. . . About the first of December 1854, we boarded the sailing vessel at Fredericks Hound [Fredriks Haven] for England but the wind came from the wrong direction and we landed at Norway, where we stayed for one week. During that time we would climb up behind the cliffs to say our prayers so we would not be seen by the ship's crew. A week later we started out for England the wind took us back to Fredericks Hound [Fredriks Haven], our starting point. This time the wind was favorable and we landed in England, Christmas Morning 1854. We boarded the train for Liverpool and arrived there in the evening, at which place we stayed for several days waiting for the ship to sail. During this time we had to eat horse flesh. My mother had brought a jar of butter and some dried sausage with her, which I remember tasted good to us.

About the first of January 1855, we boarded the ship James Nesmith and sailed with 440 Scandinavian Saints and one British Saint, across the Atlantic Ocean. The first three days of our voyage we were all very seasick but after getting better I got such an appetite that I could not get enough to eat. [p.17] My mother, not being very well, could not eat her portion of hardtack, so I got part of her portion, as well as my own.

One day a terrible storm came up. I was standing on the middle of the deck holding to a large barrel just under the hole of the ship. I felt impressed to move under the deck and just as I did so, and had gone a short distance, a mast beam broke and fell, breaking the barrel to pieces, so you see how necessary it is to heed the promptings of the Spirit at all times.

On February 23, 1855, we landed at New Orleans, from which point we took a steamer and sailed up the Missouri River to St. Louis where we stayed one day and went to Church. From there we sailed on to Leavenworth, Kansas, where we landed at a place which was later called "Mormon Grove." We had to clear the snow away so we could pitch our tents, it being necessary for us to wait here until the arrival of the oxen, and my brother, sister and a young girl, whose emigration my father had paid for, had to go out to work to help keep up expenses.

After being at Leavenworth sometime, cholera broke out in camp and the officers came and made us move farther from town. My mother was very sick at that time, and quite a number to [of] the young folks of the camp died.

The oxen finally came and we started on our long journey across the plains in P. O. Hanson's Company. . . . [p.18]

. . . my mother was bit on the wrist by a scorpion or poisonous insect of some kind. Her arm began to swell until it went up in her body. She was very sick all the rest of the journey until one evening we reached Salt Lake Valley and my mother passed away the next morning without seeing the great Salt Lake Valley that she had gone through so much to reach. This was the later part of September 1855. . . . . [p. 20]

BIB: Olsen, Annie Cathrine Christensen, [Autobiography], "Utah Pioneer Biographies," vol 22, pp. 17-18, 20. (FHL)
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