Anne (Annie) Christine Mogensen (Monsen) (1870–1942) and Erick Henry Ericksen (1866–1928)

Annie & Erick (date unknown)

By the time Annie came along there were two separate households supported by her father, Peder. He was a Mormon polygamist and was married to Dorthea and Anne. Peder and Dorthea were already married when they left Denmark, while Anne, though also Danish, only met Peder after arriving inthe Great Basin. Annie, one of twenty-one children fathered by Peder, was birthed by Anne in what became known as Mount Pleasant, Utah on March 10, 1870. Anne, with her thirteen children, and Dorthea, with her eight children, eventually lived in individual adobe houses, with Peder managing both locations. Despite Dorthea’s poor health, as well as her being thirteen years older than Anne, and in spite of the natural friction of plural marriage, both households seemed to get along.

Peder, who farmed in Denmark, continued that labor in Mt. Pleasant, while his wives busied themselves with cooking, cleaning, and sewing. Though necessarily busy, both households enjoyed breaks from the routines through music and celebrations of birthdays. Vocal music, which extended outside the home to the ward choir, was a regular sound in the homes. Further, each time a birthday rolled around, money, regularly collected on a pantry shelf all year, was spent on a gift—in this way, each child was remembered on his or her special day.

Special days in the Mt. Pleasant community extended beyond birthdays. Apart from celebrations on the 4^th of July or Pioneer Day (July 24), town inhabitants gathered for stage productions, choir, parties, or dances, as well as church meetings. It was perhaps on one of these occasions that Annie, described as “striking,” with “gentle blue eyes,” attracted the attention of Erick Ericksen.

Erick was the oldest child in the Henry and Elise Ericksen family. They were Norwegian family who immigrated to the United States to gather with the Mormons in the Great Basin, and also landed in Mt. Pleasant. Erick was born October 29, 1866, three and one-half years senior to Annie. While information regarding the Ericksen family is scarce it is known with certainty that the Henry and Elise Ericksen regularly welcomed youth from the town to their home to enjoy dancing, singing, and good food. As mentioned, it may have been at a social gathering, like that offered in the Ericksen home which first drew Erick and Annie together.

The years 1888–1891 brought life changing events for Erick and Annie. Annie’s mother, despite being much younger and healthier than her sister wife, died in April 1888—Dorthea cared for Anne’s young children the best she could, the youngest of whom was less than a year old. A positive event, the marriage of Erick and Annie, occurred December 19 of the same year. Yet death visited them again when Erick’s father passed away in October 1889. Annie’s and Erick’s firstborn child, a girl, was born shortly before her grandfather passed away (October 1889), but only lived until the summer of 1891; the sting of death was partially offset by the birth of a boy at the end of the same year. Annie’s and Erick’s marriage produced nine children, all of whom lived to adulthood, except, of course, the little girl, and an eighteen-year-old boy, who was hit by a car in 1923.

In spite of tragedy, Annie and Erick filled their lives with joy by regular church service, hard work, quilting, and music. Annie sang alto and Erick tenor. Erick also played in the town band (baritone) and served as a regular square dance caller. Many of their children sang or played instruments and participated in the dances, either as musicians or dancers.

When not musically entertained, Annie would find amusement in all day quilting parties. With the quilting frame set up, women from the community would enter the Ericksen home quilt, chat, and stay for dinner.

Obviously quilting and music were nice diversions from the regular routine, which for Erick included the small family farm, meticulous care of the cows, as well as regular employment as a miller at what became known as Roller Mills in Mt. Pleasant. Annie baked and cooked regularly, with many family remembering her fine skill in the kitchen. Annie also kept a Mogensen family tradition alive in her own home by making sure each child felt extra special on his or her birthday.

After almost forty years of marriage Erick died of a heart attack on December 6, 1828—he was sixty-two. Annie lived thirteen more years, dying November 25, 1942, of complications due to high blood pressure.

When Annie’s father died in 1924, Peder lay on his death bed in at the age of ninety-three. As Peder laid there, a widower twice-over—Annie died in 1888 and Dorthea in 1912—he sang a song. He intoned the LDS hymn, “I Know that My Redeemer Lives.” Perhaps that moment best sums up the legacy left by Peder, Dorthea, Anne, Erick’s parents (Henry and Elsie), Erick, and Annie. They all proved their trust in a living Christ and His gospel by leaving homelands for His Church and dedicating their lives to the service of their families and others. 

Sources: “Life Story of Annie Mogensen and Erick Ericksen, with a remembrance by their son Ralph” as found on FamilySearch> Anne Christina Monsen (KWCQ-NRQ)> memories; birth, death, and marriage dates acquired from FamilySearch.org as they appeared in August 2017. 

