59th Street near Racine 2

As far as I can remember is when we lived on 59th Street near Racine in Chicago. We lived across the street from Lundquist who had a coffee store. They sold many other things too. I can remember I played with the son, Martin and I must have liked to be there. When Nellie [Esther's older sister] came to get me I would crawl under the bed and went so far I couldn't be reached. One time Martin and I walked a long way to Halsted Street and couldn't find our way home. My mother offered a penny to anyone who would find us. Martin's father sold coffee and tea to the homes and saw us on Halsted Street and took us home.

I remember we had two borders who had recently come from Sweden. So many of the children would meet their fathers coming from work, so we met these men. I do not remember the others in the family then.

Carl 3 was to start school, but he was sent home a couple of times as he was so small they thought he wasn't 6 years. My mother said that she ought to know his age.

We also lived near a Salvation Army and went to Sunday School there. We attended every Sunday so would get the first prize at Christmas. The first prizes would be beautiful books which filled our bookcase. One book was the life of Queen Victoria and two books we had were A Practical Guide for Practical People. We were also given a large bag of fruit, candy, and a toy, and that was what our Christmas gifts consisted of. The bag was large as a 25 lb bag of flour would be. We were to bring a penny for offering and were given a Sunday School paper. If we did not give the penny, we would not get a paper. Some [kids] spent the penny.

The salvation army building was frame. Our classes were like our other sunday school classes in church. We were various ages in one class. We had a lot of singing and the band played. In sunday school English was used. The services were in Swedish. Very happy lively people and kind. We loved it.

5931 Carpenter Street 4

From 59th Street we moved to 5931 Carpenter Street. (When my father was alive we lived across the street from this address.) We had more men eating at our place. I can remember August5 crying to be rocked. Even to this day he likes a rocking chair and the church in Brooklyn gave him a rocking chair. Even at 5931 I do not remember much about the others of the family. I can remember the out-house with plumbing which was near the house. I started school at this time,6 but I had such a mean teacher who would hit us with a long pointing stick. My mother never yelled or hit us, so I became very nervous and had to stay home from school, so I was behind a year. I can remember I had a hard time to say 'six'. The teacher was fired but I know she came back, so maybe she had pull. We moved from 5931 to 5943 Carpenter.

5943 Carpenter Street 7

My uncle, whom my mother had never seen, wanted to come to America. My mother helped him to come to Chicago when he was only 16 years old. Later he wanted a watch, so my mother bought a watch for him. At that time he and my mother bought the house at 5943. What an improvement from other places. We had 3 bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. We could have five roomers then, upstairs. My second cousin came from Sweden and my uncle and cousin had a bedroom downstairs off of the dining room. Our whole family slept in one room off of a kitchen. We had a bed that folded down. The room was filled. I saw my mother praying with just room to kneel. All the men with us stayed untill they married. All the latter they came to the country to celebrate my mother's birthday and came years later to her funeral at the cemetery. In the dining room was a large picture of fruit and a motto, 'Christ is the Head of this house, the unseen guest at every meal.'

At this time my mother had a lot of work, having as many as 30 men eating at our house. My mother had a long table. I think 30 people could be seated. The food was passed family style. The men were young and laborers so had a good appetite. The table cloth was called oil cloth and wiped clean easily. no napkins. Paper things were not made then. Many took a lunch to work wrapped in newspaper. Some had pails so could have coffee. A tray held sandwiches with plenty lunch meat. No dessert can I remember. Fruit soup of dried fruit. All Swedes. Newly from Sweden. They all went to night school and learned English.

We celebrated christmas the Swedish way with the food the Swedish always had. We sang and danced around the Christmas tree. Gifts were wraped in newspaper and no ribbons. So much paper on the floor. The men had girl friends at our house. The men wanted good wives and got them at the Salvation Army. Not any went to church. They sent their kids to sunday school.

My mother would sit on the porch and peel potatoes before supper. In the back yard was a grape vine. In the front was a large bed of forget-me-nots, so beautiful. I never see forget-me-nots anymore. When living at this house I remember more about Nellie, Carl and August. Nellie had to wait on the table and the rest of us dried the dishes. I believe my mother washed the dishes. One time I had a large meat platter and dropped it and cut my knee badly. I had a scar for years. Nellie had to come out and get me from outdoors to dry the dishes. I didn't like that, and was happy when we moved to Lemont.

Nellie now had finished business college and was looking for work. She learned to be a stenographer, but liked bookkeeping better. She worked hard and had so much homework and became pale, so my mother said that she should not read any books. It made Nellie so angry she didn't talk to my mother for two weeks. We all loved to read.

Friends had a store, more like a stationery store. Nellie worked for them, as office work was hard to find. She finally had work as a bookkeeper for a Jewish concern. Later a man there was given a new job and asked Nellie to come where he was working. It was far better, on Michigan Avenue, for Lord & Thomas, where Nellie worked until she was married.

