THEODORE ROOSEVELT SWENSON Born: November 14, 1898 Married: October 12, 1932 to Almina Smith Children: Ethel Dolores Swenson - born November 26, 1933; died October 10, 2004 Margaret Almina Swenson - born January 4, 1943 Ruth Elizabeth Swenson - born January 8, 1947 Died: September 17, 1972 Education: High School Diploma from Sussex High School, Sussex, NJ - June 1918 Diploma from Coleman National Business School, Newark, NJ - October 1919 Physical Characteristics: According to his World War II War Ration Booklet, Ted was 5 ft. 8 inches tall and weighed approximately 160 lbs. He had grey/blue eyes and brown hair which turned grey as he aged. His hairline had already receded by the time he had his children. “Memories of my Father” by Margaret Swenson Wien Theodore’s birth date was November 14, 1898 though while I was growing up, Dad believed he had been born November 14, 1899. Ted’s sister Helen once sent him a birthday card which stated: “A year has rolled again. I remember when you were born over in the house in Swenson Fields. It was a cold day. We had some heifers on the other side of Flatbrook. Flatbrook was freezing over.” Ted’s brother John sent a birthday car in 1962 on which he had written: “Had a snow storm when you were born 1899.” It wasn’t until Ted applied for social security that a search of the census records revealed his birth date was really November 14, 1898. His parents were John Swenson (born in Katslosa, Sweden) and Carrie Olsen Swenson (born in Aseral 8-12-1859, Norway). Carrie (known as Kari or Karen in Norway) came to America in 1881, and it is believed John came to America in 1883. John had previously worked in Bornholm, Denmark and probably emigrated from there. In New York, John worked as a blacksmith and wagon maker. John and Carrie married September 4, 1886 and settled in Astoria, Long Island. They were very close to Ole and Martha Olsen, and John even had a mortgage arrangement with Ole Olsen in 1886. Ole may have been Carrie’s older brother, but I have not been able to prove that relationship yet. I have not been able to find any birth certificates for Theodore and his siblings. Ted had two older brothers and two older sisters. The three oldest children (John, born 1887; Ole Arthur, born 1889; and Helen Jeanette, born 1894) were born in New York. Then in 1896, the family moved to Montague Township in Sussex County, NJ. Martha Josephine (known as Josie) was born in 1897. When my father was born, the family legend states he was called by the name “brother” which I believe is spelled the same in Norwegian and Swedish (Bror). The 1900 census gives his name as Benjamin, but that was probably just what the census taker thought he was hearing. According to the family legend, during the New Jersey 1905 census, the census taker realized Ted was being called “brother” and said the young boy needed to have a name. The parents probably hesitated for a bit, and the legend goes the census taker suggested naming him after the President. And on the 1905 census, he is listed as Theodore Roosevelt Swenson. A younger sister, Victoria was born in 1901 and appears on the 1905 census. Another brother (Oscar) was born in 1904 but only lived six months. -2- Carrie was expecting another baby in April 1906. At that time she was in her mid 40s. The family had been planning to move “over the mountain” to a new farm closer to Beemerville where the land was more conducive to farming. Carrie wanted to stay at the old home until after the baby was born as she was closer to her midwife there. Unfortunately, Carrie suffered complications during the pregnancy. Her husband and one son were away working on the roof of the new house. Helen rode on horseback to the new farm (about two and one half miles away) to tell her father that Mother was about to give birth. John sent his son Ole Arthur to Deckertown, a six- mile ride, to fetch the doctor. When John got back to the homestead, his wife was dying from childbirth. Despite the best efforts of two doctors, Carrie bled to death, and the baby died too. Since Dad was 44 when I was born and 48 when Ruth was born, he seemed more like a grandparent than a father in some ways. He also rarely hugged his children, preferring to give a handshake instead. He was a very business-like father, but we knew he loved us and we knew he was providing for his family to the best of his ability. My father did not talk about his mother with us, but he may not have had many memories of her because he was only seven years old at the time of her death. I do know she taught him to say his numbers in Norwegian because Dad used to teach us (his children) the numbers and a few phrases as his version of a bedtime story. Years later (after my father had passed away), I took some language lessons at our local Sons