Ingvald Conrad Thoresen was three years old in 1855 when his parents, Hans and Karen Andersen Thoresen, were converted to the Church in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway, and it wasn’t long before the small boy was called upon to make his first sacrifices for the gospel: Norwegians had not yet been granted religious freedom, and Hans, who was soon appointed baptist for the Saints in Christiania, was arrested for illegally baptizing converts. After each arrest, he served six- to ten-day prison sentences. Because his family was dependant on Hans’s daily labor as a cabinet-maker, these sentences meant hunger and want for the family. Hans, limited to a bread and water prison diet, hoarded his prison bread so that he could bring it home to his hungry children to tide them over until he could earn more.
Ingvald was baptized by his father while still in Norway, and the family emigrated to Deseret in 1863, when Ingvald was 11. They settled in Hyrum, Cache County, Utah – the place Ingvald called home for the rest of his long life. He completed the district school in Hyrum, equivalent to our modern eighth grade, and at age 16 began to work at farming, mining, and on the railroad in order to earn the money to put himself through high school at Logan. He succeeded, and became a school teacher, a profession he followed as he married and he and his wife Margaret began raising the first of their eventual 14 children.
At a local conference of the Church at Logan, Utah, held August 26, 1876 [Ingvald wrote in old age], I was called by President [Brigham] Young to take a mission to Scandinavia. President Young told me confidentially that President Ole N. Liljenquist of the said mission requested my assistance, especially in financial matters, as I had been bookkeeper and treasurer of the Hyrum United Order, when Brother Liljenquist was Bishop of that city. I was set apart by President George Q. Cannon at the close of said conference meeting and left Utah September 22, 1876, for said mission.
Ingvald did serve for about a year as mission bookkeeper. Then in September 1877, Elder John C. Sandberg, who had been presiding over the Goteborg Conference in Sweden and publishing the Swedish Nordstjarnan (the Swedish equivalent of the Millennial Star), was summoned home to take care of urgent family troubles.
That evening, after President Liljenquist had meditated on whom among all our Utah missionaries he should choose as a successor to Brother Sandberg, the president looked at me and said: “I know who must go to Goteborg, if the Lord does not change my mind before morning.”
That night I did not sleep much, with my Norwegian prejudice against Swedes, and my inability to fill President Sandberg’s place.
When President Liljenquist did appoint Ingvald to that position the next morning, Ingvald’s response was “I am not qualified.” President Liljenquist assured him, “The Lord can qualify you.”
“Accepting this call,” Ingvald wrote, “was the hardest trial I had ever met.”
He received a few hours’ crash course in managing a Swedish conference and publishing a magazine as President Sandberg passed through Copenhagen on his way home, then he headed to his new assignment.
I left for Goteborg by steamer, and after a rough passage landed in that city at 10 p.m., and found a couple of native Elders awaiting me. The next evening I met the Saints of the branch, received a hearty welcome, and dismissed my national prejudice forever. Felt okeh.
At his first district conference in Stockholm, Ingvald discovered that a great many of the Swedish converts, as well as at least one of the hardest working local elders, had come from the Vingaker area of Sweden – yet the Church had no missionaries working there in what was obviously a fruitful mission field (in Ingvald’s terms,”there were many Israelites there”). Carl A. Ek, the local missionary, explained that while he had “many friends in Vingaker, they dared not entertain me overnight, fearing that mob.” Nevertheless, after several days’ contemplation, Ingvald decided that it was time to proselyte in Vingaker, regardless of its history as being very hard on missionaries.
I asked Brother Ola Hanson, of Logan, an inoffensive elderly man [he was 60], to go to Vingaker and quietly get names and addresses of as many friendly farmers as possible. He went, but was ordered out the second day, and complied. But as I could not get the opening up of Vingaker off my mind, I immediately called on Brother Hanson to go back to Vingaker to finish the work assigned, and to take Brother John F. Olson, of Salt Lake City, with him, as companion and body guard, who had consented to go, being a stronger and younger man than Brother Ola Hanson.
They went, but were soon ordered out; Brother Hanson obeyed, and the next day Bro. Olson was “taken out” by a force of ten or twelve stout men, who abused him severely. Four or six of the ruffians lifted him up high and then slammed him down on the hard rolled gravel road two or three times; the last time Brother Olson failed to get up, and they left him, perhaps for dead. But he soon revived, got up and walked away, not feeling much injured. (This was his own story to me.)
Vingaker was let alone for a few months, then in early April, 1878, Ingvald asked John A. Quist, an elder newly arrived from Salt Lake City, to accompany him to Vingaker.
After having fully explained the Vingaker situation to him, I said: “If you will go with me up there, we will go and open the gospel door to those people.” He said he would go with me, and on April 2, 1878, we entered the district, held a good meeting that same evening and another one the following evening.
After the meeting we had a long conversation with a Johan Lund and his wife, where we stayed over night. They were very friendly.
They held more meetings, and soon announced that baptisms would be held in a creek near the Lund home. Four women, who had already become familiar with Mormonism through their friends and work elsewhere, were baptized. The mob took no action.
