1940 Roll Call!

I had an idea, not necessarily a grand idea, but an idea to find out what all "our people" were up to in  1940, by searching the US Census. I tried to find photos of everyone close to the age they were at when the census was taken. It wasn't always possible, but I did my best!
            So where were the Jonsson's? Well, let's find out, shall we?


The Jonsson Family: Helge, Esther and Arthur

  Both Helge and Esther, and their son (My grandfather) Art were residing at 627 Oakland Ave in Villa Park, IL.  Grandpa was 12 and in school. Great Grandma was at 39 years old, and taking care of the home, and Great Grandpa was working as a mechanical engineer for C.H. Hanson in Chicago. (Which, might I add is still in business! Look Here!) From personal knowledge, Helge was in the business of inventing machinery, specifically engraving machines. I also believe he knew Mr. Hanson personally, as I have a book on mechanics belonging to a "C.H. Hanson" with notes in it that was part of my great grandfather's things.
   At this point, both Helge and Esther had been in America around 17 years now.

Jonsson's in the 1940 US Census

 The Wille Family: Henry, Ida, Ora Jean and Don
 

Sooo.... The Wille Family in 1940 they do not turn up in any searches.... They transitioned from the farm in Elk Grove to life in Elmhurst about this time, with a few short stays in several places in Elmhurst. One on Elm Ave. One on Oak Ave, and then finally settling at 136 E. Grantley in Elmhurst. 
   I started browsing by enumeration districts, and it turns out, it wasn't the Wille's at the Grantley house yet in 1940... but a florist with a totally different name and family. So I searched up and down Elm ave and Oak Ave. They were not there unless I missed it. They are there somewhere, and I WILL find them, but it's safe to say that in 1940, the Wille family was shifting gears, and quite drastically from rural farm life to life in town. By 1942 the Wille's were at the 136 E. Grantley house in Elmhurst and Henry was working at the Buick Engine Plant in Melrose Park. 
   In 1940, though... I can't find any member of their household.  







The Smith/Olsen Family: Ole Olsen, AJ Smith, Hannah (Joanne), AJ jr. (Mick) and Patricia Smith

In 1940, AJ Smith and his family were living with his father in law, Ole Olsen in his house on M149 in unincorporated Thompson, Schoolcraft County in the Upper Peninsula. 

Ole was 69 and still farming his own small parcel. His daughter, my great grandmother, Hannah (or Joanne, as we knew her) was 35. Her husband, AJ was 46 and working as a teamster for a lumber camp. Hannah and AJ had 2 of their 5 children in 1940. AJ and Patricia, 8 and 3 respectively. Within the next 6 years, three more children would be born, including my grandmother. Shortly after her birth, AJ would die from complications of gangrene after an Axe split his foot, and Ole would suffer a horrible death from being burned alive. By 1946, Hannah would be on her own with 5 small children. A charmed life it was not, but life was often hard in the Upper Peninsula. Things didn't come easy and it looks like our glimpse into 1940 for them was the calm before the storm. 

Smith and Olsen Family in the 1940 US Census

 The Billings Family: Raymond and Lucille, who was pregnant with Leland.

    I have no photos of Raymond or Lucille, but I do have their census. They were owners of the home at 262 Elm in Manistique, Schoolcraft County in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (Which doesn't seem to exist anymore). Lucille was about 4 months pregnant at the time with my biological grandfather, Leland Raymond Billings. Come September of 1940, there would be another addition to the household.

    Raymond was a painter of houses and their interiors, and Lucille worked as a Stenographer for the Bureau of Social Security. They were both 26 years old, and seemed to be doing quite well in a place where jobs could be hard to come by, now that the Lumber boom was slowly dying out.

 

The Billings Family, 1940 US Census

Next up in my 1940 Roll Call will be my husband's grandparents! Stay Tuned! 

Norway makes an appearance....

 I have Norwegian in me. Have I mentioned that? It might have been easy to miss with all the SWEDISH SWEDISH SWEDISH dispersed through out this blog, but, I am!

   In fact, I found that my SWEDISH great grandfather's own grandfather was Norwegian! (Gasp!) ... But that is for another time....  ; )

      The maternal side of my mother is Smith and Olsen. (Can you guess which is Norwegian?). The Smiths, I've had a ball with, finding treasures and stories and photos.... The Olsens? Well, I have found that there are a lot of Hannahs. And that my great grandmother's father was Ole Olsen. Beyond that, sadly, I've not had much luck.

       Lo and behold Ancestry.com has made some connections, yet again. I received an email from a kind woman who told me that one of her (great) grandfathers came over from Norway with his best friend, Ole Olsen. MY Ole. What a surprise to receive in your mailbox! 

       To confirm, she sent me photos from her aunt's album, of my great grandmother, Ole's daughter.

      She had more information and stories on Ole than I did! I was so happy to hear and see whatever she had to share. We began to pass photos around in hopes of identifying some from her albums that had never been labeled. I had high hopes of finally laying eyes on my great great grandfather. We haven't been able to confirm him yet, but I still have hope!

