Gudmundur History 2

Biography of Gudmundur Gudmundsen:

Born March 23, 1825
First Missionary To Iceland for the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Written by his grand daughter Fanny Gudmundsen Brunt, daughter of Isaac Gudmundsen.


“There is a destiny that shapes our ends, rough hew them as it may.” So said one of the immortal bards, and certain lives seem to bear out this philosophy.

What is that inward urge that stirs men’s souls and gives them strength to conquer what appears to be unconquerable? What gives them physical endurance, and bravery to face hunger, exposure, abuse, and ridicule till they reach the goal to which they have set their sails? So many of us start out to conquer, but are turned back by opposing forces, yet others overcome the hurdles and become the great benefactors of the race. Nationality and color play little part in this phenomenon. These courageous souls have appeared in every land, and every generation. God told the great prophet Jeremiah, that he knew him before he was born, and ordained him to be a prophet. Could it be that lesser lights were assigned their tasks also? Is this urge of pre-earth design?

These questions come to mind often, reviewing the lives of some of such tried and tested progenitors as Gudmund Gudmundsen, who came to the United States from Iceland, in the year 1859, and lived and died in the state of Utah.

Gudmund was the son of a Gudmund, some records say he was the son of Gudmund Gudmundsen, and another says his father was Gudmund Bendicktson. Which is correct? We, his descendants would like very much to know. In life he claimed he was the youngest of ten brothers and sisters. Who were they? As far as we know none of them came to America or even wrote him a letter. He had committed an unpardonable sin. He had joined the Mormon Church. From the time he came out of the waters of baptism, he was alone, and an outcast and a disgrace to his people.

Why was Gudmund such a rebel? Why did he turn from the religion that had satisfied his forbearers for centuries, and to which they had contributed much in the ministry, as priests, and pastors, hymn writers and poets? These questions are always puzzling.

Gudmund was sixteen years of age when he went from Iceland to Copenhagen, Denmark, to serve an apprenticeship, to learn the trade of goldsmith and watch maker. During the three or four years of his training, we know nothing of his religious activities. He remained there for seven years and it was during that time that he heard of Mormonism. This was a new religion. It had recently been introduced in Denmark. Being of a religious nature he went to their meeting hall to hear their doctrine. He writes, “It was then that I for the first time saw our beloved apostle Erastus Snow. I understood and believed the doctrine taught by him and his companions and I was baptized in the most devoted sincerity and repentance on February 15, 1851. I testify before God and Man that my heart was renewed, and I realized that the gospel was the power of God unto salvation.”
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At a fast meeting held three months later, he was ordained a teacher by Erastus Snow and called to preach the gospel in his home land of Iceland. Quoting him again regarding this call, “Having found the fruits of the gospel more sweet and desirable than any other fruit I expected that every person would believe my testimony, especially my own relatives. But alas, when I arrived in Iceland, I preached to my brothers and sisters in vein, they would not receive me, and as my pious parents had died, I felt myself left alone like Elijah of old, in the cave. However, I soon found a few believing friends, who not withstanding strong opposition on the part of the priests were ready to embrace the gospel. I was often rebuked, spit upon and mocked by my enemies, but being full of the love of God I felt no anger or indignation against those who persecuted me.”

Gudmund remained in Iceland about three years and after baptizing nine persons, he returned to Denmark and spent about eighteen months as a missionary on Sjaelland, while preaching in the city of Kallundborg. He was arrested and imprisoned for seven weeks and when his persecutors were unable to prove anything against him except that he had baptized some persons and preached the gospel he was liberated but was immediately conducted by the police to Copenhagen, and forced to put on military attire and given a gun and a saber.

Being weakened from prison confinement he found military training exceedingly hard, and he was constantly exposed to the ridicule and sneers of his fellow soldiers because of his religious faith. These were trying experiences for Gudmund, and at times he felt that God had forsaken him. Yet, he continued to pray for deliverance.

After he had been in the service for over a year his friends contributed three hundred “rigsdaler” to buy him free, but their efforts proved futile. So, he gave the money to the poor.

Finally he became very ill, and was placed in a hospital. He made good use of his time there, preaching his religion to his room mates among his converts was a corporal who was baptized before he left the hospital. Gudmund says, “After I had been in the hospital for a long time I was presented to the doctors and the general of the battalion pronounced me unfit for military service on account of weakness of the lungs. They then gave me a passport and I went back to my friends in Kobenhavin (Copenhagen). I was certain that my lungs were as healthy as they could be. I realized it was the work of the Lord in fulfillment to a promise that had been made to me by one of his servants that if I kept the commandments of God I would be liberated.

