DRAFT - Bessie Peterson Bengtson 1866-1912

 Bessie Peterson is said to have been born in Norway on October 18, 1866.

Bessie told her children she came to Red Oak and Nyman, Iowa area from Stockholm, Sweden to help start Mission churches. We have not been able to locate a church in the area that she was a charter member of or even an early member.

It is believed that Bessie had two sisters in the Red Oak area, but that upon her marriage to Claus Bengtsson, her sisters would have nothing further to do with her.

The first record other than Bessie and Claus' marriage license that we find on Bessie is in the city directory of St. Joseph, Missouri. They are living at 1818 Lafayette and Claus works for the Burlington Route. We can follow their movements in St. Joseph until 1906 with the city directories.

Bessie was admitted to the St. Joseph State Hospital on September 20, 1909, with epilepsy. Her records there state her name as Bessie Benson born in Norway. That she belonged to the Congregational church and was a housewife, and the mother of three children. Bessie was a patient at the State Hospital until her death on September 11, 1912 at 6:30 am of tuberculosis. Bessie was buried from the D.E. Heaton Undertaking Company on September 13, 1912. (the record at the funeral home also has her name as Bessie Benson,) Church services were held at the First English Lutheran Church in St. Joseph. Place of burial was Oakland Cemetery, now known as the Ashland Cemetery. Bessie is recorded as Bessie Peterson in the death records at First English Lutheran Church.

When Bessie entered the hospital the children were placed in the "Home of Little Wanderers" Orphanage on October 1, 1909 - just west of the hospital. Her daughter, Ebba, remembered walking over to the fence to watch her mother march with the other patients as they went to dinner. Bessie would tell the children, "Now you kids be good." Ebba said her mother was placed in the hospital because they could no longer cope with her seizures at home.

Before Bessie's death in 1912, Ebba went to live in Essex, Iowa with Charles Bengtson, a cousin of her father. Later, Paul also went to live with Charles, and Helen stayed with the Victor Bengtson family.

Ebba was the only one of the children at attend their mother's funeral. She and Charles Bengtson went by train to St. Joseph and she remembers the weather being warm and her mother being covered by glass.

For years the truth of Bessie's epilepsy was kept a secret. In those early years, this was something people were ashamed of and this may be the reason Bessie was admitted to the hospital under the name of Benson. This may also be the reason she was buried from the church under her maiden name.