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James Jensen. 
 
A Biographical Sketch ] 
 
 1 
 
 OF ^ 
 
 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 J. M. TANNER 
 
 THE DESERET NEWS 
 
 Salt Lake City, Utah 
 
 19H 
 
'^^ 
 
ft 
 
 s. 
 
 Bancroft Library 
 
 Foreword. 
 
 It was the intention originally to summarize 
 briefly the leading events in the life of James 
 Jensen. Contrary to all expectations, the sub- 
 ject matter of this small volume grew beyond 
 K the limitations put upon it. The writer, believ- 
 
 [;^ ing that many of the events connected with this 
 
 JJ" biography and belonging to the history of 
 
 Forest Dale would be a source of interest to 
 the people generally of the Ward, therefore 
 obtained the consent of the Bishop to the publi- 
 cation of his biography in book form. This 
 ^ consent was given with great reluctance on the 
 
 ^ part of Bishop Jensen whose fears about ''be- 
 
 coming modesty," ''undue pretentions," and 
 "adverse criticism" had to be overcome by per- 
 sistent effort and persuasion. The author as- 
 £^ sumes all responsibility for whatever publicity 
 
 O this volume may acquire. If its subject matter 
 
 should prove as interesting to the reader as 
 it has been to the writer, the latter will have 
 no apology to make for offering this book to 
 the members of the Ward and the friends of its 
 worthy Bishop. 
 
 The Author. 
 
Index. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Birth and Early Boyhood 1 
 
 In the Hand-Cart Company of 1857 13 
 
 Early Life in Utah 42 
 
 On a Mission 62 
 
 Residence in the Second Ward 92 
 
 Bishop of Forest Dal? HI 
 
 Character Sketch 134 
 
 Appendix A 150 
 
 Appendix B 162 
 
 Appendix C 171 
 
 Family Genealogy 188 
 
James Jensen 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 BIRTH AND EARLY BOYHOOD 
 
 Somewhere between forty and fifty miles 
 west of Copenhagen, on the Island of Sj eland, 
 was located the little village of Haugerup, 
 where James Jensen was born June 7th, 1841. 
 The village was small and its chief resources, 
 its farms, were in the ownership of perhaps 
 a half a dozen men. The others in that little 
 village either worked under the local land- 
 lords or sought employment in the town of 
 Soro. The village of Haugerup was in those 
 early times a fruitful land for the Mormon 
 elders, who induced, it is said, more than half 
 of the people there to join the Church. 
 
 "My parents were poor,'' said Bishop Jensen 
 in commenting upon the early circumstances 
 
2 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 of his boyhood. But that could hardly be true 
 since they were the owners of one cow, which 
 gave them some right to recognition in the so- 
 called middle class of society. Besides, his 
 parents owned their home which was covered 
 by a thatched roof, and in the style peculiar to 
 those days. Conditions not unlike those of his 
 parents may be found in many of the rural 
 communities of Europe at the present time. 
 The family at that time sought employment at 
 the hands of others. They represented that 
 condition of thrift which comes through hard 
 and constant toil. 
 
 It was in the year 1855 that the Mormon 
 elders led the Jensen family into the waters of 
 baptism. It was the dawn of a new era to 
 them. It lifted them from the narrow confines 
 of a life about them into an open and new 
 world. 
 
 To the parents of James Jensen there were 
 born seven children. The family record is 
 given as follows : 
 
 Father: 
 
 Hans Jensen, born December 19, 1816; died 
 April 24, 1880. 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY MANHOOD. 3 
 
 Mother: 
 
 Sissie Maria Jacobson Jensen, born Decem- 
 ber 13, 1814; died February 16, 1898. 
 Children: 
 
 James Jensen, born June 7, 1841. 
 
 Karen Jensen Peterson, born October 6, 
 
 1843. 
 
 Christian Jensen, born 1845. 
 
 Jacob Hans Jensen, born 1847. 
 
 Fredrick Jensen, born 1849. 
 
 Soren P. Jensen, born 1851. 
 
 Sophia Jensen, born 1853; died 1857. 
 
 Christian and Frederick died before the fam- 
 ily left for Utah. 
 
 The only surviving daughter of this family 
 reached the Valleys, and became the wife of 
 Bishop Peterson of the second ward. The 
 three remaining sons all grew up to be men of 
 stable character, industrious, and progressive, 
 and turned to good account the splendid in- 
 heritance of a strong and industrious manhood 
 bestowed upon them by their parents. 
 
 The opportunities of the subject of this 
 sketch in his early boyhood days were those 
 common to his time and environments. He 
 
4 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 was brought up in a school of hard work. 
 There is something really wonderful in the 
 industrial life of a boy who from his earliest 
 recollections was taught the sacred duty of aid- 
 ing the parents in the maintenance of the 
 home. James went with his father to the town 
 of Soro for employment. While the father 
 was working in the garden of his employer, 
 the boy found employment in a rope factory 
 where for a year he learned and practiced the 
 art of rope spinning. 
 
 Rope was an important item in those days 
 in the farmer's business. Well fenced pas- 
 tures in which the cattle roamed at will were 
 not known then as they are now. The cattle 
 were staked out in a methodical order and 
 cleaned up the grass thoroughly as they went 
 from one side of the field to the other. Such 
 sights are occasionally seen in remote rural 
 districts of certain European countries at the 
 present time. It is a nice geometrical problem 
 to determine an accurate method of stak- 
 ing a cow so that as she circles about with- 
 in the radius of the rope given her, she 
 can be made to clean up the field without 
 leaving here and there considerable spots 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY MANHOOD, 5 
 
 of untouched grass. Then the Danish 
 were, as they are now, among the most eco- 
 nomical farmers in the world. Their country 
 is small; almost every square rod of it is 
 put to the most highly beneficial uses. The 
 Danes then, as now, were perhaps the best 
 intensive farmers in the world. Indeed, Den- 
 mark today averages forty bushels of wheat 
 to an acre — the highest of any nation. 
 
 "Our school Hfe,'' said Bishop Jensen, "did 
 not in those times amount to much." Peculiar 
 circumstances of education then prevailed 
 which the traveler occasionally witnesses in 
 some parts of Europe today. The schools were 
 then graded according to the days of the week. 
 One class attended Mondays, Wednesdays, 
 and Fridays ; the other, Tuesdays, Thursdays, 
 and Saturdays, so that three days each week 
 was the portion of every child that attended 
 school. There were no grades and the system 
 of instruction was individual. The students 
 were taught the three Rs, and given a little 
 geography. They were qualified sufficiently in 
 the art of reading to enable them in after life, 
 if they diligently desired it, to enlarge their 
 learning by the habit and process of reading. 
 
6 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 Work — hard, systematic, and continuous work 
 — was a common birthright. 
 
 A change came in those days to the boy who, 
 under sixteen years of age, had learned to work 
 so well. One of the things that he remembers 
 was his employment by one of the land-lords 
 in his native village of Haugerup. "I remem- 
 ber," said he, in speaking of those early times, 
 "that my employer brought a number of farm- 
 ers to see how straight I could plow a furrow.'' 
 No wonder that the Danes have become such 
 expert farmers when the ability to do their 
 part of the work on the farm was a source of 
 such pride. No wonder in later life James Jen- 
 sen was sought to take charge of a large farm. 
 That straight furrow in his boyhood days 
 meant to him in later life the love of an order- 
 ly method in every occupation he pursued. He 
 is perhaps not conscious of the fact that there' 
 has grown up in the ward over which he has 
 presided for a number of years a spirit of tidi- 
 ness, a love of cleanliness, which make for ex- 
 cellent order about all the home surroundings. 
 Who may not say that much of the excellent 
 taste and orderly homes in Forest Dale are 
 not in some measure the indirect result of that 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY MANHOOD. 7 
 
 straight furrow the boy was ambitious to plow 
 and about which his employer was so proud. 
 
 James Jensen was baptized into the Church 
 on the 21st of May, 1855 by Elder Ole Larsen. 
 From that time on a new relationship sprang 
 up. Some of the well-to-do landlords of the 
 village joined the Church. The spirit of equal- 
 ity and brotherly love which the new message 
 had brought tO) them led to more intimate re- 
 lations among all of the members of the Church 
 in that little village. Among the noble spirits of 
 that brotherhood was one, Nels Nelson, a man 
 whose generous instincts, broadened by his 
 conception of the Gospel, led him to consecrate 
 his wealth to the aid and blessing of his breth- 
 ren about him. Nelson became the benefactor 
 of James Jensen as well as of his parents and 
 of his sisters and brothers. He took James 
 into his employ and aided him and his family 
 to emigrante to Utah. On reaching the Val- 
 leys, the boy and his benefactor separated — 
 Nelson going to Brigham City, and James re- 
 maining in Salt Lake City. 
 
 As years went on, the gratitude of the boy 
 increased, and the appreciation, and love of 
 Jensen for his friend brought to the latter's 
 
8 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 life a joy of the rarest quality. Speaking of 
 the last communication with his old-time 
 friend, Bishop Jensen relates the following 
 touching incident: "A few years ago when 
 my friend Nelson was in Gentile Valley, I 
 wrote him a letter inviting him to pay us a 
 visit in Forest Dale. I was anxious to see him 
 and wanted to renew some of those old-time 
 friendly relations that I had enjoyed with him 
 in days gone by. I therefore offered to meet 
 all his expenses if he would only come and 
 pay us a visit. It was not many days after 
 I had written this invitation that I received 
 word that my friend was dead. His death was 
 so sudden, so unexpected that I ma^rveled 
 about it. He was buried in Brigham City, and 
 I, of course, attended his funeral. While there 
 his wife told me that his death was equally 
 surprising to his family. The letter, she said, 
 which I had written to him had a very peculiar 
 effect upon his feelings. He seemed so over- 
 joyed by the manifestation of love and good- 
 will which the letter contained, that it was easy 
 to imagine that it might have been the cause 
 of his death." 
 
 There is something about the friendships of 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY MANHOOD. 9 
 
 youth and their lasting effects that are not 
 found in the friendships of the later periods 
 of life. Such friendships are so free from os- 
 tentation, and from sinister motives that it 
 may be truly said of them that they come from 
 the fountains of the heart. The peculiar cir- 
 cumstance herein narrated gives a beautiful il- 
 lustration of the value of early friendships. 
 They seem to grow and ripen with years and 
 become more fervent in their nature. They 
 are free of all taint of selfishness, surrounded 
 by that purity from which they are really be- 
 gotten. "Oh,'' said the good bishop, as he re- 
 lated this little story from the experiences of 
 his life, "I don't know that that is really of 
 much consequence." It does not take many 
 events of that character in the association of 
 men to portray that which is most beautiful 
 and praiseworthy in life. It is a choice bit of 
 reminiscence full of encouragement and help 
 to those who cherish such memories in their 
 own lives. The boyhood love that was begot- 
 ten on a plow ripened as years went on into 
 that brotherly love which the Great Master so 
 warmly commended. 
 
 The character of James Jensen could not 
 
10 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 be fully comprehended or appreciated without 
 an appropriate reference at this place to the 
 parents from whom he inherited the sturdy 
 qualities of his manhood. ''What of your 
 mother/' I asked. "She came to the Valleys 
 and died here in Salt Lake City." ''What have 
 you to say of her," I asked. "She was a good, • 
 kind, helpful, loving mother. I was with her 
 when she died. I remember so well her 
 last words as I stood beside her bed. She 
 raised both hands and exclaimed: 'James, 
 I thank God for my children !' " What a 
 beautiful illustration of a God-given, motherly 
 instinct! How true she was to the God who 
 had implanted within her the quality of moth- 
 erhood ! Was she proud of her children ? Yes, 
 more than that. In them she saw the fulfill- 
 ment of a divine command. As she was just 
 on the eve of returning to her God to give an 
 account for the deeds done in the body, there 
 loomed up before her mind that first great com- 
 mand of her Maker. She had kept well and 
 conscientiously that divine injunction. For 
 that she was grateful from the innermost depth 
 of her heart. That one expression was the 
 highest and best in her life. It was a grand 
 
BIRTH AND EARLY MANHOOD. 11 
 
 conception which she had of her life and her 
 responsibility to her Maker. There was in 
 those words a beautiful testimony of the di- 
 vine mission of motherhood. "What about 
 your father/' I continued. "Well," he replied, 
 "he was a good man and industrious. After 
 he came to Utah he entered the employment of 
 Isaac Groo. When my father died Isaac spoke 
 at his funeral and took for his text, 'An honest 
 man is the noblest work of God.' His confi- 
 dence in my father's honesty, he expressed in 
 the course of his remarks." Thus the father 
 died with the greatest of all assets placed to 
 his credit, that of being an honest man. The 
 parents of James Jensen thus gave to their 
 child a birthright more precious than worldly 
 wealth, more enjoyable than the passing honors 
 of their generation. 
 
 The early boyhood of the subject of this 
 sketch closed in his native land at the age of 
 sixteen. That early life was perhaps unevent- 
 ful, but it contained some choice events how- 
 ever insignificant in themselves which make 
 for the highest and best in human existence. 
 There are in our days so many false ideals of 
 life, so many evasions, so much shirking of 
 
12 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 life's duty and the responsibility of life, that 
 an industrious boyhood, containing a few cir- 
 cumstances so helpful in the subsequent ex- 
 periences of life, is worth more than a passing 
 consideration. It is more than an idle curi- 
 osity which prompts us to ask in the presence 
 of a splendid manhood. To what was such a 
 manhood due and what circumstances were 
 foremost in unfolding it ? 
 
IN THE HAND-CART COMPANY OF 1857. 13 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 IN THE HAND-CART COMPANY OF 1857. 
 
 The Jensen family left Copenhagen on the 
 18th of April, 1857, with a company of emi- 
 grants bound for Zion. The Gospel had awak- 
 ened within the lives of that humble family a 
 new hope, but however fond to their hearts 
 the expectations of a new and better land were, 
 they realized that trials and hardships would 
 befall them. They had heard of the experi- 
 ences of others, and in their humble homes 
 they listened to the stories of the new move- 
 ment to build up far in the distance in a des- 
 ert land a new Zion to their God. Life in their 
 native country was reduced then, as it is now, 
 to the almost dead level of certainty. Every 
 day was similar in all the experiences of the 
 masses to all the days that had gone before it. 
 The father had been, in the year 1848, drafted 
 into the Danish army. For three years the 
 responsibility and care of the home had been 
 left to the determined and industrious mother. 
 
14 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 It was therefore with some feelings of relief 
 that they escaped many of the unpleasant ex- 
 periences to which they had been subjected. 
 Conditions could not be much worse. Besides 
 they knew that the new land of America of- 
 fered better and wider opportunities for ma- 
 terial progress. It is difficult to imagine what 
 emotions, hopes, and wonderments swayed the 
 human heart in taking up the long and tedious 
 journey which they must undergo. 
 
 The company crossed directly over from 
 their native land to Hull in England, where 
 they were transferred from the boat to the 
 railway cars to continue their journey on to 
 Liverpool, the headquarters of the Mormon 
 Church in Europe in those days. At that great 
 seaport city they were. lodged in a cheap hotel 
 m keeping with their material condition in life. 
 As soon as preparations had been made, the 
 company embarked upon the sailing ship West 
 Moreland, whose captain's name was Deacon. 
 The ship set sail on the 25th of April, and after 
 five weeks reached its destination in Phila- 
 delphia on the 2nd of June. 
 
 Those early days about Philadelphia wer^ 
 most charming. The company was not long 
 
IN THE HAND-CART COMPANY OF 1857. 15 
 
 in making ascent up the bay and river until a 
 landing place was reached. If any place in 
 the world could give a foreigner an exalted im- 
 pression of America, it was the scenery about 
 that city. A little circumstance which occurred 
 as they made their way up the river showed 
 the general temper of those foreigners who 
 were seeking homes in a distant land. They 
 passed on their way an American man-of-war ; 
 and as the emigrants beheld that emblem of 
 national power, they raised their voices from 
 the deck in loud intonations of cheers and hur- 
 rahs. The captain of the battleship returned a 
 salute of welcome to the foreigners by firing 
 the guns from the ship. It was an auspicious 
 welcome and unpremeditated, as it was a spon- 
 taneous outburst of enthusiasm for their new 
 fatherland. 
 
 They were now prepared to take their de- 
 parture from the vessel on which they re- 
 joiced, suffered, sung, and prayed together. 
 Besides, as the West Moreland lay in the har- 
 bor at Liverpool, five young couples were mar- 
 ried by a returning elder, whose name is given 
 as John Kay. Their outburst of joy was soon 
 turned to feelings of sadness by the unhappy 
 
16 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 news that came to them of the assassination of 
 Parley P. Pratt in Texas. Though not per- 
 sonally known to the emigrants, they were fa- 
 miliar with his writings. That wonderful 
 book, ''The Voice of Warning," had been a 
 most potent factor is arousing within them a 
 new religious life, and the conviction that the 
 new message which it proclaimed came from 
 God. However, they were prepared to take up 
 their journey westward. 
 
 They were met by John Taylor and Angus 
 M. Cannon on their landing in Philadelphia 
 and directed and counseled by them in their 
 future journey toward Zion. They were soon 
 on their way, finally reaching Iowa City, the 
 western terminus of the railroad in those early 
 days. Upon reaching this place, they were 
 escorted beyond the. town a distance of three 
 or four miles to a small grove through which 
 a beautiful stream of water ran. Here was 
 opened negotiations for their hand-carts, to 
 which they were soon to hitch themselves in 
 their journey across the plains. Much excite- 
 ment naturally prevailed. The little money 
 that the emigrants had at their command would 
 not go far in the preparation for the journey 
 
IN THE HAND-CART COMPANY OF 1857. 17 
 
 of thirteen hundred and thirty-four miles in 
 the most difficult mode of travel. The inactive 
 life on the vessel and railroad was soon 
 changed into the most strenuous exertions re- 
 quired of men and women whose occupation 
 was now to pull laboriously a rude two- 
 wheeled wagon over the rolling hills of Iowa, 
 through the sands of Nebraska, over the hills 
 of Wyoming, and up over the plateaus, and 
 through the mountains to the goal of their am- 
 bitions. 
 
 As the Saints of the hand-cart company, 
 camped in the little grove a short distance from 
 Iowa City, were carrying their preparations for 
 the journey forward, they were naturally in a 
 more or less feverish state of excitement. Their 
 anxiety made them restless and hastened their 
 movements beyond the point of judicious pru- 
 dence. All that then lay before them was en- 
 tirely new; the well-built and well-kept roads 
 of their native country were wholly unlike the 
 pioneer trails they were soon to follow. They 
 hardly heeded the old adage "Well begun, half 
 done." In the first place their organization 
 was an unsatisfactory one. Their chosen lead- 
 er, after Cowley had left them to join the mule 
 
18 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 teams, was a Scotchman, who could not under- 
 stand their language and who was more or less 
 unsympathetic in his demeanor toward them. 
 They were a band of converts, confiding, trust- 
 ing, and hopeful. In their religious zeal they 
 did not make calculations for the weaknesses 
 of human nature and were therefore disap- 
 pointed; when they came to deal with the sel- 
 fishness of some of their fellows. O. N. Lil- 
 jenquist was appointed as assistant interpreter 
 and accompanied the ox-teams and those emi- 
 grants whose methods of traveling were more 
 pleasant. 
 
 At the outset, the Saints met their first seri- 
 ous trouble. In preparing the hand-carts it 
 was the plan to make them as light as possible 
 consistent with the load they had to carry. 
 These hand-carts consisted of two wheels and 
 a wooden axle over which a shaft was at- 
 tached. Over the axle and shaft, strips of 
 wood were laid so as to form a bottom. The 
 bottom of the box was made of canvas which 
 covered the wooden strips. As they journeyed 
 along the way with these crude carts, they 
 constructed bows and cover so as to provide 
 
IN THE HAND-CART COMPANY OF 1857. 19 
 
 shelter from the sun and keep rain from the 
 contents of the hand-carts. 
 
 Upon leaving their native land, the Saints 
 brought with them the choicest of their house- 
 hold effects, which they believed they would be 
 able to transport to their destination. There was 
 extra clothing, some feather-beds, their best 
 suits, some books and souvenirs which they 
 dearly cherished. Much of this baggage had 
 to be eliminated and it was not easy always to 
 determine which they preferred to leave be- 
 hind. They hoped that these treasures which 
 their rude hand-carts would not contain, would 
 be kept by some friend or some brother or 
 sister, who would somehow or other forward 
 them on to Zion. In such expectations, how- 
 ever, they were disappointed as these early 
 treasures were) so commingled that it was not 
 easy to tell who the owner was. Cases of dire 
 privations and suffering often made it neces- 
 sary to use what was nearest at hand, so the 
 effects often of one company of emigrants was 
 laid under contribution to the necessities of 
 those who followed. ''We never heard any 
 more about the things we left behind us,'' was 
 the plaintive remark often heard from the lips 
 
20 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 of the Saints, who, in Utah, often heartily 
 wished they might come in possession of their 
 cherished treasures. Some .of these valuable 
 possessions were sold, and the Saints, whether 
 leaving their things to the care of some trusted 
 person or whether selling them, shed tears of 
 disappointment when they found themselves 
 unable to take with them those little conveni- 
 ences which they believed would be so helpful 
 amid the hardships of their new pioneer homes. 
 However, four mule teams were provided 
 for the company for the purpose of hauling 
 part of their provisions and also the helpless 
 and sick along the journey. This arrange- 
 ment, though, gave rise to discontent, as the 
 teams were often ahead of the hand-carts in- 
 stead of behind them to suport the men and 
 women in their trying march across the rolling 
 hills of Iowa. The Saints at the outset be- 
 came disheartened because of their poorly- 
 planned organization and because of the un- 
 feeling manner in which they were treated 
 by those in charge of the teams. The cour- 
 age that comes from the spirit of good cheer 
 and the exhilarating affects of a happy enthu- 
 siasm were wanting to 'the toilers of this hand- 
 
IN THE HAND-CART COMPANY OF 1857. 21 
 
 cart company of 1857. Numbers of emi- 
 grants took sick along the road and of those 
 quite a number died. Finally, the emigrants, 
 driven to great extremity, made a collection of 
 the little money that had been carefully treas- 
 ured among them and purchased an ox-team, 
 whose movements and assistance they could 
 control. The ox-team was purchased from a 
 passing farmer, and the sick and infirm emi- 
 grants were given such meagre accommoda- 
 tions as could be provided by this ox-team and 
 wagon. It was to them a hospital, given in 
 charge of C. C. A. Christensen. He relates 
 that at times there were as many as twenty 
 persons in the one wagon and that he himself 
 walked the entire distance of 334 miles across 
 Iowa to the Missouri River at Florence. 
 
 Florence at this time was a way-station at 
 which new equipments were received and such 
 preparations were made as the experience 
 across Iowa had taught the Saints were nec- 
 essary. Many of the Saints were disheartened 
 and in their gloomy discouragement were illy 
 prepared to take up the new march of a thou- 
 sand miles which lay before them. Some few 
 were unwilling to move forward under the un- 
 
22 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 happy conditions which surrounded them thus 
 far on their journey. Their leadership was 
 wholly unsatisfactory. They needed some man 
 in whom they had confidence, a man familiar 
 with their language, their customs and their 
 needs, a man who could awaken within them a 
 new zeal and a helpful enthusiasm. Their needs 
 were happily provided by one who fortunate- 
 ly met them at this time, a man whose name 
 has always been held in loving remembrance 
 by those who cheerfully accepted him as their 
 leader and to whom they yielded their loyalty 
 and devotion. While the Saints were at Flor- 
 ence, somewhat distracted over their past ex- 
 periences, they were joined by a body of emi- 
 grants from Iowa and St. Louis. Among 
 these emigrants was a Danish missionary who 
 had been in Utah and who had been remem- 
 bered with feelings of affection and admira- 
 tion by the Saints in their native land before 
 he had even emigrated to Zion. He was in 
 the midst of his preparation to join the ox- 
 team company of Saints. When the condi- 
 tion of the hand-cart company became known 
 to the emigrant agent, James A. Little, this 
 new leader, Christian Christiansen, was ap- 
 
IN THE HAND-CART COMPANY OF 1857. 23 
 
 pointed to take charge of the hand-cart com- 
 pany. His appointment was hailed with de- 
 Hght. How helpful the spirit of good cheer 
 and loving confidence is to the burdened soul 
 was wonderfully manifested in the eagerness 
 with which those Danish Saints renewed their 
 journey. 
 
 Christiansen was a man with capacity to lead 
 and to inspire confidence. He began at once 
 to appoint the captains for the four divi- 
 sions into which the company was organized. 
 The company at this time consisted of 544 
 persons. They had, all-told, 68 hand-carts, 
 3 wagons, 10 mules, and 1 cow, but the cow 
 did not long survive on the journey. The 
 captains of this company were C. C. N. Dorius, 
 Ferdinand Dorius, C. C. A. Christensen, and 
 O. C. Olsen. 
 
