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F 685 . D13 Copy 1
Settlement of the Blue Val- ley in the Vicinity of Randolph
By Mr. C. V. Dahlberg
. .
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1685 Dia
GIFT AUTHOR P 4
SETTLEMENT OF THE *
In January, 1913, in the fifty-sixth year since my arrival in Kansas as a boy of eight years of age.
BLUE VALLEY IN THE VICINITY OF RANDOLPH in Riley and Pottawatomie By Mr. C. V. Dahlberg counties, or the Big Blue Val- * * ley as it is called. But, as I PREFACE have already stated, from lack of facts, I shall be compelled to make my jottings about my own family and its career, and occasionally make mention of the rest of the early settlers An attempt to chronicle whenever an opportunity af- fords, and if at the end of my ramblings and my earthly and humble career, my simple ef- forts may have raised the cur- tain of time and in some mea- sure thrown some rays of light upon the lives and privations of the early settlers of the Big Blue Valley, of which the
some of the most important events which can yet be re- called to memory after so long a lapse of time, without the aid of notes, as I did not then, at any time, think of ever writing a history, will be an exceedingly difficult under- taking.
present generation knows As I am entirely devoid of nothing, then my humble ef-
particulars and dates, my jot- forts tings will be scattered.
ever, in the course of my self amply rewarded.
ramblings, I may be able to reproduce from memory some incidents that may throw some
light upon the life of the early pioneers and first settlers in the first Swedish settlement
shall not have been in
How- vain, and I shall consider my-
Yours very truly,
C. V. DAHLBERG,
Lindsborg, Kansas. socken to Christdala and near Started in the year 1913, to neighbors. He at once brought write the original, am rewrit- his young wife to his mother's ing it now in the year 1921, at home, called "Fagerback," the age of 72 years .- C. V. D. where they at once went to THE HOME IN SWEDEN housekeeping, and where he Among the first things to farmed until in the spring of mention in this narrative is the 1854, when, struck by America introduction of the principal fever, he disposed of all his subject of the sketch.
Mr. C. J. Dahlberg
property, personal and real.
was and with his family consisting
born on the 17th day of July, of wife and three children, one
the writer, and two 1823, in Christdala, sacken son, Kalmer Lan, Sweden. His daughters, emigrated to Amer- young life was spent on the ica, where it was said that the farm of his widowed mother, hogs wandered about already his father having died when fried and with knife and fork the son was ten years old. sticking in their back ready When fifteen years of age he for the passerby to cut and assumed entire control of the eat.
But we must have land- estate together with his moth- ed on the wrong shore for we er, whose death occurred in never found them.
The route chosen for the
Sweden in 1874, at the ad- vanced age of 95 years. In trip was from Oscar Hamn. - Sweden, on the fourteenth day steamer on the Kalmer sound of October, 1845, occurred the to Kalmer, then by steamer on marriage of our subject to the Baltic to Lubeck, Ger- Johanna Gustava Gustafson, many, thence by rail across of Vederhult Hvena socken Schleswig Holstein to Ham- Kalmer Lan, an adjoining burg, Germany, then by tow.
boat through the river Elbe to the North Sea and across it to Hull, England. Thence across England to Liverpool, where, after a week's waiting a sail- ing vessel was boarded on the
To describe the feelings of the poor passengers when they could set foot on dry land is an utter impossibility and can be
easily imagined than more
told. After a few days stop in Castle Garden, New York, Atlantic ocean with New York, the journey was continued by United States of North Amer- rail and canal boat as far west ica, as its · aim. The trip as they extended, that is, as
across the Atlantic was ex- far west as any railroad was ceedingly difficult and slow, built at that time, and on the as most of the time the wind night of the fifth of Septem- was against us, which left the ber we reached the end of the
ship
drifting, thus
losing in track in the little town of Cam-
the night time whatwasgained den, now Midland, on the Rock in the day. The little craft river, in Rock Island county, pitched and tossed among the Illinois. Here the entire com- waves and it often seemed as pany and their luggage were
piles of though it would go under, and dumped off on some
numbering bridge timbers on the banks of the passengers,
about 450, were always in a the river where the track end- panic, but, due to the heroic ed and where a bridge was be- efforts of its splendid crew and ing built.
