King of the Bunker Hill

Elizabeth Jane Lamb Crockett (my great-grandmother), Wayne, my mom (Mariet Nielsen Greenwood), me, and Dorothy Crockett Nielsen (my grandmother).

King of the Bunker Hill (23 August 2019)

Hi Everyone!

According to WikiPedia, David Crockett was born in 1786, served as a frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He served in the Texas Revolution and was killed at the Battle of the Alamo in March 1836. Davy Crockett was a great hunter, a great storyteller, famous for his larger-than-life deeds, and was known as the “King of the Wild Frontier”. Today’s theme song is a ballad about him. https://youtu.be/txcRQedoEyY

According to FamilySearch, a different David Crockett was born in 1806 on an island off the coast of Maine and married Lydia Young in 1830. Lydia and David were baptized after Wilford Woodruff (who served as the fourth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) taught them the gospel on his first mission. Just over five years later they took their seven children from their little island and moved to join the Saints in Nauvoo, arriving in October 1841, when their youngest was just 3 months old. It was probably there in Nauvoo that they asked Elder Woodruff to bless this child and name him Wilford Woodruff Crockett.

You’ve heard the story of your ancestor that went apart and prayed for the Lord to guide her to water when her entire company was in dire need of water while crossing the plains? That was Lydia, David’s wife and Wilford’s mother. She was 37 years old, had 10 children, and was pregnant. Lydia felt peace as she rose from her sincere prayer, walked a ways off, stopped, and called for the men to bring a shovel. She instructed them where to dig and they soon found a spring of water that they marked for all future travelers to use that passed that location.

Wilford Woodruff Crockett would have been about 8 years old at this time. He ended up becoming a good friend to the Indians and eventually moved from Utah to settle in Pima, Arizona where his granddaughter, and my grandmother, Dorothy Crockett (aka. Grandma Nielsen) was born.

What does that have to do with the farm? Not much, except that I really enjoyed it when my grandparents came to visit on the farm. Grandma Nielsen would work in the kitchen with my mom for hours, usually busy canning peaches or pears that she had brought from the orchard behind their home in Bountiful. I liked her a lot because she talked more than most of us, so I could help and listen for hours as she worked and talked with my mom. I also liked visiting her home because we could play pool in the basement, run around the large backyard, eat fruit right off the trees, and they almost always had ice cream!

April and Sydney both spent a little time with Grandma Nielsen, who died just a few days after Kelsey was born. We think that Kelsey also met her in this life. Shortly after Kelsey was born, Marci was in the hospital bed holding her, when suddenly Kelsey’s eyes fixed on something in the room that Marci could not see. At that moment Marci got the distinct impression that Grandma Nielsen had come to visit Kelsey. I wouldn’t put it past her- she loved her grandkids!

Swingset on the farm with the closeline and potato cellar in the background. The potato cellar was a great “Bunker Hill”. Now that I know I have an ancestor who fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill, I think I can legitimately call myself “King of the Bunker Hill”.

As if that’s not enough, here are a few more cool facts about my Grandma Nielsen…
 - Her great-grandpa was David Crockett
- She made delicious“cereal candy”, basically Rice Crispy Treats with different types of cereal
- She had four ancestors that served in the American Revolutionary War
- One ancestor, Moses Curtis, fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill (His title, “King of the Bunker Hill”, has passed directly to me- just ask my brothers)

I love and miss you all!

Dad (aka. King of the Bunker Hill)

Me, sitting on my mom’s lap, and by my Grandma Nielsen, with some cousins, etc. surrounding us...