Family Group Sheet of Hans C.H. Beck

 

2023 End Times ~~~ shared by Larry Staker

 

Home of Martin Van Buren Aldrich and his wife Joanne Marie Olsen ~~~ Updated by Tudy Barentsen Standlee

 

Mt. Pleasant Relic Home Gun Collection Is Stolen 1972~~~ Taken From Louise Johansen Scrapbook

 

Home of Hakan Anderson and his wife Cecelia Svenson ~~~ Researched and Updated by Tudy Barentsen Standlee

 

Flour Sack Underwear ~~~

Taken from Saga of the Sanpitch 1998

In days gone by, before the disposable throwaway generation, we

saved everything and used it. The flour used to come in cloth flour sacks. We

saved them and used them to make all kinds of things. The flour companies

cooperated and made them in pleasing patterns so wearing apparel could be

made from them.

FLOUR SACK UNDERWEAR

‘When I was a kid without a care

My mamma made my underwear.

A Iot of us and the Ranch's poor pay

Who could afford lingerie?

Monograms, lace, and fancy stitches

Were not to be found on my flour sack britches

Just pantywaists that stood the test,

Gold Medal Flour across my chest.

But the pants were best of all

‘With a scene I still recall.

Two bright-colored turkeys,

The symbol for hard red wheat,

Right across my seat.

Stronger than a grizzly bear

‘That flour sack underwear.

"Use it up-—wear it out

Make it do or do without."

"Waste not, want not."

And 1 soon learned that

"A penny saved was a penny earned."

So-—I made flour sack dishtowels, curtains and

bedspreads wide

All of them are tougher than a Hippo's hide.

But the thing that was best beyond compare,

‘Was that homemade-flour sack underwear!

Contributed by Susy Nilsson

Written by her Mother 

Canning in the 1930's ~~~ Written by Mina Bjelke

Canning in the 1930's (compliments of http://www.media.utah.ed/.)

The 20th century produced dramatic changes and opportunities for women. The events leading up to statehood brought to an official end at least the practice of polygamy, and the state constitution restored women's right to vote and guaranteed other equal rights. Laws passed in 1911 and 1913 set maximum hours and minimum wages for working women. Technology dramatically altered women's lives, especially in urban areas. Electric service, indoor plumbing, central heating, and the small power motor revolutionized homemaking. The growth of commercial laundries and expanding factory production of clothing, processed foods, and other household items relieved women of many tasks and created hundreds of jobs for them outside the home. Manufacturing, retail and wholesale trade, banking, and services grew rapidly in the early 20th century. The success of many of these ventures depended on women. (taken from Utah History To Go ~~~ Miriam B. Murphy History Blazer, November 1995 During these years Ogden, for example, became a center for the canning industry, and by 1914 Utah ranked fifth among the states in canning. World War I stimulated growth of this industry as 22 Ogden canneries secured government contracts. This industry relied on female workers; many were young and unmarried, but the seasonal nature of canning also attracted married women. The Utah Manufacturers Association (UMA) called canning "light work that could be done as well by women and children as by men." Tomatoes topped the list of canned items. Jets of hot steam followed by a cold spray loosened the skins, enabling women and girls to peel 14 to 16 bushels a day.


Young Women From Mt. Pleasant Participated In the Canning Industry


"I had the opportunity to take Mary and go to Clearfield to work in the cannery.  I left Wilma with Aunt Emma.  We made quite good wages, enough to pay the tuition and buy the books and get Mary the much-needed clothes that high school required. 

 There was money left to pay the taxes and buy a few tons of coal.......I didn't buy myself any clothes, although it was a great temptation when I would go to Ogden to work with the girls while they did their shopping.  I was well-schooled that money can go only so far and this 'canning season' only lasted two or three months of each year.  I was happy when we were ready to go home from Clearfield. 

 The manager of the Woods Cross Canning Company came to me and thanked me for the interest I had taken in the girls and he asked me to come back the next year as campus matron.  I gladly accepted this position.  It meant a bigger check and nicer work.  The management liked me and the way I handled the girls.  They also told me to bring Don and that they would give him employment.  This helped make it possible for Don to go to high school when the canning season was over."


"The next year I got enough girls for both the Clearfield and Layton factories.  A man from the office came and took us on the train.  Printed rules were tacked in all the apartments, but oh, how these rules had been bent and broken in the past. So I decided we would live by the rules or take the consequences.  A week later when  I was making my final round of the apartments for the night, I discovered two of my girls were missing.  They had gone out through a back window.  I got in contact with the Ogden police.  They soon spotted them at the White City dance hall in Ogden.  They got back by midnight.  I was waiting for them, and when I told them to pack their clothes as I was taking them home on the 5:00 o'clock train, they wept and pleaded.  But I told them they were only two out of almost one hundred girls there, and I intended to have discipline, and that no girl was going to be harmed while under my care if I would help it.  

We reached Mount Pleasant at 1:00 o'clock p.m..  I phoned their mothers from the depot.  The train that took me back was due in twenty minutes.  How lucky I was because there stood Wilma.  She was staying with Aunt Emma who lived just a block away.  She had run to the depot when the train whistled to see who got off the train.  I made the most of that twenty minutes.  I gathered my baby girl in my arms and wept because I had to leave her again.  It was a long trip back.  I reached Clearfield at midnight.  I didn't have any more girls try that trick for a number of years.  It had a good effect on all the girls."


"Discipline was fine and they accomplished so much work in a short time.  Often when I walked down to the plant I would hear the girls singing in harmony with the songs of that day.  'The Utah Trail' and 'Springtime in the Rockies'.  The sweet harmony of so many voices almost drowned the grinding and clanging of the machinery noises.  It seemed they could work better and faster when they sang.  The community thought as much as I did of my singing Sanpete girls.  Some of them are grandmothers now.  But when I meet them they never fail to speak of the good times we had and how grateful they were that I had guarded them so close when they were in my care. 

 I will never forget one year when I took a large group of girls to Clearfield.  The company sent me $250 to buy the railroad fares for the girls.  We were to leave the same day as Colonel Lindberg was to be in Salt Lake.  When I went to buy the tickets, our station agent suggested that I buy a construction ticket to Clearfield; this would entitle us to a special train from Salt Lake to Clearfield and save the girls walking to the Bamberger and waiting there, and also save on expenses for the canning company.  So that was what I did.  We were all delighted.  When we reached Salt Lake a man boarded the train to tell Mrs. Bjelke that her special train was all made up and waiting in Salt Lake.  When we arrived in Salt Lake there was no special train there for us.  The girls stayed in a group while I went into the station master's office.  I  asked when my train would be ready.  Well, he was as confused as the other railroad men."


"It seems the president of the canning company, Mr. Stringham, had just arrived with ten girls he was bringing from Heber.  When he learned the waiting special was for the canning company girls, he and the ten girls boarded the train, and the special pulled out.  He thought the railroad company was very nice to furnish him a special train."