Edwin Thomas Watts (1810–1885), Mary Staniforth (1801-1880), & Emma Taylor (1842-1907)

Prior to 1854, while still in Nottinghamshire, England, Edwin and his first wife, Mary, learned of and converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The childless couple had been married for about twenty-five years, and with Edwin in his mid-forties and Mary in her mid-fifties, they dared to begin a new chapter of their life together: immigration to the United States and settlement among members of their new faith.

Life had not been particularly easy for either them. When Edwin was twenty-one (close to their marriage date [ca. 1830]) his left arm, just below the elbow, was accidentally shot. Though the projectile was extracted, the wound became infected and a doctor suggested amputation. Edwin at first refused, but the doctor warned that further delay might risk not only losing an arm, but life itself. The doctor eventually removed the arm and hand below the elbow and healing ensued. Not too long afterward Edwin fell and “splintered the end of the remaining bone” in his left arm, which in turn led to gangrene. Left again with the decision of life and death, Edwin’s remaining arm to the shoulder was removed. Despite his handicap he made ends meet by becoming a hawker—an individual who peddles goods house to house or in the streets (see https://mormonmigration.lib.byu.edu/ and 1851 England and Wales Census. The 1870 United States Federal Census lists his vocation as that of “Peddler”).

Edwin's and Mary's names

appear on the Perpetual

Education account book

Germanicus Manifest containing Edwin's and Mary's names.

Charles Alfred Harper (1890s)

From 4 April 1854 to 13 June 1854, Edwin and Mary sailed aboard the ship Germanicus; the journey began in Liverpool, England and finished in New Orleans, Louisiana (see https://mormonmigration.lib.byu.edu/). They stayed in the east for a year until they joined and departed with the Charles A. Harper Company at Mormon Grove, Kansas in July 1855. Though the company total of 305 individuals consisted of families capable of providing their own modes of transportation and supplies, Edwin and Mary relied upon the Perpetual Emigration Fund—money borrowed to Church members that allowed them to purchase wagons, oxen, and essentials. Their trek to the Rocky Mountain Basin concluded at the end of October of the same year (see https://history.lds.org/overlandtravel/companies/143/charles-a-harper-company-1855#description). 

1860 Census

1870 Census

The 1860 and 1870 United States censuses confirm Edwin’s and Mary’s locations as south of Salt Lake in Provo and Springville, respectively (see 1860 and 1870 United States Federal Censuses). Both records note that while Edwin was literate, Mary could neither read nor write. The latter census also adds other individuals to the household for the first time. Edwin and Mary entered into the realm of plural marriage when he married a second woman, Emma Jemima Taylor, on 9 April 1864—she was twenty-one and he was fifty-three. Despite their age difference the marriage produced ten children, with eight of the ten offspring living to adulthood.

Homer Duncan (1900s)

Like Edwin and Mary, Emma and her family—siblings, parents, and grandparents—immigrated to the United States after joining the Church. They boarded the ship John J. Boyd on 23 April 1862 and arrived in New York on 1 June (see https://mormonmigration.lib.byu.edu/). Less than two months later they were all in Nebraska, connected themselves to the Homer Duncan Company, and arrived in the Salt Lake valley near the end of September (see https://history.lds.org/overlandtravel/companies/44/homer-duncan-company-1862). In December of the same year Emma met, married, and shortly thereafter divorced a Jacob Fisher—a union which produced no children. As stated, her union a little over a year later to Edwin produced ten children. It appears that Emma and Mary lived convivially side-by-side, with the latter assisting with the children as much as possible in her advanced age.

1880 Census

The 1880 census, taken less than a month before Mary died on 3 July, revealed her age in the upper seventies and noted that she was “unable to work” because of “old age” (see 1880 United States Federal Censuses). By the time of Mary’s death, Emma had six living children—the youngest was months old, and the eldest was fifteen.

Edwin supported his growing family as he had always done—through the selling of wares.  He also became adept at driving horses with his one arm, as well as taking care of the livestock and paperwork at the Springville community pasture. Despite his determination to provide for his family, his body began to succumb to a heart condition in 1884—twenty years after marrying Emma. His death on 1 January 1885 left her with one-year-old May, three-year-old Lucy, Martha was four, little Emma was seven, and Harriet had just turned eleven, with Hannah and younger Edwin in their teens, and the oldest, Mary already wed and out of the house.

Emma Jemima Taylor Watts

At age forty-two Emma and her children struggled to make do by gardening, working an orchard of a neighbor near their home, making bags of cut and sewn material which people could purchase to create carpets, and on occasion, receiving assistance from the Church. Despite their penury, Emma insisted that tithing was a priority; if they could not pay with money, then in kind would do. For instance, one winter, after slaughtering a pig, half of it went to the tithing office.

