Biographical Events of Jens Christian Larsen Breinholt

Biographical Events of Jens Christian Larsen Breinholt

BIOGRAPHICAL EVENTS OF

JENS CHRISTIAN LARSEN BREINHOLT

I was born on the 8th day of September, 1841, at Vinding Land, Denmark, on the beautiful shore of the Veile Bay, about two English miles from the city of Veile, Jylland, Denmark. My brother, Jens Peter L. was also born here on the 1st of February, 1844. My father’s name was Lauers Jensen and my mother’s maiden name, Ane Sophia Nielsen. My parents belonged to the Lutheran Protestant Church, and in accordance with the rites and customs of that denomination, I was at the proper age, probably not more than one month old, taken to the church, sprinkled with water, which act is by that church called baptism — christened, and given the name of Jens Christian Lauersen. Thus named in accordance with the customs then prevailing in my native country of naming children.

The reason why I don’t bear exactly the same name now will be explained further on in this book. I will further on in this book give the genealogy of my father and mother, what little I know about it. I will only here state that they both were conscientious, God-fearing people, honest, upright, truthful, and industrious. My father was a mason by profession, a hard worker, economical and temperate in his habits. I have never seen him intoxicated. I have never heard him take the name of Deity in vain. My mother shared these attributes equally with Father. Besides, she was exceedingly loving, kind, and tender towards her children of which she had ten in number, five boys and five girls.

Having been reared by such parents, I presume that I naturally inherited some, if not all, of these same tendencies. Especially did I at an early age imbibe reverence for God, although in my early youth, in mingling with people of the world, I did not exhibit my inward convictions in outward manifestations, and during the years of my minority, I sowed a good deal of wild oats, and later at about the age of twenty I had become somewhat disgusted with the religions of the day, deeming them in most cases only hypocrisy and humbug, consequently taking no stock in them.

I will here leave the religious part of my history and go back to the place of my birth and follow my parents in their movings, until I again come to the period in my life when God and religion became the great motive cause of all my actions, movements, travels and associations.

While I was yet an infant of two and a half years, my parents moved from the suburbs of Veile to the opposite side of the bay (northeast) and inland some six or eight miles to a village called Hostrup, where Father engaged in the profession of preparing flax from raw material into a condition ready to be made into yarn, thread, rope and so forth; this being his occupation in winter, while in summer he followed bricklaying, plastering and such work as pertained to that trade. The flaxwork was carried on by machinery, propelled by water on an overshot wheel; it was situated on a small brook a short distance east of the village above mentioned. It had the capacity of furnishing employment for four or five hands besides Father, who was the proprietor under the owner of the mill (his name being Borck). I can but faintly recollect our stay there, but have seen the place a few times afterwards.

We moved away from there when I was but four and one-half years old (May 1, 1845). Father next took up his abode a distance down the same brook near the town of Urlev where he went into partnership with a man by the name of Niels Pedersen, to build another mill similar to the one above described. Here we lived for a number of years, and many of my childhood joys and sorrows are connected with this spot. Here my oldest sister Ane and three of my brothers, Niels, Hans, and Jorgen (George) were born. All of which events I well remember. Niels and Ane were twins, the former large and robust at birth, the latter small and puny.

While we lived here I became old enough to help a little in preparing the flax. I also here at the age of seven commenced to go to school at Beckskou schoolhouse. My first teacher’s name was Niels Jagt. One day while living at this place, I and my brother Peter were playing about the millpond when he, then a small child, fell into the water. I was too small to rescue him myself, but by going and telling Mother of the occurrence, his life was saved.

By constant labor and strict economy, Father became able to purchase a small piece of land, about six acres in Urlev Skou, and built a house upon the same, to which place he moved his family, November 1, 1851. This was the first land and house of which he was the owner. Here the family was visited by the dreadful scourge, scarlet fever. My brother Niels became its victim. He died being 5 years and 3 months old. Here my sisters Ane Elsie and Nielsene Catherina were born.

At the age of 11½ years, I was by my father hired out to strangers to work for my living. I received, as was customary in my native land, but a very small wage for my services, that of tending stock (horses and sheep). If I remember right my earnings for my first summer’s work was less than $5.00 in American money. My first hire-out of this kind was with a farmer by the name of Rasmus Christian, living in Store (Big) Dolby. He was remarkable for nothing except his size, being a large man, and a reputation for being an unmerciful boy whipper. I, however, served this fellow two summers without receiving more than one castigation, and that one was administered with a woolen jacket in his hand across my back and did not hurt.

In the years 1853, 1854, and 1855, I was hired out in the same manner to a man in the village Urlev by the name of Soren Hansen. My occupation was the same as in the former place, the only difference being that here I tended cows only, and my wages were on account of my age and experience in that calling a little larger. While by this farmer during the winter of 1854 and 1855 I attended preparative exercises at the Sanctum of the Lutheran Priest, Mr. Rosendahl, and was in the month of April along with my colleagues of the class taken to the church in Urlev and there by him, confirmed a member of the Lutheran Church and a christian. My sister Ane Elsie was born 13th of April 1854 at Urlev Skou, and sister Nielsene Catherine was born 1st December 1856 in the same place.

In the spring of 1856 I commenced as an apprentice with Father to learn the trade of bricklaying and plastering, which occupation I followed more or less as long as I stayed in my native land.

On June 1, 1857, Father removed his family from Urlev Skou to Nebaager Mark, four or five English miles east, where he had been able to purchase another piece of ground a little larger than that in Urlev (about ten acres). He also was enabled to build a little better house upon this land. Here my two sisters, Mariah Magdaline was born March 26, 1856 and Thora Amelia was born January 18, 1863. Here my parents received the new and Everlasting Gospel.

Father, Mother, and all my brothers and sisters removed from there to Vinten Skou, not far from the city of Horsens, where Father had purchased a still better home than the former one. I was not with them in this home, having left my native land in 1864. At this place the family did not stay long as they left for the Valleys of the Mountains on June 13, 1868.

I will now leave my parents and my brothers and sisters for the present and continue my own history, but from time to time make mention of my kindred as their history and mine happen to inter-mingle.

As already mentioned, I commenced working with Father in the mason trade of bricklaying and plastering. From this time on I did not stay at home, in my father’s house. In the fall of 1859, I went to live with and to work for my uncle (Father’s brother) in the work of preparing flax. His mill for that purpose was situated in Vinding Skou not far from where I was born. My uncle was a good man, but I think I must not have been a very good boy, for I did not at that time have sense enough to appreciate his kindness to me.

His name was Jens Christian Jensen. He died shortly after my departure for America. He never became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, although at one time he had a testimony of its divinity, I believe. He had four living children at the time I lived with him — three by his first wife, then deceased, viz: Christiane, Ane, and Peder, one by his second and then living wife, a girl, by name of Catherine. None of these embraced the Gospel. The two first mentioned have long ago died. Peder went to seafaring and was never heard from again. What became of him will probably never be known in this world.

In the spring of 1860 I deemed it proper for me to gain some experience and training in farm work and to this end, I hired out to a farmer in the town of Vinding, by name of Hans Jyde Madsen. During this year I became to a considerable degree familiar with the use of the different farm implements then in use. This little experience I have often since in this country, found of great value to me, as when I first arrived in this country nearly all of necessity had to be farmers. In the spring of 1861 I had a desire to again take up my profession, and with this in view I engaged to a master bricklayer in the city of Fredericia, for three mark per day. He, as luck perhaps would have it, went back on his bargain and I had to seek employment elsewhere.

I was introduced, by a chum, to a man by the name of Niels Jensen, a bricklayer, living on Veile Mark. This man was a Mormon, a fact which my young friend cunningly concealed from my knowledge until I bargained with him. Had I known beforehand that he was a Mormon, I would have had nothing to do with him. On my telling my friend so he gravely assured me it wouldn’t make any difference, for a Mormon he was a pretty good fellow, nevertheless.

Here I came to the turning in my life, for although I had been reared in Christian Church by christian parents and had christian doctrines inoculated into my mind by christian ministers, I did not know what a true christian was until this man told me. I worked with this man three summers. It did not take very long after my acquaintance with him till I, through conversing with him upon religious matters, became convinced that Mormonism was true. I did not, however, become humble enough to receive baptism until 1863, when on the 11th day of January, I was baptized in a brook on the northwestern borders of the city Veile by Elder Anders Hansen, who is to this day as far as I know a faithful member of the church and lives in Provo City. I do not remember when and by whom I was confirmed a member of the Church, but it took place in the same city very shortly after. I am thankful to my Heavenly Father that I have remained in the Church until the present day (1872).

It was during my stay with this man, Niels Jensen, that I for the first time saw the one who it was destined to, in after years, become my life companion, but it was not till we met in a then distant land that our hearts were made one. Her parents lived neighbors to the folks with whom I was staying, and as she occasionally would visit the house of my master, or rather the wife of my master, I would generally evade meeting her, on account of it being rumored around that she intended to join the Mormons, and as my motives at that time were the very opposite to that. I could, of course, not associate with anybody that was going to be a Mormon.

