Pioneer Stories - Jens and Elsie Nielson

Jens and Elsie Nielson were very poor when they were first married, but soon they prospered. Jens wrote: "The Lord blessed me on my right hand and on my left, and I was very successful, and prospects in temporal concerns were very bright. I was looked upon as a respectable neighbor and many times [was] invited to the higher class of society."

In the fall of 1852, missionaries came to the Nielsons' neighborhood. Jens had heard only bad reports about the Church, but he decided to attend a meeting out of curiosity. "As soon as I saw these men's faces, I knew they were not the men as represented to be," he later wrote. "Before the meeting was out, I knew the testimony they bore was of God. We bought some few of their tracts and studied them for a few weeks and were perfectly satisfied the work was of God."

Jens and Elsie were baptized in March 1854. "From that time on all my former friends turned against me and spoke all kinds of evil against me," Jens recalled. He and Elsie now had higher priorities than advancing in society. "All my possessions had no power over me," Jens wrote. "My only desire was to sell out and come to Zion."

That year he found a buyer for his property, but before the sale was completed, a Church leader asked him to stay in Denmark for a time and serve a mission. Disappointed but obedient, Jens wrote: "He told me I had been warned and it was my duty to warn others. That counsel came right in contact with my natural feelings, but the Spirit whispered [to] me I must obey, for 'obedience is better than sacrifice.' Then I was ordained a priest and sent out to preach with another young man holding the same priesthood."

After Jens served a successful mission, he and his family prepared to emigrate. Jens sold his property and then took Elsie, their 6-year-old son, Niels, and 10-year-old Bodil Mortensen, the daughter of some friends to England, where they joined the Saints on the Thornton. As they approached the New York harbor a few weeks later, the Nielsons made a great sacrifice. Many people needed financial assistance for the journey from New York to Iowa City. Elder Johan Ahmanson, who served as a counselor to James Willie and presided over the Danish Saints on the ship, appealed to those who had money to help those who did not. Jens and Elsie Nielson contributed part of their savings to assist those in need. Jens and Elsie Nielson sacrificed their savings to help others. This sacrifice left them without enough money to buy a wagon, so they were traveling by handcart. Traveling by handcart instead of wagon exposed all of them to the worst extremities.

Summarizing the Willie company’s experiences during the next two months, Jens wrote: “At [Florence] we laid in our supplies for a 1000 mile trip to Salt Lake City. ... About [265] miles from [Florence] we lost [30] young oxen. [We] hunted [two] days for them but did not find them, so we had to yoke our steers and heifers which were brought along for beef. These were used to haul food, tents, and other things we could not get on the handcarts. Then we had to put 100 pounds of flour on each handcart, and it made our journey very slow. ... We had the first snow storm about [300] miles from Salt Lake City. From that time the people began to die very fast. We traveled ... farther—pulled the handcarts through the snow sometimes two feet deep.  Then the captain told us there was not a pound of flour in camp. The captain said he would saddle his mule and ride night and day till he found a team with flour, for we understood there were teams on the road to meet us with flour. Next night the flour came to camp and there was great rejoicing. We could get very little because [most of the rescue wagons] had to pass on to another handcart company three weeks behind us.”
                       

As many of the rescue wagons continued east to search for the Martin, Hodgetts, and Hunt companies, the Willie company kept moving west with the six rescue wagons that stayed with them. They had to keep moving—and hoping that they would soon meet more rescuers.

October 23 was a day of heartbreak for Jens and Elsie. A blizzard and the long trek over Rocky Ridge challenged them every step of the way. Tragically, both young Niels Nielson and Bodil Mortensen died that day. Jens wrote of the excruciating circumstances at their camp in Rock Creek Hollow, where Niels and Bodil were buried: “We had to dig a hole and bury [13] bodies of our number, and my only son was among them, and a girl who I had along for Brother Mortensen.
                        I told you there were five men to the tent, but now the four were dead and I was the only man left, so I had to ask some of the largest and strongest women to help me to raise the tent, and it looked like we should all die”

Jens was also becoming weaker, and it seems that he was prepared to die. Elsie was reportedly less than five feet tall, but she had a spiritual stature and courage that matched Jens’s frame of over six feet. One of their descendants, Jay P. Nielson, told of Elsie’s courageous strength when Jens could no longer walk: “The end appeared to be near and certain for Jens. His feet became so frozen he could not walk another step, which caused his right foot to be at right angles the rest of his life. At this point Jens said to Elsie, “Leave me by the trail in the snow to die, and you go ahead and try to keep up with the company and save your life.” If you believe men have a monopoly on strength and courage, then pay heed to Elsie’s immortal words when she said, “Ride. I can’t leave you. I can pull the cart.”

It is not known how long Elsie pulled Jens in the handcart. One family history suggests that it was at least a day. Jens did not record the incident in his history. Instead, he recalled a covenant he made with God at that time. It was a covenant that Jens and Elsie were united in keeping for the rest of their lives:  “I remember my prayers as distinctly today as I did then. If [the Lord] would let me live to come to Salt Lake City, ... all my days should be spent in usefulness under the direction of his Holy Priesthood. How far I have come short of this promise I do not know, but I have been called to make six new homes, and as far as this goes, I have fulfilled my promise.  Speaking of the hardships of the handcart company—no person can describe [it], nor could it be comprehended nor understood by any human living in this life, but only [by] those who were called to pass through it.

Having already endured the tragic handcart trek, Jens and Elsie Nielson would soon be given many additional difficult assignments. The "six homes" mentioned by Jens are a reference to their colonizing efforts in southern Utah, including Parowan, Paragonah, Circleville, Panguitch, and Cedar City. In 1879 the Nielsons moved again to build a sixth—and most difficult—home. They were called to help settle the San Juan area of southeastern Utah, the roughest, least charted portion of the territory. Jens was 59 years old at the time, an age when most people would think they were past their prime for such assignments, but he remembered his covenant and answered the call.

Jens Nielson became part of 250 people who composed the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition. Pioneers who had earlier participated in the trek west said the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition was even harder. The difficulty was compounded for Jens Nielson, who had been partially crippled by the handcart trek so that he limped with one foot at a right angle to the other.

Jens and Elsie Nielson clearly lived out their lives in fulfillment of the promise Jens had made to the Lord on Rocky Ridge.

The Nielson’s story reminded me of a talk Elder Holland gave at a regional Stake Conference in 2010. He talked about the Hole-in-the-rock expedition and some other pioneer stories, and I love this quote from his talk: (because I think it is so true of all these pioneer stories)

“The fundamental driving force in these stories is faith—rock-ribbed, furnace-refined, event-filled, spiritually girded faith that this is the very Church and kingdom of God and that when you are called, you go… And so I issue a call for the conviction we all must have burning in our hearts that this is the work of God and that it requires the best we can give to the effort. My appeal is that you nurture your own physical and spiritual strength so that you have a deep reservoir of faith to call upon when tasks or challenges or demands of one kind or another come. Pray a little more, study a little more, shut out the noise and shut down the clamor, enjoy nature, call down personal revelation, search your soul, and search the heavens for the testimony that led our pioneer parents. Then, when you need to reach down inside a little deeper and a little farther to face life and do your work, you will be sure there is something down there to call upon…”

Amazing advice from a great leader – we all will face challenges, and while they may not be as apparently challenging as those our pioneer ancestors faced, they are often equally challenging to us spiritually and mentally. I know in my own life when challenges arise (as they so often seem to do) the ability to draw on my faith has rescued me many times.

Have a great week!

Sister McHood