Person:Shirley Newquist (1)

She passed away at Countryside Nursing Centre following a lengthy illness.

Shirley was a 1941 graduate of West Aurora High School. She then attained her teaching degree at Dekalb Teachers College and a Masters Degree from Northwestern University. She then taught the primary grades at East Aurora District 131 for 12 years. Shirley was a past president of Copley Memorial Hospital Auxiliary. She was also a director of the Women's Chicago District Golf Association and loved to golf at the Aurora Country Club. She was a member of Our Savior Lutheran Church.

Shirley was preceded in death by her parents and a granddaughter Chloe-Ann Waldo. She left 5 great-grandchildren.

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Provided information on her branch to Harvey Newquist in August, 1998. This led to the significant genealogy data for the Carl Newquist branch.

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The following letter was written by Shirley to Bernice (Jones) Lowe.

                                                        Aurora, Illino
                                                          October 21, 1980   

Dear Bernice,

As my Jewish friends would say, " A typist I'm not. A little information I can give to you ". So...... The story of the Newquist's I can relate (to the best of my ability) and I shall attempt to correct all and every error in setting this down on paper.

It would seem that the circle starts and ends with me. Most of the family has died or dropped from sight. It is truly a shame that I-or someone else-did not make the effort to find out more about the family background. With the brothers and sisters living long lives I should have attempted to make a record and know more about the Newquist side of the family. With the death of Willie, Gertie, and then my Dad the family seems to stop. Elma would be of no help, even if she were in good health, as I doubt that John spoke much about his background and she was never overly friendly in her relationship with our families.

Any information that you need about Allison would have to come from Gloria or Pete. Al's surviving wife has lost all contact with us in Aurora. She was very close to my brother and his family and even Nick has not heard from her in three years. Cards have been returned without new addresses and from this I would surmise that she has started over and wishes to make the break a permanent one.

Our Family story is a true tale about the immigrants coming to this country early in the start of the wave of people from foreign shores. How they had the fortitude to make the long trip to a strange land I cannot fathom----a case of survival and a hope for a better future. All things considered they did quite well and all had good families and no one was ever in trouble or had police problems.

I am enclosing the letter that Willie wrote. I've tried several shops to try and get a clear copy. If you think it worthwhile perhaps you can try. The information that I am going to send (in narrative) is what I translated from Willie's letter. I checked the locations with a map in World Book Encyclopedia..

Hundreds of years ago the Newquist came from the province of Smaland--from the small city or village of Vaxjo. Vaxjo was the capitol of Sweden long before Stockholm. The family migrated to Byxholm and thence to Hornaryd.

Louise Peterson was born there, married there, and gave birth to six children. She and Carl Charles Newquist sired Willie, John, Esther, Gertrude, and Edith. Another girl, Hulda, was born there and died at the age of seven. Their only other child, Arthur Julius, was born after the family came to the United States.

Carl Charles Newquist was born in Nykulla and lived on a farm. Willie stated that the farm had been in the family some 300 years when Willie wrote this in 1952. When the little family migrated to the States the family farm was still operated by Johanes Peterson. With the Swedes penchant for the change of names in each generation Willie did not know what name might be used in this village--it could have been Newquist or Nykuist.

Grampa Charles (he liked to interchange his name) was a fisherman during the warm months and a cabinet-maker in the winter. Willie and the boys also helped and Esther could remember the nets that the family would help to mend and keep in order. When things became too distressed Grampa Carl and Willie migrated to the United States in 1889 sailing from the seaport of Gothenburg.

The remainder of the family came in due time. Esther mentioned she was about eight---this would make their arrival in 1893. They all settled in Rockford, Illinois area as there were many Swedish friends there and a great deal of cabinet making at that time. From there they moved to Chicago and the boys found employment at various jobs--Willie being the only one who remained in the wood-working field all of his productive life.

From then on I would be giving information that would not be of any specific use for the family booklet.

Geographically: Vaxjo is NE of Trolleholm and almost due West of Orrefors (both the glass-blowing capitols of Sweden) Hornaryd is about 10 miles from Vaxjo and Nykulla's about 6 miles from Vaxjo. In Vaxjo you might still find a church with a gold-leaf roof but no steeple (but this was the way Willie rembered it from 1889 )

Any further questions I might be able to answer but I think this is sufficient. Have a Good Week