Andrew Brigham was named after Father and Brigham Young. He loved the Lord and his little family. He received his patriarchal blessing 8 Oct 1871 at age two years. Andreas and Augusta got theirs the same day.

Andrew Brigham or “Brig” as he was affectionately called, saw many years of struggle when his Father died when Andrew was 21 years old. He and his brother Frank helped their mother with the younger children. Brig finished school and went to work to help at home for eight years, then he married himself. He met Caroline Larson, a school teacher, at the Saltair Resort. They dated often, fell in love and married.

I lived near my mother’s place then built a home for the family of five children. I was very young when I was taken home at age 44 years.

Mother was the eldest of the family and was married just a short while before grandpa [Andreas] passed away.

I remember mother telling me about when Father courted her. Grandpa Andreas was a very strict and a religious man. The first time Father saw Mother she was throwing out dish water. The next time Father saw Mother she was upon Ensign Peak at a 4th of July celebration. He fell in love at first sight. By, when he told friends about it who knew Grandpa Andreas, they discouraged him very much telling him that Grandpa was so stern and straight laced he would never have a chance to win his daughter. My Dad, Arthur Hunt, kept up his courage and finally became a good friend to Andreas. He was allowed to come and visit my mother.

When Andreas came to see Annie, Grandpa Andreas would sit in the parlor all the time with them. He was a very studios man and he would read. But, around 10 o’clock when Grandpa Andreas closed the book, my dad knew it was time to go. Father said he almost had faint heart when he thought about asking Grandpa for his daughter, Annie’s hand. But, when he finally got up the courage, Andreas told him yes.

He said he would give them the best wedding he could afford. In those days they celebrated all night at the weddings. So they made a regular feast and they danced all night and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Annie, being the oldest girl of the family when her father passed away, Augusta missed her terribly. Grandma Augusta had a home of her own built on a large piece of ground, so she had Arthur build right next to her home. We were next door neighbors also.

We lived there until a while after Grandma Augusta passed away in 1919. So I remember her and our lives together as far back as childhood memories can recall.

For a while until I was 13 years old, I had a Great Grandma Anna Brita Eriksson Johansson. She lived down in Forest Dale at 21st South with Great Aunt Minnie Nordberg, her 2nd daughter. How I recall our visits down there to see her. In those days I thought Forest Dale was a long distance to go. When we would get up early and were busy getting ready and helping the younger ones. My mother, Annie, had eight children so we had a lot to accomplish. We would start early and make a day of it at Great Grandmother’s. My Great Grandmother Anna Brita was a very good cook and we would enjoy the nicest lunches and dinners. They had a big home, Nordberg having become well fixed in the sheep business in Utah. He had two wives in polygamy and big families with each wife. They were well provided for and lived in harmony. We looked forward to those visits and then they would come to see us. I often marvel at how they had large families yet found time to visit and really enjoy each other’s company. My Great Grandma Anna Brita passed away just before we had five generations in our family.

My mother, Annie Soderborg Hunt, followed in her mother, Augusta’s footsteps. She was a Relief Society member and worker. In those days they would get calls day and night to go to the sick and help them. Also in those days when people passed away they were mostly kept in the homes until the day of the funeral. The Relief Society sisters would go to wash and dress bodies as well as take turns sitting up at nights until the day of the funeral. They also assisted the families of the deceased in anything they could do to help them. The canned goods and anything the people would like to give, some even gave money. They also made quilts, as well as sewed for the poor and needy. So a Relief Society worker with a family never knew what it was to be idle.

Mother also followed in Grandmother’s footsteps, being a Relief Society member and worker. I often think of the quilting bees my Mother used to have with a little social included and everyone really enjoyed them. Grandmother Augusta and Mother were always doing something to help someone besides their own families, assisting with the sick, widows, elderly people or anyone in trouble. How unselfish they were and they were very rich in friends.

Grandmother was only 16 when she had my mother. Annie, and Mother always called her “Little Mama.” They seemed more like sisters than mother and daughter. Grandma [Augusta] and Grandpa [Andreas Pontus] talked Swedish as well as English. Mother learned to speak Swedish before she learned to speak English. But they lost all their Swedish accent and spoke real good English. When they wanted to say something they didn’t want us children to understand, they would speak Swedish. How aggravated us children got some times. One day my cousins were there and they were talking away in Swedish. Finally, one of them cousins, about five years old, got disgusted with them and looked up at Grandma Augusta and said, “Oh grandma, why don’t you talk decent.”

I remember when we were quite young as had to go outside to get water. We kids would complain at times so one day mother told about one place they lived when she was young. It was upon the bench (Avenues) they called it then. Mother said they had to walk one mile to get drinking water. She said it was quite wild up there. Sometimes they would see snakes and how frightened they would get.

