The Elges of Montana

I have written a longer document about an extended family of Elges who emigrated to  Helena, Montana, in 1887, mostly to work in the gold mines there.

You can downpoad it as a PDF :

The Elges of Montana  

Lennart, 12 Feb. 2025
 

Origins of the name Elg

 

”Elg” is the Swedish name (old spelling) of the animal Americans know as a ”moose” (not an elk!).While by no means a common name, ”Elg” is not unique to our family.

 Two hundred years ago, family names were mainly used by members of the nobility. Ordinary people were known by their father´s first name, called a patronymic. If your first name was Karl, and your father was John, you were known as Karl Johnson but your children would by Karlsson, or Karlsdotter (-daughter)

In our family, the Elg name first appears in 1779 when Petter Jansson becomes a master blacksmith at Gravendal and adopts the name Elg as his ”trademark”. This is one of the few exceptions to the use of patronymics. A master blacksmith would be an independent contractor, hire his own assistants etc, and his sons would often follow in his footsteps, founding a dynasty of blacksmiths.

A second source of ”Elgs” was the army. In a small village, keeping track of ”Karl Svensson” was no problem, but in a larger group of soldiers, too many Karl Svensson led to confusion, and no one cared who your father was anyway. So the army assigned ”soldier names”, unique at least within your company. Names were chosen to be short and easy to berk across a parade ground or battle field, and often animal names were chosen to instill a sence of strength or courage. And no, these names were not assigned as a badge of distinction, they were only there to identify you.

In theory, these names should only be used in the army, but many retired soldiers retained the name and passed it own to his cildren. But in our case, I have found no military conntection, it is prely a ”blackamith name”.

The untimely death of Karl Gustaf Bork

 

In my article about Olaus Bork, I mentioned the tragic death of Olaus son Karl Gustaf Bork, in Glasgow, Montana.

Gustaf emigrated at the age of 23, to the US, accompanied by his younger brother Leonard (18), in April, 1887. Their first destination was McKeesport, Pennsylvania, a part of the steelmaking district around Pittsburgh and the destination for many Swedish blacksmiths.

However, the two brothers soon moved in to Glasgow, Montana, where they found work in the newly erected railroad shops of the Great Northern Railway. The railroad had just reached eastern Montana, on its quest to become the northern-most transcontinental railroad. Glasgow was a new railroad town, hastily built to serve the needs of the railroad. The brothers were loined by several cousins from Barnesville.

I have now found a contemporary Swedish newspaper article which sheds more light on the circumstances of Gustaf Bork´s untimely death:

"Sad news has recently reached us from across the Atlantic.

Gustaf Bork, oldest son of Olaus Bork, master mechanic at Skyllberg, has passed away in Glasgow, Montana, after a few days’ illness.

Bork left Sweden for America two years ago. At first he worked in a steel mill in Pittsburgh, and then came to Glasgow, where he was hired as a fitter in the shops of the great Manitoba railroad company. Here he soon gained the respect and admiration of both foremen and colleagues for his great ability and readiness. On receiving news of the death, his foreman, Mr. Fryberg, stated: ”I will never see a man like that again”.

At the end of March, he undertook a journey to the Rocky Mountains and California, where he caught a cold which led to his death. Fate ordained that his parents received a letter from him where he described his journey without mentioning any illness, on the very day he was buried.

He was carried to his grave by five cousins living in the area, and a sixth Swede. The ceremony, attended by most Scandinavians in the area, was performed by a Swedish priest.

It appears that his passing has cut short a very promising career.”

Published in Nerikes Allehanda, May 20, 1889

The ”great Manitoba railroad” refers to the St Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway, a predecessor to the Great Northern Railway controlled by James J. Hill: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Paul_and_Pacific_Railroad

Gustaf´s remains were later moved to Barnesville, Minnesota, where several cousins worked in the railroad shops.

Aaron and Hannah Elg, at Gustaf´s grave in Barnesville, Minnesota, abt 1930.
Photo from Todd Lindahl

After Gustaf´s death, his brother returned to Sweden.

Note that both Gustaf´s father Olaus Bork, and uncle Per Gustaf Bork were involved in railroad building in Sweden:

http://elgfamily.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-railroad-builder-in-family.html  about Olaus Bork

http://elgfamily.blogspot.com/2014/05/per-gustaf-bork-blacksmith-and-narrow.html  Per Gustaf Bork

Also, several cousins worked in railroad shops back in Minnesota: http://elgfamily.blogspot.com/2013/10/blacksmiths-going-west-part-2-new.html

A fateful encounter

 

The City of New York, as built in 1888

In 1892, Gustaf Elg, his wife Maria Sofia and family emigrated to the US, on the Inman Lines "City of New York".