of Norway Lodge and had tears in my eyes as I remembered the flow of saying my numbers in Norwegian with my Dad. My father retained just a trace of an accent which was noticeable with certain words. For example, my younger sister was named Ruth. Dad always called her “Rooty” rather than Ruthie. Back to 1906: The family did move “over the mountain” to the new home which had a pipeless furnace with holes in the floor and holes in the rooms for the heat (central heating). They burned wood or coal. The house had a chimney. There was no bathroom. The glass in the windows was handblown. Later, additions were added to the original farm house. The family raised most of their own vegetables and fruit. They tapped trees for maple syrup. They butchered pigs. They milked cows and sold the milk. Ted’s older brother Ole Arthur left behind journals dated from 1918 to 1926 which give a good picture of life on the farm. John and Ole did not graduate from high school due to being needed on the farm. Helen probably had to serve as the mother of the family after her mother died -- doing the cooking, sewing and cleaning rather than going to school. Josie left home early (about age 15) to work for another family. Ted graduated from Sussex High School in the Class of 1918, the same class as his sister Victoria. Ted probably took longer due to having to take time off to help on the farm. Ted graduated from the Commercial curriculum and Victoria from the English curriculum. The old farm had been purchased in Carrie’s name. After Carrie’s death, the family did move to the new farm but they continued to use the old farm for their cattle. One day Theodore and Victoria were walking over the mountain to check on the livestock when a very hard thunderstorm came up. They saw lightning set the barn on fire. The Montague farm remained in the family until 1926 when John, Sr. sold it to the State of New Jersey where it became part of Stokes State Forest. Each of Kari’s children received $103.75 from the proceeds of the sale of the Montague farm, though Josie’s share went to her two children as she had died tragically of pneumonia in 1924 at age 27. A trail near the -3- original homestead in what is now Stokes State Forest is called the Swenson Trail. We used to have Swenson picnics in that area each summer when I was a child. From Ole’s Journals, I can tell the family was active in the Beemerville Presbyterian Church and in the Mountain View Grange (a farmer’s organization). The Swensons were friends with many others in the area and often visited at each other’s homes for “cake and coffee.” Ted and his brothers used to ride their bikes a lot -- even traveling from their home to Long Island, NY to visit “Uncle Ole and Aunt Martha Olsen.” That was quite a long ride. After Theodore graduated from High School, he left home to attend Rider College in Trenton, NJ. He had a room on the grounds and worked as a helper for the President of the College, Mr. Moore. Unfortunately a few months later, a former helper wanted to return, and Ted had to give up his place. He could not afford to live elsewhere to continue at Rider so he decided to move to Newark, NJ where he could board with his brother John. John had married Julia Pearl Rutan by then, but they found room for Ted to board with them. Ted got a job and began taking classes at Coleman Business College in Newark. He received his diploma from Coleman Business College in October 1919. Dad kept an “Account Book/Journal” in 1919 which I found after my mother’s death. This gave me more information about his months in Newark, NJ. Occasionally Dad would write something in shorthand if he considered it “private.” He didn’t anticipate that in later years, his three daughters would take shorthand in High School/College and could read what he wrote. One job Dad had in Newark was working for Willis Carburetor Exchange as a Cashier at $15 a week. He and brother John and wife joined the West Presbyterian Church in Newark, transferring by letter from the Beemerville Church. Ted took the train home on weekends such as Memorial Day Weekend, Fourth of July and Labor Day Weekend. When he was home, he pitched right in with the farm chores. For recreation, Ted wrote his bicycle and visited many areas. One weekend he took the train to Trenton where his younger sister Victoria was attending the Teacher’s College. She did not remain there long as she was very homesick and felt she couldn’t be a teacher. Ted always seemed to have a camera handy (throughout his life) and took a lot of pictures. He seemed quite sociable, attending movies and Y.M.C.A. activities. He also borrowed books from the Newark Library. My father eventually moved back to Sussex County and in August 1921, he began a job as a bookkeeper with Hopkins Feed Store in