Joseph Hyrum Thiessens
By Golden V. Adams Jr.
[As told to the author by Henrietta Thiessens, about 1962]
It was a nice clear winter day in January. The snow that was lying on the ground glistened as if it were manna from heaven. This was the day a blessing from heaven was given to Hermannus and Henrietta Folkers Thiessens.
With mid-afternoon came the much cherished parcel. This was the third boy born to this couple.
The little bundle arrived in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah. The date was January 13, 1924.
This was a very special day for Folkert Teunis Folkers and his wife, Hilje Mulder Folkers, since this was the first grandchild born since they had come to America from the Netherlands. Because of this, Hilje was given the honor of naming the little boy. Henrietta, the mother of the baby boy wanted his name to be Joseph for the Bible character who was sold into Egypt. However the grandmother chose the name Joseph Hyrum; Joseph for the Prophet Joseph Smith, and Hyrum for the Prophet's brother. Thus, the baby was blessed and given the name of Joseph Hyrum Thiessens.
When Joseph was six months old, his father and mother gave him a book having no pictures. He turned the pages looking at the book, but not once did he tear a single page. This was thought to be quite remarkable by his parents. His father said he was really going to be a book-worm!
Joseph Hyrum Thiessens, about 1 year old
Joseph, being about a year old, was allowed to have an old song book to take to church and he really loved to sing. However, his parents had to be quite careful. When the singing stopped, Joseph would just keep right on singing. At this, everyone would laugh.
It was often that his father sat in front of the congregation and Joseph was not at all concerned or content until he could run up and sit on his father's lap. He did this many a time when he was a young chlid.
Joseph had a dark complexion. His skin was an olive color. As a young child he had dark blonde hair which later turned a dark brown. His eyes were a dark brown and they had a very special way all their own in expressing every wish. His eyes were extremely beautiful as were all his features. At times they looked extremely puzzled and other times they were very happy.
Joseph was a favorite of his grandparents Folkert and Hilje. When his grandfather came home from work each afternoon, Joseph would be waiting for him as he always had something in his lunch pail especially for Joseph.
When Joseph was a year and a half old, the family was invited for Christmas day dinner to some of the family's Dutch friends. Joseph's father and grandparents were in California and his mother stayed home with the children. Joseph was asked to sing a little song in Dutch since the people there were all of Dutch descent. Joseph spoke English as did his brothers and sisters.
One winter day this same winter, Joseph heard his grandfather coming home. He was sitting on his rocking horse and when he heard his grandfather's voice, he tried to climb off. He couldn't quite make it. In his struggle he lost his balance, slipped, and ruptured himself. He then had to wear a truss. He wore this for about a year. After this, he was all right.
When Joseph was about four years old, his mother took him and his three younger sisters, Hilda, Ruth, and Grace to Liberty Park in Salt Lake City, Utah. Joseph was to watch Hilda and Ruth; his mother held the baby, Grace. You can imagine the picture it made when he took Hilda and Ruth, held on to their little hands, and said, "Come on you little kids. It's time to go home" as if he were all grown up?
When he was about five years old, his grandparents moved to live with George Albert Smith [in the cottage behind his home]. As Joseph visited quite often, he became a favorite of George Albert Smith.
Brother Smith had a grandson about Joseph's age. He lived next door to the Smiths. Joseph and the grandson soon became fast friends.
Joseph, Henrietta and Hilda Thiessens, ca. 1930 on 7th East in Salt Lake City, Utah
As Joseph grew older, Brother Smith often took Joseph with him to the Church Office. Since the Thiessens family had no car, he delighted to travel with George Albert Smith just for the ride. Brother Smith would often give Joseph a tablet of chocolate which he would faithfully save to divide with his brothers and sisters.
At the age of ten years, Joseph and Hank, his older brother, dug an underground hut as their clubhouse. This was done in the back yard at 7th East. It was about five feet deep and about four feet square. They put boards over the hut and put dirt and leaves on top of this. Leaving just enough room for an entrance, they dug steps into the dirt as a means of getting into the clubhouse.
Folkert and Hilje moved to the house where Folkert planted a vegetable garden in the back yard [at Leland Avenue] and Joseph would help with it.
At the age of ten, he had eaten many green apples and came home sick with a stomach ache. He called his mother early that morning before his dad left for work and complained about the pain in his abdomen.
After talking to Joseph and examining him, his mother was convinced that it was appendicitis. She talked to her husband, but he would not agree that this was the case. He was determined that it was simply the green apples.
Henrietta wanted to call the doctor, but Hermannus didn't agree. Since the family doctor was out of town and she didn't know of any other, she waited until about 11:30 p.m. and then called the neighbor's doctor.
Joseph had then become much better and didn't seem to be in so much distress. When the doctor came, he told Henrietta that it would have been much better had she called six hours earlier. He explained that it was a ruptured appendix. So Joseph was rushed to the hospital and was operated on as soon as he arrived there. Joseph's father felt extremely sorry then that he hadn't consented to call the doctor earlier.
