Peterson-Anderson Family History

98 Pages·2017·19.48 MB·English

Peterson-Anderson Family History
Issue 31 ● October 2015

Peterson-Anderson cars

After seeing photos of Rob Ostash’s Mustang
in the Montrose Christmas Parade last
December, I wondered what cars the Peterson-
Anderson families owned in the distant past.
Based on the scanning that I’ve done of
photographs in our family albums, the first
image that came to mind was of Grandpa
Glenn. In the photo, he appears very dapper
and is leaning against his Willy’s sedan,
parked in front of Aunt Sophie and Uncle Joe
Joranson’s house at 315 S. Liberty (Route 25)
on the east side of Elgin. Their home was a
Dapper Glenn and his Willy’s sedan, taken in front of Aunt Sophie
frequent location for family dinners and picnics,
and Uncle Joe’s home in Elgin on Easter Sunday, 1937. Glenn was
especially around birthdays and holidays. On
working at Colonial at the time and had graduated from high school
several occasions, Grandpa Glenn said that his
about two years before. Yes, his car has 1937 Illinois plates
Great Aunt Sophie was a very happy, “jolly”
person who loved to laugh. He also said that family members always looked forward to visiting Aunt Sophie.
She and Joe had no children of their own, but they loved to host relatives at their home.

The Willey’s sedan was Grandpa Glenn’s second car. His first was a green 1929 Chevrolet. How do I know
that? He left clues in an Army World War II letter he sent home to his parents. At the time he wrote the
letter, he was stationed at Supply Depot G-47, near Westbury, England. Glenn was a member of Company
A of the 1302nd Engineer General Service Regiment. As a member of “Service of Supply” (SOS), he
worked there as a clerk, unloading and loading, sorting and shelving, assembling and routing, tabulating and
inventorying supplies—primarily POL (petroleum, oil, and lubricants). Glenn’s unit was part of the supply
chain for “Operation Overlord,” culminating in D-Day on 6 Jun 1944. Glenn spent much of his first six
months in Europe unloading trucks, stacking pipe, assembling and packing pipe couplings.

In his off-duty hours, Glenn washed clothes, attended worship services,
sang solos and duets for worship services, and explored other towns near
their camp, 80 miles southwest of London. One of the cities that Glenn and
his buddies visited was Salisbury, about 25 miles southeast of camp. At
Salisbury, they toured the Cathedral and other points of interest. Because
of censorship, he wasn’t permitted to describe the location in a letter to his
parents. However, he said the Cathedral has the same name as “the dealer
in Elgin from whom I bought that green ’29 Chevrolet” (4 Jul 1944). Orlo
Green 1929 Chevrolet, similar to
Salisbury was a car dealer on South Grove Avenue for more than fifty years.
Glenn’s first car. Glenn
purchased his car from Orlo Starting out with the “Elgin Six” in 1917, he later sold the Overland,
Salisbury’s dealership in Elgin Willys-Knight, and Reo. He became the DeSoto-Plymouth representative
in 1933, and switched to Lincoln-Mercury in 1960. Grove Avenue was the
Elgin’s first street to be paved and the first to have electric street lights in 1922. Elgin’s “great white way”
soon became “automobile row.”

