Jöns PÃ¥lsson [John Paulson] and Anna Katrina Petersdotter Jöns PÃ¥lsson was born 24 March 1851 the second son of the crofter PÃ¥l Bengtsson and Anna Beata Johansdotter in Malalmohus lan, the parish of Burlov, House#7 in the village of SunnanÃ¥. Bulov is a village just north of Malmo, the largest city in SkÃ¥ne, the southernmost province in Sweden. Like so many others in Sweden, Jöns came from a line of crofters, tenant farmers or landless farm laborers. The Bengtsson family moved a great deal during looking for farm work during Jöns youth. because they did not own land of their own. His grandfather, Bengt PÃ¥lsson was a farmer equipping a soldier, his father was a hired farm hand and also a "spielman", a folk fiddler, who traveled in SkÃ¥ne and northern German playing at the harvest festivals. It is evident that he came from a very poor family. Jöns had two brothers, Nils who was two years older than he born in Särslov Parish on 4 May 1849 , and Frans, eleven years younger born 19 Oct. 1862. In 1854 when Jöns was three years old, the family moved back to Svendala Parish, just southwest of Malmo, very near to the birthplace of his older brother Nils. They stayed on the farm " O Svenstorp #2" where his father worked as a hired hand. It was here at Svendala that Jöns spent his early years from age three until age fourteen. Life was very hard for the landless laborers in SkÃ¥ne ,Sweden, but Jöns father PÃ¥l always had time to play his fiddle and teach his son to play. Jöns also learned to speak German from his father who was know to play for the harvesst festivals in northern Germany. While at Svendala two daughters were born to the Bengsston family , both named Bengta and both died in infancy. In 1864 Nils, at the age of 15, hired out as a farm hand at Djavulstorp. In 1865, when Jöns was fourteen, the family moved again because there were severe crop failures, famine, and starvation in Sweden. This time they had to travel a great distance, over 70 kilometers, to find work. They lived on the farm Gunnarp in the parish of Tjörnarp in Kristianstans lan about 10 kilometers southwest of Hasslehom. Jön's father again worked as a hired hand and Nils, who was then 15 years old, worked as a male-attendant for the farmer Nils Kruse. In November 1866 Nils left the family to seek work in Sant Olof Parish but returned just five months later. While at Gunnarp a foster daughter lived with the Bengsston family. Her name was Hilma Charlotta Nyholm. Hilma was born in Stockholm on 15 April 1851. She was the exact saame age as Jöns. On the 28th of October 1867 the family was on the move again, Nils having had returned home just three days earlier. This time they moved to Hamneda Parish in Sunnerbo County, Kronobergs lan in the province of SmÃ¥land. PÃ¥l was 45 years old , Anna Beata was 44, Nils 18, Jöns 16, and Frans was 5 years old. Their foster daughter Hilma returned to Stockholm. This again was a long trip of over 70 kilometers. They settled in the farm village of Bäckaryd. While living at Bäckaryd Jöns met Anna Katrina Petersdotter who was born 13 Sept. 1839 near the city of KÃ¥nna just north of Bäckaryd. Anna was living in Backstugan, Lunnarp in the parish of Hamneda with her father, PePeter Jonasson, her mother, Greta born Stensdotter, and her older brother and sister, John Peter born 4 Sept. 1832 and Stina Kajsa born 26 Oct. 1834. Her sister Stina Kajsa married Gustav J. Lundgren and had a son Gustav Fredrick born 7 Feb. 1862 .In 1889 mother and son emigrated to America to avoid conscription in the Swedish Army. He settled in St. Paul and later moved to Duluth but maintained close ties to the Paulson family. Stina Kajsa died 4 Aug. 1906. Gustav Fredrick died 30 Jan. 1934. On 20 November Jöns left Sweden and traveled to northern Germany to find work much like his father had done before him. It is not know exactly where in Germany Jöns went or if he had any contacts in Germany before he left Sweden. On 2 April 1871 Anna Katrina gave birth to a son by Jöns, who was named Bengt Theodore. Jöns and Katrina were betrothed but were not able to be married because there was little work for Jöns because of the recent devastating crop failures and the grave economic conditions in general. Anna Katrina was 13 years older that Jöns; she was 33, he was only 20. In Sweden of the 1800's, there was little or no social or religious stigma attached to a child being born out of wedlock if the parents had the intention of getting married. Social stigma was attached only when a father was not able to adequately provide for his family therefore, many children remained with or near the mother's family until the the fatheer was able to earn enough money to establish a suitable home for his family. Anna Katrina lived alone with her little son on the farm where she was working. On 13 Sept. 1873 Jöns returned to Hemneda parish from Lund to be reunited with Anna Katrina and to see his son Theodore for the first time. The family moved to Djurhult in Ljuder parish on 20 November 1874. This was a distance of about 50 kilometers due east from KÃ¥nna. Shortly after, on 31st of December of 1974 Jöns found working for the railroad. He was employed as a guard on the the CWJ Railroad, the Carlscrona-Wexiö Jernväg. The family lived in railway-guardhouse #28 an later moved to house #24. Jöns and Anna Katrina were married at Ljuder on 27 March 1875. On 6 May of the