Her father’s name was Mathis Hansen and her mother’s name Elizabeth Peterson. Neither of them ever joined the Church, although her mother believed the Gospel to be true, and her daughter has since her death performed the ordinances of baptism for her in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. The latter died in Denmark January 17, 1888, and her husband the same place, January 30, 1883.

Johanne Hansen was the name of the one who afterwards became dear to me and although I, at one time, would shun her presence on account of Mormonism, I preceded her into the church by nearly one month. She was baptized near Veile Mark in a stream of water called Hvien Aa, February 3, 1863 by Elder J. C. Olsen; I think she was confirmed by Elder Johansen, now Bishop of Provo Second Ward. J. C. Olsen has since been cut off from the church for drunkenness. Johanne with her half-brother emigrated to Zion shortly after their connection with the Church. (Her brother’s name was Hans Christian Hansen.)

In the winter of 1862-63, I was living with a farmer by the name of Sorn Christian at a place called Ostengaard, half a Danish mile northwest from Veile. While there my father came to see me, having traveled a long way on foot, for the purpose of showing to me a letter written by a former neighbor of his who had apostatized from the faith of the Gospel while on the journey to Utah. The letter contained many evil reports concerning the Saints in general and the Priesthood in particular. It did not, however, have any effect to shake my faith, which was a little disappointment to Father. I learned upon my arrival in Utah that this man was an adulterer; hence his apostasy.

In the summer of 1863 I worked again for Niels Jensen, having, as already stated, joined the Church the previous winter while living with the above-mentioned farmer. In the fall at a conference held in Veile I was ordained a Teacher by J. C. Olsen and sent on a mission to Horsens Branch to labor under the direction of Elder Gustave Pegan. I was then shortly ordained to the office of a Priest by Elder Pegan. As the war between Prussia and Denmark broke out about this time, several of the native elders were released from their missions to go to Zion in order to escape services of soldiers of war. Among those released were President J. C. Olsen; Gustave Pegan was appointed in his place and I was ordained an Elder by W. Winberg, and set apart to preside over the Horsens Branch. While laboring as a missionary I traveled mostly in Bjerre Herred and Has Herred, and some in Nim Herred.

On account of the war my work as a messenger of the Gospel did not last long. Being 22½ years old I was liable at any time to be drafted for services in the army. Therefore, in the spring of 1864 I was released from my mission with the privilege of emigrating to Zion. I availed myself of the opportunity. My father, although at that time not a member of the Church, was liberal in helping me with means to enable me to go. On the 4th of April I said goodbye to my parents, brothers and sisters in Nebsager Mark. On the 6th of April 1864, I bid adieu to my native land Jutland.

I left the city of Horsens on that day in company with Elder Peder Jensen of Raadved pr. Horsens. This young man now lives in Parowan, Iron County, Utah. We traveled by wagon from Horsen to Aarhus, where we took steamer for Korscer. We landed there in the afternoon, and as we were wending our way from the harbor to the railroad station, some urchins yelled at us calling us Mormon Priests. This, we thought singular as neither of us had ever been on the Island (Sjelland) before.

We arrived in Copenhagen late in the evening of the 8th, I think. We stayed in Copenhagen (the capitol of Denmark) one week. We took a steamer from there to Altona; from there we traveled by rail to Hamburg where we stopped two or three days. While there I had a spell of sickness, but not serious. From Hamburg we went by steamer to Grimsby via Hull. From Grimsby by rail to Liverpool, where we again laid over about a week, waiting for our ship to get ready to take us on board.

On April 22 we boarded the ship that took us from Liverpool to New York. It was a large sail ship, and was called the Monarch of the Sea. There were on board about 1,000 Latter-day Saints; so, notwithstanding the size of the vessel, we found ourselves pretty well crowded. Especially did we experience a great deal of inconvenience in the cooking department, and it was chance work for many of us to get our meals cooked. I, for my part, however, did not suffer any as I had good health all the way. The trip across the Atlantic took us about 35 days.

Having lost my notes which I penciled down while on my journey here, I am not able to give exact dates, but I think we landed at Castle Garden, New York on the first or second of June, where we stayed but a day and then continued our journey towards our destination by taking a steamer up the Hudson River to the City of Albany, from which place we traveled by rail to St. Joseph in the state of Missouri. From there we embarked on a steamer which landed us on the west banks of the Missouri River at a place called Wyoming, where we laid in waiting about three weeks before the ox trains from Utah arrived which were to take us across the dreary plains.

Instead of going with the Church teams, I and four other young men, namely my partner and friend Peder Jensen, Niels L. Lund, Sorn Thomsen, and Charles Rover, engaged ourselves as teamsters to a man from Manti, by the name of Sorn Christoffersen. He also engaged Catherine Festesen, the sweetheart of Charles Rover, to cook for us. Christoffersen had a step-son along with him from Manti by the name of Niels. He was a lad of about 16 or 17 years. He drowned in Green River two years afterwards (1866) as he was going back to Fort Bridger after some goods and wagons left there by us in 1864.

Our company thus numbered eight souls. We had six wagons and twenty yoke of cattle. Five yoke were young cows. One of the wagons was a light one and had but two yoke of cattle on it. It contained the provisions. Sorn Thomsen was the teamster of this wagon. The object we had in view in taking upon us so tedious a job as driving cattle across the plains was mainly not to get in debt to the Church for our passage across the plains, as all of us were destitute of means, but were young and strong, healthy and willing to work. Besides this, Christoffersen was a very good talker and understood well how to explain the matter in such a way that, greenhorns as we were, we could not help but see that we had the best end of the bargain and that it would be more to our advantage than to his that we drive his teams over the desert, free of charge.

During the summers of 1864, 1865, and 1866 the Indians were very hostile on the plains and we were greatly exposed to being massacred by them, being so few traveling alone and unarmed. But God preserved our lives. Sorn Christoffersen was too stingy to allow us to travel along with the Church train for protection; in which case he would have had to pay a small amount to help pay the night guards. Many of our cattle died on the plains, and when we arrived at a place called Fort Bridger, we were compelled to leave two wagons with their loads because of cattle having died.

I enjoyed the trip across the plains very well, enjoying good health all the way. I remember, however, that I was sick in the latter part of August and the first of September, the eighth day of the latter month being my birthday. I remember feeling very sick and quite discouraged on that day.

Nothing of particular importance occurred to us during our journey. We saw no Indians and they did not molest us, but many depredations were committed on the plains that summer; however, none of the emigrants or Latter-day Saints were killed or molested.

We entered the Valley of the Mountains by way of Provo Canyon about the 12th or 13th of October. We proceeded right on to Manti, the home of Soren Christoffersen, arriving there on the 20th of October, 1864. We found Brother Christoffersen’s family very kind and affable towards us, which to us was a pleasant contrast to the way in which we had been treated by Soren along the road. In a very few days I here bid goodbye to my traveling companions, some of whom I have never met again till this day.

My first job of work in my adopted country consisted of digging a cellar for a miller by the name of Christian Nielsen, living at and owning the warm springs flour mill a mile south of Manti. I worked for him about a week. I next hired out for a year to Peter Rasmussen, bishop of Salina, Sevier County. I left Manti on the 29th of October and traveled on foot towards my new home.

When about four miles south of Manti, I retired to a secluded place and knelt down before the Lord in sacred prayer and thanksgiving unto Him who had preserved me over sea and land to the Land of Zion and the home of the Saints. I asked my Heavenly Father on this occasion to bless me with health and strength, and to heal up my lungs which for several years before my leaving Denmark had been very weak and at this time often would bleed profusely. I prayed for my father, mother, brothers and sisters, all of whom were left in my native land. I asked God to lead them all into the fold of Christ. I asked Him to bless me in all my labors and travels upon the Land of Zion. I covenanted anew that if my Father would hear and answer these, my humble petitions, I would serve Him all the days of my life. I can say to the praise of the name of God that He has bestowed upon me every gift asked for on this occasion, but how well I have kept my promises is something of which I cannot boast.

I traveled on foot and alone till about one mile past Twelve Mile Creek when I was overtaken by a man with a team, Brother Veile Allred of Glenwood. He kindly took me in his wagon and I rode with him to Bishop Rasmussen’s place where we arrived about an hour after dark. I found Brother Rasmussen and his family kind people and good Latter-day Saints, and I had a good home by them. I was well fed and otherwise kindly treated.

I soon acquired the use of the English language, the bishop taking great pains to instruct me. I worked for him one year on the farm, my board and clothes, and ten acres of land, and a city lot. Three acres of the land I had put in wheat, but the early frost in the fall damaged my wheat very much and the following spring 1866, the place was vacated on account of Indian depredations. So through these circumstances my year’s wages amounted to very little.

This Indian war is known in Utah history as the Black Hawk War. It commenced early in the spring of 1865 in April. I do not remember the date, but I was sleeping outdoors on the night when, between 11 and 12 o’clock, two men from Gunnison, one by the name of Mortensen, brought the sad news of the killing of young Ludvigson of Manti at the lake on Twelve Mile Creek south of Manti. I heard the men stop their horses in front of the bishop’s door, calling him by name and saying, “The Indians are mad.” The town was quickly aroused from its peaceful slumber, and the men and big boys spent the time making bullets, cleaning old rifles and muskets, of which there were but very few in town, probably not more than a half a dozen, and perhaps two or three pistols.

