This is part of an ongoing piece of biography I have worked on using some of Grandma’s early journals and other writing she did.
The Early Years: Life in Paradise
Mary Olsen was born on 2 March, 1917 in Paradise, Utah. She was the eighth child of Gideon Elias Olsen and the third child of Maud Price Olsen. Details of her father and mother can be found in several other volumes of family history. For this particular record, suffice it to say that Gideon Olsen was a Danish immigrant who had left Denmark to join other members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Utah. He was a farmer and Maud was a mother. Two years after Mary’s birth, Gideon died and Maud was left to raise the children on her own. Alice, the oldest surviving daughter of Gideon Olsen was a great help to her step-mother Maud and Mary often said she felt that Alice was as much her mother as her sister. Surely this strong maternal influence on the household effected the girl who would grow to be a widowed mother herself.
During her early childhood, Mary lived in near poverty. She often remarked that she did not realize this until years later when she looked back at her life. After all, everyone was poor. The little Olsen family had enough to fulfill their basic needs. This was all that was needed. The inhabitants of the Olsen household at this time included Maud, and the children: Alice, born 22 January 1902; Lloyd, born 28 August 1903; Winona, born 21 October 1905; Mildred, born 23 March 1913; Frank, born 3 March 1915; Mary; and Gideon, born 27 January 1919. It should be noted that Alice, Lloyd and Winona were the children of Gideon E. Olsen’s second wife, Mary Price Oldham. Maud became his third wife on 20 October 1883, after Mary Price Oldham had passed away. This was quite a load of children for one woman to raise on her own. But Maud did it with great success.
One of Mary’s favorite stories from her childhood will help to illustrate the type if child she was. When she was in her first year of school, she walked to school with her siblings, cousins and neighbors, as was the custom of the day. At lunch time, she and her cousin Ruth were to walk to Ruth’s home for lunch. The bell rang and Mary and Ruth took off running down the street. Upon their arrival, Ruth’s mother greeted them with dismay. It seems they had misunderstood the bell. Rather than being the lunch bell, it was signaling the start of morning recess. The two beleaguered cousins arrived back at the school, very out of breath and slightly embarrassed, just in time for recess to end and instruction to begin again.
From her own journal writings, we can learn more of Mary’s childhood. She and her brothers and sisters were very close friends who often caused trouble, as children are known to do! In the following excerpt, one can see the love of animals that Mary displayed throughout her life.
One experience most of the kids in town had was riding “Old Barney”. He was our riding pony and he was sly as a fox! Three or four kids would get on his back to take a ride and he would go under the branch of a tree or under the clothesline and brush us all off!
Another favorite past time we indulged in was this: We would tie pieces of bread to string and throw it out the east kitchen window so the chickens couldn’t see us. They would run up and grab the bread and swallow it. Then we would pull the string back up and the chickens made a terrible racket as they ran squawking away.
Wherever the Olsen children went, trouble seemed to follow!
We used to make our own amusement. The neighborhood kids would congregate at our place to play because we had a yard light. We played “Run Sheep Run” and “Hide and Go Seek”. When they were putting hay in the barn, we would hang on the derrick rope and the rest would pull us up high in the air. It was a wonder we didn’t get killed!
Contagious diseases were really common in those days. We didn’t have immunization like we do today. Gideon (her youngest brother) brought more than one disease home to the rest of us. He brought the mumps and the measles. Frank (an older brother) and I were in bed together. Our faces were swollen like a balloon. We laughed at each other which made our throats hurt and we ended up bawling while Gideon was quietly playing around the room. Once, I had the measles and was so sick I was talking out of my head. Gideon’s case was very light as usual.
I will keep adding more! Lisa
