This article was provided to me related to my 3rd Great Grandmother Agneta Nelson. I have previously shared the history written by Carvel Jonas related to Agneta and John Nelson. I have also shared the Carvel Jonas history of their daughter, my 2nd Great Grandmother Annetta “Annie” Josephine Nelson Jonas. I also note that Agneta and John’s son, Nels, also wrote a lengthy autobiography that tells some of his parents’ history. Some of the parts of this history are likely using Nels’ autobiography, parts of it mirrors and quotes from it.

Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude was published by the International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers in 1998. It is a four volume set, ISBN: 0-9658406-1-1. This biography starts on page 2121.

I note some revision of Agneta’s name over the last years. This article includes the Bengtsson/Nilsson last name. But as those familiar with Scandinavian naming protocols, Bengtsson/Benson was her father’s last name, but her early live documents reference her father’s first name, Nils. Hence her name in Sweden was Nilsdotter, not Nilsson or Bengtsson. With that, here is the language of the article.

This biography suggests that Agneta was married before and that marriage produced Bot[h]ilda and James. Curiously, James’ baptism record lists Johannes Nilsson as the father. Further, Nels, in his autobiography, indicates he was the third child of John and Agnetta Nelson. James appears to be John’s, but the baptism of Bothilda without a father suggests not John. I don’t know that we will know, and this biography shows unknown.

“BIRTHDATE: 9 Dec 1832 Oringe Hallands, Sweden

“DEATH: 4 Nov 1873 Logan, Cache Co., Utah

“PARENTS” Nils Bengtsson (Benson) – Johanna Johansson [Johansdotter]

“PIONEER: 15 Sep 1864 William Preston’s Wagon Train

“SPOUSE I: Unknown

“MARRIED: In Sweden

“DEATH SP:

“CHILDREN (Adopted and sealed to second husband):

“Botilda (Matilda), 31 Dec 1853 (died at age 11)

“James Peter, 13 Dec 1[8]55

“SPOUSE II: John / Johannes Nelson/Nilsson

“MARRIED: 17 Nov 1855 Veinge, Hallands, Sweden

“DEATH SP: 26 Nov 1902 Logan, Cache Co., Utah

“CHILDREN:

“Nels August, 18 May 1[8]57

“Josephine, 5 Feb 1860 (died as a child near Omaha, Nebraska)

“Amanda, 26 Dec 1862 (died as a child buried at sea)

“Annette Josephine, 18 Nov 1864

“Joseph Hyrum, 14 Jun 1868

“Jacob Nelson, 9 Dec 1870 (twin)

“Jacobina, 9 Dec 1870 (twin)

“Charlotte Abigail, 16 Dec 1872

“Moses, 25 Oct 1873

“Agneta was born on December 9, 1832 in Oringe Hallands, Sweden. Agneta was the oldest child in a family of eight children.

“On Thursday, April 28, 1864, with 973 emigrants aboard, the ship, “Monarch of the Sea,” sailed from Liverpool, England. Patriarch John Smith was President of the company. At Florence, Nebraska, they traveled by teams under the Company Captain William B. Preston, to Salt Lake City, arriving September 15, 1864.

“The Gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came to their home in 1862, and Agneta, her mother and some of her brothers accepted the message gladly. But it wasn’t until the Spring of 1864, that Johannes and Agneta were ready to leave Sweden for America and the West.

“The voyage was long and stormy with much sickness aboard. The rations were meager; raw beef, lard, and hard crackers, water, mustard and salt. Many times they would wait all day for their turn to cook the meat, and sometimes the turn never came. Agneta saw several bodies being lowered into the deep ocean; and then it was her turn to watch eighteen month old with a rock tied to her feet, slipping into the ocean.

“Laying to rest little ones is unknown territory was to be Agneta’s experience two more times. Matilda, in New Jersey, near the Delaware River, and four year old Josephine near Omaha, Nebraska.

“During these trials, she valiantly went forward, giving birth to her sixth child in a cold, stark dugout in Logan, Utah.

“Arriving in late October, most homes in Logan that fall were underground, about five feet deep, with a rock chimney in corner. Fuel was willows from the Logan River bottom. It was quite warm, until spring thaw caused the room to fill with water about two feet. The cold of Cache Valley became known to all new settlers that winter.

“The next winter found John and Agneta in a snug log cabin, with cows, sheep, a yoke of steers, and 120 bushels of wheat raised on their six acres. Agneta also gleaned wheat from the field. She sheared the sheep, washed, carded, spun and wove the wool into clothing for her family; and with her gleaning, she was able to provide nice clothes for herself, and children.

“On October 4, 1867, three years after their arrival in Utah, John and Agneta traveled to Salt Lake City, to be sealed in the Endowment House. In the next six years she gave birth to five more children, with only two surviving beyond the age of accountability.

“Just nine years after her entering Utah, Agneta gave birth to her last child, Moses Nelson, born October 25, 1873; and she did not survive this birth. Moses died November 12, 1873. A mother had sacrificed for a child of God.