Includes notable events in LDS Church, American and World history as a time period reference.
1843
-5 August, born to Jens Mickarl Jespersen and Ane (Anne, Anna or Annie) Marie Hansen at Sellerup, Gaverslund, Vejle, Denmark. Name at birth recorded as Hans Jesper Jensen.
-Siblings include Mattie Catherine (1838-1909), Mads (1841-1849), Yern (Jorgen) (1847-1902), Mads (1849-1854), Hans Madsen (1852-1854)
1844 (1 y.o.)
-27 June, Joseph Smith assassinated
1847 (4 y.o.)
-24 July, first pioneer advance company enters Salt Lake Valley
1848 (5 y.o)
-2 February, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed, U.S. acquires the region of Deseret
-8-9 October, Nauvoo Temple is set on fire
1849 (6 y.o.)
-18 August, brother Mads dies
1850 (7 y.o.)
-9 September, Utah Territory created, Brigham Young appointed governor
1852 (9 y.o)
-29 August, the practice of plural marriage by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is made public
-Winter, just before Christmas, Jasperson's first meeting with Mormon missionaries
1853 (10 y.o.)
-Family meets several times with Mormon missionaries and are converted.
-9 April (or 19th or 29th), parents baptized by Elder Lauritz Larsen
-14 February, the Salt Lake Temple site is dedicated
-6 April, the cornerstone of the Salt Lake Temple is laid
-17 July, the Walker War begins
-11 December, family leaves their home and sets sail to England to begin the move to Utah
1854 (11 y.o.)
-14 January, brother Hans Madsen dies in Liverpool, England
-23 January (or 26th), family begins sailing to America on the ship “Benjamin Adams”
-February (10th?), brother Mads dies at sea
-22 March, arrival at New Orleans, Louisiana
-9 April, father Jens dies in St. Louis, Missouri and is buried on the banks of the Missouri River
-15 June, company starts the overland journey toward Utah under the direction of Captain Hans Peter Olsen, 550 people and 69 wagons, included with the family is an unknown young man who Jens paid to help them in their travels, he drove the family wagon, Hans drives the other yoke of oxen
-5 October, arrival in Salt Lake City, instructed to go south to Sanpete County
-Arrived in Fort Ephraim, lived with another family in a house or dugout 12x14 feet
-1 November, Hans is baptized
-Famous grasshopper plagues arrive
1855 (12 y.o.)
-Family builds a dugout about 12x14 feet in Fort Ephraim
-Mother marries Mads Poulsen, a widower and fellow Danish immigrant with 6 children
-Family moves to Provo hoping for better circumstances
-Hans gets a job to provide food for the family
-Winter, goes to school
1856 (13 y.o.)
-Begins herding cattle between Provo and Battle Creek (Pleasant Grove area), also works poisoning and shooting coyotes
-First handcart companies organized, handcarts used until 1860
-5 October, Brigham Young orders the organization of rescue parties to save the Willie and Martin handcart companies
-Fall, first view of the Goshen Valley
-Winter, goes to school
-11 December, mother receives her patriarchal blessing
1857 (14 y.o.)
-Spring, family settles in Goshen Valley
-29 March, Laura Alice Dean is born in Virginia
-29 June, President James Buchanan orders troops to be sent to Utah to put down the “Mormon rebellion”
-11 September, Mountain Meadows massacre
1858 (15 y.o.)
-Hans accompanies 5 other men from Goshen to Salt Lake City to help the saints move south in preparation for the coming soldiers
-Is ordained a Priest in Goshen by William Finch Sr.
-12 April, U.S. troops enter Salt Lake City
-U.S. soldiers take their post at Camp Floyd
1860 (17 y.o.)
-6 November, Abraham Lincoln elected President
-20 December, South Carolina secedes from the Union
-U.S. soldiers stationed in Utah move to Texas in preparation for the Civil War
-Hans acquires a military gun and sword from the soldiers
1861 (18 y.o.)
-12 April, first shots of the Civil War
1862 (19 y.o.)
