Thursday, May 26, 2016

Andrew Ephraim Nyborg and Laura Elizabeth Hansen


 Andrew Ephriam Nyborg was born 12 July 1861 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.  His parents were Anders Olsson Nyborg (b.1827) and Ingar Hansdotter (b. 1835).  He married Laura Elizabeth Hansen 12 Feb 1891 in Mt. Pleasant, Sanpete, Utah.  The following children joined their family: Ephraim Eleel (1892); Mildred Johanna (1893); Kirksel (1894); Andrew Percy *(1896); Indra Elizabeth (1897); James Shirley (1899); Alfonso Hansen (1906); Theodore Lloyd (1907) and Laurinda Jensen (1886) the older half sister.  Laura Elizabeth brought Laurinda from her first marriage to  Andrew Peter Jensen (1883) who died in 1886.  Andrew  Ephriam Nyborg died 5 Oct. 1918 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. He was buried 7 Oct. 1918 in the Wilford Cemetery, Fremont, Idaho.

Life Sketch: Andrew was the oldest of 5 children. His parents both joined the Mormon Church and emigrated from Sweden to Utah in 1857. During this journey, they married in Iowa. They left Salt Lake City for Mt. Pleasant in early 1863 when Andrew was a toddler. He married in 1891 and then moved his family to Twin Groves, Idaho in 1900. He drove a team and wagon with all their worldly goods and put his young family on the train. They arrived in St. Anthony on July 4th. His son Percy writes “We moved into small log house at Twin Groves until father could get a home built on the land that he had bought” but his daughter Mildred writes “I was born in Mt. Pleasant, Utah in a house my parents had fixed up from a granary, on grandmother Nyborg’s place. Later grandmother gave them a piece of land about a mile from the edge of town, where father built a large brick house, where we lived until 1900 when we moved to St. Anthony, Idaho. .. Here I have lived on farms east of St. Anthony, first on the south part of the Ephraim Davidson homestead, 3 1/2 miles from St. Anthony where we lived in the same house with John Rosenlof family, later moving to the Mickelsen homestead two mile east of St. Anthony, where we lived until father bought the north part of the Ephraim Davidson homestead where he built a large frame house.”

Andrew also helped to build the schoolhouse in Twin Groves, the Church House in Twin Groves, and probably helped to construct the Yellowstone Stake Tabernacle in St. Anthony. His daughter Mildred remembers a Twin Groves 4th of July celebration where she was chosen as the Goddess of Liberty and rode on a float that was pulled by her father and two of his “large beautiful horses”. In 1901, with two of his friends, he bought 200 acres of land in Squirrel country, now in the Fremont District. They ran their cattle on it during the summer. In a couple of years Andrew’s brother William married and bought the land from Andrew and his friends, Mr. Rosenholf and Mr. Hansen. Then Andrew bought 40 acres of school land adjoining it.  In 1910 Andrew purchased another adjoining 120 acres. His son Percy moved up to the ranch during the summer full time.

In July 1912 his wife passed away suddenly, which was a great shock to the family. His son Eleel married that same year on Nov. 12 to Jessie Freer.   Andrew raised the younger children with the help of the older children. He passed away in a hospital in Salt Lake City Oct. 5, 1918, three days after his son Andrew Percy was wounded in France during World War I. It took six weeks for Percy to learn of his father’s death.

Sources - Sketch of Life of Mildred Johanna Nyborg (Peterson) written by her in 1937 
- Son Andrew Percy Nyborg’s writings in possession of Janis Palmer




Laura Elizabeth Hansen (Nyborg) born 12 March 1865 in Mt. Pleasant, Utah.  Her parents were James (Jens) Hansen (b.1828) and  Johannah Marie Domgaard (b. 1838).  Laura Elizabeth was married 12 February 1891 to Andrew Ephraim Nyborg.  She unexpectedly died 16 July 1912 at the age of 47.  She is buried July 1912 in the Wilford Cemetery, Fremont, Idaho

Life Sketch: Laura’s parents both emigrated from Denmark. Both her parents (not married at the time) came to Utah in 1854 sailing from Liverpool on the ship Benjamin Adams. Johannah was James’ third wife. Laura had 9 immediate siblings (6 brothers and 3 sisters), but only 6 lived to adulthood. Johannah, Laura's only sister to survive childhood, married Laura’s husband’s younger brother, Axel.

After a few years in Salt Lake City, her father James sold his piece of land that was located where the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Depot is located for a team of mules and left in 1859 for Mt. Pleasant with the first twenty families to settle that area. It was in Mt. Pleasant that Laura was born. Laura married Andrew Ephraim Nyborg on February 12, 1891. Andrew moved the family to Twin Groves, Idaho in 1900.

Her daughter Mildred describes her home life as happy “we were not rich, but we had plenty to eat and wear.” She talks about helping her mother, Laura, “with housework, washing and ironing, picking berries, working in garden and also helped herd cows, helped with milking and worked sugar beets for father.” Mildred recounts that there was a large pond near their home which provided a lot of fun in the winter. She also mentions a tame pigeon that the children took to school. It would “stay there until we were out at night and then go home with us. One day it came into the school house lighting on the stove which was hot, causing some excitement among the students.” Mary may have had a little lamb, but the Nyborg children had a tame pigeon.

An unidentified great-grandchild wrote the following: “Great Grandpa (Andrew Ephraim Nyborg) had many long trips to make to the seat of the county, St. Anthony. Great Grandma (Laura Elizabeth Hansen) would bundle up the babies and went along. They left feed and water for the chickens, but took the sow with them, tying her to the wagon. Great Grandma put in her churn with some cream in it and the lurching motion of the wagon furnished them with butter, which was passable, although decidedly not as good as when cooled in spring water. Great Grandpa took his double-barreled shot gun along and killed prairie chickens on the way; which Great Grandma, as she sat in the back of the wagon, picked to cook for supper. ‘It’s a good thing we’re not trying to run away from the law,’ she called out to Grandpa, ‘for we could be traced clear across the country by a trail of chicken feathers.’ For Christmas she saved the husks of corn and kept them in the barn till Christmas, then getting them out and making a family of dolls for the daughters. She made the bodies, heads, and limbs from the husks and braided the corn silk for hair. A man, a lady, and a baby she made and dressed for them.”

Laura hemorrhaged to death unexpectedly on July 12, 1912 at the age of 47 and is buried in the Wilford Cemetery.

Sources - Sketch of Life of Mildred Johanna Nyborg (Peterson) written by her in 1937 
 - Son Andrew Percy Nyborg’s writings in possession of Janis Palmer




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