As the children grew and left the house Emma’s financial obligations eased, but her health declined. From 1897 to her death on 11 November 1907, at the age of sixty-five, she struggled with cancer growth on her face.

It is reported that Emma’s favorite hymn was “Come! Come! Ye Saints.” Her life, along with those of Mary, and Edwin proved these phrases true: “Though hard to you this journey may appear,/ Grace shall be as your day./ 'Tis better far for us to strive/ Our useless cares from us to drive./… We then are free from toil and sorrow, too;/ With the just we shall dwell!”

Unless otherwise noted in the text, the source for the material above was learened in:

Sarah Ina Beardall, “History of Edwin Thomas Watts” (13 July 1961), as found on FamilySearch> Edwin Thomas Watts (KWN2-J4T)> memories 

Perpetual Emigrating Fund image Courtesy of the Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Marjorie Allred Williams (1921-1994): Now We Know Why She Loved Soap Operas and the Opera

Marjorie at age 15. She was probably referring to this picture when she wrote,"I got my picture taken. Fair" (10 April 1937) Apparently she did not particularly like this photograph of herself.

When I, Matt Crawford, was twelve years old my family, which included my parents (Scott & Ann) and my brothers (Steve, Joe, & Pete), sold our home in West Valley City, Utah. At the same time my maternal grandparents (Marjorie Allred & John Williams) also sold their home in the avenues of Salt Lake City. All of us moved into a home in Sandy, Utah in February 1987. Since grandpa had Alzheimer’s, grandma was no longer able to care for him on her own—hence the moves into a combined home. Among the many memories I have of my grandparents, this one is pertinent to this post: grandma loved watching soap operas. Often while watching these, or any other program for that matter, she would have her radio blaring the tremulous tones of operatic singers. (Two ironies: [1] she listened to operatic works while watching her soaps, and [2] a bunch of teenage boys would later ask their grandma, in the basement apartment, to turn down her radio.) When asked why she watched her soap operas she would intone, “For the story.” However, after reading from grandma’s teenage diary, I think she really watched them and loved operatic music because they reminded her of a carefree, yet drama-filled youth.

Cover of the diary

Marjorie’s first-known diary runs from January 1936 to December 1940. The first three years contain an entry for almost every day of the calendar, while the last couple of years are much more hit and miss. She penned her first entry when she was fourteen years old, turning fifteen on 27 May. This post will concentrate on the year 1936. (The spelling and punctuation from the journal entries have been standardized.)

Inside of the diary

In 1936 Marjorie and her family (parents and five siblings) resided in Idaho, moving homes once that year (23–25 April), and entries for that year centered around five topics: movies, opera, boys, dancing, school, family, and church. 

Movies

Marjorie went to the movie theater more than sixty times with friends, family, or on a date. Sometimes she attended the theater more than once in a single day (2 January; 8 February), or simply caught a double feature (25 April; 2, 16 May; 6, 11 July; 26 September). With a female friend she saw “A Tale of Two Cities,” and commented “[We] both cried!” (2 January). Of the Marx Brother’s comedy “A Night at the Opera,” she noted, “It was sure funny” (16 June). Of other shows she simply put something like, “The show was just grand” (13 July; see also 2 January; 31 August; 20 September; 7, 9 October; 8 November). Understandably, with school out, she saw more movies in the summer.

Opera

Through the magic of radio Marjorie loved to listen to operatic voices. She would listen to full length operas by tuning in to “The Metropolitan Opera House in New York” (4 January; 8 February), or just listen to programs which displayed favorite voices of the day such as Grace Moore (6 January; 17, 24 February; 2, 22 March; 12 April), Nelson Eddy (6 January; 16 March; 20 December), Lawrence Tibbett (18, 25 February; 3, 17 March), Lily Pons (26 February), Helen Jepson (5 April), Margaret Speaks (4 May; 30 November), and Richard Crooks (4 May; 30 November). Though she favored operatic voices, she condescended and still enjoyed the tones of Fred Astaire (29 September).

Boys

To say that Marjorie was infatuated with boys is an understatement. After a boy named Ray took her to a double-feature at the theater she gushed: “Ray is adorable. I sure like him. He’s tops with me. I hope I am with him” (2 January). Not many days later she observed that a “there is the cutest boy in English” class (20 January), and a number 33 on an opposing basketball team garnered: he “sure is cute” (25 January; see also 22 February). A Norris beat out a Bob for an invitation to a Dance Club Party (3, 19 February). Norris also won the month: “Nothing in this month interests me, [except] for Norris” (Memorandum section following February).

