Mary Matilda (Peterson) Bagley (1876 - 1918)

-Written by Marla Morgan Bezold

Mary Matilda Peterson was born 9 September 1876 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho. She was the daughter of Nels Peterson, and Margaret Johanna Sorensen. Matilda's parents came to Utah because they had been converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by missionaries who were sent to Denmark. Nels, her father, was born 22 April 1846 in Systofte, Maribo, Denmark. His name on the Danish church records is Niels Pedersen. He was a farmer and a carpenter. Nels died 3 August 1926 in Salem, Fremont, Idaho and was buried 5 August 1926 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho. Nels was the son of Ole Peterson (Pedersen) and Anna Olsen (Anne Olesen). His parents also joined the church in Denmark, immigrated to Utah, and lived in Manti, Utah until their deaths. His brothers also immigrated to Utah, but one married sister stayed in Denmark. He also had a sister who died in Denmark before the family immigrated.

Johanne Margrethe Nielsen, Matilda's mother, changed her name when she immigrated, too. She was called Margaret Johanna Sorensen in America. She was born 17 March 1848 in Vejby, Frederiksborg, Denmark. She died 21 June 1913 in Logan, Cache, Utah. Her mother's parents were Niels Sorensen and Anne Kirstine Hansen. They, too, joined the church in Denmark and immigrated to Utah.

Mary Matilda was the fourth of ten children. Her full brothers and sisters were: 1. Rosa Margaret Peterson, born 21 September 1868 in Logan, Cache, Utah. Rosa died at the age of 12 on 29 March 1881 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho. 2. Anna Christine Peterson, born 24 November 1870 in Logan, Cache, Utah. Anna married David Miller on 12 November 1900 in Bloomington. She died 5 August 1918 in Glencoe, Lincoln, Wyoming. She was buried in Logan, Cache, Utah on 7 August 1918. 3. William Peterson, born 24 May 1874 in Ovid, Bear Lake, Idaho, married 1) June Crockett in January 1901 and later married 2) Eliza Myrtle Davidson on 28 Sep 1945. He died 11 July 1957. 4. Mary Matilda (the person you are reading about) was called "Tilda" by her parents, and "Tillie" or "Till" by her relatives and friends when she grew up. 5. Albert George Peterson, born 4 August 1878 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho was only 2 1/2 years old when he died 21 March 1881. 6. Nellie Eldora Peterson, born 12 January 1882 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho, died at the age of 1 1/2 years on 19 July 1883. 7. Willard Alphonzo Peterson was born 3 September 1886 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho. He died 25 December 1888. He, too, was only 2 years old. Notice that he died on Christmas day. What a sad Christmas this was must have been for his family! 8. Alma Lorenzo Peterson, born 15 February 1889 in Bloomington, married Doris Marie Richards in 1914 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho. He died 20 September 1955. 9. Gwenn Peterson, born 3 August 1892 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho, died 22 August 1892, at the age of 19 days. 10. Harold ValJean Peterson, born 7 September 1804 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho. He married Mary Elsie Petersen on 27 September 1916 in Portland, Clackamas, Oregon. He died 16 June 1968.

Of the 10 children, only Anna Christine, William, Alma Lorenzo, Harold, and Matilda lived to adulthood --five out of ten children. As you can tell, life was very hard for this pioneer family.

Nels, Matilda's father, lived during the period of time that many Mormons practiced polygamy. He married his second wife, Johanna Bee, on October 20, 1886. At this time, Matilda would have been ten years old. Her step-mother, Joanna Bee, died 24 January 1943 in Charlo Lake, Montana. She was buried 29 January 1943 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho. She and Matilda's father (Nels) had eight children, so Matilda also had eight half brothers and sisters. They were:

