Daniel & Mahalia Jensen

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Daniel & Mahalia Jensen By Frank George Jensen "He was born at the old country home at Mink Creek, Idaho, January 10, 1888. As legend goes this was one of the coldest days Mink Creek has known as weather is measured. It is related that when father arrived after his trip after the midwife the horses were white with frost and icicles 6 inches long were hanging from their nostrils. All went well with little Dan, as I have been brought to understand. My first personal contact with him as I remember was when he was helping his father with tending the cattle in the winter. It seems that father needed help badly as he at that time owned better than 200 head of cattle and 40 milk cows. And as all the water sources, except wells, dried up during the winter, water had to be pumped by hand for the livestock, and this was a big job. It seems that Dan was kept from school to help with this job. I, and an older brother, Harry, however, were too small to be of much help, but remember seeing Dan pumping water for several hours each day. As time went on and the older brothers, James and Hans, completed the eight grades in school more regular. He did well in school and was especially gifted in mathematics. He was always ahead of his class in this course. In later years as he attended the Oneida Stake Academy he was outstanding in mathematics and often helped his teacher with students in their struggle with algebra and geometry. When father and mother moved to Preston, Idaho, to live, he worked in partnership with James and Hans in handling the farm and about 1500 head of sheep. The boys had changed from cattle to sheep. They said the cattle didn't produce wool and that was a big item in favor of the sheep at that time. He spent his summers on the farm and out with the sheep and attended school at the Academy at Preston in winter. He was a member of the Oneida Stake Academy Band and did well in that endeavor; we were all proud of him in this. Soon difficulties ensued in obtaining summer range for the sheep, so in 1915 the brothers sold the sheep and dissolved their partnership and turned the farm back to father. He in turn worked out a sale of the farm to all five brothers, James, Hans, Daniel, Harry, and I. James and Hans handled theirs individually; Dan, Harry and I handled ours in partnership. On January 16, 1918, he married Mahalia Petersen in the Salt Lake Temple. Dan was an ardent baseball fan, he loved the game and always played with the Mink Creek team as their catcher. We continued our farm partnership till we were all married, when we decided to separate, each to his own. Even after separation Dan and I worked together in our farm work. We got along very well, as each was willing to do his full share. During lull months at the farm we generally worked at the logging enterprise, getting lumber I for much needed buildings. When we needed money badly we would deliver sawed lumber to Preston for per 1000 feet. Not much in that but a lot of hard work." This is as far as Frank got with the life story he wrote, but the family of Daniel Jensen is very appreciative of this early history, which would otherwise be nonexistent.
Dan Jensen History By Ada Geneva Petersen Jensen Bowen, wife of Frank Jensen and sister of Mahalia Petersen Jensen July 4, 1982 When Dan and Mahalia were married they lived in a three-room house in the location where Harry and Rosetta Jensen later lived and raised their family. Wayne Daniel Jensen was born to Dan and Mahalia on January 19, 1919 and Joan Mahalia Jensen was born on October 13, 1920, while they were still living in this house. Ada and Frank were married on June 23, 1920, and moved into this house with Dan and Mahalia. They lived together for about two years during which time Reed Peter Jensen was born to Dan and Mahalia on January 11, 1922, and Ivonne Jensen was born to Frank and Ada on March 2, 1922. Shortly after the birth of these two babies a new two-room house was built a short distance north of the one they lived in and Frank, Ada, and the new baby moved into it before it was completely finished and they continued to build as time allowed while they were living in it. The next summer a one-room bunkhouse was moved from the farm owned by a brother-in-law and sister, Chris and Rachel Eskelson, up on Mink Creek to a location across the road from Frank and Ada's new house. Dan and Mahalia and their three small children moved into this home and a cellar was built on the back and a bedroom at the side. Frank and Dan helped their brother Harry on a mission in the Western States Mission by occasionally sending a month which was quite a sizeable sum in those days, but they were happy to be able to help him with his mission. Upon Harry's return from his mission and marriage to Rosetta he moved into the original home where Daniel and Frank had lived during the time they lived together. These locations with some changes and improvements were where these three brothers were living when they died. Their children were born and lived there all their childhood years. When babies were ready to be born in Mink Creek the first thing the fathers did was call in one of the midwives in the town. There were nearly always at least two midwives in Mink Creek. When the midwife was in attendance with the prospective new mother, the doctor was summoned from Preston and he would come and stay for the delivery however long it took, unless it was a false alarm, which did happen sometimes. Two of the midwives most frequently mentioned were Nancy Rasmussen and Hannah Keller and Dr. Allen R. Cutler, Jr. was the doctor who had to come from Preston for the deliveries. Dr. Cutler would charge for the delivery plus a couple of follow up visits and the midwives would charge $1.00 a day for their services. When women were called in to help with the housework they too received $1.00 a day. Those were very difficult years for Daniel and Mahalia. Money was very scarce; the farms did not produce much with slow horsedrawn equipment. They all had mortgages on their farms which came with the division of the land when their father turned it over to the boys. The interest was very high, 8%, until the Federal Land Bank was established after the crash, and that helped alleviate that problem for them. Many of the people in Mink Creek felt that President F. D. Roosevelt saved them from financial ruin. However, they were grateful to be living on the farms during the rough days of the depression because they did have their cows and vegetable gardens so that at least they were able to raise their own food. The older children grew up wearing homemade flour sack underwear and went without shoes in the summer (partly by necessity and partly by choice). Anna Beth Jensen was born to Daniel and Mahalia on September 29, 1924, while they were still living in the converted bunkhouse. However, when the birth was imminent Mahalia had gone to her sister, Rachel's house, on Mink Creek so Rachel could help. In the mid-twenties Daniel had a large barn built, one of the largest in Mink Creek, to house his cows and provide a hayloft, which