Genealogy Story – Gertrude Russell Gustafson

Gertrude Louise Russell was born in 1880, the sixth child of Walter James Russell and his first wife, Lois Ann Cook. Her mother passed away in 1883 when she was only 2-1/2. Walter took his children and moved in with his parents, Silas and Hester, so that his mother could take care of the children. Just 2 years later, in 1886, Walter’s father, Silas, passed away. In 1887, Walter remarried to Cornelia Sutphin and they had four more children together. In 1895, Walter died at the age of 43 and then two years later, Cornelia died at the age of 38. Finally, in 1898, Hester also passed away. Thus, at age 18, Gertrude found herself having experienced the death of both of her parents and both of her grandparents.

That same year, Gertrude, needing to have some means of income, married Karl Victor Gustafson. He was 25 and had immigrated to the US a few years earlier from Sweden. The immediately settled down and began having children. Over the next few years, they had three children together – Elnora Henrietta (b. 1899), Albin Victor, named after his Swedish grandfather (b. 1900), and Pauline Gertrude, her middle name after her mother (b. 1901). Then in 1903, Gertrude passed away, followed just a month later by the death of Pauline.

Karl Victor was heart-broken. Only 29 and without the ability to care for his two other children, he put them in the Swedish Christian Orphanage in Cromwell. Elnora and Albin were only 4 and 3 years old respectively. Karl went to live in Avon where he lived as a servant in a house as well as being a bartender in a local hotel. Then in 1911, at the age of only 38, Karl also died.

The Swedish Christian Orphanage had been started in 1900 by the Swedish Evangelical Covenant Church (see their history here). By 1910, when the two Gustafson children were ages 10 and 9, there were 47 “inmates” between the ages of 5 and 14. Forty-four of them had Swedish parents, two were Finnish, and one was American. The majority had been born in Sweden, but others were from CT, MA, VT, RI, NY, and two had been born in Michigan. This institution is still in operation, now under the new name of Adelbrook.

[Adelbrook – then and now]

 

 

Elnora left the orphanage when she was old enough. She married in 1920, had two sons, then died in 1953 at the age of 54. Her two sons also died young – at age 30 and 23. While the younger son did not marry, the older son did and he and his wife had 2 children before he passed away. Unlike all the ancestors, these two children are still living at ages 79 and 77 respectively as this is being written.

Albin eventually graduated from the orphanage as well. He worked first as a bookkeeper, then later in a silk mill. He married at age 26, but then died a few years later at the age of 29. He and his wife had no children.