Anna Louise Peterson Davidson's Interesting Life Story

Anna Louise Peterson Davidson's Interesting Life Story
Compiled by Edna L. Davis, her granddaughter

Anna Louisa was born March 19, 1859, in Lindesburg, Orebro, Sweden. She was the third child of Johan Erick Peterson and Christina Henrickson. The family lived on a three acre farm on the mountain side. They lived in a time when families had to be self-sustaining and their home was built to meet the needs and conditions of the climate. Their house was a long house built in sections, The living quarters at one end, then the woodshed, joining this the barn, where they kept the hay and next the part where they kept their cows, pigs and chickens. This was all under the same roof because the winters were dark and cold and always lots of snow so that it was not safe to go from one building to another. In the living part of the house was a large fireplace--this was the only heat they had and enough wood had to be stored in the woodhouse to last the winter. Wood was important to them and they kept planting trees on their farm to replace the large ones that they cut down for fuel. In this way their supply was steady.
The land was very rocky and had to be cleared. These rocks were many different colors -red, purple, green and brown, and were made into a beautiful rock wall all around their farm. In the summer their rainfall was heavy and they raised hay for their cows and a good garden. The hay had to be cut with a scythe and piled to dry. It rained so much that the hay had to be carried into the barn and back out many times before it was dry enough to store without mildew. Anna always helped carry the hay and in so doing hurt her back so that she was round shouldered as she grew older.
They washed twice a year: This sounds as if they were not clean but they had many changes of clothes and when they washed they took them to a clear stream to wash them.
Rye bread was used all the time. In the summer it was baked in thin round sheets and dried by hanging it in the top of the house on a long stick between the rafters. It was called "Kanikai". There were lots of wild fruits growing near, blueberries, sour cherries, strawberries and other berries; these were gathered and eaten on their flour mush for supper. The flour mush was made by stirring flour into boiling water and beating it with a whisk until it was smooth and thick. They ate lots of rutabaga and herring. Johan Erick caught many fish in the fjord near by; these he brine-cured and then smoked for their winter supply. They also ate clabber milk, cottage cheese and a special brown cheese made from the boiled whey of the other cheeses.
Once each year the shoemaker made the rounds of the village, staying with each family while he mended their old shoes and made the necessary new ones from skins they had tanned. Anna told an incident that happened at their home as the shoemaker sat in a corner of the room working on the shoes. Anna's mother put a piece of meat on to cook for soup, soon Mariah, the oldest girl came by and salted it, shortly after Johannah, the next daughter, came along and salted it and then the mother came and salted it. Seeing this the shoemaker also put in a handful. When mealtime came the family sat down to eat rutabagas and soup. They all had rutabagas but the shoemaker did not have any soup. The family thought this was unusual, but when Johan Eric took his first bite and spit it out, saying it was brine they knew why. The shoemaker then told what had happened and they all had a good laugh.
The family belonged to the Lutheran Church, and the three girls probably attended a Lutheran school. Their first textbook was a Danish bible, in this way Anna also learned to speak Danish. Later they had a Swedish Bible to study. In the winter when they went to school it was dark most of the time and the girls carried a torch made of pitch so that they could see their way and also scare away any wild animals that might be near. The snow was deep and when they came to drifts, they took turns breaking trail on their knees.
Mariah went away to work. Some Latter-Day-Saint Missionaries came to the home and converted the family and also Mariah. They were all baptized then Mariah sent the Elders to her own family and they were soon converted and were all baptized Nov. 7, 1875 by Bro. Linquist.. John Erick's and Christina's brothers and sisters were all dead and they had few living relatives. They soon sold their farm and possessions to get funds to emigrate to Zion. They took passage June 22, 1876 on the ship 'Idaho'. When they went on the ship they took with them a large sack of "Kanikai," they hid it in their quarters but when they went to get it someone had stolen it.

There were several severe storms but they weathered them all, and after a six week voyage arrived safe in the U.S.A. They took a train to Utah but the trains were slow and had no accommodations to make them comfortable. They bought a lot of bread before they started but they did not like it moist so they cut it into slices and hung it above them in the train to dry so they could eat it. There was no space to make a bed so they had to sit up all the way. Some of the emigrants took off their shoes but their feet became so swollen they could not get them back on. They were really glad to arrive in Utah on July 24, 1876, after a two week train ride.