Our family photo collection includes several cars older than Glenn’s first car. One with that honor goes to
Godfrey and Christina. They owned a 1917 Chevrolet touring car. As shown in the accompanying photo,
Christabel was in the driver’s seat for what may have been a July 4 parade. Note the US flags on the radiator.
Christabel was born in 1911 and looks about 6
or 7 years old in the photo, so perhaps the
photo was taken in 1917 or 1918, when she
was visiting from North Dakota for a year. As
a successful dairy farmer and breeder of horses
and Holsteins, Godfrey could presumably
afford an early automobile. However, in a 31
Dec 2008 interview, Grandpa Glenn said that
Godfrey enjoyed farming and traveling with
horses more than farm machinery and
automobiles. Godfrey and Christina’s son,
Roy (Melvin’s father), inherited that same love
This photo of Christabel in a 1917 Chevrolet was in a box of old
of horses. Roy, like his father, went on to farm
photos stored in Grandpa Glenn’s desk for many years
with horses at Oak Hill Farm, at the NE corner
of Crane and Randall Roads. After he moved off the farm, he worked for Colonel Edward J. Baker on
several of his farms, including Airport Farm (where Pheasant Run now stands), caring for his famous
Belgian horses, well-known show horses. Roy later
lived at Colonel Baker’s Red Gate Farm, caring for
race horses, including Greyhound, Baker’s world
champion trotter and owner of 14 world records,
including one that stood from 1938 to 1969. When
Greyhound died, Roy and Melvin hand-dug his grave
and buried him on Red Gate Farm, 2 miles NW of
downtown St. Charles. Grandpa Glenn said that his
Uncle Roy was “a very good farmer. His first love
was horses.”

Godfrey’s earlier transportation was a carriage pulled
by a fine team of horses, which he likely bred and
trained as a “road team,” but because of their large
Godfrey’s transportation before he owned a car. This photo size (height and hooves) may have also been a “field
was mounted in Great-grandma Mabel’s photo album; she
team.” In the photo (left), Mabel’s youngest sister
wrote the pencil notation on the photo. It was taken c. 1900
Hazel is seated in the front seat between Godfrey and
in Godfrey and Christina’s orchard
Christina. Two young women are seated in back,
each wearing a white, high-collar blouse with puffed-out sleeves. Mabel
often dressed like this in other photos. The young woman in the big hat
and long dress is Ethel, Mabel’s younger sister.

Another older photo in the family collection shows Melvin standing next
to an unidentified car or truck. The running board has a basket containing
a bundle, perhaps a tire jack wrapped in canvas. Also in the running board
basket is a tool box; both are useful on road trips. This photo was made
from a scanned negative using Photoshop. It was found with other
negatives in an envelope that Great Uncle Fridolph dated 4 August 1929.
Melvin was born in 1921 and looks about 5 or 6 years old in this photo, so
it was likely taken about 1926 or 1927. Other negatives in the envelope
showed Mabel and Fritz’s family in North Dakota about 1925. According
to Mabel’s family history notebook, Fridolph and Ida visited in North
Dakota “twice when we lived on the old place [1912-18] and once when
we lived on the Sanden Farm [1920-23].” Additional negatives in the
envelope show Sunday school and church groups picnicking in Fridolph’s
yard at 516 Prairie Street. As Sunday school superintendent from 1922 to
1945, Uncle Fridolph and Aunt Ida
were active in hosting church groups at
their home.

Perhaps the oldest car photo in the
family collection is not of a Peterson-
Anderson car, but rather one owned by
a neighbor of Mabel and Fritz when
they lived in the home that Fritz
designed at 508 Prairie Street. The
neighbor was Everett Johnson, who
lived next door to the west of Fridolph
and Ida. The photo (left), part of a
page in Bertha’s first photo album,
shows Bertha, Christabel, and LeRoy at
the wheel of Everett Johnson’s old car.
It looks old enough to have gas instead
of electric lanterns on the front fenders. It appears to be a 1909 Brush runabout Model D. These early cars
were made with wooden axels, not metal. Christabel was born in 1911 and looks about a year old in the
photo, so perhaps the photo was taken in
1912, just before they moved to North
Dakota. Also on the same page of the photo
album were several photos taken the same
day by Fritz. (Bertha, LeRoy, and Christabel
are wearing the same clothes and the lighting
looks similar.) Everett Johnson’s sister,
Cleora, became a close friend of Mabel and
Fritz’s family. Bertha’s album contains six to
eight other photos of the Johnson family.

