The Ruby Chronicles (#1)

Editor Note:  This post launches a series of treasures,  essays by Ruby Johnson Anderson.  The essays come to me courtesy of Sid Stivland. 

Confirmation 1929

Introduction to the Ruby Anderson Essays

These essays were written by my aunt, Ruby (Johnson) Anderson, my dad's (Ralph Stivland) half-sister. Ruby Johnson married Iver Anderson in 1946 when he came home from the war.  Iver is the son of Albert and Alida Anderson (and brother to Harry, Harold, Elmer, Violet (McIver), Ted, et al; 13 kids in all).  Ruby was a half-sister to my dad (Ralph) and Henry Stivland, and Clara Stivland Femrite.  She had a twin sister, Rhoda, who was married to Chester Stark from Hoffman.  Any references in the essays to her twin sister refer to Rhoda.  

Ruby and her twin sister Rhoda were born in 1914.  Ruby attended District #76 school west of Lowry, then Lowry High School, then Glenwood HS, graduating in 1933.  She received teachers training and taught in 4 Pope County rural schools over a thirteen year period from 1933 until she was married in 1946.  For 2 years, 1933 to 1945, she taught at Dist #76 and lived at home – the Stivland farm.  From 1935 to 1938, she taught at Dist #32 in White Bear Lake township, from 1938 to 1939 she taught in Dist #28 in Nora Township, and from 1939 to 1942 she taught in Dist #26 – Ben Wade Township.  Her last assignment was back in Dist #76, her home school, where she taught from 1942 until she married in 1946.  During all of those years, she either lived at home with her parents or with a family who lived near the school.  Thus many of her essays are about her teaching experience.  Ruby died in 2000.

Sid Stivland February 2016

Chronicle #1: Was I Bored – No Not I

Twins Ruby & Rhoda

Often today we hear children say “I am so bored.  There is nothing to do.”  As a youngster I never heard that expression nor felt that way.  But do you suppose I was bored when my twin sister and I, age three, crumpled up paper and put it on the kitchen chair and lit a match to it just as my mother came in from the evening’s milking?  I got my first spanking – the only one I remember I ever got.

Twin Rhoda and I were always imagining things.  Sometimes we’d play with a headless doll – but the doll was a real person to us.

When Aunt Borghild in Minneapolis sent me a twenty four inch doll with a china head and sleepy eyes I was overjoyed.  I’m sure I left it in the box for a long time and just admired it.

In the summertime we made a playhouse in the woods close to the house.  A string or twine served well for the outside walls and also partitions between rooms.  Broken pieces of dishes found in the woods were used for china.  Piled up rocks made an excellent stove.  Pieces of boards laid across wood chunks or stones were used for tables and chairs.  Mom often brought us snacks for our mid-afternoon treat.

Our big attic was an excellent place to play house, restaurant, or millinery shop.  We decorated old hats like a lady who sold hats in Farwell said she would do if people thought the hat too plain.  We would trim it with a ribbon or flowers if the customer preferred that.

In the winter time we often went to a pond close by to play.  First we had to shovel off the snow.  Our clamp-on skates didn’t stay on too well but we would pull each other on a little sled and had lots of fun and exercise.

Close to our house we built our own snow slide – about three feet wide and six feet high.  We poured water on it so it would get real slippery when it froze.  To get up on the slide we used a step ladder and climbed up on the back and slid down on the sled.

After we had been confirmed, about age fifteen, we were allowed to go with the church Luther League to house parties.  All the unmarried were considered Luther Leaguers. We played innocent games such as “Button Button”, “Guessing Games”, etc.  The host and hostess served us a delicious lunch.  They were parents of a Leaguer.  We travelled by horse and sleigh.  We often didn’t get home until one or two o’clock.  No drugs - no booze – no four-letter words – just clean fun.

In the summertime, a Leaguer on the spur of the moment would call the others and say “We’re going to have a wiener roast by Rudgren’s Creek”.  After playing games, “Four in a Boat”, “Virginia Reel”, etc, we had sandwiches, hot dogs roasted over an open fire, and coffee.

There was little money in the rural area in those days, but we all had fun with little expense.

Ruby Johnson Anderson

IV. Ture's Story (1920-1958)

Ture's Story - In His Own Words 

Part 4 (1920-1958)

Ture

Reverse Emigration - Return to Sweden

The summer of 1920 I worked for my brother Emil, he had leased a big farm. There were not that many that had tractors at that time, we had six horses to drive with. I remember one day we were cutting corn with a horse binder, we each had a pair of horses, but rode on the binder and steered the bundle carrier with our feet. We stood the horses in the shade, for it was very warm, and went to drink coffee and the horses took off and ran right in a big oat field, but they soon tired in the heat.





In the month of August we finished the hay and oat harvest. I began getting ready for a trip home to Sweden. My sister Maria was to accompany me. We reserved tickets on a Swedish boat that went directly to Göteborg. I was an American citizen so I had to arrange for a passport. That went well so we were ready to travel the last of July. It didn’t go so fast at that time. To do a long trip, the first day we rode the train to a town in southern Iowa to arrange some papers for Maria since she was not an American citizen. There we had to lay over one night, then rode to Chicago, had to stay there one night. Later the way to New York, it took two days. The Swedish American lines had its own hotel we got to stay there two nights. We had to go to the consulate to have our papers examined, it was not enough. The express was on strike but I found a man that promised to transport our trunks down to port. That went well so it was only to go on board the boat. 

