Thursday, August 29, 2013

Peter Hedlund, the Swedish immigrant who made the psalmodikon in the Steeple Building at Bishop Hill, and sister Anna Hedlund Nystrom

http://archive.org/stream/svenskarneiillin00john/svenskarneiillin00john_djvu.txt

SVENSKARNE I ILLINOIS. HISTOKISKA ANTECKNINGAR SAMLADE OCH UTGIFNA AF ERIC JOHNSON och C. P. PETERSON. CHICAGO: TRYCKT HOS "W. "WILLJAM90N, 1 & 3 N. CLAKK STREET, 1880.

HEADLUND, PETER, farmer å sek. 7; eger 115 acres ; är född i Hanebo, Gefleborgs län; kom till Amerika och Bishop Hill 1850; gifte sig 1867 med Anna Anderson frän Nora; tror på kristendomen, men tillhör ingen kyrka; independent i politiken ; postk. Galva.


http://archive.org/stream/historyofhenryco02kine/historyofhenryco02kine_djvu.txt

HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY ILLINOIS, By HENRY L. KINER. CHICAGO: THE PIONEER PUBLISHING COMPANY, 1910

PETER HEDLUND.

Peter Hedlund, deceased, was one of the well-to-do farmers of Henry county, living on section 7, Galva township. Of Swedish birth and parentage he was born February 21, 1840, in Handbu, Helsingland. His parents, Carl and Anna (Olson) Hedlund, both claimed Helsingland as their birthplace and America as the land of their adoption. The father died in middle life on Lake Michigan while on his way to Bishop Hill, but the mother survived the journey and

HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY 911

reached the little Swedish colony. In 1862 she removed to Galva township, where in 1886 she died at the advanced age of eighty years. Three sons and one daughter were born to Carl Hedlund and his wife: Olof, of Sweden; Carl, deceased ; Peter, of this review ; and Anna, the wife of Eric Nystrum, of Bishop Hill. The two oldest sons were both soldiers, Olof in the regular army of Sweden and Carl in the Civil war in this country. The father was a tailor by trade and also a farmer.

Peter Hedlund was but ten years of age when the family came to this coun- try, and he grew to manhood in Bishop Hill. His days were devoted to farm work, and on many an occasion he drove a yoke of oxen in breaking prairie. In 1862 he removed to Galva township, where he first shared a small tract of land with the Bishop Hill colony, and later bought a little place of his own, to which he added continually until at the time of his death he had accumulated about one hundred and seventy-eight and a half acres. On this tract he made his home, having improved it with a good house, a barn and other buildings and brought the soil to a greater productiveness.

Mr. Hedlund was married on the 22d of June, 1867, to Miss Anna Ander- son, a daughter of Andrew and Anna (Peterson) Anderson. She was of Swedish birth, having been born in Westmanland, July 30, 1837, and of Swedish ancestry. Of her parental grandfather, who died before she was born, Mrs. Hedlund remembers very little, but her maternal grandfather was Peter Gregu- lius, a native of Sweden and a farmer. His wife was Catherine Gregulius and was about eighty years of age at the time of her death. They had six daughters and one one son: Catherine, Christine, Gregulius, Anna, Beta, Brita and Mar- garet. Mrs. Hedlund's parents, also of Swedish birth, came to America in 1850 with the Bishop Hill colony, in whose midst the children grew to maturity. In

1863 the family came to Galva township, which was their home until the death of the parents, the father dying in 1886 at the age of seventy-nine, the mother the following year at the age of eighty. There were five children, three sons and two daughters born to the couple : Peter, Andrew, John, Anna and Catharine. The last named died on the Atlantic, while coming to America.

To Mr. and Mrs. Hedlund were born four children, two sons and two daughters : Peter E., Laura A., Alice A. and Charles A. Three of the children live at home, but Alice has married Charles Stoneberg, who lives two miles north of Bishop Hill, and they have two sons, Charles H. and John E. Mr, Hedlund gave allegiance to no political party, but cast his vote as seemed to him right. A good man and true, he was deeply mourned when, at the age of fifty-five years, he was called away, June 9, 1895.


http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=bishophill&id=I17

  • Name: Anna Hedlund
  • Sex: F
  • Birth: 11 DEC 1842 in Södra Kyrkbyn, Hanebo Parish, Gävleborgs Län, Sweden

GL12/66 December 1936, Mrs. Eric Nystrom observed her 94th birthday December 11 in her home when relatives and friends spent the afternoon with her. --

GL12/67 December 1937, Mrs. Anna Nystrom observed her 95th birthday at a gathering in the home of her grandson and family, Mr. & Mrs. Glenn Lindstrum. --

SPANY p.243 #13, p.244. Sailed on the Aeolus out of Söderhamn. Arrived in New York Sept. 17, 1850. The family received papers in Gävle May 29, 1850.

