John Frederick and Catherine Marie Carlson
Information comes from Utahna Johnson Anthony in the History of Bear Lake Pioneers and has been condensed.
John Frederick Carlson, the son of Carl Frederick Severn and Anna Marie Christensen, was born 9 May 1817 in Hasmark, Denmark. He married Catherine Marie Anderson, on 10 Nov 1849. She was a widow with five children. They joined the LDS Church 2 June 1859 and soon after began making preparations to go to America. Catherine's grown children did not come with them and they said from Copenhagen 2 May 1860 on the S S Pauline to England. On 11 May they sailed from Liverpool on the ship William Tapscott arriving in New York in June.
On 1 July 1860 they arrived in Florence Nebraska and finally arrived in Salt Lake 24 Sep. John and Catherine loved to Logan where they built a home near the later Logan Temple. In 1863 John was called by President Brigham Young to help settle the Bear Lake Valley. They chopped their way through Emigration Canyon building a road as they went and arrived in Paris 2 Nov 1863. They lied in a dugout that first winter and the next spring they were sent to Ovid. Here again they lived in a dugout until John was able to build a home. Here John met the young widow Martha and they were sealed in the Endowment House in 1871.
Child of John Frederick Carlson and Catherine Marie Anderson
1. Anna Marie Carlson b&d 1850 in Norup Denmark
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Children of John Frederick Carlson and Martha Sorine Isaksen
1. Charles Frederick Carlson b-17 Sep 1872
2. Catherine Marie Carlson b-4 May 1874; d-9 Apr 1965 in Montpelier
John died 25 July 1875 and was buried in the Ovid Cemetery. Martha and Catherine were again left widows. They continued to live in the same house helping each other. They were both weavers and had sheep they sheared, washed, picked, corded, dyed and spun the wool and then wove it into yard good and carpets. Martha also served as a midwife for many years. On 24 July 1874 Martha was set apart as the Relief Society President, a position she held for 24 years. Catherine died 15 Aug 1898 and was buried in the Ovid Cemetery, and six years later Martha left Ovid to live with her son Charles and family in LaGrand Oregon, where she died 6 July 1907. She was buried in the Ovid Cemetery.