They held another meeting the day after the baptism, and opened the floor to questions. Mrs. Lund, with whom they had stayed earlier, asked, “Can you heal the sick?”
I answered: “Yes, with the help of the Lord.”
Then she related: “We have a very sick daughter, who is covered with sores, and who, the doctor has said, can not be cured.” She continued: “I believe you have power from God, and I intend to join your Church, but my husband, Johan Lund, is still doubting. But if you heal our daughter, he will also join.”
I replied: “We will be at your home tomorrow afternoon about 3 o’clock with consecrated oil and heal your daughter.”
After the meeting, Brother Quist “called” me for having answered the lady so direct. I said: “Excuse me, I am not proficient in the Swedish language, but if I said ‘we will heal your daughter,’ it must be done, and we must fast and pray to the Lord until it is accomplished.” Which we did.
We bought oil, went into the woods and consecrated it, pleaded with the Lord, jointly and singly, for about two hours, and received consolation very definitely.
We repaired to the home of Johan Lund, a very prominent farmer, where we found Mrs. Lund with a three-year-old daughter on her lap, in which position she said she had been most of the time for more than three months, the girl being very sick. I asked Brother Quist to anoint her head as well as exposed parts of the body freely, and I confirmed the anointing in a few words, adding: “You shall overcome this disease, live long and be healthy, and your whole family shall receive the gospel and soon be gathered with the Saints of God in Zion.”
When we took our hands off her head, she wanted to get down on the floor, where she had not been for months. She came across the room to us strangers, and I gave her a little pocket mirror, which she used in picking the sores off her face. We all shed tears of joy and thanksgiving.
Ingvald stayed in Vingaker for another two weeks, baptizing several more people. Within a year, a branch with more than 200 members had been established there. “We received no orders from the mob, but were served with a notice to meet before the combined church and school boards after ten days, to show cause why we should not leave the district.” (He did not record the outcome of that meeting.)
Ingvald had a busy life once he returned to Hyrum. He served as counselor and then president of the Hyrum Stake YMMIA, principal of the theological department in the Hyrum Sunday Schools, home teacher, home missionary, and other positions. In 1901 he was set apart as counselor to William C. Parkinson, president of the Hyrum Stake.
A Democrat, he served in several territorial legislatures and represented his county in the 1895 convention that wrote the constitution for the new State of Utah. He served as mayor of Hyrum, as well as, at different times, its judge, surveyor, city attorney, and school trustee, and served Cache County as prosecuting attorney, county surveyor, deputy assessor and tax collector, and commissioner.
Last year, 1937, a lady called me on the telephone from Sugar House [Salt Lake City] and asked if I was the Thoresen who had healed a little girl in Vingaker, Sweden, some sixty years ago?
I answered: “Yes.”
“Well,” she said, “I am that girl, and have not been sick to speak of, since. But my mother died yesterday and will be buried here at 10 a.m. tomorrow, and one of her last wishes was that you would speak at her funeral and tell of the conversion and my healing.”
I did so, and a splendid spirit prevailed.
Ingvald died on 15 April 1938, a few weeks after recording his mission experiences for assistant church historian Andrew Jenson.
Maurine, this one’s for you!
This is good stuff. A few thoughts:
Evidently, the Church hasn’t always emphasized obeying the law of the land like it does now. Can you imagine extending a calling that leads to repeated jail sentences in today’s Church?
“Which of the Utah missionaries.” Hmmm… why were native Scandanavians automatically disqualified? Prejudice? Or was it a practical matter, such as needing to correspond in English with Salt Lake?
I wonder which tribe the Israelites in Vingaker belonged to (“If we knew, they wouldn’t be lost…”)
Hard not to be stereotypical in my joy, Ardis. This is wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing it. It includes many things that are interesting, but also poignant.
Clark, I think that illegal proselytizing is generally rare in our history. According to Massimo Introvigne, the reason that the JW’s have a larger presence in Italy than us is that they were willing to come in and proselytize illegally and they got all the prospective converts.
Thanks, Clark. That was a longstanding, unjustified assumption, I think, that only “Valley Elders” were qualified to be administrators. What can I say? We’re human!
I thought you might like this, J. If the software ever gets through processing the attachments, I’m trying to email you a source document for your files on healing.
Ardis, another good one. Where did all the information come from, some compilation of Andrew Jenson’s?
Thanks, Martin. I’m sure that Elder Thoresen’s account is somewhere in the materials compiled by Andrew Jenson. It was published in the Church News in 1938, though, where I found it. Other parts of the story came from family websites — family historians who post biographical accounts of their ancestors are a fount of detail (although in Thoresen’s case, his descendants apparently know nothing more about his mission than the dates he served).
OK Ardis, I’ll take the bait.
Hyrum, Utah Stake was organized on 30 April 1901. Prior to that time all of the Cache Valley belonged to the Cache Stake. On 31 January, in a meeting of the Quorum of Twelve in the Salt Lake Temple, the brethren discussed the future division of Cache Stake. Several names were presented for stake president, because “they would be the most likely to break down what is known as the Thatcher influence in Cache Valley.” (The Thatcher brothers were very strong leaders in commerce, banking, civil, and Church matters.)
