Tobias Gustafson

Maybe a little about my great-grandfather Tobias E. Gustafson here.
He apparently came over from Sweden in the late 1800's, working on cargo ships. There is a record of him working on a ship in 1890, and another in 1892. We're not sure if he landed in Duluth, or worked his way there from maybe New York or some other eastern seaboard port. The earliest record we ever found on him here in the states is in a business directory in Duluth in 1907. He's listed as a "Broker" under the name "Boden & Gustafson". We assume it's a land broker, as that was his career the rest of his life. That same year he married Signe Cecelia Gustafson, the mother of my grandfather Walter. (Walter's dad was out of his life by then)
After that, Tobias shows up in the 1915 Duluth directory, listed as a real estate dealer, with his residence listed as Bain. Bain pretty much doesn't exist anymore. I guess there's a few residences and buildings left, but not much else.
In 1918 Tobias ran for County Commisioner, but lost.


The reference in the article to his losing a house, and the "serious calamity", was from the big fire that swept thru the region in 1918. A railroad locomotive caught the brush on fire after a bad dry spell, and it swept thru the county. He apparently came thru ok, as he built a huge new house in town(Palisade).

The house still stands, and is impressive!
Anyway, his business dealing weren't always favorable to others. He and his three friends were not especially liked by some of the folks in the area. Tobias was shot and killed in 1922, after a disagreeable land transaction. It made all the newspapers, even the front page in Duluth. I'll post a couple of the articles and let that tell the story.

Here's a transcript of the article in the Duluth News Tribune. (It didn't photocopy very well)
Article from August 11, 1922 Duluth News Tribune, reads as follows:
_____________________________________________________

FARMER KILLS TO AVENGE LAND DISPUTE

Murder Victim’s Companion
Dodges Shower of Bullets;
Slayer Attempts Suicide

Son Held for Threat to
Shoot After Palisade
Gun Play

News Tribune Special.
Aitkin, Minn., Aug. 10 –After shooting P. E. Gustafson, age 45, as the result of a land transaction, and firing a volley of shots at Lester Berglund, E. W. Corey, age 63, farmer, turned the weapon on himself in attempt at suicide at Palisade at 9:15 a.m. today. Gustafson was instantly killed. Berglund dodged a hail of lead and escaped unharmed.
Palisade is 23 miles northeast of here. Mr. Gustafson is survived by a widow and several children. Corey’s son, Glen, was taken into custody following an alleged threat to “shoot up the town.”

Corey Sees Men.

According to information received here, Corey was to have left Palisade today for a farm in Iowa, having sold his interests in the vicinity. Stopping at Palisade to obtain gas for his automobile, Corey espied Gustafson, who is a real estate operator, and Berglund, sitting in front of the blacksmith shop.
Without any warning, Corey whipped out a gun and commenced shooting. Two of the bullets struck Gustafson, one in the chest and the other in the left arm. Death was instantaneous. Berglund escaped the shower of bullets by dodging into the blacksmith shop. The shooting took place while the family of Corey looked on.
Gunman Shoots Self.

Calmly and apparently unconcerned Corey walked into the garage and shot himself in the forehead. An emergency operation was performed. Physicians say he will die.
Immediately following the shooting Glen Corey, age 22, flashed a gun and threatened to “shoot up the town,” according to the sheriff I.E. Boekenoogen and Coroner C.H. Fetters of Aitkin county when informed of the shooting threats made by Glen Corey, hurried to the scene of the crime.

Son Taken to Jail.

Corey was taken to the Aitkin county jail by the sheriff to avoid violence. He is held without charge. Coroner Fetters declared tonight that no inquest would be conducted.
According to close friends of the dead man, the shooting was the culmination of several quarrels between the two. Corey had had a “streak of bad luck,” they said, for which he blamed Gustafson.

Sold Land Option.

Six months ago, Corey sold an option on his land to the local bank, which in turn sold it to Gustafson. The option expired, but Corey entered into negotiations with Gustafson for the repurchase of the option. Gustafson, it was stated, demanded an increase in price for the return of the option. The shooting was said to have been the result of the disagreement between the two men.
Funeral services for Gustafson probably will be held tomorrow in charge of the local Odd Fellows.
_____________________________________________________

That, coupled with the death of a son from some bad moonshine purchased from Tobias, enraged the man. About 10 years ago I actually made contact with a decendant of Mr. Cory, and heard the moonshine story. Fitting, as that was during the prohibition, and Minnesota was a hotbed of liquer being smuggled in from Canada.
Tobias is buried in the old cemetary south of Palisade, along the Mississippi River. His headstone is impressive!

