Emma Keller and John Henry Looser Life Story
LIFE HISTORY
OF
JOHN HENRY LOSSER
BORN: 4 SEPTEMBER, 1851, DIED 6 January, 1941
FIRST WIFE LEMIRA HALL, DIED 5 OCTOBER, 1874 GIVING BIRTH TO SECOND CHILD.
AND
EMMA KELLER LOSSER
BORN: 28 JUNE, 1861, DIED 9 January, 1933
John Henry Losser was born 4 September , 1851 in Nesslaw, Canton of St. Gaelen, Switzerland, and his father was John George Losser and his mother was Elizabeth Winneweiser.
John Henry Losser came to America in 1861 when he was about ten years of age. (Eight years before the railroad was finished.) He came with two cousins, Elizabeth Ana Looser Smith and her sister. (Catherina Looser, Elizabeth is quoted as telling the following story.)
"I am Eliza Losser Smyth, I was born in Switzerland in a place called St. Gaelaen on 15 October, 1853, the daughter of Johannes and (Anna) Catherine Brunner Losser. My parents died within two weeks of each other leaving their two children (Elizabeth Ana Looser Smyth and her sister Catherina Looser )in the care of an uncle. My parents had great hopes of coming to Zion in the spring, but the Lord willed it otherwise. It was father's dying wish that his brother should send his children to Zion. I took sick with Typhoid fever so we had to wait for one year before we were able to come.
(For the record, Johann Ulrich Losser and Anna C. Vollenweider are the parents of Johannes Looser and George Looser. After Johannes and Catherine died, George, the brother, arranged for his son John Henry Losser and his two cousins Eliza and Catherina to come to America with a an unnamed female benefactor. In other words, the unnamed benefactor paid their way and went with them to ensure their safety. It is my understanding that it was a common practice to send one child at a time to America from families in Europe.)
A friend of the family was coming to America and she had money and said she would pay the passage for us two girls and our cousin (John) Henry Losser to Zion. We got along fine until our friend died on the ocean. I remember seeing her wrapped in a sheet and lowered slowly down into the ocean. We were very sick on the ship below deck and we had to lie on straw. We were six weeks on the water in a sailing vessel.
My cousin, (John Henry Losser) sister (Catherina Looser) and I had good voices and people would ask us to sing for them in our native language and it pleased them so in return they would give us money and good things to eat. (This paragraph makes you wonder what happened to the money the benefactor must have had and been traveling with. Why didn't John Henry and his cousins get any of this money or maybe they did.)
When we arrived in New York we were glad to be on dry land again and felt much better. After some time we started on our long journey over the plains in a covered wagon. I was weak, but had to walk until I was nearly ready to drop on the ground. My cousin (John Henry Losser) was only ten years old but would carry me on his back as long as he could, (John Henry was ten years old and his cousin was 8 years old. Her sister Catherina was 9 years old. Catherina died at 19 years of age in Utah) then they would let me ride in the wagon for a while. It went on like this until we arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. I remember coming down Emergration Square where the city and county buildings now stand. My cousin says that is where Mrs. Foster took me and my sister to live with her. A man by the name of Gus Hardey took my cousin Henry down to Dixie, Utah.
(The above story is reported by Permenlia, the daughter of John Henry Losser and Emma Keller. It is interesting that she tells it in the first person of the cousin Elizabeth.)
John Henry Looser writes his story:
I am John Henry Looser. I was born in Nesslaw, St. Gallen Canton, Switzerland on 4 September, 1851. My parents were Johann George Looser and "Elsbeth Winnewieser," both born in Nesslaw. About 1860 I immigrated to America with other members of my family and they stayed in New York. I was just ten when I joined a wagon train and crossed the plains to Salt Lake. I bargained with several families along the way to work for them in exchange for my transportation and keep. Some of the families were very good to me, while others were mean and I couldn't do enough work to please them. I remember one gave me a pair of leather pants that were wonderful and warm until it rained. Then the buckskin got wet and stretched down over my feet, so I had to take a pair of shears to shorten them so I could walk. Of course when they dried they shrunk up to the middle of my shins. About 1862 I finally arrived in Salt Lake. I lived in the area for some years doing odd jobs and mostly just growing up. Now I'll let Emma catch up.
(You can see that his story lacks the details of his daughter Permelias report of Eliza Smith. He does not mention the boat ride, the woman benefactor, nor the two cousins.)
Emma Keller Looser writes her story:
My father John Keller was the fifth child of Hans Heirick Keller and Anna Elizabetha Rutishaver. The Keller Family had been born and raised in Weinfelden, Thurgau Canton, Switzerland for 250 years, maybe longer. After my family converted to the church they decided to come to Salt Lake. By this time my father had married Susanna Hafter and had a new baby boy. On April 15, 1860 Grandfather and Grandmother Keller, my father and mother and the new baby and Grandfather Haffter left Switzerland for good.Emma Keller about the time she got married.
They took the ship, ( William Tapscott, under Capt. Wm. Budge )from Liverpool, England on 7 May, 1860 and made the crossing in 42 days. It was a very stormy and sad voyage. My brother and some children in two other families got sick and died. But Capt. Wm. Budge was a good man and let them wait and bury the babies after they reached New York City.
From New York they took a steamboat to Albany, (up the Hudson River), a side trip to Niagra Falls, then on to Chicago and down (down the Illinois river to St. Louis and then up the Missouri River to Florence, Nebraska) the Missouri River to Florence, (Winter Quarters). They stayed three weeks in Florence preparing for the trip across the plains. They were prosperous and well educated and enjoyed every advantage life had to offer at the time.
They had already purchased a wagon and team of oxen and 34 c.wt. of supplies when Grandfather Keller became terribly sick with Dropsey. (An old term for edema or abnormal swelling of tissue due to an accumulation of water or a tumor) He was confined to his bed for 7 weeks. Everyone was afraid he would die, but he finally improved some, enough for them to start out. It was a long hard trek for the old folks, Grandfather Haffter was 74, Grandfather Keller was 65 and Grandmother was 69. They were on the trail ten weeks and still Grandfather Keller continued to suffer. Finally on September 11, 1860 after making noon camp at Sweetwater, Wyoming he died. (Hans Heinrich Keller , father of John Keller)
My parents traveled on to Salt Lake Valley and settled in Ogden for a time. I was born June 28th, 1861 (One record shows her born in Illinois along the way to Utah) in Ogden and Grandmother Keller died (Elisbeth Rutishauser Keller) there as the result of an accident on the trip. She tried to board a moving wagon but missed the step and fell over backwards and under the wagon. The heavy wheel rolled over her right leg above the knee, causing a deep flesh wound which never healed. She died just five months before I was born. (probably February 1861)
I was Mother and Fathers only surviving child as two sons born later died in infancy. Father and Mother ( John Keller and Susanna Haffter) were then called to colonize Dixie so they helped settle Santa Clara, Utah.
( Many of the early settlers in Santa Clara were from Switzerland or from the south. The Swiss knew how to grow and process grapes into wine and those from across the south knew how to grow and process cotton. When the cotton failed and the civil war was over and cotton was imported from the south, grapes made into wine carried the cash economy of Santa Clara and St. George. These ancestor headstones are in the Santa Clara cemetery today.)
You know, all the saints had a hard time and for one reason or another usually from premature deaths. There was a shortage of eligible men. The Prophet had revealed earlier that plural marriage was right and necessary and when all parties were agreeable, the men could have more than one wife. So since Father could afford the extra burden and Mother was agreeable, he married two immigrant ladies from Switzerland.
(John Keller, the father of Emma had four wives. The first wife, Sussette Haffter was the mother of Emma. In 1861 he married Catharina Enz and had a son Alma Keller who married and had several children. In 1869 he married Luise Schroeder and they had no living children. In 1873 he married Lisette Frehner and they had a son who died at one years of age. In 1875 Emma was 15 years of age and her father was on a mission to Switzerland. Emma was probably called on to do many different chores from her mother and her three Emma and John Henry Losser in their middle age portrait. polygamist mothers. Permelia, Emma's daughter, suggested Emma moved out because she was feeling picked on. Permelia asked her mother at a later date in life how she could think of getting married at 15 years of age and Emma reportedly responded that she could take care of a house, cook for a family and take care of all of the chores at that age. Only Emma and John Henry know how and what transpired in their courtship and marriage. Emma is more gracious in her writing.) As I was growing up so was the family. My father, (John Keller) was called on a mission to Switzerland in 1873 where he baptized the mother of one of our cousins already in this country. So since I wasn't really needed at home, I left when I was in my teens (15 years) and got a job at Flatnose Bench, Nevada.
