From Gary Tietjen, Ernst Albert Tietjen: Missionary and Colonizer (Bountiful, Utah: Family History Publishers, 1992), 342–49
Eda Albertina was the fourth child of Ernest Tietjen and Emma O. Ericksen. She was born at Savoia on May 21, 1880, and named for her father’s mother, Ida (pronounced Eda in German) Kruger, and her mother’s older sister, Albertina. Eda loved her names and she named each of her children after someone she admired.
Eda’s daughter, Emmaline, writes as follows:
“Grandfather moved his family when Mother was four into Ramah where other Mormon families were settling in. She and her brothers and sisters had never known a different way of life, so they grew up happy and secure. The gospel was their life: the socials, dinners, dances, even the schools. We don’t know about mother’s schooling, but we do know that her father wanted his children to have schooling. Eda loved reading and had a wonderful memory. She learned many poems and stories with morals which she would recite and tell her children. We were raised on them. She was always a seeker after truth, learning, and knowledge.
“In 1895, when Mother was 15, he moved Emma O.’s family with him, leaving Emma C. in Ramah. This was very hard on the family, but this is where Uncle Joe, Mother’s oldest brother, got his start in ranching and his younger brother, Alma, followed with him.
“Mother, at 15, was a tall (5 ft. 7in) thin girl, very agile, fair-haired, with beautiful, deep-set, blue-grey eyes that could look through you. As she grew older, her hair darkened until it became a dark brown. She was an attractive young lady.
“She loved dances and parties (she said she never had enough of dancing and ice skating). She was a good dancer, very light on her feet. However, the dances had to be square dances, because her father told all his children how evil was the new dance called the Waltz. The reason: young men put their arms around a young lady’s waist and that was forbidden. Also, Ernst scolded all his daughters when they would not wear their corsets and years later, I remember my mother when dressing for church putting on and lacing up her corset. She wanted to look her best. They were also as young girls forbidden to wear makeup. Mother said they would powder their faces with rice dust and pinch their cheeks to make them pink.
“By this time, Ernst saw the need of a school and appointed our mother (his most studious child) to be the school teacher. Not much older than her students, she studied all the books that could be provided and also used Church literature. Many times it was hard and discouraging, but she loved teaching because it meant learning.
“Mother’s oldest sister, Ernestine, and Welcome (Hyrum Chapman’s second son) were married in the Salt Lake City Temple. About this time, a romance blossomed between our mother and Hyrum David Chapman, the oldest Chapman son. Hyrum David (our father) was working for the Santa Fe Railroad as a section hand and bridge builder. This enabled him to get a pass [for the two of them] to ride the train free to Salt Lake City, going first to Denver … this was indeed a thrill never to be forgotten. To eat and sleep on a train and to see what to Mother were large cities—Albuquerque, Denver, and the dream and mecca of every Mormon, Salt Lake City … They were married on the 11th of April, 1900, … in the beautiful Salt Lake City Temple. Mother was just six weeks short of 20 and Dad was 26.
“Hyrum David was a handsome man. Black hair, straight nose, beautiful brown eyes and an athletic body. Just a little shorter than mother … Very quick in his movements. Father had many cousins, uncles and aunts in Salt Lake City and Heber. Mother had relatives in Santaquin. They stayed for a month visiting. Mother never forgot the beautiful train ride up Provo Canyon when they stopped and looked at Bridal Veil Falls and the beauty of that part of Utah. She had collected a nice trousseau for herself with the money she had earned as a teacher and looked lovely. She cared so much for pretty hats, dresses, and white, buttoned-up shoes and always wore gloves and she was referred to, when she came home to Bluewater, as ‘Miss Fancy’. She never forgot beautiful Salt Lake City. It was her dream that all her daughters would go to Salt Lake City, marry, and live there, and all four of us did.”
