Kersti's Story
Birth: December 8th, 1860 | female | in Råga Hörstad, Asmundtorp, Rönneberg, Malmöhus, Sweden
Death: July 22nd, 1863 | 2 years old | East of Skunk Creek in Nebraska
Memorial: Stone 12 | right column
Kersti Bondesson is the oldest of nine children born to Anders Bondesson and Kjerstena “Kate” Jonsdotter, both of Sweden. Anders and Kjerstena along, with their 2 daughters, boarded the ship “B.S. Kimball” to immigrate to America. Once they arrived, they traveled to Nebraska and joined the John R. Young Company to journey to the Salt Lake Valley with other members of The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints. The company left Nebraska on June 30, 1863.
Exhaustive travel conditions, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, prematurity, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. The Saints were three weeks into the journey when 2-year-old Kersti passed away of unknown causes. She is buried just East of Skunk Creek.
From the Hans P. Lund journal: “jul 22 br. Anders Bonnesens daughter [Kersti], 2½, died, drove 15 miles, here is the last chance for firewood.”