A BRIEF HISTORY OF ANNIE ELIZABETH HANSEN
by her son Amasa A. Davidson
An item written by Arlin Davidson
added to by Howard L. Davidson 1990
Annie Elizabeth Hansen was born the Twenty Seventh day of May 1873 in the little town of Fairview,Utah. She was born in an adobe house which had 4 rooms on the ground floor and 2 attic rooms above. The stairway to the Attic rooms was in the hallway which ran East and West separating the lower part of the house into two sections. A kitchen and dining room on the North half and a parlor and bedroom on the South half. The children slept upstairs. There was an open well to the East of the house. This well was lined with rocks and the water was clear and cold. To the West of the house was a flower garden with lilacs and climbing roses. To the South was an area with other flowers. An orchard of apples and other fruit was off to the East while the corrals and granary and cow barn was to the South.
Annie grew up in pleasant surroundings if it is possible to judge from later observations. She was the 6th of nine children. One child had died before she was born so that she had one brother and 3 sisters living at the time of her birth. While the family were not rich, they were in comfortable circumstances judging by the standards of the day and place. Her father, Peter Neils Hansen, was a farmer and like all Danes liked to have chickens, geese, bees, and cows as well as the Horses necessary to farm. As far as I know he had abandoned the use of oxen soon after coming to the Valley. We do know that he had cows from the record that he turned over a beef to the church while he belonged to the United Order. He had withdrawn from that by the time that Annie was born but still held shares in the Co-op Mercantile Store. Peter had only one wife so that Annie grew up without being under the influence of Polygamy.
As a child she learned to take care of the house and the chickens; to pluck the geese for the feather beds. She learned to cord wool, to spin it into yarn and even to weave, but her mother mainly did the latter as weaving was considered too hard for the little folks. She learned to dye cloth and to do the many things that were necessary for the pioneer people.
She was baptized in Sam Pitch Creek at the age of eight, and confirmed a Member of the Church on the banks of that stream.
HERE ARE A FEW OF THE CUSTOMS AND ITEMS OF THE TIME OF HER YOUNG LIFE.
The House did not have a wooden floor but was of earth packed down hard so that it would not create a dust. It had to be dampened and swept each day.
Most of the furniture was hand made or at least made locally. The Loom was in the Kitchen and so were the spinning wheels. There were two of these. One had a large wheel and the person operating it had to stand while operating it. The wheel was operated by the hand giving the spokes a quick push. The other hand held the corded wool from which the yarn was made. A cord ran over the large wheel and operated the spindle to spin the yarn. The other spinning wheel was much smaller and was operated by the foot on a pedal. The girls did the spinning while their mother did the weaving.
They grew all of the vegetables but always had a beautiful garden of Lilacs, Roses, and flowers. The climbing roses were the best in town. The girls kept the garden free of weeds. It would be a shame to have weeds. Safforn flowers were grown so that the flowers could be dried. This and fullers earth which was dug near the West Hills was used for Galled in children.
There was no Doctor in Fairview. Midwives for childbirth and simple remedies for Everything else. Faith and the Laying on of hands for the sick was common. The people had carried recipes for many remedies and they were proud of the salves and other medicines that they had. Much superstition had been brought from the old countries in Europe and charms as well as medicine were used. They especially had charms to stop bleeding. Some of the things that they used were later to be proven my medical science. While Witchcraft was not believed in it was well to keep away from the Old ones who used charms or bewitched. Much could be written about this phase side of life.
There were no telephones. No telegraph until after 1890. If one wanted the Doctor or any one else it was necessary to send a messenger.
In the Spring after the snows melted and the rains came the roads were impassable. The roads were made and kept up by the Poll taxes. These were usually worked out instead of being paid in money.
Money was very scarce and the eggs and grain was sold for scrip. Each store had its own scrip and the people had to trade out what they sold. Much of the things they used was bought by barter. Taxes had to be paid in Cash and this was always hard to get. Tithing was paid in kind. One tenth of what each raised was taken to the Tithing Yard and given to the Church. At the Tithing Yard they had granaries and bars to hold the grain and hay that was brought. There was plenty of work for all. Annie's mother strongly believed that all play and no work made Jack a dull boy. This applied especially to the Girls and all were kept busy. The girls learned to take care of the house, To card and to spin. To milk the cows; to take care of the chickens and the geese and ducks. To pluck the feathers from the ducks and geese to get feathers for the feather beds. The geese could be plucked once a month during the Summer. They were plucked according to the time of the Moon. At this time the small breast feathers were loose and could be taken without hurting the birds. They always tried to see if the feathers were loose. If the feathers came out blood or were hard to pluck it was not the right time for the plucking. If the feathers came easily it was plucking time and each goose and duck had to be caught and the breast feathers taken.
The Indians were still bad. President Young had told the people that it was better to feed the Indians than to fight them. Indian Fights were in the memory of the folks and they certainly were careful when any Indians were around. A number of children (Annie included) had narrow escapes and even the older women had to be on the Lookout for disgruntled Indians. The Indians came to beg and wanted everything that they could see. They even were not above demanding what they wanted. Usually it was an older Indian who gave the trouble but the younger ones could be mean too. They usually could be bribed with bread and other things to be eaten but it was always good to have a man around in case of trouble. However one Indian that they called Jim was a real convert and would always help the whites. He often visited Annie's mother and was thankful for anything that she would give him to eat. He prided himself that he was a Mormon and that he was more like the whites than the Indians. In later years he made his home in Wales to be near his white Friends.
All children went to Church. They partook of the Sacrament water from a glass or cup. All drank out of the same cup. Later when the church got fine Silver for the Sacrament they still drank out of the same cup. The Sacrament was blessed and passed by the older men of the church. The deacons gathered the Fast Offerings as they do now. The Relief Society women collected dues each time they visited and often these were paid by giving an egg. Not much but it helped the poor. In the Fall they collected wheat to be kept in case of famine. This wheat was stored in granaries and never sold. The Women even went to the grain fields and gleaned so that they could have more wheat to be stored. The Threshing crews threshed it without charge. It was however hard to keep the wheat free from mice and oftentimes the mice played havoc with the grain.
When they could afford it the people used Tea and Coffee but President Brigham had told them that they could use Mountain Rush for Tea and was widely used but was considered more for Children and when they could not afford the real kind. I cannot remember when the older folks used it much but most of the grownups used the Real Tea and coffee. Most people used beer which was made at home. They malted the wheat instead of barley which made the Saloon beer. Browned it just so and then ground it in stone mills turned by hand. They used hops grown along the creek in the meadows. And homemade yeast together with honey that they got from their bees. This honey was about the only sweetening that they had. Sometimes they were able to get cube sugar, a real treat. It was not considered breaking the Word of Wisdom to use the beer made from home grown grain. In fact they could quote the Word of Wisdom to prove this. Potatoes was one of the important crops. Where possible they had venison but they used more mutton and other meat and fish than they did venison. And of course chicken was an important dish. They had most of the Danish dishes. It would be hard to mention all that they had. I have eaten and liked many Danish dishes that I don't even hear of now.
For fruit they used apples and plums although a few peaches were grown near the mouth of the canyons. They got berries in the canyons and along the creeks. Sugar was scarce and so they used honey for sweetening and preserving the fruit. The honey also was used for candy making.
Most of the houses were heated by fireplaces. There were two in the house where Annie lived. The fireplaces were later closed and by the time that I remember they were used as closets. In one corner of the kitchen was a big copper kettle. This was built so that it could have a fire under it to heat the water. They used it to heat water. To make lye soap and to dye the yarn and cloth.
The beds did not have springs but cord or rope was woven both lengthwise and crosswise to make a net to hold the Straw Ticks. These were mattresses made of Ticking and filled with straw at threshing time. Sometimes broadleaf hay was used. This was better and kept the shape better but usually was needed for feeding the cattle, so the straw was commonly used. They used feather beds above the ticks. Quilts were filled with corded wool batts. Then usually tied instead of quilted although I have seen some beautiful quilted ones. Pillows were filled with feathers or sometimes with the down from the milk weed.
The Gypsies were beginning to come thru the valley and were rather shunned. They traded horses. Later the country folks found that they had been cheated. They even told fortunes. The young folks liked that. They were usually shunned by the older folks. They must be in league with the Devil or how else could they foretell things. They were accused of stealing children and all children were cautioned to stay away from the Gypsies.
Flies were very bad in the summer. At meal time a child had to use a switch to keep the flies away by moving the switch across the food at all times. The flies carried disease but there was no way to get rid of them. They were a pest and had to be handled in the best way possible. Mothers used Mosquito Netting to keep the flies away from sleeping babies but that could not keep them away from the children playing. I remember when the first Fly paper and poison came out. Everyone got these to try to get rid of the pests.
