Life Story of Anna Albretsen Larsen
ANNA ALBRETSEN LARSEN 1885 – 1960
My mother, Anna Albretsen Larsen, was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on December 12, 1885. She was christened Anna Hansine Petrea, in honor of her Grandmother Albretsen. Mother was the sixth child to bless the union of Biritte Andersen Krogh (called Bergetta in America) and Carl Albretsen, to whom were born seven children: Albert, Julius, Melvina, Carl (who was called Francis), Iver, Anna and Arthur.
(Krogh was the name of the farm where Grandpa Iver Andersen worked in Denmark. This surname name was sometimes used in America as well. My grandfather, Carl Albretsen, was christened Carl Christian Rasmussen in Denmark, but his surname was changed to that of his father in America.)
The following is taken from an earlier sketch recorded in her own voice:
“All of the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ were welcome in the home of my parents, Carl and Birgitte Albretsen, in a suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark, Namely Naerum. Harl Liljenquist and Michael Johnson from Hyrum, Utah, were frequent visitors. When they came in for conference, Mother would shine their shoes and line them up in the corridors, and her feather ticking was always waiting and ready to be pawned for extra money to feed the missionaries. Nothing was too good for them and Mother’s great desire was to take her family to settle in America. Mother made many sacrifices to accomplish this. The family was of humble circumstances. It was necessary for Mother to work outside the home as well as i8n her home to care for the needs of her family. She did washing for other people as well as housecleaning for different homes and apartments. By doing this, she was able to earn a living for her family. As she could save from this meager income, she would send one or two of her children to Utah to be placed in the home of other Latter-Day Saints, who could take care of them until she and Father could come and make a home for us. My sister and three brothers had already immigrated when it came my turn to go.
“I was five years old, and my brother Albert, who was twelve years old, came with me. I don’t remember anything about my native land except the big boat. It was May of 1891 when Mother took Albert and I down to the dock and aboard this big boat. She bought me a new doll. It was evening, and Mother was crying as we boarded the ship. I sensed that things were not right and kept asking Mother why she was crying. She had told me we were going to America together, but I knew she had cried when the others had left. Could it be that she was sending Albert and I alone too? She had to reassure me that she would not leave me. Tenderly she lulled me to sleep, assuring me that we would be together. After she was sure I was asleep, she sadly tiptoed from the room having big goodbye to two more of her children. I’m sure she had a prayer in her heart for our safety and protection as she returned home. Her faith assured her that we would meet again, and she would be able to gather her family around her again. I have often wondered if I would have the same faith as my Mother had if I were called upon to do a similar thing. I admire her strength of character and strong testimony of the gospel.
“When I awoke the next morning, my Mother was gone and Albert and I were (as it seemed to me) alone a long way out in the ocean. I was heartbroken at finding my Mother gone and although Albert tried to comfort me, I was very upset and cried for hours or until I could cry no more. I can still feel the emptiness that came over me at that time.
“I have never had a desire to cross the ocean again and felt I would never set foot on a ship again. I must have remembered the rough trip across the Atlantic Ocean. Once when Albert and I were out on the deck watching the waves as children will do, not sensing any danger, large waves came up over the side rail and washed on to the deck nearly pulling us into the angry ocean. Luckily, Albert caught me and held to a nearby post till the water subsided. Our clothing was drenched, and we had to change into dry things. We know that we could have been drowned at sea at that time had not the Lord answered the prayer of our faithful mother.
“When we landed in America, we went right to the railroad and traveled with some missionaries who were supposed to take care of us. We traveled with them until we arrived in Logan, Utah, where they left us at the railroad station. At that time, the railroad didn’t go into Hyrum, and Logan was the nearest station. Arrangements had been made for someone to meet us—but no one was there!
“We waited all afternoon and as night came on, still no one had come for us. We were frightened and discouraged. We didn’t know one direction from the other and as we spoke a foreign tongue, could not inquire as to even what direction Hyrum was. A kind station agent, observing us there for that long time, took pity on us and took us to his home for the night. He gave us a good meal and a bed for the night. In the morning after a nourishing breakfast, he took us to the outskirts of Logan and showed us the road that led to Hyrum.
