Sofe Wasden Johnson

Aunt Sofe with baby. 

 

 

 

Elna, Cindy, and David

Another Wasden photo that I don't think has been previously posted on the blog???
I do love David's hat and Cindy's pigtails.

Lucinda Wasden Sorenson

How stylish!  Our Aunt Cindy.......

The Wasden Sisters

Can anyone date this picture, taken in Grandma and Grandpa Wasden's yard in Penrose.  This picture probably came from Aunt Cindy's (Lucinda's) photograph album that Uncle Norman gave to me.  Sofe was the oldest sister - looks like she is laughing at something, as are the others.  Our grandmother was just a little below 5' tall - Mother was only 5'3", so you can see the comparative heights.  Anyway, as in most families, these sisters were very diverse in their interests, families, etc.  Both Sofe and Elna married very young - their husbands had been previously married - Alvin's first wife died in the flue epidemic, and Elna's husband was divorced.  Mother married a cowboy, who had to figure out an occupation.  His employment ranged from selling vacuum cleaners in Denver to doing carpenter work on the ranch in Sunlight to cooking for a sheep crew to farming, which was his last occupation.  Aunt Cindy married a returned missionary, and they settled in Lovell, where he farmed and worked at the sugar beet factory.  Mother went to college, and finally graduated in 1959.  (Correct me, Ann and Judy, if that's not right.)

Watermelon Picnic at JB Wasdens 1933

I reworked this classic picture the best I could.  Scene on lawn in front of Grandma and Grandpa Wasden's.
Louise, Mom, Elna (can't tell if she's holding a baby), Peggy, Uncle Oscar with watermelon, Grandpa Wasden.  Back, Uncle Orvil, Grandma Wasden holding Dwight.  I especially treasure this picture because it is the only one in existence where I am being held by Grandma Wasden.

Fun Notes about Orvil Wasden and Wasden Family

I received this email from Patsy Sorensen (at least I think it is Patsy because Julian always says he doesn't like computer stuff!). It has some neat insights into Grandpa Wasden, Orvil and Aunt Cindy. I will hopefully see Patsy and Julian in June and am thinking I may invest in the little page scanner that is portable, so I can scan the pages of the Family and Temple Records book they have. Wouldn't that be fun for everyone to have access to? Cousin Newell Sorensen was good enough to drop off Grandpa Wasden's missionary journals and a couple of notes that have been carefully preserved in the little wooden box he has kept them in. I will get those copied/scanned at BYU and get them on the sharing list. What fun it is to have access to all of these treasures.

"I am going through totes that have been ticked away for too long. Found a half sheet of paper where Lucinda had written a couple of memories of Orvil. Unfortunately, the last experience doesn't have an ending. Thought you might want to share this on your blog and maybe someone else can tell us about 'breaking up the setting hens.'

Also there is a wonderful book here called Family and Temple Records. It has lists of all the Wasden children - birth, baptism, confirmation, endowment, missions and patriarchal blessings. I found it interesting that the 3 oldest Wasden children all received their partriachal blessing on the same day 18 Feb. 1906 by Jas. C. Berthelson. The younger four all had their partriarchal blessings on 5 August 1928 by the same patriarch.

I will bring this book when I come to Lehi in June, if you would like to see it. The handwriting is beautiful, what a change from our current use of keyboards. I also have a letter that Grandpa Wasden sent to Lucinda in 1932. I am going to re-type it, hopefully today, and will send you a copy.

I love being a voyeur on Penrose Mornings. I 'stole' the picture of the 4 Wasden's (Brooke, Elna, Sophie and Lucinda) and posted it on our family web-site. Hope you don't mind. By that point Lucinda was starting to balk at having her picture taken at family events, so it was a great find!!!"

(This is a letter that I found in a tote from Norman and Lucinda's house. It is a letter from Grandpa Wasden to Lucinda when she was living in California with her brother Brooks and his wife Lorraine. The date indicates that it was during the depression and James indirectly refers to that. I have left the spelling and punctuation in its original form) Garland, Wyo Dec. 23.32 Dear Lucinda, Just a Merry Christmas and a happy new year. How are you and all the folks by this time? Just one year yesterday morning since we left you in that far away with your brother and sister. And how that something swells within me with gratitude for I have never felt uneasy as to your safety, and my gratitude go out to Brooks and Lorraine for the part they have taken. For as I see the picture of a year ago I compair it with a picture of menny years ago when a little shaver went to heard sheep for his uncle for $16.00 per month, wearing one boot and one shoe. And when we left here a year ago we all felt that if we could slide by the first year, the second year would see some relief, and so you have gone to without a murmur, and now only to realize aditional disapointments await us. But these are things that faid (while they are good as a means to an end) But things as I have mentioned are things that live on and on, and while we may be put to the test I know we shall not be forsaken as long as we remember to keep and do His biddings He whos birthday we celebrate on the 25th So when we see the real things of life predominating had not the Xma Spirit permate the very air we breath. How I wish the little groop down there could join us at Elna, Then it would seem compleet -But self desires again must step aside. And as I supose mamma told you all that is new I must close for this time with a Merry Christmas to all; and dont forget to write soon. Im as ever your father, Jas. B. Wasden

