During the conversation with cousin Gladys, she relayed stories about the journey that she heard from her mother, Emma. My dad's Aunt Emma would have been about 7 years old when the family made the journey across the Atlantic. Gladys told me that her mom remembered that the dining tables had a sort of "lip" around the outer edge to help keep the plates and utensils from sliding off as the ship moved. Emma also remembered her dad taking them above deck to get fresh air and keep them distracted and occupied.
We had always heard that Johanne was seasick during the journey, and, above all else, she was also pregnant with my grandmother! I always imagined how miserable that journey must have been for her! What none of us knew for years, though, was that it wasn't just the seasickness and nausea from pregnancy that would have been the most difficult part of the journey for her. As I had discovered in my research that she and Jens had another son, the realization of their journey to America took on a whole new dimension. Johanne left her home in Denmark knowing that she had not only just left behind her parents and sisters, but she had just left her eldest child behind and would very likely never see him again. I can imagine the seasickness and I can imagine the nausea from pregnancy. But I cannot imagine the agony of that!
Emma had passed along to her daughter, Gladys, that Jens was very worried about his wife during the voyage. I can only imagine! When they arrived at Ellis Island, the family was processed and "inspected" aboard ship. In July of that year, a fire damaged the Ellis Island buildings, including the Great Hall, where immigrants were processed. That may have proved to be to the family's benefit, as Johanne was probably very ill at this point and the inspectors may not have been so kind to them had they gone through the regular processing cycle.
The details thereafter of where they stayed or when they boarded a train bound for Iowa are not known. I recall hearing a story when I was younger that, having no knowledge of English, they almost missed the train they were supposed to board and nearly boarded the wrong train as a result. If that's true, who knows where they would have ended up, or how they would have found their way to Elk Horn. Regardless of that, they made their way to central Iowa and settled first in Harlan before finally making a home in Elk Horn. Jens worked as a blacksmith there. While in Harlan, they welcomed Leona Margot into their family, my grandmother. After moving to Elk Horn, they had Gladys Wanette, but lost her after only 3 months to pertussis (whooping cough). She is buried in an unmarked grave in the Elk Horn cemetery. A short year later, they welcomed another boy, Lyle Manville, and 3 years later, Norman Elvin.
Sometime after, the family moved to central Nebraska, where Jens set up another shop as a blacksmith. And that's where the family remained as a whole for even generations after. Ultimately, it was during this research, looking for the ship manifest that I finally found more information about Jens's sister, Stine, who had immigrated 12 years earlier. On the ship manifest, it lists Jens's brother-in-law, Chris Jensen, and his address. Now I knew where to look for Stine!
To be continued...
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