Nearly Forgotten (#52Ancestors, Week 13)

Nearly Forgotten

Today I'm going to write about my great-grandfather's brother, Andrew Pierson. My great-grandfather was Herman Peterson. There has been discussion in our family about the different last names these brothers had and whether or not their names were changed at Ellis Island. That is addressed at the end of this post. What follows is based on research I have done in Ancestry.com, newspapers and by talking to relatives.

Andrew Pierson seems to be a person who hovered on the outskirts of our family. My dad and his cousins only remember a little bit about their great-uncle: He attended some of the family’s Swedish Christmas Eve celebrations, and toward the end of his life he lived in the “old folks’ home” in Princeton, Illinois. He was forgetful in his later years and maybe had a form of dementia or senility.

Here is what I have found about him in my research. Although his name changes, other things like his birthday and his relationship to his brother do not change.

Andrew Pierson came to the United States under his original Swedish birth name, Anders Hansson. He arrived in New York on March 17, 1900 on the S. S. Campania. He said that he was going to stay with his brother in Princeton, Illinois.

In the 1900 census he was living and working on a farm in Bureau Township, Bureau County, Illinois. He is listed as Andrew Peterson, born September 1877, immigration date 1900.

In 1917 Andrew Pierson became a United States citizen.

In 1918 he filled out a World War I draft card. His name was Andrew Pierson, he was living and working on a farm in Bureau County. He gave his birth date as September 22, 1877, and he listed Herman Peterson as his closest relative.

 

In 1923 he applied for a passport and traveled to Sweden, maybe visited his parents and family there. On the passport his gave his name as Andrew Pierson, confirmed his birth date September 22, 1877, that he was born in Espo, Sweden, lived in Princeton and became a citizen in 1917. His passport application also included a photograph of him, the only one I've found so far.

In 1930 he lived in Princeton and worked as a gardener at the Country Club.
In 1940, he lived in Princeton and worked at a nursery. His brother had the same occupation.

The newspapers say that Andrew attended Pierson family reunions, the family of his father’s brother Carl who came to Princeton in 1893. Andrew also attended First Lutheran Church in Princeton and Lutheran Brotherhood meetings there.

He was in the hospital a couple of times in the 1960s. He died at Prairie View Nursing Home in 1972, several months before his brother Herman.

These bare facts are not a lot to go on. They paint a fuzzy picture of the man. I see someone who left his homeland probably looking for a better life than he had in Sweden. He went to Princeton because family was there. He worked on farms and other outdoor jobs because that is what he knew in Sweden. He went to church. He never married. He didn’t make an impression on the younger generation of his family. I would guess he stayed on the sidelines of family gatherings, but he did go. He didn’t stand out in a crowd. He worked and earned a living for himself.

Andrew, if this is all I ever know about you, it will be enough to tell me that you were a member of my family and you were loved by God. If I find out more about you I will certainly post it here.


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Ellis Island Name Changes

For a long time all I knew about Andrew was the family story: He and Herman (my great-grandfather) came to America at the same time. When they got to Ellis Island someone there gave Andrew the last name of Pierson and they gave Herman the last name of Peterson. I've also heard that Herman changed his name to Peterson because he thought Pierson was too common. I don't believe either one of these is true. The New York Public Library and the Smithsonian Magazine have written articles that debunk the myth of names being changed at Ellis Island. I tend to agree with them.

Andrew Pierson was born Anders Hansson on September 22, 1877. He was born in Sweden and therefore followed the naming conventions of that country. Sons took their last name from their father; his father was Hans, so his last name was Hansson. His father’s father was Per, so Andrew’s father’s name was Hans Persson. It is my guess that Andrew and Herman took their father’s name, thereby following American naming conventions. Herman came to the United States in 1899 and Andrew came in 1900. I don’t know why they ended up with different last names but I don’t think it happened at Ellis Island.

Disaster (#52 Ancestors Week 9)

I don’t have a lot of details on this story but it’s too good not to share. So here goes.

