Charles and Wilhelmina Johnson pose with their children. Olivia, Texas, circa 1903/1904.

Charles and Wilhelmina Johnson Family. The children are (front left to right: Oscar, Almina, Knut, Eva Marie, Jennie)

Like my family from 100 years ago – even when I swear I’m “leaving Olivia Texas behind” – I keep on going back.

When I first posted this picture a couple years ago I wrote:

"I’ve been waiting to post this picture thinking that I might be able to identify the people, but have not yet been able to do so. Familiar and yet unidentified people are threads that run through my Olivia pictures. People re-occur, sit, stand, work, go to church, with other people in other pictures (both my own and those found in other sources.)  They are a “community”: friends, relatives, neighbors, visitors. I know that I have read their names – in the census, in the records of Eden Church, in the book, Svenskarne i Texas. But, in this case (as in many others), I have not yet put the names with the faces."

 So I was pretty excited this week to get the following comment on the picture/post from C. Johnson.

"This is the Charles (Carl) Otto Johnson family home, it was located on your map of Calhoun County showing water wells - it was located on that map just south of well 81, about halfway between 81 and 63 roughly. It was demolished around 1976, I was little then but remember watching my great uncle tear it down and it made me quite sad. It underwent a lot of changes in its 90 plus years of existence, all but three of their children were born in that house and at times it is where they were sent home with funeral services as well. The Johnson family from left to right in the photograph: standing in the grass is Oscar Johnson (my grandfather) b 1895, his sister Almina (called Minnie) on the step b 1898, their papa Carl b 1863 and the mother of the family Wilhelmina (also called Minnie) b 1867, little Knut Walford b1900, standing in the grass is Eva Maria (called Marie) b 1893 and above to her right is their eldest living child Jennie Christine b 1890. Their youngest child Ellen Eveline will be born in 1906 and is not in the photo, Knut looks to be about 3 or 4 so I believe this photo was probably taken around 1904. We have a copy of this photo in our family photos as a post card of the image. Thank you so much for posting this, it is so much clearer than the post card we have."

Thanks to C. Johnson - a whole new story opens up. Names and histories are put together. and this solves not just the mystery of this picture, but corrects the stories and solves the mysteries of at least half a dozen others.

Date:

I had originally tagged this picture as circa 1895 – but I am sure that C. Johnson is pretty correct about the date. I know that Amy Paulson was definitely in Olivia, Texas  in February 4, 1903 (when she signed Hulda Haterius’s autograph book) as discussed in an earlier post.  She may have been back in 1904. The later (than 1895) date  suggests that some of  the earliest of these pictures may date a bit later than I originally thought. C. Johnson also mentions that his family’s copy of the picture is printed on postcard stock suggesting that the family’s copy of the picture was printed later than it was taken. Several of the pictures made from these glass negatives have turned up and almost all/all are printed on postcard stock. The 1903/1904 pictures may have been printed in Davenport and brought back to Olivia when Amy Paulson returned on a later visit in about 1907/8. 

Place:

A later picture of this house and family (originally published in Svenskarne i Texas)  can be found at the Swedish American Heritage Online site: here.   That fancy new front dormer window fooled me when I was looking through the Olivia families to see if I could find a match 

Based on C. Johnson’s description above, the house stood on the land which the Johnson family bought from J.D. Mitchell. On the original plat map, this is Section 11, Lot 7 N1/2 and Lot 8.

People:

The book “Swedes in Texas/Svenskarne i Texas” tells us that the Johnson family was one of the first to settle in the new Swedish colony at Olivia.  Like most other families in the new colony, the Johnsons had been in the United States for some time before moving to Texas. Charles Johnson immigrated from Sweden in 1882 at the age of 19 and spent his first years in St. Paul, Minnesota, and then moved to Drummond, Wisconsin. It was there that he met and married Wilhelmina Johnson, a 22 year old immigrant from Almsboda, Sweden. Once the family came to Olivia, they stayed. Charles, Wilhelmina, their son Oscar, and their daughter, Jennie, are all buried in the little graveyard at Olivia.

The Johnsons (Left to right): Oscar, Carl Otto (father), Almina, Wilhelmina (mother), Knut, Eva Maria, Jennie

Here are the specifics about the folks in this picture:

Carl  “Charles” “Charlie” Otto Johnson:  Born 28 May 1863) in Borgvik Värmland, Sweden.  Immigrated 1882, Married 4 Jul 1889, Moved from Drummond, Wisconsin to Olivia in 1893 (received in the church Aug 16 of that year  in the 2^nd group of new parishioners.)  Died March 19 1930.

The Swedish Borgvik Parish birth record (accessed through Arkivdigital) shows: Carl Otto born on 30 May 1863 (but this may be his baptism date) to Johannes Andersson and Stina Olsdotter  Borgvik.  [C:6 (1861-1892) Image 12 on Arkivdigital.]

Wilhelmina “Minnie” Johansdotter. Born 5 Apr 1867 in Stenvarmsholm in Älmeboda Parish, Kronoberg, Sweden. Immigrated in 1888. Married 4 July 1889. Died  25 Dec 1937. 

