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Dr. JJ is an American Patriot who is proud of his
ancestral roots in British Colonial America and beyond. |
I have always been grateful to be a citizen of the United States of America, and am profoundly thankful for the countless blessings and opportunities I have received by virtue of that citizenship.
I am proud to be an American.
As I begin the presentation of my personal LIFE HISTORY, it is appropriate that I start by saying a few words about my progenitors, many of whom have played prominent roles as American citizens over the centuries.
In doing so, I am reminded of the words of that legendary and victorious American Civil War General, Ulysses S. Grant, who opened his famous personal memoirs with the following statement: "My family is American, and has been for generations, in all its branches, direct and collateral." (1)
This statement can be relevantly echoed in relation to my own ancestry.
The most famous line of my forbears were Smiths of British Colonial America (1620-1776).
Robert Smith Jr. (1625-1693) was the first of his ancestral line to emigrate to the New World. He was born in Lincolnshire, England; but lived and died across the Atlantic in Boxborough (Middlesex County) Massachusetts. The next four (4) generations of Smiths would reside in Topsfield, which, like Boxborough, was a rural Massachusetts community near the greater Boston area.
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JJ stands next to statues of
Hyrum & Joseph Smith
Carthage Jail, Illinois |
Robert's 3rd great-grandson was Hyrum Smith (1800-1844), born in Tunbridge (Orange County) Vermont at the turn of the 18th century.
I, in-turn, am a 3rd great-grandson of this same Hyrum Smith who, in company with his younger brother, Joseph Smith (1805-1844)—my third great-granduncle—helped found The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints—and was martyred in cold blood at Carthage Jail in Illinois on June 27, 1844, for holding fast to his beliefs.
Of these two brothers, who fell that day in defense of religious freedom and the convictions of their conscience, the following has been written:
"Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. ... [He] left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord's anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated!
"Hyrum Smith was forty-four [44] years old in February, 1844, and Joseph Smith was thirty-eight [38] in December, 1843; and henceforward their names will be classed among the martyrs of religion; and the reader in every nation will be reminded that the Book of Mormon, and this book of Doctrine and Covenants of the church, cost the best blood of the nineteenth century to bring them forth for the salvation of a ruined world; ... They lived for glory; they died for glory; and glory is their eternal reward. From age to age shall their names go down to posterity as gems for the sanctified." (2)
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Joseph Smith Memorial Building
next to Temple Square.
Salt Lake City, Utah |
I add my living testimony to these prophetic words of John Taylor, who was present with the Smith brothers and Willard Richards—and who received multiple gunshot wounds himself—at the Carthage martyrdom.
In so doing, I openly and unapologetically profess and proclaim the divine role that these, my forbears, played in restoring the Church of Jesus Christ—the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth (3)—in the latter days, which, in fulfillment of Joseph's own prophetic declaration, has spread across the entire globe and now numbers some 18 million members, of which I am but one. I further seek with all my heart, mind, might, and soul to hold up and further burnish their legacy in this present age, for they have indeed become "as gems for the sanctified" to me personally.
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| General George Washington |
The Smiths were hard-working, honest, patriotic, and God-fearing people. Robert Smith's grandson (Samuel Smith, Jr., 1714-1785) and great-grandson (Asael Smith, 1744-1830) fought for American Independence in George Washington's Continental Army, and they were not my only ancestors engaged in the revolutionary struggle. (4)
Going back even further, I am directly related to at least four (4) couples who sailed on the
Mayflower, whose husbands in-turn signed its concomitant
Compact. (5)
While this fact does not make me particularly unusual in American society—even today—it remains a point of my ancestry that I deeply admire, cherish, and honor because of the faith, fortitude, courage, and resilience demonstrated by that intrepid band of transatlantic pioneers in search of religious freedom.
Moreover, given my own constitutionalist passions and proclivities, I am quite aware of the
Mayflower Compact's role as a providential precursor to the United States' Constitution that would be drafted 166 years later in 1787, followed by the SAL Life Leadership Textbook and its corresponding academic templates employing the same principles 239 years after that in 2026—the 250th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and birth of my nation.
Regardless
what ancestral line of mine that you trace,
all of my ancestors emigrated to either British Colonial America or the United States of America during the seventeenth, eighteenth, or nineteenth centuries; and the vast majority of these hailed from the British Isles (England, Scotland, and Ireland).
There are a few exceptions to this general pattern of emigration.
My surname ~ JENSEN ~ obviously reveals the existence of a significant Danish line as well. Moreover, there are a few isolated branches with roots in other, continental European nations, including Germany and France. However, the vast majority—upwards of 85%—hail from the British Isles, British Colonial America, or both.
A wise man once pointed out to me that I have been blessed with "a rich and an illustrious ancestry."
He was correct in his estimation.