Young babies were kept and rocked in cribs. There were three kinds of these. One was stationary and could not be rocked. One had rockers and could be rocked to and fro. The third has a screw eye so that it could be hung from a stand. Of course every mother had a rocking chair too. All babies were Breast fed. It was common practice for a mother to use milk and beer so that she could have plenty of milk for her baby. When a mother died at Childbirth or where it was not possible for her to nurse her child a neighbor woman would nurse the baby until it could do without. Usually about a year. In this case the woman would have two babies to feed instead of the one.
But it was not all work. Play came in with the children just as it does today. The children played jump the rope, hop scotch, Jacks, Played house and dressed up. They had dolls, mostly home made but often a Kid Bodied Doll with Dresden China head with real hair and sleeping eyes. These are now heirlooms. They of course played many outdoor games. Their ball games were different from that we know now.
They played one Old Cat, Work up and other ball games.
The Twenty Fourth was the main holiday and looked forward to. A big parade, games and speeches, and the chance of winning a prize for competing. Folks were wakened by gunpowder blasts. A big anvil was used to make the sound louder. Then the gun shooting. Supposed to keep the mythical indians away. In the parade was a float with Miss Utah and attendants. A float of Utah's Best Crop (Children) and of course a Mock Indian Battle. The Indians came on their ponies. They tried to grab the Women and children while on the run. These were running for the fort to get away from the indians. All of the time the men were shooting at the indians and trying to kill or frighten them away. All wore old time clothes. It was exciting and seemed to be so real that I often wondered if it were not real instead of a mock battle. So did lots of other young folks. After it was over we laughed about it but at the time I am sure the young folks really were frightened. Before the parade boys and young men serenaded the folks in the town. Usually they blackened their faces and pretended to be negros. They played banjos and sang old time songs. They would stop at each house and sing. Folks always brought out treats. Often cake or cookies and beer.. Sometimes the beer was Stout and the boys would drink more than they should but usually it was all in fun.
Brigham Young always stopped off at Fairview on his way to St. George to his winter home. He and his family and a group of church leaders would stop with the Bishop and the main Church leaders of the community, while the others including the young folks would camp in the Tithing yard. Annie always went with other girls to visit with the girls of the Company. President Young's daughters often gave the girls a taste of Brigham's wine. Annie often told of this when she was older.
As she grew a little older her sister Celestia met and became engaged to a young sheep man. They were brought together when her brother Peter brought Amasa to his home for a visit. Peter was working for Amasa at the time. Altho Celestia consented to the marriage she had a premonition that she would not live to marry him. She told Annie this and said that Annie should marry him. Celestia died as she had predicted. After the burial Amasa left to go back to his sheep. It was over a year before he came back. Then he fell in love with Annie. He asked her to marry him. She consented. Before the marriage date she took Rheumatic fever but insisted on going thru with the marriage. She was taken on a bed in a wagon to the Temple at Manti 29 miles to the South. There they were married but Annie insisted that Celestia be sealed to Amasa as his First wife then she was sealed as his second wife. Annie was sixteen at the time of the marriage.
I understand that Amasa and Annie started housekeeping in a granary while the house was being built. The house was of brick. Two rooms downstairs and one upstairs. It really was only a half house as it was planned to be double that size. Just half built at that time. In fact it was never finished. They lived in this house for about seventeen years and then it was traded on and for a large stone house a block west. This made the home a block near to Annie's mother who was getting old and sick. The walls of this house were about 15 inches thick and the building was warm enough to keep flowers from freezing in the winter even in rooms not heated.
To Amasa and Annie were born 10 children. 7 boys and 3 girls. Amasa kept the sheep until about the time of Cleveland's administration and the panic at that time made them almost worthless. He managed to sell them for enough to pay off his debts and then became a farmer to make a living.
Life in Fairview with her husband was the usual life of the time. Amasa was away most of the time while he owned the sheep. In the Desert in the winter and in the Mountains in the Summer but the Panic at the time of the Cleveland Administration. When he sold his sheep he gradually bought land until he was one of the prosperous farmers. They saw hard times too. He milked cows. Raised hay and grain. In the Fall he cut grain for the neighbors and with his neighbors got a threshing machine and threshed grain for themselves and neighbors. Annie raised chickens and sold the eggs. However I have seen the times when the price of eggs was so low that the merchants would not buy them. They worth not enough to pay the freight to Salt Lake. One year they could not get any money for the Children's Christmas presents. Still life was good in the main.
When Annie's mother died Amasa went to Wyoming and bought a ranch there in 1909. In the Spring of 1910 he moved his farm machinery, Horses and cows to Wyoming by Emigrant car on the train. Then he came back and took Annie and the Girls back with him to Wyoming.
Life here was different. They were pioneering again. No phone. No Electricity. The Ranch was a long way from the Railroad. The roads were just dirt hardly graded. It was 4 miles to the postoffice and the nearest country store. It was one-half mile to the nearest place they could get the mail on the route by Star Route. The house was an old log one. Four rooms in a row, with a little lean-to at the back of one end. Old log Shop and Horse Barns. For the cows Rock Sheds with Straw roofs. Corrals and sheds full of manure and leaking. Even the walls of the sheds were falling down. Only field broken up and that full of wild oats. Loose cobble rocks over most of the farm land. Alkali was bad. Brush had to be grubbed out. Amasa and the boys worked all day doing that. Then all including Annie and the girls burning brush most of the night so that they could get the land in shape to farm. Cows had to be milked, the milk separated and churned and the butter sold; Pigs were raised and killed, the meat sold at Evanston 36 miles away or taken to Cumberland and peddled to the miners. The life that she led was that of a Pioneer and cannot be separated from that of her family. The Story of that itself would be a Saga.
Just a few of the high points of that life:
The only lights were Coal Oil Lanterns for outside and Coal Oil Lamps on the walls for the house. A long homemade table in the kitchen with a long bench at the back for the children. Chairs for the Ends and Front. Most of the dishes were enameled wear. All buildings were of log and old. Amasa with his boys cut and hauled logs from the mountains and built a big barn for the hay. A granary had to be built for the grain grown on the place. Rocky Mountain Spotted Tick fever struck most of the family but still the work must go on. The winters were cold and hard. The winds bad and drifted big snow drifts. The snow deep. School off about 4 or 5 miles. Children had to go anyway. To list even the most of the things that had to be done and were done would take pages but all were overcome. Amasa and Annie worked together with the children. As the land came into production the work did not diminish but times got better. They managed to get one of the first Model T's and in 1916 got a Dodge.
"I think Black Nellie only had this one colt. Black Nellie when I knew her was one of two to make up my grandmother's private buggy team. Her teammate was "Fanny" a bay spotted Leopard. Black Nellie of course had black spots. So they were not a matched team in color but in action they were superb.
During WW1 grand mother was named as the Ladies Chairman of the Red Cross for the State of Wyoming. So with her children almost raised she traveled extensively for the Red Cross for a few years and this was her private buggy team. I still remember that they were the only team on the place that used "hip breeching harnesses."
These Mares would have stood 15-2 or so. I don't recall anyone ever riding these two mares under saddle but we kids rode them bareback all the time. By now cars had come to Wyo. for summer use and the buggy team did not get used so much.
Grandmother would drive to Carter or Evanston where she would take the train; picking up the buggy team to come back home. Bridger Valley did not have good roads during this period."
In the meantime Annie went to Relief Society and Teaching in a one horse buggy. She had to travel miles for the visiting. In 1914 she was set apart as 2nd Counselor in the Relief Society and in July 1918 as President of the Milbourne Ward Relief Society. She held this office until 3d Sept. 1923.
In the meantime there was the problem of sending children to school. Sons Amasa and Arthur to Logan. Arthur on a mission to France. The War and the Draft to take the boys. The Flu with everybody in Bridger Valley down at one time.
However work and time took its toll and so in the Fall of 1923 Amasa moved her back to Utah. The first year she lived with her son Emery who was married. The next spring they returned to Wyoming but again returned to live in Wales where her Sister Mary lived. Next move was to Mt. Pleasant where Amasa bought a Brick House.
Amasa Died 5 Jan. 1930.
Annie became ill in the fall of 1931 and passed away 24 Nov. 1931. She was 58 years old at the time. She was beloved by her family and all that knew her. Thus Ended the Life of one of the Mothers in Zion.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Annie Elisaberh Hansen wife of Amasa Davidson
1
Life History of Annie Elisabeth Hansen Davidson
by her daughter Beatrice Davidson Wayman
Annie Elizabeth Hansen was born at Fairview, Sanpete, Utah, on 27 May 1873. She is the daughter of Peter Niels Hansen and Maria Jensen. Her father, Peter, was born in Store Valby, Copenhagen, Denmark, and her mother, Maria, was born in Sondersted, Holbek, Copenhagen Denmark. Annie was the sixth of nine children and had four brothers, but only three living, as her brother Joseph lived only one year; and four sisters. The older siblings were: Mary, Peter Henry, Joseph, Emma, and Celestia; the younger siblings were James Edward, Nels, and Inger Maria.
