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Louise Colony (1119-1130) Flipbook PDF
Swedish emigrants who settled in the Louise, Wharton County, Texas area.
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LOUISE COLONY Wharton County
LOUISE COLONY 1119
Louise This area, located about eight miles southwest of El Campo, on the Southern Pacific Railroad line, was a considerably large Swedish settlement in the 90’s, and it had a Swedish church. The first settlers came from the northern states but they soon grew tired of the flat area; and during the rainy years, not only did they lose
their harvests, but the dampness promoted illness, and most of the early settlers moved away. After new roads and drainage ditches were built, the drainage was improved considerably; and those who stayed and others who have moved in, now often live on nice big farms. The land is rich and the main crops are rice, cotton and corn. The Swedes in the area visit the Swedish Churches in El Campo.
Alfred Peterson’s Residence
Axel F. Ekvall's Rice Irrigation System. Capacity, 2600 Gallons per Minute.
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A. J. Anderson and Family. ANDERS JOHAN ANDERSON, a farmer living in the Swedish community of Louise, is from Hornebo, SödraVi parish, the district of Kalmar, Småland, where his father, Anders Petter Johanson, was a tenant farmer. He was born in 1869 and left home and country at the age of seventeen for the distant America, hoping that he would be able to make a better life for himself and create a future home. After a short stay in New York, he went west settled in Boone County, Iowa where many Swedish immigrants came to in the early days. He stayed there for about three years and worked in the countryside. He then moved to Dayton in the same state. When so many Swedish families moved to Texas from these areas in the 1890’s, particularly to El Campo, Mr. Anderson also decided to follow the crowd and seek his luck in the sunny South. He and two other bachelors, Oscar Dahlberg and Charles Peterson, came to Louise and bought land in 1892 and they moved there two years later. Now they had to clear land and
fight the hardships of pioneer-life. Even though many gave up and returned to the northern states, Mr. Anderson remained and managed to keep his property and to expand inconsiderably. Two brothers, Oscar and Axel Anderson live in the same community and also a sister, Mrs. A. W. Peterson. Mr. Anderson married Alma Josephina Saman in 1905. She was born in Neligh, Nebraska in 1883 and is the daughter of John August Saman who died in El Campo in 1910. Her father was from Västerås and her mother from Upland. The parents came to Nebraska as newlyweds, took government land and lived there until they moved to El Campo, Texas in 1899. Mrs. Anderson has two sisters and three brothers living in Danevang. The children of this family are: Delphia 1906, Elsie 1907, Clara,1913, and the foster-daughter, Lottie Dyke born in 1909. They are members of the Swedish Lutheran Church in El Campo.
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Chas. Bloom and Family. CHARLES BLOOM, a farmer and rice-grower in Louise, came to Texas and this community in the Fall of 1901. He bought a piece of land of 80 acres that he later sold, and he bought a larger property which he cleared and cultivated. He still lives there with his family and grows rice, cotton and corn. Mr. Bloom is the son of the master sawer, Bengt Bloom, in Grafva parish, Värmland, and in his early years he worked in his father’s trade. Born in 1879, he followed his parents and siblings to America in 1879. He stayed in Chicago for a year but returned to Sweden with his father, mother and sister. When he returned for the second time, be came to Chicago in 1898 in the company of his
brother August who had been home for a visit.. He stayed there until he went to Texas. In 1906 he married Miss Una Wahlgren, born in Ammeberg, Nerike, in 1878. Her father, Anders Gustaf Wahlgren, was a millworker, and the daughter immigrated in 1895, and settled in Chicago. In 1902 she returned and stayed in her homeland for a year, and she then returned to the same city. Their children are: Alice 1907, Signe 1908, Charles 1910, and Marion 1912. Mrs. Bloom has three brothers and two sisters in America and one sister in Sweden. Mr. Bloom has a brother in Louise and a sister and brother in Chicago.
