The Life Story of Christian H. Christensen and Bena Marie Frogner Christensen, Part 5

Here's the fifth (and final) part of The Life Story of Christian H. and Bena Marie Frogner Christensen:

Guy went on missions to California and New Zealand, was a temple worker and a great athlete. He set a track record at Ricks and was Outstanding Athlete three years in a row.

Chris’s three brothers all received calls to go on missions and did go, as they didn’t have the tobacco problem. The business of surviving, living, working were the important things to Chris. The frills, the fancies, and the letter writing were nil. Irven received only one letter from his father while on his mission, and none from his mother. When he returned from his mission, Irven thought he had a little responsibility and instituted family prayer. He doesn’t remember their having had a blessing on the food before that. They had food and were pretty thankful for it, but Irven doesn’t remember that the got around to expressing their gratitude. Irven doesn’t remember that his parents ever had Patriarchal Blessings. Lyma had her Patriarchal Blessing, as did Irven, from Elijah Norman Freeman.

Meals were principally meat, potatoes, fruits, and vegetables—the staples. Of course, there were the special occasions for pies, cakes, etc. Irven thinks that they were happy, that work makes for happy people. The people who were unhappy were the ones who were unemployed and had nothing to do.

Irven’s recollection of reading material was that Shelley had a weekly newspaper. He remembers two books—one was the Dr. Cook expedition to the North Pole, and the other Dr. Perry’s expedition to the North and South Pole. Also he had two leather-bound books—Life of Wilford Woodruff and The Book of Mormon, which may have belonged to his father’s set.

Carrie Beatrice was quite a literary soul and had one of the finest collections of scrapbook material that anyone could ever put together. She was a prolific reader and read everything. She was a good thinker, and had a year or more of high school in Firth. She drove a horse and buggy down from Basalt to attend classes for quite some time. The family talked about her going through some bad weather and bad roads to get there. It was pretty important to her. She was interested in the genealogical end of things and did a little work there. She did a lot of writing and may have kept a journal. She was a quiet, unassuming individual who went about her own business and her own interests and worked with little interference with anyone else. Carrie passed away November 29, 1955, and was buried in Basalt.

The move to Fort Hall in 1929 or 1930 involved four different farms. These were leases. Norman’s was about ½ mile north of Ft. Hall. The other three—Irven’s, Mat’s, and Chris’s—were adjacent to one another, 1 ½ miles north and 3 miles east of Fort Hall. Chris’s place was the furthest east and had no road in except through Mat’s and over the hill, so a small cabin was built on Irven’s place where he lived. Farming there involved clearing the land of sagebrush, plowing, ditching, and irrigating.

In about 1935, Mat moved to North Logan, and Bena, Norman, and Carrie moved there and rented part of Mat’s home. Later, they moved into a small home on Third North in Logan, built by Mat and Guy. Bena’s health wasn’t so good while in Fort Hall, and she had a heart attack in about 1932. After moving to Logan, there was no improvement, and during those years she developed dropsy and gall bladder problems, for which she underwent surgery. She died in Logan, October 2, 1941, and was buried in Basalt.

Irven built a home on the Fort Hall Townsite in 1939 and moved from the farm, so Chris moved in with Norman for a couple of years until he was unable to manage the farm any longer. He then went to stay with Henry in Chubbuck for a time. He passed away May 10, 1946, and was buried in Basalt.

Chris and Bena had seven children, 31 grandchildren, and nearly 100 great-grandchildren, as of 1979.