Branchville, NJ. He rented a room in a private house. In April 1923, Ted became quite sick with tonsillitis and with what was called inflammatory rheumatism. His knees became swollen twice their normal size, and he had pain and swelling in both hips and his back. I believe this happened after he had taken a long bike ride during which the weather turned bad. He eventually had to enter Sussex Hospital but did recover, though he did lose some weight. In late June of 1924, Ted’s sister Josie became ill. She thought she was getting a cold but the next day she had bad pain under her shoulders and was unable to get up. The doctor came to the house and said her lungs were congested and she had a high fever. He ordered mustard plasters. The fever continued, and the Doctor came twice a day. She was told her lung had been congested near to pneumonia. Josie raised a lot of phlegm and said her stomach had been very sick. The other lung got affected (double -3- pneumonia). Ted’s brother Ole wrote a most touching account of Josie’s illness in his journal. She breathed her last on July 7, 1924. She was just 27 years old and had been married six years. Her son Frank was just three years old and son Harold was three months old when she died. Josie’s sister Helen came to help Josie’s husband Charles take care of the two children. Years later (in 1932) Charles married Helen, and they had a daughter who they named Laura. It was while working in Branchville that my father met my mother (Almina Courtright Smith). Her birth date was September 21, 1908. Almina left home at age 15 to work as a telephone operator and waitress in Branchville while finishing her schooling. My father used to stop in for his coffee and pie frequently, and must have developed a friendship with Mom. They were attending the same Grange at the time, and Dad began walking her to Grange (often carrying her books as she was the Grange Lecturer at the time). They married October 12, 1932 at the home of the bride. My father had begun working for Consolidated Feed, Coal and Lumber in 1924, and Consolidated was located in Sussex, NJ. Dad and Mom first rented a house in Sussex, and later bought another house on 59 Unionville Avenue in Sussex (with the help of a mortgage from Dad’s boss). I grew up in that house which was the only home my parents ever owned. Our house had a stucco exterior which kept the house cooler in summer. I remember we had one fan in the hallway upstairs which would rotate so each of the three bedrooms got a little breeze as it circled around. In the winter, we always seemed to be cold. The coal furnace required a lot of care from my father. We would dress in multiple layers, and I can remember standing on the register in the living room to try to feel some warmth. We did have an old piano which came with the house as the previous owners did not know how to move it. The house had a nice front porch, and my mother, sisters and I spent time there as we cut up green beans or shelled peas from the garden, read books, and the girls played with paper dolls, etc. My father rarely seemed to have time to join us on the porch. During the Depression, Dad was able to keep his job though he had to take a cut in pay. My mother told me that men would come to the house to ask for something to eat. My parents would give them coffee and bread on our porch. Times were tough then. Dad’s father (John Sr.) was ailing at the time of Mom and Dad’s wedding. I don’t know whether he was able to attend the wedding. Mom and Dad took a honeymoon trip to Washington, D.C., but they returned home a day or two early as they received word that John Sr. was not doing well. John Sr. died about a year later (October 8, 1933). As bookkeeper for Consolidated Feed, Coal and Lumber, Dad kept the records in ledgers by hand -- no computers at that time. Computers were just becoming available before his death, but he did not want to start using one. After his death, my younger sister Ruth took over his job, and she did computerize the records. While I was in high school, I went to Consolidated from 7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and then from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. to work for my father and earn some much needed money. The office was close enough to my high school for me to walk back and forth. I remember Dad sitting on his high stool with his visor on. He would always wear a dress shirt and slacks along with a cardigan sweater and a tie. He was very proper and professional even though this was a Feed, Coal and Lumber concern (which also sold hardware items). Many of the customers and co-workers called him Teddy. -4- When I worked with Dad, he would drive up to town (a short drive) after work to get the meat for supper. We only had an ice box during my early