The Black Family: Verdure and Christian Lingo Christensen

Don't you just love to drive through Verdure between Monticello and Blanding? Recognize these homes?

Old Barton Homes in Verdure

2nd Story of the Old Barton Home

For all you Christensen relatives, I copied this information to show how our great-great grandfather, Christian Lingo Christensen came to Verdure and then later, to Monticello:

VERDURE The oldest Mormon settlement in the Blue Mountain Region was first known as South Montezuma. Later the name was changed to Verdure after the lush green growth along the stream bed. Verdure was settled by men of the Blue Mountain Mission March 11, 1887, under the direction of Pres. Francis A. Hammond of the San Juan Stake. He called George A. Adams, Frederick I. Jones, Parley R. Butt and Charles E. Walton to establish a new settlement at North Montezuma, later named Monticello. They first set up camp at Verdure to prepare for a permanent settlement at Monticello, six miles to the north. When company members moved on to Monticello in 1888 the Adams and Butt families remained at Verdure. By 1894 they were joined by the Alvin Decker, Willard Butt, Lingo Christensen, R.P. Hott and Francis Nielson families. Nielson operated a store and a school out of his log home, the first church met in the Decker home, and in 1893 a post office was installed in the Adams home. Verdure was a peaceful frontier village where cattle, farming and cheese-making were the main occupations. Gradually the settlers moved to Monticello.

The following is an exerpt from Chris Lingo Christensen's journal explaining how his father had died on the journey to Utah:

On the first of September, 1860, after crossing the North Platte River, we camped for noon on Horse Shoe Creek. Father came up to our wagon, and Mother announced that the pancakes were ready. He answered that he did not care to eat and said to Mother, "I understand there are many sage hens on the creek, and as we have many sick folks in the train, I will go and try for some fresh meat for them." He picked up his double-barreled shotgun and passed over to the East side, where he fell in with S. M. Lovendahl, a Swedish friend.

The two had not been gone long when a shot was heard, and Mr. Lovendahl came running into camp for help. He had shot Father. Nephi Johnson and others grabbed some bedding and ran to the wounded man's assistance. Mother and I got there as they were laying him on some bedding. He said but little, but it was all for the welfare of his widow and two small boys, one 5 1/2 years old and the other 3 1/2, and the prospect of another soon to be. It appears that Mr. Lovendahl had seen some sage hens, and they had dodged out of his sight, and while he yet had his gun cocked, he fell over some obstacle and shot Father in the bowels. About one-half of the shot hit the stock of Father's gun, but enough hit Father so he died sometime during the night.

Next morning before sunrise he was buried by the wayside in an unknown grave. His coffin was burlap sacks; and his gravestone, a buffalo skull. It was wonderful to see the sympathy and pity and weeping for Mother by large, husky women of the Great Sioux Nation, who had befriended us out in the wilderness on the plains of Nebraska. An old German gentleman took me by the hand, and each day we walked ahead of the train as far as the pilot would let us. We had a chance often to sit down and rest. He provided me with lunch each day, and I never shall forget the many times he would say, "Du haf ein gut fadder." (You have a good father.) I walked all the way from where Father died to Salt Lake City, where we arrived November 23, 1860.
Christian Lyngaa Christensen served as a missionary to the Indians in Arizona for several years. He married Ann Elizabeth Thompson, Severina Jensen, and Ane Johanne Jensen and was the father of twenty children. He knew seven languages, which earned him the nickname of "Chris-lingo." He died November 26, 1940, in Monticello, San Juan County, Utah.