Marie Christensen

  Generelle notater:

Hun blev født den 20 marts 1853, hjemmedøbt den 26 marts 1853, datter af husmand og smed Christen Jensen (Gravesen) og hustru Birthe Cathrine Jensdatter af Østerby.
Faddere: pigen Marie Jensdatter, tjener i Vesterby, husmand Thomas Christian Hansens hustru, husmand Jens Nielsen, husmand Thomas Christian Jensen og snedker jens Christian Jensen, alle af Østerby.
(Kilde: Øland kirkebog 1839 - 1854, opslag 43 Hjørring amt).

My Life by Agnes Rebecca Jacobsen Muehlen 1955
I was born in Logan, Utah on 26 May 1893. I had two brothers and two sisters. Treenie was the oldest. She was sixteen when I was born. Chris was next to Treenie. He was twelve years older than I. Sarah was next. She was eight years older than I, and next came Ephraim (Eph) who was four and one-half years older than I. Before I arrived my parents had a photo taken of the first four as they thought that would be all of the family but I had to come along and was left out of the family group. However, I had my picture taken when I was four years old and I remember my sister Treenie picked geraniums and fuchsias off the flowers in the window and made a pretty corsage which she pinned on my dress.
My sister Treenie lived with my mother’s parents and took care of them until they passed away. She and my brother Chris were born in Denmark. When my parents came over here, my grandmother coaxed my mother to let her keep Treenie until they came over two years later. After they came here grandmother wanted to keep Treenie and mother finally decided to let her live with them to keep peace in the family and with grandmother who was a very selfish woman. She was always good to me except one time I remember she said for me to come and see her after school and that she would give me some ice cream. I brought my girl friend with me and grandmother met us at the door and gave us each a ginger snap and told us to run home.
All my brothers and sisters were very good to me and I loved them very much. Chris use to buy me the cutest shoes and always took me with him on his bicycle when he went to see his girl friend. Sarah was always sweet to me. She would make me cute dresses and always comb my hair and lots of times curled it into ringlets. She always took me with her when she went to see her friends. When I was about 12 years old she would take me with her to dances so she would have company on the way home as the streets were very dark and she would be nervous. I guess I was a good chaperone. I remember one night a boy friend took her home after the dance and he said he wished that little tag tail wasn’t with them. About that time I decided I would stay home from then on. My brother Eph and I were very good pals but we would quarrel once in awhile. I remember through that when he wanted his shoes shined I would have to do them and he always gave me money for doing them.
When my parents first came to Logan they bought a piece of ground out on Fourth West and Sixth North where our old home still stands although it has changed hands. My father built one room at a time as they could afford it. It took all the money they had to come to America but they were happy and grateful that they were blessed to come here where they could mingle with the Mormon people and go to the temple and be sealed to each other and have their children sealed to them for time and eternity.
Christmas in those days was not commercialized as it is today. We really appreciated what we had and Santa Claus didn’t have all the electric playthings he has today. In fact, we never even had electricity in our homes. We had to use kerosene lamps to see at night and I used to shine the shade on the lamps before we lit them as they would get smoky from turning the wick up too high so we could see better to read, etc.
My mother sat down to rest but what she had either crocheting or knitting to pick up and work on. She used to knit all the men’s socks and the girls’ big long black stockings. I wonder how the girls of today would like to wear those kinds of stockings.
We would have a small Christmas tree and would string popcorn and cranberries to trim it with. I remember one Christmas my sister Sarah received a little cream pitcher for Christmas and that was all. I received a little dresser once which cost fifty cents. It was covered with sea shells and I was very proud of it. I remember the only nice doll I ever received for Christmas. It was about 12 inches tall and my sister-in-law Martha made some clothes for it. In our stockings we would get candy, nuts, a banana and an orange. These were luxuries in those days. My brother Eph liked sweet potatoes so well and our next door neighbor was a cook at the hotel. He would bring food home for his family and at Christmas time his wife would always bring a cooked sweet potato over and put it in Eph’s stocking.
