History of Lars Thorsen and his wife Karen Iversen by Iona Roper

HISTORY OF LARS THORSEN AND HIS WIFE KAREN IVERSEN

by Iona Roper

My grandfather, Lars THORSEN was born 27 January 1841 in Kolden, Denmark, the son of Erick Andreas Thorsen and Ane Larsen. He died at the age of 73, on the 16th of March, 1914, in Richfield, Sevier Country, Utah, and was buried in the Richfield Cemetery. Although his given name was Lauritz Thorsen, he was known by the name of "Lars" throughout most of his life. He was baptized into the L.D.S. Church in the year 1868 on the 22 of March in Denmark. He emigrated to America the same year (1868) when he was 27 years old. He served in the war between Denmark and Germany at a very young age.


Lars Thorsen's father, Erick Andreas Thorsen was born 9 May, 1815 in Fredericia, Vejle County, Denmark, and died 24 February, 1887 of dropsy at the age of 71 years, 9 months, and 17 days. He died in Salina, Sevier County, Utah and is buried in the Salina Cemetery. Erick A. Thorsen was baptized into the L.D.S. Church just two months before his son which was on 21 February, 1868, making the trip with his son. Little is known of Lars Thorsen's mother, Ane Larsen. She was born on the 6th of August in 1806 at Give, Viele County, Denmark. She died in 1867 at the age of 61 and was buried in Denmark. She was nine years older than her husband.

Lars Thorsen and his father, Erick Thorsen were farmers and continued to farm after settling in America. Erick married again to a woman whose first name was Jensena but no record is made of her last name. They settled first in Spring City, Utah where a son was born to them on 26 July, 1870. He was given the name of Erick Albert. Later they moved to Salina, Utah and remained there. My great grandfather, Erick Andreas Thorsen served as Bishop of the ward in Salina for several years and was a member of the High Priest's Quorum.

My grandmother, Karen Iversen was born 11 January, 1843, in Uldum, Veile County, Denmark. She was the daughter of Christen Iversen and Ane Lizbeth Jensen. She died just a month before her 86th birthday, 3 December, 1928, and was buried in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. She was baptized into the L.D.S. Church in Denmark on 24 November, 1862, and emigrated to America with her parents in 1868. They settled in Bear River, Utah. Karen was one of eight children whose names were, Iver, Jens, Anders, Peder, Karen, Niels, Martin, and Maren.

My grandparents, Lars Thorsen with his father and Karen Iversen with her parents came to America on the same ship, "The Emerald Isle." The Voyage took ten weeks and it was during this time my grandparents met each other. This was one of the hardest voyages any of the saints had made, mainly because there was more sickness aboard the ship than any previous emigrants had experienced. My grandmother has said that every day a body was thrown overboard and some days more than one. Many of the saints never reached the Salt Lake Valley. When they arrived in New York, they went by train to Fort Laramie in Wyoming and from there they walked every step of the way to Salt Lake City. In Denmark the Mormon Missionaries had told them that Salt Lake was such a beautiful place so when they arrived there and found just a small struggling street they were very disappointed. They had crossed the plains, members of Capt. John G. Holman's ox train which arrived in Salt Lake Valley on the 25 Day of September 1868.

Grandmother was 25 years old when she left Denmark. In Salt Lake she was able to find work in homes of the different families. Everywhere she went they wanted her to marry into polygamy which she did not want to do. Lars Thorsen and Karen Iversen were married the 21st of June, 1869 in the old Salt Lake City Endowment House, nine months after they arrived in Salt Lake City. They were the parents of ten children, all born under the covenant. Martin Lars, born in 1870; Oscar, born 1872; Anna Elizabeth, born 1873; James Christian, born 1876; Charles, born 1878; Andre, born 1880; Sena born 1881; Mary, born 1884; Joseph (my father), born 1886; and Emil, born 1888.

After their marriage, they lived in the small town of Spring City, Utah for about two years.

From Spring City they moved to Richfield, Utah where they lived until grandfather died 16 March, 1914 and my grandmother moved to California to live with a daughter. Richfield was hardly a town when my grandparents moved there. The first settlers had been driven out by the Indians and there were just a few huts scattered around. It was in one of theses huts that three of their children were born. There were no stores where the pioneers could get what they needed and they had to work very hard at farming and raising crops to make a living. The cooking was done in open fireplaces and if the coals were not covered at night, they had to get some from a neighbor the next morning. My grandfather traveled by wagon to Provo, Utah to get his citizenship papers.

These were very hard times. Andrew died at three months, Sena died at 8 years and Emil died when he was one year old. The three children are buried side by side in the Richfield cemetery.

Because of what is believed to be an unjust act on the part of the bishop of their ward, my grandparents were excommunicated from the church. At that time, and especially in Richfield, members of the LDS church were excommunicated for very poor reasons, such as being drunk or disagreeing with the bishop. Lars Thorsen was re-baptized into the church on March 29, 1901 and was an active member in the church and especially in temple work right up until the time he died.

At the time of his death he was a High Priest and was buried in temple clothes. My grandmother, Karen Iversen Thorsen remained bitter toward the church throughout the rest of her life and was never rebaptized.

My grandparents separated while they still had young children and he moved into a home by himself. She and the children remained in the old house.

Bishop Frank M. Ogden of Richfield writes "I went ward teaching with Lars Thorsen in 1904, we were together for a few years. The Thorsen family were good honorable people." In a letter from Mrs. Ogden she states: "When I first came here, the talk was that your grandfather wanted to live the LDS religion and attend church. Your grandmother had her friends and pastor she wanted to associate with. So he moved into a home by himself. He lived down the street past our place and came in occasionally and was ward teacher companion with my husband. He was a very faithful man when we knew him."