Johanne Marie Mathiasen Lundgreen

Johanne (Hanna) Marie Mathiasen Lundgreen is Steve's great-great grandmother, born in Denmark in 1872. Her husband Hans Madsen (Steve's great-great grandfather) was born in 1870 in Denmark. Hans died of diabetes at the age of 33, leaving Hanna a widow with four children.

When Hanna was a child, some LDS missionaries came to the home of her family. Her oldest sister and two of her brothers joined the Church, and then came to Zion. They often wrote to Hanna, begging her to come too; but she didn't want to leave their mother, as their father had passed away.

After the death of her husband, Hanna worked as a seamstress to provide for her family. Her husband Hans had been a tailor, and she had worked with him, so she continued to sew in their shop. She later moved to Glamsbjerg with her two daughters to work as care taker for a Lutheran meetinghouse. Her sons worked at a bakery in Køng.

At this time, Hanna's nephew Peter C. Lundgreen came from America came to Denmark as a missionary for the Mormon Church. Hanna had heard some about the Mormons and wanted to know more. Peter stayed with Hanna for several days and explained everything to her. She understood it perfectly and would have been baptized then, but she wanted her children to know about it first. And besides, she was currently taking care of the Lutheran church. She later gave up the care of the church and moved back to Odense.

One day years later, Hanna was taking the train home after visiting her sons. She found a seat and a man came and sat across from her. Hanna was reading a newspaper. He started to talk to her and said he was from America, but Hanna didn't pay any attention to him. She didn't want anything to do with anyone from America; they didn't mean anything to her. She kept reading her paper, and he kept talking. He said he was going to visit a sister in Odense. This is when she looked at him. He had a pin on his tie with a picture of a woman on it. She looked again and recognized her sister-in-law she hadn't seen in 28 years. She said, "Oh, that is Aunt Chrstina." He stood up and came over and put his arms around her and said, "Then you are my own little sister." Many on the train who had witnessed it all were deeply moved by the unusual meeting of a brother and sister after such a long time.

Hanna's brother Peter Mathiasen Lundgreen was serving a mission for the Mormon Church and had Come to preach the gospel to his relatives. When they got to Odense, the girls and Max (Anna's future husband) came out to meet them. She told her daughter Martha this man was from America. She didn't tell them he was her brother. Martha didn't even want to shake hands with him. Hanna said, "Well, Martha, you will have to do better than that, because this is my own brother, and your uncle from America!" Then they all threw their arms around him and made him very, very welcome.

He stayed with them for many days and taught them the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Martha was the first to be baptized. Hanna sought her Heavenly Father earnestly in prayer, to know if this was really His true church. One day she knelt down by her sofa and prayed with all her heard and said to God, " Like Jacob of old, Oh God, I will not give up before you bless me with the knowledge whether or not this is the true church." And God did bless her with the knowledge and assurance that this was the true church. She then wrote to her brother and told him she was ready to be baptized.

Anna and her fiance Max (Marinus Christensen) wanted to be baptized too. They were baptized along with Hanna on the same couldy night, with the wind blowing and the water cold. Later that year, both of Hanna's sons were also baptized into the Church. It was a real joy that all in their family now belonged to the true church.

The family came to America, and Anna and Max (Steve's great-grandparents) waited until they came so they could be married in the temple. They were married September 5, 1918 in the Manti Temple.

They all went to the temple the same day and had their temple work done. Hanna was sealed to Hans, and all of the children were sealed to their parents.

One more experience, written by Steve's Grandmother Lillian Christensen Hatch, pg. 128 (source listed below):

After the death of Hans, "Hanna was beside herself with grief! She visited Hans' grave often and asked her Heavenly Father to take her to heaven too. Then one night, while walking in their back yard, she suddenly felt someone beside her. Turning quickly, she saw her beloved husband, Hans, standing there in a beautiful white suit (Because she had helped Hans in his tailoring business, she noticed that suit immediately.) 'Oh, Hans, why did you have to go and leave me here to take care of our four little children along?' she asked him. He told her he was doing some very important work where he was, but he had to come to tell her that there would com a day when they could be sealed together for eternity! He told her not to miss that opportunity. Then he asked about their children, and she told him, through her sobbing, about them. When she looked up to talk to him again, he was gone! But this visitation by her beloved Hans made her realize she must be both a mother and father to their four small children."

