The Emigrants who left in the 1880’s

There was a thirteen year period when no one left Överhogdal for America. That changed in 1882, and as mentioned, many who left in this decade were devout people who, for at least one of their reasons for leaving, wanted more religious freedom. They were members of the Swedish Mission Covenant church in Överhogdal. The majority that I am aware of who were part of the Mission church settled near Cooperstown, North Dakota, but two families headed to Nebraska and settled near the Tallin family in Custer County.

Emigrants to Nebraska: Olof Olsson and Brita Jönsdotter
(much of the information for this story comes from information posted on Ancestry by M Eble. Her grandmother Helen Widholm Harper was the author of many of the quotes ).

Olof Olsson (Ohlson) was born in 1852 and was a boyhood friend of Jöns Persson, who became John Tallin, so when Olof decided to emigrate it is hardly surprising he chose to move where the Tallins settled, in Nebraska. Olof was the son of a crofter and part of a very devout family. They would walk seven miles to attend church services.  From family information,  he had learned to be both a tailor and a shoemaker. Perhaps these were his father’s trades.  Brita was born in 1855 at Gumjens and was a first cousin of Pehr Ringwall. Her father was Jöns Wall, brother of Pehr’s father Erik Svensson. Jöns was a retired mountain soldier who kept patrol in the woods around the community for some years. He may have been involved in logging after this time (from family info). When Brita was less than one years old, he died. Family lore says he died in a logging accident, but the church records say he died from a throat infection.  I don’t know where in Överhogdal Brita and her mother lived; her mother grew up at the Ol-Lars farm, so they may have had a home on this property.

Olof and Brita married in 1877 and for a few years Olof was a farmer at #4 Nyåkern, but it looks like he gave that up with the plan to emigrate. In 1882 they had heard about the wonderful opportunities available in America, where they could homestead their own land.  They left in 1883 with their three young children. There is an excerpt from a local history book called ”Settling the Seven Valleys” where a lot of interesting information is found. Here are some excerpts from one of these articles.

”Olof and Brita crossed the Atlantic by boat. She became very seasick. They, with their three children arrived in New York in August and traveled by train to Chicago and then to Omaha.” Their friends the John Tallin family had a homestead North of Gothenburg. They (the Tallins) were spending the winter in Oakland, Nebraska. And the Olsson’s joined them there. ”Olof opened a tailoring business in Oakland and also filed for a homestead claim near the Tallin’s claim (Tallin Table). The following Spring he brought his family to Gothenburg where they lived while he began to ’prove’ his claim by making a dugout house with a lean-to. The Ohlson’s were the third family  to settle here.”

”Pioneer life was hard. The rolling hills had tall grass but no trees. Water was brought from the South Loup river several miles to the North of them. The blue stem grass was wound tightly for fuel for the fireplace. Later corn stalks were used.”

As more families settled, Olof, John Tallin and a man named Mr Lundeen felt the need to establish a place of worship. They were the main organizers behind the church which opened in 1892. The Ohlson family often hosted visiting ministers and missionaries in their small home.

”In 1893 they sold the proved land on Tallin table and moved into the nearby Elim Valley area. Here they were able to dig a well which supplied their own needs as well as some of their neighbours; a huge step forward. They built a frame house here and a barn”.

Brita and Olof had twelve children. Two died in childhood. Olof used  his skills as tailor and shoemaker to meet most of his family’s needs. He also learned how to be a blacksmith, and in time blacksmithing became his main occupation.  He added a general store which sold groceries, yard goods, clothing, harnesses and sewing machines! His daughter Selma was his main assistant in the store. He taught her to sew and gave her a sewing machine when she turned 18.

Olof  was obviously a versatile man with many skills. He was good with animals and raised horses and some cattle. He developed some basic veterinary skills which others also benefitted from.  In particular, he treated a lot of wire cuts which horses seemed to frequently suffer. He did not like farming and his sons took over that responsibility.

Olof developed a cold which led to a mastoid infection, which killed him in 1908. This was quite a blow for the large family. The oldest son John took on the main responsibilities.  Brita too had serious health issues. She had developed Rheumatoid Arthritis which was crippling her. She could do less and less of the household work and her daughters took over one after the other. For her final 15 years, she was bedridden or in a chair. Despite this, she was apparently very kind and bore her disabilities with grace. Brita died in 1930.

Christina (b. 1878) married Edward Peterson in 1902 and they farmed in Custer county, Nebraska. They had seven children; one died young. Their son Raymond took over farming as they got older. Edward died in 1951 and Christina in 1958. Olof Junior (b. 1879) and some of his younger brothers took over the farming. Olof never married and died in 1934. Martha (b.1882) married Frank Cole in 1900 when she was 17 and Frank 21, and they had 12 children (one died young). They also farmed in Custer county. Martha was not well in her later years and died in 1928 aged 45. Frank lived until 1943.

The picture of the Bergman family is the same picture as that claimed by the Lars Erickson family (Early emigrants). The ages of the children fit better with the Erickson family, but the Bergman family on Ancestry has individual pictures of the parents which makes me think the picture is of some of their family! So, I am leaving the picture in both places, and hoping that someone can shed more light on this!

