Anders NIELSEN

                   Anders from his early boyhood was a serious, amiable, thrifty and industrious lad. He learned to read and write but educated himself  more extensively. He was apprenticed to a mechanic as a mere child. He remained with his trade until he graduated as a master mechanic  After he worked as a mechanic in a grist factory located in Copenhagen. He soon became foreman and later the manager. He was very angry when Dorothea wanted to join the LDS faith, but when she threatened to leave him he began to read and study all the literature and was baptized. They emigrated in 1861. - see Anders Nielson story

(Research):     Little is known of the father of Anders; he and Maren apparently lived a common law Marriage. Anders lived with his mother and four or five step-brothers and sisters. According to family accounts his mother favored the younger children and Anders often went hungry.

       From early boyhood Anders was a serious, but amiable, thrifty and indsutrious lad. He was a child when his father, or step-father, apprenticed him to a mechanic. The tasks were easy and interesting to  him. He remained with his trade until graduation and many times was promoted or given special favors. He became a soldier in 1842 and in 1844 was transferred to Copenhagen. He then began working as a mechanic in a grist mill or flour mill. He soon became foreman and later manager. He saved and hoped to become the ownerof the mill.

       He lived in a boarding house and about this time some of the young men began chewing tobacco. When he discovered tobacco running down his mouth he quit. At this time he was deeply in love with Dorothea Hansen who was a cook for one of the leading doctors of the city. In 1848 war broke out between Denmark and the German States. He was taken prisoner and while in prison created a puzzle that intrigued the German guards and they released him in a few days.

        He and Dorothea were married. Records show that he moved to Smidstrip in 1854. Four children were born before they joined the Church and moved to America. In May 1861they sailed to Kiel and traveled by train to Hamburg then sailed to Hull/Grimsby and then by train to Liverpool. After sailing to New York, they traveled to Florence, Nebraska where Anders purchased oxen, cows and a covered wagon. The weary journey to the Salt Lake Valley was accomplished in approximately 3 months.

       They were faced with many hardships. They were advised to move to Milton, Morgan County. Anders began with the boys to cut logs to build a house. But the authorities advised him that he needed to gather grass so that his animals would survive the winter. Consquently Dorothea's baby was born in their covered wagon where the entire family lived during that severe winter.  At one time when they were so sadly in need of bread, Anders in desperation walked through the canyon across the moutain into Uinta where he obtained a sack of four weighing one hundred pounds. He carried this sack back over the mountain and through the valley. Finally in 1868 they had enough food supplies to carry them through the winter.  Dorothea died  in November of 1868. Anders was inconsolabl and became a man of sadness. In spite of their trials the family remained steadfast to the faith.