Katie Hodges Eppich

 

Katie Hodges Eppich

The information for this short life sketch is recorded in the book Glen Leonard Eppich, Autobiography of His Life Experiences.

Katie Hodges Eppich was born in Bristol, England, April 7, 1863. She joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 14 December 1880 when just 16 years old. She emigrated with her sister Susan Hodges to the United States on 14 June 1884 on the steamship Arizona.  The Arizona docked in New York City on 23 June 1884. From there her company traveled by rail until reaching Ogden, Utah.

Katie had decided to go the Laketown, Utah to live with her brother Nathaniel Morris Hodges. It seems her brother, 16 years her senior, was very protective of her. Katie continued by rail from Ogden to the Evanston, Wyoming railroad stop which was the closest railroad station to Laketown, Utah. She stayed there in Evanston with a Bishop Brown for three weeks until her brother came for her.
 

Katie lived in Laketown for about two years before she went to Randolph, Utah where she taught school for about three years.

Mrs. John Baxter and Katie operated a dressmaker and millinery shop in Randolph, Utah. The two women helped keep John Baxter on a mission. After he came home from his mission, Katie moved to Salt Lake City. She worked in Walker’s dressmaking shop there for about three years. Then she went to Madam Watson’s millinery shop. It was in Salt Lake City that Katie met Christopher Marion Eppich.

C. J. Eppich wrote of his brother Christopher and Katie’s courtship, “[After Christopher arrived in Salt Lake and began to settle himself], he took very sick with inflammatory rheumatism. Hospitals were not easy to get in to. It was there that he met Katie. She nursed him through his sickness until he got well.” 

On June 6, 1892, Katie married Christopher M. Eppich. They were married by Bishop William Thorn. In 1893, they were married in the Salt Lake Temple. They ran a bakery shop on North Temple street. 

Katie’s son, Leonard, stated about the marriage, “Her [Katie’s] brother and others seem to have been opposed to her marrying him [Christopher Marion Eppich].” One reason was that Christopher had been married previous to his arrival in Salt Lake City. 

Leonard also recorded, “Never once did I ever hear him refer to a wife other than mother. Nor, did I ever hear him speak of a divorce. Shell and I learned of it when we found some old letters from an attorney to mother assuring her that dad had indeed been divorced. I think Mother wanted to make sure.”

This oldest son, Leonard Hodges, was born at the bakery shop in Salt Lake City, Utah on April 6, 1894.

Because of some severe health issues for Christopher, they left the bakery and moved to Meadowville, Utah. Here Christopher worked for Katie’s brother, Nathaniel M. Hodges freighting flour from Laketown, Utah to Evanston, Wyoming and coal from Almy, a mining town near Evanston, on the return trip. They carried other goods too.

           

The Eppichs moved to Randolph, Utah where Sheldon Paul was born November 3, 1895. After Sheldon was born, Katie opened a millinery shop in Randolph. Soon after this, she was put in as the stake secretary of the Woodruff Utah stake Relief Society where Sister Sarah Tyson was president. President John Baxter wrote in his record books that they were the neatest books in the stake. She served in this position for about twelve years.

Their son Leonard remembered,

 

In Randolph the first home I remember was a two-room log cabin with a dirt roof, rough pine board floors with cracks wide enough to let in the dirt, pennies and buttons. The ceiling was sheeting tacked to pole ceiling joists. The walls and ceiling were white washed with a coat of lime and water mixed to the consistency of thick cream. Often when it rained, we would have to put pans and kettles on the floor and especially on the beds to catch the water that leaked through the roof.

This always happened after a long, dry spell when the dirt was dry and loose or cracked. Sometimes the dirt would be partly washed off or blown off the roof and then more would have to be shoveled on.

The corner ends of the logs stuck out on each side and were made to be climbed and many times, we had to be punished for getting on top of the house. The house was low enough so that a man could easily lay the rake, hoe or shovel on the roof out of the reach of the kids.

During this time, a third son, Darrel Verne was born July 29, 1898.

 Top row: Christopher, Leonard, Katie

Front Row:  Sheldon, Verne

Randolph, Utah about 1898

In about 1900, Christopher got lumber from Nat Hodges’ saw mill and built on a large front room where Katie set up a millinery shop and made hats to sell. Christopher decided that he wanted to work for himself and set up a barber shop in this same room.

While in Randolph, Leonard also recalled, “Mother was from England and tried to raise us like little English gentlemen. Once Shell and I were sent to the store dressed in kilts, and we got teased. Randolph was a ‘cow town’ with a rough bunch of kids, and it was hard for Mother to adjust. When I was little, Dad sang songs, sort of wild-west songs, to us that Mother did not
like.”

Katie served as secretary in the Woodruff Stake Relief Society during this period of time.

 In 1906 the Eppichs moved from Randolph, Utah to Elkol, Wyoming where Christopher ran the miners’ boarding house and was also postmaster. It was actually Katie who was post-mistress and Leonard did the book work. The family in part stayed here until about 1909. Katie must have gone back to Randolph at least during the year 1909 since she served as secretary of the Diamondville Ward Relief Society during this year.

From Elkol, they moved to Cornish, Utah. Then they moved to Cub River, Idaho in 1914 where they had a ranch. In Mapleton Katie was president of the ward relief society for three
years.

 Front: Katie, Verne and Christopher Eppich

Back:  Leonard and Sheldon Eppich

 

It was from Mapleton that Leonard and Sheldon both filled LDS mission. While Sheldon was on his mission, Christopher and Katie went to Denver on a visit and returned in 1921. Then they returned to Denver to Christopher’s parent’s home and took care of them for two years. While in Denver, Christopher worked in a butcher shop and packing plant.

In about 1924, they moved to Trenton and started a meat market and grocery store. Katie served as a teacher in the ward relief society while in Trenton.

 Katie Hodges Eppich

Katie and Christopher lived in Trenton for 19 years before her death of a stroke at the age of 80. She is buried in the Trenton City Cemetery.

 It is said that, “Katie Hodges Eppich chose the best of all careers—that of a true woman, wife and mother. Her children have been comforted and sustained by her patient understanding and her loving smile and sense of humor. Affectionate always, she stimulated and spurred them on to achievement. She was a sweet, quiet and good-natured woman.