Gustoff Forsberg

GUSTOFF FORSBERG. - There are many men who feel that the only way in which they can be sure of having something that will provide them with a living in their old age is to secure a farm of their own. Mr. Forsberg, although he was not a farmer as a young man, has been able to purchase a farm and to run it on a paying basis. He is well known in Bethel as the stone mason farmer. There is a wonderful satisfaction in feeling that everything a man owns is the result of his own work and thought, and Mr. Forsberg has made a success of his work as a stone mason and he has made an undivided success of his work as a farmer.

Born in Sweden January 6, 1844, he was the son of Ola Forsberg and his wife Louisa, who was formerly Louisa Peterson. Ola Forsberg was a brick mason in Sweden, and he and his wife both died in their native place. Gustoff was brought up in Sweden and attended the public schools there. In 1868 he came to this country and went direct to Illinois, where he went to work in the stone quarry at Joliet. Later he went to Kansas City, Missouri, and worked for the railroad as section man. Then he had a little shoe shop in Kansas City, Missouri, and made money at that. He also worked on the streets of Kansas City and was one of the first men to work on the streets of that city, then only a very small place. In 1871 he came to Kansas City, Kansas, and he bought the farm of one hundred acres at Bethel. He makes a specialty of raising cattle and has some very fine animals, and he also does general farming.

In 1876, after he had got very well started on his farm, he married Mary Peterson, who was a native of Sweden and had come to this country a few years before. She died in 1881 leaving two children; Alma, who is now the wife of Ludwig Johnson and is living in the state of Washington; and Charles Gus, who is living at home on the farm with his father.

Mr. Forsberg is a member of the Lutheran church and is a very regular attendant at the church services. In politics he is a Republican and is very much interested in the elections, and is particularly concerned about the men who run for office in the county, as he has traveled about the county considerably and has done stone work in all parts of the county. He is still living in the stone house that he built thirty-five years ago. There he and his son Charles live a quiet, contented life, attending to their own affairs, but interested in the affairs of the county and state.