ADOPTION OF THE HAGERTY BOYS

I wish I knew the entire story. Today I’m sharing what I do know in the hope that one of you may have information that will help me complete the research on this family.

This is an interesting tale of sadness and joy, of love and sacrifice, a few lingering questions, and a portion of the Linn family.

Roy Oscar Hagerty was born on December 14, 1890; brother George Cleveland Hagerty followed on June 10, 1893; and John Henry Hagerty on May 21, 1895. They were born to Harry Hagerty and his wife Josephine Dorothy Wretling Hagerty. Josephine was born Thea Josefina Wretling in Frotuna, Stockholm, Sweden and came to the United States with her family in 1880 when she was just 9 years old. Her family eventually settled in Kansas where she met and married Harry Hagerty, a naturalized citizen from England or Ireland.

Roy, George, and John were all under the age of 10 when, on December 26, 1899, their parents surrendered them to the Christian Children’s Home in Holdrege, Nebraska. This home had opened in 1888 under the care of a pastor in that town. You can read more about the history of this home at the following site:

Christian Children's Home

From the accounts I’ve read, the Christian Children’s Home was clean, orderly, and disciplined, but not cruel or abusive. The three Hagerty boys would have attended school and church activities and had a group of other young children to play with.

Below is the first page of the intake papers for the 3 Hagerty boys in which we see that the parents have been counseled and believe “that it is for the best interest of the children that said adoption be made”.

We don’t know the complete reasons the Hagertys placed their 3 young sons in the Christian Children’s home, or how they came to select a place in the middle of Nebraska when they had been living in Oklahoma. But we can speculate that perhaps their marriage was troubled, it was too difficult to provide for a family of 5, there was abuse, or even that the parents were ill-equipped to be good parents. Whatever the reason, the day after Christmas in 1899, Roy, George and John Hagerty became the wards of the home. And in 1902, the mother Josephine remarries.

It wasn’t long after the boys were placed in the Christian Children’s Home that the eldest, Roy Oscar Hagerty, was adopted. His new family was William Rinquist and his wife, Charlotte Linn Rinquist. Charlotte (Lottie) was the daughter of John and Sarah Linn, thus our Linn connection to this story.

William Rinquist was born in Sweden in 1847 and came to the United States in 1871. Lottie, we know, was born in Iowa to John and Sarah on January 29, 1857. The couple married on July 3, 1884, in Denver, Colorado and moved to Kansas. They had two children, but only one survived.

We see in the 1900 US Federal Census for Diamond Valley, Kansas, William Rinquist, a farmer, his wife Lottie, and their two children Maria Edna Rinquist, born in July of 1890 in Kansas, and adopted son Roy Oscar Rinquist, born in December 1890. He and Maria were the same age. The census also states that Lottie had given birth to two children but one had died. I have no record of that other child.

We also see in the 1900 US Federal Census the listing for the 2 younger brothers, George and John Hagerty, listed as “inmates” at the Christian Children’s Home in Nebraska:

These two Hagerty boys didn’t have much longer to live at the Christian Children’s Home. In 1901, they were adopted by Carl and Betty Hord. In the 1910 US Federal Census, John is 14 and living with his adoptive parents in Plumgrove, Nebraska. George is listed as a 16-year-old hired hand on a farm in Union, Pottawatomie County, Kansas.

The boys’ biological mother, Josephine, remarried in 1902 to William Quilliam who became a captain in the Salvation Army until he was investigated for embezzling money from the organization. It appears that Josephine didn’t have great success with her husbands!

Several interesting facts surround these 3 young men as they grew up. From the article below, you can see that they all had contact with their birth mother. She knew where they were and additional articles show her visits with at least one of her sons.

I’ve tried to find additional info on the biological father, Henry Hagerty, but I’ve been unsuccessful.

John Henry, the youngest, used the last name Hoard/Hord as far as the 1910 census when he was 14 years old living with Carl and Betty Hord, but by the 1920 census, he had returned to using his birth name again, John Henry Hagerty; and he used that last name the rest of his life.

When William Rinquist died in Fresno, California in 1912, his will stipulated that his adopted son Roy Oscar would receive $50; his biological daughter Mary received $3,000.

Were there difficulties in the homes where these young men were raised? At the time, would there normally be a difference of money given either to men and women in a will or to an adopted child? I have no way of knowing as only facts are generally available to the family historian. But it does make me curious about the warmth and contact the 3 had with their birth mother, Josephine, the use of the original last name by one of the boys, and Roy Oscar Rinquist remaining in Kansas while the rest of his family moved to Fresno, perhaps leading to a breakdown in that family and a nominal inheritance.

