History of METTE CHRISTINA ERICKSEN (Second wife of Jens Peter
Benson)
by grand-daughter - Mattie Jenkins Griffin, 2 February 1955

Grama Benson left Denmark when she was a young lady, and brought her
little sister along with her. It runs in my mind her sister was nine


years old, and a girl friend, Mrs. Lane. I don't know her maiden
name. They came with ox-team. There was a man and woman that they
came with. His wife was an invalid and he let them ride part time,
if they would help take care of his wife. And when they got part way


here, her sister took sick with cholera and died. They had to dig a
grave on the prairie and burry her. They gathered sticks and made a
fire on top of the grave so the wolves wouldn't come and dig her up.
One day Grama and Sister Lane went ahead of their company and they
got lost from them. They went up over a mountain. It was raining
and their skirts froze. They could hear the wolves and they could
see lights way down in the valley. When they run, their skirts would


rattle and they thought it was someone after them. It was late in
the evening when they got to the village. It was at a blacksmith's
place. The poeple took them in and gave them some dry clothes and
something to eat and told them to stay there. It was very hard to
make them understand, as they spoke in a different language, but they


made them understand that their company would come by there. It was
a day and a half before they came, but the people were nice to them.


They rejoined their company and came to Salt Lake City.
When they got there, the man that they came with was going to make
them marry him so they went to Brigham Young and told him how it was,


and he told them they did not have to marry him.
Then Grama got a job working for Truman Angles in Salt Lake City and,


I think, she worked there until she married Grampa. Truman Angles
was quite well to do and after Grandma was married they would give
her food that they had left.
They must have moved to Salt Lake City when Grandpa worked on the
tabernacle. Then they moved to Lehi, and later to Clarkston and then


to Newton.
I think Grama had nine children. Aunt Mary, Mother (Martha), Sarah,
Peter, Annie, John, Elizabeth, Lazine, and Elmira who was born in
Newton. (Also a child Tenus, born 28 March 1876, and died that same
day.)

Transcribed by Annette Hancey Lunceford