Petra Annetta Isaacson

Petra Annetta Isaacson is the daughter and second child of Neils Isaacson and Bertha Katherine Aagensen, both of Norway. Her parents were married in 1850 in Norway and blessed to have eight children.

In 1854, when Petra was 6 years old, the family joined other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from Norway and boarded the ship “Monarch of the Sea” to sail to America. After their arrival in America, they traveled West and joined the John R. Murdock Company to journey to the Great Salt Lake Valley. The company left July 4, 1861.

Exhaustive travel conditions, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, prematurity, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. Two days after their journey began, Petra was infected with cholera (a bacterial disease caused from contaminated water). Petra, 6-years-old, died and is buried along the Mormon Trail in the Nebraska Territory.

and two days later, Petra Annetta came down with cholera and passed away.