The lives of missionary wives in pioneer Utah were often filled with financial difficulty, childhood illness, and social isolation. Church leaders intended these struggles to be a holy sacrifice, but the lived reality was rarely thought of as religious devotion. Additionally, many women constantly worried that their husbands would marry other wives. Despite their critical role in populating the 19th-century American West, few records of their experiences survive. In this interview, Jennifer Lund and Elizabeth Oberdick Anderson highlight the rare letters of Sarah “Sanie” Peterson Lund, a Scandinavian immigrant whose weekly correspondence to her missionary husband has been preserved.
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“We All Must Be Crasy”: Sanie Lund and the Missionary Wife Experience
Why did the Church call so many men on missions when they were still struggling to build homes?
In the second half of the 19th century, Latter-day Saints pursued both Zion-building at home and missionary work abroad with a millennial fervor. They believed the Savior’s second coming was imminent, and also that they, as a people, had received the charge to share the gospel throughout the world.
The number of missions opened and the number of missionaries called, particularly in the early 1850s, were astounding.
All of this while people were battling drought and grasshoppers, experiencing conflict with Native Peoples, and trying to establish farms and businesses.
The result was that much of the daily labor of Zion-building in individual families fell on the shoulders of the missionaries’ wives, who had to manage the full burden of farms, households, and businesses.
Why has the perspective of the “wife left behind” been so rarely documented in historical archives?
In a church community that highly values and celebrates missionary service, family and professional historians have focused primarily on documenting the lives of missionaries and the growth of missions. Telling the story of the wives and children left behind is further complicated by the scarcity of sources.
While every missionary was expected to keep a journal and write letters as part of their assignment, missionary wives had little time to keep diaries or other personal records.
Most of their letters never made it to an archive.
Letters written to missionary husbands are the primary source for understanding the experiences of missionary wives. Yet, most of those letters never made it to an archive.
Add to that, women’s history as a discipline really only came into its own in the second half of the 20th century, so for a long time, people weren’t trying to find those records or understand their stories.
Fortunately, today, archivists and historians are very aware of the gender gaps in the historical record and have worked to fill them.
How does Sanie Lund’s story complicate the “romanticized” view of pioneer missionary service?
The “romanticized” image of a faithful woman cheerfully sending her husband off into the mission field was never reality. Sanie Lund was certainly a faithful Latter-day Saint, but there was nothing cheerful about their goodbyes. Parting was always gut-wrenching.
Although some women may have put on a brave face, Sanie did not. She let it all hang out.
Nothing is sugar-coated.
That’s one of the reasons that Sanie Peterson Lund’s letters are so valuable: nothing is sugar-coated. She makes no effort to protect her husband from information that might cause him concern.
On the contrary, she is brutally honest, making a point of telling him exactly what is going on at home so he can share the emotional burdens she carries.
And she writes with gritty realism, describing daily life in a household of rambunctious boys complete with fights, disobedience, illness, and accidents, sprinkled with plenty of humor.
“My Saucy Tongue”: The Unfiltered Voice of Sanie Peterson Lund
Who was Sanie Peterson Lund, and how did her “saucy” personality define her correspondence with her husband?
Sarah (“Sanie”) Peterson Lund was one of thousands of women in the Church who experienced long periods of separation, loneliness, and frustration as their missionary husbands served for months or years away from the family hearth.
Fortunately for us, we are privy to Sanie’s recorded experiences in her long, weekly missives to her husband.
Her letters reflect her saucy tongue frequently.
By her own admission, her letters reflect her saucy tongue frequently: “I have been looking over what I have writen it sounds rather saucy, but I do not mean it exactly that way. but I do have lots to agravate me.”
Sanie was nothing if not honest in her correspondence.
She rarely minced words when addressing her absent husband, whether the topic was town gossip, financial worries, or the fear that her husband, Anthon Lund, would bring home a second wife from the mission field.
There is no whitewashing effect in her letters, no submissiveness or shying from complaining. She is supportive and accepting of her lot as a missionary wife, but she is going to make sure Anthon knows that he is not the only one sacrificing for the Gospel.
How did Sanie’s background influence her self-perception and writing style?
Sanie was raised in a loving family, but nevertheless, similar to many women of her time, felt hesitant and unsure of her abilities, especially in her writing skills:
well good night and kindle the fire with this as soon as you have read it and do not let any one get a glimpse of the letters your ignorant Sanie writes. this writing looks like all the rest horrid but if I burn this up you will not get any this week so you burn it for me please.
