Tanner 26 & 27: Jens and Karen Johannesen Christensen

26 Jens Christensen
b. 31 July 1819 Torslev, Hjørring, Denmark
c. 8 August 1819 Torslev, Hjørring, Denmark
m. 26 December 1845 Tolna, Hjørring, Denmark
d. 12 June 1866 Omaha, Nebraska
b. June 1866 Omaha, Nebraska
Wives: (1) Christine Huborn, (2) Karen Marie Johannesen
Father: Christen C. Jensen; Mother: Christiane Christensen

27 Karen Marie Johannesen Christensen
b. 14 February 1821 Falget Lendum, Hjørring, Denmark
c. 18 February 1821
d. 6 September 1878 Brigham City, Navajo, Arizona
b. September 1878 Brigham City, Navajo, Arizona
Husband: Jens Christensen
Father: Johannes Jensen; Mother: Maren Andersen

This is the biography from Margaret Overson. I will follow it up with a second post with some more information about the family.

Mary’s father, Jens Christensen, was a well-to-do man in his native Denmark. He was a brick-maker, therefore employed men and had a thriving business. When he heard and accepted “Mormonism” so called, he had a similar desire as a majority of those early converts, to go to Utah and join the body of the Church.

The family consisted of the following:
Jens Christensen…
Karen Marie Johanneson…
Children:
Mary Kjerstine Christensen, born 29th March 1846, Tolne, Hjørring, Denmark
Christine Christensen, born 24th December 1847, Mydgal, Hjørring, Denmark
Marinus Christensen (adopted) born 6th June 1863, Toralev, Hjørring, DenmarkFrom the information I have, when the ship on which they had come from Denmark arrived at a United States port, the emigrants were transferred to a boat and were taken up the Mississippi River. The outfitting place for the Saints to begin their journey across the Plains was at Omaha, Nebraska. By the time this Company reached that place, there was an epidemic of cholera in the camp, and Jens Christensen was stricken, died and was buried, without allowing his family to know of the condition, lest they, too, contract the dread disease,

Jens Christensen had reserved for himself sufficient means to make the trip and see the family to Utah, but his spare means had been loaned to people who were also emigrating, but were short of means, with the understanding that it would be repaid when needed, after they all arrived at their destination. His business affairs were not understood by his wife, neither did she know the parties to whom he had loaned money. And if papers had been made to show the debts, they did not come into her possession.

Trouble and misfortune did not end with the death of the husband and father, but after they were part way along on their journey crossing the plains, the sister Christine was taken suddenly ill one night after the day’s travel, and died before morning, and had to be buried in a lonely grave by the wayside. The widow and baby and daughter Mary, finished the journey to Utah, and were directed to Ephraim, Sanpete County, where they found friends and acquaintances, but soon found themselves without means to live upon, since the husband and father was gone, and the creditors did not reveal themselves. They never did receive any payment of the means loaned, and in time it was understood that the parties who had received it, never came to Utah, but remained in the East.

Karen Marie Johanneson Christensen, mother of Mary K. Oveson, and the son Marinus, went with the Ove C. Oveson family to Brigham City (now Winslow, Arizona), in 1876, and were members of their household, as mentioned in the sketch of Ove C. Oveson, until the mother’s death there September 8th, 1878.

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

(Marinus continued to live with Ove and Mary. He married Frances Thomas and he and Frances were Granny's grandparents.)