Cast of Characters, 2: The Swenson Children

Bengta Swenson with her children.  Davenport, Iowa 1912

Standing (l to r): Olaf Swenson, Carl Swenson, John Robert Swenson, Gustaf Swenson.  Seated (l to r): Nils Peter Swenson, Bengta Swenson, Elina Anderson Paulson.  Photo courtesy of the Davenport Iowa Public Library, accessed at the Upper Mississippi Valley Digital Image Archive.  This picture is owned by the Davenport Public Library, so you need their permission if you want to repost it.

I am cheating a bit here because none of my own collection of negatives shows this group so well.  So I've borrowed this one from the Davenport Public Library (with their permission). In 1912 Bengta Swenson and all her "American" children went to the Hostetler Studio in Davenport Iowa and had this group portrait taken, as well as several individual portraits.  It is the children, grandchildren, friends and family of this group that will be pictured in the coming days.

Bengta Swenson, sitting in the middle, we have already mentioned in the last post. 

Of the children: Nils Peter Swenson,(seated on the left), the oldest of Anders and Bengta's sons, and the last of them to arrive in America in 1889. He got a job as a quarry man and settled right in, just down the street from his brother, Olaf, and his sister, Elina, on Belle Avenue in Davenport, Iowa. (lived 1852 to 1915, immigrated 1889)

Standing just behind him is Olaf Swenson. "Olaf and Charlie was the earliest of the family to come to America in 1881 may have come with his parents and his sister, Elina, in 1882, or maybe a bit earlier. Elina's family and Olaf's were tight, so Olaf's family is as well documented as Elina's in the pictures to come. After arriving in Davenport in the late 1880s, Olaf and his growing family stayed there. He worked as a furniture refinisher, a painter, and finally a janitor. (lived 1858 to 1951, immigrated 1881)

Next to Olaf is Carl August Swenson, Charley.  Charley never married.  He lived with his parents down in Olivia through 1900, then headed up to Michigan where he had his own farm and then ended up down in Denton Texas at the end of his life living with his brother, John Robert.  He may be in one or two of the pictures, but not a lot. (lived 1860 to 1934, immigrated 1881)

John Robert Swenson is the tall man in the middle.  I've got a soft spot for this guy cause he told my mother to go to college when she graduated from high school in 1935 and she did. John Robert came to America with his parents as a child in 1882. Going to Texas with his parents in 1892/3 he sort of got stuck there and ended up a college professor in Denton Texas. In the pictures from the 1900s he is easy to recognize by his height and his balding head.  But which one is he in those early pictures? I'm just not sure. (lived 1870 to 1950, immigrated 1882)

The last brother on the right is Gustaf Swenson. Gustaf married a lady named Olive from Rockford, IL and settled there.  You won't be seeing a lot of his family, but they'll pop up once or twice. (lived 1862 to 1930, immigrated 1881)

Elina Anderson Paulson (mother of Lillie) is the younger woman seated on far right.  Suffice it to say that Elina came to the US in 1882 with her parents, Bengta and Anders Swenson, and her husband, Paul Paulson. As the mother and the wife of the photographers in this family, you will be seeing quite a lot of her. (lived 1855 to 1928, immigrated 1882)

One daughter Matilda Holmgren stayed in Sweden.  Of Tilda's children, some would come to the United States (and join the family in place AND photographs), others would move to the new world of Chile and make just passing visits to their family in America.  (lived 1854-1925)

One final note - if you go to the Upper Mississippi Valley Digital Archive site and look at the information about this photo, some of the information about the people is a little different.  I've got it right.  And, Yes, I'm sure.