EMILY ANDERSON BARBER

Emily Anderson Barber Life History


Emily was born in Mt. Pleasant, Sanpete County, Utah 26 October 1864. Her parents were Hogan (Hakan) Anderson and (Sissla Svenson) Cecelia Swenson. They were immigrants from Sweden who had met each other after arriving in America.


She was a beautiful child with brown eyes and black hair, and was rather tall for her age as she grew. Being the oldest child, she had to help care for the babies as they came along and help her mother with the housework. She was the oldest of 10 children, but one of her brothers died as an infant.

The Young Anderson family

In those pioneer days, every family had to help themselves. Her parents were very poor and the family lived in a one-room log cabin with a fireplace. All of the bread was baked in a dutch oven. As Emily grew into young womanhood, she went into the field to help her father. With the aid of her brother, Oscar who was 2 years younger than she, they would glean the wheat and tie it into bundles. Later, the wheat was threshed and used for the flour for their bread.

Emily as young woman

In the year of 1879, the Anderson family moved to Hyrum in Cache Valley, Utah. Emily’s first work away from home was at her Uncle Swen Swenson’s home where she earned 75 cents per week. Later, she worked for several different families in Logan where she was paid $1.00 to $1.50 per week. Someone told her that if she went to Salt Lake City to work, she could get higher wages. At first, her mother objected to the idea but when they decided she could live with her Aunt Betsy—her mother’s sister—who could help her find suitable work, her mother finally consented. She stayed at her Aunt Betsy’s and worked for quite some time.

One day she received a letter from her family saying they had decided to move to the Snake River Valley up in the Idaho Territory and wanted Emily to go with them. Early in the spring of 1886, the family loaded their furniture and other belongings into a wagon behind the horses and they moved to the community of Salem near Rexburg, Idaho. Emily found work there—first with the Dave Charles family, then in the home of Joel Ricks.

While working at the Ricks home, she met her future husband, John Robert Barber who was also employed by the Ricks family. He was the son of John Barber and Charlotte Kirby Barber and had been born at Logan, Utah 21 December 1862.

Older Anderson Family--Emily left front

Their courtship was short and Bishop George H. B. Harris married them on 28 March 1887 in the Anderson home at Salem. They went to the Logan Temple 11 October 1916 and were sealed and had their family sealed to them also.

The first ten years or so of their marriage they lived on a farm at Salem where they worked very hard to clear the land of sagebrush, build canals and do other farm work. John also worked away from their farm doing such jobs such as milking cows at a dairy and working at a sawmill.

Most of their children were born at Salem. Their family grew to a total of 10 children and they are:

Emil Arthur (Art)—born 18 March 1885 at Hyrum, Cache, Utah. He married Marie Ronnenkamp 4 Oct 1911. Art died 13 March 1956 in Rexburg, Idaho

Emily Lorinda (Rindy)—born 16 Jan 1888 at Salem, Bingham, Idaho. She married Nicholas Francis Newby 4 October 1907. She died 21 June 1957 at Shoshone, Lincoln, Idaho.

John William (Willie)—born 22 September 1889 at Salem, Bingham, Idaho. He developed heart trouble when he was only 12 years old and died 10 November 1907 when he was 18.

Ida Mae—born 24 December 1891 at Salem, Bingham, Idaho. She married John Herbert (Herb) Galbraith 9 September 1913. She died 5 February 1973 in Burley, Cassia, Idaho.

Amelia Cecelia—born 5 July 1894 at Salem, Fremont, Idaho. She married Ola Phineas Anderson 27 September 1913. He died in 1919 and she later married Hugh Sharp 22 July 1922. She died 24 December 1993 in Idaho Falls, Bonneville, Idaho.

Ellen Vilate—born 25 September 1896 at Salem, Fremont, Idaho. She married Jefferson Lee Brooks 20 September 1919 and later married Frank Jay Woolf. Ellen died 6 February 1990 at Seattle, King, Washington.

George Hogan—born 21 October 1898 at Salem, Fremont, Idaho. He never married but adopted a son, Garry John Barber Piper. He died 14 January 1962 in Pocatello, Bannock, Idaho.

Joseph Hilding (Joe)—born 19 March 1901 at Salem, Fremont, Idaho. He married Mabel Worlton 2 April 1924. He died 12 July 1982 at Idaho Falls, Bonneville, Idaho.

Theodore Robert (Ted)—born 19 June 1903 at Salem, Fremont, Idaho. He married Margaret Wood 27 June 1925. He died 23 November 1959 at Idaho Falls, Bonneville, Idaho.

