Person:Hanna Larson (1)

In Sweden, her surname could have been the more common spelling, Larsson or Larsdotter. Her first name is spelled Hannah on some records.

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Note: Her birthplace Västanfors (previous spelling was Westanfors) is located in the Västmanland lan in the middle of Sweden. In 1944, the Fagersta factory community was melded to Västanfors village to create a city named Fagersta. But the area’s history is longer than that by far – iron working in the three iron mills called Semla, Fagersta and Västanfors dates to the early 1600s.

Fagersta is young town in an old district where people have lived for centuries. The population of Fagersta is about 12,300 people, and the town is situated in central Sweden.

Today, trade and industry in Fagersta consists a range of skilled small businesses and four major export-oriented companies, all of which are world leaders in their fields of tungsten carbide, rock drills and stainless steel products.

A main walking path takes you through the wonderful scenery of Fagersta. In total, there are more than 500 km of paths, throughout the beautiful and varied countryside. Just by the lake Eskiln you can camp at our three star camping ground. The camping ground has a bath with a water slide and a miniature golf course.

Fagersta has a rich history of iron and foundries. The UNESCO´s world heritage Engelsbergs Bruk was one of the most important iron foundries in the world and is a fine example of the kind of foundry that made Sweden one of the world’s biggest iron producers.

On Oljeön Island, in Ängelsberg just 15 km outside of Fagersta, you will find the world’s oldest preserved oil refinery, and at Västanfors Hembygdsgård you can see how people lived at the turn of the 19th century. A very popular Christmas program, about the celebrations of the mine owners and ironmasters, is arranged here. Several thousands of people return every year to enjoy the atmosphere of the Christmas exhibitions.

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The following notes were provided in 2000 by her daughter, Dorothy, and Marilyn Larson Beets:

Hanna's family was poor, and as a young girl she did little jobs to help out the family. She went to a farm to get milk for a rich family and had to go by a cemetery. She would run so fast as she was so scared. She also did small chores for that family. Hanna gave the money she earned to her mother, but always kept a few pennies for herself - to go to America.

When she went to school, she worked for the teacher. Hanna would arrive at the school earlier than the teacher, and she would make her tea and tidy up a little. The school teacher liked her, and told her she should go to America for a better life. Hanna's teacher taught her English at an early age.

At home her father was very strict and she had to obey him. Her mother was more lenient and encouraged Hanna to go to America. Hanna's teacher helped her with some money (which she later paid back), and also arranged for a sponsor (which was required then).

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Note: The Ellis Island manifest (line 24) shows Hanna Larson (servant, age 17) arriving in New York aboard the SS Oceanic on October 10, 1901. It sailed from Liverpool on October 2nd. Her last residence was Westanfors, Sweden and her destination was 10 Broadway, Stamford, CT. The note is not definitive, and her destination might have been NYC. She was travelling on the same contract ticket with Hanna Anderson (age 23) also from Westanfors whose destination was NYC to meet her Uncle Bisk (sp).

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Upon arrival in America, the sponsor took her to an agency and she got a job in a private school for rich boys on the Hudson River. She was so afraid of all these boys teasing her that she went back to the agency. After that, she was placed with two maiden ladies who loved Hanna and treated her like their daughter. These two ladies liked their beer, and Hanna had to take a pail and go to the saloon. They would open a window and give her a pint.

Her brother, Fred, immgrated in 1903 and met her in New York City.

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Note: The Ellis Island records show Frederick Emmanuel Larson (age 21) arriving from Sweden aboard the SS Oceanic on April 3, 1903. It departed from Liverpool on March 25th. His destination is to meet his sister, Hanna Larson, who resdies at 153 West 13th St. in New York City.

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He then went to live with friends in Chicago. He would write and send her newspapers about what was going on there. Hanna was lonesome, and decided to leave the two ladies and go to Chicago. They were very upset, and said they would adopt her and she would inherit their estate.

But she left and got a job in an all-women's hospital on the North Side of Chicago. She loved taking care of patients, and she went to night school to improve her English. To learn English, she would read all the signs and billboards. She was introduced to bananas, and ate so many that she lost her taste for them.

She met August Newquist, who had returned from a long trip to Cripple Creek, CO and Pasadena, CA. They were married in the Lutheran Church in Chicago in 1906.

