She was the first to emigrate

C1: Landelius, In English
av Esben Alfort

Clara Landelius & Charles Clark

  Clara Mathilda Landelius (15/12 1850 – after 1881)
  C1 branch [1.2.10.1.4.1]
  Daughter of Anders David Landelius & Martha Sophia Nilsdotter
  Björnkullen, Biskopstorp, Rök, Östergötland, Sweden
icon-globe  Emigrated to North America in 1875

  Charles A. Clark (1845 – after 1880)
  Illinois
  School teacher
  At least 1 child

  Primary sources
  01-03-2020

Clara Mathilda grows up in a poor family in the equally poor little hut (backstuga) Björnkullen in Rök parish. In fact, the hut had not been used for 50 years when they moved in, and indeed today only a few stones remain in the forest.

Traces of what was once Björnkullen. Photo: Esben Alfort 2019.

In 1869 she moves from home to Gärdslösa Södergård in Kumla, where she stays until 1873. She then moves on to Granstorp in Rinna, but within a year she has got a new situation in Väderstad, at Blackstad farm together with her sister Emma Christina, who moves in the same day. In 1874 both move to Skänninge town.

Clara Mathilda emigrates to North America in April 1875. She is the first from her family to emigrate, but many will follow during the next 25 years.

I have unfortunately not been able to locate her in America with any certainty, but it seems that she married school teacher Charles A. Clark and settled in Cableicon-map-marker village, Richland Grove in Illinois, south of Moline.

They had at least 1 child.

  • 1.   Adelia Clark (b. Jan-1880)

The family seems to have left the village before the turn of the century, but we do not know where they went.

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Research data

  •  name (others’ spellings): Clara Mathilda (1850-1866); Pig. Clara Mathilda/Math. Landelius (1869-1875); P. Klara Mathilda Landelius (1873); Clara Clark (1880)
  •  namn (andras stavsätt): Charles A. Clark (1880)
  •  b. Rök 1850: v40049.b179.s349
  •  hous.ex. 1850-1875 Rök: v28833.b28.s27(1850-1855); v28834.b19.s15(1857-1861); v28835.b16.s5(1861-1866); Kumla: v24846.b14.s17(1869-1870); v24846.b8.s5(1870); v24847.b11.s11(1870-1873); Rinna: v28677.b57.s45(1873); Väderstad: v27225.b25.s12(1873-1874); Skänninge: v29097.b60.s51(1874-1875)
  •  cens. 1880 Richland Grove: 1880
  •  cens. 1880