At long last I have solved
a puzzle that was presented to me about 16 to 20 years ago. It has taken
all this time to begin to unravel it.
I was told that one of my
father's uncles died young in a car / train crash. His sister-in-law, Inez,
was my last hope of learning anymore. This was after my own father's demise
and that of his only brother who lived in Canada. I wrote my aunt and asked
about it. She wrote back she would write about it after the holidays but
she thought it was in "St. Louis".
That letter never came.
I had never heard of any
of my father's uncles coming to America. With one exception: an uncle
sponsored him to enter Boston. Though I have been to that man's grave I
still do not know exactly how he fits into the family tree. But I do know
he didn't die in a car / train accident.
My puzzle was this: who was
the uncle by name? where did he settle in this vast country? in what time
period did he die?
The next step was to go to
Sweden and learn the names of all my father's uncles. As it turned out,
Grandmother Ida had four brothers.
My half-sister, Mary, who
was born and raised in the old hometown of Halden, Norway thought one of
them had gone to America. I dismissed the thought when she said it as I
had never heard of any of them coming to America. Indeed, were they not
all listed in Halden in the 1900 census? No, Karl Alfred was not. Was he
still in Sweden?
One day I was looking at
Norwegian ship records searching for my father's record and happened to
put in the name "IDD" which was the name of their parish. I was stunned
to see Ludvig and Otto Hendrickson were on their way to Wisconsin. That
prompted me to search the ship record at Ellis Island which I found. They
stated they were on their way to see their brother Charles in Grantsburg,
Wisconsin. Armed with that information, I was able to track down
the 1900 census and then the 1905 State of Wisconsin census. I learned
that he was a farmer in Grantsburg, WI and had four children. The first
two, the sons, George and Arthur, were born in Minnesota. The second two,
the daughters, Lilly and Frances, were born in Wisconsin.
I could not find them in
the 1910 census and for the next couple of years they seemed to have vanished.
Incidentally, the 1905 State census shows brothers Ludvig and Otto in the
household. It was a wonderful confirmation that I was on the right track.
I have secured Charles (Karl's)
immigration record, his petition for naturalization, the route he followed
(through Hull, England), his naturalization paper as well as a photo of
the ship he came over on.
Still, it didn't solve the
problem of the car / train accident.
Where did he disappear to?
I could find no trace in the census records of the family in 1910 though
I searched Grantsburg and Marshland page by page. Nor could I find any
record of them later on.
This last week I searched
the Burnett County, Wisconsin (WIGenWeb) website and stumbled upon a reference
to a land grant to Carl Henreikson [sic]. I went to the Government's
website and pulled up a copy of that land grant. There is no doubt it is
Karl Alfred Henrikson / Hendrickson / Henreikson. He was granted
160 acres of homestead land. That in itself was an exciting find as it
brought history books to life. A relative receiving homestead land.
Charles's wife, Hilda Nordberg,
had also immigrated from Sweden and had settled in Minnesota. They married
there in Chisago County.
I noticed one day that a
county in Minnesota is named "St. Louis." I wondered if maybe they removed
to Minnesota again.
While doing a search of newspapers
online, I saw a notice of an accident killing three men. Two of them were
Hendricksons. That intriqued me. I searched through the Rootsweb genealogy
sites for a volunteer to look up the death records for me as well as the
newspaper article.
Two years ago, I received
both in the mail from the woman. It was inconclusive. The men had the right
names, they were Otto and Charles Hendrickson. Their dates of birth partially
agreed with my prior information. Their father was listed as "O Hendrickson"
which is not consistent with my ancestor named Henrik Janson. I did not
have a positive identifcation.
Recently, I searched the
1930 and the 1920 censuses looking for Charles' children. I had hoped I
could find the sons and work backward to find the parents again. I was
still stymied until a new resource became available. Now Ancestry.com had
listed birth records for Minnesota. One of Charles' daughters had a less
common name, Frances Aleda. I entered her name in the search as mother
of a child. One baby, Barbara Benz, came up. The father's name was George
Benz.
I returned to the census
and looked for George Benz and Frances. I found them in 1930 and the information
for Frances matched exactly the information I had for her. In 1920, I found
her again with her brother George. Now I had located two of the children.
By the 1930 census George had three children of his own and Frances had
the one daughter I had found in the birth record (though not in the census
yet).
Both census records placed
those two children in Minneapolis. That was a major breakthrough allowing
me to suspect the car / train accident I had on record was indeed Grandmother's
brothers.
With my new information and
that information on the death records, I went back to the 1910 census.
Using the information that the accident was in Edina, Minnesota I searched
that township for all the Hendricksons.