( This is a ghost town that was about a mile east of Pioche, Nevada. Permelia said her mother left with a wealthy family heading for California. She probably did and in any case there was only one trail north out of Santa Clara to Nevada that would go anywhere near Pioche, Nevada. On her trip to California, she only got 100 miles from home.)
John Henry Losser continues
In the 1970s I had a job in Goldfields, Nevada, (This is a ghost town about 150 miles due west of Flatnose Bench or Pioche, Nevada.) bossing an ore scrapper crew on the mine tailings. At that time Goldfield was a boom town of over 30,000 people. People were putting up shacks and tents wherever they could find space.
My first wife, Lemira Hall who was also born in Ogden, died in child birth 5 October, 1874. I lost both my wife and second child the same day.
I met Emma Keller (15 years old) and we were married 7 December, 1876 in Goldfield because there was no minister in Flatnose. (Emma was living in Flatnose where she repotedly had a job. For some unreported reason it appears John Henry was visiting Flatnose when he met and courted Emma. They had to travel at least 150 miles west to Goldfield in order to get married and after they were married they continued to live in that area for a short time.)
We lived and worked at a way station where the stages stopped to change horses and the passengers got to eat. Emma, why don't you tell about our children?
Emma Keller continues her story.
1872 John Henry Looser and Lemira Hall were married. (On church records), Lemira Hall and John Henry Losser were married about 1872 in north Ogden, Utah.
October , 1872. Myra Losser (a daughter born to Lemira Hall and raised in Ogden after her mothers death in 1874. According to Aunt Lou, "while on the train trip from Panguitch to Idaho, the train stopped at a crossing, her father got out, disappeared for a time and came back with a girl whom he introduced to them as their sister Myra. Later dates and events are confused concerning Myra. Myra was the first child born to Lemira Hall and John Henry Looser before Lemira died in childbirth with their second, a son in 5 October, 1874. )
5 October, 1874. A son born and died the same day to Lemira Hall. Lemira died in child birth. At this time, I believe that John Kenry took Myra to live with a relative, probably his sister or at least the woman he stopped in Bountiful and gave the horse to on their trip to Idaho. Maybe a partial payment for raising the child. John Henry does not report her or the marriage to her mother on the Census report of 1900. On careful examination of the Census John Henry reports being married 27 years and then it is lined out and replaced with a 23 to match Emma Kellers number of years married. The census taker may have been only interested in the statistics of his current marriage and members of household. John Henry admits to the marriage of his first wife and it did take place by which he had two children. One lived and was raised in Ogden. Her name is Myra and there is little else known or reported about her.)
7 December, 1876. We were married in Goldfield, Nevada.(15 years old and then they returned to Flatnose Bench to live and work the first year.)
20 September, 1877. John Henry, our first son was born 20 September, 1877 in Flatnose.
We then moved to Leeds, Utah (or Silver reef a booming mining town at the time full of catholic immigrants from Italy. About 20 miles north of St. George, Utah.)
29 July, 1879. Emma Lemyra, our second child was a daugher born in Leeds, Utah. We named her Emma Lemyra after myself and John's first wife. (So far this is the only confirmation of this relationship and child of her husbands first wife by Emma in her writings.) We left her there in the care of a relative and moved on up to Panguitch, Utah, the gateway to Bryce Canyon. There we farmed for 22 years. I gave birth to 7 healthy children there in Panguitch, Utah.
11 February 1882, George David was born.
25 January, 1884. Susana Kathrene was born, who we call Suz
5 January, 1886. "Meal" Permelia Elizabeth was born. (25 years old)
This is our grandmother, the one I (Sandra M. Arave) remember as a child and the mother who gave birth to Roy L. Southwick, our father.
29 May, 1888. "Ernie" Ernest William was born.
21 October, 1890. "Vi" Viola Mabel was born.
18 October, 1892. "Thress" Theresa Marie was born.
25 May, 1895. "Lou" Louise Henrietta was born.
18 May, 1897. Ida Pauline died the same day she was born.
John Henry Losser. Continues his story
"We lived in Idaho for four years, most of the time was spent in Sugar City building the church sugar factory. I think it was in 1905 that "Meal" went to Ricks Academy for her schooling. "Meal" got a job in Idaho Falls doing house work for the Mark Austin family. She fell in love with LeRoy, the second Southwick boy and married him on February 12th, 1907.
(In 1907) About then we were called by the church to help colonize Gridley (California) in the N. Sacramento Valley. George, Ernie and I traveled with our cows and other belongings in the cattle car all the way to Gridley and got settled in before sending for Emma and the girls.
Life was slow and peaceful in Gridley. As slow and peaceful as is possible to be on a working farm. After the children had married we lived alone enjoying each others company until Will and Theres Tailor ask us to move to Roseville and live next door in the house they had built for us.
Emma passed away in 1933 and was buried in the Roseville Cemetary next to our son Ernie who had died the year before. Theres had me move into their new home then, but things just didn't seem the same without Emma.
_______________________________________________________
We can probably thank Theres Losser Taylor for recording this story from her parents. She was about 45 years old when she had her parents move next to her and her husband in Roseville, California in their old age. Without her we would never have known this much. They met and married in the goldfields of Nevada. She was 15 years if age and he was 25 years old. He had a previous marriage and two children. A girl named Myra was being raised in Ogden , Utah by a relative. And his second child and first wife died in childbirth. John Henry and his second wife Emma moved to and lived twenty one years in Panguich, Utah without a story what happened there as the family was born and raised for the most part. They finally moved up to Sugar City, Idaho and on the way up he stopped and gave a female relative a horse in Bountiful, Utah. This was probably or could have been in payment for the raising of his oldest daughter Myra. In Idaho, one of his daughters, Permelia met and married LeRoy Southwick and from them came Roy Southwick, our father. We are the children of Roy and Doris Southwick.
These two people, John and Emma, did their part to settle the west, they immigrated from Switzerland, they met and had children and raise them into productive and responsible citizens. They broke open new land and helped develop it in a productive way in Utah, Nevada and Idaho and finally called to open land in California in his old age. In the end they obviously loved each other over the years.
By reading of how they talked to each other and how they put their story together, the reader can easily assume they were a team, a couple, who made the best of what they had been given. For fifty years they were married and through the hard times and good times they worked life out.
Grandmother Permelia did much the same thing. She learned from her parents and found and married her mate and together she and Leroy Southwick worked hard, raised their children to do the same and loved each other to the end.
Roy and Doris Southwick did the same, and I am their daughter and I am doing the same. All of these ancestors and my husband and I were sealed together in the temple of our Lord to each other forever….. and this is my geneology of four generations on this, the Southwick line.
John Henry Losser, Emma Keller Losser,
Alfred LeRoy Southwick, Permelia Elizabeth Losser Soutwhick,
Roy L. Southwick, Doris Marie Jennings Southwick.
Arvon J. Arave, Sandra Marie Southwick Arave
Produced and edited by Sandra Arave January, 2010
GENEOLOGY RESEARCH CONTINUES……2010
MARCH 17TH. Arvon and I traveled to Torquerville today and looked up a woman who was deeply involved in the research of her family and she somehow made an entry on John Henry and Emma Losser family. She was home and welcomed us into her library where she proceeded to look up the Ships Log on the crossing of Emmas parents and grandparents from Switzerland. A copy of the Captains log follows this story.
She then, looked up each of the passengers diarys on that same crossing and showed us an entry from a __________________ passenger who wrote that Sister Keller had a baby girl on the train from Chicago to Quincy on the same date as Emma's birthday which leads us to believe that Emma was not born in Ogden, Utah just after they crossed the plains, but she was in fact born on the train enroute, before they crossed the plains on a wagon where her grandfather died and soon after, her grandmother died.
This same day, Alvin Arave helped Arvon research the Captains log from the ship that they crossed the ocean from Switzerland on out of Liverpool, England. If they had continued reading the individual diarys they might have discovered the same entry as this woman showed us later in the day.
