Helge Hogan's Dream of Her Home and Sons
From NeilDocs
Janet Gardner, daughter of Ruth Stoker, daughter of Alvin David Stoker, son of David Stoker, Jr., son of Regina Hogan, daughter of Helge Knudsen
In 1847 Eric Hogan built a cabin at Plum Hollow, between Garden Grove and Council Bluffs, Iowa, "cleared 15 acres of land, and raised 700 bushels of corn. He gave the only horse he had at this location to Heber C. Kimball to go with the pioneers in the spring of 1847 to the Salt Lake Valley. This year they buried a third child, five year old Margaret." (Van Noy and others)
In the fall, after the harvest, they moved with other Saints to Council Bluffs, where they stayed for the winter. The following story begins on the journey between Plum Hollow and Council Bluffs.
On June 5, 1848, the Hogan family, consisting of Eric, Helge, and seven children, set out for Salt Lake City with the Brigham Young Company. Goudy, the oldest son, at 19, reported, "My father drove a pair of cattle on one wagon, my mother drove one horse on a small wagon, and I drove 3 pair on one wagon, 3 cows, 1 bull, and one pair of oxen. We also had 6 sheep, 6 chickens, and 1 pig."
Helge became desperately ill. The caravan stopped. That night while all were around her bed, the company doctor present announced she could not live until daybreak. She was partially unconscious, but apparently realized what was going on about her and overhead the remarks of the doctor. It made her very sorrowful to think of leaving her large family.
Later, during the night, she had a vivid dream. She saw three boys standing by her bedside. She saw a valley and a road by some springs, also a tract of land that was unfamiliar to her. The next morning, she was much improved and said, “Last night one of you said that I should not live to see this day, but I shall go to the valley in the mountains, and I will yet have three more sons."
During that winter of 1847-48, they stayed at Council Bluffs, Iowa. A third son, Charles Peter, was born here January 22, 1848, he being the first of the three boys she saw in her dream. Early in the spring of 1848, they started again for the valleys of the mountains. They arrived at the mouth of Emigration Canyon on September 22, 1848. On beholding the Salt Lake Valley, Helge said, “This is the valley I saw in my dream.”
The following morning, Grandfather Hogan rode north on horseback to what is now South Bountiful, selected a building spot near a clear cold water spring, and there chose to establish his farm. He returned to Salt Lake City and reported to President Brigham Young, who gave him permission to locate there and blessed him in his efforts. When they were driving along with their few belongs, Grandmother Helge immediately recognized the road and the springs as those she had seen on the plains in her dream and, upon arriving at the farm location, without being told the designation by her husband, exclaimed, “This is the spot of ground I saw in my dream!”
On March 7, 1850, Joseph, the second dream son, was born to the family. He is said to have been the first white child born in South Bountiful. Then on July 10, 1852, the eighth birthday of their daughter Regena, Eric, the third dream boy, their thirteenth child, was born. Thus was her dream now fulfilled completely.
Sources:
Goudy Ericsen Hogan, Autobiography [1], 5.
Elsie H. Van Noy, granddaughter, and Ora Haven Barlow, great grandson, with information from Ardelle Hogan Mills, granddaughter, edited by Janet Gardner Stoddard. "Biography of Eric Goudy Bidtboen Hogan and Helge Knudsen," undated typescript, seven pages, in the possession of Janet Gardner Stoddard.
