JOHN HENRY JENSEN and ANE CHRISTINE JENSEN

(Compiled and written by John Virgil and Elly Jensen 1968)

According to the ship passenger records John Henry Jensen was not listed on the record with his parents. Whether John Henry was not listed because of illness or if he came on a leadership is not known. But his journey to Utah could have been as follows.

Our according to family legend John Henry Jensen had typhoid fever and was held at the customs House in New York City, New York. Six weeks to two months later he recovered from the fever which was said to be a miracle.

Having a desire to come to Utah and being alone in New York he started to walk to Utah. When he entered the state of Colorado he took a back seat from the fever. Two sheepherders were taking a herd of sheep through the state of Colorado. They found John Henry on the road, a very sick man. They took him in their sheep camp and nursed him back to health. After some two months he arrived in Utah. He walked to Salt Lake City, Utah and later came to Richmond, Utah. This information was furnished by Alfred Jensen and Hans Jensen son of John Henry Jensen. From Richmond, Utah he traveled to Weston, Idaho to join his parents. Little is known of his childhood until he landed in America at the age of about 20 or 21.

Grandfather John Henry Jensen married Else Mary Lutherlou prior to 1875. One year later marry and child John Henry, died during childbirth.

On 13 March 1876 John Henry took Mary Ann Anderson to the endowment house and had her seal to him. On the same day he had his first wife Else Mary Lutherlou sealed to him.

Mary Ann Anderson died when her first child a daughter Matilda Mae was born. Matilda Mae was born 24 February 1879.

Matilda Mae married Joseph Yancey Taylor who was known as Yan. Yan and Matilda lived in the area on the east side of Bear River between Weston and Preston Idaho. At one time they lived in a two room log house that stood on the farm now owned by Floyd J Jensen in Fairview Idaho. (1968)

Yan and Matilda had five children:

            Florence Taylor born 24 August 1900

                        married George Bass

            Joseph Henry Taylor born 12 January 1902

                        married Cecil Goodnuff

            John Irvin Taylor born 4 July 1905

                        married Edna Wakley, later divorced

            Thomas Albert Taylor born 27 April 1906

                        married Zelda Bullock, later divorced

            Jane Mae Taylor born 28 May 1907, died 1907

Matilda died in 1908. The last time to date that I saw any of Yan and Matilda's family was at the Jensen, Christensen reunion at Lava Hot Springs in about 1948. A large family group picture was taken at the reunion that year. Yan died in 1951.

On 17 June 1962 at the Jensen reunion held at Lava Hot Springs Idaho, Joseph Parley Jensen (a nephew of John Henry's third wife and Christine) reported that Matilda was buried in Robin Idaho cemetery.

When and Christine Jensen came to Weston from Denmark she worked for a man at the flour mill named Jesper. Whether she helped with the housework is not known, but she helped with the cleaning and sweeping of the mill, feeding the pigs, milking the cows and taking care of the milk. The milk was stored in pans and placed in the cellar. Many times when she went to get milk from the cellar she found a large snake lapping milk out of the milk pans. She would take the snake by the head with a large iron tongs that were pliers shaped and carry the snake down to the creek and turn it loose as she never killed the snake. This was the old mill that stood up the lane and on the west side of the present mill. The grain was ground by the millstone that was turned by a mill wheel.

Later after she was married to John Henry when they were poor of circumstances the mill heard of their trouble and came to grandmother with enough flour to feed them until harvest when they could return the grain for flour. Ane Christine Jensen had been married in Denmark to Kjeld Kjeldsen. Kjeld fell from a house that he was building and was killed and buried in Denmark.

 Grandmother Christine had two children by this marriage, as son George Albert Kjeldsen born 21 March 1876 and a daughter, Walborg Kjeldsen. Walborg was born 1878. Walborg died about 1879 and was buried in Tie’s lot in the Weston Cemetery, Weston Idaho.

