Valentine Valentineson

I was born in Tingsted, Nykirke Parish, Bornholm Denmark on May 24, 1813. Our family was in rather poor circumstances so I was early apprenticed as a shoemaker in the village. Not liking the work of the shoemaker, I soon took up the work of a farmer and was very successful.

In 1836 I married Engelina Margreta Koefoed, and we were blessed with 5 children, Claus, Carl, Peder, Celia, and Hans. I was well informed for those days, and taught our neighbors the common school branches, although I had had little opportunity for schooling myself. I was an officer in the Danish Militia for many years, and I was naturally a religious man. I read from the scriptures as opportunity presented itself, and frequently attended the church services, but was never quite satisfied with the religious teachings of the time.

In 1850 my close friends were visiting our home. It was our usual practice to smoke our long pipes, drink a little snaps, and play cards; thereby whiling away the short days and the long weary nights of winter in Scandinavia. My good wife remonstrated with them, and it seems convinced them, that it was a very bad custom that they had adopted, dissipating their time and their energy. The result of it was that each of us with his hand on the Holy Bible entered into compact never again to indulge in such practice. It is believed that this compact was never broker by any of us.

It seems that this was but a forerunner, or a preparation for that which was to follow shortly, for within a few months the Elders of the Mormon Church made their appearance on the Island of Bornholm, and in the immediate vicinity of Tingsted, and my four friends were among the first to accept the Gospel on the Island of Bornholm.

In the year 1851 the Elders came to the Island and started to preach their new religion, which was greeted with a storm of persecution. The Valentine family, being religiously inclined was naturally interested in this new movement, so they sent for some of the Elders to visit them. Elders Ole Evenson and Christopher Folkman came to their home in response to this request and expounded the Gospel to them. The Valentine's became intensely interested from the very first and invited the missionaries to hold cottage meetings at their home. The ideals of the new religion became the ideals of the home of Valentine and his family and much time was spent in studying the scriptures and meeting with the Elders and friends in cottage gatherings.

On July 3, 1852 arrangements had been made for a cottage meeting at the home of Valentine, after which the family was to be baptized. For this occasion Ole Swenson and Christopher Folkman were invited from Roenne to attend to this important work. The Elders arrived early in the afternoon, and were made welcome and feasted after the long work from the seashore, about six miles. Early in the evening the farmers who had been invited to participate in the meeting began to arrive. As is customary with these people, the greater interest was manifested in the stock and barnyard which was no cause for alarm or concern. But when the shades of evening gathered around and still the people did not find their way into the house it became a matter of notice. The truth was soon made manifest. They had not come for the purpose of attending the services, but if possible to prevent the services being held.

As the night settled down in earnest, this body of farmers and neighbors were transformed into a mob, who rushed upon the house and its inhabitants in a ferocious manner. The missionaries were dragged from the house into the barnyard, where they were beaten with many stripes and left for dead, lying upon the ground. The leader of the job was Hans Ibsen a brother-in-law of Valentine's. While the mobbing was in progress Valentine sent his eldest son, August to the magistrate, Lars Peter Dahl, for assistance. In order that the assistance might arrive with no loss of time August was sent with two mounts so that the officer might avail himself of the extra horse and come at once. He appeared to have knowledge of what was transpiring but failed to respond. Had it not been for the interposition of Anders Christoffersen, a very powerful young friend of Valentine's who was present, it is quite certain that the life of Elder Folkman would have been taken. The mob had gathered hold of the unconscious man lying upon the ground and were about to cast him into the well, close by, when this stalwart man placed himself between them and the well and forbade them passage. Brother Folkman was soon after taken into the home of Valentine where he regained consciousness and was cared for by the family. At this, however, the mob became more enraged and threatened the family with violence unless the Elders were driven forth into the night at once, to be devoured, no doubt, by human friends. The Elders were carefully stowed away in the attic, as the buzzing outside continued. Finally, demand was made for the surrender of the Elders to which Valentine replied, “These gentlemen are our guests and we'll protect them to the end,” whereupon he was seized and taken from the house into the yard and cruelly beaten and finally left lying on the ground in an insensible conditions, after which everyone dispersed. Engel soon went to the rescue of her husband and, with the assistance of the Saints and friends who had gathered to attend the meeting, was quickly brought into the house and his wounds dressed. After which he was administered to by the Elders and was made whole through the power of the Priesthood. But the intended ordinance of baptism was not performed.

On the following day, August 1, 1852 Valentine swore out a complaint against the mobbers, and caused it to be forwarded to the general authorities at Roenne. On August 2, Valentine was notified by the messengers who had been sent to Roenne, that he must come to that city at once, for the officials refused to act in accordance with the complaint. Upon the arrival of Valentine at Roenne, the case was set for hearing before the proper officials for August 9. On the day set for the hearing the mob not only appeared, but they defied the court and administered a severe reprimand to the complaining witnesses, who were the same ones that had been so maltreated a week before at Tingsted. Valentine finally sought refuge in a grocery store close by owned by warm personal friends of his. Public sentiment was so strong against the Mormons that further prosecution was impossible.

From Folkman's Journal – Thursday October 6, 1852 “Valentine Valentinesen, of Tingsted, came to us in Roenne and asked that we come and baptize him and his family. He had enjoyed no peace of mind since that affair with the job occurred at his place, and he feared that his neighbors would kill him before he could be baptized. Accordingly the following night at 2 am. He and his wife and his son August were baptized by Ole Swenson.”
On Sunday November 7, 1852, Valentine was ordained a teacher under the hands of these two Elders. On January 30, 1853, Valentine was holding a cottage meeting at A. Madsen's in Klemenske Parish when a mob came and administered a severe beating to all who were present including Valentine, Engel and August.

On Sunday, August 14, 1853, Valentine was appointed President of the Svanike Branch of the Bornholm Conference of the Church, and on Monday the 15th, he was ordained the office of a priest in the Aaronic Priesthood and set apart as the President of the branch. The persecutions continued and at times seemed to increase, many times causing the saints as well as the missionaries to flee from the wrath of the mob. This rendered life among the people of the village, Tingsted, very unpleasant if not indeed dangerous. Soon an opportunity presented itself to dispose of the little farm and in November 1853, Valentine and his family bade farewell to Bornholm and set out upon the journey to Zion by way of Kopenhagen, Hull, Liverpool, New Orleans, St. Louis, west post Landing (Kansas City) and Salt Lake City. They left Liverpool January 3, 1854 and arrived in Salt Lake City October 5, and Brigham City October 11, 1854. The otherwise hardships of the journey were intensified by the illness and sudden death of their little girl Celia Kathrine, which occurred on the Mississippi River between New Orleans and St. Louis, on March 8, 1854 from what was feared to be Cholera.

Notwithstanding the fact that Valentine had paid the transportation of seven other people, the poor saints with whom he had been associated in Denmark, he found himself in a position to fit out with two yoke of oxen and three cows and some household goods, at St. Louis. Thus they started across the plains in the early spring of 1854. Little or nothing is known of the hardships which they endured by those who are assembled here today.