 They left Florence on the 3rd of July on 
 their march over the trails which the pioneers 
 had made ten years before. The subject of 
 this sketch was one of that band of toiling 
 travelers. Misfortune overtook him and the 
 rest of his family when only two miles out 
 from Florence. They broke one of the wheels 
 and were obliged to return for repairs. In 
 
24 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 the midst of that band of emigrants might 
 have been seen the elder Jensen and his fam- 
 ily, toiling to move their two-wheeled vehicle 
 over the sandy plains of Nebraska. The father 
 and his son James constituted the wheel-team 
 and younger brother and sister Karen were 
 leaders. The mother pushed on the cart from 
 the rear and opposite her a small boy seven 
 years old trudged along, hanging to the 
 cart and making his way the best he could. In 
 that rude cart there lay, for some distance on 
 the journey, the youngest child, a child be- 
 tween one and two years of age. The journey 
 was indeed trying upon the infants who con- 
 stituted a part of those emigrants. The little 
 Sophia, by name, lay sick and suffering, and 
 over its emaciated form the mother gazed in 
 constant anxiety and with feelings of intense 
 distress. She did all that lay in her power to 
 provide it with such comfort as could be found 
 upon such a journey. Her cares, her anxieties, 
 and her tears proved futile; and when at last 
 her little one succumbed, it was placed away 
 in mother earth with only such provisions for 
 burial as could be provided under such cir- 
 cumstances. A sieve was placed over its face 
 
IN THE HAND-CART COMPANY OF 1857. 25 
 
 and its little form covered by the earth that 
 was taken from its grave. 
 
 Their captain was compelled to make new 
 arrangements as the Saints progressed on their 
 journey. The burdens among them became, 
 from one circumstance or another, more and 
 more uneven. As men and women lost their 
 strength their loads had to be lightened and the 
 stronger were required to share the burdens 
 of the weak. In this company were four girls, 
 strong, hearty and happy. Their equipments 
 were lighter than those families whose loads 
 were incumbered by one or more small chil- 
 . dren. These good souls — ^their names would be 
 recorded on these pages if they had been kept* 
 — have ever been held in grateful remembrance 
 by those they so cheerfully and lovingly aided 
 in their trying journey with hand-carts across 
 the plains. 
 
 The first night on this journey was passed 
 at Papio creek, where the conditions of the 
 hand-cart company were more closely exam- 
 ined. An examination was made of the physi- 
 cal conditions of the emigrants. Their wise 
 
 * The names of two are, Christina Green, Mrs. 
 Laurentzen (Lund). 
 
26 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 captain and his counselors had before them the 
 intense suffering of the hand-cart company 
 which had crossed the plains the year before. 
 The warning which the misfortunes of that 
 company carried with it could not be disre- 
 garded and every effort was made to thin the 
 ranks by requiring those who were not suit- 
 ably prepared for the journey to return to 
 Florence and await later opportunities to reach 
 the Valleys. 
 
 Although the company had been furnished 
 four mule teams to be used for the support 
 of the emigrants, those in charge of the teams 
 were still unmindful of their duties to their 
 plodding brethren and sisters. They continued 
 to go ahead instead of remaining behind and 
 were therefore a source perhaps of as much 
 annoyance as they were of assistance. There 
 were aged people and those in poor health 
 who had to be turned back, eager as they 
 were to proceed and willing as they were to 
 take their chances against the certain failure 
 that lay before them. Among those turned 
 back was a Swede by the name of Hulberg. 
 He had a wife and two small children; and 
 believing that the wife was too feeble for the 
 
IN THE HAND-CART COMPANY OF 1857. 27 
 
 journey, he was advised to remain in Florence. 
 The disappointment was more than he could 
 endure, and after the company had started on 
 he determined to proceed in its rear unde- 
 tected until it would be too late for him to 
 look backward. After the company had trav- 
 eled a distance of fifty miles, he again joined 
 it. Much of the way he had carried his chil- 
 dren and even his wife upon the cart which 
 he was able to pull by means of his superior 
 strength and irresistible desire to reach the 
 land of Zion. 
 
 On the 9th of July the company reached the 
 Elkhorn River and were soon carried across 
 the stream. Two days later they reached the 
 Platte and on the 16th came to Loup Fork, 
 one of the tributaries of that river. Here a 
 more difficult and somewhat dangerous exper- 
 ience awaited the emigrants. The river at the 
 point where they were to ford it was nearly a 
 mile wide. Its frequent sand-bars and quick- 
 sands and deep holes made it necessary to 
 secure reliable guides across the stream. For 
 this purpose Indians familiar with the stream 
 were brought into service. It was necessary 
 to raise the boxes of the wagons so as not to 
 
28 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 damage their contents and to hitch to each 
 of them something Hke ten yoke of oxen. 
 The empty hand-carts were pulled across, 
 by the strongest members of the company, 
 and the women folk were placed on the 
 backs of horses behind the Indians where they 
 were often compelled to cling to the nude 
 bodies of their protectors and guides. Speak- 
 ing of his experience at Loup Fork, James says 
 that in his hand-cart the little children were 
 placed, and that when^ in the deepest parts of 
 the stream the water raised so high that there 
 was barely enough room for the children to 
 breath above the current of the water in which 
 they were sitting in the space below the cover. 
 The task at Loup Fork was full of difficulties 
 and required something like two days to ac- 
 complish. The good captain used every pre- 
 caution to keep those who were wading in the 
 stream from being swept down by its swift 
 current. It was even necessary to shift their 
 course, as the quick-sand changed the bed of 
 the stream, in order to avoid the deep places 
 which had been cut out in that treacherous 
 river. No accidents occurred; they all re- 
 
IN THE HAND-CART COMPANY OF 1857. 29 
 
 joiced in the good fortune which their care 
 and prudence had vouchsafed to them. 
 
 At this point N. V. Jones and others were 
 engaged in the erection of houses so as to af- 
 ford a settlement from which the passing emi- 
 grants might obtain supplies and where those 
 who through sickness or other reasons were 
 unable to continue their journey might receive 
 support. Two famiHes from this company on 
 account of sickness were obHged to remain 
 in the new settlement on Loup Fork. 
 
 During the journey care had to be observed 
 in safe-guarding emigrants against the dangers 
 of a water famine. It is true that they re- 
 mained not far in their course from the Platte 
 River. Sometimes, however, it was necessary 
 to move inland in order to obtain better roads, 
 and special precaution had to be taken to reach 
 regularly at night some suitable watering place. 
 The 19th of July was a memorable day in the 
 company's experiences. Through the deep 
 sands and up and down the hills they pulled 
 their hand-carts a distance of seventeen miles. 
 The struggling efforts of human beings under 
 such conditions are almost impossible to im- 
 agine. It was a severe strain upon the physical 
 
30 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 strength of the men and women who toiled al- 
 most to the point of exhaustion. Indeed, some 
 of the emigrants were so overcome by the 
 superhuman efforts required of them that they 
 fell exhausted by the way-side and were unable 
 to reach the camp at night. All day long they 
 had toiled without water. Their thirst became 
 almost unbearable when at night, in their fail- 
 ure to find a watering place, they were com- 
 pelled to lie down in their famished condition. 
 They brought up those from the rear, and the 
 following day the company reached Wood 
 River in a famished condition and in a spirit of 
 gratitude and prayer. 
 
 These hand-cart companies were made up of 
 all classes. They were not picked men as those 
 were who constituted the first pioneers, and 
 it may truthfully be said of them that their 
 heroic efforts beyond question surpassed per- 
 haps any other journey known in the history 
 of the world. The tasks of the women were 
 of course not completed at the close of the 
 day's journey. Food had to be prepared, chil- 
 dren cared for by the loving ministrations of 
 devoted mothers. Women were not infrequent- 
 ly in a delicate condition. At Wood River, the 
 
IN THE HAND-CART COMPANY OF 1857. 31 
 
 wife of Niels Sorensen, after the exhausting 
 journey and in a famished condition, gave birth 
 to a baby girl. She had retired into the brush 
 where her accouchment was accomplished by 
 the aid of devoted friends. So delicately was 
 the matter treated that the circumstances of the 
 new birth were unknown to most of the com- 
 pany. On the morning following she appeared 
 again with her infant in her apron ready to 
 pursue the journey. She had not murmured; 
 her courageous and devoted soul knew no ob- 
 stacles to the goal of her ambition. However, 
 the tender regard that was felt for her in such 
 trying* circumstances led to the preparation of 
 such comforts as could be provided on such a 
 journey, and she was placed in one of the wag- 
 ons where she remained until able again to 
 take up her march in the line of the hand- 
 cart train. The home of that noble mother 
 was later located in Monroe, Sevier county, 
 where the child grew up to womanhood and 
 became, in time, a grandmother. She is still 
 a resident of the town. 
 
 As the summer advanced, the watering 
 places became more scarce. Only those who 
 have felt the famished condition that comes 
 
32 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 from hours of toil without the aid of water to 
 quench the thirst and moisten the parched Hps 
 of the traveler, can even imagine the sufferings 
 which the traveler must undergo. Strong men 
 felt the hardship and suffering from the heat 
 and the burning sun under which they labor- 
 iously struggled, hitched to their wagons. On 
 the 3rd of August, one of their number, a man 
 only thirty-six years old, succumbed. His feet 
 became so swollen that it was impossible for 
 him to walk. "We got him into the hind end of 
 a wagon but he died before we reached camp 
 and water.'' 
 
 On the 9th of August the hand-cart company 
 of 1857 reached Fort Laramie on the Platte 
 River on the north side of which they camped 
 but a short time. Here new conditions of trav- 
 eling awaited them. They were soon to enter 
 the Black Hills. Leaving the fiver, the task of 
 obtaining water became more hazardous, al- 
 though the grass and the cedar wood were 
 more abundant. While traveling through these 
 hills they one day unknowingly passed the only 
 watering place to be found along that day's 
 journey. To add to their discomfiture, they were 
 obliged to pass the night in their famished con- 
 
IN THE HAND-CART COMPANY OF 1857. 33 
 
 dition without even the shelter of the tents 
 which had been carried on in the wagons by 
 thoughtless men who were over-anxious to 
 reach their destination, and who often neg- 
 lected the burdened Saints in these long 
 stretches of travel over the rolling hills and 
 difficult roads. Here one of the aged Saints, 
 father of the Folkman brothers, was lost. For 
 a whole day a search was kept up to find him. 
 He had ventured on what he thought was a 
 cut-off that he might quench his thirst by water 
 which he hoped to find. In his famished and 
 exhausted condition he was discovered by some 
 trappers who kindly brought him back to the 
 company from which he had wandered. 
 
 As might naturally be expected, the ward- 
 robe of the hand-cart company was very much 
 limited. Those tiny wagons were insufficient 
 to provide the necesssary supply of food. The 
 wear and tear on such a journey gave their 
 clothing the appearance of destitution. Per- 
 haps the most tolerable circumstance which 
 made them more or less indifferent to their ap- 
 pearance was the fact that they were all on 
 equal footing. However, they were not with- 
 out hope and consequently felt the enjoyment 
 
34 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 that comes from the expectation of better days. 
 Their enthusiasm often broke out in songs and 
 peals of mirth. 
 
 It would be strange indeed, if in such a com- 
 pany some amusement did not come from in- 
 stances of a mirth promoting character. James, 
 in his native land, had never known such a 
 thing as a prickly-pear. His introduction to 
 this peculiar inhabitant of the deserts and 
 plains made a somewhat lasting impression up- 
 on him. On such a journey shoes would be 
 the first article of clothing to yield to the ex- 
 cessive use to which they were put. When 
 the company reached the upper waters of the 
 Platte in the uplands of Wyoming, they were 
 indeed quite generally a barefooted band of pil- 
 grims. If their feet were protected, it was be- 
 cause of all sorts of devices to which they re- 
 sorted to make their leather the most service- 
 able. James, now sixteen years of age, was 
 the wheel-man in the team opposite his father. 
 During those long, tedious days over the 
 parched land, they found themselves in want 
 of suitable water and sometimes without any 
 liquid whatever to quench their thirst. He re- 
 lates that one evening he started out with oth- 
 
IN THE HAND-CART COMPANY OF 1857. 35 
 
 ers in search of water. The prickly-pears could 
 not be seen while he was making his way back 
 to the camp after nightfall, and his feet clad in 
 old socks to which his mother had sewed can- 
 vas soles were . often planted on the thorny 
 points of these desert plants, which produced 
 the most painful sensation. Those who have 
 known something of this prince of briars will 
 appreciate the excruciating pain from which 
 the emigrants suffered when they came in con- 
 tact with them. "On my return to the camp," 
 he says, 'T was unable to pick my way. One 
 of my feet would no longer endure the pain. I 
 was obliged to stop and remove the prickly- 
 pears from my feet. Once they were so bad 
 I was obliged to sit down to remove them. 
 To my horrified surprise I sat on a bunch of 
 prickly-pears." The predicament was so un- 
 usual, the surprise so painful, that the circum- 
 stance has always remained a land-mark in his 
 recollections of those hand-cart days. 
 
 The above circumstance was perhaps not so 
 mirth provoking as one which is related of an 
 old man whose sense of smell had been coni- 
 pletly destroyed. He had wandered some dis- 
 tance from the company when he ran across 
 
36 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 what was to him a strange and peculiar ani- 
 mal. May be it was suitable for food ; he did 
 not know. However, he would make the ex- 
 periment, kill it if he could, and let those in 
 camp say whether, from their knowledge of it 
 and their experiences in the wild west, it was 
 fit for human consumption. Taking his cane 
 he pursued the animal until it was overtaken, 
 and by the blows which he rendered, it was 
 finally killed. He threw the little striped ani- 
 mal over his shoulder and started for the com- 
 pany, with the game he had procured. Some- 
 time before he reached the midst of his friends 
 he discovered them retreating in horror. The 
 skunk which had not disturbed him in the 
 least was detestable to the sense of smell of his 
 friends. The old man was saturated by the 
 odor ; his presence was unbearable. A change 
 of clothing where no extra clothing was to be 
 had could not relieve the situation. After 
 reaching Deer Creek station, where the old 
 gentleman met his son, he remained over for 
 the rest of the season and later came on to the 
 Valleys. 
 
 At Deer Creek, a number of Mormons were 
 busily engaged in erecting a station for the ac- 
 
IN THE HAND-CART COMPANY OF 1857. 37 
 
 commodation of emigrants and for the express 
 company which at that time was established be- 
 tween the Missouri River and Great Salt Lake 
 City. This station, however, was abandoned 
 on the approach of the army. It may here be 
 said that while the Saints were pulling- their 
 rude hand-carts on the north side of the river, 
 the soldiers of the United States army were 
 marching along the south bank to put down a 
 rebellion in Utah, a rebellion that had no other 
 existence than in the imagination of those who 
 had received with credulity the utterly false re- 
 ports sent out to create enmity toward the Mor- 
 mon people. What the soldiers and the officers 
 thought of this motley company, the hand-cart 
 train of men and women, we are not permitted 
 to know. Marching against those, whose relig- 
 ious devotion and self-sacrifice were so manifest, 
 must have, however, often appealed to the more 
 intelligent soldiers as something both contradic- 
 tory and absurd. The commissary train of 
 the army, however, much of the way moved 
 along the north bank of the river, sometimes 
 close to the hand-cart company. Nothing of 
 an unpleasant nature occurred. The provis- 
 ' ions of the army were ample and the soldier? 
 
38 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 enjoyed an abundance of food, while their 
 hand-cart traveHng companions were often in 
 dire distress. The bacon that the company 
 brought with it from the Missouri River soon 
 became wholly unfit for use, a stench m the 
 nostrils of the Saints, and they were finally 
 obliged to throw much of it away. 
 
 One circumstance, however, of the journey 
 of the commissary is called to mind when it 
 reached the Sweet Water. There one of Uncle 
 Sam's fat oxen had one of its feet crushed by a 
 wagon which ran over it. In that condition it 
 was of course thought unfit by the captain for 
 the food of his men. "He walked up to where 
 we were standing, and in a half-joking manner 
 said, 'You may have that ox, I guess you 
 need it.' " The emigrants were not at that time 
 in a physical condition to discuss matters of 
 hygiene. For several weeks they had been 
 without meat and their supply of flour was so 
 low that they had been compelled to re-divide 
 their rations. It was remarkable that although 
 they passed through large herds of buffaloes on 
 the plains they did not venture to kill any of 
 them. They were afraid, they said, of the 
 stampede that might ensue and the trouble 
 
IN THE HAND-CART COMPANY OF 1857. 39 
 
 which might come to them. The fact is, no 
 doubt, that the emigrants were not hunters, that 
 they had Httle or no amuntion, and were there- 
 fore not in a position to enjoy a supply of suit- 
 able meat which they might have h'ad, had they 
 been more frontiersmen than emigrants from 
 Scandinavia. 
 
 As they began to ascend the eastern plateau 
 of the Rock Mountains they met teams bring- 
 ing on supplies of flour which they had the 
 opportunity to purchase. They gave in se- 
 curity their hand-cart equipments ; and the obli- 
 gation which they assumed to pay for the flour 
 which had been sent to their relief meant in re- 
 turn the help they would be able to give in 
 iays to come to other emigrants in need of as- 
 ^.stance. They needed 9,200 pounds, they es- 
 timated, to carry them on the remainder of the 
 journey of 300 miles to vSalt Lake. The supply 
 was insuflicient, however, and at Fort Bridger, 
 they were again obliged to take in a new 
 supply. 
 
 "On the 22nd of August we arrived at Dev- 
 il's Gate, and finally, when within about thirty 
 miles of Salt Lake City we were met by teams 
 that brought for our nourishment bread, cake, 
 
40 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 and fruit. Among the sick and those well-nigh 
 worn out, the fruit was divided as a delicacy/' 
 These provisions not only gave strength to the 
 bodies that were already greatly emaciated 
 from the long journey over the plains, but 
 filled their hearts with courage and gave them 
 the assurance of the loving welcome they 
 would receive when they clasped the hands of 
 their brothers and sisters in their new homes. 
 The closing scene of that memorable journey 
 brought about a test between Iiuman endu- 
 rance and the endurance of the animals, the 
 mule teams, which had been assigned to the 
 help of the emigrants on the journey. Wearied 
 though the emigrants were, they reached their 
 destination in a better condition than the mule 
 teams which were so well inured to hardships. 
 "When we came to the last steep hills of the 
 mountain sides, our mules were so weak that 
 the emigrants were obliged to help them over 
 by the aid of ropes. On the l3th of Septem- 
 ber, a Sunday, we marched with feelings of 
 thankfulness and grand expectations into the 
 city of the Saints. One out of every ten of our 
 number died on the journey." 
 
 Thus ended the march of the hand-cart com- 
 
IN THE HAND-CART COMPANY OF 1857. 41 ^ 
 
 pany of 1857. It is perhaps to be regretted i 
 
 that more detailed information and more ac- j 
 
 curate feelings and thoughts of the Saints un- 1 
 
 der these trying conditions have not come down I 
 
 tons. Perhaps it is well that the veil has been ^ 
 
 drawn tenderly and mercifully over so many j 
 
 of the events that were, no doubt, in all the his- i 
 
 tory of our pioneer days the most touching. It i 
 
 is not too much to say that had those bands i 
 
 of sturdy enthusiastic emigrants not possessed ] 
 
 the courage that comes from religious hope^ l 
 
 most of them would have lain down by the | 
 
 roadside and passed into eternity long before ! 
 
 it was possible to reach the goal of their re- j 
 
 ligious ambition. J 
 
42 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 EARLY LIFE IN UTAH 
 
 James Jensen, who arrived in Utah with his 
 parents on September 13, 1857, was one of 
 many thousands of emigrants^who looked upon 
 the valley of the Great Salt Lake with joyful 
 anticipations. The conditions which then sur- 
 rounded him were unlike those familiar scenes 
 of his native land. The arrival of emigrants 
 ten years after the pioneers had discovered the 
 mountain fastnesses which was to be their fu- 
 ture home had already become a commonplace 
 event. The surroundings of the emigrants 
 were all strange, the labor was new, and social 
 conditions were peculiar to American life rath- 
 er than to the life of those who came from 
 foreign countries, especially from Scandinavia. 
 
 The emigrants, however, found in their 
 brothers and sisters in Salt Lake Valley a 
 friendship and interest which gave encourage- 
 ment and hope to the new-comers. Every 
 effort was made to provide them with the 
 
EARLY LIFE IN UTAH. 43 
 
 special care of some kind friend who would 
 introduce them to the new life they were about 
 to undertake. "Bishop Taft of the 9th ward," 
 said the subject of this sketch, ''offered his 
 fatherly counsel and aid in behalf of my father 
 and his family. He was a kind-hearted, good 
 man, and we have always respected him high- 
 ly for the interest he manifested toward us. 
 He provided what work he could, turned over 
 to us a five-acre piece of land to cultivate, and 
 taught us how to haul wood with his ox-team 
 from the canyon. We had never been familiar 
 with the work peculiar to the people in those 
 days. My father had really never seen a yoke 
 of oxen hitched together for service. He may 
 therefore be excused if he put the yoke on up- 
 side down. However, we were not long in 
 adapting ourselves to our new employment 
 and we took up our tasks in a vigorous man- 
 ner." 
 
 In those days the old fort in the southwest 
 part of the city had been abandoned. At dif- 
 ferent places around the city part of the old 
 mud walls, which were intended to make it a 
 fort, could still be seen. The fields in those 
 days extended as far north as ninth south. 
 
44 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 The houses generally were small and made of 
 adobes. Speaking of the condition of the 
 soil, Bishop Jensen says that it was not con- 
 sidered very good southeast of the city. "East 
 of Liberty Park it consisted largely of a hard 
 clay and had to be worked and manured be- 
 fore it could be made very productive." 
 
 In the old country the father had owned a 
 home which he sold for eight hundred dol- 
 lars. That amount was insufficient to bring 
 the family to Zion. The father was here with 
 a large family with just such scanty clothing 
 and comforts as could be brought in a hand- 
 cart. Rented houses in those days were quite 
 out of the question. The emigrants began at 
 once to construct such habitations as limited 
 opportunities and time enabled them to erect. 
 The father, therefore, entered into an ar- 
 rangement with one, Hans Christenson, by 
 which the two purchased jointly a house of 
 two rooms for their two families in the 10th 
 ward of the city. ''Such accommodations were 
 meagre, but they provided,'' said the good 
 Bishop, "more room than we had furniture to 
 occupy. The crop of that year was fairly 
 good. My father and I worked in the fields 
 
EARLY LIFE IN UTAH. 45 
 
 and on the canal, while my mother and sister 
 gleaned wheat. Together we rejoiced in the 
 plentiful supply that came to us. One side of 
 our room was set apart as a wheat-bin." 
 
 He had not been long in his new home when 
 he was pressed into military service. The 
 army, whose march he had witnessed along the 
 Platte River, was held back in the Rocky 
 Mountains until an appeal could be made to the 
 Federal Government to make an examination 
 of actual conditions in Utah. At that time 
 James Jensen was a boy of only sixteen. He 
 was hardly familiar with the language, but he 
 accepted the call to the front and was enlisted 
 in Walker's Company in the so-called Echo 
 Canyon war. 
 
 It was in the winter season, provisions were 
 scanty, and the means of comfort were meagre. 
 Much of the work of the soldiers in those days 
 consisted of guard duty. '1 was detailed,'' he 
 said, *'to night guard and my shift was from 
 1 1 -.00 p. m. to 2 :00 a. m. We were not per- 
 mitted to walk to and fro as guards in the 
 regular service now move when on duty. We 
 were obliged to lie down so as to keep our- 
 selves concealed from the enemy. The guard 
 
46 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 was often placed at a considerable distance up 
 the mountain on a ridge or on some prominent 
 point for observation while his companions of 
 the night guard slept on the ground farther 
 down the hillside in some secluded spot that 
 protected them as much as possible from the 
 cold winds. I was an old country boy and did 
 not of course understand what it all meant. 
 It was so strange, the country was wild and 
 weird, and I often naturally became frightened 
 because of my strange situation in the lonely 
 mountains where we were threatened by an 
 army that had been sent up against us. It is 
 not difficult under such circumstances for the 
 imagination to change all sorts of objects, 
 rocks, trees, and bushes into soldiers and mov- 
 ing armies.'' 
 
 Not only were the surroundings strange to 
 this emigrant boy, but the movements were 
 often beyond his understanding and he was in 
 the midst of those who spoke to him a strange 
 language. The orders of his superiors were 
 often either misunderstood or not comprehend- 
 ed. He was among those who marched around 
 the hillside, up and down, to and fro, across 
 the country that their numbers might be exag- 
 
EARLY LIFE IN UTAH. 47 
 
 gerated in the fears and minds of the army. 
 Some of the generals and the new governor 
 thought the mountains were full of men, and 
 Johnston's army was therefore restrained by 
 the fear which such tactics created within 
 them. 
 