Sarah Peterson Lund
A sentiment often expressed at the conclusion of her letters is that they be destroyed so no one else would read them. We imagine she was quite surprised when she learned that Anthon Lund had bound the letters in book form, rather than burning them as she had requested!
Sanie’s writing style reflects the honesty and forthrightness that are intrinsic to her personality. There is no artifice present in her musings, no pretensions, no grand eloquent statements—just simple facts and feelings, unadorned with flowery language or false platitudes.
“Man and Woman Both”: The Realities of Sacrifice in Pioneer Utah
What was Sanie going through when writing that she was tired of “being man and woman both”?
In August, when Sanie penned these words, she had just nursed her son Henry through an illness, was herself suffering from an infection, and was dealing with getting hay and coal and other supplies in for the anticipated winter ahead.
Frustration was very evident in her remarks:
I do hate this being man and woman both. it does not agree with me. I dont like it but will have to like it or not another year. . .
you say you are happy to be there because it is your duty to be there. well I supose your duty is a pleasant one it seems to be my duty to wait on sick children but I cant say I am happy to do so but you are free from care an[d] anxiety. while ^I am^ loaded down with it in one form or another and that makes the diference. I often wonder how President Lund would feel to [be] home nursing sick children one week out and another in and his wife in Denmark enjoying herself. I dont beleive it would agree with his religion as well as the poses you now hold.
Sanie Lund
Men’s and women’s roles in the 19th century were still somewhat proscribed and segregated. As a result, with Anthon not present at home, Sanie was forced to take on his role, in addition to her own duties—duties that were often unfamiliar to her and stretched her beyond her comfort zone.
How did the realities of childhood illness impact her emotionally?
In 19th-century America, illness and the potential for death were constant threats. There were no antibiotics, and most vaccines had not yet been developed, so little could be done to intervene in the course of the disease. All medical practitioners or parents could do was try to alleviate some of the symptoms—and the burden fell mostly on parents.
Sanie writes about walking the floors with a sick child, staying awake several days in a row to tend to a sickbed, and worrying until she made herself ill.
Sanie was especially terrified that one of the children would die while Anthon was gone.
Anthon, when he was home, was an attentive father—walking the floors and taking night shifts. So, when Anthon was gone, Sanie had to carry all the physical and emotional labor herself.
Sanie was especially terrified that one of the children would die while Anthon was gone. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing a child while she was solely responsible for its care.
Fortunately, the Lund children all survived their father’s missionary service; although they do lose two children while Anthon is present at home: an infant daughter who died of whooping cough and a son who succumbed to diphtheria.
Anthon’s diary, kept in the solitude of their son’s quarantine with diphtheria, is one of the most heartbreaking and agonizing accounts either of us has ever read.
What was it like for Sanie to attend church and social events on her own despite being a married woman?
Sanie rarely attended church and social events on her own. Getting her youngest children, especially, to behave properly often was overwhelming and she gave up and stayed home instead. On the occasions she did attend, she usually went solo and then wrote an upbeat, newsy report to Anthon.
She was not an inactive member by any means. It was just difficult to participate on a regular basis with her family, her health, and other responsibilities.
But this was a common occurrence during that time period. Plus, with her extended family nearby, she was always in the loop of church and civic affairs.
How did repeated mission calls—spanning over 7 years of marriage—affect the family dynamic?
Sanie Lund was a resilient character, and even though it was a trial for her to have her husband gone, she developed strong coping mechanisms in raising her family and caring for her household.
As she describes in the letters, Sanie often took the initiative in maintaining and improving their residential lot. Making decisions on her own became second nature, with her often writing Anthon after the fact. She depended on her extended family and hired help, in addition to the boys (who cooperated in varying degrees).
Perhaps the one long-term disadvantage that emerges from the responsibilities added to her shoulders while Anthon was away is Sanie’s health. She suffered from many physical ailments that might have been tied to her emotional state and the extra burden placed upon her as both father and mother.
“The Specter of Polygamy”: Anxiety and the Plural Marriage Threat
Why was the fear of a husband marrying a plural wife while on a mission so prevalent?
Although missionaries were counseled to focus on preaching and leave thoughts of romance behind, the reality was that many missionaries met women during their missionary service or on the journey home with immigrants that they would eventually marry.
Sanie Lund had to look no further than her own father, who met the woman who became his second wife, on his mission to Norway. And there were plenty of examples around her in Ephraim, Utah, of men who met polygamous wives on their missions.
She expected Anthon to have his eye out for a prospective bride and she was not happy about it. The thought is a constant anxiety that permeates the letters.
What makes her letters about polgyamy unique?