We soon learned that two of our number were missing, viz: Brother Barnard Ward, an old mountaineer of about 70 years of age, and a young man James Pedersen. These two men had gone into the canyon in the afternoon of the previous day and we supposed, as on the morning was proven true, that they had been murdered. This expectation of our brethren having thus been murdered in cold blood instilled a war feeling in our breasts and much combative talk was engaged in and many campaign plans were laid during the night as to how on the morning their blood should be avenged.

After an early breakfast I was sent on a small pony bareback, armed with a small rifle (loaded), having no place in which to fasten the ramrod, to Glenwood, fifteen miles with the news as thus far developed. I returned from this trip in safety late in the day and found the two brethren had been brought home dead as expected. Besides being horribly mutilated, Ward had a bullet hole in his head, besides arrow wounds in several places on his body. He was also scalped. Pedersen’s head was chopped to pieces.

I shall not write more about this war, as it is written by historians and is published in different books.

While living at Peter Rasmussen’s I became acquainted with and made love to a young lady, Lavina Childs. I intended for some time to have her made my wife, but finding her somewhat fickle-minded I finally gave up my intentions and transferred my love and affection to Johanne Hansen, who at this time was living in Circle Valley where she, on her arrival to Utah, had gone to live with her brother. He, having been killed by the Indians in the fall of 1865, she was at the time of my going to join her living alone in her brother’s house.

In February 1866, I left Brother Rasmussen’s place and went to Circle Valley and on the 13th day of February 1866, we were married by Bishop Wm. Allred, then bishop of Circle Valley. On May 2nd was my wife’s 23rd birthday.

I went to work and put in a crop of wheat and oats, planted some potatoes and garden. The people of Marysvale were counseled to move to Circle Valley, and with the people there join in building a fort for mutual protection against the savage Indians who were constantly committing depredations and murders.

I moved my house and my wife into the fort and we lived there till in the early part of June when, by order of General D. H. Wells, the place was ordered vacated, it not being deemed safe any longer for us to live in this far off frontier settlement. My wife and I then left our home, land, crops and all, and never again returned to them. I have visited the place once since in 1884. My wife has never seen it since.

After arriving in Sanpete after our exodus of Circle Valley, we made our new abode at Manti, being furnished a room to live in on easy terms by Brother L. C. Kjer. We only lived here a few weeks, after which we moved to Ephraim and lived in a log house belonging to Peter Petersen. We both worked for him in the harvest field cradling and binding wheat and oats, thus trying to help each other to acquire a few of the necessities of life.

In the spring of 1867 we left Petersen’s house and went to live at Andrew Andersen’s. Here on the 11th day of July 1867 our first son, whom we named Hans Christian Larsen, was born. (This boy died June 19, 1868.) I bought a city lot of K. H. Brown in the western part of town 1½ blocks west of the meeting house. On this lot I built a little house during the summer of 1867 and we moved into it in the fall of 1867. This fall I had the pleasure of meeting my brother, Peter, and my sister, Ane and her husband Soren Petersen as emigrant Saints to the Valley of the Mountains.

I went to Moroni to meet them. Brother Christian Steck went along with me for pastime. We stopped with some friends at Moroni over night. The next morning we went hunting rabbits between Moroni and Fountain Green. Steck was an old hunter, but this day I beat him, killing 5 to his 0, which made him a little cross. We expected to meet the emigrants between the two settlements during the day, but it was very late perhaps about ten o’clock at night before I met them, a couple of miles north of Moroni. I found them all well. We went to Ephraim the next day and the newcomers came to my home, where they lived most of the winter.

Peter was married to Ane Sophia Christensen in the Endowment House, Salt Lake City, February 14, 1868, after which time they went to live by themselves in a room in Lars Poulsen’s house. In the spring, Petersen, my sister’s husband, got to run Thomas Thorp’s mill and also left my house.

In the summer of 1868 there were a great deal of grasshoppers in Sanpete Valley and most of the wheat crop was eaten up by them. I raised no wheat at all, and spent most of my time fighting the destroyers. There was, however, upon the older farms of Ephraim raised enough wheat to bread the people, and my family did not suffer any.

In the fall of this year 1868 I had the pleasure of taking an ox team and going to Salt Lake to meet my parents and the balance of my brothers and sisters. The first emigrants I met gave me the sad and unexpected news that my dear mother had died on the plains near Benton, Nebraska on September 4th at eleven o’clock. She was buried the same day without funeral ceremony whatever. I found Father and the rest alive, but my brothers Hans and George very sick near unto death. They soon recovered on arriving in our mountain home. (Hans was not yet a member of the church.)

In December 1868 a call was made by President Young for volunteers to go and work on the U. P. Railroad, then in course of construction in Weber Canyon. I and my brother Peter and our brother-in-law, Sorn Petersen, went with a great many more. It was a cold winter and the work was dangerous being in a deep stone cut called Slate Point, near the 1,000 mile tree, 1,000 miles west of Omaha, Nebraska. On account of these difficulties the majority of the men soon went home, many of them not clearing expenses.

My brother left on receiving the news of the birth of his first daughter, Sophia. I stayed with the work till spring opened. I then left without my pay and afterwards had considerable difficulty in getting it and finally had to take it in store goods.

In February 1869, I was ordained a Seventy of the 47th Quorum by Thora Thurstsen, Senior Pres. In the spring I went with my wife, Johanne Hansen, to the Endowment House in Salt Lake City and on the 17th February 1869 received our endowments and was sealed for time and all eternity.

On August 3, 1869, my second son by Johanne H. was born, named James Christian. He was blessed October 7th by Elder F. C. Sorensen. He was baptized on August 11, 1877 by A. C. Nielsen. In the winter of 1869-70, I became acquainted with a young lady from Lealand, Denmark by the name of Christine Larsen, and by my first wife’s approval and full consent, I married her in the new and everlasting covenant on the 7th of March, 1870, in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. She was at the time of our marriage 19 years of age. The first child by this wife was a girl born 23rd December 1871, named Huldah Sardinia. The dates of her blessing and baptism I have omitted by neglect to have recorded.

The third son by my first wife (Louis Martin) was born 4th Aug. 1872, blessed Sept. 3, 1872, by J. P. Dorius. (Date of baptism and by whom have been forgotten.)

My second daughter, Johanne Sophia, by my second wife was born 29th Oct. 1872, blessed Dec. 5, by Elder G. C. N. Dorius. This lovely girl died of diphtheria on the 26th day of Sept. 1879 at Ephraim, Utah. The mother of these two girls, although fair and lovely, loving and kind, was possessed of a very violent temper, which at times verged almost into insanity. She thereby caused me, as well as herself and the family, much sorrow and trouble. She allowed the evil power through her ungovernable temper to dispossess her reason to the extent that she finally, in 1873, destroyed her own life by her own hand and died in the month of April, 1873.

These were gloomy and sorrowful days for me and darkness and despair for a while almost seemed to overcome me, but I finally overcame these gloomy feelings and was comforted by the Spirit of the Lord, and by the friendly feelings of many of my brethren and sisters. While many seemed to entertain a disposition to hold me responsible for the rash act of my unfortunate wife. A coroner’s inquest was held according to law and the verdict given was corroborative with the above written facts and entirely exonerated me. Her little girl, Sophia, was taken and nursed and cared for by my first wife, who also was a kind and faithful stepmother to the other, Huldah, until she became of age and was married.

In the fall of this year I paid attention to and engaged to marry another young lady by the name of Christiane Hansen, daughter of Andrew and Abelone Knudsen Hansen, of Ephraim, formerly of Denmark. This girl was born at St. Louis, Missouri while her parents were journeying from their native land to the Valley of the Mountains on the 7th April, 1856.

My first wife again gave me her consent to take another wife, although it was this time more of a trial and seemingly a greater sacrifice on her part than on the first occasion, in consequence of having passed through some of the trials and self-denials incident to plural family relationship. May the Lord reward her accordingly!

The day for my going to the House of the Lord to have this sister sealed to me was about agreed upon in the early part of December 1873, when a call from the First Presidency was made for masons and laborers to go as volunteers to work on the St. George Temple. I felt it my duty to go there as a mason to help erect this House of the Lord. Hence, with the approval of my wife and my espoused girl, I left them and my home about the 1st of December, with a company of about 25 men and boys in the charge of Bro. N. L. Christensen, of Ephraim, a mason by trade.

We camped the first night on Six Mile Creek. It was a warm and pleasant afternoon, a genuine Indian summer evening and we anticipated a very pleasant and comfortable trip to warm Dixie, being provided with good teams and plenty of good food and provisions, we expected that it would only be a few days when we would be out of reach and range of a northern winter, but we had reckoned without our host. On awakening in the morning we found the ground white with snow, and the storm still raging. With difficulty we found our animals and proceeded that day no farther than Warm Creek, about eight miles, where we received hospitable treatment in the shape of comfortable camping quarters for our men and shelter for our animals.