"Well, there I was with about eighty girls waiting at the depot.  The girls were disgusted.  The city officials learned of the predicament and sent five plainclothes men to the depot to help me take care of the girls.  When they handed me their cards, I thanked them and said I really didn't need any help.  Then the hotel managers started to come, telling how many girls they could take.  I told them that we were going to stay in the depot until a train took us and our luggage to our destination.  Then the railroad president from Denver called me on the phone and told me to take my girls to the best hotels at their expense.  I told him no, that the girls were staying with me.  So another special train was made up at 12:00 o'clock midnight and oh, were those railroad men grumpy.  They didn't want to take any of our bedding.  I said, "Oh yes, they would take our bedding.  Getting to our apartments wouldn't help if we couldn't get some sleep."  So they took it along.  We reached the apartments at about 1:30 a.m..  

The police in Salt Lake said I must be a superwoman to take care of so many girls.  I told them that I guess I wasn't so super, but the girls were a super variety.  They wanted jobs so they could go to high school, and some of the older ones wanted to earn college money.  They were grateful to me that I made it possible for them to work and earn this money.  They looked at us with admiration."


"The many years (eight) I worked as matron for the Woods Cross Company were very pleasant and profitable for all of us."

Mina Simpson Bjelke 

 

FAMILY GROUP SHEET OF CHARLES WASHINGTON AVERETT

 

FIRST MURDER IN MT. PLEASANT

ISAAC  ALLRED
murdered by Thomas Ivie
May 11, 1859

 

The First Murder

On the 11th day of May, 1859, on the south side of the street of what is now known as Main, between State and First West, a certain Thomas Ivie, assaulted with a fire brand, Isaac Allred, a church veteran and also a member of Zion's Camp, breaking Allred's skull, and inflicting other injuries upon him, causing his death the following day. The dispute had resulted from a quarrel over the difference of a small herd bill. On the 12th day of May, Thomas Ivie was arrested and taken to Manti, where he was bound over by Justice Elisher Averett. On the 13th of June, a grand jury was impaneled which on the 14th presented a true bill for murder against Ivie. A trial jury was then chosen and the case proceeded; the trial lasted until the 16th when it was admitted to the jury, who returned a verdict of guilty, and on Friday, June 17th, Judge Garner Snow pronounced a sentence of death upon the prisoner. Ivie appealed his case to be tried be¬fore Judge Eccles, and on the 3rd of July, Sheriff A. Tuttle left Manti with the prisoner for Camp Floyd. Ivie was kept at Camp Floyd for sometime, then turned loose. He went to Missouri, where he quarreled with a brother-in-law, who killed him and left his body in a corn field to be devoured by the buzzards. This happened about a year after he left Utah. Isaac Allred was buried in Ephraim. 

  page 44  History of Mt. Pleasant by Hilda Madsen Longsdorf

Home of Lyman Wing Aldrich and his wife Carrie Ingeborg Beck (updated by Tudy)

 

Allen Leon Beck ~~~ Former Mayor and Friend to All

 

Allan Leon Beck

4/28/1933 ~ 3/14/2023

Allan Leon Beck, 89, beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather, passed away peacefully on March 14, 2023, at his home in Orem, Utah, surrounded by his family just short of his 90th birthday. Allan was born on April 28, 1933, to Earl Hafen Beck and Ruth Olsen Beck in Mt. Pleasant, Utah. He was one of five children, Earl Duane (passed at birth), Allan, Eldon, Earlene and Ruth Ann.

He grew up in Indianola, Utah, and was always very active and loved spending time outdoors, hunting, fishing, and playing football, basketball and track. He graduated from North Sanpete High School in 1951, and afterward attended the University of Utah in 1952. He served in the Utah National Guard and the U.S. Army Reserve, spending time overseas in Taiwan. Allan was very proud to be a Veteran and had a great love for our nation’s flag.

He married his high school sweetheart Marian Ruth Nielson on June 4, 1953. They were married 25 years and were blessed with four children, Mark Allan, Malinda, Marianne and Matthew.

Allan had a love for learning and could build or fix anything he put his mind to. He built the first workable television in the area at Indianola in 1949. It is now in the Fairview Museum. He installed the first TV in Mt. Pleasant at Herman Beck’s home before TV stations moved their transmitting stations high on the Oquirrh Mountains west of Salt Lake City.

He founded Beck’s TV, a local business in Mt. Pleasant in 1958. His son Mark Allan took over the family business in 1980 and it continues today as a retail home furnishings business on Main Street.

In January 1958, he engineered and installed Sanpete County’s first television translator relay site, located at the base of the mountain east of Mt. Pleasant. This translator station made TV possible for Mt. Pleasant and surrounding towns and is still functioning today.

He held many offices in the Chamber of Commerce, including the president. He was a charter member of JC’s and the Sanpete County Search & Rescue and held several offices in both organizations. He served as Mayor of Mt. Pleasant (1978-1980) and worked hard to make improvements to the city, including the municipal sewer system and settling ponds west of the airport. He also was able to get the airport improved from gravel to a paved landing surface.

On July 23, 1980, he married the love of his life Betty Moulton Harvey at “The Lake” in Indianola, Utah, and increased his family by two children, Craig and Katie Sue. They were later sealed in the Provo Utah LDS Temple on April 28, 1984. They made their home in Orem, Utah.

They loved spending time in Indianola, and created a Hideaway there, constantly improving and caretaking the pond on the mountain (“The Lake”) and considered it their home away from home. Their family, including children and grandchildren, have come to love The Lake and the beautiful surroundings that Allan has been instrumental in creating.

Allan also worked at Wells Distributing and then Ryan Distributing, both in Salt Lake City, as Service Manager of their appliance division, and later worked at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center (Provo) in the Engineering Department, fixing and maintaining all the electronics in the facility. He retired from Intermountain Healthcare in 1996 so that he could spend more time in his favorite place, Indianola.

He is survived by his wife, Betty Moulton Beck and 6 children, Mark Allan (Laura) Beck, Malinda (Scott) Overman, Craig (Carolyn) Harvey, Marianne (Patrick) Davis, Matthew (Becky) Beck, Katie (Eric) Peterson, 24 grandchildren and 60 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held Monday, March 20, 2023, 11:30 a.m. at the LDS chapel on 500 South 600 West Orem, UT. Viewing 9:00-11:00 a.m. prior to the service. Interment will be in the Mount Pleasant City Cemetery. Many thanks to Dignity Home Health & Hospice team, especially Markae, Marisela and Melissa who took great care in assisting Allan in his final days.

Click Here to Watch Funeral Services Live. The Live Zoom Link will activate at 11:15 a.m. MST prior to services.

Tributes and Sketches From "Family History of William Bristol, Ane Marie Sophie Clausen, Joseph Cambron , and their Descendants

This History is taken from the book "The Family History of William Bristol, Ane Marie Sophie Clausen, Joseph Cambron, and their Descendants ...... Written by Pat L. Sagers. 

Calvin Clausen 

 

W.D. Candland And Sons

 

Guy L. Candland, along with one of their prize Rambouillet sheep..  He was very capable in many ways, including probably building the barn. He attended Utah State Agricultural College in Logan and wanted to pursue law or other professions, but his father thought animal husbandry was more economically sensible so he eventually, along with his father and brother, Royal Candland, ran the WD Candland & Sons sheep business.

