Chapter 1

The Beginning -
Emigrating to the United States

Parents of both our Father, Oskar Truman and our Mother, Hilma Johnson, emigrated to the United States in the early 1880's. This was a time of severe financial and social problems in many European countries. Every little province was overpopulated, and there was very little opportunity or hope of owning enough land to earn a good living. Small farms were being broken up or divided into ever smaller units, making it imperative that some young families had to look elsewhere for a place to earn a living and make their home. Smaland was one area of Sweden where a very large number of residents owned very few acres to live on. This resulted in very large numbers of Swedes emigrating to North America.

We have often wondered why our people left their homeland to come to America. During my visit to Sweden in 1985 I was taken through a museum in downtown Stockholm that has been established to show in photographs and writings the conditions under which the common people were living. The complete story described the whole movement from the time they said goodbye to family and loved ones, traveling to the boats, arrival in America and what they did on arrival. They had a difficult lot, and they worked at what was available. They eventually established themselves in many different occupations. The largest contingent of Swedish people came from Smaland. They later settled in such states as Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and two others which I cannot recall.

Our Grandpa, Adolph and Grandma, Christine Karlsson first settled near Galesburg, Illinois. They had two sons with them who had been born in Sweden. One was our father, Oskar (Papa), who was six years old, and Gustav who was younger. Four more sons were born in Illinois, also a daughter, who died as an infant. She is buried in Keithsburg, Illinois cemetery. Grandpa worked for awhile on the railroad. A member of my family has a gold cased watch that Grandpa carried while a railroad worker. That watch has come down through our families to a fourth generation. Grandpa's name was Karlsson when they came to America. He went to work on a farm for a man named Truman after leaving the railroad. He was there long enough that people spoke of him as being "Truman's man". There were so many Karlssons in the area that he eventually decided to change his name to Truman.

They moved to a small farm about six miles northeast of Keithsburg, Illinois. There were many forty or eighty acre farms at that time. Pope Creek ran through this farm. The creek often was high in the spring, and the Truman boys often told us tales of how they caught fish when the water was high. These had come upstream from the Mississippi River.

In the early years of our grandparent's life on the farm, Grandpa wrote a letter (in Swedish) to Sweden, telling how many cows they had, how many hogs, acres of corn, oats and hay. My son Robert visited Sweden in 1978 and was given a copy of this letter, and also one translated into English.

Our parents were always addressed by us children as Papa and Mama. I will use these names throughout this family history.

Mama's parents, Frank and Louisa Johnson, settled a few miles southwest of Aledo, Illinois, in what was called the Peneil School and Church Community. They are buried in this church cemetery. Mama was born in Sweden, and was a small child when they emigrated to America. In America they became a family of three sons and five daughters. They grew up in the Peneil district, married and settled in the Aledo-Galesburg area.

Mama and our twins, Earl and Pearl, visited with mama's family in 1918. Those of our family who were born in Minnesota never knew our Johnson grandparents, with the exception of Earl and Pearl, Nellie and Johnny, who visited there just before we moved to Canada in 1913. Margaret, the youngest in our family was born in Saskatchewan in 1920.

Our parents married and settled on a farm south of Joy, Illinois, known then as the Grandma Allison farm. This lady gave them two items of furniture, one of which is still in use. They lived there until moving to Minnesota in 1906.

John, Lillian, Charlie and Mabel were born in that order while living in Illinois. Three surviving sisters and myself often wonder what induced our parents to move to Minnesota. That remains an unanswered question. Uncle Gust and Aunt Lizzie with three daughters also moved to Minnesota when our family moved there. Uncle Gust had been working on the railroad in Illinois. Three sons were born to them in Minnesota.

I was born in 1910, 50 what I am writing about Illinois is mostly from hearing our parents, uncles and aunts tell of their living experiences. However, there are events I can recall just from the many letters and photos still in our possession. Uncle Gust and our family lived close together, about thirty miles north of Duluth in heavy timber country. I still have a photo of Papa, Uncle Gust and Charlie, and a team of horses hitched to a load of logs. The picture is seventy-five years old.

The only other names I can connect with the years spent in Minnesota are those of the Agnew Brothers Lumber Company, Frank Trolander ran a store in Alborn, the Fred Mells were neighbors. Papa drove a school van while living there. It was horse drawn, and not similar in appearance to the vans we know today.

Uncle Charlie Truman and Aunt Mabel were married after our parents moved to Minnesota. They also began farming in Illinois close to where Grandpa and Grandma lived. We used to have photos of Papa or our uncles and their driving horses and top buggies, evidently taken during their courting days. They were all quite nifty looking, and we soon learned that most of them were good horsemen, and took good care of both the horses and the buggies. Fly nets for the horses were widely used in Illinois, and Uncle Charlie and Uncle Clair even used them after coming to Canada, until the nets were worn out.

It would appear that Uncle Charlie and Uncle Clair may have farmed together for a year or two in Illinois. Glen Truman was born in 1910, just a month younger than I am. I was born in Minnesota, as were Earl and Pearl in 1913. I am also guessing that the two uncles moved to Canada together in 1913. They had a partial sale, keeping some horses and equipment to take to Canada. The horses Uncle Charlie brought to Canada were Daisy and Dolly and two mules, Jerry and Jennie. Daisy was blind, but two colts were raised from Daisy or Dolly, Queen and Topsy. Uncle Clair's horses, I think, were Bess and Belle, and Queen and Dutch. These three mares of Uncle Clair's raised him many colts.

There is no doubt that some of our uncles living in Illinois visited with us in Minnesota. The old photo of Uncle Gus, Uncle Charlie and Papa with the load of logs proves this. Uncle Charlie was probably not married yet. Uncle Elmer, who was born in 1892 worked on the Iron range before migrating to Canada after we did in 1913. There is no doubt that he operated some kind of machine and was a mechanic all his years of working. The Missabbe iron range was the largest known iron ore deposit in the United States at that time. I have old photographs of iron ore trains enroute to Duluth where the ore was loaded on boats for shipment to the smelters.