Sanie Lund’s letters provide a unique glimpse into the anxieties of a woman facing the likelihood that her husband will marry a second wife for two reasons:
- She is so brutally honest about her feelings.
- She expresses her sentiments in letter after letter over more than two years.
You get a sense of the sustained worry that a single account can never portray.
While we’ve read correspondence by other missionary wives that occasionally mention their fears of polygamy, we’ve never seen anything like the account that unfolds in Sanie’s letters.
She is bold and biting in her disdain, but she is nevertheless resigned to the fact she will someday have to share her husband with another woman.
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What do Sanie’s fears reveal about the emotional costs of polygamy—even when it never materialized?
Even though Anthon Lund never married polygamously, the threat of a second wife hung over their marriage during their early decades together.
Anthon seriously contemplated a second marriage and Sanie knew it.
She deeply loved her husband, but there is an undercurrent of tension revealed in the letters that she can’t fully trust him, although she avers time and again that he is the only one for her.
Most of her comments about plural marriage are direct and biting.
She sometimes playfully teases her husband about his intentions, but most of her comments about the possibility of a plural marriage are direct and biting.
Her emotions are raw and she bares them with as much emotional power she can muster, as if she is trying to persuade her husband that she is the only one who can love him with such intensity.
“A Mission of My Own”: Household Labor as Religious Devotion
How did Sanie Lund view the trials caused by her husband’s missionary service?
Although supportive, Sanie viewed Anthon’s missions as a hardship for their family and mentions more than once that while “the men get religious when away [on a mission] it dosent have that efect on the women.”
She is resigned to the fact that her role in this partnership is to hold down the fort at home, but there is an underlying current that the circumstances definitely favor the missionary.
Loyalty and love always remain forefront.
Still, she is also the daughter, sister, and aunt of missionaries and while disparaging her own outward commitment to the program at times, Sanie is still dedicated and loyal to the Church and to her husband’s leadership callings.
The loneliness and struggles make her partnership difficult, but loyalty and love always remain forefront.
Did Sanie think of her trials as a form of religious devotion?
We are not sure that Sanie feels in the moment that her domestic labors are a “holy act of religious devotion.” That may be the ideal, but it was not the case for her—and probably not for most other women either!
It was a goal expressed by the leadership of the Church, for sure, but in practice was not always a reality. Most missionary wives struggled and just did the best they could, recognizing the sacrifice perhaps, but not always the immediate connection to religious devotion.
Obedience was acknowledged and tempered by guilt, but in the moment a celestial connection was fleeting as Sanie labored to keep her family healthy and safe while she and Anthon were apart.
Afterwards, reflection most likely highlighted success, and the sacrifices made earlier could then be seen in the light of “religious devotion.”
What role does the Manti Temple play in Sanie’s letters to her missionary husband?
Sanie Lund often mentions the construction work on the temple, even taking her boys to see the progress on it. As with many of the Saints in the Sanpete Valley, the Manti Temple was a symbol of faith, the completion thereof allowing them to experience sacred ordinances without traveling long distances.
Throughout her letters, it is clear that Sanie feels bound to Anthon and her children eternally.
There is an underlying belief that yes, she is experiencing trials and hardships with her husband away, but the knowledge is sure that those trials will end at some point and not only will they be together again in Utah, but that the relationship with her beloved husband and children will endure forever.
“A Help-Mate to Thy Servant”: The Research and Legacy of the Lund Letters
How did you use Anthon Lund’s journals to supplement Sanie’s correspondence?
Anthon’s journals were invaluable in offering the other side of the coin to Sanie’s letters. Often, we were able to study his remarks upon receiving his wife’s posts. Events and situations were sometimes explained more fully, clarifying details and circumstances.
It is very clear in his journal that he constantly worried and fretted about his family—Sanie’s health and the burden of care she carried upon her shoulders; the children’s upbringing, and their disobedience or lack of respect towards their mother; and the family’s financial situation.
All these concerns were evident in Anthon’s record, providing proof that while his focus was mission business, those he had left behind were never out of his thoughts.
Why are Sanie’s letters such a rare find in the history of the American West?
For various reasons, Sanie’s letters are exceptional. Her honesty paints a clear picture of her circumstances, while her newsy musings offer historical tidbits about the town, the church, and her neighbors.
Undoubtedly, other missionary wives wrote faithfully to their husbands also, but much of their correspondence has been lost to time. Presumably letters were lost or not kept and brought back home from their postings. Possibly, later family members disposed of any letters that did survive the years, not realizing the historical value such missives possessed.
