The mining adventures of Edward Elge

In 1887, two brothers, Edward and Frans Otto Elg, and their sister Maria Sofia, set sail for America. They are children of master blacksmith Johan Elg and his second wife Anna Stina Olsdotter, in Liljendal.

Before emigrating, the brothers have trained as blacksmiths, but the old mills in the area are going out of business. They are destined for Helena, Montana, and accompanied by Frans Otto´s wife Beata and son Ernfrid, along with the mysterious “Alexander Elge”, who I believe is their half brother Per August Elg (see http://elgfamily.blogspot.se/2011/04/alex-elgejohnson-yet-another-twist.html ). Maria Sofia soon marries another Swede, Nels Nelson, and the siblings are later joined by a third brother, Alfred Emil Elg.

This part of Montana had a number of gold and silver mines, but by the time the brothers arrived, the early prospectors had been replaced by large scale, deep quartz mining. Census records show the brothers as mine employees, farmers and running boarding houses. By the time they land in the US, they have all adopted Alexander´s spelling of the family name as “Elge”, and Frans Otto is later known as Francis.

 

 

In this article, I will focus on Edward Elge, who took his mining adventures farther afield.

In 1896, Edward marries Christina Olsson. A year later their only child, daughter Eva Christina is born.

The 1900 US Census show the couple running a boarding house in Gardiner, Park, Montana (name spelled Elze in the census record). Gardiner is the only year-round entrance to Yellowstone National Park.

The March 12, 1909 Billings Gazette notes that "Edward Elge, of Fromberg is in the city for a few days' visit. Mr Elge is foreman at the Gebo ranch".

By 1910, the Federal census lists Edward as a farmer in Carbon, Montana.

According to the 1920 Federal Census, Edward and Christina Elge were living in Seattle, Washington, in the household of Lena Hendricks, Christina's sister. This census record is dated Jan 2, 1920.

However, by April the same year, Edward is recorded in the census of Fairhaven, Alaska, where he is listed as superintendent of the Independence gold mine, Fairhaven, Seward, Alaska. Christina did not go with him there. .

Note that for this record, Ancestry mistakenly lists Akinik Swanson as his wife. A look at the original document image shows that Akinik was in fact the wife of one of miners (all residents of the mining camp are listed together as one household).

Fairhaven appears to have been a god-forsaken place even by Alaskan standards, out on the north end of the Seward peninsula. The nearest large communities in the 1920s were Nome (to the south) and Kotzebue (to the north), and the nearest small mining camps were Deering and Candle.  According to USGS Bulletin 1246, Metallliferous Lode Deposits of Alaska (1967), the only producing hard rock mine in the Fairhaven District was the Independence Mine, which was located on the Kugruk River about 20 miles east-northeast of Imuruk Lake. The lode, exposed in open cuts for a width of 7-12 feet and traced on the surface for 2,000 feet, was developed by several hundred feet of underground openings from which several hundred tons of ore was probably mined by 1922. By 1924 mining activity had ceased.

Edward´s Alaskan adventure was also short lived.  In July 1922, Edward files an application for registration with the US Consulate at Prince Rupert, B.C. , which states that he has been residing at Alice Arm, B.C. for the purpose of mining, on behalf of himself, since April 1921, a year after the Alaska census. He gives his legal address as Seattle, Wash. and states that he intends to return to the US within two years, or when “I sell mining properties”.  His annual income is stated at USD 900 (how far did that go in 1922?).

Interestingly, he claims to be unmarried. Was he really estranged from Christina at the time, or was this some legal subterfuge?

Either way, in the 1930 and 1940 US Census, Edward and Christina are back together again, living at 1313, 89th Ave, Oakland, California, where Edward is employed as a night watchman at the Caterpillar plant. Christina dies in 1957 and Edward in 1966. Their only child, Eva Christina, died in 1918, age 21, in Seattle. Perhaps it was this tragedy which triggered Edward´s mining adventures?

 

 

Back in 1985, I bought a book, “Steel Rails & Silver Dreams - A History of the Dolly Varden Mines and the Narrow Gauge Dolly Varden Mines Railway”, by Darryl E. Muralt. I bought the book for its railroad history content, and was delighted when I discovered that the mine and railroad were the work of two Norwegians and a Swede. The railroad delivered silver ore to a port at Alice Arms, B.C.  -   the same small town Edward Elge lists as his address in his consulate registration!  However, the book also tells us that the Dolly Varden operation was forced to close in 1921, due to falling silver prices, so it looks like Edward´s venture was ill timed..