Our Linn relative, Roy Oscar Hagerty Rinquist, served in World War I, enlisting on December 14, 1917, and discharged on October 3, 1919. Before entering service, he was a streetcar conductor in Kansas City. He was in the Aviation Corps, served in France and, on October 5, 1918, Roy was admitted to the hospital in Lorient, France, for a short stay and was dismissed on October 28 and sent to USN Base #19.

When he returned to the United States, Roy married in 1919 to Olivia Nordenberg and continued his work as a conductor. In 1927, the couple made an ocean trip back to Sweden, coming back through New York on September 5 of that year.

Sometime after the 1940 US Federal Census, the couple moved to Miami, Florida, where Olivia died in 1969. Roy remarried in 1971 to Hilda Nelson; and he died in April 1974. Roy had no children with either woman.

Roy and his brothers are not close relatives, second cousins twice removed. But their story is interesting to me; and at this point in my research, I’m much more interested in the life stories than in collecting more and more names and dates. These stories, I hope, show the humanity, the problems and joys, the lives of those who came before us.

If You're Happy and You Know It ...

Have you seen any studies that have shown who is the happiest? Maybe you’ve read an article about the happiest state, small town, occupation, number of children, marital status. These, of course, are fun to read and maybe hold some truth. Do we inherit a “happiness gene” or “happiness tendency”? Can we find happiness by where we live?

Recently, my cousin Alan sent me a YouTube link about a study that has been repeated every year since 2012, ranking the happiest people in the world, based on GDP, education, corruption, and more. It might surprise you to know that Scandinavian people are among the happiest in the world. While Sweden ranks #7 when one looks at the top 10, 5 of top 10 are Scandinavian countries. And the United States is nowhere to be seen.

Our Linns, Olofsons, Lundblads, Carlsons and more have been in the United States for almost 2 centuries, so how much “happiness” we inherit from our ancestors’ time in Sweden is questionable. However, when I watched the YouTube video, I saw a couple of cultural happiness traits that I saw in my Swedish grandparents. I wonder if you do, too.

Being happy is probably a complex issue, one that I'm not prepared to discuss with any authority. But  happiness probably includes many factors including the general attitude of the people, the weather and geography, religion, the influence of the government, and more, many of which we see in the YouTube. 

The video also made me wonder about other characteristics I may have inherited, not because I’m Swedish or Bohemian, but because of the qualities that were passed down from parents, grandparents, great-grandparents. Hard work? Honesty? Musical ability? Impatience? Alcoholism? Frugality? Independence? Worry-free? Responsibility?

And while I didn’t think of it when I visited Sweden, now that I reflect on my three trips there, I do see much of what is shown in the YouTube is in the Swedish culture that I witnessed.

Here's the link to the video, about 25 minutes long if you speed past the ads.

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e6oAQlTd67k&feature=share

I thank Alan for sharing this thought-provoking video. I wonder what your ideas are about traits or characteristics you may have inherited through our Swedish culture or upbringing. I look forward to your comments.

Family Sayings

Today is Mother’s Day and so I start this post with a hug to all the moms, grandmas, aunts, sisters, cousins and other special ladies in our family. My 95-year old mom is physically doing fine, but her mental capacity is gone. She rarely remembers any of her children, and it’s not possible to carry on a conversation with her. Today, while I remember my mom, it is with a sense of sadness that 70-years of my life, talking with her, sharing genealogy information with her, arguing with her, cooking with her, laughing with her, and having my feet rubbed by her are gone.

It also seemed fitting that today we remember some of the sayings our moms and other family members used to say to make a point with us growing up. And so, today I think about and share a few of those family sayings:

We all have them. Family sayings that have a message but are often skirted in humor.

As children, when we left a door open, my mom would always say “Shut the front door. We’re not heating for the birds.” I can still hear her say that, and I will admit that I never leave a door open, even though I live in southern California where it is never cold enough to want to heat for the birds.

The Linns were/are great card players. Put the Linns together with a pot of coffee – or two – and a card game will break out. If you were with the Linns when Pete and Maude hosted a night of cards, you heard Grandma Maude Linn say “Give me some kings, give me some aces, give me some cards, I’m going places.” And if I remember right, she had to be facing the way the bathtub faced for good luck. I still say this phrase and I think my brothers do as well. Where did Grandma learn these phrases and superstitions?

In our family, we also heard “I got a hand like a foot (playing cards)” and “I’m so mad I could crush a grape.”