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Note: 1st Lutheran Church ,2515 Grove St Blue Island, IL (Illinois) This current church is in the right location, and possible subject.

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Churchwide Archives 321 Bonnie Lane Elk Grove Village, Illinois 60007 (847) 690-9410 E-mail: archives@@elca.org The ELCA Archives holdings include parish histories and microfilm copies of many Chicago Lutheran church records and the original records of a few disbanded parishes. Microfilm may be viewed at the archives by appointment or borrowed for up to one month for a $15 fee. The archives web site is an excellent source of information about Chicago Lutheran congregations and the location of their records.

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In the 1910 Census, Fred E. Larson (single, age 28) was living with the August and Hanna Newquist Family. He was born in Sweden of Swedish parents and had immigrated 1n 1903 and was a naturalized citizen. He was an iron moulder working in a foundry. He had been out of work for 12 weeks during the previous year.

In the 1920 US Census, she is listed as immigrating in 1895, and became a naturalized citizen in 1906. This census immigration date is in error, as it also contains wrong immigration/naturalization dates for August. If she immigrated in 1901, the naturalization in 1906 (the year of her marriage) would be appropriate.

For years, they enjoyed a summer cottage at Cedar Lake, IN.

Walter Harvey Newquist believes a 1936 or 1937 event was coordinated by either Hanna or another member of her family after August's death. It is believed she returned to Sweden to visit her family, and her relatives in America had remained close to her daughter, Dorothy Newquist LaBrose, as both lived in Evergreen Park, IL.

Telcon 5/28/05 and family genealogy info on 6/17/05 from:

Marilyn Larson Beets 1207 Rockridge St Round Rock, TX 78681-5673 Tel.: (512) 244-0212( TexLyn@@austin.rr.com

Genline info on Vastanfors: GID Volume Volume Type Start Year End Year 2361.21 NONE Övrigt 1500 1920 2361.22 AI:1 Husförhör 1668 1679 2361.23 AI:2 Husförhör 1681 1703 2361.13 F:1 Död 1702 1721 2361.24 AI:3 Husförhör 1709 1726 2361.14 F:2 Död 1721 1726 2361.24 AI:3 Död 1727 1729 2361.1 AI:4 Husförhör 1727 1741 2361.25 AI:4 Husförhör 1727 1741 2361.15 F:3 Död 1729 1736 2361.16 F:4 Död 1736 1774 2361.1 AI:4 Inflyttning, Utflyttning 1740 1745 2361.25 AI:4 Inflyttning, Utflyttning 1740 1745 2361.2 AI:5 Husförhör 1742 1755 2361.3 AI:6 Husförhör 1756 1768 2361.4 AI:7 Husförhör 1770 1775 2361.4 AI:7 Kommunion/Nattvard 1775 1776 2361.5 AI:8 Husförhör 1775 1784 2361.12 E:1 Vigsel 1775 1860 2361.6 AI:9 Husförhör 1785 1794 2361.7 AI:9 Husförhör 1785 1794 2361.8 AI:10 Husförhör 1795 1804 2361.9 AI:11 Husförhör 1805 1816 2361.10 AI:12 Husförhör 1816 1825 2361.11 C:4 Födde 1825 1854 2361.17 AI:15 Husförhör 1846 1855 2361.18 AI:15 Husförhör 1846 1855 2361.19 AI:16A Husförhör 1856 1860 2361.20 AI:16B Husförhör 1856 1860 2361.26 AI:18 Husförhör 1861 1895

Transatlantic Daughters: Swedish Maids in Urban America, 1890-1930 By Malin Glimäng

In 1912, a sixteen-year-old peasant girl in Karlskoga finally made her dream of going to America come true. For years Agnes had devoured every word in the letters sent from an older sister in Boston, anticipating the day when she would get to pack her own “America trunk.” When the older sister, Ellen, even-tually returned for a visit she lent Agnes money for the ticket, and together with their friend, Othelia, the sisters boarded the train and began the long journey. As was the case for thousands of other young Swedish women they knew, on the other side of the Atlantic a particular job market was wide open for them: domestic service, a line of work most white American women despised and avoided. In a 1962 interview Agnes remembers: “You could always get housework, but it was not so good…we had to work far into the nights for the same pay, and your time off was always in jeopardy.”