(Note written by Patsy Sorensen, wife of Julian Sorensen) By way of explanation, Orvil was Grandma Lucinda's brother. He was three years older than Lucinda and they were very close. He died in a house fire as a young married husband and father. These are a few of the thoughts that Lucinda wrote down.)


"Orvil liked good books, good music, good movies and any thing that ran by motor. One Sunday afternoon, out of sheer boredom and with Dad's grudging permission, we drove the old Model T to Powell. The tires were thin and the trip turned out to be a hilarious race to see how far we could go between blow-outs. The tubes were well covered with patches and our supply of patching almost depleted by the time we got home.

Many winter nites when the moon was bright and the temperature often as low as 40 degrees below zero, we would hitch Jack and Mike to the flat sled and go visit some of the neighbors - or if that was too much trouble, we set off on foot across the fields.

During haying season, if Dad was not able to help, we would get up about 4 a.m., harness and hitch up the horses and get a load of hay - Orvil pitching on, and me on the wagon - before chore time and breakfast. Those early morning conversations covered a wide range of subjects (including an appreciation for the beautiful sunrises), serious, frivolous and I'm sure - even silly, punctuated with a fair amount of giggling.

One of our favorite sports was "breaking up the setting hens." If you remember the long bridge across the ditch at the corner of Grandpa's lot - that's where the deed was done - and surprisingly with Grandma's blessing, though she didn't expect us to go quite as far as we did at times. In the early summer the laying chickens would decide that one of the nests in the chicken coop was their exclusive property and would sit there indefinitely, laying an egg each in hopes of satisfying their maternal instincts by hatching out their eggs. Needless to say... "
(unfortunately the tale ends there and I haven't been able to find the 'rest of the story' as Paul Harvey used to say.) Maybe someone from the Blood family can finish the tale for us.

Four Wasden Siblings: Sofe, Brooks, Elna, and Cindy

Uncle Brooks and Aunt Cindy Chuckling Over an Old Photo

Big Hat, No Cattle: Uncle Brooks Wasden at Dad's in 1981

Much wisdom being transmitted here

Sofe Johnson Wasden and Brooks Wasden

Am I wrong, or did we as youngsters pay a lot more attention to our aunts and uncles than our nieces and nephews pay to us today?  Just wondered.

The Wasden Family

This picture was taken from the Pocatello newspaper of Idaho's Attorney General, Lawrence Wasden. We assume that those bearing the Wasden surname may be distant relatives. Anyone see a resemblance to anybody in our branch of the family?

Phil Wasden's Photos from the Gunnison Cemetery

Phil writes that the touching inscription on great-grandfather John Christenson's marker reads as follows: "Amiable and beloved father farewell!  Not on this perishing stone, but in the Book of Life, and in the hearts of thy afflicted friends is thy worth recorded."

Nancy Arilla Herring

John Brooks Wasden

Thomas Wasden

William Wasden

We acknowledge with appreciation the efforts of Phil Wasden in providing us all with these photos and this information.  He expresses the thought that he felt that he received special guidance in locating these grave markers of our ancestors.

Phil Wasden visits the Gunnison UT Cemetery

From Phil Wasden:

September 26, 2008

I drove to Gunnison, Utah knowing that grandmother Tilda Christena Christenson Wasden was born to Swedish parents living in that area.  I am quite sure that great-grandfather John Christenson is buried there and I desire to visit the gravesite.  The Gunnison Cemetery has a sign indicating a left turn into the driveway.  As I entered the driveway, I became increasingly concerned with the high-security fencing along the roadway, culminating in a barrier and security checkpoint.  Three heavily-armed and uniformed men greeted me; I said something to the effect, "Obviously, this is not the Gunnison Cemetery?"  To which one replied, "No, but some "inside" might think that it is!"  The Supervisor Guard pointed out:  "The entrance to the Cemetery is located just a few feet on the other side of the driveway."  Receiving permission, I made a hasty U-turn and left.

