Oral Interviews of Francis M. Gibbons (1921-2016)—Part 9

(From an Interview of Francis Marion Gibbons conducted by Daniel Bay Gibbons September 26, 2001 in Salt Lake City, Utah)

Family and Church

St. Johns Stake Academy
The center of spiritual life for the Latter-day Saints in St. Johns

My Father’s Church Service in St. Johns

DBG:    Dad, let me ask about Grandpa’s Church service both in St. Johns and Phoenix.
FMG:    In St. Johns I really have no recollection of his service.  He was on the High Council.  Levi Udall was the Stake President.  As a member of the High Council he would go with the Stake family to the various Wards in the Stake or Ward conferences.  The Stake1 would have included Springerville, Eagar, a little community up on the New Mexico Border, Alpine, Concho, then over on the Railroad there were a couple of little branches over there.  So his role as a member of the High Council would have involved attending, as I have stated, the Stake functions held in these various units.  They would travel around as a group, the Stake Presidency and members of the High Council.  I don’t remember how they had divided their responsibilities.  Maybe one of the Counselors would take two or three members of the High Council and they’d go to this unit and then the President and other High Councillors would take other units.  I don’t know how they did it.  But you would know from your service on the High Council how that would happen.  So he would participate and would be called on to speak.  I’m sure that they used him heavily in giving instructions on teaching and what not.   So that was his role in St. Johns.

Aunts and Uncles of Judge Andrew Smith Gibbons on his father's side
Standing: Uncles Bill, Dick, Josh and Roy
Seated: Aunt Eliza, father Andrew Vinson, and Aunt Martha

Long Service of Extended Family in the St. Johns Stake

Its interesting that the Pioneer was the senior member of the High Council in the St. Johns Stake, and A.V. was a member of the High Council of that Stake, as was my father.  So there were three generations in our family who were members of that High Council.  And of course there were the other Gibbons boys, Uncle Bill, Uncle Dick, Uncle Roy and Uncle Josh.  I’m sure that the various organizations of the Ward and of the Stake were peopled with a lot of Gibbons.  So our family was very prominent in that part of the State.

Bishop John H. Udall of the Phoenix First Ward

My Father’s Church Service in Phoenix

Then when he went to Phoenix, he was on the Stake Sunday School Board, and in that capacity I guess they used him chiefly, because of his ability as a teacher, to train other teachers.  That would have applied to the whole Maricopa Stake.2  When we went down into the valley there was only one Stake there in the whole valley.  It was called the Maricopa Stake.  That’s the name of the County.  The headquarters were in Mesa.  Prior to the time I went on my mission there was still just the one Stake there and we held all of the Stake conferences over in Mesa in a building called “The Mezona Hall” that the Church had built.  That’s where the Stake conferences were held.  And we traveled from Phoenix the eighteen miles over to Mesa to hold the Stake conferences.  And so my father’s role in the Stake Sunday School Superintendency would be to participate in the various activities of these Wards in connection with their Sunday Schools.  

Mezona Hall in Mesa, Arizona, purchased by the Church in 1919 and expanded in 1926.
The name "Mezona" is combination of Mesa and Arizona.

The Phoenix First and Second Wards

In Phoenix, when we first went there, there was just the one Ward.3  There was a Phoenix First Ward which was just a block from the Phoenix Union High School.  So we would travel clear across town to go to the Phoenix First Ward.  And when we moved there the Bishop was John H. Udall, the brother of Levi and Jesse and the son of D.K.  Because he had been raised in St. Johns there was a very close tie with our family.  When they built the Second Ward we didn’t move our membership at first.  I think maybe the reason was because of John H.  There was a very close relationship there.  But later we moved our recommends from the First to the Second Ward.  Our Bishop in the Second Ward was George M. Price.  George’s brother, J.R. Price, was the Stake President.  J.R. Price had been a missionary under Heber J. Grant in England.  So there was a close relationship between J.R. Price and President Grant.

July 16, 1915 article in the Holbrook News
Mentioning the teaching of Andrew Smith Gibbons in
the Holbrook Stake

My Father as a Gospel Teacher

After we moved into the Second Ward my father became the teacher in the High Priests Quorum and also taught the Sunday School class.  So he was very heavily called upon because of his teaching ability.  But he never occupied a position of principal administrative responsibility in the Church.  His whole Church career was in the judicial system, the High Council, or in teaching.  He seemed very comfortable with that and he did well at it.  His ability was recognized throughout the Mormon community in the Salt River Valley.  So that was the extent of my father’s connection with the Church.  I’m satisfied that he was handicapped because of his failure fully to live the Word of Wisdom.  I can’t help but think that the leaders of the Church knew that he wasn’t a gung-ho thousand percent latter-day saint.  In a sense he was kind of on the fringe.  He would have been well known in the professional community there because of his role with that firm, which was one of the finest firms in town, and his connection with the Arizona Club, and what not.  But I’ve told you before many times I’m sure, that at one point – and I don’t know what prompted it – but he finally came to the point where he decided, “I’m not going to do this any more.”  He gave up his tobacco and he gave up his social drinking and became a really converted latter-day saint except for coffee (laughing) and tea.  He couldn’t quite make the complete break  (Laughing) but he did well.  He did very, very well.

Fannie Christensen and her daughters,
Jessie Christensen Morgan and Adeline Christensen Gibbons
After her husband's death, Addie served in many church callings

My Mother’s Church Service in St. Johns and Phoenix

DBG:    What about Nana’s Church service during your growing up years?