Annie was born in a log house which had four room and a hall on the main level, with some bedrooms upstairs.
As a child, Annie wore wooden shoes and when she would go to the store, a man would take her shoes from her and put them on his hands and would dance around the store with them, If she could notice that the man was in the store before she went in, she would take her wooden shoes off and leave them by the door. The man would then go outside and get her shoes and dance around with them causing little Annie to cry and beg to get her shoes back.
Annie was baptized 4 September 1881, by Christian Peterson at Fairview, Utah, when she was eight years old.
Annie started school when she was six years old but she went only to about the fourth grade as her eyes were too poor for her to continue her studies. Later when she was older and had a pair of glasses, she studied by herself. She had a notebook in which she wrote words she couldn=t spell and she studied arithmetic until she was better at it than her children who were going to school.
When Annie was small, the Indians were hostile and would steal the children if they got a chance. Many times Annie=s mother, Maria, would hide her children in the wheat bin all day while she worked. She would caution the children to be very still so the Indians would not know they were at home, but would think that they were at the barricade.
Annie worked very hard when she was young and had the strength of a man. She would carry hundred pounds sacks of flour upstairs when her father brought them home form the grist mill. She would wash clothes all day on the washboard and then walk three miles to tend her sister Mary=s children. One evening about dusk, as she was on her way to her sister=s home, she could see some Indians coming toward her. She knew they were not very friendly and being all alone and a long way from help, she was terrified for fear they would capture her. She surely had her prayers answered that night as she was prompted to crawl under a bridge and hide until the Indians tired of looking for her and went on their way.
Among the other things that Annie did as a girl was to help wash and dye the wool after her mother had sheared the sheep. She would then help make the wool into yarn, the yarn into cloth and then make her clothes from the cloth.
Annie=s sister Celestia, who was two years older than she, was engaged to marry a young fellow named Amasa Davidson, who had a job herding sheep. Celestia would often cry and tell Annie that she knew she would never live long enough to be married but that Annie would marry her sweetheart. Celestia was not sick at this time but she just had a strong premonition that she would not live long enough to be married. And it happened as Celestia predicted. Celestia did die and sometime later Amasa Davidson asked Annie to be his wife. Just before they were to be married however, Annie became ill with rheumatic fever and was confined to her bed. Annie=s faith in our Heavenly Father=s power to heal was great however, and she believed that she would be made well if she could be baptized for her health. A bed was made for Annie in a covered wagon and Annie and Amasa accompanied by Annie=s older sister Mary (Mamie), traveled about thirty miles to the Manti Temple. After Annie was baptized, her health was greatly improved and Annie and Amasa Davidson were married while they were still at the Temple in Manti. They were married 12 June 1889 by Daniel H. Wells. Annie was sixteen years old at the time of her marriage. Before they were married however, Amasa was sealed the Annie=s sister Celestia who had been his first love. Mary, the older sister of Annie and Celestia, acted as proxy for the sealing of Amasa and Celestia.
Annie was gifted to know when certain things would happen. On nine different occasions she had a premonition of the impending death of one of her Sister Emma=s infant children and was able to go to her sister=s home and be with her when it happened. She would tell her husband or her mother that she had to go to her sister Emma=s house as one of Emma=s babies was going to die.. Emma had twelve children; Eight of them died when they were infants; one lived until it was about two years old and only three of the twelve grew to maturity and were married.
It was granted to Annie to know the hour that her father would pass away although he wasn=t very ill at the time. Because she knew when it would happen, she was able to go and be with her mother at the time. Her father, Peter Niels Hansen, passed away 14 February 1895; Annie was 21 years old at the time. Peter=s oldest child, Mary, was 31 and his youngest child, Inger Marie, was 12 years old.
In 1909, Annie=s mother, Maria died. Maria and another young woman had come from Denmark to America as traveling companions to two older ladies. On the trip across the Atlantic the ship was becalmed for an extended period of time; water and supplies ran short, and the two older ladies died at sea. It is said that the ship=s Captain then sent the ladies money bact to Europe leaving Maria and her friend without any means of support. The two of them made their way to where the Church wagon trains were organized There the immigrating company was met by service missionaries who had been called to take their teams and wagon to bring the immigrants to Utah. There she met Peter and traveled across the plains in his company. They were married that October. The year after Marie=s passing, in May 1910,Annie, Amasa and their family moved to Ft. Bridger Wyo. where they bought a ranch.
While she lived in Ft. Bridger, Annie worked in the Relief Society. While was a visiting teacher and had to go twelve miles with a horse and buggy to do her visiting. In Sept. 1914, shw was set apart as 2nd counselor in the Relief Society and in July, 1918, shw was set apart as president of the Relief Society in the Milburne Ward. And held that office until 2 Sept. 1923. By way of explanation, Annie and her family lived about 3 miles fro Ft. Bridger which was their mailing address. At Ft. Bridger was a store, post office, hotel, blacksmith shop and of course the well know fort. named for Jim Bridger. There was no L.D.S. ward there, however, so Annie and her family went to church at Milburne where the closest ward was located. Milburne Ward was in the Lyman Stake and was about 3 2 miles from the Davidson Farm. Milburne was settled and laid out by Amasa=s oldest brother Hans T. Davidson. There is prophecy concerning the Milburne Ward which was actually fulfilled. The prophecy was given during a testimony meeting by Florence Kilburne whose husband was later bishop of the Milburne Ward and whose daughter, Sylvia later married Annie=s son Amber Davidson. Florence Kilburne spoke in tongues and was then gifted to interpret what she had said. She told the people that if they didn=t live better and cease to be so indifferent to the work of the lord that the Milburne Ward would be taken away and the people would have to go elsewhere to church. Some years later this prophecy came true and Milburne Ward was dissolved.
In 1918, Annie Davidson was asked to be president of the Red Cross in her district, and held that position at eh same time she was president of the Relief Society. She had to drive 3 2 miles with a horse and buggy to both her relief Society and Red Cross Meetings.
Annie did a great deal of knitting. She knit stockings for her ten children and husband and also for the Red Cross. She also did a lot of crocheting and claimed that the slips, undershirts and panties, that she made weren=t finished if she didn=t put a crochet edge on them.
During the last years that Annie lived in Wyoming her health wasn=t very good so on the 14 October 1923, she moved to Ephraim, Utah, where her son Emery lived. Six of her ten children wer now married and one son was working away from home. The three other children , Vennes, Vay Anna and 14 year old Kermit went with their parents to Ephraim, where the family stayed for the winter at the home of their son Emery. In the Spring, the family returned to their home in Wyoming. The next four and one half winters Annie Davidson lived in Wales, Utah, where her sister Mary lived. She held various positions in the Relief Society while she lived at Wales. In 1925 shw as sustained as 2nt counselor and in 1928, she was class leader and visiting teacher.
On 23 Feb. 1929, she and her husband moved to Mt. Pleasant, Utah, where they had purchased a red, brick home. Less that a year after they moved to Mt. Pleasant her husband became very ill, so her daughter , Beatrice, with her family moved from her hove in Evanston, Wyo. on 1 Nov. 1929 to help take care of him. Amasa Davidson did not improve, however. Amasa Davidson died 3 Jan. 1930. and was buried at Mt. Pleasant, Utah.
Annie Davidson continued to live at Mt. Pleasant, Utah shw was active in the relief Society and did temple work at the Manti Temple. Her daughter, Beatrice, and her family lived with her until September 1931, when they moved to Molen, Emery Co. Utah. Annie Davidson lived alone for only a few weeks after her daughter, Beatrice , moved however, and then she became so ill that her daughter left her family in their new home and returned to take care of her mother. Annie became worse and was taken to the Holy Cross Hospital for an operation. She did not recover and passed away on Nov. 24, 1931 at the age of 58. Her daughter, Beatrice went with her mother to the hospital at Salt Lake and accompanied her Mother=s body back to Mt. Pleasant on Thanksgiving Day. Annie Davidson was buried beside her husband in the Mr. Pleasant cemetery.
Annie=s youngest son, Kermit, was missionary in the Norther States at the time of his mother=s death but his mother had told him that she did not want him to return home in case she did not recover as she knew he would not return to finish his mission if he were to come home.
Annie Davidson=s life was spent in service to others ans she was dearly beloved by all. She had a very sunny disposition and always seemed to have a happy smile. She loved music and dancing and encouraged her children to study music also. She left a posterity of ten children and thirty-four grandchildren.
