Christian Hans Monson: Norwegian Mormon Convert, Handcart Pioneer, Temple Builder





Christian Hans Monson
Compiled by Devan Jensen






Born:

June 16, 1837; Fredrikstad, Norway

Died:

September 23, 1896; Richmond, Cache, Utah

Immigration Date:

1857, Christian Christiansen Handcart Company



A Narrative of the Life of Christian Hans Monson
Source: History by Hazel Kofoed, a granddaughter of Christian Hans Monson.
Christian Hansen (son of Hans) was born June 16, 1837, in Fredrikstad, Norway. He was the son of Hans Monsen and Berthe Nilsdatter (or Bertha Nielson), whose family consisted of two sons, Niels and Christian, and three daughters, Ann, Elizabeth, and Maren.

Hans Monsen was at one time warden of the old state prison at Frederikstad. During his term of office in the year of 1851, there were three Mormon missionaries imprisoned for preaching the gospel in Norway. These missionaries remained so long that the warden became indifferent regarding them and in due time became a little careless in his duty and allowed his son Christian to carry food into the cells for the missionaries.

It seems that young Christian was by nature rather inquisitive, and due to his frequent visits, he soon became rather intimate with the missionaries and was finally converted by them to the divine mission of Joseph Smith, the Prophet. So strongly was he impressed with the testimonies borne by the servants of God to him, and the testimony he had received through diligent prayer to the Lord, that he finally requested the elders to baptize him.

Obviously, this could not be done while they were in prison. They requested their young convert to be patient until their prison term had expired, but this did not satisfy him. Finally he suggested that he get the keys some night and let them out long enough to perform the ordinance of baptism and the laying on of hands for the reception of the gift of the Holy Ghost, and thus confirm him a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When this was done, they returned to their cells and he locked them in again.

Some time later, the missionaries, having served out their sentence, were released from prison. But the conversion of the boy, who was only fourteen years of age, still remained a secret, at least as far as his parents were concerned. However, he soon told them the news, he was so happy in the fact that he firmly believed, that God in answer to his prayers, had opened the way for him to hear God’s servants proclaim the everlasting gospel as revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith. He confided to his father the story of the knowledge he had received, and the consequent ordinance which had been performed for and in his behalf by the elders.

Christian was sorely disappointed regarding the reaction of his father. Instead of kind expressions of interest and approval of the research made by his youngest child, his father seemed to have lost sight of everything that savored parental love, and allowed the spirit of the adversary to take possession of him. While under that influence, he administered a severe punishment on his son and ordered him to leave home and never return again.

Upon leaving his home, where he left his parents, his brother and sisters, he went to the city of Drammen, Norway. He there entered the employ of a contractor as an apprentice in carpenter and joiner. He took an elementary course in architecture. In these branches he served six years as an apprentice, for which he received his food and clothing. His employer, however, permitted him to make small trinkets, such as work boxes; these he sold as best he could and from this source he made a little money, which he saved, in hope that at some future time he would be able to emigrate to Zion.
Early in the spring of 1857 he arranged to emigrate, working his passage across the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The company of emigrants with which he sailed left Liverpool, England, April 25, 1857, on the sailing ship Westmoreland. There were 544 Saints, mostly Scandinavian, under the direction of Mathias F. Cowley.

Many Scandinavians took their fathers' last name when immigrating. Christian eventually settled on the name Christian Hans Monson. The immigrants arrived in Philadelphia on May 31, 1857, and went from there to Iowa City by train, reaching there June 9, 1857. Here the emigrants were divided into two companies under the direction of Brother Cowley, the Scandinavian Saints going with a handcart company under the direction of Christian Christiansen. During their journey across the plains, they had food shortage, sickness, and hardships. Both companies arrived in Salt Lake City on September 15, 1857.

The US Army under Albert Sidney Johnston was on its way to Utah on September 15, 1857, on the Oregon route across the plains, which was on the opposite side of the Platte River from the trail used by the Mormon emigrant train. In September, Governor Brigham Young declared Utah under martial law, and forbade the army troops entering Utah. Men were enlisted to go to the mountain passes to keep them from entering the valley. Christian was sent into Echo Canyon as a guard.

After his guard duty was over, he located in Lehi, Utah.

Brigham Young met with the army officials and a satisfactory understanding was had. The army entered the valley peacefully, and Christian received some employment occasioned by the army troops coming into the Salt Lake Valley.

In 1860, when Cache Valley was being settled, Christian was called by the Church authorities to move to Logan, where he could assist with his trade in building homes and other buildings for the pioneers in the valley. Several buildings still remain that he built. Among them is the building occupied by the First National Bank of Logan, which was built for ZCMI. He purchased from the Taylor Romney Lumber Company, in Salt Lake City, a planing machine that was brought across the plains by ox team, and set it up in Logan, Utah.

In 1878, he was called to fill a mission in Sweden, and while there he went back to see his old home in Norway and visit his people, but was not received very kindly. He finished his mission in Sweden, returning home in 1880.

He was called to help build up Richmond, Utah, and Franklin, Idaho. In 1889, he built and operated a sawmill in Franklin. He lived there until his death on September 23, 1896, leaving a very large family.