PENNEY STORE CLOSES HERE AFTER 61 YEARS ~~~ From Louise Johansen Scrapbook

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

 

 

                                                      

Content is taken From Yahoo Life 

                                                        Erin Cavoto

Leprechaun Puns:

• The leprechauns made me do it.
• I kissed a leprechaun and I liked it.
• What's a leprechaun's favorite music? Sham-rock and roll.
• Keep calm and leprechaun.
• Today I be-leaf in leprechauns.

Irish Soda Bread Recipe:

https://www.countryliving.com/food-drinks/a35291993/irish-soda-bread/

INGREDIENTS

• Canola oil, for pan

• 2 1/2 c. 

  buttermilk, plus more for brushing

• 1 

  large egg

• 1 1/2 c. 

  dried currants

• 3 c. 

  all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled

• 1 c. 

  whole wheat flour, spooned and leveled

• 1/4 c. 

  wheat germ

• 3 tbsp. 

  sugar

• 2 tsp. 

  baking soda

• 2 tsp. 

  kosher salt

• 6 tbsp. 

  cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for serving

• DIRECTIONS

  • 1. Step 1Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly oil a 9-inch cast-iron skillet or cake pan. Whisk together buttermilk and egg in a bowl. Add currants and stir to combine.
    2. Step 2Whisk together all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, wheat germ, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a second bowl. Using your finger-tips, rub butter into flour mixture until small pebbles form. Create a well in center of flour mixture. Add buttermilk mixture, stirring with a wooden spoon in one direction and gradually incorporating, until combined (dough will be sticky).
    3. Step 3Using slightly wet hands, shape dough into a ball; transfer to prepared pan. Let rest 10 minutes. Brush with buttermilk. Cut a large “X” about 1 inch deep in top of loaf, wiping blade with a damp cloth between cuts. Bake until golden brown and internal temperature registers 195°F to 200°F on an instant read thermometer, 50 to 60 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; cool completely. Serve with butter.

PIONEER DAY 1970 ~~~ 111th Anniversary ~~~ Taken From Louise Johansen Scrapbook

 

HOME OF JAMES MARTIN ALLRED AND HIS FIRST WIFE CHRISTIANA GUSTAVE ANDERSON ~~~Updated by Tudy Barentsen Standlee

 

FAMILY GROUP SHEET OF CHRISTIAN WIDERGREEN ANDERSON

 Christian died 9 Feb 1927

Nels died 6 October 1884

Loria Lindberg died 1882

Elsa died 13 Apr 187-

Turkey- Syria Earthquake 2023 ~ Submitted by Larry Staker

On 6 February 2023, at 04:17 TRT, an Mw 7.8 earthquake struck southern and central Turkey and northern and western Syria. The epicenter was 37 km west–northwest of Gaziantep. The earthquake had a maximum Mercalli intensity of XII in parts of Antakya in Hatay Province. It was followed by an Mw 7.7 earthquake at 13:24. Wikipedia

Start date: February 6, 2023

Location: Türkiye, Syria

 

 

Location	24 E. Main St., Mount Pleasant, Utah
Coordinates	39°32′48″N 111°27′14″W
Area	less than one acre
Built	1917
Built by	Bent R. Hansen, August Larsen, and John Stansfield
Architect	Ware & Treganza
Architectural style	Prairie School
MPS	Carnegie Library TR
NRHP reference No.	84000152[1]
Added to NRHP	October 25, 1984

MT. PLEASANT PIONEER MONUMENT
Did You Ever Wonder
How Mt. Pleasant Celebrated Its First 50 Years?Well, for starters, they sent out a letter to each household with the following statement in the first paragraph, “The labor of opening up a new country amid the vicissitudes of pioneer life surely draws upon the admiration of everyone who appreciates integrity. The pioneers made habitable for us this uninviting land and laid the foundation for all the comforts that we enjoy; and that too, under conditions of extreme poverty and constant fear of attack from the Indians. These facts place us who enjoy the fruits of their labor, under a debt of gratitude to which all will acknowledge by taking a part in the erection of a suitable monument to their honor.”
The monument to which reference was made is the very one that stands in front of the Mt. Pleasant Carnegie Library today. The names inscribed on the base of the monument are the original heads of families who settled here in 1859. The money raised to erect the monument came from the families of those original pioneers. Each family was assessed $35.00 to have their pioneer ancestor included on the monument. That $35.00 sum in the year 1909 would be the equivalent of today’s $850.00, according to Consumer Price Index of 2009.
The names that follow are the names found on the base of the monument:

RIGHT PLATE

Wm. Seely
Neils P. Madsen
Rasmus Frandsen
M. C. Christensen
Nathan Staker
Jens C. Jensen
John Tidwell
Henry Wilcox
Peter Mogensen
John Carter
Orange Seely
George Coates
George Farnsworth
Jens Larsen
Peter Hansen
Svend Larsen
Rudolphus R. Bennett
Christian Brotherson
Daniel Page

Back Plate
Niels Widergreen Anderson
Andrew Madsen
Mads Madsen
Neils Madsen
Christian Madsen
John Meyrick
Jens Jorgensen
Jens Jensen
Peter Johansen
Neils Johansen
Justus Seely
James K. McClenahan
John Waldemar
Christian Hansen
Henry Ericksen
Andrew P. Oman
C.P. Anderson
Christian Jensen
James Harvey Tidwell
Martin Aldrich

Left Plate
Jefferson Tidwell
Paul Dehlin
Mortin Rasmussen
Hans C.H. Beck
Peter M. Peel
Erick Gunderson
Alma Zabriskie
Soren Jacob Hansen
John F. Fechser
Andrew P. Jensen
Wm. Morrison
Hans Y. Simpson
George Frandsen
Peter J. Jensen
Jacob Christensen
Frederick P. Neilson
John L. Ivie
Christian Neilson Christensen
Isaac Allred
Andrew Johansen


And the endeavor itself did not take years to complete. The proposal letter was sent out March 1st of 1909. The monument was in place and unveiled on July 5th, 1909, less than 6 months later. One can only imagine how long a similar endeavor would take today, not to mention the money that would need to be raised.

And what about the celebration itself? Who was there, who spoke at the unveiling of the statue? Joseph Fielding Smith, President of the Latter Day Saint Church, dedicated the monument. President Smith delivered an eloquent and impressive Dedicatory speech and prayer. President Smith began by saying “ it was rather out of his line to attempt to address on any subject except church work ; that to this discourse he would have to deal principally with the Church or he would not talk of the pioneers of Utah, but he did not wish any nonmember to take offense to his remarks or think that he considered no one else worthy of mention as he estimated all men by the lives they lived and their value as loyal, useful citizens”.
A three day celebration on the 5th 6th and 7th of July was held. According to the book of Mt.Pleasant, authored by Hilda Madsen Longsdorf. The following are excerpts from her book. The celebration was the greatest in the history of the town. People in the hundreds came from far and near. A non-resident described it as “ an unsurpassed success, without any unpleasant incident to mar the pleasure of the occasion under skies bright and blue – with stirring strains of music from martial and military bands, with salutes from canon and cracker; with eloquent oration and sweet singing, pleasing the large audiences; and to those inclined towards athletics, sports were provided daily”.