Grandmother Augusta and mother made their own soap and made clothes over from one child to another. They raised chickens. They lived happy lives, always busy. They certainly lived full lives.

Mother went to school in her day in the one room school house. She said it really was hard to get books at times. She couldn’t go on to school until she would have finished because she had to stay home and help her mother, Augusta, with the children and work.

But mother loved to read. When her family was raised, mother sat up nights and studied and read. We children were always asking her the meaning of words instead of getting a dictionary.

Grandmother Augusta’s youngest daughter, Mabel, married and had two daughters, Helen and Evelyn, after which she had a bad fall and become an invalid. That was Aunt Mabel.

We children used to feel sorry for her having to just sit all the time. But she was always cheerful and good company. There cannot be enough said about all those pioneers. They had such faith and courage. They were hard workers.

I will never forget the picnics went on. Winter and summer nights we could have such good times at home.

Mother, after raising her family of eight children, but lost two quite young and she practically raised two cousins of ours. Then my oldest sister passed away leaving two sons, Alfred Lowell Andersen Glad; William Melvin Glad. Mother raised them til their father remarried.

Mother was a big strong woman, always seeming to have such good health until she had a bad fall. After this, she got cancer in the breast. She had a major operation and we thought she had recovered, but she got worse again. She went back East to a cancer clinic to see if they could do anything for her but they told her “no.” She still kept up her courage and took electric treatment but nothing helped her. She passed away at age 56 years on March 15, 1924.

I was born July 23, 1910 in Salt Lake City, Utah. My father is William Harold Sparkes and my mother is Caroline Mabel Soderborg. Before I was three years old, my parents separated. As a result, my first memories are of living with my mother, my sister Helen, who was born after they separated, (She was born January 1919), my grandmother, Augusta Soderborg, who at that time was a widow, and my Aunt Clara Soderborg, who was not married at that time but who is now Mrs. Carl A. Carlson and 77 years old. We lived in grandmother’s home at 617 West Third North in Salt Lake City.

My earliest memories of my mother were that she was either in bed or a wheelchair, as she never walked after Helen was born. She was a small woman, very frail and never seemed to be very happy. My father was always very good to us and did many things for us. He came to visit us regularly. I have never known what was the cause of their trouble and separation, but I love them both and they were both very fine people.

My Aunt Annie Hunt, who was my mother’s older sister, and wife of William Hunt, lived next door to us. Helen and I were raised along with her younger children, also some of her grandchildren. They were also close by. She was a wonderful woman. I remember her quite well. She always had room in her heart and home for someone else as well as her own large family. She had seven children of her own and also raised a nephew, the son of her husband’s sister. She was the president of the Relief Society. In those days the Relief Society was called on to do many things more then they are today. Her children, when asked where their mother was would say, “Mama has gone to wash and iron a lady.” Meaning she had gone to wash and prepare a woman for burial.

Much of our care was taken over by Aunt Clara and Grandma Soderborg. I remember my grandmother. She was a small Swedish woman. She wore her hair on a small knot at the back of her head. She always wore long gathered skirts, and long sleeved waists. Over this, a white half apron. She was good and kind to us, and I am afraid we did not appreciate her as much as we should. She died on March 2, 1919 at the age of 66 years. My mother died on February 25, 1918. At this time our lives changed. My father had remarried and was living in Bingham Canyon where he had gone to work for the Utah Copper Co.

Daughter of Andreas P. Soderborg and Augusta Caroline Johnson Soderborg. Born March 12, 1883 in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was the eighth child in a family of eleven children, four boys and seven girls. Educated in public schools in Salt Lake City. My father died July 12, 1890 when I was seven years old. So I had to go to work as soon as I was old enough to help mother financially. Mother was a practical nurse. She went out on confinement cases with Dr. Wilcox as doctor. He got her as many cases as she was able to take care of. There were many women whom Mother nursed when each of their children were born.

I worked in the different organizations of the church in many capacities. When I was seventeen years old I began to work in the Junior Sunday School which I continued to do till I married which was when I was thirty seven years old. In the mean time, I worked in MIA first as a teacher, then as secretary, counselor and president. I was married January 19, 1921 in the Salt Lake Temple. After I married, I worked in Primary first as a teacher, then as counselor and president.