Two years later, Mabel and Fritz’s family
were farming in North Dakota. Many of the
families in Antelope Township of Richland
From left, Fritz, Mabel, LeRoy, Bertha, Anna L., Mrs. Lillestol,
County were of Norwegian origin, including Christabel, Harvey L., Olive L., and Myrtle L. This 1914 photo was
the Lillestols. They, like Mabel and Fritz’s also mounted and labeled in Bertha’s oldest photo album
family, attended Homestead Lutheran Church,
where Mabel was organist and Fritz was choir director. In the accompanying photo, the two families are
posing with Arne Hjelseth’s ragtop touring car, a 1911 or 1912 “Tin Lizzie” Ford Model T. (Arne was the
Lillestol’s hired farm hand.) Eight years later,
Olive F. Lillestol was Grandpa Glenn’s Sunday
school teacher. On 2 July 1922, she signed a
certificate attesting to Glenn’s perfect attendance
the previous year.

Here they are again, five years later in 1919, this
time with a larger Anderson family and a 1917
Ford Model T. By this time, Ethel (middle) and
Glenn (left) have arrived on the scene. All are
modeling sweaters knitted for them by Great Aunt
Ida, Fridolph’s wife and Fritz’s sister. They look
even better in hats and lace-up leather shoes—
nothing but the finest for this photo opportunity.
Glenn, Bertha, Ethel, LeRoy, and Christabel in 1919
Presumably, Mabel and Fritz sent these photos to Ida and Fridolph to
confirm that the sizes worked for each of the Anderson children.
They all have “room to grow,” especially Grandpa Glenn’s sweater.
Both photos are from Bertha’s oldest photo album.

By 1929, Mabel’s oldest brother, Clarence, was having difficulty
making a go of it on Godfrey’s farm. Godfrey died a year earlier and
Clarence needed help. So Mabel and Fritz’s decided to move their
family back to Illinois to Godfrey’s farm. The photo of Fritz below
may have been taken in March, when he and Mabel were preparing
for their farm sale and for their move back to St. Charles. The farm
sale started 12:45 on Wednesday, March 6, 1929, and was held at the
Shaw Farm (where they lived from 1926 to 1929). The Shaw Farm
was located in Section 35 of Homestead Township, 4 miles east and 1 mile north of Wyndmere. The sale
poster emphasized a “free noon lunch.” The sale included horses (one team, plus 2 mares, a gray gelding,
and “one span of mules”), cattle (21 Holstein cows plus “one young bull”), sheep (including 6 breeding
ewes), 3 Duroc sows, 5 turkey hens, machinery, and household goods (including a “Maytag washing
machine”). (Brother Richard has the farm sale poster with more details.) In her family history notebook,
Mable wrote, “the weather was “terribly
stormy and cold, but there was a good
attendance and the sale went well.”

In the photo at left, Fritz is posing in
front of their hardtop, perhaps a 1926
Hupmobile 4-door sedan with a straight 6
engine. This may have been the car they
drove back to Illinois—or perhaps I
should say—part way. According to
This 1929 photo of Fritz was in Bertha’s second photo album
Great-grandma Mabel’s family history
notebook, the first day of driving was quite foggy. After staying overnight with friends in Atwood,
Minnesota, they continued the next day. Unfortunately, it rained hard as they left Atwood and the Minnesota
roads became muddy very quickly. They pressed on slowly, “but we finally reached Minneapolis the next
evening. We stayed over night there and went as far as Hastings, Minnesota. When we were told the roads
were impassible, we returned to St. Paul, left the car there, and went by train to St. Charles. Later in the
spring, Dad [Fritz] went to St. Paul and brought the car back.”

