Jacob Rasmusssen

Taken from Jacob's writing: " I was born of goodly parents, in the town of Fairview, Sanpete Co. Utah on 6 June 1873. My parents were converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They having been converted in their native land, Denmark. Father emigrated, arriving in Salt Lake City in 1860. Mother emigrated arriving in Salt Lake City in 1862. Father had no relatives in this country. Mother had a brother by the name of Jens, who also came in 1860. Uncle Jens and father had worked for Bishop Gardener who lived at South Jordan, Salt Lake Co.
Mother on arriving went to where her brother (Jens) was and there met my father. Well! Young people hadn't changed and she and father were married by Bishop Archibald Gardner, on the 12th of October 1862 but were not endowed till the 5th of March 1864.
My brothers and sisters are as follows: Mary Johannah, Andrew, Amasa, Nephi and Jacob (that is I). Before my remembrance father and mother separated. Mother took four of the children and moved to Mantua, Box Elder Co., where her mother and Uncle Carl lived, while I was three years old. I haven't the slightest remembrance of that move.
In our new home mother pounded out our existence with her old loom by weaving linsey, blankets, shawls, rugs and carpet. I never knew hunger in the family. We always had food. Mother also made all of our clothing from homespun wool. It's wonderful how poor people can manage.
We boys grew like weeds. One of the neighbors was needing help to harvest his wheat and came to `Ma' to get the boys to help. They went and helped him out; that is Amasa and Nephi, to hand bind the grain which was the method of the day. At threshing time mother went to get the pay for the work done by the boys. Well, the good farmer said. "Sister Madsen (Jacob's grandmother) your boys has done men's work and shall have men's pay". So he measured out 40 bushels of good wheat. You can imagine the joy of Mother. Enough wheat to (make) bread the family for a whole year. Sister Mary was not to be frowned at either for she had been working at the Owen's dairy over near Wellsville all summer and had earned very substantial help for the family too. And so the Lord provides for his children.
We children all seemed to harbor a desire to return to Fairview. Well, fate and Fairview seemed to have us, for on the twentieth of June 1894, I and Sarah Rebecca Howell were married in the Manti Temple."
(This next section was not written by Jacob – but documents the continuation of his married life as told by Sarah)
Jacob and his family moved from Mantua, Utah to Fairview and Jacob began going around with Sarah's brother Willis (Willis Henry Howell), so it was easy for a romance to develop between Sarah and Jake.
Jacob and Sarah moved into the home located at the Union Roller Mill where Jake was Mill Superintendant. Jacobs mother Severina had been living at the mill home keeping house for Jacob, but she moved back into town before Sarah and Jacob moved into the mill home. Jacob's Father Andrew Rasmussen, was a stockholder in the Union Roller Mill and this probably helped Jacob in getting the position he held. Soon after the marriage Jacob purchased a lot across the street from Elias Willis Howell's home for $250.00. Half of the lot was sold or given to Jacob's brother Amasa. An old adobe house which was on the lot was torn down and material for two brick homes was purchased for both brothers was undertaken. Amasa's fourth child Lindon was born in the new home on October 24, and Jacob's second child, Myrtle was born in the mill home as her new home was not yet finished. The house built for Jacob still stands (1952) but Amasa's has been torn down for a newer home.
Some difficulty developed between Jacob and the Mill board of direction, which Sarah thought had taken place because of the purchase of some new machinery without specific authorization from the board and that Jacob had brought his brother Amasa into the mill to work with him.
Jacob's brother Nephi suggested that they go to Wyoming and homestead Land. Jacob had an exploring spirit and so he quit his job at the mill, sold his new home for $550.00 and moved to the Bench (Lyman, Wyoming) between Christmas and New Years in December of 1898.
Both men homesteaded 160 acres of land. Nephi built northeast of Lyman and Jacob southeast of Lyman. Jacob and Sarah's first home was a 12 by 20 ft. log cabin. Jacob bought a lot (Sarah said the first lot in the townsite when it was organized) and the log cabin was moved onto this lot.
Nephi was a good farmer but Jacob was not content to spend his time tilling the soil, so he opened a grocery store in the log house by hanging up a wagon cover to separate the house from the living quarters of the cabin. A lean to the same size was added and it became the bedroom occupied by two full sized beds with just enough room to walk between the beds. Jacob also became postmaster of "Bench" Wyoming . Jacob and Nephi labored in the mountains getting out the logs for the meeting house and for their mother Severina's home, which was built near Jacob's home in the townsite.
