Else Margretha Poulsen Larsen Anderson

Else was almost five years old when she left her home in Denmark with her parents, her grandmother and her brother, Paul.  Upon reaching Liverpool, her grandmother became very ill.  The parents sent six-year-old Else and seven-year-old Paul on their scheduled sailing vessel, "Jesse Munn," with a woman who had promised to look out for the children.  They were not cared for and would have starved if it had not been for a stowaway boy who stole food for them.  

   The children waited many weeks in Kansas City for their parents to arrive.  When their parents finally came, the family began their trek across the Plains in the Hans Peter Olsen Wagon Company.  Else fell from the wagon seat and the wagon passed diagonally across her chest.  She had to walk the remainder of the way.  They arrived in Salt Lake Valley, October 1854.  

   They were sent to live in Ephraim.  

   She married at seventeen to Peter Anderson.  They became the parents of nine children.  Peter served as a Minute-Man during the Blackhawk War.  Else always kept a little bag of dried food and clothes in case they had to leave quickly during the War.  

   She was left alone to care for her children when Peter was called to serve a mission in Denmark in the mid-1880's.  She also had to manage alone while Peter made several trips to the mid-west for emigrants.  She was a woman of great courage and wisdom.

Children:

Peter Christian, 10 March 1866

Louis, 1 November 1868

Hyrum, 17 March 1872

Alice Margaret, 17 December 1873

Caroline Lorinda, 8 June 1876

Mary Zina, 1 March 1878

Joseph Francis, 2 July 1881

Seymour Gilderroy (Roy), 14 March 1886

Ida Elizabeth, 4 December 1890

(Source: Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude, Volume 1 A to E, International Society Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, p.78)