Murder on Christmas Night ! The shooting of Swan Nelson in Chicago Dec 25 1893 part 1

On  Chistmas Eve 1893 Swan Nelson a young Swedish Emigrant closed his little tobacco store on Archer Ave on Chicagos south side   at 4 pm and walked to his home close by near 32 Street .;
Swan was born as one of 7 surviving children  in 1871 in the village of Magletorp in Trolle- Ljungby in the province of  Skåne (Scania) in southern Sweden as the son of Nils Johnson 1820-1881 and Sissa Johnsdotter 1830-1891.
After the the death of their father, Nels two oldest sisters Elna and Karna emigrated to the USA in 1882.  after their mothers death Sven and his older brother Jöns and their youngest sister Johanna emigrated in march 1892. Sven and Jöns settled in Chicago where their maternal aunt Elna(Ella) Benson and her two children lived..

Trolle-Ljungby church 

In Chicago Jöns and Sven Nilsson quickly became John and Swan Nelson .  Life apparently went well for the two brothers  Swan quickly learned a bit of english and manged to accuire a little tobacco store. He also took part in the social life of the Swedish-Americans in the city. In the summer of 1893 he became one of the charter members of the lodge Angantyr of The Independent order of Vikings. In  the summer and fall of 1893 Chicago also hosted The  Worlds Columbian Exposition .with visitors from allover the USA and the world visiting Chicago.
The city  was also plagued by crime and violence and political corruption  and shortly before  the Exposition closed Chicago mayor Carter Harrison was murdered .

"The White city" The Worlds comumbian Exibition in Chicago 1893

Swan had all reasons to be content with his life in Chicago and to look forward to a bright futute unfortunate his life was cut short all too soon. On Christmas evening  Swan went to a small Christmas party held by his neigbours Otto and Josephine  Bjorkman  . he and the bjorkman family and a few other friends celebrated Christmas Eve the Swedish way with some food and drink.


(Aproximate place where the shooting took place (the street numbers where changed in 1909)

About 2.30 AM  early on Christmas morning Swan left the Bjorkmans home. Despite being early in the mornng he decided to go to the Northelfer´s saloon nearby.  Outside the saloon he met two Irish-american policemen  Michael J Healy and Thomas  J Moran  who had had some drinks in another saloon earlier in the evening.
 They  insisted that Swan should buy them some drinks in the saloon. The three men went inside    where  there where  a few sleepy german-american customers and the bartender .The bartender gave the policemen cigars and Swan bought them each a drink. but when they insisted he should buy them more he refused.

 They then beat him with a club. and then  cleared the saloon. Outside the Saloon the quarell continued. They arrested Swan Nelson and while Mooran went to call the police-wagon Healy held him. Swan then brooke lose and ran towards his home .The two policemen fired 5 shoots (in the air) they later said.
Swan Nelson was hit in the back. Mrs.Bjorkman heard the shot and opened the door.  Mooran entered and said  he had fired at a robber and demanded more whiskey !.Swan Nelson had managed to crawl to his house where mrs Bjorkman found him dying.

 "Here is my watch,mrs Bjorkman"  he said " I am shoot and will die !. the two policemen returned.Healy treatened to shot mrs  Bjorkman if she left the dying man , he also hit her in the face she later testified. Swan Nelson was dragged to the sidewalk where he was heard saying "I die,I die ,I have done no wrong,Have I no friends here? help-I am dying."  The police-wagon arrived and took him  to the hospital where he died later on Christmas day .

Research tips for November

The Swedish digital provider of digitized Swedish church record Arkiv Digital announces free access to their records for the Weekend of 12-13 November.


Linda Kvist has started a new podcast about Swedish genealogy in English it is called
Cousin Linda 

The Minnesota Historical Society has opened a new website for showing digitized Swedish-American newspapers. 

Hundreds of Swedish-language newspapers were published in the United States from 1850 onward,
catering to America's Swedish immigrant communities. Use this online portal to learn more about these newspapers, and to search over 300,000 digitized newspaper pages from 28 different Swedish American newspaper titles published across the United States between 1859 and 2007. 


