Lessons Learned

John Valfread Kjelstrom, Allan’s grandfather, lived with Lorenzo Pettit from the age of seven until just before his sixteenth birthday. It was around this time that Lorenzo’s wife passed away and he remarried. John didn’t get along with the newest member of the family and asked permission to go live with his mother who had emigrated a few years prior and was residing in Logan City, Utah. As John describes it, Lorenzo had sent money for four to emigrate from Denmark, Catharina, John’s brothers, Charles and Axel, and sister Augusta. However, Charles had already found a way to America when the money reached John’s family and as a result they used it to pay for Catharina’s new husband, John Peter Lundberg to emigrate with them.

John’s describes this move from Lorenzo Pettit’s home to his mothers “the worst step I ever made.” He didn’t get along with John Lundberg, calling him a “cross and overbearing” husband to his mother, later admitting however that he did get better as he got older. John would soon go live with his brother Charles, who was also housing their younger brother Axel. Charles had married young and was making a good living. Eventually, John would find himself in Vernal, Utah, just west of the Colorado border. It was here that he met Allan’s grandmother, Emily Hill. They were married in Wellington, a small town just south of Provo, where Emily was from. Three children were born to the young couple while they resided in Vernal, James, Elmer and Sylvester. They spent some time in Frisco, Utah on the other side of the state and near the Nevada border before deciding to take their residence in Rexburg, Idaho. Five more children were born to Emily and John between 1899 and 1910, including Axel Gabriel, Allan’s father. According to John, Emily was unhappy in Rexburg and insisted on moving back to Utah. Unfortunately, it was this that spurned a divorce between John and Emily. Emily would take the children back to Utah and John would go on his own way.

Shortly after the divorce, John met and married Ruth Morgan, the mother of “two families of children.” But this relationship too would not last and John and Ruth would also divorce. John would bounce from job to job, taking him from Salt Lake City to Laramie and then to Sioux Falls, Iowa. Here, he married Coria Jackson, only to be separated and divorced a short time later. John’s travels would then take him to Illinois, California, Kansas, Missouri and then back to Kansas. His jobs would include picking chickens, washing dishes, milking cows and other odd jobs. In 1920, John made his final move to Los Angeles California and lived there until his death in 1955.

In 1937, John put together his book of remembrance which brought to light many, many stories and historical family information. In his writings, he alludes to his mother’s last request of him before she died; to do the families work in the temple. This became his life’s mission in his later years, becoming active in the church and making relatively frequent trips to Salt Lake City to visit the temple. He would admit that his happiest times were with his young family in Vernal, when he was active in the church and living the gospel. His final statement “I hope and pray that my record will be pleasing with the Lord when he sees fit to call me home with my mother and give an account of my life while he trusted me.” It is clear from the last page or two of his self-written life’s story that his days of traveling and quick relationships were a hard lesson leading to stability and a lasting testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is hard to say how much of an influence John was on his posterity simply because he wasn't a significant part of most of his childrens lives. And perhaps it is a lesson to his decedents the importance of family and perseverance and how much of an effect one decision can make in the lives of generations.