TITLE PAGE PIONEER (full name) BIR TH (date and place} DEA TH (date and place} PARENTS . MARRIED (who and date) ARRIVAL IN UTAH (date) (Company arrived with) HISTORY {who wrote) (date written) (who submitted) (address) Maren Kirsten Jensen 11 March 1837 - Lonstr uk, Jutland, Denmark 13 April 191 7 - Milton, Morgan, Utah • Soren Jens en Karen Anderson Neils Christian Jensen 24 September 1861 . 1861 .; I Samuel A. Wooley Colleen Jensen Barth 21 January 1982 Colleen Jens en Barth 1755 W. Stoddard Lane Morgan, Utah 84050 CAMP & COUNTY SUBMITTING _M_t._J_o_y __________ Camp _M_o_r_g_a_n_ ___________ County {Camp Historian & address)- ---Ch-lo-e H-. -H-ei-ne-r ---------- 1440 Old Hwy Road, Morgan, Utah County Historian & address)- ---Ve-lo-y -To-nk-s -D-ick-so-n- -------- P.O. Box 203, Morgan, Utah 84050 SOURCE OF INFORMATION & PAGE NUMBERS: Karen Marie Jensen Nelson The parents of my grandfather , Niels Jensen, were Maren Kirstine Jensen and Niels Christian Jensen (surname before marriage ) . Niels was born in Ortegar, Jutland, Denmark, April 26, 1826, to Jens Nielsen and Ave Marie Christensen , He spend his first twenty-five years in Skagau and then moved to Copenhagen where he resided for ten years prior to coming to America. We know very little of his early life but he evidently had more than ordinary schooling , He served in the Danish Army during the war between Germany and Denmark when Schleswig-Holstein was taken by Germany in 1848 , While in the army he took typhoid fever and it proved the indirect cause of his death many years later, It is interesting to note that at one time his eyesight was poor and he wore earrings at the suggestion of a Danish doctor, This he said helped his eyesight. Later he removed the earrings and his sight ~gain became impaired so he again wore the earrings and this ttme until his death , Niels was a typical frontiersman . He was a " jack of all trades" being particularly skilled as a carpenter and a cooper, During his spare time he learned to read and write the English language , He also learned to write shorthand and was a sort o_f a musician . He played the accordian . He was fond of parties and loved to entertain, He played an accordian r well for the time, bought nice clothes for his wife, but he was not very orthodox and refused absolutely to practice polygamy, nor did he adhere strictly to standards of the community . He died in Milton, September 19, 1886 and was buried September 22 , 1886 in the little hillside cemetery of Milton. His health was poor most of the time and as a consequence his disposition became gloomy, irritable, and quick to anger , He was impatient with wife and children. He was very industrious and a hard worker, never idle except when ill . He was very dignified in bearing and had a personality that corrunanded respect . Mary Kirstine Jensen was born in Lqnstrak, Jutland, Denmark, March 11, 1837 to Soren Jensen and Karen Anderson. She spend her first twenty - three years in Rakabii, Herring, Ampt County, Denmark, and the rest of her life in Milton, Morgan County, Utah . She had no schooling outside the common school . In Denmark she was a gleaner in the fields during harvest time and a dressmaker by profession. In Utah she was a housewife, a weaver and a spinner . Following is a n account of Maren and Niels C. Jensen 's coming to Utah written by Mary Jensen, oldest child and daughter of Maren. It is used just as written, and thus retains the spirit and personality of the writer • • • MAREN KIRSTEN JENSEN Born 11 March 1837 at Lonstruk, Jutland , Denmark This daughter of the Danish peasantry grew to young womanhood in a community where everyone worked so they could eat and have a roof over their heads. To work was considered part of life; it was honorable; it was necessary. The village church was also a very real aijd important part of life . Here babies were christened , adolescents were confirmed and baptised and young couples were married and started on the most serious and respon-sible part of their lives. Later on their funeral sermon was to be preached in this same building and they were buried in the adjacent church yard. It has been this way for a long , long time. However not everyone attended the church services and there were some among those that did attend who did not wholly agree with t he doctrines advocated by the preacher. The Danish are notabl y independent in their thinking. And so when the first Mormon Elders came from America' with their message of a new revelation and a gospel that was differ ent i ~ many ways - and still agreed substantially with their bibles - there wer e some in every parish who were willing to listen , Maren Kirsten JENSEN ,:a s one of these . She attended their meetings . Here she experienced a feeling of friendliness which existed among those who believed . She felt t he in-fluence and peace of the spirit of the Lord. She heard