Anna Johanna Johnsen

Anna Johanna Johnsen

• born 22 October 1793, Rogaland, Norway
• died 17 December 1878, Lehi,Utah
• immigrated to America in 1829
• was widowed and married Endre Dahl, who changed his name to Andrew Solva Anderson
• traveled with Ezra Taft Benson Company 1849 to Utah (Andrew, her husband came the year before)

Anna Johanna Johnson Jacobs was my second great grandmother.  She was born on the Helland farm on the Island of Rennesoy in Rogaland, Norway, the 22 October 1793, as recorded in the Rennesoy parish register.  Her father was Jon Johnson Asland of Hjelmeland in Rogaland.  Her mother was Anna Kjelsdotter Varaberg of Mosteroy in Rennesoy.  She had two older sisters, Kristi and Anna and an older brother Sjur.  In 1795, Jon Jonson moved his family to Hervik in Tysvaer, Rogaland, where he lived the rest of his life.  Hervik is on the Hervik Fjord.  The Jonson Family still lived on this farm when I visited there in 1982.  In this little village Anna grew up.

A short distance away was the farm of Aasen where Jakob Svendson lived with his wife and family.  Besides a son Svend born in 1771, there were daughters Lisbeth, Brita, Siri, and a son Torbjorn.  On 21 July 1822, Anna Johanna Jonsdotter married Svend Jakobson Aasen.  Anna had a son Christopher at the time she was married.  Svend and Anna Johanna had two sons, Svend born 17 December 1823, Jon born 7 December 1825, both in Aasen, Tysvaer.  Jon Jakobson was my great grandfather (Jon Jakobson Americanized is John Jacobs.

I am sure that conditions in Norway at this time contributed to my great great grandfather Svend Jakobson’s decision to come the America.  There was some religious unrest.  Norwegians were beginning to question the Lutheran doctrine even though it was the State Church.  There were some in the area who had joined the Quakers and were gaining converts to that religion.  Since an opposition to the Lutheran Church was against the law, marriages, christenings, etc.  in any other church was not legal.  Living conditions in Norway were also improving.  Because of better nutrition and vaccination for small pox, more children were living to maturity.  In this very mountainous terrain there was no room for more people to make a living.

The 19^th century Norwegian emigration really began when the sloop “The Restoration" under the leader Lars Larson sailed from Stavanger in Rogaland the 4^th of July 1825, and arrived in New York October fourteen weeks later, carrying the original fifty two people aboard, plus a baby who had been born on the way over.  These people were mostly Quakers or other dissenters from Lutheranism and most of them came from farms in the Tysvaer parish.  They had heard of the United States of America.  Included among these passengers was Endre Salveson Lindland (Dahl) who was the ship’s cook.  They went to Murray now Kendal, Orleans County, New York where they got farms in heavily timbered land.  By 1829 they had got their land in a condition they could earn a living from it.  As a result of their letters home more Norwegians were encouraged to come to America.

In 1829 my great great grandfather Svend, sold his farm to Samson Samsonson.  One of the conditions in the land transfer was that the new owner take care of Jon Jonson and his wife as long as they lived.  Jon Jonson and his wife were the parents of Anna Johanna.  Svend’s parents were dead.  It was the custom in Norway for children to take care of parents when they were old, so when they sold the farm I am sure they knew they were leaving the country and wouldn’t be back.

In 1830, Svend Jakobson and his family sailed, with the second group of Norwegians from this area, for New York.  When the census was taken in Kendal, New York in 1830, Svend Jakobson his wife and three sons were among the residents there.

What the living conditions were in the next two years I don’t know, but I’m sure it wasn’t’ easy.  Anna Johanna probably wished many times she was back on the Aasen farm in Norway,  Svend was 61 years old and his sons just boys.  It was hard work for everyone,  In the vital statistics of Kendal, Svend Jakobson Aasen died in early 1832.  Later in 1832, the marriage of Andrew (Endre) S. Dahl and Johanna Jacobson (widow of Swen) was recorded.  Andrew and Johanna had two children; a son Andrew A. Anderson born 4 March 1833, and a daughter Sarah Anne born in 1834.  The economic conditions of Kendal continued to improve.

By now there were rumors of cheaper, better farmland in the regions west of New York.  Kleng Peerson, from a farm in Tysvaer, who had visited America and encouraged the first emigrants of 1825 to come to Kendal walked to Illinois, approximately 2000 miles round trip, to check out these stories,  They could buy land for $1.25 an acre.  There were enough trees to meet their needs and plenty of grass for grazing and hay.  In 1835 they sold their land and moved west.  They travelled by canal boat to Buffalo where they took a lake sailing vessel or steamboat.  In about 13 days they had crossed lakes, Erie, Hon and Michigan to the little town of Chicago, a distance of 1090 miles.  Then they went by wagon 70 miles father to Fox River, in La Salle County, Illinois, taking three days.  I can only imagine how my great great grandmother must have felt as she faced more unknown pioneer experiences.

In Fox River, Andrew Dahl settled on160 acres.  Again they had to build a home and prepare lad for crops.  It wasn’t as slow as the first time because they didn’t have to clear land of timer.  Although the country was beautiful to look upon they had to get used to the piercing cold of winters sharp north wind and snows, from which there was no protection.  There was no trading center in the county so they took their produce by wagon to Chicago, to trade for needed supplies.  Such a trip would take more than a week.  As pioneers they worked early and late, husband, wife and children, the wife working with her husband with oxen, pitchfork, hoe or whatever.  By the end of the 1830’s they could make a living without working for others.  By then the Dahl farm would be worth between $1600.00 and $1800.00.

