History of Joseph H. Hertzig

History of Joseph H. Hertzig

Joseph H. Hertzig, son of Peter and Maria Margaretha (Marianna) Haslebacher Herzig was born 9 August 1877, at Logan, Cache County, Utah.

Mariann Haslebacher was the daughter of Niklaus and Susanna Maria Egg Haslebaacher and was born 14 April 1837 at Leutelflueh, Bern, Switzerland. She was married to Friederch Wahli on 9 August 1862 and to this union were born three children: Fritz, Jacob and Mary. Friedrich Wahli died in a rock quarry accident in Bern, Switzerland, 5 June 1870.

Peter Herzig, son of Johannes and AnnaTrachsel Herzig was born 28 June 1843 at Jaberg, Bern, Switzerland. He was a quarryman, living at Ostermundigen when he married Marianna at Bumplitz, near Bern, on 17 June 1873. A son was born to them in 1875 but lived only three hours. A daughter, Martha, was born on 12 March 1876 at Ostermundigen.

John Jacobs from Logan, Utah came to Switzerland as a Mormon missionary and while there he found Peter Herzig and his family and taught them the gospel which they accepted and in 1876 they left their home in Switzerland and came to America. They took passage on the S.S. Idaho which sailed from Liverpool, England on 28 June 1876 and arrived in New York on 10 July 1876. They continued their journey by rail in charge of Capt. Nils C. Flygare and arrived at Ogden, Utah on 18 July 1876. They went on to Logan where they had friends and made a home there for the next six years, during which time they worked at whatever jobs they could find to do. Four children were born to them while they lived in Logan. Joseph, on 9 August 1877; twin boys --Nephi, 31 December 1880 and Alma, 1 January 1881; and Hyrum in 1881. Nephi and Hyrum both died in infancy. On January 1881 Jacob was killed in an accident while working in Logan Canyon.

The church at this time was encouraging its people to settle in the Snake River Valley and Peter Herzig felt that it was an opportunity for them to obtain land so they decided to move to Idaho. They bought a span of horses and a wagon and taking all of their possessions, which were few, and the family consisting of the father and mother and five children, they left Logan on 1 April 1883. It was a lovely warm spring day and they traveled as far as Franklin the first day. During the night it began to rain and the storm continued most of the journey. The roads became a quagmire making travel almost impossible. Many times the wagon was so deep in the mud that they had to have help to get out. However, they finally reached Rexburg a month later on 1 May 1883. They had no place to stay and nothing with which to build a house so they built a dugout and were happy to have it. They lived there for the first year until they were able to get out logs with which to build a small house.

It was Joseph’s duty to herd the cows during those first years and he, with some of the other children, spent long summer days herding the stock in the foothills above Rexburg. He attended grade school two years in Rexburg and two more years in Burton after they moved to the farm. Then he attended Ricks Academy for two terms later.

Soon after arriving in Rexburg, Peter Herzig filed on 160 acres of land in Burton and 1888 he moved his family into a little log house on the banks of the Teton River. It was hard work in those early days to make a living. Money was scarce but they shared what little they had with each other. They worked hard to clear the land, build ditches and roads and raise enough crops to keep themselves alive.

One day, Martha, who was about twelve years of age went into the barn and kicked by a horse. It struck her in the forehead leaving a scar which she carried all of the life. The injury, however, was much more serious than just the scar as it affected her mental capacity to learn and although she was well and strong physically, she was never able to learn to read and write.

Joseph went out to work as soon as he was old enough to be on his own, doing whatever he could to sustain himself. He worked for Bishop Conrad Walz and was able to save enough to buy a few acres of land. He was called to fill a mission for the church on 9 August 1899. He left Salt Lake City about the middle of August for the Swiss-German mission. This was a most humbling experience for him as he had had very little schooling and practically no experience in the church as a background for teaching the gospel. His parents were very poor and so he was almost without funds. However, he filled an honorable mission and returned home 3 January 1903 with a firm testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel.

In October 1903, Joseph attended General Conference in Salt Lake City and it was while he was visiting with some German friends that we first met Anna Szymkowiak, a little German convert who had been in America since April 1901. He was invited to her home for dinner and they soon became good friends. Joseph stayed in Utah that winter and secured a job with a construction crew that was building the Lucien Cutoff across the Great Salt Lake for the Southern Pacific Railroad. He and Anna saw each other quite frequently during that winter and it was with some regret that he returned to his farm in Burton in March of 1904.

