Larsene Larsen Munk ~ Index
Larsene Larsen was the second daughter of Maren Hansen and Magnus Larsen. She was born 20 November 1847 at Rustufti, Sjeton, Præstø, Denmark. She had a life of rich and varied experiences which helped to develop her useful and lovely character. Her father, Magnus Larsen, was born 15 October1817, at Langoie, Præstø, Denmark. His father, Lars Magnusen, a shoemaker by trade, was born in Sweden. (The date and place of birth are not known.) His mother, Ane Kirstine Hansen, has an extensive genealogy record.
Larsene's mother (Maren Hansen) was born 8 August 1824 at Kallenhave, Præstø Denmark and she died 5 May 1906, in Mendon, Utah. Her parents were Hans Andersen and Ane Marie Jensen. She had two sisters and a brother. The latter ran away to sea when he was sixteen years old and was never heard from again. Maren came from a wealthy family which made it doubly hard for the refined mother to endure the hardships of the long pioneer trek to Utah.
Magnus Larsen, his wife, and all their children were baptized in Denmark, 2 August 1859 and they left then for America in July 1861 (?). The father had worked fourteen years for a nobleman named Adams, as a butler and coachman. He was a splendid butler and a very efficient coachman. He also became skilled in the weaver's trade which he learned from his brother and practiced after he came to Utah. His daughter, Sene, also learned the art of weaving from her father and later assisted him in his work. He had a jolly congenial disposition and was always kind and gentle with his family. He died at Mendon, Utah, 23 July 1894, and was buried there. No picture of him has ever been located and it is said he never had one taken.
While they lived in Denmark, this couple had nine children born to them. They were as follows:
- Mary born 1843 died 1926. (Married to Apostle Ezra T. Benson, seventh wife and then later to Pete Peterson, of Petersboro.)
- Larsene 1847-1931. (Married to Hans J. Munk, second wife.)
- Ane Kirsten 1850-1906. (Married to Hans Jensen.)
- Sophia 1853-1939. (Married to Andrew Andersen, second wife.)
- Fredrick 1856-1922.
- Bolette 1858-1858. (Died when one month old.)
- Lars 1859-1861.
- Amalie (twin) #1 1861-1862. (Died night before family left for America; body left for friends to bury.)
- Bolette (twin) #2 1861-1862. (Died after a few weeks at sea.)
The Larsen's had passage on a German sailing boat called the Athena. It required more than nine weeks to cross the ocean. The food was very poor (beans with mud). The water was stringy and foul, the boat was crowded and unsanitary. Nearly all the children under nine years of age died and were buried at sea (Amalie was one of these). No port of entry is mentioned but the family went down the Mississippi River to Florence (Omaha) Nebraska on a steam boat which also was crowded and dirty. They found good bread and molasses when they got to Utah many weeks later. The journey was extra trying and slow. Church teams hauled their provisions, but the family had to walk most of the way. This was especially trying to Sene since she had whopping cough. The hardships of the long journey, the heat, the dust storms, the poor food were almost more than the refined mother could endure. The father remained pleasant and uncomplaining all the way.
In the month of October 1862, the family arrived at Brigham City where Magnus Larsen got work on a threshing machine. They stayed in Brigham City about one year and then moved to Mendon, Cache County, Utah, where they established a comfortable home and lived the remaining years of their lives. Some time later, through some dishonest acts of some of their neighbors and through disagreement with some of their church leaders and community leaders they became discouraged and ceased all activity in the church. Three of the daughters Mary, Sene and Sophia married in polygamy. The rest of the family never made contacts with the church. They all lived honest, respectable lives.
Life Sketch
Hans J. Munk (one of the teamsters who helped to bring the Larsen family to Cache Valley) hired Sene to work in his home in Logan to help his wife Petri Nele with her two children. Two year later when she was sixteen years old she became his second wife. She was a warm hearted, charitable soul, jolly, friendly, generous to a fault and always active and progressive. Her home and personal appearance were immaculate. She was ambitious and hard working, a splendid manager. In her spare time she became an artist at darning, knitting, crocheting, quilting and netting. She was especially fond of reading and would take time out to read a Danish newspaper to a blind neighbor (Sister Fredrickson). She could also read and speak English very well and acquired a remarkable vocabulary. However, she always preferred to read and write and pray in her native tongue (Danish). She learned to spin and weave when she was a little girl.
When she was rearing her family she had her own spinning wheel and wool cards. Later the grandchildren played with them when she no longer had use for them. The upstairs in the grainery back of the house made an ideal playhouse for all the children where they could play at spinning. She carded bats when she was over eighty years old. The children loved to hear her tell of her childhood in Denmark. She would ride in a boat with her cousin from one island to another when he carried the mail. They could pick wild strawberries in the woods and climb a hill near their home where tourists came each spring to view the country side. They walked six English miles to and from school each day. Sene was an excellent manager, an agreeable, wise and understanding companion, an active, thrifty and economical housekeeper and a staunch Latter-day Saint. Although she was married at the early age of sixteen, she did not have her first child until she as twenty-two years old. Then she had a family of four boys and four girls. The youngest child died when he was two month old.
They were:
Emma (married Charles Wilkes, lived in Star Valley, Wyoming); Rosene (married Wilbur Cranney, lived in Star Valley, Wyoming and Oakley, Idaho); Charlotte (married Joseph Carlson, lived in Logan Utah and at Blue Creek, Utah); Joseph (married Janet Poole, English convert, later to Orilla Nye); Albert (married Pearl Price, later Leone Roundy Allen, lived in Benson, Utah); Elizabeth (married Ed Hancey, died soon after marriage); Ollie (married Viva Cranney lived in Howell, Utah served three missions).
Sene provided a clean, comfortable home for her husband and children and assisted in the care of the other two wives families. Several of her grandchildren made their home with her while they were attending school. Also her sons and their wives lived with her at various times. Sene and Kirstin (Hans third wife) were very different in personality. There must have been many unavoidable conflicts and differences in personality but they learned to make the necessary adjustments and lived in dignity and peace. Sene was such an independent, useful, helpful person, always doing things for others, for her neighbors, her married children, her grandchildren, and never asking or accepting help for herself.
In her last years when it was not safe for her to be alone in her own home, she tried sincerely to adjust to each of the homes where she stayed, She loved to sing and dance even when she was past eighty years old she would play the record player and whirl around by herself and sometimes with her son in law, Joseph Carlson at whose home she stayed a great deal. She loved to entertain and was an expert cook, very hospitable and could read in her old age without glasses. She died at her home in Logan April 8th, 1951 at the age of 84, fourteen years after her husbands death and five years after Kirsten's death. Kirsten was 83 and Hans was 86.