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Show Mrs. Aldrich Observes Her 90th Birthday Members of the family of Mrs. Martin Aldrich gathered at nor home Sunday evening in honor of the 90th anniversary of the birth of their mother. A most enjoyable time was had and an interesting little program was carried out. All members of tne family were present. During tne program the following story was read in honor of Mrs Aldrich: In Honor of Mother We have gathered today to celebrate cele-brate the nintieth birthday anniversary anni-versary of the birth of our dear old mother. he was born in the itth day of October, 1840, in the city oi Shelllar in the Kingdom of Denmark. Den-mark. In the year 1856, Ole Mad-sen, Mad-sen, his wife, Annie Nielson Mad-sen Mad-sen and their four children, three girls and one boy, left their home in the oid world to emmigrate Ij Utah, where they fully expected to make a home for themselves and live in peace in the land of Zion, the parents having joined the so called Mormon Church in their native na-tive land. During the hard, la-borous la-borous treck across the plains to the home they anticipated making, and as seen in their dreams, thi-father thi-father cf this little family sickened and died on the way. Somewhere, God only, knows where, he is sleep-, ing the last long sleep of death in the unknown grave by the side of the trail they were traveling on their way to Utah. Days that streched into many weary weeks found the mother and her four children toiling, pulling their handcart, containing all their earthly possessions in the company known as the Martin handcart j company. ! The fate of this company of S saints is known to every reader ol j church history as having encoun-i encoun-i tcred a very early winter, with heavy snow for that season of the iyir. '. On December 3rd, 1856 they reached Salt Lake City nine years alter the coming cf the original i htu-.d of pioneers. The mother and i family were famished, weary, penniless pen-niless and practically friendless. , What was this poor mother with her four young children going to Jo? I The father and provider of the j family wes sleeping in a lonely t grave back on the plains, the mother mo-ther with no resources by way of money or chattels to buy food or . tl'.'.'h.ng for herself and family, j Destitute, unknown, strangers in a strange land, how their hearts muse have t.h"obbed with pain as this widowed mother and her littk brcod of children awoke the next ' day after reaching their destination destina-tion and looked cut upon this wilderness wil-derness of dry and parched land as it stretched away to the south j and north. But through the help j of God they lived on until an op-; op-; poi unity came to them to go to Fcrt Eplnaim in Sanpete County. Here they remained until the spring cf 1359, when they went to Mt. Pleasant, known in those days as F. nllton. Thus the mother and j 1. I children were among the pioneers pi-oneers of this city. Here they settled down, and the mother married mar-ried Hans Christensen Harbrue, but death took her away shortly after moving to this city. On eDcember 16th, 1860 Hannah Madsen was married to Martin Aldrich by Bishop W. S. Secly. Martin Aldrich had reached this place in 1859, coming from Battle Creek, now known as Pleasant Grove, Utah, where he and his mother mo-ther had been for some few years. Their first child, a son, died shortly short-ly after birth. In 1864, with others they were called by rPesident Young to settle Circle Valley located in Piute county. coun-ty. This company made their way to that uninviting and wind-swept place, while the writer of this, was a babe in arms. Here among the Piute r.dians, this little colony remained re-mained until starvation drove them out, and they came back again to I.It. Pleasant. For many years this was their home. Father Duught a farm of 40 acres which yielded a I metgnif .eenr crop cf sage and rabbit rab-bit "brush at that time. In due course of time it ws cleared, a log hut was bu.lt. and Chester became cur home tor many years. The log house stood on a small knoil, about in the center of the tract At this place the writer learned to rake up the grain in bundles, as faihw iiqpH the old cradle, and to gether we bound up the bundles and shocked it ready for hauling. After leaving Chester we again returned to the old home town, and lived there or several years, before moving to Indianola, where father purchased another sage brush tract j cf land, which finally developd into j another "farm. Here we lived un- til the church bought up all the j v arious farms as a home for the j Ute Indians. While living at In- j dianola Orange was born, being the j onl one of the family not being born at Mt. Pleasant. The next move was to Milburn where father bought another farm. Like all the others, we cleared it of sa,e and ra!:')it brush, lived there a few years, then again back to Mt. Pleasant where mother has lived ever since. Sanpete County haj been her world, so to speak, ever since she caiAe from Denmark in thee year above stated. Mother has tasted all the hardships hard-ships known to the pioneer mothers. mo-thers. Hers has not been a bed of roses, nor a life full of picnics. She has tasted the bitter with the sweet, and the bitter has oft been a cup running over far in excess of the sweet. I thank God that her old days are filled with sweetness far in excess of her preceeding years and that she now finds some measure of joy and happiness in her closing years. All of her seven children are still living, aiding in making her life more happy as the end oi tne trau approaches. "As this birthday comes to you, Mother dear, so good and true, Our hearts go out to God in praise Who has guarded all your days; May He have for you in store Many, many, many more." |