Jensen Plot: The Next Generation

Stone Marking the Family Plot of Anna Jensen (daughter of Soren and Anne Sine) in Blair Cemetery

 On August 27th, 1866, Soren and Anne Sine Jensen were married in Omaha, Nebraska. On April 11, 1867 their first child, a daughter they named Anna, was born. On May 10, 1887, when Anna was 20, she married Jens Black Jensen. Jens Black was also a Danish immigrant. According to my great-grandma Maxine they were not related, Jensen is simply a common surname among the Danes. 

   In this plot are buried Jens Black, Anna, and two of their children, Hanna and William Jennings Bryan. 

Jens Black Jensen b. Feb 11, 1858, d. Feb 6, 1935

 I don't know much about Jens Black yet. According to the 1900 census, he was born in Denmark to a Danish father and Swedish mother, and emigrated to the United States in 1883. When we were visiting his gravesite, Grandma Max stood staring at it for several minutes, lost in thought. I asked her what was on her mind, and she replied, "Orvie and I were planning to elope that week. We had to change our plans because Grandpa Jensen died." (He was her father's father.) 

Anna B. Jensen b. Apr 11, 1867, d. Nov 30, 1945

Anna was the mother of 10 children! Her fifth child, Johannes Emil, was my great-great grandfather.

Hanna Jensen b. Nov 30, 1890, d. Feb 21 1987

Hanna was the third child of Anna and Jens Black. According to Grandma Maxine, her boyfriend was killed in the war and she never married. I forgot to ask, but based on the dates I am assuming she meant World War I.

William Jennings Bryan Jensen b. Dec 8, 1895, d. Dec 9, 1961.

In 1896, Nebraska Congressman William Jennings Bryan ran for president on both the Democratic and Populist tickets, but lost to Republican William McKinley. I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that William Jennings Bryan Jensen's parents were staunch Democrats. And obviously big fans of WJB and his push for Free Silver over Gold Standard. In spite of the big name, WJB Jensen was a scrappy little guy whom everyone called Mick. Grandma Maxine says he was very ornery, always getting into fights, and he didn't like kids.  

My Tour Guides on this Family History Trip

*My apologies for the poor formatting. I'll figure this out eventually!

The Largest Stone on the Highest Hill

Soren Jensen's Plot in the Blair Cemetery

  Soren Jensen was born August 3, 1842 in Vejle, Denmark. He emigrated to the United States in 1864, eventually making his way to Omaha, Nebraska, where he was employed by the Union Pacific Railroad. While there, he met Anne Sine Petersen, who had emigrated from Denmark with her parents in 1860. They stayed in Omaha until after their first child, Anna, was born. Soren decided to take up farming and so the little family moved north to Lincoln Township in Washington County, Nebraska. 

Soren and Anne Sine Jensen's Grave Marker in Blair Cemetery

   

   On January 5th, 1888, a local newspaper, The Pilot, printed the following, "Soren Jensen has just purchased another 120 acres of land. This he told The Pilot now gives him eleven 80-acre farms, one for each of his children. When Soren settled out here, he had few neighbors, and those he had regarded him as a green Scandanavian. But he has since bought them all out and now owns the land that was theirs when he went there. It took pluck and hard knocks to do it but he settled there with determination to succeed." 

A Close-Up of the Inscription

I'd love to have known this man. How did his pluck and drive to succeed translate to his personality? I think there had to be a healthy sense of humor and a well developed sense of irony in this man. I'd guess that he was quite competitive as well.  No one puts Jensen in a corner! Not only did the orphan boy from Denmark buy out his neighbors' farms, he also bought the best plot in Blair Cemetery. Soren Jensen and his wife Anne Sine are buried on a hill near a bluff, with an amazing view of the surrounding countryside. The stone marking their family plot was imported from Denmark. It is (or at least it was at its time of erection) the largest marker in the cemetery. A person will never have trouble finding Soren's last resting place!

Soren Jensen

Anne Sine Petersen Jensen

The View

   Anne Sine's parents, of whom I will write more later, were also buried in Soren's plot. I wonder what they thought of their son-in-law?

Introduction

   The couple shown are Emil and Anna Jensen, my great-great grandparents, on their wedding day. I had the privilege of knowing Anna, or Grandma Hokamp, as she was known when I was a child. She passed away a few months before her 101st birthday, right after I turned 16. I didn't appreciate how special that was at the time, that I had grown up knowing my great-great grandmother.
   This blog exists to share and record the pictures and stories I have gathered over the years, and new ones I discover, about those who came before me. This is where I come from.