14 August 2019

Andrew J. Lannes (1860-1923)

A. J. Lannes. Civic and industrial progress of the Swedish 
 people in Jamestown, 1848-1914Jamestown, NY: Bergwall
Printing Co., 1914
I have been working with the Fenton History Center to make available online a high quality digital edition of Andrew J. Lannes's important history of Swedes in Jamestown written a century ago.  A preliminary edition is now available on Archive.org and will be updated soon with searchable text.

This history by Lannes contains a few known errors, but overall it is an extraordinary description of Jamestown's Swedish culture at the beginning of the twentieth century.  Lannes had the privilege of interviewing some of the earliest Swedes in our area for this project, including Frederick J. Johnson and Johanna Charlotta (Jonsdotter) Peterson, et al.   Furthermore, Lannes served as an enumerator for the 4th Ward in both 1900 and 1910 asking questions about immigration in one of Jamestown's most Swedish neighborhoods. Lannes was the editor of  the Swedish language newspaper Vårt Land from 1897-1902.




Two new biographical details surfaced in reviewing the text for this book.

First, Lannes indicated that he was the nephew of John Lanson [1851.130] of Lottsville.  He remembered (p 45) reading a letter in 1863 from his uncle describing Baptists in Jamestown.  Lannes was also a nephew of Mrs. Andrew (Lena) Lindquist [1857.009].

Second, he indicated his relationship to the unnamed mother of Frank Chapin Bray:

The managing editor for all the Chautauqua publications is Frank Ch. Bray, whose mother's parental name was Bergquist. Being a cousin of the present writer, and born in the parish of Sund, Sweden, she was one of those who came here in the early fifties. Both her parents having died of cholera at sea, the child was kindly taken care of by an American family. Grown to womanhood she married a Methodist minister.
Lannes. Civic and industrial progress of the Swedish people in Jamestown, 1848-1914. 72.


This short description provides the identification of Mrs. James (Minnie C.) Bray.  Her mother was Anna Andersdotter, the older sister of John Lanson, who emigrated with her husband Eric Gustaf Bergquist and their three children from Västra Ryd in 1852.

The manifest for the brig SUPERIOR that arrived on 5 August 1852 in New York City does not indicate that any of the family died on the voyage.  Wilhelmina (Minnie) was adopted by the Methodist minister serving in Randolph and Jamestown in 1852 - Rev. James E. Chapin and his wife Louisa.  Her brother, Axel, is listed in the household of John Lanson in Busti in 1855.  The fate of her older sister, Emma Christina, is unknown.  Their parents likely died from cholera while travelling from New York City to Jamestown (still pre-railroad, so by way of the Hudson, Albany and the Erie Canal).










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