Antiques and Ancestors

My two grandmothers were polar opposites. My grandmother Hansen—Imelda—was tall, thin, prim, and very proper. My other grandmother—Kristine—was blunt, well-built, more endearing than fussy and spoke broken English.

Imelda Christiana Miller

Both had hard lives—widowed in their 40s and having to support themselves for many years.

Imelda had been the oldest daughter of a prestigious family in Southern Utah. Her father was postmaster and Superintendent of the Schools. They were well-to-do and she grew up with many material advantages. They weren’t wealthy—no one was in pioneer days in Utah—but she had many advantages.

Kristine Amalia Mortensen

Kristine, on the other hand, was born in Denmark, the seventh of eight children. When her youngest

brother was born a year after her, both her brother and her mother died. Kristine eventually was taken in by her future husband’s mother Oline Larsen. Oline and her second husband, Jørgen Hannibal, raised Kristine. It was interesting that Kristine’s family in Denmark was not as dirt-poor as many of the pioneers, and her foster mother’s home was nice, and expensive portraits were made of the family members.

In Kristine’s life, the family was always important and photo portraits were shared with family on both sides of the Atlantic. They reflected a close-knit family that did not allow distance to truly separate themselves from each other.

Kristine's grape arbor

Kristine's chair

Whenever I think of Kristine, I think of a shadowed grape arbor, black currents, an Adirondack chair and many flowers.

Imelda also loved flowers and had peonies, roses, coral bells, and

many other “showy” flowers.

Both of my grandmothers loved to sew and crochet and were very domestic. Both loved to garden.

Float from Imelda's giftshop in parade

Both were entrepreneurial. After Imelda’s husband died, Imelda opened a gift shop, where she sold jewelry, gifts, candy, and souvenirs.

Kristine's "Dream Book"

Kristine at one time self-published a book, “Hannibal Dream Book” by K. A. Hannibal. Hannibal was her foster mother’s 2^nd husband’s name, and I think she used it because she didn’t want to use her own name.

Shakers

When I think of Imelda, I look at some of the fine things she left me--a silver-plate salt and pepper shaker her children gave her, a shell-doll that she must have sold in her gift shop. I also have a carnival glass tea set given to me by Imelda’s younger sisters. They had collected all these nice treasures for their hope chests and when they were old and unmarried, they gave away them away to their family members getting married, of which I was a one. Every time I look at the tea set, I think of the hopes and dreams that they put it aside with, and which they then gave to me as a wedding gift.

Carnival glass tea set given me by Imelda's sisters

Imelda was a fine seamstress and a dressmaker who loved fine clothes and hats. Her husband, Willy, sold one of his horses in the 1910s to purchase Imelda a new singer treadle sewing machine. I have it now and treasure it because Imelda taught me to sew, and I too love to sew as Imelda did.

Doily from Kristine

Kristine’s health was never very good, but she crocheted many things to sell during her life. She made me a delicate white crocheted dress that I wore as a toddler, many hotplates, table runners, crochet heart-shaped pillows and many other things.

All these items represent Imelda’s love of fine things, of linen tablecloths and cloth napkins and fine china. Not at all what you’d expect in a pioneer home in small-town Monroe, Utah.

Candlesticks of Kristine's

The items I have from Kristine are hand-crochet doilies, a Danish-style blue cross-stitch small tablecloth, and a simple bowl and candle holder. I know that Kristine made me several white crocheted dresses that I and my sisters wore as girls. I also remember a heart-shaped a satin pillow covered in crochet that was always in her room.

Kristine’s things were well-crafted but utilitarian items, and nothing of great value.

For years while Kristine was bed-bound, she crocheted items to sell in her small town of Corinne. 

One of Kristine’s greatest treasures were several scrapbooks of poems, stories, and quotes pasted onto paper.

In the front of the book, all the articles are in English, which Kristine was very proficient in, but in

the back were poems and articles in Danish, beautifully handwritten in Kristine’s beautiful script.

