Selma must have been a woman of great inner (and physical) strength as she bore 12 children over a period of 27 years (1862-1889). She nurtured her first 4 children in a small three room cottage in Getterrum Sweden called Nain. She made the trip to America with a 10 year old girl, a 8 year old girl, a 5 year old boy, and a 2 year old baby boy. It must have been an enormous challenge.

Selma's father and stepmother, Peter Magnus Månsson Rubin and Fredricka Månsdotter Rubin had come to the United States earlier (April 1868) and had settled in Jamestown, NY.

Selma was a deeply religious woman. She was a member of the Swedish Zion Mission Church and the Ladies' Aide Society of that church. She reportedly loved to tell her grandchildren stories from the Bible and would cry when she told of Jesus hanging on the cross. Periodically she would have prayer meetings at the house on Wednesday nights. It was all in Swedish and the Minister's name was Hognander, pastor of the Swedish Covenant Church.

Selma died at the age 80 in 1922. She was well known in the Jamestown area having lived there for 50 years.