North Park University  in Chicago has digitized the records of the first Swedish church in  Chicago
the St. Ansgarius Protestant Episcopal Church

Founded in 1849, St. Ansgarius Episcopal Church was the first parish established for the growing community of Swedish immigrants in the city of Chicago. The church was formed jointly by the Swedish and Norwegian communities within the neighborhood of Swede Town (present-day River North). Gustaf Unonius (1810-1902), a Swedish pioneer and Episcopal priest, served as the church’s first pastor for 10 years.

Anna-Karin in Chicago 2 Mount Olive cemetery

Today I visited some Chicago cemeteries among them
Mount Olive cemetery in Chicago .
It is a non denominational cemetery and it was founded 1886 .








Several Swedish emigrants are buried at the cemetery among them my distant relative on my maternal grandfathers side Lotta Gustafsdotter 1850-1929
married to Per Gustaf Svensson Sundquist In the USA the family called themself Swanson They emigrated in the 1890thies from Sandhult in the province of Västergötland to Chicago.
Lotta is buried in the same grave as her children
Jenny Swanson Jacobsen 1879-1901 and Arvid O Swanson 1886-1963.
Here in Chicago I am staying with some of Lottas descdendants the Bredemann family.

On the cemetery are many graves of swedish emigrants and their descendants. Among famillies I have researched I found the graves of relatives to My uncle Eric (Larsson) Lago (my maternal aunt Karins husband) .Several of his relatives emigrated in 1879thies from Getinge in the province of Halland to Chicago.Among this relatives were Julius Swenson (or Swanson) 1843- and his wife Josephine Nelson (Nilson?)1859-1929. they met in Chicago and had several children.Julius and Josephine are buried in a plot at the cemetery according to cemetery records but no stone are preserved.
However two of their daughters are buried there as well as one grandaughter.Their oldest daughter Hulda J( Swenson) Farrell 1883-1923 and her husband Edward J Farrell 1884-1941 is buried in the same lot as well as the younger daughter Alice S (Swenson) Weslar 1885-1957 and her daughter Gladys (Weslar) Cooksey 1906-1954

"The New Country" New Exibition about Swedish Emigration opens in Eksjö

On June 5th The Swedish Emigrant Institute opened a new Exhibition called "Det nya landet (The New Country) in its new temporary branch in the city of Eksjö.
The new exhibitions theme is the Swedes life in USA .Their life in the cities and their social situation both in comparison to the majority culture and in comparison to other immigrant groups. The exibition is to bee seen as a complement to the Exibitions in The Swedish Emigrant Institutes main exibitions in Växjö wich focuses on the Emigrants life in Sweden and on their experiences in rural USA.




The Mayor of Eksjö Lennart Bogren declared the
exhibition open and also held a short speech about
the Exhibition and the fact that many immigrants
had left the Eksjö area and settled in different
places in USA.














Willy Läth checks the exhibition a last time before the ribbon is cut !

A brass band wearing the old uniforms of the old
Småland Hussar regiment.entertained by playing old military music.











Several people came to take a first view of the exibition. The exhibitions main theme is the swedish emigrants experiences in the new country. Both with the majority American society as well as with and in comparison to other immigrant groups.










The United States sometimes saw its immigrants and and diverse ethnic make up as a strength.
And Sometimes as a weakness.
Swedes were sometimes looked
down up on. But in general they
had the advantage of being "White" and "Protestant"and so ended up on the upper part of the pecking order.
The Swedes were often pitted against the Irish which they also looked down on (and vice versa).









Many Swedes home in USA came to be in the expanding cities such as Chicago,Denver and Jamestown(on the left). sometimes the part of town they ended up in were among the simple neighborhoods as in "Swede Hollow" in St. Paul (to the right).


































Carl Werner Pettersson and Yngve Turesson and Bertil Fransson seem
very happy with the exhibition.











Tore Sandh gives Lars Hansson and the Swedish Emigrant Institute a picture ofJohan (John) Vifvat (a civil war veteran) and his son Sam Vifvat( a soldier in WW1). Johan Vifvat came from the area of Eksjö and immigrated to USA in the 1850thies.