S/S Drottningholm

It was named Drottningholm. Weather was fine. It was only to eat, sleep and look at the sea during the day. After 8 days, we were in Göteborg. We went through customs, all went well. We took the train in the evening, rode the whole night, had to change a couple times, but early in the day we were at Hällestad station. We left our things there and walked the 8 km home. We went the woods way, our old school way, past the place where I was born. The house was gone, only a few old plum trees, one sour apple and the well back near the road, which had such clear fresh water. Then it wasn’t long home to Rösjo. When we came up on the place we called Smidge (Blacksmith) Hill, we saw all the houses in the village. Our home was first.

It was the 9th of September, Augusta day- Mamma’s name day and she had a coffee party. The neighbors were invited. I cannot write how it felt when we stepped in the house, but happiness was big. Mamma’s coffee and fine rolls and good cookies tasted good after the long walk. Thirteen years is a right long time when one is young but we soon became used to home. There were only four in the household: Father - 60, Mother - 64, David - 20 and a hired girl. My sisters Herta and Hanna were married and had flew out of the house. My father had aged a little but looked to have good health. Mother had taken the years harder but was glad and kind as she had always been. 

I didn’t mean that I would stay in Sweden, but it became that way. David would choose his military service so father asked me to stay and help him. The farmers there bought a new thresher with a motor and grinder. They wanted father to manage their machinery, that he did many years. I rode around the farms and watched threshing in the fall. After that it was grinding grits and meal during the winter. At times it was poor with water so the mills could not run, so many came there wanting to grind. My mother’s health became poor, she could not work much. Father wanted that I should take the lease on the farm. He had a few years left and I took over both the lease and the renters. That was the winter of 1923.

I became acquainted with a very kind and capable girl named Elvira, born 1900 on a little farm. There were many brothers and sisters. Her mother died when she was school age. Most of the time she was out working. She came to my brother Oscar’s when she was 15 years and stayed their 8 years. A hired girl had very hard work during that time. Everything was done by hand, both outside and inside. Elvira and I were married in the spring 1923, we were happy and compatible. I prepared a small house, painted and put on new wallpaper. Father, Mamma and Maria moved into the little house. David lived in one of our rooms. He worked for me the first summer, later working in the woods and father did too.

I got permission to hire a hired man. It didn’t work to be alone during harvest. During the winter we could work in the woods. There was not much mining now, only one charcoal stack a year. {Editor note: see appendix below "Making Coal"}.  Now became the job of chopping volumes of wood and firewood, which we hauled to the railroad station. Other times we drove to a floating channel, it floated as long as it could, from there it was transported to a big saw works. Father and Mother thrived and had it so good in the little house, but in the winter 1924, Mamma became very sick and had to go to the hospital. She never came home again. There was much sorrow. Everyone thought so much of Mother.

It was a severe winter with much snow. That year we hauled lime far into April, but summer came that year also. For us it was a big happy summer. In July we got a little darling girl, we named her Ellen. It made a deal more work for mamma when there was an increase in the family, but we got much help from Maria. She was home with father in the little house, but in time we acquired a domestic girl. In that time we did everything by hand, milking and separating milk, churning butter - that we did once a week. We hauled home ice in winter, some we packed in sawdust so it lasted until summer. Butter we sold at the store or traded for other goods. I had a mowing machine, it was horse- drawn and there was an old apparatus to put on the machine so one could mow grain with it. After a few years I bought a rake. It went fast and drove the grain and laid it in fine bunches but we had to tie them by hand. It cost 500 kroner. It was big money at the time. Around the 30’s, it was hard times, impossible to sell anything. I remember I sold pork for 60 ore/kg. Two years after Ellen came a girl Mildred. She was also welcome. There were some said that it was a sin for us that it was not a boy but I answered that I always like girls.

The last of the 20’s began corporations which made better work on farms. We had to deal out pasture for the animals, for my share around 15 acres. They removed all the trees and bushes and moved it away and we got a good ground fertilizer. We could lay in ditches between the acres and some tile, there was shifting between farms so there was more on same acres. I got 10 acres for my share. We got new lease contracts. I should pay 600 kroner / year and drive in woods in winter as much as I had time. Pay was poor. I drove with three, sometimes four horses, at that time the tiling was held up. I thought it was the last mile that year when I was forty. I remember Swensson, the timber warden, came to me that day and I invited him for coffee in the bunkhouse. 

Two years after Mildred, we got a boy, Göte, and we were very glad. After additional two years there was a girl named Britta. Four children in six years, all born in the same month of July. Isn’t it wonderful? One can imagine how much work with so many small children. You couldn’t find many ready made clothes but one bought material and sewed them yourself. Elvira was good to sew, made many small rare clothes for the girls. First fall we were married, I went to Hällestad market, sold one cow and got 300 kroner. It was enough to buy a sewing machine, it was put to good use. 

In the spring of the 30’s, I became very sick - double pneumonia. I lay at home for six weeks, doctor came many times and also the preacher came and greeted me. Everyone thought it was surely the end for me, but time for me was not out. So I began getting better, but it took most of the summer before I was wholly stable.

The children were healthy and well and grew, soon it was time to begin school. At that time they were changing the schools, so they had to go every day. We had 6 km and a poor road to schools. The little ones were hardly able to go, so there was a school strike. We had a meeting with school directors and parents. We had permission we would have rides every other day, but what would they ride on. There were so many children around there. Then there was one who suggested that we use a wood bench, but we did not think that was suitable. There was a farmer that lived by the school. He had a pair of horses and got ahold of an old cab. He started driving and it went well. When we came a few years in the 30’s, times were a little better. There were not so many unemployed an farmers got more pay for their products.

The circuit that belonged to the Hällestad Free Congregation began arrangements to build a Mission House. The group gave a little house and the plot on one of the farms in the community and they built a meeting room next to the house. There was a farmer in the community named Arvid, a young comrade to me. He was handy with little of this and that, so he got to be work boss and then everybody helped what they could. It was a very enjoyable meeting place. The house served as a kitchen and a young peoples’ room. There were many people around here at this time. 