Life History of Annie Elisabeth Hansen Davidson
by her daughter Beatrice Davidson Wayman
Annie Elizabeth Hansen was born at Fairview, Sanpete, Utah, on 27 May 1873. She is the daughter of Peter Niels Hansen and Maria Jensen. Her father, Peter, was born in Store Valby, Copenhagen, Denmark, and her mother, Maria, was born in Sondersted, Holbek, Copenhagen Denmark. Annie was the sixth of nine children and had four brothers, but only three living, as her brother Joseph lived only one year; and four sisters. The older siblings were: Mary, Peter Henry, Joseph, Emma, and Celestia; the younger siblings were James Edward, Nels, and Inger Maria.
Annie was born in a log house which had four room and a hall on the main level, with some bedrooms upstairs.
As a child, Annie wore wooden shoes and when she would go to the store, a man would take her shoes from her and put them on his hands and would dance around the store with them, If she could notice that the man was in the store before she went in, she would take her wooden shoes off and leave them by the door. The man would then go outside and get her shoes and dance around with them causing little Annie to cry and beg to get her shoes back.
Annie was baptized 4 September 1881, by Christian Peterson at Fairview, Utah, when she was eight years old.
Annie started school when she was six years old but she went only to about the fourth grade as her eyes were too poor for her to continue her studies. Later when she was older and had a pair of glasses, she studied by herself. She had a notebook in which she wrote words she couldn=t spell and she studied arithmetic until she was better at it than her children who were going to school.
When Annie was small, the Indians were hostile and would steal the children if they got a chance. Many times Annie=s mother, Maria, would hide her children in the wheat bin all day while she worked. She would caution the children to be very still so the Indians would not know they were at home, but would think that they were at the barricade.
Annie worked very hard when she was young and had the strength of a man. She would carry hundred pounds sacks of flour upstairs when her father brought them home form the grist mill. She would wash clothes all day on the washboard and then walk three miles to tend her sister Mary=s children. One evening about dusk, as she was on her way to her sister=s home, she could see some Indians coming toward her. She knew they were not very friendly and being all alone and a long way from help, she was terrified for fear they would capture her. She surely had her prayers answered that night as she was prompted to crawl under a bridge and hide until the Indians tired of looking for her and went on their way.
Among the other things that Annie did as a girl was to help wash and dye the wool after her mother had sheared the sheep. She would then help make the wool into yarn, the yarn into cloth and then make her clothes from the cloth.
Annie=s sister Celestia, who was two years older than she, was engaged to marry a young fellow named Amasa Davidson, who had a job herding sheep. Celestia would often cry and tell Annie that she knew she would never live long enough to be married but that Annie would marry her sweetheart. Celestia was not sick at this time but she just had a strong premonition that she would not live long enough to be married. And it happened as Celestia predicted. Celestia did die and sometime later Amasa Davidson asked Annie to be his wife. Just before they were to be married however, Annie became ill with rheumatic fever and was confined to her bed. Annie=s faith in our Heavenly Father=s power to heal was great however, and she believed that she would be made well if she could be baptized for her health. A bed was made for Annie in a covered wagon and Annie and Amasa accompanied by Annie=s older sister Mary (Mamie), traveled about thirty miles to the Manti Temple. After Annie was baptized, her health was greatly improved and Annie and Amasa Davidson were married while they were still at the Temple in Manti. They were married 12 June 1889 by Daniel H. Wells. Annie was sixteen years old at the time of her marriage. Before they were married however, Amasa was sealed the Annie=s sister Celestia who had been his first love. Mary, the older sister of Annie and Celestia, acted as proxy for the sealing of Amasa and Celestia.
Annie was gifted to know when certain things would happen. On nine different occasions she had a premonition of the impending death of one of her Sister Emma=s infant children and was able to go to her sister=s home and be with her when it happened. She would tell her husband or her mother that she had to go to her sister Emma=s house as one of Emma=s babies was going to die.. Emma had twelve children; Eight of them died when they were infants; one lived until it was about two years old and only three of the twelve grew to maturity and were married.
It was granted to Annie to know the hour that her father would pass away although he wasn=t very ill at the time. Because she knew when it would happen, she was able to go and be with her mother at the time. Her father, Peter Niels Hansen, passed away 14 February 1895; Annie was 21 years old at the time. Peter=s oldest child, Mary, was 31 and his youngest child, Inger Marie, was 12 years old.
In 1909, Annie=s mother, Maria died. Maria and another young woman had come from Denmark to America as traveling companions to two older ladies. On the trip across the Atlantic the ship was becalmed for an extended period of time; water and supplies ran short, and the two older ladies died at sea. It is said that the ship=s Captain then sent the ladies money bact to Europe leaving Maria and her friend without any means of support. The two of them made their way to where the Church wagon trains were organized There the immigrating company was met by service missionaries who had been called to take their teams and wagon to bring the immigrants to Utah. There she met Peter and traveled across the plains in his company. They were married that October. The year after Marie=s passing, in May 1910,Annie, Amasa and their family moved to Ft. Bridger Wyo. where they bought a ranch.
While she lived in Ft. Bridger, Annie worked in the Relief Society. While was a visiting teacher and had to go twelve miles with a horse and buggy to do her visiting. In Sept. 1914, shw was set apart as 2nd counselor in the Relief Society and in July, 1918, shw was set apart as president of the Relief Society in the Milburne Ward. And held that office until 2 Sept. 1923. By way of explanation, Annie and her family lived about 3 miles fro Ft. Bridger which was their mailing address. At Ft. Bridger was a store, post office, hotel, blacksmith shop and of course the well know fort. named for Jim Bridger. There was no L.D.S. ward there, however, so Annie and her family went to church at Milburne where the closest ward was located. Milburne Ward was in the Lyman Stake and was about 3 2 miles from the Davidson Farm. Milburne was settled and laid out by Amasa=s oldest brother Hans T. Davidson. There is prophecy concerning the Milburne Ward which was actually fulfilled. The prophecy was given during a testimony meeting by Florence Kilburne whose husband was later bishop of the Milburne Ward and whose daughter, Sylvia later married Annie=s son Amber Davidson. Florence Kilburne spoke in tongues and was then gifted to interpret what she had said. She told the people that if they didn=t live better and cease to be so indifferent to the work of the lord that the Milburne Ward would be taken away and the people would have to go elsewhere to church. Some years later this prophecy came true and Milburne Ward was dissolved.
In 1918, Annie Davidson was asked to be president of the Red Cross in her district, and held that position at eh same time she was president of the Relief Society. She had to drive 3 2 miles with a horse and buggy to both her relief Society and Red Cross Meetings.
Annie did a great deal of knitting. She knit stockings for her ten children and husband and also for the Red Cross. She also did a lot of crocheting and claimed that the slips, undershirts and panties, that she made weren=t finished if she didn=t put a crochet edge on them.
During the last years that Annie lived in Wyoming her health wasn=t very good so on the 14 October 1923, she moved to Ephraim, Utah, where her son Emery lived. Six of her ten children wer now married and one son was working away from home. The three other children , Vennes, Vay Anna and 14 year old Kermit went with their parents to Ephraim, where the family stayed for the winter at the home of their son Emery. In the Spring, the family returned to their home in Wyoming. The next four and one half winters Annie Davidson lived in Wales, Utah, where her sister Mary lived. She held various positions in the Relief Society while she lived at Wales. In 1925 shw as sustained as 2nt counselor and in 1928, she was class leader and visiting teacher.
On 23 Feb. 1929, she and her husband moved to Mt. Pleasant, Utah, where they had purchased a red, brick home. Less that a year after they moved to Mt. Pleasant her husband became very ill, so her daughter , Beatrice, with her family moved from her hove in Evanston, Wyo. on 1 Nov. 1929 to help take care of him. Amasa Davidson did not improve, however. Amasa Davidson died 3 Jan. 1930. and was buried at Mt. Pleasant, Utah.
Annie Davidson continued to live at Mt. Pleasant, Utah shw was active in the relief Society and did temple work at the Manti Temple. Her daughter, Beatrice, and her family lived with her until September 1931, when they moved to Molen, Emery Co. Utah. Annie Davidson lived alone for only a few weeks after her daughter, Beatrice , moved however, and then she became so ill that her daughter left her family in their new home and returned to take care of her mother. Annie became worse and was taken to the Holy Cross Hospital for an operation. She did not recover and passed away on Nov. 24, 1931 at the age of 58. Her daughter, Beatrice went with her mother to the hospital at Salt Lake and accompanied her Mother=s body back to Mt. Pleasant on Thanksgiving Day. Annie Davidson was buried beside her husband in the Mr. Pleasant cemetery.
Annie=s youngest son, Kermit, was missionary in the Norther States at the time of his mother=s death but his mother had told him that she did not want him to return home in case she did not recover as she knew he would not return to finish his mission if he were to come home.
Annie Davidson=s life was spent in service to others ans she was dearly beloved by all. She had a very sunny disposition and always seemed to have a happy smile. She loved music and dancing and encouraged her children to study music also. She left a posterity of ten children and thirty-four grandchildren.
