Soren JENSEN

Soren Jensen August 3, 1842 Vejle County Denmark Died June 23, 1917
Anna Sine Petersen January 12,1848 Aalburg Denmark Died December 3,1931
JENSEN HERITAGE
Soren Jensen, born August 3, 1842, in Ulldum, Vejle County Denmark. His parents were Jens Pedersen, born 1799, in North Snede and Inger Marie Paulsdatter born 1808 in Uldum. Soren was an orphan who emigrated to America in 1864 at the age of 22 years. The first winter he worked in New York City for a mere $8.00 per month. From there he went to the Sullivan farm in Illinois and in 1865 moved to Omaha, Nebraska where he was employed by the Union Pacific Railroad Company.
Soren Jensen boarded at the Empire House where he met Anne Sine Petersen, who worked there. She had also emigrated from Denmark earlier in 1860 with her parents Jens and Ane Petersen. Sine was born January 12, 1848 in Aalburg, Denmark.
The Petersens were members of a Mormon Colonization expedition. With the North and South torn by the dissension of Civil War, they made their way eastward in a covered wagon and arrived in St. Joseph, Missouri in the fall of 1860. Then they came by steamboat to Omaha, Nebraska to stay in the Mormon Camp at Florence (North Omaha). While there Sine’s father, Jens Petersen learned that polygamy was being practice among the Mormons in Utah so, with several other members of the pioneering expedition, revolted, and abandoned the trip westward.
These people joined the reorganized branch of the Mormon Church, the Josephites. Sine was baptized into this branch and her father, Jens Petersen was the first missionary of the faith to preach in the old settlement of Desoto, near Blair, Nebraska.
The Petersens lived on Tenth Street in ;Omaha, Nebraska near where the Union Station now stands.
Before her marriage, August 27, 1866, Sine was employed by the well-known Davis family, pioneer bankers of Omaha, as a nursemaid for the Davis children, now Mrs. H. Kountze and brother Fred Davis.
On August 27, 1866, Soren Jensen and Anne Sine Petersen were married in Omaha, Nebraska where they lived until after their first child ,Anna was born.
In 1867, they decided to take a homestead and with their covered wagons, their belongings, and the family cow, came to the Lincoln Township in Washington County, Nebraska. They took up their claim where they lived for 35 years.
During this period ten of the children were born, Emma Marie, James H. (Jens), James Peter (Jens), Nels Martin, Mary M., Andrew George, Edward Arthur, Henry Chris, Albert Alvin, Sorena Dosena, and Myrtle Mina.
Sine’s parents, Jens and Ane Petersen, lived with their daughter and family for several years until their deaths in 1885 and 1887.
On January 12, 1888, the birthday of Anne Sine Jensen, the Great Blizzard struck. The morning was crisp and clear. The older children went to March School about two miles southeast of the homestead. The older boys in the families went to school only in the winters when there was no farm work to be done. Miss Erwin was the teacher.
Around noon the temperature started going down. The wind came up and snow started to fall. The teacher would not allow any of the children to leave, as the storm became worse as time pasted. When it became evident that the parents could not come for their children, the teacher had the older pupils help dress the younger ones in all the clothes they had. She asked Jens Jensen, her oldest pupil, eighteen years of age, to lead them, each holding another child’s hand. Jens held onto the barbed wire fence in the lead, and the teacher was at the end of the line. The group, moving single file, left the school blindly, guided only by the barbed wire fence. Approximately two hours later, they reached the Erwin place, three quarter of a mile northwest of the school. All were safe and Mr. and Mrs. Erwins cared for them until their own parents could manage to come for them late the following afternoon.
When the storm finally abated the next day, Soren set out on horseback to search for his children. After an unsuccessful visit to the schoolhouse, he went to the Erwins, hoping they might have some information. Here he found all the children safe and sound. Jens Jensen was ever after known as March School’s Blizzard Hero. Peter, Nels, Mary and Andrew also were among the pupils who were well taken care of by the Erwins.
In 1901, Soren and Sine moved to Blair where Sorena and Myrthle were born. They attended the Blair Schools.
“Soren Jensen has just purchased another 120 acres of land. This he told The Pilot now gives him eleven 80 acre farms, one for each of his children. When Soren settled out here he had few neighbors, and those he had regarded him as a green Scandinavian. But he has since bought them all out and now owns the land that was theirs when he went there. It took pluck and hard knocks to do it but he settled there with determination to succeed.” (Reprint Pilot, 1963 from Pilot January 5, 1888)

Soren Jensen died at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 23, 1917, as a result of a paralytic stroke suffered on Friday of the previous week. “He was unconscious much of that time and his great Vitality kept him alive for eight days.” It was said that he was a man of quiet and simple tastes, and was vigorous until three years before his death.
Soren Jensen, pioneer settler in the county who reaped the rewards of hard labor and good management, being one of the largest land owners, and therefore one of the wealthiest men in the county at the time of his death. He was always upright and honorable and leaves his large family a worthy heritage they have every reason to be proud of. Surely he was generous.
His mother and father-in-law, Ane and Jens Petersen lived in his home for many years. He brought several of his sister and brothers to this country from Denmark. Then he proceeded to help them get settled, with financial aid and advice. Among those were Anton Jensen, George Johnson, Peter Jensen, Mrs. Elsa Jorgensen, Mrs. Lena Jeppesen, and Hanna Frahm.
The funeral services were held at the Danish Lutheran Church in Dexterville on Monday, June 25, 1917. Six of his sons were pallbearers and the eldest, James H. escorted his mother.
“At the funeral services, held Sunday afternoon from the First Lutheran Church of Blair, hundreds were unable to gain entrance and the procession to the cemetery was two miles long. While automobiles carrying the mourners were turning into the burial grounds there were machines that had not left the Church. Observers said it was the longest funeral procession in Blair in recent years.” (Obituary, Pilot)
Anne Sine Jensen, intensely patriotic and a devout Christian, died at 10:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 3, 1931 of cancer of the stomach.
The pallbearers were six of her seven sons. Also to quote the Pilot. “James H. Jensen, another son, who lives in Long Beach, California, was unable to be present for the funeral. He was here, however, in September, when the thirteen children of Ane Sine Jensen gathered around her bedside in the Blair Hospital for a reunion. This reunion took the place of the annual Jensen Family Picnic, scheduled for Fontanelle Park in Omaha in August and postponed because of the illness of the head of
the family”
So ended the lives of Soren and Anne Sine Jensen early Washington County Nebraska pioneers who not only helped settle the area, but left a legacy and inheritance to their 13 children, 73 grandchildren, 176 great grandchildren, 371 great-great grandchildren, and 11 great-great-great grandchildren.

Contributed on 1/12/09 by deekaye
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Record #: 96491

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