I can remember when Carl and Nellie had the whooping cough. My mother bought bananas for 5 cents a dozen, sold by a man who came down the street calling out "bananas." They were good nourishment. Carl was selling newspapers in the afternoons. On saturdays he would sit on the kitchen floor and count the pennies. I wonder what he made after walking many blocks to deliver the papers. One family always baked rolls and gave him one on Saturday. Lilyestrom, members of the church we attended, was their name. Carl, although so small and young, would go downtown on errands for a man who could not leave his store to take care of the business himself.

Our sidewalks were made of wood and the out-house had plumbing.

When we had to move upstairs to live, when my uncle wanted the house to use the first floor for himself, it made it impossible for my mother to make a living for us by having men eat at our house.

My mother had a nervous breakdown having no longer or able to make a living for us as she had been doing, but continued working the the Englewood Hospital until we could move to Lemont and this made her well again. She scrubed floors at Englewood hospital. It was hard work.

The doctor said she must go to the country. It worked out my mother could keep house for a man she knew. He had 4 sons 14 years old and up. Their mother [had] died. This man [later] bought a farm in Ross, Indiana. It was the reason we lived in Ross.

Lemont

I was ten years old at the time we moved to Lemont. I remember it was halloween night, but I do not remember how we came there. It must have been on the street car that ran every hour. Carl was in the 8th grade. Once in Chicago August had convulsions and again a couple of years later in Lemont he had them again. He was unconscious for about seven hours and we were afraid he would die.

Lemont gave us a good time in the winter with the long hills. Home-made toboggans were used and we could ride a couple of blocks. Sometimes I was the only girl with these Polish and Swedish boys. They were such good boys you didn't need to be afraid to be with them at night. They liked to use snuf but not smoke. Skating too was fun there. The summers were hot.

I can remember in Lemont living near a steep hill. In the winter, we would take old tin pans and sit on them and slide down the hill. We had hot summers, not being near a lake, in Lemont. I remember playing in the cellar that was so cool. On the floor were large bowls of milk with thick cream on top. We never thought of whipping cream. My mother often put out large bowls of milk for the chickens. She always fed the animals, as well as people, very well. The cow was given a large container of bran every day. Now I eat bran every morning and I know it is good for me. I heard Val once say that there wasn't much profit in having chickens because my mother fed them too well.

Ross, Indiana 8

After three years we moved to Ross, Indiana. I can remember moving there. August, my brother, my mother and I, after the train, took a street car to the tracks to Ross. That was a long walk. How my mother knew the house we were to go to is a wonder. There wasn't even a road along 45th. Mr. Olson took a petition and had the neighbors sign for a road to go there. No trees were there, but the Olsons planted trees and after the road was made some people moved in. We crossed over the fields to school and church. I believe we were under 60 students and we knew everyone at the school.

We had a couple of sleigh-rides, and picked cherries in the summer. We all, but one family, went to the same church and Sunday School. Students came out from Moody Bible Institute every Sunday. They had their fare paid but maybe nothing more. On Monday they went back to Chicago. They stayed with the members.

We had a railroad station and would pick up our mail there too. That was 70 years ago (1911).

When Nellie visited Lemont we would go to a woods called Norton Hill. We could pick loads of violets and johnny jump-ups and other wild flowers. Not many people knew of the place so we had plenty, and water cress too, but we didn't take it, not knowing how good it was for us. We used to pick little red, berry-like things, grown on big trees.

I used to think to myself I would not want to marry anyone who did not come up to Nellie's husband or my brothers; they were my ideal men. I married a brother-in-law's brother.

We didn't bake or cook when we were at home. My mother said, "anyone who can read can cook." One time Nellie came to Ross and baked a cake; she wanted some practice before she got married.

Even when I was over 14, Nellie bought a hat for me, and I believe a coat. It wasn't easy to spend her hard-earned money on me. My mother had just money she would get selling eggs and milk, which didn't amount to very much.

After 2nd year high school we were just two of us in the grade, a boy named Bill Bothwell and myself.

[My mother] worked hard [for the man who bought the farm]. The sons were in business in Gary [Indiana] and lived above the grocery store they had. Finally my mother had a small house built a mile down the same road. Later Nellie and Val moved to Sawyer, Michigan and died while living there. The Baptist church was started in their home. They met in the homes untill the folks could buy what was a factory. Later they grew and could build a church and a parsonage. I never hear from anyone from there, all have passed away.

Gary, Indiana 9

I went to Gary and lived with a family for my room and board. The first two weeks I was very lonesome. My mother said if I didn't get over it, I could come home; well, I got over it after two weeks and never had it again.

