Samuel Cox
Born: 12 June 1871 at London, Middlesex, England
Parents: Samuel Cox and Sarah Gane
Married: Erastus Olsen, 27 December 1889 at Spanish Fork, Utah, Utah, USA
Died: 25 July 1906 at Aetna, Alberta, Canada
SKETCH OF SARAH MARCHANT COX
The first and only child of Samuel Cox and Sarah Jane Gane was born 12 June 1871 in
London and they named her Sarah Marchant Cox, after her grandmother, Jane Marchant. The
Coxes felt to gather with the saints in Zion, so when the baby was but one month old,
they set sail for America. The captain of the vessel warned them that the baby would
never survive the trip, but they had faith that she would be alright. The ship
encountered a bad storm at sea and many were seasick, but baby Sarah came through with
no problems. The captain said he like to take Mormon groups as they always had a safe
voyage.
Samuel, Sarah, and baby Sarah Cox traveled to Utah by train. They did not have a long
stay in Ogden before they were sent out to pioneer other places in Southern Utah. The
suffered the hardships common to early pioneers. Money was non-existent and commodities
were scarce. Sarah tells of receiving a letter from her brother, Joseph. He inquired
about her life in America and asked if she needed any money. Sarah did not tell him of
her need for money because she remembered how he had tried to borrow her emigration money
to stop her from coming to Zion.
They went to Cedar City and then on to St. George where Samuel worked on the temple.
In 1879 they were called, with other families, on a pioneer mission to settle Bluff, in
San Juan county, to establish peace with the Indians and protect the southern settlements
from bands of white renegades.
Sarah Marchant Cox was around eight years old when they made the trip to Bluff. The
sun and sand was so hot that little Sarah always wore her sunbonnet. She would run a
little way in her bare feet, then take off her bonnet and stand on it to cool her feet,
then run again.
The San Juan river was very unpredictable and often washed out the dams that they had
labored so hard to build to irrigate their fields and gardens. Then the water would
wash away their land, gardens and everything within reach. It was very discouraging
and impossible to raise enough food to have what they needed to eat.
Some time later, they were among the first settlers of Price, Utah. Young Sarah, grew to
young womanhood. At eighteen, she fell in love and married Erastus Olsen
in Provo, Utah. Their first child, Clarence, was born 21 December 1889 in Spanish Fork,
Utah. Erastus and Sarah were sealed in the Manti temple on 21 September 1892. Nine days
later, their second son, Elmer, who was one year old, took sick and died. Three more
children were born in Price: Clara (1893), Gane (1894), and Murrel (1896).
Early in 1898, Erastus Olsen decided he was tired of trying to get enough water to farm
with, so he persuaded the family, including Grandpa and Grandma Cox to move to Canada.
Before leaving Price, Sarah went to the store and bought among other things, two cans of
baking powder to take with them. The store as giving tickets on that brand of baking
powder just then. Sarah, joking with the storeowner, put her tickets in the box and
hurried home. Some people were buying as many as one hundred cans of baking powder to
try to win the prize, which was a large music box that played twelve different tunes.
The next morning one of the townsfolk rode by and asked Sarah if she was going down to
pick up her music box. On finding she had won, she saw to it that it was picked up
before leaving town. For the rest of her life she treasured this music box.
The 1890's produced mass immigration to Canada, and in 1897 the Erastus Olsen and the
Cox families moved to Canada. Taking their horses and other belongings with them, they
made the trip by train to Lethbridge, Alberta. There was no train from there to Cardston
in those days, so the last sixty miles of the journey had to be mad by wagons.
Their first year in Canada was spent in a little log cabin in Cardston, just east of the
Biglow home. There Charles was born and twenty seven days later, he died. The next year
the families moved to a small farm in Aetna. Grandpa Cox built a little rock house across
the street from the Olsen home. So Grandma Cox to trot back and forth to see that
everything was taken care of. Erastus improved the farm by planting a row of trees
along the windward side. They were all kept busy in the ward. Grandma Cox was president
of the Relief Society. Grandpa Cox led the choir and helped put on plays in the M.I.A.,
where his daughter, Sarah, was Young Women's president. Sarah loved to take part in plays
and to teach young people how to act in the plays.
Three more children were born to the Olsen's: Ray (1900) died when 3 days old, Myrtle
(1901), and Melvin (1903).
The people of Aetna found a true friend in Grandma Cox. She was a devoted Relief Society
president, practical nurse and midwife. Everyone called for her to deliver their babies
and to look after anyone who was sick or had an accident. She never expected any pay
but gave her services to all who were in need of them. She was called on at any time of
the day or night. Everyone thought a great deal of here wherever she went.
The farm was small and land was high priced and difficult to obtain, so in 1905 they
bought 480 acres of land thirteen miles southwest of Cardston (one mile west of Beazer).
