Matson Project – Ancestor #11
Matson-Krafve Line
By Don Taylor
She crossed an ocean and left almost no trace — at least not at first glance. But look carefully at the records, and Maria (Person) Krafve steps forward: a Swedish immigrant who built a family on two frontiers, bore seven children, and died at thirty-eight, far from the forests of Värmland where she was born.
List of Grands
- Grandmother: Hildur Christina Krafve (1895-1976)
- 1st Great-grandmother: Inga Maria “Mary” (Person) Krafve.[i]
Beginnings: Östmark, Värmland, Sweden
Maria Person was born on 30 May 1866 in Oshmark (today Östmark), a parish in Värmland County in western Sweden. Värmland is a land of deep forests, long winters, and lakes that mirror a pewter sky. But for many 19th-century Swedes, it was a place that could not feed its children. Between 1850 and 1910, more than one million Swedes emigrated to America. Maria was one of them. I do not yet know exactly when she crossed, or on which ship, or through which port. I do not yet know her parents’ names. I do know that by 1890, she was in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a young Swedish woman about to begin the central chapter of her American life. Her maiden name was Person — the Americanized rendering of the Swedish Persson, itself a patronymic surname meaning simply “Peter’s son.[ii]” In American records, she appears variously as Peterson, Person, Persson, and even Parson, each spelling because recorders heard her Swedish name through an American ear
Minneapolis: A Swedish Community
By 1890, Minneapolis had a substantial Scandinavian immigrant population. Swedish Lutheran churches, Swedish language newspapers, and Swedish neighbors created a community. It was a place where the old language still worked, and the old customs still made sense. It was in this world that Maria met Joseph Alvar Krafve, a fellow Swedish immigrant born in March 1863 in Dalsland, Sweden, a province bordering Värmland. They came from neighboring regions of the old country, though they almost certainly met for the first time in Minneapolis.
On 28 November 1890, Joseph appeared before the Deputy Clerk of Hennepin County’s District Court and swore that he was of legal age, that Maria was of legal age, that neither had been previously married, and that no impediment existed to their union. He signed his name, Joseph A. Kafre. The next day, 29 November 1890, they were married at the Augustana Lutheran Church in Minneapolis by the Reverend Carl J. Petri. Two men named Peterson, possibly Maria’s relatives were witnesses.
The civil record was filed with Hennepin County on December 6, 1890. The church register recorded it on page 171. Both documents survive.
A Family Takes Shape
Eleven months after the wedding, on 10 October 1891, their first child, Emma Maria Krafve was born. The middle name was no accident; Maria gave her firstborn daughter her own Swedish given name to carry forward.
Three more children followed in Minneapolis: Joseph Arthur Krafve, born 23 May 1893; Hildur Christina Krafve, born 26 May 1895; and Alma Eugenia Krafve, born 24 April 1898.
Hildur — not Hilda, as American neighbors and census takers would render it, but Hildur, an ancient Norse name meaning battle-woman.
By 1900 the family appeared in the federal census: Joseph, 37, working as a teamster on the streets of Minneapolis; Maria, recorded as Mary, keeping house with four children ages two to eight. Emma was attending school. The youngest, Alma, had just turned two. They rented their home. All four children had been born in Minnesota. All four were living.
The Move to Idaho
Sometime between June 1900 and December 1902 the family left Minneapolis. The reasons are not recorded in any document I have found; their destination was Troy, Latah County, Idaho, a small farming community in northern Idaho.
Joseph was now a farmer rather than a teamster. On 30 December 1902, their sixth child was born in Troy: Melville Ephraim Krafve. The birth certificate, filed as a delayed record forty-one years later by his sister Alma, records Joseph’s birthplace as Dalsland, Sweden and Maria’s as Värmland, Sweden. Six children born, six living.
Somewhere in the years between Alma’s birth in April 1898 and Melville’s birth in December 1902 a fifth child had arrived: Carl Harold Krafve, born approximately 1901. He would live until 1969.
The Final Year
On 23 September 1904, Maria bore her seventh and final child: Fritz Olof Krafve. Fritz did not survive infancy; he died on 7 May 1905, six days before his mother, who passed on 13 May 1905. She was thirty-eight years old. Her gravestone, still standing in an Idaho cemetery, records her story in Swedish:
MARIA KRAFVE
FODD Person
i Oshmark Vermland
SVERIGE DEN
30. MAY 1866
DOD DEN 13 MAY 1905
Below the dates, carved into the base of the stone, a devotional verse in Swedish reads: [Translated to English] “A moment only away from home is one who is buried here. God has many dwellings where the Lord Jesus lets them gather together again.”
Joseph was thirty-nine. The children ranged from two-year-old Melville to Emma at thirteen. Alma, the little girl who had been just two years old in that 1900 Minneapolis census, was now seven.
Events by Location
- Idaho, Latah, Troy – 1899-1906, Death, Burial
- Minnesota, Hennepin, Minneapolis – 1883-1899, Marriage
- Sweden, Värmland – Birth (1866)
Further Research
Maria’s story is well-framed but not yet complete. I have many things still to do to add to her story.
- The two Peterson men who witnessed her wedding, would add to her story.Sources
- Her death certificate would confirm the place and cause of her death, and name whoever was present at the end.
- Her Swedish baptismal record from Östmark Parish would give us her parents’ names and open the Värmland chapter of her story.
- The ship that brought her to America might indicate who she already knew in America.
Sources
- 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, ED 121, Joseph A. Krefve household.
- Augustana Lutheran Church Marriage Register, 1890, page 171, Joseph A. Krafve and Mary Peterson, 29 November 1890; Archives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Elk Grove Village, Illinois, ELCA Film M128.
- Minnesota, County Marriage Records, Hennepin County, Joseph A. Krafve and Mary Peterson, 29 November 1890, Record No. 458; FamilySearch.
- Minnesota, Births and Christenings, 1840-1980, index entries for Emma Maria Krafve (1891), Joseph Arthur Krafve (1893), Hildur Christina Krafve (1895), and Alma Eugenia Krafve (1898); FamilySearch.
- Idaho Certificate of Birth (delayed), Melville Ephraim Krafve, born 30 December 1902, Troy, Latah County, Idaho; State File No. 380653; affidavit by Mrs. Alma E. Gustafson, 1943.
- Grave marker, Maria Krafve, Dry Creek Cemetery, Idaho; photographs by Larry Linehan (2006) and D.C. (2025), Find A Grave.
- Find a Grave, Memorial 11873275 – Fritz Olof Krafve (1904-1905).
Disclaimer: This article was researched and written by the 6777777author. Claude (Anthropic) was used as a research and drafting aid, and Grammarly was used for editorial review and copy editing.
Endnotes:
[i] Inga Maria Person is in my Matson Project on Ancestry Public Trees[i], and is Family Search profile 9VZV-J9G.
[ii] I don’t know why she was “Perrson” rather than “Perrdotter.” There must be a story in it though.
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