FMG:    In St. Johns my mother was a counselor in the Stake Primary Presidency.  So in that position she would travel to these different units of the Church in the St. Johns area and give instructions in the Primary.  She was always active in the Relief Society.  I can remember going to Relief Society meetings with her as a little kid.  They did a lot of quilting.  They had bazaars and things of that kind.  Of course with her singing ability and her association with this guitar group, she was very active in musical circles in St. Johns. My parents had a group of special friends that they used to socialize with a lot, in addition to the regular socials for the Church.  They would get together and have socials in their homes and what not.  So they had a very full life.  When she went to Phoenix, she became a counselor in the Stake Young Women’s Association at a time when Delbert Stapley was the Superintendent of the Young Men.  So, because of that my mother and Delbert Stapley became very well acquainted.  So my mother always called him, “Dell.”  Never Brother Stapley or President Stapley or Elder Stapley, she just called him “Dell.” And he called her Addie. So she was very active in the Young Women’s program in Phoenix for many years.  I never really saw her perform because of the fact that it was the Young Women’s organization, but I knew that she was active.  She became active in the Relief Society in Phoenix also.  

So my parents were really active latter-day saints.  If the truth were known, I suppose a large majority of the people in the Church at that time had their coffee, had their tea.  It was just not a big deal back in those days.  It became a big deal with the emphasis Brother Grant gave to it.  So they enjoyed the Church and they enjoyed the members of the Church and they were always very supportive.

Children of Adeline and Andrew Smith Gibbons
Standing: Andrew Smith Gibbons, Jr., and Francis M. Gibbons
Seated: La Von Gibbons Thurber, Pauline Gibbons Clarke, and Ruth Gibbons Elliott
Judge Andrew Smith Gibbons vetoed the idea of missions for both of his sons

My Father Vetoes a Full Time Mission for Me

In that respect, I heard later that when I turned nineteen, Bishop Price went to my father to talk about sending me on a mission, and my father vetoed it.  My suspicion is that my father felt that I would be better off not going on a mission and that I would do better to concentrate on my business activities, saving my money, building up my financial status so that I could go into the grocery business on my own.  He just couldn’t see the value of it.  They never had a missionary in the family.  My father wasn’t missionary minded.  I guess it was a judgment he made that it was not worthwhile.  It’s unfortunate that he never really saw that side of the Church, nor did he understand the impact that a mission could have on a young man.

My Father’s Regrets About Not Sending Andrew on a Mission

I did hear him say later that he regretted that he didn’t send Andrew on a mission. I think that a mission would have been the making of my brother Andrew because he later became a very diligent Stake Missionary.  He was the Stake Mission President in Phoenix and they were really doing a lot of missionary work.  Then he became a member of a Bishopric and was a counselor in the Presidency of the London Temple when he was a mature man.  But what a blessing it would have been for my brother Andrew to have gone on a mission.  Especially at a time when he was at that age.  He was born in 1907 so that he would have been 19 years old in 1926 or so.  That would have been the ideal time for my brother to go on his mission.  

Notes

1 The St. Johns Arizona Stake was created 23 July 1887 with David K. Udall as Stake President. Deseret News 2001-2002 Church Almanac , page 172.  ASG’s uncle William H. Gibbons served as a counselor to D.K. Udall.  D.K. served until April 30, 1922, when he was succeeded by his son, Levi S. Udall.  Levi served as Stake President from 1922 to 1945.  Levi was an attorney who had been coached through the Bar by ASG, and who would defeat ASG for the judgeship in the election of 1930.  ASG’s service on the St. Johns Stake High Council was likely under President Levi S. Udall.

2 The Maricopa Stake (later renamed the Mesa Arizona Maricopa Stake) was created 10 December 1882 with Alexander F. MacDonald as Stake President.

3 The Phoenix ward split had actually occurred 20 February 1928.  Church historical records contain the following information regarding the Phoenix First and Second Wards as of December 31, 1930, the very month that ASG and his family arrived in Phoenix:

“PHOENIX 1ST WARD consists of Latter-day Saints residing in the east part of the city of Phoenix, or in that section lying east of Central Avenue. The ward was organized Feb. 20, 1928, when the Phoenix Ward was divided, and John H. Udall, who still presides (1930), was chosen as Bishop. The Phoenix Ward chapel, to which an amusement hall was added in 1922, became the meeting house for the Phoenix 1st Ward. On Dec. 31, 1930, the Phoenix 1st Ward had 690 members, including 172 children.  PHOENIX 2ND WARD, Maricopa Stake, consists of Latter-day Saints residing in the west part of the city of Phoenix, or in that section lying west of Central Avenue. The ward was organized Feb. 20, 1928, when the Phoenix Ward was divided. George F. Price, who had acted as Bishop of the Phoenix Ward, was chosen as Bishop of the newly organized Phoenix 2nd Ward, and he still acts in that position. A fine modern chapel, built in Spanish style at a cost of $80,000, has been erected in the ward since its organization. It is of interest to note that many non-Mormons donated generously towards the erection of this chapel, and a certain member who does not desire his name to be disclosed, donated a pipe organ costing $4,000. The membership of the Phoenix 2nd Ward Dec. 31, 1930, was 680, including 151 children.”

Andrew Jenson, Encyclopedic History of the Church , pages 653 to 654.  Because the ASG home in Phoenix was “west of Central Avenue”, the Gibbons family was technically in the Phoenix Second Ward from the time they moved to Phoenix in December of 1930.

Oral Interviews of Francis M. Gibbons (1921-2016)—Part 4

(Interview of Francis Marion Gibbons conducted by Daniel Bay Gibbons September 19, 2001 in Salt Lake City, Utah)

Description of St. Johns, Arizona

St. Johns, Arizona in the early twentieth century

Pleasant Home Life in St. Johns

So this was the general background of these parents of mine into whose home I was born in 1921.  It was a very pleasant home.  There was love in that home.  My father and mother genuinely loved each other.  I can never recall an instance in my experience with them where there was open contention or argument or disagreement.  I am sure that they had their disagreements, but what disagreements they had they had them separately away from the children, and so we never knew about it.  And so it was a very pleasant, wonderful home.

