• JOHN AND GUNHILDA ANDERSON Pioneers from Sweden/Norway to Milton, Utah Researched and submitted by Lois Dickson Anderson .whose:husband F~· ~ / 0 John Anderson, as he was knewn ia Milton, M~ttnty-by-hi~~assoeiates was born 18 June 1839 in Habo, Sverrig Sweden, the son of Andrew Carlsen and his mother. He grew up in his native country by the name of Johan Anderson Thornell, ~e-famiiy bible.-He was well educated, loved music and learned the trade of tailoring clothing. He later traveled to Norway, a distance of about forty miles where he sewed clothing for Norse sailors on the outskirts of Christiannia, now know as Oslo, Norway . It was here that he met and married Gunhild Gulbransen. She was born on Christmas Eve Day 24 December 1838, in Trogstad, Ostfold, Norway. She was a lovely dark haired young woman, well educated, musically inclined and excelled in culinary and homemaking skills. The Anderson family is inclined to think that her parents bitterly opposed her marrying and joining the Mormon Church, because there was never any communication with her parents following her baptism. Johan's tailoring skills enabled him to accumulate a good sized income in Norway. Elder "C" Jensen, a missionary from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints called upon them and taught them the Gospel, whereupon they were baptized on 2 April 1865. When their baptism was recorded on the church records, the recorder misunderstood the spelling and pronunciation and wrote their surnames as being "Thunell." In Scandinavia the "th" is pronounced "T" with the "h" being silent. On 4th August of the same year as their baptism, their first child, Adolph Gofred, was born and died shortly after his birth. Their new found religion brought them comfort knowing that this child could be theirs all through eternity. Their sadness was replaced with great joy when on 13th July 1868 a healthy baby daughter, named Clara Emmeline was born. The feeling in Norway at this time was very bitter against the Mormons and it became necessary to baptize saints at night, even in the coldest weather. At some of the meetings nonmembers would sometimes join the congregation with the intent of causing a disturbance. It was the desire of the Norwegian Saints to come to Zion where they could live their religion in peace. The strict Norwegian Lutheran state church religion, made it difficult to practice Mormonism because the members were required to donate to the state church regardless of religious preference. The threatenings, persecution and alienation from family and friends became too great to bear so Johan and Gunhild made preparations to leave Norway. On Friday, May 29, 1868 the family of three, Clara being 9 months old, joined with a fellow Norwegian Ole Olsen Wold, who was planning to send for his sweetheart Ellen Marie, when he had enough money along with 159 other Scandinavian saints at the harbor in Christiania to set sail for America. S~ly tears came to Johan and 6unhildAs the sailin vessel left ~ r the-North Sea to-E-ngl-and on..the..fitStJeg_af.tb.e_yo_yage_Surely they !poked.hack at the cragsy,.cliffs.:.With Jiguses of their homeland, 1 • • • nestled against th&-skylimriramed by the fiuge high snow-capped mountains, eeling-the-leneJiness of going t0- a destination they knew very little about. We assume they returned to the security of the group of saints, - reaffirmed their faith in a Fathec. in Heav_en,_sang the songs of Zion hugged.their belongings tightly and prayed o a..safe and speedyvoyage across the mighty deep oftbe North Sea-on to England and then the A11antic Ocean to America . . When the family's name was recorded on the ship's manifest, the surname was again misrepresented from the spelling, "Thornell" the "Thff pronounced as "T" the "h" being silent, was consequently written "ThurnelJ" the way it sounded to the person doing the recording. "The trip began aJ 5 o'clock when we boarded the "Steamboat Oder" with President C.C. Christensen at the harbor in Christiania and set sail on the long voyage.. The wind was quiet and the journey continued well. On Monday, June l we arrived at Humber River on the English seashore, and anchored at the dock. President Christensen went ashore to arrange our trip further. At 5: 30 we le.ft by train from Hull, England to Liverpool. We arrived on Tuesday, r' June aJ 3 :00 o'clock in the morning at Liverpool, met our hotel agent who had other emigrants from Denmark and Sweden. A few of us went to the Hotel Columbia and were there the whole day. The next day we took our baggage out of customs and put it aboard the ship "John Bright" out of New York, 1444 tons. In the afternoon the emigrants, from