Mt. Carmel

Lamar was the second child born in his family of 2 girls and 4 boys, the oldest 4 children being born in Mt. Carmel, Kane County, Utah. Times were very hard in those days, and they lived in a simple log cabin.

Maggie Eliza Englestead, Lamar's mother, was born in Mt. Carmel in 1887. Maggie's paternal grandparents had moved to Long Valley (Mt. Carmel) in 1871. Rasmus Mads Englestad, Maggie's grandfather renamed the town of Winsor to Mt. Carmel because of the the color of the nearby cliffs.

Hyrum, Maggie's husband, was born in Castledale, Utah in 1885. Hyrum's parents and Maggie's mother were all born in Denmark. Hyrum and Maggie married in 1911, and Irene, the oldest child was born in Mt. Carmel in 1915. My father, Lamar was next, born in 1917, then Lorraine, born in 1919. Hugh was born in 1923. Two more sons were born in Hurricane, Utah: Duaine in 1926 and Shearl in 1928.

Lamar's parents Hyrum & Maggie Nielson

Irene Nielson Wright the oldest child

Lorraine Nielson Yates

Irene, Loraine and Lamar Nielson in Mt. Carmel



Another picture of Lorraine, Lamar and Irene l-to-r

The Nielson Brothers from right to left and by oldest
Lamar, Hugh, Duaine and Shearl

Some of Dad's favorite foods as an adult betray the foods he ate as a child. During the Depression they did not have much in the way of food. He told us how they would make "Lumpy Dick", a cream gravy made by leaving lumps of flour to appear like there was something more than milk and flour in the gravy. This would be poured over toast. One of Dad's favorite foods was "Bread and Milk" where homemade bread would be torn up and milk poured over it. He would eat this with green onions and other fresh vegetables. Dad loved eggs, and often he would ask for eggs poached in milk and poured over toast. Dad also mentioned frickadella (frikadeller) which is a Danish meatball (traditionally ground pork mixed with eggs and oniones and perhaps spiced with nutmeg) served in gravy with bread, potatoes or spiced red cabbage. Dad was also fond of Danish dumplings which were a part of stew or soup and had a sticky thick consistency, and he loved homemade bread, milk, buttermilk and cheese.

Once, when our family was driving through the one-horse town of Mt. Carmel, or what was left of it, Dad pointed to an old two-story building on the main street with a second-story balcony. He remarked that he remembered the time when a man rode into town on a horse, aimed a pistol at a man on the balcony like that one, shot him down and rode off. This was fun for me as it showed that he had really lived in the "Old West," the days of real cowboys, and indeed he did.

Mt. Carmel was a town that was asked by Brigham Young to live the United Order, or an economic cooperative often found in Church history, and the background of today's Church welfare system. Some of the people in Mt. Carmel wanted to live in a more formal communal system and left Mt. Carmel to establish Orderville, just two miles away. As a child we would visit relatives in Orderville and I would ask them about living in the United Order as children.

It was an interesting experience for me to visit them in Orderville, and I liked Uncle Binney and Aunt Hat very much. Many Mormons expect that at some point in the future they may again be called to live in such a communal economic system.

Uncle Binney & Aunt Hat Sorensen, Sine Sorensen's relatives, lived in Orderville and told us stories about living under the United Order and other tales of the old days in the West

see more about the United Order of Mt. Carmel and Orderville