Contributor: Julie Kocherhans (47510472) • Mar 2021
LIFE HISTORY
OF
JOHN HENRY LOSSER
BORN: 4 SEPTEMBER, 1851, DIED 6 January, 1941
FIRST WIFE LEMIRA HALL, DIED 5 OCTOBER, 1874 GIVING BIRTH TO SECOND CHILD.
AND
EMMA KELLER LOSSER
BORN: 28 JUNE, 1861, DIED 9 January, 1933
John Henry Losser was born 4 September , 1851 in Nesslaw, Canton of St. Gaelen, Switzerland, and his father was John George Losser and his mother was Elizabeth Winneweiser.
John Henry Losser came to America in 1861 when he was about ten years of age. (Eight years before the railroad was finished.) He came with two cousins, Elizabeth Ana Looser Smith and her sister. (Catherina Looser, Elizabeth is quoted as telling the following story.)
"I am Eliza Losser Smyth, I was born in Switzerland in a place called St. Gaelaen on 15 October, 1853, the daughter of Johannes and (Anna) Catherine Brunner Losser. My parents died within two weeks of each other leaving their two children (Elizabeth Ana Looser Smyth and her sister Catherina Looser )in the care of an uncle. My parents had great hopes of coming to Zion in the spring, but the Lord willed it otherwise. It was father's dying wish that his brother should send his children to Zion. I took sick with Typhoid fever so we had to wait for one year before we were able to come.
(For the record, Johann Ulrich Losser and Anna C. Vollenweider are the parents of Johannes Looser and George Looser. After Johannes and Catherine died, George, the brother, arranged for his son John Henry Losser and his two cousins Eliza and Catherina to come to America with a an unnamed female benefactor. In other words, the unnamed benefactor paid their way and went with them to ensure their safety. It is my understanding that it was a common practice to send one child at a time to America from families in Europe.)
A friend of the family was coming to America and she had money and said she would pay the passage for us two girls and our cousin (John) Henry Losser to Zion. We got along fine until our friend died on the ocean. I remember seeing her wrapped in a sheet and lowered slowly down into the ocean. We were very sick on the ship below deck and we had to lie on straw. We were six weeks on the water in a sailing vessel.
My cousin, (John Henry Losser) sister (Catherina Looser) and I had good voices and people would ask us to sing for them in our native language and it pleased them so in return they would give us money and good things to eat. (This paragraph makes you wonder what happened to the money the benefactor must have had and been traveling with. Why didn't John Henry and his cousins get any of this money or maybe they did.)
When we arrived in New York we were glad to be on dry land again and felt much better. After some time we started on our long journey over the plains in a covered wagon. I was weak, but had to walk until I was nearly ready to drop on the ground. My cousin (John Henry Losser) was only ten years old but would carry me on his back as long as he could, (John Henry was ten years old and his cousin was 8 years old. Her sister Catherina was 9 years old. Catherina died at 19 years of age in Utah) then they would let me ride in the wagon for a while. It went on like this until we arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. I remember coming down Emergration Square where the city and county buildings now stand. My cousin says that is where Mrs. Foster took me and my sister to live with her. A man by the name of Gus Hardey took my cousin Henry down to Dixie, Utah.
(The above story is reported by Permenlia, the daughter of John Henry Losser and Emma Keller. It is interesting that she tells it in the first person of the cousin Elizabeth.)
John Henry Looser writes his story:
I am John Henry Looser. I was born in Nesslaw, St. Gallen Canton, Switzerland on 4 September, 1851. My parents were Johann George Looser and "Elsbeth Winnewieser," both born in Nesslaw. About 1860 I immigrated to America with other members of my family and they stayed in New York. I was just ten when I joined a wagon train and crossed the plains to Salt Lake. I bargained with several families along the way to work for them in exchange for my transportation and keep. Some of the families were very good to me, while others were mean and I couldn't do enough work to please them. I remember one gave me a pair of leather pants that were wonderful and warm until it rained. Then the buckskin got wet and stretched down over my feet, so I had to take a pair of shears to shorten them so I could walk. Of course when they dried they shrunk up to the middle of my shins. About 1862 I finally arrived in Salt Lake. I lived in the area for some years doing odd jobs and mostly just growing up. Now I'll let Emma catch up.
(You can see that his story lacks the details of his daughter Permelias report of Eliza Smith. He does not mention the boat ride, the woman benefactor, nor the two cousins.)
Emma Keller Looser writes her story:
My father John Keller was the fifth child of Hans Heirick Keller and Anna Elizabetha Rutishaver. The Keller Family had been born and raised in Weinfelden, Thurgau Canton, Switzerland for 250 years, maybe longer. After my family converted to the church they decided to come to Salt Lake. By this time my father had married Susanna Hafter and had a new baby boy. On April 15, 1860 Grandfather and Grandmother Keller, my father and mother and the new baby and Grandfather Haffter left Switzerland for good.Emma Keller about the time she got married.
They took the ship, ( William Tapscott, under Capt. Wm. Budge )from Liverpool, England on 7 May, 1860 and made the crossing in 42 days. It was a very stormy and sad voyage. My brother and some children in two other families got sick and died. But Capt. Wm. Budge was a good man and let them wait and bury the babies after they reached New York City.
From New York they took a steamboat to Albany, (up the Hudson River), a side trip to Niagra Falls, then on to Chicago and down (down the Illinois river to St. Louis and then up the Missouri River to Florence, Nebraska) the Missouri River to Florence, (Winter Quarters). They stayed three weeks in Florence preparing for the trip across the plains. They were prosperous and well educated and enjoyed every advantage life had to offer at the time.
They had already purchased a wagon and team of oxen and 34 c.wt. of supplies when Grandfather Keller became terribly sick with Dropsey. (An old term for edema or abnormal swelling of tissue due to an accumulation of water or a tumor) He was confined to his bed for 7 weeks. Everyone was afraid he would die, but he finally improved some, enough for them to start out. It was a long hard trek for the old folks, Grandfather Haffter was 74, Grandfather Keller was 65 and Grandmother was 69. They were on the trail ten weeks and still Grandfather Keller continued to suffer. Finally on September 11, 1860 after making noon camp at Sweetwater, Wyoming he died. (Hans Heinrich Keller , father of John Keller)
My parents traveled on to Salt Lake Valley and settled in Ogden for a time. I was born June 28th, 1861 (One record shows her born in Illinois along the way to Utah) in Ogden and Grandmother Keller died (Elisbeth Rutishauser Keller) there as the result of an accident on the trip. She tried to board a moving wagon but missed the step and fell over backwards and under the wagon. The heavy wheel rolled over her right leg above the knee, causing a deep flesh wound which never healed. She died just five months before I was born. (probably February 1861)
I was Mother and Fathers only surviving child as two sons born later died in infancy. Father and Mother ( John Keller and Susanna Haffter) were then called to colonize Dixie so they helped settle Santa Clara, Utah.
( Many of the early settlers in Santa Clara were from Switzerland or from the south. The Swiss knew how to grow and process grapes into wine and those from across the south knew how to grow and process cotton. When the cotton failed and the civil war was over and cotton was imported from the south, grapes made into wine carried the cash economy of Santa Clara and St. George. These ancestor headstones are in the Santa Clara cemetery today.)
You know, all the saints had a hard time and for one reason or another usually from premature deaths. There was a shortage of eligible men. The Prophet had revealed earlier that plural marriage was right and necessary and when all parties were agreeable, the men could have more than one wife. So since Father could afford the extra burden and Mother was agreeable, he married two immigrant ladies from Switzerland.
(John Keller, the father of Emma had four wives. The first wife, Sussette Haffter was the mother of Emma. In 1861 he married Catharina Enz and had a son Alma Keller who married and had several children. In 1869 he married Luise Schroeder and they had no living children. In 1873 he married Lisette Frehner and they had a son who died at one years of age. In 1875 Emma was 15 years of age and her father was on a mission to Switzerland. Emma was probably called on to do many different chores from her mother and her three Emma and John Henry Losser in their middle age portrait. polygamist mothers. Permelia, Emma's daughter, suggested Emma moved out because she was feeling picked on. Permelia asked her mother at a later date in life how she could think of getting married at 15 years of age and Emma reportedly responded that she could take care of a house, cook for a family and take care of all of the chores at that age. Only Emma and John Henry know how and what transpired in their courtship and marriage. Emma is more gracious in her writing.) As I was growing up so was the family. My father, (John Keller) was called on a mission to Switzerland in 1873 where he baptized the mother of one of our cousins already in this country. So since I wasn't really needed at home, I left when I was in my teens (15 years) and got a job at Flatnose Bench, Nevada.
