Ludvig Ericksen (1840-1919)

History of Ludvig Ericksen (1840 - 1919) and Trena Hansen (1835 - 1903)

Ludvig Ericksen was born in Skast, Ribe, Denmark, on March 14, 1840. His Parents were Erick Johansen Ohlenschlager and Annie Marie (Brandt).

While in Denmark, Ludvig heard the teachings of the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and on July 28th, 1861, just after he had turned 21 he joined the Mormon Church. Ludvig soon started making plans to become an emigrant pioneer to America with a group of the Saints.

For several months in early 1862, preparations had been in the various conferences throughout Denmark for a large group of enigrating Saints to come to America. Ludvig, unmarried and 21 years old, joined one of these groups on the steamer 'Albion' as it sailed from Aalborg, Denmark, April 6, 1862, with over 400 Saints from the Aalborg and Vendsyssel conferences. Sailing southward, the shp took up the emigrating saints from the Aarhus and skive conferences at Aarhus on the morning of the 7th, and at Fredericia later the same day they picked up the emigrating saints from the Fredericia and Fyn conferences at Fredericia, the ship reached Kiel in Holstein on the eve of the 7th. Here they were joined by a small contingent from Copenhagen, and the journey continued to Hamburg, Germany, where the emigrants boarded the sailing ship 'Hamboldt' on the evening of the 8th.

The 'Hamboldt' was a 157 foot, square rigged German sailing vessel that carried two companies of Saints to America. Ludvig was on board when they set sail on April 9th, 1862, under the leadership of Hans Christian Hansen, a returning missionary.

The passenger list for the 'Hamboldt' shows a Ludvig E. Ochlenschlayer (22) from Jutland from the Fredericia Conference as a confirmed passenger.

The food on the ship consisted of soup, potatoes, beans, fish, bread, or hard biscuits. The cooking was done in iron pots so large the cook could get inside. No bread was made on the ship, the biscuits having been made months befor and were extremely hard and dry. The potatoes were sour and soggy. The drinking water was taken from the River Elbe, in Germany, put into wooden barrels, that had been burned on the inside, and was as black as coal, when we drank it. Water was also put in large iron barrels, holding about five hundred gallons, and when the water from the wooden barrels was exhausted, the water from the iron barrels was used. This was red with rust. Pigs would object to the food and water but we had to take it.

The beds on the ship were made of comon lumber, with room for four in width and were two tiers high... Ludvig had a good trip and when the ship reached Castle Garden, New York, on May 20th, Ludvig along with all the other passengers had to pass a doctor's inspection before landing. The party continued on westward by railroad and steamboat to Florence, Nebraska which was the outfitting place for the journey across the plains for this year. The voyage was described as successful, although fourteen died at sea and on the land journey to Florence.

Ludvig then traveled in the John E. Murdock wagon train which arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on September 27th, 1862. Ludvig then continued on to San Pete County to settle in the small community of Fountain Green, Utah. At this time Ludvig was living in Fountain Green when his young wife Annie Catherine Bramson and their first child died during the birth of the child. Annie and the child were buried in Fountain Green. The 'Hamboldt' records show a Ane Bramsen (57), Ane Catherine Baramsen (23) and a Christian (15) as passengers from Jutland. (Ane may have been the girl Ludvig married.)

Ludvig and Trena Married

On October 4, 1863, Ludvig and Trena Hansen were married in the Endowment House at Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1864, Ludvig and Trena were called by the Church to help settle a new community in Piute County between Richfield and Cedar City called Circleville. Trena was the first white woman to live in that section of the state.

Their first home was a simple dug out witha door made of sage brush woven and tied together. When she was asked why something better was not provided, she answered that "she preferred the brush, for it served as camouflage to their simple home." Later on a log house was built which had only a dirt floor, one door, and one window. At times the Indians were very troublesome.

During the Blackhawk Indian war of which Ludvig was a veteran, the Indians would sometimes raid the little community. It was understood by all that as soon as trouble was aticipated, someone would beat a large drum. Then all the women and children should lieave their homes and run to the church house for protection.

While Ludvig and Trena were living in this small log home, their first child, Annie Catherine, was born on August 13, 1866. When the baby was just three days old, a severe thunderstorm passed over and the lightning struck their home. The thunder so startled Trena that she jumped out of bed and exclaimed "The Indians are coming!" It was with difficulty that she was calmed down and went back to sleep.

There were now four in the family, Father, Mother, Christian, and the baby girl named Annie.

When Annie was but three weeks old the dreaded drum beat was heard and all hurried in confusion toward the place of refuge. There was no path or roads and in Trena's haste to be out of danger, she fell in a deep ditch holding the baby in her arms. She later explained that the reason for her concern and confusion was that she had heard a horseman near behind her and she supposed him to be and Indian without turning back to look. No one was harmed but of course dreadfully frightened. The Indians did come but not to make an attack, but to make a survey of conditions and possibilities. Several times the people had to run to the meeting place.

In 1867, they were released from the call to settle Circleville, and moved to the northern part of the state to find a home in Logan, Cache County, where they resided in the Fifth and Third Wards. Ludvig was soon working at logging in Logan Canyon, getting logs for lumber for Moses Thatcher.