All of my friends in the church rejoiced at my release and I was urged by them to emigrate to Utah with a large number of church members. We left Copenhagen April 18, 1857, crossed the Atlantic on the ship Westmorland, and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley September 13, 1857.


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Among the emigrants who sailed on the Westmorland was the family of Nels Garff consisting of him, his wife Marie, and four children, Peter, Christien, Lewis, (three boys) and Trena (girl) and they had brought along a maid and a midwife to serve them on their trip. Marie was about to give birth to another child. The Garffs were in good financial circumstances, and they came prepared. They were some of the few aristocrats who had joined the church and it was the young Gudmund Gudmundsen who had converted them in Denmark. They had paid a great price for their decision. All of their friends and kin turned against them. Marie’s mother was the only one who came to the wharf to see them off, but she too thought that they had made a great mistake.

Out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean Marie gave birth to another son. At the request of the captain of the ship they named the baby after him and they added the name of the ship to it and the baby was named Dicon Westmorland Garff.

When they reached the United States, they soon learned that Mormons were not welcome. They learned that their homes and land had been taken from them in Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri and hundreds had been murdered to find safety among the Indians in the Rocky Mountains which at the time belonged to Mexico.

The Garffs used their means to help many who wished to leave but lacked the equipment, wagons, teams, supplies etc. And at last when they were ready to start and had even gone a few miles on their journey the man they had engaged to drive and take care of the team (Garff was in a bad state of health, and was unable to do this himself) decided to call it all off, and he stole the team and wagon in the night. He left the Garffs stranded with nothing to do but join one of the handcart companies that was preparing to make the journey. They were true converts and were not easily defeated so they loaded the most necessary part of their heavy possessions on a hand cart and started moving west. Some of the boys were big enough to help a lot with the cart and the first few days of the journey seemed not so bad. There were some wagons to haul the sick and soon they were put into service.

As stated before, Garff was never a strong man, and after a few hundred miles his strength gave out and he was compelled to ride in the wagon. Marie who had never known hard work in her life came down with a fever and she and her baby were put in the wagon too. The boys pushed on with the handcart. After several days, Garff realizing he could not make it to the journeys end, called for Gudmund to come to the wagon. He wished to talk to him. With his dying breath he told Gudmund that he would never reach the mountains, and he desired him to take full charge of his wife and family and see that they never turned back. He wanted them numbered with the saints in Zion. Gudmundsen make a solemn promise to do that, and Garff went to sleep.


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Marie later said she knew there was a death in the camp and they raised her up to see the burial but she was too sick to know who it was, andit was many hours before she realized her husband had been taken out of the wagon beside her and she and the children were left to make the long trek alone. She in spite of a broken heart began to recover and knowing there were many who were ill and the wagons were needed for those who could not walk she gave up her place in the end and started on with help of her trusted and true friend Gudmund.

They had only gone a few days more when little Trena became hopelessly ill and soon a little prairie grave was dug beside the trail for her. The spot was obliterated, and the homeless ones moved on toward the setting sun.

After another thousand miles, they reached the forbidding Salt Lake Valley where the great Mormon leader Brigham Young had said, “this is the place,” and they were greeted by several hundred who had preceded them and busy grubbing, building and planning with visions of chapels and temple spires in a land where they could worship God each according to the dictates of his own conscience. One of the first important events to Gudmund Gudmundsen after the company’s arrival was his marriage to Marie Garff, to fulfill his promise to her husband, and his dear friend Nels Garff.

Gudmund recorded some of the important events of those early years in Salt Lake Valley in a little notebook that one of her sons kept and coveted even though some of the pages had been carefully cut out with a pen knife, in the hands of Marie, who felt that some of the events, disappointments and heartaches of those early years would be best cut from the record. Especially the fact that after the strong testimony Gudmund had born he got his feelings wounded and apostatized from the church for a short time, and joined one of the factions that had broken away. This caused Marie much unhappiness, she refused to join him in his rebellion, and when he began to realize his mistake he became very ill. He was unable to provide means sufficient for the family and they were in a sorry plight. This was cut from the note book and is legend.

The family by this time had increased. Gudmund wished to have three sons and name them Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had been realized so now there were seven boys. Peter the oldest was able to take care of himself and Chris and Louis were able to bring in a little money to help the family budget. The little boy Dick who had been born on the ocean was a frail little fellow, suffering from what they called Gravel and there was no doctor in Utah who could do anything for him.