Peter Niels Hansen, From Denmark to Sanpete County
W welcome other histories of Peter Neils Hansen and of his children and other descendants and will be more than happy to post them on this or other blogs.
PEDER NEILS HANSEN
Verla Davidson (wife of Raymond Davidson, who is son of Amasa A. Davidson) is entering this on the computer July 6, 1990. She found three versions of this history, which Raymond and Verla had copied from records of Amasa A. Davidson years before. Two of these versions are close enough so that they have been combined into the following version (Version 1), and the third (Version 2) is entered separately because
it is quite different from the other two.
The first paragraph of the first version has been deleted but copied back in by HLD at the end of the first version for reference's sake. HLD
VERSION 1:
"Compiled, from old records and bits of memory of those who knew him, By Fenno and Amy Casto (great grand-daughter), August 21, 1933."
"Copy of material supplied by Mary Lamb to her niece May Mower of Fairview. This was supplied me(Who--Amasa A. Davidson?) by Amy Casto her daughter. December 4, 1949"
A TRIBUTE TO AND BRIEF HISTORY OF PEDER NEILS HANSEN
June 9, 1833
BORN ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, June 9, 1933
Peder Niels Hansen's mother, Inger Pederson (or Pedersen), was of French Descent. She was married at the age of twenty-five in the year 1829 to Niels Hansen who was then twenty-six. They were both born in Denmark and lived there until Neils died in 1853 and his wife with the children joined the Latter Day Saints church in 1855 and shortly thereafter came to America, arriving in the latter part of 1855 or the early part of 1856.
Inger Hansen and her five children: Christine twenty-five; Peder Neils Hansen, nearly twenty four; Anna, nineteen; Bertha, sixteen; and Emma (listed Inger in some records), ten, went right to Iowa where they joined with the body of the church. They traveled from Iowa to Florence, Nebraska, a distance of three hundred miles, with handcarts in the last Handcart company. [if this is accurate then they had come form Europe on the ship Horizon, and they traveled to Nebraska with the Martin handcart company] At Florence the mother, Inger Hansen, and her daughter, Christine, died, It seems to be a combination of good judgment and inspiration that Peder and his three younger sisters stayed the winter in Nebraska and came to Utah the following year 1857
Upon their arrival in Utah the four children were given homes with different people, two of which we have no record. The other two, Emma and Peder Neils, went to live at the homes of President Brigham Young and Lorenzo Young. Peder Neils only stayed with Lorenzo Young a short time. He left him and located in Ephraim in the year 1858. Then in 1860 he was called to help in the settling of North Bend (later Fairview). He helped in the building of the fort; took part in the Black Hawk War; and then bought him a farm, built a dugout and farmed until he, with others, were called in the early part of 1862 to take their ox teams and go to Far West and meet a party of emigrants.
It was on this trip that he met his future wife, Marie Jensen. She was the Daughter of Hendrick Jensen and Maren Gotlip. Maren Gotlip was a foundling on the doorstep of the Gotlips, who were wealthy people. With her was a note saying that the mother would call later and claim the baby (girl). The clothes in which the child was found indicated that she was from a family of the better class.
The mother never called to claim the baby so Maren was legally adopted by the Gotlips. In 1836 Maren was married to Hendrick Jensen and to this union was born eleven children, the oldest of which was Marie. In 1851 Hendrick joined the church and in 1852 his wife came into the fold. At this time the Gotlips claimed such an act on the part of Maren was a disgrace so they disowned her, and she changed her maiden name from Gotlip to Johansen. In 1853 Marie joined the church and a few years later came to America. Her parents also migrated to America (Utah, according to another record) a little later (a few years later, according to above-mentioned record). Marie came to America as a companion to a rich old lady who also had joined the church. On the way over Cholera broke out on the ship and the old lady contracted it and died. Due to lack of wind the ship, a sailing vessel, was becalmed and they were eleven weeks on the ocean. They ran out of food and water and all they had to live on for days was ship biscuits with no water to drink.
When Marie finally arrived in America she was entirely alone except for a girlfriend she met on the ship by the name of Anna (Anne, according to other record). These two made their way to Missouri where they joined the Emigrant band that Peder Neils Hansen had come to meet. When Peder Neils saw Marie, he asked her to ride in his wagon to Utah. She said that she would but also told him to let the older ones and children ride. She and her friend Anne walked all the way across the plains. They had but one pair of shoes each so they walked barefoot and carried the shoes. When they arrived in Salt Lake City, Marie and Anna were sent to Fairview with Peder Neils Hansen. They were the only ones of the Company to be sent to Fairview and when they arrived they knew no one and had no place to go.
Peder Neils was a very kind and sympathetic young man as was his friend Joseph Biswick. Each young man had his little farm and a dugout to live in, so they offered to marry these two girls and give them a home, such as it was. Peder Neils Hansen married Marie, and Joseph Biswick married Anna.
Being asked years later if she just married Peder for a home, Marie answered, "What chance did I have to think of love? I had left my lover in the old country to join the church and come to Zion. And here I was without a home or friends, and so when Peder offered to share his with me, and knowing as I did from my short acquaintance with him that he was a nice and respectable young man, I was thrilled to accept his proposal. And it was after we were married that we thought about love and came to know that we really loved each other."
The dugout in which Marie went to live in was oblong in shape, having four divisions or rooms in a line. It ran East and West with the doorway at the West and a fireplace at the East. On each side of the fireplace were two openings that served as windows, and the roof was made of mud. The East room was kitchen and living room, the next were bedrooms and the West one a sort of storage place. To get in and out of the dugout they had to go up and down dirt steps.
The winter during which their first child was born was a very rainy one. It started raining in January and continued to rain throughout the month of February. The baby came on the tenth of February 1863, and at that time the dugout was almost a pool of water caused by the rain leaking thru the roof and running down the steps. They dug a hole at the bottom of the steps for the water to accumulate in, and as the hole would fill up the nurse, Annie Cox, and Peder Neils would take turns carrying the water out; but the steps soon became too slick to get up and down, so one of them would have to stand at the bottom and dip the water up while the other one would take it and empty it out.
While crossing the plains Peder Neils had killed a buffalo and had the hide made into a robe. Annie Cox said that this robe, which was used to cover over the mother and babe to keep them dry, was the only thing that saved their lives. The baby was a girl and they named her Mary.
About a year and a half later, on September 24, 1865, a son was also born in the dugout, and they named him Peter Henry. About a year later they started building their first house. It was made of adobe and it had four rooms with a hall running thru the house from the east to the west, leaving two rooms on each side. Due to the fact that they had to make and dry their own adobe bricks and make all their lumber by hand, it took over two years to complete the house. During this time another boy was born (August 28, 1867) in the dugout. They called him Joseph.
When the house was completed they moved in and lived there until they died. In this home six more children were born. Emma, February 27th, 1869; Celestia, April 23, 1871; Annie Elizabeth, May 27th, 1873; James Edward, July 3, 1876; Nels, April 8, 1881, and Inger Marie, March 7, 1882.
Peder Neils and his devoted wife were faithful church workers all their life and they always had time to attend to their religious duties even though they had to work long and hard on their farm. Peder Neils Hansen was very active in civic and social affairs of the town and contributed greatly to the success of its several enterprises. He helped in the building and establishing of the co-op store of which he was a Director. He was also a member of the City Council and took a very active part in school matters. In brief, it may be said that he was an outstanding citizen, an able leader and an ardent worker.
His useful life came to an end February the fourteenth 1895 and his wife passed on to join him in the great beyond fourteen years later on the seventh of September. Thus ends the record of a noble character and his help mate.
Notes by Amasa A. Davidson
The dugout mentioned was built half underground and half of or as a log cabin. It had a dirt roof.
****When the indians were on the warpath and the people were called into the fort, Marie would not go but stayed in the dugout which Peder locked so that it would look as if no one were there. He would take his turn standing guard at the fort and then come home to his wife. Marie spun yarn from wool and wove it into cloth for clothes. She had a big dye kettle in one corner of the kitchen which was used for dying cloths, for heating water to wash and for soap making. In later years she wove blankets, and carpets but she had two spinning wheels which she kept till she died.****When Peder met Marie at the Missouri he met and asked Marie to ride with him to Utah. She said Yes which meant that she would marry him when she got to Utah but she walked all the way and would not be with him in order that the others might not talk about them. She had him haul# old folks. ****From old friends I learned that Peder was always thoughtful and considerate of his wife. But she would never let him tell her that he loved her. She was bitter because her sweetheart threw her down when she joined the Church. She told me that she was sorry that she had not been a more loving wife for Peder. ****Peder married a young girl as a polygamous wife in later years at the behest of the Bishop but when he took her to Marie he had to take the girl back to the Bishop. Marie refused to live in polygamy.****Peder brought his wife's folks to Utah. That is, paid their way.