Old family home of Andy and Addie Gibbons in St. Johns, Arizona.
This photo was taken in 1964, 34 years after the family moved to Phoenix.

Description of My Parents’ Home in St. Johns

It was a home that was devoid of a bathroom.  We had our privy out in back where we had to go when we had to serve the call of nature.  There was no electricity until I was about six years old.  So the house was lit by kerosene or gas lamps.  I’ve related this experience many times, and you’ve probably heard it many times, but it is very significant to me.  One night I was there in the front room alone with my father.  I should mention that this front room was a really special room.  They had purchased a leather set, a divan, a big leather chair, and then there were other leather chairs in the room, there was a nice carpet on the floor.  There were Navajo rugs on the floor throughout the house that my father had purchased from the Navajos over on the reservation, and it was a well furnished, lovely, cozy – I think that cozy is the word that best describes it for me – home.  My father had this special large leather chair, and by it was a table where he could put his books, and on the table was a gas lamp, and these gas lamps had wicks that were as large as a hot dog, perhaps four inches long, and they were round, and when you lit the gas lamp this wick would glow and had a nice bright light to it, and there was always a very quiet hissing sound that emanated from this gas lamp.  And I was sitting on the floor one evening there in our living room.  My father was in his chair, as he always was when he was home, and that lamp was on, and this quiet hissing sound was the only sound in the room.  I was filled at that time with a sense of security and peace to be there alone with my father in that special room in those circumstances.  So, later, of course, we got electricity.  In St. Johns we never had an indoor bathroom.  We got our fuel from the abundant juniper forests that surrounded St. Johns.  My father would usually employ someone to go out and cut a supply of juniper logs, cut them into lengths, to bring them into the house.   There was a Mexican named Joe Salazar who used to do a lot of this work.  And I can remember Joe Salazar supplying us with a big supply of these juniper logs that we used in our stoves.  We had a stove in the kitchen and a stove in the living room.  As to that stove in the kitchen, it was a very special place for a young kid because there was a space maybe two feet or eighteen inches wide between the stove and the wall.  After the fire had died down in the stove, it was not too hot back there to climb in between the stove and wall.  It was very warm and cozy.  So that was a wonderful place for kid who is looking for a place to hide out.  He could climb into that space between the stove and the wall in the kitchen.  

DBG:    What rooms were there in the house?

FMG:   Originally it was a two-room house. My grandfather had built this house for his polygamous wife Ella Harris Gibbons. It was on the same block that A.V.’s brick home was located. So originally the house consisted of what became our kitchen and our living room. After my father bought it from my grandfather, he built three bedrooms on the house. There was large bedroom on the east side and two bedrooms on the south side of the house adjoining our home. Then, in addition to those three bedrooms that were added, my father had built two screen porches. The one in the front covered a good part of the north side of the house, and then in an “L” shape it extended down to adjoin the large bedroom. That was all screened in. My brother Andrew1 used to sleep out on that porch on the northeast side.  He had a bed out there. Then my father built a big screen porch off of the kitchen. So that was the extent of the house when I was born.  Three bedrooms, living room, kitchen and these large screen porches.

Description of Our Property in St. Johns

Then in addition there was what was called the wash house, which was located maybe 20, 30, 40 feet from the home and, as the name implies, this is where my mother did her laundry.  It was a good sized room, and this was where Emo and Prescott, our two Navajos, used to stay when they would come to prepare our garden in the springtime, and you know the story about Emo and Prescott.  Then the privy was off some distance from the house, probably a hundred feet.  So that was the composition of our home.  On the east side there were three or four large trees, and this was the are when I was a little boy that I used to play.  I can remember playing in a sandpile out just to east of my parents’ bedroom.  The shade there was very pleasant.  Then out front there was a row of tamarack trees that secluded the house from the street.  

DBG:    Was there irrigation water?

Children of Adeline Christensen Gibbons and Judge Andrew Smith Gibbons
Back: Andrew Smith Gibbons, Jr. (b. 1907) and Francis Marion Gibbons (b. 1921)
Front: Le Von Gibbons Thurber (b. 1906), Pauline Gibbons Clarke (b. 1912),
and Ruth Naomi  Gibbons Elliott (b. 1918).

Nighttime Watering with Dad

FMG:    Yes.  All of the gardens in St. Johns were irrigated from the reservoir, which was south of town.  There was a water master who was in charge of allocating the times when a family could take the water.  He would distribute little slips that would show the time when Judge Gibbons could take the water.  One of the choice memories I have of that is that my father got me up early one morning.  We took the water probably at three o’clock in the morning.  It was in the summertime, so it was pleasant.  He got me up, and I went with him to take the water. They had sluices that controlled the flow of the water and he’d have to go up to the place and turn the water so it could come down into our ditches.  Of course we had no street lights in St. Johns.  The atmosphere was so clear back in those days.  There was never any pollution at all.  I can remember this early morning experience in turning down the water through our ditches, and the sky was just filled with stars.  I mean, we don’t get to see the stars.  But there in that atmosphere, and at that elevation – see St. Johns is at an elevation of about 6,000 feet, so its up pretty high.  And as I remember there was a moon out that morning, and so there was the moon and here were all of these stars, and I can remember so distinctly the tinkling of the water as you turned it down into the ditches.  That was the only sound, and it was a really special experience.  So that’s the way all of those gardens in St. Johns were irrigated.  That water came from the reservoir, which is the place where I was baptized.  I was baptized in the St. Johns reservoir.  So that pretty well indicates the physical place in which I spent my early years.  