years, but finally got a second-hand refrigerator with a tiny freezer. Even then he often bought the day’s meat on his way home. He would also buy me a candy bar, which was not a good thing because I did develop cavities easily as a child. Dad did have to fill out a Draft Registration for World War I, but the war ended before he was called to serve. During World War II, he again had to register but did not serve. His eyesight without glasses was not good, and this also may have been a factor. My parents never had a television while I was growing up. When I went away to college, I earned enough money my part-time job to buy them a small black-and-white television for a Christmas gift. Dad had previously been able to watch television on a set “down at the office,” and I bet that is part of the reason he used to go back down to the office after supper. He would say it was to keep up with all his work, but he may have enjoyed the relative quiet of the office at that time and the chance to watch a TV show. He was ten years old than my mother and had been a bachelor for quite a while before getting married. One time I can remember my father taking me down to the office with him to watch the atomic bomb tests taking place in Nevada in 1952. I remember there were a group of us gathered around the television, and everyone seemed to be apprehensive about this new weapon. The tests left quite an impression on me. In fact, when I graduated from high school in 1960, I gave a valedictorian address on the Atomic Age and how it was going to affect us. Over the years, we had a series of cars -- all used and often in fair-to-poor condition by the time Dad could afford them. My mother had learned to drive before she was married, but once she married Dad, she rarely drove. It was the custom for the man to do the driving in those days. My sisters and I could walk to school and to town but Mom rarely made the walk as she was overweight and had arthritis. Dad would often take the family for a car ride on the weekends which gave Mom an outing too. Many times we drove to Newton, NJ (the county seat of Sussex County) to do some shopping and then stopped in to Dad’s sister Helen and her family on their farm outside of Newton. Helen and her family had a television years before we did, and we saw an occasional television show at their house. We spent many Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with Helen and her family. My Uncle Ole Arthur would come to Helen’s house too. Aunt Helen was a wonderful cook. How I wish I had asked her more about her family and her memories of her mother! I did ask my cousin Laura whether she remembers her mother telling family stories, and Laura did not. My mother would make Swedish meatballs occasionally, and my older sister (who married another Scandinavian, Charles Nelson) would make Swedish rye bread, but we did not eat Scandinavian foods on a regular basis. My father did like an occasional can of sardines. (Over the years, I have found several Norwegian recipes which I prepare regularly to help me honor my heritage.) Dad did have some food habits throughout the years I knew him. He liked to have oatmeal (made from scratch) on Sunday mornings. Mom would have to make it early as she always went to Church and made sure we girls went too. We belonged to the Sussex Presbyterian Church and could walk to it. Dad joined us occasionally but often stayed home on his one morning off from work. Dad would come home for lunch on weekdays and have soup and sandwich every day. In his later years, he -6- switched to drinking Postum coffee (a caffeine-free coffee substitute which became popular during World War II when coffee was heavily rationed) at home and would put wheat germ on things. I believe he continued getting his coffee and pie in mid- afternoon on work days as he would walk into town with the bank deposit at the same time. Dad tried to keep his weight in line and often did calisthenics to help keep him trim. He also had to do the lawn work and gardening though his three daughters did their share to help with those chores too. We did not have a telephone until I was about ten years old. By then, my older sister was ill so we got our own telephone in case we needed to call for medical assistance. Our neighbors had been very generous in letting us use their phone in an emergency, but my parents decided we needed to get one of our own. Ethel was nine years older than I was. She had had measles twice, then developed pneumonia which became double pneumonia and finally went into a lung condition with abscesses. Eventually Ethel was operated on at Newark Presbyterian Hospital and had half of a lung removed. Some years later she had to have further surgery to remove the rest of that lung, but she was able to live a