TBT - My Great-Grandpa Andy, Part 1

There are lots of great stories about my Great-Grandpa Andy.  He died a few years before I was born, but listening to my Mom and Opa talk about him, I think I would have liked him a lot.  Here are  just two stories about Andy that center around a church.  Nothing religious, just the building.  I took the following from a recording my Mom made with Opa, so the words are all Opa's.

One of the interesting things about our life was the fact that Dad was quite a wanderer in his youth and he and his father had disagreements when he was 16, so he packed up his bags and left (with a 6^th grade education).

Andy & Ludina's wedding portrait
Otto, Wyoming
1916

He and his brother, Alma, were driving an old car through this little town of Otto.  They were just kind of looking for work.  It was Sunday afternoon and my mother and her sister and two brothers had gone to Sacrament Meeting and had come out of the church.  Dad looked over and saw Mom coming out, punched his brother in the ribs, and said, “That’s the girl I’m gonna marry.” Three months later they were married.

It was interesting because she had no idea who he was.  All he knew was that she was a very attractive young lady and he was very smitten by her.  They were married 3 months later and had 6 children.  I was the 3^rd of the 6.  They were married for 61 years when my mother died.

Andy & Ludina with their 6 children in the 1940s
Opa is directly behind his mother.

They lived in this little town of Otto and Dad had done some farming and he’d worked for other people and he had not been active in church for many years.  My mother, of course, was very active and she’d found this man who was LDS but he really wasn’t active.  She got him started going to church and they went to church a few times.

The Church in Otto

The bishop at that time was a man by the name of Bishop Porter and he’d served as bishop for 25 years and so he said to Dad one day, after he’d come to church 3 or 4 times, he said, “Brother Andy, one of these days I’m gonna call on you to give the opening prayer at church.” 

Dad said, “Don’t do it, Bishop, I’m not ready.” 

The bishop said, “Yeah, yeah.  You are ready, Andy.” 

So the next week, when they came to church, they were sitting there in the congregation and the bishop got up and made his announcement and he said “We’ll sing page (so and so) and Brother Andy will offer the opening prayer.” 

My Dad stood up and said, “Like hell I will!” Turned around and walked out of the church.  My mother said she was so mortified.  She stayed in church.  She said it took her two years to get him to come back to Church.

Otto Today