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Show Volume XVI Issue I The Ogden Valley news Page 11 December 15, 2008 Century Echoes – Part II By Miriam Renstrom Whiteside Note: This is the second in a series of articles by the same author that will appear in the following issues of “The Ogden Valley news.” The history was submitted by Jane Renstrom, wife of the late Darrell Renstrom who is the son of Arnold Renstrom and grandson of Andrew P. Renstrom. Also note, the following information has been condensed from the original transcript of “Century Echoes,” a history that combines world, U.S., Utah, LDS, and Ogden Valley history. This year (1863), along with hundreds of other converts, my maternal grandparents, Soren Lind Petersen and Anna Maria Nielsen, along with baby daughter Anne, left their homes in Denmark for the New World, America. From Aarhus on April 30, 1863, they sailed to Riel, Germany. From there, they traveled by train to Altona, Germany, boarded another ship for Hamburg, and sailed to Grinisly, England, arriving May 3. They stayed there together in a large building until May 6. Converts had left from other places and now all met and by rail traveled to Liverpool. There about 657 Saints were taken on board the steam ship the B. S. Kimball. A President was appointed by Elder George Q. Cannon to preside over the entire ship. Seven districts were formed with a president and a captain of guard over each. They sailed on the 9th of May. On board during the voyage there were four deaths and eight marriages. My grandparents were one of the couples. They met each other enroute, fell in love, and happily faced the uncertain future together. The ship arrived at New York the 3rd of June. After two days retention, they were allowed to go ashore. Continued their travels by train to Albany and then on to Florence, Nebraska. Two children, not theirs, died and were buried on the way. After my grandmother’s death, the Petersen home had a fire that destroyed valuable information about the trek westward. I quote from my Aunt Matilda: “Though missing their main company, when they arrived in Florence, Nebraska June 12, 1863, they chose to pull a hand cart across the plains in preference to delay.” There were occasions when emigrant companies comprised both handcarts and wagons. The Scandinavians that came to Utah this year numbered 1,458. Some of them arrived as late as October 15, the last train that year. On arrival in Huntsville at springtime the next year (1864), Soren Lind Petersen built a “dug out” home deep in the ground with a roof of wood and sod, just north of where the third church house stood. When it rained, pans caught the cold drizzling water and in winter, it was often covered by snow. Had it not been for the smoking chimney and the cut-out opening to the door, visitors arriving by sleigh would have driven over it. On July 29, my mother, Caroline, was born in this dugout. Caroline was one of the first three white children born in the valley. The others were Captain Hunt’s child and Rye Olsen’s. On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, an actor. This news was slow to reach the Valley, and caused mourning by all. It was a dark, sad day in U.S. history. Regarding Ogden Valley during this time, Donald Dover McKay wrote, “Farming and livestock raising were the big industries of the Valley. Each evening a tell tale dust appeared on the lanes leading back to town announcing the fact that the cow herd was on its way home from the surrounding farms. At the same time, teams with the farmers could be seen following the herds, dusty and tired they hustled home; horses must be unharnessed, watered, and fed; cows milked and fed; calves and pigs fed before supper; everyone tired and hungry. So as soon as the chores were done and supper over, the coal lamp extinguished, the sleeping town became quiet and peaceful.” 1866—On January 7, another baby was born, my Aunt Emma Petersen. Lars Petersen was the first postmaster [in Ogden Valley]. The mail came from Ogden once a week by carrier who arrived just as school was dismissed and the kids all hurried there crowding the small room. The little window through which the mail was handed out became a battle area to see who got there first. Names on papers and letter were read aloud and the once called would shout “Here!” The Postmaster was also the weatherman who kept accounts of temperature and precipitation. 