“Albert and I started out on foot. I was still but a baby and soon got tired of walking, so Albert would take me on his back and we would go “piggy back” until I was rested. We walked as far as the cemetery road that used to be the main road into Hyrum. As we approached the cemetery, we met C. F. Olsen driving a buggy. He was looking for us, having been told we were coming. Brother Olsen took us to Grandpa Iver Andersen’s home. This humble little home was located two blocks south on 6th East on the west corner of the intersection. (As we grew up, the home was still standing but I think it has given way to more modern building now.) After we were welcomed with great affection, Gitty’s children were fed a welcome meal and the clean up began. We had missed the care of a mother and being on our own for so long, had become lousy. The remedy to get rid of lice was coal oil and water, and I was literally bathed in it. After I was scrubbed clean and my long brown hair which had become matted was brushed and combed, Grandpa took me to the home of Joseph Allen, a Hyrum merchant, and a very kind man.
“H. F. Liljenquist, a missionary to Denmark from Hyrum, had made arrangements for me to live in the Allen home temporarily. Mr. Allen had sent part of the money to bring me to live with them. The Allens didn’t have any children of their own then. But when I had been there three years, a daughter Florence was born to them and then another daughter Rachel was born a few years later. They were overjoyed to know that this pretty little Danish girl was to be theirs for a while. Mrs. Allen gave me another bath and clean up. Mr. Allen was part owner of a dry goods store so I was taken to the store to choose what I would like. I chose red dotted percale for a dress, red shoes, and a red leghorn hat. I was very homesick and though the Allens were very good to me and I was thrilled with my new clothes, I cried for my Grandpa Andersen. The next day, Mr. Allen went to Logan and bought me a red rocking chair and a big doll to sit in it.
“While I was staying at the Allen home, I was “Queen of May” on May Day in Hyrum. This was a celebration Hyrum held every May. Will Wright was the king. He was the brother of Warren Wright. I attended school in Hyrum but quit after the fourth grade.
“It was while I was living with Allens that an event of much importance to me occurred. Joseph Allen had been ill for several days, and Doctor Snow from Logan had been taking care of him. His illness was very serious so it was necessary for some member of the family to stay up at night with him. The first night that he was able to be alon3e, he and Mrs. Allen slept in the dining room where he had been during his illness. They made a bed for me just under the window. During the night, I awakened and saw on the steps of the stairway just in the corner from my bed, a personage dressed in spotless white. I could tell it was a man, and he just seemed to glide towards me, his feet not touching the floor. He didn’t stop until he was at the edge of my bed. I was only six years old and was frightened as I lay and watched this tall being coming towards me. I can see now, as I did then, the pleats and sash and his white robe; his cap was exactly as the ones that are worn even now in the temple. I gazed at him for a few moments. Then he glided towards the stairs again. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, he stopped and looked back. Fear overwhelmed me, and I threw the quilts up over my head and laid that way until morning, probably falling asleep again in that position.
“The next morning I told my foster parents what I had seen. They told me it was a man wearing temple clothes. I had never seen temple clothes but described them so exactly that they knew it was someone from the other side that had a message for them. They thought, perhaps it was some relative of Mr. Allen who had come to see him. They were happy to think I could tell the incident so well. This experience strengthened the testimony of Brother and Sister Allen as well as my own (and later, those of my family). Whenever I see a man in temple clothes, this picture comes back to me very vividly and I feel the Lord was very good to me in allowing me to have this personal testimony.
“Life at Allens was very enjoyable. I was well cared for and loved and will always feel love and respect and gratitude for these kind people. I was given everything I wanted at Allens and fear that I became somewhat “spoiled”. The children coming from school would line up along the side walk to watch this little Danish girl chatter in her native tongue and entertain them as they came from school. I recall only one time in the four years I stayed at Allens that I received a spanking. I deserved it, because Mrs. Allen had told me to make my bed a certain way. I didn’t hold the sheet correctly when putting it on the bed, and Mrs. Allen made me do it over again. I pulled a face and stuck my tongue out at her. Mrs. Allen saw me do it through the mirror. She didn’t say anything to me at the time, but left the spanking for Mr. Allen to do. I really got a good whipping as well as learned a lesson in respect.