In addition to the Mayflower band and the august Smith line of revolutionaries and religious reformers, my family tree is chock full of Latter-Day Saint Pioneers who braved the hostile dangers of ocean crossings and overland treks via covered wagons and handcarts to reach their ultimate home in Utah, where I would eventually be born in 1979.
A hundred years before my birth, my paternal ancestors just missed becoming Hole-in-the-Rock Pioneers in Southern Utah in 1879. Nevertheless, William Adams (1822-1901) and his family followed these courageous settlers to San Juan County soon after in the early 1880s. Later that decade, in 1888, my second great-grandfather, George Albert Adams (1864-1935) was one of the four (4) Founding Fathers of my hometown of Monticello, Utah. (6)
Not all of my ancestors have such a lustrous legacy.
My most infamous direct progenitor is John Doyle Lee (1812-1877), a paternal, fourth great-grandfather who tragically was involved in carrying out the Mountain Meadows Massacre in Iron County, Utah, in September 1857. Despite any and all complexities involved in the situation, including much personal and familial good that John had accomplished throughout his difficult pioneer life, there is no denying the horrific nature of the crimes for which he was ultimately convicted of and hung, and it remains a stain on my ancestral legacy to this day.
I share this unsavory ancestral inclusion to emphasize that my progenitors—while unusually noble on the whole—were still imperfect mortals
just like me, and in some cases were even guilty of egregious crimes... much like anyone else's family tree.
Of my many admirable ancestors, my personal favorite is
Mary Fielding Smith (1801-1852).
Born in Honeydon (Bedfordshire) England, Mary and her two siblings, John and Mercy, emigrated to the Toronto, Canada area in 1832. In time, they joined a Methodist congregation led by a preacher named John Taylor—a future LDS convert, Apostle, and Church President.
In the mid-1830s, Taylor and his wife met Parley P. Pratt, a Latter-Day Saint missionary. The Taylors then introduced Pratt to the Fieldings. Both Taylors and all three Fieldings—and others of Taylor's congregation—were converted to the new faith and baptized in 1836.
Soon afterward, the Fielding trio moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where they joined with the main body of Latter-Day Saints and became acquainted with Joseph and Hyrum Smith and their families.
Around this same time, Hyrum lost his wife, Jerusha, to complications involved in the birth of their youngest child—a daughter named Sarah. At the urging of his brother Joseph, a recently widowed Hyrum sought for Mary's hand in marriage. Following a brief, but tender and sincere courtship, the two were wed on Christmas Eve 1837.
Mary bore Hyrum two additional children, adding to the six he had already brought forth and parented with Jerusha before her death. Mary played an important and prominent role by Hyrum's side during the final years of his life.
While I admire and love Hyrum for all of the expected reasons, Mary remains my favorite ancestor in part because I believe her lot was, in some respects, even more challenging than Hyrum's. After all, it was Mary who had to continue on after Hyrum's martyrdom, raising a family by herself, leading them westward to the Salt Lake valley in an intrepid and legendary manner, and then carving out a hardscrabble existence and subsistence in that arid and barren desert landscape without the aid of her husband.
Just imagine how stark and insufferable life in the Great Basin must have been after spending a lifetime in the lush verdures of England, Toronto, and the Mississippi Valley!
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SIX (6) Generation Photo
Hyrum Smith (1800-1844)
Joseph F. Smith (1838-1918)
Hyrum Mack Smith (1872-1918)
Joseph F. Smith (1899-1964)
Pauline S.J. Zaugg (1946-present)
Jordan R. Jensen (1979-present) |
It is little wonder to me that Mary's health gave out after only four (4) years battling against the brutal challenges life had thrown her way in the deserts of the Intermountain West. Her reunion with her beloved husband in the world of Spirits must have been a glorious and joyful occasion after so much suffering and loss.
Second and third only to Mary Fielding, I have always looked up with great honor, respect, and admiration to my great grandfather, Hyrum Mack Smith (1872-1918) and great-great grandfather, Joseph Fielding Smith (1838-1918).
The former was an Apostle of the Lord from 1901 (at age 29) until his seemingly untimely death of appendicitis at age 45 in January 1918. The latter, Hyrum's father, was ordained an Apostle by President Brigham Young in 1866, and later served as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from 1901 until his own passing in November 1918—later that same year his son Hyrum had passed away.
There are many other ancestors I admire, respect, and seek ever to venerate for their quiet (or prominent) lives marked by courage, faith, integrity, hard work, industry, and love of and fealty toward family.
My paternal grandfather, Ned Adams Jensen (1918-2004), an army radioman during World War II, landed on Utah Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944. He then pushed forward as part of George S. Patton's 3rd Army to help liberate Europe from the grasp of the Nazi regime. My own father was conceived while Grandpa Ned was on leave in early 1943. Dad was two years old when Grandpa Ned returned home to Monticello, Utah in the fall of 1945 to meet his son for the first time.