Now push the clock ahead to 1942. Grandpa Glenn and
Grandma Violet were married in Bethlehem Lutheran
Church on 22 Aug 1942. The original plan was for Violet
and Mabel to ride in Glenn’s 1939 Plymouth sedan from
St. Charles to Seattle, where Glenn was stationed in the
Army at Fort Lewis. Everett and Bertha were to do the
driving. But two weeks before the wedding, Great-
grandma Mabel fell at church and ended up with a cast on
her leg. Glenn was able to get a “family hardship” two-
week emergency furlough to return to St. Charles for the
wedding. Following the wedding reception in the church
basement, Glenn and Violet struck out for Seattle on
Glenn’s 1939 Plymouth 2 door sedan parked in
Sunday morning at 9:00. They drove 500 miles to Sioux
front of Colonial Dairies in Sep 1941, just before he
City, Iowa, arriving at 11:00 pm. The next morning, they
was drafted in the Army
left Sioux City at 7:00, stopping for breakfast at Yankton,
SD, 75 miles away. After a 2:00 lunch in Presho, they drove through the Badlands to Rapid City, where they
arrived at Helen Murphy’s home for a 7:00 dinner. Helen was a close friend of Christabel from their grad
school days together at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. After lunch, they visited the Mount
Rushmore Memorial. By nightfall, they had driven 250 miles to Sheridan, WY.

On Wednesday, 26 Aug, Glenn and Violet left Sheridan at 7:00 am
and drove through the Big Horn Mountains to Greybull, where they
ate lunch. That night, they watched two eruptions of Old Faithful
geyser in Yellowstone National Park, where they stayed over night
in a park cabin. They left Old Faithful at 6:30 am, ate breakfast in
Gardiner, ate lunch in Helena, MT, and ate dinner in Missoula. By
nightfall, they pulled into Spokane and stayed at Hotel Davenport
(“swanky and expensive, $7/night”), driving over 575 miles in 18
hours. The next morning, they left Spokane at 8:30 and arrived in
Seattle by 4:00 pm, a 350 mile day. The total distance from St.
Charles was just over 2500 miles, all on two-lane highways (no
interstates at that time) in six days. What a honeymoon!

It’s only fitting that we include one of Bertha’s cars. After
all, through her photo albums she supplied the most photos
and labels of vintage family cars. Here’s her 1947
Oldsmobile 88 sedan parked on Second Street, behind Mabel
and Fritz’s home at 617 Geneva Road. Behind the car we see
the two-car garage that Fritz built in the summer of 1944 to
replace the old barn. Because the garage was on the valley
wall of the Fox River, Fritz designed it with a walk-out
basement. This was where
Great-grandpa Fritz had his
shop, workbench, and garden
tools. Bertha needed a
Bertha’s 1947 Olds 88 in the snow behind 617
reliable car, because she
Geneva Road, during the winter of 1950-51
worked in Chicago for many
years and drove home on weekends. Bertha worked as manager of the
Augustana Women’s Home, sponsored by Rev. Arden’s church on the south
Bertha and 1936 Ford Deluxe
side of Chicago. In 1953, she married Emmet Piper, who was a house
sedan in Washington Park,
Chicago, in the summer of 1939 painter. They lived in Lombard, Illinois, a Chicago suburb before moving to
Wyoming, Iowa, Emmet’s home area.

In July, 1952, Christabel and Ed Grauer drove
their new 1952 Pontiac Chieftain Catalina Deluxe
from Los Angeles to St. Charles to visit
Christabel’s family. Their visits included one to
Red Gate farm, north of St. Charles, where Great-
grandma Mabel’s brother, Roy, lived with his
wife, Ellen (Melvin’s parents). As explained
above, Red Gate was one of Colonel E.J Baker’s
farms. At the time, Christabel was a home
economist working for Southern California Gas
Company. Ed was sales manager, Hotel and
Restaurant Division, Los Angeles territory of the
H.J. Heinz Company.
Mabel, Ed, Christabel, Ellen, and Fridolph

