Eugene and Christina had 10 children (3 boys, 7 girls).

He wrote a biography, given in full here:

LIFE HISTORY OF EUGENE NELSON

I, Eugene Nelson, was born July 7, 1877, in Logan, Cache County, Utah, to Brigham Williamson and Ellen Matilda Ash Nelson. Three children were born to this young couple. Sophia was born October 21, 1875 and only lived one year and 5 months. She died on March 27, 1876. I was the next child; then Ray, who was born on August 5, 1881. He only lived for 9 days, passing away on August 14, 1881.

My father and mother ran a boarding house for railroad men in 1881 and they had 2 baby bears for pets. One day one of the bears got into a sack of sugar and scattered it all over the floor.

I attended the Presbyterian school for 3 or 4 years. My teacher said I did very well when l was there but I surely liked to run away every chance I got.

When I was 10 years old, my uncle John Ash, just home from a mission for the LDS Church in New Zealand, baptized me in the canal.

One night my mother sent me to the home of my grandmother Ash for some butter They had a dog that wasn't very friendly and as I backed away from him, I fell into a potato pit. This frightened the dog and he ran away.

My parents only lived together for about 8 years when circumstances forced my mother to divorce my father. Mother worked for a man named Lars Peter Peterson tending his 3 boys. This relationship culminated in marriage on December 16, 1885, making 4 young boys to start marriage out with, Eugene Nelson, Austin, Oliver, and Nephi Peterson. Four more children came from this union, Ada, Leslie, Myrtle, and Bena. Several years after their marriage, they sold their property in Logan and moved to a farm west of Smithfield, now called Amalga. I was the oldest of the boys so the heavy work fell on me. We had to clear the land of sagebrush before it could be plowed and planted into grain. The first year we were on the farm, I was only 11 years old but I plowed 20 acres with a hand plow. Some years the crops were almost a failure. The summers were hot and dry.

I went to school in Alto, about 4 miles from the farm. There were no fences, just bad roads, mud, snow and cold weather in the winter, so we only attended school for about 4 months each year. It was a one-room school house with one teacher. This was so unsatisfactory that the family decided to move to Logan for the winter and back to the farm for the summer. One day on the farm, my mother asked me to take a pan of freshly churned butter down to the cellar and my stepfather laughed and said, ""Be clumsy now and fall down,"" and sure enough, I did and the butter went on the floor.

When in Logan, I attended church in the second ward and I played a fife in the deacon's band. I also leaned to play the violin.

When I was about 12 years old, a group of us boys would go into Hammond's Book Store to look around and one would pick up a pocket knife and put it in his pocket. So this day it was my turn but we were caught this time and received a good talking to and all returned the

knives.

Statehood day, January 4, 1896, when Utah became a state was a big celebration time in Amalga. We danced until 5 o'clock in the morning. That was the first time I had ever danced. My mother taught me first the waltz and then the quadrille. At midnight, a big supper was served.

One night I had a little argument with my stepfather and so I decided to spend the night with my friends William and John Hanson who lived about 6 or 7 miles from the ranch. I had a very mean horse to ride and it was as dark as black ink. My mother worried very much about me but I made it fine.

I used to go to Newton with Will and John to the dances. This is where I met Christena Hogenson. She lived in Newton but worked in Cache Junction. One summer while I worked in Cornish, I would ride a horse down to the farm, change clothes and horses, then ride to Cache Junction where I would get Stena and we would ride up to Newton to the dance. After the dance, we would go to her house where her mother always had something for us to eat. After taking her back to Cache Junction on my horse, I would have to ride back to the farm, change clothes and horses and arrive in Cornish just in time for breakfast conference time. I had 10 dollars with me and came home with 15 cents.

Stena and I were married on March 1, 1899, in the Logan LDS Temple. The night before we rode to Logan in a white top buggy, staying with my mother. The next day (our wedding day) mother prepared and served a large wedding supper for us, inviting our friends and relatives. The wedding party lasted until the wee hours of the morning. The next day we returned to Newton and I went to work on my dry farm of 80 acres. I had one team of horses and a hand plow. I would leave the horses up on the farm and then walk from Newton to the farm and back again, about 3 miles. In the winter I would work in Cache Junction as an engine watchman at 20 and a

half cents per hour. I did this for 10 years.

In 1902 I was sustained as first counselor to James Nielson in the Newton Sunday School.

I also worked for many years as chairman of the old folks committee.

