Morgan Pioneer History Binds Us Together Rutha always had a lovely voice and sang in the Ogden Stake Tabernacle to a large audience at the age of eight and in the choir from the age of twelve and in the North Morgan Ward. She remembers when Brother West from Round Valley was the conductor, then Brother Edward Anderson. On June 3,1937, Thomas Jr. and Rutha celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. During their entire lives Thomas Jr. and Rutha took active parts in their church and community. Then one beautiful autumn day proved to be the most tragic in Rutha's life. Thomas Jr. came home from the field at noon riding the black pony at a brisk gallop, and came in the house in very high spirits. He ate a hearty meal, then acting as if he were choking, left the table, and went to the back porch, where he suddenly dropped of a heart attack. Rutha was eighty-one years old at the time this was written. ©9 Baltzar Sorensen Peterson and Mette Margrete Juulsen Peterson Mette Margrete Juulsen Peterson was born to Juul Eskildsen and Karen Nielsen on January 11, 1834. She was born in the Parish of Holme in Aarhus, Denmark. She was the seventh child of a family of eight children. Her father was a small leasehold farmer and weaver. He died when Margrete was two years old. Her mother had a Mette Margnte Juulsen Peterson financial struggle, but she saw to it that the children were educated in the state school in Holme. On May 30, 1857, Margrete was married in Holme, to Baltzar Sorensen. This was his Danish name, as recorded in the Lutheran Church Register. When they came to Utah, he was known as Baltzar Peterson. After their marriage, the young couple went to the city of Aarhus to make their home. Baltzar obtained good work as a coach and transfer man. His work of hauling freight and passengers to and from the ocean liners that docked at Aarhus was quite interesting. Since he liked good horses, he used four head of matched black horses for freighting. In the next four years, three children were born to them: Nels Juul, on October 13,1857; Soren Baltzar, on January 16,1860; and Laura, on December 24,1861. Baltzar's mother, Ane Magrethe Baltzarson Pedersen, and sister, Karen, had joined the Latter Day Saints Church about 1852. For ten years she and her daughters had walked four miles each Sunday to attend church services. It was not until late 1862 that Baltzar and Margrete were baptized. On Novem ber 20, 1862, Baltzar and his wife were baptized by Niels Knud- sen, and confirmed by G. Garretson and A.W. Winberg, respectively. Baltzar's father, Soren Pedersen, was baptized about the same time and the two families began preparations to emigrate to Utah. On February 23, 1863, another son, James Joel, was born to Margrete, and on March 1,1863, little Laura died. On April 30, 1863, the two families boarded a steamer to travel across part of the Baltic Sea to Kiel, Germany. They then traveled by rail to a city called Altona and then a half hour's walk took them to the docks of Hamburg, where they boarded the ship Roland and sailed across the North Sea to Grimsby, England. It was anything but a comfortable ride, because there were about forty steers and several hundred sheep aboard, besides nearly six hundred emigrating Saints. After two days in Grimsby, the group traveled by rail to Liverpool. There, 644 Scandinavian saints and thirteen English Saints boarded the B.S. Kimball and set sail for the United States on May 9,1863. They arrived in the New York harbor on the evening of June 13. They were held on board for two days for fumigation and inspection and then were allowed to board a train. Because of Civil War battles, the route was a northern one, and at times they had to ride in crowded freight cars. This was a difficult journey for all, but especially for Margrete because she L22