Excitedly, I found the entire
family in Edina, Hennepin County, Minnesota. There was Charles, wife Hilda
and children George, Arthur, Lilly and Frances. In addition, there was
brother Otto living with them. It was the missing piece of the puzzle.
The entire family was indeed living in Edina, MN in 1910, just four years
before the two Hendrickson brothers were killed in that awful accident
with a third man, John Specht. The puzzle has been solved.
I had started out not knowing
any relations had even come to America, to knowing that an uncle was killed
in a car / train crash somewhere at some time in a hundred year span.
What a puzzle and it took two years from the time I had the news articles
and death certificates in hand to prove the connection to the family. Now
if I only could find out what happened with their 160 acres of land in
Wisconsin and why did they leave?
I still do not know what
happened to Hilda Hendrickson as she doesn't appear in my searches. And
the other two children need to be found. I did learn that George had served
in WWI. I will be seeking some information on that. And I found an Arthur
in a veteran's home in 1930 who MAY be our Arthur but there is not enough
information to make a positive identification. And Lillian remains elusive
but I do know she was residing in Minn. in 1947 according to her delayed
birth record.
One interesting note: One
of my husband's ancestors married into a line with the surname SPECHT.
(Catherine Spoentgen married a Franz Specht). They came to Wisconsin together
in 1861. Could the man killed with the Hendrickson's be a relations of
my husband's by a weird coincidence? Only time and research will tell.
Below is a transcription
of the news article:
Minneapolis Journal, Front
Page, 9 Jun 1914.
"WRECKED
AUTO; SCENE OF CRASH IN WHICH THREE MEN WERE KILLED
[photo
of crushed car with this caption: Lower picture shows stations at Brookside
after accident causing the death of Charles Hendrickson, Otto Hendrickson
and John Specht, when their auto was struck by a Minnetonka trolly car.]
AUTO
CRASH KILLING THREE INVESTIGATED:
Coroner
Impanels Jury in Case of Accident on Minnetonka Car Line.
Coroner Gilbert Seashore today ordered an inquest in the streetcar accident
at Brookside crossing of the Minnetonka line late yesterday, where an inbound
streetcar from the lake struck an automobile, killing three men. A jury
was sworn in at the morgue and the inquest will begin at 10 a.m. tomorrow.
The coroner, in investigating the case, found that witnesses failed to
agree on conditions at the crossing and he thought a jury should decide
the matter.
The
DEAD:
CHARLES
HENDRICKSON, 48 years old, Brookside.
OTTO
HENDRICKSON, 32 years old, Brookside.
JOHN
SPECHT, 22 years old, Glencoe, Minn.
Going at full speed
Both the wagon road and the street car tracks run through cuts at the Brookside
crossing. Hendrickson, apparently did not see the street car or hear the
whistle, and witnesses declared that the crossing bells were not ringing.
The car was not to stop at the crossing and it was going at full speed
which was estimated by some of the witnesses at from 35 to 50 miles an
hour.
STATION WRECKED
The automobile was hurled into the Brookside waiting station, damaging
the small building and injuring Joseph Lutzi of Brookside who was waiting
for an outgoing car. He was struck by flying boards and pieces of the wrecked
auto.
The curtains of the automobile were down because of the rain and this condition
is believed to have prevented Hendrickson from seeing the car.
Charles Hendrickson is survived by a wife and four children and the other
two men were single."
Minneapolis
Journal, 11 Jun 1914.
"NONE
HELD TO BLAME FOR 3 AUTO DEATHS
Verdict
of Coroner's Jury Following Contradictory Testimony of Witnesses.
A Coroner's Jury which heard evidence today concerning the grade crossing
accident at Brookside on the Minnetonka line Monday when Charles and Otto
Hendrickson of Brookside and John Specht of Glencoe were killed,
returned a verdict declaring that there was no culpable negligence on the
part of anyone concerned and that no one could be blamed for the
accident.
Witnesses, with the exception of two employees of the Minneapolis and St.
Paul Suburban Railway company, agreed that the warning bells at the crossing
were not ringing. Frank P. Hopwood and C. C. Wyman, who crossed the tracks
just before the accident, said that an eastbound car passed while they
were there and that the crossing bells did not ring. C. B. Rees, P. W.
Carbox and John Lutze, who were at the station when the accident occurred,
said the bells did not ring.
Gust Lindberg, conductor of the car that killed the men and S. J. Weland,
motorman of a car that passed a few minutes before, said the bells were
working. Lindberg said they wre ringing when he got off the car after the
accident.
Charles Peterson, motorman, was not called after John Dahl, attorney for
the company, objected on the ground that Peterson might incriminate himself."
