The following story is about my two-times great grandparents, Peder and Magdalene Nielsen
Peder and Magdalene were born in Denmark in 1823 and 1822 respectively. They married in 1844, converted to the LDS Church in 1855, and after a long wait, emigrated to Utah in 1866. When you read, "Magdalene", pronounce it as "Magdalena", because in Danish that is approximately how it is said. She spoke Danish, even in Utah, where she found herself among many fellow Danes. The following account is written by my Grandpa Frank's first cousin, May Nielsen Anderson, with minor corrections and additions by yours truly. Cousin May was a wonderful historian, writing in depth about her Nielsen ancestors in collaboration with Grandpa Frank and other relatives. Thank goodness! Thank-you cousin May! The following was written by May Nielsen Anderson in 1958, with some edits made by Frank Merrill Nielsen in 2018 Peder worked in the flax business, with butchers, did carpentry, and made clogs and baskets. In 1844 he married Magdalene. From 1848 to 1851 he served his country in a war with Germany, but contracted a lung disease, tuberculosis, which eventually caused his early death. In 1855 Peder and Magdalene learned about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, accepted the Gospel, and were baptized. However, this brought on persecution by the Lutheran majority, since Lutheran was the official religion of Denmark. Magdalene wasn’t allowed to draw water from the well, and no one would employ Peder. In early 1866 they received word that they could emigrate to “Zion”, although they could only bring three of five surviving children (seven children were born to them, but two died in infancy), leaving behind Great Grandpa Rasmus (14) and Niels (21). The family, including Thora (4), John (8) and Petrasanne (15), departed Denmark in May, 1866, thanks to the Church's Perpetual Emigration Fund, which they would pay back, once they got settled. It took ten weeks to get to Nebraska, sailing six weeks to New York, then up the Hudson River and Erie Canal to Buffalo, steam-shipping across Lake Erie to Cleveland, then riding the rails west to St. Joseph, Missouri, and then taking a 94-mile riverboat ride up the Missouri River to little-known Wyoming, Nebraska. From there, they hooked up with Abner Lowry's “down-and-back” oxen wagon train and headed west. They trekked via the “Wyoming Cutoff,” which went northwest at a diagonal, to catch up with the Mormon Overland Trail at about Fremont, Nebraska, some 50 miles west of present-day Omaha. It took eleven weeks to walk the plains to Salt Lake City, although four-year-old "Tora" was allowed to ride in a wagon most of the time. Shortly after they left the Missouri River, the company was severely stricken by cholera. Magdalene nursed the sick, until she too became ill. Fortunately she survived, and none of the other Nielsens contracted the disease. Unfortunately though, 54 out of 300 souls in the company lost their lives. Great-Great Grandma Magdalene took in two families of children orphaned by the disease, and mothered them all the way to Salt Lake City, where good families adopted them. They arrived in Salt Lake City on October 19th, 1866, where Peder was met by an old friend from Denmark who took the Nielsens into his home in Cottonwood. In 1868 they moved to Brigham City, and then to Bear River City in 1869. Later in 1869, then-17-year-old Great Grandpa Rasmus Nielsen managed to emigrate to Salt Lake City to join his family, traveling on the new Trans-Continental Railroad all the way to Utah. Great Uncle Niels unfortunately stayed in Denmark, where he was a sailor. He died the next year, in 1870, at sea at the age of 25, never to reunite with his family in this life again. Great Aunt "Sanne" died at age 18 in Brigham City. The Nielsens moved back to Cottonwood in 1871, with Peder’s health worsening. By careful management and hard work, despite his illness, he secured a small tract of land, built another home, and became reestablished in the same ward where they had first lived in Utah. On August 6th, 1879 Great-Great Grandpa Peder passed away at the age of 56. Some more info about the Nielsen pioneer family, added by yours truly Great Grandpa Rasmus Nielsen eventually moved on to Vernal, Utah, where he died at the age of 42, perhaps from a bee sting in his apple orchard in 1894, or from diphtheria, as there was an epidemic at the time. In 1880, Rasmus and his wife Karen Marie ("Mary") had a son named John Franklin (Frank) Nielsen, who is my Grandpa Frank. Grandpa Frank rather unexpectedly died on October 9th, 1953, the 35th birthday of my dad, Merrill Rasmus Nielsen, when I was just seven days old. Dad and Mom named me "Frank" after him. He was in the St. Marks Hospital in Salt Lake City at the same time I was, but I don’t know if he ever saw me. Great-Great Grandma Magdalene died at the age of 81 in 1903 near Vernal, Utah. Great Aunt Tora passed away in 1961, when I was eight, at the age of 99, also in Vernal. She was one of the last two surviving original, pre-1869 Mormon pioneers! Great Uncle John, who walked the Great Plains at the age of eight, died 82 years later in 1948, at the age of 90, also in Vernal. Cousin May Nielsen Anderson, who wrote these histories, was John's daughter. John's brother Rasmus is Grandpa Frank's father, so that makes Frank and May first cousins. Some future blog posts on this website will share additional stories that come from the writings of Cousin May. - Published by Frank M. Nielsen, February 2018
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