NELSON, THURSTENSON, GUSTAFSON, CARLSON, ANDERSON (31 Jan 2008)
I am interested in any details regarding the Frank Otto NELSON
family that lived in Wausa, Knox County. Frank moved his wife
(Christina) and three children (Selma, Mable and Paul) to Turlock,
California in 1920. Before that time, he farmed on the East edge of
Wausa and had the first milk delivery service in Wausa. Later he had
an Auto Painting Shop in Wausa (we think we spotted that building
East across the street from the Covenant church. Ellen and Minnie
remained in Wausa – Ellen married Carl GUSTAFSON and Minnie married
August CARLSON. Minnie and her sister IDA (who married Peter
THURSTENSON and moved to Anoka, NE) had a double wedding at the
Mission Covenant church in Wausa. I am interested in any details
that might be available on these people. I have been to the court
house and collected data on these folk that I could find with the
kind help of one of the employees there.
In addition to the above, I recently received from the left behind
possessions of Frank Otto NELSON’s family in California the photo
below. I know nothing about the photo other than it is a Wausa
school photo and probably has within it some of the NELSON children.
If there is someone who can date the photo and possibly identify the
students – this would be such a treasure for me. Frank is my Great
Grandfather.
I found a note in my Great Grandparent’s (Frank Otto and Christina (RUNDQUIST)
NELSON) stuff that following 7 disastrous years near Julesburg,
Colorado, they return to Oakland, NE to an unwelcome family in about
1892 or 93. Christina had a “grand old uncle who owned a farm in
Wausa” who invited them to live on in a home he currently had
tenants in. This Uncle’s name was O. P. ANDERSON and he had two
daughters and three “husky” sons. Another clue indicates this new
home for the Nelsons was about 7 miles outside of Wausa but I don’t
know what direction. If anyone has any clues, I would greatly
appreciate any tidbit.
Thank you for whatever consideration you might be able to provide.
Joe Thurstenson
Siloam Springs, Arkansas
Email: joe@thurstenson.com
Click picture for a larger view (738K).
CC Note: There is a picture of the scool on page 41 of the Wausa
Centennial Book
that says this school was built in 1903. Thus the picture is
sometime after
that.
