A backward glance


Louis and Alfred Petersen, Omaha

We have a few horticulturally inclined ancestors. While Louis (left) was not one of them (he was saloon keeper in Omaha) his brother Alfred (seated) was actually a landscaper, a rare profession in those days. Nebraska, where their family settled in the 1870s, was primarily farmland where cattle and crops were more predominant. Farmers and laborers were much more common occupations. But Alfred chose to settle in Omaha and perhaps its urban environment contributed towards his employment.

Alfred was born Peter Edlef Petersen in Schleswig-Holstein to Peter Hansen Petersen and Elise Momsen. His family, which included three brothers and one sister, came to Nebraska in 1878, with an older brother later joining the family.

Alfred established his landscaping business in Omaha, eventually marrying Meriea (Mary) Thomsen. They had four children.

Alfred was left a widower in 1893 and relied on a housekeeper, Hannah Anderson, to help bring up his young children. But he worked and lived in Omaha until 1933 when he died at the age of 76. The Omaha Evening Bee-News described him as having been a landscape gardener for fifty years.

If you want to know more about Louis and Alfred, please visit the Petersen webpage.

Anna Sofia Mikkelsen Jensen

It's not every day that we can enjoy gardens of the past with our relatives and ancestors, but sometimes we're lucky.

Anna Sofia Mikkelsen Jensen was clearly an admirer of the concept of the outdoor room. She was born in 1876 in Ladelund, Nordfriesland, daughter of Thomas Mikkelsen (1850-1921) and his wife Helene Cecilia Sievertsen (1855-1914). Anna and her siblings came to America around 1887 with her parents and returned to Flensburg with her mother while her father Thomas stayed behind in Chicago.

Anna re-emigrated in 1889 and made her own life in Chicago, marrying Nels Jensen in 1892. She and Nels had four children: Marie, Albert Nels, Anna, and Anton.

The 1930 U.S. federal census shows Nels working as a gardening laborer so it's no wonder that Anna and Nels had such a peaceful place to view their plants. Anna and Nels lived at 7442 South Champlain Avenue, near 75th Street in Chicago, which they owned outright, renting rooms to boarders.

In this photo from about 1935, Anna enjoys her shady Chicago garden. If you want to know more about Anna's ancestry, please visit our companion website, Family Folio.

Marie Caroline Elise Jatho MacLaughlan

She wasn't a gardener, horticulturist, or hybridizer but Marie appears to love all plants, so much so that she always looked for opportunities to be pictured with them.

Marie was born in 1897 in Charleston, South Carolina, the daughter of two musical parents, William Jatho and Jennie Müller, who appeared in light opera together before their 1887 marriage. William and Jennie had six children, four of whom survived to adulthood.

William died of tuberculosis in 1904 and Jennie managed William's business, a fabric and accessories store, to which they added art supplies when daughter Ethel (who was artistic herself) showed a talent for it. In 1910 Jennie and her family moved to Chicago, surely a culture shock to children used to Charleston's warm climate.

Marie's formative years were in Chicago. She married Alva Elwood MacLaughlan (formerly Alfred Emil Petersen, who was artistic with his own persona) in 1914 and had four children of her own. Alva was an accountant and the family moved wherever there was work, from Chicago to Indiana to California to Florida and back to Chicago. Whenever possible Marie liked to pose with tropical plants, here a Viburnum outside her home. On their final trip to California in 1946 Marie was pictured in an orange grove in front of a tree heavy with fruit.

If you want to know more about Marie, please visit the MacLaughlan webpage.