Post by Ozarks Tom on Dec 16, 2020 3:22:23 GMT
I've mentioned several times my paternal grandparents, I thought I might expand a bit on what I've learned about them over the years. Mainly what I've learned was just bits and pieces, our family has never been big on talking to each other, but putting those bits and pieces together has given me this picture.
Augustus was 17 years old, while Hulda was just 15 when they married in 1895, both born of basically peasant stock, with the amount of education you'd expect for both given their circumstances and their society's expectations for them in life. In other words, just enough to be somewhat literate and basic in math. Most likely if IQ tests were given then they'd have scored very well.
Well, they married as expected. After all, they were neighbors and almost nobody knew anyone in surrounding towns well enough for that to happen otherwise. But, due to their intelligence and literacy they were interested in reading newspapers and whatever flyers were in distribution. One day Augustus saw an advertisement from a United States government agency, based in someplace called North Dakota. It said, unbelievably, that anyone who would come to the United States and North Dakota would be given without cost 40 acres of fertile land if they improved it and lived there a minimum of five years.
That was an astounding offer to anyone living in basically a feudal society. Forty acres was nearly as much as very wealthy people in Sweden owned, and where Augustus could see living and dying in what amounted to a chattel mortgage on his life.
It must have been a very exciting thought, that much land, no cost, and all it would take was the same effort he was already spending on someones else's property. But how to do it?
Both their families wanted the best future for the young couple, and knew although they'd never live that dream, they'd give them all the help they could. After pooling every krona the families could, converting it to dollars, they had enough for the voyage and expenses to North Dakota, plus enough to sustain the two until they had income.
The ship from Stockholm to New York was packed in the below deck accommodations, full of fellow emigrants, but all with the same dream, improving their lives and those of their children to come. A long train trip to Minneapolis, then coach and wagon to North Dakota. With the help of fellow Swedes, and the region was full of them, they found their way to where the registration for land took place, and he signed his name.
With the aid of a local, they arrived at their new home to find, covered in switchgrass, nearly as tall as Augustus who stood a little over six feet tall. Not a tree in sight, and flat as a pan bottom. It must have looked both like a dream come true, and a challenge nearly defeating.
With the help of nearby settlers they marked their corners, schyted a large area, and while Augustus pulled the sod cutter Hulda cut long rows of sod. The sod was cut into manageable sizes, and stacked like bricks to build a one room home, using that same sod to fashion a fireplace and chimney. They traveled miles to garner enough small trees to build the supports for the roof, which was also made of sod.
Their first child, Elizabeth, was born in 1896, and died at two months of age. Their next child, Carl, was born in 1898, December 15th. He was the oldest of nine more to follow, eight of them boys.
Augustus was an entrepreneur at heart, seeing a future that went beyond tilling the soil for an subsistence living. He looked around at his fellow immigrants and saw they all had one thing in common. Nobody had berry plants. Somehow he put nearly all his money into ordering berry plant starts, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and beside their garden to feed themselves started what amounted to a nursery.
I can imagine the work it took carrying water and nurturing those seedlings, then using them to propagate more, until he had acres of berry plants. I'm sure he had another stream of income, probably as a carpenter, but it's never been clear how they both survived and built their dream.
He'd been selling berry starts to all the surrounding area, and when Carl turned 12 years old he quit school to help. Helping in the springtime meant hooking a horse to a wagon and heading out into the prairie with a load of seedlings. Calling on every homestead along the way. He'd eat at first what he'd been given, then as he traveled people fed him and gave him some food for his continued journey. Sleeping in barns mostly, or under the wagon if need be. When his wagon was nearly empty, he'd make a swing around to call on people on his was home. There, he'd load up again and head in a different direction, with the same routine.
It's hard to imagine a 12 year old child with his horse and wagon mostly wandering the plains, especially when people would know on his return he had pockets full of cash. But, those were different days, and probably different people.
He did that for four years, until Augustus got the wanderlust again, and the small family moved to Superior Wisconsin. He started a homebuilding business, and did well as their family grew.
They never became rich by any means, but raised children who were smart, hardworking, honest, and respected their heritage. Several became entrepreneurs themselves scattered all over Wisconsin. They died two years apart, but both at age 83.
