Peter Miller Jensen was born on December 6, 1842 in Raadved, Skanderborg County, Denmark. He was the son of Anders Peter Jensen and Anna Christine Rassmussen.

Peter is a distant cousin of mine on my mother's side of the family: Richard Jensen Easton (1938) -> Norma Jensen (1904) -> Niels Jensen (1873) -> Bodild Marie Jensen (1839) -> Anders Peter Jensen (1803). Anders Peter Jensen is my Great Great Grandfather.

Peter Miller Jensen married Mary Pedersen in 1867, and she lived until 1903. While married to her, Peter married Sarah Ann Elsene Mortensen on 24 March 1882, one day after the Edmunds Act was passed, which made polygamy officially against the law. Peter was a farmer.

The name Peter Jensen, age 22, appears on the passenger list for the ship, Monarch of the Sea, leaving Liverpool 26 April 1864, and arriving in New York on 3 June 1864. The name, birthplace, and age fit our ancestor.

According to the book, Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 8:
Scandinavian Immigration-1864

On April 10th, 1864, at 5 p.m. the Swedish steamer L. L Bager sailed from Copenhagen, carrying 350 emigrants from Sweden and Norway and some from the Fredericia Conference, Denmark, in charge of Johan P. R. Johansen. This company of Saints went by steamer to Lubeck, thence by rail to Hamburg, thence by steamer to Hull, in England, and thence by rail to Liverpool, where the emigrants joined another company of emigrating Saints which sailed from Copenhagen three days later.

On April 13, 1864, the English steamer Sultana sailed from Copenhagen, Denmark, with 353 emigrants from the different conferences in Denmark, excepting a few from Fredericia, who, on account of the war, went directly to Hamburg. This company was in charge of President Jesse N. Smith, a returning missionary. Elder John Smith, who because of poor health had labored in the mission office in Copenhagen, and Christoffer Holberg, who had labored in Sweden, also sailed on the Sultana, returning to their homes in Zion. The following elders were among the emigrants: Niels C. Edlefsen, Peter C. Geertsen, Peter C. Carstensen, Nels C. Flygare, Anders Swedlund, Jens Hansen, Lars Nilsson, Anders Pontus Soderborg and Jens C. Olsen. A number of traveling elders also emigrated with this company, which, like the preceding one, went by way of Lubeck, Hamburg and Grimsby to Liverpool, where they were joined by the company that sailed from Copenhagen, April 10th.

Monarch of the Sea SSM

On Tuesday, April 26th, the ship Monarch of the Sea cleared for sailing, and on Thursday, April 28th, sailed from Liverpool, England, with 973 souls on board. Patriarch John Smith was chosen president ofTheS the company with Elders John D. Chase, Johan P. R. Johansen and Parley P. Pratt, Jun., as his counselors. Elders were also appointed to take charge of the different divisions of the company. During the voyage there was considerable sickness and some deaths, mostly children. In the morning of June 3rd the Monarch of the Sea arrived at New York where the landing of the emigrants at Castle Garden at once took place. In the evening they boarded a steamer for Albany, N.Y., and from there they traveled by train to St. Joseph, Missouri; thence by steamer up the Missouri River to Wyoming, Nebraska, from which place most of the Scandinavian Saints were taken to the Valley by Church teams, of which 170 were sent out by the Church that season. Thus about four hundred emigrating Scandinavian Saints crossed the plains in Captain William P. Preston’s company of about fifty Church teams, that left Wyoming, Nebraska, in the beginning of June, and arrived in Salt Lake City, September 15, 1864

Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 8, pp 23-31

Autobiography of J. C. L. Breinholt

On the fourth of April I said goodbye to my parents and brothers and sisters in Nebsager Mark.

On the 6th of April, 1864 I bid adieu to my native land, Jutland. I left the city of Horsens on that day in company with Elder Peder Jensen of Raodred per. Horsens. This young man now lives in Parowan, Iron County. We were companions all the way from Horsen to Manti, San Pete, Utah.

We traveled by wagon from Horsen to Aarhus where we took steamer for Korsoer. We landed here in the afternoon and as we were wending our way from the harbor to the railroad station some urchins yelled at us calling us, “Mormon priests”. This we thought singular as neither of us had ever been on the island before (Sjaelland). We arrived in Copenhagen late in the evening of the eighth and I think we stayed in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, one week. We took the steamer from here to Altona; from there we traveled by rail to Hamburg where we stopped two or three days. While here, I had a spell of sickness but not serious. From Hamburg we went by steamer to Grimsby via Hull. From Grimsby by rail to Liverpool where we again laid over about a week waiting for our ship to get ready to take us on board. The ship that took us from Liverpool to New York was a large [p.9] sail ship and was called, Monarch of the Sea. There was on board about 1,000 Latter-day Saints; so, notwithstanding the size of the vessel we found ourselves pretty well crowded. Especially did we experience a great deal of inconvenience in the cooking department and it was chance work for many of us to get our meals cooked. I, for my part, however, did not suffer any as I had good health all the way. The trip across the Atlantic took us about 35 days. Having lost my notes which I pencilled down while on my journey here, I am unable to give exact dates. But I think we landed at Castle Garden, New York on the 1st or 2nd of June, where we stayed but a day and then continued our journey toward our destination by taking steamer up the Hudson River to the city of Albany, from which place we went by rail to St. Joseph in the State of Missouri. From there we embarked on a steamer which landed us on the west banks of the Missouri River at a place called Wyoming, [Nebraska] where we laid in waiting about three weeks before the ox trains from Utah arrived which were to take us across the dreary plains.

Instead of going with the Church teams, I and four other young men; namely, my partner and friend Peder Jensen, Niels L. Lund, Soren Thomsen and Charles Rovar, engaged ourselves as teamsters to a man from Manti by the name of Soren Christoffersen

We entered the valleys of the mountains by the way of Provo Canyon about the 12th or 13th of October. We proceeded right on to Manti, the home of Soren Christoffersen, arriving there on the 20th of October, 1864

BIB: Breinholt, J. C. L. Autobiography (formerly in Msd 2050), p. 10,12. (CHL)