OREM, Utah — While the past may be in the past, a senior at Brigham Young University is shedding new light on a piece of Utah’s pioneer history that’s reportedly located somewhere beneath a vacant piece of land off 400 West and 1600 North in Orem.
“I found that idea really, really compelling that here, right next to a Quick Quack [Car Wash] in just some random field in Orem there might be two babies buried,” explained Becca Driggs.
The 22-year-old was helping her Comparative Arts & Letters Professor, Julie Allen, research Scandinavian women who immigrated to Utah between 1850 and 1920.
“We have a list of more than 14,000 women over 18 who were born in Scandinavia who came here and helped build Utah,” Allen remarked.
Out of the thousands of women, Driggs described why Eva Charlotta Andersson’s story stood out to her.
“She had a pretty robust journal that she kept during her immigration…(s)he talks about passing through the mountains in Ogden and how beautiful that was,” she explained.
Historic family records show that Andersson immigrated from Sweden in 1884. She eventually became second wife to William Bjork, but had to live apart from him because of a federal law barring polygamy.
The married couple still became parents to four children, but two of them, both baby boys, did not survive birth. According to Driggs, Andersson didn’t have access to the nearby Provo City Cemetery because she was an immigrant woman. Consequently, she had to bury her children alone at night.
It was Andersson’s story that Driggs would go on to present at a symposium hosted at BYU on Scandinavian women. The story also resonated with one audience member in particular, Jill Jorgensen Barrick.
“I was shocked to find out that there were two boys who have been buried here for 130 years, and I had never heard anything about it,” said Jorgensen Barrick, who only lives a block from the presumed burial site.
Jorgensen Barrick also opened up about how she experienced a similar type of grief as a mother.
“I have two wonderful boys, but I lost three in the meantime," she reflected. "I can’t change what happened to me, but I can do something for all women who have suffered.”
From there, Jorgensen Barrick connected with Driggs, and she told her friend, Orem City Council Member LaNae Millett, about Eva Charlotta Andersson’s story.
“I’ve heard this story about the pioneer babies for the past, probably 20 years, and she filled in more of the story,” Millett said. “I just knew the minute I heard it that we needed to do something to memorialize these children.”
Subsequently, Millett, Jorgensen Barrick, and Driggs met and came up with the idea to create a memorial at 1400 West and 600 North to protect the presumed gravesite of these babies, and to offer women a place of reflection in their grief.
“I know a lot of women who have had that same sense of loss, and this is a great opportunity for us to bond together and to strengthen each other,” explains Millett. “We women are strong … we go through a lot, and it’s wonderful when we can support each other in those experiences.”
Design details haven’t been finalized yet for this roughly half-acre site, but conceptually, it may include a gazebo, benches, and a garden area.
“She was just an average immigrant woman, but yet, we have a chance to turn her story into something beautiful,” Driggs explains.
On December 12, the Orem City Council will vote on a resolution for the memorial.