Anna D. was Soren's first wife in polygamy known by all as Aunt Tie. She lived in the home known as the Nephi Jensen home, one block east and one block north of the Lundquist Store. Soren and Tie had the following children; Nephi, Andrew, Lottie. The headstone in the Weston Cemetery reads:

Anna D wife of Soren L Jensen born 28 September 1846 died 6 January 1917. Children Annie L, Eva, Elizabeth, Josephine, Alvin.

I do not think that Soren or Tie Jensen were any relation to the John Henry Jensen. Soren married a sister to Grandmother Ane Christine, Ane Bolette Jensen. Ane Bolette Jensen was Soren's second wife in polygamy. They lived in Arimo, Idaho.

They had the following children:

           

James                                      Karen Andrea (child)

            Soren Doreus                          John Vamus

            Rastus Lorenzo                        Boletta Andrea

            Joseph Parley                          Wilford Hassel (Pete)

            Anna Kirstine                           Anton Franklin

            Danielle Oliver (child)

Information received from Ruby Tanner, granddaughter of Soren and Bolette

Ane Bolette was a pleasant person to be around. She spent much of her time taking care of the sick.  She was known as a midwife. She claimed that she had delivered more babies at birth than the average doctor. It seemed that she would go to people's homes and stay and take care of the mother and child when the babies were born.

Ane Bolette was well versed in all the home remedies for sickness. She could not go to the drugstore for medicine, but had to depend on such remedies as onion poultice, mustard plaster, catnip tea, and tea salve and sassafras tea.

Soren and Ane Bolette were buried in the Western Cemetery. I remember when Soren Jensen died. He was brought to Weston to the home of Uncle Albert Jensen. The night before the funeral Jack Gannon and Fred Jensen set up with the body. As was the custom in that day that someone generally two people set up in the home at night with the person who died from death and burial. The reason to set up with the person who died was to keep the body until burial. It was a help and courtesy to the family. There were no mortuaries to take care of the bodies.           

                                      John Henry Jensen married Ane Christine Jensen 27 December 1879 in Weston Idaho.    

John Henry built a home on the corner across the street west of Weston Grade School, at a place later owned by Margaret Lemmons until about 1926 or 1930 now owned by Keith Butters.(1968) Henry lived on the corner for an number of years when later he moved to the ranch north of Weston. The home was about 1 mile north of Weston Idaho.

Grandfather homesteaded 160 acres of the farm, as did most of the farmers that moved into the Valley area homesteading was land owned by the government. The ground was given or deeded to families that paid a filing fee of $16 for the ground. The person wishing ground or a farm would choose the property they wanted, pay the filing fee and then they were given three years to build a home and make certain developments and to live on the property. Then at the end of the three years if they had fulfilled the requirement they were deeded the property.

The first building on the farm was a small log one room building that Henry used for a carpenter shop. It was in this building that and MO was born. Grandmother went to the farm to visit grandfather and have dinner on 4 July. While there Aunt Emma was born. The reason that Emma was born on the ranch was that the family transportation, a mayor named Fanny folded that same day and grandfather could not cut catch another horse in time to get grandmother to Weston before Aunt Emma was born.

Later a two room house was built on the farm and later a larger home was built for Grandfather John Henry and grandmother Christine lived and raised their family. Grandfather Henry died in this home.

John Henry Jensen and Ane Christine Jensen had 13 children;

            Rocelia Walbeorg Jensen born 8 September 1880

            Anna Jensen born 5 January 1882

            John Jensen born 14 August 1883

            Emma Christina Jensen born for July 1885

            Albert Jensen born 12 March 1887

            Lawrence Soren Jensen born 25 April 1889

            Hans Jensen born 7 February 1891

            Louise Frederica Jensen born 8 December 1892

            Frederick Jensen born 8 September 1894

            Benjamin Franklin Jensen born 30 April 1896

            Alfred Lenord Jensen born 9 July 1898

            Lila Hilma Jensen born 29 May 1900

            Lavon Robert Jensen born 12 March 1902

Grandfather John Henry was a large man as I Virgil Jensen remember him in his last years. I always thought of him as a kind man who moved rather slow, walking with a cane. He was in rather poor health.

