Mrs. Elsie K. Jorgensen Dies

Mrs. Elsie K. Jorgensen, one of the original band of Danish pioneers who settled in the Orum community of Washington county 65 years ago, staked out homesteads and turned sod in what is now one of Nebraska’s most fertile agricultural regions, died suddenly early Wednesday morning at her home on West Colfax street.

Ninety-four years old, Mrs. Jorgensen had been particularly active this summer and on Monday had visited her daughter, Mrs. Chester R. Sutton, on their farm north of Blair. Feeling slightly ill upon her return to town, a doctor had been summoned by her daughter, Mrs. Anna Sutton, whit whom she lived, but at that time her condition was not considered serious. She was apparently resting comfortable at six o’clock Wednesday morning, Mrs. Sutton says, and at seven o’clock she was found dead in bed.

As a girl in Denmark, Mrs. Jorgensen, from time to time, bid farewell to relatives and friends as they set out for the new world. Glowing reports of Washington county’s farming region came back to the old country, so in 1870 Mrs. Jorgensen, then Mrs. Peter Jensen, and her husband joined the procession of Jensens, Larsens, Hansens, Rasmussens and other immigrants.

Times in Denmark were hard then. There was a constant depression among the peasants, but it was fortunate, Mrs. Jorgensen always said, that the immigrants had been steeled from childhood to adversity, for upon their arrival in Lincoln township few had proper equipment to farm, few had any livestock and those who could afford houses even reasonably windproof were plutocrats.

Her first house Mrs. Jorgensen recalls, measured 12 x 13 feet, consisted of one room and was built of rough cottonwood lumber.

Mrs. Jorgensen’s first husband died 43 years ago, while her second husband died in 1918. She is said to have had only one serious spell of sickness in her life.

Surviving are four children, Mrs. C. R. Sutton and Mrs. Anna Sutton, both of Blair, Peter Jensen, of Hennesey, Oklahoma, and Mrs. Mary Baker of Cleveland, Ohio.

Funeral services will be held Saturday afternoon at 2 o’clock at the Bendorf Funeral home and interment will be made in the Blair cemetery.

Note: Buried in Block: 4 Lot: 3 Grave: 9; Find A Grave Memorial# 115827091 ~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~