John William Heder

1856 – 1940

In 1856, Mormon Missionaries came to the home of John O. Heder.  He was not there at that time, he being in the service of the King of Sweden as an officer in the standing army.  Officers were furnished two and a half acres of land, a house to use as they liked, and the precinct in which they lived furnished them two hundred pounds of pork, two barrels of rye, two barrels of oats, five barrels of potatoes, two hundred pounds of beef, and wood.  He received a salary of 15 Rickstolan a month.  This made for a good living, so he always had plenty.

The missionaries introduced themselves as preaching the true Gospel of Jesus Christ just as it was found in the New Testament.  They told John’s wife, Christine, about the angel appearing to the boy prophet Joseph Smith.  Christine became interested at once for she was a very religious woman and had never been satisfied with the way the Lutherans had taught her.  Here the Mormon Elders found a home and were made welcome.  They explained the Gospel to her and made her home theirs while they were working in that part of the country. 

On the next furlough, John gave his consent to his wife to be baptized, but said the Lutheran Church was good enough for him.

By the time the Elders came again, Christine was ready to be baptized.  She told the Elders that she had her husband’s consent.  She was baptized and a dozen or so more in the vicinity were also baptized. By the time John came home on his next furlough, persecution had started and all except Christine had apostatized.  They told Christine that the Elders were false, and if she had any more to do with them, she would be in danger.  They would have the Elders arrested and whipped until they couldn’t return.  They said they would lay in hiding to guard her home and catch the Elders.  Christine had been a Mormon for some time when John came home.  The missionaries were there.  John came home after dark, was tired and went right to bed.  Christine told her husband of her baptism, of the apostasy, and the threats made to the Mormon Elders.  John had heard a little of it from some of the soldiers, so that he was already upset.

Just then, a rap came at the door.  Christine thought perhaps it was someone coming to molest the Elders.  Another rap much louder came, and some words and swearing.  John caught the word Mormon.  Out of bed he jumped, opened the door, and asked what they wanted around his house this time at night.  When the mobbers caught a glimpse of John, they ran as fast as they could with John after them barefooted and only in his night clothes.  It was snowing and the snow was five or six inches deep.  He chased them for about two blocks, then the snow and frozen ground prevented him from going farther.  He returned home, but mobbers never bothered them again.

The Elders were left in peach to preach the Gospel to John all the days following.  By the time his furlough was up, he was converted to the Gospel.  He told Christine to warn anyone not to molest his house under penalty of receiving 40 stripes for molesting the King’s premises.

When he returned to headquarters, he asked for his release.  He had served one year longer than his enlistment.  His release did not come, but he got a furlough of three weeks for which he was happy.  He had been away from home a long time, and had preached the Gospel to the soldiers and higher officers.  When he reached home, the Elders were not there.  Just how long he had to wait before they came is not known, but when they came, he was baptized. The Elders were still in danger, so stayed close until John’s furlough was up. 

Word came that the mob had been seen just over the hill about a mile from the house.  John, in full uniform, sword and glittering badges on, started with the Elders for town.  When they come over the hill, the mob made their appearance.  When they saw an officer of the King with the Elders, they knew what that meant so they went another direction.  John and the Elders made their report in town, and returned home finding Christine waiting to hear the news.

A few days later, John had to leave for headquarters to be gone for several months.  He again made his request for a release.  Several months later, he was called to headquarters.  The General asked him why he wanted his release.  He said he was a Mormon and wanted to go to America.  The officer said that they did not care what he believed.  “Your name has been submitted for promotion.  You have shown in your service that you have honored the name the King gave you.  We want such a man.”  But John answered, “I have done my duty while serving, and have honored the position I hold, also my country, and I think I am entitled to my release.  I have served two years longer than my enlistment.”  The General agreed, and said that if that was what he really wanted, he could have it.  A short time later, he was honorably released with high honors and a present from King Karl XIV.  He was given the Swedish Coat of Arms and a trunk with several small compartments on it. He was released in the fall of 1862 and was set apart as a home missionary.

In April, 1863, he migrated to America.  They left Liverpool on the 8^th of May on the British ship Kimball with 654 Saints under the direction of Hans Peter Lund.  The party of Saints arrived in New York on the 15^th of June 1863.  From there, they went by train to Council Bluffs, Iowa.  From Council Bluffs they made their way to Omaha.  From here they started over the plains by ox and team and handcart.  John and Christine walked from Omaha to Salt Lake City.  They arrived in Salt Lake City on November 9, 1863.  John William Heder was a boy of seven years old. 

