Life Sketch of Jeppa Jeppson

An email received from Joe:

I found this bio on Jeppa this morning (see the link below).  So for an FHE, Tai and I took the boys to Brigham City to the bank that Jeppa was at in 1915 when he gave this bio which was recorded by one of his grandsons. It was a pretty cool FHE. 

Joe Jeppson


LIFE SKETCH OF JEPPA JEPPSON
Compiled by Grandson, Royal Moroni Jeppson
488 North Ash Street; Blackfoot, Idaho

Jeppa Jeppson, the son of Hans Jeppson and Martha Hanson, was born February 13, 1832 at Trelleborg, Malmohus, Sweden, a port on the Baltic Sea.  He was named after his grandfather, Jeppa Jeppson, who was the son of Hans Jeppson who was the son of Jeppa Hanson who was the son of Hans Johnson who was born in Trelleborg in 1655.  He was one of the 6th generations in that city.

Sitting on the foundation ledge of the First National Bank Building on the corner of Main and Forest Streets in Brigham City, UT, November 1915, 83 year old Jeppa Jeppson gave an account of his ancestors.  His mood was reflective; there was a far-away look in his eyes as, in retrospect, he lived again the things that happened long ago.

The family originally came from Norway, a land of wondrous beauty--of long days--of twilight nights.  He told of balmy sea breezes and singing birds in a tranquil summer; of rigorous sports-skating, sleighing, fishing--through the ice in a rugged winter when even the Baltic Sea was frozen over.

The last of Jeppa's forebears in Norway was in love with a beautiful girl, the daughter of a cobbler.  Against the wishes of his socially prominent family, the couple eloped and settled in Trelleborg about 1655.  The name of this ancestor is not known.  Jeppa thought his name was John Hanson, but research does not establish this fact.  Records do show the birth of a Hans Johnson in Trelleborg at that time.

Considering the conditions of the times*, the questionable methods of record keeping, and the family break, it is conceivable that Hans Johnson and John Hansen [?] are one and the same--a determined Norseman who left his home and kindred in Norway to establish a new line unto the sixth generation in Sweden, culminating in the birth of Jeppa Jeppson in 1832.

{*During the 16th and 17th centuries in Norway and Sweden, religious fanatics destroyed genealogical records, believing them to be instruments of the devil establishing religious traditions of the Celts and others whom they called "Barbarians of the North".  Many genealogies are fairly intact back to that period but broken and fragmentary beyond.}

Jeppa's childhood was normal, and when he was still a very young man, he found employment in a tavern in Malmohus somewhere near Malmo.  Speaking of this time, he said, "I was very happy, many people came to the tavern.  I met many of them and we talked about things that took place.

Jeppa Hans Jeppson
13 November 1832-12 August 1916