BRUSVEEN, Sarah (Engen) 1853-1951

BRUSVEEN, ENGEN, EVENSON

Posted By: Diane M Scott (email)
Date: 1/16/2012 at 14:27:46

Sarah (Engen) Brusveen 1853-1951

#1

OSAGES OLDEST RESIDENT TO MARK 97TH YEAR ON CHRISTMAS
Osage – Mrs. Sarah Brusveen, oldest resident of Osage was born on Christmas day and will Monday celebrate her 97th birthday anniversary.
Her arrival was a surprise since her parents Mr. and Mrs. Knute Engen, hadn’t expected her to be born until later. She was born while her father was attending Christmas services in nearby Bruflat, Valders, Norway. In early years she “worked out” for wealthier relatives and met her future husband Christian Hanson (who changed his name to Brusveen when they came to this country.)

With real nostalgia, Mrs. Brusveen shows her visitors her photograph of the simple Norwegian Church where she was baptized, confirmed and married. But home ties weren’t strong enough to keep the Brusveens from following the trail of Norwegian born friends who settled in Wisconsin and so the couple and its year old son, Hans, set out on the month long trip to Argyle, Wisconsin, their trunk loaded with flatbrod, rollepulsa, dried beef, and lefsa, which became moldy and had to be thrown overboard.

After a short time, an uncle invited them to come to his farm near Blue Mounds, Wisconsin where a daughter, now Mrs. Even Evenson, and a son, John, were born. The family lived in Mt. Horeb and then came to Mitchell County in 1905.

Their son, John, died of pneumonia in 1921 and Mr. Brusveen died in 1925, several years after the couple moved to Osage.

Mrs. Brusveen manages to remain gay and chatty despite a series of amputations on her legs as a result of gangrene, a paralytic stroke which affected her left side and speech and a severe heart attack.

She is looking forward already to her 100th birthday anniversary, hoping to surpass her father, who died only a few months before his centennial.

She has four grandchildren, four great grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.
Birthday and Christmas cards line the walls of the Evenson home where she resides.

They’re pleasant memories of her friends and she wheels herself about to scan the cards and laughs at the antics of her fox terrier, Penny, who has learned to dance and shake hands.

Mason City Globe Gazette, Sunday December 24, 1950

#2

DOG POISONER CAUSES GRIEF TO AGED LADY
Osage – Mrs. Sarah Brusveen, 97, oldest Osage resident, finds much of enjoyment in life is gone since someone poisoned her house pet, a little fox terrier, which she named Penny.
She loved to watch the antics of the little dog by the hour.
If anyone obtained any satisfaction from poisoning this little animal, he probably would lose it if he could see the grief it has caused this aged woman.

Mason City Globe Gazette, Tuesday February 13, 1951

#3

Sarah Brunsveen was born on December 25, 1853 and died on Saturday August 25, 1951 in Osage, at the age of 97 years and 8 months. Burial was in the Osage Cemetery.

#4

Mitchell Co., Burial permits: 1947-1971
Sarah Brusveen age 97 died August 26, 1951 in Osage of senility; burial Osage Cemetery