Author: UNKNOWN AUTHOR Institution: Personal Experience Classification: ORIGINAL: GeneralHistory Location: USA, Utah, Salt Lake, Salt Lake City Date Range: BTWN 1876 and 1876 Biography of JENSEN, Sarah Jacobine Document Entry Number: 1
Transcription: SARAH JACOBINE JENSEN FENTON
Sarah Jacobine Jensen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on the 7th of January, 1876. She was the third child of Carl Harold Lauritz and Helbertina Pitranella Jensen. When she was 2 years of age, her parents brought their small family to Utah, arriving the 23red of June, 1878. They settled in Logan.
When Sarah was eight years old, she was baptized in the Logan Temple by Brother Carten, and confirmed a member of the Church by Bishop Skankey. It was while she was eight, she started baby-sitting her first job. Their home in Logan was of logs. Many Indians passed by on horse-back, and would often come to their home to ask for food. Sarah's mother had told her to always give them something and they would not harm her. One day, while she was alone a large Indian pushed open the door and came right into the room. Sarah became so frightened, she crawled under the table to hide. He looked down at the little girl, smiled and went away.
When she was about eleven years old, the family moved to Salt Lake City. Their home was on Capitol Hill. Every morning, she was sent to the Tithing Office, located where Hotel Utah now stands, with money and a bucket to get a quart of milk.
When she was 12 years old, she started at her first full-time job at ZCMI. She was to pair up shoes, and tie them together. She always wore a white pinafore to work, and every morning her mother brushed her naturally-curly hair into ringlets.
The family later moved to the Eighth Ward. At sixteen, she obtained a job sewing the uppers of shoes, at ZCMI. She was paid by the piece. This was considered a very good position for a girl of her age.
Because she had such a distance to travel from her home to her work, it was decided it would be better for her to live with her father's second wife, Eugenia Erickson. The street car ran so close to Eugenia's home, and Sarah would have no great distances to walk alone in the dark. She lived with Eugenia and her small daughter, Emma, between these two. When Eugenia gave birth to a son, George, she died. Sarah's father hitched a team to his wagon, and came for his small daughter, Emma. Sarah stayed all alone, and cared for the infant until he was ten days old. She then wrapped the baby warmly, boarded a streetcar, and took the child to her own mother, who raised him to manhood.
She left ZCMI and went to work at Solomon's Shoe Store located on the west side of Main Street, between South Temple and First South. The shoe store occupied the street floor, and the factory was directly above.
Annie Nelson, Sarah's close girl friend, and Sarah went to the Fifth Ward to Church one night, and met a new boy, Joe Fenton, who was visiting their Ward with his friend, Marie Mace. Marie Mace lived just around the corner from Sarah, but had never mentioned knowing this young man from the Sixth Ward. Tuesday night, Sarah went to Mutual with her friends, and young Joe Fenton was there again. The boys, including the new acquaintance, walked home with the girls after Mutual. The next night, Wednesday, was choir practice. When the girls came out of Church, there stood the boys waiting to walk home with them again. Young Joe walked home with Marie.
A few days later, Joe came to Sarah's home, and asked for a date to the circus. The day of the circus, a parade came down Main Street. All of the employees in Solomon's Shoe Factory, stood by the large front windows to see the parade go by. At the close of the day, Sarah hurried home to ready herself for the date with Joe. Joe never did come to take her to the circus. Later, Sarah learned Joe had seen her by the window watching the parade go by, and she had not acknowledged his frantic wavings to her. He thought it meant she didn't want to go with him, so he dated another girl for the circus. It wasn't until some time later he learned she had not been able to distinguish those in the street watching the parade, and had no idea he was there.
At April Conference time, Sarah and Marie Mace boarded a street-car for Temple Square. As soon as they entered the south gates, they saw Joe Fenton and Elias Monson. Unbe'known to the girls, the boys had made a bargain with each other, that the first two girls they saw that they knew, they would ask to take them home. Joe Fenton was wearing a red peony in his buttonhole. The boys walked over to talk to the girls, and during the conversation Joe gave Sarah the peony. The four attended the session of Conference, went for a walk, then took the street-car home. From that day on, Joe and Sarah went only with each other.
At the time of their engagement, Sarah was a small, dark, curly-haired girl. She wanted desperately to weigh 100 pounds by her wedding day. One day when a group of friends were being weighed, Sarah dropped a couple of hammer-heads into her pocket, but the scales tipped only slightly beyond her usual 95 pound mark.
On the 4th of November 1896, when Joseph Jackson Fenton was 21 and Sarah Jocobine Jensen was 20, they were married in the Salt Lake Temple. It rained very hard that day. Joe had arranged for a cab to take them to the Temple, and because of the terrific rain, traveling was a little slow, but the wheels kept turning, and they arrived at the appointed hour. All the members of their families, and their friends, joined them that evening at a Wedding Dinner.
Their first home was on Fourth West just north of Seventh South. They lived there about a year, then moved to Poplar Grove area. It was while they were living here, their first child, Joseph Jensen, was born. They later moved to the east side of Eight West just below Seventh South. Here they stayed while their new home was being built.