Karl Branch

Karl & Johanna

 

Karl was born at Källehult Farm, Algutsboda, 17 May 1838, and was raised at Rostock Farm. He married Johanna Augustdotter and they lived at Virkesjö Södergård Farm, a short distance away from Rostock. They had seven children: Ida Charlotta, twins Elise and Emily, Axel, Jenny, Anna, and Per. Johanna died in 1878 after giving birth to Per.

Karl & Kristina, 1902

 

In 1885 Karl married Kristina Elisa Petersdotter and they had four children: Oscar, Carl Eric, Elvira & Evelina. Karl and Kristina later moved to Broakulla living at Rosenholm, a house on the site of the present Johansfors glass factory. They lived out their years in Broakulla.

Karl was a woodworker. Some highlights of his career were working on the altarpiece of the Algutsboda Church and going up to the northern city of Härnösand to work in the new cathedral under construction there.

Eric, Kristina, Evelina, Karl & Oscar at Rosenholm, 1902

Many of his children came to America. First, Jenny in 1890, followed two years later by Axel, entered through Duluth and settled in the Valley City, North Dakota, area. A few years later Peter (Per) moved to western Pennsylvania, and later to West Virginia, to work in glass factories there.

By 1900, Jenny had moved to San Francisco in California and settled there. Then in 1906 Ida Charlotta (Lottie) and Emily moved out to join her there. Eric (Carl Eric) and Oscar first moved to Toronto, Canada, and then out to San Francisco around 1911. Peter moved out to California in the mid-1920s. Axel stayed on in North Dakota and settled in New Rockford. All of Karl's children married after coming to America. About 1930, Oscar and his wife moved back to Europe.

Karl's children Elise, Anna, Elvira (died as a child) and Evelina stayed on in Sweden. Two of Elise's children and one grandson later moved out to New York City.

 

Peter, Lottie, Anna, Axel & Eric at Alice & John Mindham's home, San Francisco, 1949
Karl & August branches at Karl & Ellen Petersson's home, Skuteryd, 1964
Axel, Marita, Kjell, Evelina, Ellen, Siv, Jan-Olof, Karl, Birgit, Christine, Birgit, Gösta