Christen Andersen and Karen Jensen ~ Pioneers of the Month ~ February 2014

Christen Andersen and Karen Jensen

Originally compiled and typed by F. Fern McIntosh Jacobs

Retyped by Belva Jones McIntosh June 2000

Most parenthetical comments and highlighting done by Beverly McIntosh Brown

Christen Andersen was the first of his ancestral line to

come to America. He was born February 18, 1796, in the

farming community of Svenstrup, in the Parish of

Taarnborg,County of Soro, Denmark. He was the son of Anders

Nielsen and Dorthe Christensen. On December 1, 1823 he

married Ingeborg Nielsen at the parish church at Kirke-

Stillinge, a short distance from this birthplace. Ingeborg

was born in Kirke-Stillinge Parish November 21, 1789. She

was the daughter of Niels Hansen and Maren Christensen_(who

were the grandparents of Dorothea Maria, wife of Peter

Mogensen) and was previously married to Jens Sorensen, who

had died.

  Apparently Christen and Ingeborg lived at Kirke-Stillinge

because their two children were born here.

1. Maren: born 16 Aug 1825; died 8 Oct 1887;

Married 9 Dec. 1853 to Peder Christensen Jensen.

2. Anders: born 9 Dec 1828, died 10 Dec. 1828, the day

after his birth.

Ingeborg did not survive the complications of the birth of

her second child and passed away six days later on December

15 1828.

The following year, on May 8, 1829, Christen married Karen

Jensen at Korsor, Soro County, the harbor city on the west

coast, near Svenstrup, his birthplace. She was born April

3, 1805 at Sr. Hojrup, Svendborg County, Denmark, on the

Island of Fyen. She was a daughter of Jens Hansen and

Sidsel Hansen. For a short time they must have lived at

Stillinge in the Parish of Kirke-Stillinge, for the first

child, Anders, was born the~re, but the other six children

were born in Svenstrup, a few miles away from where their

father, Christen, was born. The children are:

1. Anders: born 18 Nov 1830; died 29 Nov 1917; married

(1) 1 April 1859, Nilla Pedersen; married (2) 18 Jan

1864, Kirsten Nielsen; married (3) 10 June 1876,

Christina Jonsson; married (4) 14 Feb. 1884,

Christina Frantsson.

2. Dorthe Marie: born 26 May 1833; died 13 Dec 1834,

age 19 months.

3. Jens: born 26 May 1833; died 29 May 1833, three

days after birth.

4. Jens: born 10 March 1835; died 21 April 1897;

married (1) Kirsten Nielsen; married (2) 23 Jan 1862,

Ane Christine Larsen.

5. Niels Christian: born 31 July 1839; died 1866;

married 19 October 1862 Kirstine Nielsen.

6. Ingeborg: born 17 May 1843; died 26 May 1843; age 9

days.

7. Ingeborg: born 28 April 1846; died 26 Oct 1917;

married 14 Jan 1865, Jacob Christensen.

The Mormon missionaries came to Denmark in 1850 and the

family was converted. The oldest son, Anders, was the first

to be baptized, and two months later on May 19, 1853,

Christen and Karen were baptized. The three other living

children followed soon after. Many of the new converts were

immigrating to the United States to go to Utah. Jens, the

second son of Christen and Karen was the first of the family

to leave their homeland in January 1855. On May 1, 1860,

two other sons, Anders and Christian followed him. Two

years later these two were able to send money to their

parents for their passage.

Christen, Karen and their daughter, Ingeborg, and Christen's

daughter, Maren, by his first marriage, and her husband,

Peder Christensen Jensen, left Denmark in April 1862 and

went by ship to Hamburg, Germany. Four sailing ships, the

Athenia, Electric, Franklin and Humbolt, were at anchor in

the Elbe River to take 1556 Saints from Norway, Sweden and

Denmark to the United States. They booked passage on the

Athenia, a fair sized ship~ but with 484 passengers it was

overloaded. The Athenia was the 115th shipload of Saints to

leave Europe for the United States.

After getting settled on board, the passengers were sent to

get their rations consisting of beef, pork, peas, beans,

potatoes, pearl barley, rye bread, sea biscuits, three

quarts of water a day, flour, salted herring, salt, and oil

for their lamps.

The ship set sail from Hamburg April 22, 1861. For the

first two weeks the weather was fine and good speed was

made, but when they reached the Gulf Stream, about 300 miles

south of New Foundland Banks, there was a calm without any

wind for over a week. The temperature rose to eighty

degrees with high humidity and the water in the wooden

barrels became bad. An epidemic of diarrhea and bowel

complaints broke out. Because of poor sanitation and lack

of medicines, five adults and a number of children died.

Later measles broke out among the passengers. In a few days

thirty-three children and several adults had died.

After the hardships of forty-six days on the water, the ship

came into New York Harbor on June 7, 1862. Abraham Lincoln

was then the president of the United States and the nation

was involved in a civil war. Twelve days later, when the

sickness was under control they were able to pass

immigration inspection and leave by train for Florence,

Nebraska, the outfitting point for crossing the plains to

the West.  

Five thousand persons made the crossing in 1862,

divided into thirteen companies. Christen and Karen were

assigned to the Ole N. Liljenquist Company. Able-bodied

men, women and children had to walk most of the way.

Christen was 66 years of age and Karen was 57. There were

many hardships on the long trek and also Indian

difficulties.

On September 23, the wagons reached the Salt Lake Valley.

Christen and Karen's sons were there to meet them and take

them to Mt. Pleasant where they had settled. Three years

later, in the summer of 1865, Christen, Karen and their

daughter, Ingeborg, went with their son Anders and his

family to Richfield, where they had been called to help

build up the settlement. They traveled to this outpost 85

miles south of Mt. Pleasant by wagon and horse team, cleared

land after their arrival, built a house, and planted crops

in the spring. The Indians made constant raids, stole

cattle and other belongings, and there were many killings.

Because there was no fort for protection, the settlement was

abandoned on April 20, 1867, less than two years after their

arrtval.

When Christen and Karen returned to Mt. Pleasant, he was

given a lot at the northwest corner of 6th South and 3rd West

Streets. His son Anders, helped him make adobe bricks and

build a two-room house using willows for lathe, mud for

plaster, and whitewash to make it beautiful. Also Christen

was given five or ten acres of land down Chris Ericksen Lane

at 5th South and 5th West Streets, which he farmed as long as

he was able to work.

In the fall of this year, after their return from Richfield,

Christen and Karen made a trip back to Salt Lake City and

were sealed in the Endowment House on October 26,1867.

Little is known of Christen during the next five years. He

was stricken with a paralytic stroke, which made him bedfast

for eleven years. 

A grandson wrote: "The primitive

conditions, the lack of medical care, the absence of even

modest comforts, hard work, worry and deprivations and the

trials and discouragements which were so plentiful made life

for him hard to bear in the sunset of life. We should not

forget to appreciate the kind and noble work of his faithful

wife. She worked at his side in the heat of the day; she

helped him plow the fields and plant the crops; to build the

house and make it a home. She was at his side when they had

to stand off the Indians, when they were raided and driven

from their home. She helped bear the sorrow when the

savages massacred their son. She faithfully waited on him

for eleven years as he lay helpless with paralysis."

Christen's death occurred in Mt. Pleasant, March 21, 1884 at

the age of 88 years. Karen lived nearly 13 years longer.

She died February 9, 1897 at the age of 91 years, and is

buried in the family plot at the side of her husband in the

Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.