My gramma, Elisa Hansen Broberg lived in San Francisco during the April 1906 earthquake. She was 32 years old, married to my grandfather, Ernst Johan Broberg. Elisa had three living children at the time — Max who was born in January of 1906, Todd (Charles) born in 1903, and Wallace born 1901. She had lost an infant, Ernest (named after his father) who was born and died in 1899. My dad was the last of her children to be born, 21 years after the birth of her first baby. She had given birth to eight children, seven of who survived.
In April of 1906, Elisa and Ernst Broberg were living in San Francisco, and both were members of the LDS church. Gramma always believed that there was going to be an earthquake, but she hoped it wouldn’t be that night. She had been up with sick kids — the three little boys aged, 3 mos, 3 years, and 5 years had been feverish and ill, and Elisa was naturally tired from the long days and nights. Her husband, Ernst had just returned from Logan, Utah that evening. So I can imagine she was worn out from a long week of sick kids.
This is her story, in her own words. I’m thankful my dad made a recording (the old reel to reel — I can still picture those recorders) and transferred it to an audio cassette. I have digitized the audio and used Final Cut Pro to create the drama. Luckily, a film company had made a film of Market Street, San Francisco as a commercial endeavor to attract tourists. They shot the film a few days before the quake and had shipped it to the east coast. Thus it survived the fires that engulfed the film studio in San Francisco after the earthquake. Another film was shot after the quake, going down that same Market Street, showing the devastation of what was once a thriving scene of the 1906 San Francisco city.
