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Sophie Marie Jensen Johnson's Memories Document Number: 139 Author: JENSEN, Sophie Marie Classification: COMPILED: PersonalExperience Location: USA, Utah Date Range: BTWN 1872 and 1967 JENSEN, Sophie Marie Memories Document Entry Number: 1 Transcription:
I was born in Copenhagen, Denmark 7 Dec, 1872. The first thing I remember was going to a store and getting tired of waiting for my mother to get the groceries, so I went out and sat on the door step. A man came down the street, staggering along. He was very happy and was singing. He stopped and wanted me to dance with him. Another man came along, grabbed him by the collar and took him awav. Another time a big boy chased me up the stairs right to the door of my home. One time I went to a beautiful park and heard a band play. Missionaries One evening my parents were attracted to a street meeting in Copenhagen. They heard the Elders, or Mormon Missionaries, sing "Oh My Father." Their hearts were touched. They stayed and listened and began to investigate and study the principles of the Gospel. They were converted and baptized into the Church. My Father's Family My father's family were members of the upper class and upper-middle class of Denmark. they were educators, craftsmen, playwrites, performers, and musicians. One of his brothers was a multi-millionaire, and all were prominent in civic affairs. Loss of Relatives and Friends When my parents joined the Church their relatives were upset. They offered then all kinds of worldly goods if they would give up their religion. They felt that they had been disgraced. My parents could not be persuaded. They had the truth and and they wanted to go to Zion. Mormonism was very unpopular and they soon lost relatives and friends. One of the families invited me to come to their hme for a visit. I had maid care and was given everything to make me happy. They thought if the parents and children were surrounded with luxuries of life, they would be glad to give up their religion, but it made no difference to my parents. I had dark curly hair which my mother brushed into seven ringlets. While visiting in the home of my wealthy Uncle, I would not let anyone brush my hair. At the end of my visit one of the servants tried to fix my hair so I would be presentable when my parents came for me. She was unable to do it so she cut my ringlets off. When my mother saw me she wept. "Brothers and Sisters"
This is Elder Jensen. His is the missionary who first brought the Gospel Message to my parents. He was living in the Poplar Grove Ward, Pioneer Stake in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1932. I remember this Elder very well. He came to our house and had prayer. He talked a lot but I can't remember anything he said. I didn't like to sit still while he talked. I didn't know that anybody had a first name - except - Brother and Sister. There were so many Brother Jensens. One had a long face, one a round face, one a big nose and one had a patch on his trousers with big stitches. My father was Brother Jensen, my mother was Sister Jensen and I was Sister too.
Brother and Sister Thoar I remember Brother and Sister Thoar. They used to visit with us and when they heard that we were going to Zion, they came over and helped us get ready. Father was prepared to go and he was going to work and send money for mother, Sarah and me, but when the emigration money came there was enough for all of us. We had to get ready in a hurry and the Thoar's were friends in need as well as friends in deed. On our way to ZION I was six years old when we left the shores of Denmark and sailed for America. Father was thirty one and mother was twenty eight. Sarah was just a baby. We brought with us $338.00 in drafts, $340.00 in tithing and $2.00 in cash - making a total of $680.00. Two children left in Denmark We left behind us my brother Peter Emil who passed away two months before his fourth birthday and my sister Annie Elizabeth. She died when she was ten days old. Before Peter's death we had talked of going to Zion. Peter was stricken with a strange malady and became blind. He told us he would go to Zion ahead of us - so guess he did. Annie Elizabeth I remember Annie Elizabeth. She was a beautiful baby. She had smiling lips and dark curly hair. She just stayed with us for ten days. Mother dressed her in her best clothes and wrapped her in a soft woolen shawl. Then mother dressed herself in heavy shoes and a large black cape. She started out for the cemetery, alone, with her beautiful baby in her arms. Mother was sobbing as she held Annie Elizabeth under that big black cape. It was April and there was a drizzling rain falling. Mother took the long road to the cemetery and she walked very, very slow. She wanted to hold her baby as long as she could. No one noticed that she was weeping because the rain was falling across her face. No one knew what she was holding under her big black cape. At last she reached the cemetery, They were waiting for her. They took her beautiful little baby girl and she had to go home with empty arms. She thought her heart would break, but then she thought of me and her baby Sarah and we were worth coming home for.