In 1937, I went with a R.L.F. and a butchering club. {Editor note: RLF was a Swedish farmers' federation}. The last of the 30’s the corporation group began to sell a part of their produce around here. The big timer owners refrained, so they sold nothing. In the fall, I bought my leased farm. Price was 22,000 kroner. It contained around 150 acres, of that six acres were pasture. The house was too small and the work demanding. In 1939, we built a new barn with room for 20 and 8 small cattle, 4 horses and a few hogs and a roomy barn, room for implements and over it a feed grinder. Also we built a granary. It was 5 meters high so it was easier to unload from. In the old house one had to scoop everything up.

In 1939 began the second world war. Then it wasn’t long before it was poor with import of coal oil and provisions, so then began rationing of almost all we needed. For us farmers it was not so bad. Our miller was not so particular as we could grind a little extra bread grain occasionally and we had milk. We had to economize on meat coupons so we got to butcher one pig for Christmas. Wild meat was not rationed, we shot both moose and deer in the fall. Same with coffee, we got so little of.. The crops were measured in fall and determined how much was left after they had taken and firewood was chopped as much as one had trees left.

There was a school teacher named Hedenqvist. He came to us and dealt our rationing cards for this route. Occasionally I helped if he didn’t have the time. In summer my brother Carl came from American and visited us. One day we rode with horses to Count Morner in Sonstorp. He had control over all rationing for the parish in his office. Carl must have cards, it was hard to be without.

In 1943 I bought a binder. It was not very big but it went well, could pull it with two horses. It cost around 1800 kroner. We had to bind with paper twine. We had permission to use paper for everything during war years, also for fodder for cattle. It was a poor harvest year in the beginning of the 40’s. We could get no oil for lights but had to use carbide lamps. They were very difficult to look after.

In 1945 was an occurrence to talk about. The war ended and peace came to us. Here they built a power line through the district. We got electric light and power. When the electric stream turned on there was happiness and joy in homes. I bought a freezer and an electric stove and radio. We traded for a new thresher with chaff and straw blower in time also a grain auger. Also, we had a electric motor for power to pull with. Also we put in a milking machine so we got away from hand milking. At that time we began to deliver the milk to a dairy in Hällestad. There was one from this neighborhood that drove, first with horses and later it was by freight car. Dairy barns closed down and we drove milk to Finspong. The same time we became members in the milk center. Now the dairy in Finspong closed also, so milk was handled every other day with a tank truck to the milk center in Norköpping.

When Göte finished his conscript he took driving lessons and in the first part of the 50’s we bought our first car. It was a new little Ford, price around 7,000 kroner. Father was still living and stayed in the little house. In the fall he fell down and broke the lower bone in his neck. Then he laid in the hospital a long time, became well enough so he could go around a little at home. After a short time illness he went to Hällestad old peoples home in 1954, nearly 94 years old. He had always tried to do his best for his big family and other people.

The spring of 1954 we began to dig a basement for a new living house. I planned an assembled finished house with 3 rooms, kitchen and bathroom downstairs, two rooms, hall balcony and toilet up over. Also whole cellar under with furnace room, washroom, food cellar garage and utility room. There was the freezer and many other things. We drilled a well by the only gable on the house, built a little room over it with place for a pump and hydrant. There was water for both us and the cattle. We did the most coarse work ourselves, but there were so many different handicraft workers to work on a living house, so it was hard to find them when we needed, but all went well. It was finished so we moved in time for Christmas in our new home ad we were very glad and thankful that Christmas.

I began to come to pension age so I let Göte lease the farm. He took over all business and soon he bought himself a tractor. After that the work went fast and much lighter. We had one horse a few years but now we have none. Now we had a few years without big expense, times were right good. We traded cars, got a new red Simca, we drove around right so much. On Sundays we were often in meetings in the congregation. Also we rode and looked at shows, many friends and others we knew, our children and their families we had to say hello to.


Luck and good fortune wasn’t for all times. Elvira, my dear wife, our kind and good mamma, became sick. She was in the hospital for a long time. There she had many hard treatments. It looked like it would help, she became better, came home, she improved. We were all glad and thought our mamma would be healthy, but it did not go as we thought. There is a higher power that rules over us all. One Sunday morning in June 1958, mamma was called home. It was the hardest day in my life, also it was that four our children. 

He who rules over all, does what is best for us and gives us strength to bear all sorrow, how hard they are, life must go further. 


Editor Note: In the early 70's, my wife and I and our 1 year-old son visited Sweden and were hosted by Ture and his family in their home in Forest Bed. 













Here I end Ture's Story, a good and honorable man.

Appendix:  Making Coal

Editor note: Here is an example of the degree of self-sufficiency required when living in rural Sweden in the early 20th century - "making coal". (I could not find a definition for the word "milan", but I assume it refers to the wood/dirt mound).

The first one did was to build a bunk to live in. First a wall was built for fire of smooth stones, afterwards we made a saw horse 2 meters high and just as long , so tight as one could get it with pine branches and then laid turf outside the door. It was then nailed together with several boards. It was loose. We used a stick against it when we were going to be outside. As a makeshift, we sawed 4 short boards, two to each side and many fine twigs so it was soft to sit an lay on. There was a walk way between the beds, a loose board over walk became table and so the bunk was finished. It was warm and fine as long as the fire burned, coffee pot was always on the fireplace. Sometimes there would be a little rat that became so tame when he got a little bread crust. 

