Helena Pedersdatter Sandersen

Biography

Helena “Lena” Pedersdatter Sandersen was born on the island of Møn in Danmark March 18, 1808. She was born to a well-to-do family and married a local young man, Peder Mortensen, in 1827. For the better part of 30 years they lived a peaceful, simple life in the Danish countryside where they owned their own farm and had nine children, eight of whom lived through childhood. In 1855 her son Morton, who was studying to be a Lutheran pastor, heard word of several Mormon missionaries in the area. He went to confront them, but instead of confounding them was overwhelmed by the truthfulness of their message. He brought the Gospel back to his family and all, including Lena, were baptized that year. Shortly thereafter and under intense persecution, they heeded the call to gather to Zion: while her eldest son stayed to serve a mission, they sold their comfortable farmstead and moved first to Copenhagen, where they met with a large group of Danish saints, then to England, where they boarded the ship Thornton to America. Upon arriving in Iowa City, the family originally planned to purchase a wagon and oxen for the journey, however, they were asked to instead travel by handcart and share their excess so others could make the journey, and in return promised the whole family would make the trip safely. Her travel company, the Willie Handcart Company, would become infamous for its enormous hardships. Lena’s husband was crippled from a young age and could only walk with crutches, so it fell to Lena and her 19-year-old son to pull the handcarts. For months they endured hunger and grueling cold, nearly one in six people in the company perished, and Lena buried many members of the company in the handmade sheets she had woven in Denmark. The family finally arrived in Salt Lake City in November, and while they had endured immense hardship not one of them had been lost.

Only a few weeks later, they were called nearly 250 miles south to settle what would come to be known as Parowan, Utah. Among the prominent mountains and vibrant red rocks, Lena lived in stark contrast to the rolling hills and luscious green fields they had long known, but she and her family made a life for themselves all the same. When she passed, her family kept the last of her Danish sheets that traveled across the plains, and it now resides in a local museum commemorating the bravery of her and many faithful saints like her who sacrificed everything for their God.