at Red Gate Farm in July, 1952
We end our survey of Peterson-Anderson vintage cars with one of Grandpa Glenn’s “kid haulers.” At the
time, he was hauling four kids. Here’s Glenn leaning against his car again. He’s leaning against the fourth
car he owned—a gray 1949 Dodge Coronet four-door sedan.
It made many summer vacation trips to Camp Augustana,
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and to the Olson Farm near
Wyndmere, North Dakota (in sections 15, 16, 17, 21, and
22 of Homestead Township). Ethel and LaVerne Olson’s
farm is only a few miles from the six farms where Ethel’s
family lived. Ethel and Glenn were born at the Ditch Road
Farm, the first of six farms that Mabel and Fritz rented.
Ethel and LaVerne farmed the Olson family farm with
LaVerne’s brother Milo and wife, Louise. In the 1950s and
1960s, the farm had a large herd of Hereford cattle and a
diversity of crops, mainly small grains—wheat, oats, barley,
rye, and flax. Farmall red and John Deere green were both
represented in the machinery line. Also present was an old
Allis-Chalmers orange set of Roto-Baler and WC tractor
(with an elevator up the side for loading small round bales).
The WC tractor had hand brakes (not needed very much)
and a hand-crank starter (it was quite a challenge). David, son of Milo and Louise, is now living on and
operating the Olson farm (I remember seeing a lot of
“green” machinery in the new pole building).

Glenn and Violet drove their family to the Olson Farm in
1952, 1956, 1959, 1962, 1964, and one or two other years.
Glenn donned his straw work hat and pitched in with the
field work. Because most visits occurred in August, the
field work consisted primarily of baling and hauling straw
and combining and hauling small grains. Of course, there
were also calves and hogs to feed, eggs to pick, garden peas
to shell, and road dust to wash off the cars. When all the
farm chores were done, there was time to visit friends and
relatives—Gordon Olson family, Lorraine Krogness family,
and others. In our drives, we also saw some of the old sights
and sites—Homestead Lutheran Church, Homestead country
school, Homestead Township Hall (formerly a country
school), Rhodenbaugh Farm, Shaw Farm, Sanden Farm, Elk
Here are the four kids that Glenn and Violet hauled
Creek Cemetery, Lutheran Church in Wyndmere, and
in their 1949 Dodge Sedan. In this August 1952
downtown Barney. We also made sure to wave to the Giljes,
photo are Paul (2), David (3), Christine (9), and
Gutzmers, Braatens, Sandens, Thompsons, and other Karen (almost 6). Notice our protective clothing
neighbors as we drove past their farms. and accessories—long pants, hats, and sun glasses.
We were ready to do our farm chores
Peterson-Anderson Family History
Issue 32 ● November 2015

Peterson-Johnson-Abrahamson-Grove cousins in Nebraska

Godfrey Peterson, Grandpa Glenn’s maternal grandfather,
immigrated to the US from Sweden in 1866. He was 12 years old.
He was accompanied by his parents and siblings Charlotte Frances
(age 23), Peter Adolph (20), Victor Nels (15), and Louisa
Christina (9). Godfrey’s older brothers, John (26) and Andrew
(28), had previously immigrated to the St. Charles area in 1860
and 1861, respectively. Parents Pehr Johan (57) and Lina Stina
Johansdotter Peterson (52) established a farm in St. Charles
Township, 1.5 miles northeast of downtown, on the east side of
the Fox River in the vicinity of (now) Country Club Road. Their
farm was near that of his brother, Nels (Uncle Fridolph’s father).

Unfortunately, on 22 May 1867, about a year after emigrating,
Pehr Johan was kicked by a horse and died. He was buried in
Little Woods Cemetery, 5 miles northeast of downtown St.
Charles, on the east side of the north end of Dunham Road. Lina
Stina did not have enough money to purchase a headstone, so she
planted a tree next to Pehr’s grave. The family added a small
Pehr Johan, Louisa Christina, and Lina Stina
headstone for Pehr’s grave. The grave is next to the family plot of
Peterson after arriving in St. Charles
Pehr’s oldest son, Andrew (Mary and Jane Peterson’s grandfather).
Township in 1866