same year, Jöns' father, Paul Bengtsson died at the age of 53 leaving Anna Beata a widow, and Later that same year a daughter, Jennie Mathilda, was born on 5 October 1875. Another daughter, Frida Charlolotta was born two years later on 1 March 1877. In the summer of 1878 Jöns was promoted to "Banmeister" or section-foreman, and on 13 August 1878 Jöns and his family moved a short distance northeast to Lessebo in Hovmanstorp parish, and moved into railway-guardhouse #29 where a son, Paul,was born 13 October 1878 and died a few months later . Jöns found work as "Banmeister" a railroad master. Later the family moved in a lineman's cottage #25 near Lessabo, along the railroad track between Växjö and Karskrona near the glass works in Kosta. On 19 Sept. 1880 Alma Emelia was born . On 7 April 1881 Nils, Jöns' brother and a stone mason by trade, and his wife Anna left Sweden for Minnesota. In the year 1885 a son Emil was born to Nils and Anna. It is said that Nils claimed a homestead in "the Dakotas". This is partially sustained by a buffalo horns and riding chaps that were found in his possession after he died. At any rate, he returned to St. Paul and on 8 October 1888 he built a home at 483 Brainard on the "East Side" of St. Paul, Minnesota. It is interesting to note that the same year that Nils left for the "New World", 1881, Jöns purchased a small farm at Vida Ngd. which he rents out to tenants and which he sells at a good profit seven years later, the first of many business ventures yet to come of Jöns Paulson. After 10 years in Lessabo, on October 20, 1888, Jöns quit working for the railroad, sold his rental property, the family moved back to Ljuder, to SödergÃ¥rd in the town of Skruv, and Jöns purchased a business place named "Bäkaholm". In the records of Ljuder parish, Jöns is listed just as a "dealer" so it is not possible to determine what kind of business he is in. The business is located right on the railway. It is probably a food store of some kind. In the Spring of 1889 son Theodore the family for America. He arrives at the port of New York in April and travels directly to St. Paul to join his uncle Nels. Theodore got a job as a gardener at L.G. Venzhe at Snelling and Hague. On 6 Jully 1889 Jöns sold Bäckaholm to Theodor Grandlund for 4,500 swedcrowns and took out a "work permit" on 18 July . This permit would allow Jöns to leave Ljuder parish to seek work in another part of Sweden. Instead, shortly thereafter Jöns, too, left Sweden to join Nils and Theodore in the "New World" while Anna Katrina and the girls remained behind. Both Theodore and Jöns left Ljuder parish without the proper permission. Nowhere in the church records does it state that they left the parish in 1889. In fact, the record indicates that Theodore left in 1891 and Jöns in 1993. The U.S. naturalization papers and census records , however, indicate that they came to America in 1889 already. It is most likely that Nils had written his brother Jöns telling him of the employment opportunities available on the Great Northern Railroad which was being constructed between Duluth, Minnesota and the West Coast by James J.Hill the "Empire Builder&rdquuo;. Upon his arrival in Minnesota, Jöns went to work as a surveyor on the Great Northern Railroad in North Dakota. Jöns, like his father before him, was a fiddler. It is said that he had a very fine violin that he brought with him frorom Sweden. After a long days work on the Dakota prairie, he spent many lonely nights playing the violin and thinking of the family that he had left back in Sweden. On a sketch pad he wrote down some of the familiar fiddle tunes he remembered annd sketched pictures of his beloved wife, Anna Katrina. On some of the pages are he also noted the date and place such as "Delta Station N. Dakota Oct. 1889" His music and sketch pad are in the possession of the author. In 1893 the Great Northern Railroad was completed to Puget Sound Washington. As part of his wages, Jöns was given title to some land in the state of Washington but was unable to retain this land because he decided to return to Minnesota. Upon his return he immediatately sent money to Sweden to pay for the passage for his mother, his wife and three daughters whom he had not seen for nearly five years. The family left Sweden on 23 July 1893. Anna Beata Bengtsson was already 70 years old, Anna Katrina was 54, and the girls Jennie, Frida and Alma were 18, 16 and 13 years old. After a voyage of about eight and two or three days travel by rail from New York to St. Paul, the family was finally reunited in Sept. 1893. The Paulson family moved into the uupstairs of brother Nels new house at 483 Brainard. Nels was working as a stone mason at the time. The family was saddened shortly after arrival by the death of Anna Beata Bengtsson, on 4 Sept 1893. She live just a short six weeks in America. The long voyage must have been just too strenuous for such an elderly person. John is listed in the 1895 Minnesota State census as living at 483 Brainard and lists his profession as a "laborer" but does not show up in the St. Paul City directory until 1896 when he is listed as surveyor so it is not known exactly what John did for a living the first few years the family lived in St. Paul Like all young "Swedish” girls, the Paulson girls got jobs as domestics; Freda at 478 and and Je Jennie at 456 Ashland Ave in the fashionable Summit Ave