its manly captain, after a per- the night was spent
The remainder of
the best
the fol- ilous voyage of nine weeks on way possible and on the stormy Atlantic, we land- lowing) morning the families ed safely in the New York har- scattered out in the little city bor, about the last days of to see about location. A two- room cottage was rented and
August, 1854.
that had to
suffice for two his farm for a yoke of
oxen families of five persons each. and an old wooden axle Not long afterward, on ac- wagon, and in the spring of
in June, started overland for Kansas, the promised land of the west, with his ox team and
count of the exposure and 1857, about the second week change of climate, two mem- bers of each family were taken sick and the two daughters in our family, aged seven and all his belongings and his fam- three years, and the husband ily, which was then only wife and daughter in the other fam- and son, on the wagon and leading a pony and two year- ling colts. ily, died, and all three girls were buried at the same time, side by side in a little grave- THE TRIP TO KANSAS
yard on the island. Such
The route led west from
were the initial steps of the Swedona to the Mississippi
early immigrants. Some over river, thence through southern a year was spent at this place, Iowa through the cities of during which time our father Mount
Pleasant, Fairfield, was sick all the time with Bloomfield and others on into fever and ague, and could do Missouri, over to St. Joseph, on little or no work. In the to the western border where spring of 1856, he, with his the Missouri river was crossed,
family, moved out
closer to this time on another rickety Andover, in Henry county, steam ferry. How it could be Illinois, on a little farm of 80 possible to manage an ox team acres
which he farmed that on ferries and such dangerous summer, but on account of his places is hard to understand poor health, and being per- by anyone who has not tried suaded by a friend to accom- it, but it went and we got pany him to Kansas, he traded
through alright.
From St.
Joseph we angled across the on a pontoon bridge, as there country, which was then said was no road up the river on to be Kansas, in a southwester- the west side. There was not ly direction andstruck the Kaw much of a road on either side, river at a little place called for that matter, as there was Indianola, now extinct, but nothing but a horseback trail then somewhere in the vicin- where old Mr. Gardner Ran- ity of where Topeka is now
dolph carried the mail on From there we journeyed on horseback between Manhattan up the Kaw valley to Man- and Randolph twice a week. hattan at the mouth of the I do not know but what we
Blue river which we
crossed were the first to drive a team
on a pontoon bridge on the all the way between Manhat- evening of the 12th day of tan and Randolph, as we had July, 1857, and camped at to cut our way across the
night on the townsite
by the creeks and through the tim- side of the beautiful Big Blue ber, as the road was too nar- river. This, however, was not row for the wagon to go the end of our journey, as our through between the trees. address tag read "Randolph,
The first night out from
Riley county, Kansas." W'e Manhattan we camped just were then in Riley county but after crossing the river at not at Randolph, as we were Juniata, and on the day fol- told that Randolph was about lowing as we were toiling on in twenty-one miles up the Blue the hot July sun about 11:00 river, so after making some a. m., we met a man on horse- few purchases we started on back. We stopped him and toward our journey's end. We asked him how far it was to recrossed the river again at Randolph. He laughed and Juniata. six miles up the river, pointed to himself and said,
"It is here, that's me." That the river to look at land with
was old Mr. Randolph, on his a view of getting location. way to Manhattan with the The land was then all open for
mail. We told him we were settlement under the on our way there to settle. He emption law at $1.25 an aere, became very much interested but was not surveyed until in us and talked a long time that same fall when the gov-
before he
proceeded.
This ernment
surveyors
went
was somewhere close to the through.
They proceeded as
old Tom Pierce place below far as to what was known to Garrison. Another night on the early settlers as Timber the way and in the evening of City, which was noted for its the 15th day of July, we ar- big spring, which was indeed
rived safely at the house of a marvel of its kind. It the first Swedish settler, John emptied out a foaming stream A. Johnson, a single man who of
ice cold crystal water. had come with a Mr. Shannon through a round opening in
from Galesburg, Illinois, in the clay bank under the hill 1855, and settled where he and was about eight inches in then lived. His brother, N. P. diameter and came with such Johnson, who had come in a force that it made a roar 1856, lived at his house then that could be heard a long way while he got a cabin built on and made a creek from his own place.
the spring to the river large
We stayed there over night enough to row a common boat and felt very much relieved, in., To this remarkable place having reached our very peril- we moved on the seventeenth ous journey's end. The next day of July and on father's day father and the Johnson birthday when he was thirty- brothers started out afoot up four years old. We camped
there a few days with a view which of taking it for a claim, but back to
he wended his way
the river and came on further investigation found back that it was
over into camp. The
claimed by the next day he hooked up and Randolphs, as they had made pulled down to the river to the the first improvements on it by place where he had crossed laying a foundation of four the day before. He had to the tim- ber to the river and drove in,
logs on the same and thus held cut his way through it as their property.