DBG:    Tell me, did you grow food on the lot at home or have a garden?

Our Garden Plot

FMG:    Oh yes.  I don’t know if it was owned by my father or my grandfather, but to the east of our home there was a garden plot that probably was 150 feet by 200 feet.  It was a big garden.

DBG:    Beyond the trees where you used to play?

FMG:    Yeah.  Beyond the trees.  So when the sun came up in the morning, why it would shine across our garden and through the trees and into the bedroom, and it was really a lovely, joyful thing.  So we always had a nice garden.  Corn and peas and beans and all sorts of things.  And then we had a big grove of asparagus that came up every year.  So there was an abundance of fresh vegetables.   My grandfather’s place was just through the lot, through the block from our home.

AV Gibbons

Grandpa Gibbons’ Fear of House Fires

I didn’t experience this personally, but I’ve heard my mother tell it maybe a thousand times (laughing).  My grandfather was very concerned that that house would burn down.  Of course there was always a real danger because those stoves and little bits of fire coming out onto the floor, and Grandpa always wanted to make sure that the damper was closed in both of our stoves.  So he would walk down from his place down to our place carrying his lantern.  And he would come into the house, and he wouldn’t leave the lantern outside, he would bring the lantern inside (laughing), and the smell of that lantern used to set my mother on edge, and she would say, “Dad, why do you bring that lantern inside, why don’t you leave it outside.”  He’d never leave it outside, he’d bring it in.  And so that was kind of a ritual with A.V. before he had his stroke.  He would check out and make sure that they closed both the dampers on both of the stoves so there wouldn’t be sparks to jump out onto the floor and catch it on fire.

DBG:    Dad, how many homes were there on this block?  I’m assuming it was a city block, a square block?

Homes and Other Buildings in the Immediate Neighborhood

FMG:    There were three.  There was my grandfather’s home, which faced the Church square.  

DBG:    Faced east?

FMG:    Faced east.  And this was a brick home with a lean to in back.  You’ve seen a thousand homes like that which the pioneers built.  Then there was this rather large lot to the north, which we used as our garden.  Then to the south was a little house that had been built for the Relief Society.  Then beyond that, on the corner, was our Tithing Office.  It was a little red brick building that had been built in the early days, and that was where people would leave their eggs and what not for tithing.  Then down on the southwest corner of that block was a home owned by Jim Overson.2  Jim Overson had a service station on that corner.  This was right across the street from Rendol’s3 home and catty corner from Christensen’s home.

DBG:    Marinus?

FMG:    Marinus.4  So there were only the three homes on that block when I was a kid.  Our home, Grandpa’s home, Jim Overson’s home and then those two little buildings used by the Church, the Relief Society building and the Tithing Office.  Now, D.K. Udall5 owned a home on the south side of that block, that is the public square. That’s where the Church was located, where the High School was located, and then they had a big lot there where they used to play football.  

DBG:    The public square – was that the block directly east of your block?

FMG:    Yes.  That was the public square.  Then, D.K.’s son Levi6 had a home on the north side of that block.  

Notes

1 Andrew Smith Gibbons, Jr. (“Andy” or “Bud”): Older brother of FMG.  Born 8 May 1907 to Andrew Smith Gibbons and Adeline Christensen. Died 2 September 1986 in Prescott, Arizona.

2 Jim Overson: Friend and contemporary of ASG.  In the family photo collection is a picture of “The St. Johns Hoosiers” basketball team of about 1900, including Jim Overson, Lyman Overson, ASG, Jay Patterson and Junius (“June”) Gibbons.   See, A Turning of Hearts page 401.

3 Rendol Lytle Gibbons (“Rendol”): ASG’s first cousin and FMG’s contemporary and boyhood friend.  Born 19 March 1922 to Lee Roy Gibbons and his second wife, Annella Stanton Lytle.  Though a contemporary and childhood friend of FMG, Rendol is a first cousin of ASG.  

4 Marinus Christensen (“Marinus” or “Grandpa Christensen”): The father of ACG.  Born 8 June 1863 in Torslev, Denmark.  Married Frances Ann Thomas on 6 June 1883.  Their oldest daughter is Adeline Christensen, later wife of Judge A.S. Gibbons and mother of Francis M. Gibbons.  Died 23 July 1927 in St. Johns, Apache County, Arizona.

5 David King Udall (“DK”): Old Patriarch of Udall clan.  Served as the first Bishop of the St. Johns Ward, then as the first President of the St. Johns Stake from its creation on 23 July 1887 until 30 April 1922.

6 Levi Stewart Udall: Friend and legal colleague of ASG.  Born 20 January 1891 in St. Johns, Arizona Territory, the son of St. Johns Stake President D.K. Udall. He was coached through the bar by Judge A.S. Gibbons, and later served as Apache County Attorney in 1923 and 1924.  He defeated A.S. Gibbons for the judgeship in 1930 and sat on the bench in Apache County for sixteen years.  He later served on the Arizona Supreme Court from 6 January 1947 until his death on 30 May 1960. He succeeded his father as President of the St. Johns Stake, serving from 30 April 1922 until 9 September 1945. A History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake , pages 381 - 382.

Oral Interviews of Francis M. Gibbons (1921-2016)—Part 3

(Interview of Francis Marion Gibbons conducted by Daniel Bay Gibbons September 19, 2001 in Salt Lake City, Utah)

Christensen and Gibbons Grandparents

Fannie and Marinus Christensen in front of old Christensen family home in St. Johns, Arizona

DBG:    Tell me about your Grandfather Christensen’s home and family.