Brigham Young asked them to settle in Fairview, and they chose a bit of rocky ground which reminded them of their homeland. Shortly after Mariah married and the following year Johanna and Anna also married. Anna met Johan William Peterson, also an emigrant and fifteen years her senior. After a short courtship they were married August 26, 1877. Johan William was a twin and the only one of seven children to live. After the death of his parents he joined the Church and came to Zion. Johan and Anna bought a small farm in Fairview but were not married in the Temple; however when their oldest child, Anna Wilhemine was about a year old, they made the long trip by wagon o the Endowment House, 15 July 1880 and were sealed. They did not understand that Anna Wilhemine needed to be sealed to them and that sealing was not done until after Anna Wilhemine's death and then by her daughter Lucy. The couple had three daughters, Anna Wilhemine, Ellen Olive and Regina Josephine, named after Johan's aunt in Sweden. When Rena was about six weeks old Johan Wilhelm had quick pneumonia. One night Anna Louisa was laying down nursing Rena, she saw that he was having an exceptionally hard time to use the camode and seemed about to pass out. She asked if she should get help. She ran across the field for the Davidson's but he died about the time she returned. He looked so well and peaceful that she could not believe he was dead so they kept him about a week before they buried him.
With three girls, it was hard to make a living. Anna sold an oxen for $75.00 and bought a sewing machine so she could do sewing as well as cleaning for people. She had a few acres of land and raised enough hay to feed several cows and some poultry. Her father and brother helped her some.
Little Anna was always into mischief --one day when her mother went to the neighbors for a few minutes, she got some matches and with the other two little girls took a small wood box and went out by the hay stack to cook a play dinner. They made a fire in the box and soon it was burned and the hay stack on fire, with the three little children trapped in the tightly fenced corral. Mangunsen, their other neighbor saw the fire and rescued the girls but the hay and sheds were completely burned.
Ellen was always ready to ride a horse; one day as the children were playing by the fence some Indians came along and coaxed her to climb the fence and get on the horse behind one of the Indians. Just as she was ready to get on the horse her mother saw her and ran quickly and took her away. The Indians tried to steal the girls several times.
Anna felt that she should marry again and made it a matter of prayer. She dreamed who she should marry and that she should marry in polygamy but she could not bring herself to accept this so when she had been widowed about four years and the handsome and young, Lorenzo Davidson returned after a hunting and mining trip and came courting Anna, she married him. About this time her family had some pictures taken.
Anna and Lorenzo were married in Fairview, March 4, 1887, and they lived comfortably in Anna's little house. About this time Anna's father married in polygamy and Anna's little girls loved to go down the road to visit "Muister", as they called John Eric's second wife. In December Anna had another daughter, Mary, and in July 1890 a son Arland. About this time Ellen had scarlet fever and one day ran to the door and the cold breeze caused them to go down. She was very sick and her head became twisted. They decided to take her to the Manti Temple and have her baptized for her health. and have Rena baptized there too. Ellen's head became all right.
Things came up to cause them uncertainty so they decided to emigrate to Wyoming and settle in the Big Horn Basin. Anna was expecting another baby in May so they quickly sold the little home to get supplies and equipment to take them there before the baby would arrive.
They used two wagons with a trailer wagon behind the second one. The trailer was fixed similar to the wagon a sheepherder uses. Across the back was a large bed for them to sleep in and under the bed was stored boxes of clothing and many needed supplies, for they had to take with them all the things they would need for at least a year. There was a small stove in it and a cupboard for dishes they used along the way. On one side of the wagon they fastened a couple of water barrels and pen or cages with chickens and a pig in them. Anna also had two large tubs in which she had cans filled with house plants. There were geraniums, fuchsia, wandering jew, petunias, strawberry plants and others. Rena tells how they had to be watered everyday. Anna took her sewing machine, spinning wheel and wool cords, along with other things and Lorenzo had farming supplies in the other wagon.
