I left Copenhagen Denmark April 18, 1857 with my father and mother and grandmother.  I was 20 years of age and unmarried.

We stopped two days in Liverpool and on April 25th left there on the sailing ship Westmoreland under Mathias Cowley, President, with 544 saints, and arrived at Philadelphia May 31st, having been five weeks on the sea.

We were eleven days going from Philadelphia to Iowa City by rail, and while on this journey I got separated from the company and was left behind and lost, a young girl in a strange land, no friends and could not speak English or make my wants known.  I was telegraphed for and found by the description of the clothing I wore, and made to understand by the hands of a watch that I could go to my company by train at 6:30 that night.

At Iowa City we were organized as a hand cart company under Captain Christian Christiansen.  There were about 100 hand carts with 3 ox teams to help the sick and weak and carry some supplies and the tents.  We were only allowed to take 15 pounds weight of clothing to each person = and our new clothing and even bed clothes had to be left laying on the ground as we left our camping place, for no one would buy them from us.  This as a very great trial to me, having brought good new clothing from Denmark to leave on the ground for strangers to take.

We the started for Florence Nebraska, June 15, 1857.  Each hand cart had six persons, but I was assigned to a cart having only 4 persons, an old couple, a sickly girl and myself.  We were heavily loaded with provisions, and myself and the old gentleman were the pulling team.  We traveled through a settled part of Iowa for three weeks, burying by the roadside some of the aged and young who had died from exposure and hardships of the journey.  We arrived at Florence in the latter part of June and laid over one week to rest.

About the fifth day out, I was so worn out with pulling over the rough roads, up hills and through the sand, and discouraged because I did not believe I could stand the journey, and that I came to the conclusion that I might as well die there as suffer longer, and I was lonely for I had no relatives in the company.

So I purposely staid behind while the company were travelling and laid down in the grass, expecting to die there, believing there was no one behind me and that I would not be found.  Soon after this the Captain came along and found me and helped me along.  He promised me that when we came to a hill or sand he would come and help me pull.

And he kept his promise and helped me.  Soon after this the old couple who were with my hand cart died, and I was changed to a cart that had six pullers, and my task was much easier than before.

It was now July and August and very hot on the plains and my shoes were worn out.  We had to get raw hide from the dead cattle along the road and make shoes for ourselves so as to be able to pull.  Crossing the creeks and rivers would make the raw hide soft and the hot sun and roads would make it hard, and our feet were nearly all the time sore and bleeding.

I being alone and having no bedclothes, had to sleep in an old shawl in the tent, and coming through the mountains the nights were cold and freezing, and having to get up in my turn in the night to bake bread I was often too warm on one side and much too cold on the other side.

When about 200 miles from Salt Lake City we were overtaken by the U.S. Army under General Johnston going to Utah to war with our people, but they treated us kindly, and the army was a blessing to our people in Utah.

About two weeks journey from Salt Lake City the relief teams came to our help, and oh! how thankful I was to be allowed to walk and not have to pull the cart, for I was sick and worn out with the journey.  We arrived in Salt Lake City September 13th, having been five months on the road and way from the time we left Denmark.  When I saw how poor the people were in clothing, for they were ragged, I could not help remembering the good clothing we had left behind.

When we arrived in at Lehi where my sister lived, I was so sick and weak that I was not expected to live, and Brother Hyde, (later Bishop of Hyde Park) and Brother Rigby were called in to administer to me, but I could not understand a word they said. Brother Benson being there interpreted it for me.  I found kind friends who cared for me and nursed me until I was well.

The next year my father and mother and grandmother came into the Valley safe and well.  (They crossed the plains in Capt Iver N. Iverson's ox-train, which arrived in Salt Lake City Sept 20, 1858.)  And so were fulfilled the promises of our captain C. Christiansen, made to me when I left my parents in Omaha.  And so also have been the promises of Brother Hyde when administering to me in Lehi.  And I realize that I have been blessed of the Lord and preserved, for my obedience to the counsel of His Priesthood.

Note by Stan BARKER:  The above concludes the section in the handwriting of John H. H. BARKER.  The following is additional information written by Maud Jorgensen.

Kersten was married to Jens Peter Benson, her sister's husband, as second or plural wife, 12 Nov 1858.