The monument was unveiled by Mrs. Sarah Borg, who was the second girl born in Mt. Pleasant. When the veil released by her from its fastenings, the flag with which the monument was covered, fluttered slowly to the ground, and amid the cheer of the vast crowd gathered, the beautiful shaft was revealed in all its splendor and glory; a splendid fitting tribute destined to stand throughout the years to come, to the work, trials and achievement of the Pioneers. A silent but emphatic testimonial of the great appreciation of the present generation for the mission so successfully performed by the brave men and women who settled Mt. Pleasant fifty years ago. (one hundred and fifty years ago in 2009).

This year, we the citizens of Mt. Pleasant have the opportunity to celebrate the founding of Mt. Pleasant with our own style and appreciation for those original brave pioneer families. On March 28th we hold our annual Pioneer Day, which is held at that time because it is significant to the fact that those original pioneers came north from Manti, Ephraim and Spring City in March of 1859 to once again try a new settlement, having been driven south a few years before by hostile indians. Because they recognized there was good ground here to raise crops, and good prospects to raise their families. We honor those families for their faith, courage and perseverance. We indeed owe them a great amount of gratitude whether we personally are a descendant or a newcomer, we reap the many abundant rewards of their unselfish labors.

Home of Rasmus Lauritz Madsen and his wife Harriet Grace West j~~~ Researched and Compiled by Tudy Barentsen Standlee

 

James Axtel Bjelke Family Group Sheet

 

Class of 1924 "They're Comin' Back to NSH

Salt Lake Tribune  May 10, 1974

 

Pedigree Research List ~~~ Located at the Relic Home

 

HER WORDS

 

MT. PLEASANT PIONEER DAY ~~~ HOMECOMING DAY ~~~ HONOR THE OLD FOLKS DAY ~~~ MARCH 18

 

Mt. Pleasant Public Library
as it appeared in 1917

Seventh Handcart Company ~~~~ Taken from David Gunderson Collection 2011

 David has since passed away.

Folks,

While I was doing the research for the Gunderson Book, I listened to a conference commemorating the 150th anniversary of the ten Handcart Companies which crossed the plains during the 1850s. Pres. Boyd K. Packer gave the keynote talk which quoted from an article on the 7th handcart company. This article was written in Danish by C. C. A. Christensen and published in the late 1890 time frame. The article was translated into English during the 1980s and published is the Nebraska History Magazine. The article speaks of a young Norwegian woman who was crossing the plains in this Company with her blind mother.  I knew instantly that he was speaking of Caroline Johnsen and her Mother Elizabeth.

On the following Monday morning, I called Pres. Packer's office to ask how I could get a copy of the article and his secretary agreed to send Pres. Packer's own copy of the C. C. A. Christensen's article for our use.

David R. Gunderson

 

Handcart Crossing by CCA Christensen

By Handcart to Utah:

       The Account of C. C. A. Christensen            

          Nebraska History Vol. 66, Number 4, Winter 1985

   Translated from Danish by Richard L. Jensen

INTRODUCTION

Between 1856 and 1860 approximately 3,000 Latter-day Saints made the overland journey from Iowa City, Iowa, to Salt Lake City, Utah, carrying their provisions and belongings in handcarts. This novel mode of travel was an attempt to help emigrants with limited resources gather to Utah at a time

when. their church and its Perpetual Emigrating Fund had

incurred heavy indebtedness for teams and wagons in earlier years. Despite the tragedy of two Mormon handcart companies caught in the snow in late 1856, Brigham Young en­couraged the continuation of the handcart scheme, which was quite effective under favorable circumstances. By 1861 another approach, using mostly teams and wagons from Utah. proved more satisfactory, and a colorful chapter in American pioneer transportation came to an end.

One of those who pulled a handcart in 1857 was Carl Chris­tian Anton Christensen (1831-1912), a Danish immigrant. Christensen's reminiscences of the trek, much like his well-known paintings of Mormon history, incorporate charmingly detailed vignettes into the telling of the broader story.¹ Thus Christensen shares with the reader a feeling for the nature of the human experience of crossing plains and mountains with very limited resources. There are not more than a half dozen detailed accounts by participants of traveling by handcart, so Christensen's, published here in English translation for the first time, is significant. ²

Born in Copenhagen, Christensen was apprenticed to a decorative painter and was simultaneously studying at the. Royal Academy of Art when at the age of 18 in 1850, he was converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

                                                      CCA Christensen                                    335

Eager to share his new-found faith with others, he was called in 1853 to serve as a proselytizing missionary, first in Denmark and later that year in Norway.

      Among many young Danish converts also called to be missionaries were brothers Carl Christian Nikolai Dorius and Johan Frederik Ferdinand Dorius. They and Christensen became lifelong friends. In 1857 they were released from mis­sionary labors and given permission to emigrate to Utah-the fulfillment of a fond dream for most European Latter-day Saints in the 19th century. They emigrated with a large com­pany of Scandinavian Latter-day Saints, including three

Norwegian girls whom the friends planned to marry in Salt; Lake City. Christensen's narrative begins with their departure from Norway in March 1857. From Liverpool, England, they. sailed for the United States April 25, 1857, aboard the American ship Westmnoreland.

The present account is translated from writings of C. C. A.

Christensen published in the Salt Lake City Bikuben (The Beehive), a Latter-day Saint Danish-Norwegian newspaper. I have attempted to amalgamate several separate accounts into one, because each contained useful information. In order to avoid too severely fragmenting the narrative, I have retained a few overlapping details. In some cases I have divided long sentences and paragraphs for greater ease in reading. ³

THE REMINISCENCE­

In the spring of 1857 C. C. N. Dorius and his brother Ferdi­nand. . . were released from their missions with permission to emigrate. C. C. A. [Christensen] was given the same privilege and [C.] Dorius and the last-mentioned unmarked at Kris­tiania [now Oslo] directly for Hull [England], while F. Dorius and the emigrants left for Copenhagen. The current of our lives had now again merged, and now it took an entirely new direction. .

Having reached Liverpool, we were able to see and talk with the renowned Apostle Orson Pratt for the first time. ⁴

He received us with great kindness; but with the dignity of his manner, the veneration his sermons and pamphlets had in­

stilled in us increased even further when we entered his actual

336                         Nebraska History

presence. We attended a meeting at which he spoke on the subject "The Patriarch Jacob blesses his two grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh" and illustrated his remarks" by laying his hands upon our heads as the two young men, with himself as the patriarch. The feeling that thrilled both of us on this oc­casion was almost one of mixed joy and pride, and although we understood only a very little English, it still seems to me that at that time we caught the gist of the Apostle's remarks !very well.           .            .                      t

When we had finally come on board the ship

Westmoreland which was to take us across the Atlantic

Ocean, we and other brethren were counseled to marry before we left Liverpool Harbor. ⁵ All three of us had with us our chosen maidens, intending to enter into matrimony at the con­clusion of the journey rather than at its beginning, but we ! found absolutely no reason to object, and therefore all three [couples] were married that very hour by Elder John Kay, who

was at that time on a mission in England. C. Dorius's bride, was Ellen G. Rolfsen from Risør. [C. C. A. Christensen's bride .

was Elise Rosalie Scheel of Fredrikshald.]⁶                                        .

