Rev John Farsberg

Rev. John Farsberg, Pastor of the Lutheran Church located in Tustin, was born Nov. 9, 1834, in Sweden. His father, Johan Farsberg, died when he was in early childhood, and thereafter, until the age of eight years, he was cared for by his mother, Christiana Farsberg, in the home of his maternal grandfather. In 1842 he went to live with an uncle to be instructed in the business of a blacksmith, and later he worked as a pubbler in a foundry.

When he was about 30 years of age he was appointed Government Inspector of the machine shops throughout the kingdom of Norway. He spent one year on the traverse of the country in the discharge of the trust. On the expiration of his commission in 1866, he came to the United States and remained about a year in the city of Chicago, where he obtained employment as an axle-filer in various carriage factories. He became at the end of that time a missionary among his countrymen, and after laboring among them some months he returned to his trade as a mechanic, and operated three years in the manufacture of plows. He went thence to Moline, Ill., where he officiated in the Lutheran ministry one year. He went thence to henry County in that State and preached two years in the country. In 1874 he returned to his former field in the city of Chicago, where he acted as a missionaru about three years. He next proceeded to Rock Island, Ill., and spent a year in study at the Swedish seminary, and at the close of his course was regularly ordained a minister. In 1877 he took a final leave of his people in Illinois, and, answering to an urgent call from Osceola County, he located at Tustin. On his arrival he found the society without organization or place of worship, and he at once entered vigorously into the work of remedying the deficiency. He has organized churches of his faith at Tustin, Reed City, Cadillac, Hobart, Morley and Bounds' Mill, all of which are now included in his circuit save at Reed City.

At Tustin he has added 125 members to his society, and the membership over which he has charge, aggregates 500 in round numbers. Since his arrival in Osceola County he has been instrumental in erecting five church edifices and a parsonage. He has been indefatigable and unremitting in his parochial labors, and has often labored both day and night in his periods of effort. He is an earnest and zealous promoter of the principles of the Republican party.

Mr. Farsberg was married in 1866, in Norway, and three months after he came to Chicago, where his wife died six months later, leaving no child. He was again married Dec. 26, 1878, in Chicago to Betsey Kunoson, who was born Oct. 22, 1845, in Sweden. She was well educated in her native land, and when 18 years of age came to Chicago, with her parents, who went later to Minnesota, where they are farmers. Mr. and Mrs. Farsberg have had four children, one of whom, John is not living. Those who survive are Antony W., Anna M., and Joseph T.

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