Fredrick Christianson

submitted by: Savannah Petersen


Fredrick Christianson is my 2nd great grandfather. He was born in New Zealand in a cave on a beach on October 1st, 1874, and passed away on June 22, 1948. This is my favorite story because he was born in a cave and his family lived in the cave until he was 4 years old, and they saved enough money to move to town. A lot of people called him Fred because Fred is for short. My great great grandfather's mom and dad were Danish from Denmark and did not have a lot of money or any land. They caught the immigrant transport vessel from Denmark to New Zealand. Fredrick was also the oldest child in the family.

When he was 5 his family was able to sneak onto a ship to America. When they arrived somewhere in America they caught a train and made it to Salt Lake City, Utah. After they arrived in Salt Lake City, his family moved to Fairview, Utah. He also had four little siblings when they came to America. When he was only seven years old, his dad passed away. His mom was sadly left alone with 5 kids.

Fredrick's mom, Mary, had got married 2 more times and he ended up with nineteen siblings and step-siblings. To help his family make money, he did sheep herding in the mountains, investing in the stock market, and coal mining. He wrote in his notebooks every day. He also did scrapbooking like I do too. He was alive during World War 1, the Great Depression, and World War 2. His biggest life challenge was making money to live, to buy food, and to find a house or land.

Life was always hard for his family. They had a lot of struggles in their lifetime. A lot of his family passed away at a young age. He had a brother that worked in the coal mine with Fredrick, while Fred's brother was working a rock fell from the top and hit Fred's brother in the head. His brother passed away a couple of days later. He felt really bad about losing his brother.

Fred got married at 29 to Sarah who was 18, they had 5 kids, and sadly one baby passed away. These are just some of the things that made my great great grandfather an amazing person. As you can see, Fredrick Christianson overcame many challenges in his life. Sadly, Fredrick passed away before I was born. I wish I could have met him. I think he and his family were really courageous.