The Journey
Magnus Jonasson’s oldest son Olof writes in his book O.M. Linnell: His Life’s Story — 1840-1930: In the spring of 1852 my father, Magnus Jonason, and family set out from Karlshamn, Sweden for Gothenburg in a small sail boat. This boat was manned by only two men and a boy of fourteen. It took seven days to reach our destination. At Gothenburg we had to wait three weeks for a sailing ship, the Ambrosius, carrying a cargo of iron to New York. Twelve men comprised the crew. The journey was made in seven weeks and two days, reaching New York on August 3, 1852.19
When the Magnus Jonasson party arrived in New York in 1852, they had expected Johan Jonasson to meet them: He had written to Magnus and urged him to follow his example and promised to meet him in New York and help him to find suitable location. He added that his wife would be with him and that she was an American (Hon är Amerikanska)20. But Johan did not remain in New York nor meet them as planned. His wanderlust got the better of him. He made a little money in the California Gold Rush, and eventually returned to Sweden via Australia and Russia. He was very sick when he arrived back in Hovmantorp, and he died shortly thereafter at his younger brother Daniel’s home in Tollstorp. He brought no wife with him when he arrived. The Swedish clerical records note: "Died 30 November 1862—arrived sick in June this year from North America where he had been 18 years21."
The ship’s passenger list for the newly arrived brig Ambrosius lists their destination as Illinois, not Minnesota22. To get there they traveled to Dunkirk, New York probably via the Erie Canal, then by steamship across Lake Erie to Detroit, then by train to Chicago, by canal boat to LaSalle, Illinois and by wagon to Knoxville, Illinois. Knoxville is about 10 miles from the Janssonite utopian community of Bishop Hill and it is likely that the party passed through or near Bishop Hill to get to Knoxville. Olof continues:
At Knoxville, father was given some circulars describing the country around Chisago Lake in Minnesota. Land at that time was selling for about four dollars an acre in the vicinity of Knoxville and this was too high for the poor immigrants. Father decided it would be easier to form a colony where land could be had at a lower cost and where the danger of mixing up with other nationalities would not be so great. The wisdom of his decision was seen when the large immigration of hundreds of Swedish people began in the years 1853–54. Many of these families had been influenced by his letters to make the journey.
After deciding not to stay in Illinois, the journey began by river boat up the Mississippi. Magnus was a religious man, but seemed less motivated by religion and more motivated by economic opportunity and personal freedom. Surprisingly, the "danger" he foresaw in "mixing up with other nationalities" eventually became a blessing in Minnesota where Swedish culture mixed together with others in the "Great Melting Pot23" of America. The promise of cheap land drew the party of immigrants north, up the Mississippi river. They proceeded from Knoxville to a steamship port on the Mississippi. The party likely traveled the 45 miles to Rock Island, Illinois by horse and carriage. There they boarded a riverboat for the upriver trip. However they could have used the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, which did run past the city of Knoxville in 1852, traveling from Galena, Illinois to Burlington, Iowa, a distance of 40 miles. But the mode of travel from Knoxville to the Mississippi was not mentioned. Olof writes:
After deciding not to stay in Illinois, the journey began by river boat up the Mississippi. The water was low and we were frequently aground on sand bars. The trip was accomplished after two weeks of tedious traveling. The immigrants were given quarters on the boiler deck, among the cattle and miscellaneous freight. However, to be among the cattle and swine was not nearly so offensive as to be subjected to the shameless treatment some of the party received from the crew. Two of the women were especially annoyed. One, a sister of mother, Sarah Helena, was a large woman and very strong, accustomed to the work of a large estate in Sweden. When one of the crew attempted to annoy her one day, she sent him reeling with a stiff blow on the ear (en "äkta Svensk" örfil). He did not forget his lesson and left her alone thereafter.
The Jonasson party finally arrived at St. Paul. As described in A Good Life in a Good Land: Mother’s memories of the trip and the early days included these recollections. At St. Paul the men left the women and children in camp while they went east near the Wisconsin border. There they found a good country where numberless lakes nestled between low hills and beautiful trees much like the home they had left in Sweden, except that the soil was better and not full of stones. Father bought land from M. Rosell on the southern side of Big Lake. For this and an incomplete log house he paid $100. By spring this house was completed by a roof and a lean-to 12x12. The land was named Lon O (Maple Island.) This land later became a peninsula when the marshland filled in. The place grandfather bought appears to be identical with the one described by Wilhelm Moberg in his books Unto a Good Land and The Immigrants.