Although Kristine spoke with a heavy Danish accent, she loved poetry and literature and wanted to review her favorites often. I can see her reading them to her children to encourage and uplift them. She wasn’t well-educated, but she was very well-read and knowledgeable.

In the early years, Kristine’s Danish family sent a fancy doll to Kristine’s family, which was very dear to them. It was something that apparently, they couldn’t afford for themselves.

Imelda's sewing machine

Imelda had been a seamstress and dressmaker long before she married, and she prided herself on her fine workmanship. In the early years of their marriage, Imelda’s husband, Willy, sold a horse to purchase a Singer treadle sewing machine. Imelda taught me to sew, a favorite hobby of mine, so her treasured sewing machine in a wooden cabinet is a special remembrance of her.

Kristine’s love of family was shown during World War II, after her husband’s death, when they were so poor. Nevertheless, they always tried to send food and clothes to her family left behind in Denmark where conditions were often so much worse, especially after the war.

Genealogy sheet

It is interesting that both of my grandparents loved genealogy and family history. Imelda spent years researching names of family members, both her Miller line and her husband’s Hansen line, and in taking them to the temple. In her later years when she lived with Aunt Wilma, Imelda would go into Salt Lake City to the Family History Library where she would search microfilm to record individuals in family group sheets. Her carefully recorded notes list where she found each piece of information. She was very proud of her membership in the Genealogical Society of Utah. 

Kristine and her family often sent money to Denmark to research information on the family and put together the names for the temple work, but the family history records that I have are in Kristine’s husband’s name and handwriting.

It is interesting that Imelda and Kristine were only two years apart in age—Imelda was born in 1885 and Kristine in 1887.

Imelda in her sixties

Kristine in her sixties

Imelda died of heart problems and a stroke in 1960, at  the age of 75 years old, while Kristine died in 1952 at the age of 65 years old, of heart problems and cancer.

Two ladies so alike, and yet so different!

We Are All the Pioneers of Our Own Lives

Pioneer Day is a day to remember our ancestors and the struggles they overcame coming to America and settling the Salt Lake Valley. As I recall my pioneers, the ones who crossed the plains, I tried to look at them with a different eye—as though I were their contemporary.

Hans & Caroline were from Bornholm, Denmark

I think of my one set of ancestors, Caroline Larsen, 21 years old, from Ostermarie, Bornholm, and Hans Miller, 28 years old, from Nexo, Bornholm, Danish sweethearts. Bornholm is an Island seven miles by seventeen miles which is south east of Sweden. Caroline was a very popular girl with lots of friends, while Hans was older, well-educated leader in the church, trained as a shoemaker. 

Hans’ father was well-to-do as partner in a windmill, who had taken on the permanent name of “Miller” as his last name so all of his three children had Miller as their last name, instead of the normal tradition of the father’s first name added to son as their last name. After his baptism at the age of 20, he was valiant as a missionary, and in many leadership positions. His history says that because of his proficiency in English, “He was called to Copenhagen especially to teach English - - a language in which he was quite proficient - - to the converts who expected to emigrate. In Copenhagen he was counselor to the president of the conference.[i]”

One history states that they met on the journey and fell in love, but another written by her daughter indicates that they were sweethearts before they left Denmark. From hints in Caroline’s story, we can tell she was a friendly, sociable lady who left friends behind. A quote from later in her story crossing the plain tells of a tornado striking, which “carried away along with small keepsakes from her girlhood and her home among which were some poems and eulogies written to her on her nineteenth birthday that her friends had celebrated in her honor, and tin-type photographs of her relatives and friends.   To mother’s last days she was saddened when she recalled her loss.” 

A story tells that when Caroline was getting ready to

Caroline (here a representation) ran 18 Danish miles to catch the ship

leave for the ship going to America “she took so long saying goodbye to everyone, especially an uncle, that she missed the boat taking the people to the ship. However she knew that it would be at anchor farther up the line, and although on March 19 she had to walk 19 Danish miles in an all-day rain to catch the ship, she made it. If she had not gone, she would have been left behind.[ii]” I think of this popular young lady, who may have had the “late” streak that often runs in our family, she did what she had to do to "do it."