In the meantime father kept but came near being stuck in looking around and one day quick sand, but finally got out wandered across the river and on the other side on a fine, got up on a large smooth bot- smooth sandbar, out his way tom where the blue stem stood to the level bottom land, broke higher than his head so he through the tall grass to the could not see the end of the bend where he stopped and land before him, but by break- unloaded and said, "This is ing through this thick mass our home." westward for about 100 rods
He at once set to work cut- he came to a creek with lots ting trees for house logs and of fine, clear, running water in dragging them together with it and an abundance of tim- the oxen, to the spot where the ber on its banks. This creek cabin was to be built, hewed he followed upward for some them on two sides into nice distance until he came to a straight logs eight inches thick gentle bend where he halted, and 16 to 22 feet long, build- and then and there decided to ing a house therewith 16 x22 locate and marked the spot by feet outside, one and one-half blazing some of the trees on stories high, covering it with the bank of the creek, after clapboards which he made
D
1.
from large oak cut in blocks was starlit and bright and two feet long and split out still, but frosty and cold, and with a flow. The floor was the young messenger did not tarry long on each foot on that
made by splitting nice, straight hickory logs into quar- Indian trail which wound
ters or halves and hewing aroung along the hillside and them smooth on one side and over deep and gloomy gullies, the ends sized to about two but ran all the way, got there inches to lay smooth on logs all right and succeeded in
to serve as joists. Material arousing the kind lady from was plentiful, but was on the her midnight slumber. With-
stump and had to be used out any further deliberation green and worked out
by she got up and dressed, went hand, a slow process for one out somewhere and got a
man, but he was strong and horse saddled and mounted it, eager and by the 10th of after which she caught one November the same year the hand of the messenger, swung house was ready for oc- him up on the horse behind
cupancy, and it proved to be herself and started off. The a remarkable day in the his- object of that early morning tory of the pioneer family, as horseback ride, in that crisp an incident occurred which and frosty November day was was of unusual nature.
not for mere pleasure, nor was
The writer, then only a little it revealed to the messenger. over eight years old, was sent We arrived somewhat over- afoot in the middle of the due and were informed that a night, three miles to a neigh- fine baby girl had come to stav bor, the Randolph family, to at the settler's cabin, a while call the good old lady to the ahead of our arrival. Thus Dahlberg home. The night was born the first white girl on
the frontier, or west of the undertakings and acquired a
Big Blue river. A robust and lot of
wealth, have raised a healthy child she was and family of eleven children, grew up in spite of the many eight sons and three daugh- privations of the early ters, who have all grown up to pioneers, and at the age of 19 become useful and respected became the wife of A. G. men and women.
Axelton, the only son of Mr. John Sanderson, also of and Mrs. N. P. Axelson, also Galesburg, Ill., came here at early settlers who came by the same time the Axeltons did and settled with his family
horse team from Galesburg,
Ill, in
1858,
and
settled in consisting
of
£
wife
and one
Pottawatomie county,
just daughter on Swede Creek, in our Riley county, where he lived across the river from
daughter, and farmed for a good many place. Their only
Miss Sophia Axelson, became years and has long since pass- the wife of Edward Secrest, ed beyond. Five more chil- then a soldier of the Civil War dren were born to them, who and a pioneer of Fancy Creek are all living, but one daugh- in Riley county, a prosperous ter who died after maturity. farmer and stock raiser, hav- Peter Carlson and family ing settled there in 1856. A who came from Illinois the family of seven children were same year that we did, and born to them, three sons and settled on Swede Creek, con- four daughters. One son died sisted of a family of seven children, five sons and two
in infancy and two daughters at maturity, the rest grew up daughters, also deserve men- and were well educated. Mr. tion. They had many hard- and Mrs. Axelton have been ships and privations in the be- fortunate in all their ginning of their settlement.