Henry was a good carpenter and as a boy I always like to watch him in the carpenter shop. He was very strict with the use of his carpentry tools. We always like to play with the turnlay. This was powered by a peddle attached to an old binder wheel that furnished the power to turn the wooden sticks that were rasped or chiseled while they were revolved to make table and chair legs. I have a trunk that grandfather made and also a wood plane and a square that he used.

John Henry Jensen did not raise a crop of wheat. The Bishop came out to him and said for him to come to the storehouse and get wheat. But John Henry would not take wheat until the Bishop told him that he was to bring wheat back at harvest time in return.

Social life on the Henry Jensen mansion blossomed out in full bloom when one of the children married as the clan always mad at grandfather's place for a wedding supper. Everyone was seated at a large table for supper. It took many new groups at the table but eventually everyone was served. There was always plenty of food when it came time for the children to eat.

The Jensen's were not a drinking tribe but what was a wedding without a jug. Some of the things that I liked at grandfather's was sleeping four or five in a bed, grandmother's cooking, the player piano, uncle Ben and cousin Verna singing, and playing cops and robbers with the other cousins that were always welcome at grandmother's home. The things that I didn't like, was the water because it was alkaline taste. No wonder they always served coffee!!

Uncle Lawrence and Uncle Alf Jensen stated that their father John Henry was made to ask forgiveness in church for arguing with the Ward teachers. Uncle Lawrence stated that he remembered the day that his father asks forgiveness in church. When the pioneers were driven from Jackson County Missouri they were persecuted by nonmembers who took advantage of them. When they arrived in the West the church tried to keep nonmembers of the church from settling and making a living in this area. Trading with or doing business with those nonmembers was a sin that one had to ask forgiveness in church.

Uncle Alf stated that one virtue of his father was that there was always order at the table and that the children were sent from the table for not being orderly. All of the food taken by the children at the table was eaten and never wasted.

The older boys used to tease their mother saying that she had a bacon rind that she would rub on their faces to give the impression they had eaten meat when they went out in public

            Nonsense verse repeated by the children

            Hi, low jacks corner

            Soren Jensen Street

            Charlie Maston's hotel

            But nothing to eat....

We who are now living in the year 1968 have witnessed the many new inventions of this day. We have split the atom. We have the atomic and hydrogen bombs. We have jet planes flying to all parts of the earth. Recently I have visited one of our defense centers that can track a plane and determine if it is a friendly or enemy plane flying anyplace in America. This center can determine and accurately forecast what the weather will be in every area of the Western states every day.

When we look back to grandfather's day when he walked from New York to Salt Lake City, when the fastest travel from Salt Lake City to Weston Idaho took two full days, when grandfather had to cord the word and spin the yarn and grandmother had to knit the socks and mittens for her family.

But with all our possessions can we say that we have more of the really good things of life than did grandfather? What actually makes life abundant? Should not we moderns ask ourselves what our treasures really are? What is our standard of living? Is it something to measure in terms of physical comfort? Do automatic kitchens make you greater than grandmother? Does a high-power car make you any greater than grandfather?

Our grandparents did not have to sacrifice the elements of a good lot family life in an attempt to keep up with the Joneses!!! None of us would want to return to the horse and buggy days. But neither should we be willing to do without good character and proper soul development. It took courage for our grandparents to come west to build homes and raise their families. Grandmother did not have a supermarket to provide her with food and clothing or cold storage to keep food in. No visitor went to visit grandmother that did not receive something to eat before they left. One of grandmother's problems was to get the boys to milk the cows. Sometimes they would play cards so until midnight to determine the loser to go milk. The milk was placed in milk pans a large pan about 3 inches deep and 12 to 14 inches in diameter. The pans were placed in a cool place so the cream would rise to the top of the pan. The cream was later skimmed off and turned into butter. The churn was a 3 to 5 gallon crock or wood container. The cream was placed in the churn and then stirred with a wooden paddle, until the butter separated from the buttermilk.

