Karen Maria Mauritzdatter

Biography

Karen Marie was born with dark brown hair and blue eyes. Her dad died at sea when she was young and then her mother remarried. As a teenager she was taught the gospel by Erastus Snow and emigrated to the US in 1852 with her family. Relatives were bitter towards Karen Marie and her family who converted and persecuted them. They had a difficult time crossing the sea with bad sea biscuits and stale water. Then her step father passed away along the way as well. The rest of Karen Maire’s family travelled with a hand-cart company and she pulled the cart with her mother. She never complained along the way despite the difficulty of blizzards, little to no food, and potential torture from some Indians who were hostile. They arrived in the Utah valley in September of 1853 and a man named Joseph Stewart Allen took them in, where they worked for food. Karen ended up marrying him soon after as a plural wife. They went on to have eight children together. In 1879 they did temple work for as many of her ancestors as possible, going back to 1700. Karen Marie and Joseph moved to Mount Carmel and were some of the first to join Orderville. When ladies who were widows or single arrived in Orderville, Karen Marie took them in and they became lifelong friends. Karen Marie was a very hard worker and said “I would rather wear out than to rust out.” She would knit, weave, garden, make soap, and help her husband distribute the butter they made. She would shear doggie lambs herself and say she was as good and fast as any man. Often the men seemed to forget to chop wood, so one time she put dinner out on the table raw and uncooked. They never forgot after that. She became very ill the last six years of her life and passed away in 1884 at 49 years old. Her closest friend Mary Benton died a few months after and they were buried side by side.