Madsen, Anthon William Family Group Sheet ~~~Considered an Original Resource Document

Niels Christian Nielsen and Maren Larsen Nielsen ~~~ Pioneers of the Month May 2018

My husband, Peter Hafen has deep roots in Mt. Pleasant soil.  We can find six generations on the Nielsen side of the family all buried in the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.  We didn't have much information on the eldest, Niels Christian and his wife Maren Nielsen until just recently, we often wondered about them as no family records could be found. We know where their graves are located, but no history, no photographs have been found.  I recently found a few tips on familysearch.org and share them with those of you who might also be his descendents. If anyone out there can add more information, please let us know.

Niels Christian Nielsen was born 29 January 1805 in Brovst Hjerring Denmark to Niels Larsen and Ane Marie Hansdotter (or Nielsdotter)

Maren Larsen  was born 20 July 1803 in Hjerring Denmark to Lars Anderson and Ingeborg Poulsen

  We discovered that they actually came over at the same time that Andrew Madsen Sr. did on the John J. Boyd in 1855 which left Liverpool on December 5th. There were 508 persons aboard and 483 of them were from Scandinavia. Just prior to their leaving Liverpool Apostle Franklin D. Richards  came aboard the John J. Boyd and made some very encouraging remarks and bade them farewell.  Elder Knud (Canute) Peterson became the church leader of The John J. Boyd after filling a mission to Norway and Denmark.  He was later called as President of the Sanpete Stake. He was a very kind, fatherly man and very watchful over his flock and ever ready and willing to give kind and good advice to those under his care.

The John J. Boyd 

It was a treacherous journey with bad storms.   Many became seasick. The ship was not equipped to hold as many passengers as there were. On December 19th a terrible storm came up and rocked the boat, tossing everyone from side to side and continued through Christmas Day, December 25th. Then on January 1st the storm was so terrific that one of the masts was split and had to be wrapped with chains. All the sails were taken down.

  "The winds blew so hard the crew could not control the ship, so the sails were lowered and the ship found its own way through the water. Winter weather upon the Atlantic was so severe that the ship lost all forward progress made in the first weeks of the voyage. We had headwinds most of the way. When we were about one-third of the way over we were driven all the way back to the coast of Ireland.

The  shipmaster was Captain Thomas Austin. He ran a well-ordered company. Rules of conduct were established. A trumpet called the immigrants to prayer morning and evening, and religious services were held in English, Danish, and Italian.   

 The average voyage from England to New York aboard a steamer was 13 days, while the average trek across the Atlantic via sailing ship was 37 days. But the voyage on the John J. Boyd lasted 65 days, nearly one month longer than the average sailing ship crossing.

During the voyage, sixty-two people lost their lives. That’s the highest death toll of Mormon immigrants upon any vessel crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Even the six-month voyage of the Brooklyn from New York to San Francisco in 1846 claimed only 10 lives.

The captain became so discouraged over the unsatisfactory conditions that he forbade any to sing or pray onboard the ship. But this did not prevent them from fasting and praying in secret which was ordered by President Peterson, after which better weather prevailed.

At one time the captain said to President Peterson, “If I hadn’t damned Mormons on board I would have been in New York six weeks ago.” President Peterson said to him, “If you hadn’t Mormons on board, you would have been in hell six weeks ago.”

At one point during the   voyage a fire broke out, starting in the captain’s quarters and quickly spreading through the entire ship. The fire burned through the floor and filled the ship with smoke. The clouds of hot smoke nearly suffocated those who were resting in their quarters. It was only after much work that the fire was successfully put out. Some of the passengers and crew, fearing for their lives jumped overboard, and it was only after Knud Peterson assured the saints that they would put out the fire that panic ceased. It was later revealed that Captain Austin had been drinking and kicked over a small stove in his quarters. Precious personal cargo and provisions were lost in the accident all due to the Captain’s terrible addiction. (taken from "Voyage to America", by Hans Lorentz Dastrup.

http://www.familydastrup.org/2010/10/voyage-to-america/)

Their ship the John J. Boyd came to  New York via Castle Garden.   The surname spelled "Neilson" on roster. The family came on the John J. Boyd in 1855. The family was: Niels age 50, Maren age 52, Anne Catherine age 18 and Karen age 16. The family was listed as Nilsen on board. They emigrated from Vensyssel District.  (notice no Niels Peter Nielsen was listed)

Canute Peterson Company (1856)

Canute Peterson

We also discovered that the Nielsens were with the Canute Petersen Company in 1856. The wife, Maren, daughter Anna Catherine and another daughter, Karen are listed on the ship manifest.  However, Peter's 5th great grandfather Niels Peter Nielsen, who was also a son was not listed.  Then when they reached Winter Quarters they were joined by another group of Saints coming from England and Scotland.  And with that group were Peter's third great grandparents, William and Mary Margaret Morrison from Scotland.   Now we find the lost son, Niels Peter Nielsen  listed with the Canute Petersen Company. They all arrived in Salt Lake City in September of 1856.

