A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ELLEN NIELSON LUND

By Nora Lund Family Historian

In attempting to write the history of Grandmother, Ellen Nielson Lund, I am indebted to our Father, Alfred W, Lund, who was Ellen’s oldest child for most of the information I am able to give. Ellen was born 22 April 1837 in Sjelland (or perhaps Aaside) Presto Denmark. Her father was Hans Nielson, whose parents were Niels Jensen and Anne Marie Anderson. Anne Marie’s parents were Anders Michlelson and Karen Christenson. Ellen’s mother’s name was Ane Olsen and her grandparents on this side were, Ole Hansen and Else Pedersen. Ole’s father was Hans Frandsen. Else’s parents were Peder Trueson and Ane Jorgensen. That is as far back as the genealogy has been traced on the direct line. The temple work has all been done. The family received the gospel in Denmark and, of course, their desire was to come to Zion. Ellen’s sister, Else Kirstine, came to America and Salt Lake City in 1856. Records show that she vas married to Hyrum Winter as his plural wife. The next year, at the age of 20, Ellen came alone. Then in 1862 her parents set sail to join their daughters, but her mother took sick and died in May and was buried in the sea. Her father died in June soon after the company landed. I was fortunate to have access to the diary of Jacob Bastian, who was a personal friend of Ellen’s having been in the same company from the time they left Denmark. Later they both came to Southern Utah to settle. This little company of Danish Saints set sail April 20, 1857 on board the Westmoreland. After eight weeks at sea they landed in Philadelphia from which point they began their long and toilsome journey across the continent to Utah. They journeyed by railway until they reached the state of Iowa. Then their money gave out. They put the material they had purchased in the east and brought with them on the train into hand carts for the journey. It was the month of June when this little band of Scandinavian started from the state of Iowa to make the long trip without money or sufficient provisions. On half rations they had to pull hand carts through the defiles of the Rocky Mountains. They must reach Salt Lake City before winter set in or all might be lost, a sacrifice to the inclemency of the weather. Their Captain, Christian Christiansen, was the idol of the company. When offered a horse to ride, he refused it saying, "How can I judge how much my people can do, or how far they can go when they walk and I ride." At night he would endeavor to keep up the spirits of his company by telling jokes, or singing songs to prevent anyone from becoming disheartened or despondent. Often at the end of the day’s travel, when the roll was called, some would be found missing. Volunteers would then be called to go back and search for them. Many times when the company would encounter streams, the men would stand in water up to their armpits for hours, passing women and children over head. This was the year that Johnson’s army was sent to Utah, and it happened that they were coming close in the rear of Captain Christiansen’s company. One day a Captain of the army noticed that one of his oxen had become too sore footed to travel. Knowing this he sent a man to inform them they might have the ox if they would come and get him. Two men were sent to bring it, but just as they reached the army, the stage from the west arrived. The driver stopped and commenced shouting at the top of his voice, "News from Utah, the cursed Mormons have massacred at Mountain Meadows a whole company of people, men, women, and children." One of the Danish men could understand a little English though he could not speak it, but the other man could only sense that they were in grave danger. They both kept still, praying the Lord to deliver them from their perilous position. The enraged soldiers on the spur of the moment crowed about the Danes saying, "Down with the Mormons. How shall we kill these wretches. Shall we run a knife through them, or shall we shoot them down like Dogs?" Even at that moment when escape seemed impossible, God provided a protector. Sargent Anderson, a Swedish American, forced his way into the mob and motioned for silence and then said, "Are you Indians, or what are you? See they cannot even talk our language. They are even ignorant of their present danger. You know they have traveled peacefully ahead of us for miles. I will kill the first man who molests them." This caused the soldiers to think how foolish they had acted, so after a moment’s consideration they allowed the men to depart in peace. This company arrived in Salt Lake City September 13, 1857. Ellen’s sister Kirstine was on hand to welcome her on her arrival. Ellen stayed with her sister for a short