Carl and Hulda Damstrom rest on the porch with their daughters

Carl Johan and Hulda Damstrom with their daughters in Olivia, Texas, circa 1903 (give or take a year or two)

I’ve made an exception here and posted just part of a picture because I want to focus on the family in it. The original size of this scan was about 1 inch by 1/2 inch. Next Wednesday's picture will include the whole scene and then there will be a little “round about” series of pictures taken around the same house so that you can see it from several different directions.

Sitting and standing on the porch in this picture are the Carl Johan and Hulda Damstrom family. Assuming that this picture is their home (and they definitely look quite at home) and assuming that it is in Olivia Colony (Calhoun County, Texas) this picture must date to 1900 or after. The family lived in Beeville, Texas until that time.

There are a number of pictures on ancestry.com and elsewhere that you can easily find by searching for "Carl Johan Damstrom". And there is also a good picture of the Damstroms with their older children at the SweAme site. So we can easily identify the people in this picture:

In the back, seated in chairs on the porch are:

    Ida Damstrom (the oldest Damstrom daughter), mother and father: Hulda Carolina Damstrom, and Carl Johann Damstrom

Sitting on the steps, are the three youngest Damstrom daughters:

    Emma Carolina, Clara Mathilda, and Esther Alfrieda

Standing to the right, reading the letter are:

    Hulda Jane Damstrom (the 2nd oldest daughter, and 3rd oldest child)

– and that last lady on the right? Doesn’t she look familiar? I believe we last saw Miss Emma Wilson sitting up on the wagon seat with her husband-to-be, Servin Swenson (who was also pictured in the last post with the rest of his family.) Perhaps she and young Hulda are reading the most recent letter sent to them from their friends in Davenport, Iowa.

The Damstrom sons are not in this picture, but I think they will be in future ones.

The Swedes in Texas book has quite a lot to say about the Damstroms because Carl Johan was the pastor of the Olivia church for many years.

Pastor Carl Johan Damstrom. This old gentleman and preacher, in the Swedish Lutheran Church of America, is among the pioneers, both within the church and the Swedish community. He has not served many congregations during his many years in the church but he has worked faithfully in the areas where he has been sent. He has usually worked in new settlements where sacrifice and disappointments are part of the job of a minister. He was born in a farmhome in Säfsnäs parish, Dalarne, in 1838. He first went to school in his home parish and he then went to the seminary in Uppsala for some time. He was then employed as a teacher in Nås parish, Dalarne.

In 1868 a large group of people emigrated from his home area to Moingona, Iowa, where they arrived around midsummer. Among them was the young teacher, Carl Johan Damstrom. He organized a Swedish congregation in the first year called Swede Valley. Mr. Damstrom preached and held Swedish school for the settlers here and in other areas in northwestern Iowa and in South Dakota for the first couple of years. This kind of work was combined with more than the usual sacrifice in those days. There were no railroads nor money and his travels had to be made by foot. Mr. Damstrom had a good background in education but he decided to take a course at the theological seminary in Rock Island, Ill., where he went in 1871 and graduated after a year.


After his studies at the seminary, he was called to Swede Valley and Moingona, where he served until 1877, when he was moved to Swedeburg and Brantford, Kansas. He stayed in this post until 1890 when he moved to Beeville, Texas. Here he was the founder of a new Swedish colony, which had good signs of a bright future, but 1892-93 were hard years and the colonists moved away. They had come from Kansas and other parts of Texas. Mr. Damstrom stayed in this area for ten years. He moved to Olivia in 1900 after having sold his property in Beeville. The community was then in its youth, and Mr. Damstrom bought an attractive farm which he runs with the help of his sons. He has served the congregation in Olivia since he arrived there and even though he resigned in 1915 he has often preached and cared for the congregation.
Pastor Damstrom married Hulda Carolina Bostrom in 1870. She was born in 1854, in Filipstad, Värmland. She came to America in the company of her parents and they first settled in Hancock, Mich., but later moved to Moingona, Iowa, Her father later moved to Chicago where he died. Her mother died in Swede Valley, Iowa.
The Damstroms have eight children: Ida, 1873, Victor, 1878, Hulda, 1880, Emma, 1884, married to Pastor Nordell, in Elroy, Texas; Clara, 1887, married to E. Anderson, Galesburg, Dl.; Richard, 1889, Conrad, 1891. and Esther, 1894, married to Pastor B. H. Samuelson, Lochridge, Iowa. He is enjoying a peaceful old age, in the center of a happy family.

Identifiers:

Place: Olivia Colony, Calhoun, Texas

Date: Circa 1903 +/- 3 years

Negative #: paulson045a

Carl Johann Damstrom (1838-1938)

Hulda Carolina Bostrom Damstrom (1854 – 1956)

Ida V Damstrom (31 May 1873 to 5 Oct 1941)

Hulda Jane Damstrom (01 Apr 1880 to 17 Jun 1967)

Emma Carolina Damstrom (Oct 6, 1884 - April 1984; married C.O. Nordell, Nov 1912)

Clara Mathilda Damstrom (Jan 1888 – 1965; married Emil Alfred Anderson)

Esther Alfrieda Damstrom (Sep 1894 – 1988; married Bertram Samuelson)

Sources for this post include:

Ancestry.com– where I found additional married names and death dates through family trees. And where I accessed additional census and death records.

Texas Death Records – more death dates

The Swedes in Texas book and family records found at the SweAme site.