(see http://elgfamily.blogspot.com/2013/10/blacksmiths-going-west-part-2-new.html ).

City of New York was designed to be the largest and fastest liner on the Atlantic, built by J & G Thomson of Clydebank, Scotland. When she entered service in August 1888, she was the first twin screw express liner and while she did not achieve the westbound Blue Riband, she ultimately held the eastbound record from August 1892 to May 1893 at a speed of 20.11 knots.

Titanic passing New York and Olympia.
New York had lost one funnel in a rebuild in 1901.

Fast forward to April 10, 1912:

On 10 April 1912, New York, as she was now known, was berthed in Southampton beside Oceanic. The three-inch steel hawsers that secured her were torn from their moorings when the much larger Titanic (leaving port to begin her ill-fated maiden voyage to New York City) passed by, creating a suction effect. A collision was narrowly avoided when Titanic's captain, Edward Smith, ordered the port propeller to reverse, turning the larger liner while a nearby tugboat towed New York in the opposite direction.

A close encounter..The photo is taken from the Titanic,
and somehow survived her sinking.

Of course, if captain Smith had failed to avoid colliding with New York, her departure would have been delayed while the ship was inspected for possible damage. And she would not have been on time for that fateful encounter with an iceberg off Newfoundland..

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_City_of_New_York_(1888)

There is another possible family connection to the Titanic. My grandfather´s second cousin Sigfrid Elg emigrated to the US in 1912. According to family tradition, he was booked on the Titanic´s maiden voyage, but was delayed and had to travel on another ship from Oslo, Norway. His departure from Sweden is actually recorded on April 4, six days before Titanic´s departure, but that may not have given him enough time to travel to Southampton.

In search of our Finnish roots

 Lennart Elg, October 2020

The first known ancestor of our Elg family was a Finnish settler who arrived in what is now the village of Säfsnäs in the early 17th Century - Pål Larsson Turpoinen. Pål was one of the first to settle in the area, and many Swedes with roots here count Pål among their ancestors. For many years, the main source for this was oral history, recorded by Finnish linguist Carl Axel Gottlund in the early 19th century. The community of Finnish settlers had a strong tradition of oral history, but the interviews were conducted 200 years after they arrived.

Finnish migrants

Life in the woods

When Pål and other Finnish-born settlers arrived in the area they were neither "illegal" nor "immigrants". Finland was part of Sweden since the 13th century, and would remain so for another two centuries, until we lost Finland in a war against Russia in 1809. And the King of Sweden provided tax incentives for settlers, not only to develop the economy, but also so he would get early warning if Danish troops crossed the border to march on Stockholm. The area is close to Norway, which was then controlled by our traditional arch-enemy, the Danes.

The Finnish settlers aquired somewhat of an outlaw reputation, since they preferred to settle deep in the forests, far from Swedish homesteaders. Pål first shows up in a police investigation from 1622, suspected of hunting moose, which all belonged to the Crown.. Pål was a suspect in this investigation, but - as usual - rumour preceded the sheriff and he found no hard evidence. Pål was not convicted, though remains of a slaughtered moose had been found close to his cabin.

In later documents, Pål is referred to as sheriff for the Finnish community (finnelänsman). This indicates that he had become a man of substance in his community, and also that he spoke Swedish in addition to his Finnish mother tongue, and could communicate with Swedish authorities.

Slash and burn farming

These Finnish homesteaders practised a highly efficient form of slash-and-burn farming which made it possible for them to subsist in remote forest areas, far from Swedish farmers. They would cut down an area of forest and burn the vegetation. The ashes would provide rich nutrients for the soil for a couple of years. However, once these were depleted they would have to clearcut a new area.

Iron mills

The situation would change as an emerging, but primitive, iron industry was growing in the beginning of the 17th century. Smelting was powered by charcoal, and charcoal was also required to reduce the iron oxide to pig iron. The Forest Finns with their demanding slash-and-burn agriculture were suddenly considered an economic threat by increasing the cost of charcoal as they burned off now valuable timber. The burning of the forests was officially forbidden in 1647 and the Finns were obliged to support the iron factories by providing charcoal at an artificially low price.

