Emma Charlotta Carlsson Lock
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Emma Charlotta Carlsson Lock |
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By Lennart Holmquist
After the death of his young wife to influenza Johannes hired a housekeeper by the name of Emma to help care for his four small boys. Emma, and Johannes got married not long afterward. Emma in Sweden Ukna Church Emma Carlsson was born in the small town of Ukna, Småland Sweden on Monday, April 30,1855. Her father's name was Carl Johan Lock. We don't know what her father did for work. Most likely he was either a farmer or his occupation had to do with mining, for in the area are iron ore was mines and pits. We don't know her mother's name yet. Emma moved to the town of Västervik, Ukna socken (parish), Småland, Kalmar län (province), about 50 kilometers from Ukna in 1879 when she was 23 years old. Though growing up in the Lutheran church, the state church of Sweden, Emma may have considered that she was really converted to Christianity in Västervik, Sweden and though she was no doubt baptized as an infant she was re-baptised on Friday, March 14, 1879 when she was almost twenty-four years old. Baptists in Sweden at the time were often considered radical. In becoming a Baptist Emma may not have been popular with her friends and family who could have thought that the Lutheran church of Sweden was the only acceptable form of Christian faith. These feelings often went both ways. In 1881 Emma moved to the eastern quarter of (Östra kvarteret), presumably of Västervik. Sweden, Selected Indexed Household Clerical Surveys: Emma Charlotta Carlsson Lock In 1882 to moved again to the souther quarter (Södra kvarteret). Sweden, Selected Indexed Household Clerical Surveys: Emma Charlotta Carlsson Lock Sweden, Selected Indexed Household Clerical Surveys: Emma Charlotta Carlsson Lock original Emma's father's name was Carl. Carl's last name at one time was 'Carlsson' and perhaps he still used the name. The army gave him the new name Lock, which depending upon the context could mean a cap as worn on the head. Changing a soldier's last name was common in the Swedish military at the time. There were simply too many Carlssons, Johnssons, Erickssons and the like. To make identification easier, the military simply gave the new recruits a new last name. In at least one Swedish record Emma was known as Emma Charlotta Carlsson Lock and another Swedish record gave her name as Emma Charlotta Lock. Further, she was sometimes recorded as Emma Charlotta Carlsson. Emma was tall, her eyes were blue and her hair brown. Emma had four sisters and seven brothers. They are Carl, John, Anders, Gustaf, August Theodore, Peter Enock, Frans Otto and Nils Oscar. Two of the sisters were Tilda and Josephine. The names of the other sisters are not known at this time. See A Brief Family Tree written John Theodore Holmquist. At some point Emma wished to go to America. According to family history Emma worked for a Swedish count as a cook. She must have been a good cook. This same count loaned Emma the money to go to America. She eventually paid the count back with interest which the count had not expected. Chances are she already had family in America, possibly brother(s) and/or sister(s). It was her grandson Bernard Holmquist's understanding that some of Emma's brothers came to the United States, but we have no record of them as yet. To AmericaFamily records said that Emma came to America on August 31, 1887. This is not exactly true as research in 2016 showed. Emma arrived in New York on Monday, August 29, 1887. Official records provide the dates she left her home parish, her departure from Sweden and England, the ships on which she was passenger, an alternate spelling of her last name, and the city from which Emma was from.