When Hanna's brother came to Hanna, he saw how active they were in the Lutheran church and "wondered what he could tell them about the LDS Church that would attract their interest in it. That night, as he prayed, he asked Heavnly Father what he could talk about that would interest them in knowing more about the Church; and he received an answer: "Talk about eternal marriage." So the next day after breakfast, he told them about how Hanna could be sealed for eternity to her beloved Hans. Hanna said her heart runed over when her brother Peter told them this, and she remembered seeing her husband, Hans, in their backyard, and how he had said to watch for the opportunity for them to be sealed for 'all eternity.' (pg. 134)

The highlights of Hanna's life in her own words:

"What are the hopes that have grown with the years, nourished in pain and born of our sorrow, christened by grief, baptized with our tears, clothed with resolve and faith in the morrow. Yes, our lives are full of mysteries so deep that we cannot fathom all the years may bring. The angels must have some secrets which they keep. We hear the music but not the words they sing: our mothers' songs of the long ago, old fond memories today. Sing them tenderly, sweet and low; hear the echose far away, calling up scenes of days that are past, pictures in shadow, true to the last."

"Nothing means more to me in this world than the faith I have in the Lord Jesus Christ. I say this with thankfulness in my hear to God. I know that Christ lives, and is the Son of the Living God. And through all my weakness, I know that I am His child. With dearest love to my children and their children." (pg. 45)

Source: "Our Danish Ancestors Hans and Johanne Madsen, Their Forebears and American Descendants" Edited by Harold S. Madesn

James Davenport and Almira Phelps

 

James Davenport

James Davenport and Almira Phelps are Steve's great-great-great-great grandparents. James was born in 1802 in Vermont, and Almira was born in 1805 In New York. They were married in 1822 in New York when he was twenty and she was seventeen. They had eleven children. Shortly after the church was organized, they were baptized. Unfortunately, nothing more is said of their actual conversion, although their life after baptism shows a great amount of faith.

James worked as a blacksmith and a farmer in Nauvoo before leaving for Winter Quarters with his wife and small children in order to escape persecution. It was in Winter Quarters that Brigham Young invited James to join the first company of Pioneers going to the Salt Lake Valley. This meant that James had to leave his family behind until he could return for them.

Although James was in the Pioneer Company, he did not enter the Valley with Brigham Young. He served as a blacksmith for the company and was among nine men (coincidentally, one of my ancestors was also one of these nine men!) left to operate the upper ferry of the Platte River, later known as Fort Casper. This group was instructed to ferry the companies across and charge those who could pay.

Late in July, after the ferry had ceased operations due to the end of the high water season, James headed back to Winter Quarters for his family. In 1850 they joined with another company and went west to settle in Grantsville, near Tooele. James traveled across the plains twice more to help bring wagon trains of converts.

The family later moved to Wellsville, and finally Richmond, in Cache County, Utah. Some of the children did not come west, and James and Almira spent some time visiting with them in the Midwest. Both died and were buried in Richmond.

(source and source)

Jeremiah Leavitt and Sarah Sturdevant

Jeremiah Leavitt was born May 30, 1796 in New Hampshire. Sarah Sturtevant Leavitt was born September 5, 1798 in New Hampshire as well. They are Steve's great-great-great-great grandparents, married in 1817 in Vermont. After their marriage, the Leavitt's moved to Hatley, Canada, where his parents were already living.

 

Mormon elders were in Canada in the 1830's, but none of them found their way to Hatley. Sarah was raised by Presbyterian parents and regularly studied the Bible and prayed on her own. She was seeking a church similar to the early church described in the New Testament. 

A traveler who had attended a Mormon gathering somewhere else loaned the Leavitts a copy of the Book of Mormon. "We believed them without preaching," Jeremiah Leavitt later wrote. About 1838, the extended Leavitt family, including nine children of Jeremiah and Sarah, started as a group to gather with the Saints in Missouri. Delays kept them from joining with the Saints at Far West, but they later moved to Nauvoo, and finally to Utah.

Here is an excerpt from Sarah's journal:

"I read the Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, and all the writings I could get from the Latter-day Saints. It was the book of Doctrine and Covenants that confirmed my faith in the work. I knew that no man...that could make such a book or would dare try from any wisdom that man possessed. I knew it was the word of God and a revelation from Heaven and received it as such. I sought with my whole heart a knowledge of the truth and obtained a knowledge that never has nor never will leave me."

During the 13 years it took to move from Hatley, Canada to the Salt Lake Valley, several of the Leavitt's died, including Jeremiah. Sarah continued the journey with her family, and through much travail and sacrifice eventually settled and colonized the Santa Clara River area.

In 1998, a bronze statue of Sarah  was unveiled in a park in Santa Clara, Utah on what would have been Sarah's 200th birthday. "Sarah was a noble woman and a matriarch to more family than perhaps any other person in the LDS Church. She suffered and sacrificed all she had, that we, her posterity, could enjoy life as we do today."

"The monument's purpose is not only to honor Sarah Sturtevant Leavitt, but also to enable her posterity, now and in the future, to have a place where they can come and feel a sense of the connection that exists to each other, and also to the remarkable ancestry so well represented by Sarah. Ours is a rich heritage.   It is hoped that we and our children will learn to love, honor, and cherish it."