 

And when we went on a cruise to Alaska in 2011, one of our stops was Ketchican, on the southernmost tip of Alaska. Just on the other side of the US / Alaska border is the long fiord which leads to Alice Arm. Today a ghost town with a few summer residents.

A Swedish invention ?

These events predate the Elg family by about 600 years, but since iron-making plays such a large role in our family history, I think this may be of interest:

From the early middle ages until the late 19th Century, the charcoal-fired blast furnace was the mainstay of the iron-making industry (see http://elgfamily.blogspot.se/2010/07/role-of-blacksmiths-in-ironmaking.html ). It has long been thought that this technology was imported to Sweden from Germany in the 14th Century.

However, a 10-year research project involving both historians, metallurgists and archaeologists has now overturned this view. The study has shown that blast furnaces were in use in Sweden as early as the 11th Century, and since these are the earliest findings of this kind, it is not unlikely that the technology was in fact developed here.

And the Swedish tradition of exporting high quality iron and steel started already with the vikings, as production capacity exceeded what the local market needed.

The study, Bengt Berglund et al "Järnet och Sveriges medeltida modernisering" (Iron and the medieval modernization of Sweden), is currently only available in Swedish, and has been published by Jernkontoret, the Swedish Steelmaking Industry Association, an institution which itself dates back to 1747.

More on Louis Elg - icehouse fire

The Caldwell Tribune, June 27, 1896, p. 1

 

I came across this notice while searching the digital newpaper archives of The Library of Congress ( http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ ).  The loss to Mr Elg of USD 1500 translates to at least 36 900 USD today – or as much as 1.6 MUSD, depending on the method used to compute the current value. For the complexities of understanding the historic value of money, see http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/ .

Per Gustaf Bork – blacksmith and narrow gauge pioneer

When the Skyllberg Iron Works planned to introduce steam power on their railroad in 1881, master mechanic Olaus Bork (see “A railroad builder in the family” ) did not have to go far for advice. Since 1875 his younger brother Per Gustaf Bork was employed as a locomotive engineer, and later master mechanic at the Hjo – Stenstorp Railroad (HSJ).

Per Gustaf was born in 1844 at Liljendal, Rämen parish, eight years younger than his brother Olaus. He is only seven when his father dies in smallpox, and their mother remarries his father´s assistant Olof Johnsson Roth. Per Gustaf starts to learn the blacksmith trade, and in 1865 he moves to Rönneshytta. This is a blast furnace which delivers pig iron to the rolling mill at nearby Skyllberg, where Olaus has just been appointed superintendent. Brother-in-law Gustaf Elg (married to Maria Sophia Bork) also moves to Rönneshytta where he is a master blacksmith.

In Rönneshytta Per Gustaf marries Amalia Persdotter, and daughter Tekla Olivia is born in 1869, the couple´s only child. In 1870 the family moves to Arboga. Per Gustaf´s profession is now listed as “machinist”, perhaps a sign that he has taken a first step from blacksmith to the new mechanical engineering industry.

In 1872 the young family moves again, this time to Karlskoga. Here Per Gustaf´s career takes a new turn. He is trained in the high technology of this new era, and next time the family moves, Per Gustaf´s profession is listed as “locomotive engineer”.

In 1872-73, the first parts of the Nora – Karlskoga railroad opens for business, and we can safely assume that it is here that Per Gustaf learns his new profession. In 1873, brother Olaus also oversees the construction of a railroad from Skyllberg to the new standard gauge mainline at Lerbäck – although his line will initially be horse-drawn.

 The boom spirit of Karlskoga is broken by a deep recession in late 1873. By 1875 Per Gustaf moves his family to Hjo, a small town in southern Sweden, located on the shore of lake Vänern, one of Sweden´s largest lakes. Here he is employed as an engineer on the new Hjo-Stenstorp railroad (HSJ.

 

HSJ engine at the railroad shops in Hjo.  Per Gustaf Bork in the cab. Source www.hsj.se

HSJ was one of the first common carriers on narrow gauge rails in Sweden. The gauge, 3 Swedish feet or 35 1/12”, was the most common narrow gauge in Sweden. Like many other such projects, HSJ was built by local businessmen in Hjo, to connect a town which had been bypassed by the main trunk lines.

