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Show Hans Peter Iverson Washington, Utah and Littlefield, Arizona born: 24 September, 1835 died: 12 December, 1921 In the early 1850s, Jeppe Iverson and his family were visited by Mormon missionaries from Utah in their home in Vestbirk, Skanderbourg, Denmark. The family converted to Mormonism and immigrated to Utah's heavily Scandinavian Sanpete County. They left behind their second-oldest son, Hans Peter, to serve a five year mission in his native land. During his mission, Hans Peter spent 9 months in prison for his religious activities and used the time to teach himself to read and write English. Later, with a new Danish bride, Hans Peter joined his family in Sanpete and established a farm, only to respond soon afterward to the Church's 1861 call for settlers to populate Utah's southwestern region known as Dixie. Moving 200 miles south, he settled on a farm in Washington and contributed his stone cutting and masonry skills to the construction of both the Cotton Factory and the temple in nearby St. George. In 1875, Hans Peter left his pregnant wife, Anna Dortea, and six children to serve a second Danish mission. While he was gone, he received word that his three youngest children had died of diphtheria and whooping cough. He returned to Utah in 1877 with two European women who eventually became his polygamous wives. The passage of federal anti-polygamy legislation in 1862 (Edmunds-Tucker Bill) had made life difficult for Mormon polygamists. As a result, Hans Peter spent 18 months away from Utah farming in Colorado's 26 Cowboy Poetry From Utah |