( This is a ghost town that was about a mile east of Pioche, Nevada. Permelia said her mother left with a wealthy family heading for California. She probably did and in any case there was only one trail north out of Santa Clara to Nevada that would go anywhere near Pioche, Nevada. On her trip to California, she only got 100 miles from home.)
John Henry Losser continues
In the 1970s I had a job in Goldfields, Nevada, (This is a ghost town about 150 miles due west of Flatnose Bench or Pioche, Nevada.) bossing an ore scrapper crew on the mine tailings. At that time Goldfield was a boom town of over 30,000 people. People were putting up shacks and tents wherever they could find space.
My first wife, Lemira Hall who was also born in Ogden, died in child birth 5 October, 1874. I lost both my wife and second child the same day.
I met Emma Keller (15 years old) and we were married 7 December, 1876 in Goldfield because there was no minister in Flatnose. (Emma was living in Flatnose where she repotedly had a job. For some unreported reason it appears John Henry was visiting Flatnose when he met and courted Emma. They had to travel at least 150 miles west to Goldfield in order to get married and after they were married they continued to live in that area for a short time.)
We lived and worked at a way station where the stages stopped to change horses and the passengers got to eat. Emma, why don't you tell about our children?
Emma Keller continues her story.
1872 John Henry Looser and Lemira Hall were married. (On church records), Lemira Hall and John Henry Losser were married about 1872 in north Ogden, Utah.
October , 1872. Myra Losser (a daughter born to Lemira Hall and raised in Ogden after her mothers death in 1874. According to Aunt Lou, "while on the train trip from Panguitch to Idaho, the train stopped at a crossing, her father got out, disappeared for a time and came back with a girl whom he introduced to them as their sister Myra. Later dates and events are confused concerning Myra. Myra was the first child born to Lemira Hall and John Henry Looser before Lemira died in childbirth with their second, a son in 5 October, 1874. )
5 October, 1874. A son born and died the same day to Lemira Hall. Lemira died in child birth. At this time, I believe that John Kenry took Myra to live with a relative, probably his sister or at least the woman he stopped in Bountiful and gave the horse to on their trip to Idaho. Maybe a partial payment for raising the child. John Henry does not report her or the marriage to her mother on the Census report of 1900. On careful examination of the Census John Henry reports being married 27 years and then it is lined out and replaced with a 23 to match Emma Kellers number of years married. The census taker may have been only interested in the statistics of his current marriage and members of household. John Henry admits to the marriage of his first wife and it did take place by which he had two children. One lived and was raised in Ogden. Her name is Myra and there is little else known or reported about her.)
7 December, 1876. We were married in Goldfield, Nevada.(15 years old and then they returned to Flatnose Bench to live and work the first year.)
20 September, 1877. John Henry, our first son was born 20 September, 1877 in Flatnose.
We then moved to Leeds, Utah (or Silver reef a booming mining town at the time full of catholic immigrants from Italy. About 20 miles north of St. George, Utah.)
29 July, 1879. Emma Lemyra, our second child was a daugher born in Leeds, Utah. We named her Emma Lemyra after myself and John's first wife. (So far this is the only confirmation of this relationship and child of her husbands first wife by Emma in her writings.) We left her there in the care of a relative and moved on up to Panguitch, Utah, the gateway to Bryce Canyon. There we farmed for 22 years. I gave birth to 7 healthy children there in Panguitch, Utah.
11 February 1882, George David was born.
25 January, 1884. Susana Kathrene was born, who we call Suz
5 January, 1886. "Meal" Permelia Elizabeth was born. (25 years old)
This is our grandmother, the one I (Sandra M. Arave) remember as a child and the mother who gave birth to Roy L. Southwick, our father.
29 May, 1888. "Ernie" Ernest William was born.
21 October, 1890. "Vi" Viola Mabel was born.
18 October, 1892. "Thress" Theresa Marie was born.
25 May, 1895. "Lou" Louise Henrietta was born.
18 May, 1897. Ida Pauline died the same day she was born.
John Henry Losser. Continues his story
"We lived in Idaho for four years, most of the time was spent in Sugar City building the church sugar factory. I think it was in 1905 that "Meal" went to Ricks Academy for her schooling. "Meal" got a job in Idaho Falls doing house work for the Mark Austin family. She fell in love with LeRoy, the second Southwick boy and married him on February 12th, 1907.
(In 1907) About then we were called by the church to help colonize Gridley (California) in the N. Sacramento Valley. George, Ernie and I traveled with our cows and other belongings in the cattle car all the way to Gridley and got settled in before sending for Emma and the girls.
Life was slow and peaceful in Gridley. As slow and peaceful as is possible to be on a working farm. After the children had married we lived alone enjoying each others company until Will and Theres Tailor ask us to move to Roseville and live next door in the house they had built for us.
Emma passed away in 1933 and was buried in the Roseville Cemetary next to our son Ernie who had died the year before. Theres had me move into their new home then, but things just didn't seem the same without Emma.
_______________________________________________________
We can probably thank Theres Losser Taylor for recording this story from her parents. She was about 45 years old when she had her parents move next to her and her husband in Roseville, California in their old age. Without her we would never have known this much. They met and married in the goldfields of Nevada. She was 15 years if age and he was 25 years old. He had a previous marriage and two children. A girl named Myra was being raised in Ogden , Utah by a relative. And his second child and first wife died in childbirth. John Henry and his second wife Emma moved to and lived twenty one years in Panguich, Utah without a story what happened there as the family was born and raised for the most part. They finally moved up to Sugar City, Idaho and on the way up he stopped and gave a female relative a horse in Bountiful, Utah. This was probably or could have been in payment for the raising of his oldest daughter Myra. In Idaho, one of his daughters, Permelia met and married LeRoy Southwick and from them came Roy Southwick, our father. We are the children of Roy and Doris Southwick.
These two people, John and Emma, did their part to settle the west, they immigrated from Switzerland, they met and had children and raise them into productive and responsible citizens. They broke open new land and helped develop it in a productive way in Utah, Nevada and Idaho and finally called to open land in California in his old age. In the end they obviously loved each other over the years.
By reading of how they talked to each other and how they put their story together, the reader can easily assume they were a team, a couple, who made the best of what they had been given. For fifty years they were married and through the hard times and good times they worked life out.
Grandmother Permelia did much the same thing. She learned from her parents and found and married her mate and together she and Leroy Southwick worked hard, raised their children to do the same and loved each other to the end.
Roy and Doris Southwick did the same, and I am their daughter and I am doing the same. All of these ancestors and my husband and I were sealed together in the temple of our Lord to each other forever….. and this is my geneology of four generations on this, the Southwick line.
John Henry Losser, Emma Keller Losser,
Alfred LeRoy Southwick, Permelia Elizabeth Losser Soutwhick,
Roy L. Southwick, Doris Marie Jennings Southwick.
Arvon J. Arave, Sandra Marie Southwick Arave
Produced and edited by Sandra Arave January, 2010
GENEOLOGY RESEARCH CONTINUES……2010
MARCH 17TH. Arvon and I traveled to Torquerville today and looked up a woman who was deeply involved in the research of her family and she somehow made an entry on John Henry and Emma Losser family. She was home and welcomed us into her library where she proceeded to look up the Ships Log on the crossing of Emmas parents and grandparents from Switzerland. A copy of the Captains log follows this story.
She then, looked up each of the passengers diarys on that same crossing and showed us an entry from a __________________ passenger who wrote that Sister Keller had a baby girl on the train from Chicago to Quincy on the same date as Emma's birthday which leads us to believe that Emma was not born in Ogden, Utah just after they crossed the plains, but she was in fact born on the train enroute, before they crossed the plains on a wagon where her grandfather died and soon after, her grandmother died.
This same day, Alvin Arave helped Arvon research the Captains log from the ship that they crossed the ocean from Switzerland on out of Liverpool, England. If they had continued reading the individual diarys they might have discovered the same entry as this woman showed us later in the day.
