Comments on: Covered Wagon Days … in Denmark

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:36:21 +0000

Dennis, there wasn’t a photographer in the expedition; unless there happened to be a photographer in the central Utah settlements who captured an image — and I’m unaware of any — I don’t think you’ll find any such photograph. But the wagons would have been the same wagons, of various patterns, that were in use on the farms and roads throughout Utah at the time, some of which have been preserved in DUP and other museums around the state.

By: dennis bertucci

dennis bertucci — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:26:17 +0000

I would like to see photographs of Morman pioneer wagons that made the journey down Hole in the Rock road in Garfield county. I am planning to make a scale model of such a wagon for exhibit in Escalante in a museum dedicated to the Mormon pioneers. thank you

By: Bill MacKinnon

Bill MacKinnon — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:44:32 +0000

The current church Historian and Recorder, Elder Marlin K. Jensen, loves to tell people of his ancestor’s emigration from the family’s Danish farm to Utah.

By: Maurine

Maurine — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:19:04 +0000

Ardis, I’m not sure when you wrote this if you remembered that on 6 Jul 2000, a sculpture named “Mormon Emigrant Family” was unveiled at Rebild Park. This was sculpted by Dennis Smith of Highland, Utah as part of the annual Fourth of July celebration. That year, the Mormon History Association was held in Denmark. We were treated to a “pre-unveiling” by Dennis Smith on 29 June, followed by his remarks telling how he came to do the sculpture.

By: Blog Segullah : Funny Pioneer Stories

Blog Segullah : Funny Pioneer Stories — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:13:25 +0000

[...] Covered Wagon Days… In Denmark [...]

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:32:06 +0000

With Tatiana’s support, the name is official.

By: Tatiana

Tatiana — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:20:12 +0000

(proud to be a keepapitchininny)

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:16:19 +0000

Researcher, I'm not sure you had joined the 'nacle when Paul Reeve wrote a wonderful post for T&S, My People Shall Wear Wooden Shoes -- there was some good discussion about the wooden shoes.

By: Researcher

Researcher — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:47:50 +0000

I’m not sure why the Overson family used the -son spelling either. The purely Danish form of the name would have been “Ovesen” with neither “r” nor that second “o.”

Based on a single statement in a diary from that time period, they were proud of being Danish although sometimes the Americans made fun of them and called them “Wooden Shoes.”

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:15:30 +0000

I didn’t know so many Keepanarians (Keepapitchininnies? ) had Danish origins, but I shouldn’t be surprised, given how many Danish converts came to Zion. Good on them, and their descendants!

Some early Andrew Jenson records use the -sen spelling; whether that is how he and his family spelled it then, or whether it was merely assumed by clerks, I do not know. A long-time employee in the archives told me once that AJ changed the spelling because he was tired of being mistaken for what she called “a dumb Dane.” Totally apart from the “dumb” characterization, which was apparently a conventional source of ethnic “humor” in 19th century Utah, I don’t believe for a moment that AJ, proud of his Danish origins as he was and involved as he was in ministering to the Danish segment of the church, would ever have done anything to conceal those origins or distance himself from his countrymen.

So while I categorically reject that explanation, I don’t have anything more plausible to offer.