History of JENS CHRISTEN CHRISTENSEN

and

JOHANA MARIE JENSEN

Relationship: Jens Christen Christensen is my great grandfather (his son is Soren Peter Christensen, my grandfather; and his son is James Peter Christensen, my father)

Jens Christen Christensen was born on March 15, 1838 in Bindslev, Hjorring, Denmark to Christian Christensen and Ingeborg Jensen.

Jens Christen Christensen

Johana Marie Jensen

Jens married Johana Marie Jensen on October 14, 1836 in Bindslev. Johana was born in Sindal, Hjorring, Denmark on October 25, 1833, the daughter of Jens Andersen and Else Marie Sorensen.

Johana had her first baby on August 11, 1860 and they named him Niels Christian Christensen. He died when he was ten years old on July 21, 1870. They had five children altogether:

Jens was a carpenter and they lived quite comfortably. They moved to Taars where their next two babies were born. Inger Annie Christine (Jensen) Christensen and she was born September 28, 1862. She died on the 16th of January 1933 in Levan, Juab, Utah.

Another little girl was born on 27 January 1864 in Taars, Hjorring, Denmark and they named her Marie Ellen Christensen. We don’t have a death date for her.

They then moved back to Johana’s hometown of Sindal, where Jens was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on February 27, 1865. Johanna was probably baptized then also but the baptism date was lost and she was baptized vicariously on March 17, 1894.

Johana had two more babies in Sindal. Soren Peter Christensen on January 16, 1866. He died 22 May 1945 in Levan, Juab, Utah; and Christine Christensen was born June 1869 in Sindal and died September 1869, living only three months.

It was recorded that Jens, Johana and their two children, Annie, about seven, and Soren, about three, and Jen’s mother, Ingeborg Jensen Christensen, who was about sixty-seven, came to America soon after the death of the last baby in 1869.

They landed at Castle Rock, New York [Later to be called Ellis Island], traveled on the newly completed transcontinental railroad to a place called “Ogden’s Hole” fifty-three miles north of Ogden, Utah, where they got off the train and somehow made their way to Levan.

They lived in a dugout until Jens could get a house built. Because of the availability of clay for adobe bricks, most of those first homes were built of adobe and later added on to.

The Christensen’s were not counted on the 1870 Census, but as was stated in the “Lamberts,” there were three houses where there was no one at home, and those people were not counted. Perhaps the Christensen’s were one of these.

They had lived in Levan for about thirteen years when Johana Marie Jensen Christensen died of Tuberculosis, on January 23, 1882, at the age of forty-eight years and nine months. She was buried in Levan.

Johana Marie Jensen's headstone in Levan Cemetery

Their eldest daughter, Inger Annie Christensen, when she was about seventeen years old, had married Stephen Christian Christensen, on March 20, 1879 in Levan, Utah. Their first baby was born on February 15, 1881 and they named him after his father, Stephen Christian Christensen and called him “Chrissie.” His grandma, Johana, who was ill with Tuberculosis, had tended the baby and he died from Tuberculosis when he was still small.

Jens’ mother, Ingeborg, died in Levan on May 28, 1887, she was eighty-five. She is buried in the Levan Cemetery.

Jens, who was fourteen years older than she was, married Larsine Petersen, who was born in Salling, Aalborg, Denmark on February 19, 1852. There was no marriage date and no record of any children.

Jens and Larsine operated “The Christensen Hotel” on the corner of 212 South Main in Levan, until Jens died on April 2, 1923 in Levan. Two of his grand-daughters, Teckla and Mary, operated it until they left to go to Salt Lake City to work. Their mother, Inger Annie took it over and continued to serve mouth watering meals.

 Site of The Christensen Hotel - today 2011 it is a residential home

Site of The Christensen Hotel - today 2011 it is a residential home

Jens died on April 2, 1923 at the age of eighty-five and is buried in the Levan Cemetery.

Jens Christen Christensen's headstone, Levan Cemetery