Unfamiliar dogs killing sheep: Excerpt from Andrew’s diary – the 11th of September, 1868: “Tonight some unknown hounds have been in every pen and killed eight sheep and on top of that bitten all of them”. A similar event – and incidents that resemble this diary entry can be found in Moberg’s novels.
Struggle with locust swarms are described in a similar way in both the novels and in Andrew’s diary entries from 1876. Excerpt from Andrew’s diary, 1876: “Prayer meeting against locusts called upon by the Guvernor, locusts eclipse the sun. The children kill locusts”.
Excerpt from Andrew’s diary, 19th of August,1876: ”The locusts have started coming – and then more and more came every day… We have the farm full of them, and the air is full of them, so that in the face of the sun it looks like it was snowing”.
Excerpt from Andrew’s diary, 8th of May 1888: ”I’ve lived here for 33 years but never has the earth been so full of water as it is now at this time of the year, the roads can’t be traveled on with any load”
Excerpt from Andrew’s diary, 29th December, 1890: “ Today Fränk Svanson from minneapolis was buried in the Scandia cemetery – he was killed by a Stack of timber out in the woods. ”
Excerpt from Andrew’s diary, 2nd of October, 1893: “there was word about B. Nilsson having been injured, because he was driving firewood, and the horse got scared and made a leap, and Nilsson fell off the Load, and under the horses, and was trampled on his face by them to death – our Fränk went after a Doctor, and Fränk was there all night, and Nilson died at two o’clock the same night”.(Mc Knight).
Back injuries sustained while felling oak was the reason why both Karl Oskar and Andrew only managed to do “lighter” work during the last years of their lives.
You can read about more similarities between Andrew’s diary and Moberg’s novels in our pamphlet: ”Andrew Peterson, the model for Karl Oskar – 100 similarities”.
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