In March “he” arrives on the scene. “Dell…made a swell blind date. Oh he is just grand and a perfect dancer” (7 March). This infatuation would last well throughout the year, and this despite Dell living in Utah. She would think about him, talk with him on the phone, or write, or receive letter from, him regularly, and receive this exuberant approbation: “Gee he is swell.” (8–13, 18, 23–24, 28 March; 3, 10 April). Despite Dell’s obvious debonair, she branched out regularly.

In May she wrote of Dick: “I do love him so” (19 May). But perhaps the most entertaining judgment of boys is “thrill, thrill”—a phrase she used after being driven home by Bob after the movies (23 May). Even so, she later lamented, “The night I was with Bob was very romantic, but why is he such a darn fool?” (Memorandum section following May).

June brought new romances. When an extended family relation arrived for a visit from Canada, the driver was a “young boy whose name is Max.” Marjorie continued, “He’s wonderful, and terribly nice; like music and doesn’t smoke! or drink. He held my hand. We went to the carnival!” (10 June). Two days later Wayne, an eighteen-year-old boy from Arkansas, also took her to the carnival. “He held my hand and said, ‘Marjorie you’re sweet.’” To which she later wrote: “Gee it’s a thrill” (12 June). The next day Wayne gushed “loads of … nice things” to Marjorie as he held her hand. She confessed, “I know he was going to kiss me, but was interrupted” (13 June). The next few days are all about Wayne, until he left, it seems, for good. Those days eventually included the “sweetest and most sincere kiss,” as well as confessions of “I love you” (14–18 June). Wayne consumed her thoughts so much that month that she spurned Bill for trying to kiss her (28 June; Memorandum section following June).

Spurning anyone who was not Wayne did not last long. Dick “kissed me,” she put, but found it wanting: “I guess it’s all right” (3 July). A couple weeks later Dell—who keeps popping up through letters, phone calls, and either by him visiting Idaho, or her visiting Utah (25 June; 16, 18–20, July)—kissed her. Her verdict? “It was nice” (21 July). The kissing continued to the end of the month.

As summer drifted away we know she approved of her continued relationship with Dell because he got a “Thrill, Thrill” (17 August), which flirtatious words did not even come after he gave her “6 red rose buds” (27 November; see also 1, 4, 9, 21 August; 22 September; 21 October; 12, 21, 25–26, 28 November). Even so, after school started she “discovered” and went out on a date with Bob Marley (10, 19 September)—don’t get too excited, this was not the famous Jamaican singer-songwriter, because he would not be born for 9 more years. Marjorie’s Bob Marley got a mixed review: “I sure like him, damn him” (13 November; see also 4, 11 December). Meanwhile she also liked another boy, exuding: “Seeing Ray sure gave me a thrill” Memorandum section following November; see also 28 November).

The year ended with a bang, not only with some of the boys mentioned above, but with Howe, Ivan, Garth, and Paul (4, 11, 13, 16, 18 December). Howe won out, taking her to a ball, giving her a box of chocolates on Christmas Eve, and putting his arm around her at the movies (23–24, 31 December).

Dancing

Marjorie enjoyed and excelled at tap dancing. At the beginning of the year she was asked by a teacher to assist in the dancing club after school (7–10 January). She continued her own growth not only through teaching dance, but also taking lessons, and performing programs (13–14, 29 January; 4, 10–14 February). It appears that dance club was held on school property and in private homes, including at Marjorie’s own residence (31 January; 11, 20 February; 8, 15, 22 May; 19 June). She observed that the dance club was “orderly,” which she liked (10 January); even so, she wanted it fun. Once she complained: “I had club tonite and are those girls boring—good gosh! a bunch of little babies” (20 March). Also, dance club extended into learning ballet at least once, which she found enjoyable (6 October).

Marjorie not only danced through the club organization, but she attended school dances and went out dancing as part of a date (4 July; 4 August; 2, 23, 30 October; 6, 13 November; 4 December).

School

Like most teens, even now, Marjorie endured school. She was upset at needing to change her schedule (16 January). She mentioned having hard tests in English and History (1 October). One day she wrote that she “wore [her] rose dress” to school, but other than that, “nothing much happened” (5 October). Her A in Typing, D in History, and C in English yielded this obvious observation: “not so bad and not so good” (21 October). On another occasion she noted with a hint of amused accomplishment: “Got our report cards today. I got A, B, C, D right in a row” (2 December).