reasonably normal life. She married and had three children. She was able to work until she began developing eye problems at age 64. Then she suffered strokes and passed away in 2004. Because of Ethel’s problems and some health problems my mother suffered, medical bills became quite high, but my father (who had very limited insurance) kept paying a little bit at a time. That’s the way he paid the dentist too, and the eye doctor as several of us needed glasses. I don’t know how he did it. He kept paying the interest on the mortgage too. At income tax time, he did income taxes for several other people. One person would pay him each year by giving him a big bakery cake with delicious icing. What a treat that was for the whole family! Education was important to our parents, and all three of their daughters graduated from High School with good grades. I was the first to go to college (Montclair State Teachers College) and live away from home in a dorm. Luckily in those days it was possible to work your way through college, and I did. My parents had to provide very little money over the four years of my college education. I graduated in June 1964, and my younger sister began attending Montclair that same year. She also worked her way through college. Our parents were able to attend both of our College graduations. My older sister was married June 15, 1955 to Charles Nelson. They had three children (Rick, Karen and Bill). I married Richard Wien on June 21, 1964 -- right after I graduated from college. We had two children (Diana and Gary). My younger sister Ruth married William Perry on June 22, 2968 -- right after she graduated from college. Ruth and Bill had two children (Kevin and Lynnette). Our parents were able to attend all three weddings, and our father walked each of us down the aisle. Our weddings were modest in keeping with the family finances. Dad got to see all his grandchildren except for the youngest, Lynnette. Dad’s brother Ole Arthur had remained a bachelor all his life. He had stayed on the farm to help his father and inherited the farm when his father died on October 8, 1933. When Ole died without a will in 1967, the farm went to Ole’s brothers and sisters. Josie’s share went to her two children as she had pre-deceased Ole in 1924. Victoria died of breast cancer in 1961 so her share passed to her three children. John passed away in 1963 so his share passed to his four sons. Only Helen and Theodore were still alive at the time of Ole’s death. -7- Dad was still working for Consolidated Feed Coal and Lumber when he collapsed in town one day in 1972. He was hospitalized and died about a month later of kidney failure. We believe his blood pressure had not been regulated well previous to that time. Dad did not like to go to the doctor, and I’m not sure whether he had been getting good medical care. He had not wanted to retire even though he was 73 years old as he feared he would not know what to do with his time. Dad was buried in the Beemerville Cemetery family plot where his parents and brothers Ole and Oscar were also buried. Later my mother would be buried by his side. Dad’s sister Josie was buried in that Cemetery in the Beemer plot which later would include Dad’s sister Helen too. After his death, my sisters and I assisted our mother as much as we could which enabled her to continue living at 59 Unionville Avenue. In 1988, my husband and I first began to research our family trees. My mother was a big help in telling me everything she knew about her own family history and Theodore’s family history too. Unfortunately, my Aunt Helen had passed away in 1977 so I couldn’t ask her about the Swenson family history. (I did ask her daughter, but my cousin did not have much to add to what I already knew.) In 1989, I asked my older sister Ethel for some of her favorite memories of Dad. She remembered the songs Dad played on his harmonica, and going huckleberry picking. She remembered stories Dad told of how Uncle Art stabbed a rattlesnake with his pitchfork; how they walked to school through hip-deep snow; and how they made blood pudding when they killed a cow. It wasn’t until Mom died in 1991 that my sisters and I went through all the closets and drawers in the house as we cleaned things out in preparation for selling the house. It was then that I found numerous pictures from both sides of the family -- many without any identification. We also found the Journals which Dad’s brother Ole had kept years ago. Now that I am retired, I am trying to compile all the information I receive concerning my Swenson family tree though the task often seems overwhelming! It has been such an adventure and a pleasure to learn more about my ancestors, and I feel honored to be given the opportunity to learn as much as I can about our family history.