John Christenson, Part 2

I'd like to fill in a few blanks and add a little more detail to the story of my 2nd great-grandfather, John Christenson. Most of this information comes from Hartley's book Kindred Saints.

John was born in Gunnarp Parish in the county of Halland. His father (his mother, too most likely) worked as tenant farmers on a farm named Krokhurstgard. At the age of two his family moved about 9 miles away to a farm named Greppered in the Krogsered Parish. It was about 70 miles (as the crow flies) southeast of Gothenburg. John remained there until he immigrated to Utah at the age of 33.

Twenty-first century photos near Greppered:

"The Road to Greppered"

All three of John's sons visited his birthplace and/or the old homestead in Greppered as missionaries in Sweden. John's son, John, wrote in his journal that the Gunnarp house was gone but the site was enclosed with a rock wall. It may have looked something like this:

Drystone wall commonly found in Halland County Sweden

John's son, Hyrum, visited the homesite in Greppered and made note that it was "full of stumps" and would have required a lot of work and effort to "break up the land".

Jon's son Joseph also visited the old homestead in Greppered in 1889, 28 years after John left Sweden. Joseph wrote, "...visited the place where Grandma Gudmunson lived. The house is away, but the grounds look nice, being covered with grass and clover; also quite a number of trees. Plucked some leaves from the trees, which Grandma had planted. Also had all the strawberries could eat. Many and strange were the thoughts that surged through my mind, at viewing the place where my forefathers dwelt. Also during the afternoon looked around at the place where the old homestead used to be, before Grandpa drank so much liquor." Hartley speculated that John's father fell victim to the whiskey drinking epidemic that overwhelmed Swedish peasants by potatoes being easy to distill into alcohol.

When the sons visited he old homestead in Greppered it may have looked something like this:

If you didn't take the time to read the detailed account of John's immigration to Utah (here p.154) I would highly recommend you do that. John had paid the cost of his immigration in full. His soon-to-be-wife, Christina, however, had taken advantage of the Perpetual Emigration Fund and owed $33 (plus interest) which wasn't paid up until 1868. 

Hartley describes what John, his sister, Magdalena, and then "friend", Christina, would have seen in 1861 upon entering Salt Lake City:

The city housed its population of 9,000 to 12,000 people in homes one stage better than log cabins and not very attractive. None of the buildings was whitewashed except Brigham Young's and a few others. The rest were thick walled, dried adobe homes of a dull leaden blue color. The houses, barn-shaped with wings and lean-tos attached, sat back from the wide, dusty streets. The city, one newcomer noted, "is laid out in squares of ten acres each. On each side of every street is a pure stream of mountain water. Each square is divided into 8 lots, giving to each one and a quarter acres, which each one has ornamented according to his taste."

Water ditches bordered the blocks and provided water for drinking, cooking, and irrigating city gardens. The trio found no churches - a strange thing for a religious capital - but saw some simple schoolhouses that served as general meetinghouses.

Hartley also writes that John received his patriarchal blessing in 1862. (I'll have to send off for that.) In it, he is promised that he would have more than one wife, and that from his companions would come "a numerous posterity in due time."

After John and Christina were married (in November 1861), they lived within the boundaries of the SLC 17th Ward. A year later they moved to American Fork. John's sister, Magdalena, remained in SLC and became the 3rd polygamous wife of Frederick Petersen, a potter from Denmark.

John's time in American Fork brought him another wife, Johanna, and three children - two girls with wife Christina and his first son, Joseph, with wife Johanna. John was also ordained to the Priesthood office of a Seventy while in American Fork and served in the Sixty-seventh Quorum of Seventies. Apparently John learned enough English early on to stand and bear testimony in quorum meetings. He was mentioned in the official minute book at least twice:

2 January 1865

"J. Christenson said he felt satisfied this is the gospel and rejoiced in it ever since he embraced the gospel. Has faith in the authorities of the Church & wishes to obey those placed over him. That we all may have the spirit is his prayer."

19 March 1865

"John Christenson felt glad to be here, for he always hear something to cheer and make him feel better. If the Lord give us any thing it is our duty to use it for the building up of the Kingdom of God. Is thankful he had learned what he has."

The years spent in American Fork must have been a prosperous time for him as well. Upon relocating to Gunnison, John became a home owner.