They left Fairview about the 16th of April. They stopped in Salt Lake City so that they might go through the nearly completed temple. It was a long trip. Anna and the children walked a lot of the time. One evening as they were camped on a side of a hill a herd of sheep were driven along above them. A large rock was loosened and rolled down striking Anna's leg and hurting it so that she had a hard time to get about for some time. Shortly after they reached the Idaho border (Eed-ahow, as the Indians called it, meaning "Sun shining over the mountain.") their travels became more hazardous, the trails were dim and wound through tall sage and other bushes and trees. There were storms leaving mud and flooded streams to ford. Anna had a steadfast character, When she set about doing a thing she accomplished it. Her faith and determination were exceptional and she bore the hard trip uncomplainingly. As they neared the Teton Valley they encountered many high drifts of snow along the road. They entered Darby
about the 24th of May. The snow was so high they were afraid they could not reach the Big Horn Basin before Anna's time would arrive, so they decided to make their home in Darby instead.
The Henry Todd family had homesteaded in the valley the year before and had built a one room log cabin which they shared with Anna and the children. Here on May 29th, Anna had her baby Arthur and Mrs. Todd gave Anna her own bed and took care of her all the time. Arthur was the first white child born in the valley.
Later the family with their wagons camped near Darby Creek while Lorenzo cleared ground for a little crop and garden and cut logs for a cabin. The little girls carried water from the creek for drinking. Each morning a bucket of
fresh milk with dry bread crust in it was put in the creek to keep it cool and sweet for their supper. There were sage brush and large sunflower roots all over and these Anna used for fuel. Anna and the girls gathered wild berries to add variety to their diet of venison and cooked whole wheat. Clean whole wheat was put in a large iron pot and covered with water then cooked until tender. Rena says the children loved to get handfuls of this to eat as they played. The large dirt roofed cabin was finished and the family were inside before the real cold weather. Very little garden had been raised that year so Lorenzo went to St. Anthony and brought back a few staple foods including
a little dried fruit and a sack of potatoes that froze on the way home. The potatoes were kept frozen and when the family wanted a special treat it was cooked frozed potatoes.
When the land was surveyed they found that the cabin was on the line between them and their neighbors, the Todd's. They continued to live here for several years and Lenora was born here 30 March, 1894. A large canvas was hung around the bed so that the children would not see the birth. Lorenzo went on skis for Mrs. Barney the mid-wife who lived 18 miles away and pulled her back to the cabin on a toboggan. Anna had chills and fever after the birth and Mrs. Gjettrup came and stayed with her until she could get about again. That winter, the snow was deep and the dogs were hungry. They would get into packs and chase the cattle, killing and eating any that fell. One night while Anna was still in bed after Lenora's birth, Lorenzo heard them chasing his animals, he took his gun and shot into the pack scattering them. He hit a dog belonging to Ellington Smith. The dog went home bleeding and the next morning Smith came to the door with a shot gun to kill Lorenzo for shooting his dog. Lorenzo talked to him or some time and his temper cooled a bit and he went home.
On August 25, 1895, Darby Ward of the Bannock Stake was organized and Anna was chosen as Primary President, this position she held for about seven years. The first counselors she chose were Nancy C. Nelson and Charlotte Bagley with Elizabeth Bagley as secretary. Later Otelia Holden and Margaret Hill served as counselors and Heneretta Mancrisies and Etta Herendeen served as secretaries. Sister Winters was president of the Stake Primary in 1901. Church was held in the Davidson cabin and Lorenzo got out more logs to build another house in the center of his field. This was a larger and better built cabin. The first cabin was then used as a church house and a school house for a little while and Sarah Holden was the first teacher. Arland went to school here.
A third son Nathaniel was born Dec. 13, 1896, and Anna was real sick again and was confined to her bed with milk leg for a long time.
