The Neighbors who got on the Titanic

"Now let’s talk about the neighbors. Neighbors were important in those days in a different sort of way than they are now. We went together with neighbors when there were big jobs that took lots of hard work. And the people who lived near you were mostly the only people you had contact with that often. There was no TV and not much radio and no phones either. Even when we got phones, they weren’t used to just talk, only for important things. The neighbors were the people you had in your life, if you know what I mean.

Anders and Alfrida Andersson and their children,
Sigrid, Ingeborg, Ebba, Sigvard, and Ellis.

When Farfar and Farmor moved to Kjettestorp, you know they moved into Norrgården. In Mellangården, next door, there was a family named Andersson. In time, they were called to America, so they sold their farm to a woman named Fru Birgerson. The Anderssons were going to America, the whole family. I think they had five kids, one very small. They were so proud because they were going on the Titanic. It was beautifully built and bragged about in all circles. They had a party in Kjettestorp for the Andersson family and all the neighbors came to say goodbye.  They used to tell us that our Mormor said, “Don’t go! Just think if the boat sinks!” and they said, “It can’t sink.” That was one of the slogans they had for the Titanic: “It can’t sink.” There was also a woman from Farsbo; her name was Anna Nysten. She went to confirmation with Mom and Dad, so they knew her well. I think they were confirmed in 1906 at 14. I think the ship sank in 1912 or something, so she would have been 19 or 20 years old. Anyway, when

Anna Nysten, 1912, before

leaving for America on the Titanic

they were on the boat and it was in crisis, Anna Nysten got on a lifeboat. There weren’t enough lifeboats for everyone on the ship and it was supposed to be women and children in the lifeboats but Mrs. Anderson would not go without her husband and didn’t want her family to be split up. When the boat that Anna Nysten was in pulled away from the Titanic, she turned around and saw the Andersson family standing together on deck and that was people she had known most of her life. She heard the music playing “Närmare, Gud, Till Dig.” ("Nearer My God, To Thee") They say she never really recovered from the shock of it all.

Fru Birgerson lived in Kisa for a while. They were related to someone who was recruiting people for America. They organized trips. The first trip that was organized with people from Kisa, they met in a building named Columbia. That is now a café and immigrant museum. The man who was the leader of that first group was named Peter Cassel and he was related to the Linde family in Kingsburg, Janet Kelly’s mom and dad. I don’t remember how they were related now. Well, Fru Birgerson rented the farm to another family named Andersson. We called him Farbror Andersson and we called her Tant Anna. They had two children, Lydia and Henning. They were older than us and they had a maid called Tant Maria. They had different hired men through the years. That was in Mellangården.

In Sör, there lived Farbror Axel, and he had a housekeeper it was called, and her name was Lisa. Nowadays, they’d call them sambo, but that wasn’t mentioned years ago. I remember though, that Lisa broke a leg once. I was at least 14 years old then. They called for Mother, of course. Mother saw to that she got to a doctor and got her leg in a cast. When they got back, Lisa wanted to go up and sleep in Axel’s room upstairs. There were two beds up there she

Mom, Margaretha and Lennart

said. But I was with over there and mother said, “Not as long as I’m taking care of you are you sleeping in Axel’s room.” They had one of these little rooms called salen, and mother made up a bed on the sofa, and Lisa had to sleep there. Every morning, I was to go over and cook breakfast for them. I cooked oatmeal and whatever else they had for breakfast. I helped Lisa some and got her something to eat. We took turns going over there, us girls, and helping Lisa get her work done. As long as we did that, Lisa had to sleep in salen. After that mother couldn’t control it."

Note: The Titanic passenger list identifies a family from Kjettestorp, Kisa, traveling as third class passengers. It shows Anders Johan Andersson, 39; Alfrida Konstantia Andersson, 39; Sigrid Elisabeth Andersson, 11; Ingeborg Constanzia Andersson, 9; Ebba Iris Andersson, 6;  Sigvard Harald Elias Andersson, 4; and Ellis Anna Maria Andersson, 2. It lists Anna Nysten, 22, as the only survivor of a group from Kisa. (source: encyclopedia-titanica.org)