Marinus and Fannie Christensen

Home and Property of Grandpa Christensen

FMG:    Well, the home was just across the street from Rendol’s home, the house that was built by Uncle Dick.  This would have been to the south of Rendol’s home.  Then to the east of the Christensen home was the Overson home – Ove E. Overson.1  Of course there was a tie between the Christensens and the Oversons, in fact Grandpa Christensen’s sister married an Overson.2  So they lived there in that home just east of Grandpa Christensen’s place.  His place adjoined the Grammar School.  Right across the fence from Grandpa Christensen’s home was the Grammar School that I attended when I lived in St. Johns.

DBG:    That was not in the Church block?

FMG:    No, no.

DBG:    A little bit south and west?

FMG:    This would be south and west, right.  Right.  The corner lot that was in the block of the Gibbons compound was Jim Overson, who had the service station, and then a block to the south was the school, which adjoined Grandpa Christensen’s home.

Grandpa Christensen’s Orchard

Grandpa Christensen was a good husbandman.  He had a nice orchard on the south side of his home and all sorts of fruit trees.  I’m sure that this is where Joe Christensen got his image of what he wanted to do.  Remember that he had this home out here that had a lot of fruit trees on it.  So Grandpa had a lot of fruit trees, and then he had a garden plot on the west side of his home, and beyond that garden plot were several large cottonwood trees.

Marinus, David, Adeline,
Fannie and Annie Christensen

Grandpa Christensen’s “Refrigerator”

I can remember that they had a little box out there that had been built, and on top of it was burlap sack, and then he had a can that was anchored above that box and a couple of holes in the can and it dripped water onto this burlap sack, and with the breeze blowing in that provided refrigeration, and that’s where Grandma Christensen used to keep her cheese and butter and milk.  And then down west of that was a granary that Grandpa Christensen had, and he had a cow down there.  He had quite a big place and it was well kept up.  He was an artisan, and being a blacksmith he knew how to use his hands.  In this garden plot, which would have been north of his home, he had vegetables and then of course he had the fruit trees and he had his cow, so that they lived very well.

Watching Grandma Christensen Churn Butter

I can remember sitting in my Grandma Christensen’s kitchen as she churned her butter.  She would let me help her churn the butter.  After the butter was all churned, she would make it into a nice little pile, rounded on the top.  It was really, really good butter.

Entering Grandma Christensen’s House Through the Back Door

Their home consisted of this very large kitchen, which really served as their dining room.  The actual kitchen with the stove was adjoining this large room.  The family always entered the house through this kitchen.  Never through the front door, because inside of that door was a screened porch, and then inside of the porch was this special, special room that Grandma Christensen always kept.  That’s where my mother and my father were married, first civilly, in that lovely front room.  It was well carpeted, nice furniture, nice curtains and drapes, and it was kind of like a mausoleum to me.  (Laughter) It was so seldom used.  They never tracked through that room.  You never entered through that porch and room. You always walked around and entered through the kitchen.  

DBG:    Besides marriages, what did they use it for?

FMG:    Well, once in a while they would have guests, and they would sit down and visit and have a nice time.  Although I never saw anybody visiting there, but I assume they did.  (Laughter).  I think I’ve told you about this one little love seat that was in that room that always attracted my attention, and I was very interested in it and I used to question my Grandmother about where she got it, and she said, “I fell heir to it.”  And I could visualize this thing coming in through the air in some mysterious way and planting itself there in that room.  (Laughter).  Then they had, I think there were three little bedrooms on the west side of this main room.

Uncle Elmer and Aunt Hilde Christensen

My Uncle Elmer3 and his wife Hilde4 lived there for a number of years using those little rooms.  I was never in them because it was their private living space, but I imagine that Aunt Hilde had a kitchen in there.  Uncle Elmer was a trucker.  He owned a truck and he would hire that truck out to haul stuff here and there and everywhere, and apparently they did quite well. His wife Hilde later joined the Church and later on she had a place down in Mesa where she did a lot of Temple work.  But that was the Christensen home, and I assume that when my mother and her siblings were growing up that they needed all of those three rooms that Uncle Elmer and Aunt Hilde used.

DBG:    Tell me about your Grandma and Grandpa Christensen.

St. Johns Ward Sunday School
Marinus Christensen, as Superintendant, is seated front and center

Memories of Grandpa Christensen

FMG:    Grandma and Grandpa Christensen were really special to me. Grandpa was a big, tall, burly man who usually kept his hair in a crewcut, because of the dirt around his shop.  He liked to joke.  So the joking propensities that I have, I am satisfied, came through Grandpa Christensen, because he enjoyed it. He was a very faithful member of the Church, and for years he was the superintendent of the Sunday School.  I don’t know whether you’ve seen that picture of the St. Johns Sunday School with Grandpa sitting down in front, and Uncle Roy was one of his assistants.  Grandpa Christensen had dramatic ability.  He liked to perform in plays. He was called on often to do that.

Marinus Christensen Blacksmith shop in St. Johns

Grandpa Christensen’s Blacksmith Shop

He had this blacksmith shop that was located in what would call the downtown area.  I don’t know if you remember where the Whiting store was. The Whiting store faced on Main Street, and then there was a back entrance and there was a road there, and if you went down that road to the east you would come to Grandpa Christensen’s blacksmith shop.  I can remember many times running as fast as I could after school to go down to Grandpa Christensen’s blacksmith shop to see him. I really was there to put the touch on him. I wanted to buy some candy. And he never disappointed me.  He’d fool around with me for a while, you know, and kid me, and I don’t remember exactly what he’d say, but I think he’d tell me, “Well, you’re going to ruin all your teeth” or something like that. Then after we’d bantered for a while, he reached down in his pocket and he would pull out this purse – and I remember how long it was.  It folded up, and when it unfolded it looked like it was really about that long [indicating 8 to 12 inches with his hands].  He would dip down into there and he would come up with a nickel and give me the nickel.  He was very generous and loved his family.  He loved them with a passion.