Grandpa Pete Linn would often finish a story with “That’s what makes me so slick.”

To the boys in our family, mom would say “If you don’t tuck in your shirt, I’m going to sew lace on the bottom.” I imagine that worked quite well!

I always said “shoot a pickle,” a phrase I learned from a college roommate. And that phrase kept my language in check! Somewhere I learned to say “flush that puppy down” and passed it on to our grandsons for when they finished their bathroom duty. They think it’s hilarious!

What family sayings do you have, do you remember? Your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, or great-grandparents? Let’s share a few, especially if they are from our Linn or Olofson folks. I’m sure you heard and remember some that I don’t recall, and I’d love to hear them.

 LaVonne, 1925

                                 LaVonne, High School Grad

LaVonne, 2018

HALFARDSSON HOME

 

My 6^th great grandfather on the Olofson line is Anders Halfvardsson, born on January 16, 1687 in Ytterhogdal Parish in Jamtland County in northern Sweden. He moved to Farila Parish in Gavleborg County where he married Cherstin Zachrisdotter who was born in June 1691 in Farila Parish. They raised 5 children including a set of twins.

I found the following picture and description of their home in Karbole, Farila Parish where you can see Anders and Cherstin’s names mentioned.

 This description (at least the parts I can read) gives us a look at how this house was handed down in this family from one generation to the next for a very long time. I can also partially read that a baby grand piano was moved to its present location in 1895. Some animals are mentioned: 1 horse, 11 cattle, 2 pigs. The farm previously covered 1,147 ha. (some measurement), but about 250 were sold in 1890. The land has been in the family as far as you can trace back in the church.

Anders Halfvardsson and Cherstin Zachrisdotter passed the home on to my 6^th great uncle Halvard Andersson and his wife Marta Jonsdotter. Why didn’t my 5^th great grandfather Olof Andersson, inherit the property from his father? Because he wasn’t the eldest son. His brother Halvard Andersson was.

Halvard’s son, Anders Halvarsson, my first cousin 6 times removed, lived there next with his wife Ingrid Persdotter. Later, their son Per Andersson and his wife Anna Andersson lived in the home. Their daughter Marta Persdotter and her husband Olof Ersson lived in the home, followed by their sons Per (who used the last name Sundstrom) and Olof.

While I had already researched and found the birth and death dates of these ancestors, along with their spouses, this was a great source for confirming what I had found and would also help someone who hadn’t filled out this part of the family tree. But what was new to me was how this property had stayed in our family for generations.

• Halvard Andersson was the eldest child of Anders Halfvardsson.
• Anders Halfvarsson was the eldest child of Halvard Andersson.
• Per Andersson was the only child of Anders Halfvarsson.
• Maria Persdotter was the only child of Per Andersson.

Do you see the pattern? Eldest or only child in the family inheriting the family home. This was the tradition. And this helps explain why some family members had to move, to immigrate to other countries, to find another path. They would never own property that had been in their family.

And when you look at people like Gus, John, and Peter Linn, the 3 youngest of a widowed mother, their opportunities to own land would only be available to them through immigration. Thus, one important reason why these 3 Linn brothers immigrated to the United States.

 

Francis and Elsie (Linn) Carlson's Farm

 Hi Everyone,

What a treat I have to share with all of you, courtesy of my second cousin, Jim Carlson, the grandson of Francis and my great aunt Elsie (Linn) Carlson. A few days ago, Jim sent me links to some of the home movies he has gathered, digitized and posted. Below is an introduction, written by Jim, and below that is the link to the 12-minute video. Even if you aren't related to the Carlsons or Linns, you will enjoy this look at farm life in 1942.

Jim and I made connection through our DNA work and have exchanged emails and photos and stories for the past couple of years. He's a wealth of information on the Carlson line!

Enjoy!

My name is James Ray Carlson, born 1948 Nov 16 in Boone, Iowa (where I still live).

My paternal Grandfather was Francis Emory Carlson, born 1886 Nov 23 at Stratford, Iowa, which is also the town where I grew up. He married Elsie Louellen Linn, born 1889 Aug 3 at Pilot Mound, Iowa (13 miles away). They had 4 sons: Kenneth, Chester (Chet), Eugene, and Wayne.