 There was a striking contrast in the com- 
 forts of the soldiers of the government and 
 that anxious band of volunteers who were 
 holding back an invading army till the Presi- 
 dent could learn the truth of the statements 
 upon which he had hastily acted. The former 
 had provisions at that time in wasteful abun- 
 dance; the latter, not unfrequently, felt the 
 pangs of hunger, and the best they had was 
 a scanty supply and a limited variety. This 
 young Danish boy had not yet learned to ad- 
 just himself to a mountaineer's life. "About 
 the best meal I ever ate," he related, *'was af- 
 ter a period during which we were without 
 food. I looked up an empty flour sack, turned 
 it inside out, and carefully brushed from it 
 every particle of flour. The little I could get 
 I mixed with some water so as to make a pan- 
 cake which I cooked on the coals. It made 
 
48 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 me a delicious meal for which I was very 
 grateful/' 
 
 As soon as the winter's campaign in Echo 
 Canyon was ended, the boy returned to his 
 home — the home where he expected the greet- 
 ings of loving and anxious parents. To his 
 surprise it had been deserted. The father and 
 family with their old friend, the hand-cart, had 
 joined the Move southward and had located in 
 Lehi. Neighbors had also left their homes. 
 While he stood in the midst of the desolate 
 scene which surrounded him, he felt the sad- 
 ness and loneliness of his, disappointed hopes. 
 While anxiously viewing the situation and 
 wondering what move to make next, his father 
 appeared with the hand-cart. The boy joined 
 him on his return to Lehi where the family 
 had located a new home. Here he was occu- 
 pied for some time in the construction of a 
 dam which made the mill-pond for the wate** 
 power of the old Mulner mill where later the 
 great Lehi Sugar Factory was built. 
 
 Next year the Saints returned to Salt Lake 
 City. "We sold our home," said Bishop Jen- 
 sen, "for a few yards of calico and returned to 
 Salt Lake, where we bought out Hans Chris- 
 
EARLY LIFE IN UTAH. 49 
 
 tensen's interest in the home he and my father 
 had jointly purchased. We now had a house 
 of two rooms, more room than we knew what 
 to do with." The enlarged home became the 
 center of a family life which James enjoyed 
 until he reached the twenty-fourth year of his 
 manhood. About it his early affections cen- 
 tered, and the industrious life of its inmates 
 soon began to bring some measure of comfort 
 and independence. Each year brought more 
 conveniences, better accompiodations, and a 
 higher standard of living. "We lived," he 
 said, "in those times very much as our neigh- 
 bors lived; the articles of our food were, of 
 course, limited. Our diet consisted chiefly of 
 bread, and of molasses which my mother made 
 from beets. Butter, in the beginning, we made 
 out of squash, and in time we came to enjoy 
 the use of meat which in earHer days had been 
 very scarce. Our clothing was all home- 
 made. My mother spun the wool, but my 
 father who was used to the loom, wove the 
 cloth; and when we compared our circum- 
 stances with those of our neighbors, I think 
 we did very well." 
 
 After the old home life had been resumed, 
 
50 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 the Jensen family made new friends and found 
 new occupations. The Bishop of the ward in 
 those days was more famiHar than he is now 
 with the condition of every family entrusted to 
 his care. His paternal responsibility brought 
 him into intimate relations with this little 
 flock. Those were days, too, of great anxiety ; 
 they were days when the people were constant- 
 ly reminded of their helpless, dependent con- 
 dition. The grasshopper and other insects and 
 thousands of difficulties in an undeveloped 
 land made them feel doubly dependent on the 
 Lord they had chosen to worship. "Petti- 
 grew," he said, "was our Bishop and we often 
 worked his ox-team on shares. He was a 
 good man and manifested great confidence to- 
 wards us. I remember in our relations with 
 Bishop Pettigrew that on one occasion he lost 
 his yoke of oxen. It was his custom to go in 
 the evening at the close of the labors of the 
 day to the meetinghouse to pray; men sought 
 then divine aid for their immediate needs, di- 
 vine help in extracting them from difficulties 
 peculiar to those times. Our good Bishop, 
 therefore, prayed about his oxen. He sin- 
 cerely believed that the Lord would help him 
 
EARLY LIFE IN UTAH. 51 
 
 to find them. He came to me next morning 
 after thus engaging in prayer and said, 'James, 
 I have had a dream in which I was shown that 
 you had found my team, and I wish therefore 
 that you would go in search of them.' In 
 response to the Bishop's request I set out in 
 the morning for a place called Dry Creek. As 
 I went up the canyon I reached the forks of 
 the road; one went to the right, the other to 
 the left. I did not know which one to take ; I 
 therefore knelt down and asked the Lord to 
 direct me and when I arose I followed the im- 
 pression that came over me and took a direct 
 line to the place where the cattle which Bishop 
 Pettigrew had lost were feeding. I turned 
 them back and reached the Bishop's home with 
 the cattle by noon that day." The exhibition 
 of such faith, the simplicity of such worship, 
 the sincere heartfelt reliance on the guidance 
 of a divine being characterized the faithful 
 men and women of those times. In such mani- 
 festations of faith it is easy to comprehend 
 the fervent and devoted lives of the men and 
 women whose wonderful faith then made the 
 desert blossom like the rose. The simple life 
 and heartfelt devotion of those early days re- 
 
52 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 veal to us the process by which the character 
 and Hves of such men as James Jensen have 
 been developed. 
 
 About this time there came to this young 
 man a new employment. Brigham Young 
 was an excellent judge of men; and those 
 whose aid he sought, whose counsel he needed 
 were gathered around to promote his own in- 
 dividual interests as well as the general good 
 of the Church. Men who thus came into his 
 employ were those whose worthiness had come 
 to his attention and whose reputation made 
 them desirable in his service. The young man 
 now began his first employment under Brig- 
 ham Young in City Creek Canyon about six 
 miles from the limits of the city. Here he 
 engaged in hauling logs to President Young's 
 sawmill. He was no longer a novice in the 
 work and was already familiar with canyon 
 life. "Le Grande Young," he says, "was in 
 those days the foreman of the mill. He was a 
 splendid boss," he continued, "and always 
 manifested a sympathetic feeling for the wel- 
 fare of the men. I can well remember how he 
 insisted that we should be well cared for and 
 that we have plenty of good food to eat. The 
 
EARLY LIFE IN UTAH. 53 
 
 boys all learned to like Le Grande, for they 
 considered him one of them. I remember on 
 one occasion that President Young came to 
 the mill to see how the work was getting on. 
 I happened to be there with my load then, and 
 was in the act of rolling off the logs, when 
 President Young shouted, *Stop, James, and I 
 will show you how to get that log off in an 
 easier way.' He mounted the wagon, ar- 
 ranged the blocks, and taught me something- 
 new. I thought at that time I was a very 
 good hand at that kind of work, but I appre- 
 ciated the lesson which I learned from our 
 leader who knew a great deal more about un- 
 loading logs than I did." 
 
 Not many years had elapsed before this young 
 man was thoroughly initiated into his new life. 
 If he made his labors profitable to others, it is 
 quite natural that he soon came to learn that 
 they could be made profitable to himself. He 
 therefore left the city for a season and labored 
 at Willow Springs in Nevada. Here he ac- 
 cumulated money sufficient to buy himself a 
 yoke of cattle. He was now a capitalist with 
 property of his own and dreamed dreams of 
 future progress. He saw openings before 
 
54 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 him, new opportunities to make money, and 
 to get on in the world. However, his devotion 
 to his reHgion and the needs of the Church 
 were always uppermost in his mind. He was 
 therefore ready for any call that might come 
 to him, and in the spring of 1862 the new call 
 came. Men and teams were badly needed to 
 bring the emigrants from the frontier on the 
 Missouri River to the Valleys of the Mountains. 
 He had a good team and it was needed and 
 placed at the service of the Bishop, who sent 
 it that year to bring out the emigrants. The 
 boy was again compelled to take up his work 
 single-handed. However, he was not dis- 
 heartened and did not complain. He set his 
 hand to work at whatever could be found to 
 do and worked that season for Brigham 
 Young. When the company returned, one of 
 his oxen was missing. As soan as possible he 
 purchased a new animal to complete his team. 
 Men were not allowed in those days to neg- 
 lect the general requirements of the Church. 
 In the summer of '63 its needs were as great 
 as in preceding years. "This time," he says, 
 "I was not only required to furnish a team but 
 was asked to go myself. I had assigned to me 
 
EARLY LIFE IN UTAH. 55 
 
 a team of four yoke of oxen, three yoke con- 
 sisted of steers that gave me a great deal of 
 trouble in the beginning. I remember that 
 when we left the city we made our way up 
 Parley's Canyon. When we reached a place 
 just beyond Hardy's Ranch, my team became 
 unmanageable and finally tipped over my wag- 
 on and scattered the provisions about on the 
 ground. John Wooley of Centerville was the 
 captain of our company, and I remember how 
 greatly he was annoyed at what he evidently 
 thought was my stupidity in permitting my 
 team to get the best of me. The team was 
 large and though I had had much experience 
 in breaking steers, I no doubt appeared some- 
 what awkward to the captain. On reaching 
 the Missouri River we were obliged to remain 
 six weeks waiting for a company of emigrants. 
 As soon as they arrived we began our journey 
 to the Valleys/' 
 
 "Of course there were many novel and cu- 
 rious experiences in such emigrant trains. The 
 teamsters were already initiated into frontier 
 life and they were familiar with their ani- 
 mals and the methods of their employment. 
 The emigrants were bewildered. The new life 
 
56 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 was all strange to them, and it was not easy 
 to blend their peculiar thoughts and feelings 
 with those of the teamsters. Often the team- 
 sters were rough and uncouth and reckless in 
 their manners. Sometimes there were among 
 the Saints men and women of very peculiar 
 dispositions; some were contrary, others were 
 stubborn or obstinate, and they often gave the 
 captain a great deal of trouble. I remember,'' 
 he continued, *'when we got in the Black Hills 
 that one of the women became very arbitrary 
 and the teamster with whom slie was riding 
 found it very difficult to get along with her. He 
 sometimes wished her to walk uphill; and on 
 one occasion, when the road ahead of him was 
 steep and heavy, he asked her to get out of the 
 wagon and walk up the hill. Instead of going 
 along with the team, she turned and went back 
 down the hill. It was believed that she would 
 come along with the others, but the next morn- 
 ing she was missing. Immediately, four of 
 the guards were sent back in search of her. 
 Among them I remember one, Nathan Davis. 
 A considerable time was given to search for 
 her, when at last she was found and put in 
 
EARLY LIFE IN UTAH. 57 
 
 charge of another train that was coming on to 
 the Valleys.'^ 
 
 When relating these circumstances, the Bish- 
 op was reminded of another mstance which 
 turns some Hght upon the difficulties that the 
 captains and emigrants often encountered in 
 deaHng with some very peculiar and often ug- 
 ly dispositions of some testy emigrants. *'With 
 one of the trains," he said, "there was a wom- 
 an, the wife of a man whose name was Grund- 
 vigson, who gave her husband unceasing trou- 
 ble along the way. Finally in a fit of anger 
 she declared that she would rather live with 
 the Indians than to continue with him. Not 
 long after this outburst of anger, a number of 
 Indians came along, seized the woman, and be- 
 fore they could be restrained, galloped off with 
 their captive. Every effort was made to learn 
 of her whereabouts, and I remember that Brig- 
 ham Young did all that he could to recover her. 
 It was stated that after some years of cap- 
 tivity, she finally married an Indian chief but 
 she was never returned to her husband who 
 subsequently married again.'' 
 
 It was during this return trip from the Mis- 
 souri River that Joseph F. Smith returned from 
 
58 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 his mission to Europe. He had already served 
 as a missionary on the Sandwich Islands. The 
 returning elder was appointed chaplain of the 
 company and at once began to interest himself 
 in the spiritual welfare of the teamsters, ^ome 
 of whom were in a large measure the victims 
 of a reckless spirit, characteristic of frontier 
 life. These young men, faithful in the labor- 
 ious duties which they had to perform, were of- 
 ten indifferent in their religious duties. There 
 was a disposition among them to get ail the 
 pleasure they could out of every employment. 
 They indulged in excessive jest and saw the 
 ridiculous side of things where ridicule could 
 be found. Their chaplain finally determined to 
 ask the teamsters to take turn in praying. "I 
 was the first one called,'' said James Jensen, 
 "and made the effort according to my best un- 
 derstanding. After I had finished, and was 
 later alone with the teamsters, they jestingly 
 wanted to know in what language I had been 
 praying. I suppose I stammered, and perhaps 
 felt in my embarrassment the jesting I was 
 likely to meet. However, the chaplain did not 
 succeed after that, as I remember, in getting 
 another teamster to pray; the prayers were 
 
EARLY LIFE IN UTAH. 59 
 
 all conducted by himself and the emigrants/' 
 On his return to the city he took up again 
 his religious duties and accepted such employ- 
 ment as those times opened to him. In the 
 10th ward he served as a deacon, kept the 
 house clean and in order, and performed that 
 old-time duty of the deacon to snuff the candles 
 which soon became dim if not thus attended 
 to. The candles that mothers used to make in 
 those days were comparatively useless without 
 the accompanying snuffer. 
 
 After sundry occupations the young man 
 found employment with Cooley of Grantsville, 
 whose business it was, in those days, to freight 
 provisions from Camp Floyd, south of Salt 
 Lake City, to Fort Hall, some distance north 
 of Pocatello in Idaho. Idaho, then, had not 
 been settled. 
 
 It was not long before James again put him- 
 self in a more independent condition. He pur- 
 chased two yoke of cattle and began to haul 
 wood from the canyons. In the winter of 1864 
 he went every morning to Parley's Canyon, 
 where he slid down over the snow, wood to be 
 hauled out the following spring. Out of this 
 employment and the wood sold he obtained 
 
60 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 about $1,500. He began to feel now that he 
 was a rich man, so he concluded to marry, and 
 bought him a lot and secured a fine team of 
 horses. On the 21st of September, 1865 he 
 was united in wedlock to M. J. Petrina Sor- 
 enson. Her father, who was a pilot, had been 
 drowned off the coast of Denmark at the 
 mouth of a river, and her mother subsequently 
 married a man by the name of Jensen. 
 
 For the young man life now took on addi- 
 tional responsibility. He began at once the 
 construction of a home, an adobe house con- 
 sisting of one room and a pantry. The adobes 
 for the house he made on the lot where it 
 stood. His wife was equally industrious ; from 
 the wool of the sheep she made clothing, wove 
 carpets, and from magazines she cut pictures 
 and had them framed for the decoration of her 
 home. 
 
 It was not long before he was again sought 
 by President Young for his services on the 
 President's farm. Here he continued to labor 
 for two years. One day while he was sowing 
 wheat broadcast over the land he was occu- 
 pied in tilling, a neighbor shouted over the 
 fence the information that he had been called 
 
M. J. Petrina Jensen. 
 
EARLY LIFE IN UTAH. 61 
 
 on a mission. It was in early times that men 
 were called without a moment's notice. They 
 were minute men in the service of their Master. 
 The young man at this season of the year, 
 1867, changed his busy life in the wild and 
 unredeemed West for a new experience in the 
 missionary field. At that time a prompt re- 
 sponse and an obedient heart were the fore- 
 most qualifications in the ministry of the 
 Church. He knew something of the missionary 
 life of the elders who had brought the Gos- 
 pel to his father's home. It was an honor, 
 therefore, to receive a call to carry a message 
 that meant so much to those who honestly re- 
 ceived it and faithfully pursued its require- 
 ments. He did not stop for the harvest; he 
 let out his crops to be harvested by others ; sold 
 his horses; and took up the occupation to 
 which he had been called in the same faithful 
 manner that he pursued every other vocation 
 of life. 
 
62 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 \ 
 
 ON A MISSION 
 
 Called from the field, Elder Jensen set out 
 upon his mission, which was to last something 
 like thirty-nine months, on the 11th of May, 
 1867. The good wife left behind had moved 
 to her parents where she lived during her hus- 
 band's absence. 
 
 ''Before I left for my mission, my young 
 wife, who was only twenty years old then, de- 
 voted herself industriously to my welfare and 
 comfort. She was very economical and made 
 the best of whatever came to her care. From 
 the wool that came from the sheep's back she 
 carded rolls, spun yarn, and wove cloth. She 
 made my vest and pants and a tailor made my 
 coat. Of that suit I was proud. I thought it 
 becoming to me and I prized it highly because 
 it was the workmanship of loving and devoted 
 hands." 
 
 In those days, the elders generally availed 
 themselves of the opportunities to join some 
 
ON A MISSION. b6 
 
 of the overland trains which were engaged in 
 freighting from the terminus of the railroad to 
 Salt Lake City. On this occasion John Sharp 
 Jr. was the captain of the train with which the 
 elders traveled. In the company with Elder 
 Jensen were Karl G. Maeser, on his way to 
 Switzerland ; James Johnson, Samuel Peterson, 
 George K. Reese, and C. F. Fjelsted bound for 
 Scandinavia. Among those for England were 
 Willard Richards, Levi Richards and Dr. Jo- 
 seph Richards. These trains often freighted 
 grain to stations along the way where it could 
 be used in the service of the overland mail. 
 
 The spring of 1867 had perhaps the great- 
 est rainfall ever known up to that time. The 
 streams were greatly swollen and great diffi- 
 culty was experienced in getting the large ox- 
 team trains over. It not unfrequently hap- 
 pened that as many as twelve yoke of oxen 
 were detailed to the conveyance of a single 
 wagon across rivers, etc. When the company 
 reached Yellow Creek they were met by Cap- 
 tain Hooper who was on his way home from 
 Washington where he had been serving as a 
 delegate in Congress. 
 
 The travel westward by team in the early 
 
64 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 60's was made difficult and dangerous by the 
 frequent hostilities of the red men. Some 
 of the stations along the route had to be 
 guarded by militia, and precautions were 
 taken by the government to protect the lives of 
 the travelers. So bad that year were the In- 
 dians that when the company reached Fort 
 Bridger the question of continuing the journey 
 was seriously discussed. Some of the team- 
 sters wanted to return, as they were unwilling 
 to hazard their lives and property among the 
 marauding Indians. Fort Bridger was one 
 hundred and twenty-three miles from Great 
 Salt Lake City ; and Green, River one hundred 
 and eighty miles. The distance covered was 
 considerable, and loss would accrue if the com- 
 pany did not continue the journey. The in- 
 fluence of the missionaries was thrown into 
 the balance in favor of an onward march, and 
 the company therefore plunged into the midst 
 of a country which was largely at the mercy 
 of plundering bands of Indians. '7^"^ 7th," 
 said Elder Jensen, ''was, up to that time, the 
 saddest day of my life. While we were en- 
 camped, the Indians sallied out from their 
 places of concealment and made an attack up- 
 
ON A MISSION. 65 
 
 on us. We all rushed to the rescue of our 
 stock, and were on the point of abandoning 
 the train altogether, when the presence of 
 mind of Elder Karl G. Maeser saved the sit- 
 uation. He called back a number, sufficient 
 to protect the wagons, while the balance con- 
 tinued their pursuit. One of the men. Chris- 
 tian Jensen by name, was shot through the 
 arm which the arrow pinned to his body. A 
 second arrow pierced his body in front of the 
 other arm and a bullet from the gun of one of 
 the Indians killed him. The red men jumped 
 from their horses to secure the scalp, when a 
 shot from a negro, one of the company, struck 
 close to the Indians who were frightened away 
 without consummating their fiendish practice. 
 
 "We buried the man, and over his grave we 
 built a fire to mislead the Indians, who, we 
 believed would return, exhume the body, and 
 remove the scalp. 
 
 "The death of my traveling companion, who 
 bore the same name as myself, gave rise to a 
 most painful report which reached my wife, to 
 the effect that I had been killed. Heber C. 
 Kimball Jr., who dispatched the message was 
 not aware that there was any other Jensen in 
 
66 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 the train. Jensen had come from Brigham City 
 and joined our company at Echo Canyon. Hr 
 was on his way to secure a thresher. When 
 we reached Sulphur Springs after this painful 
 episode, we remained for a short time waiting 
 for a mule team company that was to accom- 
 pany us farther on our journey. 
 
 "On the 27th of June we arrived at Poll 
 Creek where we came upon the construction 
 crew of the Union Pacific Railroad. On the 
 29th of the same month we saw the first train 
 of that road loaded with timber. On the 30th 
 we reached Julesburg, the terminus of the 
 railroad at that time. Here we separated from 
 the company of freighters and I sent my re- 
 volver and bedclothes home. We took train 
 at Julesburg and traveled a distance of three 
 hundred and ninety miles to Omaha, a dis- 
 tance which we covered in twenty-one hours, 
 traveling at an average speed of eighteen and 
 four-sevenths miles per hour. We continued 
 our journey by railroad from Omaha to 
 Chicago at a cost of seventeen dollars, and 
 from Chicago to New York for twenty dol- 
 lars. In New York preparations were imme- 
 
ON A MISSION. 67 
 
 diately begun preparatory to transportation 
 across the Atlantic." 
 
 At that time the emigration companies were 
 large and the elders going and coming from 
 their missions met friends along the way and 
 renewed their old asociations. At New York 
 the outgoing elders met Orson Pratt, Brig- 
 ham Young Jr., and John W. Young who were 
 on their way home from England. After 
 Elder Jensen completed his preparations, he 
 set sail from New York on the 13th of July on 
 the boat Manhattan for Liverpool. At that 
 time he was suffering from some diseased con- 
 dition of his eyes which compelled him to re- 
 main in a dark room. 
 
 On the 26th of July, the elders reached Liv- 
 erpool where they were met by Franklin D. 
 Richards, C. W. Penrose, and William Pres- 
 ton who came out to meet the ship as it made 
 its way up the Mersey. On the 27th, the day 
 following, the Scandinavian elders took train 
 for Hull. From Hull they sailed to Ham- 
 burg and by rail went to Kiel, thence over the 
 Baltic to Corsor, where they took the train 
 for Copenhagen. 
 
 At that time President Widerborg was in 
 
68 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 charge of the Scandinavian mission. Elder 
 Jensen, upon his return to the land of his na- 
 tivity, was naturally anxious to meet, as early 
 as possible, his relatives and friends from 
 whom he parted in 1857, just ten years be- 
 fore. In his native town of Haugerup he en- 
 joyed himself for a short time in the society 
 of his old-time friends and of his relatives. 
 He had left Denmark in 1857, a boy of six- 
 teen, unfamiliar with the ways of the world, in- 
 experienced, and under the direction of his par- 
 ents. Ten years later he returned a man, an 
 elder in the Mormon Church, who could speak 
 with interest of his experiences. His ideas had 
 been enlarged and his capabilities increased, so 
 that he was entrusted with the responsibility of 
 carrying the Gospel message to the nations of 
 the earth. He was naturally somewhat an ob- 
 ject of interest and some curiosity. His position 
 was in the mind of the world a more dignified 
 one and his determination to magnify his call- 
 ing naturally gave him a sense of the general 
 fitness of things. His missionary labors began 
 on the mainland, called Jutland. His mission- 
 ary experiences during the latter part of 1867 
 were confined largely to Fredericia and Veile. 
 
ON A MISSION. 69 
 
 One of his earliest experiences was to secure 
 a schoolhouse through the assistance of the 
 teacher, who subsequently regretted the rash- 
 ness of this act in consenting to permit the 
 Mormons to use it. In order to be more at 
 peace with his own conscience and secure him- 
 self against public criticism, he demanded that 
 the elders preach only from the Bible. To 
 this they consented. At the close of the meet- 
 ing the teacher, who had been greatly sur- 
 prised, arose and bore witness to the Scriptural 
 truths which they had taught. 
 
 In the early years of the Scandinavian mis- 
 sion, the Gospel took a ready hold upon the 
 hearts of many people. It had at the same time 
 awakened bitterness in the hearts of others. 
 The message which the elders brought occa- 
 sionally caused some dissension in families. 
 Speaking of one circumstance he said : "It had 
 been some time since I had had an opportunity 
 to write my wife at home. We were invited 
 to the house of a man who had joined the 
 Church, but whose wife was so bitter that she 
 would neither permit me to write a letter, or 
 to have any food in her house. I remember 
 that I was so hungry that I sought the first 
 
70 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 opportunity to satisfy myself by eating raw 
 potatoes." 
 