We used to go ice skating out on Miller’s pond about a half mile from home also on John Everton’s ice pond just a block east of our place. My father made a sleigh with two seats on it and we would ride around in that and deliver Christmas presents to my brother and sister who were married. One day we were getting in the sleigh and my mother climb in first in the back seat. She was heavy and something gave way and the front of the sleigh came up and down went mother with the sleigh on top of her but lucki8ly she wasn’t hurt. We had many happy reunions at our home on Christmas, holidays and birthdays. The young folks would always have surprise parties, pot luck, etc. I know I always enjoyed good things to eat when they came to our house.
Our house wasn’t a bit fancy, just a plain frame house, painted grey with white trimming. We had a big heavy door in the center with a big iron key. On either side of the door were two single windows with four panes in each window. One pane in each window had hinges on like a door so you could open it to let in the fresh air. We had a living room with large patterned lace curtains and large patterned red paper on the walls. As you entered the front door there was a small hall which separated the living room from the front of the house or front bedroom. In the rear was the kitchen and another bedroom with a hall which led to the back door. In the center of the house was a large closet with a door leading to both the back and front halls. Back of the kitchen was a cellar where we kept vegetables and fruit.
My mother raised Bees and in the spring she had to watch them when they would fly in swarms. They would light on the branch of a tree and then she would place the bee hive under them and shake the limb where they were and they would go into the hive which would be their home for the summer. This hive would have frames in it where the bees would fill in with wax and then they would fill the little wax cups which they built hundreds of in each frame. These would be filled with delicious honey. We would have about six or more of these hives full of honey by the latter part of summer. Then mother would cut the wax and the honey out of the frames and melt it on the stove. She would strain the honey away from the wax and place it in jars for winter. We used to make a great deal of honey candy and mother made the best cake I ever tasted with honey. I only wish I had the recipe for it. When we had ward parties at church mother would make batches of honey candy and would make huge walking canes out of it and take to the parties. There would be a scramble by everyone, young and old, to get a piece of mother’s honey candy.
School Days
I started school when I was six years of age at the Benson School which was on the corner of First East and Fourth North in Logan. When it was stormy weather it would be so muddy that my father would have to take my sister Sarah and me on our horse for several blocks through the mud and then we walked the rest of the way. We never had oiled roads or even a sidewalk at that time so we use to call our street Mud Alley.
I went to school until I was in the seventh grade when my mother became very ill so I had to stay home and care for her. The next year I took preparatory and part of the first year at the B.Y. College and attended one more year when my mother became ill again. I stayed home again to care for her and she died on 21 May 1910. After that I stayed home and kept house for my father and brother Eph. I later went to work at the Union Knitting Mills for three months. Later I worked in department stores and in one called Ellison Sisters for three years.
I married a Danish boy by the name of George Mortensen. We had six children: Lee Ora, Walter, Marie, Emery, Bob and Dean. We had difficulties and I divorced him and then married a man by the name of Harry Muehlen. We had one daughter by the name of Violet. All my children are married. I have twenty two grandchildren at this time. They have all made my life very happy and I am grateful for all these blessings. May they all be happy by living right I know they will be. Agnes Rebecca Jacobsen Muehlen 1955.

The Life Summary of Marie
When Marie Christensen was born on 20 March 1853, in Øland, Øster Han, Hjørring, Denmark, her father, Christen Jensen, was 27 and her mother, Birthe Cathrine Jensen, was 26. She married Lars Jacobsen on 4 November 1876, in Øland, Hjørring, Denmark. They were the parents of at least 3 sons and 4 daughters. She died on 21 May 1910, in Logan, Cache, Utah, United States, at the age of 57, and was buried in Logan, Cache, Utah, United States.

  Begivenheder i hendes liv:

• Bopæl, 1860, Øland, Øster Han, Hjørring, Danmark.

• Bopæl, 1870, Øland, Øster Han, Hjørring, Danmark.

• Indvandring, 1882.