Terms were arranged and Johnston's Army entered the valley peacefully in 1858.  They marched on through Salt Lake City and down about 16 miles west of Lehi, where they founded Camp Floyd.  Grandfather was a carpenter, and he along with many others, was able to get work there, it was a great help to the people at that time.  Grandmother said the soldiers would hire the women to make wheat and barley beer for them.

New settlements were being founded in Cache Valley about this time, so in 1867, grandfather went to Clarkston, which had been founded in 1864, and bought some land from George Davis and Bill Sparks, and in the spring of 1868 moved there with Mette and her family.  Grandmother Kersten, with her children Alma, Christena, Samuel and Marcus stayed in Lehi that summer and raised a garden, and that fall they too moved to Clarkston.

In the spring of 1869, it was decided to make another settlement, so a group of Clarkston men went about five miles south, where they surveyed and laid off a new town site, which they named Newton.  My grandfather was one of this group.  He build a log house, plowed and sowed some grain, and in the fall moved Mette and her family there.  Their children were Mary, Martha, Peter John and Elizabeth who was born in Clarkston.  The home in Newton was in the south west corner of the town, where Ernest Jensen lived at one time.  Later grandfather bought the Atkinson place, across the street south of the public square, he owned the north half of the block.  Their first home was of logs, but later he built a rock house on the northeast corner, which around 1960 was still being lived in by his grandson's widow and family.  (It has since been sold)  I have many happy memories of that old home, for I used to spend a lot of time there playing with my cousin.  I remember so well the trap door in the board ceiling of one of the upstairs bedrooms, that opened into the attic, a hiding place when the Federal Marshals came to town hunting for those who had more than one wife.

Life was hard, Indians frightening, and grandmother said the first year or two in Clarkston she did not know what it was not to be hungry.  When they moved to Clarkston they took along one of Johnston's Army cannon balls, and they used it to crush or grind the wheat for bread.  While living there Alice, Isaac and Rastus were born, Rastus living only about eleven days.  She was living there then Martin Harris (one of the Witnesses of the Book of Mormon) died in 1875, grandfather Benson made his coffin, and my mother remembered watching him make it.

In 1876 here sister Mette died soon after the birth of here tenth child, he died too.  She had buried two little girls in Lehi, and one in Newton, leaving six living children, the two oldest married.  The home in Clarkston was sold to a Mr. Loosle, and grandmother moved to Newton.  Now there was a family of ten to care for.  Beside the regular work of a home and family, there were many other tasks in a pioneer home, such as washing and carding wool, then spinning it into yarn and knitting socks and stockings.  Making clothing and hats, from straw that was carefully gathered and braided with seven strands, home made soap made with lye from wood ashes, making tallow candles and potato starch.  They also made dye from plants and roots to dye the yarn.  I remember the spinning wheel made by grandmother, and remember seeing mother spin on it.

In 1879 grandfather married Christina Nielsen who had come from Denmark in 1878.  He build her a frame home west of Grandmothers, about in the center of the block.  They had a family of five, Caroline, Margaret, Nephi, Annie (Anna) and Joseph, who died while a baby.

Grandfather was arrested for polygamy in 1887, he was fined one hundred dollars and sentenced to six months in the Utah State Penitentiary.  He left Friday 23 Dec 1887, and was discharged Thur 24 May 1888, having served five months.

In 1898 he was working on a building and fell from the roof, he died soon after from the injuries, 21 June 1898, age 67.

Grandmother's youngest son Isaac was married in Dec 1898 and he and his wife Lucy Atkinson of Clarkston made their home with her.  Lucy had a sweet disposition and was always good and kind to grandmother, they got along well together. Although she had her own room she had been too hard a worker in her life to take it easy now, and as her five grandchildren came along she helped in every task in the home.  Some of the memory pictures I have of her are: cooking meals, slicing bread, watching her make and fry doughnuts or crullers, she cut the dough in oblong pieces, made a slit in the center gave them a quick twist and popped them into the kettle.  How we youngsters enjoyed them as soon as they were cool enough to eat!  I can see her tending babies, rocking them in the cradle, see her peel apples and put them out to dry, cut and dry blue plums, (the lot was full of fruit trees) canning fruit, carding wool, knitting socks and mittens, churning, working and molding butter, making quilts, sewing and patching, reading her Danish paper, then pushing her glasses up on her forehead and forgetting where they were, and having everyone around hunting for them.  My sister Sue remembers how she loved to have someone brush and comb her hair.  She prayed aloud, she didn't just say her prayers, she really talked to the Lord as if he were right beside her.  She was a small woman, I judge not over five feet one or two inches, had blue eyes.  She never lost her Danish accent, and when we youngsters were especially provoking she would scold us in Danish by saying "for shame on you".  I remember the enlarged picture of here parents that hung on the wall in her room, and a beautiful cream colored silk shawl that she used to wear to church in mild weather.  I have a stole made out of her black plush cape.  She had a home made carpet on her floor and a "feather tick" on her bed.

