Our photographer, Amy Paulson joins her friends, Servin Swenson and Emma Wilson on the seat of the wagon

Emma Wilson, Servin Swenson, and Amy Paulson on Ox-Drawn Wagon. Olivia Texas. Circa 1905.

Looking through the online version of the 1918 book “Swedes In Texas in words and pictures,” I was surprised to find a familiar picture, a very familiar picture, a picture I had only recently digitized from my set of turn of the century (1890s -1900s) glass negatives. A print copy of the picture in our family collection was marked “Paul and Elina Paulson in Olivia Texas.”  And a second related picture (the one shown above) was marked “Paul and Elina Paulson in Olivia Texas, with Amy”.


From the book
Click on link to go to book

As to the first picture – the one scanned directly from the book -- there it was – on page 1147 in the section about Olivia Colony --  clearly labeled “Servin Swenson and Miss Emma Wilson, Youth during Pioneer Days, now Mr. and Mrs. S. Swenson in Olivia Texas.”  There is no question. It is the same picture as the one digitized from my negative -- down to the shadows of the oxen and the grass blades!


From the negative
Click here to see large picture

Our family history had told a scant tale of Paul and Elina (my grandmother’s parents) who had taken the family and gone down to Olivia Texas to live (“God only knows why!” people would say, shaking their heads.)  Any way they came back up north pretty quick after a hard time.  “But there they are” (people would say) “sitting in an Ox Cart -- so you know it’s Texas because they used ox carts down there in Texas -- and there’s another picture with Amy, their daughter sitting up right beside them.”

 Only – it turns out – it wasn’t Paul and Elina at all! It was the young son of Pehr Swenson, Servin, and his bride-to-be, Miss Emma. And, lucky for me, that will answer a half a dozen questions about other photographs that you will see later.  As for Amy who was born in 1881 – this means she is a little bit older in this picture than the family thought.  I’ve named her as photographer because, as an adult – some of the print pictures from this time have a note from Amy (“I had George take this picture” or “I taught the girl the Kodak”)  So I’m speculating that that is what was done here.  As to date – Servin and Emma got married in 1909, when Servin was about 26 and Emma was about 24.  She looks to be adult in these pictures – so I’m thinking sometime c. 1903 -1908.

As to that book,  its title page in the English translation reads  “The Swedes in Texas in words and pictures 1838-1918 a historical-biographical work collected and published by Ernest Severin edited and compiled by Dr. Alf. L. Scott, Pastor T.J. Westerberg. Edited and Overseen by publisher J.M Ojerholmf.” The original title in Swedish is “Svenskarne i Texas i ord och bild, 1838-1918,” as I would come to know it as I searched for a library copy of the original.

Written originally in 1918 and published in Swedish, then ambitiously translated  over a period of 5 years by Christine Andreason with a host of volunteers and finally published in English in 1994, and finally scanned and put on to the web by David Borg in 2007, this book is charming, informative and just great.  It is 1209 pages packed with information.  And it is a continual amazement to me that none of the records, showing this book, link to, or even mention, the free full text version on the web! You can find it here. 

And – speaking of the use of oxen in Olivia – well that is for the next post.