Tonette Poulsen
20 Jun 1819- 14 Jan 1895
And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. Matt 19:29
Thinking of her family in far off Norway and weary from the weeks at sea Antonette read Matt 19:29 one last time. She closed her bible and tucked it safely into the wagon box before she attended the Sunday Meeting out on the open plain.
“In captain Scott’s wagon train on Sunday evenings they always held religious services. Isaac Shaw was asked to speak on one of these occasions. Dressed in a blue jumper and trousers tucked in the top of his long boots, he mounted the dry goods box and did the best he could.
After the meeting an elderly lady came up to him with tears in her eyes, "Dear brother, God bless you," she said, "I left a boy home, a boy about your age. He could not understand so I had to leave him." She clung to his hands and looked the young man in the face while tears slowly trickled down the care worn furrows in her cheeks. "And you left a mother?" she asked
"I left a father, my mother died years ago." She still clung to his hands and a big lump rose in his throat. If he had ever seen a saintly face, he thought this must be one before him now….
She slowly loosed her hands and said, "God bless you and keep you always." And with her blessing he went to bed.” Hammer, Mary Lenora Shaw, The Story of the Life of Isaac F. Shaw [1926], 6-14.
In Antonette’s mind she saw the beautiful Nes Headmark, Norway where her 4 sons Johan (25), Poul, (23); Mathias, (20) and Gulbrand who was only12 years old were left to care for themselves.
The fire of the restored gospel burned in her heart, faith that all would work for good were her hope as she answered the call to go to Zion. She traveled with her sister Johanne and her 20 year old daughter Randine and Lars Olson Randine’s husband.
Tonette Poulsen was born on Sunday 20 June 1819 in Nes Hedmark, Norway. She was the daughter of Poul Johnsen and Ragnild Torgersen. Her father was a farmer. She received education in the Lutheran schools and attended the Lutheran Church or State Church.
Tonette was the fifth of eight children, she had 3 older sisters. (We know that she was especially close with Johanne the sister she came to Ut with, who was 6 years older. One brother died before she was born. A baby brother and sister died when Tonette was young. She grew up with a brother Christian, 5 years younger.
In the Nes Headmark region of Norway there was a very dynamic and respected man by the name of Gunder Larsen. His wife Johanna died in May of 1839. He had two living children, a son Lars 27 and a daughter Ragnild 25.
Antonette Poulsen and Gunder Larsen struck up a relationship and were married on Saturday the 4thof April 1840. Tonette was 20. Gunder was 37 years older than Tonette.
We have no record of any of Tonette’s siblings getting married. We know that her sister Johanna who joined the church and traveled to the US never married.
It was an exciting occasion for Tonette to marry and have a family.
Tonette and Gunder made their home on the farm Gielthilteie in Nes, Hedmark. They were tenant workers on the farm and did not own it. It was here that their five children were born.
Their first child was born just 10 months after they married.
It was a very cold Thursday the 28thof January 1841 when Johan was born. Wednesday Jan. 11 two years later another son Poul came screaming his way into the world. One more son Mathias, was born also in the dead of winter on December 4, 1845.
When Tonette was only 27 her mother passed away. She was a young wife with 3 small children.
Tonette dearly missed her mother and was blessed the next year with a beautiful little daughter. Her little angel was born on Sunday Sept. 10, 1848. Having a daughter was a great comfort to her. Although her joy was full her life was hard. As time went on Tonette's burdens became heavier because of the ill health of her husband. For the next 5 years Tonette cared for her husband, her children and worked the farm, producing and selling all she could to make ends meet.
Six weeks before her fifth child was born Gunder died on 1 November 1853, at the age of 73. Tonette was 34 years old with 4 children and one on the way.
Six weeks later, again in the dead of winter when the average temperature is 32 degrees. Gulbrand Gundersen was born. (Thursday 15 December.)
Working hard and with the help of family when they could Tonette was able to provide for herself and her children.
Tonette was 43 when her father passed away. By now her older sons were old enough to run the farm and her daughter was great help with the household chores and making rag rugs to sell. Even her baby who was 8 was determined to keep up with the big boys trying to do a man's share of the work.
One of the first to join the church in Headmark, Norway was Lars Larsen Olson. He came from Sweden as a salesman when he was around 27 and purchased a farm in Headmark Norway. For the next four years he assisted in missionary work and served as the branch president. Lars must have been a great influence and missionary to the youth in the area.
Tonette’s daughter, Randine Gunderson was mature, at age 14, she heard and accepted the gospel. She was baptized into the LDS Church. (Sunday 2 November 1862 in Hedmark, Norway.)
Being a member of this new church was not easy. Many early missionaries were arrested and imprisoned for their preaching.