"It is very appropriate at this time that we pay tribute to our progenitor, Peder Neils Hansen, who was born one hundred years ago last June the ninth, (1933); but it seems to me that the greatest tribute that we can pay to him would be to all raise our right hands as an evidence that we promise to strive harder to find the genealogies of his ancestors and do the work for them. This would be the supreme tribute that we could pay him at this time ".
VERSION 2:
A TRIBUTE TO, AND BRIEF HISTORY
1833 OF PEDER NIELS HANSEN, BORN ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO 1933 Given at 1933 reunion by Amy Mower Casto, his great granddaughter
NOTE: The following history, including corrections made in October, 1965, was obtained from:
(1) an interview of Amy Mower Casto and her husband, Fenno B. Casto, with Mary Hansen Lamb at her home in Wales, Utah in the spring of 1933;
(2) information given by Anne Elizabeth Hansen Davidson, the sixth child of Peder Niels Hansen (Anne Elizabeth was the founder of the Peder Niels Hansen Family Organization. In June, 1931, she invited Mary Mariah Mower - a granddaughter of Peder Niels - and her daughter, Amy Helena Mower, to her home and proposed the organizing of the reunion. She said, "Mary, I want you to head the reunion and push it because you have a deep feeling of the importance of doing genealogical and temple work for our ancestors". She added, "I wanted Amy here because after we are both gone, I'm sure she will continue this important work");
(3) information obtained from Carl Nielsen, the husband of Inger Marie Hansen, the youngest of Peder Niels Hansen's children;
(4) the family record of Henrick Jensen, the father of Peder Niels Hansen's wife, Marie Jensen;
(5) a visit in 1933, to the family home of Peder Niels and Marie Hansen, which had replaced their dugout home;
(6) records of original Danish research between September 1934, and June, 1936 by Thorvald Hatt (These original records and the book arranged therefrom by Ovena J. Ockey of the Genealogical Society of Utah are, in 1965, in the possession of Amy Mower Casto, Holladay, Utah.);
(7) pages 119 to 132 of the book, "These - Our Fathers - A Centennial History of Sanpete County 1849 to 1947" published by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Sanpete County in 1947.
Peder Niels Hansen's mother, Inger Pederson, said to be of French descent, was married at the age of twenty-five in the year 1829 to Niels Hansen who was then twenty-six. They were both born in Denmark and lived there until Niels died in 1853 and his wife with the children, joined the Latter-day Saints Church in August, 1855 and shortly thereafter came to America, arriving in the early part of 1856.
Inger Hansen and her five children, Christine, twenty-five; Peder Niels, nearly twenty-three; Anna, nineteen; Bertha, sixteen; and Inger, ten, went right to Iowa where they joined with the body of the Church. They traveled from Iowa to Florence, Nebraska, a distance of three hundred miles, with handcarts in the last Handcart Company. At Florence, the mother and her daughter, Christine, died and in the year
1857, the remainder of the family crossed the plains to Utah.
Upon their arrival in Utah, the four children were given homes with different people, two of which we have no record. The other two, Inger and Peder Niels, went to live at the homes of President Brigham Young and Lorenzo Young. Peder Niels only stayed with Lorenzo Young a short time. He left him and located in Ephraim in the year 1858. Then in 1860 he was called to help in the settling of Fairview. He helped in the building of the Fort; took part in the Black Hawk War, acquired a 20-acre farm and a city lot, and built a dugout on this lot.
In the early part of 1862, he, with others, was called to take their ox teams and go to Far West and meet a party of emigrants. It was on this trip that he met his future wife, Marie Jensen. She was the daughter of Hendrick Jensen and Maren Johansen. Maren Johansen was a daughter of Johan Gottlib Vilhelm, a foundling, adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Hans Jorgensen, thereby becoming Johan Gottlib Wilhelm Hansen.(The Danish researcher reports Johan was illegitimately born in Copenhagen about 1785 and his parents' names unknown, also that as a baby he was left outside the City Charity house from where he was obtained by the Hans Jorgensen family.)
Maren Johansen was born 30 Oct 1811 which was three years before her parents, Johan Gottlib Vilhelm Hansen and Dorthe Fredriksen were married. In 1836, Maren was married to Hendrick Jensen and to this union was born eleven children, the oldest of which was Marie. In 1851, Hendrick joined the Church and in 1852, his wife came into the fold.
In 1853, Marie joined the Church and a few years later came to America. Her parents also migrated to Utah a little later. Marie came to America as a companion to a rich old lady, who had also joined the Church. On the way over, cholera broke out on the ship and the old lady contracted it and died. Due to the lack of wind, the ship, a sailing vessel, was becalmed and they were eleven weeks on the ocean. They ran out of food and water and all they had to live on for days was ship biscuits with no water to drink. When Marie finally arrived in America, she was entirely alone except for a girl friend she met on the ship by the name of Anna. These two made their way to Missouri where they joined the emigrant band that Peder Niels Hansen and the others had come to meet. They walked all the way across the plains and carried their only pair of shoes. When they arrived in Salt Lake, Marie and Anna were sent to Fairview with Peder Niels. They were the only ones of the Company to be sent to Fairview and when they arrived, they knew no one and had no place to go.
Peder Niels was a very kind and sympathetic young man, as was his friend, Joseph Biswick. Each young man had his little farm in the big field on the south of Fairview and a dugout to live in, so they offered to marry these two girls and give them a home, such as it was. Peder Niels married Marie and Joseph married Anna.
Being asked years later if she just married Peder for a home, Marie answered,"What chance did I have to think of love? I left my lover in the old country to join the Church and come to Zion. And here I was, without a home or friends, and so when Peder offered to share his with me, and knowing as I did from my short acquaintance with him that he was a nice and respectable young man, I was thrilled to accept his proposal. And it was after we were married that we thought about love and came to know that we really loved each other."
The dugout, on the city lot, which Marie went to live in was oblong shape having four divisions or rooms in a line. It ran East and West with the doorway at the west end and a fireplace at the east. On each side of the fireplace were two openings that served as windows, and the roof was made of mud. The East room was kitchen and living room, the next were bedrooms and the West one a sort of storage room. To get in and out of the dugout, they had to go up and down dirt steps.
The winter, during which their first child was born, was a very rainy one. It started raining in January and continued to rain throughout the month of February. The baby came on the 10th of February and at that time the dugout was almost a pool of water caused by the rain leaking through the roof and running down the steps. They dug a hole at the bottom of the steps for the water to accumulate in and as the hole would fill up, the midwife, Annie Cox, and Peder Niels would take turns carrying the water out; but the steps soon became too slick to get up and down, so one of them would have to stand at the bottom of the steps and dip the water up, then the other would take it away and empty it.
While crossing the plains, Peder Niels had killed a buffalo and had the hide made into a robe. Annie Cox said that this robe, which was used to cover over the mother and babe to keep them dry was the only thing that saved their lives. The baby was a girl and they named her Mary.
A year from the following September, a son was also born in the dugout, and they named him Peter Henry. About a year later, they started building their first house on their lot at 2nd South and 1st West in Fairview. It was made of adobe and it had four downstairs rooms with a hall running through the house from the east to the west
leaving two large rooms on each side. It also had two attic bedrooms on the west side (the front). Due to the fact that they had to make and dry their own adobe bricks and cut all their lumber by hand, it took over two years to complete the house. During this time, another boy was born to them in the dugout. They called him Joseph.
When the home was completed, they moved in and lived there until they died. In this home, six more children were born. Two were boys: James Edward and Nels; and four were girls: Emma, Celestia, Annie Elizabeth and Inger Marie. Peder Niels and his energetic wife were devoted parents and faithful Church workers all their lives. They always had time to attend to their religious duties even though they had to work long and hard on their farm.
Marie became a very talented weaver. She carded wool and spun it into yarn. She dyed the yarn many bright colors and hues with dyes she made from barks and other available items. She used onion skins and saffron for yellow, timothy hay for brown; locally grown plants for indigo blue and various items for other color combinations. Then with her eight harness loom, which her husband made, she fashioned beautiful
blankets with woven-in designs. She made cloth as needed for clothing and also made some rag rugs for the home; but as their family grew, her blankets, for which there was a great demand, became a substantial source of income for the family.
Peder Niels was very active in civic and social affairs of the town and contributed greatly to the success of its several enterprises. He helped in the building and establishing of Zion Cooperative Mercantile Institution of Fairview, of which he was a Director. It is said that the Co-op started business in Peder Niels Hansen's home on May 10, 1869. He was also a member of the City Council and took a very active part in school matters. In brief, it may be said that he was an outstanding citizen, an able leader and an ardent worker.
His useful life came to an end February 14, 1895, and his wife passed on to join him in the great beyond fourteen years later on the 7th of September. Thus ends the record of a noble character and his helpmate.