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August Bloom and Family. AUGUST BLOOM, born in Grafva parish, Värmland, in 1869, is the son of Bengt Bloom, a sawyer, and his wife, Maria. He got a good education in the homecountry and worked at a sawmill as a young man. He left his home and country in 1887, when he was eighteen years old and came to South Chicago, Ill., where he found employment in the iron industry and became a machinist. After twenty years in that city he decided to try country-life and came to Texas where he lived in El Campo for a year. He returned to Chicago but came back to this area in 1909 and settled
permanently. He bought a piece of land near Louise, plowed it and built a home for himself and his family. His wife, Gustafva, born Anderson, is also from Värmland, but was born in Ullerud parish, in 1865. Her father, Bengt Anderson, was a sawyer. She immigrated and came to this country in 1885. She settled in Chicago where she had her home until she married. Her parents also came to that city about four years later and they died there. The Blooms married in 1899 and have two children: Grace, 1900, and Frances, 1902. The Swedish Methodist Congregation is the family’s spiritual home.
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Mr. and Mrs. Axel Ekvall. AXEL FREDRIK EKVALL is the son of the tenant farmer, August Johanneson, and his wife Mathilda, born Hogberg, at the Björkeryd Manor in Hylletofta parish, Småland. He was born in 1878. He was educated in the parish school, and learned farming on his father’s farm and at the Manor in his young years. The future did not seem bright for a man of his class in the old country, and he started thinking about the distant land in the west, where so many of his countrymen had gone and found their future. When he became of age in 1899, he left his home and country and went to El Campo, Texas, without first staying in the northern states like most other people had done. He
found work in the countryside and worked for Mr. V. P. Lund, a broom-maker. He started farming on his own two years later. He was successful and in 1912 he could buy a larger property of 358 acres in Louise. He has improved it in many ways since then. He grows mostly rice. In 1912, he married Edna Fedelia Peterson, daughter of Otto and Hulda Peterson in the same community. She was born in Orion, Ill., in 1891 and came to Texas in 1894 with the rest of her family. They belong to the Swedish Lutheran Congregation. A brother of Mr. Ekvall lives in El Campo.
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Fred Engstrom and Family. FRED ENGSTROM, son of farmer Peter Engstrom and his wife, Bessie, born Nelson in El Cainpo, was born and reared in this country. His parents immigrated from Sweden to Bishop Hill, Ill. in 1867, lived there for several years and then moved to Iowa, where their son Fred was born in Hamilton County in 1880. He grew up there, was educated and stayed with his parents until they moved to El Campo, Texas in 1899. He bought land there, the same property he still owns and runs. His parents are also farming.
Mr. Engstrom married Mamie Sullivan in 1905. She is of American descent, the daughter of J. and Beulah Sullivan and born in Limestone County, Texas in 1888. Her father was a farmer. There were nine children in the family; four sons and five daughters. The Engstroms have two children: Bessie 1906, and Lynn 1913. They belong to the American Christian Church. A brother of Mr. Engstrom’s lives in McCulloch County, Texas, and another in Iowa.
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John A. Peterson and Family. JOHN A. PETERSON, a farmer living in the Swedish community of Louise, Wharton County came to this part of the state in the spring of 1893 after having bought land in the colony at an earlier time. When he arrived from Sweden in 1880, he settled in Essex, Iowa, where he worked in the country for about six years. He then moved to Nebraska and leased land for seven years. By saving his money, he managed to make payments on Texas land, keep it and stay during the first difficult years when many gave up and left. He has acquired more property, has a couple of beautiful country homes and 400 acres of the most fertile land in the area. Mr. Peterson was born in Skepperstad parish, Småland, in 1863,and grew up on the farm of his father, Jonas
Peterson. He immigrated in 1880. His first wife, Augusta Sofia, was from Ljunga parish in the districtof Jönköping, and when she died she left the children Arthur, Lawrence, Mabel and Nellie. He later married Lovisa Josephina in 1908. She was born in the district of Kalmar in l865. She died in Louise in 1913. She had the children Axel, Lillie and Arthur from a previous marriage. Mr. Peterson married for the third time in 1915. His wife, Mrs. Lovisa Volek, was of Bohemian ancestry and was born in Lavaca County, Texas, in 1873, where her parents had immigrated in the early years. Mrs Peterson has the following children from an earlier marriage: Frank, Mary, Albina, Julia, Millia, Annie and Emil.