Contributor: Julie Kocherhans (47510472) • Mar 2021
Emma Keller and John Henry Looser Life Story
LIFE HISTORY
OF
JOHN HENRY LOSSER
BORN: 4 SEPTEMBER, 1851, DIED 6 January, 1941
FIRST WIFE LEMIRA HALL, DIED 5 OCTOBER, 1874 GIVING BIRTH TO SECOND CHILD.
AND
EMMA KELLER LOSSER
BORN: 28 JUNE, 1861, DIED 9 January, 1933
John Henry Losser was born 4 September , 1851 in Nesslaw, Canton of St. Gaelen, Switzerland, and his father was John George Losser and his mother was Elizabeth Winneweiser.
John Henry Losser came to America in 1861 when he was about ten years of age. (Eight years before the railroad was finished.) He came with two cousins, Elizabeth Ana Looser Smith and her sister. (Catherina Looser, Elizabeth is quoted as telling the following story.)
"I am Eliza Losser Smyth, I was born in Switzerland in a place called St. Gaelaen on 15 October, 1853, the daughter of Johannes and (Anna) Catherine Brunner Losser. My parents died within two weeks of each other leaving their two children (Elizabeth Ana Looser Smyth and her sister Catherina Looser )in the care of an uncle. My parents had great hopes of coming to Zion in the spring, but the Lord willed it otherwise. It was father's dying wish that his brother should send his children to Zion. I took sick with Typhoid fever so we had to wait for one year before we were able to come.
(For the record, Johann Ulrich Losser and Anna C. Vollenweider are the parents of Johannes Looser and George Looser. After Johannes and Catherine died, George, the brother, arranged for his son John Henry Losser and his two cousins Eliza and Catherina to come to America with a an unnamed female benefactor. In other words, the unnamed benefactor paid their way and went with them to ensure their safety. It is my understanding that it was a common practice to send one child at a time to America from families in Europe.)
A friend of the family was coming to America and she had money and said she would pay the passage for us two girls and our cousin (John) Henry Losser to Zion. We got along fine until our friend died on the ocean. I remember seeing her wrapped in a sheet and lowered slowly down into the ocean. We were very sick on the ship below deck and we had to lie on straw. We were six weeks on the water in a sailing vessel.
My cousin, (John Henry Losser) sister (Catherina Looser) and I had good voices and people would ask us to sing for them in our native language and it pleased them so in return they would give us money and good things to eat. (This paragraph makes you wonder what happened to the money the benefactor must have had and been traveling with. Why didn't John Henry and his cousins get any of this money or maybe they did.)
When we arrived in New York we were glad to be on dry land again and felt much better. After some time we started on our long journey over the plains in a covered wagon. I was weak, but had to walk until I was nearly ready to drop on the ground. My cousin (John Henry Losser) was only ten years old but would carry me on his back as long as he could, (John Henry was ten years old and his cousin was 8 years old. Her sister Catherina was 9 years old. Catherina died at 19 years of age in Utah) then they would let me ride in the wagon for a while. It went on like this until we arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. I remember coming down Emergration Square where the city and county buildings now stand. My cousin says that is where Mrs. Foster took me and my sister to live with her. A man by the name of Gus Hardey took my cousin Henry down to Dixie, Utah.
(The above story is reported by Permenlia, the daughter of John Henry Losser and Emma Keller. It is interesting that she tells it in the first person of the cousin Elizabeth.)
John Henry Looser writes his story:
I am John Henry Looser. I was born in Nesslaw, St. Gallen Canton, Switzerland on 4 September, 1851. My parents were Johann George Looser and "Elsbeth Winnewieser," both born in Nesslaw. About 1860 I immigrated to America with other members of my family and they stayed in New York. I was just ten when I joined a wagon train and crossed the plains to Salt Lake. I bargained with several families along the way to work for them in exchange for my transportation and keep. Some of the families were very good to me, while others were mean and I couldn't do enough work to please them. I remember one gave me a pair of leather pants that were wonderful and warm until it rained. Then the buckskin got wet and stretched down over my feet, so I had to take a pair of shears to shorten them so I could walk. Of course when they dried they shrunk up to the middle of my shins. About 1862 I finally arrived in Salt Lake. I lived in the area for some years doing odd jobs and mostly just growing up. Now I'll let Emma catch up.
(You can see that his story lacks the details of his daughter Permelias report of Eliza Smith. He does not mention the boat ride, the woman benefactor, nor the two cousins.)
Emma Keller Looser writes her story:
My father John Keller was the fifth child of Hans Heirick Keller and Anna Elizabetha Rutishaver. The Keller Family had been born and raised in Weinfelden, Thurgau Canton, Switzerland for 250 years, maybe longer. After my family converted to the church they decided to come to Salt Lake. By this time my father had married Susanna Hafter and had a new baby boy. On April 15, 1860 Grandfather and Grandmother Keller, my father and mother and the new baby and Grandfather Haffter left Switzerland for good.Emma Keller about the time she got married.
They took the ship, ( William Tapscott, under Capt. Wm. Budge )from Liverpool, England on 7 May, 1860 and made the crossing in 42 days. It was a very stormy and sad voyage. My brother and some children in two other families got sick and died. But Capt. Wm. Budge was a good man and let them wait and bury the babies after they reached New York City.
From New York they took a steamboat to Albany, (up the Hudson River), a side trip to Niagra Falls, then on to Chicago and down (down the Illinois river to St. Louis and then up the Missouri River to Florence, Nebraska) the Missouri River to Florence, (Winter Quarters). They stayed three weeks in Florence preparing for the trip across the plains. They were prosperous and well educated and enjoyed every advantage life had to offer at the time.
They had already purchased a wagon and team of oxen and 34 c.wt. of supplies when Grandfather Keller became terribly sick with Dropsey. (An old term for edema or abnormal swelling of tissue due to an accumulation of water or a tumor) He was confined to his bed for 7 weeks. Everyone was afraid he would die, but he finally improved some, enough for them to start out. It was a long hard trek for the old folks, Grandfather Haffter was 74, Grandfather Keller was 65 and Grandmother was 69. They were on the trail ten weeks and still Grandfather Keller continued to suffer. Finally on September 11, 1860 after making noon camp at Sweetwater, Wyoming he died. (Hans Heinrich Keller , father of John Keller)
My parents traveled on to Salt Lake Valley and settled in Ogden for a time. I was born June 28th, 1861 (One record shows her born in Illinois along the way to Utah) in Ogden and Grandmother Keller died (Elisbeth Rutishauser Keller) there as the result of an accident on the trip. She tried to board a moving wagon but missed the step and fell over backwards and under the wagon. The heavy wheel rolled over her right leg above the knee, causing a deep flesh wound which never healed. She died just five months before I was born. (probably February 1861)
I was Mother and Fathers only surviving child as two sons born later died in infancy. Father and Mother ( John Keller and Susanna Haffter) were then called to colonize Dixie so they helped settle Santa Clara, Utah.
( Many of the early settlers in Santa Clara were from Switzerland or from the south. The Swiss knew how to grow and process grapes into wine and those from across the south knew how to grow and process cotton. When the cotton failed and the civil war was over and cotton was imported from the south, grapes made into wine carried the cash economy of Santa Clara and St. George. These ancestor headstones are in the Santa Clara cemetery today.)
You know, all the saints had a hard time and for one reason or another usually from premature deaths. There was a shortage of eligible men. The Prophet had revealed earlier that plural marriage was right and necessary and when all parties were agreeable, the men could have more than one wife. So since Father could afford the extra burden and Mother was agreeable, he married two immigrant ladies from Switzerland.
(John Keller, the father of Emma had four wives. The first wife, Sussette Haffter was the mother of Emma. In 1861 he married Catharina Enz and had a son Alma Keller who married and had several children. In 1869 he married Luise Schroeder and they had no living children. In 1873 he married Lisette Frehner and they had a son who died at one years of age. In 1875 Emma was 15 years of age and her father was on a mission to Switzerland. Emma was probably called on to do many different chores from her mother and her three Emma and John Henry Losser in their middle age portrait. polygamist mothers. Permelia, Emma's daughter, suggested Emma moved out because she was feeling picked on. Permelia asked her mother at a later date in life how she could think of getting married at 15 years of age and Emma reportedly responded that she could take care of a house, cook for a family and take care of all of the chores at that age. Only Emma and John Henry know how and what transpired in their courtship and marriage. Emma is more gracious in her writing.) As I was growing up so was the family. My father, (John Keller) was called on a mission to Switzerland in 1873 where he baptized the mother of one of our cousins already in this country. So since I wasn't really needed at home, I left when I was in my teens (15 years) and got a job at Flatnose Bench, Nevada.