(source, source and source)

John Moses Wyatt and Sarah Caroline Horsecroft

John Moses Wyatt was born May 22, 1829 in England. Sarah Caroline Horsecroft was born on January 25, 1829 in England as well. They are Steve's great-great-great grandparents, married on December 25, 1838.  About three years after they were married, John Moses was coming home from work in the evening when he was attracted by two Mormon missionaries who were holding an open air meeting. He afterward reported that the truth of their message came to him with great force. It seemed to him that the message they brought was what he had been waiting for. When he got home he said to his young wife, "Sarah, I have heard the true gospel that has been restore to the earth. Tomorrow evening we will go together and hear these messengers again." Without reservations they accepted the gospel and were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on June 21, 1852, by Frederick Moore and confirmed by Henry Hollis. The spirit of the Gathering was immediately manifest in their lives and preparations for immigration to America were made. They were immediately met with opposition. Their families became very bitter toward the church and tried to prevent them from bringing their young son John (Steve's great-great grandfather) with them by hiding him. Fortunately the boy was found in time for the family to leave with a company that sailed from Liverpool, England on February 23, 1853.   There were four hundred immigrants cramped in this small vessel. This was stormy season on the Atlantic. The passengers endured many hardships in the ten long weeks they were in crossing. The company reached New Orleans on April 23, 1853. They traveled up the Mississippi River to Iowa where they were organized in an ox team company and walked most of the way across the plains, experiencing many of the hardships incident to pioneer life. The threat of attack from Indians was ever present. Food and water was often scarce. Their second son, Charles, was born September 2, 1853 in Green River, Wyoming. They were not able to stop for the birth of the child because of the urgent need of water for camping. When they left England they were not aware that a child was on the way and had made no preparation for its arrival. As a result it was necessary to use pillow slips, underwear, and other available articles to provide for the infant's clothing. They struggled on in the face of these hardships and arrived in Salt Lake City, October 5, 1853, almost nine months from the time they left Liverpool. Before leaving England, Sarah had a dream in which she saw Brigham Young. As the company entered Salt Lake Valley they were met by Brigham Young. She pointed him out and said "there is the leader, and the man I saw in my dream". They lived in Salt Lake City for seven years working for Brigham Young. Five years after their arrival, in 1858, Brigham Young led the entire population of Salt Lake City as far south as Provo because of the threat posed by Johnson's Army. The saints took all their livestock with them. When they returned the Wyatt family found their home and garden in good condition. In the year 1860 they moved to Cache Valley. Their plans were to go to Providence but the Little Bear River was in flood, so they remained in Wellsville. The first year they lived in a dugout in the hill just east of the fort. Later they moved into the fort. The houses were close together because of the danger of Indian attacks and the men took turns acting as sentries to insure their safety. After some time the town was surveyed into blocks of ten acres each with eight lots to the block. The families purchased lots and built houses of logs with dirt floors. John Moses Wyatt bought the lot across the street west from where his son John Horsecroft later lived. A few years later the family moved to Franklin where they stayed only one summer. They returned to Wellsville and made this their home until their deaths. John Moses worked on the Logan Temple as a rock mason for one year and later he helped to build the school house. His wife Sarah, was always ready and willing to aid the sick and needy. She went many times to help sisters in confinement. She was the mother of eleven children, seven boys and four girls. Three of these children died in infancy. Two of her sons, John and Franklin filled missions to their native land of England. The family did much to build and sustain the Church and community in this pioneer period. Sarah was a brave and hardy woman. On one occasion after they had moved to Wellsville, she had left her baby outside the cabin while she gathered firewood. On returning she found two Indian braves with her baby. They threatened to take the baby if she did not give them sugar. Instead of being frightened into granting their request she chased them away with a rolling pin. The next morning the chief and the two braves came to her cabin with a gift of venison and the chief called her a "brave squaw." (source)

Josephine Fritz and Carl Johan Larsen

Josephine Fritz is Steve's great-great grandmother, born in Lundberg, Litslene, Uppsala County, Sweden on February 18, 1849. She was the oldest of six children and lived on a small farm that was the source of their living.

Josephine's parents were Lutheran. In order to join the Lutheran church, she had to be able to read the catechism before the reverend minister, so her parents let her go to school to learn to read and write. They wanted her to learn just enough reading so that she could be confirmed a Lutheran, since women were not given a chance to become educated. So when her parents occasionally asked Josephine if she could read, she told them not very well because she was so anxious to learn all she could.

