When my great-grandparents Gust and Augusta Rudeen came to America in 1882, Gust’s younger sister Emma Christina traveled with them. Let’s take a look at her life and family.
Emma Christina Petersdotter was born on March 24, 1862 at Eket (“The Oak”) family farm in Marbäck parish, Jönköping län, Sweden.1 When she was 20 years old, she traveled with her brother Anders Gustaf “Gust” Petersson and his bride-to-be, Augusta Mathilda Gustafsdotter to America. The three of them boarded the Orlando steamer in Göteborg on October 6, 1882 and traveled to Hull, England.2 From there, they would have traveled by train to Liverpool where the State Line ship “State of Florida” was bound for New York City. They arrived in New York City on October 27.3
Passenger list from October 6, 1882 showing A.G. Pettersson, hustru (wife) Augusta, and Emma Petersson leaving from Marbäck parish with destination of Lincoln, Nebr. Gust and Augusta were presenting themselves as husband wife even though they hadn’t yet married.
From there, they likely traveled by train to Chicago and then on to Lincoln, Nebraska – the destination stated on the ship’s list in Göteborg. They surely met up with their uncle Carl Rudeen who lived in nearby Waverly. On November 19, Gust and Augusta were married by the minister of the Swedish Mission Church in Waverly.4 They soon adopted “Rudeen” as their surname, just like Uncle Carl.
But what became of Emma?
I’m not sure of her whereabouts in the years immediately after her arrival in America. It appears that she was working as a servant for a German family living in Lincoln in 1885. She was using Rudeen as her surname at this point.5 On August 4, 1888 she was married to Carl Oscar Anderson, himself a Swedish immigrant.6
Emma and her husband Carl settled in Wahoo, Nebraska where Carl had established a harnessmaking business. Carl was also a charter member and organizer of the Swedish Baptist Church of Wahoo.7
Carl and Emma welcomed four children to their family: Carl Arthur (b. 1889), Clarence William (b. 1891), Arnold Oscar (b. 1894) and Alice E. (b. 1899). These four children would have been first cousins of my grandfather Lawrence Rudeen and I imagine he knew them well. I surmise that Emma was one of the women in the picture I worked on last week.
The oldest son Carl graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1916. He taught for a few years at a one-room schoolhouse in Nebraska before moving on to Rawlins, Wyoming where he became the superintendent of schools.8 The next son Clarence William – known as C.W. Anderson – taught school for a few years before leaving home to attend the Chicago Institute of Art.9
By 1920, I’m sure it was clear to Carl that the demand for leather harnesses was dwindling with each passing year and soon to disappear altogether. Maybe it was time to retire. Emma’s health was poor as well. They decided, like many Nebraskans of this era, to pack up and move to California. Carl sold his share in the harness-making business to his partner, J.A. Mollerstrom, and they made plans to move to San Jose, California, where his widowed sister Anna Oberg was living. The younger two children, Arnold (age 26) and Alice (age 21) must have hoped for brighter futures in California as well and traveled with them. The four traveled by train.
The stress of travel proved too much for Emma. She fell ill while traveling and on the western side of Donner Pass, she passed away. The train continued on to the town of Auburn, where local officials removed the body and the family disembarked. A coroner’s inquest was held, and it was determined that she had died from “Bright’s Disease”.10 Per Wikipedia, this is an outdated term for nephritis, a kidney disease. It was very often associated with diabetes and based on family history, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if diabetes was an underlying condition.
She was embalmed at the local mortuary and then the family traveled on to San Jose for the funeral and burial. Can you imagine!
Carl’s sister took in the family for a time. Arnold soon left for Eugene, Oregon where he studied at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism.11 Daughter Alice attended the California State Normal School (now San Jose State University) and became a teacher.12
After Emma’s passing, Carl established a home for himself in San Jose and became an enthusiastic member of the local Swedish Baptist Church. I read in a research thesis that the San Jose Swedish Baptist Church in 1929 had 82 members and that services were still being conducted in Swedish (though they converted to English the following year). The church still exists, though the community has moved and evolved over the years and is now known as Dwell and is soon to merge with Willow Glen Bible Church.
Carl passed away on October 29, 1929 and was buried next to his beloved Emma in the Oak Hill Memory Park in San Jose.
He was survived by his four children, all of whom had gone on to fulfilling and successful careers.
Carl Arthur Anderson left Rawlins in 1924 and moved to San Francisco where he started out as a teacher but quickly moved into a series of ever-more-impressive administrative positions. He was principal of Noe Valley Junior High, Hamilton Junior High, Galileo High School, and Presidio Junior High. In 1939, he became principal of Polytechnic High School, probably San Francisco’s premier high school back in the day. (The school was eventually closed in 1973. Only the gymnasium is still standing at 701 Frederick Street on the south side of Golden Gate Park.)13
Carl and his wife Beulah had two children. Sadly, their son Robert died at age 15 from pneumonia.
Carl died in 1974 and is buried at the Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California (near South San Francisco).
Carl and Beulah’s daughter Phyllis followed the family tradition and acquired several degrees in education and specialized in English-as-a-Second-Language. Later in life she took up writing and wrote many novels for young adults that were popular. Although she died in 2011, her website is still online and contains a lovely tribute to her life and work. I ordered one of her books from a used book website, I’m looking forward to reading it! Phyllis would have been my Dad’s second cousin. She has two children and several grandchildren still living. They are the only living descendants of Carl (Sr.) and Emma.
