"SIXTIETH COMPANY. -- Forest Monarch, 297 souls. This company of emigrants was from the
Scandinavian Mission, being the first large company of Saints who emigrated from Denmark, Sweden,
and Norway. An earnest desire to emigrate to Zion had been manifested by many of the Scandinavian
Saints since the first little company had left for the mountains a few months previous; and the
elders had been busily engaged for some time past in making preparations to send off a large
company.
About the beginning of December, 1852, the emigrants from the respective conferences in
the mission began to gather in Copenhagen, Denmark, and on Monday, December 20th, 1852, two
hundred and ninety-three Saints, including children, went on board the steamship Obotrit, and
sailed from 'Toldboden' (the custom-house), at four o'clock p.m., under the leadership of Elder
John E. Forsgren, one of the elders who, in connection with Apostle Erastus Snow, first
introduced the gospel into Scandinavia two years before. A great multitude of people had
gathered on the wharf to witness the departure of the 'Mormons,' and many of the rabble gave
utterance to the most wicked and blasphemous language, while they cursed and swore, because so
many of their countrymen were disgracing themselves by following 'that Swedish Mormon priest'
(an appellation they gave Elder Forsgren) to America. No violence, however, was resorted to,
and the ship got safely away.
After a rather stormy and unpleasant passage, the Obotrit arrived
safely at Kiel, Holstein, on the evening of the twenty-second. The following day the journey
was continued by rail to Hamburg, where a large hall had been hired, and supper prepared for the
emigrants. In the afternoon of the twenty-fourth the Saints went on board the steamship Lion,
which glided slowly with the tide down the river Elbe to Cuxhaven, where the captain cast anchor,
owing to the heavy fog which prevailed. The emigrants now celebrated Christmas Eve on board,
with songs and amusements of different kinds. In the morning of the twenty-fifth anchor was
weighed, and the Lion sailed to the mouth of the river, where it was met by heavy headwinds,
that made it impossible to reach the open sea until midnight. Finally, the passage from the
river to the sea was made in the moonlight. Early in the morning of the twenty-sixth the ship
passed Heligoland, soon after which a heavy gale blew up from the southwest, which increased in
violence until the next day, when it assumed the character of a regular hurricane, the like of
which old sailors declared they had never before experienced on the German Ocean. The ship's
bridge and part of the gunwale were destroyed, and some goods standing on the deck were broken
to pieces and washed overboard; otherwise, neither the ship nor the emigrants were injured. On
the twenty-eighth, in the evening, after the storm had spent its fury, the Lion steamed into the
harbor of Hull, England. About one hundred and fifty vessels were lost on the German Ocean in
the storm, and the people in Hull were greatly surprised when the Lion arrived in safety, as it
was firmly believed that she had gone under like the other ships that were lost.
From Hull,
the emigrating Saints continued the journey by rail to Liverpool, on the 29th, where lodging and
meals, previously ordered, were prepared for them, and on the first of January 1853, they went
on board the packet ship Forest Monarch, which was hauled out of the dock and anchored in the
river Mersey. There it lay until the 16th, because of storms and contrary winds. In the
meantime three of the company died, two babies were born, and three fellow passengers were
initiated into the Church by baptism. One man, who had been bitten by a dog was left in
Liverpool, to be forwarded with the next company of emigrating Saints. One night the ship
became entangled with another vessel and sustained some injuries; and a few days later, during a
heavy storm, it got adrift, pulling up both anchors, and was just about to run aground, when
two tug boats came to the rescue and saved it.
On the sixteenth of January, 1853, the Forest
Monarch put out to sea. The emigrants now numbered two hundred and ninety-seven souls, who were
placed under the direction of Elder John E. Forsgreen, in connection with whom Elders Christian
Christiansen and J. H. Christiansen acted as counselors. Elders Willard Snow and Peter O. Hansen,
who had accompanied the emigrating Saints to Liverpool, now returned to Copenhagen. During the
voyage across the Atlantic Ocean the Forest Monarch was favored with very pleasant weather, but
for several days it was a perfect calm, and in many respects the emigrants, who nearly all
were unaccustomed to seafaring life, found the voyage trying and tedious. The provisions were
poor, and their fresh water supply gave out before the journey was ended. Four deaths also
occurred, and three children were born during the voyage.
On the eighth of March, 1853, the
ship arrived safely at the mouth of the Mississippi River, where five of the company died, and
on the arrival at New Orleans, on the sixteenth, two others departed this life, and one
family who had apostatized remained in that city. From New Orleans the journey was continued
by steamboat up the Mississippi River to St. Louis Missouri, where the emigrants landed on the
thirty-first. In that city, tents and other commodities needed for the overland journey were
purchased. After tarrying about a month, during which time six of the emigrants died and two
couples were married, the company left St. Louis and proceeded by steamboat about two hundred
miles further up the river to Keokuk, Iowa, where the emigrants pitched their tents for the
first time, and lay in camp for several weeks before starting for the plains.
In the meantime
the emigrants received their teams, consisting of oxen and wagons. Some of the Scandinavian
emigrants, who at first rejected the American ways of driving oxen in yokes, went to work and
manufactured harness in regular Danish fashion; but no sooner were these placed on the animals
than they, frightened half to death, struck out in a wild run, refusing to be guided at all by
the lines in the hands of their new masters from the far north. Crossing ditches and gulches
in their frenzy, parts of the wagons were strewn by the way side; but the oxen, (many of which
had never been hitched up before) were at last stopped by men who understood how to manipulate
that most important article of all teamsters outfits--the whip; and the Danish emigrants,
profiting by the experience they had gained, soon concluded that, although harness might do
well enough for oxen in Denmark, the yoke and whip were preferable in America; and they readily
accepted the method of their adopted country.
With thirty-four wagons and about one hundred
and thirty oxen, the company rolled out from the camping ground near Keokuk on the twenty-first
of May, and after three weeks rather difficult travel over prairies of Iowa, Council Bluffs, on
the Missouri River, was reached. Here the company rested for several days, and on the
twenty-seventh of June resumed the journey by crossing the Missouri River, after which they
were soon far out on the plains. On the overland journey a number of the emigrants died, more
children were born, and a few lost the faith in the midst of the hardships and trials of the
long march. Finally on the thirtieth of September, 1853, the company arrived in Salt Lake
City; and on the fourth of October the emigrants were nearly all rebaptized by Apostle Erastus
Snow. They were counseled by President Brigham Young to settle in different parts of the
Territory, and mix up with people of other nationalities, so as to become useful in developing
the resources of the new country. Most of them located in Sanpete Valley, whither other
companies from Scandinavia subsequently followed them, and that valley has ever since been
known as the headquarters of the Scandinavians in Utah. Still President Young's advice has
not been unheeded, as the people from the three countries of the north (Denmark, Sweden and
Norway) are represented, to a greater or less extent, in nearly every town and settlement of
the Saints in the Rocky Mountains.
(Millennial Star, Vol. XV, pp.89, 282, 368; Morgenstjernen, Vol. I, page 180.)"
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