A Loss Too Great

Herman F. F. Thorup or Herman Frederick Ferdinant Thorup, is no stranger to hardship. I find that anyone who lives on this earth endures great suffering of some kind before they leave it but there are a few people who seem to get more than enough for creating good character. For some, the tragedies they suffer seem to be greater than one can bear. My great great grandfather, Herman F. F. Thorup is one of these people. He endured many painful experiences beyond what I am writing about today, but for now we will look into this window of time when he suffered the loss of his entire first family. Herman was born April 19th 1849 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Here he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at age twelve and served his first mission at age 18 to Denmark. He was released early to emigrate with his family to the United States and they were able to settle in Utah. He married Sophia (Sophie) Augusta (Gustava) Johnson on May 28th 1872 at the age of 23. One year later their first child was born, May Josephine (B: July 10 1873). They had a total of four children together. Based on the dates of their children's births, this photo should be of May and Albert with their parents taken about 1876. Their third child, Christina lived less than a year. I do not know her cause of death yet, but I am looking for it and will post more information as I find it. A little over a year after this their fourth child was born, Sophia, and a few weeks later in October of 1878, Herman's dear wife Sophia died, probably from complications of childbirth.

A little over a year after this Herman F F arrives in England on November 7th 1879 with his brother John T. Thorup to be missionaries in Europe (again). This is a portion of a newspaper article announcing the safe arrival of a group of Elders (the Thorups among them) printed in The Millenial Star. How difficult it must have been to leave his three young children with no mother to care for them to serve this second mission for the church.
Where did his children go while he was gone?

Here we have two Census Records for 1880:




This one for Salt Lake City shows Neils Rasmussen with his wife Laura (Augusta Marie Thorup) and two children. - Albert and Mary Thorup, ages 5 and 7, nephew and niece to Neils. He left the two older children with his sister and brother-in-law in Salt Lake City.

Where is the Baby?




Here we find that he left his baby girl Sophia with his wife's side of the family in Spring City, Utah. She is just one year old and is granddaughter to John and Eliza Johnson.

Herman FF did return safely in July of 1881 and was reunited with his family. Herman did remarry and began to have more children when tragedy struck again.

Diphtheria

In 1884, Salt Lake and surrounding areas suffered with a Diphtheria outbreak. It was not an uncommon illness to find but it was usually able to be contained through strict quarantine rules. However, in 1884 it was unable to be stopped and it swept through many homes. Our poor HFF Thorup was forced to endure the loss of the rest of his three children from Sophia Augusta.

Here are two articles from the Deseret News dated December 24th (Christmas Eve) and December 31st (New Years Eve) of 1884.




All three of his children die of Diphtheria in 1884 within a few weeks of each other. He also had a fourth child die from his new wife at this same time of croup. Croup was often caused by the Diphtheria bacteria before immunizations and it came with deadly strength. You will also notice in this article that Neils Rasmussen lost a son at this time too.
I cannot even imagine how he survived this. He pushed on in life only to suffer a great deal more but his life is a true example of strength and trust in the Lord. His life continues to strengthen his posterity. A loss too great to even imagine and with more ahead is hard to fathom, but it was a meaningful mission that left a great legacy of faith for us to follow.


Their Children:
May Josephine (b. 7/10/1873 d. 1884),
Albert M. (b. 11/5/1874 d. 1884)
Christina S. (b. 10/14/1876 d. 8/22/1877)
Sophia C. (b. 9/17/1878 d. 1884).