Mary Emma Baker Jensen ~ Index

Mary Emma Baker Jensen, daughter of George W. Baker and Agnes Richards, was born in Mendon, Utah 30 July 1864, the second in a family of eleven children At an early age she learned to card the wool, spin and weave it, to make the family clothes and stockings. She displayed a special aptitude for sewing and was the family seamstress. While attending the Brigham Young College she took courses in dress-making and glove-making, and until the time of her death at seventy-six years of age, she made most of her own clothes as well as a good many for her children and grandchildren.

After attending the Brigham Young College, she taught school in Mendon and Hyrum, beginning at the age of eighteen. On 17 December 1885 she and Jens Jensen were married in the Logan Temple. Their first home was a one room log house. Here they lived until 1888. Many times the year old baby's hair was covered with frost in the morning. In the fall of 1888 they built a new home, and here the other seven children were born.

When her first child was born, Mary sustained injuries from which she never fully recovered. When the youngest child was four years old, Mary underwent surgery in an effort to repair the damage. At that time an electric light bulb which was suspended over the operating table fell into the abdominal cavity through the open incision. The result was an infection which nearly cost her life and kept her bedfast for more than a year and a partial invalid for years.

As her health improved, her activity outside the home was resumed. She was a teacher in M.I.A., Sunday school and Relief Society; she was president of the Relief Society for many years. She was always intensely interested in civic, national and world affairs.

In July 1931, she was injured in a car accident that claimed the life of her daughter Lillian. For months she was at death's door. On 29 November 1940 she fell on an icy step and sustained a broken hip, following which pneumonia set in. she passed away 14 December 1940.

Jens Jensen was born 3 November 1858 in Kalvahave, Præstø, Denmark. The parents joined the L.D.S. church in Denmark in 1862 and started for Utah the following year. Jens' mother died on the voyage after the birth of a child. The rest of the family reached Salt Lake City 12 September 1863, and the family came to Mendon that same fall. following the death of the father in 1868, the children Christina and Jens went to live with Ole C. and Mary Sonne. From that time until he was twenty, Jens stayed with them, assisting with the farm work. In 1882 he went to Deer Lodge, Montana to work grading railroad track. On returning, he started for the Southern States in February 1883 to fill a mission and spent thirty months in the mission field.

After his marriage to Mary, Jens spent his time farming. In civic affairs he served four years a mayor of Mendon and several terms in the town council. He served as a school trustee for several terms and as Justice of the Peace for ten years. He passed away 16 November 1941 in Rexburg, Idaho, while visiting his daughter. Burial was in the Mendon Cemetery.