Early Settlers

Early Settlers (Submitted by Nora Poulsen)

Andrew Peter Poulsen, one of the early settlers of Plain City, Utah, was born June 12, 184,2, at Ronne, Bornholm, Denmark. In his late twenties, he converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and, with his brother Hans, left their beautiful land of Denmark and came to Utah in 1869.

They worked on the railroad from the mouth of Weber Canyon to Ogden and then west of Hot Springs and north to Promontory Point.

Late in the fall of 1869, Andrew married Sena Benson, and their first home was a sod hut in the northwest part of Plain City. They lived there until they bought land east of the center of town and built an adobe house. This was a project that relatives and friends helped with, as all the adobe bricks were made by hand.

This house still stands today, having been remodeled and extra rooms built after World War I by his son, Hans Peter Poulsen. Today, a grandson, Bernard Il. Poulsen lives in the home.

Andrew Peter Poulsen loved horses and took great pride in keeping them well-groomed. He had two fine teams of horses, one a white team and the other a dark pair. For years, he was active in church and community work and used his "long back" surrey and fine white team of horses to carry the deceased to the church and cemetery. He gave freely of his time and money for the building up of the church and the community. He died September 20, 1922, at his home of stomach cancer.

Andrew's parents, Pedra Poulsen and his wife Karen Kirstine Rettru, also came to Utah from their native Denmark and settled in Plain City in the late fall of 1869. They brought their daughter Andrea Marie Poulsen with them. She later married Christine Olsen in 1872.

IIowanPeter Poulsen was born April 19, 1875, in Plain City, Utah, as a son of Andrew Peter Poulsen and Sena Benson. He was the second oldest and only son in a family of four children, three of whom lived to adulthood. He was educated in the Weber County schools and also attended Brigham Young Academy, where he was on the first football team of that school. He fulfilled an LDS mission to Denmark from June 26, 1901, to October 3, 1903. He left his wife and young son at home with her mother in Ogden, Utah.

Hans Peter or H. P. Poulsen, as he went by, to distinguish himself from his Uncle Han, was a farmer and dairyman. He was one of the charter members and a director of the Weber Central Dairy Association. For years, he was a director in the Farm Bureau Association. Most of his li, he was active in church and community work. He was a loving and devoted father and husband. For over 50 years, he was married to Ellen K., Maw, and they were the parents of seven children.

Hans Peter Poulsen was the first constable of Plain City, from 1915 to 1920, and was also a Deputy Sheriff of Weber County. While he was a constable, one of his first jobs was to round up several young men for stealing cattle from the townspeople and selling them to the slaughterhouse in West Ogden.

Traveling in those days by horse and buggy was much slower than the fast cars of today, but within a short time, the young men were taken into custody and placed in theWeberr County Jail, which was located in Ogden between Washington Boulevard and Adams Avenue on 24th Street.