NIELS JENSEN 11 NOVEMBER 1811 EJLSTRUP, FREDERICKSBURG, DEN	Wealthy landowner in Denmark born on 11/11/11
	Sold his farms to migrate to Utah with 2 of his children in 1871
Genealogy	Continued sending money to poor Danish emigrants after arriving in Utah
	Buried in Hyrum, Utah in 1891

Niels Jensen was born 11 November 1811 in Ejlstrup, Fredericksborg, Denmark.  His father's name was Jens Larsen and his mother was Ana Nielsen.  Niels had four brothers and one sister.  He was probably the only one in his family to join the Church when the missionaries came to Fredericksborg.  He was baptized on 3 November 1869.  He migrated to Utah with some of his children in 1870.  Niels and his children settled in Hyrum, Utah.  He remarried when he got to Utah and was endowed in the Endowment House on 9 June 1873.  Niels died in Hyrum on 13 March 1891.

Grandpa Neils Jensen was converted into the Church by Mormon missionaries.  He was a wealthy land owner in Denmark.  He became interested in Mormonism from the time he first heard of it.  When he became a and decided to come to Utah, he sold his farms.  He gave most of his money to the people who had joined the Church and were too poor to pay their transportation to Utah.  His wife refused to come to Utah, so he took two sons and a daughter and brought them to Utah.  After he arrived he still sent more of his money back to the people in Denmark who wanted to come to Utah.

Some of the above information is taken from a history written by Hannah Barnes.

Note:  Phil D. Jensen, a great-grandson of Niels Jensen, served his mission in Denmark and has corrected our spelling of Niels' birthplace to Ejlstrup.  He also has told us that Niels' wife, Mette Kirstine, did join the LDS Church, but did not choose to migrate to Utah when Niels did.

Nan Wood sent us some more about Niels Jensen.  This is taken from histories written by Dorothy Jensen Curtis and M. Stone:

One story about Niels says that he sponsored another family at the request of Brigham Young before he was able to take the rest of his family.  One of Niels' descendant, Ellis, served a mission in Denmark and went to Ejlstrup to look up the family and the people in the area remembered Niels as the "old boy" who walked out on his family.  (Phil Jensen, who is mentioned above, also found this while serving his mission in Denmark.)  Ole Niels Jensen, Niels' son, remembered his mother Mette Kjerstine crying and begging Niels not to take him to America.

Niels stood in as proxy for another one of our ancestors, Christian Fredericksen, when he was sealed vicarously to Mette Jensen.  He was married to Mette 5 days later for time in the Endowment House.  You can read more about this story on Mette and Christian's pages.

After Mette Jensen's death, Niels married Maren Johansen.  She was a widow with a number of children.  Niels was sealed to Maren along with his children Ole and Pernelle, but apparently he did not feel good about this decision.  Maren has also been sealed to her first husband, and Niels is sealed to Mette Kjerstine along with their 10 children.  So in the end everyone should be happy.