Anundsen, Esther Matilde Charlotte (Hoffstrom) 1838 – 1899

ANUNDSEN, HOFFSTROM

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 9/1/2020 at 15:04:06

Source: Decorah Republican Jan. 5, 1899 P 4 C 2

DEATH OF MRS. B. ANUNDSEN.
The saddest blow that can occur to the strong man fell upon Bro. Anundsen, of the Decorah Posten, early last Monday morning. Death entered the family home and took from it the devoted wife and mother.
Esther Matilde Charlotte Hoffstrom was born in Calmar, Sweden. May 28th, 1838. Her father was an officer in the Swedish army and died leaving his widow in straitened circumstances and with the care of a young family of six children. As a consequence the first forty years of her life were spent in a prolonged struggle with poverty. In 1854 the family came to this country, and the daughter began a struggle for support as soon as she was able to render any service. In October, 1865, she was married to Mr. Anundson, and with him began a noble effort to obtain what for many years was only a bare subsistence. She became to him a wife in the fullest sense of the term. One of the finest tributes ever paid to a devoted “hustru” as given by Mr. Anundsen in his Decorah Posten souvenir issued in 1897. In it he tells of her devoted service. Besides the care of a young family and a household, she helped him day and night with the physical labor of their little printing office. She folded, stitched and mailed the Ved Arnen magazine, which was Mr. A’s first venture. His “office” was in the garret of their house and she helped set type and inked the forms while he did the press work. More than that, when the last resources were exhausted she knitted and sold babies’ jackets to buy white paper. It is no wonder that her husband said after she had done this kind of labor for many years that “by virtue of her efforts” she became “more than entitled to a prominent place in the Decorah Posten picture gallery.” These struggles drew them closer and closer together, and when at last the sun of prosperity begun to shine upon them it was his delight first to supply her with the comforts and afterwards with many other luxuries of life. They were “comrades,” in the truest sense, for did she not in her life exemplify the words of the wise man?—

The heart of, her husband {illegible} trust in her. * * * She will do him good and not evil, all the days of her life. **** Her husband is
known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land. * * * Her children arise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praised her. ”
They came to Decorah thirty-one years ago. To be exact they reached here Dec. 15th, 1867. Three children were born to them. One, a daughter, died at the age of five years, the others -—well known young businessmen—survive her. In all the relations of life, as daughter, wife, mother and grandparent, she was a true woman, and the home in which she was so large a part will long be a desolate one. Although so hard a worker for so many years, she was never strong, and always delicate in health. But her final illness from a cold was a brief one of only about a week, critical only since last Thursday. Sunday evening she was improving, and the family felt that serious danger was passing away. The sympathy of the whole community go out towards those who are so sorely stricken.

Transcriber’s Note: Her gravestone in Lutheran Decorah Cemetery shows her name as Mathilde.

Lutheran Decorah Cemetery
 

Winneshiek Obituaries maintained by Bruce Kuennen.
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