  

Traditional charcoal pile.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charcoal_burner

An iron mill was founded ca 1720 at Gravendal, around 10 miles southeast of Säfsnäs. Here our ancestors found work in the blacksmith shop, and blacksmithing became a family tradition for more than 200 years... The name Elg was adopted by Petter Jansson around 1770, when he became a master blacksmith, and this trade was taught from father to son for at least four generations. Petter was a 3rd great-grandson of Pål Larsson Turpoinen, and at least the fourth generation to be born at Elgsjöhöjden (the Hill above Moose Lake – elg is Swedish for moose). Most of us are descended from Petter´s son Lars Elg (1789-18539, who became a master blacksmith at Gravendal, a few miles south of Älgsjöhöjden.

 

18th century blacksmith shop, with a small waterpowered drop hammer

By the end of the 18th century the very existence of the Forest Finns was forgotten and they were considered to have assimilated into the Swedish population. But they were not, as was clearly shown by Finnish linguist Carl Axel Gottlund.

Gottlund made two trips to the Forest Finns, the first in 1817 to Dalarna and the second, a longer one in 1820--21 to Värmland. He collected folklore and other ethnographic data as well as geneaological information. The last mentioned was partly because he wanted to improve the social circumstances of the Finns and to prevent the Sweden from taking their land ownings. It has been estimated that in the beginning of the 19th century there were about 40.000 Finns, still using Finnish as their mother tongue, in central Scandinavia, of which about 14.000 in Värmland.

 

Carl Axel Gottlund

DNA research

Recently, genealogists have come to suspect that Pål is identical to a man of that name who grew up in a small village called Pihtipudas in central Finland, and who disappears from Finnish records in 1603.

One clue has been that the name – now spelled Turpeinen - still lives on in Pihtipudas. Now, DNA testing done by my distant relative Per-Göran Jansson has shown that both Per-Göran and another Swedish descendant of Pål Larsson Turpeinen shares genes with a member of the Pihtipudas Turpeinens, going back to around 1600. So it appears that the origins of Pål Larsson Turpoinen/Turpeinen have been confirmed. And since he disappears from Pihtipudas in 1603, his birth if probably closer to 1580. I have parish records which show that Per-Göran and I have a common ancestor in this line as far back as 1710.

At present, we do not yet know for sure whether it was Pål Larsson Turpeinen or his father who left Pihtipudas. We also know nothing about his life before the first reliable information about his existence in the Säfsen area appears in 1622.

You can find the location of Pihtipudas here:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pihtipudas,+Finland/ 

The Elgs are descended from Pål´s son Jan/Johan. In an ”it´s a small world” moment, Ritva has found that, according to MyHeritage, she is related by marriage to Jan´s brother Erik Pålsson Turpoinen..

Pihtipudas

Today, Pihtipudas is a small town of around 4100 inhabitants. On a trip to Finland in 2018, we stopped in Pihtipudas, and met our distant cousin Juha Turpeinen, who we had found through the DNA research of Per-Göran Jansson. Juha showed us remains of the early settlements. Close to the church is a museum dedicated to the early settlers, and also a statue dedicated to the slash-and-burn farmers.

Juha Turpeinen and Lennart, studying our joint ancestors

History of Pihtipudas

Before abt 1550, the area where Pihtipudas lies today was unpopulated, used for hunting and fishing. Around 1550, land for slash-and-burn farming was running out, and the Swedish kings encouraged cultavation of new land in order to increase tax revenue.Pihtipudas started to develop as a center for the new settlers. One of the first settlers was Tapani Turpeinen. Tapani founded a large family in the area, a 1638 survey lists five farms owned by Turpeinens.

Still, the farming methods used continously required new land, and migration continued, both north, and west across the Baltic sea, to Sweden. We do not know whether it was Pål Larsson Turpoinen or his father Lars Pålsson Turpoinen who migrated, or what triggered the migration across the Baltic in this case: It may have been social unrest at the time, it may have been the risk of being conscripted to the army, it may have been a son knowing he was not in line to enherit the family farm. Also, the king of Sweden offered tax incentives for Finns who settled in the west forest regions of Sweden. This was partly for economic development, but also to provide early warning against our traditional enemy, the perfidious Danes, who ruled Norway at the time.