If I remember aright, we stopped here the following day awaiting the abating of the storm. It did let up a little and we again started out, but it soon commenced to snow again and we encountered bitter cold and snow almost every day until we reached Kannarra, a settlement at the top of the rim of the basin before we commenced to descend down the southern slope into Dixie. It took about double time to reach Kannarra, owing to the heavy conditions of the road.

At Kannarra we found Pres. Young and party awaiting a favorable opportunity to cross the divide going south to St. George, the road having become blocked by snow. For several days a party of men with a herd of loose horses had been endeavoring to keep the road passable by driving them forward and back, but evidently had not succeeded in making very good road. It was therefore suggested as a fine idea for our train of 8 or 9 wagons to start out in the morning early and break a road for the carriages of the President and party to pass over later in the day.

Consequently it was decided that we were to start about sunrise the following morning which we did, our captain being a man prompt to carry out counsel and seldom found behind time. It was a clear frosty morning. We proceeded some two and a half or three miles when we came to deep snow. The road tracks were blown full of snow and we also found an exceedingly strong cold breeze blowing across the divide from the hills on the east to the west. The road became so heavy that our teams were unable to draw their loads. In order to make it easier for the teams we formed into a line and tramped the snow down with our feet in front of the head wagon. We also procured a long rope and fastened to the end of the tongue and ten or fifteen men got hold and helped the horses pull and at the same time made tracks for the wheels.

But we made very little progress and although in this way working very hard trying to proceed, we suddenly discovered that some of our number had their ears, noses and toes frozen. We therefore made a halt and after consulting together a few moments decided that in order to save ourselves from disaster, we must turn about face and get out of this siberian climate as quickly as possible. We therefore got our bedding and provisions all into two or three of the hindmost wagons, put plenty of teams and retraced our course back to Kanarra.

When we had proceeded a short distance on our return we met President Young and party who were glad to turn back. Some of our men or boys who were badly frozen were taken into some of the carriages and quickly conveyed to town where they could be properly cared for. This being done, all were soon out of danger. I was not hurt by the frost except one of my ears being very slightly touched by it.

I will relate that before we left the snow to return to town some of us became the means of saving two young men from freezing to death. They had stopped on the evening before, on their return from the south to Fairview, Sanpete, where their homes were. A few hundred yards south of our head wagon was their camp, but on account of the drifting snowclouds, we had been unable to see them until we were just about leaving our wagons one of our number happened to get a glimpse of something but could not at first tell what it was. Finally it could be seen that it was a covered wagon and some animals by it. We therefore supposed there might be people there also, dead or alive. Capt. Christensen prevailed on one of the teamsters to stop and wait with his wagon while it was ascertained what the other wagon contained. N. L. Christensen, James Olsen, Marinus Thomsen and I went to it and found the two young men in the wagon in a helpless condition, almost not able to speak and not able to walk at all.

We tried to arouse them as well as we could, and endeavored to bring the blood into circulation. We carried them and their bedding to our wagon which was waiting and brought them with us to town. After arriving there they soon revived. The next day a fine one and we made another start and succeeded in crossing the cold divide and descended down into Dixie, to the settlement of Bellview where the climate was warm and pleasant. In two days we arrived in the temple city of St. George, and I was assigned a little adobe house near the temple to camp in.

The temple foundation was not all in, but the southwest corner was above the ground a few feet when we arrived. I started the day after our arrival to work on the foundation along with an old mason by the name of Elisha Everet. My first work was done on the south side. I afterwards worked on the west end being assisted by a mason by the name of Berglund. We brought that part of the building to the square of the basement.

I enjoyed my labors on this holy house very much, for the period of a little over three months. I was blessed with the best of health all the time and increased in weight to 157 pounds, this being 10 pounds above my average weight. I did not draw any pay or wages for this labor but donated it all as freewill offering for the ******** of the House of the Lord. Our company of laborers and mechanics returned home in the early part of March, 1874.

The weather in the south was warm and pleasant and many of the brethren became homesick, on account of this, thinking it was time to be at home putting in crops. Occasionally some grain was sowed in the first part of March in Sanpete. George A. Smith, first counselor to Pres. Brigham Young, told us not to be in a hurry about going home as we would have a good deal of winter in the north. His saying proved true for we not only had stormy weather to go home in, but much storm and cold and mud after we got home; so no field work was done for a couple or three weeks after we got home.

I found my family all well on my arrival home. I also found my espoused girl true to her promise made to me in the fall when I left for St. George, and consequently I took her to Salt Lake City, where we were married in the Endowment House on the 30th day of March 1874 by Joseph F. Smith.

In the fall, I and my first wife Johanne went to Salt Lake City and performed the ordinance of baptism for some of our dead friends and relatives. We also at the same time met an emigrant lady friend who at that time arrived from Denmark. Her name was Ane Elenora Jensen, a daughter of Niels Jensen, the man with whom I lived and worked for when first becoming acquainted with the Gospel. I had paid her passage or part of it from her home to Utah.

Shortly after returning home I again left home for St. George to labor on the Temple, in answer to a call for volunteers. Before starting I signed over my property to the United Order which at that time was being established in nearly all the settlements of the saints. In Ephraim, however, it never amounted to anything other than organizing and putting our property on the books. Some of the wards went into the operation of it to a considerable extent, but all broke up one after the other. Brigham City in the north and Orderville in the south kept it up the longest. The latter place continued in it for about ten years.

I left Ephraim about the middle of October and took with me my wife, Christine and my little daughter Sophia, who was then about two years old and was taken care of by Christiane. We rented a room in St. George to live in. The temple walls during the summer had been raised 25 or 30 feet with red sandstone. I went to work on the east main tower and worked under the direction of Bro. Edward Brain as foreman of the gang. We stayed on that part of the building till spring when the last rock was laid by us over the upper window arch in the center tower. The date of which I haven’t got in my possession, but it is I suppose, written in the history of the Church.

During our stay in St. George we went on a trip to Long Valley to pay a visit to my wife’s sister, Maria Black. Bro. William Morley Black and his family were then living in the upper end of Long Valley, 13 miles above Glendale. I was not so well this winter in health as on my other trip the previous winter, but I improved considerable on my trip to Long Valley.

As soon as the last stone as above referred to was laid we were all released to return home. While journeying homeward, my son by Johanne was born on the 14 of March, 1875. He was named Daniel Hilbert.

During the summer, I, in company with Bro. Erick Christensen of Ephraim, built a brick house for Bro. Anton H. Lund, now one of the Twelve Apostles. I also in connection with my brothers Peter and George built a large rock house for Peter Gravesen. In the spring of 1875, May 10, my mother-in-law, Abelone Knudsen Hansen, died of consumption. She was born in Veile Amt. Denmark, 17 Jan. 1876. (sic) She died faithful in the Gospel. At present I have nothing of interest to write concerning this year.

July 25th 1878, my daughter, Audra Elizabeth was born in Ephraim. Her mother, my first wife, [Johanne] was very sick on this occasion and came very near dying, but by administration of the Priesthood and good nursing and care of the sisters, her life was saved.

On the 5th of October 1878, my wife Christiane gave birth to her first son, the fifth son born to me. We named him George Andrew.

In the spring of 1879, I went to work on the Manti Temple. I attended the services of the laying of the corner stone and commenced my labors about a week later. My brother, Peter, started to work on the building about a week earlier. We both continued our labors as masons on that sacred structure, from that time on; I for seven years and my brother, one year longer. Bro. William H. Folsom was the architect and superintendent, and Bro. Edward L. Perry was the master mason. Bro. Perry was a very kind man in all his relations and dealings with the men working under his direction. He was also an efficient and capable mechanic.

September 26, 1879, my little daughter, Johanne Sophia, died of diphtheria. George Andrew, then about one year old, also had the dreaded disease, and came very near dying. His pulse stopped beating for a space of many minutes. He also stopped breathing for the same length of time, but by our faith and prayers and the administration of the holy Priesthood, he again was brought to life. Bro. H. F. Petersen, who was then postmaster of Ephraim, was the Elder who officiated, and he also seemed to exercise much faith in behalf of the child and did not remove his hands from off him until the functions of the body were again in operation. Many of the Elders seemed to have too little faith to dare to get close enough to a child with the diphtheria to administer to it.

I was notified by the First Presidency of Seventies to go on a mission, but was excused by Bro. Folson, Superintendent of the Temple.

The summer of 1879 was a very dry one, crops of grain, and especially hay was exceeding light this season. This followed by a hard winter, and much snow fell in the valley and many cattle died of starvation. This winter I commenced to sell what little land I owned in Ephraim with a view of buying more in the town of Redmond, Sevier County, where I intended in the future to make my home. I bought 10 acres of land there in the north field, near the townsite, for 125 dollars. (This in 1880.)

I afterwards bought 5 acres of land from my brother Hans who lived in Redmond, for a lot to build upon. I bought 10 acres more in the north from another man and 7 acres in the south field from Bro. Andrew Hansen. I rented all of it to my brother Hans for a couple of years.

