Birthe Marie Jensen Aagard Nielsen
Contributed By Pauline Edgley · 27 July 2016 ·
Birthe Marie Jensen Aagard Nielsen
(Taken from printed family history book “Aagard and Jensen History” printed around 1994)
Birthe Marie Aagard was born on 28 June 1841 in Farre, Sporup, Skanderborg, Denmark to Maren Andersen and Jens Pedersen Aagaard.
Her father was a wealthy landowner so she grew up in a home that would have the comforts of that time and place.
Birthe and her brother Anders (Andrew) along with their parents left Denmark 2 May 1860 and traveled by steamer to England. On May 7th they boarded the “William Tapscott” and sailed to America. Birthe was eighteen when her family made the long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. They arrived in New York on June 15th, but all of the passengers were under quarantine for smallpox. This delayed their landing for five days. On the 20th of June, Birthe and her family set foot in America.
New York was just a landing place, and Chicago was the next stop. The train then took them to Iowa City, and the next stop was Florence, Nebraska, where preparations were being made for the last and hardest part of the journey. After weeks of preparation the Aagard family joined with the Stoddard Company of twenty-two handcarts and six wagons. The Aagards were fortunate to have had one of those wagons.
The family settled in Moroni. Some time later, Birthe met a young man by the name of Peter Nielsen. They married and settled in Mt. Pleasant. There were so many Nielsens in Mt. Pleasant, and because he had been a tanner by trade in the old country, he was called “Pete Tanner.”
Olean Allred said, “My grandmother’s sister Birthe was not in very good health, and each time she had her babies, she had to be in bed before. Here she was expecting a baby, and had four little boys, and they called Uncle Pete on a mission. Birthe’s husband said, ‘No, I can’t leave to go on a mission now. I have to stay until my wife has her baby. If I leave she will lose the child, and maybe lose her own life. I’ll pay for a man to go on a mission. I’ll send him money and provide for him, but I can’t leave her.’ Because he refused to go, he was disfellowshipped. He walked to Spring City to talk to Orson Hyde, but was not given an audience. Spring City was a little town just a few miles south of Mt. Pleasant.
“My grandmother (Birthe’s sister, Ellen Kjerstene) felt so bad about it. After all her father had sacrificed for the Church, then have his daughter raise five boys out of the Church right there in Zion. Pete was a strong-willed man and he wouldn’t ‘give’.” He could have probably later been accepted back in the Church as he was not excommunicated. He figured it was the same thing, and wouldn’t let any of his children go to church. When he died, none of his family, even grandchildren, were in the Church.”
Birthe and Peter Nielsen had five sons:
Niels Peter Nielsen
Jens Peter Nielsen
Carl Christian Nielson
Andrew Marenus Nielsen
Albert Nielsen
As the years passed, some of Birthe Marie and Peter Nielsen’s grandchildren could see the truthfulness of the Gospel and joined the Church and became active.
Birthe Marie Aagard Nielsen died in 1916. Her husband Peter died in 1911.