This is the picture of Annie Elizabeth that Wallace drew. He always loved the story about her and since no one had a picture of her he drew one for himself.(Wallace was only 9 years old.) Crossing the Ocean I remember the ship and all of the people on it. Most of the people were sick and smelly. I didn't like the food very well but we couldn't go to the store and buy any. There wasn't any store and we had to eat what we had in our basket. The wind blew a lot and the water was so big and bumpy. We couldn't go anywhere. I walked around in little places between all kinds of things. We had meetings and prayers and there were lots of Brothers and Sisters. Some days the sun would shine and we would sing and watch for fish. One day we saw another ship but it was far away. One day we got off the ship where there was more land and more people and every body was talking at the same time, and it was noisy. I was dizzy and I walked crooked and bumped into things. Once after that we sailed on a river and then we got on a train and rode and rode and rode. I was tired and sometimes I was too tired to go to Zion. One day we got to a place called Ogden and Peter Andreasen was there and he was not a brother. He was Uncle Andreasen. He had a buggy and two horses and he took us to Mink Creek and I kept wondering when we would go to Zion where everything was lovely and pretty and good.
After a while we moved to Logan, Utah and father went to Conference and that was Zion, but we didn't go. We stayed home and lived in a log house. The neighbors said the house was haunted so father sold it and bought another log house. We liked this house and we made it into a fine home. We planted a garden. Things grew in it. Brother Leishman said it was a better garden than his and he was a gardener. Mother planted the first row for the Lord and the next nine rows for us. She always put a marker on each of the Lord's rows and when they were ready to harvest she dug them up and took them to the tithing office. She planted flowers for the Lord too. Some times she took them to the tithing office and sometimes she took them to the meeting house. The Leishman's had a piano and my friend, Ida, and I learned to play chords. We were able to sing any song to the music we played. (Mother is 93 years old to date 1964 and she still remembers and plays and sings to the music she learned to play in her childhood in the Leishman home.) The drawing below is the log house where the family spent many happy hours. It is Joseph's idea of what the house looked like. He drew it.
Mary Helbertina and Charles William Knight My sister Mary was the first baby born after we reached Utah, 16 May, 1880. She was married in the Salt Lake Temple, 29 June 1909. Mother of thirteen children. She died 6 December 1936 in Rexburg, Idaho. The next five children: Carl Harold Lauritz, Joseph Hyrum, Hannah Caroline, Inger Hansine and Jennie Clara all died in infancy. The first four children were born in the old (haunted) log house. We thought sure Inger Hansen was going to stay but she just lived twelve days. Jennie Clara was a beautiful baby girl. We loved her very much and were so happy to have her. She was well and happy and cunning until she began to cut her teeth. The doctors in Logan could not do anything for her so mother took her to Salt Lake. The doctors there could not help her either. Clara died and was buried in Salt Lake. Mother left her in a lonely grave and returned home with empty arms. She never got over the loss of that child. She talked about Clara all of her life and when she was dying she said, "I will soon have my little Clara." My brother David was born after I was married. My son, Ollie, was born 24 July 1890 and David was born the following January so he was an uncle before he was born.
Mabel My youngest living brother and sister (1964) David married Edith Adelia Hogland in the Salt Lake Temple, 21 September 1910. A son and a daughter were born to them. Mabel married Bruno William Kloss in the Salt Lake Temple, 11 October 1916. Four daughters and two sons were born to them. Oswald was born 5 February 1895. He died 27 July 1896 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was mother's thirteenth child. Before the Manifesto was issued, father married Gorgine Mathilde Evertine Ericksen in polygamy.
