Additional History Information of
GEORGE (JORGEN) CHRISTIAN
STEPHENSEN
and
AXELINA MARIE PETERSEN
(Jorgen and Axelina are Von Christensen's Great Grandparents, their daughter
Alvina Stephensen, my grandmother, her son James Christensen is my father)
ADDITION
taken from book “Early Settlers of Levan” by Don Marlin
Although
many of the captains and their crews were not L.D.S., none-the-less, when the
emigrants boarded each ship that had been commissioned by the Church, the ship,
along with its captain, crew and passengers were dedicated to the Lord and
instructions and rules were given.
The
ship was divided into eight districts, each with a president. People were quartered in bunks and were
assigned different tasks for the voyage.
Someone was in charge of the singing, which they did a lot of, the
dances which were held on deck most every day, the exercise program, games and
entertainment of the children throughout the day. A cook was provided but the kitchen workers
were chosen from some of the brethren and rations were ample.
Pork,
beef, peas, potatoes, beans, barley, rice, prunes, syrup, vinegar, pepper,
coffee, tea, sugar, butter, rye bread, sea biscuits, water, flour, salted
herring, salt, and oil for the lamps.
Meals
were nicely prepared in the following routine:
Sunday, sweet soup; (as a note from Von Christensen. I remember my mother, Vera Mangelson
Christensen, preparing Sweet Soup which was served cold and I remember
contained raisins and fruit in a thickened juice. There were probably other items, but I don’t
remember.)
Monday, pea soup; Tuesday, rice; Wednesday, rice;
Thursday, pea soup; Friday, barley mush; and Saturday, herring and potatoes.
“The
captain chose the route north of Scotland as he thought the colder climate
would be better for the passengers. The
weather was fair and favorable during the entire voyage. Three meals of warm food were served each day
to all. We had preaching and
administered the Sacrament every Sabbath and also preaching on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The
officers also stood their posts, as men of God, so that all was peace and
harmony during the time.”
Council
meetings were held each night at which time the problems that arose were discussed
and plans drawn up for their solution.
Sanitation and sickness were two of the main items. Details were assigned to scrub the decks
three times a week and the ship was fumigated twice a week.
After
a successful 12 days, 3,000 mile voyage, the “Minnesota” arrived safely in New
York on Monday, the 1st day of August 1870 at 10 a.m., and now “President”
Jesse N. Smith had become “Captain” Jesse N. Smith, who continued to guide the
movements of the Saints.
August 3rd … At Pittsburgh they
transferred again but not until they had slept one night in some poor boarding
houses.
August 4th … they boarded the
specially marked “Emigrant Train” cars which were more filthy and crowded than
the ones they had before. A brutal
Station Master started the train before all of the emigrants were aboard and
some of them were left standing on the platform.
“Understand that it was terribly hot, and imagine
a crowded train under these conditions:
There were no plush padded seats, only wooden benches set against the
walls of the spring less railroad cars.
The immigrants had to furnish their own food and water.
Against one wall in the
center of each car were two small wooden closets marked, ‘Men’ and ‘Women’,
each of which was nothing more than an outhouse on wheels. Everyone desiring to use the facility looked
down into the hold and through the dust caused by the updraft of the swiftly
moving car could see the speeding railroad bed below ”
August 5th … they crossed the
Mississippi River and at 3 a.m. they chugged into Chicago.
August 7th … no trains were moving and
it doesn’t record where those weary people slept.
They boarded the train the
following day and after an uncomfortable ten-day ride to Salt Lake City. (The transcontinental railroad had been
completed just a little over a year before, on May 10, 1869, north of Ogden and
within a week Brigham Young had crews building a rail line to Salt Lake
City.) President Brigham Young, Daniel
H. Wells, George A. Smith and other Church leaders met the company between
Ogden and Salt Lake City, and on their arrival in Salt Lake City the emigrants
were received by Bishop Edward Hunter and others.
The
trip took twenty-one days from the time they left Liverpool to the time they
arrived in Salt Lake, and although the train ride was uncomfortable, it would
seem almost incredible and not nearly as uncomfortable as the two-month, 1,300
trek across the plains with an ox cart company, or those who had pulled a
handcart.
Most
likely, they were met in Salt Lake by relatives from Levan. Uncle Soren Thompson and his family were
already living in Levan, and Axelina’s mother Karen, who had come to Levan
before them, and probably went to meet them.
The
Danish emigrants had a language barrier – very few of them could speak or
understand English for a number of years, and for a number of years George was
the bishop for the Danish Ward and they met in the Tithing Office. There
they conducted their meetings in Danish.
Eva Taylor Stephensen was sent to play the organ for them to sing. George and Axelina always sat on the front
row. In church on Fast Sunday, instead
of talking, they would bear their testimony by standing and singing a Danish
hymn. They both had clear, beautiful
voices. Axelina was always dressed
primly in dark colors with a little bonnet on her head. Wherever Axelina went she wore her bonnet and
often came to the Taylor Store with a basket of eggs to exchange for the items
she needed.
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