Every fall and at various times in between Lorenzo did freighting to earn a few extra dollars to buy necessary supplies for them. He did freighting for Robert Miller in Jackson Hole, bringing all the supplies for his big ranch from St. Anthony and Idaho Falls. He also freighted for Blogets Store in Victor. There would be barrels of sugar, oatmeal, pickles and also boxes of dried fruits, also grain and hay for the animals in winter. Their winters were extremely cold, getting as low as 40° below zero with drifts sometimes twenty feet deep. The winters lasted about seven months. Rena tells about one year they ran out of hay for the animals in April, so early one morning while the snow was crusted over, Lorenzo took the dry cattle and with the girls helping him, drove them over the still covered fence posts and fields to a meadow of wild hay where the snow was beginning to melt. They had to go early because after the sun came up the snow would start to soften and the animals would sink in and flounder around until they became exhausted and not be able to get out.
Anna made lye from ashes and straw, then made soap both for laundry and hand use. She grated potatoes and covered them with water in big tubs until the starch formed on the bottom of the tub, then she would skim off the potatoes and pour off the water leaving the starch to be cut into chunks and dried; using it to thicken milk and make puddings for variety. She also made sweet soup, a mixture of dried peaches, prunes, apricots, currants, etc. cooking them until tender. This was a special treat. She gathered small birch branches about 12 inches long, pealed and dried them and tied them into a bundle small enough to be held comfortably in the hand and used it as a whisk or beater to make smooth flour-mush and also to beat eggs, etc. She made pants from wagon covers for Lorenzo. She cleaned, washed, corded and spun wool into yarn and knit it into stockings for her children. She sewed all their clothes, making many of them from flour sacks, and with the flour brand plainly showing on the clothing. Lorenzo tanned the skins of the animals he killed for food and Anna made them into shoe boots for her children to wear in the winter months, and a few times made some for herself and Lorenzo. She used mutton tallow to make large candles for light at night. Each fall the bed tick or mattress was filled with fresh straw to make high soft beds to keep them warm during the cold winter nights. She also pieced quilts together and corded wool for batts, then quilted them so they could be used.
Anna Wilhemine and Ellen were old enough to go out and do housework and this they did a lot. Anna Wilhemine also had a few dates. One night she did not get home as soon as her mother felt she should. Her mother felt that something was wrong, so she got out of bed and was directed to go into the field, there she found them. The boy friend had been trying to force Anna to satisfy his desires, and that was the last date with that boy friend. Nov. 29, 1897, Anna Wilhemine married George Dewey and moved to Chapin where George had a homestead.

On May 19, 1899 Eskil Leander was born to Anna. He was a very large baby, weighing 14 pounds, and again Anna was very ill for quite a while. About this time they got their first Kerosene lamps and they thought them real fine. They house-cleaned by pasting a layer of newspapers all over the cabin walls, this made them clean and also much warmer. That winter Mary had rheumatism and was so ill she was not expected to live. Anna cared for her carefully and through that and the faith and prayers of her parents and the administration of the Elders, Mary recovered but always had a bad heart condition.
Anna's Sister Johanna and her family came to Darby and homesteaded. They moved the first log cabin Lorenzo built, that had been used for a school house, to their land and lived in it for a good many years. Lorenzo built another two rooms onto their own home.
It seemed there was lots of sickness about and Anna's family had their share. All the children had worms; but Lenora and Nathaniel had them the worst. One time when Lorenzo was away from home freighting, he had the feeling that he was needed at home, so he traveled all night, arriving home out 5 a.m. and found Nathaniel very sick with convulsions. They had very little medicine at that time so when the children had worm convulsions they put liquid asefedity under their noses and around their mouths to make the worms go back into their stomachs and not choke them. They sometimes put turpentine on a cloth and put it by their mouth also. They would put a spoon between their teeth to keep them from biting their tongues. They always kept quinine for fever and almost everyone wore an asefedity bag around their neck. (The odor should have kept everything away).
On June 22, 1902, that district became the Teton Stake and the ward was reorganized. Anna was chosen President of the Relief Society Organization and she chose Sister Holden and Sister Valentine to work with her. This meant extra work for her to do and Lorenzo kept a team of horses in the stable ready for her to use whenever she needed them, and that was often for she was always called to help the sick and those in trouble.
