HISTORY OF MADS CHRISTIAN AND MARIANE JENSEN GJETTRUP
Prepared by Winona Hoyal
Mariane Jensen, my maternal grandmother, was born in Denmark on Jan. 2, 1839. Mads Christian Gjettrup was born in Denmark on Sept. 23, 1831. They were married on Dec. 20, 1857. They had 12 children, 5 of these died as children. At least 3 died of what was then called “galloping Consumption”, now known as Tuberculosis. All but 3 of the children were born in Denmark. They lost a child in 1864, a baby; an 8 year old in 1869; 2 in 1876, one a year old and one 10; and their last boy, 4 years after coming to America, died soon after birth, losing 5 children in all.
In the 60"s, missionaries came to their door in Denmark. Grandma knew the Gospel was true long before Grandpa, who wouldn’t listen to the message. She would read the Book of Mormon when Grandpa was away at work. She had a false-bottom chair in which she’d hide the Book of Mormon when she knew he was coming, because he’d get angry if he caught her reading it. In 1864, one of their children died, and the missionaries were so good to them that Grandpa was impressed and listened to their message. On Nov. 20, 1864, they were baptized. In 1877 they came to the U.S.A. Mother (Mariane) said it took a year to get ready to come to Zion. Grandma sewed all their clothing by hand. The Church at that time had what was called The Perpetual Emigration Fund, which was a loan to help members come to Zion. It was under this plan that they came. Mother said that she remembers as a little girl the last cows that were sold to finish paying the Church for the passage.
They landed in Ogden after weeks in “Steerage”, the bottom of the ship where the poor were put, with 4 children, $0.50, and speaking no English. A man who had come from Sanpete County with his produce, and had an empty wagon going back, took their 50 cents to take them to Sanpete. They must have known someone in Sanpete, a former missionary, or some person who had gone there earlier, but I do not know. Grandma was pregnant. Thine (known as Tenie) was born in a dug-out in September, 3 months after they arrived. When the man who took them to Sanpete got there it was dark, and he left them at what he thought was a straw stack. In the morning it appeared to Grandpa to be a manure pile because it was so full of manure, a distasteful thing to Grandpa who was quite fastidious when possible. If he’d had the money then, I’m sure that he would have gone back to Denmark. Mother said that Grandpa was very indignant.
Where they stayed the first few days, I no not know. I know that Carl who was 18, worked for a man who gave him a lot for his work. Here they made a dug-out where Thine was born. (Fairview, Utah). A dug-out is a hole dug in the ground with branches covering the top to keep out some of the cold and sun. Four years later Mads Christian was born, but did not live, and 3 years after that, my mother, Mariane, was born.
The first year they lived on milk from a tithing cow, carrots, and whole-wheat bread. Grandpa was a carpenter, and someone who owned an old house in bad disrepair, offered them the house to live in if they would repair it. This Grandpa did, but as soon as it was fixed, the people wanted it back. After they had been here the number of prescribed years, they got a Homestead, I think it was 160 acres, but I’m not sure. In signing the contract or deed, Grandpa was cheated out of his water right to the land because he was unable to read English. All the water they had left was a well near the house they eventually built, made out of rock from the fields. They raised a garden with the water from the spring, but did not know what to do with the rest of the land with no water. Grandpa had heard of a new kind of wheat grown on dry land. He sent for some of the seed, and because he was the first in the Valley to grow that kind of wheat, it was called “Gjettrup Wheat”. At one time he was building a house, whether it was the rock house or not, I do not know. At any rate, he had bought shingles for his new house, but because of harvesting, had been unable to finish the roof. One man in Ward came to Grandpa and said “Brother Gjettrup, you have shingles you are not using. I need shingles, and the saw-mill is out of them at present. Let me use yours, and when the saw-mill gets some, I will return them” Grandpa consented. A few days later the man came over with a paper to sign, saying it was a contract for the shingles. When weeks went by and no shingles arrived, Grandpa went the man and asked him about them. The man said, “What shingles?” Grandpa learned that the paper he signed was a statement that the man had paid for the shingles. These are a few things that happened to them to try their faith. Grandma said that some in the Church should be called “Latter-Day Devils”, and not Latter-Day Saints. But she always told her family that the Gospel was true, and that even though men did wrong, the important things were the principles of the Gospel, and not to worry about what men did. Later they sold their farm and moved to mount Pleasant