 "We had not been long active in our mission- 
 ary efforts before the priests began to insist 
 that we be not permitted to occupy the school- 
 houses. We therefore made such arrange- 
 ments as we could to hold meetings in public 
 houses and in such halls as we could rent. I 
 was assigned t6 labor in a conference under 
 the direction of a president, an elder from 
 Zion, whose judgment I could not always re- 
 spect. I remember that on one occasion a man 
 who had been dropped from the Church came 
 to my conference president and desired to be 
 taken back. His statements were very unsat- 
 isfactory, but the president expressed his satis- 
 faction and was ready to receive the man back 
 into the Church.' The confession awakened 
 within me a conviction that it was untruthful, 
 and I therefore protested against the wiling- 
 ness of the president to receive a man who had 
 lied to reach his purposes. The man, however, 
 returned later on, corrected what he had said 
 before and placed himself in a position to be re- 
 ceived. It was not long, however, before it 
 became necessary for the president of the con- 
 
ON A MISSION. 71 
 
 ference to be sent home. The elder returned 
 to Zion because of the sinful conduct which 
 made him unworthy to be a missionary of the 
 Church. Sometime after his return, he joined 
 the Godbeites and was afterwards an avowed 
 enemy of the Church. His son-in-law gave me 
 the following sad ending of my conference 
 president's career. 'During the days of the 
 crusade against polygamy/ he related to me, 
 'my father-in-law became a member of a trial 
 jury in the city of Ogden. The case on which 
 he sat was one for unlawful cohabitation. 
 Eleven of the jurors were in favor of acquittal 
 while he insisted on a conviction, and malic- 
 iously declared that he would rot before he 
 would vote in favor of acquittal. A short time 
 thereafter, while driving a pair of colts, they 
 ran away with him and from the accident he 
 received an injury from which he never re- 
 covered. His bruised body began to mortify 
 and from it the stench became so bad that the 
 wife could not endure to remain in the room 
 where her husband lay. In time he died, lit- 
 erally rotten, in fulfillment of the alternative 
 suffering he preferred to the release of one on 
 trial for unlawful cohabitation/ The man who 
 
n JAMES JENSEN 
 
 is the author of the foregoing statement is now 
 living and a president of one of the stakes of 
 Zion." 
 
 Much of the latter part of the year 1867 was 
 passed in the conference of which Veile was 
 the headquarters. From this place Elder Jen- 
 sen was enabled to reach his native town Hag- 
 uerup. Here the opportunity was given to 
 preach to old neighbors and friends. The 
 schoolhouse had been denied him, but one of 
 the leading farmers of the place granted Elder 
 Jensen the privilege of preaching in his own 
 home. 
 
 The elders were not averse to any kind of 
 work whenever the occasion required. If they 
 could not always make themselves agreeable 
 and helpful by their words of encouragement 
 and instruction, they could demonstrate their 
 ability to labor skillfully and hard. There were 
 many who had an aversion for ministers whose 
 lives they believed to be idle, indulgent, and 
 selfish. Elder Jensen, among other incidents 
 peculiar to his missionary experiences, tells of 
 the manner by which Anders Jenson and his 
 family were brought into the Church. "As we 
 approached the Jenson home the father and 
 
ON A MISSION. 73 
 
 sons were breaking flax. One of the boys who 
 saw us nearing them, remarked to the others 
 that he proposed to have some fun with the 
 Mormon missionaries. We were immediately 
 asked to take hold and help in the work.* We 
 responded cheerfully. It was not a new kind 
 of work to me, and I was able to hold my 
 own with the boys. Later, I assisted in plow- 
 ing and showed myself at home on the farm. 
 It established a familiarity and friendly rela- 
 tion between us and the family. What we did 
 so well and cheerfully had a great influence 
 over them, and later on I baptized the father, 
 mother, three sons and two daughters. Their 
 fun was, I have no doubt, turned into friendly 
 relations and earnest inquiry by our willing- 
 ness and ability to work. They saw that work 
 which they exalted by their example was really 
 part of the Mormon creed." 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1868 his labors 
 extended along the mainland, and while in the 
 city of Rolling he and other elders were at- 
 tacked by a mob. One of the mobbers, a husky 
 foundryman, seized Elder Jensen by the throat 
 and in a spirit of rage began to choke him. As 
 soon as Elder Jensen extricated himself, which 
 
74 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 his superior strength soon enabled him to do, 
 he rebuked the man and wanted to know what 
 offense he had ever given to entitle him to such 
 treatment. In the midst of the melee and con- 
 fusion, the train, which he was about to board, 
 arrived. He slipped in at the side door and oc- 
 cupied the only seat not taken. The crowd, 
 however, followed him to Fredericia where he 
 reached a faithful sister who concealed him 
 successfully against the mob in pursuit. 
 
 At Horsens he continued his labors amidst 
 some opposition. While holding a meeting in 
 the place, and while in the midst of worship, 
 a rock was thrown through one of the win- 
 dows. Here they were also visited by crowds 
 of vicious and reckless men, bent upon the 
 confusion and discomfiture of the elders and 
 Saints in their religious worship. On one oc- 
 casion the rabble came to the meeting and be- 
 gan their disturbance by approaching the wom- 
 en, whom they sought to hug and kiss in a vio- 
 lent manner. As soon as possible Elder Jensen 
 had the lights blown out and began at once, 
 after reaching the midst of the disturbers, to 
 clear them out of the hall by the use of a cane, 
 which he applied in such a manner as to create 
 
ON A MISSION. 75 
 
 consternation and retreat. Here the elders had 
 the opportunity later to baptize several persons. 
 On the 5th of March, Elder Jensen moved on 
 to Fredericia. Among his experiences there he 
 related that in one of the meetings two soldiers 
 were present who refused to remove their caps. 
 "I insisted," he said, "that they must either 
 leave or take off their caps. They refused to 
 pay any attention to my demands. I thereupon 
 seized them one at a time, and threw them 
 into the street. An officer passing at that mo- 
 ment saw the man fall, and at once began an 
 inquiry to find out what it all meant. After 
 receiving information the officer left and short- 
 ly after he sent the two men back who made a 
 humble apology for their disgraceful conduct 
 in our place of worship." It is not difficult for 
 those who are acquainted with Bishop Jensen 
 to imagine that in the prime of his early man- 
 hood he could perform just such a task as he 
 describes above with celerity and effectiveness. 
 The man, who was tumbled somehow or other 
 far out into the street, had no doubt some vig- 
 orous assistance from the elder who was de- 
 termined to bring into play his physical poweri 
 
76 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 to maintain the respect to which he felt him- 
 self entitled. 
 
 Goings up to Copenhagen was in those days 
 a delightful opportunity to meet the elders of 
 the mission and enjoy the companionship of 
 old-time friends. There they went to their 
 priesthood meetings and reported the condition 
 of the conference over which they presided. 
 While there, Elder Jensen was asked to preside 
 over the conference from which the unworthy 
 elder mentioned above had been dismissed. The 
 conference, however, was in an unfortunate 
 condition. Its financial standing was bad, and 
 the moral tone also affected by an elder who 
 had not only brought disgrace upon himself, 
 but also upon the conference over which he 
 presided. Elder Jensen modestly expressed 
 a preference to be released from the undertak- 
 ing. It was finally decided' to unite the Fred- 
 ericia and Aarhus conferences under the pres- 
 idency of Lauretz Larsen, whose assistant 
 Elder Jensen became. These missionary as- 
 sociates of those early days became devoted 
 friends throughout all the subsequent years of 
 their lives. Larsen was at one time counselor 
 
ON A MISSION. 11 
 
 to the Bishop of Spring City, which for many 
 years had been his home. 
 
 The late 60's witnessed remarkable changes 
 throughout the world in the methods of trans- 
 portation. The railroads at that time were un- 
 der construction in different parts of Den- 
 mark, and the old methods of traveling were 
 substituted by more commodious and expe- 
 ditious means which the application of steam 
 had brought about. Elder Jensen was busily 
 occupied in his conference aiding the Saints in 
 their emigration to Zion. "Our company, which 
 left Liverpool on the 13th of June, 1868, was 
 the last to embark in the old sailing ships that 
 had occupied so much time upon the ocean.'' 
 
 On the mainland where he was laboring the 
 railroad between Fredericia and Aarhus was 
 completed. The new road was an object of 
 great interest and often great excitement to the 
 farmers. When the first train was run. Elder 
 Jensen joined in the general celebration and 
 became one of its first passengers. "A curi- 
 ous circumstance transpired," he wrote, "as we 
 were leaving the station. A team of horses 
 became frightened and ran away. The run- 
 away created so much excitement among the 
 
y^ JAMES JENSEN 
 
 passengers that one of the farmers aboard ran 
 his head through a glass window in his unre- 
 strained anxiety to see what was going on/' 
 
 It was along the last of 1868 that a change 
 was made in the mission presidents, President 
 Jesse N. Smith having arrived on a call to 
 succeed Widerborg in the presidency of the 
 Scandinavian mission. It was President 
 Smith's second mission to that country and he 
 was therefore familiar with the language. 
 Elder Jensen was one of the elders to carry 
 the Gospel into a district beyond Lake 
 Skanderborg. The report of the presence of 
 the Mormon missionaries in Denmark had 
 reached the people of that district and they 
 naturally turned out* in large numbers to lis- 
 ten to what these elders had to say. They were 
 not, however, without opposition. Noisy 
 crowds gathered and endeavored to disturb 
 their meetings, and Elder Jensen sometimes 
 found it necessary to give boisterous men a 
 little shaking up, which he was always qual- 
 ified to do, before they would yield to him a 
 proper respect. 
 
 A new importance was attached to the mis- 
 sionary experiences of Elder Jensen early in 
 
ON A MISSION. 79 
 
 the year 1869, when he was called to the pres- 
 idency of the Aalborg conference. He no 
 doubt, however, felt some disappointment be- 
 cause of his expectations that he would be re- 
 leased as other elders were at the end of two 
 years, nor was his own disappointment less 
 than that at home where a loving and anxious 
 wife awaited his return. The appointment 
 was received with some feelings of misgiving. 
 The conference was not in the best condition 
 and its finances needed that experience and 
 attention which he feared he could not give. 
 President Smith assured this young elder that 
 he felt inspired to put upon him that responsi- 
 bihty and that he had every confidence that 
 Elder Jensen would succeed in his mission. 
 Elder Jensen went at his new task, and in due 
 time felt the satisfaction of getting the con- 
 ference out of debt and placing it in a good 
 healthy condition. 
 
 Elder Jensen had left behind him in the Aar- 
 hus conference many warm friends, men and 
 women whom he had led into the waters of 
 baptism. In his journal he makes friendly men- 
 tion of the Henricksen family — a family of re- 
 finement, intelligence, and devotion. He had 
 
80 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 baptized the mother and the children in Veile 
 where they resided. For him they always. enter- 
 tained feelings of gratitude and devotion ; and 
 when he was about to set sail for Zion at the 
 close of his mission, the good mother of that 
 family sent to him a gold ring for his wife in 
 token of the esteem in which he was held by the 
 Henricksen family. They subsequently emi- 
 grated to Utah and located in Provo, where in 
 those early days the sons were benefactors to 
 the community by reason of their skill in the 
 manufacture of pottery. 
 
 The new responsibility enlarged the scope 
 of his missionary experiences. To him were 
 entrusted the direction of other elders and the 
 general movement of the Saints in their emi- 
 gration to Zion. One of his first duties was 
 to conduct some ninety emigrants to Copen- 
 hagen where they joined other Saints on their 
 voyage to Liverpool. He mentions in his 
 journal at that time the convention of farmers 
 in Copenhagen. It was one of those early 
 farmers' institutes for which the Danish peo- 
 ple have since become world-famous. Such 
 an early movement for advanced methods gives 
 us a convincing reason for the foremost posi- 
 
ON A MISSION. 81 
 
 tion occupied by the farmers of Denmark in 
 the agricultural world. It is now frequently 
 stated that the Danish government is a govern- 
 ment of farmers, for the farmers, and by the 
 farmers. The agricultural interests of that 
 little kingdom to-day predominate over all 
 others. 
 
 While in Copenhagen, looking after emigra- 
 tion interests for people from his conference, he 
 had the pleasure of welcoming his brother Ja- 
 cob who had just arrived in his native land on 
 a mission. The meeting was most pleasurable 
 and these young elders, with one or two of 
 their friends, enjoyed such pleasant pastimes 
 as Copenhagen could afford. "We were treat- 
 ed," said Elder Jensen, "by President Smith to 
 a bicycle ride. Wheels were obtained for a 
 number of us young elders, and I remember 
 how I learned to ride the high-wheel bicycle 
 of those times. My brother was assigned to 
 my conference and we left together for our 
 field of labor." 
 
 Among those that Elder Jensen aided in 
 those days was a young boy known as Peter 
 Olsen, who emigrated about this time from 
 Denmark, and who, upon his arrival in Utah, 
 
82 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 made his home with the Jensen family and 
 remained with them until he attained his 
 manhood. A circumstance somewhat novel 
 arose in the case of the emigration of this 
 boy. ''I expected money from home to 
 pay for his transportation. The money not 
 having come when the company left, I appealed 
 to a man by the name of Christensen for a loan 
 of seventy-five Danish dollars. The man was 
 not in the Church. However, in his heart he 
 felt that the message was true and he appar- 
 ently struggled against it and made the loan as 
 a sort of a test. If it were not paid back it 
 would give him some excuse for resisting the 
 feeling that was already taking a strong hold 
 upon his mind. When I returned him the 
 money and offered to pay interest he replied by 
 handing me five dollars back." 
 
 The conference of Aalborg furnished Elder 
 Jensen numerous opportunities, not only to 
 preach the Gospel, but to aid the Saints and 
 prepare them for their new home in a distant 
 land, where they would hear a strange tongue. 
 "I organized,'' he wrote in his journal, "a night 
 school for instruction in English. One of the 
 rules of the school was that not a word in Da- 
 
ON A MISSION. 83 
 
 nish was to be spoken. The Saints, of course, 
 appreciated the value of the new language 
 which some day they must use. They were 
 diligent and I was happily surprised at the 
 progress they made. Their knowledge of Eng- 
 lish they found most useful when they reached 
 the Valleys of the Mountains." 
 
 "I remember," he continued, "among the ex- 
 periences of those days, a visit I paid to a giant 
 and a dwarf, who were on exhibition. The 
 name of the giant was Andrew Hanson. He 
 had seen service in the Civil war of America. 
 He was forty-two years of age, was seven feet 
 seven and a half inches high, and weighed 
 four hundred and seventy-four pounds. The 
 dwarf was Admiral Picolomine, age thirty- 
 eight, and was thirty inches high. As I passed 
 by the giant, he lifted my hat from my head, 
 made a crease in it, and handed it back to me 
 with the remark. This is the way we wear hats 
 in America.' I simply replied in English, 'I 
 know it.' My knowledge of the English tongue 
 led to a conversation between us and he asked 
 me to return on the following day. I did so and 
 explained to him the principles of the Gospel. 
 He was an intelligent and a very humble man. 
 
84 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 He was greatly interested in what I said, gave 
 evidence of his belief in my message and as- 
 sured me that as soon as he had visited Nor- 
 way he would return and accompany me to 
 Utah. His death intervened to prevent him 
 from doing so." 
 
 Denmark was in those days a very fruitful 
 missionary field. The conference afforded the 
 association of devoted men and women whose 
 good cheer and enthusiastic endeavors brought 
 to the elders many happy hours. The Saints 
 had an excellent choir. Music was always an 
 interesting feature of their worship and they 
 frequently had social gatherings for pastimes 
 of various kinds. 
 
 Elder Jensen was constantly beset by the 
 temptation to visit the Aarhus conference 
 whenever an opportunity was given him. His 
 early experiences there amidst the difficulties 
 which he found in beginning the. missionary 
 work constantly recalled friendships that 
 bound him to his early love. "On onr return 
 from Aarhus to Aalborg, we were over- 
 taken by a landlord. He was in his coach of 
 four horses, accompanied by his driver and 
 footman. After passing us by, he turned 
 
ON A MISSION. 85 
 
 into an inn where my companion and I also 
 stopped for refreshments. He went to a more 
 aristocratic part of the inn, while we had to be 
 satisfied with more humble quarters. While we 
 Were there, his servant came to our apartment 
 and invited the man with the black beard whom 
 he had passed along the road to accompany 
 him on his journey. My companion was an as- 
 sistant to the mission president, and the dis- 
 crimination was a little embarrassing to me. 
 However, we looked upon it as one of our 
 many opportunities to do good, and I conse- 
 quently occupied a seat by the landlord while 
 I explained my occupation and mission to that 
 country." 
 
 On his return to Aalborg, Elder Jensen 
 found considerable excitement created among 
 those who were hostile to the Saints, and who 
 looked upon the success of the elders with a 
 great deal of enmity. This opposition led to an 
 organized effort to defeat the missionary work 
 and to frighten the people away from the 
 meetings. The disturbing element filled paper 
 bags with ashes and entered the church for the 
 purpose of creating confusion and consterna- 
 tion among the worshipers. It was the inten- 
 
86 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 tion to throw these paper bags into the faces of 
 the elders so as to blind and suffocate them and 
 to make the atmosphere of the room wholly 
 unfit for a public meeting. These actions had 
 received some encouragement formerly by a 
 disposition on the part of some of the elders to 
 evade them. Elder Fjelsted was so pacific in 
 his demeanor, and so unwilling to engage in 
 any contention, that he escaped from such an 
 element, and sometimes had himself let down 
 from the windows of the meeting house that 
 he might evade those who were seeking a quar- 
 rel. 
 
 Elder Jensen, who was now the president of 
 this conference, possessed a somewhat different 
 temperament. He believed it his duty to main- 
 tain his rights, and to resist those who were 
 seeking trouble. He found in the possession 
 of an old man a large thorny cane. One of 
 his fellow missionaries broke a leg from one 
 of the benches and the two began thrashing in 
 an unmerciful manner the men that had come 
 with their paper bags of ashes to create a dis- 
 turbance. Christophersen and Larsen, both 
 powerful men, were door-keepers. One of the 
 disturbers was about to strike Elder Jensen in 
 
ON A MISSION. 87 
 
 the back of the head with a knife when Chris- 
 topherson wrenched it from his hand. The 
 two door-keepers who had taken an active 
 part in ejecting the mobbers concluded that if 
 such forceful methods of disposing of bad 
 characters were approved, that thereafter noth- 
 ing was to be feared from that class of ruf- 
 fians. "Somehow or other/' he said, "after 
 beating them back from the hall, we managed 
 to get in front of them as they were leaving 
 and made our punishment as effectual as we 
 could. I think our method of treating these 
 intruders had a most excellent effect. They 
 did not bother us after that.'' James Jensen 
 was certainly a powerful man in those days, 
 and it is not difficult to imagine that those 
 who aroused a spirit of combativeness in him 
 ever took much pleasure out of any physical 
 opposition they had to meet. 
 
 "Just about this time we had other troubles. 
 Two of the elders, who had been in Denmark 
 and who upon reaching Zion had turned 
 against the Church, wrote letters to the Saints 
 in which they told all sorts of falsehoods about 
 the Mormons. One of these elders was sent 
 home for adultery. I secured his letter from 
 
88 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 one of the Saints into whose hands it came, 
 and read it to the meeting. There were pres- 
 ent quite a number who did not belong to the 
 Church. After reading the letter, I wanted to 
 know from the people what they thought about 
 it. An old man who was not a member of the 
 Church said he believed that the writer of the 
 letter had lied, and he proposed that the letter 
 be wrapped up in a lot of paper to make it as 
 heavy as possible and that it be returned to its 
 author without any postage or comment. Pos- 
 tage was heavy in those days, and the old man 
 thought that the expenses of the postage might 
 prevent him, after that, from writing such let- 
 ters. These letters had an effect entirely dif- 
 ferent from what their authors intended. They 
 really did us good, especially as many of the 
 people had already learned about the trans- 
 gressions of these elders." 
 
 On the day before Easter, 1870, there was a 
 gathering of the Saints for social and religious 
 entertainment. While they were all in the 
 midst of a program which they were carrying 
 out, a man entered the room for the purpose 
 of creating a disturbance. He was warned to 
 desist, and when it was evident that he did not 
 
ON A MISSION. 89 
 
 intend to heed the warning he had received, 
 Elder Jensen took him by the nape of the neck 
 and pitched him downstairs. He thereupon 
 called the landlady, who was not a member of 
 the Church, and who had just emerged from 
 her room to see what the trouble was, all sorts 
 of vile names. However, he did not disturb 
 the meeting any more. 
 
 Just about this time his brother Jacob who 
 was in Agersted took down with smallpox. 
 This created, of course, some anxiety. He had 
 his brother immediately brought to Aalborg, 
 where by careful nursing he soon regained his 
 health. "As soon as he was able, my brother 
 and I accepted an invitation of the president to 
 come to Copenhagen on May 5th for the pur- 
 pose of meeting President Albert Carring- 
 ton of the European mission. On my return 
 to Aalborg, my students in English gave me a 
 cordial reception and presented me two silver 
 spoons with my wife's name on one and mine 
 on the other. 
 
 "As the time approached for my release, I 
 took advantage of the opportunity to visit my 
 old field in Aarhus. There I enjoyed the fare- 
 well expressions of the Saints and returned to 
 
90 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 begin my preparation for my return to Zion. 
 For some time I was busily occupied in prepar- 
 ing the Saints for their emigration. On the 
 29th of June, President Jesse N. Smith in- 
 structed me to be in Copenhagen by July 13th 
 with the Saints who were to leave there with 
 the next company. My brother Jacob was made 
 president of the Aalborg conference." 
 
 Among those who came under the special 
 care of Elder Jensen were Nels Larsen, who 
 emigrated subsequently to Provo, where he be- 
 came very well and very generally known, 
 and Peter Andersen, who emigrated to Salt 
 Lake and stayed for some time with Elder Jen- 
 sen's father. Young Andersen, through the 
 paternal interest of Dr. Winslow, adopted as 
 his first name Winslow and thereafter became 
 known as Winslow Andersen. This young 
 man attended school at the Brigham Young 
 Academy in Provo and later located in San 
 Francisco where he is now the Editor in Chief 
 of the Pacific Medical Journal, the President 
 of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
 and the head of one of the leading hospitals. 
 
 Elder Jensen left his mission, after three 
 years of devoted eflforts for the well-being and 
 
ON A MISSION. 91 
 
 happiness of his fellow men. To him the friend- 
 ships of that mission have been among the 
 most pleasing memories of life. The testimo- 
 nials that came to him brought encouragement 
 and the assurance that he would be long re- 
 membered and esteemed. He reached Salt 
 Lake City by train on the 10th of August, 1870. 
 
92 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 RESIDENCE IN THE SECOND WARD. 
 
 On his return to Utah, Elder Jensen found 
 his good wife located in their own little home 
 which she had prepared for the comfort and 
 enjoyment of her husband whom she had aided 
 by every means at her command. The carpet 
 on its floor was of her own making, and the 
 simple decorations which her taste and industry 
 had provided, all went to make the home a 
 cozy and happy one. During his absence, the 
 wife, by her industry, had earned enough to 
 buy a cow and a pig and also the lumber with 
 which he fenced the lot. Of the grain which 
 had to be left unharvested in the field, she 
 saved something like fifty bushels. The young 
 husband was thus happily prepared to take up 
 the laborious duties of life without the ob- 
 stacles of debts or of pressing wants. He was 
 a man of splendid physique, boundless energy, 
 and excellent judgment in the management 
 of affairs. 
 
RESDIENCE IN THE SECOND WARD. 93 
 
 Like others who had returned from a mis- 
 sion, he was called upon the stand to make a 
 report of his labors. President Young recog- 
 nized his faithful friend, and invited this young 
 returning missionary to occupy a place on the 
 stand beside him. President Young knew the 
 value of this young man's services in the past 
 and sought them for the future. That fall 
 James worked on the Church farm just south 
 of the city, where he was occupied in putting 
 up hay and looking after the stock. 
 
 The following spring of 1871, Elder James 
 Jensen and a friend took a contract, under the 
 direction of President Young, to erect a four- 
 board fence around the large Church farm in 
 Cache Valley. These young contractors were 
 conscientious and constructed their enclosure 
 which brought them more praise than money. 
 When the work was finally accomplished, he 
 returned in the fall of that year to his home in 
 the second ward. He was now able to add 
 to it three rooms, a pantry and a bath. ''Dur- 
 ing my absence," he says, "my wife was per- 
 haps more industrious in the care of her gar- 
 den than I was in building a fence in Cache 
 Valley — and my work there was perhaps the 
 
94 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 most taxing of any work I had ever done in 
 my life. Mrs. Jensen had raised from our 
 garden during my absence with the help of 
 our boy Peter all sorts of vegetables ; and by 
 her industry provided much of our living for 
 the following winter.'^ 
 
 "In the spring of 1872 George Reese and 
 I took President Young's 'Forest' farm on 
 shares. It was located in what Is now known 
 as Forest Dale. We were to receive the cus- 
 tomary two-thirds of the crop, but were obliged 
 to pay for the use of the team which President 
 Young hired to us. We received it, however, 
 on excellent terms and it had the best care and 
 attention. That was for us a prosperous sum- 
 mer. Besides our living, in the fall of the 
 year I was able to purchase a wagon, team, 
 and harness. We had worked hard but were 
 amply rewarded and President Young was 
 particularly well satisfied." 
 