Her friends at school, especially the boys, as mentioned above, were the highlights of school. She also attended boys’ basketball games (25 January, 21–22 February), and spent time with her many female friends. She babysat with a friend named Jean and raked in a whopping thirty-five cents (13 August; see also 18 November; 7, 14 December). When she did not like some of her friends, she blasted them: “Damn quarrelsome kids” (20 February), and, “Gee Ruth give me a pain” (26 April). When things were going well she would note something like, “Monkeyed” around with friends (14, 16, 19–20 August; 19 September).

Family and Church

Marjorie’s family and church activity are background players to the other themes in her journal of this year. Male and female friends seemed much more important than family, and church was attended with friends by her side, not family.

Though Marjorie and her family were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there was not a lot of gospel instruction going on in the home. Her father was gone quite a bit for work and her mother was involved in other things. Even so, she mentions family members and church meetings with some regularity.

She recalled teaching her six-year-old brother, Alan, a couple of tap steps at home, and then penned, “He sure looks cute when trying to do it” (6 January). Once she went “downtown with Mom and … got something to embroider” (8 August; see also 5December). On occasion she mentions her parents heading to Salt Lake, assumedly for her father’s work, or that her father just got back from some type of business trip (22, 31 August; 11 September). They bottled “peaches and tomatoes” together (3 September).

She attended church meetings fairly regularly with friends; summer attendance was the most spotty, yet she finished the year with a bang, going eight weeks in a row (e.g. 16, 23 February; 15, 29 March; 5, 12, 19 April; 16 May; 21 June; 9, 16, 30 August; 20, 27 September; 4, 11, 18, 25 October; 8, 15, 22, 29 November; 6, 13, 20, 27 December). Perhaps the most noteworthy event for church was when the ward met in the local Presbyterian building because the LDS chapel was way too hot (2 February).

Conclusion

Marjorie’s year of 1936 was a typical teenage mini-soap opera, or drama. Major players included many boys, friends, and school, with time for dancing, opera stars, church, and family. Marjorie was a typical teenage girl, which is great! It is great because it gives hope to us all. In her patriarchal blessing, which she received when she was 32, it reaches back in time and observes: “You have led a virtuous life. Your inner-most thoughts have been virtuous all the days of your life.” We can all change and become better through time and Jesus Christ’s Atonement.

Young Lives of Sofie Frederikke Christoffersen (1869-1956) & Gardner John Crawford (1862-1928)

Sofie (Sophie, Sophia) Frederikke (Frederikka) Christoffersen and Gardner John Crawford came from completely distinct backgrounds. Sophia’s family originally lived in Denmark, while Gardner was born in Utah through a polygamist father’s third wife.

Sophia’s parents, Henrik Thorup Christophersen and Mette Marie Nielsen, were both previously married and divorced—he for unknown reasons and she because her husband was a drunkard. Mette moved to Aalborg where her parents lived to look for work. There she met and married Henrik, and they were both baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 5 May 1867—though Henrik claimed adherence to Mormon principles for the previous 7 years. He brought 2 living children to the marriage and she 5, although the location of these children at the time of matrimony is hard to pinpoint. Together Henrik and Mette had 6 children, with 4 surviving to adulthood. Sophia was the oldest living child, born in 1869 (AKLC, 3–4).

Gardner was born in 1869 to a Scottish Mormon emigrant by the name of John Crawford and to Elizabeth Coolidge Snow, who was raised by first generation Mormons in Illinois and Utah. Both of Gardner’s parents were deeply committed to the Mormon cause and planted their roots in what came to be known as Manti, Utah. Sophia’s relocation to Utah was far more circuitous.

Physical and verbal persecution was high in Aalborg during the 1870s. The combined memories of Sophia and her sister, Anna, recalled baptisms performed at night to avoid scuffles and church meetings that included heated words, a mob, door watchmen, as well as thrown eggs and rocks. The rented second story room of a home served as a Mormon branch location, and on one occasion Henrik evicted 3 egg launchers via the stairs from the premises—a disgruntled horde attempted to snag him later that night, but he made his escape through another exit (AKLC, 6; HSFC, 1).

In 1874, when Sophia was 5, Henrik visited the local mission office, and to his delight found a Mormon family willing and financially able to take one Christoffersen family member to be with the Saints in America. When Henrik returned home he made his announcement with a question: “Which one of you would like to go to America?” Hattie, over a year older than Sophia, let her answer be known with tears of fear. Contrastingly, Sophia was “jumping up and down and clapping [her] hands” with joyful pleadings to be sent. It was settled, Sophia was bound for Zion (AKLC, 6–7; HSFC, 1).

