bigpigeon.us webpage Pott. Co. > A House Divided > Kirsten's Story, updated by RAC 14 Feb 2020.
I am not a follower of the Mormon faith, nor am I one of Kirsten Pedersen's thousands of living relatives. However the connection between my extended family and Kirsten's grandson led me to the story of Kirsten and her numerous relatives, who converted to the Mormon faith and left Denmark bound for Utah.
This webpage differs from most in Big Pigeon in the number of illustrations, as it is an illustrated summary of Kirsten Pedersen's life.
I am interested in Kirsten Pedersen, her descendants, and her other relatives for several reasons:
- Kirsten's daughter, Karen Jensen, married Laurits Christian Bondo and together they founded the Bondo family, prominent in the history of the Blair branch of the Danish Lutheran Church in America.
- Kirsten's oldest grandchild, Peter Bondo, married my dear great-aunt, Winnie Rasmussen.
- Kirsten's third husband, John Erik Forsgren, brought the first company of Scandinavian Mormons to Utah in 1853. (In 1853, Mormon immigrants staged just north of Keokuk in southeastern Iowa, and then passed through the edge of the Big Pigeon vicinity while crossing to Utah).
- Between 1853 and 1872, Kirsten and four of her children, two of her siblings, and twelve nieces and nephews left Denmark for the United States. The collective stories of this extended family exemplify many aspects of the lives of mid-19th century immigrants from Denmark, especially to Utah.
Links to my reports that include Kirsten Pedersen's relatives:
- Kirsten Pedersen's Relatives - (105 pp.)
- Immigration to Boomer Township from Dronninglund Parish - two of Kirsten Pedersen's nieces settled in Boomer; Kirsten Pedersen's daughter, Karen (Jensen) Bondo, appears in the appendix, When Christian Met Karen.
- Christian Bondo and Karen Jensen Family - from my collection St. Paul's Boomer-Neola Early Families.
The remainder of this page accesses an illustrated summary of the lives of Kirsten Pedersen and some of her relatives.Click on an illustration to enlarge it.
Kirsten's Sister, Ane Katrine
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 Kirsten Pedersen and Her Second Husband
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Kirsten's Brother, Niels Peder
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Kirsten Pedersen was born in Dronninglund Parish in northern Jutland in 1810 to Peder Nielsen and Maren Christensdatter. Kirsten remained in Dronninglund Parish until she emigrated.
Dronninglund Palace ("slot" in Danish), courtesy of wikipedia.org
Dronninglund is a town of several thousand in northern Jutland northeast of Aalborg.
Just west of the town of Dronninglund is Dronninglund Palace, portions of which are over 800 years old. The parish church is in the palace complex, which was once a nunnery.
Kirsten Pedersen married Jens Christian Henriksen in Dronninglund in 1838 and gave birth to a number of children. Kirsten converted to the Mormon (LDS) faith in the early 1850s, but Jens Christian remained a Lutheran. Jens Christian died in 1859.
The following map from Google locates Dronninglund and Dronninglund Slot, where today's parish church is located. Kirsten Pedersen lived in the Ørsø area northeast of Dronninglund town, perhaps at Milholt southwest of Ørsø.
The following map from Google locates Dronninglund and Dronninglund Slot, where today's parish church is located. Kirsten Pedersen lived in the Ørsø area northeast of Dronninglund town, perhaps at Milholt southwest of Ørsø.
The following map from korttilkirken.dk shows the Dronninglund Parish boundaries as in irregular black line. Note that Ørsø is near the parish boundary.
In 1861 Kirsten and her two youngest daughters emigrated with an LDS company. They crossed the Atlantic on the Monarch of the Sea, the largest ship to carry Mormon immigrants.
Monarch of the Sea (courtesy of mormonmigration.lib.byu.edu)
After arriving in New York Harbor, Kirsten and her daughters travelled west by train to St. Joseph, Missouri, and then upstream by river boat to the Council Bluffs area. From Council Bluffs, they travelled west to Utah on the Mormon Trail (to see the Mormon Trail, click on the map in the page heading).