 During these strenuous days his good wife 
 was no less diligent in promoting their ma- 
 terial well-being. Under her direction were 
 the garden, the cows, and the chickens. Twice 
 a week she walked from Forest Dale to Salt 
 Lake City with eggs and butter with which 
 
RESIDENCE IN THE SECOND WARD. 95 
 
 to provide the groceries and other necessaries 
 of the home. On her return she stopped in 
 the second and tenth wards and enjoyed a few 
 minutes' visit with her parents and with her 
 husband's father and mother. 
 
 In those days a rough element came in from 
 the mines and other places to pass their win- 
 ters in Salt Lake City. By their carousals and 
 drinking they often created such disturbance 
 that it was not always easy for the local con- 
 stabulary to subdue them. Special police were 
 enlisted and into that service James Jensen en- 
 tered after the farm work of the summer was 
 practically over. Later he was made captain 
 of the special police. 
 
 Elder Jensen speaks of his experiences as 
 secretary of the Second Ward Sunday School, 
 a position which he occupied for a number of 
 years. Whatever accuracy he obtained in his 
 knowledge of the English language he attrib- 
 utes to his experiences in that office. He of- 
 ten wrote out the minutes in the Danish lan- 
 guage and then translated them into English, 
 and by consulting his dictionary learned much 
 of the meaning of words as well as of spelling. 
 He felt himself unqualified for such work, but 
 
96 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 he was painstaking, faithful, and punctual and 
 his work was appreciated in an office that was 
 very much neglected at that time. 
 
 In the year 1873 he was united in marriage 
 to Marie Madsen, his first wife being present 
 at the ceremony. His wives from the outset 
 assumed a sisterly relationship which they en- 
 joyed throughout their united lives in the fam- 
 ily of the man to whom they had given so fully 
 their confidence and their love. In the begin- 
 ning the home was so divided that each en- 
 joyed her own apartment, but later the hus- 
 band built on the same block where his first 
 wife lived a brick home for the second. 
 
 A little circumstance in relation to this mar- 
 riage is here worthy of mention. The second 
 wife's family were not members of the Church 
 and had therefore not emigrated from their na- 
 tive land in Denmark to the Valleys of the 
 Mountains. When the brothers and sisters of 
 Marie learned that their sister had married, 
 and that she had gone into polygamy, they sent 
 one of them, Anthon by name, to Utah, com- 
 missioned by them tO' learn what he could of 
 his sister's welfare, her happiness, and her 
 prospects in life. Naturally they had very 
 
Marie Ji:nsen. 
 
RESIDENCE IN THE SECOND WARD. 97 
 
 strong misgivings over such a union, and the 
 brotherly and sisterly love which they felt for 
 their sister led them to desire the whole truth 
 about the family life which was contrary to 
 their views and convictions. The brother came 
 more in a spirit of inquiry than in one of hos- 
 tility, at least such was the impression he made 
 upon his sister's husband and upon both of his 
 wives. They therefore had nothing to conceal 
 ' from him. He enjoyed the liberty of both 
 homes, observing the conduct of the wives to- 
 ward one another, and the attitude of the man 
 who had assumed polygamous relations. Af- 
 ter he had been here sometime he wrote a let- 
 ter to his brothers and sisters in Denmark. 
 By accident the letter came into the sister's 
 hand. The substance of his report was that 
 he found his sister well cared for, the wife of a 
 good man, and happy in her associations with 
 the first wife, between whom and his sister 
 there was a genuine sisterly attachment. The 
 brother remained for some time and learned to 
 esteem the first wife of this family apparently 
 as highly as he esteemed his own sister. His 
 conscience would not let him, in such relation- 
 ship as he found between his sister and the first 
 
98 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 wife, show any partiality. When he bought 
 his sister a present he bought one likewise for 
 the first wife. After fully satisfying himself 
 about the welfare of his sister and the pro- 
 tectorship of her husband, he finally returned 
 to his native land, convinced that whatever 
 might be the experiences of others in the prac- 
 tice of polygamy, his sister at least was well- 
 off and happy, and so far as his counsel or in- 
 fluence went she was left in peace of mind to 
 pursue the life she had accepted without inter- 
 ference. 
 
 In the year 1876, May 21st, James Jensen 
 was ordained to the fifty-seventh quorum of the 
 seventies, and later became one of its presi- 
 dents. In the early 70's, after he left the em- 
 ploy of President Young, much of his time was 
 occupied in hauling rock, clay, and sand with 
 his own team. He cut lucern on shares, car- 
 ried on a dairy, and he and his family all lived 
 and worked in harmonious effort to promote 
 their material progress in life. 
 
 In the later 70's he came into contact with 
 such men as W. W. Riter and John Clark, 
 whose lands he cultivated on shares. He likes 
 to speak of these men as he found them in the 
 
RESIDENCE IN THE SECOND WARD. 99 
 
 intimate business relations of life. "Riter was 
 my friend/' he says. "He always dealt with me 
 honestly and liberally. He seemed to make it a 
 point to do better by me than he had agreed 
 to do. As years went on, my confidence in 
 the man was absolute and that confidence he 
 scrupulously kept, and I shall always look upon 
 him as one of the best friends I have had in 
 life. W. W. Riter was certainly good and hon- 
 orable and a generous-hearted man so far as I 
 was able to understand. He was a member of 
 the high council when I was appointed Bishop, 
 and I sometimes wonder if he did not have 
 something to do with my appointment. At any 
 rate he was always so good to me, and so trust- 
 ful towards me, that I was naturally compelled 
 to believe that he was my friend." 
 
 The experiences of James Jensen in the Sec- 
 ond Ward were so pleasant and so helpful that 
 he often recalls that period of twenty-five years 
 of his life as one of the most joyful and sat- 
 isfactory that had been his lot in life to pass 
 through. When Bishop Samuel Peterson 
 moved away from the Second Ward, he was 
 succeeded in the bishopric by Leonard Hardy. 
 James Jensen became his second counselor on 
 
100 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 March 30, 1890. Alfred Caine, who died short- 
 ly after that, was the first. During much of the 
 time of Bishop Hardy's calling in the bishopric 
 he was absent from the city and frequently 
 traveled with John W. Taylor in the interest of 
 the "Defense Fund.'' Elder Jensen was thus 
 left with the responsibility of the ward resting 
 upon him. To its duties, to its cares, he de- 
 voted himself with the humble desire to serve 
 the brothers and sisters, over whom he was 
 really presiding, to the best of his ability. 
 
 By his assiduous labors, and the excellent 
 support which he received from his family, the 
 subject of this sketch added yearly to his ma- 
 terial comforts and to his advancement finan- 
 cially. He was a lover of the soil, a love that 
 came to him not alone from his experiences 
 but from the rich inheritance that his nation- 
 ality gave him. Denmark is noted, perhaps, 
 for the most intensive farming to be found 
 anywhere in the world. Its inhabitants really 
 and truly love the soil, and to their loving touch 
 it yields more to the acre of its peculiar kind 
 than any other spot to be found upon the earth. 
 There is, too, a native industry about the Dan- 
 ish that makes them pecuHarly successful as 
 
RESIDENCE IN THE SECOND WARD. 101 
 
 farmers. Thus, body and mind, they are well 
 equipped as tillers of the soil. 
 
 As he grew in means, James Jensen began 
 to look about him for increased opportunities. 
 He bought a small piece of land near the park, 
 a piece of five acres. Farther south he had an- 
 other five-acre lot, but they did not answer his 
 needs ; and when a chance came to him for the 
 purchase of land on what was the old farm of 
 Brigham Young in Forest Dale, he was ready 
 to talk business. From Moroni L. Pratt and 
 others he bought twelve acres of land for the 
 sum of $2,750, a little better than $200 per 
 acre. He experienced some trouble in the ac- 
 quisition of the title, but as soon as it was 
 completed, the purchase opened*" to him a 
 broader field of work. There was, too, a pe- 
 culiar satisfaction in becoming the owner of 
 land which he had once worked on shares for 
 others. 
 
 In those days of the middle 80's there was 
 going on throughout the territory the most 
 strenuous prosecution of men who were living 
 in polygamous relations. His farm, then con- 
 siderable distance south of Salt Lake City, of- 
 fered some opportunity of escape from the sys- 
 
102 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 tern of espionage to which he was subject. He 
 had awakened the displeasure of a woman who 
 was his neighbor in the Second Ward. This 
 woman had taken a child to raise, but her treat- 
 ment of the little one was so brutal that he felt 
 compelled, whatever the consequences to him- 
 self personally, to interfere in the interest of a 
 helpless child. The woman was brought to the 
 courts, and after receiving punishment, she be- 
 came intensely bitter toward the man who had 
 entered a complaint against her. She therefore 
 sought an opportunity to make trouble for him. 
 She induced a man to locate in that neighbor- 
 hood to act as a spotter. He and another of 
 his kind were constantly sneaking about Elder 
 Jensen's homes. They dogged his footsteps 
 almost day and night until finally by acts of 
 kindness he won the good-will of one of the 
 men who finally became friendly to him and 
 desisted from his disagreeable work. 
 
 The woman took another small child to raise, 
 and in course of time fell into a quarrel with 
 her husband who used a hatchet on her. Dr. 
 Benedict was called to attend her wounds. 
 While caring for this woman, who did so 
 much to bring annoyance to her neighbor, the 
 
RESIDENCE IN THE SECOND WARD. 103 
 
 doctor observed under a pile of rags in one 
 corner movements that awakened his curiosity. 
 He went to Hft the covering from the living 
 object beneath, and discovered that it was 
 a naked child that lay there in the dead of win- 
 ter in a most deplorable condition. Sometime 
 later this woman, who had sought pretentious- 
 ly to reform the Mormon system of marriage, 
 died. Those of her class with whom she en- 
 joyed some meager association, threw her in- 
 to a coffin without taking the trouble to wa-'^ 
 her dirty body, after which she was buried 
 unloved and unmourned. 
 
 In the days of the crusade a prominent physi- 
 cian of the city interested himself in the pro- 
 tection of his friend whose acquaintance he had 
 made in earlier days. When the doctor first 
 came to the city, he was without much practice 
 and James Jensen gave so many evidences of 
 friendship through his helpfulness, that the 
 doctor and his wife — whatever their pre-con- 
 ceived notions of Mormonism might be — 
 availed themselves of every opportunity to help 
 and protect their old-time friend. The doc- 
 tor sought to thwart the efforts that were made 
 to arrest Elder Jensen and he and his wife 
 
104 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 offered their home as a place of refuge for the 
 second wife. Papers had already been made 
 out for Elder Jensen's arrest, but after the in- 
 tercession of the doctor in his behalf, the papers 
 were by some means lost, and later picked up 
 on the crossing of fifth east and sixth south. 
 From that time oil he heard nothing further 
 of any efforts to put him under arrest, and 
 his gentile friend continued in his determina- 
 tion to protect the man who had been his friend 
 in earlier days and who was still his good 
 neighbor. These conditions and the unsettled 
 state of mind of his family naturally made the 
 district lying south of the city, and now known 
 as Forest Dale, a desirable home on his farm 
 where he might enjoy some seclusion. His 
 second wife, however, remained in the new 
 home which he had erected for her in the 
 Second Ward. Thus these peculiar circum- 
 stances and the agitation of those times brought 
 him to the place where his services, already 
 great in the past, could be turned to the best 
 account in the ward over which he was subse- 
 quently called to preside. His efforts to with- 
 draw to a quiet place where he would be less 
 conspicuous and less a shining mark for the 
 
RESIDENCE IN THE SECOND WARD. 135 
 
 adversary, led eventually to a wider field of 
 labor, and to greater prominence in the Church 
 which he always loved to serve. 
 
 In the spring of 1891, on the 30th of April, 
 James Jensen moved with his first wife and 
 three of his second wife's children to his farm 
 of twelve acres a short distance north of 
 Calder's Park. Here he built a five-room house 
 which he subsequently enlarged. That was al- 
 so a conspicuous day in the street car history 
 of Salt Lake City. It was the day on which 
 the Rapid Transit Company ran its first car to 
 Calder's Park, in later years known as Wanda- 
 mere. George M. Cannon had been the lead- 
 ing spirit in opening up this suburban trans- 
 portation. Besides opening a street from Ash- 
 ton Avenue to James Jensen's farm, he paid a 
 bonus to the company. Elder Jensen gave a 
 right-of-way through his farm which in time 
 became occupied by numerous families who 
 settled in the "Dale." 
 
 Upon moving to his new home, he thought it 
 prudent to leave his families separated in or- 
 der to avoid, if possible, arrest and imprison- 
 ment. He had prepared a pleasant home for 
 his other wife in the Second Ward. She wa: 
 
106 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 interested in the Church work there and so 
 devoted to her reHgious duties that Bishop 
 Hardy desired her to act as president of the 
 ReHef Society. However, it was not long be- 
 fore she was prostrated with typhoid fever. 
 For thirteen days and nights his first wife 
 Petrina watched faithfully and devotedly at 
 the bedside of the woman with whom she was 
 sharing the blessings of her husband and her 
 own family life. Upon the death of Marie, the 
 faithful wife Petrina gathered the former's 
 children into her home where she served them 
 conscientiously and faithfully. The father 
 found it necessary to add to his home in Forest 
 Dale for the greater convenience of the en- 
 larged family there. 
 
 The few scattering families then inhabiting 
 Forest Dale became a part of the Sugar House 
 Ward. Some children, however, went to the 
 city to attend Sunday School until such time 
 as local organizations could be effected. For- 
 est Dale was a beautiful place, and it was be- 
 lieved might become in time an attractive sub- 
 urb of Salt Lake City. Much of the land had 
 been purchased by George M. Cannon, who 
 foresaw something of future opportunities 
 there, and he industriously planted a large 
 
RESIDENCE IN THE SECOND WARD. 107 
 
 number of various kinds of shade trees. He 
 perhaps builded better than he knew. For the 
 few who inhabited this sparsely settled dis- 
 trict, an organization was effected known as 
 the "Pleasant Hours Club," consisting of Wil- 
 liam Spry, George M. Cannon, J. W. Summer- 
 hays, Stephen H. Love, John M. Cannon, and 
 a number of others. The club finally got 
 up a sociable in order to bring all the 
 members of the community together. "This 
 was when I learned," jocularly remarked 
 the good Bishop, "that Stephen Love was not 
 a deputy marshal." "I remember," he con- 
 tinues, "in those early days some sad events. 
 One of my neighbors was compelled to con- 
 duct a funeral in an upstair room and in soli- 
 tude that the marital relations of the father 
 and mother might not be known." 
 
 "As our community increased in numbers, 
 a Mutual Improvement Association was or- 
 ganized with George M. Cannon as its presi- 
 dent, and James Hendry and B. W. Ashton as 
 Counselors. Then a Sunday School was or- 
 ganized of which William Hansen was super- 
 intendent, with Stephen H. Love and F. M. 
 Lyman, Jr., as assistants. 
 
 "When my wife's people in Denmark learned 
 
108 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 of her death, they were anxious that some of us 
 should pay them a visit. I could not go and it 
 was not possible for Mrs. Jensen to leave, so 
 we decided to send our oldest daughter, Joseph- 
 ine, who left Salt Lake City for Denmark, June 
 24, 1893 in company with Heber C. Iverson, 
 George Wallace, and Brother Hubbard. When 
 they reached Chicago, these brethren separated 
 from our daughter for their fields of labor in 
 different parts of the states, and Josephine 
 joined A. W. Carlson and his wife who were 
 then on their way to Denmark. After a visit 
 of four months among her relatives she re- 
 turned to Utah. While she was absent, she 
 was assisted in her travels by President A. H. 
 Lund who had come in the same company with 
 her mother to Utah in 1872. President Lund 
 at this time presided over the European mis- 
 sion. It was Josephine's Uncle Anthon who 
 had been commissioned by his brothers to go 
 to Utah and learn of the condition of their sis- 
 ter who had married in polygamy. Anthon 
 had become so favorably impressed with the 
 satisfactory condition of his sister that he was 
 most painstaking in his efforts to make her 
 daughter happy during her stay in Denmark. 
 
RESIDENCE IN THE SECOND WARD. 109 
 
 Towards the wife of her Uncle Anthon, the girl 
 entertained deep-seated feelings of affection. 
 To her mind the wife of this uncle was in the 
 higher qualities of life a most angelic woman. 
 On her return to Utah she visited, in 1893, 
 the World's Fair in Chicago.'' 
 
 "The little community in Forest Dale con- 
 tinued to grow in numbers until it was found, 
 in time, necessary to organize it into a branch, 
 which was done on the 26th of May, 1895. 
 Royal B. Young was placed as presiding elder. 
 Later Elder Young was appointed first coun- 
 selor to Bishop Driggs of the Sugar House 
 Ward and James Jensen was then made the 
 presiding priest. Through the generosity of 
 George M. Cannon, the old farm-house of 
 President Young was converted into the first 
 meeting-house of Forest Dale." 
 
 At this place Elder Jensen stopped to relate 
 a peculiar circumstance of the death of Bishop 
 Iverson's father, which took place on the 21st 
 of March, 1895. "J^st ten years before, in 
 1885, I was invited to the bedside of Brother 
 Iverson, who it was thought would not long 
 survive in this life. As I approached his bed 
 he remarked, 'I have asked the Lord to ex- 
 
110 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 tend my life that I may raise my little boy who 
 is a cripple, and I have just received from Him 
 the promise that I would be granted ten years 
 more.' I was at his bedside again ten years 
 from that time, and as I approached him he 
 remarked, 'The time of the promise made me 
 has been fulfilled and I must go. You can 
 pray for me if you wish to, but it will do no 
 good. My hour has come and I must go.' And 
 he closed his eyes in death. It was a strange 
 circumstance and made such an impression up- 
 on my mind that I shall never forget it." 
 
 The period covered by this chapter was one 
 of strenuous agricultural efforts. To the cul- 
 tivation of the soil he gave both hand and 
 heart. We need not therefore wonder that he 
 relates with pride some of his accomplish- 
 ments as a farmer. Any man might feel proud 
 that he had raised as many as seventy-four 
 bushels of wheat to the acre and that he had 
 averaged during a period of three years seven 
 hundred bushels of potatoes to the acre. That 
 was certainly a generous response of the soil 
 to enlightened labor. 
 
BISHOP OF FOREST DALE. Ill 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BISHOP OF FOREST DALE. 
 
 Forest Dale was organized as an independent 
 ward of the Church, August 23, 1896. Its 
 boundaries were established as follows : Com- 
 mencing at the intersection of 12th south and 
 9th east, the eastern boundary extended from 
 12th to 13th south ; the southern boundary west 
 along 13th south to 5th east; the western boun- 
 dary, north along 5th east to 12th south ; thence 
 on 12th south to 9th east. James Jensen be- 
 came its bishop, and Royal B. Young and 
 James Hendry were his counselors. 
 
 The ward over which the new Bishop was 
 called to preside has a peculiar historical im- 
 portance that entitles it to a passing notice in 
 the narration of events associated with the life 
 of James Jensen. The early history of the ward 
 has been compiled with painstaking care by 
 the ward historian, Stephen H. Love, to whom 
 I am indebted for the account hereinafter giv- 
 en. Elder Love in turn acknowledges his in- 
 
112 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 debtedness to Hamilton G. Park, an employee 
 of President Young, for much of the informa- 
 tion which he was able to gather concerning 
 the early history of the place. 
 
 In earlier days, what subsequently became 
 Forest Dale, was known as the "Forest" Farm, 
 which occupied originally an area of one 
 square mile. In the location of farms in the 
 early history of Salt Lake Valley, President 
 Young acquired the ownership of the place. It 
 was noted among other things as the place on 
 which the first sugar beets were ever grown 
 within the territory. Seed for the beets was 
 brought over from France by Apostle John 
 Taylor. Machinery was subsequently imported 
 for the manufacture of sugar. The beets met 
 the required standard of saccharine; but the 
 machinery, primitive when compared with that 
 at present employed in the manufacture of 
 sugar, was not satisfactory. These early efforts, 
 therefore, resulted in a failure. The beets, 
 however, were used for making molasses. 
 
 The next important thing for which Forest 
 Dale was noted in the early history of Utah, 
 was the introduction of alfalfa. Hamilton 
 Park gives the following account of his ex- 
 
BISHOP OF FOREST DALE. 113 
 
 periences in handling the hay : "I shall never 
 forget when the first alfalfa was about ready 
 to cut. President Young advertised for some 
 one who knew how to cure the hay. He se- 
 cured no one and the task fell upon me. After 
 cutting the lucern it was put into the barn. In- 
 side it began to smoulder and smoke and I 
 was obliged to take it out of the stable for 
 fear the barn might burn down." 
 
 The third item of historical importance was 
 the introduction of silk production in Utah. 
 Elder Park gives the following interesting ac- 
 count of that effort: "William Buttle, Wil- 
 liam Hart, and I planted the seed from which 
 the old mulberry grove there grew. President 
 Young came tq the farm with the seed and 
 said, 'Hamilton, I want about an acre of 
 ground prepared. It must be put in good 
 shape because this is precious seed all the 
 way from France.* He handed me a package 
 containing between two and three pounds of 
 what looked to me like mustard seed. We 
 prepared the ground carefully, plowed, and 
 harrowed it five or six times. President Young 
 then came down to see us plant it. He asked 
 us to plant the seed thick because some of it 
 
114 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 might not germinate. We did so and the young 
 trees came up as thick as the hair on a dog's 
 back. The trees grew rapidly and then a 
 cocoonery was built. Silk worms were im- 
 ported from France and a Frenchman who un- 
 derstood sericulture was brought over. In ad- 
 dition to the interest hich the President took 
 in the matter, Aunt Zina appeared to be the 
 leading spirit, and quite a number of his daugh- 
 ters took an active interest in the enterprise. 
 Aunt Zina was very faithful but the girls did 
 not find in the work so much enthusiasm. When 
 the little worms hatched out and went to work 
 on the fresh green leaves, we thought the ques- 
 tion of producing silk in Utah was solved. 
 We soon discovered, however, that it took a 
 great deal of patience, skill, and expert work 
 before the silk fabric was produced, but its 
 production was finally accomplished.'* Those 
 who have witnessed the tedious process by 
 which silk is grown and woven, in European 
 countries like Italy and France, will easily ap- 
 preciate the difficulties which could not be sur- 
 mounted in those early days of Utah. 
 
 Of special interest historically, is the old 
 farm-house which still stands as a landmark in 
 
BISHOP OF FOREST DALE. 115 
 
 the early history of Utah. According to Mr. 
 Park it was commenced in the fall of 1861 and 
 completed in 1863. President Young often en- 
 joyed his work there, and looked upon it with 
 feelings of pride. It was there that distin- 
 guished travelers between California and the 
 East were often entertained through the hospi- 
 tality of President Young. "We thought it a 
 great house in those days. In fact, it was 
 the best farm house and stood on the best farm 
 in the valley," said Park. After the death of 
 President Young this historical building came 
 into the ownership of Apostle Brigham Young, 
 from whom its ownership was conveyed to 
 John W. Young, who in turn sold it to George 
 M. Cannon in 1889. 
 
 The conception of this beautiful suburb 
 originated with George M. Cannon, who di- 
 vided up the land covered by his purchase in- 
 to building lots. He began at once the settle- 
 ment of the place by inviting purchasers from 
 among those he believed to be good citizens 
 and agreeable neighbors. The rapid growth 
 of the community was largely the result of his 
 efforts in secufing settlers and street car trans- 
 portation facilities. The community will al- 
 
116 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 ways be a monument to the foresight of the 
 man who is often honorably mentioned as the 
 "Father of Forest Dale." 
 
 The first movement for the settlement of the 
 community began in 1890 when Royal B. 
 Young and his brother Joseph erected choice 
 homes on 5th east street. About the same time 
 the homes of George M. Cannon, James Jen- 
 sen, Thomas Henderson, Orson Rummel, N. 
 S. Timpson, and Stephen Love were erected. 
 The following year brought to the "Dale'' Jo- 
 seph W. Summerhays, M. C. Morris, James 
 McMurrin, and William Spry. The social life 
 in Forest Dale in those early days was so pleas- 
 ant that many were attracted to the new com- 
 munity because of the simple life and heart- 
 felt recreation of the people. Amongst the 
 people there the spirit of fraternal good will 
 prevailed. There was a mutual interest in the 
 welfare of its inhabitants that has perhaps 
 never been excelled anywhere throughout the 
 Church. PubHc and leading men gladly ac- 
 cepted invitations to visit Forest Dale and to 
 address the Saints in the old farm-house, which 
 had been tastefully arranged and furnished for 
 public worship. Ward organizations sprang 
 
BISHOP OF FOREST DALE. 117 
 
 rapidly into existence and the population of the 
 community grew with wonderful rapidity. Th- 
 new comers consisted largely of progressive 
 young men who were ambitious to bring about 
 ideal conditions in the growth of their chosen 
 home town. Public improvements were made 
 as rapidly as their means would permit and 
 finally a beautiful meeting-house was con- 
 structed. In its surroundings and architecture 
 its beauty is perhaps no where excelled 
 throughout all the Church. As a rule the homes 
 while commodious are unpretentious. Good 
 order prevails. Friendship among the people 
 and brotherly love are proverbial. Forest Dale 
 in 1910 became the largest ward in the Granite 
 Stake of Zion, and it is said that Granite is the 
 largest stake in the Church. 
 