My first daughter by my wife Christiane was born Feb. 19th, 1881. Named Clarissa Abelone. Fifth son by Johannah, Anthon Mayberry, born March 28, 1881, died 25 Sept. 1886 of diphtheria. In the year 1881, I sold my house and lot in Ephraim to my father-in-law Andrew Hansen.

In the spring of 1882 I moved my first family to Manti, where I was working on the Temple. While we lived there our boy Danial Hilbert had a very hard spell of sickness. My wife Annie (Christiane) was living in my former home keeping house for her father and taking care of him in his old age.

Family Name Changed: Petition to the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah asking the privilege of adopting the name of Breinholt, as a surname for ourselves and our posterity. This privilege was granted us by the last Legislature in which polygamists were allowed to serve.

“To the Honorable, the 1882 Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah

Gentlemen:

“We the undersigned you petitioners, viz. Laurits Christensen and his sons, Jens Christian Larsen, Jens Peter Larsen, Hans Larsen, and George, residents of Ephraim city, Sanpete County, Utah, most respectfully represent that being desirous to establish a family surname, and the name of Breinholt having been the family name of our ancestors; but your petitioners having never been known by said name of Breinholt, and being desirous to assume said name of Breinholt as a family surname, still to retain the names by which we are now known with the name of Breinholt as a surname in addition thereto.

“And as in duty bound your petitioners will ever pray.

(signed)

Laurits Christensen

Jens Chr. Larsen

J. P. Larsen

Hans Larsen

George Larsen”

I was the main agitator in this movement and I had not much trouble getting father and my brothers to unite with me in the cause. The reasons for our changing our names are this; In Ephraim where we lived there were a number of families of the same name “Larsen” so our mail matters often went to the wrong persons. Another reason was that in coming to America and forming new acquaintances it had become a habit to be called Larsen instead of Lauersen or Lauritsen; which of these two were the more correct I hardly know.

Furthermore, as will be seen on page 1 of this history. Father’s name as he was christened was Jensen, but on going through the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, he was advised to change his name to that of his grandfather “Christensen”. Some of us boys had done the same thing and some had not; therefore, it seemed very essential that something should be done to establish a uniform name. Hence, we agreed to adopt Breinholt to ourselves, and discontinue those other names: Lauersen, Larsen and Christensen, with our children.

January 10, 1883, my second son by Christiane was born, named Mahonri William. During the summer of 1882, I built a house in Redmond, costing some 500 dollars, and into this new home I moved my first wife in the fall. In this house June 7th, 1883, my son Francis Marion was born.

In the fall or latter part of December, I took my team and went on a visit with my wife Christiane to Long Valley where her sister Maria Black was then living at Orderville. We encountered some cold weather with our little children. One of my horses, a mare took sick and came very near dying at Orderville where I stayed but a few days . . . I managed to get home with her where she died a few days after my arrival at Redmond.

My wife stayed with her folks a few weeks and then returned to her Father’s home in Ephraim. During the time she had been away her father had commenced to be sick with the ailment from which he died on the 1st day of June, 1884. He was 82 years old, having been born June 29, 1802. He was born at Barrit Skou, Bjerre Herred, Denmark. He was an honest, upright, unassuming Latter-day Saint.

As stated before I worked on the Temple at Manti for seven years, in the summertime as a mason and in winter cutting stone. Most of my work, as well as my brothers, was done on the west towers of the building. We almost exclusively laid all the rocks contained in those three west towers from the foundation to the capstone. Our wages were $3.75 per day.

In the fall of 1884 I traded my place in Ephraim for my sister Else’s place in Manti, and in the spring of ’85, I moved Christiane to Manti to live in said place.

In August 1885, on the 8th, my son Canute Peter was born in our Manti home. He was blessed there by my brother Elder J. P. L. Breinholt.

In the fall of ’85 I moved Christiane to Redmond intending there to make permanent homes for all my family, but in this calculation I was frustrated by force of circumstances as I will relate further on. I rented a house to live in during the winter and built a log house on my lot into which I moved Christiane and her children, in the spring of 1886. It was my intention to afterwards build a better house on the east half of my 5 acre lot, but this I never accomplished.

On Aug. 30, 1886, my first wife Johanne, gave birth to a girl. We called her Malinda Cathrine. She was blessed by Bishop John C. Johnson.

When I moved the last of my family to Redmond, I quit my labors on the Temple intending to farm my land in Redmond, but I did not stay long with this calculation. Only two seasons did I stay steady on the farm, viz. 86 and 87. On Aug. 2nd, 1887, my fourth son by Christiane was born, called David Milton blessed by A. P. Andersen.

During the years of 1886, 87, 88, 89, the persecution and prosecution of our men and women who had entered into the plural family relations raged very heavily and brethren and sisters were being dragged before courts, and to prison all the time. And as I did not know when my turn would come I did not feel like making any more improvements in Redmond as it did not look like I could live there with my family and enjoy my homes in peace. Therefore, I never got a good house built there for my second family. I planted many shade trees and a number of fruit trees and some hundreds of dollars worth of leveling on my lot, as it was very unlevel when I bought it, but I did not enjoy living upon it but very little.

During 1887 and also the following year I was nearly always in expectation of being arrested and hauled to prison for violating the “Edmund’s Law” as well as the Tucker Amendment. The first was made to punish men of plural families for “holding out to the world” more than one woman as wife. The latter aimed to still more extensively punish and imprison the same class of men for begetting children with their plural wives, and as I was living with my wives and treating them as such in every respect I expected to endure the consequence of my infraction on those pretended moral laws which were made for the punishing of Mormons only.

I did, however, stay at home and did not go away and spend my time in hiding, as a good many of my brethren did. Some went to Europe, some to the States, and some hid away in other places closer home for weeks, months and even years, and finally came home and went to the penitentiary.

All this waste of time I did not think paying business, so I stayed at home tending to my duties and provided for my family. In June 1888 I went to Nephi, Juab County, to work on a job along with my brother Peter. We both worked a few days butting stone for the county court house. After that we went to work on the schoolhouse in the north part of the city. My brother was one of the subcontractors doing the brickwork, I did the cutting of the sills, caps, brackets, etc.

My brother was called home a few days before the job was done. One of his children being sick with the diphtheria. The child soon got well. A few days later I finished my job, and I returned home, my son Louis M. having come with my team to take me home. I bought a load of apples to take with me home. We left Nephi on the 18th of August.

Sunday and Monday I attended Conference in Richfield. On the 3rd of Sept. in the middle of the night two U. S. Deputy marshals visited the town of Redmond. They were Rasmus Clousen of Ephraim, and one Bennet of Mt. Pleasant. They first proceeded to the house of Bro. N. L. Christensen, whom they arrested and while there his wife Caroline ran to my house and informed of their presence. I left my bed and stayed away till they left so they had to go without me. But they served subpoenas on my wives to appear before the Grand Jury in Provo on Sept. 28.

Mr. Clousen told my wife that if I would give myself up he would see to it that my family would not be compelled to go to Provo. He repeated the same promise to my brother-in-law, J. S. Jensen, then Bishop of Salina, and on the strength of this favorable promise, I gave myself up to his custody on the 7th of Sept., when he again repeated this promise. I told him it was on this account only that I was induced to give myself up as it was very much against my wish and the feelings and convenience of my family to go to Provo. However, he never kept his word in this regard.

I went before a Commissioner, John Leonardon the day before mentioned, and was bound over to appear before the Grand Jury, on the 25th of October. My bonds were fixed at $300.00. My wife, Christiane also gave bonds in the sum of $100.00. Hans Gotfredsen and George L. Breinholt, being our sureties. On Oct. 16th, Mr. Clowsen sent me word by J. S. Jensen, that I was to meet in the court at Provo on the 20th instead of the 25th, and bring my family with me.

On the 17th I started from Redmond with my first wife. We went to Manti where Christiane was paying a visit to friends. We found her there and proceeded on to Ephraim where we stopped for the night with my sister Ane and her husband, Soren Petersen. On the evening of the 19th we arrived in Provo and our little children Malinda, 2 years old, and David, 15 months, being very tired of the journey.

On the 20th at about 11 o’clock we wended our way to the Halls of Justice and on arriving there my wives were right straight ushered in before the Grand Jury, composed of honorable and virtuous men. My first wife took advantage of the statute which exempts a wife from testifying against her husband. She refused to testify and was excused. My second wife of course, by special congressional enactment was compelled to testify, and the evidence thus obtained was all sufficient for the great men to find an indictment against me charging me with the crime of unlawful cohabitation. In the afternoon of the same day, I was called up to plead to the indictment and on the advice of Mr. Thurman, I pleaded not guilty. Sunday the 21st, me and my family were invited to dinner at Bro.Groveman’s, an old acquaintance from our native land.

On the 22nd I went to court and changed my former plea and pleaded guilty to the charge, and the twenty-fourth was set as the day upon which sentence was to be pronounced upon me. On the 24th my family started for home. My son Daniel Hilbert, 13 years of age, being the driver. On Wednesday the 24th at one o’clock, I again appeared in court ready to receive my sentence. And at half past one Judge Jud pronounced it to be 90 days imprisonment and to pay cost of prosecution, which amounted to some over fifty dollars. At about 3 o’clock, I was escorted to the D&RG Depot by two officers, put on the train guarded by one officer and arrived in Salt Lake City at 5 o’clock.

