By Vern Madsen (Miriam's cousin)
I remember one time during the depression Uncle Erastus came to visit us. He brought a apir of new government (C.C.C.) shoes with him, and gave them to my father. My father really appreciated them because his own were worn out. Erastus was working in the C.C.C. Camp then. I remember visiting him at the Camp.
I lived in Erastus’s home in 1947 after I was married. I tried to talk to him into selling me the 10 acres of land east of Elsinore. He said I could have second chance, but that that land was for his grandson, Alan, of whom he was very proud. He really loved Miriam and her family.
When Erastus discovered that Larine and I were expecting our second child, he told me he would pay part of the expense if the baby were a boy to carry on the Madsen name. (He didn’t have to pay, as a boy never came.)
My father (Leon) told me once that Erastus was known to get in a scrape now and then. He said he was pretty good. Once in Kanosh C.C.C. Camp, he had a fight with the Officer over the cooks. I saw the man the next day …… he looked worse than Erastus did.
Erastus seemed interested in whatever family members were doing, and he liked to tell of his experiences and the places he had seen. As kids, we all liked him, his dark curly hair and winning smile.
I remember Lydia was a very pretty young woman. She worked in the M.I.A. in Elsinore Ward, under Bishop Bateman about 1927 or 28. I remember her being ill and her death. Miriam stayed with us for a while afterwards.
By Stella Bodtcher (Wife of Johny, Miriam's cousin)
I remember Erastus always being happy. In his later years he was always whistling. He was very handsome. He made people happy by sharing the lovely fruit he raised.
By John D. Bodtcher (a.k.a Johny, Miriam's cousin)
Erastus baptized me when I was eight years old. The Madsen family was quite religious, at least when I stayed with them …… everyone kneeled on the kitchen floor by their chairs, while one blessed the food. (This was Grandma Madsen, Aunt Mary, Alfred and Lorenzo …… I don’t remember Erastus then.)
Erastus once made a cedar bow and some arrows for me when I was in a play and needed them. (I was just a young child then, and living in the old house on the sand road.)
I can barely remember Lydia as we left Elsinore when I was just 10, and I was 16 when we came back at her death.
By Jetta Marquardson, Elsinore.
I recall playing the piano in an Elsinore Dance Orchestra with Erastus playing the Coronet, and Leon playing the Violin. These dances were held in the old Opera House. Erastus was kind, gentle, courteous, and cooperative …… he was a gentleman. It seems that the Madsen’s had a green thumb. They loved caring for and nurturing plants, trees, and gardens.
By Miriam Madsen Washburn
My father always seemed to be more of a wanderer than the rest of his family. He seemed to enjoy the city and the noises and bustle. I remember telling him one time how sad and lonely a train whistle sounded to me. He replied that he loved to hear a train whistle, for to him it meant activity and excitement and something happening.
Since Daddy was 35 years old when I was born, I missed out on his early years. My memories of him are of his love and warmth and patience as a father. He was a good, happy man, and he and my mother brought such a lot of love into our home. We were all so very happy together. All through his life he loved music. He owned the first record player in town. It was a big fancy one, and my parents invited friends over to listen for the evening.
My father’s number 1 joy was gardening. He always had a beautiful, weed free yard. He let me start to garden at a very early age, and it is still my main hobby today. My children are all gardeners also, a Madsen tradition, for sure.
Because of my father’s good looks and pleasant manner a good many Danish girls were probably interested in him while he was on his mission. At least he had a lot of pictures of them. One of them went so far as to follow him to America … her name was Haedevig. The Madsen’s welcomed her with open arms and Danish talk. But my father was not in love with her, much to the dismay of the family. Still, Haedevig remained very close with the Madsen family and came on many visits. She eventually married a man from Salt Lake City and had children which she brought to Elsinore on visits, long after Erastus was married. Needless to say, my mother wasn’t too thrilled about this going on. I remember seeing Haedevig toward the last years of my father’s life when he was living with us on Lizard Bench. I was out working in the garden and my father was sitting on the front porch. A car drove up, and a fancy dressed lady got out and went to the house. She and daddy talked for a long time. He told me it was Haedevig. The other one-sided romance was with Marie Larsen of Elsinore. She and her husband had conflict over how many children to have, so they separated. Then she went after daddy tooth and nail. He thought it all very amusing, but I didn’t …… I didn’t want to share daddy.
For a while Daddy seriously considered starting a restaurant of his own. For a time it was embarrassing to go with him to a restaurant because at the end of the meal he would ask to see the cook, and either compliment him or give him advice, or even chew him out.
I was living in the Sainsbury house when Daddy came back to Elsinore to stay. It was just one block further north, so we were neighbors, and enjoyed each other every much. He would bring a watermelon up for the kids almost every day for the summer. He liked to spoil them. I think he wished that I had been a boy. When Alan (my oldest boy) was born, Daddy was so happy he swung aunt Gerty around and around in a big bear hug. Alan always looked so much like Daddy, and when someone commented on this he would say it was good that there was one good-looking on in the bunch. However, Alan was not a Madsen, and he was worried about the Madsen name dying out. He kept offering Vern money bonuses if he would just have a boy, and he gave Vern pep talks hoping they would do the trick. (Vern was the only mail on the David Madsen line to carry on the name, which put a big responsibility on him, and as it turned out, he was unable to meet it, being blessed with four lovely daughters.)