1. Alvin Erastus Peterson, born 16 November 1887 in Bountiful, Davis, Utah. He married Emma Louise Roberts on 2 December 1908 in Logan, Cache, Utah. He died 27 Feb 1962 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. 2. Myrtle Georgina Peterson, born 14 November 1889 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho. She married George Wilder Tanner on 3 October 1913 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, and died 3 April 1977 in Orem, Utah, Utah. 3. Wanda Stelicia Peterson, born 17 October 1891 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho, married 1)Heber William Thornock 6 June 1912 in Logan, Cache, Utah. She later married 2) James Moroni Oakey in 1912. She died 2 March 1963 in Salt Lake City, Utah. 4. Leora Jane Peterson was born 2 June 1893 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho. She married 1) Charles Stuart McDonald on 3 March 1919 and later married 2) Oliver Robert Brown on 17 January 1920. She died 17 March 1941. 5. Daughter. Born and died in 1897. 6. Richard Carl Peterson, born 28 March 1897 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho. He married Irene Palmer on 5 April 1922 in Rexburg, Fremont, Idaho. He died 17 Jan 1989 in Ephrata, Washington and was buried in the Moses Lake Cemetery, Moses Lake, Grant, Washington. 7. Ireta Brynhilda Peterson was born 21 June 1903 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho. She married Ervan L. Duffin on 14 August 1920 in Rexburg, Madison, Idaho, and died 7 June 1991 in Missoula, Missoula, Montana. 8. Florence Mabel Petersen born 17 April 1906 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho. She married 1) John Henry Hirschi on 16 Aug 1924 in St. Anthony, Fremont, Idaho and later married 2) Paul Bingham on 22 June 1942. She died 5 May 1958 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah and was buried 9 May 1958 in Pocatello, Bannock, Idaho.

Nels' second family consisted of eight children, six girls, one of whom died shortly after her birth, and two sons. Seven of these eight children lived to adulthood, so it would be reasonable to assume that the earliest pioneers of the Bear Lake area had turned the Bear Lake area into a productive farming community by the time Nels second family arrived.

Matilda's oldest sister, Rosa Margaret, died at age twelve. This left her older sister Anna Christine as the oldest living child. Anna was nearly ten and a half years old. Brother William was almost seven years old at this time, and Matilda was five. She must have played with Anna and William as she grew up. Two years later, her brother Albert was born, but he died when he was 2 1/2 years old. Then, another new baby, Nellie, arrived, but she died at the age of 1 1/2 -- the year Matilda's father was called to go on a mission to Denmark during the years of 1883-1885. Matilda must have missed her father very much, for she was only seven years old when he left for his mission, and nine when he returned to his family. We would not know much about his feelings while on his mission, but he kept a journal and recorded how much he missed his wife, who he called "darling Mama," "Tilda" his little daughter, and the rest of his first family..

When Nels returned from his mission, their family was blessed with another little son, Willard. Willard was about 8 weeks old when his father married his second wife, Joanna Bee, on 29 Oct 1886. Nels had corresponded with Joanna during his mission and she lived near his family prior to their marriage. At this time Matilda was ten years old.

Willard, the family's baby who was born after Nels returned from Denmark, was only 2 years old when he died on Christmas day in 1888. How sad to lose another baby after so many children had already been taken from their family! Matilda was eleven years old when Willard died.

When Matilda was almost thirteen years old, a little brother named Alma was born. He must have been very dearly loved by his older sisters and brother. They were probably very protective of him, and his mother would have been very happy because all three of her older children were capable of tending and helping her care for the new baby. After losing three children in a row, Alma was a real blessing to his family.

However, two and a half years after Alma was born, "darling Mama" delivered a little girl who they named Gwenn. She, too, brought sorrow into their lives because she died only 19 days after her birth. Two years later, they rejoiced when Harold was born. He was the last and tenth child. I am sure that Matilda loved to play with her two baby brothers, Alma and Harold, who were thirteen and fifteen years younger than she was. She probably adored them both!

On the 1900 U.S. Federal Census for Bloomington, Bear Lake Idaho, three children are listed as school teachers in the Nels Peterson household. They are Annie, William and Matilda. Their father thought that education was very important, and regretted the fact that he had not been able to get more schooling in Denmark. This census indicates that his children also valued education highly.

Matilda was a beautiful woman. Matilda's daughter, (Margaret) Virginia Bagley Glenn was raised by her half-sister, Nina B. Bagley Erickson. When Aunt Nina visited my parents' home, she said that Virginia's youngest daughter, Nina Shari Glenn, had the same color of hair as Matilda. Aunt Nina called it "taffy colored" hair. Taffy was a popular candy that you boiled on the stove. You then covered your hands with butter and two people would pull and lengthen the hot candy until it was less than an inch wide. You had to keep it moving so it did not burn your fingers. As it cooled while being stretched, It turned into long ropes of candy. Since some people do not know what "taffy colored" hair is today, I will explain. Matilda was a natural platinum blonde. She wore her hair short and curled in the front and sides and it was very long in the back.