Three of Pehr and Lina’s children—Andrew, John, and Godfrey—married, started a family, and farmed in St.
Charles Township. Their other three children—Charlotte, Victor, and Louisa—moved to Phelps County,
Nebraska. All established farms in the vicinity of Holdrege, Funk, Axtell, Wilcox, Sacramento, and Keene,
an area filled with immigrants from Sweden. All three families homesteaded newly surveyed government
land under the Homestead Act of 1862. The Act required a three step procedure: (1) file an application and
pay a fee of $18, (2) improve the land, and (3) file for deed of title. Any citizen of the US (who had never
taken up arms against the US government) and was at least 21 years old or the head of a household, could
file an application to claim a free federal land grant of 160 acres (quarter section). The applicants had to
farm and reside on the land for at least five years and show evidence of having made improvements (such as
minimum 12’ by 14’ house, farm buildings, wells, windmills, fences, or orchards). After six months of
residency, homesteaders also had the option of purchasing the land from the government for $1.25 per acre.
However, this option was not exercised by the three families.

John Alfred Abrahamson and Johanna Carlson were married in Sweden.
Together, they had three children, Elizabeth, Charles A., and Alfred A.
After Johanna died, John A. brought his children to St. Charles about
1954 and became a naturalized citizen of the US at the Kane County
courthouse in Geneva on 5 Dec 1859. On 8 Sep 1865, he married
Charlotte (Lottie, Lotta) Frances Peterson, Godfrey’s sister, in St.
Charles. Their five children (John F., Abner, Ruth, Jennie, and Mabel)
were born in St. Charles. They all moved to Phelps County, Nebraska,
between 1876 and 2 Apr 1878, about 10 years after the Union Pacific
Son John F. and Mathilda Carolina Railroad was finished along the north side of the county. Settlement of
Nelson Abrahamson in a (wedding?) the area began about 1873. Phelep was born in Phelps County 30 Apr
portrait taken at Anderson Studio in 1878 and died 27 Dec 1879. John and Charlotte homesteaded 160 acres
Kearney, NE, c. 1888
in the NW quarter of Section 12, T5N, R17W
(Lake Township). On his Homestead Proof
form, John A. (age 61) wrote that his 14’ by
20’ sod house with a door and two windows
was built and occupied in May 1878. Before
12 Apr 1884, he built a 14’ by 18’ sod addition
with a door and two windows, a 14’ by 24’ sod
stable, a 12’ by 24’ wood frame granary, well
and windmill, pasture of 55 acres surrounded
by a wire fence, and 100 acres of cropland
worth $600. In 1879, John and Charlotte were
charter members of Fridhem Swedish Lutheran
Church, 2 miles east of the town of Funk and 5
miles northwest of their farm. In 1882, they
Interior of Fridhem Church in the 1880s. This sod building was
were charter members of Salem Swedish replaced in 1891 by the wood frame church that stands today (though
Methodist Church, a country church 2 miles it was moved two miles west to Funk in 1910). In the photo above,
northeast of their farm. Salem Church closed Pastor Andrew Kinell is preaching. Except for the back row, women
are seated on the left and men on the right. It is highly likely that at
in 1972 and family members changed their
least a few of our relatives are in the photo, most likely Victor Nels
membership back to Fridhem Church.
and Ida Christine Peterson’s family
However, the 1898 Salem Church building,
including the cemetery, has continued to be maintained. The cemetery includes graves of John and Charlotte,
infant son Phelep, son Alfred and wife Adirene, and their son Jesse. The cemetery also includes the grave of
Lina Stina Peterson, who died in 1898. She lived with Charlotte’s family after Pehr died near St. Charles.

