Chapter XI: The Land of Zion

In the spring of 1868, through the help of President C. C. A. Christensen, I succeeded in borrowing enough means to emigrate to Zion. I had then been in the Church a little more than seven years, the first two of which had been devoted in part, and the last five wholly, to missionary service. I married at this time, Anna Christina Krogero, an assistant in the mission office, who was a widow with four children. After bidding farewell to the many Saints in Christiania, we traveled to Copenhagen and thence to Liverpool, where we boarded the sailship, _John Bright_, which has carried many of our people across the ocean. After a voyage of six weeks, mostly in the face of a strong headwind, we reached New York on the 15th of July, 1868, during a spell of very warm weather. There were over 700 immigrants in our company.

We spent a few days in New York and were then sent westward by railway. The terminus of the railway was Laramie, which left about 600 miles to Salt Lake City. At Laramie there was a company from Utah with horses and mules to conduct the immigrants onward. We were organized into companies, with Hector C. Haight as captain, and we began our journey over the plains along the banks of the Sweetwater.

We reached Salt Lake City the first week in September, 1868, after a six weeks' march from Laramie over the dry and warm plains, immersed in a cloud of dust from morning until night. The children and the weak mothers were allowed to ride in the wagons; while all the men were obliged to walk the whole distance in dust by day, and keep watch against the Indians at night. We were pretty well supplied with meat, flour, fruit and other food for our journey over the plains. When we camped in the evening, we cooked our food, and made our bread. All went fairly well.

At last we came to Emigration canyon, and had our first glimpse of Salt Lake City. We were glad and grateful to our heavenly Father for his fatherly care of us during our journey. On arriving at the Tithing yard, in Salt Lake City, our captain was released. I pitched our little tent and remained there during eleven days awaiting an opportunity to go to Cache Valley where I had some Norwegian friends of earlier days.

That fall, the grasshoppers visited Cache Valley, and all the crops were destroyed, so that there was not enough food to supply the needs of the people. As I was responsible for a family I took my blanket on my shoulder and walked over the mountains to Salt Lake Valley in search of work that would bring me a little money with which to buy bread stuff,--the greatest need of my family at the time. There was just then a call for "Mormon" boys to go out and do section work on the Union Pacific Railway. I worked at this until the October Conference at Salt Lake City, which I felt I must attend. I was given free fare to Salt Lake City, upon my promise to return, as the railroad company wanted the "Mormons" to continue the work on the road. When the railroad was laid to Corinne, Box Elder Co., we were laid off, and I went home to Logan the following night.

I rented a small log house, in the Logan Fifth ward, and began to work at once in the canyon, cutting timber. In this work I continued for five years. I took out logs for the house of Apostle Ezra T. Benson, in exchange for which I obtained the city lot on which I later built my residence. I filled a contract to deliver to the Utah Northern Railroad two thousand ties. Then I contracted to deliver to Brother Micklesen the timber for the grist mill in Logan, now known as the Central Mills. For this last contract I received six hundred pounds of flour. I also contracted with Alexander Allen of Newton and received as pay twenty gallons of molasses. I was now well off. I could have bread, with molasses, and this, indeed, was my steady diet while I worked in the mountains. Nevertheless, this work was very hard. Between times, I helped in the hay harvest, and thus earned some wheat and, in fact, I took hold of whatever work offered itself.

In the fall of 1873, we began to build the Logan tabernacle. Brother Charles O. Card was called to act as the superintendent and he called me to assist him. It was my special work to keep accounts and to collect donations with which to pay the workmen. I measured and weighed rocks, sand, and other materials of construction, brought in for the building, and paid the workers in beef, vegetables, and the variety of things donated. Many beeves were brought in as donations, so we tanned the hides, and began to manufacture shoes. Thus came the Tabernacle Shoe Shop and Meat Shop in one building, which we called, Our Meat Market and Our Shoe Shop. I labored nearly six years in this capacity. In 1879, I was ordained a High Priest and set apart as a member of the Cache stake High Council.