshly painted. Family members had done all this work, and Emil and Ida were the organizers.
As the Hansens approached 80 years of life, many of their friends had already passed away. They frequently attended viewings and funerals of others. With Ivan J. Burr, Emil worked on Orem's new Senior Citizen Center, and enjoyed playing in Carl Carlson's harmonica band.
Orem's State Street was becoming increasingly busy and noisy. The family was also worried about Emil's safety in making left-hand turns into his yard now that his eyesight was failing. The began to suggest the advisability of their moving to another area. The solution came when Russell's Tour West travel company offered to buy them out.
They bought a small lot a block west of Orem High School and contracted with Duane Herbert to build them a new home. Ida was delighted to plant and care for a new yard. Soon she had flowers and plants growing everywhere. Emil built a sun-porch on the west. With his table saw and other tools, he began making colorful storage chests for daughters and granddaughters.
They had to get used to neighbors that lived all around them. Neighbors' boys would launch projectiles into their yard. Ida would get upset and sometimes refused to throw lost balls back where they came from. To their south they had to put up with a lot of practicing with loud band and orchestra instruments, and were glad when new neighbors their own age moved into the home when it became vacant.
It was good for them to have to establish new friendships in the Ward. They seemed to do this without difficulty. On two or three occasions they invited couples from the Ward to join them for an afternoon outing in the Watkins cabin. Emil's eyesight was growing dimmer, and he was gradually losing his hearing, which annoyed Ida, who would have to repeat commands. Then she began to lose hers. Russell was able to trade a Grand Canyon river-tour for a pair of hearing aids and presented them to her as a birthday present. She tried them out, but was not able to get used to them. "They are too noisy, especially in church," she would say.
Ida's health began to fail. She could no longer go to Dr. Cullimore for a shot, as she did in younger days. She had become well-acquainted with the medicinal qualities of herbs while still living in her father's home, and now had her medicine cabinet loaded with them, but they did not help her either.
Finally, in 1976, when she had turned 80, her illness was diagnosed as cancer of the liver. Immediately the family held a council about possible treatments, some orthodox and others strictly experimental. Somebody had heard about a product made from apricot pits, called Laetrile. Treatments could only be obtained at a clinic in California, so Ruth took her there. Back home again, they found a neighbor lady, a nurse, who administered the shots.
At their 60th wedding anniversary the family got together in the Watkins home. The tape recorder was turned on and both of them seemed to enjoy discussing the main events of their married life, especially those in Provo and Orem.
Not too long after that, Arthur and Ruth were surprised by another call from the First Presidency to head a mission. This time it was to be in Italy. They announced this to Ida and Emil one evening in the Watkins home. Ida perked up immediately and said, "Well I haven't gone to Italy yet." She was recalling her trip to Vienna to visit the family during that first mission.
After Ruth and Arthur left, Esther took over the care of her mother. Russell arranged for them to go on a boat tour along the west coast. Ida went, got along quite well and enjoyed it. When Ron left for his mission to Germany after Arthur and Ruth had departed, she was at the airport with the rest of the family. A good sport, she let the children amuse themselves by pushing her around in a wheel chair. One of her telephone calls to Italy was growing long and Ruth reminded her of the expense. "Well, I can't take it with me," she quipped.
After a minor accident, which required a review of his ability to handle a car, Emil seized the initiative and surrendered his driver's license to the State. In a sense it was a "loss of freedom," but the right thing to do. His children assured him that they would take care of his needs.
Ida grew weaker and passed away on April 14, 1979. Emil and the family took her death well. He continued living in the home, but looked rather sad in a picture that was taken of his holding FiFi on his lap. Midway in the Italy, Padova mission Ruth got sick and came home for a check up. She spent a couple of days with and even put up peaches for him. She planned to have him live in her home after their release.
Two days before their release, the Watkins got a call from Russell, telling them to come home as soon as possible. While Emil had been staying with them he had taken ill, and was in the hospital. He died July 20, 1980, a few days after their arrival and was buried next to Ida in the Orem Cemetery at the foot of Mount Timpanogos.