John Smith (revisited)

In 1865 John's Sister Hannah moved from Salt Lake City to Provo and subsequently married Josiah Thomas Arrowsmith. The couple did not enjoy economic prosperity. Hearing of their destitute situation John gathered together $10 (about $150 in 2016) and bought a sack of flour. For reasons unknown, he had to walk, bearing the sack of flour, from Salt Lake to Provo and personally delivered the life sustaining staple.

Sources:

"Biography of my Great Grandfather, John Smith & his wife, Eliza Foreman," 2-3, as available at www.FamilySearch.org>John Smith [KWNH-DDN]>Memories>Documents.

Money equivalency figured at the reputable Inflation Calculator available at www.westegg.com/inflation.

Peter, Dorthea, & Anne: Denmark Faithfuls

Dorthea

Anne

Peter

Peter Monson (Peder Mogensen) was born 8 April 1830 in Svendstrup, Langeland, Denmark. It was a little village about two miles from Kerser, a harbor town on the west coast of Denmark. His home was a long, one-story adobe house with a thatched straw roof. Peter and his people belonged to the Lutheran Church and were devoutly religious. On 9 March 1853 Peter was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Shortly after his own baptism, Peter baptized his father, mother, a sister, and a girl who was 17, named Dorthea Marie Christensen. Dorthea's parents were not pleased with her decision to join the Mormons and offered her a considerable amount of the family wealth to dissuade her. She resisted. Though Peter's family sailed to the United States in that same year as their baptisms, he remained behind to marry Dorthea on 8 January 1854. (PMH, 1-2).

The couple and Christian, the first child, embarked for North America near the end of 1855. The small family were three of the Scandinavian and European Saints aboard The John J. Boyd which left Liverpool, England on 12 December 1855. Mormon missionary Charles R. Savage, who was also on this voyage recorded that the "Saints were at the sound of the trumpet called to prayer morning and evening"; church meetings were offered in various languages to accommodate all who wished to attend; and cordial relations were maintained despite heritage and cultural differences (MS, 206).

On the whole the passage required 66 days, about double the amount of time it normally took. Delay came in part due to "gales," a fire in the captain's cabin, and the rescue of sailors aboard a sinking ship called Louis Napoleon. Truth be told, the influx of able-bodied men and provisions improved the passage. Measles ripped through the crew and passengers and was likely the cause of the child Christian's death and burial at sea (MS, 206; PMH, 2). The captain of the Boyd gave way to his superstitions as the length of time in crossing the ocean increased. "Preachers on board," he believed, often brought about tempests--a whim seemingly founded upon the Bible's retelling of Jonah's and Paul's experiences with stormy seas, as well as the thought that "the devil, the great storm-raiser, was the [clergy's] especial enemy, and [sent] tempests to destroy them." The captain restricted religious singing and forbade vocal prayers, but silent ones still rose to heaven. By mid-February 1856 they landed in New York harbor (MS, 206; LS, 108-109).

Peter and Dorthea made their way to Florence (now Omaha), Nebraska and joined a pioneer wagon train under the direction of Canute Peterson. The company left 27 June 1856 and arrived 16 September of the same year in Salt Lake City (CPC). When they arrived in the valley Peter was only greeted by his mother, sister Caroline, and a brother, Jens; his father, grandmother, and two other sisters died on the plains (PMH, 1).

Peter's second wife, and through whom our family descends, was named Anna Christena Christensen. Born 8 October 1848, she too was born in Denmark and immigrated, with her family, to Salt Lake, in late 1853 following their conversion. Anna's father died on the trail, and her step-father was not kind. In order to escape his severe nature she worked in the Monson home where she met and married Peter (PMH, 4).



Sources:
PMH="Peter Mogensen" History, available at  www.FamilySearch.org>Peder Mogensen [KWN2-H6H]>Memories>Documents>Memories>Documents; 

MS=C.R. Savage, "Arrival of the 'J.J. Boyd,'" Millennial Star 13, no. 18 (29 March 1856).

LS=Fletcher S. Bassett, Legends and Superstitions of the Sea and of Sailors in All Lands and at All Times (Chicago and New York: Belford, Clark, 1885).

CPC=https://history.lds.org/overlandtravel/companies/234/canute-peterson-company-1856.