Schmidts familietræ (www.sm1.dk)

Biography of Peter Jensen -- by Roy Jensen Jens Peter Jensen was born in Tved, Eg, Denmark in 1891. His father, Anton Martinos Jensen, was a storekeeper and small farmer in the community of Mols, which included the town of Eg. Later in life his father is recorded as a fisherman and farmer . His grand father on his fathers side, Jens Peter Mikkelsen was also a farmer in Tved, a town very close by. In fact when we follow his ancestry back into the early 1600's most all were farmers, even on his mothers side. Peter had one brother, Ha rold, and two sisters; Christine and Marie. At the age of 17 Peter and a friend of his also 17 years old having heard all about the great future for young men in America set sail in 1908. ( I have been told that they were stow away's but I don't know if it is true). In 1972 when my wife Jea n and I went to Denmark for a holiday and to find and visit family which we had never met, they told us Peter and a friend of his had left at age 17 to escape the draft to the army. It was a requirement for two years of every boy when they turne d 18. It was a joke that he was a draft dodger. -- When Peter and his friend first came to America, they went to South Dakota. He worked for a Danish family just for his keep receiving no pay. He must have knew about or was invited by the family before leaving Denmark. I was never told and I neve r heard again of the young man he traveled with. The following year in 1909 the Danish family, with my father Peter, left South Dakota in a wagon carrying all their belongings to go to Canada. They stopped in the Foremost area of southern Alberta. The closest town was Birds town, which was jus t a store and a post office. The town of Birds town, named after a man named Bird has long since disappeared. There was land in this area available for homesteading. The Danish family and Peter decided to try to farm in this area. Peter built a home and farmed a quarter section of land to prove up a homestead. He was then given Canadian Citizenship by Local Naturalization. This was dated 26 Jan. 1915. To earn money to purchase horses, machinery and build a home, he also sol d books and Raw leys goods throughout the area. In about 1915 a fire destroyed his home and many of the books that he was selling. He sold the land and the little machinery that he had acquired and went to Lethbridge to look for work. In Lethbridge having sold his horses and the little machiner y he had acquired,and Peter bought part ownership in both a pool hall and a livery barn and at the same time he started taking correspondence classes in Steam Engineering. Shortly thereafter he began working for the Canadian Pacific Railwa y as a steam engineer. He ran CPR trains to many towns in southern Alberta. We still have most of the correspondence tests that he wrote and nearly all of them are marked excellent even though he had not gone to school in Canada and his English wa s still quite broken 25 years later. Jens (Peter) Jensen met and married Marie Schmidt a recent arrival to Lethbridge in 1925. Marie was a beautiful brave young lady who had left her home in Denmark, went to England to work as a house maid then left England and traveled to the wil d west of America. Peter was 34 years old at the time. This same year Peter who had to have a medical for his engineers licence every year, failed the medical given by a new doctor due to color blindness. Peter never believed he was color blind , and I never saw him miss a red or green light. Not wanting to take a lesser job with the C.P.R. Peter quit and bought a half section of newly irrigated land 12 miles out of Lethbridge on the Lethbridge Northern Irrigation District. The farm wa s bought for $4000.00 from the Canadian Pacific Railway company. In 1928 Peter and Marie moved onto the farm. He was now a farmer like his father and all his grandfathers before him. The house was the largest in the area, 30 X 50 feet, 1,1/2 story with a full basement. An American with extra money and faith, bu ilt the house right after the first world war and then left, I suspect very dishearten. Near the house was a large pile of dirt from the basement. The basement had only a dirt floor and was always pretty cool. The kitchen had a dumb waiter in whic h was stored milk, butter, eggs and other perishable goods which could be lowered by rope to the cool basement. On the farm there was also a chicken house and a horse stable for 8 horses. Two years after moving to the farm the roaring 20,s ended and the dirty thirties arrived with the worst depression imaginable. Besides prices falling on all farm products, there were also years of devastating drought throughout the province. Ther e was no work to be found. Men would be walking past Peters farm looking for work, some he gave food for a little work, and possibly a pair of pants if they stayed and worked for some time. Many of the men came from Eastern Canada, having left the ir family to look for work. During these hard times Peter missed a number of farm payments but the farm was not foreclosed on because most other farmers did the same. In 1956 when Peter died there was still $4000.00 owing on the farm.