Dates

• Existence: 1867 - 1943

Biography

Rosa Knutson was born on December 10, 1867 to Ingebor Olsdatter Knutson and Helge Knutson. Rosa Knutson's parents were born in Norway. They immigrated to the United States in 1861 with a son, Knut, and a daughter, Gro, settling near McGregor, Iowa, where Helge's aunt lived. Rosa Knutson was the fourth child born to her parents in Iowa. The seventh of ten children, Rosa was the only daughter to reach adulthood, along-side three of her brothers. The Knutsons were farm people and in 1872 her father bought a farm in Humboldt County that remained in the family until 1954.

On June 3, 1888 Rosa Knutson married James Gangestad. They lived their entire married life on a farm they purchased in 1888 near Goldfield, Iowa. They had two sons and five daughters. James Gangestad died in December 1930; his wife Rosa died in May 1943. According to Gangestad family history, Rosa Gangestad was asked to provide a family history and reminiscences of her life by her young grandson in the 1930s. The result of that request, "History of the Helge Knutson Family," forms the bulk of the Rosa Knutson Gangestad papers.

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