Herman Peterson

 In 1956 my great-grandfather Herman Peterson decided to travel to Sweden to visit relatives in his home country. He booked passage on the M.S. Stockholm, traveled to New York City, and set sail for Europe on Wednesday, July 25, 1956.

The Stockholm sailed east out to the north Atlantic. The night was foggy, and around 11 o’clock, south of Nantucket, all of a sudden another ship loomed out of the fog. Neither ship could avoid the impact. The Stockholm rammed into the ship which turned out to be the Italian luxury liner, the Andrea Doria. The Andrea Doria was mortally wounded by the impact; she listed and eventually sank. The Stockholm stayed afloat and helped rescue the Andrea Doria’s passengers. Many other vessels, including another cruise ship the Ile de France, came to the rescue of the Doria’s passengers. 51 people died that night, but over 750 were saved. [I have included a few web links below that tell the story in more detail]

The Andrea Doria

The Stockholm limped back to New York City on Thursday evening with her original passengers, Herman Peterson among them, as well as some of the rescued Andrea Doria passengers. How did Herman react to this disastrous experience? Thanks to cousin Michele who shared a letter from her mother Alice, Herman’s youngest child, we know some of the details of what Herman did when he returned to New York City.

Alice Peterson Stevenson

“Hi, Everybody, My, haven’t we had an anxious, exciting week-end - or if YOU haven’t, you are more calm than I!” (At this time Alice was working for the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.) “I had half the Pentagon, PLUS the Swedish Embassy, checking on Dad on the STOCKHOLM...I called the Swedish-American Line in New York to see if they had info on one Herman Peterson, but found they had little information....I kept a constant vigil at the ticker-tape machine here in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and got the latest info that way. Well, aren’t we happy that no more were injured or lost.” What a different picture from our world of instant newscasts today!

Alice finally got some answers on Friday when she spoke on the phone with “Gladys” in New Jersey (does anyone know who Gladys was/is?), who reassured her that her dad was OK. Alice continued, “I asked her if Dad had said that he would telephone home, but she said he had said, yes, he would let them know he was OK, that he would WRITE them. I really got a bang out of that....good old steady Dad will WRITE! Oh that I had inherited a similar nervous system!”

Alice found out that Herman had alighted from the Stockholm and immediately booked passage on the Bergenjhord, a Norwegian ocean liner, that was leaving on Wednesday. Alice went to New York on Sunday to see her dad who told her that he wasn’t going to let anything keep him from visiting Sweden. He also told her that his roommates, two men from Michigan, went straight back home to stay put.

Alice recounts another anecdote that is worth sharing here:

“When I was with Dad in New York he took me to the headquarters for the Stockholm passengers - a room off the lobby of his hotel....While in the hq we were chatting with the man in charge there and he told Dad that the Swedish-American Lines was hosting a cocktail party on Monday evening for all the Stockholm passengers...I looked at Dad thoroughly expecting to see a scowl come over his face, but to my complete surprise he smiled and said ‘Yah, I’ll be there.’ I nearly fell off my chair. Later we found the invitation in his mailbox and he opened it. I was kidding him and asked what he would drink at the cocktail party, that I didn’t want any rumors floating back to the Swedish Embassy that he had gotten tipsy in New York, etc. etc. He laughed and said that he would probably drink orange pop. I asked him if he liked ginger ale, and he said yes he liked ginger ale. So I tactfully suggested that he might ask for that instead of orange pop. I got so tickled at him.”

So Herman survived his night of disaster on the sea. He probably drank a ginger ale toast with other Stockholm passengers that Wednesday evening, and then turned his attention to getting to Sweden. As far as Herman was concerned, the disaster with the Andrea Doria was just a detour from his main objective, seeing his family in his homeland.


Sources, links, etc.

