The following story is about my great-great grandmother, Magdalene Nielsen. It was written by May Nielsen Anderson in May 1968, with edits made by Frank Merrill Nielsen in 2018. Magdalene Rasmussen Nielsen was born April 17th, 1822 in Tirsted Parish, Maribo, Denmark. This is on the island of Lolland. On the map of Denmark just below, Lolland is in the southeast corner. The town where Magdalene came from is right between the two “l’s” in “Lolland.” She was the eldest daughter of Rasmus and Ane Catrine Johansen Nielsen. She was fairly tall, with blonde hair and blue eyes, and was very slim for almost all of her life. As a young woman, she worked in a large dairy, as was common with many of the poorer class in those days in Denmark. She learned all about the making of butter and cheese. She seems to also have learned the art of making beer in her own home as a girl, because she was an expert at making malt beer. She would sprout the barley to make the malt. They didn’t drink water in Denmark, they drank beer or coffee. On December 28th, 1844 she was married to Peder Christian Nielsen in Skjørringe Parish, Maribo, Denmark
All seven of her children were born in Maribo, on the island of Lolland. Her children were (in the order they were born): Niels, Anne, Petra Susanne Christiane (she went by “Sanne”), Rasmus, Joanne Katrina, John, and Tora. Joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (a.k.a. the Mormon Church) In June of 1855, Magdalene and her husband joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They had previously belonged to the Lutheran Church, which was the popular religion in Denmark. When they left that church and joined the Mormons, they were persecuted on every side. Their friends all turned against them, and it was very hard for her husband to make a living. One bright spot in their lives was when the missionaries came to visit them. Even then, things must have been very hard, as she always had to put her children to bed hungry so the missionaries could have supper at her house. This went on for eleven years, but at least in the spring of 1866 they received the glad news that they were booked to come to Zion (Utah). Great was their rejoicing, and in May of that year, they left their native land. At this time she had five living children. Joanne Katrina had passed away in August 1855, at the age of just 16 months, and Anne had passed away in June 1857 at the age of ten. Magdalene’s heart was saddened when she found out that two of her sons, Niels (age 21), and Rasmus (age 14), would have to remain behind. Therefore she left for Utah with three children, Sanne (age 15), John (age 7), and Tora (age 3). Imagine how she must have felt, to have to leave a 14-year-old boy behind, not knowing when or if they would ever meet again in this life. Rasmus did arrive in Utah three years later, in 1869, after the railroad was completed. Niels, who was a sailor, died on his ship and was buried at sea in the spring of 1871. She never saw Niels again in this life after leaving Denmark. The trip from Denmark to Utah Ten weeks were spent on the ocean, and eleven weeks were spent crossing the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains. Sad and weary were those weeks. Cholera broke out in the company just after they had left the Missouri River, and every day several people were left in lonely graves along the way. She was fortunate in keeping her three children, who all survived, and she also mothered and cared for two families of children whose parents were victims of cholera and were buried on the plains. Magdalene herself become ill, and had to ride in the sick wagon quite a while, since she was too weak to walk. She had a bottle of brandy in her provisions box, and each morning she gave each in her family some water with a little brandy. She felt sure that it was that little dose of brandy that saved them. Also some people had cows, and her husband and young son drove them and took milk for pay, so they could each have a little milk each day, which likely also helped save them. Magdalene and her husband were the only parents who arrived in Utah in that pioneer company with the same number in their family as when they had left Denmark. They came with ox teams, but everyone who was old enough to walk had to walk. That included young John and little Tora, who each had a birthday along the way. When they arrived in Utah, John was eight and Tora was four years old. Sanne was sixteen years old when they arrived, having also had a birthday along the way. At the time of their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, Peder Christian was 43 years old, and Magdalene was 44. They reached Salt Lake City on October 19th, 1866, and an old friend from Denmark met them and took them to Big Cottonwood, where she lived most of the next few years. Life in Utah In the spring of 1868, she and her husband and family moved from Big Cottonwood to Brigham City, and stayed until fall, when they moved to Bear River City and lived in the fort there. Her husband had gone there and built a log cabin, within the fort, before he moved the family over there. In Bear River City, most everyone was Danish or at least Scandinavian, so that made things very fine for her, as she never would try to learn to speak the English language. Magdalene used to help care for the sick quite a bit in the fort, and even sent food to the sick and aged Indians who were camped nearby along the river. Her eldest Daughter, Sanne, married William Casto in the fall the year after they arrived in Utah. That was in 1867. William was called to go and help settle what’s known as the Muddy Mission in Nevada, so immediately after their marriage, they left for Nevada. In the spring of 1869, Sanne’s husband brought her back to Salt Lake City. Her father Peder Christian met her there, and took her to Bear River City, but she hadn’t been there long when she became ill with “black canker” (i.e. severe diphtheria), and in a few days she passed away and was buried in the Bear River City cemetery. She was one of the first persons to be buried there. She was 18 years old when she passed away. Magdalene must have felt very lonely with only two of her children with her, and having buried her daughter Sanne, and not knowing at that time how her two sons in Denmark, Rasmus and Niels, were doing. Her son Rasmus arrived in Utah in 1869 after his sister Sanne had passed away. At that time he was 17 years old. He joined the family in Bear River City. In the spring of 1871, they moved back to the Salt Lake Valley, to either Big Cottonwood or Holladay. That same spring, after arriving back in Salt Lake Valley, they received a letter from Denmark, with a lock of black hair and the sad news that Niels had died. Great was the sorrow of her husband, herself, and their family. Now Magdalene had three living children remaining, and they were her youngest – Rasmus, John, and Tora. Also, her husband was not doing well. He had contracted tuberculosis of the lungs while in a war with Germany before they had come to Utah. Despite this however, he worked as hard as he could for his wife and family for as long as he could. He built Magdalene a comfortable house on the ten-acre tract of land that he owned. In 1879, her husband Peder Christian Nielsen became bedfast, and on August 6th of that year he passed away and was buried in the Big Cottonwood cemetery. Magdalene Nielsen’s last years, in the words of May Nielsen Anderson “As I understand it her son Rasmus, and his wife Mary, agreed to care for her and have her home for theirs. But John moved to Ashley Valley in 1885 and Tora Starkie came in 1887. I believe Rasmus filed on a place east of John's place so on July 26, 1888 Rasmus and family came to the Ashley Valley bringing his mother with him. She lived with them till 1894 when Rasmus died. She lived there some of the time even after that. In 1896 Mary--Rasmus' widow remarried, so I don't know how much she lived there after that. She lived with her daughter Tora most of the time from 1896 and was there when she passed away Feb. 12, 1903 and was buried Feb. 14. There had been a big snow storm and a blizzard, but the storm had cleared and the cold was so intense that everyone who went to the Cemetery really suffered. To me it seems sad that old people who have a long hard life should have to be buried under such unpleasant conditions.” Some more info about the Nielsen pioneer family, added by me, Frank Nielsen Great-Great Grandma Magdalene died at the age of 81 in 1903 near Vernal, Utah. Ashley Valley, mentioned above, is where the city of Vernal lies. Great Aunt Tora passed away in 1961, when I was eight years old, 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 as a young boy, 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 my Grandpa Frank's father, so that makes my Grandpa Frank, who I’m named after, 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 Merrill Nielsen, June 2018
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