They came on the "Franklin" clipper ship arriving in New York on 29 May 1862

Arriving in America, Hans, because of his ability to speak English, was able to go to New York and arrange for train transportation to Nebraska for the group, and he and Caroline were able to see the sights in New York. Hans’ history stated they disembarked at “Ellis Island” and went through customs there, but study has shown that they actually went through Castle Garden, the first official immigration center.[iii]

Although Hans and Caroline had

planned to wait until arriving in Salt Lake City and to be married in the Endowment House for all eternity, it didn’t work out that way. “Father contracted a fever and became so ill that he could not leave with the friends with whom he had crossed the ocean with and whose leader he had been.[iv]” Caroline needed to take care of him, so they married on 22 June 1862 in Florence, Douglas  County, Nebraska.

While waiting in Omaha to go west, they found work in the fields. Hans must have recovered from his illness, because his history explains what happened on 16 July 1862: “One day while father was working in the fields, a black cloud appeared in the south-west sky.   The American workmen began to run, and soon threw themselves upon the ground.   Father and other immigrants followed their lead, wondering what the excitement was about.  They soon found out.    A tornado had struck followed by the inevitable rain ending in a flood.[v]”

A Compilation of General Voyage Notes[vi] gives us further information about this tornado:

They experienced their first tornado near present-day Omaha

“The rest of the emigrants remained in camp for several weeks before beginning the journey across the plains. A few days before the company left camp, Florence and vicinity was visited by a terrible tornado, accompanied by rain, thunder and lightning, by which two of the brethren were killed and Elder Joseph W. Young received severe wounds from a wagon box which blew down upon him; after the accident, he was carried to a place of safety in an unconscious condition, but recovered after a while. The tents and wagon covers of the company were badly torn and shattered on that occasion. . . .”

Caroline Margaret Larsen Miller

Hans and Caroline came to Utah in J. R. Murdock’s, company leaving Omaha, 24 July 1862. His history states they walked most of the way to Salt Lake City, and arrived in Salt Lake City 27 September 1862, where they “stopped at the old Tithing House where the Hotel Utah now stands.  Here they were met by P. M. Peel, the same man who, in Nexo, had brought the missionaries to my grandfather’s home.[vii]”

Their first home in Utah was in Mt. Pleasant, which had been settled two years earlier, and where Mr. Peel lived. Hans was certified as a school teacher, but he also worked as a shoemaker during their time in Mt. Pleasant. It was here their first child was born exactly one month later. It was a small cabin with a “lean-to” as a second room.”

In the fall of 1864, Orson Hyde called a group to settle Sanpete County and the Sevier River, especially that area that had had such a bountiful harvest of barley that its name had been changed from Omni to Richfield. Hans’ family was among those called.

A comment from Hans’ history tells of Caroline’s introduction to this area that Elijah

Ward an old mountaineer had called “the finest country in Utah.”

“He [Hans] with others left that autumn - - 1864 - - to prepare places for their families to live.   These men did what a few men - - who had settled earlier had done - - they dug cellars, placed a willow-dirt roof over the excavation, formed steps out of the soil leading to the entrance, and brought their wives and children.[viii]”

“Arriving in Richfield, Mother surveyed a barren valley surrounded by mountains and a ditch flowing crookedly along, almost lost in willows and greasewood; and mounds rising or two feet among the greasewood [brush).[ix]”

“When Father stopped at a ‘mound’ and gravely said, ‘Well, here we are, Mother,’ [Caroline] with tears in her eyes asked, ‘Is this home?’ Caroline had a child a little more than a year old to take care of, a second child to be born in mid-spring!   She sat down and wept.[x]”

“A cellar, a dirt floor, a roof of willows covered with soil, steps that had been cut with

