A Journey to the New World

Awe, how I marvel at the old stories of my ancestors. I hold onto them like pieces of gold to be retold from generation to generation. My mother's,grandmother and grandfather came from Sweden crossing the vast waters by ship and arriving in the 1800's. My Great Grandmother Emma Larson recounts that there was much dancing on the ship Helvetia. Swan and Emma journeyed across the United States and settled in Deary Idaho.
President Lincoln wanted to make sure every poor man could have his own home. In 1862 President Lincoln endorsed the Homestead Act giving settlers the opportunity to acquire one hundred and sixty acre parcels. Each homesteader could claim their one parcel by building an 12x12 dwelling thus showing improvement upon the land. Swan had built a log cabin that would be their first residence and the place that my Grandmother Esther and Uncle Albert would be born. Many new land dwellers had cheated and built small scale replica's looking like doll houses. They skated by on the pretense that it said, 12x12 and the requirements did not specify inches or feet. This was to their advantage because as the inspector would leave their property, they would go to the next one hundred and sixty acre parcel and display another toy sized replica. Many larger replicas had wheels on them so they could be easily moved from parcel to parcel. There were even instances that a husband would claim one side of the dwelling and the wife the other as it was built on the property line of two separate parcels. It was a cheaters way of obtaining more property in contrast to those who were honest and worked by the sweat of their brow.
In the old country my ancestors were loggers by trade and so they resumed the trade they knew so well in the new world. Many of my relatives followed to Deary Idaho to reside and work with one another. Deary provided them with an abundance of trees to be harvested for building their homes. We must remember, this was raw untouched land that was not an easy terrain to clear. The dirt had never been worked to obtain crops and good soil would be needed for providing their food.
Later, Emma's brother Peter would start a saw mill that would offer family members a job. The grand opening of Pers Saw Mill was a rainy and mud laden day. The festivities were complete with the women in their long dresses and floppy hats.
The photo is an original of the Peter Dahlberg's (military name) Grand opening of his saw mill.
C.A. Bresin

In the early 1800's Deary Idaho was just finding it's beginning's. Deary attracted Scandinavian immigrants because of the vast amounts of pine, fur, and cedar trees. Logging was a skill the Scandinavians carried for generations from their homeland.