104. August 1928 Part 1

A letter in which Jonas Victor tells about the early years and how hard his wife Anna Greta worked, sewing.  Another letter tells of all the garden she raised and canned for food for them  It is one of the few about her life.  Roselyn


Omaha, Nebraska
August, 1928


Dear Brother Albert,
     I received your letter--many thanks.  It is always nice to get a letter from you.
     I am now in Omaha, 200 miles north of my home in Randolph. Kansas.
     
(Then some writing about a long ago debt when his wife's estate in Hamra was settled.  It seems he was owed some money, but says he does not remember.)
          
     I have had so much income, so I did not need the money.  God has blessed us with so much.  If it had been during the first 13 years, I would probably have remembered.  During that time it was difficult many times.
     We had grasshoppers twice.  They ate all the harvest.  We had cattle, but they were not worth much.  Some years we had a little harvest, so we had the food we needed.  We lived in a poor house, but it was better than others, who had to dig an earthen cave or live in a sod house.  
     We had money and Mother (his wife Anna Greta) made butter, which we could exchange for what we needed.  When I look back, I can see that God helped so much.  Thanks be to God's holy name.
     During this time, my wife sewed clothes for the children--caps, sweaters, coats, waistcoats and trousers. She made everything with her hands.  She was busy late in the evening, many times after midnight.
   She wrote to her mother about our life here.  Her mother wanted to help her with sewing.  My wife answered that the biggest help would be to have a sewing machine.  Her mother sent $88.58 cents.  I do not remember, but I think that a dollar was not more than three Swedish crowns.  My mother-in-law had enough money, so she could send without any trouble.

103. July 6, 1928.

It is midsummer and Jonas Victor remembers it as a beautiful time in Sweden.  Roselyn


Randolph, Kansas
July 6, 1928


Thanks for the letter I received from you.  It is always nice to hear from you.  At midsummer, it is a beautiful time in Sweden.  I received your letter on July 4.
     We have had cold weather until a week ago.  Now it is warm with a south wind.  In the room where I am sitting, the thermometer shows 90 degrees, and in Randolph it is 100 degrees inside.  Outdoors it is hot in the sunshine.
     When we received your letter, we had eaten new potatoes for two weeks.  They are cheap here.   The potatoes in the South are so cheap, it is not profitable to pick them, so there are several thousand acres there that will not be picked.  The potatoes cannot keep hiding. (?)
     I see in your letter that Anton is a Pentecostalist.  I have read about them in Sweden.  We do not know any here.  Perhaps he is a Pentecostalist for a while, and then he belongs to another sect.  
     Is he busy repairing shoes and making new?  He has probably earned much money.
      I have three children in Omaha, Nebraska.  Now they want me to go there.  They come get me with the automobile.  It is 180 miles away.  At my age, you want to live in peace and quiet.  Young people do not understand what old age feels in its heart.  On the other hand, it is not as hot in Omaha.  Here it is sultry warm, and then my eyes get worse.  If it is cooler, I can see well. 
     Thanks to God, I am rather well, but I have pain in my feet, so I have to get up every night.
     On June 7, it was six years ago that Mother died.  Life is best when there is hard work to do.
     We are in an evil world.  May God help us, so we will be saved to a better land.  We can see the members of our family and dear friends there.  We will also see Jesus.
     Dear Regards to You.
           J.V. Swenson
     

102. February 18, 1928 Part 2

Jonas Victor is remembering his parents and times back at Sparkarp--his old home in Sweden.   Roselyn