The bottom should be around 10 meters in diameter, level and no slope, First we rolled in a coarse block in the middle and put braces around so it stood steady. Then we made a little drum to drop near fire, then there was to gather up wood round about. Then we packed a little in bottom to begin with so that it became a light. When we thought it was large enough so the draft burned bark off wood, we laid some smaller wood on top. Then it was only to add more. It took many loads of pine branches, one began near bottom till the whole mound was green, Then it was time to cover up milan with dirt. We started with the top, then the bottom. It had to be 12” of dirt and had to be packed good. Then it was time to make a ladder. It was made from a log cut out steps and then make a railing because in the dark we had to hold on so we didn’t fall. Now it was time to light milan and we started a fire on top and pushed it down the center in the drum and filled it with dry wood and then put spruce wood on top, holes to let the smoke out. At the bottom we made a few air holes to keep the fire going. Then it was only to put more wood on to make it hot enough to start making coal. 

Sometimes the first few days gases build up and you had an explosion. Then it could happen the milan burned up, but it never happened to me. If everything went ok, you only had to put wood on a couple times a day and move the smoke holes. It was risky to go upon milan , you had to have a club to hit with. If someone stepped on it, it may cave in. It took 3 weeks to make coal on milan, then it was time to put the fire out in the milan. We made mulch from water and dirt and packed it all over milan to it got air tight to choke out the fire. 

III. Ture's Story (1917-1920)

Ture's Story - In His Own Words 

Part III  (1917-1920)

The Great War 

In July, I was called to military. We were over 300 from our district that traveled away at one time to a training place named Camp Gordon in the state of Georgia. The had established a big training location out in a desert. We were sure there were several thousand men there. All was well organized, it was warm there and it was unusually hard on us. We should go over to France as soon as possible. We stayed in Camp Gordon for 6 weeks. Later they took us to another camp not far from New York. There we found our field assignment, got new stronger clothes, helmet and a gas mask. We were vaccinated in a group with a syringe which we got before, but nothing for flu, a sickness that took many lives, many more than the war did. We got our New Testaments, pocket size and a life insurance of $10,000 written for any of our relatives. 

RMS Olympic

One night we stood up and marched down to beach and went on a ferry out to a big boat named Olympic. It was equipped for troop transport. We were about 13,000 men on board. Germans had U-Boats so we had escorts that chased and flew nearly always. It took only 4 days and nights over the Atlantic.



We landed in England, stayed there in tents for a week. Many of us were sick and got to stay behind in England. One night they took us over to France to a town named Le Harve. There we climbed on a freight train that went south to a big military base. Roads we rode on were small and poor, nothing to sit on beside a toilet stool in one corner, no windows, only a hole in top, doors they fastened outside. After one day, we stopped by a big military base. There they separated us, the most rode direct up to the front. Our company proceeded southeast. It didn’t go fast. Sometimes we stopped and stayed some nights got a little food, and so on the way again. It was so much traffic on the railroad, so we hardly got anywhere. After a few days we were where we should be for a time. 

WW I Centenary photo

Then we knew that we would be taken out to cavalry. It was a first-aid regiment. It was divided in troops, 150 in each. I came in with Troop E. First we came to a training camp, there we should learn to ride and shoot from horses. It was a hard training a few weeks our group were used to horseback and they tried to torment us as much as possible. Sometimes we rode without a saddle, there became big saddle sores so one could not take off his clothes at evening. But time heals all sores, and we became used to horseback. I thought it was a good accomplishment that we didn’t always go and carry your pack.



When we were finished with training we were moved to a regiment. It was located by a little town in eastern France. We lived in board sheds with only ground for floor, but in the fall when the war was finished, we laid in a floor. We had quite good food - before that we could be without for a long time once in awhile. We had many horses, not so many riding horses, mostly big artillery horses that they drove pulling cannons up to the front lines. They were many that were hurt, we had a horse hospital. There were many veterinarians and horseshoers that worked with them to make them somewhat well, but many were badly injured with gas and had to be destroyed.

Toul, France

{Editor note: Unconfirmed, but I believe this would have been near Toul, France, in the Lorraine region near Nancy & south of Verdun. Here the US Calvary had a remount depot & veterinary hospital.}

It was a place with high hills, some trees there but to the most it was overgrown with deep grass and valleys. People lived in small homes, otherwise the community. They mostly had poor housing, houses were built of limestone, with floors made of stone slabs. They had later small cultivation of vines and green vegetables around there. They went early in the morning with their big baskets that they carried on their back like a backpack. In it they had their work materials, a hoe or spade. There were only old and children at home, the young were all with the war around there. Tractors had never been there. 



The 11th of November 1918 the war ended. There was gladness and jubilee over the whole world, not least in France. I was very glad and thankful that I had been spared so easy and didn’t have to injure any of my fellow people. After being freed it was more comfortable then the hatred also disappeared friendship was better. It happened surely that they quarreled once in awhile, so it was a little fuss. I had few problems with comrades or those in command, sometimes I got to go with and have charge of their money. A few squandered away wages the same day they got them. We had around 2000 horses so we had a little to work with. First we went up to Germany with a couple hundred. We each were given four horses. We rode on one and led the other three. It took us four days, we got to ride a truck back. Then I got to see where they had war for 4 years. It was terrible to see how badly mankind can do against each other. One time I was with to bury fallen comrades, we did shoot a few shells over the graves. There were no flowers, a flag around the coffin and a little wood cross on the mound. You could see a big grave field with many thousand graves. 

