Kirsten Pedersen

Kirsten Pedersen is one of five children born to Peder Nielsen and her mother, Maren Ludvigsdatter, both from Denmark.

Peder passed away in Denmark three months before Maren gave birth to twins, Kirsten and Peder. The gospel was not introduced to the Pedersen's until after Peder passed away.

When Maren joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, her family would have nothing more to do with her. They would not even let her in their house.

In 1861, Maren with 3-year-old Kirsten and Peder, boarded the ship “Monarch Of The Sea” to immigrate to America to be with other Saints.

After arriving in America, she traveled to Nebraska and joined an “Unknown Company” to cross the plains to the Great Salt Lake Valley. Maren’s history records that she walked the entire distance because the swaying of the covered wagons made her sick.

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. When the company was in Nebraska or Wyoming, it is believed that Kirsten she came down with “Rocky Mountain Fever” (a serious bacterial infection transmitted by ticks) and passed away. She is buried along the Mormon Trail West.

The company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on September 29, 1861.