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By Janice C. Tenney
Submitted by Darrell K. Loosle
John Hansen Dahle had many new experiences during
his life which his parents probably never imagined would come to him. He
converted to a new religion, suffered persecution, emigrated from Norway, sailed
to America, walked across the plains with a wagon train company, became a dairy
farmer, returned to Norway to preach the gospel, served in his Utah community,
and fathered fourteen children. Throughout his lifetime he was honest and
upright as he strove to do what was right.
On November 16, 1837, on the family farm in Kvinnherad, Hordaland County,
Norway, John was born the fifth child and third son of Hans Hansen and Anna
Johansen Dahle. The family surname of ‘Dahle’ comes from the name of the farm,
Lille-Dale,* which means ‘little valley’. The farm is near the village of Olve
on the southwest coast of Norway.
In a Norwegian farmer’s family, according to Norwegian traditions and laws, the
eldest son would be entitled to the family farm, a privilege given to him in
order that the farms would not be broken up into smaller and smaller acreage as
the generations passed. Other sons had to find another way to earn their
livelihood. John’s father owned a fishing boat, the Hertha, which resulted in
his younger sons becoming fishermen.
While on their boat the Dahle brothers first became acquainted with the
missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Family stories
told through the generations of the Dahle brothers’ conversion to that church
agree in some main points. The three brothers, Johannes, John, and Helge, were
returning to Norway on their fishing boat, and although their vessel was not a
passenger ship, they allowed some Mormon missionaries to travel with them. The
missionaries began teaching any on board who would listen, and Johannes attended
their meetings, eventually accepting the gospel. His younger brothers thought he
was crazy, and, as family tradition notes, threatened to throw him overboard if
he joined the Mormons. But within months both the younger brothers were
converted.
Seven years after missionaries first entered Norway in the fall of 1851 Ole E.
Orstad performed John’s baptism in 1858, nearly six months after his older
brother Johannes had been baptized. Three days later J. Olsen confirmed John a
member of the LDS Church. During the next year, while John worked as a mate on
the family fishing boat, it docked in Stavanger, a prominent city located on a
peninsula on Norway’s uneven southwest coast. It was there he met Elder C. S.
Winge* who ordained him an Elder and then called him to be his missionary
companion. Both Elders were young—Elder Winge, 23, and John, 21—when John
accepted the call for this ‘home mission’ in Norway.
In former days while performing their missionary labors in Norway, young Elders
were exposed to terrible persecution and were often imprisoned. Yet they
continued to travel throughout the country preaching the gospel without purse or
script. Many of the missionaries’ clothes became worn as they served, and most
days they did not know where they would sleep when night came.
Elder Winge and Elder Dahle first traveled to Sandmor, which lies between Bergen
and Trondheim, where they opened a new missionary field, teaching the gospel on
Ageroen, one of the many islands along Norway’s irregular coastline. Here,
finding people willing to listen to them, holding a number of meetings, and
baptizing a few, they felt some success. Of course, the parish priest was
greatly disturbed with the missionaries teaching his flock and threatened to
have the missionaries punished. At that point Elder Winge set apart Elder Dahle
to preside over the few Saints they had baptized on the island, and he set out
to return to the branch at Stavanger.
Elder Winge left the island and made his way to Molde on the mainland where he
waited for a steamship to take him to Stavanger. Unfortunately during this time,
he was arrested in Molde and put in jail. To his astonishment, he found Elder
Dahle also in jail. He, too, had been arrested on the island where they had been
preaching and was taken to the jail at Molde. Even though Elder Dahle was ill
from hunger, he warmly embraced his former companion. The two missionaries
lingering in the jail experienced depression but were lifted with thoughts of
their innocence along with the feeling that they were "worthy to suffer for the
sake of the name of Jesus."
Several days later court hearings were held for them to determine the evidence
against the missionaries. These hearings were under the direction of a county
judge and two jurymen, all of whom were "dressed in full uniform." John’s
hearing was first and apparently went without incident. However, during Elder
Winge’s hearing a "a sharp quarrel ensued" between him and one of the jurymen,
which the judge had to break up, ending the first hearing. Two days later the
prisoners were transported to another venue where a second hearing was
scheduled. However, no witnesses were present because of storms. That resulted
in a third hearing being planned. At this final hearing the court attempted to
show that the missionaries had spoken scornfully of the Lutheran teachings, but
none of the sixteen witnesses could remember exactly the words Elder Winge had
used. Elder Winge seemed to have no fear at the hearing, as he bore a strong
testimony in loud tones "that Mormonism is the truth."
