Soren Wilson, oldest son of Willads and Marin (Kristen) Sorensen, was born October 28, 1816, probably near Saltum, Denmark.   He married Anna Margaret Jensen on November 9, 1845.   She was born October 1, 1820.   According to the earliest records we have found, in Denmark, his name was Soren Willadsen or Villadsen and his wife's name was Ane Margrethe Jensdatter.

After their marriage they were converted to the Morman religion in Denmark and decided to come to America in 1857, where they expected to find better living conditions and they could be with those of the Morman faith near Nauvoo, Illinois.

Since they were a rather poor family, they decided to leave the two older daughters with their grandparents in Denmark for a time.   The girls were Elsie, 10 years old and Mary, 7 years old.

The girls, feeling pretty badly about this, were in the garden talking about it when a man came by and handed them a $20.00 dollar gold piece and that is how they got to come to America.

Four other very small children, Christian, Joseph and twins, Elizabeth and Marie, came with them but the three younger ones died in 1858 and 1859.   We do not know why.

On their way over they decided to change their names to Soren and Anna Margaret (Jensen) Wilson.   They came to New Orleans, LA and then came up the Mississippi River to Nauvoo, IL.   When they arrived they found that Joseph and Hyrum Smith had been killed and the church split.   They lived for a time near Burlington, IA in a two room house, one floor of which was occupied by another family.   Here they lived until Soren could get a pair of oxen and a wagon to go to Utah where Brigham Young had taken the Mormans from Nauvoo IL.

When they got to Council Bluffs, IA, one wagon wheel gave out and one ox died.   They stayed there one winter.   Grandma Anna Margaret wanted to stay and they could have taken up a claim inside present Omaha, but he wanted to go on to Utah where they arrived in 1860.

Four children, Eliza Marie (Aunt Elsie), Mary, Christian, and Anna, who was born in 1858 while they lived in Burlington, made the trip to Utah with them.   Five other children had been born and died before 1860.

When they reached Utah they rented a farm.   Not long after this they decided that wrong teachings had entered into the church out there.   Some of the leaders wanted Grandpa Soren Wilson to take additional wives and also Aunt Mary to become an additional wife to one of the elders.   Soren did not believe in polygamy and wanted no part of it for his family, so they decided to leave as soon as they could.   This was not easy to do as the Morman elders tried to prevent people leaving after they were once established.

Soren rented a farm and under the disguise of moving there, he loaded up his belongings and his family and started out.   When they reached the place where they were to move to, instead of stopping there, they kept right on going until they got to California where they lived for a while.

Their Daughter, Eva, was born while they were in Utah in 1861.   After they had been in California a while they decided to go back to Burlington, IA.   They boarded a ship which took them around the south end of South America (Cape Horn) because the Panama Canal was not yet built between the two continents and the land there was swampy and infested with mosquitoes bearing malaria and yellow fever.   Again they came up the Mississippi River -- this time to Burlington, IA where they settled.   They now had 6 children as Sarah had been born in California in 1864.

They homesteaded a small farm west of Burlington, where they kept adding small amounts of acres until they had 40 acres.   Here is where the family was raised. Elsie died near Burlington, in 1914.   Mary and her family moved to Lamoni, IA and she died in 1939.   Christian and his family also moved to Lamoni and he died there in 1937.

After their parents' death in 1898, the daughters, Anna and Sarah, who never married, lived on the home place until their deaths.   Anna died in 1939 and Sarah died in 1941.   Eva also died in 1939 at Ft. Madison, IA.   The farm is now a part of the Burlington Ordinance Plant land.   The cemetery where Soren, Anna Margaret, Anna, Sarah, and their sister Eva Thomas, are buried is Shiloh cemetery not far from the old home place west of Burlington.   It is located within the Ordinance Plant property.

The travels of this family seems almost more than they could bear.   To travel so many miles by ship and covered wagon with several children seems almost impossible.   They started out in 1857 from Copenhagen, Denmark, by ship to America.   From 1860 to 1865, they were traveling by covered wagon across the United States, much of which was very mountainous; then by ship again from California around South America, and back to Burlington, IA.   All of this traveling took place in a period of eight years.

--A great-grand-daughter,
Ada May (Thomas) Griffith