 Interwoven in the history of Forest Dale 
 ward is the life of James Jensen who has been 
 from its organization loyally and lovingly sus- 
 tained by probably every member of the ward. 
 No one has ever questioned his peculiar fitness 
 for the leadership which he has enjoyed. There 
 follows more detailed narration of the indi- 
 vidual part he played in the up-building of the 
 community and the honors he has received at 
 
118 JAMES JENSEN - 
 
 the hands of the people over whom he pre- 
 sides, which are the best evidence of the peo- 
 ple's devotion and loving confidence in their 
 leader. 
 
 The Bishop received his appointment with 
 some reluctance. He had taken up the duties 
 of his office with many misgivings about his 
 ability to carry the responsibilities of his call- 
 ing. The people did not share the fears which 
 troubled him, and they were anxious that he 
 should know how pleased they were with his 
 administration. On the evening of the 8th of 
 September, 1897, they tendered him at a sur- 
 prise party in the Farm House a beautiful 
 testimonial of their esteem and confidence. As 
 a souvenir of the occasion he was presented 
 by them with a gold headed cane. (See ap- 
 pendix A.) 
 
 After reading to the subject of this sketch 
 the early history of Forest Dale Ward, I was 
 told that it might be all right except for one 
 thing, and that was the failure to recognize 
 the important part taken by George M. Can- 
 non in everything relating to the welfare of 
 the community, religiously and materially. I 
 make hereby the honorable amende and give 
 
BISHOP OF FOREST DALE. 119 
 
 the following words emphatically spoken by 
 our good Bishop. 
 
 "No two men in Forest Dale have contrib- 
 uted so much money and so much time to the 
 ward as George M. Cannon. - Really I might 
 make this statement stronger than that. It 
 would take several to equal him in contribu- 
 tion; and what to my mind is equally impor- 
 tant, if not more so, is the most excellent judg- 
 ment he has always shown upon every ques- 
 tion. The people of Forest Dale, as a rule, 
 don't begin to understand how much Brother 
 Cannon has done for Forest Dale, and I could 
 not consent to have any words of praise given 
 in behalf of our community which he did not 
 share. Of course, the town will always be a 
 monument to his wisdom, to his good advice, 
 and to his generosity. We have, it is true, a 
 large number of big-hearted men and women 
 whose helpfulness has been all that could be 
 desired, but I think that this special mention 
 is due Brother Cannon; and if it were not 
 given, those who read the book would feel some 
 disappointment by reason of such an omission. 
 
 ''On February 3, 1899 we gave Brother 
 George M. Cannon a surprise in recognition 
 
120 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 of what he had done for the ward and you 
 may insert the following statement and reso- 
 lution offered by the Bishop and unanimously 
 adopted by all present : 
 
 Forest Dale, Utah, February s^d, i8gg. 
 Dear Brother, George M. Cannon. 
 
 We have long felt that you should know that the 
 prominent part which you have taken in building up 
 this ideal community is appreciated by every officer 
 and member of this united, loving, and God-fearing 
 people now composing Forest Dale Ward. 
 
 Since the year 1891, when you and your amiable 
 wife and loving children made Forest Dale your 
 home, we have learned to know you, and to love you. 
 Your frank, loving, and gentle ways, with rich and 
 poor alike, have won for you a tender spot in the 
 heart of every man, woman, and child in this ward. 
 
 Your ability and sound judgment have caused your 
 counsel to be eagerly sought, which has been 
 most pleasantly and willingly given. Your kind and 
 good advice in meetings, on street cars, and on the 
 road side, to our boys and girls, has gained for you 
 the lasting gratitude of many parents and the love 
 and esteem of our young people. 
 
 We owe to you, esteemed friend, much of our suc- 
 cess as a ward. You have not only furnished us 
 with this dear old house in which we are now as- 
 sembled to do you honor, but you have been among 
 the foremost to assist in making the necessary 
 changes for the accommodation of our people. 
 
BISHOP OF FOREST DALE. 121 
 
 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that we, the 
 people of Forest Dale, tender Brother George M. 
 Cannon our sincere thanks, kuidest regards, and best 
 wishes. We admire him as a citizen, a neighbor, and 
 a Latter-day Saiint; and we unitedly say, God bless 
 Brother George M. Cannon and his family. 
 James Jensen, Bishop. 
 
 In behalf of the people of 
 
 Forest Dale Ward. 
 
 The Forest Dale meetinghouse will always 
 be linked in the memories of the people with 
 the life and labors of the man who first pre- 
 sided within its walls over the congregations of 
 the people. A special meeting was held in the 
 old Farm House, December 17, 1900, when the 
 question of erecting a new ward house was 
 taken into consideration. The Bishop presided 
 at the meeting where he submitted to those 
 present the following for their deliberation and 
 decision : 
 
 1st — Do we need a ward house? 
 
 2nd — Do we want such a house ? 
 
 3rd — What kind of a house do we want? 
 
 4th — Will we stand by each other in carry- 
 ing the decision of this meeting into effect ? 
 
 After the decision was reached, a building 
 
122 _ JAMES JENSEN 
 
 committee was appointed and unanimously 
 sustained. Thus began the beautiful ward 
 home that now adorns Forest Dale. 
 
 Subsequently the matter of a new ward 
 house was submitted to a congregation as- 
 sembled in Sabbath worship. The Bishop sub- 
 mitted the question of collecting the means for 
 its erection. The Saints were unanimous in 
 the decision that allotments be made to the sev- 
 eral famihes of the ward, and that the com- 
 mittee chosen by the ward that day act in as- 
 signing to the members the several amounts the 
 committee believed each one able to pay. 
 
 "The response of the people to the demands 
 of this new enterprise has in it some of the most 
 beautiful recollections of my life," said the Bish- 
 op. ''All were satisfied with the allotments made 
 and many paid more than they agreed to. There 
 was a most pleasing enthusiasm among a num- 
 ber of the brothers and sisters who made their 
 contribution to our ward house a source of 
 genuine pride. One of the members of the 
 ward made contributions for and in behalf of 
 thirteen of our widowed sisters, but as far as 
 I know, they never learned who the person was 
 that so kindly remembered them. Some of the 
 
BISHOP OF FOREST DALE. 123 
 
 widows to whom five dollars each was alloted 
 increased their contributions sixfold. A broth- 
 er who was at the time presiding over the 
 European mission learning of this generous ef- 
 fort on the part of our widows sent for their 
 names and forwarded each, upon receiving 
 them, a check for the full amount of the sum 
 donated by them. Out of respect to his wishes 
 in the matter, I am not permitted to use his 
 name. What to these sisters was more prec- 
 ious than the money received were the letters 
 containing the good will and blessings of their 
 author. 
 
 'There are many circumstances connected 
 with the generous contributions of the people 
 that might be related if I felt at liberty to give 
 the names of the donors and the expressions 
 of their good cheer under all circumstances. I 
 would like very much to mention the names of 
 those most active and faithful in the erection of 
 our new ward house if I could do so without 
 any appearance of partiaHty. The people, how- 
 ever, have in their minds those men and wom- 
 en who are always generous, even enthusiastic 
 in all they do. Brother Melvin Morris was 
 
124 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 oar treasurer. What a faithful man he was in 
 that office! 
 
 "The corner-stone was laid in 1902. John W. 
 Taylor pronounced the benediction. The build- 
 ing was completed and dedicated on the 23rd 
 of July, 1905. President Joseph F. Smith of- 
 fered the dedicatory prayer. (Appendix B.) 
 The building has cost us in round numbers 
 twenty-six thousand dollars, and the Presi- 
 dency of the Church kindly remembered us in 
 our efforts. 
 
 "Some of the choicest memories of my life 
 are associated with the old Farm House. The 
 ward was not so large in those early days and 
 there was among the people a brotherly and 
 sisterly love which was really beautiful and in- 
 spiring. Our gatherings there were devoid of 
 all ceremony and affectation and we were just 
 like one large, happy family. In that old build- 
 ing there was something so sincere in our wor- 
 ship and so simple, so free from jealousy, envy, 
 or disagreeable circumstances, that I really left 
 the dear old place with feelings of regret. Of 
 course we had outgrown it and needed more 
 room, but we shall all remember those happy 
 days. 
 
BISHOP OF FOREST DALE. 125 
 
 "The first meeting held by the ward m the 
 new building was December 6, 1903. It was- 
 a sort of farewell parting to our old ward 
 home. The spirit of familiarity and jovial re- 
 lations was shown in the poems read by Broth- 
 er Ashton on that occasion.'' 
 
 'The last fast meeting held in the old 
 building made such a peculiar and lasting 
 impression on my feelings that I shall never 
 forget some of the things which took place 
 at the time. One circumstance I would 
 like to relate before closing what I have 
 to say. It was a fast day. Just after 
 the meeting opened, we set apart some of 
 our young people as religion class teachers. 
 Among them was Miss Louie Morris and it fell 
 to Brother Royal B. Young to lead in prayer. 
 After pronouncing the usual blessing upon her, 
 he hesitated a moment and then in words of 
 prayer he promised her the gift of tongues. 
 'The use of which,' he continued, 'you shall this 
 day make.' When Brother Young sat down 
 by me after this part of our services was com- 
 pleted I remarked, 'How did you dare make 
 such a promise?' He was evidently as fearful 
 as I was about the words he had spoken, and 
 
126 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 the meeting went on, but as it neared the end 
 I became more and more fearful about what 
 had been said by way of promise to our young 
 sister. Brother Royal, I noticed, was himself 
 very nervous. We were about to close our 
 meeting when Sister Louie Morris arose and 
 spoke in tongues. She was in the choir be- 
 hind the seats occupied by the bishopric. I 
 turned and looked at her. Her hands moved 
 out gently over us and I do not think in my 
 life I ever beheld a more beautiful face. She 
 spoke in a strange language and in a free, easy, 
 and soothing manner. Her words carried with 
 them a strong conviction to my mind. To 
 Brother Royal B. Young the power of inter- 
 pretation was given. She spoke of him and 
 others and in directing her remarks to him she 
 said, 'Other and great trials still await you and 
 you should be prepared to meet them.' To 
 my mind the spirit of that fast meeting was a 
 beautiful testimony of the true spirit of wor- 
 ship which we had always enjoyed in that 
 building. It was an appropriate ending to our 
 fast day services there." 
 
 While most of Bishop Jensen's time was oc- 
 cupied in the affairs of the ward, he found 
 
BISHOP OF FOREST DALE. 127 
 
 some diversion by reason of his interests in 
 Canada. A few years before, some of his boys 
 had gone to that country for the purpose of 
 estabHshing homes. Later on he made some 
 investments; there with the view of aiding his 
 children in their pioneer work in that land. His 
 son, WilHam H., and Miss Pitt were the first 
 couple married in Raymond, and as a reward 
 for this novel and pioneer movement, J. Wil- 
 liam Knight gave them ten dollars, and Charles 
 McCarty, one week's entertainment at the hotel 
 free. 
 
 For some time Canada occupied a prominent 
 place in the thoughts and feelings of the 
 Bishop. Three of his sons were there, and his 
 daughter, Annie, wife of Soren Neve, joined 
 her brothers, and was there in 1904 in a crit- 
 ically dangerous condition when the Bishop 
 and his good wife hastened to the bedside of 
 his daughter whose home they reached on the 
 13th of February, 1904. 
 
 In Alberta, in February, they sometimes 
 have delightful days and sometimes the ther- 
 mometer may be so far below zero as to con- 
 geal the marrow in the bones. When they 
 reached Sterling, they found one of those aw- 
 
128 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 ful drops in the thermometer, and through a 
 misunderstanding they were not met by their 
 sons at the station where they aHghted. The 
 distance from SterHng to the John M. Cannon 
 farm where their sons lived was only five 
 miles. Their great anxiety to learn the condi- 
 tion of their daughter who was then in Ma- 
 grath would admit of no delay. A mile's 
 travel at that time was sufficient to endanger 
 their lives unless they were prepared for such 
 an emergency. They found a man at the sta- 
 tion with a carriage drawn by a large slow- 
 moving span of draft horses. There were no 
 wraps in the carriage either for safety or com- 
 fort and they were not prepared by what they 
 brought with them for such an emergency. 
 Think of such a ride ! the thermometer twenty 
 degrees below zero, slow team, and no wraps. 
 "Well,'' the Bishop said, 'T thought we should 
 freeze to death," and the wonder is that both of 
 them did not freeze to death under the circum- 
 stances. He classes that event as one of the 
 very peculiar circumstances of his life. To say 
 the least it was a hazardous undertaking. 
 
 During the years 1906-7 nothing out of the 
 ordinary daily routine of life occurred as im- 
 
o 
 
BISHOP OF FOREST DALE. 129 
 
 portant history in the subject of this sketch. 
 The year 1908, after a little more than ten 
 year's services as Bishop of the ward, its mem- 
 bers in spontaneous unison prepared another 
 surprise for their good Bishop. The follow- 
 ing is copied from the Deseret Evening News: 
 
 TESTIMONIAL TO BISHOP JENSEN 
 
 'That the people of Forest Dale Ward high- 
 ly esteem Bishop James Jensen was abundantly 
 evidenced in the proceedings in the ward meet- 
 inghouse at the regular services on Sunday 
 evening. Under the plea of devoting an eve- 
 ning to the auxiliary organizations of the ward, 
 a committee obtained permission from the bish- 
 opric to arrange a program and conduct the 
 exercises that evening. Word was then quietly 
 circulated through the ward that the evening 
 was intended to be devoted to not only the 
 auxiliary work, but also as a testimonial to the 
 Bishop. 
 
 "At the hour for the meeting the regular seats 
 were completely filled and chairs were brought 
 in and every foot of available room occupied, 
 while some late comers were obliged to remain 
 
 10 
 
130 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 standing. Brief addresses were then made by 
 representatives of the priesthood of the ward 
 and of each auxihary organization, after which 
 , written sentiments of the esteem in which the 
 Bishop is held by the people were read by Jo- 
 seph W. Musser. These sentiments opened 
 with those from the counselors of the Bishop 
 and included all grades of the priesthood of 
 the ward and the auxiliary organizations. They 
 had been carefully typewritten, then signed by 
 the representatives of the people and elegantly 
 bound in limp leather, the inscription on the 
 back being done in gold leaf in the best style 
 of the Deseret Nezirs bindery. (Appendix C.) 
 "Counselor Royal B. Young then, on behalf 
 of the people, in a few well chosen words, pre- 
 sented the Bishop with a fine Waltham watch 
 in a solid gold case, upon the inside of which 
 were inscribed the words, *To Bishop James 
 Jensen, from the people of Forest Dale ward, 
 Jan. 19, 1908.' The Bishop was deeply af- 
 fected by the sentiments expressed and modest- 
 ly disclaimed any actions on his part entitling 
 him to the consideration shown, but thanking 
 the people for their expressions of esteem and 
 good will and asking their help to make the 
 
BISHOP OF FOREST DALE. 131 
 
 ward a model in union and in progresive spirit. 
 George M. Cannon had been chosen by the 
 committee to conduct the exercises. One of the 
 most pleasing features of the evening was the 
 singing — solos,' ladies' chorus and the choir, 
 all the music being arranged and conducted by 
 James T. Dunbar, the ward chorister.'' 
 
 The year 1909 brought some changes in the 
 ward organization. Brother Royal B. Young, 
 who had for so many years served as first coun- 
 selor to the Bishop, resigned amid expressions 
 of the heart-felt regrets of the entire ward, 
 who will always hold in loving memory his 
 cheerful and encouraging testimonies and ad- 
 monitions. Elder James Hendry was then se- 
 lected first counselor and Eugene M. Cannon 
 second counselor in the bishopric. 
 
 The summer of 1910 brought to Bishop Jen- 
 sen apprehensions about his physical condition. 
 He felt that unless some drastic remedy were 
 undertaken that he could not long enjoy life. 
 On the 14th of July that year he therefore un- 
 derwent a surgical operation at the L. D. S. 
 Hospital. His condition was so critcal that it 
 needed the faithful and constant watch-care of 
 
132 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 his wife, who for ten years had been the presi- 
 dent of the ReHef Society of the ward. That 
 she might devote undisturbed her attentions 
 thereafter to her husband, she was honorably 
 released from her calling after years of faithful 
 service. The members of the ward for weeks 
 received daily the reports of their Bishop's con- 
 dition as he lay in the hospital. Loving hands 
 carried almost daily bouquets of flowers to the 
 sick room that he might be animated and re- 
 freshed by their beauty and sweet .perfume. 
 
 He remembers the kind ministrations of his 
 nurse, Miss Minnie Wheeler, and speaks of her 
 with feelings of gratitude. He has little to say 
 of himself or of his thought and feelings as he 
 lay upon his sick bed wondering about the con- 
 ditions of eternity. However, he often men- 
 tioned the faithful services of his kind coun- 
 selors and Brother Weiler, the ward clerk, who 
 were all so indefatigable in looking after the 
 welfare and progress of the ward. 
 
 In concluding this tribute to the memory of 
 Bishop James Jensen, the writer undertakes 
 to say in behalf of the good people over whom 
 their faithful Bishop has presided for so many 
 years, that he has inspired them with patriotic 
 
BISHOP OF FOREST DALE. 133 
 
 and loyal determination to accomplish the best 
 within them. Their wish to please and honor 
 him has manifested itself in the unity and good 
 cheer of the home, in cleanly and orderly home 
 surroundings, and in their devotion to Sabbath 
 worship. In the erection of homes in Forest 
 Dale people have unanimously and cheerfully 
 respected the wishes of their Bishop who has 
 kindly admonished them to respect the wishes 
 and feelings of the people in the position and 
 erection of their houses. It is an orderly com- 
 munity. Its beautiful surroundings and good 
 order will remain a testimonial to his faithful 
 and devoted services. 
 
134 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CHARACTER SKETCH. 
 
 Few bishops in the Church have been more 
 highly respected by the people over whom they 
 presided than is Bishop James Jensen of the 
 Forest Dale Ward. His administration of the 
 duties of the important office to which he has 
 been called has won the admiration of his flock 
 and commanded their prompt response and 
 heart-felt loyalty. 
 
 Bishop Jensen is a man somewhat large 
 in stature, of muscular form, and active move- 
 ments. His powers of observation and reason 
 are well developed, and his mental activity of 
 a high order. He naturally has felt the ab- 
 sence of an early school training whose advan- 
 tages he had the power of mind and heart to 
 put to superior use. He clearly comprehends 
 the resources which a better training would 
 have placed at his command, and he there- 
 fore has had some regrets which touched him 
 deeply. He never underestimated the value of 
 an education, because his mental grasp, was so 
 
CHARACTER SKETCH. 135 
 
 broad and his judgment so well balanced that 
 he could have put' the lessons of the school to 
 most excellent service. His reasoning' pov^ers 
 qualified him to grasp the general problems of 
 life. He approaches men as a man of affairs 
 and takes a deep interest in public questions. 
 
 He is not a man of adventurous excesses, 
 and has kept himself well within safe limits. 
 His ideas are never extravagant and are gen- 
 erally well considered before they are ex- 
 pressed. His mental reservations constitute 
 one of his chief characteristics. *'I have my 
 own opinions all the same," is a commonplace 
 expression that tells the whole story of an 
 independent judgment. He has thought things 
 out for himself, and must therefore from con- 
 viction be in harmony with other peoples' the- 
 ories before he is ready to accept them. 
 
 His lofty spiritual and intellectual nature has 
 made it quite impossible for him to do anything 
 small or mean. "I would be above it,'' is the 
 language of the man when taking exceptions to 
 things that were unworthy or deceptive. James 
 Jensen has never deceived any one. His way 
 and methods are in the open, everybody 
 knows that he is on the side of his best judg- 
 
136 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 ment and of his conscience, and they are usu- 
 ally sound. When he puts his hand to a task, 
 he gives to it the best there is in him, and 
 then after due deliberation. He has always 
 made a study of every possibility of failure. 
 He is scrupulously anxious to be on the right 
 side of every question, of every undertaking. 
 He prefers to make due allowance for other 
 mens' failures in public life, arrd has something 
 generally in reserve to make good that which is 
 lacking in them. He is rarely the first man to 
 launch an enterprise or devise some needed 
 improvement ; but when once he puts his hand 
 to the plow, he is one of the last to look back. 
 In the race of life, he has been careful not to 
 take on a pace which he could not keep up. 
 
 Bishop Jensen belongs to a class of men who 
 grow, grow all their lives. His last days are 
 his best. His reserve powers are not like those 
 of many — exhausted in early life. The super- 
 abundance of vitality with which he has been 
 endowed fed both his spiritual and intellectual 
 nature. He sees things more clearly as time 
 goes on. His reasoning powers have grown 
 with experience and with their application. He 
 has out-grown in a large measure timidity 
 
CHARACTER SKETCH. 137 
 
 and has gradually felt the self-confidence which 
 comes from accuracy and care. The spirit of 
 equality has developed within him as he has 
 felt his own strength come up to that of his 
 associates. He has been so unconscious of his 
 own qualities of head and heart that the great- 
 est mistake of his public Hfe has been the in- 
 feriority he attaches to them. From discussing 
 a limited number of questions in the beginning, 
 he has extended his horizon to the view of all 
 questions necessary to the well-being of those 
 over whom he has presided. He has grown 
 more rapidly in the estimation of others than 
 in his own estimation. To them his latent re- 
 sources have been more apparent. He has 
 aimed intellectually more at the safe side of a 
 proposition that at a brilliant display of wis- 
 dom. 
 
 Though he has laid no claim to any special 
 knowledge of theological questions, his judg- 
 ment on religious subjects has always been 
 sound. The people therefore have felt that h^ 
 was a ^'safe" man to follow and no one has 
 doubted him half so much as he has doubted 
 himself. His self-depreciation has never been 
 shared by the members of his ward, and this 
 
138 JAMES JENSEN . 
 
 has been, perhaps, the weakest point in the 
 general character of the man. He, all along, 
 has been painfully afraid of mistakes, and a 
 mistake has been so much dreaded at times 
 that he hesitated where others have been fear- 
 less. 
 
 Such a character as Bishop James Jensen will 
 grow in the appreciation and memories of the 
 people long after his own generation has passed 
 away. It would, perhaps, not be correct to 
 speak of him as a model Bishop, yet he has 
 been such an example of what we regard as 
 the highest type of man in that office that some 
 analysis of the character of the man will be 
 helpful to every Bishop in the Church, and to 
 every one who takes pride in the Bishop of the 
 ward in which he lives. His life and the qual- 
 ity of his heart and mind aie worthy of re- 
 spectful attention by all who esteem the high 
 office which he has filled so admirably and with 
 such satisfaction to his people, for they are his 
 — he possesses their love and loyalty. Let 
 others see him as his own see him. 
 
 The humble circumstances of his birth, his 
 early struggles, and the disadvantages with 
 which he had to meet the hardships of a com- 
 
CHARACTER SKETCH. 139 
 
 munity in process of transformation all made 
 him clearly conscious of what ''might have 
 been/' He has reckoned his losses in the many 
 unequal struggles to which he has been sub- 
 jected and sought to "make good" where the 
 possibilities were in his favor. He has kept his 
 eye on the people, especially on those whose 
 qualifications he admired, and has made their 
 lives profitable to his own. He has been all his 
 life unconsciously looking up. That habit has 
 made him painfully conscious when called to 
 responsible action himself. 
 
 It would be wrong to speak of Bishop Jen- 
 sen as an uneducated man. He has been a 
 close student of human nature and of human 
 endeavor. His knowledge of men and the 
 underlying quality of their lives has been truly 
 remarkable. Such knowledge has come to him 
 intuitively and he could not easily be shaken 
 in the estimates which he makes of others. 
 He has never given much attention to the de- 
 tails by which he arrived at a conclusion re- 
 specting men or things. He has been given 
 the power to grasp things in their entirety. 
 His judgments, therefore, are not broken or 
 fragmentary. They are the finished product of 
 
140 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 his mind. He is consequently not given to ar- 
 guments. You have his ideas and you may 
 take them for what they are worth. Con- 
 scious of the wholesale manner in which he 
 reaches conclusions, he gives them out spar- 
 ingly. Then, he knows himself better even 
 than he knows others; and being honest with 
 himself, he is not easily reached by flattery, 
 nor warped by other people's views. 
 