There's another marker over his grave, which for some unknown reason has his death date wrong. It says 1921. Who knows.

Pic of Vernon with Lane and me

Thought this was a cool picture of Vernon playing croquet with Lane and I. I actually have a faint memory of Vernon from this trip. I was all of 2, or not quite. Mom told me that Vernon liked to play with us kids.

Well, here it is

Recieved that book in the mail this last week. Looks like kinda dry reading, but I think I'll slog thru it anyway. Has lots of photos in it, most or all of which I have the negatives and lots of 8" x 10" prints.







This is a letter sent to Vernon's family(his folks, presumably) from Captain Karig, trying to find him. Aunt Mickey wrote a letter to Vernon, stating they'd answered him back, letting him know where Vernon was at, and sent along the note from Karig.



And he also sent a couple newspaper clippings about the book.




And here's an autographed pic of the captain. Kinda hard to read what he wrote on the front, but it's re-written on the back.

been neglecting this, huh?

I just ordered a book from Amazon.com., printed in 1948.
Uncle Vernie worked with a Col. Walter Karig on a book about the south sea islands after the war. I found some info on it in all the piles of papers and pix I have of Vernon's. It explained a large part of all the photos I have in his collection. I'll write up what I know about it all after I get the book.
Apparently this Col. Karig was a writer before the war, and got the job of doing just that for the navy during the war. Back in the 1930's, he was a ghost-writer for the Nancy Drew series of books. And in the 1950's, he wrote the script for the T.V. series "Victory at Sea", about the naval battles of WWII.

Kinda interesting to find stuff like this about our family!

A little more family history

I'm a bit overwhelmed trying to sort thru vernon's stuff, so here's something different.
I mentioned at the start of this blog I've made contact with a couple distant cousins the past few years. Here's some info from one of them.
Sandy(I'll not mention her last name on a public blog) sent me a letter about the time we moved to Utah. She had found my name and address from one of the county historical socities in Minnesota that I had visited when we were back there back in either '98 or '99. Well, her letter got pretty much lost in the shuffle of moving. I finally found it, and wrote back to her via an email address she had included in the letter. Turns out she's a grandaughter to my great-grandmother Cecelia Gustafson's sister, Elsie.
So Sandy had been in contact with a gal over in Sweden, who was involved with a historical society in Orebro. They were able to exchange quite a bit of info, to the point that she did a display in the museum in Orebro on Cecelia and Elsie's mother, Mathilda, who emigrated with her 2 daughters. Here's an excerpt from one of Sandy's emails:
"Dear Rick, again I am so excited to connect with you. We have much to share. Thank You! ThankYou! For the pictures and information. I wish I had this information a year or so ago. I worked with an archivist from Orebro Sweden who was doing a showcase on Mathilda at a history fair in the museum in Orebro. The inserts oare of that show case. At the time I had given her what information I had."
Here's some pictures of that display.

Sorry all....

I'm not doing so well here. I'll get more on here soon.
I contacted a group that has reunions and such for those that served on the ship Vernon was on, the USS Valley Forge. Sent an email telling them about the tons of photos I have, and really aren't sure what to do with them all. I've been kind of looking for some library, historical soctiety, or what have you to donate them to. I'm probably the last generation in the family that will give a hoot about the collection, and don't want it all to just go to the dump someday down the road. They wrote back, and said they'd gladly take whatever I want to send them and add it to their archives. So I've been slowly trying to sort things out. There's also all the pictures he took for the book a Col. Walter Karig wrote about the south sea islands, and they're all mixed up and not labled very well. I'm learning to tell the diff by the subject matter, though. But there's hundreds, if not thousands, to go thru.
I'll keep a small collection for the family though. There's at least duplicates of everything, including the negatives. I don't want to give up EVERYTHING, just in case someone does care later on. But I feel there may be just too much historical importance to not share with an organization like these guys.
http://www.happyvalleyreunionclub.org/