Ellen Swenson Pearson

Elna Swenson taken in Sweden before the age of 19

     This history is an excerpt from a history written by Ellen's daughter Stella.  Ellen, her American name, was born Elna in Sweden in the little town of Evarod on 8 April 1853.  She was the first of nine children in the family of Peter Trulson Swenson and Kjersti Nilson.  When Ellen was six years old the family moved to Widtskofle, Sweden, and here she went to school until age 14.  Then she went to a school that taught the girls to knit, crochet, and sew as well as the regular studies.
     The farm they lived on was owned by a man named Sjarnsvard and this is how the Swenson's paid him:
     A woman worked three days a week all year for the landlord and must spin two pounds of wool or flax and pick two bushels of pine nuts.
     A man worked 15 days a year and must plant a field of potatoes and harvest them for the landlord and pay him 40 crowns a year.  He must keep their thatched roof in repair. In return they had the use of 15 acres of land and were to keep 3 cows, 1 calf, 2 horses and 6 sheep in the landlord's pasture. 
     Ellen and all the children had to help with this work.  She bound grain by hand after it had been cut with a scythe or cradle.  She helped with the hay and also dug peat which they used for fuel.  It was dug and cut into bricks and stacked and dried then put into sheds to be used in the long cold winter. Flax was an important crop and Ellen wove many yards of linen.  Wool was also spun and made into cloth.
     Ellen and the other children were all christened and sprinkled into the Lutheran Church when they were 8 days old.  When Ellen was 14 years old the Lutheran priest wanted her confirmed into the Lutheran Church but her parents had joined the Mormon Church and did not want her confirmed.  The Priest threatened to have them put off the farm but it didn't happen.
Ellen was baptized into the Mormon church at about age 16.
     At the age of 19, in 1872, Ellen left Sweden for America.  She took her brother Andrew age 11 and sister Johanna age 9 with her.  They sailed on the steamship "Nevada" and went by train to Salt lake City arriving July 17, 1872.  They were met by Peter Jensen, an old family friend, and they stayed with his family until Ellen married Lorentz Pearson 3 months later.  Ellen had met Lorentz Pearson while he was a local missionary in Sweden and he had stayed with her family.

                              
   Lorentz and Ellen were married in the old Endowment House, which stood on the northwest corner of the Temple block.  Ellen stayed with the Jensen's until Lorentz could get a house for them to live in at Alta where he was employed in the "Prince of Wales' mine.  It was here that their first baby was born, our grandfather Lennart Edwin in December 1873.
     The rest of Ellen's family immigrated to America in 1874.  Ellen took her baby and went to Salt Lake to meet them.  Ellen had a new little sister, Martha, who celebrated her first birthday on the North Sea. 
     Lorentz and Ellen moved to West Jordan and started farming and her parents lived in Murray and she could visit with them.  Stella remembers her mother telling of taking a bucket of milk and dropping a lump of butter in it and taking the bucket in one hand and her baby on the other arm and walking to her parents home to visit as they did not have a cow at that time. 

Ellen with Esther about 1881

                                  

     Ellen was one of the first in this vicinity to raise turkeys and each year she would have about 200 to sell.  They had a regular farm with chickens, milk cows, a orchard of apples, peaches, pears, plums and cherries and always a large garden.  She also spun yarn from the wool of her own sheep and knit underwear, stockings, mufflers, mittens, etc.
     Ellen was one of the first to raise flowers and had many hundred kinds of them.  One year she had 32 kinds of carnations.  They were one of the first of have a lawn of any size.
     "Ellen and Lorentz raised nine children to respected manhood and womanhood.  None of them did anything to become famous, but lived quietly and honestly.  

                               
     Ellen's out-lived her husband by twelve years and spent her decling years among her flowers in the summer and making quilts in the winter, which she gave to her children and friends.
     On Sunday September 13, 1936, at the age of 83, Ellen suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and passed away three days later.  She is buried in the West Jordan cemetery by the side of  her husband Lorentz.

Rosalind Glover Pearson and Lennart Edwin Pearson are my grandparents and I have met most of these people.  Cheryl