area of St. Paul. Theodore worked at Como Park as a gardener in 1897 but in 1898 he found work at L.L. May Florist, a firm for which he worked for many years. On 12 June 1898 Freda, age 211, w was married to John Peter Olson ”Hägg” of Isanti County by O.P. Peterson at the First Baptist Church on Payne Avenue. Theodore and Alma were the Forlovere. The newlyweds made there home on North Lyndale Avenue in Minneapolis and later to a farm near Stacy in Chisago County. By 1898 Nels and his family had moved to 1378 E. Minnehaha outside the city limits on a dairy farm of some size with over sixty cows. John and his family continued to live at 483 Brainard and he also got into the dairy business, working as a milkman for the East Side dairy. Jennie was now working as a seamstress at Field-Schlick Department Store in Downtown St. Paul. In 1902 the Paulson family moved, John and Anna Katrina, Theodore, Jennie around the corner and down the street to 1236 Burr Street. Alma was 22 and worked as a domestic at a big mansion at 579 Summit Avenue until 1905 when she became a milliner at A.A. Rystroms. In the Fall of 1905 Freda's husband John Peter didied leaving her with four small children, Martha age 7, Reuben 5, Elsa 3 and little Hugo just a few months old. John Petter had been ill for some time and Alma and Theodore went to Stacy to help Freda. They stayed at Stacy through the winter and in sspring rented out the farm and Freda and her children came to live with the Paulsons at 1236 Burr Street. From then on Freda's children became known as the "Paulson kids". In 1908 John Paulson, at the age of 59, started a creamery and dairy storre of his own at 1101 Payne Ave. called the Milk Depot. Alma worked as a clerk and bookkeeper and all Freda's children worked at the dairy store washing bottles, making butter, delivering milk, and doing other odd jobs. One story comes down to uus about John Paulson from his grand children. Grandpa Paulson would come down to the basement of the store while the kids were washing bottles and sneak behind the furnace, where he had hidden a bottle of "schnapps", and take a little "schnort"t". He would swear the kids to secrecy because he didn't want Alma, a strict Swedish Baptist, to find out and give him hell for taking a drink. On 26 April 1911 Jennie, at the age of 36, married Carl Carlson and moved to a homestead in Osage near Moosejaw, Saskatchewan. Life was very difficult for on the plains of Canada. At first they lived in a sod hut but as time went by they were able to move into a frame farmhome but still a very isolated existence. Between 1916 and 1920 MarMartha, Reuben, and Elsie all married. John Paulson had built a new home, designed by Ken Johnson, Elsie husband, directly behind 1236 Burr St. at 1229 Bradley. He did much of the work himself even though he was nearly 70 years old. He also buillt a duplex next door which he rented out. John sold the 1236 Burr St. home to his grandson Reuben and Theodore and his wife moved upstairs. John moved to 1229 Bradley with Anna Katrina, Alma, and Hugo. A special room was built for Hugo upstairsrs. This arrangement did not workout and Hugo went to live with Martha and her husband Richard Gustavson and grandma Freda on a dairy farm on White Bear Ave near North St. Paul. Freda continued to live with her daughter's family until she retired to a nursing home in Hudson Wisconsin, where she died in 1966, at the age of 89. Hugo was working at J.H Allen & Co. , a wholesale grocer, as a packing clerk at the time. He also went to school at Rassmusson Business College to be a bankerer, but his brother-in law, Ken, soon encouraged him to go into being a electrician. Sometime between 1920 and 1922, Jennie's husband died in Canada of food poisoning. It was said that he died in the winter and that Jennie kept the body frozen iin the snow until the Spring thaw when he could be buried. At any rate, Jennie returned to St. Paul and also lived at 1229 Bradley for a time but soon found work as a domestic in the Dayton's Bluff neighborhood. After Anna Katrina died at the agge of 84 on 9 February 1924, having suffering from cancer for over two years, the family moved to a new bungalow that John just had completed at 1117 Lane Place near Lake Phalen. He also had a duplex built next to this home. Theodore and his wife Jennie lived at this address. John had a stroke while shoveling snow on 12 April 1929 at the age of 78. After the old patriarch passed away, the homes on Lane Place were sold, Jennie and Alma moved back to 1229 Bradley and lived in the upstairrs apartment . ThTheodore and his wife Jennie rented an apartment on Grand Avenue where he continued to work as a florist. He died in 1954. Jennie and Alma continued to live in at 1229 Bradley doing housework and sewing to supplement there income for more than 30 years. They both were very religious people, always reading their bibles and quoting scripture. They always were listening to the radio and knew the latest news. When visiting them it was always necessary to have a cup of coffee and cookies. JJennie, particularly, was an excellent cook. She made the best Swedish pancakes, potato pancakes, and Swedish rye bread. About 1965 they both retired to the Grandview Nursing Home in Cambridge, Minnesota where Jennie died in 1969 at the age of 93 and Alma survived to the age of 97 when she died in 1979.} |
1851 - 1929 (78 år)