The pier in Hjo. An HSJ train and passenger steamer steamer ”s/s Trafik”.  Source: Swedish Railway Museum ( www.samlingsportalen.se )  Jvm.KDAA03023:

Since 1855, Hjo also had one of the best harbors on Lake Vättern (Sweden´s second kargest lake), and while the railroad was seen as a threat to the harbor, the harbor also came to account for a fifth of the freight shipped on the railroad. Shipments included aspen wood for the matchstick factory in Tidaholm, raw liqour for a liqour factory in Hjo, and beet sugar for a sugar refinery in Lidköping.

Villa Olga, around 1900

 

I have not been able to uncover many details about Per Gustaf Borks career at HSJ, but he seems to have done well. His job title advances from “engineer” to “engineer foreman” and eventually “master mechanic”, and in the final years of the century he is able to purchase Villa Olga, located in a park in Hjo. Today the building is a historical landmark. Bork passed away in 1927.

Relations between the two railroading brothers were perhaps not entirely without frictions. In 1873, HSJ orders their third locomotive, “Tidaholm”, from Henry Hughes in England. Already by 1877, HSJ tries – without success – to sell the locomotive to the Lidköping – Skara – Stenstorp railroad, another 891 mm gauge line which connected to HSJ at Stenstorp. In a document dated October 1883, the locomotive is described as “totally unsuitable” and should be sold immediately. By the autumn of 1885, what appears to he the same locomotive is found on brother Olaus Bork´s Askersund – Skyllberg – Lerbäck railroad, but again meets with little enthusiasm. Among other problems, the short wheelbase makes it prone to derail, in particular when clearing snow. The Skyllberg company tries to sell the loco already in July 1891, and it is finally scrapped by ASLJ in 1903.

Villa Olga today

 

 

 

Location of Hjo, in southern Sweden

Young man with a horn

When other kids my age listened to the Beatles, I walked around with a feeling of being born 30 years too late: My music was the big bands of the 1930´s and 40´s, and to my ears the high point of music history was Benny Goodman´s performance of “One O´Clock Jump” at his legendary Carnegie Hall Concert on January 16, 1938 (listen to the rideout at the end of the song and you will get the meaning of swing). My teenage Walter Mitty dream was standing in a white tuxedo in front of my big band, with young ladies fainting  from excitement right and left. Of course it was not to be..

So I was delighted when I discovered that our family history does after all include a young man with a horn.

 

Nellie Elge, daughter of emigrated gold miner Frans Otto “Francis” Elg(e), married James Austin Gordon, a dentist in Helena, Montana.

This was a musical family: Dr Gordon was also a clarinet soloist, and Nellie a pianist. With a number of musically inclined children, the formed a family orchestra led by their father. They performed as the staff orchestra for a local radio station.

 

 Photo: Tei Gordon collection

One of the children, Claude Eugene Gordon (1916-1996)  was given his first cornet at the age of five, and three years later, while in fifth grade, was featured as a soloist playing with the Helena High School Band! While he was still in his early teens, Claude was already a professional player and was teaching for both cornet and accordion.

During the era of live radio and television, Claude distinguished himself as one of the most successful studio trumpet players and gained a reputation as "the trumpet player who never misses." He performed with the studio orchestras on many popular shows including, Amos and Andy, and I Love Lucy. During the 1950s Gordon emerged as one of Hollywood's frequently sought-after jazz trumpet soloists. Claude later formed his own big band which was named the "Best New Band in America" in 1959. Perhaps his timing could have been better – this was a period when young men with guitars were set to take over the popular music industry..

 

 

Claude Gordon passed away in 1996. Today, he is best remembered as a teacher. He authored a number of method books. The "Claude Gordon Method" has influenced most of today's top trumpet players, and is still used by teachers across the world. The Claude Gordon Personal Papers and Music Instrument Collection is housed at the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

https://www.purtle.com/claude-gordon-approach  About Claude Gordon´s approach to teaching

http://www.classicsonline.com/catalogue/product.aspx?pid=688818  The Claude Gordon Band online

Blacksmiths going west, part 2: The new country

This two-part article was first written (in Swedish) for a Swedish family history journal. In the first installment, we followed the lives of Gustaf Elg and Maria Sofia Bork in Sweden, leading to their decision to emigrate. Part 2 is partly based on American archives, but mainly on material and photos from the family historian Todd Lindahl, grandson of Franz Gustav "Gust" Elg..