Clarence William Anderson, better known as C.W. Anderson, went to New York City after graduating from the Chicago Institute of Art. He became a freelance illustrator and book author. His work was featured on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post at least once. He is best known as the author and illustrator of the “Billy and Blaze” series of books published from 1936 until 1970. His artistic specialty was horses, especially race horses. No doubt he was around horses quite a bit growing up with his father in the harness business. He was a judge of jumpers and hunters for the American Show Association.
C.W. married Madeline Paltenghi but they had no children together (she had a son from a previous marriage). He retired to Mason, New Hampshire and became active in the local arts community. So beloved by the community, a children’s theater playhouse in nearby Wilton, New Hampshire is named “Andy’s Summer Playhouse” in his honor.14
Dad has a signed print (or maybe original?) of his sketch of Man O’ War, probably C.W.’s favorite equine subject. I have built a small collection of his books which is I enjoy sharing with the children and (soon) the grandchildren.
Every once in a while I go on eBay and browse through the current offerings. I’d love to snag an original artwork someday.
C.W. died in 1971 and is buried at the Prospect Hill Cemetery in Mason, New Hampshire.15 He is still remembered as one of Wahoo, Nebraska’s “Five Famous Sons” and the local museum in Wahoo has a little display in his honor. His display is notably smaller, however, than those for Wahoo Sam Crawford and Daryl F. Zanuck.
Arnold Oscar Anderson moved to New York City after graduating from journalism school and wrote for Automotive News, a weekly magazine during the 1920s. He then became a general reporter for the Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer. In 1927, he relocated to Yakima, Washington where he had a 30-year career as an agricultural reporter for the Yakima Republic. Arnold never married. When he retired in 1960, he moved back to California to live with his sister Alice.
Arnold died in 1965 and is buried at Los Gatos Memorial Park near San Jose.16
Alice Emma Anderson’s teaching career took her first to Washington state, then Southern California, and finally to Soledad, California in 1928 where she taught first and second grades until her retirement in 1964. She and Arnold moved to Los Gatos where they lived at 104 Olive Street.
She died in 1970 at the age of 70 and is buried next to her brother at Los Gatos Memorial Park.17 Like Arnold, she never married. The Findagrave website mistakenly identifies them as husband and wife.
The cute little house that Arnold and Alice shared is still standing at 104 Olive St. in Los Gatos. It’s a 2-bedroom 2-bath 1100 sq ft house valued today at $1.2 million.18 Al-righty-then.
Closing Thoughts
- I should have researched this family years ago! I’m going to reach out to one of Phyllis’ descendants on Ancestry and see if I can re-establish contact with the family.
- One of the Anderson children may have lived in Grand Junction, Colorado at some point…my notes in the 1997 Rudeen family history say it was Alice but I’m not sure that’s true. Maybe Dad remembers the details.
- I love how much this family valued education. For a bunch of first-generation kids from 1890s-Wahoo to all get college degrees is really something.
1 Marbäck Husförhör (Household Examination), Marbäck (F) AI:12 (1861-1865) Image 68 / Page 60 (AID: v21068.b68.s60, NAD: SE/VALA/00244)
2 Gothenburg, Sweden, Passenger Lists, 1869-1951, Göteborgs poliskammare (-1900) (O) EIX:21 (1882) Image 2640 / Page 511 (AID: v479745.b2640.s511, NAD: SE/GLA/12703).
3 New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897; Microfilm Serial or NAID: M237; RG Title: Records of the U.S. Customs Service; RG: 36; image 3 of 6; Ship = State of Florida
4 Marriage Certificate, Peterson & Gustafsdotter, photocopy (1882) Marriage, issued 19 nov 1882.
5 1885 Nebraska State Census, Lancaster County (part 3), Image 304 of 507, page 26 ED 699 (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1668/records/513578?tid=&pid=&queryId=051b4b5f-4274-47fa-940c-71f2f713f727&_phsrc=zyS1&_phstart=successSource).
6 Saunders County Marriage Licenses, “Saunders, Nebraska, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHK-Q3PK-V93J?view=explore : Jan 29, 2025), image 66 of 73; Nebraska. County Clerk (Saunders County).
7 Obituary Carl Anderson, Wahoo Wasp, Wahoo Wasp, Thursday November 14, 1929, Page 4.
8 Obituary Carl Arthur Anderson, The Times, San Mateo, California, Sunday January 12, 1974.
9 Online article, Wahoo Public Schools, “C.W. Anderson Leaves His Mark in Children’s Literature and Illustrations”, https://www.wahooschools.org/vnews/display.v/ART/47ca35e999248
10 News article, “Dies on Train”, Placer Herald Article, August 21, 1920
11 Obituary Arnold Anderson, Los Gatos Times-Saratoga Observer Los Gatos, California · Thursday, August 26, 1965.
12 Obituary Alice Anderson, Los Gatos Times-Saratoga Observer, Wed, Jan 21, 1970 Page 3
13 Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Polytechnic_High_School
14 Website, https://www.andyssummerplayhouse.org/mission-history
15 Findagrave, FindAGrave Memorial 169956451
16 Findagrave, FindAGrave Memorial 116115531
17 Findagrave, FindAGrave Memorial 116115579
18 Zillow, https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/104-Olive-St-Los-Gatos-CA-95030/19668612_zpid/
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