When John W. Heder arrived in Salt Lake City with his parents, they lived in a one-room adobe house.  His father helped President Young harvest carrots which he was paid in pig rinds.

The next year, they rented a farm and raised 200 bushels of wheat for their part.  John W. and his mother again gleaned wheat.  It amounted to 21 bushels.  They sold it and bought a pair of oxen that had crossed the plains six times.

In the fall of 1865, they moved to Huntsville. A man borrowed their wheat to pay off his debts, promising to return the wheat to them in Huntsville.  When they went to get their wheat, there were only a few bushels and it was frozen and no good for bread.

The next five years were hard years, due to grasshoppers.  They had to live on half rations.  Breakfast usually consisted of a little flour and bran bread with a cup of skim milk. 

In 1871, they started again raising crops and the earth yielded a forth her strength.  When the Union Pacific Railroad was built through Weber Canyon, John William’s father got work and from that time on they got along pretty well.  Crops matured and they built another and better house. John William worked with his father on the farm and built barns and log houses for other people.

His mother and sister Sophia, corded and spun wool and wove cloth for Heber C. Kimball’s family and others and saved a little money with which they bought another cow and three or four sheep.

John William Heder began his self-education early.  He ambitiously applied himself and mastered the carpentry, cabinet making and wheelwright trades. His father who had received his training in the “Old Country” was his teacher, and a good one.  He used every opportunity to learn other occupations as well.  He learned framing, dairying, storekeeping, mining, lumbering, and sawmilling. He built many homes, churches, schools, barns, stores, canals, and railroad bridges, at various intervals in Utah, Mexico, and Arizona.  He hated idleness and never wasted precious moments.  

In the spring of 1877, a man from Montana wrote offering to pay John William $40 per month, and room and board.  That was very good wages for those times.  He walked a distance of 800 miles in 11 days and nights.  He worked for this man about two years.

After two years, he returned home.  His mother was overjoyed to see him.  She had been told that Indians had killed him. 

He had a good time with his old friends in the winter.  He became acquainted with a young lady by the name of Anna Madsen.  They kept company for a short time, and he found that she cared for him.  He asked her to marry him.  She consented and he bought her a ring.  They set their wedding date for late March.  They were married on May 22, 1879 in the Salt Lake Endowment House.  Then they returned home to Huntsville. 

They lived in Huntsville for several years.  They were close neighbors, and dear friends of the David O. McKay family. Brothers David and Thomas McKay taught several of the other Heder children in school.

In 1885, John William Heder received a letter from the First Presidency asking him to go to San Juan to help settle that country.  He had sold his share in the mill and was ready to start with his family.  But he had his mother who was a widow now to support, too.  Bishop David McKay and President Shurtliff wrote the First Presidency wand had him release from that mission.

On February 23, 1895, he left on a trip to Mexico.  He was gone about two months.  He saw lots of country.  When he got back to Huntsville, he made arrangements for his brother-in-law to take charge of the sheep that summer and got all his business in shape, because he thought that he might want to return to Mexico. 

He and a friend, Bert Engstrom, bought a sawmill and had it taken to Ogden and then shipped to El Paso.  There he chartered two railroad cars and a passenger car.  On one car they shipped the mill and machinery, and on the other their horses and furniture.  There were 24 people in the passenger car, all family and friends.

They were met in Magdalena by Benjamin F. Johnson, David B. Brown, Ben Judd, and Nathan Tenney from Colonia Juarez.  They loaded all the goods and machinery into their wagons and went overland to the colonies.

Things had been badly misrepresented about the need and market for sawed lumber for a few houses.  Before long, the mill was moved to Garcia, near Round Valley.  There they had some hard years plowing, planting, building fences, with little to eat but cornbread or mush.  But they pulled through, and within a year or two they were able to build a nice home and barn.

Three more children were born to them while they lived in Mexico.  He traded his home in Chuhuichupa to Ira L. Wilson for Wilson’s home in Colonia Dublan.  After a few years, he purchased another place in the north end of town, the Hansen Place.

In July, 1912, they all had to leave Mexico on account of the Revolution.  They went to El Paso in boxcars and camped in a lumber yard until they could determine some place to go and start again.

They relocated to Tucson, Arizona.  They worked and lived there for two years.  Then they went to Mesa, Arizona, and except for a short stay in California, lived there until their deaths.  

John William Heder died November 6, 1940 and Anna died June 9, 1955, in Mesa.

Anna May Evans Farnsworth, granddaughter

Stalwarts South of the Border,

Nelle Spilsbury Hatch, page 264