Jacob became very busy with church responsibilities as a class teacher and various committee work and a ward teacher to isolated families. He made his visits alone on horseback which consumed much time. He soon became a counselor to Bishop Samuel R. Brough in the Lyman Ward. He was also the head watermaster.
Jacob did some part time work as a miller by working at different times at the Davis mill on Black's Fork above Bridger.
One summer on the farm, Merrill was following Jacob, who was seated on a gang plow and somehow got his leg between the spokes of the small wheel in the furrow at the back of the plow and his leg was broken. The nearest doctor was at Fort Bridger some seven or eight miles away. The quickest way to get help was horseback, which Jacob did at once, but at that time it was two or three hours before a doctor could arrive and set the bones and take care of the injury.
During the early Fall of 1905, Jacob bought (with credit) a new binder for harvesting his grain. He did custom work for his neighbors until his own crop of grain was dead ripe. He moved onto his own fields and started cutting. One day he came in from cutting to eat dinner (lunch for us – our dinner was called supper in those days) at which time he made the remark "Well, old lady, this is one year when we will have enough grain to see us through the winder." But before the noon meal was finished a violent hailstorm came up and that part of Jacobs grain field left uncut was thoroughly threshed out and the new binder was not needed on Jacob's fields any more. Because of this occurrence and Sarah's unhappiness the family made the decision to sell out and return to Utah. After an action sale of their farm and its equipment and the animals, the family moved out with only a wagon and team and part of their household goods remaining.
Jacob moved his family into the home of Uncle Otis and Aunt Mary who provided one room of the home as a temporary residence.
In the spring of 1906 Jacob rented Adam's place on the Provo Bench above Lakeview. Since the place was not large enough to produce sufficient income to support his family, he made peddler trips to Eureka and the Tintic mining district town, also to Scofield, Dear Creek and Winter Quarters, Park City and Sanpete County towns. Later on Jacob purchased a farm with the opportunity to grow a peach orchard, berries, garden, alfalfa and a small pasture. Sheds and pens for the livestock and a rock and mud fence around the barnyard were constructed.
Again it was necessary to add to the income from the farm to take care of the needs of his family, so he continued making peddling trips to the mining camps. Jacob eventually took a job with the Utah Fuel Company at Winter Quarters firing boilers in the mine powerhouse. In the spring of 1909 Jacob had Sarah bring the family with her and come to Winter Quarters (not even a ghost town now). They lived a short time in the same house with the Willis Howells, then rented a house in Winter Quarters in that part of the town located up the canyon an above mine Tipple. The family stayed in Winter Quarters until the spring of 1910 when it became evident to Jacob that the needs of his now large family could not be taken care of on the income he was receiving. The heavy manual labor required by the work as a boiler fireman was not considered satisfactory work.
Jacob started selling for the Rawleigh Company, producers of household and farm family articles, medicines, spices, extracts, etc. and he was assigned to Juab County with headquarters at Nephi. While living in Nephi, the farm and property on Provo Bench was sold at a profit. Jacob wanted a larger territory to carry on his Rawleigh business so a move to Manti, Utah was soon underway. The Rawleigh business kept Jacob away from home much of the time so it was suggested that getting and automobile and running it for hire would be a good business. Jacob closed his Rawleigh business and purchased a Buick Auto. (It was among the first automobiles to be owned in Manti, Utah.) The operation of this business required that Jacob spend considerable idle time in town in order to be available when business showed up. This raised some objections from Sarah and the business was not as profitable as desired. An opportunity to return to the Union Roller Mill in Fairview as miller showed up and Jacob was ready to make the change.
The family moved from Manti to Fairview into the mill home where Jake and Sarah lived when they were first married.
About this time some lands of the Uintah Indian Reservation were opened for settlement to the white people. This became a land of promise to Jacob after he had made a trip into that country in the Buick. So two years after moving from Manti to Fairview, the family was again on the move to a new home. In November 1917 the move by team and wagon was made from Fairview to Lapoint. This was a long and tiresome journey. The family went on to Lapoint and stopped a few days with Uncle Jim Allred and Aunt Marzetta and moved onto a rented place on the Uintah River. When the lease time expired on the Murray place, another lease was taken on the Gerber place, located nearer Lapoint, south of town also for the two year period. A profitable alfalfa seed crop while on the Gerber place provided enough money to file on 52 acres of land about one mile east of the town of Lapoint on the highway to Vernal. Material was gathered up to construct a sawed log house, large enough to care for the needs of the family.