Maren Larsdatter

Born 24 October1824 in Denmark to Ane Sophie Arvesdatter and Lars Nielsen
Married Ole Rasmusen 3 December 1843 in Denmark
Maren-Rasmus-Mary-Howard
Died 18 December 1903 in Denmark

After a lot of searching for anything I could find about Maren, I found her granddaughter Anna Sophia Andreasen's autobiography. Maren's daughter Marie was Anna's mother. Anna writes about her grandmother, Maren, and this is all I know about her. (Just to clarify, we're talking about the grandmother, Maren, then the mother, Marie, and then the granddaughter, Anna.)

Maren was widowed early and supported herself by selling pastries door-to-door. She would use a yoke to carry two large baskets of pastries over her shoulders and people called her Cake Maren.

When Anna was about 12, her mother Marie took Anna's three younger sisters to Utah, leaving Anna and her father behind. The next day a newspaper printed a story about a woman who had abandoned her family to go to Utah. Anna's Aunt Ane, who had a large family herself, took Anna to Anna's house and left her there to wait for her father. She waited for him for three days, but he never came and she was finally sent to an orphanage.

After Anna had been in the orphanage three months, Maren discovered where she was and came to Copenhagen to get her. Maren bought new clothes for Anna and then they returned to Maren's home. Maren also bought new clothes for Anna when she was confirmed.

When Anna was 15, a Mormon missionary gave her a ticket from her to go to Utah. Maren refused to allow him in the house and wouldn't let Anna go to Utah.

Anna also described Usserod where Maren lived as a pretty little town. There was a mill stream and a government factory where clothes were made for the military. It was near Horsholm where there was a lake and an old castle and Anna liked to go there. The other direction from Horsholm was the bay where you could see Sweden.

That's all there is about Maren, but if you're curious about what happened to Anna, she got married in 1897. I think they had two children in Denmark and then, in 1911, they left Denmark for Idaho. Her mother, Marie, had visited Denmark in 1905 when her husband was there on a mission. Anna's husband died a few years after they moved to Idaho and she remarried a few years after that. She lived until 1965 and is buried in Brigham City.