The Story of the Andrea Doria from the History Channel 

The Last Voyage of the Andrea Doria
A National Geographic Documentary

Pictures of the MS Stockholm

Long Line (#52Ancestors, Week 3)

This week’s prompt took some thought. I don’t have an extensive family line that I have researched, there’s no occupation that keeps cropping up in the family, and we don’t even have anyone named Long.

However, I do have a characteristic that has shown itself consistently in my family for at least five generations back. So I’m choosing to focus on a long line of believers in the Christian faith that has become evident to me as I have researched my family.

Admittedly, it’s hard to judge anyone’s heart, especially the heart of an ancestor from long ago, but I do see that church was a “given,” a way of life, and the fact that faith continued to be important from one generation to the next tells me how sincere their faith was. In earlier generations I find obituaries that testify to the strength of faith in my ancestors’ lives, and in the later generations I can attest from personal knowledge that my family were strong believers.

My parents, Stan and Sarah Peterson, a Lutheran minister and his wife, brought me up in the Christian faith. Their belief and relationship with the Lord was a model for me as I grew. I have had the privilege of watching my parents live their lives, good and bad, knowing the Lord and having faith in His love and provision for them.

Burton and Verna Graf Falk

I knew three out of my four grandparents and can say from personal knowledge that they all believed in Jesus Christ.  My mom’s parents were Burton and Verna Graf Falk. I knew my maternal grandmother, Grandma Falk (Verna Graf Falk), pretty well. Verna grew up in a strict Seventh Day Adventist household but went to the Lutheran church when she married Burt. I know that she often attended Bible studies and I remember her reading the Bible from beginning to end every year; she would put a dot by each chapter after she read it. Grandma was also one who lived out her faith by volunteering (I remember her making “cancer pads”) and serving through church activities.

I don’t know much about Burton’s faith, he died when I was about four. I know he was baptized in the Lutheran church and that he attended church regularly with my mom and grandma.

Adrienne Falk Frazier

I also knew Burton’s sister, my mom’s Aunt Adrienne Falk, who was raised in the same Lutheran household as Burt but embraced a more evangelical faith in her adulthood. She always shared the gospel with us when we visited, and although her forthright talk sometimes made this quiet Lutheran uncomfortable, there was no doubt about where she stood and the faith that we shared, even if we lived it out differently.

Burton and Adrienne's parents were Eric Gustaf Falk and Helen Hedin Falk. Their obituaries list their membership at Grace Lutheran Church in Aurora, Illinois, the same church in which her granddaughter (my mom) was married. So not only was the faith passed down, but membership in the same church was shared as well.

Martha Bonin Graf and John Graf

Of Verna’s parents, her mom Martha Bonin Graf was the believer. Martha was born in northern Germany in 1875 and she died in 1958. Her obituary reads: “Forty-nine years ago she was baptized [at age 34] and joined the Seventh-day Adventist church in Elgin and remained true to her faith until the time of her death.” I don’t think that her husband John Graf went to church either as a young man once he immigrated to America or after he and Martha were married.

Edna Johnson Peterson and Harry Peterson,
as I knew them

My dad grew up in Princeton, Illinois where the First Lutheran Church (formerly the Swedish Lutheran Church) was a centerpiece of the family’s life. My dad’s father, Harry Peterson, didn’t or wouldn’t talk much about his faith but he attended church regularly. He served on the church council and was a deacon, usher, and served in many other ways at the Princeton First Lutheran Church. Harry’s wife Edna, Dad’s mom, sang in the church choir and was the choir director at one time. When I knew her later in life she attended Bible studies and I even have one or two of her reference books with some of her notes in it. I also remember that she would often shed tears when she prayed; when I was young I didn’t understand this but now I interpret those tears as an emotional response to her Lord.

Herman Peterson

Celia Anderson Peterson

Harry’s dad Herman Peterson was a member of First Lutheran Church in Princeton and served on the church council for many years. His wife Cecilia maintained membership at First Lutheran church in Princeton with her husband and was a charter member of the missionary society of that church. She raised nine children who also attended church and had a strong Christian faith. Celia’s mother Inga Anderson was a member of Zion Lutheran church in Kewanee, and she was also a member of the Ladies’ Aid and Missionary Societies of the church.

