Carl Christian Amussen (May 20, 1825 – October 29, 1902), also referred to as Carl Christian Asmussen, and with Carl at times spelled Karl, was

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

's first jeweler. Karl Amussen, the third son of Danish sea captain Karl Asmussen and his wife Petra Asmussen née Johansen, was born in

Køge Køge (, older spelling ''Kjøge'') is a seaport on the coast of Køge Bugt (''Bay of Køge'') 39 km southwest of Copenhagen. It is the principal town and seat of Køge Municipality, Region Sjælland, Denmark. In 2022, the urban area had a p ...

, Zealand just outside Copenhagen, Denmark on May 20, 1825. Not wishing to follow in his ancestor's footsteps, Amussen apprenticed as a watchmaker, jeweler and dentist. His skill in jewelry-making was so great that he spent some time as court jeweler to the Czar of Russia. Additionally he was involved in that trade in Great Britain, Russia and Australia and circumnavigated the globe twice over the course of his lifetime. In 1857 Amussen moved to

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, New Zealand where he opened a jewelry store. It was there in 1864 he learned of

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(LDS Church) from reading Parley P. Pratt's pamphlet ''The Voice of Warning''. The stamp on the booklet noted that it had been published in Liverpool, England. Assuming that that was the headquarters of the church, he travelled to Liverpool. On arrival he was informed that the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints were actually in SLC, Utah. While in Liverpool he was taught more about the gospel and was later baptized into the LDS Church by Elisha H. Groves in 1864 and in 1865 moved to

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. Amussen was then called to serve a mission in New Zealand where he organized an LDS congregation in Kaipoi.''Deseret News Church Almanac'', 2010 Edition, p. 540. In 1868 Amussen returned to Salt Lake City where he met

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and, upon Young's advice, purchased land on Main Street where he built a jewelry store. He brought supplies via covered wagon and the mirrors that once adorned his store were later used in the Salt Lake Temple.. The Amussen Building, designed by pioneer architect William Harrison Folsom, was the first fire-proof building in the Utah Territory. It was constructed of sandstone with a slate roof, cement basement and pane glass windows. The two-story store towered over the surrounding one-story adobe structures and remains standing to this day as a testament to its sound construction. Amussen was also connected with the early American department store,

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and the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company. Amussen served two missions for the LDS Church in Denmark and also later served a mission in Australia. He was ordained a

Seventy 70 (seventy) is the natural number following 69 and preceding 71. In mathematics 70 is: * a sphenic number because it factors as 3 distinct primes. * a Pell number. * the seventh pentagonal number. * the fourth tridecagonal number. * the fif ...

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. After Amussen retired from the jewelry business he invested in real estate in

Logan, Utah Logan is a city in Cache County, Utah, United States. The 2020 census recorded the population was 52,778. Logan is the county seat of Cache County and the principal city of the Logan metropolitan area, which includes Cache County and Franklin ...

and owned business properties in the center of Logan. He was a polygamist with three wives: Anna K. Nielsen, and sisters Martha McIsaac Smith and Barbara McIssac Smith. Amussen had 18 children by his three wives. His youngest child, Flora Amussen, born in 1901, married LDS Church president

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. For the last several years of his life Amussen resided in Logan, where his son Carl S. Amussen was later a prominent car dealer in the 1910s.

Notes

References

Sheri L. Dew Sheri Linn Dew (born November 21, 1953) is an American author, publisher, the executive vice president of Deseret Management Corporation, and chief executive officer of the Deseret Book Company, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dew has als ...

. ''Ezra Taft Benson: A Biography''. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1987) p. 67-69. *
Noble Warrum, Charles W. Morse and W. Brown Ewing. ''Utah Since Statehood''. (Chicago and Salt Lake City:S. J. Clark, 1920) Vol. 4, p. 398.
*''Church News'', August 22, 1992.
Article on Amussen building with bio of Amussen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amussen, Carl Christian 1825 births 1902 deaths 19th-century Mormon missionaries Converts to Mormonism Danish emigrants to New Zealand Danish emigrants to the United States Danish Latter Day Saints Danish Mormon missionaries Mormon missionaries in Australia Mormon missionaries in Denmark Mormon missionaries in New Zealand People from Køge Municipality People from Logan, Utah Seventies (LDS Church)