JOhn & Johanna Seagren

SEAGREN ANDERSDOTTER PETERSON

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/16/2010 at 16:05:05

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

John and Johanna Seagren
By Fayann Hubert

John Seagren was born in Sweden on September 9, 1854, in the parish of Aslad in Skaraborgo lan. His mother was Johanna Andersdotter, born April 17, 1814, in the same parish. His father’s first name is unknown. John became an American citizen on April 4, 1895.

Johanna Sophia Peterson was born on January 18, 1855, in the parish of Orebro in Sweden. Her father was Anders Pettersson, born November 12, 1818, in the parish of Mosjo. Johanna’s mother, Anna Stahl, was born July 22, 1817, in Orebro.

John and Johanna were married in Sweden in 1881, and came to America in 1888 with three small sons, Carl, Conrad, and Oscar. Johanna often told how ill she became on the boat trip which took three weeks. She also had difficulty learning English, and her children who were born in America, learned to speak to her in Swedish.

They stayed for a time in Omaha, Nebraska, with Johanna’s sister and family, Louisa Ring. Later the family moved to Sloan, Iowa, where John worked as a farmhand, earning eighteen dollars a month. They moved to Minnesota, remaining for three years. On returning to Salix, they purchased a home from the Leesch family, on the southeast edge of town.

Johanna passed away December 11, 1933, at 77 years of age. She is buried at Sloan Cemetery. John rented his home and moved to his daughter’s farm home, Mrs Robert ‘Victoria’ Eveleth, east of Salix. He died there January 14, 1947, at the age of 94.
The Seagrens were the parents of three sons: Carl, 1881-1932, buried at Tonopah, Nevada; Conrad, 1884-1907, died in Colorado, buried at Walnut Cemetery, south of Salix; and Oscar, born in 1886, whereabouts unknown. Four daughters, Anna, born 1889, married Rudolphe Johnson, 1878-1937, she died in 1967; Esther, born 1891, married Edward McKenna, 1883-1973, in 1911, lives at Salix; Victoria, born 1894-1976, married Robert Eveleth, 1889-1963, in 1929, both are buried at Sloan Cemetery; and Agnes, born 1897, married Walter Allchin and lives in Minneapolis.