The first grain that was thrashed at harvest time was taken to the mill for grist. The Miller would grind the wheat into flour and then would take part of the flour for grinding the wheat. The flour was taken home and stored in large wooden bins. Enough grain was taken for grist to provide the family with flour until another harvest the next year.

The most important foods that the family would require to sustain life were milk, bread, fruit, and meat. Grandmother's cellar or fruit room was always stored full of canned or bottled fruit that she would get from fruit peddlers that came from Brigham City, Utah. They traveled in a wagon loaded with fruit to trade for grain, chickens, calves and sometimes they would even trade for money.

The meet for the family was generally provided by pig (pork). The pigs were generally born in the spring of the year and the scraps from the table along with weeds pulled from the garden were fed to the pigs until harvest when grain was soaked in water in large barrels to make the grain soft so that the pigs could eat it. In the fall when the weather was cooler the pigs were killed and the meet was placed into a large wooden barrel that contained a strong salt brine. Brine was made by boiling salt in water to dissolve as much salt as the water would dissolve. The meat was then placed in brine for a month to cure the meat so that it could be stored for the next years meat supply.

Sometimes some of the meet was placed in a small wooden room that was built out away from the other buildings. A small fire of hardwood preferably apple tree was placed outside of the building in a pit dug in the ground and the smoke from the fire was forced to go into the building where meat was hanging from the ceiling. The smoke would penetrate the meat and cure for storage the next year.

When a pig was killed the inside lining of the intestines were soaked and scraped clean and meat was ground and stuffed inside the intestines to make sausage or Polse (Danish for sausage). The sausage was about 1 inch in diameter and 3 to 6 feet long. It was cooked before it was eaten.

It has been stated by the children that they remember when they used to go down by the railroad depot to the slaughterhouse where animals were killed. They would get some of the heads of the animals and bring home so their mother could take the inside of the head and make headcheese. This was ground meat seasoned and cooked (boiled) and then pressed by placing it in a container and then placing a board or something heavy like a rock on top of the meat until it cooled. It was served cold to eat.

Grandmother had a potato pit where the potatoes were stored. This was a hole dug into the ground and covered with a straw and dirt roof. Grandmother did not have a supermarket to go to but she fed her family, the hired men at harvest time, and the many friends that came to visit her. Most of the food came from her welfare plan of stored food that would make our modern grand children's welfare plan look small.

When the town of Weston was first settled, feed for the animals was provided by going south across the creek to Big Hill where there was an abundance of bunch grass. The Bishop would go out and measure approximately 10 acres for each family to cut and harvest hay for the animals. As new families came to town they would homestead 160 acres of ground that they built their homes on. But all the farms did not have grass to use for hay; therefore the community reserved Big Hill for hay (grass) cutting until hay could be grown on each farm.

Information furnished by Nephi Jensen.

The first town site of Weston was up the creek approximately where Cedarville Church stood. But after the dam broke on the creek in the mouth of Big Canyon and because of Indians the town site was moved to the present location.

The first store business was across the street from Felix Fellers, but most of the buildings were on the street one block south of where the business buildings now stand. The Preston Brothers Store and Lumber Company was on the corner where Antone Kohler house now stands, one block east and one block south of where the store now stands. The post office was west of the store in a small building with Bill Chatterton as postmaster. Up the street on the corner of the same block was the Bishops storehouse and across the street was the Siverene Hansen Store (1968).

