Gustaf Freeburg, 1849-1911

FREEBURG, JOHNSON, ANDERSON, PETERSON, OLSON, CARLSON

Posted By: Clay County IAGenWeb Coordinator (email)
Date: 11/6/2010 at 16:05:08

The Scandinavia peninsula has furnished to America valuable citizens, including Gustaf Freeburg, who is interested in agricultural pursuits and stock-raising at Rossie, this county. His birth occurred near Guttenberg, Sweden, May 22, 1849, and he is a son of Magnus and Mary (Anderson) Johnson, his father pursued general farming in his native land until his death in 1862, while his wife also departed this life, during the same year. In their family were the following children: Christina and Andrew, deceased; Anna, widow of Carl Lunbeck; John, who resides in Sweden; and Gustaf.

In the common schools of his native land Gustaf Freeburg acquired his education and upon completing his studies remained at home until he was thirteen years of age, at which period of his life he went to live with an aunt with whom he spent three years. He then secured employment on a farm, where he remained until his marriage and then rented land which he cultivated until the year 1880, when he came to the new world and visited with a brother located in Lincoln township, where he remained for ten weeks. Later he removed to Summit township, where for two years he was in the employ of James Goodwin and in the year 1882 removed to the farm on which he now resides. Here he owns eleven hundred and twenty acres of excellent land, all the improvements on which he has made himself, and aside from having a comfortable dwelling he also has a commodious barn and all the necessary outbuildings together with machinery and other conveniences with which to carry on his work by modern methods. When Mr. Freeburg first took possession of this property he owned but a single team of oxen and a lumber wagon, which conveyance he not only employed in his farm work but also utilized to take himself and family to church. At that time his barn and stable combined consisted of a building fourteen by sixteen feet and in it he kept his provender and also his oxen and later a team of mules, when he had earned sufficient money to buy them during the first winter he engaged in farming for himself. These were his sole possessions but he was not so fortunate with them as he would have liked to have been, since one of the mules died shortly after he purchased it and he was compelled to borrow a horse from a neighbor in order to complete the team, and as he had no money with which to pay for the hire of the animal he worked it out on his neighbor’s farm. In three years time he mortgaged his farm, which then consisted of eighty acres, and with the money he obtained he purchased a team. By hard work and food management he saved his earnings from year to year, until finally he increased his small farm of eighty acres to his present extensive landed possessions, including more than eleven hundred and twenty acres. He is regarded as one of the most industrious as well as one of the most prosperous agriculturists in the county. Aside from general farming in the production of hay and the various kinds of grain, he also engages in stock raising and keeps on hand a number of fine cattle and hogs, and he does a considerable shipping business.

In 1872, in his native land, Mr. Freeburg was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Peterson and to this union have been born eleven children, manly: John; Carl, who wedded Mary Anderson and resides on a farm in Lincoln township; Selma M., who became the wife of Andrew Olson, who is also an agriculturist of Lincoln township; Clara Amelia, the wife of Gus Carlson, of Lincoln township; Martin; Albert; Emma; Harry; Hannah; Elizabeth, and Beda. Mr. Freeburg’s political opinions have always been on the side of the republican party and, having intelligently investigated the merits of the several political platforms, he considers the principles of republicanism best suited to preserve the prosperity of the country and promote its financial interests. Consequently he is always ready with his vote and influence to secure the election of its candidates. He has filled the positions of a road supervisor and school director, in which capacities he has served efficiently for a number of terms. He is a man of high moral character, dutiful to his religious obligations as a member of the Swedish Lutheran church, of the Sunday school, of which he is superintendent. Mr. Freeburg is one of the most substantial farmers of the vicinity, well known throughout the township for his diligence and enterprise, and he deserves great credit for his present prosperity, which is due solely to his own exertions.

Source: History of Clay County Iowa – Steele – 1909, page 538.

Interment in Swedish Lutheran cemetery
 

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