SS Romeo Emma officially left her parish on Tuesday, 2 August 1887, heading west to the other side of Sweden to the port city of Göteborg. She probably traveled by train. Sweden, Selected Indexed Household Clerical Surveys: Emma Charlotta Carlsson Lock Sweden, Selected Indexed Household Clerical Surveys: Emma Charlotta Carlsson Lock original Another record adds she is departing from Västervik, she is unmarried and is traveling alone. Sweden, Selected Indexed Household Clerical Surveys: Emma Charlotta Carlsson Lock Still another record states that Emma was bound for Chicago, which likely means she had family or friends she would initiallly stay with. Swedish Emigration Records: Emma Ch Carlsson She boarded the steamer Romeo on Friday, August 12, 1887, bound for England. Another Swede, Johanna Erickson, who indirectly influenced Emma's life later, took the same ship from Göteborg to England six years earlier as had many Swedes before and after. England was a common initial destination for Scandinavian and other emigrants on their way to America or other countries. Emigrants disembarked in England and to catch passage on another ship to complete their destination and sometimes stopping at an intermediate destination(s), such as Ireland before continuing on to their final destination. We are lucky to have the passenger list of this voyage, in color which is even more unusal, on which Emma Carlsson's name is listed. Fellow passengers were mostly or all Swedes, and many were from Emma's home town of Västervik. Perhaps she was traveling with people she knew. Emma's final destination is listed as Chicago, as was the destination many others. New York and Philadephia were also popular destinations. Gothenburg, Sweden, Passenger Lists: Emma Ch Carlsson The journey from Goteborg to England took two days. Liverpool Quay by Moonlight The Romeo's destination was the port city of
Hull, England. From there Emma made her way to Liverpool, England no
doubt by train. In Liverpool after some days possibly, she boarded
the steamer SS Arizona bound for Queenstown (Cobh),
Ireland New York, Passenger Lists: Emma Ch Carlsson New York, Passenger Lists: Emma Ch Carlsson original SS
Arizona Emma in AmericaEmma arrived in New York on Monday, August 29, 1887. Probably the next day she took a train to Chicago, Illinois, and then perhaps the same day on to Evanston, twelve miles north of downtown Chicago. August 31st, as mentioned in the family records, may then have been the day Emma arrived in Chicago or Evanston. Why she went to Evanston, we don't know, but probably she had family or friends in there. We do not know about Emma's time in Evanston except that she joined the Evanston Swedish Baptist Church. What we do know is that her circumstances were soon to change dramatically. Housekeeper Emma CarlsonA man in Chicago by the name of Johannes Holmquist lost his young wife, Johanna, to influenza. Johanna and Johannes had four boys together. All were young at the time of her death. Johannes was left with four young sons and a job as an ironworker. He needed help. Johannes' sister Annie cared for the four boys for nine months after Hannah's death. During this time, according to Esther Holm, Johannes hired a live-in housekeeper, Emma Charlotta Carlson (April 28,1855 - May 8, 1944). Only six months after Emma was hired and nine months after the death of Hannah, Johannes and Emma were married on April 1, 1891. Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index: John Holmquist At the time of their marriage Emma had been in America for about four and a half years and Johannes for about eleven years. Emma at the time was almost 36 years old, and Johannes 34 years old. They were married by a Mission pastor by the name of Anderson at the home of a family by the name of Holander. As one of those boys, William, later put it, "We were four boys: John, Eddie, Wilhelm and Waldemar. Dad had his hands full with us and he soon remarried, as we were not angels." Emma Carlson Wife and MotherEmma took over caring for the four young boys and did an excellent job at it. She was said to be strict, but in having to raise four young boys it was probably to her credit that she indeed was strict. She was a committed Christian and raised the four boys along Christian principles it was said by another step-son John T. Holmquist. Emma gave birth to a daughter, Edith Marie, who died at five months of age of croup (February 9, 1892 - August 2, 1892). - She was buried in the Oaks Woods Cemetery, Chicago at 6700 S. Cottage Grove Avenue of croup.Croup is 'a disease of infants and young children; harsh coughing and hoarseness and fever and difficult breathing [syn: spasmodic laryngitis], according to WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University. - Cook County, Illinois, Deaths Index: Edith Holmqust Another daughter, Emma (Emmy) Elizabeth, was born on September 4, 1896, but died in 1900. She was only three or four when she died. Both daughters were buried in the Oaks Woods Cemetery, Chicago at 6700 S. Cottage Grove Avenue. On June 2, 1897 Johannes bought a small farm of 40 acres in Grovertown, Indiana from Andrew Uncapher the owner of much land in