Cast of Characters: Swensons, Paulsons, and a hundred more

Davenport, Iowa (circa 1905 - 1907)

Anders and Bengta Swenson, Christine Louison

Our story starts with Lillie’s grandparents, the elderly couple on the left, Anders (1828-1908) and Bengta Swenson (1831-1915) .  Anders and Bengta are the reason that everyone was down in Olivia, just a few years ago.  But they have given up their farm in Olivia, now.  Their son, Olaf, has built them a little house behind his house on Belle Avenue in Davenport, Iowa. And as of June 1907, they’ve given another son, John Robert Swenson,  power of attorney to sell their acreage down in Texas.  So here they are. Not long after this  picture was taken, Anders would die in January of 1908.
(The strong looking lady on the right is Christine Louison.  She’s the mother of Sallie Louison Swenson, the wife of the Swenson’s son, Olaf. I’m sorry but there is no way to write this without making a tangle of it.)  [ Update 10-8-2012 - While a family history manuscript identifies this as Christine Louison, I just realized that Sallie Louison Swenson's mother, Christine, died in 1879. So the exact identification of this woman is unclear.]

Anders and Bengta Swenson arrived in Racine Wisconsin from Sweden sometime in 1882. It wasn’t long before they moved on to Rockford, Illinois, then Davenport, Iowa, then down to Olivia Texas, and then back up to Davenport.  By the time of Bengta’s death, they had children living in all those states plus Minnesota; and everywhere those people went, someone took pictures.

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