“My father immigrated a year before my mother did. She naturally expected that we would have made preparations for her coming, but he hadn’t. A neighbor, Marie Wilson, invited them in for three meals the first day after arrival from Denmark, and they were invited in the following day for breakfast. Mother was very indignant because there was no food in their own house, not even a sack of flour, so she informed my Dad that if he thought she had come to this country to beg a living, he was mistaken. Then, to make things worse, my brother, Iver, came to visit from the home where he was living. He was completely in rags. She had sent Iver last, before she came because she knew of his playful and irresponsible nature. She had bought him a fine suit and everything to go with it when she let him come over, but he said he had traded his fine clothes away now that he was living at a place where he was working to earn his board and room. Mother was disappointed in him, but not too surprised. She told him he could come home and starve with the rest of them. Mother had expected things to be so different in this wonderful country, but she found that it was just as hard to make ends meet here as in her native land. She was downhearted and discouraged. Ernest, my husband, remembers that as a boy, he saw her arrive in Hyrum, seated by Martin Nielsen who brought her to Hyrum in his wagon with spring seats.
“My father was a mason by trade and a good one, but he was taken to drinking and coming to America had not changed him. He could find work and could have supported his family well if he had not had this bad habit. Mother finally had to go to work to secure the things necessary to care for her family whom she had gathered together under one roof, a very humble one at that.
“I was nine years old when I went back to the family home. I could have stayed at Allens and would have had a much easier life, but I knew my brothers and sister were home with my parents, and I wanted to join them too. We lived in a log house on 1st South and 8th East just a block east of what is our family home now. The first winter was very hard, but we managed to exist. We got a gallon of milk each day from Harl Liljenquist and the next year Michael Johnson brought us a cow and enough hay to fee her for the winter. Brother Johnson was so good to us. He also used to take our whole family to his home for a good meal once in a while. We owe so much to people like him who were and are so charitable with their possessions. I’m sure the Lord was and is mindful of his goodness and that of others who too will be rewarded for their kindnesses. That first Christmas after I went home to live, my parents had no money or means to secure any kind of Christmas for us. I was asked back to Allens for Christmas, and they gave me a coat, rose-colored cashmere for a dress, a wrap for my head, two pair of underwear, and yarn for me to knit two pair of stockings. For several years, I went to Allens to help with housework.
“Many other disillusions, as well as adversities followed in those first years in this country. The Bushrup’s, another dissatisfied couple, were returning to Denmark, and they offered to take Mother back with them, but she didn’t feel she could leave her children again, as she had separated from them in order for them to get to America.
“Mother used to work summers cooking for the men who worked at lumber camps up at White Pines in BlacksmithForkCanyon. She would cook for eight to ten men. She worked for A. B. Anderson, Con Andher, and Alec Hill who operated lumber camps, for several years. I was with her then. I often wonder now, how I dared to walk from the A. B. Anderson camp to Con Andher’s lumber camp to get milk. It was a distance of three miles which would be six miles to and from, through wooded wild mountain country where it was not uncommon to see bear and mountain lion. I was only nine or ten years old.
“At one time, my brother Iver was walking to Hardware Ranch to work. About half-way up by Devil’s Gate, he laid down on his stomach by the river to get a drink. Hearing a lapping noise, he looked up and saw a mountain lion was drinking on the opposite side of the river. He started running and never looked back till he was sure he wasn’t being followed.
“Another time, my brother Julius, was rounding up some sheep. He was riding a horse which was deaf. A bear pawed the back of his horse trying to reach him. He had evidently angered her for she had two cubs. The horse carried the claw marks for a long time. The canyons were rough and untamed, at that time, and they had many such experiences as I have related. We were by no means just at the mouth of the canyon, but you must bear in mind that we were way back nearer BearLake and Monte Cristo, nearer the Randolph and Woodruff country.
“In the afternoon, Mother would fix coffee for the men and send it down with me to the saw mill. Sometimes one of the men would give me a nickel for my efforts, and Olof Olsen, particularly, would always bring me a sack of hardtack candy when he came from town. At one time while Mother was working for Con Andher, he left us up at White Pines with nothing in the house but some flour and a few condiments. We lived on what Mother could make out of this for four days before we received more supplies.
“Mother used to roll the bread into a long roll and then cut it off into cubes to fry. With these cubes, Dave Anderson and I used to play “Keeps”. It was one of our favorite games. Dave and I were playmates during the summer months we spent in the canyon. He would tell me that when we grew up, he wanted to marry me and was always talking about the fine clothes that he would buy for me. In later years, he moved to StarValley to make his home.