Clay Center, Kansas
February 18, 1928  Part 2
     I have thought many times of Father's and Mother's last years.  How good I have it compared to them.  I think I remember that you told me that Mother was sad before she died.  It was difficult for her to be in bed for 8 years. I do not know if she could sit up in bed.  It was hard enough with that.  
     I have been wondering what it was that made her so sad.  Could it be Oskar?  I heard that he was bad and troublesome.  The clergyman came and talked to Oskar, but Oskar felt superior, so the clergyman could not do anything.  I do not know if it was true.  I have heard that, and then I wonder if Mother was sad about that.  
     I do not think that any of her children in America made her sad.  She used to say:  "If they go to America, they will have a good life."
     When I am sitting here, I remember the time since my childhood.  As long as I was on the farm, I did not think of all the work there was to do during that time.  When I now look back, I can see the buildings in Spakarp, pear trees and cherry trees.  We used to sell pears and cherries.  The cow barn was far away.  It was a long walk to go there.  Perhaps, it would not be as long if I were there now.
     I think of all the changes in Hamra.  We also change.  I have thought of the words that the clergy man had said "We are given notice to move".  I have moved many times from one place to another, particularly in Sweden.
     I want to depart this life and be with Christ, which will be much better.  That time is coming.  May God help us to go home in peace.


Dear Greetings to you from the old brother.


The reunion remains.

Do you know if sister Fia (Anna Sofia) is in her house again?  Since I wrote this, I have had dinner and been out and went in the car in the town's streets, which are cemented, smooth and fine.  


When you get time, send me a letter.

101. February 18, 1928 Part 1

Jonas Victor is again writing about Spakarp and about the movement of houses. Roselyn.


Clay Center, Kansas
February 18, 1928  Part 1


Dear Brother and Family,
     I have the great advantage to have good health for my age.  When I am sitting in my solitude, I sometimes feel lonely.  I think the time goes slowly, but sometimes it goes quickly.   It is now soon 6 years since my beloved wife died. 
     I am now in Clay Center with my son (Peter Luther). I arrived January 9, and I am leaving from here the first of next month, if God give me health and strength, and if it does not change, because I shall go to the dentist.  He has been away, but he is back in a week.  I do not know if it will be to fill the old teeth, or to do new.  That can change the time I go home.  
     It does not matter.  I have a good time where I am.  Here it is better for my feet.  Home at Alfred's, I have my feet on a warm brick.  Here they have a fire in the cellar from where there is a flue to every room in the whole house.  The floors are just right warm for my feet.  I have no pain in the night.  It takes much coal to have fire to heat such a big house.  There are 6 rooms in the upper floor and some of them are big.
      By now, I think they have begun to pull down the house for moving in Hamra.  I think of the questions in my last letter when I asked for an answer.  It was lack of wisdom about the widow in Dunkullen if she got anything of what they had improved there and with the payment to Oskar.  I have nothing to do with that.  I do not remember if I asked if you had the right to stamp or sell as many trees you wanted, or if you only get to sell perhaps a separate part per year.  It would be interesting if you would tell me.
     
     

100. January 10, 1928 Part 2.

This second part of the letter is unfinished, a little unclear and parts are gone, but he is thinking about the partition of the land and the past.  Roselyn


Clay Center, Kansas
January 10, 1926


     I read in your letter that there was a good demand for wood and the price is good.  You got 4 Sw.cr/tree in the calf pasture.  I think it is the same in.....It is closer to drive, and according to the price it seems to be a good time to sell.  The price will be staying...it is going up quickly and it will be in order after the war (?--what war?  World War I ended in 1918--10 years before)
     Now I finish with dear greetings to you.  I feel gratitude to God for every morning I can get up from my bed.
     When we think of father or our parents, there was perhaps a good side of him. They inherited much, so they had drinking parties.  Then they signed a guarantee connection.  After several years they had to pay the whole debt.  It took so much of what they had, so they had to leave house and home.  It happened more up to the flat land.  Down in the wood land it was never so.  When they bought Spakarp, it was....in Hamra Fralse, it was an advantage.  Father liked to party.
     If a withdrawal was made, it cost money to get it out.  The interest deducts when they got the loan.  In 30 years the sum is gone.
     Now some questions about Oskar.  When his money is used up, can he stay there without paying or who will pay for him?  Did the widow receive money for improving Dunkullen?  Can you sell as much wood as you want, so they stamp that?  When you sell both wood and brushwood, do you have to plant again?  When you sell wood, do you get all the money yourself?  It seems right that you get all.  Brother Albert, you are probably tired of all my questions.
    We have beautiful weather.  We had a week with snow, which now has melted.