England, Wales, Scotland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark came aboard; 724 passengers took their places. The Scandinavians were on the lower deck. In the afternoon the packet ship pufled out from the dock and we anchored Weather was fine." This voyage was one of the last the church organized to bring saints to America. It bad been plaMed that this company wouJd cross the Atlantic by steamer, but the cost was prohibitive at that time due to a coal strike in England. So they sailed from Liverpool on 4 June 1868 on The John Bright Packet Ship. It was built in 1854 by William H. Webb at New York City, New York and was three-decker large squar<>-rigger ship. Before the departure President Franklin D. Richards, called all the emigrants on deck and outlined their duties and responsibilities. He emphasized cleanliness, order, unity, harmony and good feelings, obedience to counsel and "kindness and assistance to the aged, sick and infirm." At this meeting Elder James McGaw was appointed president of the company, with Elders Christopher 0. Folkmann and Frederick C. Anderson as counselors. Charles W. Penrose, who would later become an apostle and member of the First Presidency, dedicated the vessel for a safe voyage. Captain John Howart was master of the vessel and he described the Saints: "in fine spirits beingf ull ofj oy at being on their way to Zion. " "During the voyage we were allowed a certain amount of provisions each day. We wouldf,x it the best we could and take it up on deck to be cooked We had oatmeal, split peas, bacon out of brine, hard tack, flat biscuits as big as saucers and as hard as iron, very few potatoes, brown sugar and a very small portion off lour. The water was in large wooden kegs which got very stale before the end of the journey. One day when the air was dense with fog, another ship rammed into us and made a jagged hole in the side of our ship which immediaJely began to fill with water. All hands were called to man the pumps. The sailors dumped all excess baggage overboard including a lady's prized feather bed She refused to part with it, saying if it went down she would go with it. Because the sailors were considered a bad lot and were not past helping one to fall overboard, no one made too much of a fuss with them .. During the crisis about 75 Mormon emigrants were kneeling in prayer and singing songs to keep up their courage. It was with much rejoicing that the leak was repaired and the voyage continued. On the ~" of June an elderly Welsh woman 70 years old passed away. She was sick, but had chosen to die among her friends rather than be left behind Instructions in English were given on the highest deck. An English sister was struck on the head by a piece of loose sail. People amused themselves with dancing. Some suffered with seasickness. A Swedish sister fell on the upper deck on account of high seas. She was thrown back and forth, got a blow on the head and a crushed kneecap. We got our provisions today and are 1600 miles from Liverpool. A boy fell on the deck and broke his leg. A Scotch sister fell and broke two ribs while the ship rolled in high sea. Someone tried to poison two English sisters by giving them a piece of cake with Spanish flies in the raisins. But, a crew member saw and gave warning. Saw many fishing boats. One came with fish, codfish, haddie, and halibut, and we had a delicious dinner. Saw many whales. On 4 July, U.S.A. Independence Day the passengers were awakened at 4 a.m. and 14 brothers with guns marched around the deck and saluted the captain and leaders, then up on the afterdeck they fired 13 shots. When the flag was raised, a hurrah was given. After that we sang a Psalm. We had fireworks in the evening. For the six weeks it took us to cross the ocean, many incidents both good and bad occu"ed and so our hearts were filled with prayers of thankfulness when we sighted land and sailed into New York Harbor. "Tuesday, 14 July 1868: We dropped anchor in New York. At 1 l a.m. we left the John Bright and boarded a steamship which took us to Castle Garden (now called Ellis Island) where we were examined by doctors and our luggage was weighed We were put on a steamer again and taken to the harbor of New York. Later we crossed the river td the 2 • • railroad station where we spent the night and did a little shopping. We left New York on the train at 9:30 p.m. When on the train we had to buy our food whenever the train stopped long enough. We passed through Albion, Lockport and stopJJf!d at a suspension bridge for 4 hours. Many of us looked at Niagara Falls. On Saturday 19"' we a"ived in DetroiL Crossed the river and took a bath. We then resumed our way to Chicago. We traveled all night and crossed the Missouri River to