My Dad, Kenneth Quinten Carlson, born 1910 Jan 20, died 2008 Sep 29, was the oldest son. Beginning about 1940, he began taking 8 mm home movies, beginning with B & W, and soon transitioning to color films. He made movies of family reunions, working on the farm, his kids and grandkids growing up, pets, and family vacations. It seems that he realized that it was important to film PEOPLE, and not just locations and scenery, which makes them more interesting now 80 years later. I have just completed digitizing over 125 reels of his  movies, some from 50 foot 3-minute reels, and many that had been spliced together to make 10 to 30-minute reels. The total is about 6 hours of video. I have provided all these digital movies on a flash drive to each of my siblings, so I hope my project will keep memories alive and give future generations an idea of what family life on the farm was like for their ancestors.

This 12-minute film was taken at Francis and Elsie's farm at Pilot Mound in 1942. In addition to the people mentioned above, you'll also see my Mom (Fern); my sisters (Dorothy, Pat, and Karen--I wasn't born yet); my cousins Ronnie and Janice; and a great great uncle and aunt who lived at Fort Dodge, about an hour away. Family ties were SO important in these years, as families worked together and played together.

I hope you too will enjoy this glimpse of the simple life in Iowa from 1942.

Jim

https://vimeo.com/503982648

Click on the link above or copy and paste it into your browser. Enjoy!

Family Reunions

 

Have you ever been to a family reunion? Some reunions attract hundreds of family members where family t-shirts are worn, family recipes are shared, photos are displayed, and games are played. Today, I want to share information with you about some of our family reunions.

 Let’s start with the Linns. The Linn reunions began in 1925, but the earliest news article I have is from 1931 when it was held at the Stratford Park on September 6, with 114 attendees. The following article tells a bit about the reunion program and who attended. Recognize any names?

 

I recognize several names: William Linn, Oscar Linn, Robert Linn, Floyd Linn, Francis Carlson, Frank Linn and Joan Linn, and surnames of Malmberg, Fallein, and Westrum.

Jumping ahead to September 1941, the 16^th annual Linn reunion was held in Pilot Mound with the following article describing the event and attendees: 

Again, I recognize many names: Linn, Carlson, Fry, and the Wallace Linn family came all the way from Nebraska with Helen Louise Linn from Denver. 

Did you know that minutes were kept and people signed in when they arrived? Below are various parts of the minutes from different years, including sign-in sheets; lists of births, marriages, and deaths; and activities. I’m not sure who has the original book, but my mom allowed me to make copies of the pages so I could have them for my genealogy work, and then she gave it back to its rightful owner. I have information for the Linn reunions from 1936-1980. And so, if you are curious about a year, or several, of the Linn reunions, who was there, what was in the minutes, who was born, married or died, let me know and I’ll email you scanned copies.

From the 1955 Linn reunion below, you can see that the treasury had $2.83 going forward, 28 attendees, and ice cream, cake and coffee served. We see births for the previous year: two of my first cousins Ivan Dean Linn, son of Ivan and Ann; and Alan Edward Linn, son of Ellis and Johanna. And farther down is a cousin I’ve more recently connected with, Scott Allan Linn, son of Marlin and Janet. You may recognize other names.

 

In 1956, we see the sign-in sheets below which give the names of the attendees and where they are living, a great help to me as a family historian. Do you recognize names in our family?

 Also from 1956, we see my family listed. Sorry, Randy. You weren’t here yet:

And the list of attendees in 1956 (53), plus the accounting for the year.

If you have other years you would like to see, I’m happy to post more or send through email a year you are most interested in.

 

The Lundblad family also held annual family reunions starting in 1910, one of the oldest family get togethers in Iowa. Below is an article about the 1932 Lundblad reunion from the Dayton Review:

 

I know fewer of these names, but as a family historian, this is very helpful to me. It allows me to find additional relatives, but it also gives me a town where they are currently living. For example, in the second paragraph above is the name H. J. Lundblad which is Henrik Julius Lundblad. Henrik is the son of Anders Lundblad and the nephew of our Catharina Lundblad Linn. I now know that, in 1932, he and his family live in Laurens, Iowa, a small town northwest of Fort Dodge. I can now search for him and his family based on this information.

In addition to the Linns and Lundblads, the Barquists also held annual reunions. The following article from the September 11, 1913 Dayton review indicates a small turnout from the immediate area, but in addition to the Barquist names we know, Olof Olofson and his wife Brita were also in attendance.

 

While there were Olofson get-togethers, their “reunions” were more of a gathering for an event. The following Olof Olofson family reunion was to honor their son Leon who was going to serve in World War I in 1918, taken from the September 12, 1918 Stratford Courier:

The next year, 1919, a reunion of the Lars Olofson family took place. Lars was the brother to my Olof Olofson. He and his wife had 10 children, so just their immediate family alone made for a relatively large reunion:

 

To my knowledge, no formal reunions were held by the Olofson family, none where minutes were kept, dues paid, and activities held.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing this sketch about our family reunions. Perhaps you attended one, or several. If you have photos of any you attended, I’d be happy to post them and share with our extended family. And wouldn’t it be fun to have another reunion in Iowa? Maybe at the Stratford park? We could make it a Linn-Lundblad-Olofson-Carlson-Barquist-Rask reunion!!!