After a couple of years as a maid in Boston, it was Agnes’ turn to visit the homeland. She was tempted to stay in Sweden for good. However, this time her youngest sister, Anna, and yet another childhood friend eagerly awaited the opportunity to go with her to America. Once again, three young women left their home town for the “Promised Land.” The three sisters worked in Boston for a few years and then moved to Cleveland where they easily found new jobs in American private homes. Anna soon traveled on westward to search for domestic work in California, and further north on that same coast was Othelia, who had ventured to Seattle on her own a few years before. Agnes tells the interviewer that despite the many journeys back and forth to the home-land, both she and Anna continued to live in the U.S., while the other three women involved in this small chain-migration moved back to Sweden. Ellen re-immigrated after nineteen years in America.

This brief narrative illustrates some common themes in the migration patterns of single Swedish women around the turn of the twentieth century. Women as well as men often helped each other emigrate through chain-migrations. Many young women, however, tended to use domestic service, first as a bridge into the U.S., and then as a way to travel throughout the U.S. in search of better opportunities. Numerous Swedish working-class women participated in chain-migrations and constructed ethnic female networks facilitating mobility, transmitting information, and offering support in ways only possible through women’s active collaboration. Letters, diaries, and interviews reveal that when Swedish maids moved or sought new jobs, they continuously tapped into a vast web of sisters, friends, and acquaintances em-ployed in private homes scattered all over the country.

In the process, this category of migrants created new spaces for inter-cultural exchanges as the “Swedish Maids”—workers at the “heart” of American middle-class society—frequently moved back and forth across social, cultural, and national boundaries. Domestic service was certainly no dream-job, but live-in maids were in high dem-and by the expanding American middle-class and, hence, even young immigrants who neither spoke English nor possessed any special skills could begin working immediately and get a place to live at the same time. Moreover, the availability of jobs bestowed maids with a great deal of agency when picking employers and choosing the geographical area where they wanted to work.

In 1914, Elisabeth Lindström, who had served several households in Brooklyn, wrote home to Sweden: “mother, now I wish I was in Chicago … If you could get me the address of someone who works there I’d write and get myself a new job by Christmas, for example if I had Hilma Obrink’s address…or Alma Petersson’s or anyone else you think could help me…if I could get Anna Lindberg’s address I might try Boston too.” The numbers of Swedish women working in American households, and their great mobility, contributed to making them culturally visible as a group. We know that the “Swedish Maid” emerged as a familiar and often stereotyped character in American popular culture during the first decades of the twentieth century. At the same time, Swedes in the homeland had mixed feelings as they witnessed visiting working-class daughters who self-confidently paraded old village streets in elaborate “America hats.” Describing the sight of an ostentatious Swedish-American maid who stirred up all sorts of reactions in her local marketplace in Småland, a female journalist for Svenska Dagbladet exclaimed in an article: “That creates emigration if anything!” The wave of single women seeking new opportunities in urban America peaked in the decades around the turn of the century—a time when the U.S. as well as Sweden underwent dramatic social and cultural transformations that challenged traditional gender roles and brought forth vibrant debates regarding the “woman question.” Young Swedish women who decided to take a step into the world on their own were an intricate part of this progressive era. In what ways and to what extent did these migrants affect the societies they participated in? How were they perceived by the dominant cultures? How did they conceive of themselves as Swedish-American working women? Did women consciously utilize domestic service and female networks as instruments to gain mobility, increased independence, and new cultural experiences?

These are some of the overarching questions I am examining in my research for a dissertation under the working title Transatlantic Daughters: Swedish Maids in Urban America, 1890-1930. The dissertation focuses on the link between domestic service and single Swedish women’s migration movement to U.S. cities from 1890-1930. The study analyzes several aspects of this gender-specific and highly embodied form of labormigration. Specifically, I intend to illuminate the transnational aspects of women’s migration processes by looking at their constructions of informal networks and chain-migrations across national boundaries as well as within the U.S. I will also explore cultural impacts of this migration movement on both sides of the Atlantic by analyzing popular perceptions of the “Swedish Maid” in the U.S. and in Sweden.

I am grateful that I was selected for the 2002 Dagmar and Nils William Olsson Fellowship. It enabled me to spend an extended research period at the Swenson Center and to study the extensive holdings of the Swedish American press. My stay also gave me an opportunity to explore the Quad Cities—once a popular “hub” for domestic servants from Sweden.