There is no directory to the Cemetery so, I "legged" it out through the expansive area in a "serpentine" fashion through the markers.  I was becoming a little discouraged because after about forty minutes and at three-quarters of the way, all of the "Christen..." names were Danish-ending "-sen" and not Swedish "-son" spellings.  The name, "WASDEN" on one marker stopped me "in my tracks!"  Realization flooded over me as I read the full name, "John Brooks Wasden," my great-grandfather!  I had no idea he was buried in this Cemetery!  Next to John Brooks is his first wife, Nancy Arilla Herring.  I remember grandfather James Brooks Wasden telling me that when his mother died at his birth, Nancy raised grandfather "as one of her own."  He said, "I often felt I was better treated than her own children" of which, she had thirteen!  (Four died in infancy or childhood).  On the other side of Nancy, Thomas Wasden, my 2nd great-grandfather is buried.  On the other side of Thomas is William Wasden, a 2nd great grand uncle.  these are all names familiar from years of copying pedigree and family group records but suddenly, it is now more "personal."  The shock is more than an "Aha moment, it is a WOW moment! In my excitement, I discovered nearby the object of my original search:  the marker for great-grandfather John Christenson!  

I must interrupt here to go can peaches.  I will try to reproduce Phil's photos of the grave stones later.

More pictures of ancestors

I am sorry to put these all in one post. I should have done one a day, but now I don't have to remember to do it tomorrow.
This picture has no identification on it. Can you help? I think I would have liked to know him!

Ane Sophie Olsen - another picture where the quality is not great, however by working on it just a little I was able to remove some of the "pebbled" effect.
Is this Great Grandmother Christenson?
James Brooks Wasden 1949
Tilda Christena Christenson Wasden 1949
And then a couple of very familiar faces, just in case any of their posterity do not have these pictures, this gives them that record.

Mariane Danielsen

Mariane is the maternal grandmother of our grandfather, James Brooks Wasden. She is the mother of Anna Sophia Olsen. Mariane was born in 1817 in Denmark and died in 1875 in Richfield, Utah, far from the land of her birth. She was 58 years old and had given birth to eight children.

Our Lovell, Wyoming Aunt and Uncle

Aunt Lucinda (Cindy) Sorensen and Uncle Norman Sorensen were more frequent visitors to our home in Penrose. Cindy was the youngest girl in the Wasden family, and, like all younger sisters, came in for a fair amount of coddling from parents and persecution from older siblings. I can remember when they came to our home when we lived in the little brown house, when they announced that they were getting married. He had served a mission to Denmark, and she had worked at the hospital in Lovell. (The reason that I remember is that I was quite small and shy, but he carried me piggy back around the yard.) Their children were younger than Louise, Dwight, and myself. Sunday afternoons were often a time for visiting, and we children would linger in the living room to hear the unusual conversations that went on between our parents. It was interesting to see them in a new role.
When I went back to the U of Wyoming in 1968-70, Gail and Julian and Patsy were there, and were a great help to me and my five children. Then, when I moved back to Powell, Uncle Norman and Aunt Cindy were my chief supporters, even though they lived 25 miles away - (or half that during the two summers and two years that we lived in the blue and white house in Penrose.) These pictures were taken in Powell in 1974. Cindy hated to have her picture taken, but over the years, I managed to snap a few.

Wasden siblings and spouses, 1974

In 1974, we had a small James B. Wasden family reunion in Lovell, Wyoming. Several pictures were taken - this one shows the six Wasden siblings with spouses. From left to right, including the front and back: Lucinda (Aunt Cindy) and Norman Sorensen, Delilah (Asay Wasden) Robb (Orville's widow), Elna House, Russell and Minnie Blood, Brooks and Lorraine Wasden, Sofe Johnson, Lucille and David Wasden. The six are Lucinda, Elna, Minnie, Brooks, Sofe, and David.
I'll post a few more pictures from this time later.

James And Tilda Wasden On The Farm

This was smaller than a postage stamp, stuck to the back of another picture. I had never seen it before yesterday. The faces are hard to see, but, Grandma looks younger than in most pictures and I love her hands crossed on Grandpa's knee. Maybe she had come to the field to bring him cold water?

Wasden Family Get-together

From the looks of the weather, this must have been a March 9th anniversary picture. I've tried to figure out who is who, see if I'm correct, and supply the missing names:
Back row, l to r, Ed Johnson, Mother, George, Orville, Dad, Alvin, Oscar
Middle row, l to r, Jerrold Johnson, big space, Delilah, Alva, Grandma, Elna, with Grandpa in front, and Sofe with Alvin, Jr. (Bun).
Front row: Elizabeth, Louise, Annella, Peggy, Dwight, Dean, Stan, Cal
Those of you with sharper eyes and better detective skills will probably figure this out.

Thomas Wasden's journal - Wasden Family Website

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rhutch/famhistory/twasden/thomas_wasden_journal.html
Try this website for the few pages from Thomas Wasden's journal (He was the grandfather of our grandfather, James Brooks Wasden.)