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Alfred Peterson and Family. ALFRED PETERSON. The children of the first Swedish settlers born in this country are already beginning to get old and have offspring of a second and third generation. It is therefore not surprising that the Swedish culture, language and traditions are beginning to wane and even die in many homes and small Swedish communities. It is perhaps more surprising that they have survived as long as they have. When that is the case, it is usually to be credited to the activities of the Swedish churches. Alfred Peterson’s parents came to Orion, Ill., as early in the history of Swedish immigration as 1849. They were from Småland, his father, Nels P. Peterson, from Lönneberga and his mother, Eva Karin, from Södra Vi parish. Mr. Peterson was born in Orion, Ill., in 1856, grew up in the country and had an opportunity to study at Augustana College for three years, after he completed high-school. He married Lovisa Carolina Karlson in 1882. She was the daughter of Carl Otto and Kristina
Katarina Karlson from Rumskulla, Småland, where she was born in 1855. She left for Orion, Ill. in 1887. Six children have grown up in this family: Elsa, Ada, Edwin, Julius, Lydia, Carolina, and Arvid. The eldest daughter, Mrs. Victor Swenson, lives in Kansas; their son Edwin takes care of his father’s store in Louise; Julius, who worked in a hardware-store in El Campo, is now a soldier in the United States Army. When this is written he is in the war in France. Arvid is working as a mechanic at the Texas A. & M. College. Mr. Peterson came to Louise in 1894, bought land and started farming. He also started a hardware- and a lumber-store. He has made aconsiderable contribution to the development of the community, is a school trustee for the county and has been Justice of the Peace for thirteen years. He and his family belong to the Swedish Lutheran Church in El Campo. A brother, Otto Olson, is living in the same community.
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O. E. Olson and Family. OTTO EDWARD OLSON, another of the sons of the old pioneer, Nels Petter Peterson, was born in Orion, Henry County, Ill., in 1862, a place his parents had immigrated to from Sweden in 1849, and where they lived until they died. The son grew up there and came to El Campo in 1894. He lived in Iowa for a short time. He and his brother, Alfred Peterson, bought a large stretch of land in the new community. Some of it has been sold, but there are still 212 acres left of the old farm, which is owned and lived on by Mr. Peterson. They grow mostly rice and cotton. Another brother lives in the state of Oregon, and one sister, Mrs. A. P. Falk, is living in Council Bluff, Iowa.
Mrs. Peterson was Hulda Carlson before her marriage. She was born in Rumskulla, the district of Kalmar, Småland, and is the sister of Mrs. Alfred Peterson in Louise. Her father, Carl Otto Peterson, was a farmer in Källeberg in the above mentioned parish, where she was born in 1869. She went to America in 1886, and she settled in Orion, Ill., where she married Mr. Peterson in 1890. One daughter in this family is dead, but the following eight children are living: Edna 1891, married to Axel Ekdahl in Louise; Walter 1892, Alice 1898, George 1900, Annie 1903, Irene 1905, Florence 1908, and Nina 1911. The Petersons belong to the Swedish Lutheran Church in El Campo.
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A. W. Peterson and Family ANDERS WILHELM PETERSON, a farmer, came with his parents to this area in the 1890’ s and has lived here ever since. His father, Per Johan Peterson died in El Campo in 1908, but his aged mother is still living in this community. Mr. Peterson is from Södra Vi parish, Småland, where he was born in 1875. At the age of ten, he accompanied his parents and siblings to this country. The family settled in Boone County, Iowa, where they lived until they moved to the Swedish community of El Campo. The father bought land there and the family farm is now run by their son who also has his own farm in the settlement.
Mr. Peterson is married to Kristina Anderson since 1905, and the couple’s six daughters are: Alice 1906, Judith 1908, Edna 1910, Tilda 1912, Velma 1914, and Rosa 1916. The family attends the Swedish Lutheran Church in El Campo. Mrs. Peterson was born in Södra Vi parish, the district of Kalmar, Småland, in 1880. When she left Sweden in 1902, she went to Dayton, Iowa, and in the following year she went to El Campo, where she has three brothers: Oscar, Andrew and Axel Anderson. Mr. Peterson has a brother living in Oklahoma and a brother and a sister in Omaha, Nebraska.