very
The wife and mother died the team
during the sixties and second year, or in 1858, and had many a tussle with the was the first Swede woman to Indians on the plains, who be buried on Kansas soil, on a came very near scalping him little plateau close to the at times. He usually made
south bank of the beautiful two trips a year. June 2,
Swede Creek, which
got from the fact
name it 1864, he was married to Chris-
Carlson, a Swede, was the first were born to them, three sons to explore its fertile valley and settle at its mouth. It
later settled clear to its head ful by Germans, namely, Adolph, Fred and Herman Toburen,
that Mr. tine Johnson. Seven children and four daughters, who have was all grown up and become use- and respected men and women.
Lars Pearson and wife came the same year and settled on
Meismeyer, Klocke, Wohler, Sondker, Eversmeyer, Kaump, the same bottom and neigh-
Richter, Oberhelman, Johns- bors to Mr. Christensen.
meyer and others whose When the Civil War broke names I can not now recall. out Mr. Pearson enlisted and served his country to the end
Nils Christensen, a single man from Denmark, came to of the war and came home, the valley in 1858 and took a but lost his eyesight in the service so was not capable of
claim on the river two miles northeast of our place, where doing he lived the remainder of his life and acquired quite a bit of property. He used to freight across the plains between Leavenworth, Kansas, and Denver, Colorado, with
much thereafter, and died many years ago. They had two sons, Albert and Ed- win, the former a truck farm- er in California, the latter a merchant at Burdick, Kansas, ox for many years, now dead.
Their mother also is dead.
The lady, a former school Samuel P. Rolander, a single teacher, taught the first school man came in company with in the settlement. She taught
Peter Carlson in 1857 and set- privately at her home, had tled in Pottawatomie county two pupils, Miss Emma John- just south of us. When the son and your humble scribe. Civil War broke out he enlist- At recess we had to go with ed and served in the cavalry her into the corn field and pull to the end and came through weeds among the corn, carry without a scratch, but was them with us to the end of the
killed in a runaway accident row and throw them into the
September 2, 1879. He was timber at the edge of the field. married to Lovisa Larson in I attended this school only a Atchison, Kansas, while there few days, as it was too diffi- on a furlough during the war. cult for me to get across the She at once moved with her river. They only lived there parents to the farm and helped a few years when they sold her father tend it until her out to a Mr. Frost of Arkan- husband came home from the sas, who afterward sold the war. To them were born five place to a Mr. Pete Ipsen, a children, one son and four Dane from Manhattan.
daughters. The son died in A young Irish couple also childhood but the girls are liv- settled on the same bottom in ing, three in California and 1857 and built a small log one in Olsburg, the wife of my cabin close to the river across nephew, Evert L. Axelton.
from where we lived. He
An old couple from New made only one opening in the York settled in 1358 in Potta- cabin, which, of course, served watomie county, east of us, by as a door. It did all right as the name of Jacob Van Brunt. long as it was warm so they
could have the door open, but the Civil War. when winter came and it got William and Charley Meyer cold so they had to have it and Fred Toburen took a
closed, they were in total claim on our bottom on the
darkness. This distressed the west side of the creek in 1857. good lady so she told her hus- Fred soon parted and went up band, McGane was his name, on Swede Creek and got a "Mack, you go over to Mr. claim of his own, and lived Dahlberg and get him to come there until he died of old age. over and cut a hole in the wall Charley was drowned in
for a window, so
we can get Fancy Creek in August, 1863. some light in here." So he William lived on a few years did, and father went over and but finally sold out to his cut the hole in question. brother-in-law, Mr. Siebert When it was finished Mrs. and moved up toward May Mack was so elated over the Day and at last to Leonard- result she said in a loud voice, ville.
