Clara Amalia Andersdotter

GEDCOM Note

"Clara's later records list her birth as October 12, 1851 in Vaderstad, Ost, although it does not show up in the records there. Her mother's name was Brita Lisa Johansdotter. Clara was a bright girl and the yearly clerical examination records note "reads exceptionally well, above average, unusual", with a capital A grade. She was eleven years old when her mother married Carl Otto Gustafson, a farm worker who was nine years younger than she, and there were three more children. Clara's step-father was a worker on a large farm/estate of Wallsberg in Vaderstad and in 1864, Per Otto (Charles) Gustafson worked for a year as a farmhand at Wallsberg and must have known the family. In 1866, Clara left home at age 15 to work as a maid which was common. In 1868, just before Per Otto (Charles) Gustafson emigrated, he worked as a farmhand at the same farm in Appuna parish where Clara Amalia worked as a maid. Clara emigrated to the U.S. in 1871 and married Charles Gustafson the following year, May 15, 1872 in Mercer County, Illinois. Clara died January 11, 1918 at her home (1202 Boundary) in Red Oak, Iowa of pernicious anemia and is buried in the Gustafson family plot in Evergreen Cemetery, Red Oak, Iowa" by: Doris Ann Haas

Came to Montgomery county, IA in 1891 and a resident of Red Oak since 1903. Member of the Swedish Mission Church.