Monument to the slash-and-burn farmers, Pihtipudas, Finland

Trip to Värmland

 

Map of central Sweden

In the autumn of 2020, we made a trip to the northwestern part of Värmland county. There were once Finnish settlements on both sides of the Norwegian border. On the Norwegian side, there is actually a farm, Turbeinstorpet, named after a descendant of Pål Larsson Turpeinen who was the first settler there. Värmland has the best collection of preserved old buildings and artefacts. One of the museums also had a café where we could try the forest Finns staple food, ”hand porrige”.

Hand porridge

”Hand porridge” was a staple food of the forest Finns, nourishing and easy to take along. The end result is dry lumps which can be picked up by hand with no need for fancy cutlery. It is made with a flour ground from toasted oats.

Lingonberries are a Swedish specialty, they resemble cranberries but have a lot more flavor.

Serves 4

• 4 cups of water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 lb of toasted oat flour
• Pork loin or bacon
• Lingonberries

1. Fry the pork or bacon, and set aside. Leave the fat in the pan and keep it warm.
2. Bring the water to a boil with salt, and turn off the heat.
3. Sprinkle the flour on top of the water, use a ladle to push it into the water but do not stir.
4. Put the lid on for 10 minutes.
5. Stir gently. The aim is to get a dry and lumpy porridge, so you can pick up lumps and eat with your fingers.
6. Drizzle pork/bacon fat over the porridge, serve with bacon and lingonberries.

 Smoke cabins

In addition to their proficiency at slash-and-burn farming, the forest Finns brought their own style of buildings, known as ”smoke cabins”.  Simple cross timbered log cabins, the earliest examples were heated with an open fireplace, but these was soon replaced with massive stone ovens, which could store heat overnight.

  

Traditional smoke cabin.

The window is a later addition. Originally, there were only openings to let light and air in, which could be closed with wooden shutters.

Instead of a chimney, which would let out not just the smoke but also most of the heat from the oven, the hot smoke was let out into the room, to collect under an insulated ceiling supported by two strong ridge poles. From there the hot smoke radiated heat across the whole room. A hatch in the ceiling regulated the escape of hot smoke, and a set of hatches in the walls regulated the inflow of fresh air.

When properly adjusted, this system was both more efficient and provided more comfort than the traditional fireplace connected to a chimney. This type of building were used for centuries, the last permanently occupied smoke cabin was abandoned in the 1950´s.

Smaller versions of these buildings, without the top smoke vent, were used and are still popular as ”smoke saunas”.

 

 

 

Western justice

 The first Elgs to emigrate were the family of Christina Elg and Jan Bork. In the autumn of 1868, son Gustaf Edvin set off for Omaha, Nebraska. He was 19 at the time. Half a year later, his parents follow, along with daughters Emma Fredrika and Augusta Sofia Bork.

Jan Bork dies only half a year after his arrival, and is buried on the family farm in Sanders County, Nebraska. Christina and her daughters later move to Laramie, Wyoming, where Emma Fredrika’s husband John Lindstrom has found work as a tie hacker for the Union Pacific Railroad.

Augusta Sofia marries a Charles Connors. Apparently the marriage is not happy, and Augusta Sofia leaves Connors for another man, with dramatic consequenses, as told in this article from the Sept. 1 1892 issue of the Laramie Boomerang.

Apparently, Mr Cowper was not seriously affected by this treatment, as the couple stayed of in Laramie, and the family is still there.

Carl-Erik Elg 1913 - 1993

Carl-Erik and mother Elsa, abt 1925

My grandfather Karl August Elg and grandmother Elsa Karlsson were both from Bergslagen, the old industrial heartland in central Sweden. They met, however, in Gothenburg, where their only son Carl-Erik was born in 1913. By 1916 the family moves to Ludvika. Here my grandfather came to work for more than 40 years as a toolmaker in a mechanical workshop owned by his older brother Axel.

As my father grew up, he developed an early interest in both photography and amateur radio.

Carl-Erik with homebuilt transmitter, 1939.

Another early interest in international affairs. As a young man he learned the synthetic "world language" Esperanto, and had pen pals around the world who shared his interest. Soon amateur radio came to fill the same need. Here he was one of the early pioneers: His license to operate a transmitter was formally approved by the government in session, and was signed by the King.

After mandatory basic army training, he studied industrial management at a Technical College. Photos from that time show serious young men in coat and tie, ready to take on the burden of developing Swedish industry. In a carnival procession from 1938, the students can still joke about Hitler, but reality would soon catch up with them.