Marinus Christensen, back left, as Sergeant of the St. Johns Militia, circa 1900
Future son-in-law Andrew Smith Gibbons is fourth from the left, back row

“Fanny. What are these children doing here?”

I guess I’ve told you many many times about the occasion when my father had a commitment to preside in another court and he’d taken my mother with him and they had left Ruth and me with Grandpa and Grandma Christensen.  So, that night Grandpa came home and saw us there, and then to joke with us – he was just joking – he turned to his wife, and said, “Fanny.  What are these children doing here?”  And she said, “Well, you know.  Andy and Addie have gone out of town and Ruth5 and Frank are going to stay with us for a few nights.”  And he said, “We can’t afford to feed these children!”  (Laughter). Both Ruth and I ran out of that house in tears, so Grandma had to come to retrieve us.  That was really my first experience with Grandpa’s kidding. But he liked to do that.

Blacksmith photo of Marinus Christensen

Joking Between My Mother and Grandpa Christensen

My mother told me that on one occasion she was kidding with her Dad, and he’d walked out the door.  He was going back to the blacksmith shop, and she followed him out, and she was harassing him, and she kicked at him, and he grabbed her leg and started to walk off, and she just had to hop on one leg, all the time saying, “Dad! Let me go! Let me go!”  And finally, he said, “What are you doing here?” (Laughter) And so this was the way he liked to joke with his family.  You realized that with your grandmother.  So that’s where she got it from.  Once you learned that it was just a joke and you’re having fun with them, why then you could give as well as you could take, as you did with my mother.  So that was his character.

The Sons of Marinus and Fanny Christensen

Of course I was never in that home as the family was raised, but my inference is that, although my grandparents were active in the Church, that it was not really the kind of a home where the Church influence was exemplified. I doubt that they had family prayer, and for that reason the Christensen boys – none of them; none of the Christensen boys – remained active in the Church. They were active as long as they were in that home because the Christensen parents always went to Church and would have insisted that the children attend with them. But you take David6 and Elmer and Frank7 and Joe8– they could take the Church or they could leave it.  It really didn’t mean much to them.

Family group of the Christensen family taken at the funeral of Marinus Christensen
Frances Ann Thomas Christensen is seated with her children behind.
Standing: David, Elmer, Jessie, Frank, Addie and Joe

Joe Christensen and the Spiked Punch

Joe Christensen

Joe, of course, was married in the Temple.  He married a good Latter-Day Saint girl.  But it didn’t really mean a lot to him.  I’m sure I’ve told you of the occasion when we came up to Salt Lake, this would have been in ‘27 when I was a six year old kid.  Uncle Harold Morgan9 had married Jessie,10 my mother’s sister.  They had a home up above Thirteenth East.  And Aunt Jessie, who wanted to fete the Gibbons who were visiting from Arizona, had a little open house there and invited family and friends.  And either Joe or Harold Morgan, one or the other, maybe both of them together, got some whiskey and spiked the punch.  (Laughter).  And Aunt Jessie was just beside herself.  She went into this room and found Joe stirring this punch with a broom handle.  (Laughter).  It wouldn’t have made any difference to Joe.  I mean, he was having a good time.  So that was the character of the Christensen boys.  They were good men.  They were substantial men in their community.  And I liked being around them.  They were a lot of fun.

Frank Christensen

Frank was in the Army in World War I.  And, of course he could have picked up the habit before he went into the Army, knowing the extent to which tobacco and liquor were common in St. Johns, but when he got out of the Army, Frank was pretty well addicted to tobacco and whiskey.  Frank was quite a wheeler dealer.  He was a tall man, he was about six two.  During the Depression Frank was really hurting.  He had worked with an automobile agency up in Winslow, and had done well.  When the Depression hit in the 1930's that business just went down the drain.  And so he came to Phoenix, and my father leased a Conoco station on Van Buren and about Eighth Street – this would have been a block east of the High School.  You can remember where the Phoenix Union High School was.  The station would have been a block east.  My father leased that station and turned it over to Frank, and that’s what enabled Frank to feed his family.  Then, after the Depression eased up, Frank went back into business, and he acquired a wholesale petroleum in Flagstaff and did very well.  While he was there he was elected to the Arizona Legislature and was one of the shakers and movers in that Legislature, and was one of the men cooperating with people on the Utah side responsible for the development of Lake Powell.  Frank had a lot of interest in boating facilities, and whatever, on the south side of Lake Powell, and that, with his oil business – he did very well.  His son Don – Frank and Nellie had two children: Don, who was about my age and Neil, who was about two years younger.  Don and Neil Christensen.  Both are dead now.  Don took over his Dad’s business.  But Neil was a lawyer, and a very good one.  Neil was a bright guy.  He practiced there in Flagstaff and became active in civic affairs, and they’ve named a school after him there in Flagstaff – a grammar school: The Neil Christensen School.

Joe Christensen and Addie Gibbons
Youngest son and oldest daughter both
inherited joking propensities from their father,
Marinus Christensen

The Personalities of Frank & Joe Christensen

So Frank and Joe – you see, Joe was on the City Commission here  – were these hale-fellow-well-met kind and good politicians, and everybody liked them.  Joe, especially here, was well known for his athletic ability.   He was one of the finest basketball players in this area while he was at – I think he was at Logan.  Then later, he was a referee involved in the AAU.  So Joe was a likable guy.  So was Frank.