Omaha, Nebraska where we bought food. Many were sick from the heat. We saw Grand Island, a big station and many houses, also saw two prairie fires and a large Indian Camp. In the evening of Thursday 23,.., of August we arrived at Laramie City, but stayed in the railroad cars during the night. On the morning of the 24"' we were told to get up and take our baggage out of the train and load it on the mule train. We followed about one mile then camped by the river, washed our clothes and bathed As we traveled along the dusty, hot trail, we shot rabbits and other wild game so that we would have a change of diet. As evening drew near the wagons were drawn into a circle for the night. The children would go out and fill their aprons with buffalo chips for the fire. One food we had was soda bread. It was as yellow as gold and tasted as bitter as gall. After the evening meal and when dusk had fallen, we took up our violins, tuned them and played a merry melody. Dancing and singing followed, and then came story te/Jing time. A huge circle was made around the blazing campfire when our host drivers began to recite tales of previous hapf)f!nings and deeds of the Indians until we were almost afraid to go to sleep. After the evening prayer, we all went to our various camps to rest knowing there were many more miles to travel the next day. ". X Brigham Young had deployed 500 men to Laramie to transport the immigrants to Salt Lake. Thls was the farthest point that passengers could travel by railroad in August of 1868. Some accounts said that as the saints traveled by wagon from Laramie, they observed track being laid in many places, in an effort to meet the other track layers coming from the west. Upon arriving in Salt Lake, many of the immigrants were assigned to work on the railroad by President Brigham Young. As a result Johan, Gunhild and little Clara eventuaJJy arrived in Mountain Green, Utah where blasting the tunnel though the rocky mountain terrain was being constructed so track could be laid through Weber Canyon. The Thornell's took up residence where Johan worked on the railroad. They resided here and became members of the Mountain Green Branch of the LDS Church. It was here their second son, Heber Franklin was born 9111 April 1871 and blessed in the little branch chapel there. The Olsen and Wold friends that had been passengers together on the "John Bright" secured property in both Peterson and Milton, and were good friends forever. It was here in Milton that Johan and GunhjJda settled by a creek known at one time as Swan Creek and later named Smith Creek. At this time the family had discontinued using the Thornell name because Johan, felt people were ridiculing him when they snickered and pronounced his name liking it to the word "toenail." So he dropped that name and was rebaptized and was known as John Anderson, 22 February 1878 by C. Hansen and confirmed by Eli Whitear using his middle name as his surname. His wife Gunhild was known in America as Gunhilda Gulbrandsen. She was also rebaptized 7 October 1880 by Brigham Mecham and confirmed by Eli Whitear. Clara, age 13 and Heber, age 9 were also baptized that day. John, purchased large tracts of acreage in Milton and cleared it for planting. The Anderson's home, located on the north side of Smith Creek faced west and was built of red brick. Gunhild, made a comfortable and nice home, where one of her specialties was making delicious baking powder biscuits and Norwegian delicacies that her family dearly loved~ T~ family ~s, d fish that were so pl~n~l in Norway, but they learned to enjoy mountain trout ~~~ whep ~ ould, Kipper Snapr5; ~ Sardines in tlie can. She was a lovely and attractive ta'ay. She was a ~ onderful mother and iliey"welcomed more children to their home. Their daughter Mary Lenori was born 3 May 1874, then John William, (known as Will to not be confused with his father) on 14th December 1876 and the last child, Edward on 24 May 1879. The little fellow passed away 2 March 1881 two months prior to his 200 birthday of diphtheria that was rampant in the county that year. He was buried in a little wood coffin in the Milton Cemetery that his father made for that purpose. Tbis was another sad day to bury their youngest child. It brought back memories of baby Adolph Gotfred buried so far away in their native Norway and added to their grief and loneliness for the two boys, but were also comforted in the fact that on the other side the two brothers could be together. John, worked hard learned the English language and received his naturalization papers on 6 September 1882. He was self-sustaining owned cows, chickens, horses and bad large fields of hay and grain. The whole family enjoyed music and were happy living among many other Scandinavian families located in Milton and Peterson Communiti~ where ~ c()Jfti~ ~ ~ o)d '!S!l;kl ~ for Chfisunas a9(1 ~ w1fh laughter, dancing a vi6lin1nusic. John and OOnlrilda~ sorfWifl be1:ime a vd,y 3 /0 • • If talented y4~in musiclan pl~JJ!gJ.he-6ermarwμade violin brought on the long journey from N orw.ay. John lovedr.earipg the ~--w~'stfes as the Union .eacifjc trains passed through the valley cl-Ose ~!O~that horde" d 1)le e er River. He was truly grateful and thankful {or the time-t11;"9°i.J!