According to Hartley:

[The] first winter [of 1865] the 6 Christensons lived in a dug out [which I find extremely weird and disturbing with the two wife situation - I'll have to check to see when the next round of children were born]. They had to wait until spring to build their own house. Houses then were either one-room dugouts with willow, straw, and dirt roofs nearly at ground level, or log houses. Walls inside log buildings were plastered with a local fine mud, then white-washed with white clay from the nearby Chalk Hills. Most furniture was primitive, the tables and benches being made from crude wood slabs. Clothes often were of the patch-and-darn - repaired - variety.

The first actual Gunnison home that the Christensons lived in (referenced in the previous post) was probably the one that backed up to the fort wall. All of the Gunnison residents, including some from neighboring towns, lived inside the fort walls for safety.

The family size increased by one in July 1867 with Johanna giving birth to a baby girl, Anna. (So it appears that minimal - if any - shenanigans occurred in the dugout.) That same summer hosted an epic grasshopper attack on Gunnison farmers' wheat and vegetable fields. They'll be a few stories related to that event coming later. Add to that the ongoing war with the Indians (video here) and Brigham Young volunteering able-bodied Gunnison men to assist with the construction of the railroad and local farmers were having a heck of a time keeping food on the table. 

In September 1868 Chief Black Hawk and Brigham Young signed a peace treaty, but spirits in Gunnison were low.  A new bishop directed many improvements. John supplemented his income with salt mining. Hartley wrote:

John determined to mine and sell salt in order to provide for his growing families. He put a shovel in his wagon, hitched up his oxen, and drove eight miles south to the salt cliffs. There he dig into a salt bed 800 feet thick and three miles long, left behind by the ancient salt sea that once covered much of Utah. He shoveled nearly pure rock salt into his wagon until it was full. He probably boiled the salt in town to remove impurities. Then he drove his load west and south on a long trip into the Nevada desert region, and at the mining town of Pioche he easily sold his white cargo. 

The Christenson family was able to move out of the fort in 1872 when John built a modified duplex with a separate room in the middle for himself. 

Christenson home in Gunnison

Throughout the next several years John used all the skills and resources he had to carve out a living and provide for his two families, six more children having been added - two by Christina and four by Johanna. John experimented with new kinds of seeds and crops, he milled flour, he was involved in construction projects and road work, and he made tools. By 1890 the Gunnison tax records placed John's worth in the top 10% of property owners, keeping in mind none of the residents of Gunnison were considered to be highly wealthy. From his humble beginnings as a swineherder and tenant farmer in Sweden, immigrant John, as a land owner and a home owner supporting two families, had achieved the American dream.

John's religious activities and beliefs defined him. As a faithfully obedient polygamist he couldn't be more committed to the church and the teachings of the latter-day prophets. By 1890 John was a High Priest and in 1893 he became quorum president, a position he held until he died. John served as an Acting Teacher and an Acting Priest in the Gunnison Ward as well. Occasionally he would function as a third counselor to the bishop.

Ward teaching took him into nearly every home in Gunnison, visiting, anointing, assessing needs, and sometimes settling disputes and chastising sin. In 1883 John and his companion brought charges of adultery against the wife of a prominent elder, and she was subsequently excommunicated by a bishop's court. He baptized people and rebaptized many ward members. He blessed babies, some of whom were not his relatives. John had high visibility among his ward members and no doubt was highly respected and revered within his ward as well as the entire community.

Gunnison Ward minute books reveal many of his personal convictions and beliefs:

"It is necessary to have a staunch faith which cannot be shaken."

He "felt it was necessary for us to trust in God always."

"If we do the will of God all will be right."

"We do not expect the Lord to do all the work but we must do our part."

He "knew that we would receive every blessing we desired if we would live up to the laws of the Gospel."

"Those who serve God will be powerful."

"We must be prayerful."

"In our prayers we need to be earnest that they may have the effect desired."

"The devil is here, let us not fall in temptation."

He "felt an inclination was with us to do evil, hoped we would be able to overcome these inclinations and be faithful."

He "referred to working on Sundays, not to do it if you don't have to."

In his house it was a "sin to play cards."

"The Evil One was trying to lead us astray and we have a free agency which we should use to endeavor to serve God and save our fellow men."

"Unbelief and apostasy was brought by neglecting our duties."

It was necessary "to inform our minds with useful knowledge and raise ourselves to a higher platform of intelligence than that which we occupy."

"We should read and study the Gospel and be energetic and not be idle."