On the evening of August 29, 1910, my father who had passed away in February, came to mother and told her to go tell grandmother he had found a place for her.  I remember how pale and weak mother was that day, Sun Aug. 30, but she went over and delivered the message.  Grandmother didn't take it seriously, as least outwardly, but Sept 28 she had a stroke, and was unable to speak a word while she lay sick.  Five of her six children lived in Newton, but Samuel at that time was on a homestead in Sublett, Idaho.  Word was sent to him and after he came she seemed content, and on 22 Oct 1910 she passed away, aged 73 years and eight months.  A dear kind soul who had passed through all the trials of pioneer life, and whose faith and testimony had grown stronger with every year of her life.  She left two daughters and four sons, Alma, Christena, Marcus, Samuel, Alice and Isaac, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

From 1906 to 1908 her son Alma filled a mission to Denmark and visited her birthplace, Dokkedal.  Her son Marcus filled a mission to the Northern States from 1905 to 1907.  Her great grandson Neal Jorgensen filled a mission to Denmark from 1948 to 1951.  The centennial of the Danish mission was celebrated in 1950, and he was privileged to be the church photographer for the festivities.  While laboring in Aalborg he was able to visit her birthplace too.

PIONEER WOMAN

Without her gentle touch this land
Would still be wilderness

Without her courage and her faith,
The vision that could bless
The darkest night with rays of hope,
The will to carry on,

The men who came to homestead here
Could not have faced each dawn.

She worked beside her man and gave
Her strength and beauty too,
To build a home where none had been,
To make his dream come true.

She must have cried sometimes when toil
And loneliness and pain
Had bowed her head, when fierce winds blew
A pitiless refrain.

She must have dreamed of cities then,
Of houses neat and trim,
The finer things that she had left
To take her place with him,

But love can work a miracle
Where lonely mountains rear,
And bring to fragrant, blooming life
All that a heart holds dear.

Catherine E. Berry

Information gleaned from a book in the Mesa Genealogical Library, gave me [Maud Jorgensen] more information about the immigrant company from Denmark.  They set sail from Liverpool, England on the Sailing Ship Westmoreland, 25th of April 1857.  My grandmother, Kersten Ericksen and her parents were among the passengers, as were the Hans An[r]cher Kofoed & Cecelia Munch family from Bornholm.  Philadelphia was the Port of entry that year instead of New Orleans.  Mathias Cowley was President of the Company of 544 Saints bound for America, and they reached there 31 May 1957.  The trip by train to Iowa City took eleven days.  They were then taken to the Camp Grounds about 3 miles from town.  There round tents had been set up, held up by a center pole, that held about twenty people.  They had three days to prepare for the 300 mile trip to Florence (Omaha) Nebraska.  They were organized into handcart companies, 6 or sometimes 4 pullers to a cart.  Only 15 pounds was allowed each person, so many had to leave clothing, bed clothes or other supplies on the ground as they left the campground.  66 carts and 4 mule team wagons started about the middle of June on the 300 mile journey, which was perhaps the hardest part of the trip to the Valley, for they had miserable muddy roads.

Captain Christian Christiansen's company left 15 June for the Valley.  Part of the company (which included the Kofoed family) stayed and made the journey later, 1858 or 1859.  This company was overtaken by Johnston's Army on their way to Utah.  One of their mules injured it's foot, so the Captain told the handcart company they could slaughter it and have it to eat.  The Kofoeds traveled with the 8th handcart company, under Captain George Rowley and reached Salt Lake City 4 September 1859.

