On Saturday March 26th 1859 my mother and I started from Attrup for Aalborg, leaving Aalborg at 4 p.m. on a steamer and arrived in Copenhagen at 8 a.m. on the 27 and were logged in Muregade No. 36 U.C.H. until Friday April 1st when all the Scandinavian Saints went aboard the steamer "S.A. Whit," in the morning at 8 o'clock, left harbor at 11:30 a.m. But on account of very high wind we had to encounter on the North Sea a great deal of seasickness was made manifest besides a great danger of being shipwrecked on account of which we had to cast anchor twice and lay over until Wednesday the 6th when we went ashore at Grimsby, England. At 7 a.m. then started on the railway for Liverpool where we arrived at 8 p.m. all safe.

Next morning on Thursday April 7th we were joined by the British Saints on William Tapscott, a sailing vessel on which to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Here we were organized and divided into 5 wards and districts with a president for each, and Elder Robert F. Neslon, president of the whole company.

On Sunday the 10th, 2 meetings were held on the deck of the ship, one English and one Danish in order to organize more fully. I was then appointed to teach the English language to the Scandinavian Saints of the 5th Ward of which I was also a resident. The trip across the waters was intended to last from 4 to 6 weeks in which time it were possible for the people to learn some for the language.

Monday April 11th 1859 at 5 o'clock a.m. a steamer hauled us out into the sea and we begun our voyage across the Atlantic and I was appointed head teacher of the English language for all the teachers of the Saints and P. [Peter] A. Fjeldsted in my place. Every forenoon I would meet with the Saints in different wards, in turn, to school and in the afternoons I taught school for the teachers and presiding elders of the company. Thus my time was spent every day until we landed in New York. But when the doctor came I was called to go with him as an interpreter among the Scandinavians.

On Thursday May the 12th we cast anchor in New York harbor at 7 p.m. and next morning landed in Castle Garden at New York where we stayed until Saturday the 14. In the afternoon when we started up the Hudson River on a steamboat to Albany where we arrived on the 15th. In the morning we were then transferred to the railway for Windsor where we arrived next morning being the 16th. Then crossed the river there to T. City. Tuesday 17th we left on a railroad for Chicago and arrived there next morning where and when we changed cars again for Quincy and arrived there on the morning of the 19th. A steamboat named "Pike" was then our conveyance on the Mississippi River to Hannibal where we landed the same evening.

Friday the 20th we again started on the railroad for "St. Joseph" where we arrived safely on the morning of the 21st from which place we proceeded on our way up the Missouri River on a steamboat "St. Mary." Here we were treated roughly by the crew and others, neither was there any convenience for sitting nor sleeping but was almost constantly compelled to stand on our feet night and day until Thursday 26th of May when we landed on the bank of Missouri River below Florence in the morning at which place we were lodged for a while to fit up our teams and baggage to cross the plains to the "Rocky Mountains."

On Monday the 6th of June a portion of our company was organized on the campground a little south of the City, into a "handcart company" which started from here on the 9th to cross the plains, by pulling their children, bedding, cooking utensils, and part of their provisions on a two wheeled cart, which looked rather a heavy task for a man and his wife to undertake across a desert of 1,100 miles. But, however that was accomplished and they arrived at Salt Lake City about 2 weeks before us, who left Florence on Thursday, June the 23rd with an oxtrain of 60 wagons, which company was organized with Elder R. F. Neslen [Nelson] as captain. I not being able to purchase cattle of my own, drove in connection with Niels Jacobson (also a poor man) an ox train for R. Hansen for which service I had my mother and our baggage on the wagon free of charge. However we had to walk on bad roads, which done very well had my mother not being well and suffered a great deal of pain in the long finger of her right hand which became stiff and useless to her in after years. . . . [p.3].

. . . We arrived [IN SALT LAKE CITY] on the 15th September 1859 at 6 o'clock p.m. and camped on the Union Square that night. . . . [p.4].

BIB: Pedersen, Lars Christian, 1839-1920. Autobiographical sketch [ca. 1919]. pp. 3-4. (CHL)
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