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Martha Marcussen Hammond
Francis Asbury Hammond
Bluff Meetinghouse and School
Martha Jensina Marcussen Holmes Hammond
Born: 5 April 1850, Horsens, Skndbr, Denmark
Parents: Rasmus Marcussen and Karen Marie Christensen
Married: 1) Henry Holmes, 22 February 1868 at Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
2) Francis Asbury Hammond, 5 April 1881 at Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Died: 27 November 1900 at Bloomfield, San Juan, New Mexico, USA
Martha Jensina Marcussen Holmes Hammond Life sketch
Martha Holmes was the only grandmother I knew and I loved her dearly. I remember her so well as a beautiful, lovely lady.
Martha was born April 5, 1850, in Horsens, Skndbr, Denmark, the fourth daughter of Rasmus Marcussen (a carpenter) and Karen Marie Christensen. There were seven children in the family — three boys and four girls. She was baptized on April 5 , 1866 into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Martha took out her endowments and was married February 22, 1868, to Henry Holmes. They lived in North Ogden, Utah. She was sealed to Henry on October 8, 1896, in the Salt Lake Temple. He died November 1, 1876.
After Henry’s death, my grandfather, Francis Asbury Hammond, hired Martha as his housekeeper, since he was a widower with fifteen children and two babies under the age of one. His second wife was my grandmother, Alice Howard, who was from England and died giving birth to her third child. My own mother, Mary Alice Howard Hammond, was one of the three children left.
Brigham Young called my grandfather, Francis, who was the first Bishop in Huntsville and had been Bishop for twenty years, to go to San Juan County to settle that country along with his married children and their families. They drove over three hundred cattle down there. My uncle, John Hammond, was a cowboy. Some of the cattle had strayed away so he had gone horseback to round them up. This was when he drowned at Hole in the Rock of that wonderful country. It was so very hard to leave such a lovely home, a two— story house next to David O. McKay’s parents home. Sister McKay and other women of Huntsville used to come over to help with the babies.
They had to ford three rivers - Colorado, Green, and San Juan. There was no ferry so they had to take the buggies and wagons across by floating them, and having the horses swim. My mother had to drive a light buggy with two horses from Huntsville, taking Aunt Martha and the younger children with her.
Bluff was a hard—looking place of about ten families. The other people had got discouraged and moved away. In Bluff the Hammond’s had a log cabin with dirt floors and dirt roofs. My mother used to tell me about Aunt Martha lining the ceilings and walls with white sheets. Every time it would rain, she would take the sheets down, wash them, and put them up again. Aunt Martha would sit in the corner and cry when it rained, while grandfather sat in the corner with an umbrella reading his paper.
Grandfather knew a lot about the leather business and so would make their shoes. My mother can remember all family members lining up, including the married ones with their families, and being measured for shoes before leaving for San Juan. On one trip to Salt Lake City, Francis was looking for a school teacher and met Andrew Philip Sorensen who said he was looking for a school to teach in. Andrew was the first school teacher in Bluff and taught my mother. They were later married in Monticello.
The family had more trouble with the wild cowboys than with the Indians. They had to sit with the lights out at night or the cowboys would shoot out their windows.
Grandfather was president of the San Juan Stake for fifteen years, which composed of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Colorado. He was loved by all the people. There were no cars there, so he always drove matched horses that could travel fast and he wore a duster over his suit. He would come home from his trips around the Stake and stop to see us when we lived in Taylor, Weber, Utah. I can still see him coming along the road with those beautiful matching horses. By this time he had moved to Moab, Grand County, Utah, where he finally married Aunt Martha who raised his fifteen children and two babies, on April 5, 1881.
Grandfather had just organized a new ward named Hammond Ward. He was driving those high spirited horses, when they ran away with him and ran by some clothes lines which caught him under the neck, throwing him to the foundation breaking his neck. I can well remember when they had to take him to Huntsville to be buried next to his other wives. There were no railroads until they got to Price, so a man had to bring his body over the prairie, stopping at night. Someone asked the man if he was afraid. He said President Hammond had never hurt him when he was alive, and the man was sure he wouldn’t now.
Aunt Martha was a wonderful housekeeper and cook. She brought recipes from her homeland on how to make sauce for Christmas pudding, which she taught to me and I have passed on to my daughter and daughter—in-law.
My daughter, Klea, and I went on a trip in that country, clear to Bluff, where I met the man who brought grandfather’s body across the prairie to the railroad. My grandparents had a lovely home in Moab. It brought back memories when I saw it of when Grandfather would return from his trips, pick me up and give me a piggy back ride on his shoulders, or bring me a little basket with a little boy and girl doll in it. I can remember sitting by my grandmother in meeting with my head in her lap and she would always put my hair behind my ears.
Aunt Martha was a lovely lady, liked by everyone. She was 85 years old when she died in Moab, Grand County, Utah, in 1935. She raised fifteen children and two babies, but did not have any children of her own.
Source:
HISTORY OF MARTHA JENSINA MARCUSSEN HOLMES HAMMOND
by her granddaughter, Alice Karen Sorensen Mower April 1982
Memories:FamilySearch
Right-click [Mac Control-click] to open full-size image:
Martha Marcussen Hammond
Francis Asbury Hammond
Bluff Meetinghouse and School