The voyage across the ocean, which took about five weeks, I proceeded without any unusual occurrences, and we landed at : Philadelphia on Pentecost, Sunday May 31, 1857]. Our first view of the lovely landscape along the Delaware inspired us greatly.

[Christensen must have been inspired to an extent before

ar­riving in America. He composed the following poem while aboard the Westmoreland at sea. In the original Danish it has a marching rhythm.]

HANDCART SONG FROM 1857

Come, brethren, let us all gladly

Go together to Salt Lake City,

And if we get tired, don't be faint-hearted; Spit in your fist, and that's all there is to it.

We’re going to our beloved home,

Always forward. Dulidulidu. ⁷

And if it seems a little hard, stilI we can take it. The handcart does feel strange and new,

It is true, from one view;

But every fellow in some way

Will take hold better every day

Till in the end it goes right neatly,

Doesn't it? Dulidulidu.

And even if it seems a little hard, we can take it.

So it goes, up and down,

More and more, for several weeks,

Till we get up on the mountain.

At its top we will stop.

There Salt Lake Valley we will see

And a little snow-dulidulidu.                     .

The last tug was a little hard, but we could take it.

Then we go merrily down again; Come, my follower and friend!

Our trip is now almost at an end.

We are free as a bee.

. Now we quickly hurry on

Toward our joyful home-dulidulidu­

And even if it was a little hard,

We could take it.

The journey then continued by rail to Iowa City, which was the westernmost point the iron horse had reached, and there we were to begin our honeymoon trip with handcarts. .

At the campground⁸ we encountered our first trials, in that we had to give up books which were bound and had been kept carefully for a long time, particularly our “Skandinaviske Stjerner” ["Scandinavian Stars"]⁹ We were only allowed to take with us fifteen pounds in weight for each person who was to travel with the handcarts, and that included our tinware for eating, bedding, and any clothing we did not wish to carry ourselves. Thus I remember that I sold my best trousers to a passing ox driver for twenty-five cents, and others had to leave valuable articles behind at the campground without any com­pensation. Books were left there in large numbers, and their loss has been felt afterwards with sorrow by others as well as myself.

We were given a returning missionary by the name of

[James P.] Park, a native of Scotland, as captain of the hand­cart company. The less said about this unfortunate choice of a

338                                       Nebraska History

leader for such a people as us, the better for him. We suffered greatly the first two or three hundred miles, traveling through the state of Iowa until we reached the Missouri River. The hot season of the year, frequent rain showers, almost' bottomless roads, exertion and diet to which we were unaccustomed, and the unreasonable, inconsiderate course of action pursued by our leader [Park], brought about much sickness and many deaths among us.¹⁰ But through all these trials. the brothers Dorius and I were, as before, always one another's in­separable, faithful helpers. Each of us had a little part of the company to help organize. Then as afterwards, Carl Dorius was the Samaritan among the sick; the encouraging, helpful friend and brother to the despondent and the exhausted. That was no less true of his young wife, and I must say the same of the other newly-married wives and of  F. Dorius.

After we were reorganized in Florence [Nebraska], and were given our well-known Danish brother Christian Chris­tiansen as our leader, things went much better.¹¹ The very weakest persons were left behind; we took a number with us who were half exhausted. He [Christiansen] began with very short daily travel and walked the entire way himself in order to better be near at hand and to be able to assess the strength of the people, rather than riding horseback like other captains. His gentle, fatherly treatment will never be forgot­ten by those whom he led across the plains and the mountains in 1857.

Our train consisted of between thirty and forty handcarts. Each of these had an average of five persons and was loaded with what little bedding, tin eating ware, and other equip­ment was allowed¹² . . . . In addition to that, we were to have a couple of hundred pounds of provisions in each handcart. Moreover, it was usually necessary for small children to ride in the handcart which the father, mother, and older brothers and sisters of the family pulled.

One of the people we had was a blind sister from Norway, who was about sixty years old, and she walked the whole way. But she was always cheerful, and as she pushed the handcart her young daughter was helping to pull we could often hear her merry laughter when she unexpectedly found herself wading through one or another of the many streams of water which were found along our way. "Now, Mother, we are about to cross some water ,"we could her

C. C. A. Christensen

339

daughter warn­ing her, “Is it deep?" or "How deep is it?" we heard her reply from the blind woman; and when the explanation was satisfactory, she walked cheerfully out into the water.

One of the most difficult streams that we had to ford was Loup Fork, a tributary of the Platte River. At the time we crossed, it was very wide, and besides that the bottom was loose sand, which was constantly shifting. The sick and the blind woman were allowed to ride in one of our freight wagons, for we had three wagons drawn by mules, which car­ried our tents and cookware, and in extreme emergencies one or more of those who were sick or fatigued were allowed to ride. But such a ride was an object of dread for most, for to be driven over rocky and uneven roads, and with only the tents under oneself, was for sick people usually only a means of in­creasing their suffering, and in some cases of hastening their death.

At the river mentioned above, Loup Fork, several in­teresting and almost amusing scenes also took place.

A large Indian encampment¹³ was located at that time right at the fording place, and several of the young girls were ferried across by sitting behind a half-naked Indian on horseback, having to hold on to him around the waist in order not to fall off. Those of the emigrants who dared to wade had to hold on to each other in order not to be carried downstream in the strong current, and now and then the handcart also lost its footing and threatened to leave the company, at which time extra resources for rescue had to be utilized. But all went well, and not a thing was lost, nor was anyone hurt.

Early in the morning, generally, the children who could walk-some even under the age of four-were sent ahead, ac­companied by their sisters, partly to avoid the dust and partly to walk as far as possible before the burning sun and exhaus­tion would make it necessary to put them. in the handcart.

For me it is beyond all doubt that the angels of the Lord were with us, though they were unseen, for we were walking defenseless in a long, spread-out row, in what was then the land of wild Indians, and many times we were among great herds of buffalo that could have totally annihilated us if they had been startled or for one reason or another had been led in the same direction we were traveling. But they seemed to be

340                                 Nebraska History

held at a suitable distance the whole time, although they were often only a gunshot away.

I remember a certain sister who came up one morning when the tents were being packed up, with something in her apron. Upon inspection it proved to be a little person who had come to the world the previous evening. The mother had walked with her handcart all day the previous day, and she thought she would also walk as far that day as she could, but she was prevented from doing that and rode for a few days. Both the mother and the child are still alive and living in Monroe, Sevier County, Utah.

We also had "the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together. . . ,¹⁴ all represented in our traveling company, for we had a girl who had a wooden leg. And oddly enough, these persons made it all the way to their destination, while many younger persons marked our path with their graves, without as much as a nameboard, except where there happened to be a bleached buffalo skull. Yet the mood was, overall, cheerful and jovial, and very seldom were complaints or displeasure heard from anyone, even when sickness or death had invaded the family.