In January 1892 emigration agent August Larsson, with offices at Götgatan 7 in Gothenburg, responds to a request from Gustaf Bork, Ferna Mill, about the cost of a one-way trip to Fergus Falls, Minnesota, United States of America.

August Larsson is the general agent for the Inman Lines Royal English & U.S. Mail Steamers, one of the major emigrant lines. At this time, emigration has developed into a major industry. The Inman Lines´ modern steamers regularly make the journey between Liverpool and New York in six days, and the shipyards are building ever more modern vessels to meet demand. In New York, Ellis Island has just opened, a giant terminal where the immigrants are examined before they are released into the new country.

August Larsson´s letter is a pre-printed standard form, supplemented by hand-written answers to the passenger's specific questions. From this we learn that the journey from Gothenburg to Fergus Falls will cost 189 kr - but out of this the boat trip Gothenburg - New York is only 75 kr. We can also see that Gustaf asked about the cost of upgrading to second class, and that his wife can bring her knitting machine without having to pay customs on arrival.

On April 1, 1892 the family board a ship in the port of Gothenburg to begin the journey. Direct service to to the U.S. is still a couple of decades into the future: The first leg of the hourney is a boat trip to Hull in England, and from there they travel by train across England to Liverpool, and the Inman Line´s pride and joy, the s / s City of New York.

The Inman Lines´ “City of New York”

The City of New York was a modern ship, built in Scotland in 1888, where she was baptized by Lady Randolph Churchill, famous socialite beauty and mother of Winston Churchill. She was the first large ocean steamer with twin propellers, which meant that she did not have to be equipped with sails as backup (breaking the propeller shaft was not uncommon on the first large steamers ..). In the autumn of 1892, she sets a speed record from the U.S. to Europe with 20.11 knots. 560 feet long, she can take 1740 passengers, of which 1000 - mainly immigrants - in steerage.

The party consists of Gustaf and Maria Sofia Elg, with daughters Emma, Johanna, Alma, Sofia, Frida and Ellen and son Frans Gustaf. The party also includes son Johan Wilhelm (John) Elg,. who had traveled back to Sweden in February to help the family on the journey, but also to fetch his bride to be, Johanna Karolina Winkler.

On the same ship is Harald Axel Söderkvist, a former seaman, born in Södertälje, but residing on Svartensgatan in Stockholm. His destination is also Fergus Falls, where he will later marry Gustaf Elg´s daughter Emma Elizabeth. It is an interesting mystery how a blacksmith's daughter from the deep forests came to know a nine years younger sailor from Södertälje?

Their destination, Fergus Falls, is an outpost in western Minnesota, on the border between a moraine landscape of forests and lakes that reminded of home, and an endless ocean of prairie grassland that stretches westward.



Barnesville, with the railroad shops in the distance

A few miles north is Barnesville, with railroad workshops where the brothers Elg found jobs. The railroad was now part of the Great Northern Railroad, the northernmost of the great trans-continental railroads, and railroad construction reached its final destination, Seattle, in 1893. By 1890, the city of Barnesville had grown to 1069 people, and had repair shops and a roundhouse. At one time, the railroad employed 75 to 150 men, largely immigrants from Germany, Sweden and Norway. By the turn of the century there were five hotels, five churches, two breweries and the City Hall and Opera was newly built. In 1907, the railroad shops were moved to Devil´s Lake, North Dakota, and the golden era of the railroad in Barnesville comes to an end.

In 1901, the Elg family moves to Brainerd, another major railroad junction along the Great Northern RR, a little further east. Two of the brothers, Aaron and John Elg, try their luck as merchants, and between 1901 and 1904 they run the "Elg Bro's Store," a food / general store in Brainerd. Their success as merchants is limited, and in 1904, they are forced to sell the store. Aaron goes back to the railroad workshops, while John is listed in the 1905 City Directory as a clerk at a competing general store, "K.W. Lagerquist" (also Swedish owned).



The Elg Brothers Store. John and Aaron in the center.

Elg Brothers letterhead

Emma Elizabeth, now Mrs. Soderquist, stays in Fergus Falls, where Harold has become foreman of the linemen at a telephone company. As true Americans, the family buys their first automobile in 1902.

 

Harold and Emma with son Herbert show off their new automobile

Sisters Johanna / Hannah and Alma become housekeepers for Mr Rank, a director of the Great Northern Railroad, in St. Paul. In her old age Alma becomes deaf and blind, and sister Hanna learns to communicate with her by writing on the palm.