At Joseph’s invitation Anna came to Rexburg that summer with a group of friends from Salt Lake City who were being escorted through Yellowstone Park by Joseph and Bishop Conrad Walz. Included in the company were Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Cannon, Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Cannon and son, Harley, Mrs. Schultess, Mr. and Mrs. Maycock and Lena Weiter. They arrived at Rexburg on the 27th of July and left for the Park two days later in white topped buggies. Those who went on this trip often remarked that they were never again able to see the Park as well as they did at this time. They returned to Rexburg on the 14th of August.

Joseph and Anna were married 13 October 1904 in the Salt Lake Temple. They returned to Rexburg taking Anna’s parents and her brother Fritz with them. They lived in a little house in Burton that belonged to Bishop Walz. Later on during the winter her parents bought a house in Rexburg from Mr. Metzner and moved there to live. Joseph got a job hauling lumber for the C. W.& M. Co. until after Christmas when he went to Market Lake to help put up ice for the railroad. The next summer they moved on to their own place, living in a tent that was boarded up on the bottom. They used sage brush for fuel which heated up very fast. One day about the middle of July, Anna made a fire to bake bread. The willows on top of the bowery which was built over the front of the tent were very dry and heat from the stove set them afire. Joseph was in the field nearby but was unable to get there in time to save anything. Anna singed off most of her hair in a desperate effort to save what she could but most of their possessions were destroyed. The lovely linens which she had brought from her home in Germany ;and volumes of cherished books were scattered everywhere and many of them were destroyed.

They went to live with Joseph’s parents until their son, Verner, was born 6 October 1905. This child only lived two days. Anna was completely distraught. She had planned so much on this child to help to ease the loneliness she had felt since coming to this new life in the country. Joseph went to the timber that fall and got enough logs to build a one room house. It was small and their furniture was simple but Anna was able to make it neat and cozy, and they were happy knowing it was their own. They had a cow and a few chickens and so they were able to get along. About this time the sugar factory at Sugar City was built and they started raising sugar beets. They received e$3.50 a ton for beets and the farmers were glad to have this new project. Eggs were ten cents a dozen and butter eight cents a pound.

Among their very good friends at this time were Ben and Pearl Ellsworth. Ben was the mail carrier and Joseph helped him during the winter to deliver the mail. The snow was very deep and sometimes it would take two or three days to get the mail around. But they had many happy times together and this friendship lasted throughout their lives.

On 28 November 1906, a daughter, Ruth, was born to them and they were so happy to have another child. Joseph went to work that winter in Market Lake to help build the Market Lake Canal and Anna was left alone much of the time. They were so grateful at that time for good neighbors. Mr. and Mrs. Carl Peterson were especially good to them. They would often come and take Anna and the baby home with them when they thought she might be afraid to be alone.

On 20 October 1908, a daughter, Grace Marie was born. A son John Eldon was born 17 April 1910. Joseph’s mother Marianna Haslebacher Herzig passed away on 8 April 1909 and soon after this Martha came to live with them.

In 1910, Joseph and a man went to work for Mr. A. M. Carter. Joseph was foreman in charge of the sheep and Anna was housekeeper. During the nine years that they lived with Mr. Carter two more children were born to them, Dorothea Renee on 27 January 1915 and Leda Maxine on 29 July 1916.

Mr. Carter was a kindly man, honored and respected by all who knew him. He trusted Joseph and Anna as though they were his own family and they in turn loved and trusted him. He was County Recorder at that time with an office in St. Anthony and was away from the ranch much of the time. He was active in civic affairs and took part in many community projects. They worked hard during these years, having a great deal of responsibility for the work on the ranch. Because of the nature of the work it was necessary for Joseph to be away from home much of the time. Sometimes for weeks at a time, particularly during the summer when the sheep were out one the summer range. Anna was given complete charge of the household, buying supplies for the house, cooking for the large crews of men who were employed on the ranch as well as taking care of her family. During the busiest season she would have a girl come in to help with the work. Martha was living with them also and was able to help with some of the work although she required constant supervision.

During these years Joseph and Anna were looking ahead to the time when they could once more live as a family in a home of their own and were buying a little place in Independence consisting of forty acres and a small house. It was to this place that they moved with their family in the fall of 1918. They enjoyed this little home and the freedom they felt in living their own lives. They resumed their work in the ranch and their home, though it was small, was always open to the young people of the ward. Few Sundays passed without a group of young people gathering there. A daughter, Joey Doralee, was born in Independence 26 December 1921.

Maratha was still living with the family but as she grew older she began to fell that she was being persecuted and would leave home and stay with friends or other members of the family for days or weeks at a time, and when they tried to advise or restrain her she would become angry and often threatened to harm Anna or some of the children. Eventually, Mrs. Sarah Barnes who was a close friend of the family and also of Martha, suggested that she be taken to Nampa to the State School for the Handicapped. Martha went without resentment and soon became very contented there. She lived there the remainder of her life and was always well thought of by the inmates as well as the workers of the institution. She passed away at the school on 17 June 1948 at the age of 72.

