Anna Johansson Hellstrom

Anna Johansson Hellstrom is the only child of Johann Hellstrom and Mait Persdotter, both from Sweden. The family crossed the ocean on the ship “Monarch of the Sea.” During the voyage, measles and dysentery invaded members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as others on the ship.

After the Hellstrom family arrived in America, they traveled to Nebraska and joined the William B. Preston Company, bound for the Great Salt Lake Valley. The Company began the journey on July 4, which departed on the journey west toward the Salt Lake Valley on July 4, 1864.

Exhaustive travel conditions, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, prematurity, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. Along the way, 3-year-old Anna died from illness suffered onboard the ship. She buried on the Mormon Trail West.

From the history of Johann Hellstrom: “On the way, crossing the ocean, their little daughter, Anna, became seriously ill, they prayed that she would live long enough that she would not have to be buried at sea. That payer was answered, she did live long enough to be buried on the plains while making the trek to the Salt Lake Valley.”