Alma, Emma and Hanna Elg

The youngest sister, Ellen, became the first telephone operator in Fergus Falls. One day, one of the city's merchants arrived at the telephone exchange to receive a call. Ellen pointed to the phone booth, and the man, who had never seen a phone before leaned against the door and called out "hello?" at the door handle. In 1912 Ellen travels with her family in the automobiles to Minneapolis. There are no road signs on the small dirt roads, and people along the road do not know where they lead, because you take the train if you need to travel. Whenever they encounter a horse cart, they must run off the road and shut the engine. The trip takes four days, with several flat tires. Today, the route takes less than three hours, on 178 miles of highway.

Aaron and Adolph in the D&IR shop

Three of the brothers, Adolph, Aaron and Gust (Franz Gustaf) eventually move to Two Harbors, a small town on Lake Superior in northern Minnesota. Here they are employed in the workshops of the Duluth & Iron Range Railroad, a road pulling heavy iron ore trains to the docks in Two Harbors. And this is where – a century later - I meet Gustaf´s grandchildren, and take part of their history. Two Harbors also had a radical labor movement with several Swedish agitators.

 



Gust (top right) on the running board of D&IR #70

 



The Elg family, gathered in Brainerd, October 1906

Gustaf Elg dies in 1909 in Brainerd, 75 years old. His wife Maria Sofia survives him by almost 20 years. The oldest daughter Emma Soderquist dies in 1915, Harold moves further west to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and remarries, but after his second wife passes away, he is reunited with his former brothers-in-law-in Two Harbors. At 70, Aaron Elg makes a trip to Sweden. He was traveling alone and we do not know the purpose of his journey. He returns to New York on Aug. 26, 1931 on the Swedish American Line´s "Kungsholm".

 

Gustaf Elg, with Emma, Harold and Herbert. Notice the picture on the wall behind Gustaf!

 



The picture enlarged: A painting based on the photo of Liljendal which Gustaf and Maria Sofia brought to Minnesota (see part 1). Liljendal is the place where Gustaf became a blacksmith, and where Gustaf and Maria Sofia met and married.

Blacksmiths going west, part 1: Life in Sweden

 

This two-part article was first written (in Swedish) for a Swedish family history journal. In this first installment, we will follow the lives of Gustaf Elg and Maria Sofia Bork in Sweden, leading to their decision to emigrate.

-oOo-

The 19th century´s industrial revolution was made possible by new and more efficient methods of producing iron and steel, and demand for these products skyrocketed. But the new technology also came to mean the end of the wood-fired furnaces and forges that for 200 years had provided the world with iron from Sweden.

The Industrial Revolution also laid the foundation for the mass emigration to the United States, and many blacksmiths chose to emigrate, rather than to seek work in the modern industrial mills.

This was also the case for my Elg family, with roots in Säfsnäs / Gravendal (and going back to Finnish slash and burn farmers who first settled in the area around 1600). At least 20 Elgs emigrated to the United States, and I have contact with about 40 descendants, from Maine to Seattle and Los Angeles

In the early 1800s, a number of blacksmiths from our Elg family moved a few miles west, to Liljendal in Rämmen parish. This is also where most emigrants have roots. In this story, we will follow one of these emigrant blacksmith families. The family's life in Sweden is traced from parish records and other historical sources. The family's fortunes in America is partly based on American archives, but mainly on material from the family historian Todd Lindahl, grandson of Franz Gustav "Gust" Elg.

 

 

Liljendal abt 1860.

Gustaf and Maria Sofia brought this photo to Minnesota.

Todd Lindahl collection

Gustaf Elg, blacksmith

Gustaf Elg was born in 1834 in Gravendal, the youngest son of my great-great-grandfather Lars Elg (1789-1853) and Lisa Gråberg (1792-1873). Lars Elg was a master blacksmith, and introduced what was known as the German method of forging at Gravendal. An older sister of Gustaf, Christina Elg (1820-1902) also came to emigrate, but that's a different (and interesting) story.

At the age of fifteen, Gustaf moves to Liljendal in 1849, where he begins to learn the blacksmith profession as a helper to his older brother, Johan Elg (1817-1896). In 1852 Gustaf moves again, this time to Gustavsström, Gåsborn, to continue his training with another brother, master hammersmith Peter Elg (1814-1890).