From the May 13, 1939 Kewanee Star Courier

Bishop Hill - Mrs. Eric Nystrom, better known around here as "Grandma" Nystrom, is seriously ill at the home of her granddaughter, Mrs. Vernice Nelson, north of town. Mrs. Nystrom celebrated her ninety-sixth birthday in December of the last year. Up until November she had been living alone in her home here doing her own housework, but since then because of her rapidly failing health she has been at the homes of her grandchildren where she has been confined to her bed most of the time. She is one of he few remaining colonists who helped to establish this place. All of her life it has been a great pleasure to her to recall events of the Bishop Hill colony in which she was so vitally interested.

From the May 18, 1939 Galva News.

Anna Nystrom, Oldest Bishop Hill Lady, dies

Mrs. Anna Hedlund Nystrom, 96, oldest resident of the Bishop Hill community, died at 1:30 this morning in the home of her granddaughter, Mrs. Vernice Nelson, north of Bishop Hill, following gradually failing health during the past several months.

Funeral services will be held Saturday afternoon at 2 o'clock from Bishop Hill Methodist Church, in charge of Rev. H. J. Diercks.

Anna Hedlund was born December 11, 1842 at Hannabo, Sweden, a daughter of Carl and Anna Hedlund, her twin brother, Andrew Hedlund, passing away at the age of five weeks. Three other brothers, Olof, Carl and Peter, also preceded her in death.

Came to U.S. in 1850

In 1850, when she was seven years old, she came to America with her parents and two brothers, Carl and Peter, the father being stricken with cholera during the trip and was buried in Lake Michigan. The group traveled from Chicago to Bishop Hill by wagon and located in Red Oak where they lived in a log cabin. Later, the mother, Anna and brother Peter lived in the old church building for ten years and after the dissolution of the colony moved to a farm northwest of Bishop Hill known as the Hedlund homestead. (note: I think the homestead was probably northeast of Bishop Hill - BN)

Her marriage to Eric Nystrom took place in December, 1864, in Galva. Eric and his parents having come to United States on the same boat with the Hedlunds. Following their marriage they lived in Moline for a time and moved to a farm in the Bishop Hill vicinity. Two daughters were born to them: Adaline (Mrs. David Aline), who died in Oregon in August, 1935, and Lillie (Mrs. Albert Lindstrom), who died in the Bishop Hill community in May, 1931. Mr. Nystrom died at Bishop Hill in January, 1911, at the age of 70. Her mother died at the age of 82.

In 1907 Mrs. Nystrom fractured her hip adn had since been handicapped physically. During the past 20 years she had lived alone in Bishop Hill, enjoying good health , altho for two years past she had been spending the ime with her grandchildren and had been with Mrs. Nelson during the past nine weeks. Her friends and co-worker in the colony, Mrs. Elizabeth Hallfast, preceded her in death February this year at the age of 96.

11 Grandchildren Survive

Surviving are 11 grandchildren, as follows: Raymond Lindstrom, Vernice Nelson, Glen Lindstrom and Pearl Ericson, all of Bishop Hill and community; Francis, Rose, Herman, Anna, Lois, Clarence and Eleanor, children of Mrs. Aline, living in Washington and Oregon. During the past winter two of the grandsons from Oregon had visisted Mrs. Nystrom. Also surviving are 15 great-grandchildren, eight of them in Illinois. The son-in -law, Albert Lindstrom, also survives at Bishop Hill.

According to her obit in the Galesburg Daily Register Mail, May 23, 1939, after the family left the cabin in Red Oak, they lived in the "old church building for 10 years".

According to her obit in the Chicago Daily Tribune, May 19, 1939, "As a girl she worked in the colony's broom factory".

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