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1907 Past and Present Biographies

Justus Carlson

A noted lecturer has said that “Sweden is the home of the honest man” - a statement which finds verification in the life record of Justus Carlson, one of the native sons of Sweden. America is largely indebted to that country for an important element in her citizenship, for the sons of Sweden have come to the new world and in the exercise of persistent energy, determination and unfaltering integrity - their dominant qualities - they have done much to improve the various localities in which they have settled, being at all times recognized as citizens of genuine worth and value. To this class belongs Mr. Carlson, who is now living on section 1, Paton township, his home being in the northeast corner of Greene county. He was born in Bottnaryd, Sweden, March 26, 1867. His father, Carl Anderson, is still living in that country, but the mother is now deceased. The family numbered five children, all of whom survive, but Justus Carlson is the only one who ever came to the United States.

Reared and educated in his native country, he remained a resident of Sweden until 1888, when, at the age of twenty-one years, he crossed the Atlantic to the new world and made his way to Webster county, Iowa, where he had friends living. He was without capital and, his financial condition rendering immediate employment a necessity, he began working by the month at farm labor and was thus employed for two years. Ambitious to engage in farming on his own account, he then rented land for eight years in Webster county and with the money which he saved from his earnings during that period he made investment, in 1899, in the farm upon which he now makes his home, on section 1, Paton township. It was then improved with only a small house. He has since remodeled the residence, has erected a good barn, corn cribs and other buildings and has put in tile to the value of nearly one thousand dollars. The excellent system of drainage which he has thus inaugurated has made his fields very productive and the care and labor which he bestows upon them are manifest in .the excellent crops which he annually garners. He now has one hundred and sixty acres, constituting a valuable farm and its excellent appearance makes it one- of the attractive features of the landscape.

On the 1st of January, 1890, Mr. Carlson was married in Webster county to Miss Anna Christene Josephson, who was born in Sweden, December 21, 1866, and came to the United States a short time before her marriage, going to the home of friends in Minnesota. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Carlson have been born five children, who are yet living and they also lost their first born, Ruth L., whose birth occurred September 20, 1891, and who passed away on the 12th of April, 1895. The others are Carl Joseph, born November 23, 1894; Martin Nathaniel, March 6, 1897; Donald Titus, January 4, 1900; Oscar Hilmer Emanuel, April 16, 1902; and Ida Hannah Evelyn, who was born December 13, 1905.

Mr. Carlson is well known as one who stands for justice, truth, reform and progress. He is a member of the Mission church near Lanyon, Webster county, and his views upon the temperance question are indicated by the support which he gives to the prohibition party. His life has been one of untiring activity crowned with a goodly measure of success, which he well merits and his record is alike a credit to the land of his birth and the land of his adoption.

Transcribed from "Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa Together With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Prominent and Leading Citizens and Illustrious Dead,"
by E. B. Stillman assisted by an Advisory Board consisting of Paul E. Stillman, Gillum S. Toliver,
Benjamin F. Osborn, Mahlon Head, P. A. Smith and Lee B. Kinsey, Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1907.

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