We were only poorly supplied with provisions when we left Florence and had a thousand miles of wilderness to cover before we could expect any more. The little smoked pork, dried beef, and sugar, coffee, salt, and other seasoning with which we were furnished lasted only about three weeks in most cases, and after that there was naturally flour, flour, flour, and only flour to eat. With this .they baked bread, cooked porridge, gruel, soup, coffee, pancakes, and several other nice dishes, but still it was just flour, flour, and flour; and at one point the flour was scarce, too. ¹⁵ We only shot one buffalo, and this happened almost like a miracle, for it had lagged behind the rest of the herd. We dared not attack the great herd under our circumstances at that time.

Our supplies were intended to be as few as possible, for the weight of the provisions had to be considered, and the hard daily toil increased our appetite, rather than decreasing it, except in cases of illness. Therefore, as it said in one of our songs of encouragement from those days:

Surely, it was hard. and often we got very tired/

But the carts, with our ap­petite,/

Soon   became light./

And yes, the road was long,/

But there was merry joking, jests, and song/

When we made camp.   

                                                     CCA Christensen                                      341

              .

   But the Camp in the evening was not an absolute resting place for the tired pilgrims, for then it was a matter of preparing a meal from the sparse provisions that we had brought with us…  We also baked our bread in kettles we had brought along.¹⁶  This was women’s work and sometimes took till past midnight, for each had to wait for the other to use the dutch oven.  The men fetched water and gathered fuel; where firewood could be found. Otherwise the women and

children helped gather dried “Ko-kasser”¹⁷ as we call them in Danish, since on the great plains along the Platt River there was enough of that kind, from the abundant buffalo herds which existed there at that time.  After that the men had to do guard duty for four or five hours every fourth day and then begin the hike anew, after breakfast was prepared and consumed.

    One nice trait characterized these people, both young and old, namely that their prayers and thanksgivings were held regularly every morning and evening. The train started moving at about 6:30. The vanguard of the procession consisted of the few cows which some of those with more means had bought from farmers along the way. The small boys drove them as far ahead of the company as was possible with tolerable safety, for you must remember that we were in the land of the Indians, and one could not always depend upon them for his life. ¹⁸ Besides that, we had the great herds of wild buffalo around us for many days, and if they had been alarmed and charged, that would have been the end for us, us: just as we could have been swept away by a tornado      But the Lord held his hand over our defenseless emigrant company, and we were not molested by either wild people or wild animals.

   One of the most important questions every morning, which we usually asked our leader -we called him captain- was: “How far is it to water today?" For he had a book which gave the distance and other information about the rout, par­ticularly with regard to water and grass for the emigrants’ draft animals.¹⁹  Only one single night did our captain make a mistake with the directions, and we found it necessary to stop when darkness fell without water. Then some of the brethren had to go back several miles to get water for their crying little ones. But as soon as daybreak came we broke camp and found water a few miles further along our way and soon forgot the privation of that night.

342

Nebraska History

Although it was a trial and involved many hardships, there were still also now and then both interesting and happy scenes as well as comical scenes on the way. Our costumes would look fine at one of out so-called “Hard Times Balls." Our hats, or what might once have been called hats, assumed the most grotesque shapes, seeing that the sun, wind, and rain had the superior force. The ladies' skirts and the men's trousers hung in irregular trimmings, and the foot coverings proportional to the rest, with or without bottoms. Our faces were gray from the dust, which sometimes prevented us from seeing the vanguard; our noses with the skin hanging in patches, especially on those who had as much nose as I have; and almost every lower lip covered with a piece of cloth or paper because of its chapped condition, which made it difficult to speak and particularly to smile or laugh.

Bedding was often altered to become everyday clothing, and a gentleman with trousers sewn from bed ticking was no curiosity in those days.. Nor were the ladies so particular about whether their skirts could hide their poor footwear, if indeed they were well enough off to own a pair of shoes, for there were many who had none; but the Scandinavians managed well with wooden shoes in those days.

A very old man, who had completely lost his sense of smell, came into camp one day, after the rest of us had things somewhat in order, with a skunk which he counted on cooking for soup. This almost made the rest of us leave. He had killed it with his cane and knew nothing about its peculiar means of defense.

We had with us a tailor who was getting along in years, but who did not therefore think any the less of his own charm but

wanted to try his luck with one of our Norwegian sisters. There were two who pleased him, but the one was married, and she let him continue with his mistake for some time, to the amusement of those of us who were in on the matter.

At the same time we were traveling as peaceful emigrants to Utah, a considerable military force was also on the way to Utah. But providentially they never came near us, in that they marched along the other side of the Platte River, where we

could see them, and their weapons shone in the sun. They were sent out by the government to suppress a supposed rebellion which did not exist at all in Utah.²⁰ As they

C. C. A. Christensen

343

amounted to several thousand men, large trains of provisions and fat stock were also sent out for their use, and most of these traveled on the same side of the river as we did. But we had no further inconvenience from them other than the dust they raised. One morning after we had been without any sort of meat for several weeks, we passed a large, fat ox, which they had left behind because one of their heavily loaded wagons had run over one of its feet and crushed it.

As we stood looking at the poor animal, the leader of the provision train to which it belonged came back, and in a" coarse yet half-friendly tone he said, "You people can have that ox; I suppose you might need a little meat.”  Again we saw in this instance, the Lord's care for us. We got the ox butch­ered and divided the meat among ourselves, but that was.

not so easily done, for we did not even have a decent ax in the, whole company, for almost everything that was heavy had to be left at the campground at Iowa City.

Since we had a butcher with us, the art of supplying us with fresh meat was turned over to him, but unfortunately he was accustomed to hitting cattle on the forehead. The ax he had brought was, like everything else, of the lightest kind, and the poor animal merely shook its head at his blows. Then came a mighty hunter. In all probability he had belonged to the militia in the town from which he came, and so he shot it through the nose. But finally another, luckier Ninuod came

and felled the animal with his shot and put an end to its suffering.

There lay [at the campground near Iowa City] heaps of

handsomely bound books, good warm clothes, and much else of value, of which we deeply felt the loss wnen we reached Utah, But greatest of all was the loss of many dear relatives and friends, who died along the way, in a sense as voluntary martyrs for their faith in the gathering to this land. ²¹

Perhaps many would have suffered an even worse fate if President Brigham Young had, not established provision sta­tions where flour could be obtained, and the first of these sta­tions was about 400 miles east of Salt Lake City.²² Afterwards we were met by wagons with flour and fruit, which benefited us greatly, but particularly since these wagons picked up the weakest and sickest among us and thus lightening considerably the responsibility for the rest of us.

344

Nebraska History

None but those who have experienced such a trial of pa­tience, faith, and endurance can form an idea of what it meant to pull a handcart, which frequently even threatened to collapse because of the extreme heat and lack of humidity, which could cause the [wood of the] cart to split and thus deprive them of the last means they possessed to bring with them their absolute necessities.

Along the way lay the skeletons of worn-out oxen, but these heroes and heroines endured. . . . With their lips half eaten up by saleratus dust,²³ and clothed in rags, with almost bot­tomless shoes on. their feet, yet they greeted with songs of delight the rising sun which let them see Salt Lake City for the first time.

