Maria Hadave Bott

• Updated from Find A Grave Memorial via child John Henry Bott by SmartCopy: Oct 27 2015, 21:53:15 UTC
• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Mar 16 2022, 3:25:19 UTC

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• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/KWC2-1CR

The arrival of twins is always a big and joyous event in any family, and such it was when the stork announced the bundle of two instead of one on April Fool’s day in 1860 at the Gehard Jensen home in Spring City, San Pete County, writes Iva Lou Nebeker. She says” Maria Hadave Bott and her sister Gehardena looked so very much alike their own father could never tell them apart. They weighed the same, their hair and eyes were identical, even their teeth were alike.

The Jensen family moved to Brigham in 1865, where the twins first attended school at Eliza Wright’s home and later at the Rosenbaum hall with Minnie J. Snow as their teacher. During this time Hadave did the janitor work and Gehardena helped in the home of Mrs. Snow to pay their way for the few short months they attended school.

“Money was very scarce in those early days,” says Mrs. Bott. “When we were nine or ten it was necessary for us to go out washing, never receiving more than 25 cents or 50 cents a day in script or food. We also hired out to do housework, and for a week’s wages the sum of 50 cents was paid us, this however had to be turned over to our parents for the support of the family.”

“Another task was to go out in the fields and glean wheat. As hard as we worked our returns for the day would only be about a sack full of wheat heads. Of course we went barefoot, often stubbing our toes on the rocks and stubbles, which made our feet so sore we could hardly walk. Such a thing as shoes we never had until after we were married, and then for only Sunday best. However in the winter time we wore clogs with leather tops.”

“I remember when the grasshoppers destroyed almost everything. They came in so thick it darkened the sun. Sometimes they left us very little to eat and our clothing was inadequate for the winter cold. The grain was so full of sunflowers that bread made from the flour was so bitter it could hardly be eaten.”

“One very severe winter great suffering was caused. With not enough feed for the sheep many starved to death and the pioneers were forced to eat the meat. This together with the bitter bread and some molasses made up their diet for many months.”

“Food was a little cheaper in Mantua than Brigham so we made the trip there for our supplies, walking both ways. At this time the Indians were often very hostile and how it frightened us to pass their camps. Sometimes they would come into town and force the settlers to buy liquor for them, which they could ill afford. The Indians would go to Bear Lake in the summer months and fish. These they dried and bought back to town and traded to the people. They were just like eating dried chips or bark.”

“Always we were a puzzle to our friends and even our own family just which was which of the twins. To solve the riddle my uncle upon returning from a mission to Denmark brought us back a lovely pair of earnings. Gehardena’s were long thing tear-shaped ones and mine shell-shaped. These we wore for identification. Later when we began keeping company with young men we wore ribbons around our necks and different pins, and when we wanted to fool the boys we traded.”

“When we were sixteen and a half we decided to have a surprise wedding. President Lorenzo Snow performed the ceremony at his home on October 13, 1876, and later we went through the Endowment house in Salt Lake City.”

Her husband, John H. Bott, was called on a mission to work on the Salt Lake L.D.S. temple, but later they returned to Brigham to make their home. President Snow purchased a small monumental business from a Mr. Cox and gave it to John H. Bott. He was thus able to follow up the trade he learned in Salt Lake City.

After her marriage she worked even harder than before. Women had to do the gardening, cut, and rake the hay, pick and sell the fruit. She carried peaches in her apron to peddle in Corinne, walking the entire distance. She also dried hundreds of pounds of peaches, besides helping her husband in his monumental business, doing much of the polishing.

Mrs. Bott was the mother of 17 children, and her twin sister the mother of the same number. She has always been active and still is, enjoying the companionship of her large family, and her friendly and sunny disposition have won for her the love and respect of the Box Elder community.

Her living children are as follows: Mrs. Ada Peterson, Mrs. Estella Just, Mrs. Eugena Kotter, Mrs Juanita Glen, John H. Bott Jr., Lorenzo J Bott, William J Bott, and Victor Bott, all of Brigham: Mary Ellen Nelson, Paradise; Phillip W. Bott, Joseph J Bott, and LeRoy J Bott of Salt Lake City, and Nephi J Bott of Logan.