From my grandmother, Mary Chandler, to her son Paul, my father.
Written in 1943.

"Grandmother Jensen came to this country as Dorothea Elizabeth Lempke at the
age of 13.  She was born in Prussia September 8, 1849.  It took 13 weeks coming
with a crowd of cousins and sisters.  She told of the shortage of water, how they all
had a small bottle each day.  She settled in New York where her sister ran a bakery.

Richard Jensen also was born in Prussia, Germany in 1847.  He skipped the
country to avoid serving in the German Army.  He was very well educated.
He was an artist by trade and did some very lovely oils, he did frescoing in many
homes in New York.

They were married in 1869, having met in this country.  They lived in New York
for four years where Louise and Ben were born.  From there they came to
Burlington, Iowa and lived there the rest of their lives.  There was Anna,
Richard, Dora, William, Mary, Francis, Bertha, Laura, Albert and Peter, born in the 
same house.  Two children died in infancy, Francis and Albert.  When I was born my
father was in New York doing frescoing in the Gould home and didn't see me
until I was one month old, I was the seventh child.

My mother died in 1925 and father 1901.  Mother's life wasn't always a bed of
roses, she had so many mouths to feed and on very little, but we, were always
taught to regard our elders as always right in his or her judgment.  My father was a
great student of the classic and appreciated opera.  He always found the means to
go and take mother.  I remember her trudging away in her lovely paisley shawl. 
Her entertainment was mostly at home or in the neighborhood so she seldom left
home.  She was small of stature but very capable in every way, and taught us all
the arts, such as; cooking, housekeeping and sewing.

Our vocations as children were mapped out each day.  Mornings, we had to do our
crocheting before play.  Mother lived to a ripe old age of 78, living in the house she
first came to when she came from New York.  Dora, Will and Dick are the children
that have passed on since mother's death, they have left families.