Charles Stevens Mickelson

Charles and Mary Mickelson

My Great Grandfather Charles Mickelson is the one we know the least about. He is the biological father of my grandpa Clark.

He was born 26 March 1880 in Egan, South Dakota. He was a rodeo rider most of his short life. He married Mary Ellen Bate on 22 December 1902, in Evanston, Wyoming and they made their home in Hilliard a small settlement South of Evanston. They were the parents of two boys and one girl. in 1907 Mary took ill, after the birth of their third child and died suddenly. The next spring Charles left his children with family and went to work the rodeo circuit.  At one point he sent a letter to family asking about the children and making sure they were doing well. He then was never heard from again.

For many years the family assumed that Charles had just moved on with his life and abandoned his children. However in 1997 my cousin, while doing research to do the temple work for my grandpa's biological family found the following newspaper story that brought to light the truth about what really happened to great grandpa. The story appeared in the Hays Free Press newspaper.

A Suicide

Our town was startled Monday noon by a full fledged, dramatic suicide. A young man named Charlie Michaelson, having been disappointed in love affairs, decided there was nothing in the world worth living for. He had had a quarrel with his best girl, a month had elapsed, they happened to meet on North Chestnut street and talked the matter over, but it was too late to forgive and forget as she had found another and been married an hour before. Then the disappointed one hied himself to a drug store, procured a few grains of poison, and while the young lady and her husband and friends were enjoying their dinner at Howie's a cry that startled the quiet town, was heard and the young man lay writhing in the street. Dr. Marty arrived and an injection for sunstroke was given, but it did no good as the poison taken from a bottle found in his pocket had done its work and death claimed another for a long, long sleep that know no pain, love affairs or awakening. A coroner's jury very wisely pronounced the man dead from poison, not a broken heart.
As the man was over thirty-two years old, had been married and had two children, he was old enough not to get love sick over another girl and the sympathy of our community is with the family and not the unfortunate who wanted to try and unknown world.

I have searched burial records for Hays, Kansas but have been unable to find where Charlie is buried.
He died 25 July 1910

The three children that Charles and Mary had were eventually adopted. The two boys Charles and Fred were adopted by George and Mary Hartley, the baby girl was adopted by Thomas and Mary Hills.

Great Grandma Grant

My great grandma Grant was one of only two of my great grand parents that was still around when I was born. I do not remember her but I would think, at some point in my early life the family made the trip to Duchesne to visit.

Susan Elvira Sidwell was born on August 15, 1865 in Manti, Utah, to Adelia Belinda and George Sidwell. The Sidwells had nine children and she was the eldest.
One of her earliest memories was when her mother took her to Brother Barton's so she could learn to play a musical instrument called the melodeon. One year her father who was in farming took a load of wheat and some hogs to market. He earned enough money to send back to New York to get Susan a piano, her mother said the melodeon "was just to squeaky".

When Susan was nine she had typhoid fever the lasted over three months "my live was in the balance". After she was well enough she continued her piano lessons. She writes "I improved very slowly as I was not very musically inclined and I could not carry a tune". When the Manti ward got an organ she was put in as the organist which meant a lot of good practice.

Susan remembered when Brigham Young came to Manti to dedicate the laying of the cornerstone for the new temple. "He took several shovels full of soil. It was raining but as he kneeled in prayer an umbrella was held over him. I often heard him preach."

When she was sixteen she went to live with a family in Pleasant Grove. she taught music lessons and was taught how to run the telegraph. it was while living in Pleasant Grove that she met James Grant.
after a few years she got a job in Gunnison to take charge of the telegraph office. She was paid $15.00 a month in Hay and grain and she gave music lessons to pay her board.

In July of 1886 Jim came down and took her and her sister North, On the 21st of July 1886 she was married to James Grant. (the marriage was later solemnized in the Manti temple). the Grants bought a home in American Fork to start their family together. (the home still stands at about 180 North 100 West). They later sold the home in American Fork and moved the family to Thurber, Utah (now Bicknell) James served as one of the early bishops of the Thurber ward.

Around 1907 they moved the family to "the reservation" in the Uintah basin and started a store and a hotel. the first hotel was not much more than a big tent, later replaced by a frame building.
for years they were affectionately known as daddy and mother Grant. They eventually built a two story brick building, which was the most up to date hotel in the basin, rooms were .50 and 1.00, meals for .50 and baths were free. The Grant Hotel also boasted the first telephone in the Uintah basin.

The Grants lived the rest of their lives in what became Duchesne, Utah. together they had ten children. James died in 1927 leaving Susan a widow for nearly thirty years. Susan died on 17th June 1956. They are buried together in the Duchesne cemetery.

Samuel Ezra Bulow

Samuel Ezra Bulow

Four generations; Sam Bulow holding great grandson Steve Clark, Lucile Clark and Fred Clark.

My great grandfather Sam Bulow is the most distant ancestor that I can remember. He lived a few of his last years in the home of my grandparents grandma and grandpa Clark. In my memory he always wore a pair of coveralls and a long sleeved white shirt. On one occasion while we where there visiting I remember him setting at the kitchen table fiddling with his hearing aid. He said the batteries where dead. My grandmother yelled at him "there is nothing wrong with your batteries, your just deaf!"
He died on December 3rd, 1963 when I was 12 years old. His funeral was the first one I ever attended. I can remember most of all the 'viewing' which they held in his old farm house in Moroni, Utah.

Samuel was born April 6, 1877 the son of Charles Henry Bulow and Berthe Marie Johnson. He had diphtheria when he was one year old and was very ill for a long time. He lost six of his brothers in three days.
He worked the fields with his father and did not attend school until he was ten years old. His father was then the janitor at the school and they arrived at 5:00 a.m. each morning to start the fires in the classroom stoves. When he was thirteen years old his father died. after his father died he continued at school until he was sixteen but had to quit each February to work the farm.
About 1900 Sam went to Scofield and went to work in the coal mine. He left working the mine for a few years and went to Richfield, Utah. While he was working in Richfield there was an explosion at the mine that killed 200 men.
Sam went back to work the mine and lived with a family in Winter Quarters, he was paid $2.00 a day to work, and paid $30.00 a month for his room and board. On April 30, 1902 he married Caroline G. Gillott. Even after he was married he did not make much money, the house they rented in Winter Quarters cost them $6.00 a month.
My grandmother Lucile and her older brother Bill were born while they were living in Winter Quarters, Sam and his wife together had six children.
Samuel was eventually able to get a farm in Richfield, Utah. He later sold his home in Richfield and started a farm in Moroni, Utah where he spent the rest of his life.
As I said he spent some time living with his daughter in Provo, Utah and then lived with his youngest son Warren Bulow in his old farm house in Moroni, he passed away on December 3, 1963. He is buried in the Moroni city cemetery.

The purpose of this blog to share with others, especially my family the history of my ancestors and family history.
Each post will feature the story or life sketch of one of my ancestors, in the hope that others will come to know and love our great legacy.
My surname is Lee. the knowledge that we have about the Lee's is limited. Family history traces the Lee's to England but we can find little information past the first few generations. my 5th great grandfather was George Lee he was born in 1717 in Nottinghamshire England. we do not have a death record the only information we have found is his birthdate, taken from the birth records of his children.

the name LEE is the most common name in Korea, however we are not Asian in any way. the name Lee means:
English: topographic name for someone who lived near a meadow or a patch of arable land, Middle English lee, lea from Old English lea, dative case (used after a preposition) of leah, which originally meant 'wood' 'glade', as fro example Lee in Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hampshire, Kent and Shropshire, and Lea in Cheshire, Derbyshire, Herfordshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, and Wiltshire.