Posts Tagged ‘planting dreams book series’

Charlotta's Home

Written by lindahubalek on . Posted in Blog

Ancestors of Linda K. Hubalek, author of the Planting Dreams series.Sunday I toured the house that Charlotta’s sister’s family built so I thought I’d show you Charlotta and Samuel’s house on their farm.

Cultivating Hope, the second book, in the Planting Dreams series portrays Swedish immigrant Charlotta Johnson as she and her husband build a farmstead on the Kansas Prairie.

This family faced countless challenges as they homesteaded on America’s Great Plains during the 1800s. Years of hard work develop the land and improve the quality of life for her family—but not without a price.

Personally, looking for photos and then finding clues in them is always the best part of research book series. The photo of Samuel and Charlotta’s family shows a new house, winter time, and missing two children of the family. Hmmm…

My grandparents had a very old album that had photos of two children in caskets.  Researching the cemetery stones and church records, the children, Theodore and Almeda, died January 18 and 19, 1884—twelve days after Charlotta gave birth to son Joseph.

So, I’m guessing the photographer was out to take pictures of the deceased children, and then also took the photo of the family in the front of the house. The baby is not in Charlotta’s arms, so he must have been left inside since it was cold.

Have I drawn you into the story yet? If you’re curious, buy the ebook series now…

Visiting Mathilda’s House

Written by lindahubalek on . Posted in Blog

Yesterday was a cold snowy day. I spent most of it in the recliner, reading a book, drinking hot chocolate and just enjoying a relaxing day of peace and quiet.

I did go out for an open house of a famous (by our town’s standards) home that is up for sale.  This Victorian home with neoclassic influence was built in the early 1900s and is in excellent shape. I loved all the old woodwork, leaded glass windows and rooms.

I was also curious to see the house, because it was built for the family of Mathilda Jaderborg, the sister of my great-great grandmother Charlotta Johnson, who was featured in my Planting Dreams series. My family would have been in that house as they were building it and afterwards when they lived there.

Both Matilda and Charlotta came from Sweden and had very humble beginnings.

Pioneer book by Linda K. Hubalek, 2nd book in the Planting Dreams series.Here’s Matilda story, an excerpt from my book, Cultivating Hope.

“Bachelors often hire women to come out to their farms to do the washing and cook up a supply of meals. Mathilda occasionally went to Lars’ homestead to work for him. One day while she was at the washtub scrubbing his clothes, he came up to her and said the preacher had arrived. Would she marry him today? If not, he had another girl in mind. Lars is twenty-one years older than Mathilda, but she decided he was as good as man as any, so she took off her apron and married him on the spot. Lars has done well for his family. They lived in the log cabin for two years, then build a nine-room stone house.”

Many years later they retired from their farm, moved to Lindsborg and built this house so their children could attend Bethany College. Unfortunately neither lived in the house for very long. Lars died five years later, at age 87, after he broke a hip.  Three years after that Mathilda fell down the back curved staircase of the house that led to the kitchen, and died from internal injuries. Their son and his family lived in the house next, so it stayed in the family for several decades before changing owners.

While I walked through the house, I could sense my ancestors sitting and talking in the parlor—on another Sunday afternoon—visiting this same house…