Caroline Christensen

Child 1 of 12

1853–1904 · 50 years

Caroline Christensen was born November 16th, 1853, in Aalborg, Denmark, the daughter of Niels and Christiane Christensen. She was only three years old when her parents came to Utah. There was also a baby sister who took sick along the way and died. The baby’s name was Andrea and she was two years old. The family crossed the plains in Captain Christiansen’s handcart company. The two children were hauled in the handcart along with bedding and provisions. It must have been a difficult thing to leave loved ones along the wayside in a barren and unknown country.

The family settled at Mill Creek and lived there for two years. Later they moved to Moroni. They were very poor and it was a difficult task to get enough food to eat and clothes to wear. They went barefoot until late fall to help relieve the clothing situation.

Grandmother has told how she had to carry water so far, that in the cold weather she would take the pail and run as fast as she could and as far as she could and then sit down on her feet to warm them and rest. As she was the oldest child she assumed much of the responsibility of the home.

She attended school in an old adobe meeting house down in the bottoms, as it was called. The teachers were Gwens and Baker. Grandmother told how they were going to have a dance one night but the adobe was so softened by the rain that the building collapsed, so they went to one of the homes to dance. Not long after there was a log building erected on the hill; here she finished her schooling.

She taught school for several years in this same building. 1869 was the beginning of her teaching career. Some of the other teachers were Kirkman, Lewis, Clark and Dr. Rogers.

Grandmother learned to spin and knit and was an industrious social worker and was loved and respected by all who knew her.

She was married to grandfather in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City on May 19th, 1873.

In 1875 they moved to their homestead, which they called Jerusalem, where they lived out their lives. They had a family of thirteen children, seven boys and six girls. They worked hard farming and raising livestock; they also raised fruit and cane from which they made molasses to sell.

She was three when the family left Denmark and rode west in the handcart. She was nineteen when she married, and she began teaching school at fifteen — in the log building on the hill that replaced the adobe one that collapsed in the rain.

All twelve children