They were married in the old Endowment House, 28 January 1895. Five children were born to them. Three sons passed away in infancy. A daughter and one son grew to maturity, Emma married Marcus Daley Raleigh. A daughter and son were born to them. George married Mary Nielsen. Mother raised Emma and George and loved them as her own. Mabel was just six months old when she took George to raise. She fed these two babies at her breast. Those two babies were a joy to her, never a burden, only happiness. Father was blessed with healing power. He was often called to administer to the sick. He had great faith in the power of the Priesthood and the exercising of the same. This is my father and mother:
Mother was a good cook. I still remember her Danish sweet soup, her home made bread freckedella, rhubarb Jell and the egg and bacon cake made in the frying pan. My children always thought it was a treat to eat at my mother's home. Even a slice of bread and Jell tasted better there than a grand meal served in a grand place. The Peter Kjar's lived next door to my parents in Salt Lake City. They were wonderful neighbors. Mother was the Pres. of the Relief Society and in those days the Twenty Sixth Ward extended out to Poplar Grove and often when mother was called to the bed side of the sick and the dying - in the wee hours of the night - Sister Kjar would go with her. They often trudged through snow knee deep and mud almost to the tops of their over shoes. We always went to the Cemetery on Decoration Day as we called it. Father and mother were always there with a wagon load of children and flowers. And mother would always go to the grave where she left her baby, Clara. It was a sad and yet a happy occasion - like a family reunion.
In the old days folks used to think that forty was the peak of life. Mother had her picture taken when she was a little past thirty and she wore an old lady's hat and dress. I have always loved the picture. Her face is so sweet. Mother was the most angelic person I have ever known. She was meek and kind and lovely. She was always willing to help. Her beautiful spirit was felt everywhere she went. Her personality was radiant. Her hair was soft as silk and white as snow for most of her life. That is the only way my children and grandchildren ever remember her. My grandson, Don Hartvigsen, always called her "Little Grandmother" and he always wanted to buy things for her. When mother was eighty-five years old, my daughter, JOHNSON, Anna, wrote a verse about her which was printed in the Deseret News in Salt Lake City, Utah.
When grandmother rocked in the old rocking chair She bowed as one bows in a prayer, The rockers kept time with the fond memories Of home and her friends over there. Her father and mother and those that she loved Were left when she sailed on the seas, And while she was waiting to meet them again She would live with her fond memories. My father was a sturdy rather heavily built gentleman.He was a good provider. He was a teamster by trade and was paid when a job was completed. Each night he would put his tithing in a bag and often gave the Lord an extra quarter. Father went on a mission to Denmark when he was past sixty years of age. THE JENSEN FAMILY COAT Of ARMS
My sixth great-grandfather, Jorgen Hansen Seidelin, was a sailor in the Danish Navy. During his tour of duty, he performed many deeds of heroism. For this, he was knighted by the King of Denmark, and presented with a Coat-of-Arms. This Coat-of-arms has come down, through the generations, to us. My father always signed his name, Carl Harold Lauritz Jensen (Seidelin) My mother's mother was Maron Hansen and her mother was Karen Helber who was of Swedish decent. Mother's father was Hans Jacobsen. He was a ship builder and his father was Johann Lloyd who was a German gentleman. My mother was named Helbertina after her great-grandmother Karen Helber. These folks were of the upper middle class and when Maron married Rasmus Nielsen she was disowned by her relatives and friends because he was a member of a lower class. This is Rasmus Nielsen and Maron Hansen.