On the way to the hospital, Joseph said to his mother, "Mother, if I am going to die, I don't want you to worry over me. I am sure I'll be all right. I have thought over my life and I feel sure that my Heavenly Father will accept me. So please don't worry about me if I should die."
He was very sick after the operation and the doctors told the family not to plan on keeping this boy for very much longer as his body was filled with poison and the drain pipe that had been inserted would not carry it out.
After Joseph came out of the ether, he asked his mother to go home and call his father and a brother who was counselor of the Elders quorum in the Wandameer Ward at this time. This brother [Johnson] had received a special blessing for the healing of the sick by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The following happened about two days after the operation:
The nurses and the doctor at the hospital told the mother of the beloved lad to stay with him that evening. They had pulled a screen around his bed and were expecting him to pass away that night. He had turned yellow in color due to the poison in his system.
The Brother [Johnson] and Hermannus came that night to administer to him. They asked him, "Do you have faith that God could heal your?"
Joseph's answer was "HOW COULD I DOUBT IT?"
They then proceeded to administer to the almost lifeless form. They had no more than removed their hands from his head that Joseph started to vomit and got rid of so much infection and poison that so infested his body. He asked them to go home and not to worry about him. He said he would go to sleep and spent a very restful night. This was quite a surprise to the nurses and the doctor.
From that day on he was on the road to recovery. Although he had the drain tubes in for a long time, he was very active in church and school. He became a Deacon when eleven years old. He also became a scout and, of course, he loved it dearly.
During the summer months while living at 7th East at the time Joseph was eleven or twelve, he and his sister, Ruth, would get up early Sunday morning and go fishing in the lake at Nibley Park and they would be home in time for Sunday School. It was times like this that brought these two very close to each other.
Joseph was falsely accused of chasing and abusing pigs. The people that lived around their neighborhood had pigs that were chased by other boys. The bishop called him and accused him of this. This affair broke his heart to think that the bishop didn't even so much as apologize. Joseph, bishop, and parents went to the people and they couldn't recognize him as one of the group. Later the boys were found and Joseph was cleared. But it left a sting in his heart. So much so, that he made a praying matter of it. And yet, he cried for over two hours because it affected him so.
When Joseph was twelve, he, his brother Hank, and some of his boy friends went to Nibley Park. It was a very cold winter day. Joseph skated into the middle of the lake and onto thin ice. The ice broke and he went through. The boys brought him home, about two and one-half blocks away, and he was found to be a very wet and frozen young man.
While the family lived at 7th East, Joseph would pump Ruth [on a bicycle] to their grandparents, three or four blocks away. They would help in the garden and some of the chores. In afternoons, when their grandfather was not able to do much work anymore, they would sit with the grandfather on the east side of the house and play dominoes by the hour.
The family moved to Bryan Avenue in 1937. That Christmas, Joseph pumped Ruth on bicycle to town and they went Christmas shopping. She carried the packages while he pumped them home again.
When the family moved, Joseph was set back one year in school. He was taking math over again and his teacher saw that he wasn't paying attention so he told Joseph to come up and do the problem. Joseph did it without any trouble and the two boys he chummed around with really got a big kick out of this. They were both non-members of the church. One boy was Jewish, the other boy's name was Ericksen.
The next day Joseph was sick and unable to attend school. His two friends told the teacher that Joseph had stayed home because the teacher coud not teach him anything. The next day Joseph came to school with his excuse. The teacher asked him since he couldn't be taught anything and since he knew it all, if he would like to teach the teacher. He was given extra work to do. He did it that night and from then on they were very good friends.
The Jewish boy, the Ericksen boy, and Joseph palled around with each other and in the summer they slept either at the Ericksens’ or at Joseph's out on the front lawn. They were really friendly and could get along in any situation.
Joseph was very interested in genealogy. When they organized the Junior Genealogical Class, he joined it and it became a very dear subject to him. The teacher of the class suggested that the boys go and take out their Patriarchal Blessings. So they set a day apart to do this.
The night before Joseph was to go for his blessing, he said, "Mother, don't bother me with food tomorrow as I want to fast so that I may have the Spirit of the Lord and will be able to receive His blessings."
As the class had gathered at the patriarch's, one room was set aside for the group and one set aside for the special sacred blessings of each individual one. The patriarch explained everything must be completely quiet and wanted someone to be in charge of the group. He picked Joseph to do this.
The Patriarchal Blessing was a very precious possession to him. After that he went many times to the temple to baptize for the dead. One of the statements in his [patriarchal] blessing was that the adversary was trying to shorten his life.
Sunday afternoons, the family would sit around the table and play Pit and a game similar to Parcheesi that Ted, the oldest, had made. However, their dad didn't participate as he was usually at meetings.