He was the second man to own and operate a sawmill in Utah. He helped to build the St. George Temple, Manti, Logan, and Salt Lake Temples.
Wives’ Names
Marriage Date
No. of Children
Nielsene Krutzbach
June 29, 1858
2
Annie Catherine Peterson
April 26, 1861
4
Ellen Manson
March 16, 1867
11
Karren Marie Olsen
May 2, 1870

Ella Jensen
January 5, 1874
10
Vendla Jacobsen
March 15, 1883
3


Christian Hans Monson

(born Christen Hansen), 1837–96

Source: Susan Easton Black, Shauna C. Anderson and Ruth Ellen Maness, Legacy of Sacrifice: Missionaries to Scandinavia, 1872–94 (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, 2007).

Residence: Richmond, Cache Co., Utah
Arrival date in Copenhagen: 20 November 1878
Missionary labors: Göteborg Conference
Departure date from Copenhagen: 5 July 1880
Name of departure ship: Cato
Birth date: 16 June 1837
Birthplace: Stora Boeplads, Tune, Østfold, Norway
Father: Monsen, Hans
Mother: Nielsdatter, Berte
Spouse: Kruetzback (Kredsbank), Nielsene Olsen, Marriage date: 29 June 1858, Marriage place: Lehi, Utah Co., Utah
Spouse: Peterson, Anna Catherine, Marriage date: 26 April 1861, Marriage place: Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., Utah
Spouse: Mansson, Ellen Persson, Marriage date: 16 March 1867, Marriage place: Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., Utah
Spouse: Olsen, Karen Maria, Marriage date: 2 May 1870
Spouse: Jenson, Elna (Ella), Marriage date: 5 January 1874, Marriage place: Endowment House, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., Utah
Spouse: Jacobsson, Wendla (Vendla), Marriage date: 15 March 1883, Marriage place: Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co., Utah
Death date: 23 September 1896
Death place: Richmond, Cache Co., Utah
Burial place: Richmond, Cache Co., Utah

Christian’s father was a woodcutter by trade. He was industrious and hardworking, and he expected everyone around him to be the same. He had a violent temper, and Christian recalled being “mortally afraid” of his walking cane. However, when he was in good humor, Christian enjoyed sitting and talking to him as he smoked his long-stemmed pipe (see Skidmore, “Biographical Sketch of the Life of My Father Christian Hans Monson as I Knew Him,” 1).

Christian was baptized on 4 April 1853 by Svend Larsen. At the time, he was an employee of the Fredrikstad prison. He recalled carrying meals to the elders who were imprisoned for preaching. In this process, an elder asked him why he abused and tormented him, for “so persecuted they the Christ and his followers.” The prisoners set Christian to thinking. One night during the winter of 1852, he released his prisoners. Together they walked to the fjord, where Christian was secretly baptized, after which the elders returned to their prison cell (see Skidmore, “Biographical Sketch of the Life of My Father Christian Hans Monson as I Knew Him,” 2; Skidmore and Horne, “Immigrant Pioneers: Christian Hans Monson,” Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Lesson for October 1984, 41–53; Roberts, “Love Is Its Own Reward,” New Era, February 1978, 6–7).

Christian was whipped by his father for being baptized and told never to return. He left home and labored as a local missionary in Drammen, Buskerud County, Norway. At that time, he was five feet nine inches and weighed 190 pounds. He had blue eyes, a fair complexion, brown hair, and a beard (see Skidmore and Horne, “Immigrant Pioneers: Christian Hans Monson,” Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Lesson for October 1984, 41–44).

He was ordained an elder on 8 September 1856. He began his emigration to America on 9 August 1857. He voyaged from Liverpool to the United States aboard the Westmoreland. He crossed the plains in the Christian Christiansen handcart company to reach the Salt Lake Valley (see Jenson, History of the Scandinavian Mission, 236). Christian settled in Lehi, Utah County, before moving to Logan, Cache County, and finally Richmond, Cache County. He was called from Richmond to serve as a guard in Echo Canyon during the Utah War (see Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, 1042). After the threat of war passed, he was endowed on 26 October 1861 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City.

He married Nielsine Kruetzback, a widow fourteen years his senior. This marriage ended in divorce. After the divorce, Christian accepted a mission call to Scandinavia in 1878. He arrived in Copenhagen on 20 November 1878 and was assigned to labor in the Göteborg Conference. After completing an honorable mission, he departed from Copenhagen on 5 July 1880 aboard the steamer Cato with 346 emigrating Latter-day Saints and other returning missionaries (see Jenson, History of the Scandinavian Mission, 243).

On 23 June 1888, the First District Court of Ogden sentenced Christian to six months’ imprisonment and a one-hundred-dollar fine for unlawful cohabitation. He was discharged from the penitentiary on 23 December 1888 (see Jenson, LDS Church Chronology, June 23, 1888; December 23, 1888).

After his discharge, he served as president of the Thirty-ninth Quorum of the Seventy and as a temple worker in St. George. He is remembered as being a pioneer builder and lumberman. He is credited with assisting in the construction of the Salt Lake, St. George, Manti, and Logan Temples (see Skidmore and Horne, “Immigrant Pioneers: Christian Hans Monson,” Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Lesson for October, 1984, 49–50).

In his later years, he moved to Franklin County, Idaho, where he set up a lumber mill. He operated the mill until his health failed. Christian died in 1896 from jaundice and gallstones in Richmond at age fifty-nine (see Skidmore and Horne, “Immigrant Pioneers: Christian Hans Monson,” Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Lesson for October 1984, 51).

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