PETERSON ANNE MARIE POULSDATTER by EUGENE

ANNE MARIE POULSDATTER

By Eugene H. Halverson

Anne Marie Poulsdatter

                I was asked to write a story of my great great grandmother, Anne Marie Poulsdatter.  I knew that she was my great great grandmother and that her picture was in my grandmother’s house (her granddaughter’s home) in Mapelton, Utah.  Later the pictured resided in my cousin’s home in Lake Shore, Utah and now in her home in Arkansas.  For a time her picture came to live with me and I grew quite fond of  her.  I still think she was the one who kept Aunt Hanna under control while I wrote her story.  I lost two computers trying to write that story.  Just remember Aunt Hanna was the witch in our family, books, spells and all. 

                Anna Marie was born 14 September 1800 in Flade, Hjorring, Denmark a daughter of Poul Thomasen Abildgaard and Anne Pedersdatter.  Her brothers and sisters are yet to be found.  The Abildgaard Farm name goes back four generations.  Being landowners gave the family a little more control on who their children married.  On 28^th of April 1826 she married her husband, Christen Pederson Bol.  Christen was born 2 February 1798.  He was a son of Peder Andersen and Maren Jensdatter both of Ovdrup or Oudrup Aalborg Denmark.  The family consisted of three boys and three girls.  Family records list the Parish or the County as Eulain but I found it listed as Salling many years later.

Christen and Anne Marie had children but as Christiana, the oldest daughter said,  “We were a family of four”, three children had died before I was born.  Oudrup is located in the northern part of Jutland and Grandma said the farm was five miles from the Kattegat Sea, this is was five miles from the Lim Fjorden and south of it.  The Lim Fjorden (Lim Fiord) is an arm of both the Kattegat and the Skagerrak Sea cutting the Jutland complete into from east to west.  The weather we are told was damp and foggy and it was difficult to harvest the hay and grain they raised for their sheep and cattle.  The winters were always severely cold.  Bol was a farm name from a bowl-like pond on a steep hill east of the house that retained water year round.  No one knows how large the farm was, we only have a drawing of the house and yard that Christiana's children drew after her death, it was a large two story house typical of many I have seen in books, rock walls and thatched roof.  It was a large rambling house built in the shape of large U.  A kitchen, dining, living, bedrooms and guestrooms formed the front.  The first leg of the U formed the workshop and two old folk’s rooms.  The other leg housed the farm animals - horses, cows, and sheep.  .

                In Denmark the farm name was Bol. In American Fork they called them “Bold”.  The naming system had changed, the given name was no longer used, was he a Christensen or a Pedersen or maybe Peterson.  Another problem there were just to many Petersons living as neighbors, so Boel solved the problem.  Great Grandfather and his youngest son, Pierre, called themselves, Boel, While my Grandmother, Mary, his daughter used Peterson  and sometimes Bole after Peterson.  Our family did own their own farm and land; many of the farmers at these times were landless.  

                In the early 1850’s Mormon missionaries were coming to visit the family.  Anne and her daughter, Christiana were soon converted to this new religion but her father, Christen hated everything about it.  He was especially afraid and fearful when Christiana left home for America by herself in 1856.   He said if she lived to cross the ocean on a sail ship, the Indians would surely kill her.  She left in the cold of the winter, crossing the ocean on a sail ship and later pulled a handcart across the plains and over the Rocky Mountains to Utah.  She had been baptized into the Mormon Church and now called herself Christiana Pedersen. Anne Marie promised her before she left that if she out-lived her husband that she would come to America. 

                It was now 1863 Denmark was at war again.  The new king had caused the Duchies of Sleswig and Holstein to revolt.  Prussia and Austria were waiting for another opportunity to declare war on Denmark again.  She was over-whelmed and soon lost the war, its valiant army was soon pushed back to Northern Jutland.  Christian was in this army.  He was 19 years old when the War began, nothing is known of any of his war experiences or where he was sent.  Nor of what harm the Germans had done to the family or farm.  We only know that Anne Marie and her son didn't want to live in Denmark any longer.  There had always been wars and hard times. 

               

                When Christen died on September 6, 1877 at age 79, Anne Marie, her son and grandchildren were free to go to America to find her daughter Christiana, who left Denmark 22 years earlier.  She had promised Christiana that she would come if and when her husband died before she did.

                Her son, Christian had also been waiting all these years, he was very disillusioned and bitter with life and his future in Denmark and was very anxious to leave.  He was 34 years old now.  He and his mother had waited over twenty years now and nothing was going to stop them, he had promised his Mother many years ago that they would go.  His wife, Maren did not belong to the Church, nor did she want to.  Neither his wife nor his children, would stop him, he would take those who were able to go, and that was that.  The Bol Farm was sold for passage to America.

                Anne Marie was now 78 years old and his five older children: Kristine Petrine, age 13; Christen 11; Soren Peter 9; Elsine Kirstine and Jens 7.  His two servants, Anne Johanna Jensen (Hanna) and Andres Anderson also accompanied them. 

                Anna Marie Poulsdatter Bol found her daughter Christiana in Pleasant Grove, what a happy occasion that was.  She had married Christian Frederick Twede and had seven children.  She lived with her son but near her daughter so she knew all of her Grandchildren, she got her wish that was made so many years ago.  I have no stories about her, but she must been something special.  When I showed Hazel Twede Baird her photograph, you should have seen her smile and the light in her eyes as she gazed fondly at her.

                In the 1880 Census for the Utah Territory, Pleasant Grove Precinct, Utah County, she was cared for and still living with her son, Christian Peter Boel.  The Census Taker miss-spelled Boel as Bold.  Her name was Annie M. on the census. 

1880 census

name                                       color       sex          age         

Bold, Annie M.                       W          F             80           Mother, Widowed

Bold, Christian                        W          M           36           farmer

Bold, Annie                             W          F             28           housewife

Bold, Christina                        W          F             15           daughter

Bold, Chris                              W          M           12           son

Bold, Peter                               W          M           11           son

Bold, Christian                        W          M             9            son

Bold, Senna                             W          F               8            Daughter

As you can see he married Aunt Hanna (Annie) the maid soon after arriving.  The rest of the family came to America after the census was taken (his wife Maren And children Niels and Pierre).  Andres Anderson was not on the census but he did stay with the family and worked for Christian Boel as a hired hand he was no longer owned as a servant after leaving Denmark.

Anna Marie died at age 86 in October 1886 in Mapleton and was buried in Pleasant Grove, Utah.  She is buried next to three of her grandchildren.