Occupation was farmer and miller.
Pat bless. gave Christian Nielsen's father's name as Niels.
SOURCES: As listed on Christian Nielsen Family Group Sheet with (1)
wife, Anne Margrethe Madsen as recevied from R. H. Braithwaite.
1 - GS file #2393
2 - GS file #6716
3 - Pat Bless GS
4 - Hornstrup Par Regs 10055
5 - Engom Par Reg 10000 Pt 2
6 - Census Rec of Hornstrup
7 - 8511 Pt 6, 8509 Pt 36, 8513 Pt 60
8 - Census Rec of Egom (I think it's Engum) 8513 Pt 59, 8515 Pt 52
9 - Prob Rec Fallings Dist 9994 Pt 7
10 - LDS Branch Rec 8551 Pat 11
11 - Emigr Rec 6185 Pt 1
Life story and Journal, about coming to America, in file under Francis H. Braithwaite. Naoma Braithwaite. He was on ship "Forest Monarch". Son Fritz married Caroline Domgaard who was on same ship as children.
BIOGRAPHY: History of Christian Nielsen
(Written by: Ella Braithwaite)
Christian Nelson was born in Denmark of Hover, Vejle, May 24, 1804. He was the son of Niels Peter West and Anne Jensen.
He grew up in Denmark and married Anne Margrethe Madsen on May 13, 1830. To this union were born six children. Three died in infancy. The three oldest lived to maturity. His wife died on November 18, 1848, at Egom, Veijle, Denmark, leaving three children, the youngest, Fritz Emanuel, ten years old.
Christian married a second time, February 23, 1849, to Maren Hansen. He was baptized on April 8, 1852. In 1853, he decided to take his family and go to Zion. He, with his wife and two children, Sophia, 20 years old and Fritz Emanuel, 16 years old, came. They left Copenhagen, Denmark, December 20, 1952, and arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah, October 1, 1853. Neils Emanuel, age 18 years old, did not come with his parents. He did not join the Church at the same time as his family and whether he ever came to Utah is not known.
Christian left Liverpool January 16, 1853, and arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi River March 7, 1853. They stuck in mud and had to wait until the water rose to arrive in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 17, 1853, where they changed to another ship and arrived in St. Louis, Missouri, March 29, 1853. The trip up the river was very interesting. They passed forests, beautiful homes, gardens, some orange and lemon trees, etc. Negroes were working on plantations and women drove plows. They stayed in St. Louis until April 30, when they boarded a steamer and sailed the Missouri River for 200 miles to Keokuk, Iowa. On arriving they saw hundreds of wagons, tents, oxen and more arriving daily.
At Keokuk they got a wagon, 4 head of oxen and a tent. On May 21, 1853, they began their journey west with the Captain Fosgrens Company. They did not know how to handle the oxen so they had to learn the hard way. Christian traveled across Iowa to Kanesville, Iowa, arriving there June 15, 1853. Here they got provisions for the trip ahead and were ferried across the river. It took until July 12th before they were able to travel again. Besides his family he took a widow with 3 children. They traveled through Nebraska with its prairies, up the Platte River until they came to Fort Laramie in Wyoming Territory, where they crossed over to the south side of the river. As they traveled food for the oxen became scarce and the oxen became poor. One of the oxen died and the Nelson family traveled with three. From Fort Bridger it became more difficult to travel as they were in the mountains, but they reached Salt Lake City in Utah Territory on September 30, 1853. They rested until October 4, when they headed south to settle in the Sanpete Valley. [NOTE: A sizeable contingent of Danish converts to Mormonism arrived at Manti in 1853, to become the second largest ethnic group to settle central Utah.]
The Indian uprising had begun and the family saw much evidence as they traveled along the way. They saw places where wagons had been burned and people killed. One place 4 people had been killed and their belongings scattered. They gathered up some of the wheat.
The fort where the Nelson family was supposed to stay was attacked by the Indian and they drove off all the cattle. The people left because they were not strong enough to fight off the Indians.
