Peter Hansen

Peter Hansen is the fourth of 11 children born to Mads Hansen and Mette Petersen, both of Denmark. The family immigrated to America and they traved to Florence, Nebraska. There, they joined a wagon company to cross the plains to the Great Salt Lake Valley with other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Dan Jones, serving as their wagon captain, began their trek west the first week of August.

Exhaustive travel conditions, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, prematurity, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. When the company was at Independence Rock, Mette gave birth to a son, Peter Hansen. Three weeks later, when they were in Echo Canyon in Utah, baby Peter passed away. He is buried in Echo Canyon, Utah.

From Mette's history: “They suffered the hardships crossing the plains similar to all the early pioneers. At a place called Sweetwater (Independence Rock) she gave birth to a boy. She was very, very ill, but stayed behind the company only one day on account of the hostility of the Indians…

“The motion of the wagon was very hard on her and one night she thought she would die. She was alone but for her new baby and another small child. She was too weak to make herself heard by the sleeping camp. A sister moving around in the early morning heard her groans, went and offered her assistance. She drank a cup of hot coffee the sister brought her, she believed that cup of coffee saved her life. Her new baby lived only a few weeks and died before she reached Salt Lake City.”