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Historian's Corner
Our family has a tradition of sharing Super Bowl Weekend (that is another story) and go out for dinner on that Saturday, because I prepare food for all day on Sunday. This year, due to the pandemic, we kept it small and with family that we see on a regular basis. I decided to make a frikadellar dinner with mashed potatoes and red cabbage, as several family members had never had it before. In preparation, I had purchased everyone a tshirt from the newsletter, not knowing that they are made only in female sizes. Well, you can imagine the laughter when everyone was a good sport and just “went with it”! Attached are photos of me making 47 frikadellars and our gang with the tshirts!
Kathy Bonn
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Historian’s Corner

We made the Country Oat Loaf recipe from the Danish Sisterhood News and it was delicious. We make it once a month now.
Paul and Tracey Nielsen

Overview of the Mærsk-Moller Family and the Mærsk Company
by Donna Christensen Thomas, National DSS Historian
During the Christmas season while watching the nightly news, a story caught my attention. The report showed a harbor with various ships containing goods manufactured anywhere in the world which were unable to be delivered due to the pandemic and travel restrictions. This resulted in the shortage of some popular gift items. I spotted the shipping container in the harbor marked MÆRSK with its characteristic unique logo. I commented to my husband that MÆRSK is a Danish company and started delving to learn more about the company’s history and the founders’ history. I would normally have tried to access additional materials in the libraries at the Danish American Archives and Library(DAAL) and the Genealogy Center of the Museum of Danish America. However, these institutions are closed due to the pandemic so I ended up accessing what I could online, starting with Wikipedia. I will summarize and supplement with further research. A.P. Møller and the Møller family are as well known in Denmark as Warren Buffet, the Carnegie, Rockefeller families and other highly successful business people in the USA. Arnold Peter Møller (1876-1965) was a Danish shipping magnate who along with his father, Captain Peter Mærsk Møller (1836-1927) founded the Dampskibsselskabet Svendborg (the Steamship Company Svendborg in 1904. The latter, a veteran
of the Second Prussian War of 1864, was the first in Denmark to suggest using steamships over sailing ships. They took advantage of the opportunities created by their introduction. His mother Anna Hansen Nielsen Jeppesen (1843-1922) came from wellknown shipping dynasty in Dragør and her father Hans Nielsen Jeppesen (1815-1883 ) was known as the “King of Dragør.” After his wife Laura recovered from a serious illness, and as a reminder of the answered prayers offered during the night, Peter Mærsk Møller, a deeply religious Christian, attached a blue banner with a white seven sided star on the chimney of the steamship. He saw the sign of a star in the gray, cloudy sky which became a symbol of the company and remains so today on a deep blue background. As research progressed, I was very surprised to learn that A.P. Moller married an American woman. I was very curious and intrigued as to how they became acquainted! I initially imagined him in the USA for business or education, but found in a 1910 newspaper article about their marriage which read “Finishing her school work she took a tour of Europe, and while in Copenhagen met the ‘apple of her eye’". A 1992 Kansas City Star article read, “Therein lies a story. A love story. In 1908, Arnold P. Møller, 30, son of the founder of Mærsk, met American Chastine Estelle Roberta McKinney of Kansas City. Møller fell in love. Chassie as she was called, put off her Danish suitor. Arnold pursued Chassie, writing home, ‘That is the way Yankees are.’ Eventually, Chassie relented.”
Their wedding took place April 30,1910 at her aunt and uncle’s home in the small village of Mayview, near Kansas City, Missouri. Her familial background from the British Isles had settled and migrated to Missouri and Kentucky, from the Carolinas and Virginia for several generations back to colonial times. The couple lived in Copenhagen and had four children: daughters Sally (1912-1989, Jane 1926-2002), Hans (1915-1934) and Arnold Mærsk McKinney Møller (1913-2012) who took over the business from his father as CEO in 1965 upon his father’s death. Chastine’s mother Sarah F (Thatcher) McKinney (1857-1920) joined the family in Denmark and died there . Four years after Chastine’s death in 1948, A.P. married Norwegian widow Pernille Ulrikke Amlie (Nielsen) Petterøe (1888-1972). The McKinney-Møller family never forgot Mayview as they named their home near Copenhagen the Villa Mayview. In 1992, descendants of A.P. and Chassie’s descendants named one of their ships after the village, the Mayview Mærsk, their only ship to be named after a place .The population of Mayview, MO in 2010 census was 211, comprised of 58 families. World War I was a very lucrative time for the shipping business. The opportunity was taken to full advantage, Mærsk became the fourth largest shipping company in Denmark. The company continued to grow and by World War II was the largest company in Denmark. Before the German invasion of Denmark in April of 1940, A.P. Møller telegraphed his ships not to obey orders from occupied Denmark. During the War the company was run in part by the exiled son Arnold from New York until 1947. Allegedly, the family lost a great deal of money because the U.S. government would not pay full compensation for the use of their ships during the war. A.P. Møller was also involved in business ventures outside the shipping industry. He got a contract for drilling oil in the Danish area of the North Sea in 1962 as well as natural gas. In 1964, he joined merchant Herman Salling in ownership of the retail chain Dansk Supermarked which became the largest retail company in Denmark. Arnold Mærsk McKinney Møller became the wealthiest person in Denmark, surpassed recently by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen of the LEGO dynasty. Møller was awarded with several honors including being knighted to the Danish Order of the Elephant as well as Life Honorary Membership of the Baltic Exchange in recognition of his service to shipping. He served on several boards of directors. The family and their foundation donated the funds for the Copenhagen Opera House across the harbor from the royal residence Amalienborg Palace not far from the Mærsk headquarters. They also donated Amaliehavn, a park between the Palace and harbor in the 1980’s. Mærsk, still based in Copenhagen, employs over 80,000 people and has offices in 130 countries worldwide. Ithas been the largest container shipping company in the world for several decades. It is presently headed by fourth generation Ane Mærsk Møller Uggla.