Their children were: -1- Niels Christian (Photo Unavailable) -2- Trine Jacobine Andreasen
-6- Hans (Photo Unavailable) -7- Johanne Marie Larsen
My grandfather, Rasmus Nielsen, used to gather reeds and weave baskets. He made useful and ornamental baskets and he made up poetry and sang along as he worked. He had a sense of homor and the poetry fit the thing he was making. Clothes basket poetry fit the work of, rub, scrub, soap and bubbles. Sewing baskets and knitting baskets had pretty colors and happy needles that did lovely things. Every basket had a song of its own woven into it. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they could speak. I was looking at his picture one day and I said to mother, "He looks so sober, how could he sing?" and my son, Sidney, who was then about five or six said, "If his moustache curled up like his hair and his eyes winked he would be jolly." I guess that is all that it takes as long as you are happy inside. I have a faint memory of him and I know I liked him but I was very young when we left Denmark. He never came to Utah so I never saw him after I grew up. My grandma, Maron Hanson came to Utah after grandfather died. She stayed with us for one week. My children were interested in a pin she wore. "Hands Clasping" - My father told them it was a precious pin. He said when you shake hands you say a lot of things, or you can say nothing. Some folks just let you touch the tips of their fingers others let their hand feel like a wet dish cloth and others shake hands that say, "My friend, My brother, and I love you." That is what great grandma's pin says. He told them to shake hands with the Bishop and with their Sunday School teacher and do it right so that they would know that you liked them. He had mother show them her valentine, with lace and ribbon bows and a pair of hand shaking and saying "I love you." The children were always interested in that valentine. They never touched it but they almost wore it out with looks. Grandma had a green glass heart on a chain that she brought from Denmark. The children liked to put this around their necks and take turns wearing it.
When my father was in the mission field he gave his brother, the millionaire, the walking cane he had made out of wood left over from the wooden tiles on the Temple floor. His brother was very proud of it. He took it with him everywhere he went and told all of his friends about it. This brother never joined the Church but he was proud to own the walking cane. He wanted father to stay in Denmark and send for the rest of the family. He promised to keep them in the best of style for the rest of their lives. Father told him that he could not do that because the Gospel and his home in Zion meant more to him than all the wealth in the world. Father's brother, Jacob, lived in Tollose, Denmark and father went out there to do some tracting. He was glad to meet his brother and his family. Father and his companion were treated very well. They were given a good dinner and they slept in that home that night. Father visited with Jacob several times. Jacob was kind and understanding although he never joined the Church. Father always said he was sure Jacob wanted to and if he could have spent more time with him he would have been baptized. Father liked to tell my children some of the funny things that happened in the Mission field. He said once a dog bit him on the pants., but the dog got fooled because he just got cloth in his mouth and that did not taste so good. The pants were sorry because they had to be mended. Another time a barber cut his hair curley. It was scalloped like beautiful lace and one time he went to a birthday party and he gave the boy a now shirt. The boy liked it so much that he gave it some frosting all down the button holes. Once they had split pea soup for supper but grandpa couldn't find the peas that were split. They must have turned to mush.
