Ferdinand Christen Oliver Fredrickson

This is a condensed version of the History of Ferdinand Fredrickson and Nielsine Marie Larsen written by their daughter, Sena Fredrickson Simpson, of the Daughters of Pioneers, Lone Rock Camp.  She said that most of the information was taken from the records of Lars Fredrickson [who is her brother].

"My father, Ferdinand Fredrickson, was born June 9, 1830. His mother was left a widow with four boys.  My father, being the oldest, was only seven years old.  The boys stayed with their grandparents on their mother's side while she went to learn nursing.

"Father was interested in blacksmith work and spent all his spare time in the farm work-shop.  When he was [18], he had to go into the army.  He was in the Cavalry, and was an expert swordsman.  His opponents said that his wrist was quicker than the eye, and they could never break through his guard.

"After his release from the army, he went to work as a general repairman and blacksmith on a large farm called Borlum Closter (a monastery).  He worked there until December 26, 1855, when he married my mother, Neilsine Marie Larsen.

"In 1863, a Mormon Missionary, Nels Lee, from Brigham City, came to their home and converted Father and Mother to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and baptized them.  The were ostracized and ridiculed by all his relatives and friends.  The people called him the 'Holy Blacksmith', and if he hadn't had a non-mormon partner, he would not have had any work.

"In 1864, they sold the shop and divided the money.  Father bid goodby to Mother and the two boys and started for America on April 28, 1864.  He sailed from Liverpool, England in a sailing vessel, the Monarch of the Sea.  There were 975 emigrants on board.  They were on the ocean for thirty-six days and arrived at New York on June 3.  They then went by rail to Atchison, Missouri, where freight teams were loaded to cross the plains.  Father was hired to drive a four yoke ox team to Salt Lake City in the Sharp Spencer Company.  The first captain was Sharp and he died on the Plains.  Spencer took his place on the wagon train.  There were 80 wagons belonging to the Salt Lake merchants.  Just imagine how hard it was for Father, never having driven an ox team, but he was quick to learn.  They arrived in Salt Lake City, October 1, 1864.  As soon as Father got his pay for driving the ox teams, he walked to Logan, Utah- one hundred miles- and went to work for Cyrus Card, where he did farm work, canyon, work, and fed stock for one year.  It was certainly hard.  He couldn't understand the language, but again he was quick to learn.  In that year, he earned one yoke of oxen and a cow; also an old wagon with some provisions.

[His wife and two boys came a year later.  They stayed with her parents during that time.]

"On the morning of November 9 [1865, Neilsine and their boys arrived in Salt Lake City].  They arrived in the city about noon, where Father met them with his oxen and the old wagon- a first class outfit to them.  They were happy now that they could ride the rest of the way to Logan.

[The first winter they lived in a dugout Ferdinand dug.] "The dugout had an open fire place in the side used for heating and cooking in the winter. 

[They moved from Logan to Hyde Park to Weston and back again].

"Father played the violin.  He never had any lessons but if he heard a tune he could go home and play it on the violin.  He was Weston's first violinist, and played at all the dances for a great many years.  Later when they had better musicians, he played at all the dances in Cedarville, North Cedarville and Silver Star until he became too old to go out at night.

"1871 was another unsuccessful year [for crops]. The crickets and grasshoppers were [terribe].  Father and Mr. Gill got their heads together and invented and built a machine with a pair of rollers in one end and a propeller in the other.  They put it in the ditch with the rollers up stream, the lower roller half submerged in the water and driven by the water wheel in the lower end.  When the crickets jumped into the ditch, they would float down and catch hold of the lower roller.  They went through so fast that the water below was as brown as tobacco juice.  There was just enough wheat saved for food stuff.  

"In 1872 the crickets and grasshoppers took all the crop, so nearly everyone had to move away to other settlements to work in order to get wheat for flour, as well as seed for the next year.  Father moved to Hyde Park, and put up his shop.

"Father had signed a note with a Salt Lake merchant, Thomas Taylor, in 1865, for the emigration across the plains for Mother and the two boys.  The note was for $200 with Cyrus W. Card of Logan as surety.  This winter of 1875, he sent a collector, Mr. Winberg, to Mr. Card and wanted him to pay the note and interest.  Mr. Card took the collector with him to Hyde Park to see what Father could do.  Father and Mr. Card talked it over and Father, rather than let Mr. Card pay the note, decided to let the collector have all his live stock.  It took the team, a yoke of oxen, and the wagon, two cows, two yearlings and all his sheep.  That left Father with one cow, which was all the stock he had left, and no team.  Toward spring, when he wanted to move back to Weston, Father had to write to three of his friends to come with their teams and haul them back to Weston."

Eight children were born to Ferdinand and Neilsine.

He passed away on June 12, 1908, in Weston, Franklin County, Idaho, at the age of 78 years and is buried in the Weston cemetery. -Dari Peterson Thacker (3rd great grand-daughter).