Oh, Carl, my father, didn't find out his legal name was Charlie until he joined the army for WWI, and had to find his birth certificate. Apparently, and nobody knows why, the clerk who filled it out recorded him as Charlie Oscar. He went by Charlie the rest of his life, which ended when he too was 83.
Hulda and Augustus
Considering their positions in society, their future was preordained. Marry, have children, work for the landlords their grandfathers had worked for, and die as they were born - peasants in poverty.
Well, they married as expected. After all, they were neighbors and almost nobody knew anyone in surrounding towns well enough for that to happen otherwise. But, due to their intelligence and literacy they were interested in reading newspapers and whatever flyers were in distribution. One day Augustus saw an advertisement from a United States government agency, based in someplace called North Dakota. It said, unbelievably, that anyone who would come to the United States and North Dakota would be given without cost 40 acres of fertile land if they improved it and lived there a minimum of five years.
That was an astounding offer to anyone living in basically a feudal society. Forty acres was nearly as much as very wealthy people in Sweden owned, and where Augustus could see living and dying in what amounted to a chattel mortgage on his life.
It must have been a very exciting thought, that much land, no cost, and all it would take was the same effort he was already spending on someones else's property. But how to do it?
Both their families wanted the best future for the young couple, and knew although they'd never live that dream, they'd give them all the help they could. After pooling every krona the families could, converting it to dollars, they had enough for the voyage and expenses to North Dakota, plus enough to sustain the two until they had income.
The ship from Stockholm to New York was packed in the below deck accommodations, full of fellow emigrants, but all with the same dream, improving their lives and those of their children to come. A long train trip to Minneapolis, then coach and wagon to North Dakota. With the help of fellow Swedes, and the region was full of them, they found their way to where the registration for land took place, and he signed his name.
With the aid of a local, they arrived at their new home to find, covered in switchgrass, nearly as tall as Augustus who stood a little over six feet tall. Not a tree in sight, and flat as a pan bottom. It must have looked both like a dream come true, and a challenge nearly defeating.
With the help of nearby settlers they marked their corners, schyted a large area, and while Augustus pulled the sod cutter Hulda cut long rows of sod. The sod was cut into manageable sizes, and stacked like bricks to build a one room home, using that same sod to fashion a fireplace and chimney. They traveled miles to garner enough small trees to build the supports for the roof, which was also made of sod.
Their first child, Elizabeth, was born in 1896, and died at two months of age. Their next child, Carl, was born in 1898, December 15th. He was the oldest of nine more to follow, eight of them boys.
Augustus was an entrepreneur at heart, seeing a future that went beyond tilling the soil for an subsistence living. He looked around at his fellow immigrants and saw they all had one thing in common. Nobody had berry plants. Somehow he put nearly all his money into ordering berry plant starts, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and beside their garden to feed themselves started what amounted to a nursery.
I can imagine the work it took carrying water and nurturing those seedlings, then using them to propagate more, until he had acres of berry plants. I'm sure he had another stream of income, probably as a carpenter, but it's never been clear how they both survived and built their dream.
He'd been selling berry starts to all the surrounding area, and when Carl turned 12 years old he quit school to help. Helping in the springtime meant hooking a horse to a wagon and heading out into the prairie with a load of seedlings. Calling on every homestead along the way. He'd eat at first what he'd been given, then as he traveled people fed him and gave him some food for his continued journey. Sleeping in barns mostly, or under the wagon if need be. When his wagon was nearly empty, he'd make a swing around to call on people on his was home. There, he'd load up again and head in a different direction, with the same routine.
It's hard to imagine a 12 year old child with his horse and wagon mostly wandering the plains, especially when people would know on his return he had pockets full of cash. But, those were different days, and probably different people.
He did that for four years, until Augustus got the wanderlust again, and the small family moved to Superior Wisconsin. He started a homebuilding business, and did well as their family grew.
They never became rich by any means, but raised children who were smart, hardworking, honest, and respected their heritage. Several became entrepreneurs themselves scattered all over Wisconsin. They died two years apart, but both at age 83.
Oh, Carl, my father, didn't find out his legal name was Charlie until he joined the army for WWI, and had to find his birth certificate. Apparently, and nobody knows why, the clerk who filled it out recorded him as Charlie Oscar. He went by Charlie the rest of his life, which ended when he too was 83.