The saloon and blacksmith shop was one block north of the Preston Brothers Store on the corner where Maurice Tingey’s home now stands. The saloon building was later used as the county hospital until the only two patients placed there died. Will Lundquist meat market was in the same building that the present post office is now located. The Harry Simpson Drug and confectionary was next door south. The next door south was Vilda Lundquist Restaurant. On the same side of the street was the George Kelson Hardware Store and next was the economy Mercantile of J. I. H.  Jacobson manager and operator. Further south was Cary Thorp Millinery Store. (1968)

The grade school was built before I started to school in 1913. The church house (LDS) was dedicated in 1906 and stood in the same location as the present chapel. The Opera house still stands north of the church house. The opera house was first used as a dance hall, with wooden benches moved in for shows and live actors who performed the many dramatic performances. Many traveling show troops played regularly in Weston. In the basement under the stage in the opera house the deacons cut and sawed wood for fuel in the stoves for the chapel and opera house.

Across the street from the chapel with Henry Gassman Carpenter Shop and Sawmill. It was in this shop that in approximately 1920 that I helped Albert Jensen make the last coffin that was made in Weston.

 Law and order was always a part of Weston. The main job of town cop was to control and lock up the stray cattle that roamed the streets. It seemed that Weston had a stray pen for cattle long before they had a jail. In the early 1920s a one room cement jail was built between the church house and schoolhouse. This building had a high would tower on the top that held a large curfew bell that the town cop would ring at 9p.m. at which time all kids under 18 years old were jailed if caught on the streets without their parents or a good excuse.

On the east side of the Preston Brothers new store with the Bill Bickmore Barbershop later operated by Eldon Kofoed and even later by Archie Lott. Down the street was Martin Olson's blacksmith shop and across the street was Hans Erickson Blacksmith Shop later used as a garage operated by George Kelson and later as Ray's garage (Ray Heuser, Ray Nelson). Down the street was the Confectionary Store. (Maughan Whitmore, Deaton). Next to it was Siverene Hansen’s new store and the post office. Last was the Paul Hansen garage later operated by Ren Hansen and later by Alfred Jensen.

The Weston flour mill was operated by a man named Jasper. The mill was south of Weston down on the creek. The first mill was west of the new mill. It was operated or powered by a waterwheel, with the canal or mill race that went up the north side of the creek to a small dam south of Felix Fellers home. Water was stored in the dam until enough water was available to run the mill. Generally the water was stored at night and used in the day for grinding wheat. It was in this small dam or reservoir that everyone was baptized.

In the early days there was very little cash available and work was paid in commodities. The thrashers would take grain for threshing. The flour mill would take part of the wheat for grinding wheat into flour. The neighbors would take hay for helping to harvest the hay. Even after 1927 when we were married Elly work in Porters Store. One day a man came to sell a butchered pig (cleaned and dressed). Mr. Porter offers the man six cents per pound for the pig if he took cash or seven cents per pound for the pig if the man traded for merchandise in the store.

One time a man from Weston went up north to work in the grain harvest. When the work was finished the boss told the man to come into the office and get cash for working. The man from Weston said that he had a bin for grain but he did not have a bin for cash.

Transportation for grandfather was with horses. I do not remember the horse named Fanny. But all the grandchildren remember that team named Sam and Maud. Sam was a boy, bay colored horse. Maud, a black girl horse. As Sam and Maud became older and slower the drivers became more impatient. It seemed that the whip was the most important item to drive the team. But old Sam's hide was so tough that the whip would only move him a few feet and it seemed like it took more effort to use the whip that it did to walk.

All of the horses in Grandfather Henry's day were not the Sam and Maud type. There were many teams in the country that were just used for travel. The traveling teams were well fed, grained, stable and used on light buggies or sleighs to travel. In emergencies these teams could travel distances of 25 to 30 miles without stopping.

Traveling by horses was faster than the first automobile that came into Weston. This was probably due to the roads and partly due to the cars and the drivers. When you traveled in those first cars 25 or 30 miles per hour you felt like you were really traveling and living dangerously.

At one time Uncle Albert drove his model T Ford to Preston from Weston to get medicine. He made the trip and back in one hour's time, a distance of 10 miles each way.