Eva Charlotte—born 6 September 1908 at Herbert, Fremont, Idaho. She married Milton Kohl 28 March 1932 and later married William Johnstone. She died 12 November 1995 at Kent, King, Washington.

This photo is of the first 6 children when they were young. Left to right is: Amelia in dark dress, Lorinda, Art, Willie, Ida Mae. Ellen is the baby on the stool so the photo would have been taken about 1897-1898.

The family moved to Herbert, about 15 miles southeast of Rexburg, where John took up a homestead for a dry farm. Their last child, Eva was born there.
Everyone shared in the labor whether in the fields or in the house, even the small children. This was a time when there was no motorized farm machinery and all farm work was done by hand and with horses. Houses were small and warmed by wood fires, cooking was done on a wood-fired cook stove or over a fireplace, and there was neither refrigeration nor air-conditioning.


This family photo was taken in 1912, five years after Willie passed away. Some of the older children were married by then.
Left to right at the back is: Joe, Amelia, Ida, Art, Lorinda, Ellen, and George at the far right end.
In the front is John (father), Ted, Emily (mother) and in the center front, leaning on her father, is Eva.

They remained at Herbert until 1915; then, they sold the farm to their son, Arthur, and moved in to Rexburg where they purchased a small home and lot west of Porter Park. They added two rooms on the side where Emily’s mother, Cecelia Anderson, lived until her death.

It was hard work for a woman in the pioneer type of existence they had in their Salem and Herbert homes. Emily cooked over a wood-burning cook stove or, more often perhaps, a fireplace. She baked the bread and churned the butter for the family as well as keeping a garden and feeding her large family with fresh garden produce in the summer. She also had to can and preserve the food so they would have food for the winter. Again, this would have been done over a hot stove with only an occasional breeze to cool her.

She spent many hours collecting sheep’s wool, cleaning and carding it, then spinning it into yarn on a spinning wheel that looked like this illustration. The yarn was used for knitting gloves, socks, sweaters, and other clothing items for the whole family. She also had to construct clothing for the family by hand and she did fancy needlework, made quilts and rugs to make a beautiful as well as useful home. Most travel was done with horses and buggies or wagons. There was no electricity, telephones, automobiles or refrigeration. And there were no electric laundry machines.

Laundry for the family was done with a washtub of water heated on the stove and scrubbed on the ribbed scrubbing board or “washboard”. A plunger was often used to agitate the load, then the clothing was wrung out by hand, rinsed, wrung out again, then hung on a clothesline or on the fence and bushes to dry, then ironed with a heavy flat-iron heated on the stove or fire. It was a very difficult and time-consuming task. There was no time to rest.

John died on 10 June 1920 leaving her a widow for 28 years. During those years, she lived in her home in Rexburg and also in Idaho Falls. Her children spent time with her and often took her places with them. One of her favorite activities was making quilts. She often went to help her daughters and granddaughters when they were quilting. One of the quilts she helped with was a “Dresden Plate” quilt that she helped her granddaughter, Mae Geisler make. She appliquéd the completed pattern onto the background blocks by hand.

She spent much of her last years making quilt blocks, crocheting and doing other needlework for the Relief Society and for her grandchildren and other family members. She suffered a lot from arthritis and had a lot of trouble with her legs and knees. Small children were often cautioned to be careful around her so as not to bump against her legs and her knees because it was so painful for her.

When Emily was in her later years, she often talked with her daughter, Ida, telling her she hoped she didn’t die in the wintertime because it was so cold. Then a body would be put down into that cold earth and it would be SO cold. But she did pass away in the winter, on 5 December 1948. Ida went to the store and found a beautiful, fluffy, white blanket and took it to the funeral home. The mortician helped her wrap her

mother in the white blanket in her casket before the burial. Emily passed away at the age of 84 at Idaho Falls, Bonneville, Idaho and is buried in the Rexburg Cemetery next to John.

Sources of Information
“Life History of Emily Anderson Barber” taken from The Hakan Anderson Families published by the Hakan Anderson Family Organization, 1962.
Illustrations from the collection of C. Mae Galbraith Geisler
Personal interview with C. Mae Galbraith Geisler, August 2006 for some of her personal memories and knowledge of events
Anecdotes and historical information from life history of John Robert Barber
Family information and photos from family group sheets and personal histories and memories of several family members.
Eastern Idaho Death Records at BYU-I Family History website: http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/famhist/Obit/searchDetail.cfm#bottom
Compiled by Darline G. Burke, August 2006