1868—February 7, Soren Lind Petersen Jr. was born. 1869—On May 10, the driving of the Golden Spike at Promontory Pass united the two railroads from the east and from the west. A great crowd attended and a celebration befitting the event followed. In Wyoming, through the efforts of Esther Morris, women were given the right to vote. That same year, John Wesley Powell, with several men, navigated down the Colorado River, a hazardous journey. This year, my grandfather Soren built a four-room frame house in the west side of town, later a large brick two-story home replaced it. Here, two families lived in harmony, Katie Loftgreen whom he had just married in polygamy as his second wife, and my grandmother with her children. My Uncle George Peter Renstrom was 22 years old when he sailed alone to America to look the country over and send back a report to those waiting. He was enchanted with bustling New York and wrote glowing letters home, then hurried on to Utah, the ultimate goal and from there his stamped letters proved to the relatives in the old world that Utah was indeed part of the USA. Some doubts must have existed in their minds as he also sent paper currency with the reassuring picture on it of the U.S. Treasury. The group waiting for this encouraging news began to prepare for the long journey. It consisted of great-grandmother Margareta Olsen, grandmother Catharine, and five of her children: Peter, Caroline, Karin (or Catherine) Charlotte, Andrew, and Eric August. Others in the party were my grandmother’s sisters, Mary Danielson and her husband and three daughters, and Margretta Bjorklund, a widow and two daughters. Two other families, the Berlins and Tangreens, left with them making a total of about thirty people. They sailed from Sweden, in June, to Copenhagen across the Baltic Sea, through the straights of Cattegat and Spagerrack across the North Sea, which was very rough, and landed at Hull, England. Took the train to Liverpool. Left Liverpool on the steamship Nevada, or it could have been the steamship Wyoming. There were 426 souls aboard, 396 from Scandinavia, 26 from England, and 2 from Holland. They were on the Atlantic 12 days during which storms occurred. Two deaths in mid-ocean resulted in a watery grave. They landed in New York on July 6 and arrived at Salt Lake City by train, July 17th. They came to Huntsville a few days later. Because their journey from New York was by train, they were not designated as pioneers. My grandmother’s home was a small two-room frame house located two blocks west of the Church Corner and one half block north on the west side of the street. Margareta made her home with the Danielsons. Mulberry trees were planted in the Valley to feed silkworms. Seeds for the trees were imported from France and the silkworm eggs from France and Italy. It was an industry encouraged by Brigham Young. Quote: “The silkworms are here and our sisters and children have nimble fingers to handle them. There is nothing on earth to hinder us as a people from making our own ribbons, handkerchiefs, and dresses and it is believed by those in the business that we can produce silk here at a lower figure than other material for clothing, taking into account the time it will last.” This was a thriving industry from 1875 until after the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 where silk was exhibited. Now the many who had worked hard at the project had grown old, silk from other places was available, and the industry died out. My great-grandmother Margareta with many others walked to the fields north of town to harvest the leaves for the silkworms. In autumn 1874, grandfather Petersen was called on a mission to Norway. He returned in 1876. On this day . . . grandmother dressed herself and five children in their Sunday clothes, hitched up the horses to a white topped buggy, and drove through the canyon, a two hour drive, down to the railroad station in Ogden. Excitement and anticipation ran high in the waiting crowd. The wonderful train steamed in, smoke spiraling from the hand-stoked boiler, bells jangling, and with screeching of brakes, reluctantly stopped from its long, arduous pull across the nation. Down the steps a large number of immigrants descended, heavily laden with boxes, baggage and anxiety; it took quite some time to help them into the depot to wait or meet their relatives and friends and receive orders on where to go in this new world. Last of all came my grandfather, but not alone; he turned around without one glance at the crowd and solicitously helped a strange woman holding a baby in her arms down the steps. It was so terribly obvious to all watching that she was a wife, a polygamous wife, her existence unknown to anyone waiting there. The shock was devastating to my grandmother, Anna, and on the return trip home she and her children sat miserably silent on the back seat while her husband driving home, had his new wife and her son sitting beside him. My mother was 12 years of age, old enough to wonder about and feel this shattering journey, and realize the unhappiness ahead for all of them. How true was her intuition. HISTORICAL cont. on page 12 Historical Photo Soren Lind Petersen’s Store in Huntsville. Circa late 1800’s. Photo courtesy of Rod Clark of Liberty. Celeste C. Canning PLLC Attorney at Law 2590 Washington Boulevard, Suite 200 Ogden, Utah 84401 Local: (801) 791-1092 Office: (801) 612-9299 Email: ccanninglaw@aol.com Meeting the Legal Needs of Small Business and Their Owners FREE Initial Thirty Minute Consultation. Appointments in Ogden Valley upon request. |