Anthon gave us a wonderful gift by preserving Sanie’s letters (against her repeated wishes).
Anthon gave us a wonderful gift by preserving Sanie’s letters (against her repeated wishes). Perhaps he did so for purely sentimental reasons, but thankfully he gave us such a rich treasure to aid us in understanding at least one woman’s view of a difficult passage of time, one that was shared by many of her contemporaries.
Gratefully the Lund descendants also realized the value of these letters and made sure to protect and conserve that legacy.
Given Anthon Lund’s eventual rise to the First Presidency, how might Sanie’s letters have influenced the real-world policies he later shaped?
Sanie’s message came through loud and clear and as an apostle, his assessment likely had considerable influence as church leaders grappled with the shift to mostly unmarried missionaries.
By the time Anthon Lund became a counselor in the First Presidency, the shift away from married missionaries had already begun.
The subject was openly debated in the 1890s. The Contributor even featured a series of interviews with mission presidents that addressed the topic while Anthon was serving as European Mission President.
He was the only one who pointed out the hardships on families.
Most of the mission presidents favored married elders for their maturity, experience, and wisdom—qualities that were needed when serving as branch or district presidents or counseling church members.
A few mission presidents wanted young, unmarried elders because they were energetic, focused on the work, and not pining away for their wives and children.
Anthon was clearly in the first camp.
However, he was the only one of those interviewed who pointed out the hardships on the families married missionaries left at home.
He argued that missionaries were often called away at a time when their children were most in need of a father’s guidance. And he emphasized the burden’s carried by their wives, whom he suggests had “the harder mission.”
How do these letters help us re-evaluate the role and impact of women in the 19th-century American West?
The Latter-day Saints—especially Latter-day Saint women—have often been ignored in Western American history—what is sometimes referred to as the “donut hole” of the West. In many ways, the Latter-day Saint experience is different, yet it is also similar to other western peoples.
Sanie Lund’s letters demonstrate that Latter-day Saint women’s religious devotion was coupled with considerable economic power. She had strong opinions and was not afraid to express them, even when she knew they would rankle her husband.
She chaffs under the patriarchal confines of the world in which she lives and exhibits budding feminist attitudes.
Women should be integrated into the fabric of what it meant to populate the West.
She is resigned that her husband will one day practice polygamy, but she will not go quietly—adamantly voicing her objections.
And the letters reveal rich details about the cultural assimilation of Scandinavian immigrants and the conflicts between white settlers and Native Peoples, as well as conflicts between devout Latter-day Saints and apostates. We see how issues of ethnic, racial, and religious identity play out in one small town.
More than anything else, Sanie’s letters argue that Latter-day Saints—and especially Latter-day Saint women should be taken seriously in Western American studies and integrated into the fabric of what it meant to populate the West in the 19th century.
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About the Scholars
Jennifer L. Lund is an independent historian and museum consultant. She worked in museums and historic sites for more than forty years and is the former director of the Historic Sites Division of the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She has published a number of articles in academic journals and books. She is the 2024 winner of the Leroy S. Axland Best Utah History Article Award from the Utah Historical Society.
Elizabeth Oberdick Anderson, a graduate of Brigham Young University, is an independent historian and editor. A former copy editor for the Journal of Mormon History, she is the author of Cowboy Apostle: The Diaries of Anthony W. Ivins, 1875–1932, recipient of the Mormon History Association’s Best First Book Award and the Utah Division of State History Board’s Best Documentary Book in Utah History Award.
Further Reading
Explore more From the Desk articles about Latter-day Saint women and the complexities of married life in pioneer Utah:
- Why Did Susa Young Gates Get Divorced?
- How Important Was ZCMI to Utah Pioneers?
- Did Belle Harris Go to Prison Because of Polygamy?
- Who Was Vienna Jaques?
- Why Are the Diaries of Emmeline B. Wells Important?
Sarah “Sanie” Peterson Lund Resources
Read what top scholars and publishers say about Sanie Lund, a missionary’s wife in pioneer Utah who wrote her husband candid weekly letters for more than two years:
- We All Must Be Crasy: The Correspondence of Sarah Peterson Lund to Her Missionary Husband, 1872–1894 (University of Utah Press)
- “I Am Not Considered Much of a Polygamist”: Sarah Peterson Lund Writes to Her Missionary Husband (Journal of Mormon History)
- Those They Left Behind: A Look at Missionary Wives and Children (BYU Studies)
- Sarah Ann Peterson Lund (Wilford Woodruff Papers)
- Anthon H. Lund Journals and Papers Now Available (Church History Library)
