Lars Peter Fredricksen

Lars Peter Fredericksen was born 13 Mar 1840 on Holbeak, Jornermack, Folleslev-Sagen Denmark - the only child of Adolph Fredericksen and Karen Pedersen.

When Lars was 13 years old, the missionaries taught him and his parents the gospel. They liked what they heard and were baptized on 28 April 1853. Shortly thereafter the family started making preparations to go to America.

On 24 Nov 1854, about 300 Scandinavians sailed from Copenhagen, Denmark on the steamer "Cimbria" headed for Liverpool, England. The crossing was terrible and fraught with storms. They were forced to turn back several times but finally reached Hull, England 24 Dec 1854. The following day, 25 Dec, the group continued by rail from Hull to Liverpool where they joined another group of Scandinavians. Finally on 7 Jan 1855 the 440 saints sailed on the "James Nesmith" for New Orleans and arrived 18 Feb 1855. From there the company boarded the steamship "Oceana" for the journey up the Mississippi river finally arriving at St. Louis, Missouri on 7 Mar 1855. By this time about 150 saints, including Lars and his parents traveled to Weston, Missouri, with the intention of remaining somewhere in that area until they could obtain the means to go on to the Salt Lake Valley.

The Mt. Pleasant Historical Records state that Lars (age 14) crossed the plains with the Hunt Handcart Company in December 1856 and his parents traveling with the Smoot Company the same year, arriving in Salt Lake in November 1856. However, the wall at Martin's cove has their names listed with the Hunt Wagon Train the followed the Martin and Willie handcart companies. This makes more sense than them traveling across the plains in separate companies. The family settled in Spanish Fork in 1857, but in the Spring of 1859 the family moved to Mt. Pleasant.

The Fredericksens were farmers in Denmark and continued that occupation in America. They were very pleased with the land and farming conditions in Mt. Pleasant. Their house was set on a small rise with lawns flowing down to a pond. The farm prospered and their home and yard became a showplace filled with beautiful flowers and a large vegetable garden. Lars was a good farmer who practiced crop rotation and resting the ground long before it became popular.

Lars had a bad stroke later in life and retired and sold the farm. They lived out their lives in the house on Fourth South and State Street in Mt. Pleasant. The house had a wooden porch running the length of the front. When the Grandchildren got too noisy they were sent out to the porch to play hopscotch on the wooden floor. Anna and Lars loved their grandchildren very much and Anna would have cookies most of the time for the granchildren - big fat ones with sugar and cinnamon on top.

After Lars died on 29 Sept 1914 of another stroke, his daughters Mary and Hannah came to care for Anna. The girls had never married. About this time they took in the four children of their brother Peter to raise, as their mother had died. Peter had never stayed on the farm but had left home early to seek his fortune and was unable to care for the children. The children were Ina, Loren, Georgetta, and Bernice.

This history was written by Thelma Christensen Tuttle in 1982 (Henrietta's daughter) The history was added to by Great-grandaughter, Pat Sorensen in 2001