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V. E. Poulson and Family. VICTOR ERNEST POULSON, a farmer living in Louise, where he is a corn and cotton-farmer, was born in this country of Swedish parents. He arrived in Texas from Iowa in 1897, settled in the El Campo area and became a farmer. He bought the first part of his land in Louise in 1902, and he added to his acreage with additional purchases. His wife, Bertha Lundberg, was born in 1880 in Williamson County, Texas, where her parents, Carl and Mathilda Lundberg, were farmers. The family moved to El Campo in 1895. She married Mr. Poulson in 1900 and they have the following children: Mathilda 1901, Anna 1903, Inez 1905, Beaulah 1908, Edith 1911,
Edgar 1914, and Charles 1917. Mr. Poulson was first married to Kristina Peterson from Dayton, Iowa, born in Södra Vi parish, Småland. She died in the above mentioned community in 1896, leaving the sons, Ernest and Roy, born in 1893, and 1894. Mr. Poulson’s childhood home was in Webster County, Iowa, where he was born in 1869. His father, Lars Poulson, a carpenter and farmer, was from Helsingland, and his mother, Annie, born Forsberg, was from Linköping, the district of Östergötland. They immigrated to America when they were young and settled in Iowa. The mother and two brothers are living in California and one son is living in South Dakota.
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AXEL R. ANDERSON, the younger brother of Oscar C. Anderson in Louise, came to Boone County, Iowa, in 1892, and ten years later he came to Texas, where he chose this community in Wharton County as his future home. He first bought 80 acres but he has increased this acreage and it now encompasses 200 acres. In 1907 he married Annie Peterson, born in Nebraska in 1890. Their children are Clifford and Viola. They are members of the Swedish Lutheran Chinch. Mr. Anderson was born in 1878, in Södra Vi parish, Småland, and is the son of Anders Petter Johansson, a farmer. OSCAR C. ANDERSON, from SödraVi parish, the district of Kalmar, came to Dayton, Iowa, in 1892 at the age of twenty, and he first found work for monthly wages and then as a tenant farmer. After eight years in that area he moved to Texas and settled in Louise, started farming and became a farm-owner after a few years. In 1912 he married Esther Isaacson, born in 1891 in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin. She is the daughter of the P. J. Isaacsons in El Campo. They have one child, Francis, born in 1913. Mrs. Anderson was first married to Mr. A. Stadig, who died in El Campo and left a daughter, Emelia, born in 1910. They are members of the Swedish Lutheran Church. JOHN P. BROWN, a Swedish blacksmith in Louise, has lived in several parts of the United States since he came to this country in 1881. He has worked in his trade and as a farmer. He was born in Falkenberg, Halland, in 1856, where he learned his trade as a young man. When he came to Pennsylvania where he lived for three years, he started working for the railroad. He spent some time in Colorado, California and Missouri,
and then came to Pierce County, Texas, by wagon in 1897. His first wife, Hedvig Olson, was from Stockholm, and of their children, Arthur and Tillie are still living. She died in 1902 and Mr. Brown married Elizabeth Lindholm and has two children with her. JOHAN GUSTAF CARLSON, a native of Östergötland and born in 1858, emigrated in 1879 and came to Henry County, Ill., where he first worked in a sawmill. He later moved to Oakland, Nebraska, where he started farming and lived until he moved to Texas in 1893. He was postmaster in Louise for nineteen years but is now in business. He married Jessie Ansley in 1906, and they have the children, Lucile, 1906 and Clyde, 1911. ARTHUR G. PETERSON was born in 1887 in Oakland, Nebraska, and came to Louise, Texas, in 1893 where he grew up. He is the son of John A. and Sophia Peterson. He helped his father on the farm until he started farming on his own. His mother died several years ago. Mr. Peterson married Katy Langdon in 1909 and has a son, John Arthur, born in 1912. The couple belongs to the American Methodist Church. LAWRENCE PETERSON, son of John A. Peterson in Louise, came from the northern states with his parents in 1893, at the age of four. His father immigrated to Iowa in the 1880’s and he later lived in Nebraska. Lawrence was born in Oakland, Nebraska in 1889, and he has been farming and he now owns his own farm. He married Lillian Anderson from Oakland, Nebraska, in 1913. She was born there in 1892. They have a son, Edward, born in 1914.