Thursday, October 16, 2025
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Sunday, October 12, 2025
Saturday, October 11, 2025
LIFE SKETCH OF CHRISTIAN BROTHERSON (BRODERSEN) and ANNE MORTENSEN
The Life Sketch of Christian Brotherson and His Family
The life sketch of Christen Brothersen (Brodersen) is presented in two parts. The first part focuses on the family’s early life in
Part 1: Focuses on Life in
Christian Brothersen was born, 14 June 1811 at Idrstrup,
A sorrowful event occurred in this family when Bone was an infant of only a few weeks of age. The mother, Anne Mortensen Brothersen. passed away on 26 May 1851. Mainly out of symphony for her sister’s children; Elsie Mortensen went into the Brothersen home, married Christian and cared for the children. It seems that Christian was a wealthy man. When missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints visited his home and brought the message of the restored gospel, the father embraced it with all his heart, as did Elsie. Quick preparations were made and this family planned on going to

Map showing the location of | |
The following year, 1857, this family joined a company of emigrants and sailed to
There were 330 people, 3 wagons, and 68 handcarts with which to make the journey. The journey was hazardous and eventful. The leader also walked and tried to keep up the spirits of his people. On13 September 1857, the company arrived in
Brothersens on the Passenger List of the Westmoreland (1857)

Christian Brothersen settled his family at
Christian went to
After moving to
Martin moved to Indianola to plant and cultivate crops. They also had cattle and sheep. Those were the days that tried their soul, Hans, Martin, and Christian Brotherson and other members of the family stood guard against Indians led by Chief Black Hawk from April 1865 until a treaty of peace was signed in
A close up map of the location of Idestrup, Denmark

by Ila Brotherson Tidwell
My great grandfather, Christian Brotherson, was one of the noble pioneers who entered the
Christian Brotherson was not only a pioneer, he also helped to conquer this western land and make it a frontier civilization. In doing this, he gave us a land of freedom in which to live. He gave us the opportunity to live under the protection of the Stars and Stripes of
He was born 14 June 1811. One record says Idestrup the other says Veggerlose,
Grandfather married Ann Mortensen in
She said we should have it put in a museum so people could see it. It was among the first tithing receipts given in
During the time, or shortly after he married Elsie, while they were still on their honeymoon, missionaries from
Their first, a baby boy, was born 14 May 1853. They named him Martin after his Maternal Grandfather. On January 8, 1856, a little girl came to bless their home. They named her Ann. (Her home was where the Pioneer Relic Hall now stands in

