Welcome to my fourth Newsletter, a landmark issue because we have passed the halfway point on this five-year journey to research and write a comprehensive history of Swedes in Canada. Yes, the research phase is now pretty well completed. All that remains, so that I can begin writing in the fall, is to finish organizing the 24 linear feet of research material.
Deadlines
If you plan to send family information, do it now! The deadline for family information is the end of June 2005.
Questionnaires will be accepted for one more year, that is until the spring of 2006.
Immigrant ancestors to be named in the history book, under the Honour the Pioneers program, will be accepted until the end of December 2006.
Meet Terri Rizzo, research assistant
Terri Rizzo was hired in October to help organize the research material. A wife and mother of two teenagers, she lives on a large rural property within the city of Thunder Bay. She is bilingual in English and Finnish, and has been quick to pick up Swedish words and spellings. Her main task is to input into databases information such as publications and the project's questionnaires. So far more than 1,200 publications have been entered, located and cross-referenced. Next comes the unpublished material such as family histories. Terri is also a sessional lecturer in economics at Lakehead University, so she is able to access on interlibrary loan the books and articles still needed. Some will be photocopied, and others will be acquired through loan, donation or purchase.
Call for books
If you have any of the following books, and are willing to loan, donate or sell them to the project, please contact me at pebarr@tbaytel.net to make arrangements.
- Åter i Canada som cowboy och pälsjägare, by Karl Gunnarson (Stockholm 1941)
- Bland jägare och guldgrävare i Canada, by Adolf Viksten (Laholm 1979)
- Bland timmerhuggare i Canada, by Harald Vestman (Stockholm 1930)
- British Columbia och dess svenska innebyggare, by Hans Bergman (Victoria BC 1923)
- Brytningstid: diktsamling, by S.W. Gjörwell (Winnipeg 1922)
- Canada: skissar och glymtar från en resa, by Georg Ludvig Dahlin (Stockholm 1929)
- En värmlänning for till Canada, by Gustav Nilsson (Sunne 1943)
- Fabo Gong: berättelsen om John Söderberg som på 1920-talet emigrerade från Petalax till Kanada, by Helena Söderberg (Jeppo 1978)
- Från Bräcke till Canada, by Carl-H Wilhelmson (Köping 1992)
- Från Canada till Mexico: reseskildring, by C. Sahlin (Chicago 1916)
- I fjärran nordväst: Jaktstråtar i Kanada, by E. Lilius (Stockholm 1912)
- I guldjägares spår: resan till Yukon och Alaska, by Albert Viksten (Stockholm 1978)
- I slagbjörnens spår med bröderna Utterström: bland indianer och storvilt, by Harry F:son Fabbe (Stockholm 1932)
- Lägereldar längesen: äventyr som trapper och guldgrävare i Canada och Alaska, by Harry Macfie (Stockholm 1936)
- Män av gamla stammen: historier från Brittiska Columbia, by Ragnar Carlsson (Stockholm 1942)
- One Swedish Emigrant's Life in Canada, by William Larson (Victoria BC 1980)
- Rallare och guldgrävare, by Albin Plym (Stockholm 1952)
- Rallarliv i Canada, by Albin Plym (Stockholm 1950)
- Reflections and Recollections: A Collection of Memories, by Herbert Leonard Eldstrom (Saskatchewan 1955)
- Så blev mitt liv: en dalsländsk brukspojkes liv i Canada och hemma, by Sven Bodin (Munkedal 1983)
- Som emigrant i Canada: Färder och äventyr, by Karl Gunnarsson (Stockholm 1930)
- Under frihetens himmel: färder och äventyr i Nordanlandet, by Svante Lysén (Kristianstad 1954)
"Strong Swedish blood, true Canadians and proud of it!"
So wrote Ernest Lindholm in 2003. His parents, Charles and Anna Lindholm, came from Sweden to Alberta around the turn of the century, met in Iddesleigh and married in 1914. After several years of drought, they re-established in 1922 on much better land near New Norway.
