Rhoda Chapman was born 27 January 1872 in Parleys Park, Summit County, Utah, United States to Hyrum Smith Chapman (1841-1928) and Rhoda Ann Fullmer (1847-1917) and died 24 January 1944 Bluewater Village, Valencia County, New Mexico, United States of unspecified causes. She married Christian Moroni Knudsen (1856-1945) 22 November 1897 in Ramah, McKinley County, New Mexico, United States.
Life Sketch
Compiled in June 1988 by Wanda Knudsen Guthrie, granddaughter and William Warren Knudsen, son.
Early Years
Rhoda Susan Chapman was born at Parley's Park, Summit County, Utah, on 27 January, 1872. Parley's Park is now called Park City and is a ski resort. Her parents are Hyrum Chapman and Rhoda Ann Fullmer. She is their first child Her brothers and sisters are Hyrum David, Welcome Octavia, Troop Eugene, Zera Marvia, Winnie, Minnie and Don Archable.
Her father, Hyrum was born in Nauvoo, Illinois the 3 October,1841, to Welcome Chapman and Susan Amelia Risley. When Hyrum was about three years old, he remembered having his father, Welcome, lift him up to see the prophet Joseph Smith in his casket.
Her mother, Rohda Ann Fullmer, was born 15 March, 1847 in Garden Grove, Decatur County, Iowa to David Fullmer and Rhoda Ann Marvin. David Fullmer's name appears in the Doctrine and Covenants, 114:132, when he was appointed to be a High Councilman.
Rhoda's parents were married in Salt Lake City in 1871, then moved to Parley's Park, which is east of Salt Lake City, that same year. They were in Slat Lake City when the second child, Hyrum was born in 1874. Then they moved back to Parley's Park where Welcome and Eugene were born. The fifth child, Zera, was born in Salt Lake City in 1881, and the last three children, Winnie, Minnie and Don were born in St. Johns, Arizona.
Rhode and her family moved to St. Johns about 1885 when she was inher teens, While they lived there, Typhoid Fever was going around. Rhoda contracted the disease and lost all of her hair. She used to have a picture withher hair only about an inch long all over her head. She was about nineteen then.
Move to Bluewater
There house burned down while in St. Johns. Their house wasn't very far from where her daughter, Luella and her husband, Leigh live at this time, 1988. They apparently didn't even build the house back. They heard about a place called Bluewater in New Mexico and moved there probably sometime in the 1890's. Other families had already homesteaded the best part of the area, so they had a little place that they homesteaded on the east side of the arroyo. It was near where Grandpa Chapman built his rock house. He was the only one who built a rock house there in Bluewater because he was a stone cutter and had helped build the Salt Lake Temple. His house was on the east side of that big arroyo, which was about 20 or 30 feet wide and about 12 or 15 feet deep, straight down. From the rock house up the arroyo about a mile or two, it was really deep. That's where the Chapman homestead was and they built a store there later.
As a young girl, Rhoda didn't have much chance to go school. She probably didn't go more than a year total. As soon as she got big enough and old enough, she had to do the family wash on the wash board, all the cooking, mixing bread and house cleaning. Her mother couldn't do any of that because she was ill all the time. Rhoda had a younger sister, but since Rhoda was the oldest in the family, she had to do all the work.
Married Life
When Rhoda was twenty-five years old, she met Christian Moroni Knudsen, who was working on the railroad and stopped in Bluewater because he had heard there were Mormons living there He had just been released from his mission. Grandma Chapman, Rhoda's mother, called Christian, "Brother Kahootsen", because she couldn't say Knudsen. They were marred in Ramah, New Mexico, 22 November, 1897.
Rhoda took in washings to help with their finances. After she was married and living at the crusher, she did the laundry for the workers there. Warren, her son, would get on his bicycle and ride up to the crusher from the old rock house in the evening when the men got off work. He would gather up their laundry, tie it on the handle bars and carry it back home. Then Rhoda would launder it and Warren would deliver it back to the workers. She washed them on the scrubbing board and ironed them with a sad iron (heat it on the woodstove). When she had them all laundered and ironed, they looked like they came right out of a store. She got 25 cents a shirt. The men didn't mind paying that much, because they were all working and making money. Most of the men that she did laundry for were the men who came with the company from Kansas. They had the big jobs, the engineers, the steam shovel engineer and other responsible jobs.