( This is a ghost town that was about a mile east of Pioche, Nevada. Permelia said her mother left with a wealthy family heading for California. She probably did and in any case there was only one trail north out of Santa Clara to Nevada that would go anywhere near Pioche, Nevada. On her trip to California, she only got 100 miles from home.)
John Henry Losser continues
In the 1970s I had a job in Goldfields, Nevada, (This is a ghost town about 150 miles due west of Flatnose Bench or Pioche, Nevada.) bossing an ore scrapper crew on the mine tailings. At that time Goldfield was a boom town of over 30,000 people. People were putting up shacks and tents wherever they could find space.
My first wife, Lemira Hall who was also born in Ogden, died in child birth 5 October, 1874. I lost both my wife and second child the same day.
I met Emma Keller (15 years old) and we were married 7 December, 1876 in Goldfield because there was no minister in Flatnose. (Emma was living in Flatnose where she repotedly had a job. For some unreported reason it appears John Henry was visiting Flatnose when he met and courted Emma. They had to travel at least 150 miles west to Goldfield in order to get married and after they were married they continued to live in that area for a short time.)
We lived and worked at a way station where the stages stopped to change horses and the passengers got to eat. Emma, why don't you tell about our children?
Emma Keller continues her story.
1872 John Henry Looser and Lemira Hall were married. (On church records), Lemira Hall and John Henry Losser were married about 1872 in north Ogden, Utah.
October , 1872. Myra Losser (a daughter born to Lemira Hall and raised in Ogden after her mothers death in 1874. According to Aunt Lou, "while on the train trip from Panguitch to Idaho, the train stopped at a crossing, her father got out, disappeared for a time and came back with a girl whom he introduced to them as their sister Myra. Later dates and events are confused concerning Myra. Myra was the first child born to Lemira Hall and John Henry Looser before Lemira died in childbirth with their second, a son in 5 October, 1874. )
5 October, 1874. A son born and died the same day to Lemira Hall. Lemira died in child birth. At this time, I believe that John Kenry took Myra to live with a relative, probably his sister or at least the woman he stopped in Bountiful and gave the horse to on their trip to Idaho. Maybe a partial payment for raising the child. John Henry does not report her or the marriage to her mother on the Census report of 1900. On careful examination of the Census John Henry reports being married 27 years and then it is lined out and replaced with a 23 to match Emma Kellers number of years married. The census taker may have been only interested in the statistics of his current marriage and members of household. John Henry admits to the marriage of his first wife and it did take place by which he had two children. One lived and was raised in Ogden. Her name is Myra and there is little else known or reported about her.)
7 December, 1876. We were married in Goldfield, Nevada.(15 years old and then they returned to Flatnose Bench to live and work the first year.)
20 September, 1877. John Henry, our first son was born 20 September, 1877 in Flatnose.
We then moved to Leeds, Utah (or Silver reef a booming mining town at the time full of catholic immigrants from Italy. About 20 miles north of St. George, Utah.)
29 July, 1879. Emma Lemyra, our second child was a daugher born in Leeds, Utah. We named her Emma Lemyra after myself and John's first wife. (So far this is the only confirmation of this relationship and child of her husbands first wife by Emma in her writings.) We left her there in the care of a relative and moved on up to Panguitch, Utah, the gateway to Bryce Canyon. There we farmed for 22 years. I gave birth to 7 healthy children there in Panguitch, Utah.
11 February 1882, George David was born.
25 January, 1884. Susana Kathrene was born, who we call Suz
5 January, 1886. "Meal" Permelia Elizabeth was born. (25 years old)
This is our grandmother, the one I (Sandra M. Arave) remember as a child and the mother who gave birth to Roy L. Southwick, our father.
29 May, 1888. "Ernie" Ernest William was born.
21 October, 1890. "Vi" Viola Mabel was born.
18 October, 1892. "Thress" Theresa Marie was born.
25 May, 1895. "Lou" Louise Henrietta was born.
18 May, 1897. Ida Pauline died the same day she was born.
John Henry Losser. Continues his story
"We lived in Idaho for four years, most of the time was spent in Sugar City building the church sugar factory. I think it was in 1905 that "Meal" went to Ricks Academy for her schooling. "Meal" got a job in Idaho Falls doing house work for the Mark Austin family. She fell in love with LeRoy, the second Southwick boy and married him on February 12th, 1907.
(In 1907) About then we were called by the church to help colonize Gridley (California) in the N. Sacramento Valley. George, Ernie and I traveled with our cows and other belongings in the cattle car all the way to Gridley and got settled in before sending for Emma and the girls.
Life was slow and peaceful in Gridley. As slow and peaceful as is possible to be on a working farm. After the children had married we lived alone enjoying each others company until Will and Theres Tailor ask us to move to Roseville and live next door in the house they had built for us.
Emma passed away in 1933 and was buried in the Roseville Cemetary next to our son Ernie who had died the year before. Theres had me move into their new home then, but things just didn't seem the same without Emma.
_______________________________________________________
We can probably thank Theres Losser Taylor for recording this story from her parents. She was about 45 years old when she had her parents move next to her and her husband in Roseville, California in their old age. Without her we would never have known this much. They met and married in the goldfields of Nevada. She was 15 years if age and he was 25 years old. He had a previous marriage and two children. A girl named Myra was being raised in Ogden , Utah by a relative. And his second child and first wife died in childbirth. John Henry and his second wife Emma moved to and lived twenty one years in Panguich, Utah without a story what happened there as the family was born and raised for the most part. They finally moved up to Sugar City, Idaho and on the way up he stopped and gave a female relative a horse in Bountiful, Utah. This was probably or could have been in payment for the raising of his oldest daughter Myra. In Idaho, one of his daughters, Permelia met and married LeRoy Southwick and from them came Roy Southwick, our father. We are the children of Roy and Doris Southwick.
These two people, John and Emma, did their part to settle the west, they immigrated from Switzerland, they met and had children and raise them into productive and responsible citizens. They broke open new land and helped develop it in a productive way in Utah, Nevada and Idaho and finally called to open land in California in his old age. In the end they obviously loved each other over the years.
By reading of how they talked to each other and how they put their story together, the reader can easily assume they were a team, a couple, who made the best of what they had been given. For fifty years they were married and through the hard times and good times they worked life out.
Grandmother Permelia did much the same thing. She learned from her parents and found and married her mate and together she and Leroy Southwick worked hard, raised their children to do the same and loved each other to the end.
Roy and Doris Southwick did the same, and I am their daughter and I am doing the same. All of these ancestors and my husband and I were sealed together in the temple of our Lord to each other forever….. and this is my geneology of four generations on this, the Southwick line.
John Henry Losser, Emma Keller Losser,
Alfred LeRoy Southwick, Permelia Elizabeth Losser Soutwhick,
Roy L. Southwick, Doris Marie Jennings Southwick.
Arvon J. Arave, Sandra Marie Southwick Arave
Produced and edited by Sandra Arave January, 2010
GENEOLOGY RESEARCH CONTINUES……2010
MARCH 17TH. Arvon and I traveled to Torquerville today and looked up a woman who was deeply involved in the research of her family and she somehow made an entry on John Henry and Emma Losser family. She was home and welcomed us into her library where she proceeded to look up the Ships Log on the crossing of Emmas parents and grandparents from Switzerland. A copy of the Captains log follows this story.
She then, looked up each of the passengers diarys on that same crossing and showed us an entry from a __________________ passenger who wrote that Sister Keller had a baby girl on the train from Chicago to Quincy on the same date as Emma's birthday which leads us to believe that Emma was not born in Ogden, Utah just after they crossed the plains, but she was in fact born on the train enroute, before they crossed the plains on a wagon where her grandfather died and soon after, her grandmother died.
This same day, Alvin Arave helped Arvon research the Captains log from the ship that they crossed the ocean from Switzerland on out of Liverpool, England. If they had continued reading the individual diarys they might have discovered the same entry as this woman showed us later in the day.