In September 1963, my father left the United States to serve a 2-year, full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints overseas in England. Dad's first missionary companion was Hyrum Wayne Smith (1943-2019), grandson of Hyrum Mack Smith and great-grandson of Joseph F. Smith, previously mentioned.
After completing his first year in the mission field, Dad was summoned to the office of Elder Mark E. Peterson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who was serving as the leader of all European Missions at the time.
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Hyrum Wayne Smith and Rex Buckley Jensen
Serving together in the European Mission Home
London, England
1964. |
Elder Peterson had called Hyrum W. Smith to serve as his personal assistant, and he needed a second assistant to serve as Hyrum's missionary companion. He was specifically looking for someone with sound clerical (typing) skills. Hyrum knew that my dad—his former companion—also happened to be an excellent typist, and presented his name to Elder Peterson as his second assistant.
Peterson approved Smith's recommendation, and Dad became his second assistant and the missionary companion of Hyrum W. Smith for the second time.
A few months later, on January 24th, while Dad and Hyrum were serving Elder Peterson together in London, Sir Winston Churchill died. A few weeks after that, Dad and Hyrum were released from serving Elder Peterson and transferred elsewhere in the mission.
Then, approximately one month later, in March 1965, Hyrum Wayne Smith and Rex Buckley Jensen were assigned to serve together as missionary companions again for a virtually unprecedented third time. Apparently the Mission President gave Hyrum leverage over which missionary he wanted to serve with to finish out his mission, and he chose to reunite with my father for his final three (3) weeks.
"Three times in three different locations in three different calendar years ('63, '64, and '65)" was a refrain I heard several times growing up as my father would tell and retell what was for me a rather riveting story of how he met and became good friends with the man who would eventually pair up my mom and dad.
After returning home and enrolling at Brigham Young University, Hyrum introduced Dad to his little sister, Pauline, on September 18, 1965—exactly two years to the day that he had first met Hyrum in England on September 18, 1963.
It didn't take Mom and Dad long to fall head-over-heels in love with each other and 11 months later, on August 24, 1966, they were wed in the Salt Lake Temple.
Thirteen (13) years later, almost to the day—August 21, 1979—I was born at the small, rural hospital in Monticello, Utah, the fifth son and sixth of seven children born to Rex Buckley and Pauline Smith Jensen (now Pauline S.J. Zaugg).
And that's how my story began!
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Rex Buckley Jensen
1943-present |
Starting next week, I will begin publishing the actual journal records of my life, beginning with excerpts from my Dad's own diaries that reference me between the years 1979 and 1986, after which I will proceed to publish my own journal records—
edited for a public audience—beginning in 1987.
I wish to pay tribute to my father for his conscientious journaling habit throughout his life. His example has been most intriguing and inspiring to me throughout my own mortal journey.
Dad began his own life's voluminous diarist habit in 1961 as a junior in high school. For much of the rest of his life, he kept a daily journal. In the late 1980s, he had the first 20 years of his personal journals bound in attractive, bright red bound volumes (8.5 x 11-inch). He further granted me complete freedom to peruse these and other journals at my leisure.
I am so grateful that Dad took the time to write down such a detailed record of his life. I am further grateful for his kindness and openness in sharing his journals with me.
It is from these journals that the next eight (8) week's article are extracted, with Dad's permission, of course.
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| Dad's collection of nearly 7,000 pages of personal journals. |
—Dr. JJ
Wednesday, September 2, 2026
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA
Author's Note: This is the 538th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 320th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.
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Notes:
1. Grant, U.S. (1995). Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant. New York, NY: Dover Publications. Page 1.
2. Doctrine & Covenants Section 135.
3. Doctrine & Covenants 1:30.
4. Solomon Mack (1732-1820), born the same year as General George Washington, and the father of Lucy Mack Smith (Hyrum & Joseph's mother) also fought for the revolutionary cause.
I have not, to-date, done a deep dive to discover exactly how many of my ancestors served in the American Revolution. Nevertheless, with nearly 100 direct (and hundreds more collateral) ancestors falling within the two generations of those who fought in the American revolution, it is plausible to assume that scores, if not hundreds of my direct (or indirect) progenitors were somehow engaged in the struggle and quest for independence.
5. John Tilley (1571-1621) and Joan Hurst (1571-1621) — my 11th great-grandparents.
John Howland (1592-1672) and Elizabeth Tilley (1607-1687) — my 10th great-grandparents.
Edward Fuller (1575-1621) and Mrs. Edward Fuller (Ann) (1575-????) — my great-grandparents.
Samuel Fuller (1608-1683) and Jane Lathrop (1614-1683) — my 9th great-grandparents.
6. The other three Founding Fathers of Monticello were: Frederick I. Jones, Charles E. Walton, and Parley R. Butt.
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