Abraham and Anna: The Founders of the Tribe

Abraham Josephson was born as "Abraham Juntilla" on November 15, 1849; in Hailuoto, Finland. Abraham emigrated in 1872, settling on Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula, near Hancock, where he worked as a railroad brakeman. As was commonly done, he took and English-language spelling of his father's name- Josef- as part of his surname when he emigrated to the United States. hence, the surname "Josephson".

Anna Karvonen Josephson was born October 22, 1858 in Kuopio County, Finland. She was the daughter of David and Anna Lisa Kemppainen Karvonen, who had four other children. That surname sometimes appears in family's records here as "Kerenen" or "Keranen".

The circumstances of her emigration are not clear. Records in Finland's Puolanka Church Rectory describe her whereabouts
as unknown between 1890 and 1900, but by 1905, those records show her as having lived in in the United States for several years. We know her father died when he was 36, and that her mother then married Anders Vaisanen. Anna Lisa and Anders had one daughter at the time they emigrated in 1880. Anna was already here at that time.

Abraham and Anna were married in Hancock, Michigan on August 15, 1878. William, Charles, and Elmer, their oldest children were born in Hancock. In the 1880's , the family moved to Dakota Territory, setting in what now is Dickey County, North Dakota and Brown County, South Dakota. Fred, Ada, Mary, Hilma, Dave, Henry, Tena, and Elizabeth were all born in that area. They farmed there, in Ellendale, North Dakota vicinity, until 1906, when they moved to a homestead south of Wing, North Dakota.

Abraham was a charter member of both the Finnish Lutheran Church of Hecla, South Dakota, and the Finnish Lutheran Church near Wing, North Dakota. Abraham died in 1915, and Anna died in 1922. They are both buried at the Aloha Cemetery near Wing, as many of their descendants.

A century or more has passed since Abraham and Anna were married. Their decedents number over 500. We can only imagine the passing of the days and seasons of their lives on those unsettling prairies. The novels of O. E. Rolvaag and Willa Cather, along with the biographical essays of Erling Rolfsrud, are probably our best clues about how it all seemed to Abraham and Anna and their children so long ago.

• *Note I had received this many years ago from descendant Eldora Josephson Ryberg. author unknown. Possible the above biography appears in a county directory or bibliography of Burleigh County, North Dakota.**

-Ronald Geranen