Andrew Pehrsson Renstrom (Click to enlarge)

Andrew Pehrsson Renstrom

Born: Dec. 30, 1857
Died: Jan. 22, 1933
Spouse: Caroline Petersen
Parents: Erik Pehrson and Catharine Christina Erikson
 
According to the History of the Scandinavian Missions by Andrew Jenson, it tells the following of Andrew Pehrsson Renstrom:
Andrew Pehrsson was born on December 30, 1857, at Viksta, Uppsala, Sweden, baptized November 14, 1872, and emigrated to Utah in 1873 and located in Huntsville, Utah where he resides. From 1883 to 1885 he filled a mission to Sweden laboring in the Eshilstuna Branch and later in the northern part of Sweden. In 1885 he visited Finland and held meetings with the few Saints there and finished his mission in Vstmanland and Darlane. Returning to Huntsville he married Caroline Petersen and was assistant superintendent at Huntsville Sunday School 1888 to 1889. Filled a second mission to Scandinavia in 1889 to 1891 laboring at Stockholm conference and later presiding over the Gotborg Conference. On July 31, 1898, he was set apart as first counselor to Bishop David McKay of Huntsville and appointed bishop in 1905. He was released in 1908 as bishop after the death of his wife. He filled a home mission in the Ward in Ogden. He filled a third mission to Sweden in 1923 to 1925.

Andrew came to the U.S. and then to Huntsville, Utah (July of 1873) when he was 16 years old. He described in a letter to his sister at the of October 1873, a few months after the family arrived, the following:

Dear sister,

This is the first letter I write to you from a foreign country. I can tell you this I am very happy here. I don't have as many friends as I had in Sweden. But I am not sad anyway, because next month people from Sweden will move here to Huntsville... .1 think it will be great fun to learn English.

A little while ago we were out picking berries. We live in quite a large village. It is more than a mile long and there are about 200 homes. The land is not as much cultivated as in Sweden and that is because the land has not been inhabited for very long. The funniest thing to do is to water the land, because you just have to make a dam and then the water will flow out over the fields.

I do not have very much to tell you, but you cannot imagine what fun it was on the ship that took us over the great ocean. There were at least 20 boys from Sweden, and we ran around on the ship from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. This summer I have worked in the fields just like I did in Tibble. I have caught salmon here just like I caught perch in Langsjon.

How is little Edla? Give my love to her and to little Gottfried. Tell them that it would make me and everybody else very happy, if they were here. So, if you come, I will meet you in Ogden. If Janne is coming, please tell me, because I need my school report when I start school here. In October we had a letter from Larsson, where it says that you have a pain in your arm. Mother and I are sorry to hear that, but if we trust in God everything will be all right.

Give my love to Larsson and Maria and tell them that they will get a letter, too. But I do not know how soon.

Your affectionate brother,
Anders Renstrom

Andrew's father's parents lived in Ramsjo, Uppsala, Sweden and were Pehr Ersson and Anna Larson. His mother's parents were Anders Erickson and Margareta Olson. The two couples did not own their land but were farmers on the allotment system and were well-to-do, enterprising, friendly and charitable. The children of these two couples, Erik Pehrson and Catharine Christina Erikson, met and were married November 2, 1839 in a Lutheran Church. He was 27 and she was 19 and they felt secure and happy earning a living as farmer and auctioneer. They eventually acquired their own farmland. The countryside was beautiful being dotted with lakes and forests.

Children born to this union were:
Anna Greta Ericksson, born 6 Jan 1841, died 20 May 1841
Pehr Ericksson, born 4 May 1842, died 1842
Greta Stina Ericksson, born 8 July 1843, died? Married Lars Hagglund Carolina Ericksson, born 2 May 1846, died 28 Mar 1892
Anna Marie Ericksson, born 9 Sep, died? Married Per Larsson
George Peter Renstrom, born 22 Apr 1851, died 17 Dec 1897 married Carrie Lundberg Erik Ericksson, born 12 Apr 1854, died 12 Apr 1854
Catherine Charlotte Pehrsson, born 4 Oct 1855, died 17 Aug 1882 married Soren Peter Peterson
Andrew Pehrsson Renstrom, born 30 Dec 1857, died 28 Jan 1933 married Caroline Petersen
Eric August Renstrom, born 8 Nov 1860, died May 1926.