Eight children (David Owen, Vernice May, Hyrum Ellsworth, Frances Junius, Norman Tietjen, Emmaline Amanda, Wilhelmina Eda, and Rachel Ivy) were born to this union, the first in 1902 and the last in 1923. Continuing her story, Emmaline says that
“Dad was till working on the Railroad but Owen needed schooling. They were about 40 miles east and south of Bluewater, so Dad moved Mother back home. Dad went into business with his brother, Welcome, in a store and then started farming. Dad also gathered a herd of cattle and sold milk for 10 cents a quart. They had very little. They built a strong cement home located on a hill with a fertile field around it. They were on a hill because of the dirt-built dam at the head of Bluewater Canyon giving way and flooding the valley in 1909. Mother never forgot this. Tena and Lydia, her sisters, also built their homes on a hill.
“In the fall of 1910 several of the young people wanted to attend the St. Johns Stake Academy, sponsored by the Church. Grandfather Tietjen persuaded Dad to let Mother take her three small children, Owen, Vernice, and Ellsworth, and go be housemother and guardian for Archie Chapman, Amos, May, June, and Ivy Tietjen. Mother enjoyed St. Johns. I realize now what a sacrifice this was for our father, Hyrum David. As they were gone until April, 1911, I’m sure Dad visited them as his uncle and cousins, whom he had grown up with, lived in St. Johns also and they had made Mother feel very welcome.
“On November 24, 1912, the third boy was born, Frances Junius. He had an incurable disease and lived only four months. This was very hard on Eda and Hyrum, but the Lord blessed them with another baby, a strong boy, Norman Tietjen, born June 4, 1914.
“About two months before Rachel was born, Vernice had left for Salt Lake City to live with Aunt June, Mother’s youngest sister. Then Owen was married soon after, so Mother and Dad now had a family of five to support. Our father was always up at the crack of dawn and started the fires and his works for the day. He and mother were hard workers.
“A word about the Chapmans. The Chapmans were a very musical family. Grandfather Chapman boasted he could sing 500 songs from memory. Our father also loved to sing and many an evening we went to sleep with his violin music or him singing. Mother loved getting together with the four Chapman brothers and their wives. Uncle Zera chording on the piano, Uncle Welcome on the drums and Uncle Eugene and Dad playing the violins. The wives would visit and the young children play. I also loved it and music became part of my life. We called our relatives ‘aunt’ and ‘uncle’ and the rest of the townspeople were ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ instead of ‘Mr.’ and ‘Mrs.’ which was reserved for the ‘Gentiles’. They all loved to socialize and never missed a meeting if possible.
“Dad was the conductor of music in Sunday School and Sacrament meetings for years. He played at dances. Mother was a counselor to Deborah Nielson in the Primary in her early forties. It was a joy; she loved Deborah (a refined woman from Mesa, Arizona, married to Fred Nielson). She also loved Relief Society and she would walk the long country mile carrying one child with another following. She read her Relief Society lessons before she went because she wanted to be well-informed. The Sunday School lessons were read also. She taught the literature lesson in Relief Society for quite some time and she discussed it with her family. She looked forward to the luncheons and programs of meeting with the sisters in town. We lived about a mile out of town.
“She and Dad and family attended the Branch socials and pot luck dinners. Oh, what good cooks they had in Bluewater! As a child I remember the Saints getting in their wagons and driving up to a grove of trees at the mouth of Bluewater Canyon to have dinner and a program to celebrate Brigham Young’s Birthday. [June 1. Brigham was a great one for picnics. His birthday was celebrated throughout the Church and referred to as the June Day Picnic]. Also we looked forward to the big celebrations of July 4th and 24th [celebrating the arrival of the Mormons in Salt Lake Valley, 1847]. These meant a day off from work for Dad and Mother and a day of fun and good laughs and good food.
