John Waldemar Dehlin and Paul Paulsen Dehlin ~~~ taken from Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center

Legacy of Sacrifice: Missionaries to Scandinavia, 1872–94

John Waldemar Dehlin

1868–1934

Residence: Mount Pleasant, Sanpete Co., Utah

Arrival date in Copenhagen: 6 June 1892

Missionary labors: Skåne and Stockholm conferences

Departure date from Copenhagen: 19 July 1894

Name of departure ship: Rona

Birth date: 23 April 1868

Birthplace: Mount Pleasant, Sanpete Co., Utah

Father: Dehlin, Paul Paulsen

Mother: Waldemar, Elna

Spouse: Taylor, Blanche Hortense

Marriage date: 25 November 1896

Marriage place: Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., Utah

Death date: 20 November 1934

Death place: Glen Canyon, Kane Co., Utah

Burial place: Glen Canyon, Kane Co., Utah

John’s parents joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and immigrated to the United States in 1863. They were living in Mount Pleasant, Sanpete County, where John was born. He was blessed as a child on 4 June 1868 and was baptized a member of the Church in 1876.

John accepted a mission call to Scandinavia in 1892. He arrived in Copenhagen on 6 June 1892 and was assigned to labor in the Skåne and Stockholm conferences. These conferences covered the same area in which his father had served thirty years before. Unlike his father, John was a talented musician and shared his violin playing on many occasions on this mission. After completing an honorable mission, he departed from Copenhagen on 19 July 1894 aboard the steamer Rona (see Jenson, History of the Scandinavian Mission, 328–29, 337).

After John returned from his mission, he rented a home at 227 North 600 West. He worked as a warehouseman for a time in Salt Lake City. He died in 1934 at Glen Canyon, Kane County, Utah, at age sixty-six.

Paul Paulsen Dehlin

(Påhl Åkesson)

1830–75

Residence: Mount Pleasant, Sanpete Co., Utah

Arrival date in Copenhagen: 6 May 1871

Missionary labors: Skåne Conference

Departure date from Copenhagen: 27 June 1873

Name of departure ship: Pacific

Birth date: 4 May 1830

Birthplace: Trä #3, Norrvidinge, Malmöhus, Sweden

Father: Pedrillo, Åke Påhlsson

Mother: Jönsdotter, Anna

Spouse: Waldemar, Elna

Marriage date: 1859

Marriage place: Mount Pleasant, Sanpete Co., Utah

Spouse: Hansen, Julia Sarah Marie

Marriage date: 28 March 1870

Death date: 6 June 1875

Death place: Mount Pleasant, Sanpete Co., Utah

Burial place: Mount Pleasant City Cemetery, Mount Pleasant, Sanpete Co., Utah

As a young man, Paul learned the cabinetmaking and masonry trades. He gained employment as a journeyman, contractor, and builder in Malmöhus, Sweden, before hearing Mormon missionaries preach. Paul accepted their teachings and was baptized in 1855 by Niels Adler. He was the first member of his family to join the Church and was instrumental in the conversion of three of his sisters and his mother. He served a local mission in Sweden and was jailed for preaching the gospel in his homeland before he sailed to America in 1859 (see Hampshire, “Paul Paulsen Dehlin—Biographical Sketch,” 1).

He and his wife Elna sold their jewelry to purchase a wagon and an ox team to cross the plains with the Robert F. Nelsen company. They and their children, her parents, two brothers, and one sister made the arduous journey to the Salt Lake Valley, arriving on 15 September 1859. They settled in Mount Pleasant, Sanpete County, where Paul opened the largest furniture business outside of Salt Lake City. He proved to be a good businessman and became a member of the city council and director of the Mount Pleasant Co-op (see Hampshire, “Paul Paulsen Dehlin—Biographical Sketch,” 1).

In 1871, Paul accepted a mission call to Scandinavia to preside over the Skåne Conference. On the mission he contracted smallpox. His daughter wrote that he was “a solid mass from head to foot, and when the mass peeled off[,] all of the hair on his head came off with it, leaving him entirely bald.” President Peterson forbade anyone to see him except two people whom he had set apart to take care of him. They never contracted the disease, but someone else who visited caught the dreaded illness and died. Despite his bout with smallpox, Paul served a successful two-year mission in which he said he “never felt better in his life” (Hampshire, “Paul Paulsen Dehlin—Biographical Sketch,” 2).

He sailed from Copenhagen on 27 June 1873 aboard the steamer Pacific to England. From England he voyaged on the Wisconsin to the United States. He arrived in New York Harbor on 15 July 1873 and at his home in Mount Pleasant on 24 July 1873. After being home for nearly two years, he contracted typhoid fever. Paul died on 6 June 1875 at age forty-five. He is remembered by his posterity as “being loved by all and . . . generous with those in need” (Hampshire, “Paul Paulsen Dehlin—Biographical Sketch,” 1–4).

LDS Primary Minutes~~~ Mt. Pleasant Fourth Ward---1972-73

 



Esther Rasmussen Christensen Loved To Entertain

 

 Esther had a most beautiful home. After she had retired from teaching, she had an interior decorator come in and help her remodel and decorate. I was a guest of hers on many occasions.

