Martin Emanuel Anderson (1869-1936) and Mary Jane Lillywhite (1875-1945)

Martin Emanuel Anderson and Mary Jane Lillywhite were married in September 7, 1892 in the Manti Temple, Utah.  Martin and his brother Ernest were employed on a ranch owned by the Williams brothers' Ezra T, Joseph and Parley.  Martin's sister Freda was being courted by Parley and Joseph was courting Jane.  The brothers decided to exchange partners so Joseph started courting Freda and married her in the St. George Temple in 1891.  Jane was courted by Parley until she became acquainted with Freda's handsome brother Martin, whom of course, she married.  Martin was 23 and Mary Jane was 17.  Parley never married.

Martin was born in Augerum, Blenkinge, Sweden on December 25, 1869.  His parents Carl August Anderson and Fredrika Carlson had been married in 1869 and converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1873, two years after the missionaries had converted Carl's father Anders Peterson.   Martin's father Carl August emigrated to Utah in 1882 with his daughter Annette who was six and his mother Fredrika followed in 1883 with Martin, Ernest, and Alfreda.  They traveled on the S.S. Nevada with Martin's grandfather Anders Peterson and his Aunt Hilda and settled in Murray, Utah where Carl had established a home.  Anders Peterson and daughter Hilda Sophia went to the home of his daughter Emma Charlotte.  She had emigrated earlier and married Andrew Olson, the brother of John Olson, one of the missionaries who had converted the Peterson family in Sweden.  Martin's first job was to work on the farm of his brother-in-law Andrew Olson at 14 years of age.

Mary Jane was born in Beaver, Utah on April 29, 1875, the sixth child of a family of 10 children.  Her mother Mary Lewis had been baptized in 1845 in Llanelly, Wales at the age of 8.   Mary Lewis emigrated to Utah in 1863 when she was only 18 years, crossing the plains, walking most of the way from St. Louis, Missouri to Utah with a company of Saints driving ox teams.  After arriving in Utah she proceeded to Beaver City where she met Benjamin Lillywhite Jr. and married him  Christmas Day in the Endowment House in 1865.


Picture in 1939 of Ferrell, Nettie, Lorin, Roma and Maureen behind Mary Jane.

Benjamin had come to America in 1848 at the age of 5 with his parents Margaret and Benjamin Lillywhite, Sr.  His father and sister died in St. Louis of Cholera and his mother delivered a baby brother in November of the same year, 1849.  St. Louis was a hot-bed of reaction against the Mormons.  It was here they learned of the martyr of Joseph Smith and of the Saints going West.  Not able to find passage for all three together, Benjamin went with a couple named the Millers.  Mr. Miller died on the way and Benjamin drove the ox-team the remainder of the trip arriving in September 1852 when he was nine years old.  Mrs. Miller remarried to a Mr. Mansfield and Benjamin stayed with them in the Salt Lake Valley until he was 17 years of age.  In 1860 he traded his horse for 40 acres at North Creek and was living near his brother and mother who were in Beaver where Joseph was working on a dairy farm.  This is where he was living when he met and married Mary Lewis.


Martin and Mary Jane had their first child Nettie Mirl in 1893 while living in North Creek.  They then  had two  boys Martin Leroy and Arlow Leffley in 1896 and 1898 in nearby Beaver.  In 1900 Lorin Cleo was born in Brigham City and Carl Ferrell in 1903 in Brigham City, Geneva Ray in 1905, Maurine Alice in 1908, June Emanuel in 1913 and Mary in 1916.  They were living in Salt Lake City in 1918 when Roma was born.


Picture of Nettie holding baby Lorin, and Arlow is one of the boys in the front row.  They are here with their Williams cousin.

Martin Leroy lived for just a few months and is buried next to his grandmother Margaret in Beaver.  Geneva died at the age of four, June died at birth and Mary died at age seven.  Geneva, June and Mary are buried beside their parents in the Brigham City Cemetery.


Legend say Martin was a carpenter on the restoration of the Brigham City Tabernacle in 1897 after it burned down in 1896.  Since they reportedly (from Benjamin Lillywhite history) had crop failures in 1895 and drought in 1896 and the Lillywhite's moved north to Brigham City where his son Joseph was in 1897, Martin probably did secure carpentry work on the Tabernacle in Brigham City and that was the start of his building career. Mary Jane may have remained in Beaver until after Arlow was born.


Census reports show the family was living at the home of Martin's brother Ernest in Moreland, Bingham County, Idaho in the summer when the census was done but Lorin was born in November in Brigham City.


Picture of some of Mary Jane's grandchildren in 1939.  In the picture are Frank and Lorraine Dahstrom (Nettie's), Barbara and Bill Anderson (Lorin's), Jack Anderson (Arlow's) Keith Reid (Maureen's), Dick, David, Jeanne, Marilyn, Janet and baby Carole(Ferrell's).

History is sketchy as to were they were working and living in the early 1900s but they are reportedly in Box Elder lst Ward in 1903 and then there newspaper articles reporting his many building pursuits in the following years of which the Bear River Tabernacle, Malad Tabernacle and Blackfoot Tabernacle were included.  There were also many  commercial buildings, schools and homes, etc.


While building the Stakehouse (Tabernacle) in Blackfoot, Idaho Martin's sons Arlow, Lorin and Ferrell all worked with him.   

In later years Mary Jane and Martin lived in Southern California near relatives and Martin died in Hawthorne on November 24, 1936. 


Mary Jane had diabetes and had to have her legs amputated and spent her last years in a wheel chair in Boise, Idaho near her daughter Nettie and son Arlow and their spouses and families.  Mary Jane passed away on Octobert 17, 1945. 

I, Janet,  can remember posing for this picture which was taken in the summer of 1939.  Grandma Anderson wanted me to stand in front of her so we could not see her wheel chair.  Another memory I had is being given a dust cloth earlier in the day to get down and dust all the legs of large dining room table.  It was a family reunion at the home of her daughter and husband Nettie Mirl and Frank Dahlstrom.


Some of the pictures that Martin E. Anderson was the contractor for.  The first one in Blackfoot, Idaho (which is now a funeral parlor I believe) all three of the brothers Arlow, Lorin, and Ferrell worked on the building.  

They are both buried in the Brigham City Cenetery.