Carl Ephraim Hansen Frandsen

Carl Ephraim Hansen Fransen is the son and only child of Hans Pederson and Ane Cathrine Frandsen Nielsen. Ane's parents, Niels and Karen Frandsen, took Carl, their grandson, and their other children and sailed to America on the ship Kenilworth. Hans and Ane did not come to America. (It is not known if they died before the trip.)

After immigrating to America, Carl and the family traveled to Nebraska where they joined the Abner Lowry Company. Along with other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the company left Nebraska on August 13, 1866 bound for the Great Salt Lake Valley.

Disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, prematurity, and weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. Within two weeks, the entire family succumbed from Cholera (a bacterial disease caused from contaminated water). Three-year-old Carl passed away the same day as his grandfather also died from cholera and is buried in Nebraska along the Mormon Trail.

From the company journal: “Niels and Karen Frandsen sailed on the ship Kenilworth in 1866 with three of their children, Christine, Caroline, and Regina, and their grandson, Carl Ephraim. They joined the Abner Lowry Company in Wyoming, Nebraska. None of them survived the trek. They all passed away within a two-week period.”

Charles P. Anderson recorded: “We left Wyoming August 13th 1866 traveling with ox teams; the dreadful cholera continued its ravages, until the cool weather, then it ceased. I never heard how many died, but at least one third, perhaps more. One family from Denmark of thirteen all died but one, another from Sweden of five, only one remained.”