I was married to Carl A. Carlson on January 19, 1921 in the Temple at noon. At one o’clock we left for California on our wedding tour which was my first trip to California, but we went there many times after that. After we boarded the train, we went out on the back platform to wave goodbye to Frank and Ida who gave us a box of candy and a shower of rice. We had a nice trip down through the Feather River Canyon which is beautiful. We landed on Oakland and crossed the bay to San Francisco and down to Los Angeles. We went to the Clift House in San Francisco where I saw the ocean for the first time. It was marvelous to me. We went to Golden Gate Park which takes several days to go through. Then we went down to the beach to watch the big waves roll in, which was fascinating to me. We went to the Clift House to see the whales and sea lions on the big rocks in the ocean jumping in and out of the ocean. Then we went to Los Angeles to visit my husband’s children. Most of them were living down there and his sister and family were living there so we had many nice visits with them. We went to Catalina Island and went out on the ocean in a glass bottom boat where we could see the bottom of the ocean, beautiful sea vegetation, very colorful, also many different kinds of fish. We saw flying fish fly out of the ocean, fly around and back into the ocean. Then we went to San Diego where on of his daughters lived and visited with them, then we went across the border into Mexico for an hour or so. Then we went to the Zoo which is one of the largest zoos in the world. Then back to Los Angeles and home. It was a very lovely and interesting trip.

My husband had five of his first family home when we were married. Eva (17), Art (15), Marvin (13), Ray (11) and Kenneth (9). My mother died about a year before this and I was glad to get into a family. I had been very lonesome living alone. His first wife died a year before and they had two or three different housekeepers and when I came to live with them the youngest boy said “are you going to stay and live with us all the time now?” and I said “I sure am” and he said “I am sure glad” and we were glad to be together.

We were married nearly four years before our daughter was born and I was the happiest girl in the world when I first knew I was going to have a baby of my own. She was an answer to my prayers and she has been the joy of my life ever since. All of the other children loved her and we all lived happily together. When she was four years old, I was called to be President of the Twenty Second Ward Relief Society. When she was nine years old my husband and I were called to be Temple Ordinance Workers in the Salt Lake Temple, which made us very happy. We worked there for ten years from 1933 to 1943/ These were the depression years. Many people were out of work so they came to the temple. We had large sessions every day and we worked three days every week. My husband worked on Saturday also doing baptisms for the dead until he was not able to come any more because he had diabetes for five years and died on October 4, 1948. These were the days when the President of the Salt Lake Temple was President George F. Richards who was also President of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We were working there when President Steven L. Chipman was president also. When my husband died, Margaret was married and had a baby boy one year and a half old whose name was David Perry Bradley. Then I came to live with Margaret and her family.

George H. Soderborg was born in Salt Lake City, the son of Anders P. Soderborg and Augusta Johnson, who emigrated to America from Sweden and crossed the plains in 1860.

George was the ninth of eleven children, five of whom died in infancy. When he was four years old his father died, leaving his mother with six children to support. When he was old enough, he had to get out and do odd jobs to help his mother. His first job was pushing an ice cream cart. He made fifty cents a day and was allowed to eat one package of ice cream a day.

At the age of twelve he graduated from the public schools and went to work as the Juvenile Instructor Print Shop learning the printing trade. He worked there for four years. He then decided to take up accounting so he went to the LDS Business College from 1903 to 1905. During this time he took two paper routes to help him through school.

In 1908 he was called on a mission to the Central States and served as secretary. When he returned, he went to work for Armour & Co.

In 1911 he married Florence Lloyd. There were born to them six boys and a girl; the youngest having died at birth. Of these boys, four have fulfilled missions two served as officers in the Navy during World War II and four are college graduates.

At the time of their marriage, they moved into the Fifth Ward where he was chosen first counselor to Bishop Jesse R. Pettit. In 19*15 they moved to Logan where he attended the Agricultural College.

On returning from Logan, they moved into Burton Ward where he served as President of the MIA and later as a ward clerk.

In 1923 he succeeded Mathew A. Miller as Bishop of Burton Ward and chose Don Mac Dalton and Paul Paulson as his counselors. He served in this capacity for six years; during which time the amusement hall was built and paid for in one and one-half years.

He served on the High Council of the Granite Stakes; Clerk of the High Priest Quorum of the South Salt Lake Stake; taught classes in Sunday School. High Priest Quorum, Mutual and the Genealogical Society and has done Temple work for many of the ward people.

He was born 1 November 1889 in Centerville, Davis County, Utah. His father was Joseph Thomas Sparkes and his mother was Rozina Francis Rose.

William’s father died when he was nine years old. He was the second of seven children. There were four of these children who died very young. He helped his mother support the younger children. He worked at any job or work available. He completed six full years of school. He was a very quiet man and easy going. He got a job doing office work at the mines. He met and fell in love with Caroline Mabel Soderborg and they were married 8 Sept 1909.

The first little girl, Evelyn Mabel was born 23 July 1910. She was dearly loved by her parents. Another baby girl was born 19 Jan 1913, Helen Augusta, after William and Caroline had separated. They did divorce before Helen was born.

She had a very bad fall and had become an invalid. She had to sit in a wheelchair or in the bed, but she was always cheerful and a food companion. Caroline went to live with her mother and took her two baby girls with her. Augusta and Aunt Clara took care of them. William went to visit his girls.