A picture of the Hans Brotherson family circa 1901
Soon after the Death of Hans Brotherson
Background: Hans Brotherson .(In Picture Frame)
Front Row: Floyd [Ferdnand Floyd] on the left,
Friday, October 10, 2025
EARLY MOUNT PLEASANT HISTORY ~~~ by Pat Sagers
Early Mount Pleasant Main Street |
Contributed By
"Sanpete County histories - The Pyramid Newspaper - July 2019
Where in the world did Sanpete County get its name? It all started when the Ute Chief Wakara invited pioneers to settle the San Pitch valley, named after a tribe of hunter-gatherer Indians.
Wakara claimed that the Great Spirit had appeared to him in a dream, telling him to welcome the white men. Later, Wakara engaged his guests in the infamous “Walker War” from 1853-54. The Black Hawk War, named for another Ute leader, also disrupted county settlement from 1865-68.
Eventually, the San Pitch name was corrupted to Sanpete. Some historians now believe that more than the agricultural skills Wakara claimed to want for himself and his tribe, he was interested in the cattle that the pioneers seemed to take with them everywhere they went.
The county wasn’t the only entity to undergo a name change. Most of the cities within the county have gone through changes in identity since their founding.
Sanpete County is the home of several towns. How they originated and came to be can be an interesting story. The following stories are shortened versions of some of Sanpete’s best known towns.
Mt. Pleasant
Mt. Pleasant is known for its 19th-century Main Street buildings, for being home to Wasatch Academy, and for being the largest city in the northern half of the county. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 3,260.
After taking lumber out of Pleasant Creek Canyon in late 1851, a band of Mormon colonists from Manti, led by Madison D. Hambleton, returned in the spring of 1852 to establish the Hambleton Settlement near the present site of Mt. Pleasant.
During the Wakara War, the small group of settlers relocated to Spring Town and later to Manti for protection. The old settlement was burned down by local Native Americans, so when a large colonizing party from Ephraim and Manti returned to the area in 1859, a new, permanent town site was laid out in its present location.
Among the founding settlers were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as Mormon converts, from Scandinavia, United Kingdom, and the eastern U.S.
By 1880, Mt. Pleasant was the county’s largest city, with a population of 2,000, more than 72 percent of its married adults were foreign born.
This ethnic diversity had an important impact on village life during the 19th and early 20th centuries. For decades, five languages were commonly spoken in town, creating confusing and sometimes amusing communication problems.
The settlement and development of Mt. Pleasant followed the typical pattern for Mormon towns of the period. A square-shaped town site was surveyed, eventually containing about 100 city blocks, lots were drawn and the land was distributed among the population.
Under the direction of James Russell Ivie (1802–1866), a fort of adobe walls and log cabins was built. Pleasant Creek ran through the fort and farming was done outside of its walls.
Around the time that Ivie was killed in the Blackhawk War, by Indians who had declined to participate in the settlement of the earlier Wakara War, the town had acquired its present name.
By the time the final peace treaty with the Indians was signed in Bishop Seeley’s house on Mt. Pleasant Main Street in 1872, bringing to an end to this conflict, many settlers had already erected homesteads outside of the fort.
Although the town site is large in scale, the density is relatively low due to the original layout allowing for only four lots per block.
The influence of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was felt in all religious, political, economic, educational and social aspects of life in early Mt. Pleasant. Self-sufficiency was a virtue and home-grown and home-manufactured food, clothing and furnishings were far more available than rarely found imported items.
Some of the first industries included hide tanning, shoemaking, blacksmithing, basket making and freighting. Eventual modernization brought such improvements as the Deseret Telegraph in 1869, The Pyramid newspaper in 1890 and a telephone system in 1891.
Sawmills and flour mills were built, irrigation systems were dug and a municipal government was created to oversee public laws and improvements. The city was incorporated in 1868, a year after the first co-operative store was founded, starting what became a burgeoning commercial district.
Upon the arrival of the Rio Grande Western Railway in 1890, both the local population and the city’s prosperity increased dramatically. By 1900, Mt. Pleasant had grown to nearly 3,000 persons, the largest size reached by any city in Sanpete County to that time and the city had earned one of its nicknames, “Hub City.”
The town’s new-found wealth became immediately apparent in a building boom which saw the replacement of small, wood-frame commercial buildings with much more impressive, architect-designed stone and brick structures such as the 1888 Sanpete County Co-op, the Gentile store which competed with the ZCMI, or Mormon, store.