Uncle Fred, Ben, Alf and Lavon were among the first in the territory to have automobiles. The first car was an EMF (nicknamed by them “every morning fix it”). One time cousin Henry Gannon started the EM F in the garage or shed and could not stop it until it went through the back of the shed! The second car was one of the latest models which had carbide lights, a crank and the steering wheel was on the right side of the car. It was this car that later tipped over south of Weston Depot and killed Uncle Harold Abel, Aunt Lila's husband.

            In addition to the EM F owned by the Jensen brothers there was;

            Fred Fredrickson, a Hudson

            Olaf Christiansen, a case

            Uncle Pete Jensen, a Cadillac

            Jack Hearst, a Buick

Could have been Case Car in which Hal Abel died

Jack Hearst was the country daredevil and speedster. It was claimed by him that he had traveled at speeds of 50 miles per hour. Racing was the past time with everyone. The cars did not race on the same road but on different roads. You could always spot a car going down the road by the amount of dust that they left behind them. When the driver of a car spotted another car going in the same direction that he was going he would generally try to beat the other car to the first intersection or to town.

One time Olaf Christiansen and his wife were traveling down the road and their car stopped. Olaf got out and looked under the hood. His wife said what is the matter? Olaf said, there must be a blowfly in the carburetor, and his wife said oh there must be a blowfly in your rear end! It became a saying that when a car would not go that there was a blowfly in the carburetor!

Uncle Peter Jensen went to Arimo Idaho in his Cadillac and on the way home at Red Rock his car broke an axle. He left the car there and came home and got a team and hay rack and went back up and hauled the car home.

The John Henry Jensen family was a large family of 13 children. For many years most of the families lived in the Weston area. For as many families living so close together there was very little quarreling. It seemed that the entire family still liked to go to grandmothers. When anyone needed a loaf of hay, a horse or plow were to go someplace in the car, the boys on the ranch (Fred, Ben, Alf and Lavon) could always be counted on to help if they had what you wanted.

One day grandmother gave the Shoemaker a load of hay. She sent the boys out to pitch the hay on the buggy. While Ben was pitching he remarked that this would be a good way to get one of the Shoemaker's daughters. But the old Shoemaker was a little hard of hearing and remarked, oh no I always get more than this for a dollar!

Grandmother likes to play cards (called swencil). Four people played as two partners. But it seemed that grandmother and her partner always had to win. When Fred played as grandmother’s partner, grandmother always seems to have the right card to win.

 When Grandfather John Henry died 6 April 1915, I can remember the funeral procession from his home to the Western Chapel by team and mostly white top buggies. The casket was carried in a large buggy, then later to the Weston Cemetery for the burial. When he was lowered into the ground part of the ground caved in because it was dug too close to another grade.

A white top buggy similar to the one John Henry was carried in at death.

After grandfather's death the boys that were not married stayed on the ranch (Fred, Ben, Alf and Lavon) to care for grandmother until the ranch home burned down and grandmother moved to Weston to live and later to Nyssa, Oregon to live with Lavon and Louise who had made their home in Nyssa, Oregon.

Grandmother Ane Christine died in Nyssa Oregon on August 23, 1947. Funeral services were held in Nyssa and the body was shipped to Weston Idaho by the railroad. Funeral services were held in Weston Ward Chapel and burial was on August 28, 1947 in the Weston Cemetery in the same lot with her husband John Henry and his two other wives.

At the time of grandmother's death $100 was raised by the sons and daughters of John Henry and Anne Christine Jensen to pay for perpetual upkeep of the lot in the Western Cemetery, Weston Idaho the children also raised money for the funeral expenses.

Picture taken 12 July 1943

Left to right

John Jensen

Lawrence Jensen

Hans Jensen

Fred Jensen

Ben Jensen

Alfred Jensen

LaVon Jensen

Albert Jensen was absent

                                                                 Picture taken August 1947

Right to left

Emma Jensen Crockett

Anna Jensen Jensen

Rocelia Jensen Hall

Louise Jensen Fife