When Joseph went with his boyfriends, Ruth would always tag along. If his boyfriends said, "What's she doin' here?", or "We don't want her along," Joseph would stick up for her and she would be allowed to join with them.
Joseph was one who had great patience. He and Ruth put many model airplanes together. Joseph was a great plane enthusiast. He had a great desire to become an airplane pilot when he grew up, but he didn't live to see this fulfilled. He enjoyed building model planes and he built several. The last one which he built was a large yellow plane with a motor. He flew this one. This was when he was fourteen years old.
Also when Joseph was fourteen years old, he was at school where he was pole vaulting. There was not sufficient padding to break his fall, but it was just more or less gravel. Joseph took a run and as he did so, a voice told him not to go ahead. Three times the voice came. Still, he went ahead and made the jump. When he landed, it broke his right arm. The bone protruded out from the arm and made a terrible sight.
At this time, his mother was cleaning at his grandparents' when she got word what had happened. Joseph had been taken to the doctor's office. His doctor was out of town, so a Dr. Stevenson set the arm. When Dr. Phipps returned, he checked the arm saying it was a perfect fit.
But between the two of them, Joseph got no tetanus shot. A friend told his mother he should get one and so they went to Dr. Phipps. He gave the shot to Joseph and told his mother that if his jaw began to stiffen, he should be taken right to the hospital.
On Sunday, he asked his mother, "Which meeting should I go to--Priesthood or Sunday School? I don't think that I can make the two of them as I feel rather ill." She told him to go to the one that he got the most good from. He went to Priesthood meeting and felt fine enough to attend Sunday School also. Since he could not use his right arm, he asked the president of the quorum if he could use his left hand. The president said it would be all right for him to partake of the sacrament with his left hand.
There was a vacant lot on the west side of the house on Bryan Avenue. It was full of weeds. Joseph and Ruth, and perhaps some of the others in the family, cleared all the weeds off the lot so the seeds wouldn't blow onto the lawn. After it was cleared, a house was built on it. It was in the process after Joseph's accident. Joe would look out of the bedroom window and watch the carpenters build the house after the accident.
Then, one day, he told his mother that his jaw hurt. When he saw the expression on his mother's face, he just laughed and said he was just fooling! But his mother called the hospital and she was told that he should be brought in immediately.
Time passed and with it, the fourteen year old boy became worse. His mother stayed with him constantly. Then, one day, he asked his mother to call the nurse. She told him that the nurses were busy and she asked him if she could do what he was going to request. He told her that she could not so she called in a nurse. Joseph asked the nurse if she would see to it that his mother was taken home to get some rest as she had been with him for so long without food or rest. He said that he would be all right. He was always so considerate of others and even in as much pain as he was bearing, he didn't care about himself more than the other person. Joseph was very much liked by the nurses as he was so very polite to them and never called unless it was absolutely necessary.
During the last hours, Henrietta sat with the pain-stricken lad of fourteen. Very close to the end, Joseph asked his mother if she would sing O, My Father to him. She began to sing the familiar song:
O my Father, thou that dwellest In the high and glorious place,
When shall I regain thy presence And again behold thy face?
In thy holy habitation, Did my spirit once reside?
In my first primeval childhood Was I nurtured near thy side?
After the song was over, a pain struck the sickly form and a grief-stricken and painful expression came over his face. It was there for only a moment when it was replaced by the most beautiful heavenly smile that there ever was. Then it was over.
The grief-stricken mother got down on her knees to pray when the door opened. It was a nurse, but she passed lightly on. There was then a pause, for the beautiful mother of the lad, with a prayer in her heart, honestly thought that he would come back to earth from the heavenly sphere. But he didn't. The date was April 30, 1938 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., Utah.
5 May 1938 - Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park (L-R) Freeda Thiessens, HIlda Thiessens, Vall Thiessens, Harmannus (Herman) Thiessens, Ruth Thiessens, Hank Thiessens, Henrietta Thiessens, Billie Fern Zingelman, Grace Thiessens, Hilje M. Folkers, Folkert T. Folkers, Mick Zingelman, and Ted Thiessens.
Joseph's dad took him to the wrestling matches each Friday night, and they were very close. Joseph had been a favorite of his father all of the time and the shock was so very great that the father was affected by this incident more than anyone could know. From then on he was not able to work anymore. It was very few times after that the matches were attended by him.
At the funeral, or previous to it, the many students that were his friends lined up and they were lined for blocks to see him. At school a five minute silence was conducted by the school in behalf of Joseph Hyrum Thiessens.
Not long after this, Henrietta was in attendance at a fast and testimony meeting in which the Ericksen boy got up and bore his testimony. He said that even though Joseph had passed on, it was he who had brought him into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He told how Joseph had explained the Degrees of Glory to him and the Jewish boy when they camped out. The Ericksen boy said Joseph would look up into the sky as if he knew each individual star. Who knows? Perhaps he did.