Our Lost Swedish Stories

Vilhelm Moberg¹ and Astrid Lindgren² are the two most influential authors who have shaped our conception of Swedishness.  As Swedish Americans, each of our families has a collection of experiences from Sweden, the migration, and our America that is unique.  But, after a generation or three, we commonly retain few stories to pass along – mostly those with positive endings.  These authors' works coincide well with our heritage and their stories supplement what we have not learned about the old country through our family narratives.

Moberg's trilogy was based partially on his study of the diary of Andrew Peterson,³ a Minnesota farmer who was from Sjöarp in Västra Ryd parish, Östergötland.  That parish is on the border with Jönköping, west of Vimmerby (about 60 km) and northeast of Eksjö (25 km) and in the same area as the origin of the majority of our early settlers in the Jamestown area.  

Lindgren's stories often reference her native Vimmerby and the surrounding parishes.  Her references are to a period decades later than the 1870s when our settlers left.  But we tend to attach her character's Smålander ways to those of our own ancestors.  We envision a benign Sweden that was home to our predecessors.

That is changing. We have begun to recount some of our difficult stories. Swede Hollow, the 2016 novel about one of Minnesota's Swedish ghettos written by Ola Larsmo, has been an important addition to our lore.⁴

"The Poor of Jamestown" 1870

Our Rough Beginning

Most of us don't understand the dire situation of so many Swedes in the 1870s.  Poor and fleeing famine, they arrived with almost nothing in Jamestown. The 1875 New York State Census identifies the shacks and log buildings of our shanties on Swede Hill (Column 2  lists the type of dwelling and Column 3 the value of the building). The conditions were so bad and the need so great that the Home Relief Society put on benefit events to raise money.⁵ It can be instructive to remember our past as we consider the situation of the homeless today in Jamestown.

Our Unexamined Losses

Norman P. Carlson and I gave a lecture on the Swedish Origins of the Fenton Guard at this summer's Scandinavian Folk Festival.  One of the enlisted in this National Guard unit was Gustaf A. Anderson⁶ who had killed himself in 1905 by drinking carbolic acid at the Star Furniture Factory where he worked. His obituaries blamed alcoholism, although a complicated home life is suggested by his wife's absence from their household in the 1892 New York State Census.

Anderson was the latest in a long line of Scandinavians in the Jamestown area who I have researched who took their own lives.  I have not collected statistics on suicides in my database and I have not added that information to the files, so I cannot extract the information from my notes.  The number of suicides is significant – if only for the impact they make.  Corpses hanging from trees in the woods, young men with pistols, old men who cut their throats with kitchen knives in the woodshed,  drunk Swedes who walked in front of trains…  We are perhaps becoming more compassionate about these stories as we deal with the same problem in our times.  Generally, we do not hand down these stories in our families and often we are unaware of the circumstances of our previous generations when we refer to the "Good Old Days."  

Often behind the stories of Moberg and Lindgren there is a keen social criticism.  That message is probably lost to visitors of the Astrid Lindgren's World amusement park in Vimmerby. The importance of recalling the bad along with the good can help us learn more from our history, from our stories.

References

Unga Astrid blog, February 2021. This discusses Lindgrens links to the Vimmerby area.

"Swedish Origins" page discusses the geographic origins of the early Swedes in Jamestown.

Endnotes

1. Vilhelm Moberg (1898-1973).  Wikipedia article.
2. Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002). Wikipedia article; Astrid Lindgren Company website.
3. Andrew Peterson (1818-1898).  The Andrew Peterson farm is being restored by the Carver County Historical Society.  Their website has a great deal of information about Peterson.
4. Ola Larsmo. Translation by Tiina Nunnally. Swede Hollow, Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2019.
5. The Home Relief Society article appeared as "The Poor of Jamestown," Jamestown Journal, 14 January 1870, p 8. Digital access: https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=jj18700114-01.1.8
   
   The poor of Jamestown – who they are and how they live – and the Ladies' Home Relief Society

   
   

   To a person who has always been accustomed to the comforts of life, a walk through the poorer districts of this town would seem like a page of some romance. Few people know of the many toils and hardships that a poor man or woman has to go through to get the necessaries of life, to get bread enough to keep soul and body together, and many care less; and no one can form an adequate idea of the want and misery existing in this town until he goes where it is and sees it for himself. We often read harrowing tales of the sufferings of destitute people in large cities, and immediately exclaim, "Thank God there are none such here." 

