Lawrence [sic] P. Jensen was born in Denmark, and at the age of 10 went to sea as a cabinboy on a German ship. For many years his life was on the sea and he served on many ships. Once he was on a ship that was wrecked at night on the Bay of Biscay and escaped with only his night clothes. He was cared for temporarily by some farmer folks who lived near the sea.

When still a young man he came round the Horn to San Francisco, and then worked on a freighter that plied between San Francisco and Sydney, Australia. After serving a time on this run he joined a whaling ship which set out for the North Pacific and Bering Sea. They finally went as far north as Point Barrow, where the ship was frozen in the ice. They left the ship and their cargo and mushed overland to Nome. From there he went to Honolulu, and finally back to Astoria [OR], and from there to The Dalles[WA], where he took employment with a fellow countryman, Captain Nelson, who had a ferry at that place.

Later he married Julia Nelson, daughter of Captain Nelson and his Indian wife. He continued to operate the ferry at The Dalles for several years, and in 1898 came to Toppenish and took allotments for the several children and fenced the lands in. He then returned to The Dalles, and two years later came over with his family and built the home residence.

Having his family established here, he again went to Alaska and freighted and mined for three years on the Yukon. He then returned and further developed his ranch properties.

When his daughters Nora and Vina were old enough to go to Pullman College* he decided to go with them, and at the age of 65 made a creditable showing for a year in college.

After this he took his two daughters for a trip to the Hawaiian islands. After this he took his son for an auto trip through Arizona, and in 1922 went to Denmark to visit his old home.

On his way home he purchased a car in Detroit and started to drive home. Between Detroit and Chicago he was killed in an automobile accident on August 16, 1922.

Most of the Jensen children still live on the reservation. Three have passed to the great beyond [as of 1927]. They have been one of the most highly respected families on the reservation.413
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Lorens owned the ferry boat “Western Queen” on the Columbia River in Washington state and operated it from about 1874-1898.

“Jensen Road” in Toppenish, Yakima, WA is named after Lorens and his family. He walked behind the wagon bearing his wife’s body from Toppenish to Zillah where she was buried [Dec 1912].414

Note: The distance from Toppenish to Zillah is just over three miles.3
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Before the Allotment Act of February 8, 1887, all of the land set aside by the Treaty of 1885 was in the name of the tribe. None of it was individually owned. News of the impending allotment of land to individual Indians drew members of five Indian families -- Bowzer, French, Olney, Robbins and Spencer -- to the vicinity of Toppenish to select lands for which they expected to apply for allotments after surveying was completed. These were known as “squatters claims.” These squatter’s claims were the beginning of the individual titles to the land on which the City of Toppenish is built, as most of them were recognized when the actual alloting was done.415
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Lorens’ headstone reads A Native of Denmark - American by Choice 387,50
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*I’m unable to find a “Pullman College” per se, but this is probably a reference to what was then -- in 1916 -- known as the State College of Washington, which later became known as Washington State University, located in Pullman, WA.3