Maria Albertina Johannsdotter Lamson

• Reference: http://www.anusha.com/pafg24.htm#392

Mr. Lamson was married to Maria Albertine Danielson, who survives him, December 28th, 1853, their golden wedding anniversary coming during his last illness. Mrs. Lamson was a member of the first party of Swedish people who found a home west of the Allegheny mountains and is now one of its few surivors. They reared a family of eight children. Victor A., Ralph W., Mrs. Edmund Hunt, Mrs. E.A. Howard and Mrs. W.G. Ross reside in this city; Mrs. C.C. Clark makes her home in Burlington; Mrs. W.S. Slagle at Alton; and A. Ward at Mesa, Arizona.

Daughter of John Danielson.* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Sep 5 2020, 19:17:26 UTC

• Immigration: 1845 - Kisa, Östergötland, Sweden
• Residence: 1880 - Fairfield, Jefferson, Iowa, United States
• Residence: 1900 - Fairfield Township Fairfield city Ward 3-4, Jefferson, Iowa, United States
• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Sep 6 2020, 14:38:01 UTC
• Reference: https://archive.org/details/historyjefferso01fultgoog/mode/2up "History of Jefferson County Iowa" By Charles J. Fulton 1914.
• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Sep 6 2020, 19:03:13 UTC Lamson
• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Sep 14 2020, 14:14:32 UTC Mormor Ruts Träd

Fairfield The Ledger, May 6, 1903, Page 7, cols. 2-3.

JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORY

Settlement and History of Lockridge Township.
Read by Hon. Anders Fredrik Cassel before the Jefferson County Historical Association.

Lockridge Township, when the first pioneers came in, was mostly timber or brush land. Northeast of Salina two or three sections were partly brush or prairie land. In an early day it was called Wilson’s prairie. On Skunk River and on some of the creeks was some of the best timber in the state. The streams are Skunk River, which runs through three sections in the northeast part; Walnut, Brush, Burr Oak, Rocky Branch and Rattlesnake are some of the creeks found in the township. Four or five good quarries have been opened up, both sandstone and limestone. Coal can be found in a great many places. One mine has been operated on a large scale for thirty-five years near Lockridge.

Game was very plenty in the early days -- deer, turkey, pheasant, wild pigeon and many other kinds -- so that a man with a good gun did not need to live without meat, even if he was not much of an expert. But we had some great hunters, such as Dan Vorhies, Richard Allender, Mr. James, and many others who never failed to bring down a deer if they wanted one, but we often hunted for sport, not caring for the game. It was not uncommon to see as many deer as twenty or more in a band. Turkeys were also very plenty. Geo. Nicholson and others used to catch them in rail pens which were fixed for a trap. I know one time that Nicholson got a big flock in his trap pen. He killed four very fine ones with a stick and let the others out, as he did not want any more at that time.

If you will allow me, I must say something about a pigeon roost in an early day in Section 16 Lockridge Township. The number of birds was so great that there were certainly many millions. In the afternoons and evenings they would fly over to the roost, and after dark could be heard several miles. In the mornings they would fly great distances to feed, mostly on acorns, as there was no grain in the fields at that time of the year, late in the spring. When they would fly back and forth there were so many in the flocks that they would hide the sun for minutes at a time. Thousands were killed, mostly with sticks, in many cases for the sport and fun of it. It was a great sight to see the very largest trees broken down or torn up with the roots where they roosted.

I will mention a few of the early settlers. In 1838 Sullivan Ross came into Lockridge Township with his second wife, Elizabeth, three sons, William, Thomas, and James; two daughters, Margaret, now Mrs. McGuire, who is still living in this township and Nancy. Ross settled in Section 25, almost on the bank of Brush Creek, where he had commenced the previous year to build a dam and saw mill, the first in the township and possibly in the county, and which was operated for several years. He also opened a store. Mr. Ross was a great help to the newcomers. He died in 1856.