One story that my grandmother, Virginia, told about her mother is that many women envied her looks, and especially her beautiful hair. Some ladies that she was acquainted with told her that if she would boil sage in water on the stove, her hair, when rinsed with the sage water, would be luxurious. When she tried this new technique, she discovered that they were actually being very mean to her. Her beautiful platinum blonde hair turned sage green, and no matter how many times it was washed, it stayed that way. What could she do? Easter was coming and all the women tried to look their best for this holiday. She bought some sage green silk and had a dress made that not only flattered her figure, but matched her hair perfectly. Everyone at church thought that she had dyed her hair to match her beautiful gown, so she got the best of the women who were jealous of her and also received many compliments on her appearance and stylishness.

John Allen Bagley, an attorney, was attracted to Matilda. He was born 10 May 1862 in Draper, Salt Lake, Utah. He attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and then received his law degree from the University of Michigan. He opened his practice in Utah and was known for his success in his occupation. John Allen had been married several times previously, as polygamy was practiced by the Mormons.

John Allen married his first wife, Sarah Ellen Lawson, on 2 Aug 1883. She was born 23 March 1860 and died 5 April 1885 at the age of 25 years. John called her "Sadie." She died of complications following the birth of her first child.

His second wife was Lida Estella Austin. She was born 11 January 1864 in Richville, Morgan, Utah. She married about 1885. My grandmother, Virginia, said that Lida also died after childbirth on 30 March 1894 in Montpelier, Bear Lake, Idaho. She was buried at Liberty, Bear Lake, Idaho. She was 30 years old.

John Allen's third wife was a school teacher named Nina Valve Furrow. Nina was born 13 Nov 1863 in Wilton, Clinton, Iowa. She was boarding with John Allen's parents who were taking care of Lewis "Loraine" Bagley (John Allen and Sadie's baby) while John completed his law degree in Michigan. Apparently, friendship turned into love and John Allen and Nina were married 15 August 1888. After giving birth to a baby boy who died, she succumbed on 11 November 1905, two days before her 42nd birthday of heart problems, according to her death certificate.

Matilda was always considered the "other woman" according to some of John Allen's children. Because of the treatment she received, Matilda moved to Oregon. While there, she and John Allen hired a boat to take them into international waters and the boat's captain married them. This marriage would not be recognized in the United States. Other members of the church had moved their families to either Canada or to Mexico to escape the bann against polygamy, and since John Allen Bagley was 14 years older than Matilda and had lived through the polygamy era in the church, perhaps he had a different perspective on it than we do today. We should also realize that Matilda's father practiced polygamy and his two families got along well together. John Allen Bagley was familiar with law in the United States, but he also realized that international law recognized polygamous marriages. Thus, according to international law, he was indeed married to Matilda. We do not know the date of this marriage.

Matilda and John Allen's children were:

1. J. Grant Bagley, born 24 March 1904 in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon. He married Ruby E. Page. He died 28 June 1978 in Osceola, Mississippi, Arkansas. He was also buried in Osceola. 2. John Allen Bagley (called "Ted"), born 25 Sep 1907 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, was married to Ila Hoopes on 10 May 1940, and died 12 June 1941 in Raymond, Bear Lake, Idaho. He died in an automobile accident which occurred about one year after his marriage. 3. Major Harriman Bagley, NOTE: His given name was "Major," was born 19 July 1909 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. He married Selma Laurena Garrard on 26 July 1930 in Burley, Cassia, Idaho, and died 12 May 1997 in Boise, Ada, Idaho. 4. Margaret Virginia Bagley Glenn, born 27 Dec 1911 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho, married David Osborne Glenn on 4 Feb 1930 at Roberts, Jefferson, Idaho; died 6 October 1977 in Idaho Falls, Bonneville, Idaho, and was buried at the Rigby Pioneer Cemetery on 8 October 1977 in Rigby, Jefferson, Idaho. 5. Harold Bagley, born 30 August 1913 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho, died 31 August 1913 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho. He was only one day old. 6. Karl Bagley, born and died in 1915 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho. 7. Earl Bagley, born and died in 1915 in Bloomington, Bear Lake, Idaho.

Matilda taught school in Montpelier, Idaho before her marriage. She was a very good teacher according to her friends who taught school with her.

John Allen Bagley and Mary Matilda Petersen were married in the United States in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, after the death of his wife Nina. At the time of this marriage he was 44 years old and Matilda was 30. He had planned to travel to Chicago and took Matilda with him. They also visited John Allen's relatives in Tennessee while they were traveling. They were married on 10 January 1907.

My grandmother wrote in her autobiography, "I remember playing on the little upstairs front porch of the house and also the death of my baby brother, Earl. Grandma placed his tiny body in a shoe box, and I cried because she wouldn't let me play with him, for he looked just like a doll.

We . . . rode in the white top buggy from Montpelier to get apples and plums and gooseberries from the orchard. (I believe that this was the orchard belonging to her grandfather, Nels Peterson).

I remember Father taking me to Bloomington, probably to see Mother when she was staying with Grandma for some reason, for we had to ford Bear River and it looked about the width of the Snake River to me as a small child. Now it is hardly the size of our irrigation ditches. . . Aunt Ray Lindsay was the family nurse who lived in our home and helped care for the babies. How I loved the many nursery rhymes she sang to me.

Matilda was an active participant in her ward. This is proven by her daughter Virginia's statement, "My memories of Mother are sketchy, the day she left me sitting alone in Relief Society while she gave the lesson, I cried, she seemed so far away."

Virginia also noted in her autobiography about "the day I caught on fire playing log house with matches, she and (my half-brother) Hawley put out the fire after it had burned my pretty new pink dress" and, "...the day she scolded me for playing with her new white canvas high heeled pumps."

I remember her playing the organ and singing in the evening. She made large plum puddings which she sewed in sacks and steamed. How good they tasted! She made fun of me when I didn't want to start kindergarten. She, being a teacher herself, knew how children felt when leaving their mothers for the first time." Virginia was Matilda and John Allen's youngest living child and was in kindergarten when her mother died unexpectedly.

Mary Matilda Peterson died in the Spanish influenza epidemic on 24 October 1918. She was only 42 years old. Her oldest son, Grant, was 14 years old, "Ted" was 11, Major was almost 9 years old, and Virginia was six. What a tragedy for her own children and husband!

Virginia told her family of how frightened everyone was, and how they couldn't even hold a funeral. When they returned to the house, all the beautiful handwork that her mother had done was missing. Some cruel person had tried to completely remove her mother's memory by taking her possessions from the house. Virginia always felt very badly because she had so few remembrances belonging to her mother.

Virginia's father had given Matilda's wedding ring to one of his daughters for safekeeping until Virginia was old enough to care for it herself. He wrote Virginia a letter to give to one off her half-sisters, telling her that it was time to return the wedding ring to Virginia. When Virginia gave the note to her half-sister, the woman tore it up. Virginia tried to tell her that it was from their father and what he had said, but she was stopped when her half-sister placed the pieces of the letter in her pocket, patted the pocket, and said, "I know what it says." When we asked our grandmother if she told her father about this incident, she said no. She said it would only cause more contention in the family. She never got the ring.

When Virginia was asked to come to Idaho to help her half-sister Nina, she arrived on a train from Salt Lake City to Idaho,and her trunk was lost by the railroad personnel. It contained a hairpiece made of her mother's hair. It also contained the few remembrances of her mother that she had collected, but the trunk was never found, even though her father went to the railroad and inquired about it in Salt Lake."

After her mother's death many people tried to comfort Virginia, Matilda's only daughter and youngest child. They said that her mother was such a great teacher that she was needed on the "other side" to educate all the men who had been killed in the war.

At my grandmother Virginia's funeral, several children of her half-siblings attended. They said they would never believe that her mother was a "real" wife until they could see the marriage certificate. My mother, Betty, produced a newspaper article that spoke of the couple. "It doesn't say they are married," was their reaction. However, I did research and now have a certified copy of this certificate in my possession. I believe that Matilda and John Allen believed that their actions were honorable. After all, he had married another wife in the Colonies in Mexico because polygamy was illegal in the United States. Because plural marriage was legal in international waters, to his legal mind and thinking, it was as legal and binding as his marriage to his other wives.

Matilda's own children were close to each other. They visited Virginia, their baby sister, when they could. They were tall men, over six feet, according to Virginia. I think that Matilda would be very proud of them, and of her daughter who strived to honor her heritage by becoming a great teacher in the church, who knew the scriptures, and who was a generous, giving, loving person who knew the importance of creating a loving home.