Anna Sofia Nysten was a passenger on Titanic.
Anna Sofia Nysten
Early life[]
Anna Sofia Nysten was born on January 22, 1890 in Hag, Västra, Östergötland, Sweden.
She was the child of Samuel August Nysten and Maria Sofia Nilsdotter. Her father was a farmer. She had many siblings, some half-brothers named , that hailed from their father's first marriage with Anna Lovisa Danielson. Carl Nikolas was their first child, born in 1874. In 1876 there was Samuel Gustaf.
Their mother died in February 1889 and thus, Samuel found a new partner and Anna Sofia was their first child. Maria Sofia gave birth to 3 more daughters and 4 sons. Elsa Maria was Anna's first sister in 1891. In 1893, they had a brother named August Mauritz. In 1896, the third daughter was conceived and named Amanda Lovisa. Anders Helga followed her in 1897. After Helga, there were two other boys: Gunnar Josef and Tosif Gunmar, born in 1902 and 1903. In 1907, they had their last child: Agda.
In the 1900s, sister Elsa Maria had traveled from Gothenburg to New York to settle in America.
On March 29, 1912, Anna left home and traveled from her family at Farsbo farm in Kisa. According to some reports was on her way to her sister in Passaic, New Jersey, according to other sources she made the journey because she was a prospective employer in Hackensack, New Jersey, where she would work as a maid.
Anna was acquainted with the Danbom and Andersson families, who lived in the same area, and it was Ernst Danbom who had persuaded her to accompany them when they returned to America after a long visit to their homeland in Sweden. After agreeing on their plans, Anna was invited when a family farewell was organised at the house of Axel Brogren, a brother of Alfrida Konstantia Andersson who was the wife of Anders Johan Andersson. Family of Anna Sofia would say their goodbyes to her too.
The party departed from the port of Gothenburg for England on April 5, according to the register kept by the harbor police. The traveling party experienced a storm during the crossing to England. Mrs. Danbom wrote about it in a letter she sent home on April 9.
Titanic[]
She left the Southampton docks on April 10 aboard Titanic with the two families. She had a ticket for Third Class passage. She was 22 years old at the time.
On April 14, the ship had struck an iceberg and was in danger. Anna had not fallen asleep yet when she was alerted to a sound what she described as an automobile’s underside scratching the ground when it was driven on a road full of potholes.
Nevertheless she dressed, didn’t panic and made sure she had enough supplies of food and clothes with her, which she carried in a basket. Somebody adviced her to put on a lifejacket.
On April 15, with Titanic sinking rapidly at the late hour, she found her way into lifeboat 13 and thus she was saved. The entire families of Danbom and Andersson sadly lost their lives in the disaster however. From the lifeboat, she could hear the Orchestra play music and that's always been stuck with her.
After the disaster[]
On Carpathia, she was treated very kindly and to her surprise she found herself in a First Class cabin. In New York she received $25 from The Women's Relief Committee. Her basket had become a valuable souvenir and she didn’t want to sell it even though $100 was proposed. At some point the item was stolen. She met another young Swedish woman of her age who was also a Titanic survivor. She was Hilda Maria Hellström and they became friends. They would later write to eachother for many years, till Hilda’s death in 1962.
She wrote a lettter to her parents, saying how awful it was. She described the screams of those that had suffered in the water.
Later life[]
Anna remained in New York until 1915. She had reportedly been saving enough money to return home to Sweden, but she had second thoughts after hearing about the Lusitania disaster. That year, she moved to Iowa. She shortly lived in Boone County before she settled in Des Moines, Iowa.
She became the wife of Frans Otto Arvid Gustafsson. They married on October 20, 1917 in Des Moines, Polk, Iowa, United States, where they lived after the wedding. They had 4 children: Linnea Arvida Sofia was the first to arrive in 1919, followed by her brother Arvid Harry Gustafson, born on 10 November 1920, William Gustafsson, born in 1925 and Arthur Gustafson. Sadly Arvid didn’t make it to the age of 4.
For a while, the tragedy of Titanic had affected Mrs. Gustafsson and thinking about it gave her plaguing nightmares, but she had learnt to deal with them later, till it was no problem anymore, as revealed by her in an 1937 interview. Anna worked for many years as a cook at Grand View College and was a member of the First Lutheran Church in Des Moines.
In 1946 her marriage came crashing down. She accused her husband of cruelty, negligence and hated his drinking problem, but he countered she was abusive.
In 1953 she went on another sea voyage, but a sudden standstill of the ship had given her a panic attack due to the traumas from Titanic that had lingered. That same year, she watched the movie ‘Titanic’ but it proved too much for her. Her doctor was totally understanding of what she had gone through and ascribed it to the fateful night of April 15.
In the 1960s she reached out to see if other Swedish Titanic survivors would want to come into contact with her. Gunnar Isidor Tenglin was the only one that showed interest. In 1969 she moved to the Lutheran Home for the Aged in Des Moines.
In October 1974, she gave an interview about her life during Titanic's Maiden Voyage and the sinking, but her memories were frail.
Anna passed away on the 27th of March, 1977 at the age of 87. She was laid to rest at the Resthaven Cemetery in West Des Moines.
Sources[]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRyweyQBbHU Titanic Survivor Interview: Anna Nysten Gustafson - October 24, 1974 - Channel of Joseph Hewes.