-Goes to work for the Overland Company driving an ox team
-22 September, Emancipation Proclamation is issued
1863 (20 y.o.)
-29 January, Battle of Bear River or the Bear River Massacre
-January, Is hired by Harvey Moyer to help drive oxen to the Salmon River, as they travel they are met by Lot Smith who tells them of the Bear River massacre, Hans counts 493 dead Indians, continues journey to arrive in Bannock, Montana and later an area that would become Virginia City, Montana, he helped build the first log cabin in this area
-November, arrives back in Goshen
1864 (21 y.o.)
-While buying a cow in Provo, Hans meets and falls in love with Marinda Ipson at the home of her stepfather Bishop J.P.R. Johnson
-April, Brigham Young calls Hans on a mission to go to the Missouri River to help new immigrant converts
-10 April, last date with Marinda before leaving on his mission
-13 April, left his home in Goshen to begin his mission
-April, arrives in Salt Lake in the Sugar House ward and meets Brigham Young
-Summer, while traveling along the North Platte river, Hans saves a man who is nearly drowned along with the oxen who had stampeded across the river, carries the man while barefoot over 3 miles of prickly pear cactus and then the next day over 8 miles of trail and cactus, prays and is given 40 years to mend his ways and live the life of a latter-day saint (dies in 1915, nearly 50 years later), spends a night with another camp, nearly drowns while floating down river back to camp, personal conversion
-5 October, arrives back in Salt Lake City
-First mention of Porter Rockwell as an “old friend”, probably from his time driving for the Overland Company, mentions Porter’s 800lb pig
-7 October, arrives home
-6 November, marries Marinda Ipson in Goshen, married by her stepfather
1865 (22 y.o.)
-The Black Hawk War in Sanpete and Sevier counties starts, Hans, and several other Goshen men, serve in an army organized by Brigham Young to fight the Indians
-14 April, Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth, he dies the next day
-5 December, daughter Julia Maria born
1866 (23 y.o.)
-Mads Poulsen leaves Han’s mother to go to Illinois with two of his sons and some RLDS “Josephite” missionaries. His sons later return believing the Josephites to be wrong
-November, ordained an elder by Heber C. Kimball
-24 November, endowed
-24 November, Hans is sealed to his wife in the Endowment House
-The ship “Benjamin Adams” is lost at sea
1868 (25 y.o.)
-22 February, daughter Marinda Christina born
1869 (26 y.o.)
-10 May, First Transcontinental Railroad completed at Promontory Summit
1870 (27 y.o.)
-6 July, Hans and his mother do baptisms for the dead
-20 August, daughter Marry Ellen Born
1871 (28 y.o.)
-21 June, Hans and his mother do baptisms for the dead
1873 (30 y.o.)
-6 February, daughter Lydia Catherine born
-Poland act becomes law, legal to prosecute for polygamy
1875 (32 y.o.)
-11 June, daughter Annie Matilda born
1875-1878
-Built their small log home
1876 (33 y.o.)
-March, Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone
-25-26 June, the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Custer’s Last Stand
1877 (34 y.o.)
-6 April, St. George Temple dedicated
29 August, Brigham Young dies
1878 (35 y.o.)
-28 January, daughter Minnie Margaret born
-26 December, Laura Alice Dean marries Jefferson Taylor Horton
1878-1881
-Built their two story adobe home
1881 (38 y.o.)
-16 April, son Alma Hans born
1882 (39 y.o.)
-22 March, the Edmunds Law is signed
-8 October, Oscar Fullmer Horton born
1883 (40 y.o.)
-August, Hans and his mother go to St. George to do temple work, his wife Marinda and daughter Julia also go with them, sealed to parents 14 September in St. George
1884 (41 y.o.)
-18 January, son James Andrew born
-17 February, ordained a seventy by John Taylor Jr., quorums of seventies were organized in individual stakes at this time
-18 March, son James Andrew dies
-14 October, Belva Ann Horton born
1885 (42 y.o.)