William met and married Ethel Millgate 15 Oct 1915. Caroline Mabel died 1918, 25 Feb at 10:30 a.m. At Augusta’s home, dying of chronic nephritis.

In 1918 Father came for us to live with him and our stepmother. We moved up to Bingham Canyon. We went to school there and graduated from Bingham High. We did not have a car so we walked everywhere up and down the streets of Bingham, not too exciting. If we would go into Salt Lake City, we would go by the B&G Bingham and Garfield train. We’d go to the top of Bingham Canyon and there were three tunnels cut for the train. One of the tunnels went through the mountain and down to Salt Lake. William was an office worker in the Bingham Canyon, at Utah copper mine. Later it was known as the Kennecott Copper Mine.

William loved gardening and flowers. Even in the mining area, Father William had a garden and a few flowers that were so hard to grow in that soil. William was never harsh or hard. When he left in the morning he would tell his girls to “mind their mother” and they usually did.

We never missed our night meeting which was Sacrament meeting in those days. Father was very busy in the church as he was Ward Clerk for 28 years in Bingham serving under four Bishops, which were all the years we daughters lived at home and then some.

William passed away 5 July 1961 after a long and useful good life.

Edward Franklin was a salesman. He loved a challenge. He was the third boy born to Andreas and Augusta. His dad named the boys A-B, C-D, E-F, and G-H. He was 14 years old when his Father passed away. Brig and Franklin really helped with the little children. He loved people and the gospel. He was called to a mission in Samoa for four years. He loved the people and the language. It was a very special part of his life. He loved to read, study and debate. He could sell refrigerators to the Eskimos (quote of brother George). He wrote poetry, songs by the realms.

Son of Carl Fredrik Soderborg and Anna Margareta Osterman Soderborg, he was born February 6, 1831 in Kristine, Goteborg, Sweden. His father, Carl Frederik, had three wives and seventeen children of whom Anders was number fifteen. Carl Frederik and his brother, John Anders, were hat makers by trade. They were very successful financially and became quite wealthy. John Anders never married, so having no heir, he asked his brother Carl Frederik if he might take one of his sons to educate and prepare to be his heir. So Anders Pontus was chosen by his uncle.

He acquired the best education possible at that time. There was a law in Sweden to the effect that every young man must learn a trade or profession. So Anders Pontus went to sea as an apprentice with a view to learning both theoretical and practical navigation. He made two prolonged voyages on which he visited the East Indies, Australia and Africa with the intention of becoming a captain and having his own ship. But he was no able to do this because of being on the sea constantly affected his eyes and he was forced to leave the sea and choose some other profession. So he attended college in Goteborg, Sweden for five years and learned five different languages after which he went to England to learn a trade.

It was while he was in England that he first met the Latter-day Saint missionaries and became a convert to Mormonism. He read the Book of Mormon through three times, after which he applied for baptism and was baptized by John Van Cott July 2, 1860. While he was an apprentice in England he met and fell in love with a beautiful young girl whose name Mary Curren. They planned to be married as soon as he finished his apprenticeship. But in the meanwhile, he joined the church and tried to convert Mary, but she could not accept Mormonism because of polygamy, so he had to choose either Mary or his religion and he said he was really converted and must always be true to that conviction. As far as we could ever learn, Mary never married, so we had her sealed to Father after they were both dead.

When Anders Pontus finished his apprenticeship, he went back to Goteborg, Sweden to try to convert his family and his Uncle John Anders, but they were very bitter because he had joined this unpopular religion called Mormonism. They said they could have forgiven anything else he might have done, but not this. They were humiliated beyond expression and again Anders Pontus must make a choice between his family and his religion. His grandfather Osterman was a Lutheran minister so his family were all staunch Lutherans.

He then labored as a traveling Elder and President of Goteborg Conference for three years, It was then that he met a widow whose name was Anna Britta Johnson and her daughter Caroline, who were converts to Mormonism. He visited them many times while traveling through the Goteborg Conference and fell in love with Augusta, the lovely young daughter of Anna Britta Johnson who later became his wife.

In 1862 Anna Britta Johnson married a man whose name was Charley Johnson and they emigrated to America bringing Augusta with them and settled in Grantsville, Utah. In 1864 Anders Pontus emigrated to America and located in Salt Lake City, Utah. A short time later, he walked to Grantsville, a distance of 40 miles, to see Anna Britta and her daughter Augusta. In January of 1866 he and Augusta were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. They became the parents of eleven children.

In 1871, just before the birth of their third child, he went to Sweden on a mission laboring in the Jonkoping and Stockholm Conferences (Left Nove. 1871) He died July 12, 1890 in Salt Lake City, a true and valiant Latter-day Saint, true to the end, at the age of 59 years five months. His wife Augusta died March 2, 1919 after being a widow twenty-nine years.