Rhoda made a few quilts in her lifetime, but really didn't do much sewing. She always had to work out so she could bring in a little money. She helped clean people' houses and would iron for them.
After Christian and Rhoda were married, they moved to Joseph City, Arizona and Christian continued to work on the railroad. Their first child, Hyrum Christian, was born there, 11 September, 1898 They moved back to Bluewater where Rhoda Luella was born 23 October, 1900 and Welcome Jorgen was born 20 February, 1903.
The moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where William Warren was born 13 February, 1906. While they were there, Welcome died, Christian, Rhoda's husband had his right eye put out with a hot piece of steel that came flying his way when he was repairing the engines for the railroad. All these events left Rhoda and Christian in such a say way that they decided to move back to Bluewater. Warren was about two months old at the time.
Zuni Mountain Home
About two years later they moved up on the Zuni Mountain, about two miles from Page, New Mexico, which was probably not more than a Post Office. Christian filed on a homestead that had plenty of good timber on it. Rhoda's father and her brothers built a saw mill and cut the timber. Christian was the fireman at the saw mill.
They lived on the Zuni Mountain for about eight years. Rhoda's parents lived nearby while they were running the sawmill. Rhoda spent a lot of time taking care of her mother who seemed always to be sick.
While they were living on the Zuni Mountain, for more children were born. Joseph Jessie, 8 September, 1908, who only lived a few days; Oscar, 18 August, 1909, who was stillborn; Morley Archabald, 22 September, 1910, and Armenie Amelia, 18 December, 1913, who died at the age of nine months.
Bluewater Rock House
They moved back to Bluewater the spring of 1916 when Rhoda's mother had a paralytic stroke. Rhoda never went back to the Zuni Mountain. The rest of the family did all of the moving after the property was sold.
After Rhoda's mother's death about a year later, her father lived with the family for a long time They lived in her father's rock house Her father went places, traveled to Salt Lake City and other places. He would go by train. He had a small pension of about $20.00 a month and he would save it up until he had enough for a trip.
While they were living in the rock house in Bluewater, the oldest son, Hyrum Christian was in the army in World War I, so there were just three children at home. The children slept in the attic. It was a pretty nice house for those days, but it didn't hav running water or a bathroom. They had a struggle throughout their lives just to have food and clothing, no luxuries. That wasthe same situation with both sets of parents.
Rhoda was about five feet four inches tall, rather big-boned but never fat. Christian was about five feet six inches tall and looked about the same height when they walked along together.
After Rhoda's son, Warren was married, they four of them drove to Salt Lake City to be endowed and sealed in the temple. Warren's wife, Niona's mother and sister went with them. The sister, Ruth went to have test done on her hips, which were dislocated. They had been working at the Bluewater Dam to make money for the trip, then quit so they could go. Warren had a little car that would take at least six people and that was how many who took the trip. Warren's brother, Christian gave their Dad enough money to buy a new suit, and his older brother, Morely gave them $25.00 to help pay the gas for the trip. Rhoda hadn't ever been to the temple. Christian had gone to the temple before he went on a mission. He was forty years old when he got married, and at the time they went to Salt Lake to be sealed, he was seventy. Rhoda had talked about going to the temple for many years, but there just hadn't been any way for them to go before this, which was October, 1926. Warren and Niona were endowed and sealed to each other. Rhoda was endowed and then she and Christian were sealed. And then Warren and the deceased children were sealed to them. In later years, when their children were married and most of them lived in Mesa and Gilbert in Arizona, Rhoda and Christian would come down and spend the winters with them, so they could get out of the cold weather in Bluewater. They really liked to listen to the radio. They hadn't had that experience before. They would sit on the front porch at Warren's house in Gilbert and listen to the radio program.
Rhoda made a few quilts, but didn't do much sewing. She always had to work out so she could bring in a little money for the family. She helped clean people's houses and would iron for them. She was an excellent ironer.
Rhoda became quite ill in 1943. In January, 1944, her sons, Morley and Warren along with Warren's daughters, Wanda and Verna, drove to Bluewater to see her. She was near death, but did recognize her sons. She passed away the next day, 24 January, 1944, just three days before her 72nd birthday. The funeral was held the next day in Bluewater, and Rhoda was laid to rest in the small Bluewater cemetery, on a cold and windy winter day.
