Source: The book, "History of the Swedes in Illinois, Part III – Biographical Sketches with Portraits – Counties at Large," by Ernst W. Olson and Martin J. Engberg, printed by the Engberg-Holmberg Publishing Company, Chicago, 1908.

REPRODUCED ON CD PURCHASED FROM BUOYGOD

Transcribed by: Denise McLoughlin
Tampico Area Historical Society
www.tampicohistoricalsociety.citymax.com

Pages 212-213

CHARLES W. ELFSTRAND, who has been a letter carrier in the Bloomington postal service for thirteen years is a native of Sundborn, Dalarne, Sweden, where he was born Feb. 2, 1855.

June 24, 1869, he came to America, and after living for some time in Kewanee, where he obtained his schooling, came to Bloomington, where he has been a resident the greater part of the time since 1873. At first he received employment with the McLean County Coal Company. Later he went to Nebraska with the intention of locating there as a farmer, but the lonely prairies at that time  had no charms for him, so he came back to Bloomington and became a grocery salesman. In 1893 he was appointed letter carrier for the city.

Mr. Elfstrand is a member of the Scandia Benevolent Society of Bloomington and of the Yeomen of America.

He is married to Josephina Anderson of Cambridge, born in Sweden Dec. 19, 1859, and they have four grown up children, Elmer William, Herbert Grant, Florence Selma Victoria and Ida Josephine.