In the railroad car I had the honor of occupying the same seat with a thief adorned with the handcuffs. From the depot at Salt Lake I was taken up town by officers, and thence to the Penitentiary where we arrived a little after dark. I was right away without supper assigned to cell #37, where I found my companion to be (for 105 days) Bro. George C. Wood of Woods Cross, Davis County.

On the 25th, I made many new acquaintances amongst my fellow prisoners for conscience sake, and tried the best I could to bring my inward feelings to harmonize with my present condition and surroundings. On the 26th I had the opportunity of going for the first time in my life to a barber shop where I was divested of my entire beard. I was also adorned with a suit of striped clothes, but as it was the style of everybody, I thought it not at all out of place. Sunday, 28th, I attended Sunday School which was presided over by Pres.George Q. Cannon, who was at that time also an inmate of the pen for the sake of his marriage relations. On the 30th I was not very well.

On the 2nd of November a niece of mine, my sister Else’s daughter also a daughter of my Bro.Peter, made the privilege to enter the prison to see me for 15 minutes. They brought some nice cake of which to make me a present but were refused the privilege by the warden to bring it in.

The brethren some almost every day as prisoners. Many were leading men in the Church. I found by this time there were no less than 14 Bishops wearing stripes. On the 15th a photographer was employed by the brothers to come in and take pictures of us or of those who desired it. Nearly all of the brethren availed themselves of the opportunity and were taken in groups. Nearly mostly all the Bishops were taken in one group and others taken in groups by Counties.

The group in which I was taken contained, besides myself; Joseph Thurber, A. T. Oldroyd, Paul Polsen, O. P. Borg, of Sevier County, and by our wish, Pres. George Q. Cannon consented to appear amongst us, and by my special desire my cellmate George C. Wood was taken with us. On our picture is also to be seen one of the guards, James A. Doyle, who placed himself there by choice of his own. I presented one of these pictures to each of my wives and one to my sister-in-law, Maria Black.

Nov. 29th was Thanksgiving Day. We had feast of good things to eat at dinner furnished by Pres. Cannon who was with us and other benevolent brethren and sisters of Salt Lake City.

December 16th two daughters of my Bro. Peter visited me at the gate, Sophia and Caroline. They were the ones who brought the cake as before mentioned.

December 18 — I had been suffering some with the toothache and today had it extracted by Dr. Ormsby. On the 20th I received a letter from my Bro. Peter, containing a $1.00 postoffice order. Christmas Day we had a fine breakfast and an excellent dinner gotten up by friends on the outside, the same as on Thanksgiving Day. A concert and other amusements was arranged by the inmates and we had a good time.

On the 27th my eyes having become a little defective in sight, probably from reading so much by insufficient light, I today procured and commenced to use a pair of spectacles, and have used them ever since till now, September 1st, 1894.

Jan. 1st, 1889, Apostle F. M. Lyman was brought to the pen to serve a short term of imprisonment for the usual Mormon offense. On the 30th, I counted the bolts on the door of our cell and found that they numbered 336.

February 3, I received official notice that my term of imprisonment of 105 days including 30 days for cost, would expire on the 5th, Tuesday. On the 4th I obtained a copy of sentiments as follows:

Utah Penitentiary, Jan. 31, 1889

A token of Love and Respect to our Fellow Prisoner, Hon.

George Q. Cannon

Dear Brother:

As prisoners incarcerated for consciences sake and as brethren in the bonds of peace, we deem it a pleasure to acknowledge the kind beneficent influence which has been exerted by your presence here.

Although you are removed from family associations and from the many friends who love you, yet their loss is our gain and profit.

Your example has strengthened the weak, encouraged the sorrowful and bowed down and given confidence to all. We can say as was said of King David “Thou art my God’s chosen.” Words are inadequate to express to you our esteem and brotherly affection, but sincerely desire to prove ourselves as true to thee as thou has proven thy constancy to our Father’s work.

Signed by hundreds of our numbers.

On the same date I wrote the following sentiments of my own concerning my fellow prisoner and cellmate, George C. Wood:

I have now spent in a prison 105 days in company day and night with my companion, George C. Wood. I have found him in every respect a gentleman and brother, true, generous and kind. He is devoted greatly to his family, to his God, and to his brethren and friends. May God bless him, and bestow upon him all his heart’s righteous desires. May we meet again upon the Heavenly shore with those that God has given us, is my reflection and prayer this morning, Feb. 4th, 1889.

J. C. L. Breinholt

On the morning of the 5th I donned my own clothes and put away my prison garb, and after breakfast I bid adieu to my cellmate and other friends, and about 9 o’clock the prison doors were opened to let me outside where a conveyance and a couple of officers were in readiness to take me to town where it was required that I should go before a U. S. Commissioner and take an oath to the effect that I did not possess property over and above the exemption law, and therefore could not be compelled to pay the cost of my prosecution.

After doing so I took a train for Nephi where my son Louis arrived with a team the following day to take me home. I stopped at Nephi with my niece, Elize Breinholt, daughter of my Brother Peter, who was married to Walter Mayhue. We left Nephi on the 7th Feb. and stopped overnight with Bro.Andrew Hendrickson and family who lived a few miles south of Levan. We arrived at my home in Redmond in the evening of the 8th.

I was in good health and spirit and found my family all well and glad to see me back again a free man.

While I had been in the penitentiary I enjoyed the best of health and a contented spirit. I had enjoyed the society of so many of my brethren who also were imprisoned for conscience sake, a number of them were my old friends and acquaintances. I made a great many new friends, too. I will here mention some of the names of the brethren with whom I was acquainted previous to going to the pen, and who served terms of imprisonment contemporary with mine:

Soren Thygerson, J. F. Dorius, O. C. Larson, N. L. Petersen, Louis Larsen, Jens Andersen, Mons Nielson, Louis Dorius, all from Ephraim, Sanpete County. Rasmus Henningsen, Peter Westenskou, Bishop Hans Jensen, from Manti, Sanpete County. Hans Nielsen and Bishop R. N. Allred, from Chester, Sanpete Co. F. J. Christenson, and L. C. Larsen, from Mayfield, Sanpete County. Bishop J. P. R. Johansen, and Andrew R. Andersen from Provo and Lehi, Utah Co. Jens Hansen, Gunnison, Sanpete Co., O. J. Anderson, Castle Dale, Emery Co. Ole A. Jensen, Clarkston, Cache County, Jacob Bastian, Washington, Wash. Co. O. P. Borg, Richfield, Sevier Co. P. C. Geersten, Morgan Co.

Pres. George Q. Cannon and Apostle F. M. Lyman also served terms during that period. I felt proud that I had been numbered among so many staunch and true men, who were willing to suffer imprisonment for the sake of their families rather than to make an unholy promise to obey the law made by man on purpose to persecute Mormons. I was a free man now but did not feel that I was free to do as I wanted to and felt; to do towards my family.

I had refused to promise to obey the unholy law, and I did not now propose to do so. For by doing so I would have to discard my wife Christiane and her five little children. This I could not do for I had made covenants with her before the Lord to do otherwise. Besides, I loved her too well to forsake her under any consideration. But how to do my duty towards her and her children and at the same time avoid going again to the penitentiary was not at this time clear to me, but I had some thought of going into Old Mexico to live.

In the fall of 1888, a stake tabernacle was planned to be built at Richfield and I was offered the job of being foreman of the masonry and stone cutting, but as my arrest and incarceration in prison took place about that time I could not accept it. Another man, Bro. L. H. Newman of Monroe, was hired to build the foundation which work was mostly, but not all, completed during the fall and winter under his direction.

On my emerging from the pen or a short time after, Bro. W. H. Clark, superintendent of the building and second counselor in the Stake Presidency, again invited me to take charge and conduct the stonework of the building. I accepted the offer this time at $3.00 per day, thinking that perhaps that it would be as well for me to be away from home and that by this the U. S. Marshals and Mormon Apostate spotters would not have so favorable opportunities for watching my every day out goings and incomings.

After putting in my spring crop on my little farm in Redmond, I left it to my boys, Christian and Louis, to take care of, and I started for my work in Richfield on the 22nd of April, 1889. On the 23rd of April I started cutting stone. I hired my board and lodging in the home of Lars Peter Petersen for $2.50 a week.

The Tabernacle was a large building being 120 feet long besides a tower 22 feet square on the west and the vestry on the west about 22×28. Width of the main building was 80 feet. The height from water table to wall plate was 31 ft. It was built of two kinds of rock. The foundation to the top of the watertable was of red hard sandstone. The main walls of white soft sandstone. It was laid in courses 10 in. thick, rough cut, except the corners, jams, sills, and arches, which were cut clean. I did not at any time have a large force of men to work under me, from one to four, mechanics, besides myself was the extent of force employed on the walls.

