This is another story from the family history books of Golden Rulon Andra. This is the father of Annie Christine Petersen that I wrote about previously. This is an ancestor of Golden’s wife, Utahna Bird Andra.

“Family History – HANS PETERSEN

“Born: 11 February 1837 at Salgelse, Sjaelland, Denmark

“Died: 7 July 1923 at Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

“Hans Petersen was born on February 11, 1837 at Slagelse, Sjaelland, Denmark, the son of Peter Jensen and Karen Jakobsen. His name became Petersen instead of Jensen, due to the Scandinavian custom that the child of a man should take that man’s first name and add the suffix “sen” so the son of a man named Peter became Petersen. Incidentally, the Danish law put an end to this custom during the life of Hans Petersen, so that he became the first Petersen in the Petersen genealogy of our family.

“Hans Petersen’s father, Peter Jensen, operated a small farm and it was the small farm house here in which Hans was born. The family belonged to the Lutheran Church, the state religion of Denmark. Peter Jensen, father of Hans, was a very short man in stature. Hans grew taller than his father, but was himself only a little over five feet tall. Then Han’s children grew taller than he himself and his grandsons are nearly all tall men.

“He went to the regular country elementary schools in Denmark in his youth and then worked on this father’s farm until he was 21 years of age, when he had to serve in the army according to the custom of the country. He was summoned to Copenhagen for training and it was there that he met Kirsten Jeppesen, who later became his wife. While still in his first year of army training, he married Kirsten. That was while he was still 21 years old. Incidentally, he was gray headed at that time, having gone gray early. As a boy his hair was black.

“Following his release from active army service, he and his wife went to the little tow of Lindeborg, Denmark, and there started burning charcoal for a living. After he had been married several years, and had three little children, a war broke out between Denmark and Germany, and since he was still a member of the reserve he was called into active service to fight Germany. Being a small man he was put into the front lines with all of the other small men, according to the custom. When his company was sent to the front he prayed to God that he would not have to shoot a man. When the battled started and he began to fire his gun, he noticed that it had jambed and would not fire. Then almost immediately he was shot through one side and fell, was taken with the other wounded soldiers, placed on a large lumber wagon with no springs (the only ambulance available) and taken to an old barn behind the lines which had been converted into a field hospital. He had only been there about ten minutes when German shells set fire to this improvised hospital and the doctors had to move all of the wounded 20 miles further black. They were again loaded on the lumber wagons and had to suffer the tortures of bad roads and the crude wagons during the journey.

“When the second hospital was reached and his wounds were examined by the doctors it was decided that an immediate operation was necessary to save his life. There was no anaesthetic of any kind and the patient just had to life and suffer during the operation. He afterward said that making the incision did not cause so much pain but while they were cleansing the wound and closing it, he chewed much of the sheet covering him into small bits the pain was so intensen. After he recovered, he was sent back to Copenhagen to recuperate and there he and the other wounded soldiers were highly feted by the populace.

“It was almost six months before he was released from the Army and permitted to return home. During most of this time, his wife knew nothing of his trouble but shortly before his return home, one of the family friends informed her that Hans had been killed in the war. It was a most joyous meeting when he returned home.

“In Lindeborg, where he armed and burned charcoal, he rented a home from a man named Sorensen, whose father was a Mormon elder laboring in that area. He had emigrated to America, and had been sent back to his native land as a missionary. The father’s name was Soren Christophersen. He had sought to hold a cottage meeting in his son’s home but was refused, although the son did permit his father to live at the home. While Elder Christophersen told Hans Petersen of his inability to find a place in which to hold a cottage meeting, Hans invited him to his own home, which was rented from around the area inviting people to the meeting.

“A large crowd gathered for the meeting, but in mob formation. They threatened to tar and feather Elder Christophersen. Hans nailed the front door and stood guard at the back door with a large club in his hand. He invited any of the mobbers to entered if they dared but none came. Instead, they remained outside shouting and hammering upon the doors and windows, saying they would get the Elder when he came out of the meeting. Hans told them that the missionary would remain in the house until the mob left if he had to remain all night. The mob did not leave until 2:00 a.m., and then Hans, armed with his club, accompanied the Elder to the Sorensen home where he was to spend the night. This affair started the Hans Petersen family to investigate Mormonism and was followed by subsequent cottage meetings. After much study and prayer, Hans and his wife decided to join the Church. His wife was especially well read in the Bible. The two were baptized in the middle of the night in a large hole which had been dug into the ground by farmers seeking rich soil to cover their land with. These holes filled with water, like wells, and it was in this water they were baptized by the Elder.

“Han’s wife became quite a preacher of Mormonism. Hans himself became president of the local branch and did much preaching although his wife did the scriptural speaking. They both gave freely of their time and means to the Church and often financially assisted the elders who traveled without purse or scrip. In those days they had to travel miles to attend each meeting because the area was sparsely settled.

“When the family decided to come to Utah to be with the Saints, transportation became a serious problem. The entire family could not come together so it was decided that the eldest daughter, Annie, should emmigrate first. She went to Arizona first, to the home of some other earlier emmigrants. Two years later the next sister, Minnie, went direct to Salt Lake City, and two years later again, Emma, the third daughter came to Salt Lake City. One year later the girls put their funds together for their sister Sophia to come. A little later Hans, his wife, and their only living son, Christian, came together, going first to Arizona to the home of George Hansen Newman. This man had taken the name of Newman after his arrival in America. The Arizona heat was too severe for the Petersens so they went by wagon team up through St. George to Salt Lake City where they made their home, first at 475 West Sixth South Street, in the old Fifth Ward and later moving to a house on Genesee Street, between Seventh and Eighth West, in what became the 26th Ward after the Fifth Ward was divided.

“Hans did labor work for a living, helping in the beautification of Liberty Park and in the construction of several canal systems. His wife died at the Genessee Street home on 20 November 1908, and was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. Hans lived alone most of the time after this and he died in Salt Lake City 7 July 1923, and was buried at the side of his wife.