Photo of dugout near Salina Utah

a shovel deep into the soil leading to the entrance. The entrance was not a door; lumber could not be used carelessly in a cellar. A canvas of some sort was hung to keep out the cold, no windows. Father was working hard to make enough adobes (molded from the clay and placed in the sun to dry) to build a little one-room house with a window and a door. Before the roof was put on, rail fell. Father hurriedly made a roof of willows, covered it with damp soil, gathered dry grass and scattered it over the damp dirt.[xi]”

 One more comment from Hans’ history tells about Caroline’s struggles. “A little incident about the ‘cellar’ recalls the extreme poverty these early pioneers went through.   Father was working early and late to make enough adobes to build a little house.   Mother had prepared dinner as best she could and went to call father to come in.   Standing chatting for a moment while he put the mud mixture into the adobe mold, one corner of the cellar roof caved in.   Mother made an exclamation of dismay.   Father answered, ‘Our roof is gone, but so is our dinner for today!’   And so it was.[xii]”

        

Later photo of Caroline

Hans and Caroline became stalwart founders of the Richfield area; Hans was a school teacher for many years, later served as tithing clerk, Superintendent of Schools, postmaster, president of the Quorum of the Seventy for many years and a leader in many other ways. Caroline had eleven children, was chosen as Mrs. Utah one year, and rode in the Fourth of July parade. She looked beautiful, dressed in white with a crown on her white hair and a banner, reading, "Utah We Love Thee."  Later she was one of the nine original pioneers chosen to be honored at the 50^th Anniversary of the founding of Richfield in September 1914.

I think of the little I know of their early years—

Photo of Hans Peter Miller, Sr.

Caroline, friendly, sociable, but determined to get along in this hard new world. Hans, educated, obedient, a leader, but willing to build and live in a dugout if that was necessary. They hadn’t been raised to live in such a raw, new world, but they did it.

Many young couples today go out into the world with high hopes and optimistic dreams, but when life hands them lemons, or blows their life apart with illness or disaster, they soldier on, making do with whatever is necessary just as Hans and Caroline did. They know that eventually things will get better and someday they will be the pioneers of their lives and others will look back at that and say, “How did you do that, Grandma?” “Grandpa, I can’t believe that you didn’t give up when that happened.” They will remember that they are the pioneer of their own life and say, “I did it because I had to, and so will you! That is what this life is about.”

Caroline Margaret Larsen Miller as Mrs. Utah

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[i] Miller, Eudora: “The Life of Hans Peter Miller, Sr.,” written 1846, p. 6

[ii] Miller, Eudora: “A History of Caroline Margaret Larsen Miller”

[iii] Castle Garden, today known as Castle Clinton National Monument, is the major landmark within The Battery, the 23 acre waterfront park at the tip of Manhattan. From 1855 to 1890, the Castle was America's first official immigration center, a pioneering collaboration of New York State and New York City.

[iv] Miller, Ibid., “The Life of Hans Peter Miller, Sr.,p. 6

[v] Miller, Ibid., “The Life of Hans Peter Miller, Sr.,p. 6

[vi] the Voyage from Denmark to New York City, 1862, from the MORMON IMMIGRATION INDEX (CD-ROM) Voyage of the Ship Franklin: https://familysearch.org/photos/stories/1367886

[vii] Miller, Ibid., “The Life of Hans Peter Miller, Sr.,p. 7

[viii] Miller, Ibid., “The Life of Hans Peter Miller, Sr., p. 8

[ix] Miller, Adeare, “Unpublished History of Caroline Larsen Miller.”  In Ten Penny Nails, Op Cit., p. 21. (Sevier County General Plan: 1998: Sevier County History and Communities Land of the Sleeping Rainbow : Chapter 10); http://www.sevierutah.net/general%20plan/Chapter%2010.pdf     

[x] Miller, Ibid., “The Life of Hans Peter Miller, Sr., p. 8

[xi]Miller, Adeare, Ibid: p. 21.

[xii] Miller, Ibid., “The Life of Hans Peter Miller, Sr.,p. 8