“My brother Albert used to carry the mail from Logan to Hyrum—this included Providence, Millville, Hyrum, and Paradise. When he arrived in Hyrum, I would have the horse harnessed to the rig ready to go, for it was my job to deliver the mail to Paradise. He would throw the mail bag in and say, “Give it hell,” and off I would go. One time when I was entering Paradise, there were a bunch of boys laying for me. They threw rotten eggs at me and when I entered the post office, they were dripping from my bonnet. The post mistress asked me what had happened and on hearing my story, told me it would never happen again. She must have known who the boys were because it never happened again. Albert would quite often forget to feed his horse, and mother was afraid to let him know that she was feeding it. She would have me wait up with her until Albert had gone to bed. This was often quite late because he was a fine musician and used to sit up for hours practicing his violin. When he had gone to bed, we would sneak out, and Mother would feed the horse.
“I was baptized by Peter Rose in the big ditch down by Winifred Allen’s about three blocks west of our family home in Hyrum. His brother Ole Rose confirmed me.”
The rest of her story I shall tell in my words as Mother related it to me, and I shall also tell some things that others have told me about her.
Many people tell us what a sweet and beautiful young lady our Mother was. She had a lovely voice and sang at nearly every public gathering. She was a good organist and was organist for the Scandinavian choir that her brother, Albert, organized and conducted. It was the first Scandinavian choir in Hyrum. The choir was quite successful. They would sing in church in Hyrum and surrounding communities. When Hyrum Ward was divided, Mother was Sunday School organist for the Hyrum 2nd Ward, and C. A. Nielsen was music director. She served in this position for many years. C. A. Nielsen was our long-time neighbor. Mother never served as a teacher in any of the auxiliaries, but was an excellent teacher in her home with her children. She showed us by precept and example the right way to live and that what we did was for us to choose.
She was 1st counselor to Nellie Rose in the ward Relief Society, with Flossie Fallows as the other counselor and Flossie Petersen as secretary. Mother enjoyed a longtime friendship with these two “Flossies”. For five years, Mother enjoyed the Relief Society leadership work but was always timid about presiding or conducting a meeting She served many years as a visiting teacher and was always one who could be counted on to help do quilting or anything that the Relief Society put on during their work and business day. In about 1954 she surprised all of us when she took part in a program in the Hyrum 2nd Ward representing the converts from different countries. She told her story so well and with much poise that she even surprised herself.
Mother did a lot of temple work when she was able. She and Grandma Albretsen used to go several times a week before her health began to fail. She always enjoyed working in the temple and has done endowments for many deceased women. She and Grandma Albretsen attended several General Conferences in Salt Lake City. They would take their lunch and spend the whole day in the Tabernacle. They used to allow people to eat their lunches in there if they wished to and insure them a seat for the next meeting. Mother was a faithful member of the Hyrum 2nd Ward choir until about 1940, whe she felt restricted because of hoarseness in her vocal chords and ill health.
Her childhood pals were Kate Liljenquist who later married H. R. Adams, our high school principal, and Edith Johnson was also a dear girl friend. Later on, Javan Jensen Petersen and Rosie Nielsen Jensen were her girl friends. She remembers that she and Javan once sang in the Logan Tabernacle at a church gathering.
As she was growing up, Mother did housework for Mrs. Jensen commonly known as Mrs. J., who owned and managed the Pioneer Hotel in Hyrum. When theater groups came to stay, Mrs. J. would have Mother stay later so she could sing and play to entertain her guests. Sometimes it would be awfully late at night when she was to go home. Mother had over a mile to walk to her home and sometimes was very nervous. At times, Grandma would walk part way to meet her. Other types of employment she recalls is trying to sell the old time photo albums for Alvin Allen. She sold a few but gae up this enterprise.
Mother was popular at all public gatherings. When she was 16 years old, she was chosen “Queen of Utah” and rode on a float in the parade on the 4th of July in 1901 in Hyrum. She wore a yellow dress and silver crown. Mother wasn’t proud. She tells us she spoke to everyone she chanced to meet, whether rich or poor, young or old. At a dance, she always had more dances spoken for than the orchestra played. Mother had hosts of friends. She says they used to have a lot of private dancing parties in their homes. They would clear the room of rugs and dance until the dust was raised. Most of the time, Albert played on his fiddle. At holiday time, there would be a dance someplace every night of the week. Mother and Dad liked to dance so well, and they were always there. Family responsibilities must have curtailed their dancing in later life because I have never seen them dance. I have heard Mother tell how they used to bundle the children up and go to a movie quite often.
