52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #44 Oliver Ernest Ekstrom

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Ahlver Ernst Ekstrom was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 22, 1903, the youngest child of Swedish immigrants. His oldest sister, Gertrude, did him the favor of Anglicizing his name to Oliver Ernest when she took him to enroll in school for the first time.

Oliver's father, Gustaf Emil Ferdinand Ekstrom, made a comfortable living as a tailor, permitting Oliver to attend school when many of his peers were dropping out to work. Oliver's mother, Agnes Emilia Fors Ekstrom, was a woman of deep faith, no doubt encouraging Oliver's love of God and dedication to His work.

At one time, Oliver worked for a safe company. One day he was using a screwdriver on a safe and it slipped, gouging into his eye and blinding it. From that time he wore glasses.

He pursued a religious education as a night student at Moody Bible Institute. There Oliver met Ruth Dorothy McFarlane, whom he married in Chicago on July 14, 1923. They had five children. In 1925, Ruth and Oliver were accepted into the Central American Mission (CAM) and assigned to the ministry in Guatemala.

After Ruth's untimely death in April, 1931, Oliver enlisted the help of various family members in the Chicago area. Leaving the children scattered, he returned to the Guatemala work.

In November, 1931, family legend says that he reluctantly traveled to Port Barrios to meet a newly assigned missionary. It was "love at first sight" when he met Bessie Douglas Cushnie. They married on October 11, 1932, at San Miguel Acatán, Guatemala. Bessie and Oliver had two children, one of whom was born after Oliver's death.

Oliver suddenly sickened while on a trip in October, 1935, dying on the 22nd. The CAM article on his death contains an error, as Oliver died from typhus, rather than typhoid. Typhus was a deadly disease requiring quarantine. The attending physician wrote his diagnosis as typhoid instead, because he knew Bessie was a nurse and would be able to care for Oliver as adequately as the hospital.

Oliver was buried in an unmarked grave at San Pedro Sacatepéquez, Department of San Marcos, Guatemala.

The CAM article also tells us about his life and his death:

To know Mr. Ekstrom was to love him and it was not long until his smiling face and cheery laugh were known all over the republic. Besides being a good preacher and a tireless evangelist, Mr. Ekstrom had marked musical ability and any service in which he had a part was certain to be one of life and interest. ...  

Every possible care was given this dear brother by his wife and fellow missionaries and by the local doctor but as the days passed it was evident that his heart could not stand the strain. He seemed to know that his life's work was ended and among other precious words, he said to his wife, "There are four things I am sure of; I am saved, I love you, I am going to heaven and we will meet again some day."

"Oliver Ernest Ekstrom", The Central American Bulletin 203 (Nov., 1935): 3-4, 15-16.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #43 Ruth Dorothy McFarlane Ekstrom

My grandmother Ruth Dorothy McFarlane was born in Chicago, Illinois, the eldest child of Walter McFarlane and Mary Ellen (Vossler) McFarlane on February 7, 1898. She had to drop out of school after seventh grade after her father was badly injured in a streetcar accident. To help support the family, she worked as a retail clerk and a telephone operator.

Ruth attended night school at Moody Bible Institute, where she met her husband, Oliver Ekstrom. They married on July 14, 1923. Dedicating their lives to Christ, they went as missionaries to Guatemala with Central American Mission in 1925.

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Ruth entered a Chicago hospital for minor surgery in 1931. When she hemorrhaged, her husband's blood was used for a transfusion. Unfortunately, the blood types were likely incompatible, based on the mixed types seen in their children. She died on the operating table at Swedish Covenant Hospital on April 23, 1931.

She was survived by her husband and five children. Ruth was buried in an unmarked grave in Chicago's Rosehill Cemetery. When a marker was laid in 2002, her eldest son, David, chose the inscription: "She was worth far more than rubies."  

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #24 Bessie Douglas Cushnie Ekstrom

My father speaks with great fondness of his stepmother, Bessie Douglas Cushnie. He feels that he and his siblings didn't give her a fair chance to be their new mother. Dad says that she was loving and kind and would have been a wonderful mother, had they opened their hearts to her.

Bessie married Oliver Ernest Ekstrom on October 11, 1932, in Guatemala. They were both missionaries with the Central American Mission. Oliver was a widower with five young children, but courageous Bessie married him anyway and added two more children to the family. The last child, a daughter, was born after Oliver's untimely passing in 1935.

Bessie wrote this in one of her letters home in 1934:

"It will be three years next Sunday since I left the dear old U.S.A. It seems like 10. I guess because so much has happened. Had my appendix out, fell in love, got married & had a baby. I know I haven’t done as much for the Lord as I should have."

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Bessie Douglas Cushnie was born on June 19, 1903, in Castle Shannon, Pennsylvania, the third of six children of Charles Christey Cushnie and Sarah Ann Wyllie. Bessie trained as a nurse before going to the mission field.

There are varying accounts of how she and Oliver met and fell in love. One legend was "love at first sight" in Guatemala. Another story is that they met at Moody Bible Institute, but had their relationship disrupted, only to continue it in Guatemala. Regardless, their love story was brief.

After Oliver's death, Bessie worked with the extended families to take care of the five orphaned children. Her youngest child died at six years old, and Bessie herself died on May 08, 1947, leaving her oldest child also orphaned.

Bessie was buried, along with her daughter and her parents, in Oak Spring Cemetery in Canonsburg, Washington County, Pennsylvania.