The Jensen Family Home in Salt Lake City My parents moved from Logan to Salt Lake in the year 1888. We lived in a home on Center Street the year I was married. Later the folks moved to a home located at 932 West 9th South. My parents spent the rest of their lives in this home. After all of the children were married and my parents were alone they spent many happy hours together in the kitchen - dining room. In the evening, when the kitchen lights were on, father could be seen by the large east window, in his accustomed place, reading. Mother would be mending stockings or doing some other household chore while father read to her. For many years, father was an ordinance worker in the Salt Lake Temple. He enjoyed this work very much. Some time before his death he became worried about his brother, Jacob, in Denmark. He wanted his Temple work done but did not have all of the information he needed. He told my daughter, Ann, that he couldn't die until that work was done. She wrote to the minister of the Parish in which Jacob lived and obtained the information, and the work was done. Father then said he was ready to go and wondered if it would be as thrilling to die as it would be to take an air plane ride. Father was born 30 December 1848 in Roskilde, Denmark and died 21 May 1932 in Salt Lake City, Utah. At the time of Father's birth, it was customary in Denmark that the surname of the children should be that of the given name of the father ending with the letters u"sen." Hence, the last name of the children of Jens Larsen became "Jensen." Father's father was Jens Larsen (Siedelin) His father was Jens Sorensen. Jens Larsen's mother was Dorthe Cathrine Bogh, her mother was Christine Nicolsen (Siedelin) Her father was Nicol Siedelin and his father was Jorgen Hansen Siedelin. His father was Hans Hansen Siedelin and his father was Hans Siedelin. Jens Larsen (Siedelin) and Inger Sophie Mathesen's children were - Andreas., Christian., Carl Harold Lauritz, Jacob and Sofie or Stine. At one time some of my children were cross with the neighbor children and they came in the house and said, We are not going to play with them anymore." Mother looked at them for a moment and then she said., "I think you had better go out and make up with them because you must remember, we are not all crazy in the same way." My children never forgot it and many times they were helped over a rough spot when they remembered we are not all crazy in the same way. My brother George said, "Ma was a wonderful person. Always doing good for others and always ready with a beautiful smile - a smile that is no good unless you give it away."
This picture of mother and me was taken just a month before mother died. Associated Persons and Marriages: JENSEN, Sophie Marie (Id# 655) BornD, MEDIUM JENSEN, Sophie Marie (Id# 655) BornP, MEDIUM JENSEN, Sophie Marie (Id# 655) LinkCToMother, MEDIUM JENSEN, Sophie Marie (Id# 655) LinkCToFather, MEDIUM JENSEN, Sophie Marie (Id# 655) LinkMToChildren, MEDIUM JENSEN, Sophie Marie (Id# 655) Religion, MEDIUM JENSEN, Sophie Marie (Id# 655) Emigration, MEDIUM JENSEN, Peter Emil (Id# 656) DiedCause, MEDIUM JENSEN, Annie Elizabeth (Id# 657) Name, MEDIUM ANDREASON, Peter Andrew (Id# 687) Name, MEDIUM RASMUSSEN, Trine Jacobine (Id# 688) Name, MEDIUM JENSEN, Mary Helbertine (Id# 659) BornD, MEDIUM JENSEN, Mary Helbertine (Id# 659) BornP, LOW JENSEN, Mary Helbertine (Id# 659) DiedD, MEDIUM JENSEN, Mary Helbertine (Id# 659) DiedP, LOW KNIGHT, Charles William (Id# 658) Name, MEDIUM JENSEN, Carl Harold Lauritz (Id# 660) BornP, LOW JENSEN, Joseph Hyrum (Id# 661) BornP, LOW JENSEN, Hanna Caroline (Id# 662) BornP, LOW JENSEN, Inger Hansine (Id# 663) BornP, LOW JENSEN, Clara Jennie (Id# 664) DiedP, LOW JENSEN, Clara Jennie (Id# 664) BurP, LOW JENSEN, David (Id# 665) BornD, LOW JENSEN, Oswald (Id# 668) BornD, MEDIUM JENSEN, Oswald (Id# 668) DiedD, MEDIUM JENSEN, Oswald (Id# 668) DiedP, MEDIUM ERICKSEN, Gorgine Mathilde Evertine (Id# 1153) BornD, LOW ERICKSEN, Gorgine Mathilde Evertine (Id# 1153) DiedD, LOW NIELSEN, Rasmus (Id# 683) DiedD, MEDIUM NIELSEN, Rasmus (Id# 683) DiedP, MEDIUM NIELSEN, Rasmus (Id# 683) LinkFToChildren, MEDIUM HANSEN, Maren (Id# 684) DiedD, MEDIUM HANSEN, Maren (Id# 684) DiedP, MEDIUM HANSEN, Maren (Id# 684) LinkMToChildren, MEDIUM RASMUSSEN, Niels Christian (Id# 686) LinkCToFather, MEDIUM RASMUSSEN, Niels Christian (Id# 686) LinkCToMother, MEDIUM RASMUSSEN, Trine Jacobine (Id# 688) LinkCToFather, MEDIUM RASMUSSEN, Trine Jacobine (Id# 688) LinkCToMother, MEDIUM RASMUSSEN, Helbertina Pitranella (Id# 653) LinkCToFather, MEDIUM RASMUSSEN, Helbertina Pitranella (Id# 653) LinkCToMother, MEDIUM RASMUSSEN, Helbertina Pitranella (Id# 653) Religion, MEDIUM RASMUSSEN, Emilile Kirstine (Id# 690) LinkCToFather, MEDIUM RASMUSSEN, Emilile Kirstine (Id# 690) LinkCToMother, MEDIUM RASMUSSEN, Caroline Matilda Rasmine (Id# 692) LinkCToFather, MEDIUM RASMUSSEN, Caroline Matilda Rasmine (Id# 692) LinkCToMother, MEDIUM RASMUSSEN, Hans (Id# 693) LinkCToFather, MEDIUM RASMUSSEN, Hans (Id# 693) LinkCToMother, MEDIUM RASMUSSEN, Johanne Marie (Id# 695) LinkCToFather, MEDIUM RASMUSSEN, Johanne Marie (Id# 695) LinkCToMother, MEDIUM RASMUSSEN, Jens Peter (Id# 696) LinkCToFather, MEDIUM RASMUSSEN, Jens Peter (Id# 696) LinkCToMother, MEDIUM JENSEN, Carl Harold Lauritz (Id# 652) Religion, MEDIUM JENSEN, Carl Harold Lauritz (Id# 652) DiedD, MEDIUM JENSEN, Carl Harold Lauritz (Id# 652) DiedP, MEDIUM JENSEN, Carl Harold Lauritz (Id# 652) BornD, MEDIUM [Goto Data Point] JENSEN, Carl Harold Lauritz (Id# 652) BornP, MEDIUM [Goto Data Point] JENSEN, Carl Harold Lauritz and ERICKSEN, Gorgine Mathilde Evertine (Id# 57) LinkMarriage, MEDIUM JENSEN, Carl Harold Lauritz and ERICKSEN, Gorgine Mathilde Evertine (Id# 57) MarrP, MEDIUM [Goto Data Point] JENSEN, Carl Harold Lauritz and ERICKSEN, Gorgine Mathilde Evertine (Id# 57) MarrD, MEDIUM [Goto Data Point] JENSEN, David and HOAGLAND, Edith Adelia (Id# 3666) LinkMarriage, MEDIUM JENSEN, David and HOAGLAND, Edith Adelia (Id# 3666) MarrD, MEDIUM JENSEN, David and HOAGLAND, Edith Adelia (Id# 3666) MarrP, MEDIUM ANDREASON, Peter Andrew and RASMUSSEN, Trine Jacobine (Id# 3812) LinkMarriage, MEDIUM NIELSEN, Rasmus and HANSEN, Maren (Id# 3810) LinkMarriage, MEDIUM JENSEN, Carl Harold Lauritz and RASMUSSEN, Helbertina Pitranella (Id# 3521) LinkMarriage, MEDIUM KNIGHT, Charles William and JENSEN, Mary Helbertine (Id# 3523) LinkMarriage, MEDIUM KNIGHT, Charles William and JENSEN, Mary Helbertine (Id# 3523) MarrD, MEDIUM KNIGHT, Charles William and JENSEN, Mary Helbertine (Id# 3523) MarrP, MEDIUM KLOSS, Bruno William and JENSEN, Mabel (Id# 3524) LinkMarriage, MEDIUM KLOSS, Bruno William and JENSEN, Mabel (Id# 3524) MarrD, MEDIUM KLOSS, Bruno William and JENSEN, Mabel (Id# 3524) MarrP, MEDIUM |