He settled in Manti where a lot of Danish emigrants had settled. In 1856, he had acquired 5 cows, about 20 calves, 80 acres of farmland, 3 city lots and 12 acres for cultivated crops and gardens. He and his son Fritz were good carpenters and built several houses in and around Manti.
They built the first mill in Mount Pleasant for which he received $300, which to him was a great deal of money. He also built the first grist mill [NOTE: a building where grain is ground into flour] in Manti.
Christian and his wife, Maren Hansen, went to Salt Lake City and were endowed on October 18, 1859. On the June 4, 1864, he was married and sealed to Maria Peterson in the Endowment House.
He lived in Manti the remainder of his life. He died on April 18, 1887, and was buried in the Manti Cemetery. He had a strong testimony of the gospel and stayed active in the church to the end of his life.
BIOGRAPHY: Letter from Christian Nielsen
April 27, 1856
The following is a letter to his family in Denmark:
Manti City, Sanpete Valley, Utah Territory, April 27, 1856
To Fisherman Carl Nielsen
Dear Brother-in-law, brothers and sisters, brother, son, family, friends, old neighbors, and acquaintances and everyone who might be interested in hearing from us. We greet you all with loving and friendly greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
I don’t know if you have any news from us since we left Denmark. In the summer of 1854 we wrote a letter to a man who lived close to Vejle, but he was on his way to this country before the letter could reach its destination, so we don’t know if the letter has come to his successor or not. In the future - as long as it is the will of God that we shall live and He will grant us His grace, we shall write a letter once or twice a year to our family, but not to everyone each time.
First of all, we want to ell you how we are. You probably believer that we are dead, but we are, thanks be to God, alive and are living well. We are all healthy, bodily and spiritually; we own our home and land, cattle and tools to till the soil. For the time we have five head of cattle, besides calves, etc.; about 27 acres of land, and two lots of about 3 acres which we use as a garden. We have a deed to this. In the city in which we live, we have a lot form our houses, room for our cattle, and grain and a small flower garden. On this lot we have up till now built five houses, and this coming summer we expect to build two more. The house which faces the street, and which will be at least two stories high we cannot manage to do. I hope that my son, Niels Emanuel will come and help me build it, and with the help of God I shall help him to build two.
Fritz is our farm hand, and a little girl whom we had with us from home is with us most of the time. Our daughter, Sophie is not with us here, but remained in the capital, Salt Lake City, when passing through there. It is 150 miles north of us, where she was married January 13, 1855 to young man, Jacob Knudsen, from the island of Funen. I expect that they will settle here this coming summer. In this town there are about 300 Danish families, and 7 miles to the north are almost just as many.
We have hundreds of things to tell you, but space does not permit us. First of all we wish to tell you that the journey to the valleys was a very good one for us. We left Liverpool January 15, 1855, dropped the anchor at the mouth of the Mississippi March 7th, and we stayed here until the 14th, as the ship on which we were, went too deep; 1400 sacks of salt were thrown overboard; two steamships tried to pull it out but to no avail. The ship was grounded and we had to stay there during the night. In the morning the water had risen, and the steamers hauled us for about 4 miles, where we anchored and stayed there until sunset, when a steamer came with another frigate, and took our ship along, one on each side, and we arrived in New Orleans on March 17th, 100 miles. On the 19th we went aboard a steamship, which was to take us to St. Louis, 1200 miles, and we arrived there and the 29th.
Our travel on the Mississippi River was very interesting, varying with forests, beautiful houses, gardens and lovely cities. The houses were surrounded with flowers and fruit trees in the most beautiful blooms. Oranges and lemons were hanging on the trees in the plantations where Negroes worked and plowed the Negro women drove the plows The birds were singing, and in each place we sailed by women and children well dressed, greeting us with white handkerchiefs. There was only bare land where the forests were destroyed by fire, and in several places a forest was on fire.
We stayed about a month in St. Louis, Missouri. Towards evening on April 30th we boarded a steamer, which took us 200 miles further up the Missouri River to Keokuk, Iowa, where we arrived in the evening of May 1st.