My dad’s maternal grandparents also attended First Lutheran Church in Princeton, Illinois. Edna’s father Theodore Johnson was a life member of the First Lutheran Church of Princeton (according to his obituary) and at the time of his death was the financial secretary of the church. His wife, Anna Lindgren Johnson, was confirmed in the New Bedford Illinois Lutheran church and held membership there and at the Princeton Lutheran Church when her family moved there. According to her obituary, Anna was a member of Ladies Aid and Missionary Societies, a member of choir and a Sunday School teacher. Her obituary testifies to the strength of her faith: “Early in her life she accepted Christ as her Savior and has lived a consistent Christian life.”

Swan Lindgren

Anna’s father (Edna’s grandfather) Swan Lindgren was also a member of First Lutheran Church in New Bedford, served as deacon for 27 years, also taught adult Bible class. His obituary also gives testimony to his character: “Mr. Lindgren gradually failed in physical strength during the last years of his life, but he retained his mental vigor to a large degree and his Christian faith was strong and conquering.”

Interestingly, Swan Lindgren’s second wife Anna was a friend of Celia Peterson (Herman Peterson’s wife). The two ladies were often mentioned together in church news items, as in this article where they entertained the Woman’s Home and Foreign Missionary society of the Swedish Lutheran church (1919)

And the faith continues. My sisters and I share a strong faith in Jesus, and I am always encouraged at our Peterson reunions to hear the faith stories of my dad’s cousins. In fact, one of his cousin’s sons is a missionary in Central America.

Now we work and pray to instill a love of the Lord in our own children, so that they will live knowing the Lord and be light to the world as we are called to do. An old saying is that the church is one generation away from extinction. As I look back over my family history, I am inspired to see that I come from a long line of Christians who have kept the faith in their lives and have planted it in the generations that followed.

Happy Birthday, Herman

Herman Peterson in 1942

My great-grandfather Herman Peterson was born on December 24, 1875 in Äspö, Skåne, Sweden. He was the first child of Hans Persson and Karna Andersdotter, who had been married just a year earlier. The church book in Äspö records his birth like this:

You can see his birthday listed, December 24, and that he was baptized on December 30. His given name was Per, probably after his paternal grandfather. Because of Swedish naming traditions, young Per would not take a last name (which would be patterned after his father's first name) until he left his parents' house many years later. When he did, he would be known as Per Hansson. (How he came to be called Herman Peterson is a topic for a future blog post.)

Imagine having a baby on Christmas Eve, which is such a big holiday in Sweden. Were Hans and Karna already celebrating, with family or by themselves? What must young Hans and Karna's house have been like when baby Per came into their lives? Did they have a Christmas tree with lit candles? Were there presents under the tree, maybe even for the expected little one? Did they think about another young couple whose baby was born in Bethlehem so long ago?

The back of this photo says "House where Dad P was born."

Hans Persson, his wife Karna and now his son Per lived at Espö No. 14, a farm that had been owned by Hans' father before him and where Hans grew up with his younger brother Carl and his sisters Kersti (the oldest) and Boel (third in the family).

Five days after Per's birth, Hans and Karna took their son to the church to be baptized. Below is a picture of the church at Äspö, which is centuries old; the baptismal font dates from 1200-1300 AD. Just imagine the young family going to the church in the dark and cold of a Swedish winter. They probably would have met the baby's sponsors, listed as Marna Helgesdotter, Anders Persson, and Boet Persdotter, who was Hans' younger sister.

I think about my own children's baptisms and wonder about Per's. Did baby Per cry when the cold water washed his brow? Did he have a special christening gown? Did people give him and his parents presents? Surely the family celebrated afterwards. Bringing a child into the world and into the community of saints is an event to be cherished and remembered. Herman, Per, Grandpa and Great-Grandpa Pete, today we remember you.