John Hopkirk came in 1839; married Jane Nicholson; had three sons, William, John and David; two daughters Beatrice and Isabelle.

Henry Shepherd came in 1837 and located in Section 26 but did not live there very long.

John Wilkin came in 1839; his wife, Beatrice, who died early, had two daughters, Jane and Beatrice, his oldest daughter, Jane, lived with him until his death.

William Hopkirk came in 1841; his wife Jane had four sons, Robert, William, James, and Alexander, who lives on the old homestead; six daughters, Elizabeth, Isabelle, Annie, Mary, Lillie and Jane. Mr. Hopkirk was elected to represent Jefferson County in the legislature in 1869 and served three terms.

Robert Stephenson came in 1842; his wife had four sons: George, Robert, John, and Thomas; he was elected to the legislature in 1854.

Louis Reeder came in 1842 with his first wife, Margaret, formerly Steuker who died; he was married to Mrs. Sallie Shanberger, and two sons, Charles L. and Elmer E., and two daughters, Sallie M. and Caroline D. Mr. Reeder was elected representative from Jefferson County in 1856.

Issac and Dan Vorheis were both early settlers and had families.

Samuel Berry settled in the northwest part of the township as early as 1838 or sooner; at the first land sale, at Burlington, in 1838, he entered quite a lot of land in Sections 7, 8, 17, 18, 19, and 11. I have been told that Berry entered or bought seventeen "eighties" of land in Lockridge Township, and he was certainly the richest man who came to the township in an early day.

In 1838 Henry Rowe erected a tread mill in the northwest part of the township and was a great help to the early settlers; it was the first corn cracker in the township and possibly in the county.

Col. W. G. Coop entered the southwest quarter of Section 9, Lockridge Township, in 1839, but never lived on it.

‘Squire Green was an early settler, was elected justice of the peace in an early day and continued to serve as long as he lived.

Baker Allender was also an early settler.

George Schmidtline and Fred Graff, with their families, came early, and so did Jacob Fore and Daniel Park with their families; Mrs. Fore was killed by lightning in an early day at Mr.Downing's on her way home from Fairfield.

Mr. Horton was an early settler, but lived in Buchanan Township for several years with his family, of which Mr. S. T. Horton will be able to write more fully.

The first Swedish immigrants who came to the western states stopped and settled in Lockridge Township in 1845. They were Peter Karlsson Cassel , his wife Ingeborg Katarina Cassel , three sons, Chas Johan Cassel , Anders Fredrik Cassel , and Gusthrius Albert Cassel who died in the army; two daughters, Maria Mathilda Danielsson and Carrie; Johannes Danielsson , his wife, Elizabeth Lisa Danielsson , three sons, Capt. Johan Augustus Johansson Danielsson, (USA), Anders Victor Johansson Danielsson and Frans Oscar Johansson Danielsson , and two daughters Maria Albertina Johannsdotter Lamson and Sofia Mathilda Johannsdotter Stephenson ; John Monson, his wife, Carrie, three daughters, Caroline, Mary and Louise; Peter Anderson, his wife, Christine, and two children; Erick P. Anderson and his sister, now Mrs. Castile, in all twenty-five. They all started from the same neighborhood in Sweden, but at New York met with Peter Dahlburg and family and, after a few days’ stop, decided to start for the new territory of Iowa.

