Utah Weather in the Spring is unpredictable. One day it is 40 degrees and raining, the next it 70, sunny and beautiful. It was the perfect day to get out and enjoy some fresh air and sunshine. Danny and I are fairly spontaneous and we decided to make our way to Memory Grove, a beautiful park in the heart of Salt Lake City, Utah. Our plans quickly changed when we realized that every darling couple going to prom was at the Grove taking pictures.
Once we got out of traffic and turned the old Yukon around we decided to take a drive through the Avenues. If you have never driven through the Avenues and stopped for ice cream or sweets at Hatch Family Chocolates you are missing out. In the Avenues there are so many beautiful, historic homes to see. Many are Utah landmarks. Dan loves the architecture, I love the gardens. One of our favorite homes is the McCune Mansion. We have been in the home a time or two but I learned even more of it's history when I married my sweetheart. I'll get back to that.
Our Yukon took us to the Old Salt Lake City cemetery. I know it seems sort of a strange place for a date night on a Saturday; however, Dan has a few of his family members buried there so we decided to take the detour. Dan's Great Grandfather August Jacobson and Grandma Hilda Jacobson are buried there.
I love hearing the story about The Jacobson's immigrating to the Salt Lake Valley. August was a Foreman at a Brewing company in Gothenburg Sweden, together they had thirteen children. No, that was not a typo. One day August was working at the brewery and heard a worker whistling a song that caught his attention. He stopped the young man and asked him what song it was. The young man answered that it was a hymn they sang in his church called, "Oh Ye Mountains High". The Jacobson's were not religious. Hilda wanted to go to the Lutheran Church but after August heard that Hymn their lives changed forever. They joined the Mormon Church and soon after made plans to go America. They had a large beautiful mansion in Sweden, August had a lucrative career but they gave everything up. August, Hilda and the youngest of their children boarded the SS Stockholm and made it through immigration in New York City, November 15,1924. Dan's Grandmother Ingeborg was eleven when they left Sweden. She was so seasick on the ship that she could not leave the bed; lucky for her the rest of their trip was by train. They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on November 26,1924.
The Mormon Church owned the Beautiful McCune Mansion in 1924. At that time it was a music school. The Church employed August as a Janitor to take care of the building, and allowed the Jacobsen family to live in the basement. During the day the McCune Mansion held classes, but at night the Jacobson kids would play soccer in the ballroom and run around it's halls. Grandpa was great at repairing holes in the wall.
It was nice to sit in the sun at the cemetery reminiscing on Great Grandma, Grandpa and Grandma Ingeborg and their story of coming to America. We cleaned up the grave, Dan said a few things in Swedish, it was emotional.
We are grateful they came to America and settled in the Salt Lake Valley. If they had never come everything for Danny and I would be very different. for one thing, we would have never met. We enjoy the Swedish traditions that came from that side of the family. It was a great day.
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