At the age of 28, Josephine joined the church on February 15, 1878. Here are her own words about this event:

"My mother said she would disown me when I joined the Church and thought I had turned crazy when I went to the priest for genealogy records, because I would not let the dead alone. The river was frozen over where I was baptized, a hole having been chopped in the ice the preceding evening. I had my first faith-promoting experience at that time. As I stood on the bank, I shuddered and thought, "I will surely take cold going in such cold water. But when I entered the icy water, I felt no cold, nor did I get a cold."

Josephine worked with a few other women in the home of a well-to-do professor in Stockholm. Because of the unpopularity of the church, she cleverly concealed her conversion from the women she worked with. Eventually they found out where she was going on her Sunday evenings off, and they were anxious to hear this new gospel from America that was led by prophets and apostles. When they heard the gospel, it rang true in the hearts and ears of these women.

Lovisa was one of these women, a good friend of Josephine's who was also baptized. Lovisa and Josephine wanted to come to America. They started to save their money, but they didn't have enough. They decided one of them would go and work, and then send for the other. So Lovisa loaned Josephine enough money that when combined with her own savings was enough to go to America.

Josephine left Sweden for America on June 8, 1883. The water was rough and the journey across the ocean took two weeks. She then traveled to Salt Lake on a railroad car, a rather miserable trip. She went to work doing laundry in Park City for almost two years. Each time she was paid, she sent money to her mother and Lovisa in Sweden. When Lovisa had been repaid, Josephina sent her enough extra money so that she too could come to America. They were lifelong friends.

Concerning her mother, Josephine said, "I sent money to my mother for years after coming to Amerca. She wrote and said she received almost $20 for every $5 I sent her. I was forgiven, but she never expected me to come back to Sweden."

Josephine met her husband, Carl Johan Larsen (Steve's great-great grandfather) at a Scandinavian meeting in her Ward in Salt Lake City. Carl was born July 13, 1844 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He immigrated from Denmark to America in 1880 after being baptized around 1865 by a brother Lundberg, a member of the 3rd Quorum of the Seventy. (The Autobiography of Anna Larsen Kolts)

Ira Stearns Hatch and Wealtha Bradford

Ira Stearns Hatch and Wealtha Bradford are Steve's great-great-great Grandparents. Ira was born in 1802 in New Hampshire, and Wealtha was born in 1803 in Maine. They were married in 1825 and lived at the Hatch Farmstead in Farmersville, NY.

The family didn't belong to any specific church, as Wealtha said she hadn't found one on the earth that agreed with her conviction. In 1830 Elders Oliver Cowdrey, Peter Whitmer, Jr., Ziba Peterson, and Parley P. Pratt were visiting the nearby Catteraugus Indians and preaching about the Book of Mormon. Wealtha obtained a copy of the book and said “That’s what we have been looking for." Being thoroughly convinced of its origin, she desired to be baptized immediately. Her husband and family convinced her to wait, which she did with a hope that more of her family would be converted.

Although they may have wanted to be baptized, none of the other relatives were ready to join the unpopular sect. In early 1832, Wealtha was baptized in a hole that had been cut in the ice of the river. She was confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at this same time and  became the first in the Hatch family and the second person in the neighborhood to join the Church.

Ira was cautious about joining the Church because of the persecution against it. At this time, the Kirtland Temple was under construction and Ira and Wealtha decided to make a contribution to it. They traveled to the headquarters of the Church in Kirkland, Ohio, where they could make their contribution and examine their leader, Joseph Smith. They prepared to make the trip to Kirtland, taking their contribution of $200.00 with them. The trip took them three days. When they arrived at Kirtland, Ira went to the grove where they were cutting timber for the Temple where he was told he could find the Prophet. As he approached the workmen, one of them stuck his axe into a tree and came toward him. When close enough, he shook the hand of Ira Stearns Hatch and said "Brother Hatch, I have been expecting you for three days; the money you have brought will be used to build the pulpit in the Temple." Thus, left with no chance for doubt, Ira Stearns Hatch was convinced that Joseph Smith was indeed a true Prophet, and his testimony was steadfast for the remainder of his life. Ira was baptized into the Church in 1834.

Both Ira and Wealtha hoped that Ira’s parents and brothers and sisters would join the Church, but they did not. When Ira and Wealtha decided to leave the family farm and follow the “Saints” west, it caused a great deal of distress and uproar in the family. The brothers, to whom Ira and Wealtha had sold the farm, said they would give the farm back if they would stay. But Ira shook his head and replied, “No, I will go West.”

Wealtha died from cholera in Nauvoo. Her devotion to the Church was an inspiration to her family. Her spirituality was ingrained in the characters of the young children she bore. She endured the persecutions and trials of pioneering, and yet always held steadfastly to the Church. Ira continued west, where he settled in Utah with the rest of his family. He passed away on September 30, 1869, after a long and useful and active life. 

(source and source)