Gudmund decided to borrow a little money and take the sick child to Sacramento, California where he hopped to find help for the little sufferer, who was in pain much of the time. According to the story, they spent some time at Camp Floyd where Johnson’s Army had been stationed and the little boys would gather tin cups and sell them to the


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soldiers and other people on their way to California thus making a little money to help them on their way.

Gudmundsen’s health failed fast and the trip was a most unhappy one with the sick boy and the small children. Abraham was only six, Isaac was five, and Jacob was three. Their means of travel and length of trip is not recorded. They settled on the outskirts of the city and Gudmund was unable to work. He had cherished dreams of getting into his trade in California after hearing stories of the gold down there and the fortunes that were being made. He had assured himself that Marie would be happy there and the boys would have a better opportunity to make something of themselves. But things looked bad and he became melancholy and would go for days without speaking to anyone, as he watched the borrowed money dwindle away.

Marie, instead of pinning to go back to her homeland, her beloved Denmark, her one breath, with and prayer always was that the way would open up so that they could get back to “Zion”. She felt that even little Dick would be made well if they could only get back to the church where the sick had so often been made well. She pled with God night and day with faith that he would listen to her prayer but the days and weeks passed and conditions remained about the same though they had found a doctor who was releaving Dicks pain with no promise of a cure.

Truth, they say is stranger than fiction and that is true in this story. As has been said before, no written record has ever been made of this miraculous event but one followed.
The hero of the event lived till 1954 and has been questioned by Gudmund’s grandchildren so many times for the details and always the story was the same so there never was any doubt in any of their minds about its truth.

One day little Abe came rushing into the house with money, lots of money, a hat full, pickets full, and packages of bills. The family sat down to listen to the child’s story. “Me and Dickie Sorensen was playin in that old cabin where we always play” he said, “And one of Dick’s marbles went down in a crack in the floor. We raised up a loose board to get it, and there was an old dirty sack with all this money in it and we divided it between us.”

By this time Gudmund was out of bed and staring in wonder at what he saw. He took hld of the boys arm, looked deep in his eyes and said tremblingly, “Abe are you sure you are telling the truth about this?”

“Yes father I am telling you the truth”, answered the boy. “Well, how much did Dickie get?” The father asked. “He got all he wanted,” said Abe. “There was lots of big gold dollars. Dickie said he wanted all of that, and I know this paper money is good so I took it. We put his in the sack and drug it down to his place and I carried this home myself. That is how we done it and its alright.”
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Marie and Gudmund decided it would be unwise to take it without reporting it to some one so it was decided that Marie should go and tell the story to the mayor of the city. She took some of the bills in her pocket and prayerfully made her way to the mayor’s office. He listened to her story as she told of the bad luck they had been having and about the great desire to get back to the church in Utah. She told him about her husband and child’s illness and how she felt that they must return to their people.

The man examined the bills and after some meditation he handed them back to her and told her to go her way and use the money as she wished. He said they were very old bills hidden from an old stage robbery and there would be no way to find who they belonged to and that nothing would be said about it.

Their few belongings were quickly packed and the family was on their way back to Zion. How much Dickie Sorensen got or what they did with it was never known. In answer to the question put to Abe the year before he died regarding the amount they got he said he had tried to figure it out many times and the least it could have been was seven thousand dollars. It had brought them back to Utah, bought them a nice little home and set his father Gudmund up in the gold smith and watch making business that sustained them well. It helped them to get good medical and surgical help for Dick so that he lived to manhood.


Gudmund was reinstated in the church. He recovered his health and lived to see five of the boys grow to manhood and be staunch members of the church. Dickie died in his twenties and Jacob died at age three. Gudmund plied his trade in various places in Utah, while calling Lehi, Utah his home and where Marie lived and reared a grandson who was left motherless as a baby. At the time of his death September 20, 1883 he was in Logan, Utah living with Chris Garff and family. From an old letter Chris wrote to his mother after the burial we read:

Dear mother, it was with peculiar feelings I packed fathers tools for the last time as I have helped to do so many times in his moving around from place to place and the last twenty-five years but I suppose all is as it should be and I am sure he is happy. Then why should we not be. I think we are in as much as we do our duty from day to day, as we live, that when our day come for departure, we shall feel content and satisfied to go even as he was.

Your loving son Chris

Marie lived until February 1907. She was much older than he by 15 years or so…

(Note_ Genealogy records actually put Marie at just 5 years older than Gudmundur.)