Ellen Married Alonzo Ellis in St. Anthony Oct 28, 1903 and made her home in Darby for a while.
Lorenzo had been spending all the time possible freighting and had not fixed up the barns and corrals as good as was needed. He had plenty of good poles ready to use but no time to fix them. One time when he was away freighting, Anna took her young sons and they went to work. They dug holes and put the poles in them and made a good fence and tight corral to shelter the cattle. When Lorenzo returned and saw what they had done, he quit freighting and really went to work and took care of the farm and the cattle and from then on they began to prosper.
Anna was saddened by the birth of a still born son on March 4 1904. She had been carrying water from the ditch to use for washing when she felt something go wrong and the child never moved after. Three days later when he was born, and he was a large baby, he had started to decompose and was in terrible condition. Lorenzo made a coffin for the baby from an old Kerosene can box. Ellen covered it and fixed it nice and Rena dressed the baby as best she could and it was laid away. Jan Hill and Grandma Larsen were called to help take care of Anna for she was very ill and had to stay in bed for over a month. This was Anna's last baby.
At this time there was a diphtheria epidemic in the valley, every family had sickness and some lost several children. While Anna was still in bed from child-birth both Lenora and Arthur became sick with it. They were put in the bedroom with their mother and Rena took care of them all for they had to be kept isolated from the other members of the family. Peeled onions were kept in the room and also in the other part of the house to draw the germs and each one had to wear an asefedity bag. Arthur's throat was almost black and he was not expected to live. Anna and Lorenzo sent word to the Stake President to pray for him. The following night Arthur kept asking for a
bucket of cold water, and said he would die if he did not get it. Lorenzo carried Anna over close to Arthur and sat her in a big rocking chair and covered her up warm while she talked to Arthur. After she talked to Arthur she talked things over with Lorenzo and they decided to get him the water. Lorenzo brought in a bucket and Anna added enough warm water to take the chill off. Arthur took hold of the bucket and ducked his head in it then said "Wait a minute." then ducked his head again a second and third time, then took a big drink and said, "It is enough, take it away." Then he swung his feet out of bed, saying he was well and he practically was for the next day he was outside playing a bit with Arland. His poor tongue began peel off in big chunks. Not any of the other children caught the disease and the epidemic began to subside. There were no other deaths in the community after Arthur got well.
Through the Relief Society program Dr. Schuppe came to the valley to teach a course in practical nursing. Anna and her daughter Mary took the course and little Lenora went along. Lorenzo grumbled about it because he could not see how it would do them any good but just the same he had the team and buggy ready twice a week for them to go to Driggs to take the lessons. Every time they went Anna also took butter and eggs along to sell.
Rena, the third daughter married Frank Peterson February 28, 1905. She had been working in Jackson Hole and met him there.
Anna taught her girls to cook and to sew but whenever a pig was killed they all liked her to make head-cheese. To make head-cheese; Anna cooked the head of the pig after cleaning it thoroughly, then cutting the fat off and grinding the lean meat through the food-chopper. To this she would add a little diced onion, salt and pepper and
some of the liquid in which the meat had been cooked; then she would cook it a little and cool it and it was ready to slice. Little Pigs were also made from good lean beef scraps, seasoned with salt and pepper and onion, then wrapped in sinew and boiled until tender then cooled and sliced for supper. M-m m-m good.
One day Arthur and some boys from the neighborhood were chasing some young colts. Arthur grabbed the tail of one and away they went. The young colt kicked back and caught Arthur above the eye on the left temple and peeled the flesh back showing the skull. Anna cleaned the wound and cared for as best she could while George Dewey took a team of horses that were in the barn and drove as fast as he could to Driggs to get the doctor to sew it up. Thirteen stitches were needed and Arthur always carried the scar from it.
Mary, the fourth daughter, planned to marry, and Anna was determined that this daughter, since she was marrying the bishop's son, should go to the temple, for her other daughters had not married in the Church. She bought material for temple clothes and a lovely white dress for Mary, but Chester Loveland did not have a testimony of the Gospel and would not go to the temple. He and Mary were married at home by his father, on December 24, 1906. However the marriage was not a success and Mary returned home after only a few months and the following October a baby daughter was born to her. In the meantime Anna's brother Andrew came to Darby and built a couple of new rooms on the house in place of first two log ones that Lorenzo had built. This made four nice rooms downstairs and a couple upstairs. The one large front room was used as a bedroom for Mary and Lenora and also for dances and parties. The family were comfortable.