This same year, upon moving there, Sarah Cox was at once put in as YWMIA president, and
Erastus was president of YMMIA. Grandma Cox was placed again in as Relief Society
President and Grandpa Cox was asked to lead the choir and be the ward drama director.
Samuel Cox organized Beazer's first Dramatic Company and was the first director. Samuel
and James B. Wright built a stage in the newly built church house in 1907. A backdrop
and side wings were made for the purpose of putting on plays or theatres (as they were
called.) He painted scenery on one side and covered the other side with wall paper.
Under the direction of Samuel Cox began a period of dramatic presentations that kept the
local people entertained and enthused and put Beazer o the map theatrically. They gave
many would-be thespians their turn before the footlights. After playing to the home
audience, the troupe would pack their props and costumes, and go by wagon or sleigh to
some of the surrounding towns. Some of these towns would exchange their plays with Beazer
in return. Beazer's first three act play of record was entitles "Handy Andy".
An interesting incident happened in a play called "Ten Nights in a Bar Room." The night
that Beazer took this play to Aetna, one of the props to be used in the play, a plastic
imitation beer bottle, was forgotten. So a real glass bottle was substituted. The actor,
John Wright, was cautioned to wield it lightly, but he forgot and came down hard with the
usual blow on Horace Brandham's head. Horace dropped like a ton of bricks. Surprisingly,
soon he came up grumbling about his sore head and went right on with his speech. The best
part of all, the audience knew no difference, thinking it was all part of the show.
Grandma Cox was a small woman, hard-working and extremely active. She continued to
practice as a practical nurse and mid-wife, caring for the sick as she had done
everywhere they had lived. She brought more than three hundred babies into this world
without the aid of a doctor. However, when her daughter went into labor with her tenth
child, Carl (1906) she felt very apprehensive and pleaded with Erastus to take her to the
doctor in Cardston. Later a doctor made several visits to Beazer, but could find nothing
wrong, and was astonished when he heard she died.
Sarah Marchant Cox Olsen died from complications of childbed fever three weeks later on
25 July 1906. She was buried the next day in Aetna. Beazer Ward lost a talented actress
and a loving and caring Mutual President. She died at the age of thirty five, leaving
seven living children from twenty three days to 17 years of age.
It was a frightening time for the children. The country was new, and many nights they
huddled in their beds listening to the howling of the wolves. The family had a young
colt and at night they would lock it in the fenced haystack yard near the barn. One
night they lay in their beds listening as the wolves killed the colt right in the stack yard.
After Sarah died, the Coxes continued to live with and care for the Olsen family. The
next year (1907), Samuel bought the east eighty acres of the farm and built a home on it.
Later he moved this home down into Beazer across from the school house so they could be
nearer the school and church, where they were the janitors for many years. They continued
to care for the three youngest children, until the baby Carl became six years old and
Grandma Cox suffered a slight stroke. She was indeed a hard worker and when her friends
cautioned her about working too hard, she had a favorite answer, "When I die, I'll have
the satisfaction of knowing I didn't rust out." The next year she suffered another stroke
that left her bedridden. On 23 January 1915 at the age of eighty one, Grandma suffered a
massive stroke and died. Friends came from far and near to spend the days and nights with
her. Many friends from Aetna came by sleigh to help out while she was bedridden. They
recalled the many days of service that Sarah had freely given. She was indeed a well
loved woman.
It was a very cold and snowy when Samuel built a double cement underground vault for
the two of them. He put a lighted lantern in to keep it from freezing until it was set.
As a young man he had seen the bottom fall out of a casket and the body fall to the
ground. He wanted the best for Sarah. He bought some maple wood and with the help of
his friend, Mr. Cahoon, they built a beautiful well finished casket. The Relief Society
sisters lined it with satin and lace and covered the outside with white velvet brocade.
The handles and breastwork were of finest silver. It was said to be the most beautiful
casket anyone had ever seen. A beautiful resting place for a choice daughter of Heavenly Father.
Samuel used his carpenter tools wherever they were needed. He helped build and paint the
school house. He was the janitor of the church and school. He taught religion classes in
the school for many years. While he encouraged drama and music with the adults, he also
had a spot for the children. He taught them how to make wooden swords and toy canons and
drilled them ready for the Dominion Day parades.
Samuel Cox was a master of the violin and loved to entertain. He took a dry apple box
and shaped and glued the pieces together to fashion a good looking violin. He made toys,
bedsteads, tables, etc. He carved the dog heads on the arms of his easy chair that he
used to sleep in. Eldon remembers seeing him sitting in his chair with one hand over
each dog's head and nodding off to sleep.
Marta Margareta Ruda worked in the Swedish mission office. One of the missionaries
played matchmaker and brought her to Canada to marry Samuel. She spoke little English
and Samuel could speak no Swedish, but she learned the language well for one of her years
and they got along fine. When Samuel married Aunt Marta, Carl, the youngest of the Olsen
children came to live with them for years. She was a very hospitable, accommodating
person and she continued to care for Erastus' three younger children.