What changes have taken place since that time In less than one week our emigrants are now brought here from the Atlan­tic coast, where they disembark after a few days pleasant ocean voyage by steamship, while we in those days were tumbled about by sailing ships for several weeks, uncertain of the time when we could expect to see the promised land. And then the journey by land over the great, empty plains and high mountains on foot, poorly supplied with food and clothing-in short, subjected to almost every deprivation that people could bear and endure, and that for all of thirteen weeks.²⁴ .

One can perhaps form a vague idea of our feelings when we finally stopped here in this city and were met by kind brothers and sisters, many of whom brought cakes, milk, and other things that for us were so much needed.

It was a Sunday, and with the Danish flag on the lead hand­cart we marched to our last resting place as far as this journey was concerned. . . . . . . . . A few days later; all these pilgrims had disappeared from their last camping place, having found shelter and hospitality among the Saints in Zion.

Since that time I have traveled back and forth several times across these mountains and plains, but never have I seen peo­ple more patient and devoted to God than those with whom I faced these trying circumstances in the year 1857.

346

Nebraska History

NOTES

1. Jane Dillenberger, "Mormonism and American Religious Art,” Sunstone 3 (May-June 1978),pp. 13-17. Richard L. Jensen and Richard G. Oman, C. C. A. Christensen (1831-1912): Mormon Immigrant Artist (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1984). Carl Carmer, “A Panorama of Mormon Lire,” Art in America (May-June 1970), pp.52-65.

2. Other accounts of Mormons traveling by handcart in the 1850s are

published in LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion (Glen­dale, California: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1960; reprint, 1981). Addi­tional information is found in Leonard J. Arrington and Rebecca Cornwall, Rescue of the 1856 Handcart Companies (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young

University Press, 1981).

3. This amalgamated account is taken from the following sources:

C. C. A. Christensen, “.C. C. N. Dorius,” Salt Lake City Bikuben, March

22, 1894.

Christensen, “Haandkarre-Sang fra 1857” [“Handcart Song from 1857"],

Salt Lake City Bikuben, September 23, 1896.

Christensen, “Erindringer fra 1857" ["Memories of 1857"], Salt Lake City

Bikuben, October 1,8, 1903.

Christensen, "Over Praerierne" [“Across the Prairies”], Salt Lake City

Bikuben, September 8, 1910. .

Christensen correspondence, Salt Lake City Bikuben, September 15, 1904.

Christensen, “Et Mindeblad til afdode Soster Laura A. Larsen" ["A Page

in Memory of Deceased Sister Laura A. Larsen"], Salt Lake City Bikuben, February 20, 1902.

4. Orson Pratt was then presiding over Latter-day Saint affairs in Europe and was concurrently president of the Church's British Mission. At least four of Pratt's popular religious tracts had been published in Danish translation by the time Christensen and his friends visited Liverpool, and several of his sermons had appeared in the Scandinavian Mission periodical.

5. The Westmoreland left Liverpool April 25, 1857, with 544 Mormon passengers on board. Conway B. Sonne, Saints on the Seas: A Maritime History of Mormon Migration 1830-1890 (Salt Lake City: -University of Utah Press, 1983), p. 152.

6. Risor and Fredrikshald, on opposite shores of Oslofjord, were among the first towns in Norway proselytized by Latter-day Saints. Fredrikshald has since been renamed Halden.

7. “Dulidulidu" was apparently intended to suggest the trill of a fife.

     8. The staging area for the handcart trek was on the banks of Clear Creek, three miles west of Iowa City, in present-day Coralville, Iowa. See Stanley B. Kimball, Discovering Mormon Trails: New York to California 1831-1868

(Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1979), p. 36.                                                        .

      9. Skandinaviens Stjerne [The Star of Scandinavia] was the Latter-day

Saint mission periodical for Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

   10. Christensen explains elsewhere that Park "could not understand our language, nor have any 'particular sympathy for those who were tired, sick, or dissatisfied as a result of the new and unaccustomed circumstances’

C. C. A. Christensen

347

- C. C. A. Christensen, “Erindringer fra 1857” ['Memories of 1857"], Salt Lake City Bikuben, October 1, 1903.

    11.The replacement of Christiansen for Park at Florence was a rather unusual occurrence among a people known for their submission to officially appointed leadership. It must have been the result of complaints by the Scan­dinavians to Latter-day Saint authorities at Florence, although the process is not well documented. Christiansen had emigrated to Utah earlier had presided over Scandinavian Latter-day Saints in the Midwest in 1856-1857 and was preparing to return to Utah with an ox-team party when he was called upon to assist the handcart emigrants.

    12. A. Milton Musser, who assisted with Church emigration arrangements at Florence, reported that the Scandinavian company left there with 68 handcarts and about 330 persons. Musser to William Appleby, July 16, 1957, The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 19, p. 620. Thus Christensen's estimate of the number of persons per handcart was accurate, while his recollection of the number of persons and handcarts in the company ap­parently was not.

    13. Undoubtedly a Pawnee village. During 1857 the Pawnee ceded other lands to the United States and moved several villages to this vicinity.

    14. Jeremiah 31:8.

    15. Christensen wrote elsewhere, "Our diet was . . . very monotonous, but

our appetite gave it seasoning, so that we ate often and much, and yet were .always hungry.” Christensen, “C. C. N. Dorius,” Salt Lake City Bikuben,

March 22, 1894.                                     .

    16. They baked their bread "without yeast or baking powder”. Christensen, "Et Mindeblad til Afdode Soster Laura A. Larsen" [“A Page in Memory of Deceased Sister Laura A. Larsen"], Salt Lake City Bikuben, February 20, 1902.

    17. Buffalo or cow chips are the corresponding American terms, denoting dried animal dung used as fuel. In Christensen's painting on the cover of this issue of Nebraska History, a woman in the foreground is gathering buffalo chips. ­

18. In an insightful. examination of emigrant-Indian relations along the westward trails, John D. Unruh, Jr., indicates that the threat posed to travelers by Indians was often grossly exaggerated, but that depredations were more common by the mid-1850s than before. He finds that relatively few emigrants were killed by Indians east of South Pass. Unruh, The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-60 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1979), pp. 156-200.

19. Probably William Clayton, The Latter-day Saints' Emigrants' Guide (St. Louis: Republican Steam Power Press-Chambers & Knapp, 1848). See also William Clayton, The Latter-day Saints' Emigrants' Guide, ed. Stanley B. Kimball (Gerald, Missouri: Patrice Press, 1983).       .

20. In response to complaints from federally appointed officials and a

former mail contractor, the administration of James Buchanan sent troops to Utah under General Albert Sidney Johnston-as it was claimed-to restore federal authority over the territory. For a discussion of the entire episode, see Norman F. Furniss, The Mormon Conflict, 1850-1859 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1960).

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Nebraska History

21. James Jensen, another Danish immigrant in the same handcart com­pany, stated that one out of every ten in the group died enroute. J. M. Tan­ner, Biographical Sketch. of James Jensen (Salt Lake City, 1911), p. 40.