When Merlin, our oldest son was about 4 years old, he rode with me to Cache Junction one day. I drove the horses down off the main road into some water to tighten the wheels on the wagon and as we did this, Merlin fell from the wagon seat onto the horses and I grabbed him just in time or he would have been run over.

I helped build the bridge over Bear River between Newton and Cache Junction.

In serving as constable of Newton for 10 years, I had many experiences that were interesting, from hunting moonshiners to rounding up delinquent boys. I remember one time a group of the young men had been up to mischief in the ward and were up in front of Andrew Peterson's store bragging about getting away with it. They didn't know I was just around the corner of the store listening to every word that they spoke. When they had all had a good time laughing at their escapade, I walked around to the front of the store and said,"All right boys, now you can go tell it to the judge." It wasn't so funny then.

In about 1914, I sold my farm and rented one (the Ames place) just east of Cache Junction of about 480 acres. I raised about 5 or 6 thousand bushel of grain each year and sold it for $1.50 to $2.00 a bushel. We cut all this with a header and 6 head of horses. It was quite a process to cut the grain and then to thrash it.

In 1915 I bought a 7 passenger Hudson car. We were all so proud of it. It was open air in summer and in the winter time, Ising-glass curtains were put up all around to keep the passengers warm. It was quite a car with a big front seat, two little folding chair seats that pulled up from the floor, and a big hind seat. This car took us all on many a pleasure trip and camp outs, with room for everyone.

One day while hauling hay, our son Blaine, about 5 years old, was riding on top of the load. When we stopped,I told him to slide down and I would catch him. He came down so fast that he slipped right through my arms and received an awful bump. Another time, I was backing the Hudson out of the garage and Blaine came running to get a ride with his dad, got in the way where I couldn't see him and I backed over his foot. Luckily, it just scraped it. With a family the size ours had become, there were many such incidents as these but we all survived.

In 1929 we moved t0 Bancroft, Idaho, for the summer months to farm 900 acres I had bought. We had nothing but bad luck the 7 years we were there with frost taking our crops nearly every year. My good stepfather and my mother helped me out several times. Finally, we let the farm go after losing our horses by not being able to pay the feed bill on them. I think letting those beautiful horses go broke mine and Merlin's heart more than a little. The depression was hard upon us and the price of what little grain we got was 19 cents a bushel because of being frost damaged. So we started over again in Newton. I worked on the State road for 5 or 6 years. Our son Blaine enlisted in the Marines with a group called the Mormon Battalion of the second world war and the day after he left, our youngest son, Ellis, was killed in an automobile accident on August 21,1942. This was one blow on top of another and almost more than we could stand, to have our two boys gone at the same time, one for good and not knowing how the other would fare. Ellis was just 16 with a whole life ahead of him. He would have been student body president at NC High School in September. That fall we moved to Logan and my wife and I lived with my mother Ellen Ash Peterson, at 57 So. 4th West and I worked in the boiler room at the college. In the fall of 1943, we moved to Ogden where Stena and I both worked at the 2nd Street Government building for 5 years. We paid off the mortgage on our home and bought many things

we had wanted for years.

Moving back to Newton, we started going to the temple to do temple work and enjoyed it very much, keeping at it until we had to quite because of health reasons.

On March 1, 1959, we were honored by our 9 living children on our 60th wedding anniversary. Many friends and relatives called at our home to wish us well and every one of our children were there.

Our children thought we were getting too old to be out driving by ourselves but once in awhile we would show them we were still independent and take a little trip by ourselves. We took off once and went to Las Vegas and onto Boulder Dam. We had a lovely trip but the kids almost had heart failure. Another time our daughter Edries and husband were taking their family to Yellowstone Park. They took 2 days to go, staying in Jackson overnight. Stena and I got up really early and were in the park before them. What surprised looks when they saw us at the entrance gate waiting for them.

At the present time, we have 25 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren (August 14, 1960).

In September, 1962, my wife and I moved to Logan, Utah where we have made our home at Sunshine Terrace. It was very hard to give up our old home where there has been so much happiness and love along with some sorrow, and move out, but we were not well enough to stay alone and with all our children married and in homes of their own, there was no one to stay with us and we didn't want to go with any of the children to their homes. The Terrace has been a

lovely place and we couldn't ask for better care than is given to us here. It is a home away from home.

On July 13, 1963, one week to the day after all the family had been home for a reunion, Eugene Nelson passed away suddenly while eating his supper meal and was laid to rest in the Logan cemetery beside his son, Ellis, who was killed in 1942. Funeral services were held in the Newton Ward where he had made his home for so many years.