In December, 1901, the family of my grandmother, Ethel Hurst Speas, was working
together on a dairy and cattle ranch twelve miles south of Lund, Idaho. This
had been an extremely difficult year for the Hurst family, having lost their
farm due to adverse weather and water conditions that caused financial
distress. On December 17th, a baby brother was born, but “certain conditions
were not adhered to” during the delivery and on January 9th, Ethel’s
mother passed away from blood poisoning. Ethel and her eight siblings were left
motherless.
For nearly two years the family continued to work on the ranch. Her
father and older brother Harry helped in the milking of fifty cows and also
labored in the fields. Fourteen year-old Reuben was given the job of hauling
the milk to the creamery eleven miles away. Little Ethel, only six, the oldest
female in the family had expectations beyond her years in the household chores.
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| Wilhelmina with her first husband in 1894 |
In December of 1903 Ethel’s father remarried to Wilhemina Klossner
Risenmay, a widow with six children. The following year the combined family
moved to Woodville, Idaho.
There is no doubt that combining these two families was a
monumental undertaking. The new mother of fifteen children and step-children would
have needed to use strict discipline to maintain order. All of the children would have
been required to pitch in and cooperate to complete family chores and contribute to family finances.
It would be easy for a child to be lost in the shuffle, and
left to feel unloved. This was the case with Ethel. I grew up knowing very
little of her childhood, or of her stepmother, which sparked my curiosity about
Wilhelmina Klossner Risenmay Hurst, who is dubbed simply “Minnie” in her obituary. I’ve come to
believe she is an unsung hero in our family that we need to know more about.
Minnie was born in Bern, Switzerland, in 1865, beginning her
life in a combined family. She was welcomed by a brother, three half-brothers
and a half-sister. The half-siblings were from two previous marriages. Later a
sister was added to the family circle.
Her parents lived on a small farm where they earned a living
from their sheep and goats. Clothes were few but well-made of flax raised and
spun by her mother. The greater part of the family food supply was self-produced.
Her father was a part-time farmer, and also spent many months each year working
in the timber. Her brothers herded the sheep and goats on the nearby mountain
slopes.
She described Bern as a very religious region. On account of
leaving when she was quite young she didn't remember the church denomination her parents belonged to, but they were a devoutly religious family.
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| Karl G. Maeser |
Two young elders from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
called at their home bringing with them a message of truth that readily
attracted the interest and satisfied the yearnings of her parents. One of the
missionaries was Karl G. Maeser, who later was instrumental in founding Brigham
Young Academy. Each visit by the elders was followed by an ever growing desire
to accept the simple but beautiful message of a restored gospel. Of these
meetings Minnie wrote:
- “I recall how we children sat on the stair step while cottage meetings were held and we sang the songs the Elders had taught us. ‘Babylon, O Babylon’ seemed a favorite. Soon my parents and others in the family, who were old enough, entered the waters of baptism.”
Please enjoy the missionary fervor of "Babylon, O Babylon", now known as "Ye Elders of Israel", as sung by
the MTC Priesthood Choir in the October, 2014, General Conference:
The spirit of gathering to Zion overcame her parents as well
as many of their neighbors and in June, 1871, when Minnie was not yet six years
old, the family disposed of all their property holdings and embarked for
America and Zion.
Minnie described her memories of the ocean journey in this
way:
- “The voyage lasted twenty-one days, a long time for small children. The deck of the ship was loaded with crates of cherries and oranges. How appealing they were to us who had had little fresh fruit to eat. Quietly we would creep up to the fruit then work until we could get a cherry or orange out from between the crates. What a treat! But all too soon a deck officer put an end to our looting. During the time at sea a small babe died and had to be buried in the briny deep. How it horrified all of us children.”
It was fortunate for the Klossner’s that the railroad had
been completed the previous year, making the trek to Utah much easier than that
of former immigrants. At Ogden the family was met by Fred Kunz, with his large
white-top buggy pulled by a team of mules. After another full day of travel
over mere trails of roads, they reached their dreamed of home in the mountains
of Zion. They had chosen Cache Valley as their destination, feeling that there was
great promise in the fertile soil and abundance of irrigation water.
Finances were extremely grim during their first year in
Utah. All family members were called on to do their part to help provide for
the growing family. Minnie, not quite six, went to the fields and gleaned wheat
to help buy their winter supply of flour. In the evenings she picked wool and helped
her grandmother card and spin it. From this, most of the family’s clothing was
made.
Reminiscing of those difficult times, she said:
- “Father spent much of his time in the canyon getting wood for fuel and ties for the many new railroads that were being built in and about Cache Valley. The rest of us all helped in every way possible to make food. Our diet was most limited. Many days it consisted of little more than bread, home-made cheese and a parched grain beverage.”