The resulting Main Street district is so architecturally distinctive that the two-block-long area has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Equally striking are the Victorian churches, schools, and residences which replaced the simpler adobe and log buildings of the pioneer period.
Mt. Pleasant has long been considered the most diverse city in the county, in part because of the liberal Mormons and the Protestant groups which challenged the dominant Mormon population in the late nineteenth century.
Liberal Hall, built on Main Street in 1875, and Wasatch Academy, Utah’s oldest surviving private boarding school, established by Presbyterians in the same year, remain as visible and functional testaments of the city’s historic and ongoing diversity.
The 20th century brought continued changes and improvements to the face of the “Queen City,” its most popular nickname. The commercial and residential districts continued to fill with fine buildings bespeaking the prosperity of the community.
By 1912 the first high school, North Sanpete High School, had been completed. The year 1912 also brought the Armory Hall, while the Elite Theater was constructed as a “fireproof” building in 1913. It burned down seven decades later.
In 1917 a fine Carnegie Library was built in a modern architectural style. The Marie Hotel was erected in 1920 and a large cheese factory came on the scene in 1930, the same year that bus service came to town.
The completion of U. S. Highway 89 in 1936 was a boon needed to soften the impact of the Great Depression. A city hall in 1939 and hospital in 1945, together with new schools and churches, gave Mt. Pleasant a full complement of public buildings."
Thursday, October 9, 2025
Wednesday, October 8, 2025
SALVATION WHEAT ~~~ CANUTE PETERSON (From our archves)
“Salvation Wheat”
When Father Peterson was on his first mission, it happened that the farmers in Lehi had their wheat planted before Sister Sarah Ann Peterson (affectionately called “Mommie Peterson” by Aunt Maria and Aunt Charlotte and their children). She had her wheat planted later and plenty deep. Their wheat came up fine before hers did.
Then came the crickets and grasshoppers and ate up every spear. Then Mommie Peterson’s wheat came up fine and neighbors and others helped her water and tend her wheat and she raised 40 bushels. This kept all of Lehi from starving. Big men would come to her for a biscuit. Mommie Peterson saved some of this wheat in a bottle to show Father when he came home. He called it “Salvation Wheat,” and said that when he died he wanted that bottle of wheat buried with him. He loved that strange and beautiful incident and the “Salvation Wheat” very much and often spoke of it.
When Father was dead, and dressed in his beautiful Temple clothes, and placed with tender love in his coffin, Brother Nels and Sister Bertie carefully and lovingly placed the cherished bottle of “Salvation Wheat” by his beloved feet, just under his linen robe. His wish was thus carried out. The material for the foregoing strange and beautiful story was very kindly sent to me by Sister Bertie Beal. July 13, 1939
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Canute Peterson |
Canute Peterson (also Knud Peterson) (May 13, 1824 – October 14, 1902) was a Mormon pioneer settler of Utah Territory and was a leader in LDS Church.
Peterson was born in Bergen,Norway. In Norway, he became a member of the Religious Society of Friends and emigrated to the United States in 1837. In 1842, while living in La Salle County, Illinois, he became a member of the LDS Church. After joining the church, he became a missionary to Norwegians living in Wisconsin.
Peterson led a company of Mormon pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley in 1849. He was one of the founders of Lehi in Utah Territory.
From 1853 to 1855, Peterson was a missionary in the Scandinavian Mission, where he preached in Norway and became the president of the Christiana Conference of the church. Later, from 1871 to 1873, Peterson returned to the Scandinavian Mission as the Mission president, where he guided the missionary work in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden.
In 1867, Peterson was asked to move to Ephraim, Utah to be abishop of the church there. Peterson was instrumental in assisting the Latter-day Saints make peace with the Native Americans inSanpete County. The Canute Peterson House, a house he built in Ephraim, is listed in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.[citation needed]
On 1882-10-14, Peterson became a member of the Council of Fifty. When Peterson died in Ephraim, Utah, he was serving as thepresident of the Sanpete Stake, a position he held since 1877. Peterson was also ordained to the office of patriarch. Peterson is considered to be one of the founders of Snow Academy, know today as Snow College.

Canute Peterson home in Ephraim, Utah
The Canute Peterson House is a historic residence in Ephraim,Utah, United States. Built in 1869 by Canute Peterson, an early Latter-day Saint leader inSanpete County, it was designed by architect William H. Folsom. In 1978, it was listed on theNational Register of Historic Places.[2]
Richard Nibley, brother of Mormon scholar Hugh Nibley, purchased and restored the home in the 1960s. It sits next door to the historic Bank of Ephraim building. After many years of trying to acquire and tear down the home to make way for a drive-up window, the Bank of Ephraim failed in 2004 and was taken over by Far West Bank.