“Christmas was celebrated with a tree and lighted candles, mince pie and chicken or home-cured ham. Mother made marvelous suet pudding and pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving. She was a good bread maker. We had a big breadbox that could hold a dozen loaves easily. It was made of wood with a heavy lid that could be used for cutting and stood on four legs. It was a piece of kitchen furniture as was her beautiful big iron Majestic cooking stove. Many of her nieces and nephews recall her good bread in that box, her merry laugh, always room for one more and her expressions of love for them. Mother’s sisters’ children, especially Teenie’s, Lydia’s, and Laurie’s, were almost as dear as her own. I remember being on a church picnic up in the mountains when a water fight started with the young people. Mother, being in her latter 40’s, slim and agile, joined in with them and had a good time.
“We burned wood in our stoves for cooking and heat and when Dad went to the mountains in the fall to get a load of wood, Mother would make a big pot of beans, two or three loaves of bread, and sometimes a pie and a gallon of milk and off we would go—Mother, Dad, Norman, and we three young girls on a blanket in the wagon. We looked forward to this. It was our Fall outing.
“There was music in our home, good books, good living conditions. We were dressed adequately and always had fresh farm food to eat. When Ellsworth went on a mission, [Eda] did washing and ironing for non-members to keep him there. Wilhelmina, Rachel and I helped iron and wash. Eda raised turkeys (Wilhelmina and Rachel hated herding them but did it) and chickens, milked cows and put up fences after Dad lost his health. She had a green thumb and her east and south windows were filled with the blooms from her geraniums and other houseplants. She canned vegetables and fruits and made jams and jellies. She was proud of her bottled storage.
“We also had to be obedient. Ellsworth recalls how she kept him on a mission and as a young man going after him and bringing him to Church. Norman recalls how he ran away because he didn’t want to go to Primary and she came after him. [He also remembers] when he disobeyed her and climbed up on the roof of the porch. When he fell off, she whacked him good with the broom. I remember one summer, Wilhelmina and I had met some ‘outside’ boys at a dance. We were not allowed to go out with them, but we could dance with them. She always came to the dances as did all the other older sisters. One beautiful summer day they drove to our house to see us. Mother was away, but Dad was working in the cornfield. When we came home (I was 19 and Will was 16) she called us in and said in a stern voice, ‘I hear the devil was out today and you girls entertained him.’ We knew we had been corrected.
“On the 5th of December, 1937, Hyrum David Chapman, age 63, passed away at his brother Welcome’s home in Mesa, Arizona, where he had been going to work in the Temple for several winters because of his health. I must pay tribute to our brother Norman. Norman had a good job with the Bluewater Irrigation system and along with Mother, provided for us and paid off the bills during these years with Owen and Ellsworth helping at the time of Dad’s death. Vernice also helped in many ways. Families are forever.
“In September of 1942, when Norman went into WWII leaving his young bride, Mother came to Salt Lake City where her four daughters were married and had made their homes. She lived with all her daughters. She loved it in Salt Lake City and being with her girls. A city woman at last, she had lovely clothes, even a fur coat. A dignified lady, she worked in the temple with her sister Laurie. She was loved by her children and grandchildren. She helped us all. She would go by train or bus to visit and help her sons (Ellsworth in California, Owen in Bluewater, and Norman in Mesa). When she returned, she would say, ‘Your heart is where your treasures are.’
“In the latter part of her life she had a stroke. Vernice, Will, Rachel, and I did our best for her. She was still able to walk slowly and never complained. She could use her hands to fold our clothes and do other little jobs. [Her favorite sayings were these]: ‘Idle hands are the devil’s tools’, ‘The eyes are the windows of the soul’, and ‘The race goes not to the swift, but to him that endures to the end’. When a job was finished, [she would say] ‘Well done thou good and faithful servant.’
“Mother loved refinement and taught all her children good etiquette, good table manners, to be respectful to others, to be dependable (‘Your word is as good as your bond’), to be on time, to pray morning and night.
“I feel Mother and Dad gave us the best they could. They gave of themselves: the ability to laugh, endure difficulties, appreciate music, love good books, and most of all to choose well … [They] never interfered in our marriages and the rearing of our children while in our homes … Her teachings live on in her posterity … [She] was a great pioneer and LDS woman, one who loved and lived the gospel. We all give thanks for the sacrifice she made for us.”