Hilma Josephine Pålsdotter

Biography

Hilma Josephine Pålsdotter was born on April 14, 1871 in Malmöhus, Sweden. She was the second daughter of Johanna Christina Pålsdotter and Jim Jensen. Hilma’s parents joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while she was a child. Jim was eager to move to Utah after joining the church, so they sold off many of their possessions to pay for Jim’s passage, with the plan that he would save money and send for Johanna and the children later. Johanna never heard from Jim again. Johanna began to work hard so that she could pay for her family’s passage herself. Then, through a miracle, a generous man in Bear Lake, Idaho, named Phineas Wolcott Cook, donated money to Johanna to pay for her family’s passage to Utah.

Hilma traveled to Utah from Norway with her mother and sister in 1878 when she was five years old. Upon arrival in Utah, Hilma’s mother married her benefactor, Phineas Wolcott Cook, who also paid for Hilma’s grandmother to move to Utah. It is under Phineas’ roof that Hilma grew up. In 1888, Hilma married Henry L.B. Kinports, with whom she had one son. The marriage did not last and Hilma later remarried. She married Thomas G. Spencer on June 30, 1893 in Afton, Wyoming. Hilma died on March 25, 1894 in Weiser, Idaho, after giving birth to her second child, who also died. After her death, her mother took in her son from her previous marriage.