Dad's Story Part 1

Life Sketch of Francis Willis Ericksen

December 1981 --- age 66

Taken from my Journal:

I, Francis Willis Ericksen, was the first son of Francis Erick Ericksen and Virginia May Gilbert who were married in the Manti Temple on December 23, 1914. I made my appearance into this world at 10:00 p.m. on September 24, 1915. This great event took place in Dr. R.A. Pearse’s little hospital in Brigham City, Box Elder County, Utah.

The reason for my mother being in Brigham City at this time is related in my father’s life sketch, wherein he says that many of the mothers in Pocatello, Idaho had been dying in childbirth. For this reason he had sent my mother to Brigham City, about a month before I was born, to live with her Aunt Louise and Uncle Will Gidney.

The following is a little background on the reason for my parents living in Pocatello, Idaho. My father had won a years’ scholarship to the University of Utah. So after spending a year at her U. of U., his brother Leo, who was working for the Oregon Short Line Railroad in Pocatello wrote and told him that there were jobs available. Dad went up there and got a job as a freight car checker in the freight yard. Now that he had a steady job, there was nothing to stand in his way to becoming a married man. Dad and mother had become engaged during the Christmas holiday of the year he was enrolled at the University of Utah.

About one year later, on the 23rd of December 1914 (the Prophet Joseph Smith’s birthday) they were married in the Manti Temple. Dad was just eight days from being 21 years old, and mother was lacking about three months of being 21.