When we moved to Nyssa, Oregon, Daddy came to visit us. While there, he decided to mow our large lawn. His two oldest grandchildren, Laurel and Alan, were taught a lesson on the rewards of work. He told them if they would help, he would pay them. When the job was done, Laurel was given 25 ¢ and Alan, 1 ¢. Of course Alan complained, and my father said that he had paid them according to the amount of work each had done. 25 ¢ was a lot of money then.
The last time I took Daddy to a Fourth of July Parade in Richfield, I looked at him as the band was going by. Tears were running down his face …… he was remembering past time. (I know just how he felt … I have felt the same way under similar circumstances.)
Daddy wasn’t without regrets in his life. He once told me if he had it to do over again, he would take his family with him wherever he worked, or he would just stay in Elsinore and have a large family.
The hardest thing I ever had to do was leave Daddy in the Rest Home. I asked him once how they were taking care of him, and he said they treated him well, but that no one ever took care of him like I did. It was hard to see him become more and more helpless and get so that most of the time he didn’t even know me. He was really a wonderful, special man. I like to think that all the Madsen’s are having a good old-fashioned get-together and catching up on all the news.
By Betty (Bodtcher) Watts.(Miriam's cousin)
My memories of Uncle Erastus are after he moved back to Elsinore around 1946. He came to visit my folks often, as Lorenzo did, and I looked forward to those times. He seemed happy and at peace with the world. I remember him laughing a lot as he sat and visited.
I was impressed with his beautiful yard. I can recall sweet peas growing on strings beneath his front window flower box. On the other side of the porch grew thorned Red Barberry bushes. Because his lot sloped to the south, he had leveled an area for a side lawn and built a rock retaining wall with steps leading to another level, making it seem like a sunken garden. At the base of the wall were beautiful peony bushes, and at the far south boundary of the front yard, tall lilac bushes flourished and displayed such heavenly fragrant blossoms in the spring. Erastus had this garden area furrowed off and it was irrigated with canal water. I remember gladiolis growing in some of the almond bush, one of the earliest shrubs to bloom, and with a mass of pale pink blossoms.
Many times I sat at his table and enjoyed watching him move around the kitchen, softly whistling and shooing his several cats from the table or chair so he could serve me a spicy ginger snap, often fresh from his oven.
After I was married, Ralph and I ordered fruit trees from Erastus, who was an agent for Stark Bros. Nursery. He took a deep interest in the business, and was very knowledgeable; he gave us good advice on what to plant. Whenever we came to Elsinore, we called on the aunts and uncles. On one such visits Erastus took us out to the garden to taste a “fuzzless peach”, … that was our introduction to the nectarine. He was so proud of a read leafed maple that was growing nicely in his back yard. He had been warned that it wouldn’t make it through the hard Utah winters. I found him more than once, after cataracts clouded his vision, crawling along the rows in his orchard weeding and smoothing the ground in his usual bib overalls, and whistling as he often did.
He had a little cellar near his back door where he kept his tools and garden supplies. Once he showed me his nice glandioli corms he had dug and stored in a can there for the winter.
I listened to his hand cranked phonograph play music on different occasions. He seemed to favor classical or polka records, and I think having that luxury in his home gave him many hours of comfort and enjoyment.
Mother told me that when Erastus became short of sight, several townspeople were offended because when he hadn’t seen them, of course he hadn’t spoken. When he’s heard about that, as the story goes, he spoke to anything that resembled a person. One day he tipped his hat to a pair of long handled underwear hanging on a clothesline.
I remember Uncle Erastus with only the fondest of memories. He was sweet and gentle and down to earth, and he enriched my life by being part of it.
By Joy (Bodtcher) Cowley (Miriam's cousin)
My earliest memory of Uncle Erastus is of grown-ups dancing the “big apple” in his home to the music of his windup phonograph. I remember him playing classical records as well as polka’s and waltz’s on the old machine.
When I was about eight years, a famous concert pianist by the name of Grant Johanneson came to perform at the recreation Hall in Elsinore, and Erastus took me with him to hear it. I recall walking along with my hand held tightly in his. He talked to me about the different pieces of music as it was played, told me which instruments were playing. I remember us walking down the hill and over the bridge on the Elsinore canal under which I had a fear of a mean, mossy looking Troll lurking, waiting to grab me; but I felt safe with Erastus near.
Erastus had large soft hands, and was always clean and well-groomed; his hair was dark brown and wavy, and neatly trimmed. Many times my mother cut his hair for him and would then stroke it and tell him how beautiful it was. He usually had something cooking or baking, and treated me in grand fashion. I never saw him angry. I remember him crawling up and down his garden rows searching out and pulling weeds, whistling as he went along. His yard and garden was immaculate and beautifully maintained. He had the first Santa Rosa plum and the first nectarine in town. I don’t ever recall seeing him with a car or wearing anything but bib-overalls.
I loved his visits to our house which were frequent after he retired. A GENERAL NOTE: Perhaps it was because the Madsen aunt and uncle had few or no children of their own that they made us kids feel so special.
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