In Keokuk, Iowa, was a very large camp of English, Welsh, American and Danes, etc., and here were also many hundreds of wagons and tents. Here we received wagons, tents, and oxen. Every day companies came and left; it was very lively and the surroundings lovely. The forests, for the most part oak and all kinds of fruit trees and vines, were blooming. We now had to live in our wagons, which were covered with canvas, and tents where we slept as well as in a house. We were given four oxen, one wagon and a tent.
On May 21st, we started on our journey. In the beginning it went slowly as the oxen were not acquainted with us, and we not with them, as the way in which they drive them here is entirely different from the Danish way. They pull with a yoke of tree, which is placed on the neck of them in which there is an iron brace to put the wagon ring in. There are four oxen, and the first ones pull in an iron chain. It can be removed in minute. They are steered with a whip and some very definite words, which the oxen know, and in this way from eight to ten pair of oxen are steered by on driver. This form of transportation is common in North America. Our wagon is of excellent quality and solid and is far superior to the Danish.
We traveled through the state of Iowa to Kanesville, Iowa, along the Missouri River, and arrived there on June 15th, about 300 miles. The country through which we traveled was sparsely settled; a few towns and houses many miles apart, but boundless grass fields of the very best kind. Our oxen became fat. The fields and forests were full of fruit. The roads were very poor. Here we received supplies for the remainder of the journey, and were ferried across the river. It took us to July 12th before we were ready to travel further.
We were now in the state of Nebraska. The country was unsettled. We traveled for a couple of days and came to the river called Loop Fork, across which we were ferried. On August 2nd we came to a place where there were buffaloes and the very biggest. In the afternoon of the 5th I went hunting for buffaloes together with some other men, but the time was too short. The camp broke up and we had to return. We went up into the mountains where we could see a great plain of buffaloes; several thousand of them, besides deer, antelopes, wolves, etc.
We camped for the first time on August 4th on the banks of the Platte River, on the north side. We traveled along it for about 500 miles to Fort Laramie, where we crossed the river to the southern bank. In this fort there were soldiers to protect the emigrants against attacks from the Indians. Lately the Indians who are always begging and stealing had previously visited us. We often came across gold diggers returning from California, mostly riding; driving mules before them. On July 31st we met, among others, a man from Kiel, German. He had been a soldier in Copenhagen, but during the Schleswig War he had joined the insurgents. [NOTE: The First Schleswig War (or Three Years' War was the first round of military conflict in southern Denmark and northern Germany rooted in contesting the issue of who should control the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein . The war, which lasted from 1848-1851, also involved troops from Prussia and Sweden . Ultimately this war was inconclusive and a second conflict erupted in 1864: the Second Schleswig War .]
Until the middle of August we had fine grass for our cattle, but now it began to become less fine, and sometimes we had to travel for two or three days before the oxen could graze. We lost one of our oxen and had to drive with three. Once in a while the road was sandy. Oxen and cows lay dead by the thousands at the roadside. The road and the country were strewn with carriage fittings - the wood was burned - bedding, clothing, kitchenware, guns, etc. I wish to say here, that before us, 12,000 emigrants had traveled to California. They are the ones who burned the wagons when their cattle died, to join the others, as otherwise they would have to stay. The Mormons do not burn their wagons, they help each other. If a person loses his oxen, the others come to his rescue; if anything is broken the company will have to wait until it is repaired. Generally speaking there are blacksmiths and other craftsmen in the company. The blacksmiths set up their workshop, and in a short time everything is fixed. Nothing is thrown away unless the wagons are overloaded, which is often the case, and they have to “throw it overboard”.