The Erik Olofsson family

Another couple who emigrated just a year later and ended up in Custer County Nebraska were Erik and Anna. Erik was born in 1856 and was the son of Olof Ersson from farm #10 Ola-Gåln  (not the same Olof Ersson as Olof Ohlson’s father) Anna Pettersdotter was born in Rätan in 1862, but her father was born in Överhogdal. She worked in Överhogdal for several years before marriage. They married just before emigrating in 1884. They headed to Custer county and settled in Elim Valley. They took the surname Olofson.  Erik farmed, and they had seven children. Several of their children continued to farm in the area and it appears the youngest son Lewis may have stayed on the original farm. Anna died in 1929, and Erik lived with two sons, Emmanuel and Lewis who both worked the farm.  Lewis eventually married. Erik died in 1943 in Custer country and was buried there. Erik and Anna’s son John Elof (1893-1977) married Brita and Olof Ohlson’s daughter Ethel (1901-1984) so the Överhogdal connection continued into another generation! They farmed in Elim township as well and had two children.

Maren Olsdatter Karterud, Erik Eriksen Bergman

This family never lived in Överhogdal and I do not know if they were part of the Mission Covenant church. Their names were included in one of the Emigrant projects Per Göran referred to. When I looked further, I discovered there are several links to Överhogdal so I am including the information I discovered.

Erik and Maren were from Vinger, Hedmark, Norway where they married in 1862 and had their oldest two daughters, Karin and Elisa. They moved around a bit, probably following work. Their next daughter Mathilde was born in Haverö, and the next, Anna, in Ytterhogdal, but on her birth record it mentioned her parents were from Vinger, so they did not seem settled in Ytterhogdal at that time.

By 1872 they lived in Ytterhogdal. On their son Olof’s birth record, Erik was listed as a crofter living in Norraskogan. By 1874 he was a farmer in Kettilberg (which may be in Norra skogen?). By 1883 they had nine children born over 19 years. This is the year they decided to emigrate. When they left Sweden, their older four daughters were between 15 and 21 and they all stayed in Sweden. Karin the oldest, had married and lived in Haverö. Elisa eventually married Anders Andersson from Viken, Ytterhogdal and had a large family.  From the emigration records, Anna emigrated to the USA in 1886 but I did not find her  after that. Ancestry family note she died around that time. Mathilde moved to Överhogdal. The younger five who emigrated were Olof (b. 1872), Erik (b. 1874), Maria (b. 1876), Carl Axel (b. 1879) and Bertha (b. 1881) and the family settled in Webster county, Nebraska. They had two more children born in Nebraska, although the youngest died as an infant. They took the surname Bergman in America.

Father Erik Bergman died in 1901. Maren lived until 1908 and from pictures on Ancestry took a trip back to Sweden to see her Swedish daughters, probably after his death. Their American children all married and several farmed in Nebraska. An interesting finding was that their daughter Mary married Oscar Mattison, and Berta Jansson who also emigrated from Överhogdal married his younger brother Willie. The Mattison parents (John and Lena) were from Norway and farmed in the Catherton area.

Mathilda, the daughter who moved to Överhogdal when her family emigrated was 18 at that time. She worked as a maid for several years, then in 1887 she married Olof Pålsson, farmer at #8. He was 18 years older than her. They had a son and four daughters. One of their daughters was Jenny Katarina Pålsson born in 1900, who emigrated in 1920. Jenny did not stay in the US. She had returned by 1924 when she married Erland Fredrik Lindhammer in Östersund. They had one son. Jenny died in Östersund when she was only 39. 

The Jansson sisters

Jan Jansson and Brita Maria Andersdotter were both from Värmland but lived in Ytterhogdal in the early years of their marriage. They moved to Överhogdal in 1882 where the youngest three of their seven children were born. Jan was a labourer.  Daughter Hanna, born in 1884 emigrated in in 1904 and her sister Berta, born in  1887 followed two years later. I am guessing Hanna may have lived in Franklin county, Nebraska in 1906 as that was Berta’s destination. However, this is also close to  where the Bergman family lived; she may have moved here because there was a connection to this family. (Franklin and Webster counties adjoin)

Berta as mentioned, married Willie Mattison in 1909. He was a farmer and they lived in Catherton precinct, Webster, Nebraska. They had two sons and a daughter. By 1950 one of the sons farmed with his parents. Willie died in 1966 and Bertha in 1980 in Campbell, Nebraska.

Hanna married John Everett Foreman in Wray, Yuma Colorado in 1912.  John was born in Missouri. In 1918 on the draft papers he was a thresherman. By 1921 he had a farm in Vernon precinct, Yuma Colorado. The couple had three children. In 1930 he was the manager of a threshing company in Vernon. He died in 1938. In the 1940 census the sons, Delmar and Vernon farmed on the home farm and Hanna lived with them. In 1950 she lived in Wray, Colorado. She moved to Tacoma Washington sometime after this where she died in 1960. She is buried in Yuma county, next to her husband.