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.
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| 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
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."
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| Caroline (here a representation) ran 18 Danish miles to catch the ship |
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| 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
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. . . .”
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| 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
“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
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]”
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| Photo of dugout near Salina Utah |
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]”
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| Later photo of Caroline |
I think of the little I know of their
early years—
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.
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| Photo of Hans Peter Miller, Sr. |
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.”
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| Caroline Margaret Larsen Miller as Mrs. Utah |
[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.
[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
[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
[xi]Miller, Adeare, Ibid:
p. 21.