On the 4th day of June 1889, my wife Christiane gave birth to my son Oliver Christian. I did not know but that this event would again land me in the penitentiary, but as I had already served a term for unlawful cohabitation covering the same period, I could not, according to a ruling of the Supreme Court of the U. S. again be indicted for the grosser crime called by the chaste lawmakers “adultery”. Hence, I kept my freedom yet a little longer. I had by this time made up my mind that before such again occurred, I would not be found in the United States.

I continued to work on the building all the winter of 1889-90. About Christmas, 1889, I went on a trip to Castle Valley to pay a visit to my sister-in-law, Maria Black and family, who then were contemplating moving to Old Mexico where her husband Bro. Wm. Black had already gone with part of his family in the fall of 1889. I had intended to go to Mexico at the same time as Sister Black if I could prepare and get ready by the time when she should go. But as she was not prepared to say at that time when she would be able to leave, I did not decide while there at Huntington, what I would do and when to do it.

On my return from Castle Valley, according to previous arrangements, I met at Manti, my father and some of my brothers and sisters, and we went into the House of the Lord and were adopted to father and mother. My sister Ane officiating in our mother’s place. This was the first days in Jan. 1890.

In the fall of this year sister Maria Black and some of her children got ready to start for Mexico, but as I was hardly prepared with suitable teams, and as I was not in any particular danger from U. S. Marshals, and besides this the Presidency of the Stake desired me very much to stay another year and if possible finish the walls of the building, so I did not leave them.

From this time on I commenced to make preparations as fast as I could to get ready to leave Utah by team, about the 15th of Sept. 1891. Hence, I bought a new wagon for the purpose of traveling overland, and had an old one well repaired for the same purpose. I also procured two sets of good harnesses. Shortly, however, I changed my mind and calculated to travel by rail. My reason for making this change was chiefly on account of the Tabernacle work. The brethren wished me to stay a little longer if possible to get the walls done before my leaving the work.

With this in view, I promised to stay about two months longer, during which time the work progressed with all the means at command. The north side was brought to the square, and the west end with vestry and gables were finished; the south side was lacking about 9 feet of being to the square; the east end was to the square, but was lacking gable and tower.

I would have liked to have stayed long enough to have finished the stone cutting and mason work, but I could not see but that in order to do so I would have had to spend another entire season, and this I did not feel that I could consistently do, after having voted at the October conference held in Salt Lake City, 1891, where I was present, to honor and obey the Manifesto issued by Pres. Woodruff, Pres. of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1890, forbidding plural marriages and advising the saints to obey the law of the land. After having thus voted I did not feel that the United States was any longer an abiding place for me, for I would not discard the family which the Lord had given me and which the law had made contraband.

On the 17th of November, 1891, I quit work on the Sevier Stake Tabernacle. The men who had been working under my direction the two years and 7 months on the building manifested their good will towards me by making me a present of a new hat, a pair of fine shoes, and a pair of socks.

In connection with Simon Hansen of Mayfield, and Soren Thyggersen of Ephraim, I chartered a Rio Grande freight car to be loaded at Ephraim about the 24th or 25th of November. On Tuesday 24th I bid goodby to my first wife and her children who did not want to go with me to Mexico, but preferred to stay in Redmond on the old homestead. It was to me and them as well, a sad parting, as we did not know if we would ever have the opportunity of seeing each other again. My wife shed tears as did my son Daniel and my loving daughter Audra. My little girl Malinda, being too young to realize the situation did not cry.

Besides the team which I took with me to Mexico, my son Louis M. went along with the team I left with the family. He hauled a load of my luggage to the railroad station at Ephraim and stayed there with me to help me along till the day when we boarded the train. We had some difficulty in obtaining our car and on this account did not leave Ephraim until Saturday the 28th. I did not have the privilege of saying goodby to my oldest son James C. as he was away herding sheep.

On the 28th at 11 o’clock, the parting hour, I then took final leave of my former old home and many good old friends and associates. I also took leave of my brothers Peter and Hans and my sisters Ane and Else. Ane was moved to tears on giving me a parting kiss. I boarded the freight car in which we shipped our luggage which consisted of our household goods, furniture, some provisions, some agricultural implements and two wagons, one was mine, the other Brother Hansen’s. I also had two mares and one cow. Bro. Hansen had two mares and one cow. Bro. Thyggersen had one mare and one cow. To take care of these animals was my reason for traveling in this car and I was on this account allowed a free ticket.

My wife Christiane and her children left Ephraim with the passenger train one hour later with the two brethren and families.

At Grand Junction I saw my family, Sunday morning waiting for their train. I was delayed there most of the day waiting for the freight train to take me on. I passed Leadville on the 30th, LaJunta on the 1st of Dec., Albuquerque, New Mexico on the 2nd, Parred Rincon in the morning of the 3rd and arrived at Deming about 10 a.m. I had a prosperous trip on the cars as well for myself as for the animals and goods in my care. At Deming I found my family and other fellow emigrants there having had a safe trip and pleasant one.

From Deming we were to proceed the remainder of our journey by our teams. On the morning of the 4th we started unloading our goods and furniture. We had unloaded our horses and cattle the previous afternoon. Deming was the place where we were to receive pass papers from the Mexican Consul and to have our teams and wagons and everything they contained classified, numbered and listed in shape to pass through custom house at Ascension. This proved to be a very tedious and laborious ordeal to pass through besides it being expensive. I had by letter beforehand arranged with my brother-in-law Brother William M. Black, then living at Jackson’s mill near Casas Grandes Mexico, to come or send a man and team to help me along. He sent Bro. John R. Young. We hauled 1800 lbs. of my freight and it was a great help to me in ordering and arranging things for the trip. Bro. Olsen of Colonia Diaz came along to help Bro. Hansen haul his goods. Bro. Thyggersen had no more than he hauled with his own team.

On the 9th of Dec. we got ready and started for Old Mexico. At about 4 p.m. we camped 4 or 5 miles south of Deming for the night. We had an uneventful journey over the barren country to the first Mormon colony, “Diaz” where we arrived on the evening of Dec. 13. We stopped over at Diaz one day and on the 15th we drove three miles on to the custom house where we had our goods inspected by the Mexican custom officers and paid duty on such of our property that we were not allowed to take in on freelist.

Here my family and myself received our pass papers to go on into the interior of the republic of Mexico. My partners Hansen and Thyggersen returned to Diaz where they intended to make their homes.

My family and I with our team and Bro. John R. Young, who was hauling about 1800 lbs. of our goods left Ascension late on the afternoon of the 15th and drove out about 8 miles before we camped for the night. On the 16th we traveled to the Casa Grande River and camped, a few miles below Corrallitos.

On the 17th we passed the last guard, Corrallitos, where we camped for dinner and arrived at Colonia Dublan an hour or two after dark. We stopped at the house of sister Lydie K. Young. Here we unloaded most of our load and on the following day in the afternoon we hitched up our team and drove on to Joseph Jackson’s Mill where we arrived a little after dark and put up with Bro.Black and his wife Maria, my wife’s sister. Bro. Black was then operating the mill and was living in a little lumber house 12 x 14, put up for temporary use while working at the mill.

We were made welcome at his table, and to all the comforts his scanty abode could afford. The next day we pitched our tent in front of the house. The ground was so rocky and dry that it was very difficult to drive stakes. We were now thankful to our Heavenly Father that we had reached our journey’s end without sustaining loss, accident, sickness or harm of any kind. It was also a source of relief to find ourselves in a land of religious liberty where we were not watched and criticized in regard to our domestic relations.

The season had been a very dry one in Mexico and feed for animals was very scarce and flour and other provisions were high in price. I had to turn my animals out on the barren range and having no grain to feed them they became very poor in a little while, and were not satisfied to stay around where I could find them. I, with the boys, Andrew and Mahonri spent a good deal of time hunting for them when we thought they were lost. I supposed they would have been, had we not kept on the look-out for them, as thieves were plenty.

At one time they were taken to the stray pen and remained there 15 days and would soon have been disposed of had we not accidentally happened to hear of them through Bro. George Lake, who is now 1898, dead. We, with some difficulty and by paying $3.00 or $4.00, got them back or what was left of them which was not much, but the hide and the bones. But we were glad to get them. This was along in the spring of 1892.

Shortly after New Years, I got some work to do for Bro. Joseph Jackson putting up a dry stone wall around an enclosure west from his mill, with the help of the boys who were then small. I earned about $3.00 a day.

After that in March and April I put up for him a cobble rock stable at 50¢ per perch, but it was a poor paying job at that price. Still I made the bread for the family.

The next job was building the basement story for his new mill which was started in the latter part of April, 1892. It was a little better job being heavy walls. I also went to the hills and got out white rock for the wheel pit. In May I went to work at Corrallitos, but only worked there 9 days at $3.50 and board. I was sick there one day but stayed with my work.

On returning from Corrallitos, I went to the mountains on foot to a place where my wife’s sister was living between Pacheco and Valley Cave. I took my horses home, as I had a month or so previously sent them to pasture, being told that there was good feed. But I found them poor and weak. I took 500 feet of dry lumber on my wagon, but this was too much of a load for them. They gave out and I had to unload and carry my lumber up the Park Hill and had a very hard time getting home.