After the last hearing the two elders were returned to their foul, lice-laden
cells in the dark prison where, according to Elder Winge, they remained for
several more weeks before the sentences were pronounced. Because the elders had
administered the sacrament to the converts, both men were sentenced to remain in
jail for several days on a diet of only "three small pieces of poor bread and
one crock of water each day." The length of time John was on that dreadful diet
was later told in family stories to have lasted for ten days. Upon his release
it took two men to help him from the jail. John returned to Ageroen to
recuperate from his prison ordeal, while his companion remained in jail for a
few more days.
John’s missionary travels throughout the rest of his mission time in 1859-61
took him from Stavanger south of his home area near Bergen east across Norway to
Christiania (Oslo) and north to Trondheim. It was in Trondheim that he met and
baptized the Ingmann girls, Laura, nearly sixteen, and Janetta, fourteen.
During this time Latter-day Saints suffered a continuing persecution in Norway,
causing many LDS Church members to immigrate to the United States. In the year
after his release as a missionary, John H. Dahle and his mother, Anna (Ane)
Johannesen Dahle, left Norway for their eventual destination of Zion in Utah.
Months before the emigration of these members from Scandinavia on April 18,
1862, plans were underway for a smooth departure.
Most of those emigrating from the small church units, also called conferences,
in Denmark, Sweden and Norway met in Copenhagen. From there they went on a
steamer to Kiel, a port on the northern coast of Germany. This was followed by a
train ride south to Altona which was a major railroad station on the north side
of the Elbe River west of Hamburg, Germany. Upon arriving at the Elbe, church
leaders began immediately to read the names of the travelers and assign them to
board the Electric or the Athenia, which were anchored in the Elbe awaiting
their passengers. John, his mother, brothers, their cousin, Marthe K.
Helgesdatter, (Martha Karena Helgesen) and one of the teenagers, Janetta
Ingmann, whom John had baptized in Trondheim, sailed for America from Hamburg on
the ship Electric with a total of 335 Scandinavian Saints among the 400 LDS on
board.
The Electric. a medium clipper ship, served mainly the trans-Atlantic trade, and
by 1862 it was considered one of "the best ships" to bring LDS immigrants to
America. The others were the Humbolt, Athenia, and Franklin. The ship’s Master
at the time the Dahles sailed was H. C. Johannsen, 1859-1863. Interestingly, the
Dahle brothers reverted to their patronymic surname of Hansen when they
disembarked in New York.
On April 18 "the Electric sailed down the Elbe to Gluckstadt Roads," where it
cast anchor near the ship Athenia, which was carrying a group of 486 Saints.
Four days later the Electric lifted anchor and sailed to an area off the coast
of Hanover, Germany, where they again waited, this time for a more favorable
wind. During the wait Scandinavian mission president, John Van Cott, came aboard
to assist the ecclesiastical supervisor of the Electric, Elder Soren
Christofferson, in organizing the LDS members into nine districts of twenty-five
to forty persons each. With a steady wind arising, the Electric left for America
on April 25 when it finally sailed out into the cold winds of the open North
Sea.
During the voyage of nearly seven weeks, a number of LDS immigrants died
including several children. One child was born, and one couple was married.
"Meetings were held on board during the voyage, and…harmony existed among the
emigrants during the entire journey. The ship arrived safely in New York and the
emigrants landed at Castle Garden on Friday, June 5, 1862." The following day
the Athenia also arrived at Castle Garden, and the two groups of immigrating
members were reunited. While official arrival of the Electric in New York harbor
was June 5, the travelers did not disembark at Castle Garden until the next day
due to a health inspection.
Two days after disembarking in America the emigration log of the Saints records:
"In the evening of June 8, John Hanson sic Dahle and Tannete Bartine Ingeman
[sic]…were married by Elder Soren Christofferson." The next day, June 9, the
Dahles and the immigrants from both ships left New York by train for Florence,
Nebraska, where they arrived ten days later.
After several weeks of preparation for their westward trek, John and Joneta
[sic], whose names were recorded on the Joseph Horne Company roster using John’s
patronymic surname of Hansen, departed, according to various records, between
July 14 and July 29, 1862. This company was a ‘down-and-back’ wagon train
consisting of more than 50 wagons and 570 people, most of whom, including John
and Janetta, walked the entire distance because the wagons were full of supplies
for the growing communities in Utah.
Their experiences on the plains were similar to many other pioneer companies.