In 1919, Joseph bought a dry farm at Antelope and during the next three years they lived on the dry farm in the summer, moving back to Independence in the winter for the children to attend school. These were difficult times for Joseph and his family. The depression which followed the First World War was being felt everywhere, prices were low and crops were poor and it was a real struggle to make a living and especially for real estate. So, in 1922, they were forced to let the dry farm go.

Joseph rented a place from Mr. Carter and moved his family there to live. It was an old log house but with her usual creative ingenuity, Anna and the girls were able to transform the old house into a place of holiness and comfort. It was at this time that they took Albert Herzig into their home. He was about twelve years of age and was the son of Joseph’s half-brother, Fred. He liked to live on the farm and they thought they could give him a home and send him to school and perhaps give him a start in life that he would not otherwise have. After he had been with them a short time they tried to adopt him legally, but his father objected to this plan so it was never completed. He lived in their home for almost three years when he became dissatisfied and left to go back to his parents.

They sold the place in Independence and in 1925, they bought the old Anderson place from Orson Christensen and for the next thirty years they devoted all of their efforts and energy toward building up the place. They cleared the land, modernized the house, planted trees, shrubs and grasses and took a lot of pride in the work. Their youngest son, Joseph Benjamin was born 27 October 1926.

They were always devoted to the church, serving diligently in the various organizations in Independence and later in Burton. Anna served as 2nd counselor and then 1st counselor in the Relief Society, as President of YWMIA in Independence and later in Burton. She was a teacher of the genealogical class and the social science and literature classes in Relief Society. Joseph was Superintendent of the YMMIA in Independence and chairman of the Genealogical Committee. He taught classes in the Sunday School, M.I.A. and High Priests Quorum. He held the office of High Priest.

In February 1934, their son, Eldon, was called to fill a mission to the Central States. Although times were rather hard and money was scarce they had faith that they would be able to support him through his mission and they were glad to have the opportunity to do it.

He spent two years in the mission field and returned home in the spring of 1936. In September of the same year, Leda left to fill a mission in the North Central States and she also filled an honorable mission, returning in the spring of 1938. Two of their children, Joey and Benny were in the service during World War II, Benny served twenty-one months in the Naval Air Corps and Joey, sixteen months in the WAVES.

After the children were all married and settled in homes of their own it was always a pleasure for Joseph and Anna to visit them in their homes but they were most happy and contented when they were together in their own home. Then Anna’s health began to fail, an old injury to her back began to give her severe pain in her neck and for the last six or seven years of her life she was scarcely ever free from pain. She was patient and cheerful and tried to minimize the seriousness of the condition. She suffered a stroke 25 April 1951, which left her completely paralyzed and 27 April 1951 she passed away at the Ashton Memorial Hospital. She was buried in the Burton Cemetery on 30 April 1951. During all the time that she was ill Joseph stayed constantly at her side, he was always patient and attentive, doing everything possible to ease her suffering. Her passing left a great void in his life and although his children welcomed him in their homes, he was reluctant to leave his own home. He spent the winters of 1951 and 1952 in Kellogg with his daughter Leda, but he kept his home open and stayed there most of the time, visiting frequently withy his children. In the spring of 1954, he met Anna Anderson Smith and on 27 August 1954 they were married by President Albert Choules in the Idaho Falls Temple.

He sold his farm in Burton to his son-in-law Leonard Smith 25 February 1955 and bought a home in Rigby where moved 8 April 1955. His health began to fail soon after he moved to Rigby. It was hard for him to walk and gradually the strength went out of his legs and he was bedfast for five months during which time his wife and his children took care of him. They stayed at his bedside constantly, doing everything possible to make him comfortable. He passed away at him home on West Main in Rigby at 1:28 A.M., 30 December 1957, and was buried beside his wife Anna, in the Burton Cemetery, 3 January 1958.

My Tribute to Mother and Dad

By Joey McCurdy

When I think of my mother and father I always see a team--united in

One great cause, their family. The best that life could afford was not

Too good for their children; and although they never gave us the most in

Material things they taught us three things that, to me are far more important.

1). Those things we have to work for are more valuable than those

things that are handed to us.

2). Make the most of what you have and don’t be satisfied with the

mediocre.

3). /and above all, there is a mightier Being than we, whose decisions

Are far wiser than ours and it is our duty to heed His council in all things.

For these things I will always be grateful to my beloved parents.

And to honor them I shall strive to give my family the firm foundation

Upon which to build their lives that Mother and Dad gave us.