Christian was now seven years old and tried to assume some adult responsibility by taking the job of herding cows fo the neighbors and others who felt they could trust him with their animals. The grazing land was on the upper bench, now occupied b the University in Logan. Nearly every day, Christian had trouble with a couple of youngsters who constantly annoid him by frightening and teasing him and every night he would come home crying and complaining of his trouble to his parents. Finally he was told that he must stand up for himself and fight those boys to a finnish. If he didn't he would be punnished at home for neglect to do so.

The next day he went with his cows as usual, but with a strong determination to carry out his instructions. Unknown to Christian, his father was nearby and watching. Soon the boys came as usual to renew their torment of previous days. But much to the surprise of the boys and the delight of the parents, Christian defended himself in real pugilistic fashion and gave the boys a good licking, which ended their annoying him any more.

While living in Logan, three more children were born to Trena and Ludvig. They named them Alma (born April 18th, 1868), Josephine (born April 5, 1870), and Altena (born July 12, 1872). Alma, however, died at the age of one and one half years on Semptember 28, 1869.

The family then moved to Newton on February 16, 1876, and on December 20, 1880, recieved an original "Townsite Deed" to a lot where they built a small rock house. Ludvig was enganged in farming and the mercantile business. He freighted his produce to Ogden and Corinne by team taking eggs and butter which would be exchanged for groceries and dry goods which they kept and sold from their home. Ludvig and a friend Rasmus Nelson later took a fancy for growing sorghum cane for molasses and they purchased a small mill and made molasses for sale.

Ludvig served on the board of school trustees for many years in the Newton ward and helped very much in civic improvements of the community on the building of the Newton Reservoir. He also made cement curbing for wells and culverts.

Ludvig was known in the northern part of the valley as Big Black Ericksen because he was quite tall, had a large bear skin coat, and had a ong black beard that he wore down to his waist. He smoked a corn cob pipe and used a mixture of Dukes tobacco which he poured into his coat pocket to later fill his pipe from. He used about a box of matches each day to keep it lit.

Ludvig a polygamist

In about 1885, Ludvig entered into plural marriage during the days of polygamy when he married Lena (Caroline) Nelson, who was much younger than he or his first wife. She had been living in a house that he helped bould when he first moved to Newton on the southeast corner of town. After his second marriage, he built a house for his new wife Lena on the west corner of the same block. As a polygamist, Ludvig soon had the cops after him all the time as the legality of more than one wife at a time was not recognized by the State and it was a popular thing for the sheriff to put violators in jail whenever possible. Ludvig devised many ways to share his time with Lena and Trena and knew all the hiding places in the cellars and how to quickly get out of the back windows and doors when the police came a calling.

One winter the law finally caught him in Newton. As the deputies were taking him off to jail in Logan they stopped at a saloon in Smithfield to get a drink and get warm. The guards asked Ludvig if he wanted to come inside but he said, "No that he would just wait for them in the wagon." He wasn't too cold as he was wearing a large bear skin coat. When the guards came out the coat was still standing in the back of the wagon so off to Logan they went. After arriving at the jail and upon further investigation when Ludvig and his coat didn't get out of the wagon, the cops discovered that the coat was still in the back of the wagon, but it was empty - Luvig had beat it back at the saloon.

Ludvig became quite active in courting the young girls which cost him a section of his long flowing waist length beard on one careless occasion. When the girls used to smile at him, he really took it serious and thought they really liked him and he would get him another wife. One day he went to Logan for a load of lumber and as he returned late in the evening, he picked up some girls just south of Newton to give them a ride home. They were some gils he had been trying to make an impression on for some time and this seemed like just the time to continue his efforts. One of them got in the spring seat with him and put her arms around him and told him what a nice man he was and pitched a little woo with him. But while she was doing this, she was also busy with a small pair of scissors cutting off the end of his beard. He didn't know it was missing until he got home and his wife Trena asked where the end of his beard had gone.

Finally, Ludvig left Trena completely, taking everything that she had to include her cow and chickens. He went with his second wife as they moved to Mexico, and later moved to Weston, Idaho to make their home. To this marriage, six children were born.

After Ludvig left, Trena lived her life for the most part alone with her children. The family had a very hard financial struggle to survive and the girls had to seek out work to help their mother. Altena worked at washing for people and cleaning house and tending children. A long day spent at rubbing on the board to clean clothes would only pay her 25 cents. Finally Trena's health and eye sight began to fail her until she could only see shadows. She passed away from this life on February 21, 1903, at the age of 69. She died at the home of her daughter Annie in Newton, Utah, and was buried in the Newton Cemetery.

Ludvig passed away on July 5, 1919, at the age of 80 in Weston, Idaho, and was buried there.

Christian died on April 3, 1936 in California after raising a family of six children, one of which died at a young age.

The three daughters all raised in Newton. Josephine died August 1950 at Newton and was the wife of George Stone. Altena married Lorenzo Larsen and lived to the age of 104 and died on Christmas day in 1976. Annie married Alma Benson and she was near her 106th birthday when she died on April 17, 1972.