At the same time Hyrum Stake was created out of the south part of Cache Stake, Benson Stake was created by taking part of the north end of Cache Stake.
The new stake president was William C. Parkinson. He chose Ingvald Thoresen as his second counselor. A few days later, Apostle Matthias F. Cowley met Moses Thatcher on the street, who asked him what influence had been used to put Brother Thoresen in office, as in his opinion, Brother Thoresen had always been a chronic kicker against the Priesthood.
When this was reported in another Quorum meeting in the Salt Lake Temple, Apostle John Henry Smith said that he and Apostle Marriner W. Merrill felt that the choice of Brother Thoresen would result in good, as he wielded a strong influece on a great many of his Scandinavian brethren.
I forgot to say that Ingvald Thoresen, as second counselor, along with the first counselor, were released on 1 January 1905. The stake president served for 19 years.
I knew you’d know him!
Less than four years as a counselor in the stake presidency seems a very short time, especially contrasted to the length of Pres. P.’s service. I wonder what “kicker against the Priesthood” meant in his case? Something with his politics, maybe?
Thanks for what you’ve added here.
Vingaker is in the County of Sodermanlands and unless their records were burned, the minutes for the meeting should still be in existence. Virtually all Swedes have a general working knowledge of English and would likely respond to an inquiry regarding this meeting with the ecclesiastical and educational authorities. The oldest or largest Lutheran Church would be a good place to begin. Church attendance is now next to nothing in Sverige so the minister would have the time to look up the minutes given a close approximate timeframe. It would be fascinating to read the gist of Elder Thoresen’s defense for defying the mob of 4-6 big Swedes and boldly returning to Vingaker’s Kommune.
I know what a “Mission District” is, but what is or was a “Conference”? From the context, it had another meaning in addition to a gathering/assembly for the purpose of listening to speeches. Was it larger than or smaller than a “district”?
In those days, a conference was roughly equivalent to today’s stake — a collection of branches in a geographical region. They could be pretty big when the branches were widely scattered. (Isn’t that how “district” is used in today’s areas outside of stakes? I’m not sure.)
Velikye, that’s an awesome idea. Can I delegate you to follow up on it?
I really loved this. What a life of service to the Church and his native countrymen. Thanks for taking the time to put this one up.
Thanks, john!
“District” is used in two ways, which can cause confusion.
First, missionaries are divided into districts, and districts are led by a district leader. In the mission I served in (a long time ago), each district consisted of from four to ten missionaries, all serving in the same ward or branch.
In areas where stakes have not yet been organized, the members are also organized into districts, which consist of a number of branches. The member districts are presided over by a district president, and the district is organized much like a stake.
Conference was a term used by other evangelizing churches. I’m not sure when we switched away from it.
Ardis, you are simply amazing. You had no idea of course but this one was for me (and other descendants of the Quist/Ek lines). I will be sharing this with many of them.
I had never heard this incredible bit of family history. In fact I had no idea there was any connection between the two families until some 26 years after these events occurred in Sweden.
In 1904 shortly after the death of his first wife Carl August Ek, the “hardest working local elder who came from the Vingaker area”, married Hilda Augusta Quist the niece of John Anderson Quist, the “elder newly arrived from SLC” who accompanied Ingvald to Vingaker and anointed the little Lund girl who was healed. A few years later two of the daughters of Carl Ek by his first wife (Louise Ek and Ebba Ek) married two nephews of John Quist (Frank Quist and Goddard Quist). The two daughters married two brothers of their stepmother. Confusing and convoluted, but that’s how family history is. I love it!
John A. Quist died in Vingaker in 1890 while serving his third mission in Sweden. No, he wasn’t killed by a mob. He just got sick, then died a week later at age 45 leaving a wife and children in Utah. He was buried in his brother’s family plot in Goteborg. He was the first missionary to die while serving in Sweden.
Carl A. Ek served as a local elder from 1872 to 1878, emigrated to Utah and worked as a stone cutter on the Logan Temple. He married one of his converts, Mathilda Ekstrom, in the Endowment House and they had eight children. He had three more children with Hilda. He served another mission to Sweden from 1882 to 1884.
Photographs and short biographies of several of the people in this story, including Ingvald Thoresen, can be found in the book “Scandinavian Jubilee Album” published in 1900 by Erastus Snow and Andrew Jensen.
Ardis, any chance you could point me to any of those “family websites” you used to compile this story.
I apologize for the length of this comment which may or may not be of interest. I think I’ve read every post on Keepa but have rarely commented. I couldn’t resist this time.
One last comment. Mission experiences have changed a little over the years. My son recently returned from serving in the Oslo Norway Mission. He loved it and the people loved him. He never experienced one mob, and never served a single prison sentence for illegally baptizing. Actually I think he would have gladly served a 6 to 10 day sentence for baptizing. Baptizing is something he and many missionaries to Norway these days never experience.
Jim, it’s very difficult to type a coherent comment when you have me dancing around my desk in excitement. I’m always pleased when someone finds a personal connection to a post, but this is different by several degrees. I’ll contact you privately with sources. Thanks so much for taking the time to type out this comment!