Elmer Christensen, caring for his chickens

The Personalities of David & Elmer Christensen

But Elmer and David were the exact opposites.  (Laughter).  David and Elmer – they didn’t want even to shake hands with anybody.  They just wanted to be left alone to do their thing.  And David ended up on the railroad.  I think he was a conductor on the railroad, and he loved it.  I’ve told you many times about when my father died, David went from Winslow down to Phoenix.  There were a lot of people in the house offering condolences and so forth.  And I walked into the kitchen, and there sat Uncle David with my mother.  And I guess because of the experience with his family, where they always entered through the back door (laughter), he came to the back door and knocked on the back door and my mother heard it and went and there was David.  And there was David.  He was a fine man, a fine looking man.  Very quiet, very retiring.  The exact opposites of Frank and Joe.  And Elmer was the same way.  So its quite a combination.  I’ve told Helen, sometimes its “A Frank and Joe Day,” or its “An Elmer and a David Day” for me.  (Laughter).  

DBG:    Tell me about your Grandmothers.  Both Grandmothers.  What were their qualities?

Elizabeth Harris Gibbons

Memories of Grandma Gibbons

FMG:    Grandma Gibbons had the softest bed in the world. It was a feather bed.  My sister Ruth and I used to love to go up and visit Grandma Gibbons and lie in her feather bed.  Lying in that bed you’d just drop out of sight, almost.  And she liked to tell stories.  She used to sing little ditties to us.  I remember she had one song called, “The Haunted Hunter.”11  I don’t remember any of the words, but I remember that it had a very baleful quality to it.

DBG:    Can you sing it?

FMG:    Pardon?

DBG:    Can you remember any of the music?

FMG:    Nope.  I can’t remember the music, but I know it was kind of scary.  And so Ruth and I, whenever we went up, we’d always want a performance of “The Haunted Hunter.” So Grandma would comply.  She’d sing “The Haunted Hunter.”  She was always very welcoming and seemed to love to have us come to visit.  And we used to visit quite often.

Relationship of Grandma Gibbons and My Mother

I’m sure you’ve heard many times by now that my mother apparently was not looked upon as the proper companion for my father.  (Laughter).  My mother, of course, felt that.  We have some of the correspondence between my father and his parents, and my mother is never mentioned, and in one letter, when my father acknowledged the letter he received, he said, “Please, when you write, why don’t you mention Addie.  She’d like a mention.”  So, there was a little bit of this between Grandma Gibbons and my mother.  I mean, it wasn’t natty or catty or anything, but it was almost my Grandma Gibbons didn’t know my mother existed.  (Laughter). And that was really hard for my mother to take.

Memories of Grandma Christensen

My Grandma Christensen was always jovial, always happy, always welcoming to the children when we went up to see her.  She was the Relief Society President there in St. Johns for ever, I think.  You’ve heard about the story of the ashes in the stove, haven’t you.

DBG:    I haven’t.

FMG:    One day my Grandfather came home from the shop and there the ashes were half removed from the stove and Grandma wasn’t around.  And so he walked down to our place, which was just a block away.  He came to the house and he said, “Addie. Who died?”  And my mother said, “Well I didn’t know anybody had died, Dad.  Why do you say that?”  And he said, “Well, I came home and the ashes were half removed from the stove and I just assumed that someone had died and that your mother had gone to take care of it.”  And that’s exactly what had happened.  She was the town mortician.  The Relief Society always took care of the bodies.  And so whenever the Relief Society received a call that someone had died in town, she was there, first on the job.  So that was our Grandma Christensen.  She was a saint.  She was a charitable, loving saint.  And she had a good sense of humor.  And that was a nice combination between my Grandparents Christensen, because you didn’t see that in the Gibbons.

Andrew Vinson Gibbons

A.V.’s Austere Personality

My Grandpa Gibbons, of course when I came along, was paralyzed, so that I didn’t see him in his natural state.  But according to my father, my grandfather was an austere man.  He’d had a hard life with Grandma – the Pioneer’s wife – burying all those children, moving from here to there and everywhere, and he being the oldest son, he’d had a lot of the responsibility placed upon him to take care of the family while the Pioneer was out pioneering.  And so A.V. apparently had lived a pretty tough life, and there was not a lot of joy and happiness in it.

Grandma Gibbons’ Love of Reading

Grandma Gibbons was not the jovial kind.  Grandma Gibbons was an intellectual who liked to spend all of her time reading.

DBG:    Really?

FMG:    Oh yeah.  My father said that my Grandmother read incessantly, which may have been her salvation with the job she had to take care of her paralyzed husband.  The two Grandparents were so different.

Grandma Gibbons as a Housekeeper

I guess the combination of Grandma Gibbons’ proclivity to read all the time and the burden of taking care of her husband, she was not a neat housekeeper.  The Gibbons household was very casual, to say the least. (Laughter) But you go into Grandma Christensen’s, and boy, everything was neat, in order and taken care of – especially in that front room.  (Laughter).  And so the images I carry of the two grandparents are so different.  Different people entirely, but wonderful in their own way.

DBG:    I was about to ask you about intellectual bent, and also musical.  Nana had a lot of musical ability.  Where did that come from do you think?

FMG:    Well, I really can’t say.

DBG:    You mentioned Grandpa Christensen had a dramatic flair.  Was he musical?

Musical Ability in the Christensen Family

FMG:    He had a dramatic flair.  And I know that Frank played an instrument.  Joe played an instrument.  I guess my Grandma Christensen had musical flair, but I never really stopped to think about it.  I do remember that she had a little organ in “The Room”, and so apparently she played the organ.  And that must have been where my mother picked it up, because my mother was very musical.  My mother loved music and she loved to perform, and she loved being in the choir.  And you’ve heard the story of “Queen Esther”, and how she was chosen to play Queen Esther in place of this Patterson, who’d been to ChiCAAAgo. (Laughter).  That was one of the triumphs of my mother’s life, that she was chosen to play Queen Esther.

