FAMILY HISTORY

Johannes "John" Swenson  (1851-1918) & Siblings 

Born in July 11, 1851 in Vinberg, Halland, Sweden to Sven Johan Nilsson and Anna Christina Andersdotter.   At the age of 19 left Sweden traveling alone and was listed as a Dräng or peasant for occupation.  John, the oldest son, was the first of his family to go to the United States, with four more of his siblings following during the next 15 years. The large crop failures of 1868-1869 likely contributed to John, a peasant, making the journey. Tillable land became more and more scarce, and famine swept the nation, killing 22 out of every 1,000 Swedes. (Source)

He found employment as a stable boy for Senator Platt in New York.  He was obviously highly motivated. Earlier, he had found employment as a stable boy for Senator Platt in New York. The Senator's wife reportedly found him studying English by candlelight and had him brought in and educated by her children's tutor.  He met his wife, Ellen Anderson.  They soon moved to towns north of the city as John worked on a farm and then for a gas company.

The Swenson/dotter Siblings

• Augusta b. 1847  i. 1872 Age 25 Maid w/daughter - Settled in Kansas, MO

• John b. 1851 i. 1871 Age 19 Peasant Solo - Concord, NH

• Harold b. 1853 i. 1872 Age 18 Solo - Poughkeepsie, NY

• Nils Malkom b. 1855 i. 1887 Stonemason Solo Age 32 - Manistee, MI

• Emma’s b. 1857 stayed in Sweden and her 3 sons 

  • Ernest, and Anders i. 1903 - Concord, NH

  • Carl 1905 - Concord, NH

• Andrew b. 1862 i. 1886 Age 24 Farmer’s son Solo - Adrian, MI

• The rest of the siblings (Christin, Johan L, Betsy) stayed in Sweden

Ellen Andersdotter (1850-1915)

She was born Nov 22, 1850, in Blekinge, Jämshög, Sweden to Anders Olsson/Ohlsson and Gunilla Svensdotter.  Ellen, brother Ola was the first to move to the US in 1873 just a few years after their mother Gunhild passed away in 1867.  As farmers, they were also likely impacted by the famine in Sweden.  Four of the five siblings immigrated to the United States in 11 years.   At the age of 24, she traveled alone to America and was an unmarried farmer's daughter, "Bonddotter" arriving in 1874.  

The Andreson/dotter siblings

• Ellen b. 1850 i. 1874 Age 23 Solo Farmer’s daughter = Concord, NH

• Ola b. 1853 i. 1873  Age 20 - Concord, NH

• Anna b. 1860 i. 1881 Age 20 - Denver, CO

• Andrew b. 1863 i. 1883 Age 19 Adrian, MI

• Per b. 1865 Stayed in Sweden

Interestingly, Ellen’s brother, Andrew, became friends with John’s brother, Andrew T They met in Colorado and eventually worked together at Maple City Granite and were buried next to each other in Adrian, MI.

John & Ellen got married  1876 in New York

The two immigrants started their married lives in Owego, Tiago, NY, area, and their first two children: 

• Alice (1877-1887) 

• Omar (1879-1966) 

Eventually, the Swenson's made their way to Kansas City; near relatives, his sister Augusta lived there, where John worked as a laborer on the railroad. The stay in Kansas was not long, as John's "health was adversely affected, he claimed, by the drinking water." A relative recalled.  On his first train ride to Concord, he observed a group of elegant, educated Harvard students returning home for vacation. He wanted to be like them, and soon was. He became a friend of several of them later. 

By the early 1880s, Ellen's brother, Ola Anderson, had settled in Concord and established a small but successful granite business. In 1882, the Swensons were on a train to Concord, joining hundreds of their native countrymen.

They continued to expand their family:

• Bessie (1882-1945)

• John Arthur (1885-1960)

• Guy Andrew Sr.  (1888-1973)

In 1883, they bought George Ballard's quarry operation on Rattlesnake Hill for $750 and the founding of Swenson Granite. By this time, John was a stocky, thick-chested man with broad shoulders. At 5-foot-10, he walked tall, and had a ruddy complexion and a shock of fine, white hair. When the family was struggling, John frequently admonished his children to study. "There is no royal road to success." He would tell his eldest son, Omar, who had both a morning and evening paper route as a child.

Later, as the family became more prominent, John was elected to the New Hampshire House and then the Senate. He loved to play poker and invested in the stock market and speculative land deals with lawyer friends.

At some point, he bought a Cadillac and parked it at his North State Street home in a two-car garage with its own gas pump, a sign of marked success. "In general, he seemed to me rather serious, but I remember one winter day when I was in Harry G. Emmons's store with my mother. He descended the staircase from the second floor wearing a coonskin coat in which he seemed mammoth to me." Re-called a grandson, also John Swenson, in a 1988 family history. "Upon spying me, he broke into a broad grin and withdrew from his pocket a 25-cent piece which he placed in my hand, in spite of the protestation of my mother that such a sum was unreasonably large."

John and Ellen, and their children, were totally focused on making the most of their new life in America, and did not look back. The parents never spoke Swedish in front of their children. It was also said that the family's Swedish background was mixed with that of other European countries. We were what were called "Black Swedes", referring to our dark hair, and given names like Omar, Guy, and Andrew, unlike the more Swedish: Lars, Anders, or Nils. Any mystery remains just that. One story from growing up was when my Grandmother, Ellen Swenson, was on her deathbed, she held my Auntie Bess, said, "Now I can tell you who we are," and died. It is a fact that all their children, male and female, were encouraged to get the best educations they could, and did. (Malcolm Swenson)

They both lived in Concord, NH, until their deaths. 

There is a 23-page family history uploaded to the Ancestry Family Tree written in 1988 by John Swenson (1910-1996)