One would think that we would become rich by picking things up in the desert. This is not the case. There might be some who are greedy and cannot stand to see all that iron and clothing lying there. To begin with, they pick up everything they see and are funning around in the camps to find more. They load it on their wagons and let their oxen drag it along. Sometimes they take it along for several hundred miles. More and more is thrown along the road. They can’t take it along and it breaks their hearts. Here they see a fine wheel, there’s a brass kettle, here a pan and there’s a kitchen range, etc. They have to drive past it. They are stuck in every hole they pass over. The others must help them all the time. Al last they get tired of it and leave them behind. It is generally that kind of people who constantly ask for help, but will help no one else. Here they are sitting now. First of all they try to give the oxen a sound threshing, but they are overloaded and cannot do it. It irritates them. They take off what they can, and finally they get the wagon out. They load it again: they cannot leave the things behind; they have brought it so far. They now drive on for a gunshot distance or two; they are stuck again; they do as before, but they overstrain themselves. The pulse beats intensely because they must leave some of the things behind to their dismay. Thus they are stuck several times until they have nothing but the empty wagon. The oxen are tired and can neither get food nor water. They cannot be saved and are at once attacked by wolves to which they fall a prey. It is most comical to see those who are greedy; loading in the morning only to give the whole thing up in the afternoon. The next morning they again find something which they feel they must take with them; it is a good piece which they can use for many purposes, sell it at a good price; they make big calculations until it goes like the day before, and thus it continues every day in such a way that when they arrive in the valley they have nothing.
On September 20th we came to a fort call Bridger. Here were soldiers from the valleys to protect the emigrants against the Indians. We heard that a war was being fought with them in the valleys and that they had stolen a couple of hundred cattle. We now got up in the mountains where sometimes we journeyed upward for a couple of days and then downward, tearing along. In some places the wagon was lowered down with ropes.
At last we reached the valleys on September 30th. At 8:00pm we entered Great Salt Lake City. From Kanesville, Iowa, we had traveled 1,031 miles. One would think that we didn’t like to travel any further. No, we at once made up our minds together with several others to proceed to this valley (Sanpete Valley), 150 miles south of here. On October 4th we started on our new journey. We traveled through many settlements. The people were very good to us. They gave us all kinds of things. In Provo a fat cow was killed for us, but the farther south we got the more warlike it looked. All were armed. In Nephi we camped in a place where eight Indians were shot a few days ago. From there we traveled through a mountain pass to this valley where we at once came across two wagons from which the boxes were thrown off, and beside was a trunk that had been broken open, some wheat, several percussion caps, etc., which we gathered and picked up. Here the Indians had killed four of the brethren from this town. The fort in which we were to live was the one from which the Indian had stolen the many heads of cattle, and the settlers had left there to go to other places. It was a miserable fort; the walls were poorly made; the houses in uninhabitable condition, and we had to be armed constantly. There were good pastures, which could have wonderful fields, but we were too weak to resist the Indians. My family and I didn’t stay very long there.
A new mill had to be built in the city of Mount Pleasant and I was recommended to build it as a millwright, and I traveled to this place on November 10th. I took the job to build the mill, which, by the help of God, went very well. It is built Danish style. I made more than $300; a dollar is 2 ‘daler’ and 2 ‘shilling’ in Danish money.
The whole journey is in no way dull. Everyone had his special duty. The voyage across the Atlantic Ocean was as pleasant as one could wish. We sailed along the West Indian Islands, between Cuba and Jamaica. At the latter island we stayed on February 24th. It was dead calm. The ship was turning around. It was quite a sight for us to see the sky - high mountains. It was extremely hot, and we perspired extremely. In the evening the wind was fine.