From material accumulated over the years. Assembled and put into final form by Amy Mower and her husband, Fenno B. Casto. October, 1965.
PEDER NEILS HANSEN
Verla Davidson (wife of Raymond Davidson, who is son of Amasa A. Davidson) is entering this on the computer July 6, 1990. She found three versions of this history, which Raymond and Verla had copied from records of Amasa A. Davidson years before. Two of these versions are close enough so that they have been combined into the following version (Version 1), and the third (Version 2) is entered separately because
it is quite different from the other two.
The first paragraph of the first version has been deleted but copied back in by HLD at the end of the first version for reference's sake. HLD
VERSION 1:
"Compiled, from old records and bits of memory of those who knew him, By Fenno and Amy Casto (great grand-daughter), August 21, 1933."
"Copy of material supplied by Mary Lamb to her niece May Mower of Fairview. This was supplied me(Who--Amasa A. Davidson?) by Amy Casto her daughter. December 4, 1949"
A TRIBUTE TO AND BRIEF HISTORY OF PEDER NEILS HANSEN
June 9, 1833
BORN ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, June 9, 1933
Peder Niels Hansen's mother, Inger Pederson (or Pedersen), was of French Descent. She was married at the age of twenty-five in the year 1829 to Niels Hansen who was then twenty-six. They were both born in Denmark and lived there until Neils died in 1853 and his wife with the children joined the Latter Day Saints church in 1855 and shortly thereafter came to America, arriving in the latter part of 1855 or the early part of 1856.
Inger Hansen and her five children: Christine twenty-five; Peder Neils Hansen, nearly twenty four; Anna, nineteen; Bertha, sixteen; and Emma (listed Inger in some records), ten, went right to Iowa where they joined with the body of the church. They traveled from Iowa to Florence, Nebraska, a distance of three hundred miles, with handcarts in the last Handcart company. [if this is accurate then they had come form Europe on the ship Horizon, and they traveled to Nebraska with the Martin handcart company] At Florence the mother, Inger Hansen, and her daughter, Christine, died, It seems to be a combination of good judgment and inspiration that Peder and his three younger sisters stayed the winter in Nebraska and came to Utah the following year 1857
Upon their arrival in Utah the four children were given homes with different people, two of which we have no record. The other two, Emma and Peder Neils, went to live at the homes of President Brigham Young and Lorenzo Young. Peder Neils only stayed with Lorenzo Young a short time. He left him and located in Ephraim in the year 1858. Then in 1860 he was called to help in the settling of North Bend (later Fairview). He helped in the building of the fort; took part in the Black Hawk War; and then bought him a farm, built a dugout and farmed until he, with others, were called in the early part of 1862 to take their ox teams and go to Far West and meet a party of emigrants.
It was on this trip that he met his future wife, Marie Jensen. She was the Daughter of Hendrick Jensen and Maren Gotlip. Maren Gotlip was a foundling on the doorstep of the Gotlips, who were wealthy people. With her was a note saying that the mother would call later and claim the baby (girl). The clothes in which the child was found indicated that she was from a family of the better class.
The mother never called to claim the baby so Maren was legally adopted by the Gotlips. In 1836 Maren was married to Hendrick Jensen and to this union was born eleven children, the oldest of which was Marie. In 1851 Hendrick joined the church and in 1852 his wife came into the fold. At this time the Gotlips claimed such an act on the part of Maren was a disgrace so they disowned her, and she changed her maiden name from Gotlip to Johansen. In 1853 Marie joined the church and a few years later came to America. Her parents also migrated to America (Utah, according to another record) a little later (a few years later, according to above-mentioned record). Marie came to America as a companion to a rich old lady who also had joined the church. On the way over Cholera broke out on the ship and the old lady contracted it and died. Due to lack of wind the ship, a sailing vessel, was becalmed and they were eleven weeks on the ocean. They ran out of food and water and all they had to live on for days was ship biscuits with no water to drink.
When Marie finally arrived in America she was entirely alone except for a girlfriend she met on the ship by the name of Anna (Anne, according to other record). These two made their way to Missouri where they joined the Emigrant band that Peder Neils Hansen had come to meet. When Peder Neils saw Marie, he asked her to ride in his wagon to Utah. She said that she would but also told him to let the older ones and children ride. She and her friend Anne walked all the way across the plains. They had but one pair of shoes each so they walked barefoot and carried the shoes. When they arrived in Salt Lake City, Marie and Anna were sent to Fairview with Peder Neils Hansen. They were the only ones of the Company to be sent to Fairview and when they arrived they knew no one and had no place to go.
Peder Neils was a very kind and sympathetic young man as was his friend Joseph Biswick. Each young man had his little farm and a dugout to live in, so they offered to marry these two girls and give them a home, such as it was. Peder Neils Hansen married Marie, and Joseph Biswick married Anna.
Being asked years later if she just married Peder for a home, Marie answered, "What chance did I have to think of love? I had left my lover in the old country to join the church and come to Zion. And here I was without a home or friends, and so when Peder offered to share his with me, and knowing as I did from my short acquaintance with him that he was a nice and respectable young man, I was thrilled to accept his proposal. And it was after we were married that we thought about love and came to know that we really loved each other."
The dugout in which Marie went to live in was oblong in shape, having four divisions or rooms in a line. It ran East and West with the doorway at the West and a fireplace at the East. On each side of the fireplace were two openings that served as windows, and the roof was made of mud. The East room was kitchen and living room, the next were bedrooms and the West one a sort of storage place. To get in and out of the dugout they had to go up and down dirt steps.
The winter during which their first child was born was a very rainy one. It started raining in January and continued to rain throughout the month of February. The baby came on the tenth of February 1863, and at that time the dugout was almost a pool of water caused by the rain leaking thru the roof and running down the steps. They dug a hole at the bottom of the steps for the water to accumulate in, and as the hole would fill up the nurse, Annie Cox, and Peder Neils would take turns carrying the water out; but the steps soon became too slick to get up and down, so one of them would have to stand at the bottom and dip the water up while the other one would take it and empty it out.
While crossing the plains Peder Neils had killed a buffalo and had the hide made into a robe. Annie Cox said that this robe, which was used to cover over the mother and babe to keep them dry, was the only thing that saved their lives. The baby was a girl and they named her Mary.
About a year and a half later, on September 24, 1865, a son was also born in the dugout, and they named him Peter Henry. About a year later they started building their first house. It was made of adobe and it had four rooms with a hall running thru the house from the east to the west, leaving two rooms on each side. Due to the fact that they had to make and dry their own adobe bricks and make all their lumber by hand, it took over two years to complete the house. During this time another boy was born (August 28, 1867) in the dugout. They called him Joseph.
When the house was completed they moved in and lived there until they died. In this home six more children were born. Emma, February 27th, 1869; Celestia, April 23, 1871; Annie Elizabeth, May 27th, 1873; James Edward, July 3, 1876; Nels, April 8, 1881, and Inger Marie, March 7, 1882.
Peder Neils and his devoted wife were faithful church workers all their life and they always had time to attend to their religious duties even though they had to work long and hard on their farm. Peder Neils Hansen was very active in civic and social affairs of the town and contributed greatly to the success of its several enterprises. He helped in the building and establishing of the co-op store of which he was a Director. He was also a member of the City Council and took a very active part in school matters. In brief, it may be said that he was an outstanding citizen, an able leader and an ardent worker.
His useful life came to an end February the fourteenth 1895 and his wife passed on to join him in the great beyond fourteen years later on the seventh of September. Thus ends the record of a noble character and his help mate.
Notes by Amasa A. Davidson
The dugout mentioned was built half underground and half of or as a log cabin. It had a dirt roof.
****When the indians were on the warpath and the people were called into the fort, Marie would not go but stayed in the dugout which Peder locked so that it would look as if no one were there. He would take his turn standing guard at the fort and then come home to his wife. Marie spun yarn from wool and wove it into cloth for clothes. She had a big dye kettle in one corner of the kitchen which was used for dying cloths, for heating water to wash and for soap making. In later years she wove blankets, and carpets but she had two spinning wheels which she kept till she died.****When Peder met Marie at the Missouri he met and asked Marie to ride with him to Utah. She said Yes which meant that she would marry him when she got to Utah but she walked all the way and would not be with him in order that the others might not talk about them. She had him haul# old folks. ****From old friends I learned that Peder was always thoughtful and considerate of his wife. But she would never let him tell her that he loved her. She was bitter because her sweetheart threw her down when she joined the Church. She told me that she was sorry that she had not been a more loving wife for Peder. ****Peder married a young girl as a polygamous wife in later years at the behest of the Bishop but when he took her to Marie he had to take the girl back to the Bishop. Marie refused to live in polygamy.****Peder brought his wife's folks to Utah. That is, paid their way.
