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THE MILLER AND THE MISSUS
   Peter Nielson & Edna Snow Nielson  

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THE LIFE OF EDNA SNOW [NIELSON]

By Mae Nielson

[Edna Snow] was born December 12, 1879 in Pine Valley, a daughter of Willard Snow and Mary Melissa Meeks. Edna was six months and her sister Mary was one and a half years old when they moved to Thurber with her parents. There was more feed for their cattle in Thurber.   
    Her father drove a team of oxen and her mother drove a team of horses and took care of her two children. All their belongings were in [Edna’s] mother’s wagon. A loud striking clock and twelve yards of carpet [were] in the rear of the wagon. As the wagon went along on their journey, the carpet gradually rolled out of the wagon and on to the road. The wagon behind her wagon noticed the carpet on the road and [Edna’s] Uncle Charles rolled the carpet up and anchored the carpet in the wagon so it would not roll out any more.

  Mary Melissa Meeks Snow & Willard Snow Golden Wedding. Click photo for full image.

  Read their story.

  When they arrived in Thurber, her father built two log rooms with a roof of poles, bark and mud. The Snows brought cattle and chickens so they could have their milk, eggs, cheese and butter.
    Willard Snow and his brother Charles took up two sections of land to homestead. Some of the fences that Willard Snow built are still standing. When Edna was six, she moved with her parents nearer to a school. Her first school teacher was Dixie Pace, and while Ms. Pace was still alive, Edna went to see her. Ms. Pace still remembered Edna saying, "I am now five but I will be six in December."
    [Edna, in later years] remember[ed] many of [her] schoolmates and also [her] school days. [Her] school teachers were Uncle Charles Snow, Miss Bush, Miss Rust, Miss Whitney, Miss Arretta Young and Miss Lucy Young.
    When Edna was eleven years old, she broke her arm. She was the first child to have a broken arm so everyone in the settlement came to see her.
    [In another version– "Edna was the second of ten children."]
    Edna’s schoolmates were Rena Cook, Agnes Forsyth, Leona Brinkerhoff, Sadie Stringham and Jenie Mangum.
    Edna attended school in Pine Valley and the Murdock Academy. She taught school in the lower grades at Notom, Utah; Forest Home, Nevada; [and] Fruita and Torrey, Utah.
    In 1905, Edna decided to clerk in Billing’s Store in Loa. The store was very well-equipped. Mr. Billings carried everything from nails to ladies’ ready-to-wear and men’s suits. While Edna was clerking in Billing’s Store she met Peter Nielson. She married Peter on June 6, 1906 in the Salt Lake Temple.
    Edna and Peter lived in Loa, Utah, for three years. Peter was a miller by trade. Two of their children were born in Loa. Then they moved to Richfield in 1910. Peter continued to work in the flour mill in Richfield, Utah. They lived in Richfield [for] eighteen years. [While in Richfield] Edna and Peter Nielson had [six more] children.
    They celebrated their Golden Wedding in June of 1956. Edna died November 13, 1965. Peter died January 5, 1966. They had eight children, eighteen grandchildren [and] five great grandchildren.

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LIFE SKETCH OF EDNA SNOW NIELSON

Typed on W. C. Lewis stationery with inserts in Edna Nielson’s handwriting

Snow home in Rabbit Valley. Click photo for full image.  

Edna Snow Nielson was born in Pine Valley, Utah, December 12, 1879. Her parents, Mary Melissa Meeks and Willard Snow, were Utah pioneers. With their parents, William and Ann Rogers Snow and William and Elizabeth Rhodes Meeks, they helped to settle Salt Lake City, then Lehi; and later, answering the call of the church authorities, they moved far south and settled Utah’s "Dixie."

    Edna’s parents, still pioneering, moved to Thurber, Wayne County, Utah in 1880. Here in Utah’s Wonderland, with her sister May, and her brothers Willard, Joseph, Orrin, J, and John, she spent her childhood[. She] went to church [and served] as a Sunday School teacher.
Murdock Academy in Beaver, Utah. Winter of 1900.
Click photo for full image.
Edna Snow Nielson is the ninth person (third woman) from the right on the back row. Her brother Orrin Snow is the second to the last person (and last man) on the back row.    

With her brothers, she continued her education at Beaver Branch of the Brigham Young University at Beaver, Utah, known then as the Murdock Academy. From there she taught school at Southern Utah towns and in Nevada.
    On June 6, 1906, Edna was married to Peter Nielson in the Salt Lake Temple. He had just returned from a two and one-half years’ mission in the North Central States. They made their home in Loa, Utah, where their [first] two children, Mae and Reed, were born. Three years later, they moved to Richfield, Utah, where they opened a flour milling business, bringing a needed industry to the growing agricultural area of Sevier County. During these years in Richfield, six children were born–Loya, Bernice, Geraldine, Lloyd, Elaine and Edna.

Edna Snow.    Click photo for full image.  

Together with caring for her home and eight children, Edna helped and encouraged her husband in his business, in his community service as a member of the City Council, and his devotion to the church as a counselor in the bishopric of the Richfield First Ward. In her own right, she was a Relief Society class leader and a visiting teacher.
    In 1928, the family moved to Springville, Utah, where they have continued to be of service to the church and community. Edna worked in the Third Ward Primary organization and continued her Relief Society work as a visiting teacher.
    Her first experience in the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers was in Richfield in 1927. She was chosen First Vice-Captain to Mrs. Olive Pratt Anderson, Captain of the Sevier County Company. In 1942, when Camp Spring Creek Daughters of the Utah Pioneers was organized in Springville, she was chosen Chaplain and served for two years.
    Edna’s life is an example of devotion to her home, husband and children, enriched by her faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ and strengthened by the courage of her pioneer parents.

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