Petrine Bertelsen

Petrine Bertelsen

BIOGRAPHY: "Mother was christened 'Petrine' according to the records of the Lutheran Church in Denmark. It was years after she had passed away before I learned that Petrine was her name. To her family, friends and acquaintances she was known as 'Thrine'; to many she was known as taunt Thrine.' To me, as a child, she was 'Mama,' never 'Ma.' Later, it was 'Mother,' with all that the name implies. The living embodiment of love, kindness and devotion, her life was one of self-sacrificing service to her family, friends, community and church." Thus wrote Parley Dalley, youngest child of James and Petrine Bertelsen Dalley, in his charming paper entitled "Memories of Mother." BIOGRAPHY: Petrine Bertelsen was born August 31, 1840. She was a person of quiet composure. She loved her parents devotedly, and was always on hand to do anything in her power to lighten the burden of their daily tasks. Life had always been hard and exacting for her father: using nets with which to catch the fish; spending many long hours in his boat setting the nets; hauling them in when full and then hauling the fish to market; these tasks left little time for leisure. Petrine learned to help him make and mend the large nets that were the tools or his trade. Petrine (Thrine) Dalley An Enduring Legacy, Volume Four, p.305 "Mother was christened 'Petrine' according to the records of the Lutheran Church in Denmark. It was years after she had passed away before I learned that Petrine was her name. To her family, friends and acquaintances she was known as 'Thrine'; to many she was known as taunt Thrine.' To me, as a child, she was 'Mama,' never 'Ma.' Later, it was 'Mother,' with all that the name implies. The living embodiment of love, kindness and devotion, her life was one of self-sacrificing service to her family, friends, community and church." Thus wrote Parley Dalley, youngest child of James and Petrine Bertelsen Dalley, in his charming paper entitled "Memories of Mother." An Enduring Legacy, Volume Four, p.305 Petrine Bertelsen was born August 31, 1840. She was a person of quiet composure. She loved her parents devotedly, and was always on hand to do anything in her power to lighten the burden of their daily tasks. Life had always been hard and exacting for her father: using nets with which to catch the fish; spending many long hours in his boat setting the nets; hauling them in when full and then hauling the fish to market; these tasks left little time for leisure. Petrine learned to help him make and mend the large nets that were the tools or his trade. An Enduring Legacy, Volume Four, p.306 She was sent to public school at the age of seven, and became an ardent student. Very interested in books, she learned the letters of the alphabet and the spelling of several small words in three days' time. Unhappily, her attendance at school was to be short-lived, for after her parents joined the LDS Church, criticism and opposition exhibited throughout the community resulted in the withdrawal from school of Thrine and her older sisters. An Enduring Legacy, Volume Four, p.306 Petrine became an employee in Staarup at the age of fourteen. Her wages for the first year were ten dollars in addition to board and clothes. Although her employer ridiculed her for doing so, she never failed to pay her tithing out of that amount. Yet the man liked her, and he often called the young girl to his bed of illness, where he had lain for seven years, with a request that she sing for him. One day she innocently sang an LDS hymn, "We Are the True Born Sons of Zion," and this so enraged the patient he never again asked her to sing. But this couple, who had no children, loved Thrine and asked her to stay with them and be treated as their own. Had Maren not instilled in her daughter the principles of the new-found faith so firmly that she would let nothing prevent her from going to Zion, it is probable that the girl's life would have been vastly different. An Enduring Legacy, Volume Four, p. 306 Although her employers had not treated the elders with kindness, nor allowed them in the house, Thrine had managed to attend most of the meetings and at one of them had been baptized. After three years, she left this home and went to live with a family by the name of Thorn, near the city of Aalborg, for by now the Bertelsens had become disheartened and disillusioned over the attitude of a large proportion of the people in Staarup, and decided to move closer to the branch in the north. Here they hoped to find not only better treatment, but better work opportunities, for all must now work very hard to prepare for their emigration to America and Utah. In the home of the Thorns Thrine received much training that prepared her for life in Utah, for a year after her arrival Mrs. Thorn died, leaving three small children in her care for a year and a half. An Enduring Legacy, Volume Four, p.306 In the spring of 1860, when she was nineteen years of age, Thrine was selected to go to America with an emigrating family. She made hasty preparations, bidding her parents and sister good-bye on May 5. A steamer carried her to Liverpool, England, where she boarded the vessel Wm. Tappscott. Sailing on May 11, the ship was seven weeks on the ocean, and Thrine, as well as many others on board, was seasick most of the time. The only food she was able to retain was a bowl of chicken soup given her by the kind captain. An Enduring Legacy, Volume Four, p.306 The sea-weary travelers were overjoyed to see the trees of New York, only to be keenly disappointed upon learning that smallpox had broken out on board and they would have to remain for a time on the ship. Those who were stricken with the dread disease, including one of the little girls Petrine had been caring for, were taken to New York to be placed in quarantine. Although all on board had been exposed, no other cases developed, and after two weeks they were permitted to land. An Enduring Legacy, Volume Four, p.307 The company arrive d in Salt Lake City on October 5, 1860. Thrine, who could scarcely speak enough English to make herself understood, had no place to go from the camping grounds. She was finally taken to the home of Franklin D. Richards and made welcome and comfortable until her brother Lars arrived two days later. With him she went to Ephraim, to remain that winter in the employ of a Brother Christian's family. At this time her sister Lettie came to see her and persuaded her to go to Summit. An Enduring Legacy, Volume Four, p.307 Petrine's position was like that of many others who came to Zion for the sake of the religion they had espoused. She spoke a foreign language, conditions of living were so different from what she was familiar with, she was living among strangers, many of whom were inclined to ridicule anyone different from themselves all circumstances that made adjustment difficult. She had been in Utah not quite a year when she was married to James Dalley as his third wife on October 9, 1861, in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. An Enduring Legacy, Volume Four, p.307 James tried to see that his three families were treated fairly. Each of the wives had her own home, all three being built near each other in a row running east and west, with Thrine's on the east. For a number of years, her "castle" consisted of one large room about fourteen feet square, of hewn logs put together with wooden pegs instead of nails. For a while cooking was done on a large fireplace which graced the east end of the room. An Enduring Legacy, Volume Four,