Clark Barzee came along in a wagon with an organ to sell.He stayed with the family one night and brought the organ in so they could enjoy it and Lorenzo liked it enough to trade Barzee a young horse so they could keep it. Lenora loved music and took care of the Durrant children to pay for lessons.
The Bishop wanted Lorenzo to go on a mission and Anna was very happy but he decided that he could not leave his farm for the young boys to take care of and made arrangements for Arthur to go in his stead. After Arthur had been gone almost a year, Lorenzo figured it was costing him too much money and he wanted Arthur to come home, but Anna would not hear of it, she felt there was not any sacrifice too great for the Lord's work. Lorenzo became over wrought and the tension carried over to Sweden where Arthur was serving his mission. He became seriously ill and the Doctor could not find what was causing the trouble so he sent him home much to Anna's sorrow.
Anna had many unusual calls while she was in the Relief Society; she went out and helped the sick, delivered several babies, washed and dressed the dead and prepared them for burial. She took care of the Larsen baby after it was run over with a load of grain and it's head crushed. She was blessed that she was able to push it back into fair shape. Another time Mrs. Allred died of cancer of the abdomen and had laid in a hot feather bed for many hours before they had a chance to take care of her and she was in really bad condition. Anna washed and scrubbed herself and her clothing afterward but the odor stayed with her for a couple of weeks. Ellington Smith, who had threatened to kill Lorenzo years before, had his troubles and he nursed his grievances and imagined troubles until they became mountains and led him to following his neighbor, Mr. Niel to his field and killing him. He shot with his rifle real close to his head and Mr. Niel fell into the ditch of running water and the water washed part of the insides of his head away. Anna was called to the Niel home to prepare the body for burial. She had to put cotton into the head to fix it up, but she did a very good job of it. A team and buggy or sleigh was always in the barn for Anna's use.
One night Lorenzo went to bed while Anna was away on a call but woke up after a while and could not rest so he went to look for Anna and found her with her horses down in a snowdrift. Anna was president of the Relief Society for nine years and her daughter Mary was her secretary for most of that time.
Lorenzo was never satisfied after Arthur returned from his mission and early in the spring of 1912, he and Anna went to Parker where they arranged to buy a farm. They mortgaged this farm and paid Frank Mason for it in full. The plans were to pay off this mortgage when the farm in Darby was sold but the mortgage was never paid off. They moved part of their things to Parker and cleaned up the place a bit and ran both farms the first year then they rented the Darby farm the second year. Anna was not happy to move and mortgage their home. There were two houses on the Parker farm; a small one in which the Davidsons lived until the Masons moved out in the fall. Anna had some remodeling done in the large house, changing the stairway so that it was between the kitchen and bed room instead of in the front room. They papered all eight rooms after cleaning them thoroughly. Anna saved carpet rags and made them into carpet so that she had enough carpeting to cover the large front room and her bed room. First straw was brought in and scattered evenly over the floor for a cushion, then the carpet was laid over the top and pulled tight and tacked along the walls. There was also carpet for the girls bed room upstairs. They bought a gasoline lamp for the front room, which made it up to date.
The year after they came to Parker, Arland was called on a mission to Sweden and left Salt Lake about the middle of November. Lorenzo thought this was too much expense but Anna was determined he should have his mission. He was in Sweden until the Elders were evacuated because of World War I, the he finished his mission in South Carolina.
On December 24, after Arland left for his mission Arthur married Lottie Rhodehouse in the Salt Lake Temple and Anna was glad this was a temple marriage. Lorenzo had a lot of cows and chickens and Anna made butter; sometimes as much as 75 pounds a week, this she sold along with about 25 dozen eggs to customers and the stores in St. Anthony. Saturday was delivery day and there was good market for her butter for everyone who tasted it liked it for its’ sweetness and she was known for the full measure in each pound.
