I, Caroline Pedersen Hansen, was born September 3, 1859, at Bindslev Sogn, Hjörring County, Denmark. I was the second child in the family. One sister, Bine, was two years and five [p.66] months older than I. My father's name was Christian Pedersen and my mother was Jensine Christine Sorensen. My parents joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints three years after I was born. They were baptized the 21st of August 1862. In the year 1866 they emigrated to Utah. By that time there were two more children in the family, one a boy named Peder and my baby sister Ida, just a little over one year old.

We boarded the sail ship Kenilworth at Hamburg, Germany, May 23, 1866. The ship sailed north on the east of England, to go up north of Scotland. We had fierce head winds and were driven back out of our course until at one time we could see the mountains up in Norway. The last day on board, a steamship came out and met us and we were placed on it. This ship took us to New Haven, Connecticut, where we arrived on the morning of July 18, 1866. We stayed there only a few hours then were placed on a train. History tells me that we went through Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to Montreal, Canada. We rode in cattle cars part of the time. The road was on the north side of the St. Lawrence River. At one time part of the train jumped the track but none of our people were hurt. When we were across in the United States again we had better train service. But while we were passing through the state of Missouri the people were very bitter against us. Our train ride ended July 29, 1866, at a place called Wyoming in Nebraska. There were Church teams there waiting for us and we soon began our trip across the plains with ox teams. But while we were there getting ready to leave we found it very hot, and I remember my father building us a hut out of brush to shade us from the heat. I remember I got so sunburned I could peel the skin off my arms. . . . [p.67]

. . . When we arrived in Salt Lake Mother was so worn out with sorrow and with sitting in the wagon holding the sick children that she was so bent over, she could not straighten up. People said she looked like she was sixty year old. We landed in Salt Lake City on September 30, 1866. We had been one hundred twenty-nine days since we left Hamburg, Germany, and we had left our home about ten days before that. There had been four children when we left, now I was the only child left. . . .[p.68]

BIB: Hansen, Caroline Pedersen [Reminiscences], Our Pioneer Heritage comp. by Kate B. Carter, vol. 12 (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1969) pp. 66-68. (CHL)
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