. . . In 1860 the Lord opened the way for me to emigrate to Zion. This was after having presided over the Christiania Branch from its organization and seen its growth and development from a membership of nine individuals to an enrollment of over two hundred members.
On the 24th of April 1860, we left Christiania bound for Utah. We landed in Copenhagen two days later where we were comfortable quartered in Norrebro until the third of May when the Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish emigrants were placed on board the "S. S. Pauline" enroute for England. We landed at Grimsby on the sixth and proceeded by rail to Liverpool. We passed through the manufacturing towns of Manchester and Sheffield. We were housed in a hotel on Paradise Street and the next move put us on board the sailing vessel, William Tapscott, with Captain Bell, a very good man, in command.
On May 11th, we weighed anchor and were escorted out into the channel by a steam tug. We could see Ireland on one side and Wales on the other.
On the 18th a wedding occurred on board; a Swiss couple was married. On the 19th all of the children on board were vaccinated. [p. 17]
On the 27th, widow Anna Larsen [Larson] from Copenhagen, died, age 82 years.
On the 28th Jens Christensen's [Christenson] wife died. They were from Aalborg's Conference.
On the 30th, Jens Rassmussen [Rasmussen] died, age six years.
On June 4th, Peter Fredricksen's [Fredrerikson] son died, age four months. This boy was born deaf and dumb; his family come from Shelland, Denmark. In the afternoon Hans Heislet and Larsine Larsen had a wedding.
On June 7th, Anton Petersen [Anthone Peterson] from Jylland died, age two years.
On the tenth, Elsie [Else] Christensen died, age one year.
On the 12th, Hannah Nilsen [Hanna Nilson] from Sweden died, age one and a half years.
On June 14th at about 11:30 a.m., we sighted land, and about the same time a pilot came on board to guide our vessel into port. The next day a steamer hooked on to our vessel, and for two hundred dollars, pulled us into the New York harbor, and in the evening we were safely anchored within the bay. It was with a heart full of thanksgiving to my Heavenly Father for a safe journey over the ocean and a very peculiar feeling in my being, that I gazed upon the land of my future home.
On the 16th, the health officers came on board. The smallpox had broken out among us and we were detained in quarantine while the sick, twelve in number, were landed and taken to a hospital. Among the sick was Andrine Holmsen of Norway. All of us emigrants were vaccinated.
On the 17th, a little son of Christina Stauffer of Switzerland died. This was the first one who had died on the journey to be buried on land. All of the others were consigned to a watery grave to await the dawn of the resurrection.
On the 18th, another little Swiss boy died, named Aralie Reise. [POSSIBLY Reiser] The doctors came on board this day and examined us. They came on again on the 19th to see if any new [p.18] cases had developed. A little one-year-old Swiss girl died on this day; her father's name was [John] Keller.
On the 20th of June, 1860, a steamer and a tug came alongside of our ship and all of us emigrants, together with bag and baggage, were transferred to the steamer, and soon landed at Castle Garden.
I will remark that when we started on the ocean from Liverpool, C. Widerborg was appointed president of the Scandinavian Saints, Butts had charge of the English Saints and [John] Keller presided over the Swiss Saints. Each section was divided into districts and the third district was presided over by Mads Poulsen and me. During the journey we held meetings and a number of dances. The weather being very pleasant over the entire Atlantic Ocean, it added much to the joy of our trip.
On the 21st our baggage was taken on the steamer "Isaac Newton" which was to take us to Albany, New York. During the day I went on a sight seeing trip around the city of New York and was very much struck by its beauty. I bought a pair of pants, a hat, two woolen shirts, and a handkerchief for myself, and a shawl for my wife. In the evening we went aboard the steamer. The next day we arrived at Albany where we boarded the train and traveled all night. On the 23rd we went through Rochester and arrived at Niagra. There we stopped for seven hours; so we had an opportunity of seeing this marvelous waterfall and the wonderful railway Suspension Bridge which spans the great chasm. We secured some refreshments and I bought some calico for my wife and children. The next large town was Windsor.
On the 24th we went over Lake Erie to Detroit where we took the train for Chicago, arriving there on the 25th. We were then transferred to another train and the next day [p.19] we arrived at Quincy, where we embarked on a river steamer and were taken up the Mississippi River to Hannibal. From Hannibal we took the train to St. Joseph where we arrived on the 28th. During the day, Edwin D. Anderson, the eight-months-old son of James Anderson of Sweden, died. About a dozen members of our company were detained here on account of the smallpox which had broken out in our midst again. No Norwegians were affected by it. That evening we boarded another river steamer to go up the Missouri River to Florence.
On the 29th a little one-year-old girl died; a daughter of Ingre [Ingri] Borg [. . . ]. The mother was not with the company.
On the 30th a young man from Switzerland died. I do not know his name. The same evening we arrived at Florence and camped for the night on a flat below the town.
On July the first we were quartered in the town of Florence and this was a happy day for me, because there I met some of the brethren from Zion. The first was F. Dorius. He came out to the camp that morning and together we went out and met Carl Dorius and Lund, brethren with whom I was intimately acquainted.
On the 2nd a little one-year-old girl died, Nicoline J. Nicolaisen, daughter of Hanna Smith of Jylland, Denmark. On this day we held a meeting at which George Q. Cannon, Joseph W. Young, and Horace S. Eldridge [Eldredge], from Zion, were the speakers. Cannon was in charge of the emigration and was busy arranging our handcart company. . . . [p.20]
BIB: Fjeld, Carl Johan Ellefsen, Autobiography, In A Brief History of the Fjeld-Fields Family, Comp. By Andrew Fjeld (Springville, Utah: Art City Publishing, 1946) pp. 17-20.
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