            In several places – mainly on the death certificates some of her children Wilhelmina’s maiden name is given as “Elmstedt” and her marriage record it is given as “Erikson”. The Swedish Älmeboda Parish record show Vilhelmina Fredrika born 5 April 1867 to Johan Eric Johansson and Magdalena Gustafsdotter of Stenvarmsholm.  (Älmeboda C:5(1861-1868): Image 113/page 219, accessed through Arkivdigital.) The 1888 Moving out record  and the household records for that year show Wilhelmina leaving her family behind as she leaves for America on June 2, 1888 (#51 in the moving out record). Her leaving is recorded on the same day as that of a “Hjalmar Johansson” from another town, possibly a relation.

The marriage record for Charles and Wilhelmina shows they were married in Hayward (Sawyer county) Wisconsin.  Charles Johnson’s parents names are given as John Anderson and Mary Johnson. “Minnie Erickson”  parents names are given as John Erick and Lena Christianson, a good example of the “flexibility” of names at the time.

And their children:

*Jennie Christina Johnson Born 29 May 1890 in Drummond (Bayfield) Wisconisn. Married Hjalmar Larson of Olivia in 1912. Died in 1913 (– more about this in another post.)

*Eva “Marie” Maria Olivia Johnson.  Born April 5 1893 in Olivia. Eva must have been one of the first babies to be born in the new settlement. Married Edgar Lee Hardy about 1927.  Died 27 Jun 1969 in Palacios. (Eden Church record, Find A Grave, Death certificates.)

*Oscar Johnson.  Born 22 June 1896, in Olivia (Calhoun County) Texas. Died July 19, 1947. (He married Ida Estelle Huddleston). He and Ida are buried in the Olivia Cemetery. Eden Church Record, Obituaries, Death Certificates.)

*Almina “Minnie” Fredrika Johnson. Born 18 Feb 1898. Married Benjamin Bowman Bohm, Died 11 Nov 1941  of Cardiac failure . Buried in Memorial Park Cemetery Nov 13 1941 in Austin (Travis) Texas. Minnie worked in her husband’s family’s steam laundry.    (City directories, death certificates, findagrave)

*Knut Walfrid Johnson. Born 18 Jan 1900 in Olivia (Calhoun) Texas Died 11 Nov 1970 of a stroke. Worked construction. His wife’s name is Wilma – but I’ve been unable to track down more information about her. (Eden church record, Death certificate)

Mentioned but not pictured is:

*Ellen Eveline Johnson. Born 7 Feb 1906 in Olivia Texas. Died 18 Sept 1947. Ellen was married and divorced. She worked as a nurse and as a Swedish Masseuse (Eden Church record, Death Certificate, Census records).  (We will see a bit more of Ellen in another picture.)

*Carl Fredric Orrby Johnson. Born 12 Oct 1891 in Drummond, Wisconsin. Did Carl come with his family to Olivia? or had he died in Wisconsin? His name, birth and baptism date are found in the Eden Church record. A simple note in the comments say "died".  This is a "remarkable" lack of information for the Eden record and suggests that he may have died before the Eden Church record was begun in 1895. He is not buried in the Olivia Cemetery.

For more about the Johnson Family experience in Calhoun County, Texas see this post:
From Foreclosure to Prosperity

Sources:

In addition to the information provided by C. Johnson, Numerous sources were used for this post. I used birth records, city directories, death certificates, findagrave records, and family trees on ancestry.com in order to search for leads and then to check and double check all the dates and names.  I’ve also used the Calhoun County tax and deed records for the period of 1893 to 1910.

As always the reference, Swedes in Texas – Svenskarne i Texas has been a resource past price.  Just as a reminder this reference can be accessed in the following ways:

 *The English translation is “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.” 

On the web you can find the English translation of the book at the Swedes in Texas site  here. 

* The original title in Swedish is “Svenskarne i Texas i ord och bild, 1838-1918,”

If you would like to read it in Swedish, you can find it at the Hathitrust site on the Web:  (v. 1 , v. 2  )

I’ve also begun to use the wonderful Arkivdigital (Arkivdigital.net) resource to trace my families back to their homes in Sweden. This is a database of beautifully photographed original Swedish records. The Swedes have been major record keepers for centuries and to have these records accessible to us here in the U.S. is a gift. (Well, a gift you have to pay for – but they are SO GREAT.) Birth records, household records, and moving out records for the parishes of Älmeboda and Borgvik have helped me better understand the beginning of this story.

Identifiers:

Negative # paulson064 and paulson064a (1200 dpi tiff downsized to 400 dpi for this post.; the close up was scanned at 3600 dpi tiff and downsized to 1200 dpi jpeg for this post.)
 

Photographer: Paulson/Swenson Family – probably Amy Paulson

Place in photograph:

Olivia colony, Calhoun County Texas. Specifically the lot that was plated as Section 11, Lots 7 N ½ and 8.

Other places the family members lived before Olivia:

St. Paul, Minnesota

Drummond (Bayfield county)Wisconsin

Hayward (Sawyer county) Wisconsin

Borgvik, Värmland, Sweden.

Almeboda, Kronoberg, Sweden

Date: circa 1903/4

People: Carl/Wilhelmina Johnson family as discussed above.

Original post is at: http://swedishamericanphotos.blogspot.com/2013/01/house-olivia-colony-texas-circa-1895.html