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 ...