Anne Larsen

Anne Larsen is the third of five children born to Rasmus Larsen and Caroline Olsen, both of Denmark.

When the family joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1851, they were persecuted by neighbors for joining the church. With a desire to be with other Saints in “Zion,” they boarded the ship “Forest Monarch” and immigrated to America.

After arriving in America, they traveled to Nebraska and joined the John Erik Forsgren Company to journey to the Great Salt Lake Valley. The company departed on 21 May, 1853 and arrived in Salt Lake on September 29, 1853. Exhaustive travel conditions, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, premature birth, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. Cholera, a bacterial disease caused from contaminated water, infected many of the travelers.

There are conflicting death dates on Anne and where she is buried. According to Family Search, a record in a family bible indicates her death date as November 20, 1853. It is also suggested on Family Search that she died September 15, 1853 in Sanpete County, Utah, on the way to the Valley. There were no company records and journals recording Anne’s death.

Nine 9-year-old Anne Larsen is remembered as a pioneer traveling west with her family.