Albert and Mother used to play at the theater at the beginning of the silent movie. She says she still remember how he would beat with his foot when he made a mistake to try to make it look like it was she who had made the mistake.
Mother met my Dad as she and her girl friend were out walking one day. Dad drove a nice outfit—some pretty horses and a nice buggy. They went together occasionally for a while and then they became serious about each other. Mother was 18 years old when she married my Dad. He was 22. They were married on December 1, 1902, as she would have had her 18th birthday that month. They obtained their license to wed at Logan and were married at the home of her brother Iver. C. F. Olsen, the man who met them in his buggy some years before as Albert and she were walking to Hyrum, performed the ceremony. Her brothers, Iver and Julius, were the witnesses. As December 1 was also Grandma Albertsen’s birthday, they had a birthday and wedding supper combined. It wasn’t until they had their 10 children that they were married in the temple and had their children sealed to them.
At the time they were married, Dad was working for Soren Hansen and they stayed home with Grandma Albretsen for about a month. Grandma had a great respect for Dad. Mother said she never questioned her if she was going with Ernst as she seemed confident that she was in good hands. Mother says she doesn’t know how she would have ever managed without the help of her mother with her many children and as hard as she worked at the time she was rearing her family. Her mother lived just a block east of us at that time, and used to run in and help with the household chores.
My folks bought the lot where we were born and raised from Clawson’s. Here they have lived the remainder of their lives. Improvements have been made, including a new modern home, fence, lawn and flowers. When they moved into their first home, they had two rooms. They bought a new bed, dresser, and washstand, a tall cupboard, a rocking chair, stand-table, kitchen stove, table and six chairs. They also had a kitchen cupboard and new curtains and a lovely home-made carpet. In their kitchen, they had carpet on one half of the floor and carpet and linoleum on the other half. I was the last child born in that home. Mother tells me that many people remarked whenthey came to call, what a lovely home they had.
When they operated their homestead in PocatelloValley, Mother got in on some real pioneering. When they would go out to the farm, Dad would drive one team and wagon, and Mother would drive the other team following Dad. The children would ride with Mother. Often they would meet a steam thresher and the horses would rear, but Mother would keep her “cool” and handle them well. Mother would bake a five-gallon milk can full of doughnuts to eat on the way out and to have something on hand when they got to the farm. They had scarlet fever while they were out there and spent some anxious hours taking care of the sick ones.
When Lavon was only five years old, he stayed out on the farm with Dad. One day Dad hd to leave him alone while he pulled a cook shack down from Blue Creek. He thought he would be gone only a little while, but it took him from 1 p.m. until about 10 p.m. that night. Dad was worried about Lavon and when he came home, the little boy was asleep with the big dog watching over him. Grandpa Albretsen spent a lot of his time with them at the homestead and more time with Uncle Jule in the later years of his life. In fact, that is where he spent his final hours before his death. He was always bringing some kind of treat to the family in the line of good things to eat, whenever he came to visit.
When Lavon’s wife Melva died in December 1936, leaving him to take care of two little boys under four, Mother took them into our home and tried to do the best she could with them until Lavon remarried and took them to his home in 1944.
Mother was always known for her excellent cooking. Danish people have a special aptitude for making delicious food and for presiding in their homes with hospitality. Mother was no exception and always had something good to offer to those who visited our home. On Sundays and holidays she used to be up early in the morning baking pies, for which she was famous. My friends who used to come to play would marvel at the number of pies and the many good cookies which she had to offer them.
She made many quilts for her children and grandchildren as well much crocheting. For many years before Grandma Albretsen became aged, they used to do custom quilting in our dining room. They would mark and quilt a quilt for three dollars. When Grandma got to where she was unable to care for herself, Mother took her into our home and cared for her until her death on April 27, 1939.
Though in her last years poor health restricted her activities, she kept an interest in her family and their activities. Mother died on November 17, 1960, just three months after Dad’s death. I have always thought my Mother to be the best in the world. We have admired her for her patience with us when she had such a large family and so much to do. She has always been beautiful and though her hair grayed and her health became poor, she still had the same sparkling eyes and friendly smile that we have always loved. She was a wonderful mother and maintained her testimony to her dying day. Her memory lives on in our hearts and minds.
Written in by daughter Donna Larsen Cooley in 1960 and revised in 1992.
Ernest and Anna Larsen Family 