Contributor: Julie Kocherhans (47510472) • Mar 2021
LIFE HISTORY
OF
JOHN HENRY LOSSER
BORN: 4 SEPTEMBER, 1851, DIED 6 January, 1941
FIRST WIFE LEMIRA HALL, DIED 5 OCTOBER, 1874 GIVING BIRTH TO SECOND CHILD.
AND
EMMA KELLER LOSSER
BORN: 28 JUNE, 1861, DIED 9 January, 1933
John Henry Losser was born 4 September , 1851 in Nesslaw, Canton of St. Gaelen, Switzerland, and his father was John George Losser and his mother was Elizabeth Winneweiser.
John Henry Losser came to America in 1861 when he was about ten years of age. (Eight years before the railroad was finished.) He came with two cousins, Elizabeth Ana Looser Smith and her sister. (Catherina Looser, Elizabeth is quoted as telling the following story.)
"I am Eliza Losser Smyth, I was born in Switzerland in a place called St. Gaelaen on 15 October, 1853, the daughter of Johannes and (Anna) Catherine Brunner Losser. My parents died within two weeks of each other leaving their two children (Elizabeth Ana Looser Smyth and her sister Catherina Looser )in the care of an uncle. My parents had great hopes of coming to Zion in the spring, but the Lord willed it otherwise. It was father's dying wish that his brother should send his children to Zion. I took sick with Typhoid fever so we had to wait for one year before we were able to come.
(For the record, Johann Ulrich Losser and Anna C. Vollenweider are the parents of Johannes Looser and George Looser. After Johannes and Catherine died, George, the brother, arranged for his son John Henry Losser and his two cousins Eliza and Catherina to come to America with a an unnamed female benefactor. In other words, the unnamed benefactor paid their way and went with them to ensure their safety. It is my understanding that it was a common practice to send one child at a time to America from families in Europe.)
A friend of the family was coming to America and she had money and said she would pay the passage for us two girls and our cousin (John) Henry Losser to Zion. We got along fine until our friend died on the ocean. I remember seeing her wrapped in a sheet and lowered slowly down into the ocean. We were very sick on the ship below deck and we had to lie on straw. We were six weeks on the water in a sailing vessel.
My cousin, (John Henry Losser) sister (Catherina Looser) and I had good voices and people would ask us to sing for them in our native language and it pleased them so in return they would give us money and good things to eat. (This paragraph makes you wonder what happened to the money the benefactor must have had and been traveling with. Why didn't John Henry and his cousins get any of this money or maybe they did.)
When we arrived in New York we were glad to be on dry land again and felt much better. After some time we started on our long journey over the plains in a covered wagon. I was weak, but had to walk until I was nearly ready to drop on the ground. My cousin (John Henry Losser) was only ten years old but would carry me on his back as long as he could, (John Henry was ten years old and his cousin was 8 years old. Her sister Catherina was 9 years old. Catherina died at 19 years of age in Utah) then they would let me ride in the wagon for a while. It went on like this until we arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. I remember coming down Emergration Square where the city and county buildings now stand. My cousin says that is where Mrs. Foster took me and my sister to live with her. A man by the name of Gus Hardey took my cousin Henry down to Dixie, Utah.
(The above story is reported by Permenlia, the daughter of John Henry Losser and Emma Keller. It is interesting that she tells it in the first person of the cousin Elizabeth.)
John Henry Looser writes his story:
I am John Henry Looser. I was born in Nesslaw, St. Gallen Canton, Switzerland on 4 September, 1851. My parents were Johann George Looser and "Elsbeth Winnewieser," both born in Nesslaw. About 1860 I immigrated to America with other members of my family and they stayed in New York. I was just ten when I joined a wagon train and crossed the plains to Salt Lake. I bargained with several families along the way to work for them in exchange for my transportation and keep. Some of the families were very good to me, while others were mean and I couldn't do enough work to please them. I remember one gave me a pair of leather pants that were wonderful and warm until it rained. Then the buckskin got wet and stretched down over my feet, so I had to take a pair of shears to shorten them so I could walk. Of course when they dried they shrunk up to the middle of my shins. About 1862 I finally arrived in Salt Lake. I lived in the area for some years doing odd jobs and mostly just growing up. Now I'll let Emma catch up.
(You can see that his story lacks the details of his daughter Permelias report of Eliza Smith. He does not mention the boat ride, the woman benefactor, nor the two cousins.)
Emma Keller Looser writes her story:
My father John Keller was the fifth child of Hans Heirick Keller and Anna Elizabetha Rutishaver. The Keller Family had been born and raised in Weinfelden, Thurgau Canton, Switzerland for 250 years, maybe longer. After my family converted to the church they decided to come to Salt Lake. By this time my father had married Susanna Hafter and had a new baby boy. On April 15, 1860 Grandfather and Grandmother Keller, my father and mother and the new baby and Grandfather Haffter left Switzerland for good.Emma Keller about the time she got married.
They took the ship, ( William Tapscott, under Capt. Wm. Budge )from Liverpool, England on 7 May, 1860 and made the crossing in 42 days. It was a very stormy and sad voyage. My brother and some children in two other families got sick and died. But Capt. Wm. Budge was a good man and let them wait and bury the babies after they reached New York City.
From New York they took a steamboat to Albany, (up the Hudson River), a side trip to Niagra Falls, then on to Chicago and down (down the Illinois river to St. Louis and then up the Missouri River to Florence, Nebraska) the Missouri River to Florence, (Winter Quarters). They stayed three weeks in Florence preparing for the trip across the plains. They were prosperous and well educated and enjoyed every advantage life had to offer at the time.
They had already purchased a wagon and team of oxen and 34 c.wt. of supplies when Grandfather Keller became terribly sick with Dropsey. (An old term for edema or abnormal swelling of tissue due to an accumulation of water or a tumor) He was confined to his bed for 7 weeks. Everyone was afraid he would die, but he finally improved some, enough for them to start out. It was a long hard trek for the old folks, Grandfather Haffter was 74, Grandfather Keller was 65 and Grandmother was 69. They were on the trail ten weeks and still Grandfather Keller continued to suffer. Finally on September 11, 1860 after making noon camp at Sweetwater, Wyoming he died. (Hans Heinrich Keller , father of John Keller)
My parents traveled on to Salt Lake Valley and settled in Ogden for a time. I was born June 28th, 1861 (One record shows her born in Illinois along the way to Utah) in Ogden and Grandmother Keller died (Elisbeth Rutishauser Keller) there as the result of an accident on the trip. She tried to board a moving wagon but missed the step and fell over backwards and under the wagon. The heavy wheel rolled over her right leg above the knee, causing a deep flesh wound which never healed. She died just five months before I was born. (probably February 1861)
I was Mother and Fathers only surviving child as two sons born later died in infancy. Father and Mother ( John Keller and Susanna Haffter) were then called to colonize Dixie so they helped settle Santa Clara, Utah.
( Many of the early settlers in Santa Clara were from Switzerland or from the south. The Swiss knew how to grow and process grapes into wine and those from across the south knew how to grow and process cotton. When the cotton failed and the civil war was over and cotton was imported from the south, grapes made into wine carried the cash economy of Santa Clara and St. George. These ancestor headstones are in the Santa Clara cemetery today.)
You know, all the saints had a hard time and for one reason or another usually from premature deaths. There was a shortage of eligible men. The Prophet had revealed earlier that plural marriage was right and necessary and when all parties were agreeable, the men could have more than one wife. So since Father could afford the extra burden and Mother was agreeable, he married two immigrant ladies from Switzerland.
(John Keller, the father of Emma had four wives. The first wife, Sussette Haffter was the mother of Emma. In 1861 he married Catharina Enz and had a son Alma Keller who married and had several children. In 1869 he married Luise Schroeder and they had no living children. In 1873 he married Lisette Frehner and they had a son who died at one years of age. In 1875 Emma was 15 years of age and her father was on a mission to Switzerland. Emma was probably called on to do many different chores from her mother and her three Emma and John Henry Losser in their middle age portrait. polygamist mothers. Permelia, Emma's daughter, suggested Emma moved out because she was feeling picked on. Permelia asked her mother at a later date in life how she could think of getting married at 15 years of age and Emma reportedly responded that she could take care of a house, cook for a family and take care of all of the chores at that age. Only Emma and John Henry know how and what transpired in their courtship and marriage. Emma is more gracious in her writing.) As I was growing up so was the family. My father, (John Keller) was called on a mission to Switzerland in 1873 where he baptized the mother of one of our cousins already in this country. So since I wasn't really needed at home, I left when I was in my teens (15 years) and got a job at Flatnose Bench, Nevada.
