Jamestown Swedes

I have initiated a blog at www.jamestownswedes.org to follow the research that I am doing on the first wave of Swedish immigrants in Chautauqua and Warren Counties.

This is a different tack for my research.  After specific research about the descendants of Jonas Klang, this project involves creating a general, encompassing view of the other Swedish immigrants who were in the area before the Civil War at the same time as Charles, Frank, August and Johanna.  It was not a large community - 250 plus people.

This line of inquiry has already reshaped some of what I know about this family.  I've discovered that Frank Jones's wife, Helen Lawson, was part of a large connected family.  I've also learned that her father owed Jonas Klang money at the time of his death, so the families knew each other (they lived 5 miles apart).  It is unclear if Frank was interested in Helen before they both emigrated...

I have also reconsidered the emigration of Charles Jones.  With the improved images of Arkivdigital I found that he could not have arrived early in year.  I have now been able to find him on the manifest of the SWEA arriving in New York 13 July 1852.

But this research still has not uncovered the immigration information for Frank, August and Johanna whom I still assume traveled together to Amerika in 1853.

Trek to Bomåla under Boda

At Easter I traveled with my son, Victor, to Sweden where we spent a couple days of our trip in Småland playing genealogy tourists.  We stopped by the churches in Målilla, Lönneberga and Karlstorp, stayed in Eksjö, visited the farms at Vimmarp, Kolshult and Boda and hiked in to see Bomåla, the site of Husartorp N:r 34 where Jonas Klang and Maja Lisa Nilsdotter farmed and raised their twelve children.

The area is remarkably like the hills and forests of northwestern Pennsylvania punctuated with small glacial lakes like those of western New York.  Lots of trees, lots of stones, a few farms and not many people.  Small dirt roads crisscross the forests and connect the farms to the villages.  Today it is mostly timberland.  We had some light snow during our stay and the snow pack remained from this year's long winter.

Before the trip, I found a 1944 economic map¹ of the area that confirmed that Bomåla under Boda was located at the HT marked on the 1876 map that was the basis for the army map² indicating the location of husartorp 34 (see my earlier post).  This corresponds to coordinates 57.48° N and  15.67° E if you want to visit there using Google Earth.

Today this location is in the middle of a timber company's land.  We talked with a neighbor in one of the two houses in Boda and he confirmed that the location was correct, but that the house would have been gone a long time ago.  We walked through a foot of snow along the old path (now a logging road) about a kilometer (1100 yds) to the likely site of the farmstead, now in a clearing.  Possibly some of the farm land was still kept clear but more likely it had been clear-cut.   I didn't see any remains of the house nor clues to its exact location.  

These are photos of the area. The glacial boulders are likely the former playground equipment of our ancestors but I didn't find any graffiti.

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1  Äntsebo, Kalmar Län quadrant J133-6F4i45, Ekonomiska Karta Över Sverige, 1:10000 Häradsekonomiska kartan, Rikets Allmänna Kartverk, Stockholm, 1944. Lantmateriet digital collection of historic Swedish maps (www.lantmateriet.se).

2  Krigsarkivet map 0400:13B:043 b4 Smålands husarregementes husartorp betecknade med läge och nummer., 1800-talet [Hvetlanda 0043b_4]. KrigsArkivet collection of historic Swedish maps(www.svar.ra.se)

Road from Karlstorp to Äntsebo near Boda

Logging road into site

Clearing midway to site

Bend in the path likely near location of house

A playground of boulders

The walk back out

This is the main house of the farm at Boda

Falun red house paint and white trim - classic

This is a barn and a road leading down to a couple
 of other houses that form part of Boda

 Victor at Målilla church

Hussarstorp 34, Boda

 I have been trying to detail the life of Jonas Klang and Maja Lisa Nilsdotter and their family. The soldier's croft which served as their home during their married life was Hussarstorp 34, Boda rote in Målilla parish. There has been interest throughout Sweden in restoring soldier's crofts, but it does not seem that No. 34 survived into our era.

Where was this house (croft)? Strangely, in Målilla parish there are two places named Boda. One is in the northwest in the direction of Carlstorp (farm of Jonas Klang's parents) and one is in the east in the direction of Rakenås (croft of Maja Lisa's parents). For some time I believed that the location of the croft was near Rakenås (see the earlier post).

However, I recently came across a map of the hussartorps for this region. This topographical map with rote numbers handwritten over the location of each croft indicates that No. 34 was located near the other Boda, 9 km west, northwest of Målilla. The croft that served as a home for the seven children who emigrated was located near 58.100N 16.483E.

