Martha Ersland (1876-1950)

ERSLAND, TENDALL

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 5/17/2021 at 16:53:11

From Nevada Evening Journal November 15, 1950 (page 4)

Services Saturday For Former Fernald Teacher

Funeral services for Martha Erslan was held in Fjeldberg church at Huxley on Saturday, Nov. 11, at 2 p. m. with the Rev. M. Harold Rye in charge.

Music was furnished by Mrs. Orland Fjelland at the organ, and Mrs. E. D. Hall singing two solos, "One Sweetly Solemn Thought", and "Under His Wing", the latter being a special favorite of the deceased.

A number of memorial gifts of money were received for benevolences, one being from a group from Fernald where Miss Ersland had taught the primary grade in the school 1923 to 1941.

Friends and relatives attending were from all the nearby localities. Pallbearers were Orville Kalsem, Luther and Harold Ersland, Jesse and Miller Nelson and Frederick Weise, a nephew from Lorenzo, Texas.

Burial was in the Fjeldberg cemetery. The Ladies aid served a lunch in the church parlors after the group returned from the cemetery.

Obituary

Martha Ersland was a daughter of the late Anfin and Alice Ersland, she was born Oct. 10, 1876, on the family homestead south of Cambridge and passed away on Nov. 9, 1950, at the Woods Invalid home at Des Moines.

She is survived by one sister, Carrie, Mrs. S. Tendall of Northfield, Minn., an brothers Knute, Seward, Joe, Louis and Arthur. Her parents, two brothers and three sisters preceded her in death. Aldo surviving are 17 nephews and 14 nieces.

Her early life was spent near Cambridge. The family moved to Nevada in 1894 when the father, Anfin Ersland, was elected county recorder. Martha began teaching school when 18 years of age in the rural schools in the Apland and Nelson districts and in Oklahoma at Homestead an Tuttle.

Returning to Story county, she taught in the Fernald school form 1923 to 1941 when she retired because of ill health. She made her home with her brother Joe and family at Des Moines and Ankeny from 1941 to 1948 when she entered the Woods nursing home at Des Moines where she passed away.