My Historical Great-Great Grandfather

 My Historical Great-Great Grandfather

I have for over 50 years researched my personal family history and eventually wrote three books detailing my findings. The first book dealt with my wife’s ancestry and the other two with my maternal and paternal lineage.

In the course of my maternal research, I discovered that my great-great-grandfather, Daniel Franz (Larsson) Lawson is listed in the history books along with his father, Lars Landberg Larsson as the first Swedes to organize and lead a group of Swedish immigrants to the USA. There are three books among others that document this event. The first is; “Vasa Illustrata” by Erik Norelius, the famous Swedish Lutheran cleric and historian. The second is; “The History of the Swedes in Minnesota” by A.E. Strand. The third is: “The Swedes of Greater Brocton (MA)” by James E. Bensen and Lloyd F. Thompson. Literally, almost every book on Swedish immigration to the USA mentions Daniel F. Larsson.

Daniel Franz Larsson was born 23 October 1821 at Haurida parish, Jönköping, Sweden, the son of Lars Landberg Larsson, born 22 October 1781 and Louisa Svensdotter, born 24 August 1784. Lars at one time was a wealthy landowner in Haurida parish and had been prominent in parish affairs. Shortly after his 6th child, Daniel was born in 1821, he suffered financial reverses and moved to a smaller farm and again in 1839 to the neighboring parish of Lekeryd where they lived in a much more modest home where his wife died in 1843. At that point, Lars and Daniel decided to travel to America. Unlike Daniel, who intended to leave permanently and practice his shoemaking trade, Lars planned to return within a year if he did not like America.

Lars and Daniel evidently spent a few months organizing a band of about 50 other Swedes to immigrate, and in the fall of 1844, they sailed on the Swedish ship, “Superior” to Boston. The cost per person for the trip was 60 Riksdalar. After many weeks at sea, they landed at “Christmastime”. The others in the party, including his father, Lars, continued on to Wisconsin while Daniel remained in Brocton, Massachusetts, later renamed, North Bridgewater.

Within a year, Lars died in Wisconsin, near Milwaukee. Daniel, in the meantime, worked for seven years as a shoemaker in Brocton which at that time was an early center of shoemaking and therefore it was natural that Daniel would settle there. It should be noted that Daniel was the only Swede in Brocton during those seven years and he must have been lonely for social companionship.

In 1851 Daniel returned briefly to Sweden. He came back to America on the ship; “Montreal” arriving in Boston, 19 November 1851. He had with him on this trip at least 42 others including his fiancé, Catharina Fredrika Norquist, born 30 November 1823 in Granna parish, Jönköping, Sweden. They married 14 December 1851 in North Bridgewater. Daniel received his US citizenship 25 April 1854 in the Boston Municipal Court. It was at this point that I think he changed his last name to Lawson.

In 1853, the Rev, Olaf Gustaf Hedstram, the founder of Swedish Methodism gave a sermon in Brocton in the kitchen of Daniel’s sister, Charlotte, (Mrs. Andrew M. Johnson). This was likely when Daniel became a Methodist. He served in the Union Army in the 60th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment from 8 July 1864 until 30 November 1864. He was 43 years old at the time.

Daniel remained in Brocton another 15 years raising his family which by then had grown to include three sons and three daughters, one of which became my great-grandmother, Ellen Marie Lawson. He then decided to leave the shoemaking trade and take up farming in Minnesota. In 1868 he purchased 160 acres of land in Goodhue County, Minnesota, moved his family there and established a farm.

One of the first things he did in Goodhue was to donate several acres of land to the newly formed Swedish M.E church. This land also included an area set aside for a graveyard where he and his family eventually were buried. I am privileged to have visited this graveyard on two occasions where I photographed the family graves.

Daniel and Catharina toiled on their farm until his death on 10 May 1907. Catharina died two weeks later on 24 May 1907.

My great-grandmother, Ellen Marie Lawson married Charles Wesley (Anderson) Pilling and from that union, my grandmother, Grace Ellen Pilling was born. She married my grandfather, Franklin Leslie Randall and from that union, my mother, Frances Ellen Randall was born. My mother married the son of two Norwegian immigrants, Daniel Bolstad (Jensen) Conrad and Helen Aadot Engh. Thus, I am 1/2 Norwegian heritage and 1/8 Swedish. The balance is mostly English, descended from my first ancestral immigrants that began arriving in America in 1635.

P.S. Genealogy is a disease.