[Additional page, apparently also type by Maud Jorgensen, which bears a picture of Kersten at the top.  The following is the single typed page after which follows a page with pictures of Kersten Ericksen (with the inscription "1837-1910"), Jens Peter Benson (bearing the inscription "1831-1898"), and a picture of the Benson home in Newton, Utah.  An additional note on the page says:

Peter & Kersten were both born in Denmark - he left Bornholm in Dec 1852 and reached Salt Lake City 30 of Sept 1853 - Kersten left Dokkedal and sailed from Copenhagen April 1857 - pulled a handcart across the plains and reached Salt Lake City 13th of Sept.  Their first home was in Lehi Utah, then Clarkston Utah when Martin Harris lived there - Peter made his coffin (1875).  Their next home was in Newton - this picture was taken in 1889 - it is owned and cared for by a great granddaughter - Kathryn Rasmussen of Cache Junction, Utah.

Now follows the original text:]

KERSTEN ERICKSEN BENSON

My dear little grandmother Kersten Ericksen Benson, the only grandmother I knew, was born 23 February 1837, in Dokkedal, Mov Aalborg, Denmark.  She was the second of her parents four daughters, Mette Christena born 1833, And Elizabeth born 1839 and Else Marie born 1842.  Her mother was Kersten Christensen, born 12 Dec 1806, and her father was Marcus Ericksen, born 19 Sept. 1808.

Her parents were farmers and she grew up in the little country village of Dokkedal, near the sea coast, east and south of the city of Aalborg.  She told us how they used to drive cows to pasture, and that a Danish mile was much longer than one of our miles.  She would tell us folk tales of the little elves, and when she worked butter she would always put a cross on it with the butter paddle, she said they always did that in Denmark so the elves wouldn't steal it.

The first Latter Day Saint missionaries went to Denmark in 1850.  Soon afterward the Ericksen's heard the gospel message and were baptized in 1852.  Kersten's grandmother Mette K. Nielsen Andersen also joined the church.  Persecution began as soon as they became "Mormons".  They did not have means for all to make the journey to Zion together, so preparations were made for two of the girls to leave.  About Dec 1853, they bade goodbye to Mette the eldest daughter, and little Else Marie, the youngest, whom they were never to meet again in this life, as they started their long journey to gather with the Saints in Salt Lake City.  The Denmark saints would go to England, and sail from Liverpool to New Orleans, which was the prot of entry for the emigrants for several years.  Then they sailed up the Mississippi river to St. Louis, and from there went on to Kansas City, Mo. (Westport), where companies were outfitted to cross the plains in 1854.  Many died of cholera in 1854 while coming up the river, and many more on the overland journey.  Little Else Marie, not quite twelve years old, was stricken with the dread sickness and died at or near Florence, (Omaha), Nebraska, and was buried in an unmarked grave.  Mette made the journey safely to Salt Lake City, where she worked in the home of Truman Angell, until she married Peter Benson in April 1855, he had emigrated from Denmark in 1853.

In November 1854, another sister Ann Elizabeth fifteen years of age sailed from Denmark for England with the Peter O. Hansen Company.  They left Liverpool 7 January 1855 on the ship James Nesmith, and reached New Orleans about the first of March, then on up the Mississippi River and on to Mormon Grove, Kansas, which was the outfitting point that year.  She reached Salt Lake City the first week in September 1855.

The next year the rest of the family prepared for their journey, but the port of entry was now Philadelphia, so the ocean voyage was not as long and they did not have to leave until spring.  On 25 April 1857, grandmother, a girl of twenty, her parents and grandmother left Liverpool on the sailing ship Westmoreland, bound for America.

With the news of the marching of Johnston's Army to Utah in 1857, the people left their homes and moved south.  Mette and her husband had been living in Salt Lake, but they moved to Lehi, so when grandmother reached Salt Lake City in September 1857, sick and worn out with her handcart journey, she had to go on south to find her sister.

Sometime after 1900 grandmother dictated her "Recollections", and my father (John H. Barker) wrote it for her.  She never learned to write English.  This gives the story of her journey in her own words.

Note by Stanley D. BARKER:

Information about the 7th Handcart Company (1857) can be found in Leroy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion, pp. 157-164, (1992 paperback reprint - Arthur H. Clark, Co.).  Additional information can be found in Stanley B. Kimball, PhD., Historic Resource Study, Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail, May 1991, National Park Service, P. 144.  This publication is free from the National Park Service upon request.  According to Stanley B. Kimball, a roster of this handcart company is in the Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 13 Sep 1856, pp. 12-26 (the year 1856 is evidently incorrect).

Photocopies of handwritten and typescripts in possession of Stanley D. Barker, Lakewood, CO.

To see a photocopy of the page in Historic Resource Study, Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail which lists the handcart company that Kersten was in, click here (Large file - 159k)