The new scripture, the book of Mormon had been translated into Danish but not yet into Norwegian.
Tonette Larsen, the poor widow with the blood of Israel in her veins, and a firm testimony of the Gospel in her heart, was willing to make the necessary sacrifices to join the saints. Tonette was baptized on the 6th of Jan 1864.
Randine Gunderson, Tonette’s daughter and Lars Larson Olson Sr. were married Wednesday the 9thof May 1866 in Christiania, (Oslo) Norway as they started their trek to join the saints in Utah.
The newlyweds, along with Tonette Poulsen Larsen and her sister Johanne age 53 sailed from Hamburg, Germany on June 2, 1866 on the ship HUMBOLT with 328 Scandinavian Saints under the direction of George M. Brown. (They arrived in New York July 18, 1866).
Tonette left her 4 boys, Johan 25, Poul, 23; Mathias, 20; and Gulbrand only 12 years old in Norway. Johan her oldest would pass away shortly after her departure.
In the book “Saints and the Seas” we read the following: Aboard the Humboldt during her second voyage with Mormon emigrants in 1866. The food was simple but poor in quality. According to Olof Jensen, a steerage passenger, the diet consisted of soup, potatoes, fish, bread, and hardtack biscuits. Cooking was done in huge iron pots, so large the cook could get inside. No bread was baked, and the biscuits became extremely hard and dry. The potatoes were sour and soggy. Drinking water had been taken from the River Elbe in Germany and stored in wooden barrels. These barrels had been burned black on the inside, causing the water to become black as coal. Some water had been placed in large iron barrels that rusted and turned it red. Pigs would object to the food and water. Bunks were made of common lumber with space for four across in two tiers.
In America they took the train and boats for twelve days to arrive at the Missouri River. They crossed the plains in Captain Andrew H. Scott's company. About 300 individuals and 49 wagons were in the company when it began its journey August 8th and 9thfrom the outfitting post on the west bank of the Missouri River about 40 miles south of Omaha, NE. Thirty of the company died crossing the plains. They encountered a severe snow storm on the Sweetwater September 18th. They arrived in Salt Lake City October 8, 1866.
From Our Pioneer Heritage we read that Captain A. H. Scott's train of 49 wagons and about 300 people were mostly from Norway. They were a highly respected class of society and had a choir of 26 singers. Most of Captain Scott's teamsters were from Utah County, and their passengers, having no other place to go, went along with these men to make their homes in the towns of that area.
Tonette and Randine and Lars settled in Provo and lived there a year and a half before they moved down to Santaquin where many fellow Norwegians were living.
Mrs. Jason Wall supplies the information, that Tonette tried to live in polygamy and married Mr. Ekelund in Santaquin. However, this marriage did not work out. The first wife was so jealous that Tonette simply picked up her dolls and dishes and went to her own home to live.
Later she was courted by Mr. Jorgensen, whom she married. He was a kind, good man and they were happy together, but he did not live long.
Tonette’s heart burst with joy the day 2 of her sons came to Santaquin.
In May of 1876 her son, Mathias Gundersen and his wife, Marie, and their three children, along with Tonette's youngest son, 23 year old Gulbrand, came to Santaquin.
The 3 boys had come to America about 1872, residing in Cambridge, Wisconsin. Poul stayed in Wisconsin with his wife and children where he died in 1905. Gulbrand moved to Minesota where he married a little Norwegian girl and raised a large family but Mathias stayed in Santaquin.
Mathias’s daughter Clara writes, “As the climate in Wisconsin did not agree with Father they came to Utah, where Father's Mother lived, in May 1876. Mother and the children lived with Mathias's mother. Father found work as a blacksmith in the Grizzly Mine in Cottonwood Canyon. He worked at the Alta Mine for 17 years. Nine of Mathias's twelve children were born in Santaquin.”
Ten years after coming to Santaquin in 1886 Mathias, and his wife Marie were converted to the gospel and baptized.
Tonette felt she had been blessed one hundred fold as she lived in Santaquin surrounded by friends, family and dozens of grandchildren. Tonette herself died at age 75 in Santaquin, the little town which had been her home for some 26 years. (14 January 1894)
Those who have even a trace of the blood of Tonette Poulsen Larsen in their veins can be justly proud. Had it not been for her acceptance of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ so many years ago, in far off Norway, the lives of all her posterity would have been entirely different. Indeed, it is a challenge to all her posterity to live worthy of the heritage they bear.
“And everyone that forsakes houses, or brethren, sisters, father, mother, wife, children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.”
The Gathering of Zion http://www.norwayheritage.com/articles/templates/voyages.asp?articleid=29&zoneid=6
Dean Olson History of Thonette Poulsen
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