A Pioneer Mother - A Glenn Rawson Story

Being a Mother is about finding strength you didn't know you had. Like this Pioneer.
Happy Mother's Day.

Music: Prayer for the Children by Jason Tonioli featuring John Knudson on the violin

Being a mother is learning about strength you didn’t know you had, and dealing with fears you didn’t know existed. It is no wonder that righteous mothers through the ages have reached out to God for help. This is the story of a determined pioneer mother.

Pernilla Nilsdotter Bom was born in 1818 in Sweden, to Karna Jönsdotter and Nils Christensson Bom. She was the oldest and only surviving child of their ten children. Pernilla grew to be an intelligent, well-read, capable woman who could quote large portions of the Bible from memory. It is not surprising that she became a school teacher.

In 1844, at the age of 26, Pernilla married a hard-working tailor named Ole Nielson. They lived in Sweden, and then moved to Denmark for better work opportunities. She gave birth to eight children – but like her mother, experienced loss – two baby boys, a four-year- old girl, and a seven-year-old son.

While living in Denmark, the family met missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and in 1856, they were baptized. Through the years they remained faithful in their church attendance, paying tithing each week, and frequently hosting the missionaries.
Providing the basic necessities was a struggle, and for a time Pernilla’s husband worked night shifts in a salt factory plus his daytime employment as a tailor. Even their seven-year-old son Swen worked half-time in a factory after attending school.

Like many other Scandinavian church members, Pernilla and Ole longed to gather to Zion. The cost to travel with a church sponsored company was $45 for an adult and less for children. Delaying until the whole family could go together would increase the cost.

Their dream of saving enough money for the journey to Utah seemed impossible until Pernilla received a small inheritance when her parents died. However, this was only enough money to pay for part of the family. It was decided that Pernilla and the three youngest children, nine-year-old Swen, six-year-old Lars, and four-year old Sine would join the company leaving that spring. Her husband Ole and oldest son Peter would stay behind in Denmark to work and save money, coming to Utah later. Their tickets were paid that winter. As spring came, Pernilla faced some new health challenges which would make the trip more difficult, but she resolved to move forward.

At the age of 45, on April 30, 1863, she and her three young children joined 600 Scandinavian church members at the Copenhagen, Denmark docks to begin the journey. Their three-day sailing to England included rough seas, sea sickness, and the smells from 40 cows and several hundred sheep on the ship.

The company boarded the ship B.F. Kimball, and on May 9, 1863 it sailed from Liverpool. The ship arrived in New York harbor, and on June 15, 1863 and they were allowed to disembark and go through customs. Pernilla and her three children had only one small, wooden trunk containing all of their worldly possessions. They traveled in crowded train boxcars and by steamer, arriving Florence, Nebraska.

Fifty wagons, each pulled by four oxen, carried food for travelers, their meager belongings, and merchandise to be sold in Salt Lake. People were expected to walk – 20 miles each day, except Sunday. The company stopped 3-4 times a day to allow livestock to be unyoked and graze. Rations of flour, fat bacon, soda, salt, and pepper were issued by the camp commissary chief twice a week. After walking all day, it was up to Pernilla and the other women to cook for and feed those in their care. Pernilla’s family had no tent, but she managed to sew two sheets together and prop them on forked willows for shelter.

Death was a frequent visitor in the company. After two weeks travel, Sine died at Loup Fork on the Platte River. Her nine-year-old brother Swen wrote years later that, “the only thing they could do was to wrap her little body in a sheet and bury her on the lonesome plains.” After gathering some wild flowers from the hillside for the grave, they had to leave and catch up to the company. It is fitting that Sine’s name is included in the Pioneer Children’s Memorial in Salt Lake and a bronze statue of a boy about Swen’s age is keeping watch next to her name.

Pernilla and her two boys walked every step of the way, and the company arrived in Salt Lake City on September 5, 1863.

After traveling thousands of miles, and enduring the grueling journey and death of her daughter, Pernilla’s work was not complete. The health challenges she had worried about the previous winter before departing from her husband were apparent. She was, as the Bible would describe, “great with child”. Three days after arriving in Fairview, this brave mother gave birth to a healthy baby boy who she called Ole, after his father.

Story by Jean Tonioli