Heroes Before Us

  Martine Dorthea Simonsen, wife of Jens Carlsen (born August 26, 1814 and died December 10, 1861) was born October 15, 1812 at Viberggaard, Plasto, Denmark. She was the daughter of Simon and Sophia Sorensen Mortensen. Grandmother was the mother of nine children. Two of them died before 1863.  The family lived on a farm. Grandmother was a very industrious woman, and a splendid financier. She helped at the birth of many babies in her communities in Denmark and in Utah. She was an excellent nurse and also a licensed midwife. She was the only medical help they had in Bear River City for many years.  Grandmother was a very good cook and was frequently called to cater at weddings, receptions, and funerals. It was the custom at that time to arrange elaborate dinners for relatives and friends who attended. She was a good dancer and very fond of that kind of entertainment, even in her later years.  Grandmother was a weaver in the old country. After coming to Utah, she sheare...

I, Alexander S. Stanley, born in New Brunswick, Middlesex County New Jersey, being the eldest son of Richard and Elizabeth Stanley. My grandfather, Alexander Schoby Stanley, whose name I bear, was slain in the war of the American Revolution in 1718. In 1818 I moved with my father's family to Portage County, Ohio, where on the 19th day of March, 1829 I married Philinda Upson, daughter of Freeman and Sally Upson. I obtained a small farm in the same county on which I lived without any extraordinary occurrence, except the death of one of our children, until February, 1837, when Brother James Emmett, an Elder of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, came to preach in the neighborhood and feeling but little interested in religious matters it was some time before it engaged my attention. I however discovered his propositions were well sustained by scripture evidence, while objections were generally unfounded, which had a tendency to enlighten my feeling in his behalf and engage my attention to...