.."won't keep"...

My grandmother, Anna Christina Michelsen Cook, was sent this telegram on the death of her father, Otto Michelson.

Otto became a teamster and had a span of five mules and a horse he called Nellie. A mule stepped on his toe and blood poisoning set in. His leg was amputated to the hip in an effort to save his life, but he died at Battle Mountain, Nevada on June 5, 1890.


OTTO MICHELSEN
Otto Michelsen, born in Schleswig, Denmark, was a sailor who came to San Francisco in 1847 and remained until gold was discovered in 1848. He then came inland and mined for a while at Dutch Flat on the South Fork. He married Anna Christina Beekholz, also a native of Denmark, who had two daughters, Camilla Teresa and Olivia, by a previous marriage.
Otto and Anna had twins on March 14, 1855, George P. and a daughter who died at birth. Anna Christina was born on October 12, 1857 and within a month after childbirth the mother Anna, died. She is buried at Gold Hill Cemetery, Gold Hill, California. Otto, unable to care for his small children allowed George to be raised by the Harford family of San Luis Obispo and Anna Christina by Anna Rebecca Hahn who later married Peter Singer who was a lawyer, teacher and Justice of the Peace in Lincoln, California

Anna Christina was born to Otto and Anna Christina Michelsen, natives of Denmark, in the Mt. Pleasant District, Placer County, California, on October 12, 1857.

Anna Christina had one older brother and two older half-sisters. Her mother died the month after her birth, and she was nursed for a time by an Indian squaw who had lost her child. She was cared for by Mary and George Allen, friends of the family, (who later to become the grand parents-in-law of her daughter Nellie), and the Burdge family. (Nellie was later to work for the Burdge's grandson, a printer.) When she was six months old Anna Christina was taken by Anna Rebecca Hahn, who later married Peter Singer, the first teacher in Lincoln. Anna was know at different periods in her life as Anna Christina Hahn, Singer, until she ran away to marry Baron Francis Cook on August 20, 1878.