Marta was a lovely person and we all loved her. She found it very hard to understand
the careless ways of the people in America. She was a staunch Latter-day Saint and had
taken care of the missionaries in Sweden. She enjoyed going to the temple and was a fine
cook and homemaker. She enjoyed caring for cows and chickens. Marta was the school janitor
from 1927 to 1934 and they say that she kept the schoolroom spotless. She received
$105 in 1927, which was later raised to $150 a year. In he Dominion Day Celebration of
1933, Aunt Martha sang the national anthem of Sweden in Swedish. On the 25th of February
1935, Marta died of heart problems.
Samuel made his own casket many years before he died. At the age of eighty nine,
Samuel Cox died on the 17th of May 1926 and was buried in Beazer, Alberta. His love
and service to all will long be remembered.
Erastus Olsen was much loved for his devotion to his calling as Young men's President.
On 24 October 1910 he was released and then sustained as ward clerk, where he served for
the next twelve years. The years following the death of his wife Sarah in 1906 were
lonely ones for Erastus and on 15 April 1915, he married a widow and long time friend
from Aetna, Johanna Katrina Jensen Scott.
In 1922 the Olsen's sold their farm to his son, Clarence, who had just brought his family
back from Creston, British Columbia, and then Erastus and Hanna moved into Cardston.
While living in Cardston. Erastus enjoyed walking down Main Street and visiting with
everyone he knew. They attended the temple frequently. He had a fall as he stepped out
of the car one night, and this caused him to have short spells of unconsciousness. The
spells came more often as he grew older, otherwise, he enjoyed good health.
In July 1948, Hanna took a light stroke and was ill for several months. the next spring
they moved back to Beazer into a house beside her daughter, Vinnie Beazer. She lost
the use of her right arm and hand, but was determined to overcome this handicap. She
got a small sponge ball and practiced squeezing it every possible moment and finally
did regain the use of her hand.
Erastus received national notice through an article in the Readers Digest in 1956 in
which he claimed to be the only man living whose father was born before 1800. That
challenge was never refuted.
Erastus enjoyed life, his flowers, and working in the yard. He was honest and always
said that he would rather have someone owe him money, than for him to owe someone else.
As Erastus grew older, concern for his well being increased. In Beazer, he could no
longer walk downtown and visit in the stores. Aunt Hanna did not want him to walk
along the creek for fear of him falling in and drowning, but he often walked the two
blocks to the post office and picked up the mail. One day he turned up missing, and the
community was alerted. A search party spread out over the little village. They
finally found him in a grove of cottonwood trees trying to cut a ring around the bark
of a tree with his pocket knife to kill the tree. He hated with a passion the fluffy
down that drifted from the trees in the springtime and wanted to kill all cottonwood trees.
Erastus was bedridden for several years before his death and was determined to live to
be one hundred years old, but he didn't make it. He died in the Cardston Hospital on
14 December 1957 at the age of ninety four years. He was buried in Aetna beside his
wife, Sarah Marchant Cox.
Hanna continued to live in the home next to her daughter. She was an ambitious,
hard working woman and very independent! One crisp, autumn Saturday, the church
priesthood had just finished sawing up the winter's supply of wood for the church.
Someone mentioned that they should go up to Aunt Hanna's and Vinnie's (also a widow)
and saw their wood for them. The boys had only a handsaw to cut up several loads of
wood, as they had been helping at the church sawing that morning. But Aunt Hanna met
them at the gate. "We do not take charity!" She said, "The boys can not saw our wood by
hand." Bishop Eldon Olsen said, "You and your family have always helped the church and
other people all of your life." Aunt Hanna agreed. Bishop Olsen continued, "How did you
feel when you were helping others?" Hanna answered, "We have always felt good when we
helped other people. We were always blessed." Bishop Olsen said, "But someone always
had to let you help them in order for you to receive those blessings. Right? Well, we
need those blessings now. You don't have the right to deny those blessings to us."
So the wood was sawed and Aunt Hanna stood by with tears of gratitude rolling down her
cheeks. In later years, she expressed her love and appreciation for many acts of kindness
she had received from the ward. Hanna died 3 July 1972 at the age of ninety eight years.
Sources:
1 Story on FamilySearch
History of Samuel Cox as written by his brother Edwin C. Cox and collected by Clarence
Olsen, oldest grandson of Samuel Cox.
Contributed to FamilySearch By virginiaannmaynard1 · 1 August 2014
Right-click [Mac Control-click] to open full-size image:
Sarah Marchant Cox and her parents
Right-click [Mac Control-click] to open full-size image:
Sarah Marchant Cox
Right-click [Mac Control-click] to open full-size image:
Erastus Olsen