Young women of Olivia, Texas, 1903

Left to right: Back Row: (Emma Haterius?), Hulda Damstrom, unknown
Middle Row: Mabel Cavallin, (Ellen Swenson), Amy Paulson
On ground in front: (Huldah Haterius?)

A likely date for this picture is February 1903.  This date is based on the fact that it appears to have been taken the same time as the Pehr and Hannah Swenson family photo which I've dated generally based on the ages of the family members. And on the specific date of February 4, 1903 on which both George and Amy Paulson (visiting from Davenport Iowa) signed the autograph book of Hulda Hatterius in Olivia Texas.

As I ramble through these pictures, my “unknowns” and my “uncertains”  are both frustrating and interesting. These nameless people are found in picture after picture, interacting with each other, creating the early community of Olivia Texas.  I read their names in the census, in the Eden church record, on the stones in the graveyard. I find the fragments of their histories and piece them together. But which person goes with which history? Sometimes I guess right and I’m able to verify it. Sometimes I suspect I guess wrong.

This picture (which I originally included in a post back in July 2013) is a perfect example of the known and unknown.

At the Linds, circa 1903

*  The stiff looking young woman, on the far left, stands  just as stiff and upright in this picture as she does in a print photo  “At the Linds”  which I found in a box at my cousin's house. There she stands, just as straight, just as plainly dressed, beside a seated gentleman, backed by a bevy of young women.  I suspect that the gentleman is Anders Haterius and these are his family. But is she a daughter? A wife?  

In another picture already posted, she stands with another group of Olivia residents. But in the pictures from a few years later – is she gone? or has she just grown older and perhaps more comfortable in front of the camera. Is she Emma Haterius Skogberg?  Or perhaps some other? her sister Susanna?

* In today's picture, I know the woman standing next to Miss “Stiff”. It is Hulda Josephine Damstrom. She figures frequently in the pictures in this blog: standing on the porch, or with her parents.; drawing water from a well; riding in buggy. In 1903, she and her family have only recently come to Olivia. She is the next to oldest daughter of the new preacher of Eden Church, Reverend Damstrom. He’s been travelling back and forth from Beeville to preach, but has finally relocated his family to the community. Hulda’s older sister, Ida... Well there is something wrong with Ida. She isn’t quite right. And so through the years, Hulda will stay with her family, taking care of her parents as they get older, taking care of her sister, never marrying.  She will break away for just a little time about 1920. You can find her there in the census in Rock Island, Illinois working for Richard Baker and his wife Bessie. But by 1930, she will return to Olivia, take up her single life, live with her sister in the house that the Damstroms bought from Charlie Swenson all those years before (about the time this picture has been taken.) And there she will live. There she will be buried, right there beside the house in the Olivia Cemetery.  (Charlie Swenson, by the way, is the uncle of Amy and George Paulson and is mentioned – just a little bit in one of the earliest posts: Cast of Characters.)

* Of course, our 3^rd standing woman is just unrecognizable.  Remember – DO NOT try to protect your glass negatives by putting toilet paper between them. If they get the least bit damp, interesting things happen. The resulting bond between the paper and the emulsion does Nothing to improve the recognizability of the faces in your pictures.

* I guess if you have been following this blog, you might recognize the lady seated on the left (in the lap of her friend) as our Mabel Magnolia Cavallin. She is about to set out on her adventure to Iowa. There she will live with the Paulson family and... Well it’s a long story. Some of its been told already and can be found in the earlier posts. Some of it needs to be told with the Davenport Iowa part of the story which will be coming up later in this blog.

* The lady in the center, providing a comfortable seat for Miss Cavallin, Just who is she? This photo is taken at the Pehr and Hannah Swenson’s house and I keep thinking that she is part of the Swenson family. She looks So much like them. In that “At the Linds" photo, I think that is her, standing at right with a hand on a shoulder of each of the younger Swenson girls. And yet – there is that Swenson family photo taken the same day and she is not in it. Unless, of course, she changed clothes?  IS that Ellen Swenson? who will become a nurse, stay single and move to Minneapolis?

*Seated next is Amy Justina Paulson, visiting from Iowa. Amy, as has already been mentioned, is frequently in pictures because she takes her camera with her and ropes others into taking the pictures. Her brother, George, will also take many pictures in his life and he is probably with her on this trip, possibly taking this picture. We know this, because, if it is February 1902, they have both signed Hulda Hatterius’s autograph book, leaving a written record of their passing.

*Finally, seated on the ground is another mystery woman. She is also in the earlier picture of the Swedish immigrants of the Olivia community. But she is not found in later pictures. At that later time, has she gone away to marry?  to work?  just not been around when the pictures were taken?  Could it be Huldah Haterius, owner of the autograph book, sister of Emma? The two, Emma and Huldah were married on the same day, December 28, 1904, Emma to Fred Skogberg, Hulda to Ernest Bergstrom. Perhaps a family member will see her and say – Oh that is indeed Huldah Bergstrom or ... Johnson or ... Swenson, and another mystery will be solved. Or perhaps not.

Having thought, speculated and written all this, I find that I posted this picture already on July 10, 2013 with less text, less information, and less speculation. I must get organized.

Identifiers:

Negative: Paulson187 (Original 1200 bpi tiff file has been converted to 400 bpi jpeg for this post.)

People pictured (both tentative and identified)

Emma Haterius (Skogberg) (16 Nov 1879 – 21 Feb 1939)

Hulda Josephine Damstrom (01 Apr 1880 to 17 Jun 1967)
Mabel Magnolia Cavallin (Peterson)   (Sept 22 1884 to Febr 28 1958)
Amy Justine Paulson (Anderson) (Dec 10 1881 - Oct 18, 1918)

Huldah Haterius (Bergstrom)  ( 22 Jul 1882 – 21 May 1912)

Place: Olivia area (Calhoun County) Texas

Date: 1903

Sources: Sources for this post include information retrieved from Ancestry.com familysearch.com and findagrave.com. Also the Eden church records from Olivia, Texas.