     One day, she sent me a photo of a house. In the email, she said she had been told that this was Ole's house, but it wasn't confirmed. She wanted to know if I had any opinion on it. I sent the photo to my mother, not telling her what it was, but only asking if she recognized this house. She replied,

     "Yes. This was where your grandma lived, It was your great grandmother's house. I was born in this  house." 

      .... Not what I expected!!!

    I wrote back that I had received this from someone who was told this was Ole's house. He is believed to have built it. My mother was surprised. She had no idea that house belonged in the family beyond her grandmother.

   And I wonder, how do things like this get lost? It wasn't that long ago, how did we not know this already? How am I receiving this from the family of my great great grandfather's best friend?

   My answer? Because some families talk, and some families don't. Some families cherish where they came from, and some might prefer to forget. Whether by dysfunction, or general disinterest, some families just DON'T TALK.

   This side... They didn't talk. And how sad this is to me. But how happy I was to receive this information from someone who was searching through their own family, and kindly reached out. 

   We have shared a lot of tidbits and stories through our emails, this kind woman and me. In the future, with her permission, I will have to share some of those stories on this blog, and give my Norwegian roots a little air time. Lord knows they've been stuffed away for far too long.

Wordless Wednesday (but not really) - Thompson Township

This Wordless (but not really) Wednesday  I'm gonna show some love to my Olsen Family, of which not so much is known.

    My great grandmother was Hannah "Joanne" Olsen, second wife to AJ Smith. They had 5 Children together before he passed in 1945.
    It appears that every record I have of her, both formal and informal, she is known as "Hannah". But in our family, she is referred to as "Joanne", who my mother was named after.
    Hannah/ Joanne was, as far as I know from research, one of 3 children of Ole Olsen and Hanna Johnson, Who also went by "Annie". The elder Hanna was from Finland. There is confusion surrounding her birth date, as her death certificate lists her birth month as February, and census records list it as January. Either way, she died when her daughter was small. December 5, 1909 in Thompson. It appears she died from Emphysema, which was related to pneumonia she had come down with. From illness to death, it appears it was 16 days.
     Her husband, Ole Olsen, was from Norway, born November of 1870. He emigrated in 1888, but I'm not sure of the way. My guess would be Canada, but I have yet to find any immigration records for him. (Or Hanna, who emigrated in 1895.)
     Ole was a laborer in a saw mill in Thompson. in the decades around 1900, that's what brought people to schoolcraft county.... a booming lumber industry. In fact, the township of Thompson was named after E.L. Thompson, president of the Delta Lumber Company that had set up shop there in 1881.

The pictures I found come to you from Thompson Township Michigan website. It's a nice little site that gives some history on the township, but it's also a work in progress, so some pages are "under construction". But they had some great pictures.

Thompson in the 1890's

Crew of men, working at the mill.

Lumber Mill

This sort of life seems so foreign, and sometimes really rough. But at this time, Americans, new and not-so-new flocked to this small area from all over to take part in this booming industry. I'm sure they all had very high hopes. 3 of the 4 families that came to Schoolcraft county came because of the lumber boom. They all had ambitions to take part in it. (The Smith's, Olsen's and Billing's. As for the Waters', he actually owned a jewelry store and was a watchmaker, so I'm not quite sure yet how the Waters; ended up in Schoolcraft...)
   It seems the labor pains of the Great Depression were felt hard in this area before other areas of the country. In the spring of 1927, it is said that AJ couldn't "sell a stick". He, and the bank that backed him lost everything. The lumber business piddled out after this, which is when AJ bought a pool hall, that he bootlegged liquor out of.
    When all was booming, Thompson had 537 people. (as recorded in 1884). After the industry's demise, the growth seemed to completely stopped. As of the year 2000, there were still only 671 people.

   The aspect of this that I find most, hmm, what's the word I'm looking for........inspiring? maybe? is that this small slice of history in this tiny part of America paints a picture of what made "Americans". You have The Olsen's... brand new immigrants going straight to a place that maybe they'd heard from other immigrants they could make a living. A place that was supposed to have a promising future. This same idea drew the Smith's, the opposite of the Olsen's, to the area. A well established family that had been in America well before the Revolutionary War. They both had the same idea, or "dream" if you will. Both families, from completely different backgrounds partook in this rough and often dangerous life in the northern wilderness with hopes of being successful. They took a chance coming, and worked HARD. Being a lumberjack is by no means an easy job, and going from "farmer" to "lumberman" I'm sure was a huge change. But they did it. They made their way.
     "America" means "industrious"...  and that is exactly what they ALL were. You don't see that too much anymore. People are always depending on others, like the government, to take care of them. To give them a life instead of making one for themselves. It's kind of sad when you think about it.....




Sorry, but I have zero pictures of Ole and Hanna. I hope to come across some someday!