Kari Sanderson
Margit
Sanderson
Ellen
Sanders
Harriet
Sanders
Sondra
Sanders, Sr.
Asse
Sanderson
Ole
Sanderson
Aagot (Ellen) Sanders Kimball
The missing orphans of Osten & Aase Sondresson
Aagot
(known in America as Ellen) was born on Bakkajord. She
was the third child born to her parents. She was born
April 11, 1823. Ellen was with the family when they
arrived in New York Harbor on August 25, 1837. She
traveled to Chicago and on to Beaver Creek with her
parents and siblings. At the death of her parents the
children were scattered with other families and their
meager possessions were taken with the children. Ellen
went to LaSalle County in the Fox River Settlements.
There were many Norwegian families and they assisted her
and her siblings.
Sometime in the years 1842 Elder
George P. Dykes, a Mormon missionary, traveled to LaSalle
County preaching the restored gospel. Ellen accepted the
message of the missionaries and along with her brother
Sondra were baptized into the Church. There were nearly
one hundred members in the area and she was prominent in
the church activities of those years. In October of 1844
she went with her sister Harriet, and her brother Sondra,
to Nauvoo, Illinois to a conference of the Church. The
Prophet Joseph Smith had been murdered just a few months
earlier and there were contenting factors trying to take
over leadership of the Church. Ellen and her sister
Harriet stayed in Nauvoo after the conference. Her
brother returned to LaSalle County. Ellen and her sister
lived in the home of Charles C. Rich. On the 7th of
January in 1846, she, along with her sister Harriet, were
joined in plural marriage to Apostle Heber C. Kimball.
With this marriage they were both known as Ellen and
Harriet Sanders Kimball.
Ellen was chosen by Apostle Kimball
to accompany him in the first pioneer wagon train that
left Nauvoo after being driven out by mobs. They lived on
the plains of Iowa in Winter Quarters (now known as
Florence, Iowa). Ellen came to the Salt Lake Valley with
that first company of pioneer. She was one of only three
women in that group that arrived on July 24, 1847. She is
depicted on the "This Is The Place Monument" in
Pioneer Park at the mouth of Emigration Canyon in Salt
Lake City. She is indeed the most famous of the Sanders
pioneers.
Ellen lived in the original fort
that was built upon arrival in the valley. She had four
children born in the territory and a number died early in
childhood. After the death of her husband, Heber C.
Kimball she removed to Meadowville, in Bear Lake Valley.
While on a visit to Salt Lake City seeking medical help
for a dropsical condition she died at the home of her
brother Sondra Sanders in South Cottonwood. She died on
November 22, 1871. She was a great pioneer and a true
representative of her Norwegian ancestry.