And so Magnus Jonasson and his party of Swedish immigrants arrived at Chisago Lake. Shortly after arrival, Magnus wrote back to Sweden in a letter from Chisago Lake dated 26 October 185224:
I think you should get this by Christmas. Beloved parents and in-laws and relatives and acquaintance, God be with you and all of us.
In this long and rambling letter written in Swedish, Magnus becomes the master salesman for immigration to America, describing the economic abundance for all, the cheap and fertile land, the various technologies available to the farmer with money, the available husbands for the hardworking Swedish maids and the ease of employment for the industrious Swedish tradesmen and laborers.
My land is situated on a peninsula of the lake on the southern side and is a contiguous minimum of 100 acres, so that I consider it much better than all four sections of Kuppramåla. It is true that in the west it takes a lot of work to get started, but in the meantime there are advantages. The earth is much looser where the forest has been cut down. And you can grow a single plant by chopping the trees down the first year and then you can drive a harrow between the stumps since they are not bound so tightly with the stone. So I and all of us in the company have found much satisfaction and health, thank God, who has not failed us this day.
In this letter, Magnus appear to be a highly focused, driven individual, almost to a fault. He puts his economic situation in a very positive light, perhaps to the point of stretching the truth. After all, he was about to spend the first winter enclosed in a 12x12 cabin containing his wife and her sister, four children, Carl Linn, his carpenter’s shop and all their worldly goods. It was a cabin covered by a hastily built temporary roof that let cold wind and snow in through the cracks. It must have been a dismal winter spent away from all his friends in Sweden. Save for his immediate family, he was alone in the New World, and he wanted desperately to have his old friends there with him. His letter gets absorbed in his "sales pitch" and he almost completely ignores any news about his own family and their personal joys and sorrows. Magnus closes his letter:
Farmhand Carl Jonasson from Linnehult, who is also with me, has taken land which is what the poor here can do when they have little. Now he goes to the woods for 3 months so he can earn 60 dollars25. Let me know how things are in the Black Sweden26 with my parents who are too old to come but my in-laws in Vide would not have regretted if they had been here; but for mercy sake please help Lena Cajsa Falk to get here. Brother Anders Falk27, if you come I will find you better lands and I think it would be useful trip for you and your children; but ye do as you please.
Now I have shown you what I know of my situation. Both Lisa Stina Jonasdotter and Sara Lena Jonasdotter and the rest of us Swedes thrive here. This is a good place for maids if they wish to marry or serve. Här har ni adressen: Farmannen Magnus Jonasson, Cekagolek, Tälersfall, Mennessotta, Nord Amerika.
The Tipping Point: the First Wave of Smålanders
Magnus Jonasson’s letter got results. The tipping point was reached as the following years 1853-54 saw a huge influx of immigrants from Furuby, Hovmantorp, Dädesjö, and surrounding parishes in Kronoberg county. Although Magnus Jonasson’s letter was not directly addressed to her, Maria Petersdotter must have received a copy. She began disseminating his "sales pitch" to the people she knew in the surrounding communities in Småland. There are no direct records to substantiate this, so this argument is based on Maria Petersdotter’s relationships to the early immigrants of 1853-54. In America, the extended family of Smålanders that followed Magnus Jonasson was very large, very tight-knit and well connected through family relationships, particularly intermarriage. As in Sweden, many of the early marriages in America appear "arranged" in the sense that the parents of the wedded couples likely knew each other in "the old country." So Maria Petersdotter’s may well have been acquainted with her children’s future in-laws in Sweden before they immigrated.
Table 1: Emigrants from Småland 1853-54 provides an indication of the family relationships Maria Petersdotter brought to this family dynamic. The table lists some of the early immigrants to the Chisago Lake community and identifies the family relationship of each individual to Maria Petersdotter. She probably influenced many of these immigrants’ decisions to come to America. Although she remained in Sweden, Maria must have known most of these people. The evidence that Magnus Jonasson’s friend Maria Petersdotter had a hand in disseminating his sales pitch is quite convincing. Many unrelated immigrants came to Chisago County as well, and their connections to Magnus Jonasson and Maria Petersdotter are perhaps much more tenuous. Clearly the contents of Magnus Jonasson’s letter spread widely and rapidly amongst the struggling Swedes, and they jumped at the chance for a new life in a new land. We Swedish-Americans are the result of similar tipping-point stories that took place all over Sweden. Between 1846 and 1930, about 20 percent of the Swedish population.