time, then she found work with the family of Wilson and Eliza Lund. Her children remember her telling how homesick and discouraged she would get because she couldn’t speak English and her employers couldn’t understand Danish. It was about two years later that she consented to marry Wilson Lund as his second wife. He had property seven miles west of the city near the Jordan River. It was here that he made a home for Ellen, and here that she gave birth to Alfred in 1860 and Anna Maria in 1862. When the call came to her husband to go south to St. George in 1862 to assist in the Dixie Mission, she was willing to go to do her part in pioneering a new locality. What little is known of the trip south is given in other histories in this book, suffice is to say they arrived in St. George on New Year’s day, 1863. They lived in their wagon boxes and out in the warm sunshine until more suitable places of abode could be built. It is also mentioned in other histories how Ellen and her two little children with Eliza’s oldest son Rob went out on Shoal Creek and established a ranch, if their poor make shifts could be called such. The hardships the mother went through these next few years made an indelible impression on her children, so they never forgot their experiences to their dying day. In the fall of 1865 she went to St. George to spend the winter where she could have proper care when her daughter Ida Johanna was born in January of 1866. She never quite got her strength back from this ordeal, and the heat of the summer was about more than she could take. Her husband, therefore, moved her to Pine Valley where it was cool. It was at this place that three more of her children were born. Ellen Sophia in June of 1868, Wilson Jr. in 1871, and Richard Nielson in 1874. In July of 1952 Terry and I visited Pine Valley and found out from old residents where the Lund’s little log house had once stood so long ago. It was on the west side of town, down near the creek. I don*t know just why Grandpa moved the family back to Hebron on Shoal Creek, perhaps it was because of the cold winters in Pine Valley. It was in Hebron that Ellen gave birth to Joseph Hans in 1876 and Stephen in 1878. The latter only lived three days. This time on Shoal Creek the living facilities were much more pleasant, but she still worked hard, milking cows, making butter and cheese. She also raised a good garden for her family needs. I don’t suppose she made any objection when her husband decided he wanted to move her and her children to Paragonah. At this time he was 66 years old and had been released from his mission on the "Public Works" in St. George, so he was able to spend the rest of his life with Ellen. She was a woman of noble character, a good wife and mother. In due time her children chose their life’s companions from among the young people of Paragonah and other places. Her grandchildren were a source of joy and comfort to her. I knew Albert Robinson with his parents, Uncle Tom and Aunt Susie, had lived neighbors to Grandma Ellen, so I asked him if he could tell me a little about her. He said she was a very kind and good neighbor, and that she used to visit quite often in their home. He liked to listen to their conversations because Sister Lund talked with quite a "broken Danish" brogue. He knew her to be a quiet and unassuming little woman, minding her own affairs and expecting others to do the same. He remembers once her telling his mother about a little experience she had in meeting. It seemed that someone had furnished some bread for the sacrament which was rather sticky, and she had difficulty swallowing it. She said, "I tell ye, Susie, I got that bread stuck in the roof of my mouth and I choked and I choked, and I could hardly get that stuff down." Another time three lads of the town, Tom Edwards, Little Alex Robb, and Tom B. Robinson came one night to steal cherries from Sister Lund’s trees east of the house. She heard a racket and went out and got right under the tree without them knowing she was there. Then she spoke in a mild voice. "Are those cherries good, boys?" As Albert described it, they were so startled they didn’t stop to climb down from the tree, they jumped from where they were and hit the ground running. They never bothered Sister Lund’s fruit again. Her husband died July 26, 1889 after a lingering illness. She lived on with her sons, Richard and Joseph, and her last year with Richard’s wife. Wilts and his wife had also lived there with his mother for one year after their marriage. Ellen was well along on her 65th year when death came, September 15, 1902 at her home in Paragonah. After a fitting funeral service she was taken to Parowan and laid to rest beside her husband.

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