Carlson - US article

Article. Taken from Norrtelje Tidning, 24/2/99. Written by: Ann Sjöblom and Tomas Carneheim. Translated by: Matthew Lynton

The Carlson legacy

Contact over the ocean has become more and more frequent. Otto Carneheim from Länna has together with his family found the route to their relations in the USA.
"We have more relations in the USA than in Sweden. We have names and adresses to over 200, and have now met over 100 of them."

The family history mirrors that of Kristina and Karl Oscar från Duvemåla (a famous book called "The Immigrants" by the swedish writer Wilhelm Moberg.) the poverty of Sweden, the beleif in a better future through hard work in a land of oppotunities, as told in following article by Otto Carneheims son Tomas.
Ottos family visited the States in the summer of 98, but the initial contact was made in the 70`s by Ed Carlson from Kansas. A collage assingment to gather information on his relatives in both the United States and Sweden led to a trip over the Atlantic to the "old homeland". Since then there have been many trips by both sides of the family.
It was Ottos great uncle who was responsible for the familys emigration. Nils Ferdinand Carlson left Östergötland in 1868. Ottos own grandfather stayed in Sweden, but Ottos mother later corresponded with Nelly (NF`s daughter), who in the 40`s had sold a part of her inheritance in the farm to be able to travel to Sweden and Åland. Since contact was reestablished again Otto has travelled 7 times to the States, and the American side of the family has reciperated the visits there to enjoy the arcipelago and the church of Länna from the 13`th century.
In Kansas, the Carlsons still live on the same farm, if not in the original house. Tom Carlson farms 180 beefcattle, and here they have even dug out their own lake, the Carlson lake.
"It is fun swimming in the Carlson lake ", says Otto.
Ann Sjöblom

The Sodhouse on the praire

In 1868 my great great uncle Nils Ferdinand Carlson left Östergötland to find a new livelihood in the USA. He was 23 years old and left a failing farm trying to provide sustinence to a family of 8. In september 1998 my parents and I went on a journey to Kansas in the United States. We wanted to increase our knowledge of our old relatives history and meet some of his great great grandchildren.
The notes on NF in the american parish register are in the beginning quite meagre; 1870 he appears as a carpenter in the Chicago area; a little later he was a lumberjack and it is knewn that he broke a leg under this time that gave him a limp for the rest of his life. 1873 he married Anna Petronella Berndtsdotter, a Swedish immigrant from Veddige, Halland. She had arrived to the USA in 1868 with 2 sisters, one brother and her widowed mother.

The move to Kansas "It was propably the lack of work in the areas around Chicago that made NF, Anna and their two children Amalia and Carl to move to Kansas ", says Ed Carlson, 46, great grand child to NF. He lives in the town Olathe, outside Kansas City, where he has an architects office. It was Ed who was responsible for breaking the silence between the Swedish and American arms of the family. It has led to continous friendship visits across the Atlantic since the 70`s.
In the 1870`s it was cheap for newly sworn in American citizens to buy land off the state. The deeds of the contract demanded that the land was settled and cultivated for at least five years, under continual assesments, by the local government. When this land aprox. 160 acres, including forrestland, was aquired in Kinsley in west Kansas, NF went out on to the praire to build a farmstead. He was joined by two other swedes Adolf Simonson and Fredrik Nyström. Anna stayed in Chicago where her ralatives took care of the children as she worked on a large farm.

The Sodhouse At this time it was hard to obtain wood and timber. The railway network was undeveloped and the buffalos migration over the land for centuries had contributed to a land without trees, the sundried grass extended for miles and miles. NF build a "prairehouse" of sod and clay. It took him less than half a year to complete the five room house, a large house for its time. While buildning it, he lived in a dugout, and there are stories of snakes, badgers, racoons and fieldrats crawling in in the nights. The unreliable weather that can hit Kansas during the winter was another threat; within 24 hours the weather can fluctuate between a warm swedish summerday to a snowstorm! When the blizzards arrived, the only thought was to maintain body temperature , the family bedded down fully dressed and just waited for the weather to change. Sometimes the cattle froze to death in the blizzards that could last up to 5 days! Compared to Simonsons and Nystöms houses, that were built with wood, the Carlsons home was much more resistant against the cold. The sod material also contibuted to keep the house cool in the summertime, 35-40 degress celcius was not a unusual temperature. The floor in the house was of hard packed dirt, covered with straw and handwoven mats. Under many years the main source of heating was sundried buffalo- chips. Fellowship and religion The relationship with Simonsons and Nyströms was very important and an essential condition for the establishment of the farmstead on the praire. The farmsteads were built a few hundred yards apart from each other, and the familys helped each other with harvesting, stockraising, childminding etc. Some years the harvests were destroyed by dry weather, cropfailure or invasions of grasshoppers. They came in swarms and ate the crops in the fields. Anna, who had green fingers developed a specially thorny yellow rose that was resistent to the hoards of grasshoppers. It can still be found today, growing wild around the foundations of the original house. In 1879, the families of Nyström, Simonson and Carlson built a school for the children of the area. They also took part in the organising of the first Swedish Lutheran Church in Garfield, a little settler village near the families farmsteads. In the church the members talked and preached in Swedish untill 1930`s!

Farmer

Julius Carlson took over 1919. The picture is from about 1910.

1899 - a black year Nils Ferdinand and Anna had nine children, one of whom died in infancy. 1899 was a black year for the family. In the space of three weeks two family members died. First Nils Ferdinand, and then their son John. NF who was 54 years old, died of diabetes, while John just 19 years old, died of blood poisoning after an operation. Anna was left with five children under twelwe years old. Together with her eldest sons Charlie 23, and Fred 17, she was forced to run the farm herself. NF had doubled the acerage of the farm and after his death it was very difficult. Grieving aside, they where four hands short. Unexpexted bills and bad investments almost ruined the family. However the farm was not mortgaged and they rode out the storm. In 1919 Anna bought a house in Garfield, and the youngest son, Julius now married and with family took over the farm. The others in the family spread out in the state of Kansas, finding jobs as diversified as a nurse, plummer, blacksmith, dressmaker, music teacher, and inventor! Anna continued to work actively growing flowers and vegitables.

The farmbuildings are torn down Tom Carlson

Today the farm is administrated by Tom, a great grand son of NF. The sod house, and buildings built of wood were torn down many years ago. Tom has lived for the last fifteen years in a mobile home, on the ground were the main buildings once stood. The praire is a desolate land - and nothing exept for a sign that points out the Santa Fe trail - reveals the farmsteads history. Today the hard labour is taken care of by modern farming techniques and Tom alone is caring for the land. On the question if he feels swedish, he laughts and says: that he only contemplated his Swedish roots after the first visit of Otto and Barbro in the early 80`s.

By Tomas Carneheim.

efter juni 03 #