The August 1874 boat voyage from Denmark to England did not end well. Upon arriving in Britain Sophia was admitted to the hospital for three weeks as she suffered with measles. On 2 September Sophia and her accompanying family were on their way again aboard the ship christened Wyoming. The passage was not particularly pleasant: no one spoke Danish, Sophia was struck with seasickness, and bread and hard tack were the daily fare (HSFC, 1–2). Sophia remembers that she and her sponsor left England aboard the Wyoming on 2 September and arrived on the 23 of the same month in Salt Lake (HSFC, 1). (An aggressive search for Sophia’s name aboard the Wyoming’s manifest for the 2–12 September voyage proved fruitless; though the manifest is available and intact, no record of her name was found. See https://mormonmigration.lib.byu.edu/)

Upon arrival Sophia and her Danish sponsors headed for the tithing office. (“The Tithing Yard was used to temporarily house the incoming converts throughout the 1880s” [ANCME].) Since the office and its surrounding landscape traditionally housed recent arrivals, including those from Denmark, Sophia’s half-sister, Lena (or Lene age 15), who had arrived in 1872 often went greet anyone she knew. (Lena, or Lene, was Nicoline Thomsen, child of their mother’s first marriage [AKLC, 4].) When Lena, who was quite homesick, Sophia remembered: “She wrapped her arms around my knees and lay on the ground and cried and cried” (HSFC, 2).

A significant economic institution among Latter-day Saints during the nineteenth century was the tithing office. Since tithing was paid for the most part either in kind or labor, tithing offices served as something of a general store where local produce and manufactured items could be obtained. This is the Deseret Store and Tithing Office of Salt Lake City in the 1860s. It occupied the site of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building east of Temple Square. (see Church History In The Fulness Of Times Student Manual [2003], 393–405).

Lena attempted to hide and care for Sophia at her place of employment—she lived and worked as a maid/servant in a family residence. Sophia’s crying alerted the family to her presence, but instead of ire, the family insisted that she too stay with them. This cozy scenario shifted when a woman from Manti arrived with a letter in hand. The author of the letter was Lena’s and Sophia’s mother, and the contents revealed that this Danish woman, a friend of Maria Christofferson, was to be the caretaker of Sophia, in Manti. The next two years were not pleasant: “They made me work real hard and were cruel me,” Sophia remembered (HSFC, 2)—Elva, one of Sophia’s children, claimed that her mother “lost the sight of her one eye during this time” (LSSFC, 2).  Fortunately, another fellow Dane, Peter Larson, who knew the Christofferson’s well in Denmark, witnessed the cruelty first-hand and finally, via petition, wrenched Sophia away from the awful situation and placed her with the family with whom she crossed the ocean.

After Sophia’s eighth birthday, her mother and three of her sisters, arrived in Utah—their names appear on the manifest of the ship Wisconsin, which arrived in New York on 7 July 1877.

Maria gathered her girls, including Sophia, and lived and worked in and around Salt Lake City until Henrik arrived the next year aboard the Nevada, as he appears on the manifest. 

By 1880 the entire family was living in Levan, Utah with Henry, Maria, Henrietta, Sophia, Louisa, and Josephine all listed on the census—Lena, who by then was married, also appears on the record with her two children.

Sources:

AKLC=Donna L. Hemingmay, “Anna Katrina Louise Christoffersen Petersen Bradford, 1872–1940” (1997), available at https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE1021663&from=fhd.

ANCME=Fred E. Woods, “The Arrival of Nineteenth-Century Mormon Emigrants in Salt Lake city,” in  Salt Lake City: The Place Which God Prepared, ed. Scott C. Esplin and Kenneth L. Alford (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, 2011), 203–230. Available at https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/salt-lake-city/11-arrival-nineteenth-century-mormon-emigrants-salt-lake-city.

HSFC=Estella A. Crawford, “History of Sophia Fredricka Christofferson” (1952), available at www.FamilySearch.org>Sofie Frederikke Christoffersen [KWJX-H75]>Memories>Documents.

LSSFC=Estella A. Crawford, “A Life Sketch of Sophia Fredericka Christofferson” (1952), available at www.FamilySearch.org>Sofie Frederikke Christoffersen [KWJX-H75]>Memories>Documents.

Hyrum (1798-1846) & Orson (1802-1855 ) Spencer

Hyrum Spencer

Orson Spencer

The 1847 New Year edition of the Millennial Star (an England-based LDS Church newspaper) included distressing news: “Elder Orson Spencer is numbered with the dead!!”(MS1, 13).  Church leaders and English Saints alike were stunned. In October of the previous year President Brigham Young appointed Orson to lead the Church in England (LOS, 50–51).  Leaving his motherless children at Winter Quarters and in the watch-care of the oldest child, Ellen, Orson headed east and crossed the cold Atlantic in December. Orson was to replace another with the same first name, Orson Hyde, as presiding officer, but obviously eager anticipation was quashed by sorrow.