About 320 individuals and about 60 wagons were in the company when it began its journey from the outfitting post at Florence, Nebraska (now Omaha).

Company members arrived in the Salt Lake Valley from 16-23 September 1856. This makes Niels Christian 51 years of age and Maren 53 years of age. 

The following comes from Mary Margaret Morrison's remembrances:

It would take too much time to enter into every detail that transpired during those intervals on our sad journey. Nevertheless in the spring of 1856 our faces still turning Zionward, we again commenced our journey from St. Louis, by way of Omaha, and from there crossing the plains by ox team. For six weeks we remained in camp at Omaha living in tents, waiting for the company to get ready. On the 26th of June, 1856 we commenced our journey across the plains. We were sixty wagons in all with Canute Petersen as Captain of our company. He was a wise and most efficient leader. During our journey our cattle stampeded five times. A young man from Denmark was run over and instantly killed, but otherwise there were no other accidents on the journey. On the 14th of July a herd of buffalo passed right through our camp. This surely was a great sight and as no accident occurred we were indeed very thankful for the preserving care which had been around us.

On the 23rd of September we arrived in Salt Lake City in good health and glad to meet many dear friends with whom we were acquainted .

 Following is from the Andrew Madsen account: 

 
CANUTE PETERSON'S [Petersen] COMPANY ARRIVED IN SALT LAKE CITY SEPTEMBER 16-21th, 1856, (Church Almanac 1997-98, page 172)] 

While we were getting fitted out a number of us secured labor erecting a wall around a farm, and in about three weeks were fitted out.Our outfit consisted of sixty wagons and two yoke of oxen, with six to ten persons to each wagon.
President Peterson was our Captain and appointed as assistant captain for each ten wagons. We started on our journey for Salt Lake City, June 19, 1856. The first day's journey was a hard one.Some of our oxen were wild and we did not know how to handle them and consequently did not make much headway the first day. The following day we made good headway. It was very hot and our oxen became very tired, traveling with their tongues out, some of them getting overheated and dying. 
We were compelled to leave some of our supplies, owing to our heavy loads and this was taken off and left.After a few  weeks journey we reached the unsettled wild west, where the buffaloes were grazining great herds.

One day there was a stampede and our oxen became frightened, rushing together, one outfit crashing into the other. The women and children became frightened, some of the wagons were broken and a few of our number were hurt and one man killed, which caused a gloom to pass over us. He was buried in a coffin such as we could prepare. We then repaired our outfits and journeyed on. A few of the buffalo were killed, dressed for beef and divided among our company.

Now and again the Indians were seen roaming from one side of the valley to the other and on occasions they would come to visit us. In order to maintain a friendly feeling, we would oft times give them some of our supplies and provisions such as we could spare. We were compelled to guard our oxen at all times when we were not traveling to prevent them from being driven away or stolen by the Indians. We were called together morning and night by the sound of a bugle to receive our instructions. Sundays, we had meetings and regular services were conducted, adding much comfort and pleasure to our journey.

 Sometimes we had dances on the green grass and enjoyed ourselves as best we could. During the days while journeying along, nearly all of us walked except those who were sick and the smaller children. We went along laughing and singing the songs and hymns of Zion. We arrived at Salt Lake City, September 20, 1856 and on the entire journey of three months not more than a half dozen persons were seen outside of our own company. . . .
Madsen, Andrew. Autobiography, pp.1-3. (CHL) 

 
The above journal entries and others can be found at:    https://history.lds.org/overlandtravel/companies/234/canute-peterson-company-1856

We now find Niels Christian in the Mt. Pleasant History by Hilda Madsen Longsdorf:   "The following Mount Pleasant pioneers came with President Canute Petersen's company: William Morrison, Margaret Morri­son, Rasmus Frandsen, George Frandsen Sr., Karen Neilson, Erick Gunderson Sr., Christian Jensen, Karen Marie Petersen, Niels Jo­hansen, Annie Anderson, Jens C. Jensen, Marian Anderson, Peter Mogensen (Monsen), Dorothy M. C. Mogensen (Monsen), Jeppe Iverson, Caroline Christine Iverson, Annie Christensen Mortensen Scowgaard, Caroline Frandsen, Neils Christian Neilson, Mary Larsen Nielsen, Rasmus Hansen, Annie Marie Jorgensen randsen, and others. Also a number who located at Ephraim." p 43.