 

A Mail Order Bride?

Most of us have options when we are looking for a serious partner. Dating apps, church, school, a bar, a blind date, a person we see at the local Starbucks. But, many of our ancestors came from the smallest of parishes in Sweden, rural areas where options to find a mate were slim. Thus, we often see marriages between people who lived on the same farm, a huge age gap in the couple, or marriages that were arranged or designed to provide stability and shelter. And, there were many births out of wedlock in our family tree.

Brita Margrite Rask was born in Bollnas Parish in Gavleborg County and is the step grandmother to our Maude Edith Olofson Linn. She was born on December 24, 1857, the second of five children born to Olof Rask and his wife Sophia Margrite Kjellander. Olof and Sophia didn’t marry until 1861, when they already had 3 children.

I wouldn’t call Olof Rask a particularly good catch. He was poor, moved a great deal as a laborer, and in one clerical survey is noted as being “defenseless, but basically honest”.

Bringing 5 children into a rather unstable environment must have been difficult for everyone.

•   Eldest daughter Anna Stina, who worked as a servant/pigan, died at the age of 22 of an unknown illness.
•   Second daughter Brita Margrite, who also worked at various farms as a pigan, became pregnant out of wedlock and gave birth to a daughter, Anna Charlotta, when she was just 22 years of age. She and her daughter immigrated to the United States in July 1880.
•   Third daughter Olivia was also a servant girl who followed her sister to the United States in 1881.
•   Fourth child Johanna Marie died at the age of 2 of an unknown illness.
•   The baby of the family was Karl Olof Rask. Karl came to the United States in 1884, lived in Iowa for a short time, married and moved to Yankton, South Dakota, and eventually to North Dakota, where he died in 1930.

We see that the three surviving Rask children all immigrated to the United States. But why? In Karl’s case, he was able to be an independent farmer, owning his own farm by 1910. He married another Swedish immigrant, and raised 8 children. Compared to what his life would have been like in Sweden, the son of two poor parents and no option to be a landowner, he certainly carved out a much better life for himself.

Olivia Rask followed Brita from Sweden to Iowa in 1881 and eventually married my great grandfather, William Edward Olofson. This makes Olivia our great-grandmother but also our step-great-great aunt. Confusing?

Brita’s immigration is interesting. She was living with her parents and raising a daughter in Sweden. How would she have learned about Olof Olofson in Iowa? How could she have met him to know if he would make a suitable life partner? While I have no definitive answer, it is my belief that this was an arranged marriage or a mail order situation for Olof and Brita.

Olof had been widowed sometime between 1871 and 1880, when Maria Barquist Olofson died. He was raising his son William Edward Olofson with the help of his mother Christine, as shown in the 1880 census taken in June of 1880.

Brita and her daughter sailed from Sweden to the United States sometime after July 5, 1880, when we see that they are moving out of Bollnas Parish. The ocean part of the trip would have taken approximately 3 weeks. That puts their arrival on the Eastern shore of the United States around the first part of August 1880. From there, Brita and Anna Charlotta would have taken a train, perhaps a boat and other transportation to Iowa and eventually to Hardin Township in Webster County. Maybe that would have added another month to their trip.

Brita and Olof Olofson married in Boone County on September 9, 1880. It would certainly appear that this couple did not know each other before marrying; or, if they did, it was for a very few days. Looks like an arranged marriage, a mail-order bride, or something practical, if not romantic.

When Brita and Olof married, Olof was going blind. As we saw from a post on July 1, 2018, Olof spent the last 40 years of his life blind. He died in 1924, so he would have been blind around 1884, just 4 years after Brita and Olof married.

Brita Rask Olofson is my step-second great grandmother and also my second great aunt, Maude Edith Olofson’s step grandmother and also her aunt.

Take a look back at the March 11 and March 18 blog posts and also the July 1 post, all from my 2018 year of 52 ancestors in 52 weeks, for more on the Rask family. And then weigh in. An arranged marriage? Or ….

Two photos of Brita Rask Olofson; lower photo is of Olof and Brita Olofson. Olof is blind in this photograph. Love his beard and wish we had that cane and his very cool hat!