Kirsten Pedersen married her second husband, John Forsgren, in Utah in 1862.
Kirsten Pedersen married her second husband, John Forsgren, in Utah in 1862.
John Erik Forsgren
(courtesy of johnerikforsgren.blogspot.com)
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John Forsgren - The Swede:
John Erik Forsgren was born in Sweden and went to sea at an early age. He was baptized into the LDS religion in Boston in 1843. During the Mexican War, John Forsgren served with the Mormon Battalion in 1846-47, trudging from Council Bluffs, Iowa to San Diego, California. John Forsgren was one of the first four Mormon missionaries to Scandinavia, and in 1850 performed the first Mormon baptism in Scandinavia. In 1853 John Forsgren brought the first Scandinavian company of several hundred LDS immigrants to the United States. They crossed the Atlantic on the Forest Monarch to New Orleans, ascended the Mississippi River to Keokuk, Iowa, and traveled overland to Utah. |
John Forsgren had children by previous marriages. Kirsten was past the child-bearing years when she and John married.
As the years passed, John Forsgren became increasingly eccentric. He proclaimed himself a prophet and lived with Kirsten in a tent-like dwelling in Salt Lake City. Kirsten was grievously injured when their dwelling burned in 1886.
After the fire, John and Kirsten moved to the Timerman Hill area in Blaine County in southern Idaho to live with Kirsten's son-in-law and daughter, John and Johanna Cathrine Timerman.
In 1889 John Forsgren and John Timerman quarreled and John Forsgren returned to Utah, seeking out acquaintances from a generation earlier. John Forsgren died in Salt Late City early in 1890.
Kirsten (Pedersen) Forsgren remained with the Timerman family in Idaho. Long after her death, a well-intentioned but misinformed granddaughter arranged for a stone in the Timerman Cemetery, which mistakenly was inscribed with the name "Nancy Fosgreen". (An alternate spelling of "Timmerman" is sometimes used.)
As the years passed, John Forsgren became increasingly eccentric. He proclaimed himself a prophet and lived with Kirsten in a tent-like dwelling in Salt Lake City. Kirsten was grievously injured when their dwelling burned in 1886.
After the fire, John and Kirsten moved to the Timerman Hill area in Blaine County in southern Idaho to live with Kirsten's son-in-law and daughter, John and Johanna Cathrine Timerman.
In 1889 John Forsgren and John Timerman quarreled and John Forsgren returned to Utah, seeking out acquaintances from a generation earlier. John Forsgren died in Salt Late City early in 1890.
Kirsten (Pedersen) Forsgren remained with the Timerman family in Idaho. Long after her death, a well-intentioned but misinformed granddaughter arranged for a stone in the Timerman Cemetery, which mistakenly was inscribed with the name "Nancy Fosgreen". (An alternate spelling of "Timmerman" is sometimes used.)
Kirsten (Pedersen) Forsgren's stone, courtesy of Colleen Lockwood.
Four of Kirsten Pedersen's children, two of her siblings, and twelve nieces and nephews left Denmark for the United States. Eleven of the sixteen cousins crossed to Utah between 1856 and 1862. Today the descendants of those sixteen cousins number in the thousands.
From 1847 to the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, the main route into Utah was via the 1,300-mile Mormon Trail, reaching from the Missouri River to Salt Lake City. Portions of the trail were difficult to traverse, as illustrated by the following 1866 photograph taken in Echo Canyon just east of Salt Lake City.
From 1847 to the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, the main route into Utah was via the 1,300-mile Mormon Trail, reaching from the Missouri River to Salt Lake City. Portions of the trail were difficult to traverse, as illustrated by the following 1866 photograph taken in Echo Canyon just east of Salt Lake City.
Echo Canyon 1866 (courtesy of mormonnewsroom.org)