Abelone Knudsen
Biography of
ABELONE KNUDSEN
A UTAH PIONEER OF 1856
Written by Oliver Christian Breinholt, Grandson
February 7, 1961
Abelone Knudsen Hansen was born 17 January 1817 in Wester Weleigh, Denmark. Her father was Knud Christensen Buhl, and her mother Anne Marie Lauridson. Abelone Knudsen married Anders Hansen 25 July 1839 in Denmark. She was considerably younger than he, she being 22 and he being 37. We have no record of his being married before.
Abelone became the mother of five children, three girls and two boys. The first four children were born in Denmark. Her first girl, Maria Andersen, was born 19 November 1840; her first boy, Jorgen, born 27 February 1844. An infant boy was born dead 18 December 1848, and no name available. A girl named Anne Andersen born 9 May 1851. It was customary for the children to assume the father’s first name, then add “sen” to it, hence Andersen. They established the surname Hansen in America.
Abelone Knudsen joined the L.D.S. Church and was baptized 4 July 1852.
Abelone, her husband and their three children left Denmark about the first of December 1855 to migrate to America. They were in the company of between 500 and 600 other Saints. They sailed from Liverpool, England aboard the ship “John J. Boyd”, 12 December 1855.
They were two months and three days crossing the ocean. They encountered much sickness and disease, and to their great sorrow their 11-year-old son, Jorgen, became sick and died and was buried overboard in the ocean. With one less in their family, they arrived at New York on 15 February 1856. From New York they migrated to St. Louis, Missouri.
They were detained in St. Louis for a considerable length of time. Here again their sorrow was multiplied because, through more sickness, they lost their four-year-old daughter, Anne.
While they were camped at St. Louis, Abelone gave birth to another baby girl 7 April 1856. They named her Christiane, our progenitor. Abelone was 39 years old. Also while here, Anders Hansen became a member of the church on 27 March 1856.
As soon as circumstances permitted, they sailed up the Missouri River to one of the emigration camps, Florence, Nebraska. Here the emigrants were processed and equipped for crossing the plains in companies. The year 1856 was one of the years the emigrants were migrating from Europe so fast that it was impossible to equip them all with wagon transportation. So President Brigham Young gave instructions to the emigration authorities to organize handcart companies.
During the year of 1856, eleven companies crossed the plains pulling and pushing a handcart. Abelone Knudsen Hansen with her husband, their 16-year-old girl, Maria, and an infant baby girl, Christiane, crossed the plains in the tenth company of 1856 under the captainship of Knud Petersen. Their company numbered 320 souls, 60 wagons, and other related equipment. They left Florence, Nebraska 10 June 1856 and arrived at Salt Lake City 20 September 1856. From Salt Lake they migrated to Ephraim, Sanpete County, Utah, where they made their home and lived the remainder of their lives. She only lived about 20 years in Utah, as she died at the age of 59. She endured many hardships and sacrifices. She was a true Saint and a noble pioneer.
Abelone Knudsen Hansen’s two daughters who survived her at the time of her death both married and raised large families. Her husband lived about ten years after her death to the age of 82. Abelone Knudsen Hansen died 10 May 1876 at Ephraim, Utah. She and her husband are both buried in Ephraim Cemetery, Sanpete County, Utah. Anders Hansen died 1 June 1884 at age 82. Maria died 9 March 1920, Blanding, Utah, and Christiane died 8 December 1914, Redmond, Utah.
*Original history in possession of Cleo or Neil Breinholt of Bountiful, Utah. Copy in possession of Marilyn Thomsen 2114 South 100 West, Orem, Utah 84058.
Sources: Records of Mrs. Earl Sampson, Salina, Utah; Records of Myrtle P. Redd, 53 Gordon place, Salt Lake City, Utah; Handcart Pioneers of 1850-56; History of J.C.L. Breinholt available at L.D.S. Church archives.
