The mystery of Alexander Elge – finally solved!

When we first visited the Johnson ranch, back in 2007, Margaret gave me a copy of her history of the Johnson ranch. According to this, the ranch was first settled by Alexander Elg and his wife Sophia, in 1879, which is supported by old land records. According to Margaret´s history, brother Jacob – Everett´s grandfather – takes over the ranch in 1888, after Alexander´s death. There is no record of his death, or of what becomes of his wife Sophia.

Jacob was born in 1852 in Liljendal, Sweden, a son of blacksmith Johan Elg  and his first wife, Kajsa Håkansdotter. Kajsa dies when Jacob is only one year old, and Johan later marries Anna Olsdotter. In total, 14 children are born in these marriages, of which 10 boys and 2 daughters survive. Most of them will later emigrate.

Back in Sweden I start to search for Alexander, but he is nowhere to be found in the parish records, and there are no gaps in the record where he could have slipped through. However, it is not unheard of for emigrants to change their names.

I have two suspects, all other sons are accounted for in Swedish parish records.

Erik Johan Elg, b. 1844, cannot be found in Swedish records. I find a Johan Erik Elg, b. 1844, who emigrates with his wife Kristina to Chicago in 1869, from a place near Liljendal. I have no direct evidence that this is our Erik Johan Elg.

Per August Elg, b. 1850, emigrates in 1868, no destination noted.

Returns from the dead..

Here the story could have ended, but a couple of years later I get in touch with another branch of the family, in Montana. They are descendants of two brothers and a sister from Johan Elg´s second marriage, who emigrate to Montana to dig for gold.

It takes a while to follow their emigration, as they emigrate from Oslo, and do not appear in Swedish emigration records. But finally I find the passenger list from their arrival in New York, March 19, 1887, on the s/s Britannic. And now it gets interesting! The list shows:

* Alexander Elge, 26, US citizen

* Marie Elge, 18, spinster

* Edward Elge, 20, laborer

* Otto Elge, 24, farmer

* Beata Elge, 24, wife

* Ernfrid Elge, 3, son

Alexander is listed with the rest of the family. Note also that all have changed the spelling of the family name, the ”-e” makes it easier to pronounce for English speakers.

It seems too much of a coincidence that two mysterious Alexanders should appear in the same family. More likely it was Alexander´s wife sophia who passed away in Laramie, and Alexander decided to make a fresh start.

Debra Jacobs found a marriage records which shows that Alexander August Elge from Sweden marries Eva June Smith in 1895, in San Bernadino. This seems to indicate that Alexander is Per August Elg. There is a problem in that the passenger list from 1887 lists his age as 26, which would place his birth around 1860, rather than 1850, a bit young to have married and started the Laramie ranch by 1877. On the other hand, the Alexander Elg who marries in San Bernadino in 1895 is 45 years old, which matches Per August's birth year of 1850. And, unlike the arrival record in New York, the Norwegian departure record lists his age as 36, matching Per August’s birth year.

On the wrong track?

By now I was feeling rather confident, when a register search turns up a person who was actually named August Alexander Elg, born in the same province in 1853, and also a blacksmith like ”my” Elgs. Not only that, the family emigrated in 1882. Have I been barking up the wrong tree all along? A search of the parish records showed that this man was from another part of Värmland province. And US census records show that after emigration the family settled in Chicago, where he spent the rest of his life with his Swedish wife, without any gold-mining adventures.

 Final confirmation

Final confirmation of my original story arrives, when I find a digitized newpaper story in the collection of the Swedish National Library. This story was published in several Swedish newspapers in March 1887:

The – not – lost son. Under this heading, one of our correspondents reports:

A blacksmith at Liljendal named Elg had 14 children, of which 10 sons and 2 daughters survive. 18 years ago, the then 18 year old son A. emigrated to America, where he has predominantly occupied himselm searching for gold, first in California with mixed success, but later in the Rocky Mountains in Montana, where in company with an English prospector he discovered a rich gold vein; also he is part owner with five others in a silver mine in the Rocky Mountains.

On October 5th last year, he embarked on the long and expensive journey back to Sweden, to provide for his parents in their old age, and arrived there in good health on November 9th. There is no mistaking the joy on his arrival, his father had assumed he was dead as they had not heard from him for seven years. 

However, now the golden boy opened his purse and purchased all kind on necessities for the household. Later he deposited a substantial amount with his father to meet future needs.

On March 1, he started the long journey back to his mines, but this time in the company of an 18 year old sister and two brothers, one of them accompanied by his family.

The 1890 census shows Alex Johnson listed as a boarder with Per August/Alexander´s half sister Maria Sophia Elge and her husband Nels Nelson, who ran a boarding house for miners in Helena Montana.

Per August ”Alexander” Elge passed away on April 3, 1896, and is buried in Redland, California, just outside San Bernadino, where he married Eva June Smith only a year before