Hans and Ida Tithing Receipts

Hans and Ida Tithing Receipts

I am the youngest son of Mayzell Mortensen and Adron LaVell King, seventh youngest grandchild of Hans Frederick Mortensen and Ida Olive Knight. Because I came towards the end of their string of grandchildren, much to my regret, I never got to meet Grandpa Mortensen, from whom I received my middle name. He died about 10½ months before I was born. In case anyone thinks otherwise, he pronounced his name to rhyme with dance (verified by my mom) not sconce, pans, or pawns, so I do too. This makes sense since his parents came from Denmark and that is much closer to the Danish pronunciation than the pronunciation in other Northern European countries or an Americanized pronunciation with a Z-sound at the end. Grandma died when I was 12 and lived with us quite a bit including at the time of her death, so I did get to know her.

I understand from my mom that Hans and Ida were always faithful members of the church. My mom came across some of their old tithing receipts, so I’m including images of a couple of them from 1910 to show how they sometimes used to pay their tithing in those days. These show receipts for tithing paid in oats, wheat, and eggs, but others show hay, honey, chickens, squash, butter, barley, and “scrip”. The latest of these is from 1932.