Maria Pedersdatter Mortensen

Mary Mortensen was born on July 3, 1847 in Haarbolle, Fanefjord, Denmark to Peter Mortensen and Helene Sandersen Pedersen. She was the eighth of nine children. The Mortensens lived near the sea and after severe storms lashed the coast, Mary, her brothers Lars and Hans, and her sister Mette, would run down to the seashore to gather shells, as well as amber, from which beads were made. In the spring of 1855, two Mormon missionaries, Elder Soren P. Ghol and Elder Scoby, arrived in the village. They taught Mary’s family the gospel and the Mortensens joined the church in the summer of 1855. Early in 1856, Mary’s family sold their house and, on April 23rd, began their journey to America to gather with the saints. They traveled across the plains in the Willie Handcart Company and, after much hardship, arrived safely in the Salt Lake Valley in November 1856. The family was soon called to help settle Parowan, which was 240 miles to the south. They arrived there on December 9th. The older boys herded sheep every day, including Sunday, and the three youngest girls, Mette, Mary, and Caroline, regretted that their brothers could not attend the morning church meeting. So one Sunday, the girls offered to tend the sheep and their brothers agreed to let them. They brought the herd back just as the bell was ringing for Sunday school, saying it was the longest day they had ever spent. As Mary grew older and began dating, she acquired a boyfriend. He liked wine a little too much for her mother to approve of the match, so Mary broke things off. After that relationship ended, her brothers were anxious for her to find another boyfriend. She was at a spinning bee one day when her brother Lars came in and said, “Mary, I have found your beau out there.” Mary went out to see whom Lars was taking about, but when she saw the “old-country” style homemade straw hat that the man was wearing, she said, “He’s too old-fashioned for me.” The man was Peter Jensen, who had seen Mary in a dream and had come south from Manti looking for her. He started to call on Mary and her mother approved of him. Peter and Mary were married on December 6, 1867 in Parowan. Mary’s father died on April 9, 1866, but before his death, he asked Mary to care for her mother, Lena, who subsequently lived with Mary and Peter until her death on August 24, 1890. Mary and Peter had five children, one boy and four girls. Their daughter Amelia remembered fondly the winter evenings of her childhood when the family read scriptures and sang hymns together. Mary and Peter participated in the ward choir and were well known in the community for their singing ability. On holidays, Mary and Peter took their family to the homes of relatives, where they enjoyed large family gatherings. In 1877 when Peter was called to work on the Manti Temple, Mary went with him and spent three months cooking for the men excavating the temple site. She received the same credit on church records for this service as did the men constructing the temple. Peter and Mary attended the dedications of the Manti, St. George, and Salt Lake Temples. Mary felt charitable towards the aged and the less fortunate people in town. According to her granddaughter Eulala, seldom did a week go by without Mary “administering a kindness to some needy person.” Shortly after the turn of the century, Mary and Peter decided to move up to Salt Lake Valley. They packed up all of their things, intending to stay overnight with their daughter Amelia before leaving town. However, a smallpox epidemic had broken out in Parowan and Amelia’s children were quarantined, so Mary and Peter drove by their daughter’s house and waved goodbye to her and two of their grandchildren from a safe distance. Shortly after this move, on July 13, 1903, Mary died in Union, Utah at the age of 56. She was buried in the Murray City Cemetery two days later.