Anna Larson

Also went by the name Örn Anna Jonsdotter
  • Birth:  1819, Dala-Järna, Sweden.
  • ​Emigrated 1880.  Settled in Minnesota: Cokato, Wright County.
  • Death:  1903​.  Howard Lake, Wright County, Minnesota.  Howard Lake Cemetery, unmarked.   
​Svensk säckpipa belonging to Gudmunds Nils Larsson (1892-1949) Dala Järna.   Included is the "blind pipe", which is common in Venjans-made bagpipes.
Photo credit  Dalarnas Museum
Credit to Per-Ulf Allmo, Sweden, ​ and to Norden Säckpipa Association of the Americas for providing valuable information for this story.  
Anna Larson was born in 1819 in Dala-Järna, Sweden, where she learned to play traditional Swedish bagpipes, known as säckpipa.

There's a documented story in Per Alf Allmo's book, "Säckpipan I Norden" in which Anna played the pipes around 1875 for a wedding where the bride was a second cousin to säckpipa player Erik Persson, who immigrated to Iowa in 1868. 

In 1880, Anna immigrated to Cokato, Minnesota, United States, alongside her husband Lars to join her säckpipa playing daughter Britta Skifstrom in Minnesota.   

Fast forward to a century later, when the late Minnesota piper and historian Jerry Revelle had a conversation with one of the Skifström relatives in Northern Minnesota.  Jerry relayed to an online piping group that the relative said, "I only know that in Sweden they (Britta and Anna) played the pipes in the bars and the men would throw money at their feet. If they didn't pay well, the women would cuff their ears. I heard from my aunt that they kept sheep or cattle in Sweden and brought the pipes along and played while the animals grazed."   
FUN FACTS: 
  • The säckpipa has a long tradition in Dala-Järna, Sweden, where its been used for herding and dancing among other uses.    
  • Skifstrom Land and Skifstrom Lake, now affectionately known as "Mud Lake"  in Wright county.   U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1901 
Music Links
There are not tunes to be known after Anna Larson.  Anna Rynefors and Olle Gällmo are current day säckpipa players from Sweden.