The journey across the country isn’t dull either. In the morning we are busy preparing breakfast and make ourselves ready to go as soon as the born is blown. At noon we generally camp for about an hour if we can get close to water and grass. Now they are busy preparing dinner, get wood and water the same thing in the evening. We have to walk most of the way, for our l9oads are big; if the road is good the children and the women ride. I had a widow with two children from the island of Bornholm in my wagon, so I had to walk almost all the way. To economize on my boots I waked barefooted form about 200 Danish miles, or about 800 English miles, and let may beard grow for a long time. Many of us looked awful with sun burnt faces and long beards; my beard was so long that it hung way down on my chest. I was afraid to look in the mirror. The Indians stared at me; they don’t have any beard; the weather during Nebraska until we reached Fort Laramie in the middle of the desert was warm with much thundering. In Iowa it was terrible; it is almost impossible to imagine it unless you have seen and heard it yourself; it was lightning constantly day and night, about every other night or day we had thunderstorms the like of which is never heard in Denmark; as a rule it comes and begins with a terrible storm and a whirlwind. The thunder is approaching with awful booms and bangs, the air is one big blaze; the rain is pouring down and fills the tents with water and many of the tents are blown down. In Nebraska we drove behind the company for a little while when a thunderstorm hit us; the lightning hit us. My wife felt a pressure on her head, my daughter in her chest, and Anders Nielsen who was the driver one on his right arm; those in front fell to the ground. I walked around among them and saw the lightning among us, but I didn’t feel anything. In the wagon were two children; we opened it very fast; they were lying well and safe. God had protected us.
I now wish to tell you a little about the valley here. It is about 20 Danish miles long and one Danish mile wide, surrounded to the West and East by mountains. We live at the eastern mountains on which grow cedar, pine and other kinds. Here is wood and timber, enough which is free to anyone; it doesn’t cost anything, only to go and get it. Here is plenty of grass; the meadow where we harvest grass for winter feed I don’t know how big it is; it is free to anyone to cut it and bring home as much as they want. IN the neighborhood we find salt, coal, alum, etc. A lot of tar is burnt. The soil is very rich and fertile, clayey mixed with lime. The soil must be irrigated with water, which comes from the mountains, which is led into ditches all over the fields, and this is not very difficult. There is not enough rain. During the summer it doesn’t rain very often, but during the winter a lot of snow falls - especially in the mountains - which melts in May and June and gives a lot of water during the time we have to irrigate. All kinds of grain can be grown here and with great advantage; they pay particular attention to wheat, oats, corn, squash and other garden products, which are not found in Denmark. The have also started to grow barley; there is not much of rye; they don’t know that I can be used for bread. We haven’t tested any rye bread since we left England. Wheat is the most common breadstuff. It is strained and shoved in the mill, and we have the best bread that can be found anywhere. Springtime, as soon as the snow melts, is the sowing time. In the middle of March we have summer here. We plough and sow until the latter part of May and a part of June. Barley and oats can be grown in the latter part of June. Most kinds of grain can also be laid in the fall. The soil is dry; the snow will cover it and it will come out in the spring. Last fall we laid several ends which we didn’t know of before, but which as all good. The air is healthy, the climate is good and everyone from the Scandinavian countries can stand it. The air is so thin that you can see 25-30 Danish miles. All the Danes who are living here own their own homes, soil and cattle; a farm hand is generally paid two dollars a day. A poor man who comes here and is diligent can so become wealthy.
Of the skilled laborers the brick masons are better off then all the rest; they make three dollars a day, both winter and summer, but to farm is the most distinguished. There is freedom in everything; we don’t have any compulsory laws; here is freedom of trade. Here anyone can do what he pleases and he can work in as many trades as he likes. If God will grant us a good harvest this year, my son Fritz will be able to make 5-6 dollars. What can a poor farm hand or a day laborer do to succeed in our native land? We now have to learn the English language, which is a little difficult for the older ones; the children learn it right away. Most of the Danish children and young people speak good England and Indian. Fritz teaches English to some Danes. We might just as well learn to speck Indian as we speak with them more often than we have the opportunity to talk to Americans. We have started to speak a little of both languages; our children speak English and Indian constantly.
