The OTHER Peter Linn

Much is known about two of the three Linn brothers who immigrated to the United States. John (Johan Leonard Olausson) was a prominent minister who started many churches in the Midwest; and he was presiding elder of the District of Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas.  Gus (Gustus Magnus Olausson) was my great-great grandfather who served in the Civil War and was captured at the Battle of Pleasant Hill, serving 18 months as a POW in Camp Tyler, Texas.

But the third brother, Peter (Olaus Petter Olausson) is less well known. Peter was the oldest of the three brothers. In 1851, he and his wife Sophia immigrated to the United States with their two-year old son Edvard who died in New York upon their arrival, and their one-year old son Olaus Leonard who died shortly after their arrival in Iowa. Peter and Sophia had earlier lost their first born child, Olaf Petter in 1848.

The loss of their three oldest children is a tragedy, but there was more to come for this family. In total, Peter and Sophia had 8 children, none of whom lived to be older than the age of 25. Several of the children are buried with their parents in the Linn Cemetery in Pilot Mound.

One might think that, with the loss of all 8 children, there must be some genetic issue. In cases where I have found death records or obituaries, their deaths vary from consumption (tuberculosis) to the flu. Only one child married, but she died at the age of 24, leaving no heirs for Peter and Sophia.

When looking at the agriculture schedules which are non-population federal censuses taken to show the details of each farmer’s land, it is clear that Peter and Sophia were the wealthiest of the three brothers.

In the 1870 schedule, Peter owned 130 acres of improved land and 120 acres of woodland, totaling $3600 (today that would be worth over $64,000). He had over $1,800 worth of livestock and bushels of crops including corn and rye. In the 1880 schedule, Peter’s farm was worth $4,000 (today’s total $90,000) with livestock worth over $1,200.

Peter and Sophia moved from their farm in Boone County to a new brick home in Dayton sometime before 1885 where Peter died at the age of 69 on December 19, 1892. In his will, he left half of his wealth to his wife and divided the other half among his siblings, both those in the United States and those in Sweden. He also left $100 in his will to be used by the Swedish ME Church in Dayton for perpetual upkeep on his family’s plot in the Linn Cemetery. 

I often wonder if my grandfather, Peter Edward Linn, was named after his g-g-uncle, Peter. Grandpa's father, Andrew Linn (1861-1939)  would have known his great uncle Peter well; and so I'd like to think that he named his first-born son after Olaus Petter Olausson, the elder Peter Linn.