I still have not been able to locate the precise location of the croft using historical maps, references or satellite photographs. 

Jonas (Samuelsson) Klang lived at this same soldier's croft from age 21 until his death in 1862 at age sixty-eight. Uncharacteristic for the system, even after his retirement Jonas Klang still remained at the croft.

Detail:  Krigsarkivet map 0400:13B:043 b4 Smålands husarregementes husartorp betecknade med läge och nummer., 1800-talet [Hvetlanda 0043b_4]

 More Background

Army reservists were supported in Sweden by a system that forgave taxes on farms in exchange for the provision of a house (croft) and provisioning of the reservists by the owners of the farms. A rote was the aggregate of farms that provided the basis for one military reservist. 

The reservist was often from a local family. Jonas Samuelsson grew up about six miles (10 km) away from the soldier's croft number 34 in Bomåla part of Boda rote in Målilla parish.

Jonas Samuelsson seems to have left his home at 18 to enroll at the regional army center in Eksjö. He joined the Smålands Husartorp as a cavalryman (hussar). His first posting was in Högruda rote in Järeda parish (about 10 miles from his parent's home). At age 21 he was listed by his military surname Klang and reassigned to soldier's croft number 34 in Bomåla part of Boda rote in Målilla parish. In that same year he married Maja Lisa, the daughter of Nils Lif, a senior cavalryman in  Klang's cavalry regiment.

As a reservist , Jonas Klang was required to be ready to fight and was mustered each year for drills. In return he had job security, a house and a small farmstead to work. As a cavalryman (hussar), he was also provided with a horse. The remainder of the year he farmed the land set aside for them by the local rote. Although the military was esteemed, upon retirement the reservist left the croft and moved on. No land security was derived from service.

This site has been set-up to exhange information about the family of Jonas Klang and Maja Lisa Nilsdotter.  See the page Jonas Klang and Maja Lisa Nilsdotter for information about their lives in Småland.  Maja Lisa Nilsdotter was the daughter of a career military cavalryman (husar) and she married Jonas (Samuelsson) Klang who was also a career military cavalryman, both with the Smålands Dragon Regemente.  Military reserves were provided with a house and land (croft) for their use during their service.  Jonas Klang and Maja Lisa Nilsdotter raised their family in Husartorp (cavalryman's farm) No. 34 in Boda i Bomåla ) located northeast of Målilla and near the border with Lönneberga parish and Carlstorp parish and close to the croft of Nils Lif and Brita Johansdotter, the parents of Maja Lisa Nilsdotter.

Of their twelve children, the two older sons likely died as young men, their fifth child, Gustaf, remained in Sweden but probably also died as a young man, and the last two both died as infants.  Maja Lisa Nilsdotter died at age 47 in 1849.  The remaining seven children all emigrated to America.  I am a descendant of their eighth child, Samuel.

The tabs above lead to family pages including genealogy, biographies and photographs.

These siblings and extended family all settled around Jamestown, New York in Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Warren counties - most chose Jones as their last name (similar to Jonsson which was the typical shortened form of Jonasson - son of Jonas).  Klang (translation: the sound of a bell) was the professional surname of their father - which was often used as the last name by other immigrants but only shows up in Swedish records for our family. 

The immigrants included (in order of arrival):

1852 Charles Jones (3. Charles) 26 years old, older brother

1853 Frank Jones (6. Frank) 21 years old, older brother

1853 Augustus N. Jones (9. Augustus N.) 13 years old,  younger brother

1853 Johanna Maria Jonsdotter Klang (10. Johanna) 13 years old, younger sister

1866 Samuel Jones (8. Samuel) 30 years old, himself

1866 Anna M. Jones (Anna Maria Ekholm) 30 years old, wife

1866 John Frederick Jones (Johan Fredrik) 2 years old, son

1869 Caroline Parsons (7. Caroline) 35 years old, older sister

1869 Peter J. Parsons (Jonas Peter Jonsson) 34 years old, brother-in-law

1869 John Andrew Parsons (Anders Johan Petersson) 10 years old, nephew

1869 Peter J. Parsons (Jonas Peter Petersson) 7 years old, nephew

1870 Louise Peterson (4. Louise) 42 years old, older sister

1870 Carl Peterson 44 years old, brother-in-law

1870 Emma Christa Petersson 11 years old, niece

1870 Sven Joh. Svensson 49 years old, uncle

1870 Anna Gustafa 26 years old, first cousin

1870 Christina Louisa 22 years old, first cousin

1870 Johan August 17 years old, first cousin