We also find that Niels Christian Nielsen  helped build the fort:
Second ten, West Line           Time spent        Teams                Wagons
Jorger F. Jorgensen, Captain… ……18
Niels C. Nielsen …….                      13                 6                       6
 p. 135

Niels Christian Nielsen is sometimes spelled Neilson  (with the e before the i) 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
According to Family Search these are the children: 

However, Niels Peter, Karen and Ane Catherine are the only ones we can verify.

 Family Search has Ane Catherine's death date as 1855. (Someone needs to fill in the blanks there.) Karen married Jorgen Frandsen 19 December 1856.
Karen's death date is March 4, 1915 in Price, Carbon County, Utah.

Niels Peter Nielsen married Bertha Marie Jensen Aagaard. Family Search has their wedding date as April 27, 1890. However their first child was born in 1863. Niels Peter passed away September 2, 1911.


More information on Niels Peter and Bertha Marie can be found at: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/MB3K-BXC

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nothing more is known about Niels Christian and Maren other than they died in Mt. Pleasant.  

Niels Christian (23 March 1877) 

Maren (25 July 1882)

 

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Sources

• Genealogy and Family Pioneer History.  Mount Pleasant Historical Association
• Ship Passenger and Manifest Lists/Mormon Migration

 

Journey of Faith ~ Eric and Caroline Gunderson ~ written by David R. Gunderson

With permission of David R. Gunderson, we include the following book to our blog.   I will do a few increments at a time, as I have done with the Andrew Madsen and James Monsen histories.  I will also paste the pages over to David's own blog page: http://davidrgunderson.blogspot.com/

This book will be of interest to not only the Gunderson Family but also to the Brotherson, Ericksen, Peel,   Madsen, Larsen and more.

Because specific records of Erick’s work and contributions are not available, the following sections will describe the importance and magnitude of the various projects and situations that we know he and Caroline participated in as they helped to “Build the Kingdom”. Mt. Pleasant became the home of our Gunderson1 family for three generations (some of the. family still lives there) and it is still our spiritual home.

Mt. Pleasant Scene in Pioneer Days  Note Pleasant Creek and Fort  

Many of Mt. Pleasant’s earliest settlers3 had crossed the plains with Erick, Caroline, her Mother, Jens, and his family as follows:

 At least 25 of Mt. Pleasant’s early settlers came in the Canute Petersen wagon company with Erick Gunderson.

 At least 20 of Mt. Pleasant’s early settlers came in the Cowley Wagon Company and the Christiansen Handcart Company with Caroline and her Mother and Jens and his family, (C. C. A. Christensen, whose memoirs are noted above, was one of these early settlers.)

Therefore, they were not joining a settlement of strangers but a settlement of proven friends. The story of the settlement of Mt. Pleasant, still known as the “Queen City of Sanpete County”, follows

9.1 The First Settlement of Sanpete

The first settlement in Sanpete was made in 1849 at the invitation of the Ute Indians. Longsdorf, in her book4 “Mount Pleasant” describes this as follows:

“In June of 1849, scarcely two years after the arrival of the first company of pioneers in Utah, Chief Walker (Wakara, meaning yellow or brass) and Chief Sowiette with a band of Ute Indians visited President Brigham Young in Great Salt Lake City, and asked that colonizers be sent to the San Pitch Valley5, named after the Indian Chief, Sanpitch, a brother of Chief Wakara, to locate there and teach the investigate. They camped on the present site of Manti on 20 August, where they were kindly received and entertained by the Indians. After remaining there a few days, they returned to Great Salt Lake City and reported conditions favorable for settlement.” Soon after, Manti, Ephraim, Spring City, 

In 1853 – 1855 trouble with the Indians erupted and the so-called Wakara War occurred. During this war all of the settlements in Sanpete except Manti had to be abandoned and all of the settlers had to gather to Manti for their defense. One of the settlements that was destroyed was Hambleton, which was located on Pleasant Creek near the present site of Mt. Pleasant

1 Many decedents of Erick and Caroline Gunderson still live in Mt. Pleasant.

2 Art work by C. J. Jacobsen (born in Mt. Pleasant) : Longsdorf, p. 221

3 Longsdorf, p. 43

4 Longsdorf, p. 15

5 The name Sanpete came from the name of Chief Sanpitch’s grandfather Pan-a-pitch who was captured by the Spanish while on a trip to Santa Fe, to sell Piede and Paiute slaves in the 1780 time frame. They tried, unsuccessfully, to force him to reveal the source of the Ute gold then held him for several years. During that time they gave him the Christian name of San Pedro (Saint Peter). In time it was shortened to “San Pete”. His people had a hard time saying it and it became San Pitch and the valley in which they lived, came to be known as the Sanpete Valley and the river was called the Sanpitch River. (Note that a river and its valley having different names is a middle eastern custom.)