"If we give less than 1/10 of our earnings we cheat the Lord."

"The Lord will withhold his blessings from those who do not pay tithes."

"Honestly pay an honest tithing and be blessed."

He "tried to practice what he preached. Said he had to build his stockyards bigger to contain what the Lord had given him by paying his full tithing."

The Word of Wisdom was not strictly practiced in John's day. His fellow Scandinavians believed they had a special exemption that let them drink coffee. Christina gave it up but Johanna never did. John believed in a strict observance of the Word of Wisdom. He believed it's observance was directly linked with faith-healing.

He warned that "there is a lack of faith in the healing of our sick. We are commanded to keep the Word of Wisdom and exercise faith in the Lord, and we will be healed of our sicknesses and have health."

He "had experienced that tobacco, tea, and coffee weakened the memory."

"We must choose who we will serve, our God, or appetites."

John and his wives believed strongly in temple work and collecting genealogy. Two months after the dedication of the Manti Temple in May 1888 he said, "it was necessary the dead should be baptized for. Said we would not feel good in the next world to meet our family if we had not done something for them; and we should use the time now. Should not spend too much time for temporal things." That summer (1888) John spent two weeks doing temple ordinance work in the Manti Temple. As soon as son Joseph returned from his mission, John and Christina took him with them to spend the first week of 1889 doing ordinance work for family names Joseph brought from Sweden.

Hartley wrote:

John, the Mormon workhorse, began to wear our a few years before his death. By 1896 he was "kind of hard of hearing." Following an 1898 general conference he said "he had not heard all that was said" there. Two years before his death, "John Christenson spoke in rambling manner," the Gunnison Ward Clerk noted.

"it is lots for us to do before we reach the Celestial Kingdom," John said in 1894. In his last recorded testimony, expressed a year before he died, he defined a true Latter-day Saint as "one who keeps all the commandments of the lord as found in His gospel." That definition summed up his life - the life of a commandment-keeper from the moment of conversion to Mormonism until his death. 

 From the Gunnison Gazette:

John Christenson Laid to Rest

After a well-spent life of seventy-four years, and with another well-nigh completed, John Christenson, a pioneer of Gunnison passed peacefully away at his home in this city at 4:45pm, Monday, June 8, 1903. His illness lasted but a few days. Pneumonia being the immediate cause of his demise as was brought on by exposure while attending his duties on the farm. Brother John Christenson was the son of Christian Gudmundson and Johanna Martensen. He was born August 16, 1828 in Kroksered, Halland, Sweden, was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1857, and was soon after assigned duty as a missionary, continuing that labor until 1861 when he sailed from his native land for Utah. He drove an ox team across the plains, and on his journey met Christena Holm. Shortly after reaching Salt Lake City, the two were united in marriage which occurred November 2, 1861. He moved with his wife to American Fork in 1862 where he met and married in 1864 Johanna Harling. With his two wives, Brother Christenson came to Gunnison in 1865 and continued to reside here until the close of his life came.

Deceased was the father of one son and three daughters by his first wife, while three sons and three daughters were the fruit of his union with the second wife. Both widows, besides eight of their children and a number of their grandchildren, survive. One child from each family has gone before.

John Christenson has led a life of integrity. He was energetic and industrious during his whole career. It may truly be said of him that he practised his religion to the letter, living up to it’s teachings and being constant in all the duties required of him. At the time of his death, he was the local presiding officer over the High Priests, who manifested their love and esteem for their departed brother by attending the obsequies in a body and alternating in bearing the remains from the family home to the place of holding funeral service.

At the funeral, which took place from the R. S. Hall yesterday at 10:00am, there was a very large attendance of relatives and friends, quite a number being in from Centerfield who were associated with deceased from early days and shared with him in the hardships incident to the establishing of this place during the Indian troubles.

Eulogies were offered by Bishop C. A. Madsen, Elders Austin Kearnes, James Hansen, Joseph Christenson, Brigham Jensen, and Frank L. Copening. The casket was a beautiful one and the floral emblems tendered for evidence of the highest regard. The mortal remains of Brother Christenson were followed by thirty-seven carriages bearing friends to the cemetery where the dedicatory rite was performed, consigning his body to rest in the earth, eventually to be reunited with the Spirit which animated it, to then abide continually. Elder Thomas E. Taylor of Salt Lake City offered the dedicatory prayer.   

Deseret News
16 June 1903

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