Winter months were lonesome. It rained almost every day, come light snow one time. We got to begin to make a riding ground for a jumping competition. It was just finished right time, we journeyed from there and once in a while we sold the horse we rode away with. One time in early spring (1919) we loaded horses on the railroad. It was a train, eight horses in each car and two men. Also hay bales that we got to sit on. It was the finest trip that I was on. We went out to a seaport in southwest France. It took three days out there and one day back, and then we got to ride a passenger train. It is hard to transport horses so long, they cannot stand so long and neither could the lay down. We got permission to let them off once, so they go to move themselves one time. Farmers needed horses for spring work, so soon they were all sold and we had nothing more to do. We got a guard duty once in awhile but that was not so often and so it was a little sport to the most it was baseball, it is of course America’s biggest sport. Towards summer began the Americans to ship home their soldiers and one day it was our turn. The most were glad to travel home, but not all. Some had their girlfriends, so they shed many tears the day we left. We got to ride a truck, our trip went westward, but when we came half way to the coast it was stopped.

It was well into our trip now. My troop was headquartered in a farmhouse and we stayed a month. We did not have anything to do, only ate and slept. I and some others lay in a high tower. It had been a fort before this time. There was a big river nearby in this we swam almost every day. It was summer and warm. Soil cultivation was long after its time. They drove with their wood wheel wagons with very high wheels. If they had two horses, they were not in a team, but one went ahead of the other. Now I think they have it in order there also. France is big and pretty land with a good climate. In a month we took off west to a big homestead they called Brest. We were there a week, then we went on a boat that took us over the Atlantic. It was fine weather and we lay on deck and sunned during the day. We landed in a big town named Boston where we were well met (welcomed) and honored. Too much I thought. We stayed overnight in a fine hotel. There I did my last two hours watch. 

There was a comrade named Moller. He deserted until after the end of the war. I think he had some relatives in Germany. He came back just when the trip started for home. Authorities did nothing to him, except he had to stay with the others until we landed in America. Then he was arrested. He asked me what I would do if he attacked. I answered that you know I had an automatic nine mm loaded with ten sharp shot. I never met him again so I don’t know how it went for him. He surely got hard punishment. Next day we took a train, got to ride the sleeper to Des Moines. There was a training camp called Camp Dodge. There we were reviewed, uniform, helmet and gas mask we could keep. We also got two extra months pay. This happened on the 7th of July 1919. I got a room in a hotel over night. Next day I went and called my sister Maria. She worked in town. I had neither heard or talked a Swedish word for a year. Later in the day I went to my brother. It took only a couple hours. They kept on to thresh oats and it was very warm. I could not sleep at night on the soft beds but had to get up and lay on the floor. We had only a pair of blankets and wood bottom in our beds in France. I did not take any special work that fall. I just had not adjusted myself. I helped my brother a little with the harvest. I traveled to Minnesota to my brother Gustav. I stayed there quite a while.

There were many welcome festivities both in church and other places for us that came home and tributes for those that did not come back. There were four of my comrades from our community that never came home. One was killed in the last days of the war, the others died of sickness or other causes. Two were brothers born in America, the other was a Smälands boy, we had been very good friends. 

I had better be thankful to the higher maker that protected me from all danger.


To be continued ...

II. Ture's Story (1907-1917)

Background

Source: The House of Emigrants, Växjö, Sweden

Swedish emigration primarily had the same causes as the contemporary population surge from Northern and Western Europe: population pressure, economic and - above all - agricultural hardships, a profound social crisis, widespread political and religious discontent. 

At the end of the 1860s, Sweden was struck by the last of a series of severe hunger catastrophes. The agriculture which was still only partially modernized had been struggling with difficult times. Now came a series of crop failures. 1867 thus became "the wet year" of rotting grain, 1868 became the "dry year" of burned fields, and 1869 became "the severe year" of epidemics and begging children. 

President Lincoln's Homestead Act of 1862, the political stabilization after 1865, and the enormously expanding industries of the North represented three important drawing factors on Swedish emigration to the U.S. The generous offer of the Homestead Act became a powerful magnet on land-hungry farm people. This also destined them to the so-called Homestead Triangle, especially to Minnesota, which became the Swede State of America.

The Swedish mass emigration would not have been possible without the Swedish railroads and the organized passenger traffic over the Atlantic. At this time no Swedish line carried passengers directly from Gothenburg to New York. The Swedes therefore had to use British or German ships. The emigrant route started with the train ride to the big port of Gothenburg, where the complete passage, such as Gothenburg-Chicago, of the British Wilson Line, which brought the emigrants to Hull in England. A train took them across the country to Liverpool or Glasgow; from there the Inman Line or some other company's ships sailed them to New York. 

It is estimated that there are now as many Americans of Swedish descent today as there are inhabitants in Sweden, or a little more than eight million. 




Editor Note:  As the family grew in size, it was clear that the small farm could not support them and as the children reached adulthood , a steady exodus to the United States resulted.  In 1907, it was Ture's turn to leave.

Ture's Story -  In His Own Words  

Part 2: 1907 - 1917

The Journey

At that time, many people immigrated to America, the large land to the west. In 1905 came a man named Nordin home to Sweden, he was born in this area. When he went back to the US, my brother Carl followed him and a year later Gustav went. 



On the 27th of October 1907, it was my turn to go. I will remember it was a Sunday morning. It was hard for me to say goodbye to my parents and relatives. We could not know whether we would ever see each other again. Father got the horses and took me to Hällestad station. It was to take your little bag, step on a train to Palsboda, there you changed trains to Göteborg. I was a little nervous to go on one as I had never been away from home. I had to stay a couple days and there I celebrated my 20th birthday. Fare for the whole trip cost me 300 kroner and one had to have 1500 to land in America. I became acquainted with a few Northlanders young people. They were going to the large forests in the Northwestern states to get work. Among them was a good and pretty girl, we had companionship to Chicago. 


We rode over North Sea in a old poor boat called Rollo, it took us 2 days, weather was very good. We landed in a place called Grimsby. We took the train to Liverpool, England there stayed overnight. 

Next day we went on board in Guardlinjens (Cunard) boat Lusitania, a new large and fine boat. It went fast and only took 4 days over the Atlantic. On trip we saw doctors and got vaccinations for small pox. Never got sea sick. Lusitania sank in battle in WWI. I think it was the reason America came into the war.

We got to go inland on a little island outside New York which was called Kastelgarden.  There we were divided into groups. To get a package of food we went through duty and after on train to other places. 


{Editor note: Castle Garden (Battery Park in NYC) was America's first official immigration center.} 

I went to Chicago. It took over 2 days. There I changed trains to Des Moines, the capital of Iowa. There I got off the train showed an address I had for brother Carl to the police, who took me to a Swede who had a carriage and he took me to my brother’s shop and I was through with my trip. All had gone well. Everyone had been friendly and helpful to me, so it had been in all of my long life. A little depends on if a man tries to do his best for that’s what man can do. I was well accepted in my brother’s home, he had married in the fall of that year with a girl he knew back home. They had a good living. Carl worked as a watchman at Drake University. My brother, Gustav, came and visited me. He worked for a farmer for board. I followed him home and wanted to begin work. 

I got a job on a farm where they were picking corn.

Life in Iowa

Picking corn

We had a pair of horses, a wagon with a big box, corn was planted in rows a half a meter apart. Corn was planted in groups, three or four kernels, same length apart as it was between rows. It grew very fast, was over 2 meters high. Flowers came out on top, but corn ear grew out of the middle of the stalk, for the most only one on each. In that time they raised mostly corn, a little grain, now they have soybeans in Iowa. Corn was left to dry before it was harvested. It was hard work to pick corn. Horses went themselves and ate of the owner’s picked corn. You took two rows at a time, with left hand took an ear, in right hand one had a little hook fastened that you tore under the husks and also broke the ear and threw it into the wagon. The far side of the box must be higher to throw against. One accustomed could pick up to 100 bushels a day. A bushel was about 20 kilo of clean corn. Pay was 5 cents per bushel. Now they pick with machines. When the corn picking was done, I moved in with my brother in town, staying with them. There was very little work, pay was $1.50/day, so one was not exactly in gold with a whittling knife. 

Drain Tiling

"The secret to successful farming: dung, credit  and drainage" John Johnston


In summer, I got work on a building. I would carry brick and mortar round to the mason. It was very hard work, wages were $2/day for 10 hours , the mason got $5/day for 9 hours. The first apartment I got to carry it up on a gang plank, then later the setup a hoist, so it was much lighter for us. The work boss was a Swede, we became very good friends. On day I said to him I wanted to quit, for I wanted out on the land and work together with my brother, but he thought that was dumb because it goes faster to learn the language in town. My brother Gustav dug tile ditches on the big flat land in northwestern Iowa, and I began to work with him. We dug and laid clay tile, small and big. It was hard work, but days wages were higher. Land was laid in four corners went around 640 acres. Around 200 years ago, those that wanted a piece of land got it free. They only went out and measured up a piece, but that was not easy. There were not any roads, only Indians and buffalo. I don’t think there were many Swedes that traveled then. They came later and bought land cheap. Out there where we worked was one big area with most only Swedes. They built churches and schools prepared their fields, planted their corn, had a few cattle and many hogs.

More Arrivals

Two years after move move, my oldest sister Maria, came over to America. She got a place as a domestic maid in the town of Des Moines. Brother Carl moved out on the land where we were, worked with us for a time, but soon got land and became a farmer and there he was for over 50 years. He had 4 boys and 3 girls so they had good help. Gustav married with a girl named Ida. She was a teacher, very good and qualified, but a little weak in health. She lived only a few years after their marriage. They had no children. Gustav finished with ditch-digging. I got to take over the job. He traveled home to Sweden awhile. Maria followed and stayed home 2 years but came back later. Gustav came after a few months [ed. 1914] and had our brother Emil with his family with him, wife, Elizabeth and two small girls, Anna and Alice. With time there were 5 girls and 2 boys. Emil stayed with me and dig a few years, later leased a farm that was better for them with a family.

I had a good friend Axel, a brother to Emil’s wife. We worked together for many years. In summer we dug ditches and in winter we hunted. A hunting license cost only $3 and we could hunt almost where we wanted. We bought fine guns, also we set out traps. We found there were good small fur animals,mink, muskrat and skunk. Once in awhile we traveled into town, stayed in a fine hotel and had a good time a few days. We earned good wages in the summer, around $5/day, not taxes and everything cheap that we needed to buy. Axel became acquainted with a Norwegian girl, they married and settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

Brother Gustav married with a Swedish girl named Hilda and later bought a big farm in northwest Minnesota. There is a big flat land with fertile wheat land, there are not trees, scarcely a bush. There is too much mineral in the ground, if they drilled for water, the cattle would not drink it. They had big ponds that they gathered water from melting snow in the spring. He had 2 cows and 4 horses. When they began with tractors, he later had only one cat. 


I was there one fall and helped him with harvest. When I got there he had cut with a grain binder, a whole week, so it was not much fun to start setting up the bundles. The most they did not set up, the grain lay on the ground and dried. After a few days came the threshing gang. They had 8 pair of horses to haul the bundles. A threshing machine and a steam engine, sometimes fired with straw or coal. It pulled itself and the machine between the farms. They threshed grain and the farmers hauled it home themselves. If they did not have time to haul, they ran it on the ground, with luck rain was seldom in harvest time. When it was fall and snow began to come, it could be severe snow storms on the big flat land. Then it was that I packed my things and said goodbye to Gustav and Hilda and traveled to Iowa. It could also be severe winters there sometimes, but it was not so long. 

I remember winter 1918, it was the month of January and very cold. There was one company that organized a trip to southern Texas, an American state. The sold artificial watered land down there. We were probably 200 that both slept, ate and rode on a train for 10 days. They took water from a river near the border between Mexico and Texas, they had two pump stations. It was a big desert territory that was watered. They had mostly fruit and vegetables they grew well in the spring. Apples and oranges hung big and fine on the trees. Land was very expensive, they sold in small tracts, 5 or 10 acres. Artificial watering is much work, but they got more crops a year. I bought no land down there. There were many that bought, but they most all sold it as soon as they could. I had a share in a farm before, 3 of us brothers bought a farm around 120 acres. They cost $20,000. A very pretty farm, only a kilometer from a little community. Carl lived there until his death in 1969. 

I kept on digging for 10 years, had 2 men employed, we drained big low lands. They took up many miles, long ditches, both opened and laid pipes, depth up to 40”. One winter I emptied a little lake. It took the whole winter before it became dry, we dug around 100,000 pipe that year. We also dug several wells and pipelines to schools and living houses, many ditches we did. I remember a pair of old brothers. They were rich and good, named Karl and Klas. Karl died with an unfortunate work accident, then came Klas and asked us to dig a grave for his brother, but after he did not pay us anything, but said “I will do you boys a favor instead.” That got to be the way he wanted it.


In spring 1918 we dug along a road which should drain. Then we saw a black cloud in the west. It stood still then towards noon began to stir itself. Then I said, now it is time to go home. It was a cyclone or a whirl storm. We had barely gotten home and down in the cellar and it was there. It became completely dark. Land where we lived it went over without much damage. It took a kilometer wide and two miles long in area. There was big damage, many houses were totally destroyed, an old man was dead and many were hurt. On our farm, all out buildings and on the living house it blew the roof off. We got to borrow a tarp to cover the roof. Afterwards it was hard rainy weather for several days. There were lakes in the low places. For Carl, it drowned a colt. One night it was necessary to drive the hogs up on a hill so they would not drown. I got permission to leave my work and help clear up our farm. We got much help from neighbors. We got a great deal of money from insurance, but it reached not to build a new house.



To Be Continued ...

I. Ture's Story (1887-1907)

Editor note: In 1970, at the age of 83, a brother of my Iowa grandfather wrote "his story" - his early life in Sweden, emigration to the US in the early 1900's, service in WWI and reverse emigration to Sweden in the 1920's. My great-uncle Ture died in 1984 at the age of 97. Over several posts, courtesy of Ture, you will get an inside view of a family saga of Swedish immigrants in the early 20th century. 

What you will be reading is a translation from Swedish.

Ture's Story - In His Own Words (1887-1907)

Forest Bed

It was the year 1887 and on the 29th of October, a boy was born and given the name Ture. He was the fourth child - all boys. My father’s name was Per Erik and my mother’s name was Augusta. Their home was a little cottage far into the woods. The name of the place was “Forest Bed”. It was so pretty in the summer. The house was small, one room and a little kitchen with an open fireplace. Then there was a little orchard around the house and a small acreage. We had a little cow house with room for two cows and a calf and a little hay for them. My father worked in the forest in winter and in a sawmill in the summer. Most of the time he was away at work and came home only on Sunday. My mother had to manage the home, our two cows and us children. It was not easy to make ends meet for food and a little clothing. Labor wages were not large at that time, around 1 kroner a day, but it went. We did not ever have to starve as many do at the present. Two years after my birth, the fifth boy was born and he was named Emil. First remembrance I have from that time was the 19th of July 1891, when I got a sister, she was named Marie. Father was home, it was a sunny and warm day. We went out a picked wild strawberries, they were so red and fine on the ditches. We picked many berries in the forest. They had milk and bread until it was a party. We had clover so we had plenty of honey in the fall. I remember one time I went and picked flowers near a beehive and many bees stung me, so I am still a little afraid of bees. A few hundred meters from our home there was a lake called Japen. It was a pretty lake with clear fine water. A path to the lake was well kept. We went there often and bathed and fished. There were good fish at that time. Sometimes with father with us we put out nets and poles, then we could get both pike and eel. We did not have many toys at that time so we had to make up our own fun. There was a little brook outside the forest, there we had a water wheel with a hammer that struck on an iron plate that could be heard at our house. We made a board to shoot at as a target.

In winter we made a toboggan or sled we called them. My older brothers had permission to go to school every other day. It was a right long way to go through the forest. When they became big enough that they could help a little, they could go to the neighbors and work with planting and in the fall with threshing. The pay was not big, but they were fed and a little pay sometimes. Then there as a little sister, she was named Herta. All children were more than welcome, but it became crowded in the little house. In summer we could lay and sleep in the attic, but in winter we had to crowd together in the room. It is an old saying that says, “when need is the greatest, help is the nearest” and so it was with us.

Rösjö

Our closest village was Rösjö where there were three tenant farmers. The owner was the man father worked for. In the spring of 1894 was a blessing. Father asked and was given permission to move. The farm was around 30 tillable acres. In the spring we moved. I remember it very well even if it is over 75 years ago. It was not much to begin with, only two cows and many children, the oldest 15 years. I think it became much concern for father and mother how they were going to raise us all. But people were helpful so father could buy a pair of oxen and some other cattle. A horse was purchased in time. The house was large and fine we children thought. The kitchen was roomy - two windows, two wall cupboards. We had a large table by one of the windows and a sofa by the other and best of all an iron stove with a reservoir for warm water, some chairs and a hanging lamp over the table. On Saturday we scrubbed the floor and if there was any rubbish, we scrubbed harder and it became really homelike in our kitchen. There was a large room which was both bedroom and parlor with an open fireplace, 3 windows and a place for three beds. There was a round table in the middle and and mother’s chest of drawers and father’s chiffonier. There was a buffet where they kept the fine coffee cups for safe keeping. Then there was a highly colored rug on the floor which mother had woven. There was a room upstairs for the oldest boys. There they could do as they wanted to do so it was not always so well in order. The barn was very warm. There was a place for fifteen farm creatures and a couple of pens for calves and sheep. Then there was a room for draft animals, there was place for 3 horses and a pair of oxen. Then there was a little shed, there we had a little thresh machine that was powered by a large cogwheel that drove around with two pair of horses, it was tiring work. We boys had to go around for a half hour and then we had a little rest, as they made order in the loft, and then we had to drive again.