However, one thing in their favor was that their leader, Captain Horne, had
knowledge and skill from his previous crossing of the plains. He consistently
had his group travel ten to twenty miles each day, and they moved forward "day
by day like clockwork." It appeared he just seemed to know where to drive and
where to stop at the end of each day’s travels in order to have sufficient feed
and water for the stock. He also was adept at spacing his train from the wagon
trains that were before and after him.
As they walked the distance each day, the travelers gathered buffalo chips,
which were used at the end of the day as fuel for cooking their evening meals.
After the evening chores were completed, the pioneers often ended the day with a
dance. One pioneer with the Horne Company summarized their trip by writing that
they "had a very pleasant journey with no severe storms, no trouble to speak
of,…no accidents, and [no Indian problems]." Their provisions were sufficient
until the final week of the journey when they were down to just some flour
without even any salt to flavor it. Various groups of the Joseph Horne Company
arrived in the Salt Lake Valley from September 29 to the first week in October
in 1862, over five months after leaving Norway. The Deseret News reported their
plains trek was "a very prosperous journey [with] little sickness and no serious
accidents."
One person later noted that on the trek John carried "all his belongings under
his arm." However, the Dahles appeared to have had sufficient funds to make the
trip without a need to borrow. Following their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley,
John and Janetta traveled north to Sessions (Bountiful), Utah, and by November
were in Logan, Cache County, Utah. Early settlers had first arrived in that area
in 1855, and by 1859 they had organized a city. With their arrival in Logan in
1862, John and Janetta settled down to become stalwart citizens of the budding
community.
During this early period of settlement before the advent of the transcontinental
railroad, John joined with other men to bring LDS pioneer wagon trains with
supplies and immigrants across the plains, just as he had been helped on his
initial trek into the valley.
Although they lived in Logan at 144 East 3rd North, just east of the Fourth Ward
chapel for the remainder of their lives, John also homesteaded acreage in
Clarkston in northern Cache County about 20 miles from Logan. There he dry
farmed and operated a dairy ranch. In addition to the milk produced, they made
butter and cheese, which they sold to the stores in the communities.
Not living on their ranch in Clarkston, which was roughly three or five miles
north of Clarkston, John relied heavily on the employment resources derived from
the children of his brother, Johannes, who lived in Clarkston, together with
their friends, and his sons and daughters in the summers. There were about
thirty head of cows on the ranch, all needing to be milked twice a day. Some of
the young workers walked approximately three or more miles from their homes in
Clarkston twice a day to milk the cows. One fourteen-year-old niece was grateful
for the $2.50 she received each week for milking cows twice a day, seven days a
week.
Other jobs at the ranch included "setting the milk, allowing the cream to rise,
and churning butter." The milk was also used to make cheese. Skills learned by
the youth while working at the dairy, such as making and molding butter, making
and wrapping blocks of cheese, and the general care of the animals and ranch,
greatly aided them when they married and had places of their own. More than one
young person met his or her future mate while working at John’s Clarkston dairy,
milking cows or making cheese.
John and Janetta’s first child, John Ephraim, was born in Logan in 1863, and
about every two years thereafter a child was born to them until the birth of the
fourteenth child in 1891. Following John E. the children, in order of birth,
were Joseph, Hyrum, Hans Garrett, Selma (Salma), Anna Janette, Willard Richard,
Albert Henry, Norman Edward, Fredrick Arthur, Ernest Edwin, Clarence, George
Alfred, and Roy Leland. All lived to adulthood except Clarence, who died in
infancy.
One of John’s sons recalled that his father was good to his children and would
often join the boys playing their games in the yard. John set certain standards
for his children and expected them to be followed. He was a religious man "since
it was for religion that he came to Utah." They held family prayers morning and
night, and each child took a turn saying the blessing on the food at mealtimes.
Family members were expected to attend all church meetings dressed in their
Sunday best, wearing their shined pair of ‘Sunday shoes’, which were saved just
for church meetings. John felt Sunday was to be a day of rest and to read the
scriptures and other good books. Consequently, the boys were not allowed to play
games on the Sabbath, not even marbles. John taught his sons to pay their
tithing as illustrated by one son’s story about his flock of chickens. "Each
year his father would select the choice ones for tithing." At that time tithing
was paid ‘in kind.’
John’s sons were taught to work and from an early age were involved with such
farm chores as herding, feeding, watering, and milking cows. They also cared for
flocks of sheep and chickens. Instead of going on to high school, the older boys
left home as teenagers to work at various enterprises which included herding and
milking cows at the church dairy, running a horse drawn wagon transportation
service for men working on the Logan Temple, washing and caring for horses and
buggies, hauling wood for the temple furnace, working for the mining companies
in Montana, working for farmers in southern Idaho, and herding 700 head of
cattle. Often they returned home for the winter, but then were away again
working during the "five months of summer."
