It was not long before I knew that I wouldn’t return to Montana. My brother-in-law, Christian F. Schade, introduced me to a girl he had converted in Denmark. Her name, Anna Jorgena Christina Madsen. I soon found she had my heart in her keeping so I asked her to be my wife. She consented and I bought the ring.

On May 20th my sweetheart and I left for Salt Lake in a little one-seated buggy the little mules mentioned earlier, Jack and Jule being our team. We rested that night in Ogden with a friend of my parents, then next morning were again on our way.

Arriving in Salt Lake I took her to the home of some friends living in the 16th Ward, while I went to Brother Joseph F. Smith’s home to have my recommend signed. His home was located in the block north of the Temple block, and there he (Elder Smith) ordained me an Elder.

The next day, May 22, 1879, we…were married, the ceremony taking place about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. We left the building at 4 o’clock and started back home. We arrived in Ogden to find my father there in the doctor’s care, having taken very ill. We remained in Ogden several days to be sure he was receiving all needed care and was on the mend. When we reached Huntsville we were warmly received and entertained by friends who played harmonicas and used tin pans to beat the rhythm -- and how we danced!

We lived in a little two-room house with a basement, and were very happy. Also, we were glad to be living close to our parents where we could help them when we were needed.

I continued to run father’s farm, raising hay and grain. After a while, it began to look as if we would not be blessed with a family. We went with the young people a lot to socials and dances. Then after being married for four years, our first child, a little girl, was born on July 18, 1883. We called her Minnie May.

I had built a very nice two-story house in Ogden, where we had moved and had lived there for some time, then sold it and moved back to Huntsville.

In 1883, I bought an interest in a saw-mill and the next spring we went up the south fork of the Ogden River to cut logs and skid them to the river so that when the snow melted and the river rose high we could roll the logs in and float them down to the saw-mill. There were five of us, and one of the men remarked that in all his years of riding and working in these mountains, he had never seen a bear. Just then I looked down the hill and there just a short distance away was a big brown bear, sitting on his haunches and with his mouth wide open. I yelled, “Look!”

Carl, the man who had "never seen a bear," took one look and gave a loud yell. With froth dripping from his mouth, the bear started toward us, coming fast! I had been in the lead going down, but in about three jumps I as in the lead going back, the others were coming, but it seemed like the bear was just about ready to grab the last man. I whirled a large rock, but it jut grazed its stomach. One of the men threw another big rock and it just waved the hair on its back. Just in that moment when it looked like the bear was ready to grab Nephi, he stopped, looked at us a few seconds, then turned rocks, leaping ledges, and we just stood there and watched