She suffered many hardships in her life, sometimes not even having the necessities. And she had to work so hard from the time that she was a young girl. Only four of her eight children lived to maturity, quite a common occurrence in pioneer times, but none-the-less sad for them. She was long-suffering and a strong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Rhoda and Christian were faithful in paying their tithing all their lives. Whenever they got any money, they would always take the tithing money out first and put it away, until they could pay it to the bishop. They didn't have much money but they paid their tithing. They never ate a meal that wasn't tithed. They must have mailed their tithing to the bishop or sent it down with someone when they lived up on the Zuni Mountain. They were very faithful in their prayers.
Memories of Wanda Guthrie
Memories of my Grandmother, Rhoda Susan Chapman Knudsen, by Wanda Knudsen Guthrie:
When I was four years old, I with my family moved from Arizona to Bluewater, New Mexico. This was in 1931. My Knudsen grandparents lived in Bluewater and my parents grew up in that small town.
My parents knew it would not be easy to make a living there, but I think my Dad felt a need to be by his parents and also to be out of the heat in Mesa.
My grandmother was a hard worker and did a lot of ironing for my Mother. She helped when my two brothers, Wendell and Marvin, were born there in Bluewater, She made delicious banana cake and I remember going to her home many times and being served a piece of her cake. She probably didn't have any bananas to put in her cake, just some flavoring. She used to say that people would pay her in "sweet stuff" when she ironed for them. They would give her a bottle of jam or jelly instead of money.
Children
Siblings
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Rhoda Susan Chapman (1872-1944) | 27 January 1872 Parleys Park, Summit County, Utah, United States | 24 January 1944 Bluewater Village, Valencia County, New Mexico, United States | Christian Moroni Knudsen (1856-1945) |
| Hyrum David Chapman (1874-1937) | 12 November 1874 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, United States | 5 December 1937 Mesa, Maricopa County, Arizona, United States | Eda Albertina Tietjen (1880-1958) |
| Welcome Octavius Chapman (1876-1945) | 7 February 1876 Parley's Park, Summit County, Utah, United States | 23 May 1945 Mesa, Maricopa County, Arizona, United States | Ernestina Olena Tietjen (1878-1962) |
| Troop Eugene Chapman (1878-1930) | |||
| Zera Marvin Chapman (1881-1942) | |||
| Winnie Chapman (1885-1885) | |||
| Minnie Belle Chapman (1887-1963) | |||
| Don Archable Chapman (1891-1920) | |||
See Also
- Rhoda Chapman
- Chapman Family
- Welcome Chapman Family Ancestry
- Chapman in Summit County, Utah
- Chapman in Valencia County, New Mexico
- Chapman in McKinley County, New Mexico
- Knudsen in Valencia County, New Mexico
Census Records
1910 US Census : Guam NM
Survey taken 1910 in Guam, McKinley County, New Mexico Survey District #122 - Street Number 1B - Household #14
- Christian M Knudsen - M/53 - Born- Utah (Head)
- Rhodie S Knudsen - F/38 - Born - Utah (Wife)
- Hyrum Knudsen - M/11 - Born-Arizona (Son)
- Rhodie S Knudsen - F/9 - Born-New Mexico (Daughter)
- William W Knudsen - M/4 - Born-New Mexico (Son)
1920 US Census : Bluewater NM
Survey Taken 1920 in Bluewater, Valencia Co, New Mexico Survey District #191 - Street Number 1A - Household #4.
- C M Knudsen - M/63 - Born-Utah (Head)
- Rhoda S Knudsen - F/47 - Born-Utah (Wife)
- Hyram C Knudsen - M/21 - Born-Arizona (Son)
- Rhoda L Knudsen - F/19 - Born-New Mexico (Daughter)
- William W Knudsen - M/13 - Born-New Mexico (Son)
- Morley A Knudsen - M/9 - Born-New Mexico (Son)
1930 US Census : Bluewater NM
Survey Taken 1930 in Valencia Co, New Mexico Survey District #16 - Street Number 2b - Household #28.
- Christian M Knudsen - M/73 - Born-Utah (Head)
- Rhoda S Knudsen - F/58 - Born-Utah (Wife)
- Marley A Knudsen - M/19 - Born-New Mexico
References