The Svante & Anna Kajsa Lind Family
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a goodly heritage. — Psalm 16:6

Svante and Anna Kajsa Lind Historical Account

• Svante (Larsson) Lind married Anna Kajsa Larsdotter on March 24, 1856 on the Dagsnas Estate in Sweden

• Svante and Anna Kajsa celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary on March 24, 1906 in Funk, Nebraska

Grandpa Svante was born on Halloween, October 31, 1833. We have no record of his family. He and a twin brother were orphaned at age two. While being cared for in an orphanage, his husky twin brother died. So Svante was truly alone, and out on his own at an early age. He had scarcely any education, read slowly, and could sign his name or copy a letter with difficulty. But Svante had inherited a sense of humor, was quick and clever with apt answers and many appropriate stories.

In his early years he was errand boy, bootblack, and hired hand; later on he became coachman at a large country estate, Dagsnas, Harlunda. Always a lover of horses, he was happy in this job and took pains to keep them in perfect trim. Sitting in the high seat outside the carriage, he kept them at a good pace so folks would admire his team. For his coachman’s garb he had received a pair of skin trousers (underwear was out of the budget of a servant) and his boots were always neat and shiny, as learned in his bootblack days.

Anna Kajsa Larsdotter was born in the city of Skara, Sweden on April 5, 1831. Schooling was denied her, due to circumstances of poverty. However, she had a great gift of song, often singing at elite parties; but she was requested to sing "off stage" or to stand behind a curtain because she was a peasant.

Time came when she too was a hired servant at the Dagsnas Estate, and Svante soon fell in love with the red-headed Anna Kajsa. On March 24, 1856, their marriage took place here, her mistress presenting her with the wedding gown, even helping her dress for the wedding.

Grandpa Svante was conscripted into the army that same year. The couple then located in a small house or "torp", moving again and again in the nearby area until 1869. Times were hard. Using their own milk cow as a beast of burden, they produced hardly enough for bare necessities on their rented plot.

During the 1800’s great economic changes occurred in Sweden. More land was brought into use for farming, but food was often in short supply. There were not enough jobs for all of Sweden’s downtrodden people, and nearly 450,000 persons left the country between 1867 and 1886, most of whom went to America and settled in the Midwest. Today Sweden is one of the most prosperous countries in the world.

The dream of America lay heavily on Svante’s heart also. For the good of his children he felt that he was "summoned" to go. If it did not lead to an easier life for the parents, it would certainly be better for their five children.

After much contemplation and prayer, (knowing it would be in vain to ask for release from the army) he fled one night, secretly to everyone but his wife. Somehow he had scraped together enough money for his ticket, vowing to God that he would repay every borrowed cent. Losing his way through the woods in the night, he pleaded with God for guidance and for blessing in this venture. On reaching Gothenborg, he took a boat for England. Traveling across England by train, he saw his knapsack with his meager belongings, a supply of rye flour and dried meat for the ocean voyage, fall off the top of the train. Literally "traveling light", he arrived in America with only the clothes on his back and as poor as the proverbial church mouse.

To start a new life in a new world, Svante arrived in Hampton, Illinois, in 1869. Working long, hard hours in the local coal mines, he earned enough money to clear his debts and buy tickets for the family'’ fare to America. Being a poor business man, Svante had trusted a Swedish Consul in Chicago to purchase the tickets and arrange for their passage. Slowly he copied a letter to Anna Kajsa in Sweden, advising her to sell the cow and their few household possessions, even her precious loom, which had helped her earn some income with weaving linens of intricate patterns. Anxiously they awaited the tickets, but none came. Grandma, with her five children was forced to move and seek work by the day. In time Svante realized that he had been swindled, making it necessary to start all over again earning the family’s passage.

On their own during the next years in Sweden, the young children as well as Grandma experienced hunger and extreme hardship, not poverty alone, but often ill-treatment because of Svante having gone AWOL. Even the young children had to share in eking out an existence. Sometimes they herded pigs, sheep, etc., or, as door-to-door salesmen, sold homemade "whisks" made of stripped birch twigs for stirring porridge, and, at times, were just plain beggars.

Svante had not found America altogether a land of promise either. Alone e, working long hours in the coal mine to clear debts, earning his family’s passage twice, suffering hardship as a railroad builder out of Rock Island, already he had waited three years for his dear ones to join him in America.

Finally, on the 17^th of June, 1872, Svante welcomed the long-awaited family to his log cabin in Hampton Hills, east of Moline, Illinois, his wife and five children: Lovisa, John, Thure, Mathilda, and Emil, ages 12 to 5. It was God who had sustained and brought them together, and one of their first concerns was a church home. Before long, a horse was purchased, and they drove the seven miles to First Lutheran Church in Moline and soon were members there.

The year 1872 was before Child Labor Laws, and shortly the older children were employed. Lovisa (Aunt Louise) worked as a domestic for Mrs. Archelaus, an aristocratic English lady. Before long Mathilda was also out on her own. Johnny and Thure (my dad) joined their father in the coal mines.

Dad was 10 years old on his arrival from Sweden, and employment continued here until he was perhaps 20. His first work was as a water-bailer, which involved carrying out by the bucketsful the unwanted underground water that seeped into the mine. Not being big enough or strong enough to carry the bucket with one arm, he carried it between his legs in order to use both arms. In time he became a full-fledged miner, with a salary of $1.00 a day; at 18 he was an expert with drills and powder, a top miner in the field.

The first American addition to the Lind family was Ida, born April 2, 1873. Two years later a brother, Carl Otto, arrived, but his stay with them wasn’t so long. Augusta, #7 of the living children, arrived in August of 1877. Having outgrown the log cabin, a better home was purchased, where they lived until 1879 when the pioneer Linds were ready for another venture.

As an inducement to settlement in the Midwest, the U.S. Government was offering Homestead Land, 160 acres to each prospective settler, to be lived on and developed as a farm. Grandpa Svante and Grandma turned their sights west and on the 19^th of march, 1879, together with their three youngest, Emil, Ida, and Augusta, moved to Phelps County, Nebraska. Along went a few farm implements: a plow, harrow, lumber wagon, hayrack, spring wagon, two horses and two cows. John and Thure held on to their jobs in the mines and remained in Illinois a year or so longer. Lovisa and Mathilda continued as domestics.

Svante never ceased to be thankful to God for this new land, and often got down on his knees on the sod, in gratitude to Him for this stone-free soil and his many blessings. Before long a two-room sod house was in readiness on Swan Hill; and the first of a vast network of the Svante and Anna Kajsa Lind family roots struck deep into the fertile soil of central Nebraska.

All of the Svante Linds remained an especially close-knit family. As evidence of this, all but one of the children, Ida, who married a preacher, took land and settled in the immediate area; Lovisa’s, Johnny’s and Thure’s farms nearly adjoined the Svante Lind homestead. Emil and Augusta established their homes a few miles to the south, and Mathilda was just across the border into Kearney County.

Written by: Esther (Lind) Morin (Thure Branch)