    22. The aid station mentioned was at Deer Creek, present-day Glenrock,

Wyoming.

    23. Aerated sodium bicarbonate. Perhaps Christensen was also remember­ing alkali dust.

24. Before the adoption of steam transportation, Latter-day Saint im­migrants from Europe took from three to five months to reach Utah. In 1869 the first company of Latter-day Saint immigrants to use both steamship and the newly completed transcontinental railroad traveled from Liverpool to Ogden, Utah in 24 days. By 1877 the entire trip took as little as 17 days. See Richard L. Jensen, "Steaming Through: Arrangements for Mormon Emigra­tion from Europe, 1869-1887”, Journal of Mormon History (1982):21

A list of the members of the 7th Handcart Co follows:

(The number shown in parentheses next to each name is the age of the pioneer at the time of the journey.)

Christian Christiansen Company (1857)
	Anderson, Andrea Catherine Johanne (5)
	Anderson, Charles Augustus (11)
	Anderson, Christina Boletta (3)
	Anderson, Gustave (37)
	Anderson, Jens Christian (36)
	Anderson, Josephine Brighamina (1)
	Anderson, Lauritz Peter (7)
	Anderson, Maren Thorstensen (36)
	Anderson, Margaret Nielsen Christiansen (27)
	Aragerup, N. (Unknown)
	Bastian, Gertrude Pedersen (22)
	Bastian, Jacob Sander (22)
	Brothersen, Anne (1)
	Brothersen, Bohne [or Bolin] (6)
	Brothersen, Christian (46)
	Brothersen, Diantha (9)
	Brothersen, Else Mortensen (31)
	Brothersen, Hans (7)
	Brothersen, Martin (4)
	Christensen, Anders Christian (48)
	Christensen, Andrea (1)
	Christensen, Anna Margretta (20)
	Christensen, Carl Christian Anthon (25)
	Christensen, Caroline (3)
	Christensen, Christiana Jeppedatter (23)
	Christensen, Christina [or Christiana] (infant)
	Christensen, Eliza Rosalia Sternhjem Harby (22)
	Christensen, Lars Christian (25)
	Christensen, Mads (32)
	Christensen, Maren Johanne Jensen (30)
	Christensen, Nils (25)
	Christensen, Peter Christian (18)
	Christensen, Rasmus Peter (infant)
	Christensen, Sophia Marie Pedersen (43)
	Christiansen, Ane Margrethe (51)
	Christiansen, Christian (32)
	Christiansen, Christian Nielson (38)
	Christiansen, Karen Marie (14)
	Dorius, Carl Christian Nikolai (27)
	Dorius, Ellen Gurinda Rolfson (20)
	Dorius, John Frederick Ferdinand (25)
	Dorius, Karen Frantzen (22)
	Eggertsen, Simon Peter (31)
	Erickson, Kersten (20)
	Erickson, Kersten Christensen (50)
	Erickson, Marcus (48)
	Folkman, George Jorgen Christopher (64)
	Folkman, Jens Peter (28)
	Folkman, Matilda Kristina Funk (20)
	Frantzen, John (20)
	Frantzen, Lars (45)
	Frantzen, Martha Maria Johansen (44)
	Garff, Christian Nielsen (9)
	Garff, Decan Westmoreland (infant)
	Garff, Josephine Patrine (2)
	Garff, Lauritz Nielsen (4)
	Garff, Marie Jacobsen (36)
	Garff, Niels Jorgensen (46)
	Garff, Peter Nielsen (14)
	Gibb, Hanna Eugenia (3)
	Gibb, Mica Martine Cathrine Margrethe Pedersen (23)
	Gottfredson, Hans James (8)
	Gottfredson, Jens (47)
	Gottfredson, Jens Peter (11)
	Gottfredson, Joseph Smith (4)
	Gottfredson, Karen Marie Meilhede Pedersen (28)
	Gottfredson, Mette Christine (6)
	Gottfredson, Platine Plattina (Infant)
	Green, C. Christina (Unknown)
	Green, William (50)
	Gudmundsen, Gudmund (32)
	Hakanson, Anna (18)
	Hakanson, Elsa (22)
	Handberg, Johanna Christina (18)
	Hansen, Anne Margretha Ohlsen (37)
	Hansen, Bertha Maria (34)
	Hansen, Christian Hans (19)
	Hansen, Embreth (37)
	Hansen, Erastusina (2)
	Hansen, Frederik (12)
	Hansen, Hans (45)
	Hansen, Hans (9)
	Hansen, Jens Martin (infant)
	Hansen, Maren Christina (5)
	Hansen, Maria (7)
	Hansen, Oliver (5)
	Hansen, Peter (Unknown)
	Holm, Jens Neilson (39)
	Holm, Margaret Christina Ipson (39)
	Holm, Margaret Christine (13)
	Hultberg, Anders (3)
	Hultberg, Anna Catrina (7)
	Hultberg, Christopher (35)
	Hultberg, Karna (36)
	Jacobsen, Camilla Dorothy (16)
	Jacobsen, Lars (23)
	Jacobsen, Marie Ingeborg Olsen (51)
	Jacobsen, Olavus (12)
	Jacobsen, Soren (26)
	Jensen, Anders (50)
	Jensen, Ane (10)
	Jensen, Annie Christine Rasmussen (47)
	Jensen, Christiane (19)
	Jensen, Hans (40)
	Jensen, Jacob Hansen (11)
	Jensen, Jacob Johann Heidemann (4)
	Jensen, James (16)
	Jensen, Jens (27)
	Jensen, Jens Martin (infant)
	Jensen, Karen (13)
	Jensen, Mads (35)
	Jensen, Maren Jacobsen Heidemann (32)
	Jensen, Maren Sophia Christensen (16)
	Jensen, Maria Sophia (1)
	Jensen, Mary Ann (15)
	Jensen, Peter M. (6)
	Jensen, Sidsie Marie Jacobsen (42)
	Jensen, Sophie (1)
	Jensen, Soren Peter (6)
	Johnson, Caroline Cecilia (23)
	Johnson, James H. (20)
	Johnson, Maria Elisabeth Hendrichsen (54)
	Just, Christian A. (11)
	Just, Hyrum Pedersen (infant)
	Just, Jens Pedersen (8)
	Just, Joseph Petersen (3)
	Just, Karen Marie Christensen (34)
	Just, Nels Andersen (10)
	Just, Peter Anderson (40)
	Karlson, Britta Anderson (36)
	Karlson, Claus Herman (7)
	Karlson, Lars (43)
	Larson, Andrew [or Anders] (38)
	Larson, Anna M. Thompson (29)
	Larson, Anna [or Hannah] (7)
	Larson, Caroline Anderson [or Caroline Andrews] (44)
	Larson, Lauritz (23)
	Larson, Lewis [or Lorens] (10)
	Larson, Mary Christine (5)
	Laurentzen [Lund], [Mrs.] (Unknown)
	Liljenquist, Ola Nilsson (31)
	Lublin, Heinman Magnus (9)
	Lublin, Hyrum (Infant)
	Lublin, Johanna Kirstine Christensen (37)
	Lublin, Kate (15)
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	, Karen (Unknown)