Serine Enochsdatter

Biography

Serine Enochsdatter was born on June 9, 1830 in Jaasund, Norway. She was the oldest daughter of Bertha Olsdatter and Enoch Knudsen. Serine’s family was quite poor, so as soon as she was old enough she was sent to Stavanger to live with her more prosperous aunt and uncle. In Stavanger, Serine learned the trades of women such as weaving and sewing. Serine married Ole Johannes Staalsen, a successful merchant on March 17, 1854 in Stavanger, Norway. Serine and Ole had five children together. Serine was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1858 and her husband was baptized a few years later. Shortly after her husband’s baptism, Ole and Serine began making plans to move to Utah, but Ole died before they could make the trip.

Despite Ole’s death, Serine was determined to gather with the Saints in Zion. She sold all of her possessions, frequently for low prices due to prejudices about the Saints. Despite this, Serine managed to save enough money to pay the fare for both her family and seventeen other Saints in Stavanger who were prepared to immigrate to Utah. This group arrived in New York in May 1863 and travelled by train to Nebraska where they would wait for more Saints before heading on to Utah. In Nebraska, Serine married Johan Gustav Jorgensen, a Norwegian and former missionary in Stavanger. The company finally departed for Utah in July 1863.

In September 1863 the Staalsen/Jorgensens finally arrived in Utah. Serine and Johan Gustav settled their family in Ephraim, Utah, along with many other Scandinavian Saints. Serine was a big believer in never being idle and she worked her hardest to make their difficult life on the frontier in Utah a comfortable one. Serine and Johan had five children together while living in Ephraim. In 1869, Serine’s husband asked her permission to marry a second wife, which she granted. For the next decade, Serine and Johan Gustav’s second wife Annetta lived together in one large home in Ephraim. In 1879, Johan Gustav built a home in Koosharem, Utah where he moved with his second family. He also built a homestead at Fish Lake where Serine would often spend the summers with her younger children. Despite Johan Gustav’s move, Serine always kept a home available in Ephraim for him, should he need it.

By 1887, the United States Federal government had begun to arrest polygamists for breaking the federal law which required monogamy. As a result, Johan Gustav was arrested and fined for unlawful cohabitation with his second wife. After his release, he was sent on a mission to Norway and was arrested again upon his return in 1893. Because of Johan Gustav’s legal troubles and mission, Serine could not always rely on him financially so she learned to care for her family herself. She would make jam and butter and trade with the Native Americans for buckskins, which she would turn into gloves. She also made cheese from whey.

In 1893, at the age of sixty-three, Serine travelled to Chicago with her two younger sons to visit her sister who had settled there and attend the World’s Columbian Exposition. She also met with her brother, who had come from Norway for the event. Serine later went back in 1913 to visit her son, who had moved there.

In 1901, Johan Gustav died, leaving Serine a widow for the second time. In 1902, Serine sold her home and moved into a new home she purchased with her daughter Anna in the East part of Ephraim. Anna and Serine took in boarders at this home together throughout the years, usually college students who were attending Snow College. Serine died on April 1, 1914 in Ephraim, Utah.

In 2004, members of Serine Jorgensen’s family donated money to Snow College to establish a scholarship in her name for needy rural students. In 2006, Snow College also named a Concert Hall after Serine. Serine’s legacy as a strong pioneer woman on the frontier has been memorialized in these two events.