They took the boat at New York for some point in New Jersey, thence went by railroad to Philadelphia, across the mountains to Pittsburgh, partly by railroad and partly by canal boat, and from Pittsburgh to Cairo, to Burlington and to Lockridge township, and finally stopped on the south bank of Brush Creek in Section 26, where a cabin had been built by Henry Shepherd, but was without a roof. The first thing in order was to name the place, and it was called Stockholm, and next to cut brush for the roof of the cabin. We soon found Ross’ saw mill, got some boards and set posts in the ground and made a shanty. Next we commenced to make brick. To dry them we laid them on the roof of the shanty, where we had our goods, as it had a better roof than the cabin. After we had all lived comfortably for a week, it began to thunder very hard and for night’s quarters all selected the cabin. Soon it began to rain, and poured all night, and until this day I have not seen it rain harder or more fire in the air than that night. But it was rather lucky that we were on high ground or the creek would have washed us away. We had a good ducking but the next day was bright and we were busy airing and sunning our soaked clothes and other articles. Our board shanty lay level with the ground. All took courage and resolved to provide better quarters, for the Swedish immigrants had come to stay and make America their future home. We found that people that were here before us very kind and accommodating. From that day the immigration from Sweden began, and at this time almost every State in the Union has more or less Swedes in her borders.

In politics the Swedes are mostly republican, not by birth, but by choice. Most of them are inclined to be religious and have great respect for their church. Of the twenty-five who left Sweden in 1845 there were nine alive when we celebrated our fiftieth anniversary in 1895. At this time eight are living - A. F. Cassel, F. O. Danielson, Mrs. Danielson, Mrs. Ward Lamson, Mrs. John Stephenson, Mrs. Castile, all in Jefferson County; Mrs. Victor Hall, Scandia, Kan.; Mrs. Alfred Johnson near Creston.

The early settlers adopted bylaws and rules which they considered very sacred and seldom abandoned. They stood by each other if speculators tried to enter the settlers’ land. It was not very healthy for speculators to show themselves. Arbitration was the highest court. It was not uncommon for a few men to decide what to do with a man who did not do as he ought. I will mention one who did not want to work. A day was set to decide what to do with him. He tried to escape, but was finally cornered, and, after a moment’s deliberation, it was decided to auction him off to the highest bidder for one year’s work. He was bid off for $16, but escaped between two days. Another man would not plow and plant. A strong man was selected to go and use hickory oil as a medicine, and it worked finely.

The first church in the township was built in 1846 near William Hopkirk’s by the Presbyterians. It was a log structure and was used a number of years. The Methodist church in Salina was built in 1851, and is still in good repair. Schoolhouse No. 1 was probably the first in the township. Center schoolhouse, or No. 2, was built in 1848.

Among the early settlers that first located in the eastern part of Iowa were comparatively few of foreign birth. The great tide of European emigration to North America had not yet set in. Thus the first influx of settlers into the first and second "Black Hawk Purchases" came almost exclusively from the eastern states. It was first in the forties and the fifties that European emigrants in greater numbers began to reach the shores of United States, and spread westward over the great prairies in the interior where they have so largely contributed to the upbuilding of this great agricultural section. The Scandinavians, the Germans, the Irish, the Dutch, the Poles, and the Bohemians, have each contributed their large quota to the population of these middle states among which Iowa today occupies such a prominent place.

None of these foreign nationalities (excepting the Germans) has played a greater part than the Swedes in the reclaiming of the great prairies from their primeval condition. Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and the Dakotas, each received its valuable contribution of sturdy Swedish settlers, and the prosperous communities of their children and grandchildren now dot the plains of these states, and bear eloquent testimony to the foresight, industry and perseverance of those early pioneers. Of hardy Norse stock, and from early childhood inured to hardships, the Swedish immigrants who arrived here in the latter half of the nineteenth century were men and women especially fitted for the struggle, that confronted the homesteader on the western prairies, and they did their part with a courage and a vision that gave them rank among the most desirable of our early immigrant farmers. Their rugged honesty and straightforwardness, their respect for law and government, their love of liberty, and their ability to read and write their own language, made them, from their first arrival in this country, worthy residents who soon developed into valuable citizens, known and esteemed for their devotion to their adopted country and its institutions.

