Holm, Francis

1898-1980

Francis grew up as a member of the Mormon Church in Salt Lake, Utah. He entered the Mormon priesthood at the age of ten, on April 23, 1908. He later joined the Reorganized Later Day Saint Church in Independence, MO as an active church leader throughout his lifetime. He wrote his own Autobiography and published two books about the Church, one comparing the two churches. He had his father (Soren Sorensen Holm)'s diary translated from Danish to English to share and his books have been donated to the Mormon (LDS) Church Library

He was an active Scout master for the Boy Scouts.

His occupation was as a bookkeeper for "Outdoor Advertising Company".

He served as a member of a Grand Jury in 1940 investigating corruption in the govt in Kansas City (Pendergast Trial).

He made his own porch swing and enjoyed having his family around. He sang lullaby's to his grandchildren and enjoyed playing the organ in his living room. He would call us "ScooCumFriters" (spelling??? - maybe that is Danish for something? ) He could sit for hours with the organ bench in front of his chair playing solitare and watching the news. He liked to slice large slices of ham and home grown tomatoes for his afternoon sandwiches (using lard instead of butter or mayo).

Francis W Holm authored the following book: The Mormon Churches; a comparison from within . LC Control No.: 71114837. Type of Material: Book. Personal Name: Holm, Francis W., 1898. [1]

Recollections by Ann Hoch Vincent 1991.

Francis Wilford Holm

Thanks to Grandpa's love for writing and interests in his own father's papers, fortunately we have an autobiography written by Francis W. Holm, to enjoy that includes photographs of his family home when he was a child and covers many of the interesting experiences that filled his life. We also have his published book, "THE MORMON CHURCH, A comparison from within" to understand his interests and the challenges that kept him active in church work throughout his life. As he prepared this book he also became fascinated by his own father's diary of the years his father spent as a missionary for the Mormon Church in Denmark, and the daily journal entries all written in Danish (of course). After sometime, he successfully translated this book and copies of it are available also.

Francis was inducted into the service during World War I at the age of 20, on October 18, 1918. The War ended on November 11, of 1918, so he spent a year of service stationed in Utah, discharged in 1919. His autobiography mentioned that he thought the purchase of the dress uniform was worth the money because of all the attention he got from the girls!.

Grandpa and I enjoyed going through many of the old records he had kept since his father died in 1934. By far our biggest find towards tracing the family tree was the family church work which apparently had been done for Baptism of the Dead. These handwritten documents and the book they were officially entered in was still amongst these records, so these names had not had the opportunity to be entered into the computer indexing system currently used by the Mormon church for genealogy research. These documents have been re-submitted. They list each of the family members that had passed away, their relationship to the person submitting them, the date they were born, the location and the important church temple sealing dates. From these original records we were able to follow the Holm family back through the Larsen and Leveau family lines to Pjerre Leveau, who died August 6, 1799 (location not specified), who was born approximately 1749 in France. (See The Holm Family Tree).

Grandpa's autobiography does a wonderful job of relaying the stories about his childhood, the family homestead, and then telling more about his business experiences in the Outdoor Advertising field. At that time, outdoor advertising (billboards) were everywhere, not like today with environmental restrictions. The autobiography will take you year by year up through the birth of each child and the homes they lived in. He tells about the restaurant that he and Grandma ran, scouting, church work and other activities he participated in throughout his lifetime. I particularly enjoyed reading about his participation in the Grand Jury for the Pendergast Trial.

Grandpa was retired for several years before I was old enough to be interested in his business activities, but as I child, I knew that nobody could build a better lawn swing, that he was deadly with a fly-swatter, and that only he could barbecue ribs that were cooked to perfection. When we visited in 1978, Grandpa and my husband, Ray, spent an entire afternoon preparing barbecue sauce and cooking ribs so that we could learn his methods. Grandpa explained that the secret to his ribs is a good coating of pepper on the meat, then the following barbecue sauce recipe: Any brand basic barbecue sauce plus -Worcester sauce, -Tabasco Sauce, -Liquid smoke, and -Salt & Pepper, Combine these.... and apply to meat well seasoned with pepper. Position yourself in front of the barbecue, actively maintain water spray bottle to extinguish all flames and monitor the local sports station on the radio. Remember that you can not leave the ribs, so be sure you have someone like Grandma close by to wait on you hand and foot.........It worked well for him!.

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