Charles Alfred Swanson

SWANSON JENSEN

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/18/2010 at 21:53:46

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Charles Alfred Swanson
By Arlene Swanson Quinn

Charles Alfred Swanson was born December 12, 1867, in Karinthorpe, Sweden. He came to America in the early 1880s with his oldest brother, Gustavius Adolphus Swanson, Charles worked on several farms before renting land and putting in his own crop. His brother, Gus, worked in a pottery shop set up by William Wortman in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa. In 1890, the two men sent for their brother, John, who came to the Bluffs, but later went out west and finally settled in Cedro Wooley, Washington. Neither Gus nor John ever married. Gus moved to Colorado where he became interested in mining. Then he moved on to New Mexico to set up the machinery for a mine in Elizabethtown. He died in 1914 of tuberculosis and was buried in Pinos Altos, New Mexico. Little is known about John except that he worked in lumber camps in Washington state.

Charles married Mary Ann Jensen in 1886. She had been born in Aalborg, Denmark. Marie, as she was called, worked as housekeeping for several families in Yankton, South Dakota, before coming to Sergeant Bluff. Here we she worked in the home of Jerome Holman. Two children were born to Charles and Marie Swanson; Mabel Ada and Fred Albert.

Charles became a citizen of the United States of America in 1888. He was a devout Christian and a member of the Methodist Church in the Bluffs, there being no Lutheran Church there at the time. He insisted that his family attend services regularly and keep the Christian Law. Charles bought a farm in Weedland and moved his family southwest of town. Charles died on New Years Day, 1897.

Mabel Ada Swanson, daughter of Charles and Marie Swanson, graduated from the Sergeant Bluff high school in 1905. She attended Morningside College. She taught school in South Dakota and then married John Heffron, a rising young attorney. They had three children: Mary, Eleanor, and Thomas Eleanor died in infancy. John and Mabel lived for many years in Deadwood, South Dakota, where he took an active part in the colorful pageant they held each summer called Wild Bill Hickok Days. John played the ‘hanging judge’ and was called ‘Judge’ as an affectionate name by the townspeople. John died in 1948 and Mabel in 1976. Both are buried in Deadwood, South Dakota.

Mary Heffron married Russ Rineveld in 1931. Their only child, Mary Patricia, died in infancy. Mary worked for the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs for many years before her death in 1974.

Thomas Heffron was in the army during World War II. In 1948 he married Maxine Danbury, a nurse. They have two children: Michael and Janice. They live in Orangeval, California. Tom retired in 1979. He had worked for the United States Government.