Chicago, Illinois 10

The last year of high school I was in Chicago and lived with Nellie and Val. The 50 cents a week I earned took care of carfare and stamps. I had a pleasant life there.

Esther Sable and her brother Walter and I walked to high school. The carfare was only 5¢ but even that much was too much in those days. A loaf of bread we could buy for 5¢. A dozen rolls a penny apiece.

The Andersons belonged to the same church we did, Englewood Swedish Baptist. One of the sons has a nut factory in Haines City, Florida. The oldest son had a good position with the A & P store.

I wish I could write more about Nellie's youth. All I can remember is that she took us to the store when we needed clothing. I can remember her waiting on the table. I believe she was near 14 years old then. Nellie was the one to call me in to dry dishes or go to the store. We gave Lundquist a lot of business because we used a lot of butter (25¢ a pound). He delivered the coffee and gave us coupons. Our rug in the front room and a Morris chair we were able to get with the coupon tickets and other things. At the corner store where our lunch meat was bought and other groceries, we received coupons too. I do not remember how many coupon tickets we received to get the phongraph and records, but we had many records. The four of us would take turns picking out the record we wanted. We had several funny ones, Cohen on the Telephone, and one about a wedding. We chose marches played by Soussa.

I can remember having tooth aches and I remember my mother holding me and rubbing brandy on the tooth. I am sure my mother was tired at night and then to have to sit up because i was crying with a tooth ache, must have been hard. It seemed that August and I were immune to catching anything going around. I didn't get the flu in 1918 when so many had it and so many died. Val almost died, when he was so sick, delirious with double phneumonia too.

I had a pleasant childhood and laughed a lot. My conscience was very sensitive. If I only thought a cross word it would bother me.

I remember where we lived in Chicago at the other end of the street another boarding house was opened and some thought it would hurt my mother's business, but it didn't. Their name was Holmes.

Nellie

When Nellie was going with Val, she always insisted to be taken home early and to be home at 10:00. I believe she was very popular at her place of work, even if she never entered into their parties where they drank liquor. I thought all of her clothes were so pretty. In those days a dressmaker sewed them. I can see some of them now. Nellie said that all the music she knew was from singing in the choir. She used to play the guitar. I enjoyed hearing her sing some of the old Swedish songs. "If I Gained the World and Lost the Savior" was one of them. I remember one day her Sunday School class came to their apartment so they must have thought a lot of her. They gave her something, which I have forgotten. I know the Sunday School class in Sawyer was blessed by Nellie's teaching. Every day Nellie spent time on her lesson, so was prepared. I remember her saying, "If a thing cannot be changed, accept it and do not let it upset you."

Nellie was small and seldom weighed over 110 pounds. She was a worker. I wonder if her children remember the wonderful sunshine cakes Nellie baked and sold for 50¢. The cakes were so high made with a dozen eggs. One lady said that to have such high cakes she must have a very good oven. I wish she could see her sonwerful stove - an old oil stove with an oven which wan't good, put on the oil burners. I believe Nellie prayed for every cake she baked, as she prayed about all she did. The oil stove mentioned above is the one on which Marge burned her hand so badly. It was an answer to prayer that Marjorie came under the care of the best doctors in the country at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

The Kirk Family

The Kirk's furnished the hospital with all the soap needed. We did not have the many soaps we have today. The Kirk's made Ivory flakes and American Family toilet soap. I worked for this family taking care of the children. These people were all very good looking and all blondes, Scottish decent. They would not allow their soap or any soap to be used on the chidren's faces. Only Ivory soap was used as a bath soap. They helped Children's Hospital. They, of course were very wealthy, but later on the parents were divorced because the wife became an alcoholic. They had a lovely home in Lake Forest, Illinos. The oldest girl married a doctor and she was divorced. I used to think a person would have to be happy if they could buy anything they wanted.

When young, I loved lovely homes and wished I could easily have a bath every day. This was 65 years ago. I lived where everything was beautiful and I could take a bath every day and have plenty of the best food. But my eyes were opened and I saw unhappiness amidst all the luxury. They were multi-millionaires. All three families had sadness, mostly due to unfaithfulness of their husbands. One of these sad women said that she wished she was as happy as we (the help) were. We could laugh a lot and were carefree, but we didn't have much of this earth's goods.

The Wrigley Family

One of my friends left where I was working and was given $25 a week, which was twice what I earned. She went to work for the Wrigley gum people. They liked her so much that when she said she wanted to visit Sweden, the Wrigleys said if she would return to them they would pay her fare to Sweden. Their secretary asked why she didn't take first class passage, but she said she would go as she planned, when she was to pay her own way. The Wrigleys, as far as I know, were happily married. When I saw their refrigerator filled with oranges, I thought how wonderful and to buy that much. The day came here in Florida that I could fill my refrigerator too.