 Besides, he has felt keenly the responsibility 
 of every act which touched the welfare and 
 happiness of others. That responsibility he as- 
 sumed fully and honestly. No man ever suf- 
 fered for a mistake which James Jensen shifted 
 from his own shoulders. Expecting to meet 
 manfully the full results of whatever he did, 
 he has felt compelled to follow an unbiased 
 judgment rather than a prejudice imbibed from 
 other men's opinions. If he felt uncertain, he 
 said so, and sought the aid of others in making 
 his way clear. When it is said that he reaches 
 conclusions in a wholesale manner, it must not 
 be inferred that he reaches them hastily. On 
 the contrary, he takes his time. His uncertain- 
 ties and his unripened judgments he rarely 
 
CHARACTER SKETCH. 141 
 
 imposes upon others. If it were necessary to 
 wait a month or a year, he waited. 
 
 Bishop Jensen is a wise man, a man of sound 
 judgment. Wisdom is the fruit of the spirit 
 rather than of the mind ; but there is a beauti- 
 ful harmony between what he feels and what 
 he thinks. There are few disproportions between 
 his teachings and his conduct. He is extreme- 
 ly sensitive to inconsistencies. That word "in- 
 consistent" often falls from his lips. Incon- 
 sistencies annoy him and make him impatient. 
 He is quick to detect them in others and is al- 
 ways on his guard against them in himself. 
 His admonitions are therefore always timely. 
 What he says is taken seriously, and the truth 
 of his words are confirmed as much in the feel- 
 ings as in the minds of those who hear him. 
 His unquestioned sincerity and simple honesty 
 cause him to speak as one having authority, 
 though the authority with which he is clothed 
 is never conspicuous. He is more timid in the 
 exercise of his authority than are those over 
 whom it is exercised. No man or woman has 
 ever feared his authority. People have loved 
 it and magnified its importance a hundredfold 
 more than he has. He dreaded its exercise, 
 
142 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 if by its exercise it was to reprove, or reproach. 
 
 He has never gone about conscious that he 
 was Bishop of the ward. He has had to be 
 reminded by some pubHc manifestations of 
 loyalty. The people have not let him forget 
 that he is their Bishop, and himce the frequent 
 surprises and repeated evidences of their es- 
 teem. His native simplicity and untiring ser- 
 vice have exalted the office he holds in the es- 
 timation of the people of Forest Dale. They 
 have made it by their loyalty and devotion a 
 great honor to be a bishop, especially their 
 Bishop. But if they were jealous of the dignity 
 of the office which he held, and exalted his au- 
 thority, they have never thought of wresting 
 any exercise of it from him. He knows well 
 his responsibility and has never surrendered it. 
 He keeps his hand firmly on the helm, as 
 though he were a pilot sensible of his obligation 
 to keep the ship of church in safe course and 
 in the right direction. The simplicity of his 
 conduct makes one think that it is the simplest 
 thing in the world to be wise. If wisdom is a 
 simple thing, it does not follow that all simple 
 things are wisdom. 
 
 Saying that Bishop Jensen is not given to 
 
CHARACTER SKETCH. 143 
 
 analysis does not say that he lacks the powers 
 of discrimination. He is quick to classify 
 men and events. He works thoughtfully at 
 the problems he has to solve in dealing with 
 the affairs of his ward. ''It will have to work 
 itself out/' he is wont to say. He well under- 
 stands that there are some problems that only 
 time and patience can solve. He is not 
 therefore a "meddler" whose interference rath- 
 er hinders than helps. He has patience to 
 await the results of time, and the good sense 
 to profit by his observations, and in turn make 
 them helpful to others. 
 
 His sense of the peculiar fitness of things 
 is clear. To him there is a proper time and a 
 proper place for both words and conduct. "It 
 didn't strike me just right," he would say of 
 some illy timed remark. His spirit is attuned 
 to the harmonies of time and place, and he suf- 
 fers when there is a discord in his surround- 
 ings. Many a man and woman will remember 
 his nervous, restless shrugs and unhappy facial 
 expressions as he listened on the stand to some 
 extravagant expressions, or to some illogical 
 or inconsistent statement. He has a fine sense 
 of appreciation for the humorous when the oc- 
 
144 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 casion is fitting, but he never enjoys incon- 
 gruous joking from the pulpit during the hours 
 of worship. How often a painful expression 
 has stolen over his face as he has listened to 
 some foohsh witticism. His face is generally 
 a good index for the guidance of the audience 
 in the matter of questionable utterances. With 
 him, worship is an act of the greatest solemn- 
 ity, and he is greatly disturbed by any discord- 
 ant notes. ''I don't like it, but what shall I 
 say." That he did not like it was enough for 
 those who could understand. There are prac- 
 tical jokers, perhaps, in every ward. There 
 have been such in his, but they have been re- 
 strained. "It takes time, and I prefer that they 
 themselves see how wrong and foolish it is to 
 desecrate the Sabbath by such inappropriate 
 remarks,'' he would say when others grew 
 critically impatient. 
 
 Bishop Jensen is not a preacher, but his 
 speaking is always enjoyed. It is to the 
 point and comes from the heart. He is not 
 so much concerned about teaching things that 
 are new and refreshing as he is about peo- 
 ple living up to the knowledge they alread)^ 
 have. ''What "are we doing as individuals and 
 
CHARACTER SKETCH. 145 
 
 as a ward?" is a question he frequently puts 
 to the people. ''Let us stop and reflect," and 
 he persuaded people to stop and reflect — a most 
 excellent practice. When he said "don't'' it 
 was a heart-felt desire which all understood. It 
 is his presence in the meetings and his well 
 known wishes that govern the character of 
 the worship of his ward more than anything he 
 says. When for any reason he is absent, he is 
 greatly missed. 
 
 He always comes to his meetings ready — 
 ready to worship; His mind is on it, and 
 there is a prayerful desire that actuates him 
 in all his movements and directions. His mind 
 is not wandering, his interests are not di- 
 vided, and his devotions are not dissipated by 
 things foreign to the spirit of worship. He 
 is thinking of God, and wants every one else 
 to think of Him. People quickly learned to 
 follow him in public worship. They under- 
 stood his spirit and liked it. That has made 
 the meetings of Forest Dale interesting, even 
 when some or much of the talking was dry. 
 
 He also has a high sense of the dignity of 
 worship. There is order in all that is done. 
 The deacons are trained for- the service of the 
 
 U 
 
146 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 sacrament. It is a pleasing picture. The 
 priests, too, act with promptness and in the 
 spirit of their calling. It is remarkable how 
 well these young boys respond to the wishes 
 and instructions of their Bishop who does not 
 allow the observance of the Sabbath to sink to 
 the level of a commonplace duty. He takes 
 a special pride in worship and gives a dignity 
 to it which all enjoy. 
 
 A Bishop with such a reverend regard for 
 his Maker could not well neglect the rights 
 and privileges of His children. He imparts 
 feelings of dignity to every member of the 
 ward with whom he comes in contact. His 
 greetings are always cordial, and his interest 
 in every member of the ward is so genuine that 
 his presence makes people turn their thoughts 
 upon themselves rather than upon him. He is 
 a man who invites confidence, and secrets are 
 carefully guarded. His sympathetic nature 
 attracts people to him for comfort and consola- 
 tion. Who that has known him does not re- 
 member the earnest tone of his voice when he 
 has responded to the needs of those seeking 
 counsel or consolation. He is a man of an 
 affectionate nature — a nature enjoyed by every 
 
CHARACTER SKETCH. 147 
 
 living soul that comes within its influence. His 
 love is of that lofty character that has drawn all 
 people to him, young and old, male and female 
 alike. It is an impartial love which all may 
 partake of freely. There are no favored few, 
 no inner circle. He is everybodys' Bishop, be- 
 cause he loves everybody. Nor is his love 
 measured by any special standard of worthi- 
 ness. He loves because he enjoys loving, and 
 because he wants to do good. If it fails to re- 
 ceive a response, it is not his fault for it is given 
 freely. 
 
 What the people have thought of him is best 
 told in the testimonials which it was their 
 pleasure to give and his gratitude to receive. 
 They are a part of the record of this biography. 
 They do not, however, tell it all. They are as- 
 surances and appreciations. They are not pri- 
 vate opinions and do not express that close 
 personal relation that a few members of the 
 ward have enjoyed with him individually. The 
 people have known that he not only has the 
 desire to be just, but he has the ability to be so. 
 His nature is strong as well as loving. He has 
 not been misled by shams, and therefore the 
 people have trusted his judgment and felt the 
 
148 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 wisdom of the justice which he administered. 
 He is not easily shaken, nor does he lose his 
 moorings. 
 
 He has also been generous in his instincts, 
 and made due allowance for every phase of 
 human nature. His expectations have not been 
 so high respecting human nature that he has 
 been disappointed in the discovery of men's 
 weaknesses. Men have trusted to him their 
 faults as they have their virtues. His charity 
 has been broad enough to cover the former as 
 his appreciation has been full enough to value 
 the later. He has a standard of his own. He 
 might modify it, but he would not surrender 
 it. It has always been as good as the facts 
 justified, and new facts he has been willing to 
 accept and has given to them their proper bear- 
 ing in the formation of his judgment. 
 
 James Jensen is a good judge of human na- 
 ture. He does not hesitate to criticise when- 
 ever he feels it his duty to do so, but he is gen- 
 erally sure of his ground. His criticisms, how- 
 ever, have never degenerated into a prejudice 
 from which he could not divest himself. His 
 words of reproof were sent forth on a mission 
 for good as well as his words of confidence 
 
CHARACTER SKETCH. 149 
 
 and love. If they did not accomplish good, he 
 saw to it that they did no evil. It would be 
 hard to say just why Bishop Jensen is so. His 
 is a spirit whose powers and possibilities were 
 never well known till the hour of his public 
 responsibility came. He might have taken 
 these qualities of head and heart to the grave, 
 unknown, but they are his and they are a rich 
 inheritance for his eternal good, whether in 
 this world or in the world to come. The grave 
 is not the judgment scene. It lies away be- 
 yond. It is hard to believe that this Hfe has 
 seen the full possibilities of Bishop Jensen's 
 spirit. May it grow through all eternity, and 
 may he hereafter be all that God made it pos- 
 sible for him to be ! 
 
150 JAMES JENSEN 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 To Bishop James Jensen, from the Saints 
 OF Forest Dale Ward, September, 1897. 
 
 A small collection of sentiments of welcome 
 and confidence, tendered Bishop Jensen on the 
 occasion of the gathering in the "Old Farm 
 House,'' Forest Dale Ward, September 8, 1897, 
 in which all the members of the ward joined, 
 honoring their greatly beloved Bishop. 
 
 Bishop James Jensen: 
 
 We, your brethren in the Bishopric, in be- 
 half of ourselves and the teachers of Forest 
 Dale Ward, desire to express our love and es- 
 teem for you as a brother and a servant of God. 
 In the discharge of your duties as the Bishop 
 o£ this ward we pledge you our services in 
 holding up your hands, and in sustaining you. 
 Praying the blessings of God upon you and 
 yours, we subscribe ourselves, 
 Your brethren, 
 
 Royal B. Young, 
 James Hendry, 
 
APPENDIX A. 151 
 
 THE RELIEF SOCIETY. 
 
 Bishop James Jensen: 
 
 We have met this evening as children of one 
 family to pay honor to you, the Father of our 
 Ward, and in doing so we wish to show the 
 love we have for you, and to acknowledge the 
 kind advice and counsel you have ever been 
 ready to give. 
 
 It is our desire as a Society to be ready and 
 on hand at all times to assist in any way that 
 we may be called, both in visiting the sick and 
 relieving the wants of the needy. We have 
 always felt that we have been heartily sus- 
 tained by you in whatever we have undertaken ; 
 we hope that in the future we may be able to 
 merit your approbation; that our acts and 
 movements may be in accord with your feel- 
 ings. 
 
 We as a Society do not wish to be judged 
 by any great outward demonstration, but wish 
 to show our love for you by being ready to 
 carry out your instructions at all times ; and we 
 wish to say that by your noble example, your 
 wise counsel, and kind and loving ways, you 
 have won a lasting regard in our memories ; 
 
152 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 and we wish you to know that you are heartily 
 sustained in the position you occupy by the 
 members of the Relief Society of Forest Dale 
 Ward; and we consider you the right man in 
 the right place. 
 
 Cornelia T. Driggs, 
 L. Y. Stevenson, 
 Addie M. Cannon. 
 
 the sunday school. 
 
 Kind and Loving Bishop: 
 
 How gladly we embrace this opportunity of 
 joining with the rest of your flock in saying 
 those dear old words — "Dear Bishop, we love 
 thee !" 
 
 Each Sabbath morning, when the lambs of 
 our precious fold have been gathered, and, in 
 our song the angels of God have mingled their 
 voices, our hearts have been filled with joy and 
 gratitude in having your faithful presence 
 among the many kind teachers and associates. 
 
 Our success as a Sabbath School, we at- 
 tribute chiefly to you and your noble staff. 
 
 In silence we have awaited an opportunity 
 when we could, in our modest way, show to 
 you that your noble efforts are daily being 
 
APPENDIX A. 153 
 
 rewarded. But, like the tree to the faithful 
 gardener, though faithful care and devotion 
 may continue unceasingly with results hardly 
 noticeable, yet the time does come when, as with 
 outstretched arms, laden with precious fruit, it 
 yearns to repay, and places at his disposal that 
 by which it shall ever after be known. So, 
 with us, loving Bishop, as the one small tree in 
 your well cultivated garden, may we bring 
 forth fruit upon which you can gaze with joy, 
 and by which you may know us forever. 
 
 God bless thee Bishop — 
 
 May long life, joy, and power with wisdom untold 
 Be granted unto thee in leading thy fold; 
 As thy children, united at thy side we shall stand, 
 And to none art thou dearer than the Sunday School 
 band. 
 
 Wm. L. Hansen, 
 John M. Cannon, 
 B. W. Aston. 
 
 Dear Bishop Jensen: 
 
 As the kind words you give and your labors of love, 
 
 Are recorded in heaven by angels above, 
 
 May your presence in school always bring its good 
 
 cheer. 
 And your timely advice make your friendship more 
 
 dear. 
 
154 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 May each smiling face as it catches your gaze 
 Remember the cause of this gathering to-night ; 
 And may each add his might to build up the "Dale," 
 That love may abound and friendship prevail. 
 
 As you gaze down our streets at the close of each day 
 When time plants his footsteps in colors of gray, 
 May each smiling face shine as it catches your gaze 
 With gratitude shine and your faithfulness praise. 
 
 And may our little homes where each one may dwell 
 Partake of the spirit that you love so well, 
 And wherever your lot with the Saints may be cast, 
 Your place in our hearts will remain to the last ; 
 The sick and the poor their prayers will bespeak 
 And our Sunday School children will bless you each 
 week. 
 
 B. W. ASHTON. 
 For the ''Dale" Sunday School. 
 
 THE SEVENTIES. 
 
 Brethren and Sisters: 
 
 I now represent the Seventies and Elders 
 residing in Forest Dale Ward. There are not 
 full quorums of either of these organizations 
 residing in the ward, but for the individual 
 members of these quorums whom Bishop Jen- 
 sen has among his flock, I can say that there is 
 no sentiment of love, affection or devotion ut- 
 
APPENDIX A. 155 
 
 tered by those who have preceded me this night 
 but what the Seventies and Elders can heartily 
 endorse and say, amen, to. 
 
 I say to Bishop Jensen in behalf of the Sev- 
 enties and Elders of this ward, God bless you, 
 and peace be with you. When you need our 
 help and assistance call on us and we will do 
 all in our power to uphold your hands by our 
 works, faith and prayers. Long may you live 
 to be a Bishop and Father to us all, is our 
 prayer, amen. 
 
 j. w. summerhays. 
 
 deacons' quorum. 
 
 Bishop James Jensen: 
 
 Dear Brother: — We, the Deacons of the 
 Forest Dale Ward, feel it our duty, on this 
 grand occasion, to express our thanks and 
 gratitude to you for the good you have done 
 us in the way of instruction and encourage- 
 ment, enabling us to walk uprightly before our 
 Heavenly Father. 
 
 We realize that we are but mortal beings and 
 have many weaknesses tO' overcome, therefore 
 we feel to thank you for your fatherly ad- 
 vice and counsel. 
 
156 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 We realize that we might have performed 
 our labors in a more satisfactory manner, but 
 remember, Bishop, we are only boys with but 
 little experience ; bear with us in the future as 
 you have done in the past, and we will do all 
 in our power to uphold and sustain you. 
 
 Ever praying God's blessings to be with you, 
 we remain, 
 
 Your brethren in the Gospel, 
 
 Louis W. Sims, 
 Wm. Jensen, 
 David C. Ure. 
 
 Y. M. M. I. A. 
 
 Be It Resolved: 
 
 First. That we, the members of the Mutual 
 Improvement Association of the Forest Dale 
 Ward, hereby tender to Bishop Jensen our 
 heartfelt respect and perfect confidence in him 
 as Bishop and father of his ward. We admire 
 his simplicity of character, his gentlemanly de- 
 meanor, his kindly attitude, and his remem- 
 brance of the fatherless, and his never ceasing 
 attention to the poor under his jurisdiction. As 
 a Latter-day Saint, as a citizen, and as a man 
 
APPENDIX A. 157 
 
 he has the unbounded confidence of this associ- 
 ation, and we may say so of the members of his 
 whole ward. 
 
 We take pleasure in tendering the Bishop 
 9ur kindest regards, respect, and attention, and 
 in wishing a long and continued prosperity for 
 his family. 
 
 Second. And be it further resolved that we 
 congratulate Bishop Jensen and the people of 
 this ward upon his appointment to the posi- 
 tion which he now holds ; and while we would 
 not say that no other person could have been 
 selected that could do so well, we can say 
 truthfully that no other could have been se- 
 lected who could do better. 
 
 Third. And be it further resolved, that it 
 is the heartfelt desire of the whole society, and 
 we will add the entire ward over which he 
 presides, that he may live long and continue 
 in the position he now holds, and may his days 
 grow brighter and his years more joyful as 
 time rolls on; that at all times he may have 
 the same confidence in us that we have in him. 
 Robert A. Ure, 
 Arthur R. Castleton, 
 Edwin Wright. 
 
158 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 Y. L. M. I. A. 
 
 Bishop James Jensen: 
 
 Dear Brother : — We realize tliat the greatest 
 tribute a man usually receives is after he is 
 dead; that his labors are not appreciated until 
 he has gone. It is then that words of great- 
 est praise and appreciation are poured forth 
 for the departed one. But can dead ears hear, 
 or dead hearts feel the warmth of gratitude 
 and affection? Many times friends regret, 
 when it is too late, that they have not encour- 
 aged by kind words and acts the labors of an 
 associate. Why not scatter these flowers of 
 kindness and affection in the paths of our 
 friends while they live and can enjoy their 
 beauty and fragrance and be encouraged and 
 refreshed in the journey of Hfe? 
 
 That we may not have these regrets re- 
 ferred to, in your case, and that you may have 
 the benefit of the high regard in which you are 
 held by us, we write this Httle missive. Not 
 that we expect you to die soon, but that it 
 may be a source of a little encouragement to 
 you, in the beginning of your labors in this 
 ward. 
 
APPENDIX A. 159 
 
 In you, Bishop Jensen, the writer is often re- 
 minded of the village preacher described by 
 Oliver Goldsmith : — 
 
 "Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride, 
 
 And e'en his failings leaned to Virtue's side ; 
 
 But, in his duty prompt at every call, 
 
 He watched and wept, he prayed and felt for all; 
 
 And, as a bird each fond endearment tries 
 
 To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies. 
 
 He tried each art, reproved each dull delay. 
 
 Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way. 
 
 At church, with meek and unaffected grace, 
 His looks adorned the venerable place. 
 Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway 
 And fools who came to scoff remained to pray." 
 
 We feel that you have indeed been father of 
 the ward; that you are deeply interested in 
 every member of your family. We are proud 
 to be numbered among your little flock, fe^l 
 to thank God for having given us such a guar- 
 dian, and will ever support you by our faith 
 and prayers. We realize to some extent that 
 your labors are arduous, but He who has said 
 "Feed my sheep" will reward the good shep- 
 herd of one of His flocks. 
 
160 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 We, as the young ladies of the ward, feel 
 to thank you especially for the kind interest 
 you have taken in our association. We always 
 feel encouraged by your presence and advice. 
 As you have been a kind and indulgent father, 
 we hope to be dutiful daughters and never do 
 anything unworthy of our parentage. We are 
 ready and anxious at any time to do anything 
 we can to assist you. Though these words 
 are but few and feeble, please accept them as 
 most sincere. 
 
 ZiNA B. Cannon, 
 Sarah B. Summerhays. 
 Josephine Jensen. 
 
 primary association. 
 
 Our Bishop, the Father of our Ward: 
 Many happy returns of the evening. 
 
 We are the Primary, young and growing; 
 we shall be a help to you bye and bye. 
 
 Who is the father of our country? — George 
 Washington. 
 
 Who is the father of our ward? — Bishop 
 Jensen. 
 
APPENDIX A. 161 
 
 Kindness begets kindness. Love begets love ; 
 that is why we love our Bishop. 
 
 We want to see you look pleased and happy, 
 so we will try and brush all sorrow and care 
 away by Hving at peace with one another. 
 
 God bless our Bishop with health, and may 
 he live till he realizes every righteous desire 
 of his heart, and be satisfied with life, and may 
 we renew your acquaintance in the great here- 
 after is the fervent desire of the Forest Dale 
 Primary. 
 
 Jennie H. Young, 
 L. Y. Stevenson, 
 Maggie Timpson. 
 
 12 
 
162 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 Dedicatory Prayer of the Forest Dale 
 
 Meeting House, Offered by 
 
 President Jos. F. Smith, 
 
 July 23, 1905. 
 
 Remarks of President Jos. F. Smith, prior to 
 offering the Dedicatory Prayer of the For- 
 est Dale Meeting House. 
 
 I would like to say to my brothers and sis- 
 ters and the congregation generally, that I de- 
 sire, in offering prayer, to offer the desires of 
 the congregation, the desires of your hearts, all 
 who are present. It is not I who can give unto 
 the Lord this building. I have contributed but 
 a very very little towards it. I am thankful 
 that I am able to say I passed in my little mite, 
 but you who are assembled here this evening 
 have contributed of your substance, many of 
 you very liberally according to your means, in 
 order that this beautiful building might be erect- 
 ed for the worship of the Lord ; and it will be 
 
APPENDIX B. 163 
 
 you who will give unto the Lord the right and 
 the title and the claim that should rightful- 
 ly belong to Him, as a place built for the pur- 
 pose of His worship, to be dedicated unto His 
 name, and to be held as a sacred place, a sanc- 
 tuary in which the Saints of God may meet 
 together for His worship, for prayer, for sing- 
 ing and praise, for bearing testimony of the 
 Truth; and I would Hke, therefore, that my 
 brothers and sisters and all my friends who are 
 here join with me in spirit and in heart, in of- 
 fering this structure unto the Lord. I would 
 not like to feel that I was alone in officiating 
 in this sacred matter, but I want to feel that 
 I am being sustained and upheld in this ser- 
 vice by all who are present. 
 Now let us unite in prayer. 
 
 Dedicatory Prayer. 
 
 Our Father, who art in Heaven. Hallowed 
 be Thy name. We, Thy children, have as- 
 sembled here this evening for the purpose 
 among other things, of making an offering un- 
 to Thee, an offering of this building, which 
 with the means that Thou hast given unto Thy 
 
164 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 people, they have built as a sacred and holy 
 place, where the presence of angels may be 
 felt, where the power, the presence, and the 
 influence of Thy Holy Spirit may pervade the 
 hearts of those assembled here from time to 
 time; where holy thoughts may enter into the 
 hearts of Thy children ; where purity of heart 
 may engender everlasting light into the souls 
 of those who are seeking; where sin may be 
 reproved and rebuked and removed far away, 
 not only from this building but from those 
 who shall assemble here from time to time. We 
 ask Thee, Holy Father, that Thou wilt sanctify 
 and bless this offering and this assembly. Bless 
 the exercises that have already been performed 
 by those who have spoken and by those who 
 have sung and by those who have expressed 
 sentiments of worth and of inspiration for the 
 reflection and instruction and edification of 
 those who have come here. Wilt Thou bless 
 all these things and sanctify them to the good 
 of all who participate here tonight; but espe- 
 cially, we pray. Thee, Holy Father, that Thou 
 wilt abundantly bless every soul, man, woman, 
 and child, who has contributed of his or her 
 substance towards the building of this house. 
 