Every winter each ward would send home missionaries or visiting teachers to different wards to teach the members and visit them. Many times the visitors to Parker Ward came from the Marysville Ward and many times they made Anna's home their headquarters while they visited the members. It was always a joy to Anna to sit around the stove of an evening and discuss the principles of the gospel with them, also to discuss the things in the Bible. Anna always took her family to Sacrament meetings and Sunday School and she tried to live the Gospel principles the best she knew how. When the Tabernacle at St. Anthony was dedicated in 1916, she was happy to go there and listen to the instructions of the Leaders of the Church.
Anna was always busy--what with making butter the year around, in summer she helped in the garden and canned enough fruit, jam, and pickles to last the large family the year around. There was hired help during the haying and harvesting seasons to cook for. In the winter there were quilts to make, one year they finished ten of them. Whenever Lorenzo killed either beef or pork, Anna took care of the small pieces, making the head cheese, little pigs, pickled pigs feet, etc.
Arland returned from his mission in January 1916. In the spring he and Mary returned to the dry farm where they had homesteaded, in the winter they returned to Parker.
On October 4, 1917, Mary married again, this time to Charles Housley; December 20 Lenora married Harvey Tyler; on March 8, 1918 Arland married Elizabeth Pearce and on June 5 Nathaniel married Ella Grover. All were married in the temple as Anna always wanted them to do. Anna and Lorenzo had not been getting along as good as they should have and in a disagreement, Anna got a rib broken. They no longer found happiness together so they decided to separate. Life with Lorenzo had been as Anna had dreamed it, long before she married him when she had inquired of the Lord in prayer. She had dreamed that she held his hand and they hunted all over the mountain for water but could not find any. After hunting all over she looked down from the mountain and saw Peterson, her first husband, sitting beside a spring of water. She realized that this dream symbolized her life for as time had passed she and Lorenzo had had less in common until now there was nothing left. They went together to St. Anthony and had the divorce arraignments made without anyone else knowing anything about it. This was the winter of 1918 and 1919. Anna kept the farm still with it's original mortgage and Lorenzo went trapping again.
Nathaniel and wife had been living in the small house helping with the farm and now he and Eskil took over the work until Eskil was called on a mission. He left for the Mexican Mission in June 1920. It was a struggle for Anna to get the funds to keep him there, but she did even though her health was failing. She also went to the temple in Salt Lake City and had Hans C. Davidson's third wife, Anna Dorthea Mortinson, sealed to him as she had promised Anna Dorthea to do before she left Fairview many years before. She did quite a bit of temple work at this time. In the early spring Eskil returned from his mission and took over the farm and Nathaniel rented a farm in Rexburg. Anna was not well and when Mary left her second husband she came back to Parker and helped her mother and Eskil on the farm. Anna did little that summer and after the holidays she had a severe pain and swelling on her left side over her hurt rib. After about three days the swelling came to a head and broke and about a quart of pus drained out. The abscess opened both to the outside and into her stomach so that when she ate or drank anything it would run right out, and she soon began to waste away. It was necessary to keep a binder about her and pads on the abdomen to take care of it. The odor was terrible and it was necessary to fumigate the house all the time so one could stay and do the necessary things. The doctors were called and said that though she had a tumor they did not advise an operation. All her children came home to help as it was necessary to have someone with her night and day, to turn her or give her a drink as needed.
Anna never lost faith that she would get better until the Doctor told her there was no use to operate for it would only prolong her suffering. He was an L.D.S. doctor and she looked up at him and asked, "Don't you have any faith?" Her desire to live was lost and she went into a coma, becoming rational only once in a while to speak to one of the children. Most of the time she seemed to be conversing with some unseen persons above her bed. Three days later she died, this was as had been promised her in her patriarchal blessing "that she should live as long as she desired life."
Her family were all with her at the time of her passing and honored her with their love and devotion for her life of sacrifice and her wonderful teachings to them. She died March 9, 1925 and after a sweet funeral was laid tenderly away in the Parker Cemetery on March 12, 1925.