the moving testimonies of confirming miracles in the lives of her neighbors. Sometimes the Elders would talk of Zion, a place in America where the chosen of the Lord were to dwell together in righteousness . It vas easy for Maren to hope and to believe in Zion while attending t hese meetings . Surely where there were a great many people with the same feeling, the same unity , and the same love for each other as existed here - that would be a wonderful place to live . And Zion was to be in America. Before the Elders came Maren had heard of America as a land of opportunity where there was a challer.ge and a reward for all and especially for the young people who were willing and able to work . Now if she went there she could be among those whose hearts had been touched and whose lives had been changed by the gospel message . And might there not be some young men among them of about her own age? The Elders were urging all converts to gather to Zion at once . The church , now in a new country needed more people; the world cala.mities which the bible had predicted would come to pass in the latter days were near at hand; there would be a shipload of converts leaving for America in the Spring . She decided to go. But how? Maren had worked some as a dressmaker . She sold her sewing machine and everything else she owned. This would barely pay the fare . Later she was able to arrange to work for a family of saints en the way for her board . 1 • MAREN KIRSTEN JENSEN (continued) When it became known that Maren JENSEN had been bapt ised int o the Mormon church the peaceful world she had lived in was never the s ame . Former friends avoided her . The attitude of the townspeople var i ed from pity to ridicule. The paster called and urged her to repent. At first her parents were shocked . When she announced her plans ~ o go t o America they were heartbroken. But Maren had made up her mind. On the day of her departure they were there to ~ve a l ast goodbye . As the ship got under way someone called out - "Goodbye - There goes Denmark" . On May 16th, 1861 , at Liverpool they boarded the "Monarch of the Sea"for the promised land . They arrived in New York a month later. Those in charge decided to charter a train of cattle cars for tr.e trip to Omaha. These cars were immediately available and the cos t woul d be less. The roadbed was rough; the cars had no sprin~s; the t oilet facilities werenegligibleartdthey were crowded. Everyone was rel i eved and grateful when that part of the journey was ended. But Maren's troubles had not ended . At Omaha the family of sa i nts purchased equipment and livestock with which to cross the plains. There were a few milk cows . It became Maren's duty , after trudging over the rough terrain of the plains all day to separate these cows from the common herd and milk them. This she disliked very much . She was f ear-ful of the cattle and she had never before learned to milk. The plains journey was not altogether unpleasant . In the s ame company was a young man also by the name of JENSEN (Niels Christian) . No doubt he helped her with some of her chores . It was surely not by accident that they both landed in Morgan Valley in September. They were married a few days after arriving. Their home that first year was a covered wagon. Their firs t cr.: ld Mary was born in that same wagaon box the following June in very un-favorable circumstances . For weeks previous it had rained almos t cont inually . Their improvised bed was wet most of the time . Maren became desperately ill. The baby was born prematurely . But t he • sisters of the settlement were very kind and no doubt their devotea skillful help saved the lives of both the mother and the child . By the beginning of the next year Niels had arranged to purchase one of the town lots and on it had established a Coopers Shop. His wife and child were living quite comfortably in a sort of cellar or dugout . As the years went by more children came; more property was acquired . But the pinoeer life was always strenous and at times very difficult . They grew old before their time. Maren became crippled with arthritis - a result of a wagon box days. Sometimes she would admit that Zion had not proved itself to be all that she had hoped for. But she always was true to the faith which she had accepted . 2 • MAREN KIRSTEN JENSEN (continued) Through out all t his time Maren rarely mentioned here girlhood deys back in old Denmark and so far as it is known she never corresponded with any of the loved ones whom she had left behind . It was as though the curtein on that stage of her life had been run down on that day s o long ago when someone had called out from the deck of the moving ship "Goodbye There goes Denmark" On April 13th , 1917 she died and was buri~d up on the hill which overlooks the village where she tried s o l ong - and s o hard - to r ealize the Zion of her girlhood dreams. 3 I