Victor Nels became a naturalized citizen of the
US at the Kane County courthouse in Geneva,
Illinois, on 7 Mar 1878. Victor and Ida
Christine Peterson married in early 1879, after
Victor arrived in Phelps County, Nebraska
(before 2 Apr 1878). Nine children (John
Albert, Hanna Emelia, Marie Roselia, Esther
(Ethel) Matilda, Anders Ernest, Julia Mable,
Martin A., Evangeline, and Ida Christine) were
born there between October 1879 and
approximately 1905. An infant child was also
born there, but soon died. Victor and Ida
homesteaded 160 acres in the SW quarter of
Section 2, T5N, R17W (Lake Township). On
his Homestead Proof form, Victor (age 33)
wrote that his 14’ by 20’ sod house with a door
Victor and Ida Peterson’s family c. 1891. From left are Hanna
and three windows was built in Apr 1878 and
(age 10), Anders (4), Victor (41), John (12), Esther (7), Marie (8),
Ida (32), and Julia (1) occupied on 30 Apr 1878. Before 12 Apr 1884,
he built a 14’ by 24’ sod stable, a 14’ by 24’
wood frame granary, well and windmill, pasture of 65 acres surrounded by a fence, and 90 acres of cropland
worth $600. On this and other homestead forms, Victor did not sign his name, only his mark. By 1903,
Victor and Ida purchased an additional 160 acres across the road—the NW quarter of Section 11, T5N,
R17W (Lake Township). Like Charlotte and John Abrahamson, in1879, Victor and Ida were charter
members of Fridhem Swedish Lutheran Church, 2 miles east of the town of Funk and 3 miles north of their
farm. In 1891, the sod church was replaced by a wood frame church building. In 1910, the wood frame
church was moved 2 miles west to the town of Funk.
However, by that time (but after 1903), Victor and
Ida sold their farm of 320 acres and moved their
family to Township 16 (S, Range 22E, page 49,
Atlas of Fresno County 1907, William Harvey,
Sr.), Fresno County, California, with other Swedes
near the grape farming community of Kingsburg
(“Little Sweden”) in the San Joaquin portion of the
Central Valley. At least one of their children
stayed in (or returned to) the Funk area. Marie
Roselia worked at the Bethphage Mission on the
north side of Axtell (6 miles east of Funk). In
1916, Marie was consecrated as a Lutheran
Deaconess at the Immanuel Deaconess Institute in
Omaha, and graduated from the Immanuel School
of Nursing in 1923. In 1919, Bethphage described
itself as a “Christian, charitable home for the
epileptics, feeble minded, destitute, and otherwise
unfortunate.” It is now called Mosaic Bethphage
Village, a faith-based organization serving people
with intellectual disabilities. When Great-grandma
Mabel (Grandpa Glenn’s mother) was active in
Sister Marie (Mary) Roselia Peterson (upper right), daughter
missions at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in St.
of Nels and Ida Christine, was consecrated as a Lutheran
Charles, Bethphage received regular donations. For Deaconess in 1916. She is pictured as one of the “Children
example, in 1957 it received a major portion of the of Fridhem” in the Jubilee Album, Swedish Evangelical
estate of cousin Emma Peterson Colson, daughter of Lutheran Fridhem Congregation of Funk, Nebraska, 1879-
1919 (lower part of page 82)
Peter A. Peterson (brother of Godfrey, Andrew,
John, Charlotte, Victor, and Louisa).

Louisa Christina Peterson married Carl
(Charles) Frederick Johnson on 4 Feb 1878 in
St. Charles, Illinois. They moved to Phelps
County, Nebraska, between 4 Feb 1878 and 4
Apr 1878. From 1880 to 1891, five children
(Lenus Emanuel, Arthur Laurence, Carl Elmer,
Ethel Louisa, and Carl William) were born in
Phelps County. Carl William died in infancy.
Carl Frederick became a naturalized citizen of
the US at the Phelps County courthouse in
Holdrege, Nebraska, on 13 Nov 1883. Carl
and Louisa homesteaded 160 acres in the NE
quarter of Section 12, T5N, R17W (Lake
Township). On his Homestead Proof form,
Carl (age 38) wrote that his 14’ by 20’ sod
house with a door and three windows was built
and occupied in April 1878. Before 12 Apr
Louisa and Carl Johnson’s family c. 1896. From left are Carl (age
1884, he built a 14’ by 22’ sod stable, a 12’ by
53), Arthur (14), Ethel (5), Lenus (16), Louisa (40), and Elmer (9)
24’ wood frame granary, well and windmill,
pasture of 35 acres surrounded by a fence, and
100 acres of cropland worth $600. Like Charlotte and John Abrahamson, in 1879, Louisa and Carl were
charter members of Fridhem Swedish Lutheran Church, 2 miles east of the town of Funk and 5 miles
northwest of their farm. Like Charlotte and John, in 1882, they were charter members of Salem Swedish
Methodist Church, a country church 2 miles northeast of their farm. Salem Church closed in 1972 and
family members changed their membership
back to Fridhem Church. However, the 1898
Salem Church building, including the
cemetery, has continued to be maintained.
The cemetery includes graves of Carl, Louisa,
Arthur, and Elmer. Lenus was buried in
Shenandoah, Iowa. Ethel was buried next to
her husband, William Abrahamson, in Prairie
Home Cemetery at Holdrege.