Though impaired throughout his life by a lame right leg—a condition he acquired at age 14 through typhus fever—Orson Spencer pushed himself to success within his sphere of limitation (LSOS, 9–10, 13). Orson was educated at an academy and two colleges—one of which had a theological focus, which led him to the ministry in the Baptist church for twelve years (LOS, 2–3); he wed Catherine Curtis in 1830, and together they had eight children; and he was a lifelong learner—he devoured books, studied independently, and wrote extensively.

While serving as a Baptist minister from 1837 to 1841 in Middlefield, Massachusetts the United States suffered through an economic Panic. He “voluntarily reduced his own salary [by] $100” as the financial crisis washed over his little flock (HMM, 288). Any affection his Baptist congregation bore him for his generous action dissolved when he converted to Mormonism.

Orson’s brother, Daniel, already a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, visited Middlefield in 1840 or 1841 with a copy of a Book of Mormon. After days and nights of discussion and thought, Catherine turned to her husband and pointedly observed, “Orson, you know this is true!” (LSOS=16). Orson announced his conversion in a farewell sermon to his parishioners. Baptist officials excommunicated the minster, noting that his conversion was “her[e]sy” (HMM, 288). One local Baptist adherent expressed his feelings about his minister’s exit with a poem that might contain an underlying jab about Orson’s gimpy leg: “Just why Elder Spencer a Mormon became/ I never could tell, though his story I heard./ But his arguments seemed to me very lame,/ And they neither my reason nor sympathy stirred” (HMM, 288).

Catherine not only faced excommunication from the Baptists but also from her family. Thus, Orson and Catherine, along with their children, gave up much to cast their lots with the Mormons and head to Nauvoo, Illinois.

Following Catherine’s death, and seeing that the children were poised to succeed in Winter Quarters, Orson headed to England. He did not in fact die en route, though indeed another Spencer had perished. Hyrum Spencer, Orson’s brother, was camped with the Mormon pioneers in Garden Grove, Iowa in the summer of 1846. He and a nephew named Claudius returned to Nauvoo to sell Spencer land and acquire cattle for the continued migration west. It rained continuously as uncle and nephew rode back to Nauvoo, and though they acquired cattle and wagons, the two riders drove the herd west while being tracked by a group of men bent on stealing the livestock. The exposure, lack of sleep, and unrelenting pace was too much for Hyrum’s constitution. During his final moments he asked Claudius to tell his ten children and wife (his first wife died), “Live and die with this work.” With the assistance of nearby strangers Claudius saw to his uncle’s burial at Mt. Pisgah, after which he drove the herd to Garden Grove and relayed the sad news. The lamentable news was at one point misapplied to Hyrum’s brother, Orson, which in turn was relayed to England (LSOS, 42–46, 82).

As the Saints mourned the loss of Orson, he was in fact enduring a storm-filled, forty day sea passage. Upon his safe arrival, the Mormon newspaper in England printed a retraction: “Elder Spencer is alive and in our midst” (MS2, 42, emphasis in original). The article then quipped, “Few men in the 19^th century possess that degree of longevity which enables them to read … their own obituary notice” (MS2, 42).

After serving for a year and a half Orson was released from his service in England (LOS, 59).

HMM=Edward Church Smith, A History of the Town of Middlefield, Massachusetts (Menasha, Wisconsin: The Collegiate Press, 1924).

LOS=Richard Wallace Sadler, “The Life of Orson Spencer” master’s thesis, University of Utah, 1965.

LSOS=Aurelia Spencer Rogers, Life Sketches of Orson Spencer and Others, and History of Primary Work (N.P.: George Q. Cannon and Sons Company, 1898).

MS1= “Important from America,” Millennial Star 9, no. 1 (1 January 1847)

MS2= “Address,” Millennial Star 9, no. 3 (1 February 1847).

Margaret Livingstone Haldane (1836-1891)

Margaret was married to James Brown Syme. (Click here for his sketch and more information regarding this family.)

After Margaret and James were baptized members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in May 1863, they heeded the call to leave their home country of Scotland and make their way to Zion in the western United States. The family ties Margaret left behind in Scotland were severed: her parents "rejected her" and her mother warned that in America James would enter polygamy. Margaret simply replied, "Well, at least I will be the first."

Margaret and James settled in Wyoming and raised many children. Margaret was a midwife and found herself very busy at times, but never too busy to attend church meetings. On a particular Sunday, one of James' prize greyhounds desired to follow Margaret to the services. Margaret "tied a 50 pound weight" to the dog to keep him put. Despite the load, the dog, weight and all, followed Margaret, eventually jumping in through an open window of the meeting house to sit by his mistress. When Jim Ward, a neighbor, attempted to put the dog out, Jim received nothing but snarls and so the dog enjoyed the meeting right next to Margaret.