6 Hambleton is the correct spelling. It is often mistakenly rendered as Hamelton. (Longsdorf, p. 18) and other settlements were established

9.2 Consent Sought for Establishing a New Settlement on Pleasant Creek

After the Hambleton Settlement was burned out in 1853, nothing was done, so far as it is known, about re-establishing a settlement on Pleasant Creek, until about the middle of August, 1858. This was shortly after the arrival at Manti and Ephraim1 of the Big Move Caravan. The Big Move was caused by the arrival of Johnson’s army in 1858 as part of the Utah War. This army had been dispatched by Washington to put down the so-called “Utah Rebellion” in 1857.

This action was taken because of false accusations made by two Territorial Officials who had abandoned their posts in Utah and a US Mail contractor who had lost the mail contract to a Mormon transport company. In addition, the U S President, and Southern Leaders in Washington, wanted to get the US Army out of the way because Southern secession was being considered. (The Cowley wagon company and the Christiansen Handcart Company both encountered this military expedition while crossing the plains as has been noted.)

Gov. Brigham Young, was not at all pleased by this development, and vowed that the Mormon people had “built for the last time for others to occupy”. As Governor, he placed the Territory under Martial Law and ordered the people living in the northern parts of the territory to abandon their communities, prepare to burn their homes, Pioneers2 cut down their orchards, burn their crops, and destroy their irrigation systems if the army caused any problems . In addition, He caused Johnson’s Army to be delayed on the plains through the winter of 1857 -1858. He also had fortifications built all along the north ridge in Echo Canyon (which are still visible as shown below) and he had the Utah Militia3 stationed behind those fortifications, ready to interdict the army if they caused any trouble.

About 30,000 people moved south as a result of this order. Thus it is referred to as the Big Move. Many stopped in the Provo area but many many more continued further south and filled the new communities in Sanpete and other areas to over flowing.

Needless to say, this caused a great strain on the local economies. Many of the Big Move Caravan did not return to their former homes in Northern Utah but stayed to help build the new communities in Sanpete and Sevier Counties, etc.

 

Government investigators, who came with the Army, found that the claims made by the truant territorial officers and the disgruntled mail contractor were false and issued pardons to all territorial officials who had been wrongly accused. It was further agreed that the Army would make a camp on the western side of Utah Lake, at least 40 miles from any Mormon settlement. This camp was called Camp Floyd.

As a result of the crowding and economic strain, James R. Ivie, and six others were chosen at Fort Ephraim as an exploring committee, to select a suitable location for a new settlement in the northern part of the valley. They decided upon a site on Pleasant Creek. They then returned to Fort Ephraim and stated their views to the immigrants and others, who had reached Fort Ephraim and planned to remain over the winter.

1 Longsdorf, pp. 29 -34

2 Art work by C. J. Jacobsen (born in Mt. Pleasant): Longsdorf, p.11

3 Then called the Nauvoo Legion. My great grandfather Andrew Madsen, who came in the Petersen Wagon Company with Erick Gunderson, was stationed in Echo Canyon when the army arrived.

42

Three Breastwork Defenses in Echo Canyon

 A breastwork on a high cliff It could have been used for defense or its stones could have been rolled down to block the wagon road in the bottom of Echo Canyon.

The inset is a close-up of the remains of the original breastwork.

Canute Peterson (Knud Peterson) Missionary who baptized many early Mt. Pleasant residents ~~~ He also was a Company Captain who brought many to the Salt Lake Valley and also Sanpete County

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canute_Peterson

Knud Peterson Home in Ephraim

Knud 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 amissionary 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, andSweden.[citation needed]

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.[citation needed]

Husband of Charlotte Amerlia Petersen; Gertrude Maria Petersen; Gertrude Marie Peterson and Sarah Ann Peterson
Father of Gertrude Elizabeth Petersen; Bertie Beal; Gertrude Elizabeth Petersen and Sarah Ann Lund

The 150th Anniversary of the Start of the Black Hawk War Part Five