"I wouldn't take foive dollars for that
Our settlement grew a little
hole." And she slowly, one after another would have needed it badly as came and took up the land on she didn't have five dollars to the river, the bluffs and high her name. They lived there prairie no one would look at or only two years when they sold have for nothing in those days, out to Casper Siebert, a Ger- and it was not until 1866-70
man, who lived there nearly that anyone began to settle all his life, or until he got too the prairies, as they thought old to work, when they sold they were no good to grow any out and moved to St. Marys, crops on, but they at last Kansas. He also was one of found out that the bluffs were our neighbors who served in valuable, if not indispensable
for pasture and grazing as we ping about two weeks preach- could not let the cattle and ing the Gospel and confirming horses run at large as hereto- a class, also organized the fore, after all the good land congregation which was call- had been taken for farming. ed "Mariedahl" in memory of who had the Johnson mother as her close to his name was Marie.
Lucky then was he secured a "bluff" home or he would go without In the fall of 1864, N. A. or buy some at a distance. Peterson, a single man, came These lands are now worth from Sweden and took a home- hundreds of dollars an acre stead up the creek adjoining He whereas they could be bought our farm on the £ north. then for $3.50 and up. was married the next fall to
The Johnsons, mother three brothers and came to the valley in
and Miss Caroline Salberg, a young
sisters, lady who came in his company
1859, from Sweden. They were and settled. The mother, a very successful and acquired a quite old lady, not accustomed good deal of property. To to our climate, coming direct them were born twelve chil- from Sweden as they did, was dren, seven sons and five taken sick and died in the fall daughters, one son died in in- of 1860, and was buried in fancy, the rest all grew up and Peter Johnson's meadow. are respected men and women. Thus a thought of a burying The old people are long since and in the dead.
place was started next spring a tract of 40 acres
John Ekblad and John A. was bought and chartered as Swenson, single also, came in church property. In 1863, Peterson's company and set- John Johnson, a Swedish min- tled around here. Swenson is ister, came to the valley, stop- dead, but Ekblad is still living
in his old home at Mariadahl, later in a little
log school and he and his wife are both house by the roadside between fairly spry for their age.
He Axelton's and J. A. Johnson's was married to Charlotta in
Pottawatomie £ county. I Johnson in the spring of 1866. attended this school a few
To them were born eight chil- months.
That was principal-
dren, five sons and three ly all the schooling I had ex-
daughters, two daughters cept two months in Manhattan have since died. The sons in 1869-70. School was not are all living, one is a minister considered so important then two are medical doctors and as it is now. The main thing two are farming. Ekblad was then was work, so I had to quit a stone mason from Sweden and go home and help as we and in the spring of 1866 he werebuilding a newhouse that got the contract to build the year up by the hills along the church at Mariadahl, which main road. It was built of
was built out of stone. He stone 25x36 feet, two stories also built several other houses and basement, and was quite the next few years for the set-
a big job, and we did most of tlers who came to make their the work ourselves, father and homes in the valley.
That I, except the masonry. It was spring his two brothers, Frank finished by the 5th of October, and August Ekblad, came 1870, and we moved into it from Sweden. They were that day, on my baby sister's also stone masons and worked on the church.
also birthday, when she was five years old.
Miss Sophia Axelton was My only brother, John the first regular teacher, Luther,
born May 13, 1860, teaching a school in 1862, first and a
sister, Emily Susela, in J. A. Johnson's house and born October 11, 1862, died
the same fall, the former sleeps in the Mariadahl ceme-
November 15, and the latter tery beside his wife and three November 12, from an epi- children, who had gone before. demic of typhoid fever. They Our settlement grew little were aged 25 and 23 years by little as some came every respectively. These grown year. S. P. Johnson and fam- children, taken from the ily, and Samuel Anderson and home within a month was too family came in 1865 and set- much of a blow to my mother, tled close to Randolph. They so she broke down and was are dead years ago, but some never well from then on.
Her of their children are still living ailment finally developed into around there. The Flobergs,
dropsy and she died
years of much
after Melgren brothers, Anders suffering, De- Quist and the Velens came in
cember 7, 1893. She was a 1867.
little over 65 years old. Thus The year 1857 was a very ended the earthly career of a rainy one and before we had true £ and noble
mother who the house built we had a hard would always sacrifice for the time to keep dry. One night sake of making others happy. it just poured down and we
Father then lived on alone all sought shelter under the in the old home which was table, rented to different parties the water stood on the ground
but it did not help as until 1895, when his son-in- several inches deep. Samuel law, A. G. Axelton, bought the Rolander was along; he was,
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