I wish to tell you a little about our red neighbors, the Indians. I have told you that when we came to this valley, which is called Sanpete, a war was going on with them. The first year we arrived here we had an unusually severe winter, which forced them to yield and submit. They couldn’t get up in the mountains to hunt because of the snow, and as time went they had to kill their dogs to sustain life. There are two tribes who live here - Sanpete and the Utes; the former ones who are very poor came first and then the others shortly after and made peace, which is still in force. The ceremonies at the conclusion of peace with these wild and primitive people are entirely different from those used by civilized nations. The most distinguished of the Indians, with the interpreter, sit down on their heels which they constantly use in stead of chairs; a pipe is lighted which is constantly passes from one to another as each one takes a smoke; as soon as the tobacco is gone it is filled again. All the other Indians who are lying in a circle outside also get their share of the pipe. Peace is now established with folded hands, which to them means real friendship. Half folded means half friendship. And there are man other peculiar signs. The interpreter must explain and translate what both sides promise. When they are through they shake hands with all those present and extend their usual greeting, ‘Maig, Maig’, or the English one, ‘How do you do?’ Their chief whose name is Arapine is a very good man. He constantly urges them to keep peace with us and tells them not to steal, and he returns everything to us, which he comes across. A house being built for him is close by us, and for the time being people is seen there with tools to till the soil and sow quite a lot of wheat and teach them to work of which they absolutely know nothing. Now and then missionaries are sent to them, and many of them accept the light of the gospel. They are in a primitive condition, a dirty, lazy and cunning people; a great many of them walk around completely or half-naked; even in the most severe cold a big part of their body is naked; their skin is dark gray, their faces painted with red, yellow, and white stripes. Their clothing consists of wolf skins and of deer, buffaloes and woolen blankets, and from the people here they buy shirts and other clothing. They wear the shirts on the outside of which they are very proud. They are always armed with rifles, bow and arrow. They certainly know how to shoot. The husband doesn’t work which is a big shame. The wife must build the house, get wood, dig, take card of the children, and you will never see him carry any of them. A couple of days after the child is born it is put completely naked into a basket and is covered with rags of skin so that you can’t see anything but the head, and they carry the basket on their backs. There it remains - in the basket-until he can start running by himself. Their wives are their property; all the children or women they steal or capture when warring with one another they treat very arbitrarily. It is no unusual that they kill all their wives or shoot them and their prisoners. They generally love their children, but their distress often makes them sell them. Their prisoners they sell, but they are often very expensive; most of them they sell to the Spaniards in Mexico; they pay for them with horses. The other day an Indian came here with a woman whom he wanted to sell for an ox. She looked very forsaken, lay down on the ground in a bent position; he praised her ability to work, etc. In this place they buy several children from them however, not to make slaves out of them, but in order to make decent people out of them. The riches of the Indians consists mainly of horses of which they have large herds; sometimes they steal 400-500 from the Spaniards and take them up into the mountains; they ride them up and down the steepest cliffs, many places at the edge of an abyss, even with the wives and two or three children on the horseback. The rich Indians who live in tents made of skin fasten when traveling their tent pegs to the horse. They have no special place they can call home, but move from one place to another. Those who have no horses must of course walk; the women have a lot to carry, while the men just carry their weapons. When they camp, the wife must provide material and build a house, which consists of poached shrubs and twigs and resembles a stork’s nest. Here they have their fireplace to get heat from; they lie and sleep on the bare ground and many of them sleep completely naked in 20 degree of frost. They are hardened from their youth. Their boys walk around completely naked in January and February when the weather is fairly good. Generally they wear no hats. They have long black hair, which they place into long pigtails which almost reach the ground, and upon which they fasten brass plates, buttons, pearls, etc. They hand brass rings in their cars, 4-5 inches in diameter; many have 5-6 rings in each ear. As regards to religion, they believe in an evil spirit and a good spirit; they obey the former in all things as he would otherwise kill them; the latter which they call the great spirit they don’t care much about as it won’t do them any harm. They are taught to be brave and valiant in war, and to steal. When a chief dies several horses are shot, which must follow him and be at his disposal on his journey.