They were called by the Stake Presidency in Jan. 1907 to receive their 2nd anointing. Probably ill-health prevented their receiving it while he was alive, because it was done by proxy on July 1, 1908. He died Jan. 31, 1908, of Cystitis due to an enlarged Prostate. Grandma died April 11 1914, the week my brother Jim was born. Grandma had a tumor which interfered with her eating of solid food. The doctor had her on gruel, but she was so hungry for a piece of bread and cheese, that Aunt Tenie, who came every day to look after her while mother was in bed, finally gave in to her pleadings for the bread and cheese. The food would not go up or down. . . I’m sure she enjoyed that last bit of bread and cheese. I remember as a small child how much she liked bread and cheese. When I went into her room to visit her she would make sandwiches of bread and cheese and cut them into very small squares to feed to me. Today, they probably would have operated on Grandma and Grandpa, but they considered too old in those days to risk an operation. I also remember her coughing a great deal, and spitting up blood. She used to call me “tor mikel” because she’d give me magazines to play with, and didn’t mind if I tore them, and I called her “spit mikel”. I’m sure this isn’t the right way to say or spell the Danish words, but that is how I remember them.
Grandmother was an illegitimate child, quite common in that period in Europe, especially among the peasant class to which she belonged. These women were considered nothing, and she, like a lot of others, worked on farms in the fields at the beck and call of their masters. They were almost slaves. Even after working in the fields all day, they would have to spin, weave, or knit at night until bedtime for the owners of the farms for which they worked. The men could rest, but not the women. When her mother later married her stepfather, he was very mean to her. When she was very young, he hit her on the head with a stove poker, leaving a groove in her skull which she always had. The Gospel meant a great deal to her. She was hard working and smart.
Grandpa was a very clean man. Mother (Mariane) says she remembers her father as always having a clean beard as opposed to the other men of the time, who had spittle in their beards. On Sundays his shirt front was always white and clean, and mother said her father was the best-looking man in the congregation. He had a limp, but I do not know how bad. It kept him form the Danish Army, and was supposed to have been the result of an injury from carrying much too heavy sacks as a young boy. Besides being a carpenter, Grandpa must have done fishing as Mother said that her mother used to worry a great deal when Grandpa was out fishing in the North Sea, and storms would be bad a times. Grandpa always said children brought their “keep” with them when they came here. He told mother that when they were going to have their 2nd child, he walked the floor wondering what they were going to feed it, but they managed. After the 3rd came, he decided that each time they were just as well off as before. I personally do not remember him but probably Dorothy might, just a little. I do remember stories mother would tell. He seems to have been a very kind man. He was not above taking care of the house and the children when the babies were born. In fact, it appears he was the only one there at the time. One time, when mother was about 15, and had been working in the fields all day, she lay down under a tree to rest. Grandma got a willow and was looking for mother. Grandpa asked her, “What is the switch for?” She said, “For Annie, she’s lazy.” Grandpa made her stop by saying, “No Annie is not lazy, she’s just tired. Leave her alone.” Grandma had no use for laziness. In fact, in our family, one of the Cardinal sins is laziness. There is a tradition that Grandpa came from a different class than Grandma, and his people were not happy when he married Grandma. Then when he joined the Church, that was the last straw. He said that when he went to say goodbye when he was leaving for America, they refused to see him. Years later one of my dad’s relatives saw a picture of one of Mother’s cousins was dressed in the uniform of the Danish Royal Guard. He said that only the sons of the first families in Denmark were in the Royal Guard. How true this is, I don’t know. Grandmother liked to grow things. I remember when I was a little girl that she had a large garden across the street from where we lived. These are a few things I remember. There are others who will remember more, and I think these should be added. LeRoy Nichols lived with them for a time and he will remember some other things, I’m sure.
Winona Hoyal
(Eldest daughter of Mariane, the 12th child)
This history was given by Winona Hoyal at the 1974 Reunion.
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