Linking to Sepia Saturday 682
As far as I know, this photo of my great-grandfather Samuel (1835-1907) is the only one of him that exists. The sign he is holding in his hand is a Bible quote and also part of a line from a Swedish hymn: “Lord, increase our faith.” (Luke 17:5) In my childhood I always found this odd (and no one ever explained), but my guess now is that the photo was probably taken in connection with him being involved in the founding of a new mission covenant church (c. 1884). (Cf an old post of mine from March 2012.)
If you wonder what connects Samuel to the Sepia Saturday prompt for this week, the answer is not in the old car, but in the shop that can be seen in the background behind that car. Because Samuel was not only a farmer, and the father of eleven children (and a layman preacher, or whatever position he may have held in the church) - but also a country shop owner. At least for a while, around 1880.
Three of Samuel's children (i.e. three of my grandmother Sally's older half siblings) also became shop owners: The oldest daughter, Emma, married the owner of country shop. They in turn opened a branch shop in another village, of which Emma's brother Oscar became the manager. Later on, he and his family moved to a bigger town, where he probably owned his own shop. And a younger sister, Ester, who never married, also became a shop owner - first of a flower shop, and then a confectionery shop.
Postcard from 1904, which may be showing Oscar's shop at Odensberg. (Cf my post from June 2019.)
The Wilander shop and family home in Floby, owned by Emma and her husband Brynolf. Photo probably from the 1940's (?)
I've been told that this is Ester behind the counter of her confectionery shop. And I think (although I'm not sure) that the man and woman may be her brother Oscar and his wife Elin visiting. (In which case the photo must be from before 1930.) (Cf my post for SS 638.)
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Above is the short version. Below follows the "long version"...
Swedish Censuses from 1880-1930
I've been trying to sum up some of the things I learned (or got confirmed) from Swedish censuses (found online) from 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910 and 1930.
My great-grandfather Samuel was born in 1935. In 1866 he got married to his first wife, Anna Sophia. With her, he had nine children; two of whom died when they were only 8-9 years old. Anna Sophia hereself died in 1894, only four months after their youngest daughter; and Samuel was then left a widower with seven children - the two youngest, Gustaf and Gerda, then 15 and 13. (About those two, long-term readers of this blog have already heard a lot, as this blog was started as a project of going through their postcards, and especially their years in America 1902-10).
In 1898, Samuel got married again, to my great-grandmother Selma - a younger widow, with an eight year old daughter from her first marriage (Hildur). They moved to the farm Storegården, and together, they had two more children - my grandmother Sally (born 1900) and Nils (born 1902).
In the census of 1880, where it's mentioned that Samuel was a country shop owner as well as a farmer, he is 45 years old, and still married to his first wife, Anna Sophia, with seven children living at home. The oldest child Emma 22 years old then, and the youngest son Gustaf only 2.
In the next census, 1890, the family is still at the same homestead (Långared, Borgstena), but now the record only lists Samuel as a farmer (not as shop owner). Whether this was just an omission, or because he had given up the shop by then, I don't know. They still have seven children living at home; but the oldest daughter Emma has moved out, and one younger daughter had died back in 1882, only 8 years old. However, two more daughters have been added. Gerda, born 1881 - was to live to be 92 years old, and would get to see a lot more of the world than any of her siblings. But the youngest (Anna), died only 9 years old. And their mother Anna Sophia, as stated above, passed away only a few months later, in the spring of 1894. Which left Samuel a widower with five of his children still living with him: Olivia (26), Carl (24) and three still in their "teens" - Ester, Gustaf and Gerda.
Emma, at age 24, got married in 1890 to Brynolf - a country shop owner. They had three children, born between 1891 and 1901. How much Emma was actively involved in the business, I don't know - but with a father who had also had a country shop while she was growing up, she would have had some experience.
One of Samuel's three sons, Oscar, born 1872, became a shop owner himself. In the census of 1900, he is still single, and his profession listed as "store manager". I've been told that this shop was a branch to the one owned by his brother-in-law Brynolf. (They did not live in the same village, but not too far apart.) A year or so later, Oscar got married to Elin. In the 1910 census I find them living in Norrköping (a bigger town) with four sons (born 1902, 1903, 1904 and 1905) - and Oscar now probably his own boss as shop owner. In the next census, 1930, Elin is a widow, but three of the sons are still listed as members of the household. One of them a chemist, one a bank accountant, and one an "assistant" (to what/whom, it does not say).
Another of Samuel's daughters, Ester (born 1876), never got married, but ended up a shop owner herself. In 1900, she 's living with her brother Oscar, and her profession is said to be "tricot-knitter" (I assume for a factory, but I have no details about that). In 1910, somewhat to my surprise, I find her as housekeeper for her brother Carl at the farm Storegården, Fristad. Samuel died in 1907, and in the census of 1910, his second wife Selma and her three children (Hildur, Sally and Nils) are counted as a separate household, although at the same farm. (Probably living in a separate cottage then.)
In 1930, I can't find Ester in the census; but from another source I know that during her life, she also worked for a while as housekeeper at some large estate; then at a gardening school; then had her own flower shop; and finally a confectionery shop.
The future emigrants to America - Gustaf (b. 1878) and Gerda (b. 1881) - were listed in the 1900 census as living with Samuel, Selma and baby Sally (my grandmother), plus the eldest brother Carl, at the farm Storegården. (The older sister Olivia had died in 1899.) From the postcard collection I know that both Gustaf and Gerda periodically stayed with their older siblings instead, though - either with Emma, or with Oscar. I imagine that they probably helped out at either their father's farm or in their siblings' country stores or households according to where their help was most needed or wanted - but not feeling quite at home anywhere, made plans to emigrate and escape to a different life... In 1910, Gerda is included in the American census for 1910 (as maid in a household in Chicago). And Gustaf actually appears both in the American census (living in Galeton, Pa, working at a lumber yard) - and back at the farm in Sweden with his older brother Carl, and with their sister Ester as housekeeper... (Gustaf listed as farmhand.) Gerda also returned to Sweden in late 1910 or early 1911. But finding Gustaf also included in the Swedish census suggests that he probably went back a bit earlier than she did, and that they did not travel together.
