Søren Jensen |
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| 1845 |
According to the Census Søren is living with his grandparents in Hvirring. | |
| 1857 | Søren joined the LDS church and was baptized in 1857 by Jens Hansen and ordained a teacher 1st November 1857, by Christopher O. Folkman. Søren worked as a local missionary for two years. | |
| 1859 | He was ordained an Elder by Peter Nielsen on the 30th January 1859. | |
| 1860 2nd May |
Søren emigrates to America and sails from Copenhagen on Wednesday, 2nd May 1860 on board the new Prussian steamship "Pauline". On board was 182 Danes, 80 Swedes and 39 Norwegians. The voyage over the Kattegat and North Sea was stormy and a number of the emigrants suffered with seasickness, but the company arrived safe and well in Grimsby, England. | |
| 5th May | 5th May 1860 the emigrants continued their journey by train to Liverpool, where they arrived in the afternoon on Sunday, 6th May where they stayed overnight in a hotel in Paradise Street | |
| 7th May | On Monday 7th May they boarded the "William Tapscott", a freight ship. Besides the Scandinavians, 85 Swiss and a large company of Welsh an English went on board the ship bound for America. All together there were 730 mormons. | |
| "William Tapscott" |
 Ship:1525 tons: 195' x 41' x 21' . Built: 1852 by William Drummond at Bath, Maine. After plying the oceans for about forty years the William Tapscott was lost in the English Channel in the early 1890s. |
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| 11th May | Friday, 11th May 1860 departure from Liverpool | |
| 15-20 June | Arrives 16th June 1860 in America in the port of New York, New York. | |
| It was a fine ship and a splendid sailor, but owing to
contrary winds, the voyage took 35 days. Union and good order prevailed during the whole
voyage. Prayers was held every morning and evening and on Sundays religious services were
held on deck. Owing to cold and a change of diet, considerable sickness prevailed among
the emigrants. Ten deaths occurred, most of them Scandinavians. Four children were born,
nine couples married, among whom were Hans Christian Heiselt and Larsine Larsen. On the 3rd
June smallpox showed itself, seven cases reported, none of which proved to be fatal. Friday evening, 15th June the ship arrived at the quarantine dock in New York harbour. The next day two doctors came on board and vaccinated all of the passengers. On the 20th June, after being detained in quarantine, the passengers were landed at Castle Garden, New York. |
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| 21st June | 21st June the emigrants left New York and continued their journey by steamboat on the "Isaac Newton" up the Hudson River to Albany, New York, where they arrived on the 22nd June. | |
| S.W. Stanton’s drawing of the "Isaac Newton" after it was rebuilt in 1855. |
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| 22nd June to 1st July |
From Albany they travelled by train via Rochester to Niagara Falls. Here they stopped for about seven hours in order to give the emigrants the pleasure of seeing the great waterfall an the grant suspension bridge. The journey was continued through Canada along the north shore of Lake Erie to Windsor, where the river was crossed to Detroit in Michigan. Thence to Chicago, which city was reached 25th June. From Chicago, the emigrants travelled by railroad to Quincy, Illinois, whence they crossed the Mississippi River to Hannibal in Missouri, and thence travelled by railroad to St. Joseph, Missouri. Here 13 persons were placed in a hospital, but upon close examination they were found to be well enough to join the company the following day on the trip up the Missouri River, to Florence, Nebraska, where the company arrived in the night between 30th June and 1st July. Elder George Q. Cannon, who this year acted as Church emigration agent, made splendid arrangements for the journey across the Plains. It was deemed wisdom to send the emigrants as far as possible by steam and avoid the toilsome and harassing part of the team journey from Iowa City to Florence, a distance of nearly 300 miles, which in former years had required from 15 to 20 days travel. It had been learned by experience that the distance between Iowa City and Florence, at the season of the year when the emigrants had to travel it, was, in point of toil and hardship, by far the worst part of the journey, owing to its being a low, wet country, which in the opening of the year was subject to heavy and continued rains. These storms, owing to the nature of the soil (being clay most of the distance), rendered the roads almost impassable. Arriving at Florence, the emigrants found shelter in a number of empty houses while they made the necessary preparations for crossing the Plains. | |
| 6th July |
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| Oscar Orlando Stoddard was captain of the tenth and last handcart company to cross the plains to Utah. The company was comprised of 126 souls, travelling with 22 handcarts and 6 wagons and left Florence, Nebraska July 6, 1860 arriving in Salt Lake Valley on the 24th of September. Mr. Stoddard was appointed by George Q. Cannon Emigration agent for that year. In his diary he states, "there were also with us, traveling with their own team, Stephen Taylor and family, also a brother Paul and family from South Africa followed us and joined us about the third day out, and by the advice of Brother Cannon, Brother Paul was chosen chaplain over the English speaking portion of the company; Brother Christian Christiansen having been chosen chaplain of the Scandinavian and Swiss portion. Having traveled down the Platte on the north side and found it to be rough, hilly country and bad for the handcarts between Laramie and the upper crossing, I thought I would try and cross the North Platte at Laramie and travel up the south side of it; and, as there were some in the company who were timid about crossing with their handcarts, I was in a quandary what to do about it. We camped four miles below Laramie and during the night I dreamed I saw ourselves camped on the other side of the river, and when I told my dream, it seemed to allay all fears, so we started at sunrise and moved camp up the river till opposite Laramie, then the Sisters did their washing while we overhauled our provisions, issued rations increasing the rations of flour from one pound a head per day, which had been issued up until that time, to one and one-quarter pounds, then hunted up a ford and prepared to cross. We hitched up when ready and drove one wagon over unloaded. It came back and took in the loads of the handcarts, and then went over with them leaving the empty carts to haul by hand, I helping to haul over the first one myself. We landed on the 8th Ward Square in Salt Lake City on the 24th day of September, 1860, having just dealt our one week's rations.... Provisions were distributed among them as needed or required, so they were well received, and, I must say, according to the best of my understanding and knowledge, this was the last hand-cart company and it came across the plains in as good condition as any one of them." | ||
