Rosa Andrae Christiansen

Rosa Andrae Christiansen

A request from Erma summers on a few of the highlights in the life of my dear friend,

ROSA CHRISTIANSEN ADAMS

I pray that I may remember and wish I had done this years ago.

I Rosella Davis Anderson, came to the Adams home, where Wanda Adams now lives, to find room and board with a very nice widow, Mrs. Priscilla Adams, and her many children from college age (Lyle) to a little boy, two years of age (Oral)

It was only a day or two later I saw a picture on the living room wall, and I said, “Mrs. Adams, I’ve seen that man somewhere before.” She then told me he was her late husband, Dennis, who had passed away some month previous.

Now I remembered. We, Ruth Taylor and I, had met two men, county commissioners, at the Nelson Grocery, Hotel and Café in Snowville where we were. They called us “school marmes”.

The man whom we had met began telling about his family. The story came back to me then. Mr. Adams told in detail about them, especially the second son who wanted to marry a girl of his choice. He then was dating two, one from Rowville, another from Thatcher. Later I inquired, “Which one did your son marry?” “Oh, a Danish girl from Thatcher.” Mr. Adams had described her in detail at the Snowville Store. He said she was a beautiful girl, full of life and vitality, a mop of curly black hair, a worker wherever she was needed-on the farm, driving a team of horses, mowing hay, or house work-jovial, fun loving and a friend to all. Yes, Rosa, my dear friend, was all of these,

She played the piano for friends, parties, religion classes at the school then held Wednesday after school hours. She took organ and piano lessons from Mrs. Nichols of Bothwell. She also sang beautifully. On one occasion she was called to play in a Tremonton Ward for a funeral for Sister Hazel Waldron, who passed away while on her LDS mission.

Our dear Rosa was a wonderful woman. She sang in that special round voice of hers “Oh, My Father” as I had never heard it before. She sang through her tears. Everyone wept unashamed. She sang with others or she sang and accompanied herself. She also played piano for all our dances too, on a platform in the Thatcher Gym. I can see in my mind yet Rosa on the piano and Earl on a horn. Sometimes Roy Anderson played the mouth organ or guitar, Wilford Johnson the violin, Albert Johnson the drums, and Rosa on the piano. She would come down from the platform to dance with her beloved Earl. If ever there was a couple who were in love it was them.

Her children she often said were “God Given”. None just came. You could believe it when as babies and grown-ups she gave everyone, what we called, “Rosa’s bear hug.”

When Hazel Waldron or Rosa was not in church, we had no music. Both were so eager and willing to serve. Rosa was my counselor in Relief Society. Ivy Christensen was the other counselor and Fossee Nelson was the secretary. During the war there was much sewing and other services and work to be done for overseas as well as for members. I can’t tell it all because at 86+ my mind is not so alert.

War Bonds were being sold. Those who were called to contact each family in Thatcher were Reta Compton, Gunda Borgstrom, Rosa, and I. Rosa sold more bonds than all three of us because of her special personality, wit and wisdom.

There was never a banquet or church fund dinner but what she was in charge of some part of it. She loved the “Little Bishop”, Tommy Adams, as she called him, and worked hand in hand with him in all he asked her to do. We in the Relief Society presidency would go to Bishop Tommy Adams, knowing Sister Rosa had such a way to influence people. She was full of love and compassion for anyone in need. We Relief Society members wanted to do more than our share. We bought four or six white shirts for the younger boys to wear as they passed the sacrament. If any were soiled or wrinkled Rosa grabbed them and took care of them.

This experience stands out in my mind very vividly. A beautiful little girl of eight or ten years of age, after suffering with heart problems since infancy, was called “Home”. Rosa went into the home and stayed, cleaning, making meals, and trying to lighten the hearts of the bereft.

The Relief Society sisters made quilts and sold chances on them to make money. One quilt in particular, a pink and blue silk, was beautiful. The tickets sold for one dime per chance. To make it legal we gave each one a stick of gum. A few dollars went to Othella Adams, who was on a mission. Golden and Effie had the lucky number and won the quilt. “How did you do that?” many asked. Rosa said that we wrote their names on every ticket. Of course, we had nothing to do with it. It was all a lucky chance. We gave the bishop the money we had raised for missionaries.

We were called to send women to the turkey plant in Tremonton. Whose car made the most trips? Rosa and Earl’s. They often drove to our union meetings at Garland. We also gleaned wheat along the hollows and rocks on the dry farms for the Relief Society. It was thrashed and stored. Our headquarters in Salt Lake City, where we stored it, sent it to Europe in World War I. I can’t remember how much was sent, but it helped the hungry overseas. We gathered wool off the barbed wire fence down by Little Mountain. We washed it and made it into a bat for quilting.

Grandma Amelia Andersen and Aunt Marie Christiansen sewed for the dead. They would often sew for the entire family so they would all have new clothes for the funeral this was before we were sustained in the Relief Society.

Chris, Rosa’s brother, went on a mission. We gave his a suitcase. Rosa was so happy for him. Othella was called on a mission to Canada. He was and is a wonderful man. Golden, Rosa’s oldest son, gave his life in the service. Some of the other boys I am not so well acquainted with.

Once we took a ten day trip to Portland and Olympia and Tacoma and down the coast and back, just the four of us. It was so interesting and enjoyable with never a cross word.

While visiting with Rosella she told these interesting stories:

Roy and Rosella Anderson and Earl and Rosa Adams went on a trip to Portland, Oregon, Olympia and Tacoma, Washington. When they were preparing to leave, Roy and Rosella drove their car to pick up the Adams’. The Adams children had taken their parents’ suitcases to the west porch. Roy and Rosella were at the east porch. Each assumed that the others had put their luggage in the car. It wasn’t until they stopped at a motel in Twin Falls, Idaho, that they realized that the luggage had been left behind. It created quite the problems.

James Christiansen, his wife, Marie, their three children, and Anton Anderson were baptized the same day. They had to break a hole in the ice for the baptism. Rosella said she had heard them say many times that they were so full of the Spirit that they didn’t feel the cold.

The father of James and Amelia Christiansen had a gristmill in Denmark. One Sunday morning they were all dressed for church when a needy neighbor came for a grist. Mr. Christiansen went down to the mill. When he didn’t return they went to see what was wrong. They found him standing straight up, wrapped around the mill post. A button on his overcoat had caught in the mill. He had been whipped around and around the pole until he was dead.

Antone Anderson, who had married Amelia Christiansen, and her brother, James Christiansen, came to America and settled in Huntington, Utah, where they were freighting around Emery County. Later Amelia, her mother Marie, her brother Chris, and sister Dagmar came to American from Denmark. When they arrived in Salt Lake City, they sent word to Antone and James. They were able to move to Thatcher where they took up land and farmed.

During World War I (1917) the Thatcher Relief Society ladies were asked to go to Garland, which was the Stake Center at that time, to sew for the needy. Rosa was always there because she could drive the car and take the ladies over to sew. They would sew all day and take clothing for the needy of the ward for pay. Clara Fridal, who was the Stake Relief Society President, would go to the storehouse in Ogden and bring back clothing she thought the members of the Stake could use. There were second hand shoes that sold for 25 cents. The ladies would get them and bring them to the families of their ward.

Rosa taught religion class, as it was called. It was held after school, usually in the school house. She was willing to do whatever the bishop asked her to do.