held a lot of the hay, which was necessary for the feeding of his herd of cows. Then a few years later they started to build a new home just a few feet in front of the old one. The basement was finished, but the upstairs was simply framed in with boards and the roof put on. Daniel and Mahalia and their four older children moved into that basement and lived there until Daniel died in 1942. Tony Ray Jensen was born on May 26, 1931, Marie Jensen was born on December 7, 1933 and Tamara Jensen was born on June 13, 1935. They were all born while the family lived in the basement house. It was pretty crowded since there were only four rooms -- a kitchen, two bedrooms and a "back room" which held the food storage, washing machine, fuel (coal for the stove) and eventually the furnace. Daniel was a kind and considerate father, never one to spank or in any way physically mistreat his children. Of course, there were times when he would become particularly exasperated when any of the children would procrastinate too long in performing assigned chores, and he would quietly find that child, simply take hold of the hair at the nape of the neck and march him to the work place. That always resulted in action. He was also kind and gentle with animals, never mistreating them himself and even scolding others if he observed them being cruel to animals. He worked hard to make things as good as he could for everything and everyone around him. He made homemade sleds and skis for the children's enjoyment. In the summer when the heavy ropes were not being used for putting hay into the barn he would make a high (very high) swing which was enjoyed by the children in the neighborhood. It was always very important to Dan and especially Mahaiia that their children receive a good education. Wayne and Joan had to walk to school, a distance of about two miles, or sometimes in bad weather they would ride part of the way with the neighbors in a horse drawn wagon or cutter. Ada remembered watching Joan walking through the deep snow up to her waist and feeling very sorry for her. By the time Reed and Ivonne started school, a school bus (horse drawn wagon or sled, depending on the season) had been established. Joan, the oldest daughter in the family, contributed the information that Daniel served on the Mink Creek School Board for some years. She remembers applicants for teaching positions coming to the house to be interviewed by her father. She also remembers the school equipment and supply catalogues which would come to him. She would look at them and think how wonderful it would be if she could have a whole pad of construction paper, or any of the other exciting things she saw in those catalogues. Daniel did eventually own a model T Ford, but he had a reputation around Mink Creek for not being a very good driver. He was so used to driving a team of horses who knew pretty well where to go that he would forget he was driving a car and look off into the fields instead of watching the road. And when he needed to stop suddenly and perhaps the brakes were a bit loose, he would grasp the steering wheel, brace his feet and yell, "Whoa, Whoa!" The roads were dusty, rough, narrow and winding enough to demand full attention in dry weather to say nothing about the slippery, muddy ruts in the winter. Daniel was never outwardly a religious man in that he did not attend Church meetings on a regular basis or hold many positions of leadership in the Mink Creek Ward. There was a time when he was secretary of the Elders Quorum but that is the only position in the Ward that the writers of this history could recall. There are several things that might have contributed to his inactivity. His parents with their children left the Church when the children were young and were therefore not attending meetings. Also Daniel took up smoking rollyour- own Bull Durham cigarettes as a young man and his coffee pot was always on the back of the stove. Even though he tried several times to break the tobacco habit, he was unsuccessful. He would always go outside when he would have a cigarette even in the cold winter. Fortunately, after the basement house with the unfinished upstairs was built he could get some shelter from the cold and wind by finding a corner behind rough board wall. Not wanting to be a hypocrite, he may have let his tobacco and coffee keep him away from Church. Also as he became older, his hearing was somewhat impaired - a problem that seemed to run in the Jensen Family since several of his brothers and sisters had the same affliction. Whatever the reason was for his not being active in the Church, he was nevertheless a considerate, generous, thoughtful, hardworking, quiet, and reserved Christian man. He was always willing to help people when they would come to him to have their haystacks measured, grain weights figured, etc. For several years he was water master for the irrigation ditch company and this meant spending hours each season figuring water turns. He was also a ditch rider for a long period of time, which involved regularly riding around the entire length of water ditch to make sure everything was in good order. Frank mentioned in his history that Daniel loved baseball; in later years when his age and health prevented him from participating in the game he was an avid fan of the Yankees and he would listen to the broadcast of their games on the radio. He and Mahalia were one of the first people in Mink Creek to get a radio--a Montgomery Ward, Airline, which is still in the possession of his granddaughter, Candice Campbell. Daniel also enjoyed playing checkers and solitaire. His brother, Harry, told a story that was related to the writer by Harry's daughter, Margie Worley, about Daniel's ability as a checker player. Daniel's father, Thomas Jensen, was an accomplished checker player and one time he went out to Glade's General Store where he was challenged to a match by a visitor there. He lost the match but told the challenger that he had a son who could beat anyone at checkers. He then rode his horse back home and got Daniel who went back out to the store with his father and saved the family honor by defeating the challenger. Dan, Mahalia, Harry, Ada and Frank (with Wayne in front) at the house they all shared at the time. Later this house was Harry’s families home. In the winters when work on the farm was not so demanding, Daniel would enjoy sitting at the kitchen table playing solitaire. He seemed to find that a good way to temporarily keep from worrying. He was a worrier - about money primarily, but also about the depression and world conditions in general. He was deeply affected by the outbreak of World War II. He was at home listening to the radio on the morning of Pearl Harbor and came out to the car as his family returned from Church to tell them about the attack. One of the greatest crosses both Daniel and Mahalia had to bear was the death of their firstborn, Wayne, in a farm accident on December 12, 1940. It seemed that even though Daniel's health had not been good for some years, from the time of Wayne's death, he failed quite rapidly and died from a combination of lung and heart ailments on August 30, 1942.