I had supper at Wrigley's one evening. The folks were not at home so I could see the whole place. They had 2 floors of rooms on Lake Shore drive, 17 rooms each floor. They were not in society as Kirks were. When my friend who, with her sister supported a couple of missionaries, made dolls and dress them too, and she did. The Wrigley's had 5 homes, in Pasadena was one of them. They owned an island off California, Catalina. One house they had in Maine and one not far from Chicago near Lake Delavan. Flowers were brought in fresh every day from this place 100 miles from Chicago. My friend would put some in her room when they were replace with fresh ones. I was going to say that most of the servants were communistic and hated the rich, even though their good jobs were given them. It is like an old saying, "biting the hand that feeds you." Mrs. Wrigley was small so Marian had and wore dresses and shoes of hers. I had a couple of alligator skin shoes. I wore hand-me-down shoes which caused me to get bunions.

The Lord Provides

When I was around 10 or 12 years old I feared that the end of the world was coming because of Haley's comet appearing. Now, more than ever, it seems like the Lord Jesus is coming for us soon. There are so many signs. Of course we do not know the day or the hour when He will come to take us to be caught up to be with Him.

When Carl was about 12 years old, a man came to the house trying to sell violins. My mother must have been eager for Carl to learn to play it. If one bought the violin ($25.00), free lessons would be given for a couple of months. I guess Carl did not like to practice and did not do well. My mother asked if Nellie could finish the free lessons and she could. She did very well with the few lessons. I think she had an ear for music. I remember she took some piano lessons after she was married and also learned to play the guitar. I too had piano lessons for 50 cents a lesson, but didn't do very well. When I think of it, Nellie was working and paid for the lessons. A young woman came from Joliet and, so far I know, had only three people taking lessons from her in Lemont. Carl sang in quartets but did not know music. He got by with it.

I remember hearing my mother tell how the Lord provided for her. Money was scarce at that time when I was under 6 years old. Once when my mother went to the store, the butcher said to her that he had overcharged her 25 cents, which was almost impossible, but she understood he wanted to give her the 25 cents. That amount went far in those days. The Lord provided for her all through the years. We have it so good now we can't believe how folk got along then. We had one bathroom for 12 people living in our house. With 3 bedrooms upstairs and 2 downstairs. It was hot upstairs in summer and cold in the winter. There was a hole in the ceiling downstairs so heat could go up there a little. I wonder how we managed. A friend of mine from Germany does not light her wall furnace. She lives in St. Petersburg, and says that we coddle ourselves and she manages to keep well. I recall if we saw an auto when I was around 10 years old, we would run a block to get close to it and see all the brass trimmings on it, and it was open to dust and wind. To drive in the early years was a pleasure, but now there is too much traffic, so it's hard to enjoy the car.

We went to the Salvation Army first and the Lundquist girls did too. We enjoyed it there. When we were old enough to walk to the Baptist Sunday School we did. We would meet others walking. I remember Lillian's mother and Aunt Emma. Most members lived in the area. All were Swedish and the parents were born in Sweden.

Father's Family

These are the names of my father's family: His mother, Marie; sister, Juliana; brothers, Fred, Oscar, Joel and Frank. My father's name was August. Two died while young. Two never married. Oscar was Esther Jensen's father. His name was Carl Oscar but he was called Charlie by many, Esther said. My mother always called him Oscar. I believe Carl was named after him. Martin's son was named Carl too. Johanson was their last name. Two took the name of Nordell, two took the name of Holm. When the brothers joined the army in Sweden there were so many Johansons they were asked to choose another name. That's how the brothers happened to have different names. The name "Holm" means evergreen tree.

My father's mother became blind in her old age. Oscar, Esther Jensen's father, was the only one who visited his mother after they came to America, and she was so pleased, never expecting to see any of them again. When she died, Oscar sent money for her burial as well as for the get-together, or party, they always had at such times.

I don't know very much about my father because we never asked about him. I was 2-1/2 years old when he died. My mother said that it would have to be an accident that would take my father, he was so healthy, never had a headache or ache of any kind. He loved sweets and would rather have a dessert than meat. I am like that too so it's difficult for me to lose weight. I too am very healthy doctors have said. My mother didn't have time to watch if we ate vegetables or meat, as long as we were well, it was OK. I never caught the childhood diseases when so many around were sick. Nelli was 7 years old when my father died. He was thrown from a wagon and had no bones broken, but I am sure he was hurt internally, as he was never well again. His death was caused by tuberculosis of the stomach. Maybe today it would be cancer. My uncle, Frank Kumlander said everyone spoke so highly of my father. I know this: from Esther Jensen. Esther's father lived in Oskaloose and was a member of the Salvation Army before be married.

I hope you can make out what I wrote. I had a happy childhood. We ate what all had. My mother believed to keep well you must eat good food, healthy food.