( This is a ghost town that was about a mile east of Pioche, Nevada. Permelia said her mother left with a wealthy family heading for California. She probably did and in any case there was only one trail north out of Santa Clara to Nevada that would go anywhere near Pioche, Nevada. On her trip to California, she only got 100 miles from home.)
John Henry Losser continues
In the 1970s I had a job in Goldfields, Nevada, (This is a ghost town about 150 miles due west of Flatnose Bench or Pioche, Nevada.) bossing an ore scrapper crew on the mine tailings. At that time Goldfield was a boom town of over 30,000 people. People were putting up shacks and tents wherever they could find space.
My first wife, Lemira Hall who was also born in Ogden, died in child birth 5 October, 1874. I lost both my wife and second child the same day.
I met Emma Keller (15 years old) and we were married 7 December, 1876 in Goldfield because there was no minister in Flatnose. (Emma was living in Flatnose where she repotedly had a job. For some unreported reason it appears John Henry was visiting Flatnose when he met and courted Emma. They had to travel at least 150 miles west to Goldfield in order to get married and after they were married they continued to live in that area for a short time.)
We lived and worked at a way station where the stages stopped to change horses and the passengers got to eat. Emma, why don't you tell about our children?
Emma Keller continues her story.
1872 John Henry Looser and Lemira Hall were married. (On church records), Lemira Hall and John Henry Losser were married about 1872 in north Ogden, Utah.
October , 1872. Myra Losser (a daughter born to Lemira Hall and raised in Ogden after her mothers death in 1874. According to Aunt Lou, "while on the train trip from Panguitch to Idaho, the train stopped at a crossing, her father got out, disappeared for a time and came back with a girl whom he introduced to them as their sister Myra. Later dates and events are confused concerning Myra. Myra was the first child born to Lemira Hall and John Henry Looser before Lemira died in childbirth with their second, a son in 5 October, 1874. )
5 October, 1874. A son born and died the same day to Lemira Hall. Lemira died in child birth. At this time, I believe that John Kenry took Myra to live with a relative, probably his sister or at least the woman he stopped in Bountiful and gave the horse to on their trip to Idaho. Maybe a partial payment for raising the child. John Henry does not report her or the marriage to her mother on the Census report of 1900. On careful examination of the Census John Henry reports being married 27 years and then it is lined out and replaced with a 23 to match Emma Kellers number of years married. The census taker may have been only interested in the statistics of his current marriage and members of household. John Henry admits to the marriage of his first wife and it did take place by which he had two children. One lived and was raised in Ogden. Her name is Myra and there is little else known or reported about her.)
7 December, 1876. We were married in Goldfield, Nevada.(15 years old and then they returned to Flatnose Bench to live and work the first year.)
20 September, 1877. John Henry, our first son was born 20 September, 1877 in Flatnose.
We then moved to Leeds, Utah (or Silver reef a booming mining town at the time full of catholic immigrants from Italy. About 20 miles north of St. George, Utah.)
29 July, 1879. Emma Lemyra, our second child was a daugher born in Leeds, Utah. We named her Emma Lemyra after myself and John's first wife. (So far this is the only confirmation of this relationship and child of her husbands first wife by Emma in her writings.) We left her there in the care of a relative and moved on up to Panguitch, Utah, the gateway to Bryce Canyon. There we farmed for 22 years. I gave birth to 7 healthy children there in Panguitch, Utah.
11 February 1882, George David was born.
25 January, 1884. Susana Kathrene was born, who we call Suz
5 January, 1886. "Meal" Permelia Elizabeth was born. (25 years old)
This is our grandmother, the one I (Sandra M. Arave) remember as a child and the mother who gave birth to Roy L. Southwick, our father.
29 May, 1888. "Ernie" Ernest William was born.
21 October, 1890. "Vi" Viola Mabel was born.
18 October, 1892. "Thress" Theresa Marie was born.
25 May, 1895. "Lou" Louise Henrietta was born.
18 May, 1897. Ida Pauline died the same day she was born.
John Henry Losser. Continues his story
"We lived in Idaho for four years, most of the time was spent in Sugar City building the church sugar factory. I think it was in 1905 that "Meal" went to Ricks Academy for her schooling. "Meal" got a job in Idaho Falls doing house work for the Mark Austin family. She fell in love with LeRoy, the second Southwick boy and married him on February 12th, 1907.
(In 1907) About then we were called by the church to help colonize Gridley (California) in the N. Sacramento Valley. George, Ernie and I traveled with our cows and other belongings in the cattle car all the way to Gridley and got settled in before sending for Emma and the girls.
Life was slow and peaceful in Gridley. As slow and peaceful as is possible to be on a working farm. After the children had married we lived alone enjoying each others company until Will and Theres Tailor ask us to move to Roseville and live next door in the house they had built for us.
Emma passed away in 1933 and was buried in the Roseville Cemetary next to our son Ernie who had died the year before. Theres had me move into their new home then, but things just didn't seem the same without Emma.
_______________________________________________________
We can probably thank Theres Losser Taylor for recording this story from her parents. She was about 45 years old when she had her parents move next to her and her husband in Roseville, California in their old age. Without her we would never have known this much. They met and married in the goldfields of Nevada. She was 15 years if age and he was 25 years old. He had a previous marriage and two children. A girl named Myra was being raised in Ogden , Utah by a relative. And his second child and first wife died in childbirth. John Henry and his second wife Emma moved to and lived twenty one years in Panguich, Utah without a story what happened there as the family was born and raised for the most part. They finally moved up to Sugar City, Idaho and on the way up he stopped and gave a female relative a horse in Bountiful, Utah. This was probably or could have been in payment for the raising of his oldest daughter Myra. In Idaho, one of his daughters, Permelia met and married LeRoy Southwick and from them came Roy Southwick, our father. We are the children of Roy and Doris Southwick.
These two people, John and Emma, did their part to settle the west, they immigrated from Switzerland, they met and had children and raise them into productive and responsible citizens. They broke open new land and helped develop it in a productive way in Utah, Nevada and Idaho and finally called to open land in California in his old age. In the end they obviously loved each other over the years.
By reading of how they talked to each other and how they put their story together, the reader can easily assume they were a team, a couple, who made the best of what they had been given. For fifty years they were married and through the hard times and good times they worked life out.
Grandmother Permelia did much the same thing. She learned from her parents and found and married her mate and together she and Leroy Southwick worked hard, raised their children to do the same and loved each other to the end.
Roy and Doris Southwick did the same, and I am their daughter and I am doing the same. All of these ancestors and my husband and I were sealed together in the temple of our Lord to each other forever….. and this is my geneology of four generations on this, the Southwick line.
John Henry Losser, Emma Keller Losser,
Alfred LeRoy Southwick, Permelia Elizabeth Losser Soutwhick,
Roy L. Southwick, Doris Marie Jennings Southwick.
Arvon J. Arave, Sandra Marie Southwick Arave
Produced and edited by Sandra Arave January, 2010
GENEOLOGY RESEARCH CONTINUES……2010
MARCH 17TH. Arvon and I traveled to Torquerville today and looked up a woman who was deeply involved in the research of her family and she somehow made an entry on John Henry and Emma Losser family. She was home and welcomed us into her library where she proceeded to look up the Ships Log on the crossing of Emmas parents and grandparents from Switzerland. A copy of the Captains log follows this story.
She then, looked up each of the passengers diarys on that same crossing and showed us an entry from a __________________ passenger who wrote that Sister Keller had a baby girl on the train from Chicago to Quincy on the same date as Emma's birthday which leads us to believe that Emma was not born in Ogden, Utah just after they crossed the plains, but she was in fact born on the train enroute, before they crossed the plains on a wagon where her grandfather died and soon after, her grandmother died.
This same day, Alvin Arave helped Arvon research the Captains log from the ship that they crossed the ocean from Switzerland on out of Liverpool, England. If they had continued reading the individual diarys they might have discovered the same entry as this woman showed us later in the day.
Contributor: Julie Kocherhans (47510472) • Mar 2021
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