Hans and Maren Larsen

Excerpt from A Sketch of the Life of Hansine Larsen Anderson

by her daughter, Lillie Anderson Zilles

(These excerpts tell us a little about the early life of Hans and Maren Larsen and the process of their immigration from Denmark to America in 1876.  Our direct ancestor Niels Larsen (brother of Hansine Larsen) was 8 years old at the time of their immigration.

Hansine Larsen Anderson was born the 23rd of August 1866, in Aesentrop, Holsbeck County Denmark; the seventh child of eight children. The two oldest children, Jacob and Anna were from a former marriage. The six children of this marriage were Christian, Christena, Hanna, Jens, Hansine, and Niels.

At the age of eleven she immigrated to America. Her father and oldest full brother died in Denmark. Christina was 17 years old at the time of his death.

The oldest half-brother, Jacob, was serving in the army of his native land when the rest of the family left. He came to the United States later, but not to Utah.

Hansine’s father was a butcher by trade. His home was one long building which housed the family on one end. The meat shop and slaughtering part were in the center and the livestock quarters on the other end. Everything was kept clean and spotless. After landing in the United States of America, her mother and six children came to Utah. They made their home in Hyrum, Utah.

Sticking Plaster Plastic Surgery-By Dallas Max Schneider

Sticking Plaster Plastic Surgery

Excerpt from Remembrances of Rosabelle Larsen Schneider, My Mother

By Her Son Dallas Max Schneider 

All of the Larsen family helped milk the cows. Rose and her sisters washed the milk buckets and cans clean every day. One day she slipped and fell on the protruding socket that held the pails handle. It cut like a knife through her lower lip and slashed it open from the upper lip to the chin. It hung in two separate pieces, bleeding profusely.

Grandfather hurriedly hitched up his horses and drove as fast as he could to Logan, the only place there was a doctor. Grandmother held Rose in her arms with a towel place on her torn lip. The doctor was not in his office and unavailable, so they went to Grandfather's sister's home, known to us as, "Aunt Steeny." Aunt Steeny, (her real name was Hansine Larsen Anderson) was skilled in many medical things and when she had stopped the bleeding of Rosabelle's terrible wound she had Grandfather go to the store and buy some sticking plaster.

She mixed the plaster together to the thickness she desired and then carefully pulled the severed lip together and placed the sticking plaster over the wound and held it there until it became solid and unyielding. They left this mold on Rose's lip for some time and when it was removed it had healed beautifully, leaving only a thin red line that eventually went away leaving no scar. Had the doctor been available and had attended Rose, he would have put several stitches in her lip and the disfigurement of this beautiful child would have been everlasting ugliness.

When she would tell us about her cut lip, she would have to show us children the almost invisible white line that was hard to see. It went from the top of her lip to her chin. It was a vicious severing. I have no idea what sticking plaster was but it was Aunt Steeny's primitive form of plastic surgery and it worked a miracle upon our Mother.