   
   

   But there is. We this morning went out with one of the agents of the Home Relief Society, who had some clothing and bedding to distribute, and saw a little of this misery, and, in order to show it to the people in a true light, we will take you on a little tour of observation, if you please, going to the locality known as "Swede Hill."

   
   

   First we will enter this old, dilapidated house. On a rickety bedstead in the corner, lies a man, sick. That man has been lying there for seven long months, not able to do a thing. Once he tried to get out and do something, because the doctor said he was lazy, but he could not work. In the room are his wife and seven children. The two oldest, boys aged 12 and 14 years, are "darning" some old stockings, preparatory to starting for the woods, where they chop wood every day. The money that these boys earn, and the charity that has been shown them, is all that this family has had to keep cold and hunger from their door. The man is saying something to our interpreter, for these people are Swedes and cannot speak a word of English. He says  "I have not seen the sun go down for many months but that I have prayed to God never to see it rise again for I am a burden to my family." Some pieces of bread are lying on the bed, which is to serve for their dinner, and where they are to get their supper God only knows. But let us go out into the fresh air, for it is impossible to stay here longer. 

   
   

   Here comes a woman up the street. One night this week she and her two children went to bed without having had a morsel of food the entire day, and the following morning she sent them to school, so that they could keep warm, while she went out to beg a few crumbs. At about 11 o'clock she came to the school house, and calling her two children to the door, gave them some pieces of cold johnnycake to appease their hunger. Where or how they have lived since then we do not know. 

   
   

   Let us go into this house, the one on the right, for you think it cannot be as bad as the other. This family came into this hovel, for on inspection you cannot call it a house, last week. The furniture consists of a table, three stools, a box, an old stove, a sort of a cupboard, and a rack or bedstead. The only occupants are a woman and six children, the husband and father having gone out in search of employment. He worked for nearly three months on the Erie Railway, near New York, and never received, a cent of wages, and not knowing a word of English, can he be convinced, that should he obtain employment now, he would receive an equivalent therefor? Do you see that box of straw and peices [sic] of old carpeting just the other side of the stove? That is where the children huddle together nights. Some straw and pieces of old carpeting are thrown upon the boards or slats of the rack and there you have a bed for the man and woman. These people have a little bread that was left over from yesterday's begging, but the woman has not eaten a thing to-day. As we explain to the woman that we have some bedding for her and show her how to use it, the tears stream from her eyes, and grasping our hand she breathes a prayer to heaven for us for helping her in her great need. You have gone far enough? Then we will leave them for to-day.

   
   

   Now these are no fancy sketches, but pictures from real life, and these and similar instances can be seen at any time one will take the trouble to look for them. 

   
   

   The Ladies of the Home Relief Society have done much towards alleviating the sufferings of the poor people of this town this winter, but now that the extreme cold weather is upon us, they are unable to meet all the demands made upon them, having expended all their funds, and incurred a large debt besides, for provisions, clothing, etc., and something must be done to replenish their treasury immediately. These noble ladies have gone upon the streets of this town and begged so many times that they are ashamed to ask people for money.

   
   

   Under these circumstances, it has been deemed advisable by them to issue the tickets for their "Benefit," which is to be given them by the "Amateur Dramatic Association" at Jones' Hall, Jan.,19th, and ask you to buy them. These tickets can be obtained of GEO. COMSTOCK, Post Office News Room, C E. WEEKS, M. W. SAWDEY, and HARRIS & ALDRICH. Price 50 cents each. No free list. 

   
   

   Now, people of Jamestown, are you willing to take hold of this matter? If these self-sacrificing ladies do all the work, and the members of the Dramatic Association give their time to the bringing out of the program, you ought to be willing to furnish the "stamps." If you are not satisfied with the price of the tickets there is no valid objection to your paying five or ten dollars for one, or more if you wish to. Remember the object, and what you do, do quickly. 
   
   
6. Gustaf Alexander Anderson (1857-1905). See his FamilySearch entry for additional information. Carbolic acid was inexpensive, lethal, and one of the more common suicide poisons.