Elisabeth Andrea Nielsdatter

Biography

Elisabeth Andrea Nielsdatter was born on April 17, 1840 in Vester Marie on the island of Bornholm in Denmark. She was the second daughter of Cathrine Elisabeth Andersdatter and Niels Peter Hansen. Elisabeth’s father died in 1845, only five years after her birth. Elisabeth’s mother soon remarried to Jens Ipsen, who became Elisabeth’s stepfather.

In 1853, four missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arrived on the island of Bornholm. Elisabeth and her family were quick to accept the gospel, becoming among the first people to be baptized on the island of Bornholm on June 9, 1853. News of their baptism quickly spread and the family was severely persecuted for their joining the Church, including finding the windows of their home broken by angry neighbors. Elisabeth and the rest of the Ipsens quickly left Bornholm after this, arriving in Liverpool in January 1854 to immigrate to Zion.

The Ipsens arrived in New Orleans on February 20, 1854. From there, the family traveled up the river to Missouri. However, there was a cholera outbreak that resulted in the death of Elisabeth’s mother and three of her siblings before they even left for Utah. This left Jens Ipsen alone to care for four children on the perilous journey to Utah. The family must have spent a few months in Missouri before leaving for Utah in the Hans Peter Olsen wagon company on June 15, 1854. Elisabeth was fourteen years old.

Upon arrival in Utah, the Ipsens settled in Brigham City, Utah among several other Scandinavian Latter-day Saints. When Elisabeth was 16, she married Thomas Griffin Winn as his second wife on February 8, 1857. They settled in Smithfield, Utah, where Elisabeth lived the rest of her life. Thomas and Elisabeth were the parents of seven children. Little is known about Elisabeth’s adult life, though she must have been a strong woman to endure the many trials the Utah pioneers faced. Elisabeth died on May 6, 1877 at the age of thirty-seven.