~ ~ught ~y s famij aifoss ti oad ..;q,.,,.esor the plains and prairies to hi~ Milton ~-roluralso b lli6fmsel miior' sho~ and wa ell known for ajtoring:men's suJts3J1d-clo@ng:Jef people throughou the ~ ut Milt or n. The tailor shop was a stJ:lfclylog building and was located across the stt~ fi'oinhis brick house, w at:.wu:accessib~.fiipoblie:: r_Over the years the Anderson family had ac uired short of three-hundred a~ eber River bo..tto -to-: e mountain area an all th at Ian between that could · · . It was hard work • - P~ ~ $.lOWJng irrigation ditches d dealing w1 the weather's h shness. trial-ancrerror w~nt.iRt&-leaJ'!W1g :--irrigate farmland. It w a new concept t em offarmi g from llierr na r e.Nerwa.y ~ic]J::hadabun'daneta · all and many Jar bodies of water, but soon'is:asled haj1Jlountain streams near theifliome &~p:irrlate er wh he snow--12-~k..melted. One=similacity to their native land was the high jagg~ Utah=moimtams ce"Ver m snow. ~==-...,,,;;::::::::,..__ ___ _ T.hey were used to navjgation on the many waterways and railways for transportation in Norway. They became adept at harnessing up horses to carriages and wagons for traveling and harvesting their crops. For recreation during the winter, they made homemade skiis from planks of wood and made runs down the hillsides near their home. AJI hard work was done with teams of horses, scrapers, and crude mechanics compared to equipment that came later. They discovered the land was hard to farm because of gumbo clay and brush. So their days were long and hard. When John was 51 years old, he contracted cancer and passed away on the 11th March 1891. ~ -..JN elch Mortlla9'; took care his funeral and burial and he was laid1orestin theJJiltoa-€-emetery-near his little son Ed'f~rd's gr~~T left Gunhi)d~ g w~dowjust 50 fears old distraught with grief at the loss of her two li~ som, and now er husband. A year 'incl a half following her father's death Mary Lenori married Oscar Gaarder in Augus of 1892. Clara followed her sister and.married Jens Christian Peterson in · 1894 and moved to Huntsvil1e. GunhiJda, was a proper lady of grace and beauty aBd.taught her-children-to-be honest-and-trustworthy. This wonderful attribute was uigrained in. ildren. T~ ere !mown for dieir impeccable h _est)'. in.all their .d.eajings.,~he was ~trong willed and-a dtJtermme woman and learned to manage the far h the help of her son Heber, who was 20 years old and Will, now l ~ continue to acq r, moreproperty-with manf<leeds signed by lieramtpurchased with J!!Oll~ she gained from the farm. She defepded her rights on -a piece of her property that a land owner _!!lqyght-hecouJa:take away from a widow in t)lat-clay and age an~ .~ewoll{d not pay any att~t-i~ or put up a_figbt:fyr -it:-Bttt she was wdl-awareo{;hatl w~ ng on and ~ed h~s.e/1' an attorney t. o efend her family and fahn. puring the ---court hearing the judge ~aw the error of e perpetrat<pr and Gunhi!_, won court case an9 tdok back ownership of that piece')of property. He son Heber ranklin eve married and JiveJl..with ·g>?n_Qther until her death. John Willia (Will), marri Laura Gill ie (L ie) ord~r!..-a y ung lady-~o/.11 down the road in Peterson, who had lost h' mother a ge 13. Shew hired by unhilda to help arounr,he house and farm. Will and Lettie were marr anuary 1900 and bu· ta e on the oppo ite side f the road from his moth~ ss.Bmith-Ci:eek.-He-and-his-brotlrerifelrerworkmtttrefamrgroun ittheifoeatbs. -- .__ One hot day in August of 1912, Gunhilda was walking from her son Will' s home back to her own home, when she fainted. The Welch Mortuary, said she died of"heart failure" and the cost for the mortuary expenses was $120.00 and was listed as "Paid." ~ e-Swedish/Norwegir:n born 'fhop1ell~nderson family ~~~~ ~ ~~ in the tern e-for1timean~ ll etemi to be witj),~ch o!Jietan~ to becJll'tle·-o~ ainb tt(t.eir tt.?J.ittle' b s, Ado h'a'nd E~a thes d par<ed'w-ittf~i1e o~s--eaith. h: home oc'?1pje{l by 1opi( and Gunhilda was ater occupied~by .,)Vill and Letf ' s son w~e-~elen Brown derso wi,6 took over .operatio~ of the fal]Jll fi( and threshi buiines fat1j. Wes and H le ere residents.-ettvfilton until theitl:leaffis in l and-2-00 . --=-~ 4 !