L to R: Esther Christensen, Edith Simpson, ?Williams, Lois Brotherson

L to R:  Maxine Daniels, Mildred Sealy, Alice Hafen,
 (back) Dorothy Lish

L to R: Lois Paulsen, Eva Staker, Mary Jensen
(back) Reiva Rosenlof

~~~~~~~~~

These photos come from the Alice Hafen Collection

Paul Paulsen Dehlin - Elna Waldemar Dehlin - Pioneers of the Month - October 2009

PAUL PAULSEN DEHLIN
Biographical Sketch by Blenda Dehlin Hampshire

Paul Paulsen Dehlin, born May 4, 1830, in Skana, Sweden, baptized

by Niels Adler, 1855, was married the same year to Elna Waldemar.

When a young man, he learned the cabinetmaker's and mason's trade and

was a journeyman in both. He was a contractor and builder in Malmo,

Sweden, for some time and while at this work heard the Gospel of

Mormonism preached and joined the Church. He was the first one in his

family who did, and was the means of converting three of his own sisters,

his wife and her father and mother, two brothers and one sister. Was a

missionary in Sweden and was arested and jailed once for preaching the

Gospel.

He left Sweden in the spring of 1859 for America. It was a tedious and

long sea voyage in the early days on the slow sailing vessels. Seven weeks

is a long time on the ocean and when that was over, there was the long

journey by land, which Paul Dehlin and those depending on him had

to think about. He was intending to come by way of handcart but when

he saw how hard it was going to be for them all he gave up the idea of going

that way being a little short of cash to provide for them all, but in cases 

with him he mastered the situation.

He gathered up his own and his wife's jewelry and sold it to buy a

wagon and ox team, which was slow enough traveling, but way ahead of the

handcart and so much more convenient and easier for the women and

children as well as his wife's mother and father who were getting along in

years. He came with Robert F. Neslen's Company and walked all the way

and drove the ox team. A good part of the way carried his little daughter less

than two years old. Managed the trip for his wife and child, her parents, two

brothers, one sister and her little girl and his own sister who were all

depending on him, arriving in Salt Lake City, September 15, 1859.

They went to Mt. Pleasant which was the first year's settlement of that town;

lived there a short time, then moved to Salt Lake City; lived there a short

time, then moved to Tooele but did not stay there very long either. He again

went back to Mt. Pleasant where he settled for good. He was looking for a

suitable place to start a furniture business, and there is where he made and

sold all kinds of fumiture and sold all over the country as his was the

largest furniture business outside of Salt Lake City.

On October 17,1869, his wife died leaving five children, the oldest

12 years old, and a baby boy l8 months old. Elna Dehlin was a very devoted

wife and mother; lived only for her little family; it seemed hard for her to

master the American language, yet when the Relief Society was first

organized in Mt. Pleasant she was chosen second counselor to Mrs. M.F.C.

Morrison, President, and she held that position when she died.

The year following his wife's death, he married a young woman, Julia

Hansen, but she did not make a very happy home for his daughters. His

sister took the little baby boy when the mother died and she raised him to

manhood.

In the spring of 1871 he was called to fill a second mission to

Scandanavia and sailed in company with Anthon Lund and Canute

Peterson, arriving in Copenhagen, May 6, 1871. He was appointed to

preside over the Skane Conference, Sweden. He filled a very successful

2 year mission, said he never felt better in his life, but there was a time

during those two years that was very serious. He contracted small pox

in the very worst form; said he was a solid mass from head to foot,

and when the mass peeled off, all the hair on his head came off with it,

leaving him entirely bald.

When first taken sick President Peterson forbade the Saints to come

and see him. He set two people apart, blessed them and promised them

that they would not catch the disease, and the promise was made good;

but one young missionary was determined to see him, said he was

not afraid of any disease, but he contracted the disease and died,

but the two whom President Peterson blessed and set apart,

the disease had no effect on them, although they were with him night

and day and cared for him until he was well again.

He sailed for Copenhagen, June 27,1873 on the ship 'Pacific". He arrived

in Hull, England on June 30th, sailed to Liverpool on the "Wisconsin" on

July 2nd. He arrived in New York on July 15th and then in Mt. Pleasant on

July 24, t873.

He lived less than two years and was stricken with a severe case of

typhoid fever of which he died June 6, 1875. He left the young wife with

two small children, besides the five children by his first wife, four daughters

and one son. While on his mission he arranged to have his oldest daughter

attend the University in Salt Lake City to study to be a teacher, and on his

deathbed he exacted a promise from her to keep the four sisters together

so they would not be separated. This she did and for six years these

sisters lived together. Hilda, the oldest taught school, Blenda the second

oldest kept house, Augusta and Eda attended school and in time they

also became teachers. Blenda was offered a position as a clerk in the

Mt. Pleasant Co-op. She was the first lady clerk who ever clerked in

a store in Mt. Pleasant.

While on his last mission, besides keeping Hilda in school, he placed

Blenda with his sister who already had the little boy. Augusta and Eda

with another sister, for them to take care of his motherless children

during his absence, while his wife lived in a home of her own.

It was a wonder to a great many of the people of Mt. Pleasant to see

these four sisters live along together and support themselves.

It so happened that when John grew to manhood,

was called on a mission to Sweden, he labored in the same

district his father had been a missionary twice.

Paul Dehlin was a real businessman and a good financier. He was a

member of the City Council and on the directors of the Mt. Pleasant Co-op.

Charlie Hampshire, clerk in that institution said that Paul Dehlin gave him

more insight to the business than all the rest of the directors put together.

He was a member of the first brass band in Mt. Pleasant and was a

minuteman in the Black Hawk Indian War. He was loved by all who knew

him or whomever he came in contact with. Many a person in need who

asked for help never went away empty handed.

George Q. Cannon once told one of his daughters when talking to her

as she had one of her baby boys in her arms, said, if any of your boys is

mechanically inclined whatever, you do let him follow his grandfather's

trade, for more thorough or better workman I have never known. I have

always admired him and loved him as though he were my own brother.

written by Blenda Dehlin Hampshire