On November 3, 1870, Erik passed away just three years before the family was to move to America. Andrew attended school in Sweden, and he could read and write fluently in Swedish. Later he would become as fluent in English, and he was always a beautiful penman. Andrew had four brothers and five sisters; he was the ninth child in the family. Two brothers and one sister died in infancy.

In 1871 Elder Erngreen, a former resident of Sweden came to Uppsala as a Mormon Missionary. He visited the households of Margareta and Catherine who were both widows. They, and others in the vicinity, were converted to the truthfulness of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Many of their friends turned against them and they soon decided to go to America. Andrew's older brother, Peter, was twenty-two years old when he sailed alone to America to look the country over. He was enchanted and wrote glowing letters home from New York City and finally from Utah. When the family in Sweden received his letters post marked Utah, U.S.A. they were satisfied that Utah was part of the U.S.A. and was the place they wanted to go.

In 1873 the group began their journey. This group consisted of Margareta Olson, Catharine and five of her children—Peter, Carolina, Karin Charlotte, Andrew and Eric August and also Catharine's sisters Mary Danielson and her husband and three daughters and Margretta Bjorklund, a widow, and her two daughters. Also the Berlin and Tangreen families left with them. They sailed from Sweden in June to Copenhagen and across the North Sea and landed at Hull, England. They then took the train to Liverpool and left that city on the steam ship "Nevada" or "Wyoming". They were on the Atlantic twenty days. They landed in New York City July 6th and arrived at Salt Lake City by train July 17th. A few days later they went to Huntsville.

Catharine and her children made their home in a small two-room frame house located two blocks west of the Church Corner while Margareta lived with the Danielson's. Margareta participated in the industry of the silkworms.

Andrew lived at home with his mother and did farming and other odd jobs. His brother, Eric, remained unmarried and lived in many parts of the country including Alaska. He met Rex Beach and Jack London and participated in the gold rush.

Andrew served a mission for the Church in Sweden from 1883 to 1885. His grandmother, Margareta Olson, died in 1888 at the age of 89. She was an adventurous woman having left her home to travel across the Atlantic and the untamed United States Territory in order to find religious freedom and to have the opportunity to own her own land, something denied her in the old country.

Andrew often told his children something she told him, "Always remember you live in a free country."

Andrew met Caroline Petersen and grew to love her and on June 17, 1888, they were married traveling to Logan via horse and buggy, probably by way of Liberty, over the pass into Cache Valley. They then lived with his mother in her little cottage.

Moiselle was born June 23, 1889, and then Andrew went on his second mission to Sweden. This time the meetings were better attended than on his previous mission. In Eskelstuna the elders held a number of well attended meetings until the local Lutheran priest opposed them and presented to his congregation some of the old accusations against Joseph Smith.

In 1892 after he had returned from his mission, he bought three lots from Bishop 1--lammon and built a house there. Carol was born on the 23rd of May, 1892. In 1893 he became counselor to Bishop McKay. He was a farmer and owned two farms, one Perry Farm and Spring Creek (which is now covered by Pine View Reservoir). He was in stock raising and belonged to a co-op farm and was co-owner with Bishop McKay of a threshing machine and a fanning mill. Arnold was born January 18, 1894, and Miriam October 12, 1895, a baby was born and died in 1898 and also 1899. Then on November 7, 1900, George was born. That year on December 31 st, Andrew carved candle holders for all of the front room windows and placed candles in them and lighted them to celebrate the new century. All of the family went out of the house and across the road to look back at the shining house. His children always remembered this event (those old enough to remember) for he told them it was a special celebration. Miriam, his daughter, certainly remembered it for she often told about it to her children Caroline, Marilyn and Stephen—who have told it to their children.