APPENDIX B. 165 
 
 Let Thy Holy Spirit rest in their hearts, and 
 wilt Thou verify unto them the promises that 
 have been made unto them. Wilt Thou verify 
 the words that have been spoken here this 
 evening with reference to their having gained 
 rather than having lost anything for having 
 contributed of their substance for the erection 
 of this beautiful place. Wilt Thou, O Father, 
 multiply their substance, and especially those 
 who have given liberally of their means to the 
 erection of this building. Bless, we pray Thee, 
 every person who has contributed; bless the 
 poor who have contributed of their substance, 
 the widows, the fatherless, and every man 
 woman and child, who has assisted in this 
 work; bless them all according to the desires 
 of their hearts in righteousness before Thee; 
 and wilt Thou multiply their substance and 
 make them feel enriched and increased in bless- 
 ings, because of the efforts they have put forth 
 to this end; for Thou wilt realize, Heaverily 
 Father, that the desire, the object, and the pur- 
 pose of their hearts have been to sanctify the 
 Lord God in their hearts, to build a place in 
 which He may dwell, a place that may be His 
 sanctuary, a place that is holy and pure a 
 
166 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 place, in which all its bearings and all its ef- 
 fects and influence, will exalt the mind, will 
 enlarge the understanding, increase faith in 
 the heart and in the soul of the children of 
 men, and lead them back into the presence of 
 God, from whence they have come. 
 
 Now, Holy Father, this being the object we 
 have in view, we ask Thee in the name of 
 Jesus Christ, Thy Beloved Son, that Thou wilt 
 shield this house from every harm. May no 
 evil come to it. May no disaster overtake it. 
 May no storms prevail against it, but may it 
 be protected from every influence of a de- 
 structive nature. May it not be shaken by 
 earthquakes or upheavels or any unusual things 
 that may occur in the latter times, but may it 
 stand firm and steadfast upon its foundation. 
 May it continue to abide and endure for the 
 purpose for which it is built and for which 
 we offer it unto Thee, the Lord our God. We 
 ask Thee, Heavenly Father, to forbid and not 
 permit any foul spirit to enter into this house. 
 May no spirit of contention, of dissension, of 
 infidelity or unbelief, have a place here, but 
 may that spirit pervade the assemblies, which 
 shall lead Thy people nearer unto Thee, the 
 
APPENDIX B. 167 
 
 Lord. May that spirit ever be present which 
 will enlighten their minds, enlarge their un- 
 derstanding, and make them know and re- 
 aHze that they are indeed the children of God, 
 who made the Heavens and the Earth and 
 who holds all things in His mighty hand. 
 
 Now, Holy Father, we ask Thee to bless 
 the upper part of this building for the use of 
 Thy people as a place for worship, that it may 
 be held sacred for that purpose, that those who 
 come here may feel that when they come into 
 this place that they come into the presence of 
 the Lord, that His all-seeing eye is upon them, 
 that His ear can hear their very sighs, and 
 the earnest desires of their hearts will not be 
 hid or kept from Thine omnipotence. We ask 
 Thee, Holy Father, to grant this unto Thy 
 people and unto Thy servants, especially those 
 who have taken an active part in the construc- 
 tion of this house. Bless the Bishop and his 
 counselors, and grant. Heavenly Father, that 
 they may feel doubly rewarded for the toil they 
 have been subjected to, for the anxiety they 
 have felt, and for the sacrifices they have made 
 in the interest of Thy people and in the inter- 
 est of the ward where they reside. Bless their 
 
168 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 assistants ; bless the committees that have been 
 appointed to collect means; bless the architect 
 and those who have aided in any way in the 
 construction of this building. Bless them all 
 for the labors they have performed, to their 
 unspeakable happiness, that they may feel re- 
 warded in their souls for having done good, 
 for it is doing good to seek to honor the Lord 
 and to make a place where His name can be 
 held in reverence and in sacredness in the heart 
 of the children of men. 
 
 Now, Holy Father, we dedicate unto Thee 
 the grounds upon which this building stands, 
 every part thereof. Wilt Thou remove the 
 curse therefrom and make it holy. Bless those 
 parts which may be adorned with trees, shrub- 
 bery, and flowers; may they yield abundantly 
 for the enjoyment of Thy people. Bless the 
 'walls of this building, that they may be firm 
 and steadfast. Bless the roof and all the ap- 
 purtenances belonging unto it. 
 
 Without entering into details. Father, Thou 
 knowest all things, and Thou knowest that 
 which we desire without even our speaking of 
 it, yet Thou hast made it our duty to call up- 
 on Thy name and make offerings of sacrifice 
 
APPENDIX B. 169 
 
 unto Thee. We ask Thee, also, Heavenly 
 Father, to bless the basement, that has been 
 dedicated and set apart for social enjoyment, 
 for singing, for music, for dances; wilt Thou 
 bless it for this purpose and sanctify it to this 
 end. Grant that no evil may come there, but 
 that a spirit of peace, true enjoyment, and 
 true happiness, may ever be present on all oc- 
 casions, that all who shall gather for amuse- 
 ment and innocent enjoyment may feel its in- 
 fluence. 
 
 Now, Holy Father, we ask Thee in the name 
 of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who dwelt in the 
 midst of men, who had no home, who had no 
 where to lay His head, but who wandered 
 among those who would receive Him into 
 their homes and administered unto them life 
 and salvation; in His name, Holy Father, we 
 make offering unto Thee of this whole build- 
 ing, from its foundation to the top thereof, and 
 everything connected therewith, and we pray 
 Thee, our Heavenly Father, to accept this of- 
 fering unto Thee of this whole building, from 
 its foundation to the top thereof, and every- 
 thing connected therewith, and we pray Thee, 
 our Heavenly Father, to accept this offering, 
 
170 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 that Thy name may be placed upon these 
 things in righteousness, and that we, Thy chil- 
 dren, may maintain this building sacredly as a 
 house of worship and as a place of innocent 
 amusement and enjoyment, where we may 
 know each other, and understand each other, 
 and have fellowship with one another; a place 
 where we may worship the Lord in union and 
 love, and come to a unity of the faith. We 
 pray Thee to bless- those who shall speak here 
 from time to time. Fill them with the revela- 
 tion of Thy will. Grant, Heavenly Father, 
 that no man, no elder of Thy Church, no ser- 
 vant of the Lord, may ever arise here and pro- 
 nounce false doctrine or speak things that are 
 not good in Thy sight; but may Thy servants 
 be inspired to speak true words of encourage- 
 ment, instruction, and admonition, if neces- 
 sary, that will result in good to Thy people. 
 
 All these blessings and favors we humbly 
 ask, and we make this offering unto Thee, in 
 the name of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, Amen. 
 
APPENDIX C 171 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 
 Sentiments to Bishop James Jensen, from 
 THE Forest Dale Ward Organizations, 
 January 19, 1908. 
 
 one hundred and fifth quorum of seventy, 
 
 forest dale, salt lake county, UTAH. 
 
 January 19th, 1908. 
 
 We, some of the sons of the lovely Ward of 
 Forest Dale, in the Granite Stake of Zion, rep- 
 resenting the 105th Quorum of Seventy, take 
 this opportunity of thanking you, our beloved 
 Bishop James Jensen, for your kindness to us, 
 and for the interest you have taken in our wel- 
 fare. We feel that our association with you 
 has made us better men. 
 
 Bishop Jensen, you are truly a father unto 
 the people of this ward. 
 
 We love you because of your integrity for 
 the Gospel. We love you because you have 
 taught us to love one another, because you 
 have set us the example, bidding us to follow. 
 
172 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 We love you because you have always made 
 us feel well in your presence. 
 
 We honor you for your faithfulness to the 
 teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 
 
 We thank our Heavenly Father that we 
 have been permitted to partake of the influ- 
 ence of one who is possessed of so gentle a 
 spirit as you. 
 
 We pray to our Father in Heaven that He 
 will spare you unto us for many years ; that we 
 may continue to feel encouraged in the Gospel ; 
 and that we may have the privilege of sustain- 
 ing you as a servant of God, and as the 
 father of this ward. 
 
 F. V. Ensign, 
 Clarence M. Cannon, 
 I Edwin Wright, 
 
 Geo. S. Spencer, 
 John H. Taylor, 
 [ Archibald Freebairn, 
 
 Eugene M. Cannon, 
 Jesse M. Fox, Sec'y. 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 173 
 
 IN THE FOREST DALE ECCLESIASTICAL WARD. 
 
 JAMES JENSEN, BISHOP, AND COMMON JUDGE 
 
 IN ISRAEL. 
 
 In relation to certain^ 
 allegations and 
 charg e s m ^ d e 
 against the or- 
 ganization known 
 as the Sunday 
 School of Forest 
 Dale. 
 
 Involving the good 
 name of James 
 Jensen, Bishop of 
 Forest Dale. 
 
 This meeting having been regularly called 
 and all parties being duly notified, and a fair 
 representation being present, the said Sunday 
 School, by its officers, the superintendency, 
 does hereby recite the charges made against 
 the teachers and members of said Sunday 
 School and make answer. 
 
 It is alleged that the Sunday School as a 
 whole admire Bishop Jensen; that some of its 
 members (presumably the ladies) love him; 
 
174 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 that some of the aforesaid body have been 
 heard to express the opinion that in the person 
 of James Jensen is representecf their ideal of a 
 bishop; that some assert that humility and 
 meekness are pronounced traits in his charac- 
 ter ; that he is and at all times has been solic- 
 itous for the welfare of the members of his 
 v/ard; that he rejoices with those who rejoice; 
 that he mourns with those who mourn ; that 
 with the fatherless he is a father; that to the 
 tried he is ever a comfort; to the tempted a 
 source of strength; that he is a man of God 
 and a man whom God delights to honor. 
 
 And now comes the subscribers to this state- 
 ment, the superintendency of said Sunday 
 School, who hereby affirm, that after diligent 
 and persistent enquiry and observation, they 
 are of the opinion that such charges are well 
 founded; that they verily believe such state- 
 ments have been made ; and that James Jensen 
 is so held and thought of by the Sunday School 
 workers; and that we, the said superintend- 
 ency, are hereby authorized to enter for the 
 said Sunday School workers, the plea of 
 ''Guilty'' to the above named charges; 
 and that, since they have thus felt and ex- 
 
APPENDIX C 175 
 
 pressed themselves in regard to said James 
 Jensen, that we now at this time, or at any 
 time in the future, hold ourselves subject to 
 judgment and sentence of the aforesaid Com- 
 mon Judge ; and notwithstanding we are ig- 
 norant of the nature of the penalty that he 
 shall meet out to us, we do now and ever shall 
 hold him to be our Friend, Bishop, and Father. 
 Dated this the 19th day of January, 1908. 
 George E. Woolley, 
 James T. Dunbar, 
 Milton H. Ross. 
 
 Y. M. M. I. A. 
 
 Mutual Improvement means, we each help 
 ourselves and all help one another. 
 
 Dear Bishop, you have helped the Mutual 
 Improvement cause of Forest Dale by your 
 fatherly interest in the young people of our 
 ward. 
 
 We all love you for it, and want to help 
 you make of Forest Dale, what you desire it 
 to be, — the home of active workers for self- 
 
176 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 betterment and mutual progressron in the ways 
 of God. 
 
 We are with you, Bishop, heart and soul. 
 
 T. Albert Hooper, 
 G. W. Teudt, 
 Clarence L. Gardiner, 
 G. Alma Gardner. 
 
 Y. L. M. I. A. 
 
 We're proud of our Bishop 
 
 Because he's a man, — 
 A man with great thoughts to impart. 
 His kindness and patience 
 
 And thrift and great love 
 Touch and appeal to each heart, 
 We're proud, very proud of our Bishop. 
 
 His fine, busy life 
 
 Has urged all of us 
 Not to be idle, but ever to strive 
 To love well our neighbors 
 
 And treat well our friends. 
 Live just a plain, simple life. 
 — We learn very much from our Bishop, 
 
 Not only his goodness 
 
 Has won all our hearts. 
 
APPENDIX C. 177 
 
 Not his wisdom, nor yet his tact; 
 
 It is hard to explain 
 
 Why we love him so well, 
 
 But our love is a well-known fact, 
 
 — For to us the Bishop's the Bishop. 
 
 Mary T. Hendry, 
 Emma Teudt, 
 Nettie Poulton. 
 
 RELIGION CLASS. 
 
 Bishop James Jensen: 
 
 Dear Brother: — In behalf of the Religion 
 Classes of the "Dale/' we, your brethren, the 
 Presidency, desire by these tokens of our es- 
 teem to express the gratitude of the Religion 
 Class workers for the able manner in which 
 you have aided us in the development of this 
 organization for the advancement of the youth 
 of Zion. 
 
 We pray our Heavenly Father to bless you 
 that you may continue many years with us, to 
 be a blessing unto this people, as you have been 
 in the past. 
 
 May the peace that comes from faithful la- 
 
 13 
 
178 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 bors be yours to enjoy, is the wish and prayer 
 of your co-laborers in the cause we love. 
 Orson W. Rawlins, 
 J. B. Hansen, 
 J. W. Young. 
 
 Presidency. 
 
 LESSER PRIESTHOOD organization. 
 
 Bishop James Jensen : We, the quorums of 
 the Lesser Priesthood, gratefully acknowledge 
 in you our President. We confess that our re- 
 sponse to your call has not at all times been as 
 praiseworthy as th^ occasion deserved. But 
 your untiring efforts have made us conscious 
 that the power and influence you have exer- 
 cised with us has been "only by persuasion, by 
 long suffering, by gentleness, and meekness, 
 and by love unfeigned." 
 
 By your example we have learned the spirit 
 of presidency by virtue of the Priesthood. It 
 has enlarged our souls. Our prayer for you is 
 that the benediction of Heaven may extend 
 
APPENDIX C 179 
 
 your life of usefulness with us and give joy 
 to your soul in its fruition. 
 
 Harold Timpson, 
 
 WiLLARD ASHTON, 
 
 Joseph Reed, 
 Theodore Tobiason, 
 Roy Parr, 
 Alma Ramseyer, 
 Alma Summerhays, 
 Ford Fairbourn, 
 Karl Miller, 
 Frank Gee, 
 P. J. Jensen. 
 
 primary association. 
 
 The Primary, the infant organization of all 
 the organizations, is the foundation of the fu- 
 ture advancement of our young, and is the be- 
 ginning of the end. 
 
 At times when we have felt discouraged with 
 our petty trials, our esteemed Bishop has al- 
 ways come to our rescue with encouragement 
 and fatherly advice. His interest is ever in 
 our behalf, which is a comfort and strength to 
 all working under his directions. 
 
180 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 We do not wish to show our appreciation in 
 words only, but also in actions. Our desire is 
 to do our part and his burdens lighten. May 
 God bless our Bishop and spare him to lead us 
 throughout our future endeavor to instruct and 
 enlighten the children of Zion. 
 
 This labor with the children 
 
 Is the beginning of the end, 
 Assisted by the Bishop, 
 
 And he is their dearest friend. 
 
 Press onward, worthy Bishop, 
 In this great and glorious cause. 
 
 For all our children love you 
 As a leader in God's laws. 
 
 May the Lord aid and cheer you, 
 Ever give you health and strength 
 
 That you may do your duty, 
 And be satisfied at length. 
 
 And if you get discouraged. 
 
 May the Lord some comfort lend, — 
 
 Be with you, like you to us. 
 The Primary's dearest friend. 
 
 Ida K. Coolbear, 
 Jessie Y. Driggs, 
 Mary C. Mackay. 
 
APPENDIX C 181 
 
 THE RELIEF SOCIETY. 
 
 We feel that we have been indeed slow to 
 extend our expressions of love and encourage- 
 ment. 
 
 As the Relief Society workers, we gladly 
 take advantage of this opportunity to express 
 our gratitude to one who has always given us 
 so much encouragement by his presence and 
 also by the many kind suggestions which, when 
 followed out, have given rehef to the distressed, 
 and rest and peace to the lonely and discon- 
 solate. 
 
 We have appreciated the kindness shown to 
 us in so many ways, and the tender greetings 
 that have cheered our path and lightelied our 
 burdens from year to year. We know that 
 these traits are gifts from God and that there 
 are far too few who are in possession of them. 
 
 Your life has been a blessing to us and our 
 children. The thoughtfulness and painstaking 
 manner in which every detail is attended to by 
 you will certainly have its effect upon our en- 
 tire community. 
 
 We can never repay you or begin to do as 
 much for you as you have done for us. While 
 
182 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 life lasts or memory endures, we cannot for- 
 get your untiring efforts to help those in dis- 
 tress. As we look back, we see again your 
 familiar figure wending its way through heat 
 or cold to the homes of the afflicted. 
 
 May we ever be loyal to you who have used 
 your time and your talents for our welfare; 
 and may we be inspired to follow more fully 
 your example in caring for those whom the 
 Lord delights to call His own — the worthy 
 poor. 
 
 Petrina Jensen, 
 Addie M. Cannon, 
 Mary A. Young. 
 
 the choir. 
 
 A voice from the Choir, like a voice from the soul, 
 
 Onward ! Onward ! it approaches its goal ; 
 
 And tonight that goal, surely 'tis to thee, 
 
 Our Bishop, that our hearts give vent to such glee. 
 
 We know we're thy children, blest of the blest, 
 And when for thy pleasure, we know no rest ; 
 And as to our practice so gaily we go, 
 'Tis beneath the sweep of music's pure flow. 
 
APPENDIX C. 183 
 
 We sing and we sing till the heavens do ring 
 With the joy our hearts to you would bring, 
 Now tonight of all nights our songs are for you, 
 Our Bishop, our Father, our Friend so true. 
 
 James T. Dunbar, 
 
 Sadie Parr, 
 
 G. Alvin Coolbear. 
 
 AMUSEMENT COMMITTEE. 
 
 Bancroft Lioi&i:;^ 
 
 All the members of the youngest organiza- 
 tion of the Ward, the Amusement Committee, 
 heartily endorse the good things contained in 
 the sentiments already expressed; and say to 
 Bishop Jensen, we have appreciated your kind- 
 ness and sympathy in the past very much, and 
 extend to you willing hands and best wishes 
 for the future, feeling that by reason of your 
 good deeds and great kindness to all, the truths 
 expressed in the following couplet, will bring 
 their full fruition: 
 
184 ' JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 "A kindly deed is a kernel sown, 
 That grows to a mighty tree, 
 
 And finds its way hereafter down 
 The gulf of Eternity." 
 
 Geo. Spencer, 
 James T. Dunbar, 
 O. S. Squires, 
 Carl F. Buehner, 
 Thomas O. Poulton, 
 Margaret Summerhays, 
 Geneva Love, 
 Geo. H. Vine, 
 E. Parley Cliff, 
 G. Alvin Coolbear, 
 J. P. Olsen. 
 
 THE elders' quorum. 
 
 "Near yonder copse where once the garden smiled 
 And still where many a garden flower grows wiM, 
 There, where a few torn shrubs the place disclose. 
 The village preacher's modest mansion rose, 
 
 A man he was to all the country dear, 
 
 And passing rich on forty pounds a year; 
 
 Remote from towns he ran his godly race, 
 
 Nor e'er had changed, nor wished to change his place. 
 
APPENDIX C 185 
 
 Unpractised he to fawn, or seek for power 
 By doctrines fashioned to the varying hour; 
 Far other aims his heart had learned to prize — 
 More skilled to raise the wretched than to rise. 
 His house was known to all the vagrant train, 
 He chid their wanderings, but relieved their pain. 
 
 Pleased with his guests the good man learned to glow 
 
 And quite forget their vices in their woe; 
 
 Careless their merits or their faults to scan 
 
 His pity gave ere charity began. 
 
 Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride. 
 
 And e'en his failings leaned to Virtue's side. 
 
 But in his duty prompt at every call. 
 
 He watched and wept, he prayed and felt for all; 
 
 And, as a bird each fond endea**ment tries 
 
 To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies, 
 
 He tried each art, reproved each dull delay. 
 
 Allured to brighter worlds and led the way. 
 
 Beside the bed where parting life was laid, 
 And sorrow, guilt and pain by turns dismayed, 
 The reverend champion stood. At his control 
 Despair and anguish fled the struggling soul ; 
 Comfort came down the trembling wretch to raise, 
 And his last faltering accents whispered praise. 
 
 At church, with meek and unaffected grace. 
 His looks adorned the venerable place; 
 Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway. 
 And fools who came to scoff remained to pray. 
 
186 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 The service past, around the pious man, 
 
 With ready zeal each honest rustic ran ; 
 
 E'en children followed with endearing wile. 
 
 And plucked his gown to share the good man's smile. 
 
 His ready smile a parent's joy expressed, 
 Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distrest; 
 To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given, 
 But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven. 
 As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, 
 Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm. 
 Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
 Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 
 
 — Goldsmith's Deserted Village. 
 
 M. C. Morris,. 
 F. W. Cope, 
 
 J. RODEN. 
 
 Bishop James Jensen: 
 
 Dear Brother : — As your counselors, we have 
 worked with you for twelve years, in the Cause 
 of Christ. 
 
 May we not hope to say as Paul said, 
 "I am persuaded that neither death, nor 
 life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, 
 nor things present, nor things to come, nor 
 height nor depth, nor any other creature, shall 
 
APPENDIX C 187 
 
 be able to separate us from the love of God, 
 which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord/' 
 Your brethren, 
 
 Royal B. Young, 
 James Hendry. 
 January 19, 1908. 
 
 We have audited the foregoing and find it 
 
 correct. 
 
 M. C Morris, 
 Geo. S. Spencer, 
 Auditing Committee. 
 
 Forest Dale, January 19, 1908. 
 
188 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 FAMILY GENEALOGY. 
 
 James Jensen, born June 7, 1841. 
 
 M. J. Petrina Sorensen Jensen, wife, born 
 
 Sept. 28, 1846. 
 Marie Madsen Jensen, wife, born March 12, 
 
 1855; died August 11, 1891. 
 
 CHILDREN OF JAMES AND MARIE JENSEN. 
 
 Josephine J., born Dec. 12, 1873; died Oct. 23, 
 
 1898. 
 James N., born Mar. 21, 1875. 
 Alfred C, born Nov. 24, 1876. 
 Esther P., born Aug. 28, 1878. 
 Wm. H., born Dec. 26, 1880. 
 Annie M., born Nov. 3, 1882. 
 
 MARRIAGE OF CHILDREN AND THEIR ISSUE. 
 
 James N. and Lena Struberg J ens on, married 
 
 Feb. 12, 1903: 
 Gale S., born June 29, 1904. 
 Myrla E., born July 27, 1905. 
 Lena Marie, born Mar. 19, 1907. 
 James S., born Nov. 27, 1910. 
 
FAMILY GENEALOGY. 189 
 
 Alfred C, and Melvina Nielsen Jensen, mar- 
 ried Oct. 8, 1^04: 
 
 Melvina Nielson Jensen, died May 10, 1911. 
 Ora Lucile, born Sept. 14, 1905. 
 Ardella, born Oct. 22, 1908. 
 
 Esther P. and Frank Roux, married Sept, 6, 
 ipo6. 
 
 Wm. H'. and Katie Vilate Cunningham Jensen, 
 married Oct. 25, ip02: 
 
 James Vivian, born Dec. 30, 1903; died Jan. 
 13, 1908. 
 
 Lueen Young, born March 27, 1906. 
 
 Alibo Petrina, born January 11, 1908. 
 
 Joseph WilHam, born May 15, 1909. 
 
 Genevieve, born October 10, 1910. 
 
 Ila Mary Powell, foster child, born Septem- 
 ber 20, 1897. 
 
 Annie M. and Soren P. Neve, married October 
 jj, ipoo: 
 
 Elliott James, born Feb. 10, 1904. 
 Soren P. Byron, born Dec. 30, 1905. 
 Charleen Marie, born May 10, 1911. 
 
190 JAMES JENSEN. 
 
 CHILDREN OF JACOB PETER OLSEN, FOSTER CHILD 
 OF JAMES AND M. J. PETRINA JENSEN. 
 
 Jacob Peter and IsabeUe Ross Wilson Olsen, 
 married Oct. 12, 1882: 
 
 Isabelle Christina, born Aug. 16, 1883. 
 
 Effie Lauretta, born June 1, 1885. 
 
 Cora, born Nov. 15, 1887. 
 
 Rena, born April 22, 1890. 
 
 Alice Margaret, born Aug. 24, 1892. 
 
 James Verne, born Dec. 20, 1894. 
 
 Vera Pearl, born Dec. 20, 1894; died Aug. 16, 
 
 1903. 
 Edith, born Aug. 21, 1897. 
 Ada Josephine, born Mar. 30, 1900. 
 Ross Wilson, born July 5, 1904.