Bro. Black had left the mill and had sold his house to me, so I went to work after my return from the mountains and pulled it down and moved on to my 30 acres of land in San Jose, which I had there bought of Bro. Jackson. We pitched our tent in the river bed about the 20th or 21st of June 1893, in which we camped till I got the house rebuilt.

I raised no crop on my land this year, not having put anything till after the rainy season had commenced which was late (about 23rd of June). We did not have but a few showers. I planted a little late corn but stock running at large ate it all up.

In the latter part of August, I again commenced to work for Bro. Jackson, continuing the building of his new mill. I built wheel pit and some of the flume walls, then went to cutting stone for the front part of the building. Other masons in the meantime were laying up the walls. I was employed on this mill building and cutting stone almost steady from August, 1892 till August, 1894.

On the 20th of July, 1894, I received a letter from my Bro. George, giving an account of a birthday party given to Father at his own home in Redmond June 9th on his 76th birthday. All present were relatives; sons, daughters, son-in-law, and daughters-in-law, grandchildren, and one great grandchild, a little girl belonging to the oldest daughter of my Bro. Peter. Her name was Stella. She was at that time the only living great grandchild of Father’s. There were present on the occasion including Father and his wife, 29 souls. Father was presented with a gold filled watch and chain. An enjoyable time was had. All of Father’s children were present except my sister Else and myself. Else, for some reason best known to her, was not in harmony with the rest of the family. At this time Father had 57 grandchildren living and 12 dead. Two great grandchildren, one living and one dead.

* * * * *

Note: After 1894, J. C. L. Breinholt’s history was uncompleted by his own handwriting, but there were many important things that are necessary to record about his active and honorable life and his children before he died on November 5, 1914. Oliver Christian Breinholt, his fifth son by his wife, Christiane, endeavors to add to this record of his father’s life as he remembers it for the benefit of those who are to read this uncompleted journal.

J. C. L. Breinholt lived with his wife, Christiane and their children on their farm at San Jose, Mexico. They were members of the Dublan Ward, Juarez Stake of Zion, from the year 1893 until the year 1899. Here he cared for his farm and also worked at his trade of masonry and stonecutting. He almost always walked to and from work every day, sometimes a total of ten miles in one day. While living at this place, his son Anton Lund was born, 11th May 1893. Also here at San Jose a daughter, Christy Mariah, 19th August 1897. Father did most of the mason work on the early constructed houses at Dublan.

In the fall of 1894, while at San Jose, a tragic event happened. Christopher B. Heaton was operating a molasses mill across a farm adjoining our home. One day there were some natives (Mexicans) loitering around and Mr. Heaton suspicioned that they were there for a purpose. After he had left for the night the natives returned and rolled a barrel of molasses into the pumis pile and covered it with pumis (the pulp of the sugar cane). The following morning when Mr. Heaton found that the thieves had been there and made preparations to come back the following night, he came to our house and told Father what had happened and that he was going to try to have them arrested. Mr. Heaton went to the officers of the law and asked them to come before dark and arrest the natives when they came back, but he was disappointed as the officers never came.

Mr. Heaton attempted to handle the situation alone and concealed himself to wait for them to return. Shortly after dark the thieves arrived with an ox team and wagon. They loaded the barrels of molasses on the wagon and when they started to leave, Mr. Heaton stepped out and ordered them to stop, but they were prepared for trouble and pulled out a gun and shot Mr. Heaton through the shoulder and then beat him to death with a club. They took his gun and robbed him of his watch.

My father heard the shot and knew that there was trouble. He immediately sent his two oldest boys, Andrew and Mahonri, after the horses in the field and instructed them to go to Dublan for help. He then went on foot to the scene of the tragedy. The murderers had left and had tied tree limbs behind the wagon to try to cover up their tracks. J. C. L. Breinholt followed the thieves until the officers arrived and they were arrested. The thieves were turned free in a day or two without being punished.

In the spring of 1899, J. C. L. Breinholt moved his family to Colonia Juarez in order for the older children to receive higher schooling. It was during this time while he and his son, George Andrew, were finishing some work at Dublan that Andrew took sick with appendicitis and because they were unable to obtain a doctor in time to help him, he died at Nueva Cassas Grande (meaning large new house), Mexico, on the 29th of May 1899. Andrew was laid to rest in the Dublan Cemetery.

While living in Juarez, Father built many of the brick and stone homes of that area including one for Pres. Anthony W. Ivans and a large stone house for John W. Taylor.

J. C. L. Breinholt was quite diplomatic and humorous when conversing with people. He wore his clothes in a regular fashion. He always wore woolen garments which seemed to protect his health. He always wore a three-piece suit; trousers, vest and coat. When he was working he would take off his coat or vest according to the weather conditions, and always carried his watch in one vest pocket securely to a chain attached in one button hole.

On one occasion he was building a house, and a short time before had bought a new 15 jewel Elgin watch which was extremely attractive to the eyes of a Mexican laborer who was working for him. One day Father hung his coat and vest on a wall that was not in his view while working. When lunch time came, Father went to check the time and to his surprise his watch was gone. He asked the Mexican if he had taken the watch; the reply was no. During the day Father had noticed the Mexican go down to the bushes and supposed for necessary relief, so when it was time to quit work Father used his tactfulness and said to the Mexican to come with him to look for the watch. They followed the course the Mexican had taken earlier in the day and just as Father had expected, the watch was hidden in the bushes. The Mexican claimed he did not know how the watch got there.

Note: This watch, which I still have, was given to me as a keepsake after Father’s death. I can remember when he would take us little ones on his knee and bounce us up and down and sing:

Ride a **** horse to Banbury Cross

To see a fine lady jump on her horse,

Rings on her fingers, bells on her toes,

She will have music wherever she goes.

At our home in Juarez, Father took pride in planting choice fruit trees and other things, and they yielded abundantly at this time. At this home we had no culinary water except from the irrigation ditch. It was Father’s early morning chore, while the water was fresh and clear, to fill the water barrels to use for household purposes.

J. C. L. Breinholt was called to serve on a mission to his native land, Denmark. He left November 5, 1900 and returned from his mission November 22, 1902. He enjoyed excellent health even though he was at that time 60 years of age.

A lady convert to the Church named Margrethe Lucetta Hansen traveled to America with the group and returned to Mexico with Father. Father married this woman soon after they returned in 1902. She had a son about 13 years of age. His name was Holger Hansen.

On account of a revolution in old Mexico during the years of 1910-11-12, the people in the Mormon colonies in Mexico were counseled by the Church authorities to leave Mexico until the trouble was over. They all left and many never returned. J. C. L. Breinholt came with his family back to Utah, leaving everything he owned except what could be put in a couple of trunks and a suitcase. It was very difficult for Father to consent to leave his homes and other property at his retiring age 71 and face the necessity of taking charity from friends and relatives, although he was glad to see them again.

During the remaining two years that he lived at Redmond he spent considerable time in fixing fences, gates and other things for his oldest son, Christian, who made the family welcome and helped to provide a home for the family. With some repairing, Father made the log house quite comfortable and here he and Mother lived until their deaths.

In late October of 1914 when Father was near 73 years of age, he went to Venice, Sevier County, to help his sons Mahonri and Oliver in the beet fields harvesting. He there contracted pneumonia and had to return home to Redmond. Unknown to anybody, his attempt to flag the train failed, where he had been taken to wait, consequently his independence allowed him to walk 17 miles to his home in Redmond, sick as he was. He was sick only five days until his death.

He died November 5, 1914 and was buried in the Redmond Cemetery beside his two wives. The funeral services were conducted in the Redmond L.D.S. Chapel under the direction of Bishop Jensen. One of the speakers was Newel K. Young, a beloved friend of the family. The statement was made at the graveside by one of his brothers-in-law, James Jensen, Bishop of Salina Ward, “There lies the most honest man I have ever known.”

My father, Jens Christian Larsen Breinholt, was an honest and forthright man in his dealings with his fellow men. He was kind and temperate in his disposition. He was systematic in his everyday life. He always observed the Sabbath Day and was regular with family prayers and blessing on the food at meal times. He paid an honest tithe and was liberal in his contributions to the Church and to the communities in which he lived. He always kept his home and surroundings in good repair and his orchard and garden were always well cared for. His manners were outstanding and he enjoyed the food that was prepared for the family and was very particular to not leave any food, even a crumb, on his plate. He was particular about his appearance and kept his sandy-colored, medium-length beard clean and trim. His penmanship was excellent and he was good in mathematics. He improved his education by reading a great deal. He lived the rule of health, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

Although he never acquired worldly goods in excess of a moderate living, he left a good name for his eighteen children and the numerous posterity that survive him.

When his son, Antone Lund, was about eight years of age, he was stricken with a crippling disease that caused him to be an invalid most of his life. Anton died just seven days after his father, November 17, 1914. His wife, Christiane, died a month later on the 8th of December, 1914, and were both buried near him in the Redmond Cemetery.

* * * * *