Grandmother Ericksson lived with Andrew and Caroline in their new house and for her rent she gave Andrew money to buy Perry Farm. When she was eighty-two, she fell and broke her hip and was an invalid until she died. Andrew was very kind and helpful with her. In 1903 she died at their home. On April 29, 1903, Erma was born.

September 10, 1905 Andrew was made Bishop of Huntsville Ward and he held that position until after his wife died—October 25, 1908—at which time he was released.

Probably in 1905 a stillborn baby girl was born.

In 1903 electricity came to Huntsville and now there would be no more gathering the lamps together every Saturday to fill with coal oil or kerosene and trim the wicks and clean the chimneys. The cumbersome iron would be replaced with an electric one.

On January 1 1, 1907 Gladys was born and from that birth Caroline never recovered (it was listed that she died of Bright's Disease—kidney failure). Gladys was tended by a cousin, Mary Berlin Johnson, and many remedies were tried on Caroline, but none seemed to help. She died on the 16th of July 1907. Her last words were, "poor Papa".

Andrew was very despondent about her death and never really recovered from it and blamed himself. He was more stern and strict with his children from that time on although he never did physically abuse them. He worked hard to provide a good home for them but the happiness that had formerly been in the home was diminished.

In 1911 when Miriam was in eighth grade, Andrew was a guest speaker in the class. Mr. Deegan, the teacher, spoke a few words to the students waiting for him. Then came a knock and the door was opened to Andrew who slouched in clad in his old work clothes, he doffed his hat and straw fell on the floor, his speech was uncouth and full of slang. Then he left and the class tittered. Soon came another knock, the door was aging opened and now he came in dressed in his Sunday best, his good hat came off in a polite flourish, and his talk was equal to his attire. It was a spectacular lesson-certainly one Miriam never forgot.

He continued farming and also managed the post office with the help of his daughters. He had many rules the family had to live by. Some of them included the necessity to every day feed the pigs, scrub the milk buckets and can, not to stay out late or go buggy riding Sunday or after Mutual, not to dance after midnight, to be sure to fill the reservoir and teakettle, not to miss Sunday School or Sacrament meeting, not to read fiction (the whole family defied this order secretly).

In 1916 Arnold went on a mission to the Northwestern States. April of 1916 Carol married and in 1917 George ran away to join the Army. Miriam left home to attend nursing school at the LDS Hospital. So, in late 1917 Andrew was all alone; Moiselle was teaching school in Weber County, George was far away, Arnold had returned from his mission and was in the Marines, Erma was attending school in Ogden, Gladys was living with Carol.

In the early 1920's he lived in a house on Ninth Avenue in Salt Lake City and there the children came and went some staying a while due to work. In 1923 he was called on another mission to Sweden where he served until 1925. In 1927 Miriam with her little daughter, Caroline, and Carol along with Merle and Fanchon stayed for a while during the summer in Huntsville with their father. Now that he was older, he was kinder and less irritable. Erma was married that summer. Andrew continued to live in Huntsville occasionally visiting his children. The last few years of his life his son, Arnold, and his family lived with him in the house. In 1925 George was married and in 1927 Erma.

The winter of 1932-33 was a very severe one with deep, deep snow and cold. Andrew spent his days reading and visiting old people and friends in Huntsville. On one of these visits, he must have fallen through or off a bridge for he came limping home covered with dirt, scratches and blood. Arnold put him to bed, and he was rational but weak. After a few days he grew weaker and on a Sunday morning he seemed partly unconscious and Arnold, in some alarm, said to him, "Dad I think you are dying," and he opened his eyes and answered, "I've waited so long". These were his last words. Thursday was chosen for the funeral date, a wise decision for a blizzard raged Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. New roads were dug out of the drifts and Thursday was clear though cold and on Friday the snow fell again. The church was cold, but the services were good. Earl Felt, Don McKay, Mathel Allen and Aunt Eliza participated in the services. Where the cemetery road left the main one, the mourners had to transfer from automobiles to sleds and the horses had a difficult climb up the hill. So ended the life of Andrew Pehrsson Renstrom on 22nd January, 1933 and buried the 26 of Jan 1933. His children were the following:

Katherine Moiselle, born 23 Jun 1889, died Sep 1956
Anna Carol, born 23 May 1892, died 5 Jan 1940, married Elsmere Ellithorpe Gesford Arnold Pehrsson, born 18 Jan 1894, died 24 Sep 1977, married Ruby Salt
Ruth Miriam, born 12 Oct 1895, died 11 Sept 1982, married Emil Morris Whitesides
John, born Nov 1898, died Nov 1898 Eva, born Nov 1899, died Nov 1899
George Pehrsson, born 7 Nov 1900, died 5 Aug 1945, married Catherine Ekman
Erma, born 29 Apr 1903, died 10 Dec 1978, married George Martin Petereit
Edna, born about 1905, stillborn
Mary Gladys, born 11 Jan 1907, died 13 Jan 1990, married Burton Franklin Owens

Keith's account of A.P. Renstrom:

A.P. Renstrom
When Keith grew up, I only remember him as a little kid. A.P. Renstrom was coming back from his mission from Sweden—his third. He came on the train and up by the big store and dad was there to greet him. Dad carried his suitcases. The old post office was sitting right out there in front of our lot. He had two balloons in his hand that had helium, so they went up in the air. I can remember him going into the post office and putting his suitcases down and tying the two balloons to a chair. Every day Keith would go down there and look at the balloons to see if they were still there. I wanted him to give them to me, but he never did. He just didn't think like that—he wasn't stingy or anything like that, but he just didn't think to give them to me. Every day the balloons would get lower and lower until they were on the floor.

A.P. Renstrom lived with us from then on until he died. He was lonely and got to the point of senility. Mother and dad would take care of him. He lost control of his bowels, and they had to diaper him and change his diaper three times a day. At times his room would stink and then sometimes it smelled very well.

He tried to teach Keith Swedish. I used to love to hear him read in Swedish. He could read or write in either Swedish or English. He was smart enough! People seemed to either love him or hate him. I was in the Los Angles Temple when I was going through the veil, the man asked me if I was Andrew Renstrom's son. I said no, I am his grandson. You know your grandfather was the most honest man I have ever known. I didn't get his name because I was caught off guard. That was just the way grandpa was.

A.P. Renstrom's brother in laws—the Petersen's made their own wine. They had all kinds of wine down there with winepresses and barrels and grew their own grapes. Grandpa grew up drinking wine, but when they came out with the Word of Wisdom, he quit drinking from then on. It was very stern and when he made up his mind and he was right that was that. He would never change or compromise. When they said no coffee, he never drank coffee again. His Petersen Cousins grabbed him down on the square and they got him down on the ground and they were prying his mouth open to pour whiskey down his throat. They got the bottle in his mouth and then he bit the top off. He cut his lip and they all got scared and ran off when they saw the blood. I grew up with this story and boy I never felt like my grandpa. He was like that as a bishop and people really loved him. He was stern and the people that liked him really liked him but those that were living on the fringe didn't like him because they were not doing what was right.

Grandpa made more money on lending money to people than he did on the farm. He one time lent money to a man who paid him very little at a time. One man paid him as little as $3.00 a month and Grandpa told him he still owed him $1.00. Grandpa kept track of any money owed to him.
When Darrell was a little boy (Darrell was about one and a half when Grandpa Renstrom died) with blonde curly hair, Grandpa used to love to rub Darrell's hair. He would stick his bony hand on his head and rub it all over. Darrell was over two years old and you knew that there was something that made a connection between the two of them. Grandpa Renstrom was 76 years old when he died.