To submit their homestead applications,
Charles Johnson, Victor Peterson, and John
Abrahamson traveled together on 17 Apr
1878, to the Land Office in Bloomington,
Nebraska, approximately 25 miles southeast
of their farms. On their homestead
application forms, they each alleged
Salem Swedish Methodist Church and cemetery, 4 miles east of Funk
settlement beginning 4 Apr 1878. Each of and 4 miles southwest of Axtell. The Johnsons and Abrahamsons were
them listed their mailing address as Keene, charter members in 1882. Members of their families are buried here (in
in Kearney County, Nebraska, a small town the foreground), as is Lina Stina Peterson, mother of Charlotte, Victor,
Louisa, Godfrey, Andrew, John, and Peter. Regular services ended here
approximately 7 miles east of their farms.
in 1972. PFA photo taken 21 Sep 2014
To establish their final claim, each of them
appeared on 12 Apr 1884 before County Judge Charles J. Backman of Phelps County, taking turns serving as
witnesses for each other, along with neighbors Charles J. Lindquist and Andrew P. Falk. Under oath, they
answered questions about citizenship(yes), house and other improvements, family and continuity of
residence, crop acres and growing seasons (6 years each), presence of coal or mineral deposits (none), land
mortgages (none), and other homestead applications (none). By law, their final applications for claims were
published in the legal notices of the local newspaper, the Holdrege Equity. After review of all their
homestead documents by the US General Land Office in Plattsmouth, their land patents (first deeds) were
finalized on 20 Jan 1885. Six years later, all three were listed in the 1890-1891 Wolfe's Gazetteer Farmer's
Directory of Phelps County, Nebraska.

With an average annual rainfall of 22 inches, temperature extremes, high precipitation variability, average
wind speed of 9 mph, high variability in groundwater supplies, and lack of timber, south-central Nebraska
presented many challenges in producing crops and livestock. It was also a challenge to support a family and
church. Here are several challenges, reported in the Jubilee Album, Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Fridhem
Congregation of Funk, Nebraska, 1879-1919:

A devastating hailstorm, which totally destroyed the crops, visited the congregation just before harvest time in 1891. It
came as the grain was ready for the sickle. Starting at the northeast corner of the territory occupied by the congregation,
and moving south, it destroyed entirely the finest crop this country had ever seen. (p. 116)

The fateful year 1894 came and it will not be forgotten by those who passed through it, however long they may live. The
previous year (1893) had been a dry one, but this was worse. During seven months of the fall and winter of 1893 and the
spring of 1894 hardly any rain had fallen. Grain crops did not attain a growth of more than a few inches in height and did
not produce heads. Corn was from two to five feet high when the dawn of the direful day of July 26 burst over the eastern
horizon. The forenoon was not different from other days at this time of the year, but the afternoon proved a half-day of
destruction. A strong hot wind which sprang up out of the southwest burnt every green thing out of doors: not one plant
that was not in some way protected from this furnace blast was alive when the sun went down. This was a hard blow to
the country. Seed to sow and plant the ground with there was none. It all had to be shipped in, and there was very little
money, even the banks were in low funds. In 1894 a farmer here could not get money for a mortgage on his farm.
(p. 117-118)