The years 1842, and 1843, were important because of the interest that developed in religion.  The Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists all established churches, but the one that got the most converts was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints.  Fox River was about 200 miles north east of Nauvoo, and just a day’s journey from the farm of Parley P. Pratt.  Bother George P. Dykes came as a missionary of the L.D.S. church in March of 1842, converting Andrew Dahl.  On the 12^th of August 1842, Anna Johanna Jonson Dahl, along with her sons, Jon, Swen and Christopher were baptized by William Levet.

In order to help build the Nauvoo Temple the Fox River converts gathered a hundred head of sheep and cattle and a little money.  Andrew Dahl was chosen to deliver them.  While there he visited with eh Prophet Joseph Smith and was favorably impressed by him.  In 1844, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were murdered.  Brigham Young as the President of the Council of the Twelve, and other members of the Twelve Apostles visited the Norwegian Saints and srrengthened the organization.  Soon after, there was dissension among the members of the church as to whether they should follow Brigham Young to the west, or James J. Strang (professing to bet the next prophet) who told the members to stay where they were.  Among those pledging to support Strang in 1847 was Andrew Dahl.  In December of 1847, Brigham Young sent Brother Bratten to the Norwegian settlement,  He reorganized the branch and received a pledge from twenty of the member who would  support the Twelve and go west.  Andrew Dahl changed his mind and was counted as one of the twenty in favor of going west.  Although the accounts don’t mention wives reactions to such unsettled conditions, I am sure it was a hard time for them.

On the 18^th of April 1849, twenty two Norwegians in 6 wagons left Fox river for the Wet.  Andrew was 65 years old, Johanna 56, Swen and John Jacobs were 25 and 23 and their son Andrew Alexander Anderson was 16.  The Dahl’s had 2 wagons, 6 oxen, 3 cows, 7 loose cattle, 1 dog, 2 guns, and 2 pistols.  When they passed through Burlington near the beginning of the trip the place was deserted except for the ferryman, because of a cholera epidemic.  At Kanesville (Council Bluffs) they joined the rest of the Mormon pioneers and were placed in Apostle Ezra Taft Benson’s camp, which was then known as the Norwegian company.  Swen Jacobs was the huntsman to get food for the company.  But the time they were in Central Wyoming it was fall.  They experienced a bad snow storm and lost some of their cattle,  At Independence Rock, a party of brethren from Salt Lake City met them with cattle and wagons.  With these reinforcements they continued to the summit of the Continental Divide, where they again ran into bad snowstorms and struggled through snow sometimes waist deep.  Here they met Erastus snow who gave them fresh oxen and they arrived in Salt lake City, the 31^st of October 1849.

Swen, John, and Andrew left for the gold fields in California soon after.  Andrew and Johanna lived in Sessions Settlement for the next two and one half years.  In the spring of 1852 they moved to Lehi to make their permanent home.

Grandma Jacobs spent the remainder of the days in Lehi, administering cheer and comfort to the sick and the bereaved.  She was a successful midwife and spent much of her time with this work.  Grandma Jacobs had an old iron kettle, which went the rounds for around the outside.  When the kettle was used the cracks had to be filled with flour paste to keep from leaking.  She died at the home of her son John, the 17^th December 1878.  She was 86 years old

Written by: Elaine Jacobs Nelson, Great granddaughter of John Jacobs

Sources of information used for this history:

1.       Rennesoy Gards og Aettasoga Book

2.       Rennesoy Parish Register (FHL #126,254)

3.       Tysvaer Parish Register (FHL#126,302)

4.       Norwegians Forerunners Among the Early Mormons, by William Mulder

5.       Early Norwegian Converts to the L.D.S. Church, (parts 1 and 11), by Gerald M. Haslam

6.       Sloopers: Their Ancestry and Posterity, by J. Hart Rosdail

7.       The roster of Ezra T. Benson Co., 18 May 1849 to 31 October 1849

8.       History of Lehi, by Hamilton Gardner, Published in 1913

A blessing by John Smith, Patriarch at the City of Joseph January 28, 1845 upon the head of Anna Johanna Johnson wife of Andrew Solva Anderson, (daughter of John and Ann Johnson) born December 1792, Stavanger, Norway.  Sister Johanna, I lay my hands upon thy head in the name of Jesus of Nazareth and by the authority He has given me, I seal upon thee a father's blessing. Thou art a daughter of Abraham and a lawful heir to all the blessings that were sealed upon him and his children and inasmuch as thou hast obeyed the Gospel with an honest heart thou hast a right to the Holy Priesthood and all the other blessings which are sealed upon thy companion. In common with him thou shalt be blest with faith to heal the sick in thy house and among thy sex when there is no elder present. Inasmuch as thou art agreed with thy companion the destroyer shall have no power to take thy children from thee but thy posterity shall become exceeding numerous and be an honorable and a mighty people and thou shalt inherit a kingdom with them to the increase of which there shall be no end. And as for the blessings and comforts of this life thou shalt have plenty and the riches of eternity shall be given to thee in fullness. Thou shalt be called a mother in Israel. Thy name shall be remembered in the House of Israel through all the generations of thy father's house. The number of thy years -shall be according to thy faith and the desire of thine heart and shall come down to the grave as a shock of corn fully ripe being satisfied with thy labors and the prosperity of Zion. Come up in the Morning of the resurrection ·with thy companion, thy friends and thy father's house to inherit Eternal Life. Suffer not thy faith to fail and these words shall not fail.  Amen

Recorded in book E page 100 - Robert Campbell Recorder.