"It is very appropriate at this time that we pay tribute to our progenitor, Peder Neils Hansen, who was born one hundred years ago last June the ninth, (1933); but it seems to me that the greatest tribute that we can pay to him would be to all raise our right hands as an evidence that we promise to strive harder to find the genealogies of his ancestors and do the work for them. This would be the supreme tribute that we could pay him at this time ".
VERSION 2:
A TRIBUTE TO, AND BRIEF HISTORY
1833 OF PEDER NIELS HANSEN, BORN ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO 1933 Given at 1933 reunion by Amy Mower Casto, his great granddaughter
NOTE: The following history, including corrections made in October, 1965, was obtained from:
(1) an interview of Amy Mower Casto and her husband, Fenno B. Casto, with Mary Hansen Lamb at her home in Wales, Utah in the spring of 1933;
(2) information given by Anne Elizabeth Hansen Davidson, the sixth child of Peder Niels Hansen (Anne Elizabeth was the founder of the Peder Niels Hansen Family Organization. In June, 1931, she invited Mary Mariah Mower - a granddaughter of Peder Niels - and her daughter, Amy Helena Mower, to her home and proposed the organizing of the reunion. She said, "Mary, I want you to head the reunion and push it because you have a deep feeling of the importance of doing genealogical and temple work for our ancestors". She added, "I wanted Amy here because after we are both gone, I'm sure she will continue this important work");
(3) information obtained from Carl Nielsen, the husband of Inger Marie Hansen, the youngest of Peder Niels Hansen's children;
(4) the family record of Henrick Jensen, the father of Peder Niels Hansen's wife, Marie Jensen;
(5) a visit in 1933, to the family home of Peder Niels and Marie Hansen, which had replaced their dugout home;
(6) records of original Danish research between September 1934, and June, 1936 by Thorvald Hatt (These original records and the book arranged therefrom by Ovena J. Ockey of the Genealogical Society of Utah are, in 1965, in the possession of Amy Mower Casto, Holladay, Utah.);
(7) pages 119 to 132 of the book, "These - Our Fathers - A Centennial History of Sanpete County 1849 to 1947" published by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Sanpete County in 1947.
Peder Niels Hansen's mother, Inger Pederson, said to be of French descent, was married at the age of twenty-five in the year 1829 to Niels Hansen who was then twenty-six. They were both born in Denmark and lived there until Niels died in 1853 and his wife with the children, joined the Latter-day Saints Church in August, 1855 and shortly thereafter came to America, arriving in the early part of 1856.
Inger Hansen and her five children, Christine, twenty-five; Peder Niels, nearly twenty-three; Anna, nineteen; Bertha, sixteen; and Inger, ten, went right to Iowa where they joined with the body of the Church. They traveled from Iowa to Florence, Nebraska, a distance of three hundred miles, with handcarts in the last Handcart Company. At Florence, the mother and her daughter, Christine, died and in the year
1857, the remainder of the family crossed the plains to Utah.
Upon their arrival in Utah, the four children were given homes with different people, two of which we have no record. The other two, Inger and Peder Niels, went to live at the homes of President Brigham Young and Lorenzo Young. Peder Niels only stayed with Lorenzo Young a short time. He left him and located in Ephraim in the year 1858. Then in 1860 he was called to help in the settling of Fairview. He helped in the building of the Fort; took part in the Black Hawk War, acquired a 20-acre farm and a city lot, and built a dugout on this lot.
In the early part of 1862, he, with others, was called to take their ox teams and go to Far West and meet a party of emigrants. It was on this trip that he met his future wife, Marie Jensen. She was the daughter of Hendrick Jensen and Maren Johansen. Maren Johansen was a daughter of Johan Gottlib Vilhelm, a foundling, adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Hans Jorgensen, thereby becoming Johan Gottlib Wilhelm Hansen.(The Danish researcher reports Johan was illegitimately born in Copenhagen about 1785 and his parents' names unknown, also that as a baby he was left outside the City Charity house from where he was obtained by the Hans Jorgensen family.)
Maren Johansen was born 30 Oct 1811 which was three years before her parents, Johan Gottlib Vilhelm Hansen and Dorthe Fredriksen were married. In 1836, Maren was married to Hendrick Jensen and to this union was born eleven children, the oldest of which was Marie. In 1851, Hendrick joined the Church and in 1852, his wife came into the fold.
In 1853, Marie joined the Church and a few years later came to America. Her parents also migrated to Utah a little later. Marie came to America as a companion to a rich old lady, who had also joined the Church. On the way over, cholera broke out on the ship and the old lady contracted it and died. Due to the lack of wind, the ship, a sailing vessel, was becalmed and they were eleven weeks on the ocean. They ran out of food and water and all they had to live on for days was ship biscuits with no water to drink. When Marie finally arrived in America, she was entirely alone except for a girl friend she met on the ship by the name of Anna. These two made their way to Missouri where they joined the emigrant band that Peder Niels Hansen and the others had come to meet. They walked all the way across the plains and carried their only pair of shoes. When they arrived in Salt Lake, Marie and Anna were sent to Fairview with Peder Niels. They were the only ones of the Company to be sent to Fairview and when they arrived, they knew no one and had no place to go.
Peder Niels was a very kind and sympathetic young man, as was his friend, Joseph Biswick. Each young man had his little farm in the big field on the south of Fairview and a dugout to live in, so they offered to marry these two girls and give them a home, such as it was. Peder Niels married Marie and Joseph married Anna.
Being asked years later if she just married Peder for a home, Marie answered,"What chance did I have to think of love? I left my lover in the old country to join the Church and come to Zion. And here I was, without a home or friends, and so when Peder offered to share his with me, and knowing as I did from my short acquaintance with him that he was a nice and respectable young man, I was thrilled to accept his proposal. And it was after we were married that we thought about love and came to know that we really loved each other."
The dugout, on the city lot, which Marie went to live in was oblong shape having four divisions or rooms in a line. It ran East and West with the doorway at the west end and a fireplace at the east. On each side of the fireplace were two openings that served as windows, and the roof was made of mud. The East room was kitchen and living room, the next were bedrooms and the West one a sort of storage room. To get in and out of the dugout, they had to go up and down dirt steps.
The winter, during which their first child was born, was a very rainy one. It started raining in January and continued to rain throughout the month of February. The baby came on the 10th of February and at that time the dugout was almost a pool of water caused by the rain leaking through the roof and running down the steps. They dug a hole at the bottom of the steps for the water to accumulate in and as the hole would fill up, the midwife, Annie Cox, and Peder Niels would take turns carrying the water out; but the steps soon became too slick to get up and down, so one of them would have to stand at the bottom of the steps and dip the water up, then the other would take it away and empty it.
While crossing the plains, Peder Niels had killed a buffalo and had the hide made into a robe. Annie Cox said that this robe, which was used to cover over the mother and babe to keep them dry was the only thing that saved their lives. The baby was a girl and they named her Mary.
A year from the following September, a son was also born in the dugout, and they named him Peter Henry. About a year later, they started building their first house on their lot at 2nd South and 1st West in Fairview. It was made of adobe and it had four downstairs rooms with a hall running through the house from the east to the west
leaving two large rooms on each side. It also had two attic bedrooms on the west side (the front). Due to the fact that they had to make and dry their own adobe bricks and cut all their lumber by hand, it took over two years to complete the house. During this time, another boy was born to them in the dugout. They called him Joseph.
When the home was completed, they moved in and lived there until they died. In this home, six more children were born. Two were boys: James Edward and Nels; and four were girls: Emma, Celestia, Annie Elizabeth and Inger Marie. Peder Niels and his energetic wife were devoted parents and faithful Church workers all their lives. They always had time to attend to their religious duties even though they had to work long and hard on their farm.
Marie became a very talented weaver. She carded wool and spun it into yarn. She dyed the yarn many bright colors and hues with dyes she made from barks and other available items. She used onion skins and saffron for yellow, timothy hay for brown; locally grown plants for indigo blue and various items for other color combinations. Then with her eight harness loom, which her husband made, she fashioned beautiful
blankets with woven-in designs. She made cloth as needed for clothing and also made some rag rugs for the home; but as their family grew, her blankets, for which there was a great demand, became a substantial source of income for the family.
Peder Niels was very active in civic and social affairs of the town and contributed greatly to the success of its several enterprises. He helped in the building and establishing of Zion Cooperative Mercantile Institution of Fairview, of which he was a Director. It is said that the Co-op started business in Peder Niels Hansen's home on May 10, 1869. He was also a member of the City Council and took a very active part in school matters. In brief, it may be said that he was an outstanding citizen, an able leader and an ardent worker.
His useful life came to an end February 14, 1895, and his wife passed on to join him in the great beyond fourteen years later on the 7th of September. Thus ends the record of a noble character and his helpmate.
From material accumulated over the years. Assembled and put into final form by Amy Mower and her husband, Fenno B. Casto. October, 1965.
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