The value of further education for John’s sons seemed to grow the longer the
family was in Utah. The establishment of the Utah State Agricultural College in
1888 in Logan provided his younger sons with greater opportunity for more
advanced education. Other reasons may also have contributed. John had greater
success with his financial endeavors and less need for his boys to help provide
for the family, more of his children had married and were on their own, and
concern for education had increased in the community.
John reaffirmed his commitment to his new religion by being rebaptized and
reconfirmed in Logan on October 29, 1875. This commitment to his faith was
apparent when at age 42, he accepted a mission call. He left his family again,
this time for an extended period with his wife expecting their ninth child, to
preach the gospel in Norway.
Arriving in Liverpool in mid May of 1880, John and the twelve missionaries with
whom he had traveled disembarked from the S. S. Nevada. At that point they
separated for the areas where they had been assigned. Nine were to serve in
Great Britain, one in Holland, and John and two others in the Scandinavian
countries. The report in the Millennial Star of their arrival indicated they had
had "a somewhat stormy passage, but reached [Liverpool] in good health and
spirits."
After serving fifteen months on this second mission in Norway, which notably
lacked the intense persecution he had endured on his first mission, John began
his homeward trip to Utah in the early fall of 1881. He sailed from Copenhagen
with six other returning missionaries who had been serving in the Scandinavian
countries. There they joined with 270 emigrating LDS members on the steamer
Pacific. Three days later they arrived in Hull, England, and then proceeded by
train to Liverpool where they met with other church members emigrating from
Germany, Switzerland, and Great Britain. This large group, consisting of 644 LDS
passengers including 21 missionaries, sailed for America aboard the Wyoming on
September 3.
Leading the LDS group was Elder James Finlayson with all the other missionaries
serving as his assistants. The ship arrived in New York in just ten days on
September 13, and the members departed the following day by rail for Utah. The
voyage across the Atlantic had taken ten days compared to 42 days when John had
earlier sailed for the United States. The total time of this lengthy trip had
been much quicker than his original one from Norway to Salt Lake Valley nineteen
years earlier. That journey had taken John and his family twenty-four weeks, but
in 1881 trip time had been decreased to just over three weeks.
Upon his return to his home in Logan, John continued to be active in his church
and community. He was ordained a Seventy in 1884 and a High Priest in 1905. He
was baptized into the United Order. He wrote letters to relatives in Norway and
collected information about many deceased family members. He and his wife walked
the few blocks to the temple in Logan to complete the temple ordinances for
their deceased kin.
Twenty-five years after settling in Logan, John was witness to the changes that
had occurred in that pioneer village. The four to five thousand people who lived
there in the late 1870s were mostly converts to the ‘Mormon’ faith from America,
the British Isles, and Scandinavia. Although most were tradesmen when they
joined the church, as an example John was a fisherman, all of necessity became
farmers to provide food for their families.* They watched their village become
an oasis in the desert with the construction of the tabernacle, the Brigham
Young Academy, business buildings, the temple, many homes, and the
infrastructure to support the growing community. Although "the people were not
perfect, brotherly love and honesty…were…in evidence."
In the minutes of the Logan City Council, John’s name is recorded as a member of
the council from the Fourth Precinct for the years 1899 to 1903. He served on
the standing committees of Public Grounds, Prison, and Engraving and Printing.
Gilbert Leroy Dahle, John’s nephew, whose family moved to Logan from Idaho, (c
1914), wrote in his personal history about attending church in John’s ward, the
Logan Fourth Ward, with his cousin, Fred Dahle, and Alma Sonne, a friend of the
Dahle family. "It was about the biggest ward in Logan and sure had a fine big
building and a lot of people attended every Sunday, both Sunday school and
Sacrament meeting."
John Dahle was devoted to his wife, family, and religion. He was an impressive
figure with a white beard in his later years. They owned their small home in
Logan, and "Their grandchildren loved to go and visit with them and most
generally found Grandpa in the little yard with the cow and some chickens and
Grandma in the house always cooking good food."
One son said respectfully of John and Janetta, "My parents raised their sons and
daughters to be honest and good citizens in their communities." "John lived with
faith and integrity and had undergone much for his religion," according to
George W. Lindquist, a member of the Cache Stake Presidency. John died on
October 14, 1920, in Logan at the age of eighty-two. Dr. Wallace H. Budge
indicated on the death certificate that John had suffered from chronic asthma
for forty years. He was buried on October 18 1920 n the Logan Cemetery.
Notes: