State To State
Though Bruce Jepsen was born in Florida, his is very much a Nebraska story. When I first began my research I wondered how we ended up in Nebraska. Bruce's father Harry was born in California. Bruce's mother Edwina was born in Alabama. My mother, Grace and her older brother, Bruce were both born in Florida. Grace graduated from St Petersburg High school in 1947, two years after Bruce died. But Bruce entered the war from Omaha, Nebraska. There is the immigrant story from Denmark to Nebraska in 1873. There is the story of Bruce as a young boy growing up in Florida and the story of becoming an Ad man in Nebraska. Then there is the training and his journey to China.
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| Bruce Fleming Jepsen, Artist for Allen and Reynolds Advertising, 1940 Omaha, Nebraska. |
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| Bruce Fleming Jepsen WWII Draft Card 16 Oct 1940 |
Immigrant Peter Jepsen, From Denmark To 1870's Nebraska.
My great grandfather, Peter Jepson (Bruce's grandfather) was born in 1854 Denmark. He immigrated to Nebraska with his parents on the ship Tarifa, arriving in 1872 Boston. Peter's uncle had immigrated earlier to Wisconsin and was a member of the Danish Land and Homestead Company that was organized to start a Danish colony in Nebraska. He was one of an advance party of five men who came to Nebraska in 1871 to find a location. The recommended location was near the Loup river, Howard County. The following year at age 18, Peter's destination was Dannebrog, Nebraska. At age 24 Peter purchased 80 acres of land near his father's homestead in Howard County. The land was purchased in November 1878. In that same month Paul Paulsen and his younger sister Christina, age 18 arranged passage to America.
Much of this account is with the help of my cousin, Linda Berney, author of "Nine Danish Immigrants". Paul Paulsen was Linda's great-grandfather. According to Linda, Peter Jepsen was largely responsible for for the Paulsen family's decision to immigrate to America. Christina Paulsen age 18, along with her older brother arranged passage to America in November of 1878, their destination, Nebraska. They arrived in January of 1879. Can you imagine a voyage on a ship in the dead of winter? On March 5 of that year Peter and Christina were married. In 1880 Christina's younger sister, Marie 17 and older sister, Ingeborg, with her husband and infant daughter arrived. In 1882 the entire Paulsen family were reunited when the parents immigrated along with Christina's three young siblings. They all lived for a time at the Jepsen home.
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| Daughters Ann and Dora with their mother Christina Paulsen Jepsen, Dannebrog, Ne. Probably taken before the move to Florida in 1911. |
You can learn more about Dannebrog here https://www.dannebrognebraska.org/things-to-see-things-to-do/
and here https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/nebraska/unique-village-dannebrog-ne/
Read more about Peter Jepsen here, http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/topic/resources/OLLibrary/Comp_NE/cmp1076.htm
Nebraska To California
It has been documented that Christina was in poor health. Perhaps it was that ocean journey in winter of 1879. In 1889, Christina, pregnant with my Grandfather, Harry was suffering in the Nebraska summer heat and humidity. Peter took her to California for some relief. My grandfather, Bruce's father was born in Oakland, California in August of 1889. Their time in California was brief, the family soon returned to rural Nebraska where Harry grew up.
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| Harry and his sister, Dora about 1895-96 Dannebrog, Ne. |
Move To Florida In 1911
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| Peter and Christina Paulsen Jepsen, Indian River City, Florida 1913. Three years before Christina died. |
Peter purchased land in Florida. When Harry was age 21, the family moved to Indian River City. At that time there was a land boom in Florida. Harry, his brother, Lawrence along with their father Peter were partners with the Indian River City Fruit and Land Company. My cousin, Linda asked me why they chose to leave Nebraska. As I researched and tried to answer that question, I discovered the documentation of Christina's health. Peter made a few attempts to keep her in good health with ideas of that period, such as spring waters. But Christina did not survive to know her grandson, Bruce. She died Mar 15, 1916 in Brevard County, Indian River City, Florida at the age of 55. She would not have known that Harry and Edwina would very shortly be expecting their first child. Bruce was born January 24, 1917.
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| Harry Jepsen holding his son Bruce, "First outing" at Biscayne Bay 1917 |
Peter did marry again to widow Sarah Gardner, a Florida socialite and hotel owner in May 1921. That's an interesting story for later. Peter died in 1923. The family story of his passing sounded grand with the masons carrying his casket, all dressed in their uniforms, musicians playing bagpipes. I've done a lot of research regarding Peter's estate so that's another story for later.
1930 Miami
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| 1930 US Census Record Miami, Florida |
It was the end of the 1920's era of bootlegging and confinement at spring waters and milk farms. My mother was born in 1929 at an Orlando, Florida hospital. After losing income in the great depression which hit Florida early on, Harry takes his infant daughter and the family from Indian River City to Miami in 1930. Perhaps he was finalizing some financial matters, possibly trying to pay some property taxes. The story in the family was that he was there to visit a sanatorium, what we would today call a clinic or a rehab center. Grace was born in May 1929 and in about May of 1930 she was a happy tot in her carriage with her father as he and a crowd of curious spectators awaited Al Capone's exit from the Miami courthouse. She was always told that her father was smitten with her and that on this day, waiting for Capone's courthouse exit, he was proud that a local news photographer captured the moment with a snapshot of sweet Grace in her carriage.
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| Harry Christopher Jepsen, Miami Florida 1930. Last photo taken of him. |
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| Sweet baby Grace, Bruce was age 13 when this photo was taken. captured by a news photographer outside the Miami Dade County Courthouse on the day Al Capone was released from a year of jail time in Spring 1930. |
Edwina, the early immigrant
Edwina, Bruce's dear southern mother and my dear grandmother was a force in the family. I think of her everyday. In my research I often find it easy to get historical info on her branch of the family as they began arriving from the British Isles in the 1600's. It is largely because of my gma Edwina I became a genealogist.
Southerner or Northerner
Though their father was born in California, he was raised in Nebraska and his parents immigrated from Denmark to Nebraska. Bruce and Grace were both born in Florida which makes them southerners. But Bruce came of age in Omaha and had an appreciation for the city life. The family in Florida would refer to him as "citified". Grace was mostly raised in Nebraska. So this, in my humble opinion makes them Northerners for the most part. It's hard to say. And does it really matter? Born in Indian River City, Florida, Bruce was a Southerner first. As he became a young man in Omaha City, as it was called then, he became a Citified playboy. After Army Air Force training in Texas and stationed in the Florida Gulf, he was a southern officer and a gentleman. My mother always said that Bruce being responsible for his mother and sisters didn't have to go to war, that he wanted to go. So mostly, Bruce was a volunteer warrior who loved flying and remarkably became part of the 14th Army Air Force. He wrote home to the family that he was proud to be considered a part of Chenault's volunteer group, the Flying Tigers.
When Grace graduated from St Petersburg High School in 1947, she took a bus from St Pete via Chicago to Omaha, alone at age 18. She wanted to attend Omaha University, now UNO. It was Bruce's wish that their mother stay in Omaha so that the girls would get a better education. The only reason they were in Florida at that time towards the end of the war was a failed attempt to see him before he went overseas. The family in Florida wanted Edwina to stay but it wasn't meant to be. Due to my mother, Grace's bravery and ambitions, our family remains in the Omaha Community today.© Julie Ann Cambridge, Inkwashletters, 2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Julie Ann Cambridge and Inkwashletters with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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