As most of the Swedish immigrants came from the rural districts of their native land, their chief desire was to acquire ownership of a home and a piece of land. This desire attracted them to the western prairies, instead of the more densely populated eastern states, and made them brave the dangers and the hardships incident to pioneering in a new country. Many of them located on homesteads, and took up their first abode in a dugout, a sod house or a log cabin. Others purchased railroad land, or bought out earlier settlers who had tired of frontier life and were ready to dispose of their holdings. Their unfamiliarity with the English language and their devotion to their own form of religious services, in the only language that spoke to their heart, caused the Swedish pioneers to settle in groups, whenever convenient. Thus more or less compact Swedish settlements sprang up in various places all over the state of Iowa, and wherever a number of Swedish families located, a little frame church soon raised its spire heavenward, indicative of the religious fervor and fear of God that characterized those early pioneers.

While, as stated above, no considerable number of Swedish immigrants reached the western states before 1840, some scattered ones came over much earlier. We have no record of who these earlier ones were, or where they located, but now and then a purely Swedish name appears in the early annals of the various eastern counties of Iowa. According to the census of 1850, there were living in Iowa at that time only 23.1 persons born in Sweden. Ten years later their number had increased to 10,796, and the census of 1910 numbers the inhabitants in Iowa of Swedish parentage at 66,135, counting the first and second generation. Owing to the anti-foreign agitation during and after the world war, which caused many American-born children of foreign parents to ignore their foreign ancestry, I have found the 1910 census more reliable than either of the two later ones, and for that reason have made use of the 1910 figures as a basis for report on the Swedish population in counties and cities of the state.

Among the first known Scandinavians in Iowa was a Norwegian sailor by the name of Alexander Crookshanks who lived in Lee county, where he owned a big farm as early as 1833. A Dane by the name of N. C. Boye is mentioned in Muscatine county in 1837. In Des Moines county there lived in 1836 three families by the name of Anderson and two by the name of Nelson, but, although these are common Swedish names, they might also be of English or Scotch origin.

The first permanent Swedish settlement in the state of Iowa was the so-called Cassel colony which was founded in 1845 at New Sweden in Jefferson county. Smaller Swedish colonies had before that year been established in Wisconsin, as the Friman settlement at Salem, in 1838, and the Unonius colony at Pine Lake, in 1841, but to Cassel belongs the distinction of leading the first large party of emigrants from Sweden into one of the prairie states of America, and founding a community that is still in existence.

The second Swedish colony in Iowa was founded in 1846 at Swede Point, in Boone county, by the Dalander family. Its name was later changed to Madrid, by which name it is still known. In due time, a number of smaller settlements sprang up in the vicinity of Madrid, at Boonesboro, Moingona, Pilot Mound, Boxholm, and Ogden.

The town of Burlington, in Des Moines county, became from the beginning a kind of port of entry for Swedish immigrants arriving in Iowa, and, as a result, a goodly number of them located in that town. Colonel F. Brydolph had his home there as early as 1846, and four years later the Swedes in and around Burlington were said to number 200.

The Burgholm colony, in Wapello county, was founded in 1847. Its name was later changed to Munterville, in honor of a Swedish school teacher by the name of Munter. Other settlements were started at Dayton, in Webster county, and at Swede Bend (Stratford) in Hamilton county, about 1849.

At Swedesburg, in Henry county, and at Chariton, in Lucas county, Swedish colonies were founded before 1850; and in Clayton and Allamakee counties Swedish settlers were found in the early fifties. Other settlements were started in the fifties in Lee, Muscatine, Guthrie, Kossuth, and Calhoun counties. From these earlier settlements the Swedish colonists migrated to other localities, and between 1860 and 1870, new communities of Swedish farmers grew up in Winnebago, Woodbury, Marshall, Montgomery, Clay, Page, Mitchell, Pocahontas, and other counties. Of a later date are the Swedish colonies in Appanoose, Clinton, Cherokee, Palo Alto, and Linn counties, besides which small communities of Swedes are now found in many other localities in the state.

• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Sep 14 2020, 14:14:32 UTC Mormor Ruts Träd