Her son Robert recalled that "[Mother] told [me] that whatever you do, it is always better to do it the right way."

Source:Viola James Reese, "Margaret Livington Haldane" www.FamilySearch.org>Margaret Livington Haldane (KWJC-6C4)>Memories>Documents
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Martin Wilford Allred (1863–1904) & Elizabeth Anderson Allred (1867–1945)

Martin (Mart) loved his identical twin brother Isaac (Ike). Curiously, when the brothers arrived at the age of matrimony they married sisters from the Anderson family. Mart wed Elizabeth and Ike chose Helena, who was two years older than her sister. All of their stories begin in Fairview, Utah.

When Elizabeth was eleven, and Helena twelve, their mother died “leaving a month old baby, Archibald Henry” (EAA). With ten children in all there was quite a brood, but they managed to pull through until their father married again about a year later (TRA, 1). Their step-mother had three of her own children, but somehow they all made it work (TRA, 1).

After their own marriages, perhaps Elizabeth and Helena remembered their step-mother’s willingness to take on more children when a returned missionary came to their doors. Fred Christensen, whom the Anderson and Allred families knew well, introduced two little girls he brought back from Denmark. Fred explained that the two youngsters, who spoke no English, were immigrating to Utah, and that their parents would come the following year. Could the sisters to care for one child each until that time? Fred asked. Elizabeth remembered drawing straws to determine which child went to which home. Helena ended up with Ollie, age 4, and Elizabeth, Victoria, age 6. The parents did come to claim their children, after twelve years.

When Mart and Ike were young they were often found together. “One drove the oxen and the other held the plow” on the farm, and they scythed hay side-by-side (IWAT). Ike remembered a troublesome stag named Old Larry. He “would work well until he got warmed up, and then he would lie down in the furrow until he cooled off; then he would get up and work until warmed up again. This would go on day after day” (IWAT). The two boys also chopped wood for their grandmother, as well as the two households of their father, he being a polygamist. On one occasion the boys had the company of two of their sisters while collecting wood. In the distance they noticed “a cloud of dust” and the sound of horse hooves. Mart, concerned that it might be Indians, dove into the nearby willows. Mart’s fears were validated when the group of Indians harassed the family wagon and team, but soon left without any harm. Mart exited his hiding place, glad to see his siblings were alive, and then all the spooked children headed home without so much as a scrap of wood (IWAT).

Once the brothers married, they built homes near one another in Fairview. Here they shared joys and sorrows—Martin and Elizabeth lost two young children, and Ike and Helena one. But new prospects were on the horizon toward the turn of the twentieth-century. Ike was lured to Alberta, Canada with descriptions of new possibilities and frontier (IWAT). By 1900 Martin too was there with his family and the brothers partnered on a farm (EAA). Tragically, in 1904, Mart died of appendicitis, “leaving Mother with a family of five” (EAA). Two years later, while still in Canada, George Randall, the oldest boy (age 16), “was accidentally killed in the Raymond sugar factor” (EAA). Having had enough of Canada, Mart’s brother, Lawrence, escorted Elizabeth and her four remaining children back to Fairview, Utah.

Elizabeth maintained her faith despite sorrow and tragedy. She clung to the Word of Wisdom and regularly sewed clothing for others, despite her battle with diabetes for the last thirty-five years of her life. She also saw to it that the family pay their tithing, despite their penury. One daughter remembered, “One Christmas, after Father was gone, Mother told the boys they had just five dollars for Christmas gifts, and they owed that for tithing. After some discussion, they decided to pay the tithing. Sherm took the money to the Bishop. On his way back, Bill came running to meet him, saying they already had the money back. The ward had given the widows five dollars for Christmas” (EAA).

Another tragic blow came in 1920 when her son, Charles William, then in his twenties, “was killed in a mine accident” (EAA). Determined to continue on, Elizabeth dedicated her life to her remaining family members. On 4 May 1945, seventy-eight year old Elizabeth passed away in Provo, Utah.

Sources:

TRA=“Life History of Thomas Reese Anderson,” available at www.FamilySearch.org>Sara Jane Rees [KWJ4-GK5]>Memories>Documents.

EAA=“Elizabeth Anderson Allred,” These We Honor: Archibald Anderson Family (Salt Lake City, Utah: Magazine Printing, 1968), C-68.

IWAT=“Isaac Willard Allred Twin,” available at http://www.allredfamily.com/isaac_willard_allred_twin.htm