Tanner 24 & 25: Jens & Kjersten Pederson Oveson

24 Jens Andreas Oveson

b. 17 September 1816 Mossberg Sogn, Hjørring, Denmark
m. abt 1839 Tårs, Hjørring, Denmark
d. 11 January 1905 Ephraim, Sanpete, Utah
Wives: (1) Kjersten Maria Pederson, (2) Anne Nielsine Carlson, (3) Marian Iverson Nielson
Father: Ove Andersen; Mother: Anne Marie Jensen



25 Kjersten Maria Pederson Oveson
b. 7 September 1813 Mojen (or Udelt Sogn), Hjørring, Denmark
d. 30 January 1874 Ephraim, Sanpete, Utah
b. 1874 Ephraim, Sanpete, Utah
Husband: Jens Andreas Oveson
Father: Peder Nielsen; Mother: Kirsten Christensen

Jens was born in 1816 in Mossberg, Hjørring, Denmark. He was a twin. His father Ove Andersen was married previously and had one or two children from his first marriage. After the first wife died, he remarried Jen's mother and adopted a child (probably hers) and had five subsequent children, including the twins.

The Danish way of creating names back then was to add -sen to the father's name for a son and -dotter to the father's name for a daughter.

Jens' father's name was Ove Andersen, so the son's name was Jens Ovesen. When the family came to the United States, they Americanized the name to Oveson and our branch even added an "r" to the middle of the name, resulting in "Overson." However, Jens' gravestone reads "Jens Ovesen."

Jens and his family joined the church in Denmark, as you can read about in his sons' histories. Of course, you can read Ove Overson's history on this site and I will link to a partial copy of his son Lars' history on a separate post.

Jens Andreas Oveson, our ancestor, came to Utah in 1863, sixteen years after the earliest pioneers reached Salt Lake Valley. He was one of the earliest pioneers in Sanpete County, making his home in Ephraim. He was a builder, and therefore much in demand in planning and making homes and a meetinghouse—and later stores and other public buildings. He also made furniture… The work was beautifully done by hand (no machinery in those days), from timber obtained in the nearby mountains.…

Brother Oveson was the official casket (coffin) maker for those who died in that vicinity and often worked all or most all night, to get the work ready in time for the burial. There was no way of keeping a corpse in those early days. They had to be buried as soon as possible.

His own home was neat and comfortable, and his garden and orchard well kept. He raised a goodly supply of choice apples, and had plenty put by for winter, and to share with relatives and neighbors, especially the children.

He also did much work on the Manti Temple, during the early years of its construction.

To a person viewing this beautiful edifice today it is a great marvel because of its exact and exquisite workmanship, all of which was done under pioneer conditions of poverty and sacrifice, and with primitive tools and materials.

Jens Andreas Oveson raised a large family, worked hard, was a good neighbor, genial and pleasant, willing and helpful. He kept his strength and agility to the last. He lived to be past 88 years of age, and was able to work at his bench until a day or two before his death, when he complained of being tired. Rest came to him January 11th, 1905.…

When Jens Andreas Oveson’s first wife, Kjersten Maria Pederson Oveson died, January 30th, 1874, their two older children (Ove Christian and Anne Kjersten) were married and had homes and families of their own, their third child, Eliza, had died in Denmark, and their youngest son, Lars Peter, was a grown man, twenty-one years old.

The following year Jens Oveson and Anne Nielsine Carlson took the trip to Salt Lake City in the Endowment House there, on May 18th, 1874.

This wife was a single woman from Copenhagen, Denmark, who was a refined and rather delicate, dainty and artistic woman of thirty years, who had been raised in a large city, and was a dressmaker by trade (all young people in Denmark must learn a trade by the time they are mature), and not accustomed to the hardships of a pioneer country. She bore two little girls, not quite two years apart, but died March 14, 1877, leaving a three months old baby, and the older sister just two years old.

Brother Oveson was now past sixty and must work to support his family. He was now in dire need of help to take care of the little ones, and keep his home. He found a widow from Denmark who had four children, and was in need of a home and some means of support. She offered to take care of his little ones, and after a time, they later had four more, making eight children for her, and his two little girls, quite a family for a man his age to support. Their last child was born the year he was seventy, and his two little girls were ten and twelve years old, but his life was prolonged until he was in his eighty-ninth year, and he was well and able to work until his last week.

Overson, Margaret Jarvis. George Jarvis and Joseph George DeFriez Genealogy. Mesa, Arizona: 1957.