We also had a little house which they called the Old People’s Home. There the old lived when they no longer could work in their garden. There was two small rooms and there was a washroom with a kettle to heat water. There they did there large washings or wash as it was called at the time. 

Valstorp School

In 1895 I begin to go to school. Valstorp School, they called it and the teacher’s name was Olsson, a good and fine man. We went every other day, small school, two classes a day and a large school, four classes next day. I was little and shy, did not want to be away from home but it went real well for me anyway. My brothers had taught me a little before I began school. We started at nine o’clock in the morning and finished around four. We had over a half mile to go and most of it was forest. We were many together so it went right well. In fall when days became shorter, it was dark when we came home in the evening. I well remember that it was the last of November we had exams, that was the worst. Preacher was along and some of our parents were with us. A few days before I had to write a paper. They that did best read their paper first. I remember that mine came long at the bottom and then we were asked several questions by the teacher. I was good at numbers so I got to go up front and to the board and worked a problem. When I had finished my six years in school, I could continue in the winter; that I thought was interesting. There were many children here in the neighborhood. 

My father started a Sunday School. I think it was the last of 1880's. So when were were older, we got to go. I believe children have a great need of Sunday School. What a man learns as a child, he will not forget. I went and read for the preacher Nystrom, a very good and God-fearing man. I was confirmed the 15th of June 1901 in Hällestad church.

The Family

The family bulged with two more children. Hanna was born in 1895 and David in 1901, so we became 9 children, 6 boys and 3 girls. Oscar, my oldest brother, was 21 years old.

I shall now write a little about my dear mother, she was out of this world. We were 13 in the household one time, think what food it took for all of us. Coffee and sugar was all we bought, all other was produced at home. The spinning wheel was going all year. It wove all we needed for clothes. I was 17 years old when I bought my first clothes. It cost 30 kroner. We wove all linens for sheets and hand towels. They bought thread for warp and yarn to weave, they they sewed afterwards. We had a little ground with flax every summer and all the fine rugs the wove. I remember mother was very neat and wanted to have it as fine as possible. How she could manage with all, I do not understand. She was glad and good to us children, sometimes were were not so helpful.

There was a man who lived in a little place called Tallabo. They called him tailor Adel. He went around the country and sewed clothes. He was with us sometimes. I remember so well when he came. He had a heavy press iron in one hand and a case with other things in the other. He was a very good and kind man. We boys thought it was so great when he was with us as we got new clothes. In the evening he talked of history - most was about ghosts so it was a little spooky when we went upstairs in the dark to sleep. He knew about clocks. We had an old clock he oiled and nursed so it ran well until the next time he came and sewed for us. Sometimes we butchered and old cow, he got some of it for pay. There was a shoemaker, his name was Johannes Shoemaker. He had a son named Gustav that came with him to help. It took many days before we all had our own pair of shoes. I remember when I got my first boots. I thought I was a real man. There was an old man that we called Augusti Brinka. He was both a carpenter and blacksmith. He was with us and repaired old wagons and sleds. I was with him sometimes when he blacksmithed. At that time they hired a blacksmith that sharpened their plowshares and did a little blacksmith themselves. We could start to help with the work at our place as soon as we were able, days when we were home from school. Sometimes we had a contract, it was to do just as much in one day. If it was not the time in the summer to pick berries, we went to the lake and met swimmers, it was fun we had. I became a good swimmer, we taught ourselves, we made reed rafts to float on to begin with.

Grandparents

I shall now write a little about my father and mother’s parents. Grandpa lived in a little cottage not far from us. It was only two rooms. It was one room for them, the other for visitors. My father was an only child. They were born sometime around 1820. Grandfather had been a building carpenter or woodsman, as they were called. He became sick in his old age so he had to walk with two canes, but anyway, he went to the forest and chopped wood. Grandmother was a little spry and busy lady. She could spin wool and flax, knit stockings and mittens. Sometimes when there weren’t any teachers, she had to teach children to read round the neighborhood. Grandfather would carve ladles and wooden skis in winter when he couldn’t be outside.

Grandfather died first [1895] and Grandma lived with us until she died [1901]. Mother’s mother I do not remember, but Grandpa lived in a cottage near us and we went and visited him. 

I remember one Sunday when father and I and my brother Emil went there. Grandpa was reading Sunday’s sermon aloud, in a large book, but he kept on preaching until he was through before he greeted us. The old were loyal to their church worship. At home in our neighborhood were held meetings. We had to bring in several boards to sit on, for many people came. There were representatives from other neighborhoods that would preach. The first I remember, his name was Hurtig, and then there was Norman and Lundkvist, he played guitar, and then there was the large Johnson I. Hult. The stayed overnight and then I had to take then to the next place where they preached.

The summer when I was 19 years old, I worked on a farm in the summer. Wages were 1 kroner 50 ore per day. My older brother Oscar got married in 1904 to the daughter of one of the farmers, her name was Hilda.  They had two sons, Sven and Hilding. 

To be continued ...