Adeline Christensen Gibbons
Oldest daughter of
Marinus and Fannie Christensen

My Mother’s Physique and Wardrobe

One of the other mountaintop experiences of my mother’s life was the fact that someone – there was a woman named Sister McRae, who lived down toward Egypt.  And I went down with my mother to Sister McRae’s a number of times. And Sister McRae was a very skilled dressmaker and she used to make my mother’s dresses. My mother was a tall woman and very shapely. I think that when she was young she was really a looker, physically. Because of her height and because of her carriage she wore clothes very well. One day someone said to Sister McRae, “My, I wish you could make a dress for me like the dresses you make for Addie.” (Laughter). And Sister McRae said, “Well if you had the body to drape it on, I could.” (Laughter).

Notes:

1 Ove Ephraim Overson: The adopted brother of Marinus Christensen.  He was born 17 July 1879, the son of Ove C. Overson and Mary Kay Christensen.   History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake , page 154  (Note: the “Marinus Christensen History” records Mary’s full name as “Mary Kjerstine Christensen”.   See, Helen Bay Gibbons, “Marinus Christensen History”, page 1).  Because his father was the adopted father of Marinus Christensen, Ove E. Overson was an adopted brother to Marinus.  By profession he was a lawyer.  Because he was essentially the same age as ASG and was ACG’s adopted uncle, it is interesting to speculate how he might have assisted ASG in studying for the Arizona bar.  He served as Bishop of the St. Johns Ward from about 1905 to 1907.  

2 Ove C. Overson: The adopted father of Marinus Christensen, and thus the adopted grandfather of ACG.  Marinus Christensen’s father, Jens Christensen, died in Omaha Nebraska in 1866 while the family was emigrating from Denmark.  At the time Marinus was only three years old.  Later, after the family had arrived in Utah, Ove C. Overson married Marinus Christensen’s oldest sister, Mary Kjerstine Christensen.   Because of Marinus’ young age, Ove C. Overson filled the role of a surrogate father, and Marinus was always considered “the adopted son of Ove C. Overson.   See, History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake , page 270.  Ove C. Overson and Mary Christensen Overson were called to settle in St. Johns, and arrived in the Spring of 1880, bringing 17 year Marinus with them.   History of the St. Johns Arizona Stake, page 270.

3 Marinus Elmer Christensen (“Uncle Elmer”): The younger brother of ACG.  Born 26 November 1890 in St. Johns, Apache County, Arizona Territory.  Married Hildegarde Garnatz 26 December 1919.  Died 23 February 1959.

4 Hildegarde Garnatz: The wife of Marinus Elmer Christensen and sister in law of ACG.

5 Ruth Naomi Gibbons  (“Ruth”): Sister of FMG.  Born 24 February 1918 to ASG and ACG.  Died 29 May 1962.

6 David Thomas Christensen (“Uncle David”): The brother of ACG.  Born 2 August 1888 to Marinus Christensen and Frances Ann Thomas.  Married Ines Jolley on 12 November 1908.  Died 14 December 1949.

7 Francis Lee Christensen (“Uncle Frank”): The brother of ACG.  Born 18 April 1898 to Marinus Christensen and Frances Ann Thomas.  Died 30 June 1962.

8 Joseph Laurence Christensen (“Uncle Joe”): The brother of ACG.  The youngest son of Marinus Christensen and Frances Ann Thomas.  Married Susan Worthen Ellis.

9 Harold Morgan: The husband of Jessie Christensen, ACG’s younger sister.  Harold Morgan was the son of Elder John Morgan, of the First Council of the Seventy.

10 Jessie Christensen (“Aunt Jessie”): The sister of ACG.  Born 13 June 1893 in St. Johns, Arizona to Marinus Christensen and Frances Ann Thomas.  She married Harold Morgan on 28 March 1914.  She died 9 January 1980 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

11 The Haunted Hunter 

(Traditional folk song)

VERSE 1

Speed on, speed on, my comrades

Our campsites far away

We must cross th Haunted Valley

Before th break of day

How I became so blighted

I will tell you as you go

By th blight of th haunted hunter

Who walks th midnight snow

VERSE 2

Thru th cold December heaven

Came th pale moon and th stars

As th sun is sinking fast

Behind th purple bars

Th snow it lay drifted

All along th ridge and crest

For miles an' miles along th trail

To th camp for which we pressed

VERSE 3

Said I, th dark is coming

An' for our camp must speed

An' my heart it would be like song

If I had company

So I sang and whistled

Keeping measure as I sped

To th sharpening of my snowshoes

As they sprang beneath my tread

VERSE 4

There was darkness on th hillside

An' in th solum woods

No sight, nor sound, nor motion

For t' break th solitude

Save th whipping of th moosebird

In its piney mount so bold

An' th sharpening of my snowshoes

As they sprang upon th snow

VERSE 5

Not far into my journey

Had I gone upon my way

When a dusky stranger joined me

In a cop suit of gray

Bending on his snowshoes

With a long an' limber stride

I hailed th dusky stranger

As we traveled side by side

VERSE 6

No token of communion

Gave he by word or look

Till a fear chill fell upon me

At th crossing of th brook

For I saw in th swiftest instant

As I followed 'im bending low

Th walking of th stranger

Left no footprints in th snow

VERSE 7

A fear chill fell upon me

As th shadows 'round me posted

And I fell upon th snow bank

As th haunted hunter laughed

There the other trappers found me

Just at th break of day

With by black hair turned quite blanched

As th snow on which I lay

VERSE 8

They spoke not as they raised me

For they knew that in th night

I had seen th haunted hunter

An' withered in his blight

Sing as we speed onward

For th sun is sinking low

An' below us lies th valley

Of th walker in th snow

Audio versions:

https://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=679

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDaOdBs-Hic