 

Gustaf Elg and Maria Sofia Bork

Todd Lindahl collection

Two years later, Gustav moves back to Rämmen, to work as an assistant to master blacksmith Jan Bork at Heden, an annex to the Liljendal mill. In 1856, at age 22, his apprenticeship is over, and Gustaf marries Maria Sofia Bork (b. 1838 in Liljendal). Maria Sofia is the daughter of Jan Bork's deceased brother Petter Bork (1812-1851) and Lisa Stålberg. (While there were a number of Elg-smiths in Rämmen parish the Bork family was even more numerous, and I have found several marriages between the two families).

Gustav is now an assistant master, the master blacksmith´s number two man, and leads the crew when the master is not in place. At least in the early years, the couple lives with Maria Sofia's family, where her mother has remarried the 15 years younger assistant master Olof Jonsson Roth. Marrying a blacksmith's widow, and taking responsibility for supporting the family, was not an unusual way for a blacksmith apprentice to obtain the resources needed to advance to assistant master and master blacksmith.

In 1864, after fifteen years of training, Gustaf could finally call himself a master blacksmith. In Liljendal Maria Sofia also gave birth to six of the couple's total of 14 children: Emma Elizabeth (b.1857), Carl Gustaf (b. 1859), Aaron (b. 1860), Johanna (b. 1862), Francis Edward (b. 1865), and John William (b. 1866). Francis Edward died only 17 months old.

Rönneshytta, Lerbäck

In 1867, after three years as a master blacksmith, Gustaf moves with his growing family to Rönneshytta in Lerbäck parish in Närke. The move also includes helper Erik Johan Elg, a son of Gustaf´s brother Johan who once trained Gustaf in Liljendal. Rönneshytta delivers pig iron to the nearby Skyllberg mill where the iron is processed in a newly built rolling mill.

At the Skyllberg mill, Maria Sofia's brother Olaus Bork is master mechanic since two years, and is responsible for an ambitious expansion program. He will eventually build the narrow gauge railroad connecting Skyllberg to the outside world, and is a master mechanic for 32 years (see http://elgfamily.blogspot.se/2013/09/a-railroad-builder-in-family.html ).

In Rönneshytta three children are born, Adolf Fredrik (1868), Alma Justina (1870) and Lambert (1875).

Emigration begins

In 1876 it is time for the family to move again, this time to Fagersta Mill, Västanfors. The oungest son, Lambert, dies shortly afterwards, just 17 months old. Three years later, the first step on the way to America is taken, as the eldest son Carl Gustaf Elg emigrates, 20 years old, in July 1879. Two years later, his brother Aaron moves to Eskilstuna as an apprentice at Bolinder Munktell, but soon he follows his brother's trail, and emigrates to the U.S. in August, 1882. Both brothers find work in railroad workshops in Minnesota.

In 1884 daughter Emma Elizabeth leaves the nest. She travels to Gävle to become kitchen maid to Colonel Carl Bror Munck. Munck is not only commander of the Helsinglands Regiment, he also belongs to King Oscar II's staff, and his wife is lady in waiting to Queen Victoria.

Aaron is visits Sweden in 1885, presumably to discuss further emigration plans. Next year brothers Johan Wilhelm and Adolf Fredrik also emigrate.

Two of Olaus Bork's sons, Carl Gustaf and Leonard Bork, also emigrate to Minnesota, in April 1887. I have written about Carl Gustaf´s tragic death in a previous article ( http://elgfamily.blogspot.se/2013/09/a-railroad-builder-in-family.html ) Leonard returns to Sweden and Skyllberg after his brother's death. Adolf stays a year in Montana before moving back to Minnesota. Possibly he brought with him the remains of Carl Gustaf Bork, as he is buried in Barnesville, Minnesota.

 

Hannah and Adolph Elg, at Carl Gustaf Bork´s grave in Barnesville, 1939

Todd Lindahl Collection
 

The family is not yet ready for the big leap. While Johan Wilhelm and Adolf Fredrik emigrate to Minnesota Gustaf Elg moves his family one last time in 1886, now to Ferna Mill, Gunnilsbo, Västmanland. While at Ferna a decision is reached, and sometime 1891 - 1892 Gustaf writes to an emigration agent to inquire about the cost of moving the family to Minnesota.

 

The blacksmith shop at Ferna, abt 1880

-oOo-

In a following article, we will follow the family across the Atlantic, and their life in the new country.