Dear Brother-in-Law and Sister: My son Niels Emanuel is always in my thoughts, and I feel sorry for him that he didn’t come with us. He is a quick learner in everything. He could have done everything here. He could already have made enough to buy both cattle and a lot so he could have worked for himself and thus he wouldn’t have had to work for others all his life, without having the joy of getting something he could call his own. I am now so far away that I can’t help him with anything but good advice. I wish he would follow it and believer that I only wish him the best, and that he would not pay too much heed to what is said about us. May greatest wish and my prayer to God, our Heavenly Father, is that I might have the joy of seeing him become a happy man without working and toil for others for a few pennies a day which can hardly support a family and forever be a slave just to make other rich, and for himself nothing but poverty without ever being able to see a way out of it. Dear Sister and Brother-in-Law: I sincerely ask you not to advise him against coming over to us, but please help and advise home come. In case I will not be able to repay you, God will reward you for a good deed. He is now so old that he will have to get into the service. He is alone and has no one to help him and Europe is entangled in great struggles, and no one knows yet what the end will be; for this reason I sincerely ask you to advise him and help him to leave Denmark with the next emigration company; it would be the easiest way for him to get here.
If the constitution is still in force, they cannot prohibit him from leaving; for such a young man a journey like this is a pleasure trip; there are numerous people between the ages of 60 and 70 who come here; there are many rich people from Denmark who settle here. I’ll write him a few lines and put it in this letter. God permitting that you will receive this letter, I ask you to deliver it to him personally. I shall recommend him to a man who is leaving for this place and who has means and I shall sponsor him.
I would make us very happy if you would write to us and let us know how things are as soon as you have received this letter. I hope wit the help of God, that it might be in your hands in July, and if you answer it immediately it should be here in the fall. I will write the address beneath.
As far as the gospel is concerned, I don’t want to write much about it, except that it is constantly progressing in spite of all opposition and all the terrible lies and false rumors which papers and magazines write about us, but paper is cheap; we don’t care, we are used to it; the more they tell lies about us, the more this people progresses. Missionaries are now being sent almost all over the world, among all nations, and many are on their way to this place; from England a lot of poor people who cannot afford to make the journey, but are helped by the Emigration Fund, then thousand have come this year. The people here are progressing in all ways; new settlements are built in the various valleys, which are discovered. The people are busy as the bee, and when there are too many people in one place they go to another place and build it up. I can’t write any more about this now. There are missionaries; let them do their duty and tell you what you have to do; listen to them.
Please give my regards to my wife’s brother Peter Hanson; we wish he was here, even if he was so much against us, it is forgiven him, he was not any wiser, here he could be a happy and well-to-do man. We love him and mean it well. Give our regards to my brother Carl and his wife and children; we expect to see them as citizens in these mountains of the United States and enjoy each other’s company; if they haven’t got anything else against it they will say that they are poor and have no means to get here. Many of this kind of people have come here. God will help those who wish to be helped. Give my regards to my dear, unforgettable sister Sophie and her good husband, and likewise their children; we wish them here to do them good. Give also our regards to my wife’s brother-in-law Nils Jorgen together with his wife and children; ask him to convey our regards and greetings to R. Hanson in Skanderborg and tell him that we are fine; we wish to write to him, perhaps next year. Give also our regards to my sister Marie and her husband and children, and Caroline and her husband and children. We wish them equally well, and that they may all live as peacefully and happily as we do. Give our regards to our neighbor, Peder Nielson, and his wife together with the rest of our former neighbors, Andres Laursen in Bredballe, etc. You and your children, please accept our most cordial wishes. We wish God’s grace, peace and blessings be with you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Give our regards to my brother Carl and ask him to tell the mother of the little girl we had with us she is well and is staying with us; she expects every time the emigrants are arriving that her mother is with them; she stays with Hans Ropemaker’s daughter who is married and lived in Vinderslev. We are anxiously expecting a letter from you. My address is: C. Nelson, Manti City - emigrant from 1853 - Sanpete Valley, Utah Territory, United States, North America.
P.S. Niels Emanuel can travel to New Orleans for 53 rigsdaler (an old Danish coin worth about 2 kronor), and the rest of the journey won’t cost him much, as he can be a driver through the desert. Don’t forget us. Write to us. I still have a lot to tell you, but I have to close this letter. Take care of yourselves, be happy.
BIOGRAPHY: