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Show STALWART CEDAR I MR CALLED (icim Reaper Gathers in Two More of Our Old Respected Residents and Friends. BENGT. NELSON AND JOHN VORLEY ADAMS Brother Adams Speaks at Funeral of His Friend and in Less than Two Hours is Himself a Corpse Short Biography of Brother Nelson. ah- 1 I s HiSB '-Ml 6fl 6LWu IH HHlH BENUT. NELSON. i Cedur City hadn't a more genuinely good, sincere, kind-hearted and love-able love-able old man that Bengt. Nelson. If , he had nn enemy, we have failed to ; learn of it. Honest as the day is long, upright and charitable, he was beloved be-loved by all who knew him. His demise de-mise came suddenly last Tuesday, and wns the result of an accident which befel him two or three clays earlier. ' He was engaged in making some improvements im-provements about his home, and was . struck by a plank in the abdomen. A hernia of years standing was caused ' to strangulate, and death ensued. R is a coincidence that Mrs. Nelson's death, which occurred a few years since, was also due to an accident, and this notwithstanding the fact that they were quiet, careful, home-folks. Had Bengt Nelson lived until the 28th day of next September he would have been 85 years old, yet he was comparatively spry and active and en j joyed working in proportion to his physical strength. He" was a mason by trade and he leaves a number of monuments in the form of homes and 1 public buildings in Cedar City of his ' thrift and industry. He was tender hearted as n woman, and at funerals, where he was a fre- ' quent speaker, he almost invariably broke down and shed tears. He leaves ' a family of four sons and one daugh- ter, and one son and two daughters ha,ve preceded him to the beyond. The ! names of the children, and the order of birth, follow: Caroline Nelson, born in Cedar City Dec. 22, 1857, mnrried Sam'l T. Leigh Dec. 19, 1878, died May I!, 1885. Bengt Nelson, Jr., Born March 11, 18(50, married Sarah C Hunter, resides ! in Cedar City. Ellen 1). Nelson, born Mar. 21, 18(12, married Thos. W. Perry; resides in ('c-dar City. Henry A. Nelson, born Feb. 8, 18(i4, died July 8, 1864. John P, Nelson, born Jan. 19, 1896, married Hannah N. Orton of l'aro wan; resides in Cedar City. Anna M. Nelson, Inirn Nov. ;, lH(i8, did June 25, 1883. Isaac A. N'ebon, born May X, 1871, married Sarah H. Arthur; resides in Cedar City Charles A. Nelson, born Nov. (i, 1H7;, Married Clara Taylor; ruidM at Salt Lake City. "Introduction. Nut many years will come and no before those who pioneered these western wilds will have passed away, and richly blessed will the posterity of those be who stopped by the wayside long enough to record the more important events of thtir lives. It iiiattercth not how humble one is, every da some lesson lived could be recorded that would benefit some struggling soul Upon life's highway. And with the idea of leaving to posterity such stern and rugged lessons as are taught by a life of Integrity and devotion to a cause held sacred by us all, while pio- neering and building up these desolate I tali vales, after leaving comfort and quiet in the distant Scandinavian home this autobiography of Brother Bengt Nelson is written and respectfully dedicated. "No one on reading it can help but see the steadfastness of purpose and genuineness of his very soul, and also Eta dear wife's devotion to the cause j of truth from the time of their accept-anea accept-anea of the Gospel to the present. From an autobiography of Bengt Nel-On. Nel-On. written some eight years ago. There is a great deal of Fascinating I interest in the autobiography of Bro Nelson, which he thoughtfully left to posterity, but the limited space at our disposal will not permit of the use of more than a few sketches. Brother Nelson resided in Cedar i City the remainder of his life, being a prominent figure in social, civil and . ecclesiastical circles. For a great many years he was a member of the school board of Cedar City, and his habits of industry and frugality did much for the advancement of aduca tion in the early history of the place. j He has also been elected a member of the city council a number of times, and has tilled other positions of importance im-portance and trust with credit to him self and the community. (Je lived to a ripe old age, and , rounded out a successful, honorable career, which his posterity can well point tO with pride and seek to follow and emulate'. The funeral services were held in the rabernacle Thursday at 2 p. m., there being large attendance. The choir rendered the hymns, "O, My Father," "Needed on the Other Side," "Abide With Thee," and "Farewell All Earth- ly Honors." The opening prayer was by Elder Henry l,eigh and the closing i prayer by Myron D. Higbee. 1 The speakers were John V. Adams, Andrew Corry, David Bulloch, II.. W. I.unt and Bp. H. H. Lunt. All DON eloquent testimony to the good life and labors of deceased. The decorations were in keeping with the occasion and there was a profusion pro-fusion of Rowan Interment was in the city cemetery, the grave being dedicated by Elder Samuel T Leigh. BIOGRAPHICAL Bengt Nelson was born in Lomma, Sweden, about three miles west of Lund, "Sept. 28, 1831 His grandfather, Andres Anderson, was a dragoon in the Swedish army and was in the wur j with Napoleon in 1807. Bengt was educated in the common schools of Sweden, the family being in moderate circumstances. He would help his father fa-ther on the farm in summer and go to I school in the winter. As he was approaching his 'teens the boy worked for a short time as I apprentice to his cousin, who was a good blacksmith. Later he worked with another relative for three years, learning; the trade of bricklayer. At the end of thaee years he went to work with u master mechanic at Lund, where he perfected himself in his chos- en trade. Was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on ' April 15, 1854. On the 19th of November, Nov-ember, 1854, with his brother-in-law I and two sisters, who had also joined the Latter-day Saints, he boarded a small steamer bound for Copenhagen, , and on the 24th of November, with about 300 others set sail for Liverpool, Kngland. After much delay from storm and winds, they arrived in Liverpool Liv-erpool Dec. 21. Rested in Liverpool for several days and on Jan. 11, 1855, bearded u sailing vessel for New Orleans, Or-leans, where they landed on the :'.'.rd 1 of February. Nett morning boarded a river steamer for St Louis, arriv-' arriv-' ing on the 7th of March. He crossed the plains with o teams in Capt, A. (. Bmoot'l company, arriving ar-riving at Salt Lake City Nov B, 1866 He was married Nov. 16, ix.", to Ellen Johnson, a Swedish girl and a friend of his sister's who crossed the plains with then, "The council at that time was for those who had no employment to move into the setlcincnts, so I deeid ed to take the first chance I could get ' to leave the city Bishop Woolley thought it best to go south. The first man I found was Bilhop Klingon Smith from Iron county, who was up I to get people to go to Cedar City to help build up the iron works, which had already been started So in company com-pany with the Bishop and othei left for the south On our way we luffered a good deal with the cohl. In Hound Valley, now I Scipio, we were Ibst in a fearful MOW i storm and could not find the- road leading to the canyon Reaching clump of (cdars on the west side of the valley wc camped for the night, and next morning it had cleared up, but we had about two and a half feet caT snow During the whole of that day we had to walk ahead and break the road in front of the teams as they could not go through it. These were the two worst days we had on the journey; we had some snow and cold weather after that but it was not so had. We finally reached Cedar City , November 29, 1866. "Winter was approaching and the weather was cold. I was very anv ious to find something to do to provide ourselves with the necessities of life, We were st i ane.ers, without friends and feeling very lonely. Of course, ' it was not lonr before we foun I fri.nds, and rood ones, too." , BROTHER JOHN V. ADAMS DROPS DEAD IN YARD I here no occasion to mourn over the death of such a man as Urothei Nelson; he lias lived to a ripe age and has earned his reward. And there will be no occasion to mourn when 1 leave thin existence, which will not he ion. now." These iii substance were the' word of Brother John V. Adams, as I he addressed the friends who had as- mblcd to do last honors to that' worthy person In less than two hours his lifeless body was beine pre pared to receive his shroud After the funeral he had a little coughing spell, and was given a couch lo.enger (Continued on last page I - w STALWART CEDAR CITIZENS CALLED (Continued from first page) and went into the open air. He was seen to stagger and fall in the yard at the rear of the house, and those near hurried to his assistance. He was dead in a few seconds, apparently having ruptured a large artery in the region of his heart. It all happened bo quickly that the family could not realize that the end had come, and when the truth had dawned the good wife was completely unnerved and shocked most cruelly. While John V. Adams was nearing N years of age and perhaps the old est person in Cedar City, he was a re- markably spry and well preserved. Ba took his daily walk and kept his lot and garden a model of beauty and i neatness. He was gentle, kind and t considerate of the feelings of others, an excellent neighbor and a true and loyal citizen. His death was totally unexpected and the entire comumnity was shocked with the news. The majority of his children reside here and soon they had gathered at ' the residence, but too late to see their ! father in life. He was spared all the pain of a separation as well as all sufferings of a physical nature. The funeral will he held at the tabernacle tab-ernacle tomorrow (I Saturday) afternoon, after-noon, at 2 p. m. ' John Varley Adams was born in Raunds, Newhampshire, Kngland, on August 17, 1832, so that had he lived until the 17th of next August be would have been 87 years old. He was the oldest resident of Cedar City, and. possibly of Iron county. A more detailed biography will be published in The Record next week. a |