Jacobsen women
The Jacobsen family had prospered for generations on an island farm in the region of Soro, Denmark. However, jealous neighbors murdered Birthe's husband, and persecution due to the family's conversion to the LDS faith drove Birthe to leave her homeland with her young family. She sold the farm and purchased five pairs of shoes and eight changes of clothing for each child to take on the migration. The family sailed on the Humboldt in 1862, a ship voyage during which many travelers died of cholera. Two of Birthe's sons died of measles on the wagon journey west. Arriving in Utah, the family struggled with hostile Indians and Birthe's increasingly poor health, as well as common immigrant challenges of a new language and culture. Birthe's teenage daughter Mary had to grow up quickly and assume adult responsibilities in the family.
Mary enjoyed the adventures of crossing the plains as a young girl, watching a whale trail their ship and climbing Chimney Rock. Unable to continue her formal schooling in Utah, Mary learned English through borrowed books. She married a fellow Danish immigrant, Isaac Sorensen, and they raised ten children. Mary helped run his farm, and produced and sold forty pounds of butter each week. Their home was a community gathering place, a refuge for immigrants, and known for music and industry.
Mary had attended a sewing school in Denmark where she started this sampler with the bright thread, a contrast to the faded American thread with which she embroidered the initials of her brothers who died on the journey, and symbolic of how her "Wiking" heritage remained strong in her life.