Serious students

When the second world war broke out, all radio amateurs had to hand in their transmitters to the government, and Carl-Erik was soon called up for military service. When the Soviet Union attacked Finland in 1939 his unit was sent to the far north of Sweden, where they prepared to defend the Swedish border if Soviet troops broke through the Finnish lines. In the spring of 1940 his unit was sent home to demobilize, but on April 9, 1940, Hitler attacked and soon occupied Norway. So instead of going back to civilian life, his unit was sent to the Norwegian border, as the first line of defense if the Germans decided to attack Sweden.

Across the border, they could see German occupation troops. All contact with the other side was of course strictly prohibited, but both sides were eager for news about the progress of the war. Eventually, a set of rituals developed where men from both sides laid down their arms and met in no-mans-land to exchange news and cigarettes.

Meeting in no mans land. Carl Erik far right.

Mobilization in Sweden created a large need for radio operators. Many radio amateurs were transferred to the signal corps, and after a winter on the Norwegian border, my father came to spend the rest of his active duty at his regiment's headquarter, manning the base station there. While still only a vice corporal he commanded a group of young and lively WACs. When they were not occupied with their own traffic, they tried to follow both allied and German transmissions, to get news of the war. When the allied troups landed in Normandy on D-Day, they listened to Eisenhower adressing the troops, hours before the news was announced by Swedish broadcasting. Carl-Erik's experiences led to a life-long interest in the history of WW II. His last trip abroad was to the invation beaches in Normandy.

Carl-Erik was also a pioneer in color photography. I have found color slides going back to 1941 (the first color slide film was sold in the US by Kodak in 1935). At that time color slides was the only medium for color photography. When color prints appeared on the market, he was not satisfied to pick up a set of prints at the camera store. He started experimenting with making his own enlargements - a complex chemistry process with many steps involved. As usual, he built his own equipment to control time and temperature, and exchanged long letters with the chemistry suppliers when he found ellors in their instructions.

Engaged, 1944

During 1944, a certain young lady begins to appears frequently in his photos, and in 1946, Carl-Erik marries Inga Britta Svangren. Next year Lennart is born, and when daughter Elisabet arrives in 1949, the family is complete. They have outgrown their first apartment, and buy a house where Lennart and Elisabet grow up. Here Carl-Erik can develop his love for gardening, and fill the rooftop with strange antennas..

After graduating in 1938, Carl-Erik spent his whole career with ASEA (now ABB) in Ludvika. Initially he worked as a production engineer, helping to introduce time/motion studies (MTM) at ASEA. Later he trained the next generation of production engineers. His lauguage proficiency meant that he was often asked to host foreign visitors to ASEA. Some of these became life-long friends.

Amateur radio was also instrumental in giving the family friends acroos the globe. Carl-Erik was more interested in radio as a way of making new contacts before the internet, than in the technical challenges. We hosted visiting amateurs, and made a number of holiday trips abroad to meet friends he had metcacross the radio, before the charter industry had made international travel commonplace.

His Interest i photography was life-long. Carl-Erik documented their many trip in both photo albums, and edited 8 mm movies and later video films. He passed away in 1993 of a massive coronary bleed, as he was stepping out of the camera store where he had picked up another roll of processed film.

-oOo-

Now that I am retired myself, I am struck by the similarities between our lives:

My father worked at ASEA in different capacities for most of his career, I came to work in basically the same government organization from 1980 until I retired in 2012. Carl-Erik became a pillar in his speciality, but had no interest in seeking a management position. I decided early on never to take a management job, but aspired to become a "guru" in my field instead (and judging from the speeches when I retired I might have succeeded in the end..).

My feeble attempt at rebellion involved majoring in psychology instead of engineering, but I came to work my whole live with the interaction between economics and technology, the same specialty my father had pursued in his engineering degree. We even discovered mutual contacts from our work.

Carl-Erik bought my first camera when I was ten, and taught me to take photos as well as making prints in the darkroom. He started the family history project which I have carried on for more than 30 years.

Carl-Erik made new friends abroad through amateur radio, I have made the same through the internet, pursuing my interests in both genealogy and railroad history. Carl-Erik passed away in 1993, the same year the World Wide Web was launched. He bought an early home computer/word processor which he used to keep up correspondence across the world, but he just missed out on the computer as a networked communications device. I am sure he would have loved to immerse himself in both the internet and digital photography.