the area. Johannes was not a farmer. He just wanted a place to get away weekends. But Johannes grew up on a farm in Sweden with his brothers and sisters. He probably felt a special tie to the land. Much of his family, no doubt, felt the same way. His sister Menny and her husband John Carlson bought a farm in Grovertown, as did his brother August, his other sister Annie and her husband Andrew Nelson. Johannes went out to the farm whenever he had a chance and enjoyed it. He built a small house on the property which his son, John T, would later enlarge. To get to the farm from Chicago Johannes took the Pennsylvania Railroad to Grovertown. On some occasions he would actually ride his bicycle from Chicago to Grovertown, a distance of over seventy-five miles. On the farm Emma and the boys spent the summers picking blueberries and huckleberries, pickles, and raising a garden which included potatoes. Some of the blueberries, which were quite good according to those family members who have had first hand experience, were sold to the dining car of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Johannes, incidentally, did not like Mr. Heil who had the farm across from his. Mr. Heil was always stealing blue berries from Johannes' bushes. Later Emma's sister Tilda who was known as 'Tillie' came to America with Emma expecting Tilda to help with the household work. At one point Emma thought that Tillie was eating too much so Emma would cut the bread in thin slices. According to Emma's grandson Bernard Holmquist. Emma is known to have been a splendid cook, and a very particular housekeeper in her younger years. She was a bit of a perfectionist it was said. She was bright and a good manager. Though strict with the boys, she seemed to have a good heart. All in all she seems to have been a very fine person. She and Johannes lived in a house at 6613 South Green Street, in Chicago, which Johannes built, where he and his wife, Emma, lived until the end of their lives. They rented out some of the rooms to boarders, so their home became a boarding house. One may expect the boarders were immigrants like themselves, and it is likely all or some of the boarders were Swedish. After all many Swedes emigrated from Sweden, and many moved to Chicago where the Holmquist family lived. Emma only spoke Swedish and she cooked Swedish food. So, that the boarders were probably Swedish is not a big jump for the imagination. Across the street at 6612 South Green Street lived Johannes sister, Menny, and her family. She and her husband, operated a laundry. It is unclear whether they operated the laundry out of their home for lived at 6112 Green Street or operated their laundry elsewhere. According to the 1910 Federal Census the family is living at 6613 Green Street in Chicago. According to the 1910 census three of the four boys, William age 22, Williams twin Edward age 22, Valmer (Waldemar) age 20, are still living at home with Johannes age 53, and Alma age 54. John was no longer living at home after marrying Ruth in 1908. No mention is made of Emmy, so she would have died before the census was taken. Occupations are given Johannes is a machinst working in a machine shop. Edward is also a machinist working with printing machines, Valmer and William are printers working in a printing company. John Holmquist in the 1910 United States Federal Census John Holmquist in the 1910 United States Federal Census original Around 1910 Johannes sister Menny and her family moved out of their home acoss the street and moved to Donaldson, Indiana. Johannes died in 1925. Emma survived her husband, by about twenty years (April 28,1855 - May 8, 1944). When they were kids in the early 1930s, June, Bill, and Marian who are brother and sisters visited their Swedish grandmother, Emma. When we were young kids, living about seven blocks from Grandma, June , Bill and I [Marian] would visit her often. My mother [Esther Holmquist] cleaned Grandma's house and shopped for her every week. When we kids visited her we would ask if we could go to the store for her, knowing she would say to go to the bakery at 66th and Halsted for some biscuits (sweet rolls).Possibly a German bakery according to Marian. Her coffee pot was on the old black cook stove all day, plenty strong, but we would have coffee and biscuits with her. She didn't like pennies, so we would tell the bakery clerk [give us change in pennies]. She probably knew what we were doing. She had a large dining room table with a large cut-glass bowl in the center. We never sat at the table but in the living room, holding the biscuit and terribly strong coffee in our hands. She often talked about the two little daughters who died, and there were huge pictures of them in oval frames on the wall, with other pictures, probably Grandpa. She would cry about losing her babies. These two babies were Edith Marie who died, of croup apparently, after a month (August 2, 1892- September 4, 1892), and Emma Elizabeth (September 4, 1896-1900) who also died of croup at three or four years of age. wonder what happened to the large family pictures on the wall. I hope someone in the family took them. When she was [still] able to go to church . . . we