G. A. (Gus) Erikson, formerly of Blair, but later of Van Nuyes, California, died at his home Sept. 8, 1949. He was in business in Blair for a long term of years and Blair people of his day came to know him as a man of the highest repute. No one ever questioned Gus Erikson’s word, and all who knew him held him in the highest respect.

He was born in Norway July 12, 1859 and when a boy of nine years he came with his parents and four other children to America. The family settled in Madison County, Wisconsin where the father took up farming.

At the age of fifteen his father died, and he immediately assumed the responsibilities of the family. This necessarily cut his education short, but he became a real student of humanity. During his active period in Blair where he was associated in a general mercantile business, he assumed the civic duties he found and carried every duty cheerfully. He was active in church work and was a pillar of the Congregational church.

Here in Blair he met his first wife, Miss Louise Kemp. They were married on September 2, 1885 in the same Blair Congregational church here the funeral services were held last Tuesday. To this union one child was born, now Mrs. Vera Peppel of Napier, Nebraska. The wife passed away in 1920 and two years later he married Mrs. Louella Anhorn, who still survives him.

In 1898 he located at Napier, Nebraska where he again entered business. Here he resided for thirty years and in 1928 he went to California where he spent the remaining years of his life. His residence in California much the same as in Nebraska, a church member all his life he lived up to the precepts of the church in every detail, leaving a life worthy of emulation by his friends and acquaintances.

Besides the bereaved wife and daughter, he leaves a sister, Mrs. Anna Kemp of Tabor, Iowa; a brother, Mr. Fred Erickson of Bismarck, North Dakota; four grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

The funeral held Tuesday at the Congregational church with Rev. Metheny officiating, was attended by his old friends and relatives, and interment was made in the Blair cemetery under the supervision of the Campbell Mortuary.

~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair, Nebraska Public Library~~~

Find a Grave Memorial #133562879