Minnie married Christian Risenmay in 1882 in front of Judge
Parker. Christian was a laborer on the Logan Temple, hauling rock from the
quarry and building materials from the forests of Logan Canyon. After
the temple was completed, their marriage was solemnized on February 24, 1886.
They purchased two Logan city lots at 5th East and 9th North
and hauled logs and lumber from Logan Canyon and built a home where they
started their married life and where all of their children were born. The front
of the house was constructed of logs and the back of lumber; it must have been
well built for it still stands. In addition to their 2 ½ acre lot, they
purchased four other city lots and became “city farmers”.
Minnie did everything she could to beautify the home,
making a carpet from strips of rags sewn together and then woven. The woven
strips were sewn together and made into enough carpet to cover their front
room floor. After the grain was threshed, she would put clean straw on the
floor, cover it with her woven rag carpet and tack it down tightly around the edges.
The children enjoyed walking on the freshly laid carpet with the straw under it, making it crackle and squeak as they trounced on it.
In the spring of 1895 Minnie’s husband Christian was called
to fill a mission back to the land of their birth. With deep gratitude, Christian
and Minnie felt indebted to the missionaries for having brought the gospel to
their parents in Switzerland when they were children. Aware of the hardship
Christian’s mission would bring, they willingly accepted the call and prepared.
The family owned a beautiful team of bay horses which were sold to obtain the
money need for mission expenses. The children remember watching the man lead
the team down the street away from their barn, as if they were two members of
the family.
Christian hauled wood from Logan Canyon and cut and piled it north
of the house, to provide fuel to keep the family warm until he returned.
To soften the painful farewell for the children, a neighbor took Christian to the depot. Minnie and the four children said their good-byes at home.
It took all of Minnie’s cash she could gather to send him to
Europe, and when he left she had only 25 cents in her purse, but she thanked
the Lord for health and strength, and found work taking in washings, house
cleaning, cooking at the U.A.C. for the football team for two seasons, cleaning
and dressing chickens for a butcher shop in town, cleaning classrooms at the
college and any honorable work she could find. The children used a little
express wagon to pick up the dirty laundry and take the clean loads back to
their owners.
Many good friends came to the family’s aid during Christian’s
absence. Brother Rust, the butcher, would drop in every so often
with a good soup bone or piece of meat.
From this time period, the children only remember an attitude
of thankfulness for their blessings and appreciation for the opportunity to serve.
Minnie’s sons helped with the family finances as much as they could at their
age, herding cattle for ten to fifteen cents per week. The daughters worked
alongside Minnie in her many financial endeavors.
After serving twenty-seven months in Switzerland, Minnie’s
husband returned to the family on July 15, 1897. The family was at the depot this
time for a joyous reunion.Two more children were born to the family in the following three years.
Five years after returning from his mission, on Sept. 24, 1902, Christian passed away,
due to complications from pneumonia. Again Minnie was left to provide for her
family.
In December of the following year Minnie married the widower Samuel H.
Hurst, Ethel's father, which takes us back to the beginning of this tale. Certainly Minnie was lonely and needed a father for her six children, but with profound courage she simultaneously accepted the responsibility for Samuel's nine motherless children. The next spring they moved
to Woodville, Idaho, with their combined household of fifteen children.
In their small Woodville home, Minnie again constructed
home-made carpet for the parlor, which was reserved for company. She also made
the family’s mattresses from strong material filled with fresh straw every fall
after the grain was threshed. These “new” mattresses were miserable to lie on,
being too high in the middle and low on all edges, but after a while they would
flatten down and become more comfortable.
The home had only two bedrooms for
the fifteen children, located on the second floor; one was the boy's bedroom
and one was the girl's. My grandma, Ethel, had what must have been the very
distasteful chore of cleaning the boys’ room.
Three more children were born to Samuel and Minnie. A son born in 1905 died as an infant. Two daughters followed in 1906 and 1907, both of whom lived to adulthood.
Two years later Samuel, the father of this combined group passed away in January, 2009, leaving Minnie, for the third time in her life, alone, with the enormous responsibility of caring and providing for a very large family.
Three more children were born to Samuel and Minnie. A son born in 1905 died as an infant. Two daughters followed in 1906 and 1907, both of whom lived to adulthood.
Two years later Samuel, the father of this combined group passed away in January, 2009, leaving Minnie, for the third time in her life, alone, with the enormous responsibility of caring and providing for a very large family.
Minnie continued to endure, including serving twenty years
as the Relief Society President of the Woodville Ward.