Ernest continued, "Charles was an excellent farmer ... He ordered new samples of seed from a plant breeding station in Sweden called Svalöf. Charles would multiply them in the garden to the field. By this method he introduced Eagle Oats to this part of the world before Agriculture Canada. The encouragement of Charles, persevered through three generations, developed a successful family farm, Lindholm Seed Farm: Producers, Processors & Retailers of quality pedigreed seed: Wheat, Oats, Barley, Canola, Peas. Established 1922. We have been proud to retain the blue and yellow for our logo and business cards."
The company's 1992 seed list advertised sixteen different varieties certified #1 and tested free of Blackleg, each with information about yield, maturity, height and quality. What a difference from the situation faced by pioneers like Charles Lindholm seventy year earlier!
November in Minneapolis and Toronto
Dr. Epp and I were the only Canadians to attend the Swedish-American imprints conference in Minneapolis 5-6 November. This ongoing project to find and list Swedish language books published in North America is a co-operative effort by the National Library in Sweden and several US repositories. The project's database, when completed, may well be able to add to this list. Before the conference started Dr. Epp and I went our separate ways to scour archives and libraries in the Twin Cities for information about Swedes in Canada, and were surprised to find quite a bit of new material. My cousin and his wife, Wesley and Carol Ann Sideen, put me up in St. Paul. I am very grateful for this opportunity to visit, because Wesley passed away in January.
Each November the Toronto chapter of Swedish Women's Educational Association (SWEA) holds a two-day Christmas Fair at Harbourfront. It is an impressive and joyful event, a kind of immersion in Swedish culture, food and gift items, with folk costumes everywhere. Special guests from Sweden demonstrated the carving and painting of dalahorses. Two entertainment programs both days featured a Santa Lucia pageant, and performances by the Toronto Swedish Singers and Dancers under the direction of Lloyd Thompson. SWEA estimated 4,000 visitors, many from outlying communities.
Painting of Dalahorses
My table was located with a dozen others in the west arcade, between the Christmas tree for kids to decorate and the Swedish school's booth with its colourful display of artwork. My goals were all realized - to raise the profile of the project among Toronto area Swedes, to learn more about SWEA, and to encourage people to fill out questionnaires. All the SWEA members I met were kind and helpful, but I would like to single out three for special thanks - president Erika Johansson for inviting me and for the excursion to Niagara Falls the following day; Roosa Brandkvist for putting me up before and during the event; and Ingrid von Rosenbach for putting me up afterwards, for arranging for tickets to "Mamma Mia", and for hosting.an information meeting in her home.
My Table
A personal visit by the Swedish Ambassador
Ambassador Lennart Alvin took the opportunity to come and see us while in Thunder Bay to lecture at Lakehead University on the Kyoto challenge. He showed a good deal of interest in the project, and amazement at the amount of material on hand. My husband Peter took this photo of the Ambassador signing our guest book, with Ernie Epp and I in the background.
From Uppsala, Sweden, to Upsala, Canada
Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), who developed the classification system still used for plants, minerals and animals, taught at Uppsala University. The special chair he designed for use while studying, and as a pulpit for lessons and lectures, is being promoted by the city of Uppsala as a centrepiece for the 300th anniversary celebration of Linnaeus' birth in 2007. Because the seat resembles a horse, and the lectern its head, the chair is called Plugghästen, Plugg means to study and häst is horse, so the term translates literally as the study horse. The Plugghästen Association has modernized Linnaeus' original design so that the chair can be used for laptop computers as well, and handmade chairs are available for purchase.
To learn more about the study horse, go to the website www.plugghasten.se, and click on the Union Jack for the English version. For the diagrams, go to www.plugghasten.se/projektionsritning.pdf. For further information, contact Gunnar Grip, the project leader, at gunnar@plugghasten.se.
Ken Johnson made his own Plugghäst
When Ken Johnson of Thunder Bay discovered these diagrams on the net, he decided to build his own. There were many details to iron out, and you can see in the photo that Ken is justifiably proud of his accomplishment. An interesting side light is that the Johnsons own a summer home near Upsala, Ontario. The spelling is different from Uppsala because Sweden added the extra "p" in the early 1900s and Upsala, Ontario was named in the 1880s.
A website to check out
Everything you ever wanted to know about the Nordic countries can be found at Scandinavica.com, including an interview with yours truly. Click on "Nordic Culture", then on Swedes in Canada under "Scandinavia in the World".
Next Newsletter
Look for more interesting items from the files as we sort through the material!
