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).
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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).
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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.
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.