-25 June, son Stephen Johnson born
-Laura Alice Dean Horton’s husband, Jefferson Taylor Horton, dies in Virginia
1886 (43 y.o)
-28 June, daughter Julia married as a plural wife to Peter Okelberry
-17 December, mother Anne Marie dies in Goshen
1887 (44 y.o.)
-16 February, receives his patriarchal blessing, first mention of “wives” in the future
-16 February, wife Marinda receives her patriarchal blessing
-3 March, the Edmunds-Tucker Acts becomes law
-25 July, John Taylor dies
1888 (45 y.o.)
-21 May, Manti Temple is dedicated
-Laura Alice Dean (Alice) is converted to the Church by missionary Steven Chipman of American Fork, a bank and store owner, and she has hopes to marry him, he becomes afraid of the law against plural marriage and abandons the idea
-November, Alice comes to Utah, lived in Salem, Payson, Santaquin (all for only a few days or a week each) and finally Goshen doing odd jobs, between 1888-1889, meets Hans in Santaquin and he invites her to come to Goshen to work for him
1889 (46 y.o.)
-24 March, son Joseph Brigham born and dies the same day
-2 April, Alice is endowed in the Manti temple
-8 April, Hans marries plural wife Laura Alice Dean Horton in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, married by Franklin D. Richards, witnessed by Jos. McMurrin
-May, Alice becomes pregnant
-28 (or 26th?) September, is charged with polygamy by Judge Judd in Provo, supposedly a neighbor reported the marriage to the law
-12 October, pleads guilty to polygamy and is sentenced to 8 years in prison, but allowed to do 5 years combining the 5 for polygamy and 3 for adultery, is imprisoned only 21 months and 18 days, this is published in the New York Times
-12 October, the Salt Lake Tribune publishes parts of the court proceedings against Hans and Alice
-13 October, Wilford Woodruff states in an interview that he did not endorse Han’s plural marriage
-November, The Endowment House is dismantled by Wilford Woodruff’s command upon learning of the marriage of Hans to Alice, among other reasons
1890 (47 y.o.)
-16 January, daughter Esther born by Alice
-6 October, the Manifesto is read in General Conference and is sustained
1891 (48 y.o.)
-9 April, Hans threatens to reveal the identity of the man who married him and Alice if Church leaders do not get him out of prison (Abraham H Cannon diaries)
-10 April, writes a letter to President Harrison promising to keep the law and asking for a pardon
-27 (or 28th) July, released from prison, pardoned by U.S. President Harrison
1893 (50 y.o.)
-6 April, Salt Lake Temple dedicated by Wilford Woodruff
-First gasoline powered automobile introduced in America
-1 November, Calvin Joseph born to Alice
1896 (53 y.o.)
-4 January, the state of Utah is admitted into the Union
-18 September, Dean born to Alice
1898 (55 y.o.)
-2 September, Wilford Woodruff dies
1901 (58 y.o.)
-10 October, Lorenzo Snow dies
1902 (59 y.o.)
-15 November, ordained a High Priest by Rudger Clawson
-25 June, brother Yern dies
1903 (60 y.o.)
-17 December, Wright brothers first flight
1904 (61 y.o.)
-6 April, the Second Manifesto is announced by Joseph F. Smith
1905 (62 y.o.)
-John W. Taylor and Matthias F. Cowley resign from the Quorum of the Twelve over disputes about polygamy, they are later excommunicated
1909 (66 y.o.)
-4 Sep, sister Mette Catherine dies
1910 (67 y.o.)
-8 March, Esther (daughter by Alice) dies
1912 (69 y.o.)
-Hans writes a letter to church authorities in reply to Alice’s wish for a divorce, although Hans gives his consent, it is thought that the divorce never takes place as indicated by Laura’s death certificate showing she was a widow of Hans and not a divorcee, and the fact that she was present at family functions through 1914
1915 (71 y.o.)
-22 April, Hans dies of asthma
-Utah State Capitol building is completed