would pick her up . . . . I thought she was so stately, tall, straight, not at all overweight. She would wear a big black silk hat that sat on top her head, her even taller, with a big black leather purse. She was quite striking as I remember. Coming home from Englewood Swedish Baptist Church The church was located at Emerald and 59th Street for many years. Later the name changed to Emerald Avenue Baptist Church. Later when the congregation moved to another building the church was named Salem Baptist Church. The entire Holmquist family attended the church including Johannes Holmquist and Emma. In the early days services were in Swedish. [missing text] by car they sometimes stopped by Weiden's Bakery on 59th Street, a Swedish bakery which sold among other tasty items, sweet rolls, limpa and bollar which are cardamom buns. Mr. Widen was a Swedish Baptist. Many in the church bought bakery goods from him. The cardamom seed buns were Marian's favorite.Mr. Widen had a daughter Marian's age. For some reason, perhaps Mr. Widen was widomakingwed, Elaine Widen lived with a couple who were also friends of Marian's parents. One evening they came over to visit and Marian and Elaine went out to play as they always did in the summer, paying such games a hide and go seek, kick the can and marievio or simply ran through the alleys and vacant lots. Marian's parents called for them but the girls didn't hear them. The couple with whom Elaine was living was very concerned and upset think Elaine had been kidnapped. As Emma was advancing in age she need more care. About 1937 when Marian was thirteen she and her family moved in with their grandmother to help take care of Emma. We moved from a lovely Chicago bungalow to take care of Grandma. My folks slept on the 2nd floor with Grandma; us three kids (Lill had married) slept on the 3rd floor. We all took piano lessons and had to practice every day. The piano was on the second floor. It must have been very upsetting to [grandma] to have to listen to us every day. She would yell at us in Swedish. We said she was swearing at us and we tried to remember the words for fun. Email from Marian Calhoun to Lennart Holmquist, February 18, 2011 Emma spoke Swedish most of the time, which the kids did not really understand, but still they had an idea of what Emma was talking about. What little English Emma spoke she spoke with the accented Swedish lyrical, songlike rises and dips. When Emma could not go out anymore she sat in the same place every day where she could look out the front window onto Green Street though there was probably not much to see. As time passed and Emma aged she became very ill. Her step-daughter Esther Holmquist, who was very committed to Emma, took good care of her. Eventually Emma became too sick for Esther. John T. Holmquist's wife, Ruth, and Ruth's brother Joe Swanson helped to find a room for Emma in a local Swedish rest home. The rest home had a wait list for admittance. However, Emma was becoming too sick and needed to much care. David Swanson, an Illinois State Representative, used his influence to get Emma into the rest home. In the rest home Emma thought she was in heaven. Her room was so nicely decorated and peaceful. Whenever Eleanor, another one of Emma's grandchildren, visited her, Emma was singing Swedish hymns. If Emma was feeling particularly ill on one of Eleanor's visits, she would say to Eleanor "Jag kommer att dö snart." ("I am going to die soon."), and she did. Memories about EmmaEmma's grandchildren had assorted memories of her. Elaine remembers going to Emma's house on 66th and Green Street. Emma spoke only Swedish. Elaine remembers her father telling about the time that Emma came across an intruder, a black man, in her house. She picked up a wooden potato masher and chased him out of the house. Eleanor could not remember her grandmother ever going to the grocery or department store to shop, and in a letter of John he said that his mother never goes out during the winter because of the cold. (Letter from John to Ruth April 23, 1907). This is not surprising. Chicago winters can be bitter cold. Chuck Holmquist mentioned that his grandmother was a happy woman, and he was always glad to visit her home on Chicago's south side. According to her stepson John T. Holmquist, "she was a faithful and hard working step-mother to John's [Johannes'] boys and much credit is due her." A Brief Family Tree by John T. Holmquist, December 6, 1947. Upon Emma's death John T. gave his portion of his inheritance to Esther in appreciation for all she had done in caring for Emma. John's son, Bud, remembered his grandmother Emma as being 'a truly grand person.' Sounds that Emma led a successful life. Information on this chapter supplied by answers to written or verbal question to Esther Holmquist, Bernard Holmquist, Eleanor [Holmquist] Wisner, Marian [Holmquist] Calhoun , and notes by John T. Holmquist. Caryl [Holmquist] Wagner supplied the information that Johannes and Emma ran a boarding house. Recording of this information supplied by all those above was performed by Emma's great-grandson, Lennart Holmquist. Footnotes
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