Nummer 2. Rhodin, Anders G.J. and Färdig, Diane Budd. 2015. Branterud
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1 Branterud The Färdig Family History and Homestead on Lake Råvarpen, Tisselskog, Dalsland, Sweden, with Emigration to America Anders G.J. Rhodin and Diane Budd Färdig Chelonian Research Foundation Svenska Publikationer, No. 2 2 CHELONIAN RESEARCH FOUNDATION SVENSKA PUBLIKATIONER, NO. 2 ISBN 978-0-9910368-2-0 Bibliographic Citation: RHODIN, ANDERS G.J. AND FÄRDIG, DIANE BUDD. 2015. Branterud: The Färdig Family History and Homestead on Lake Råvarpen, Tisselskog, Dalsland, Sweden, with Emigration to America. [Branterud: Färdig Familjehistorien och Hemmanet vid Råvarpen, Tisselskog, Dalsland, Sverige, med Utvan- dring till Amerika]. Buterud, Dalsland: Chelonian Research Foundation, Svenska Publikationer, No. 2, 147 pp. Cover Illustrations: Front Cover: Branterud farm homestead, Ramdalen, Tisselskog, Dalsland, Sweden, in 1929 —main house and large barn—childhood home of Anders [Andrew] and Olof Gustafsson Färdig. Oil painting by Hjalmar Henrikz. Back Cover (upper): Twin brothers Anders [Andrew] Gustafsson Färdig (left), and Olof Gustafsson Färdig [Ferdig] (right), ca. 1889–1890, in Sweden. Back Cover (lower): Branterud farm in 2012—deserted and overgrown— foundation stones from the large barn in the foreground, collapsed hearth and natural stone chimneystack of the main house in the background, spruce plantation filling the old farmyard. Photo by Anders Rhodin. 1 2 The Branterud farm homestead, established 1822–1833 by Magnus Pettersson Färdig, on a long and narrow peninsula in Lake Råvarpen, Ramdalen, Tisselskog Parish, Bengtsfors Commune, Dalsland, Västra Götaland, Sweden. This was the Färdig, Magnusson, and Gustafsson subsistence farm for three generations until it was deserted in 1928 and torn down in 1947. Oil painting by Hjalmar Henrikz in 1929, courtesy of Rune Hegge. Hemmanet Branterud Gård, grundad 1822–1833 av Magnus Pettersson Färdig, på ett långt och smalt näs i sjön Råvarpen, Ramdalen, Tisselskog Socken, Bengtsfors Kommun, Dalsland, Västra Götaland, Sverige. Detta var familjernas Färdig, Magnusson, och Gustafssons självförsörjningsjordbruk i tre generationer tills den blev öde 1928 and rivdes ner 1947. Oljemålning av Hjalmar Henrikz 1929, genom tillmötesgående av Rune Hegge. 3 Branterud: The Färdig Family History and Homestead on Lake Råvarpen, Tisselskog, Dalsland, Sweden, with Emigration to America Branterud: Färdig Familjehistorien och Hemmanet vid Råvarpen, Tisselskog, Dalsland, Sverige, med Utvandring till Amerika Anders G.J. Rhodin and Diane Budd Färdig Chelonian Research Foundation Svenska Publikationer, No. 2 Buterud, Dalsland 2015 4 Publisher Anders G.J. Rhodin Strömsberg Buterud, 46491 Dals Rostock, Sweden; 168 Goodrich Street, Lunenburg, MA 01462 USA; 564 Chittenden Drive, Arlington, VT 05250 USA Published and Copyright © 2015 by Chelonian Research Foundation, Svenska Publikationer Buterud, Dalsland, Sweden Printed by MTC Printing, Leominster, MA, USA The book can be ordered from Chelonian Research Foundation (www.chelonian.org/svp) or Anders Rhodin ([email protected]) or Diane Budd Färdig ([email protected]) CHELONIAN RESEARCH FOUNDATION, SVENSKA PUBLIKATIONER, NO. 2 ISBN 978-0-9910368-2-0 5 Contents Preface ................................................................................................ 7 Acknowledgments.............................................................................. 10 Branterud and its People .................................................................. 12 Introduction ................................................................................... 12 Färdig Family Origins .................................................................. 13 Magnus Färdig Establishes Branterud ......................................... 27 Gustaf Magnusson in Charge at Branterud .................................. 43 Economic Hardship and Emigration to America .......................... 51 Sadness from Sweden .................................................................... 60 Letters from Home, 1916 .............................................................. 62 Final News from Home, 1928 ....................................................... 68 Branterud’s Next Life ....................................................................... 77 Appendices ........................................................................................ 85 1. Borga Laga Skifte Handlingar, 1855–1860 (Legal Land Redistribution) ............................................... 85 2. Magnus Färdig’s Boupptäckning, 1858 (Estate Inventory; Probate) ............................................... 123 3. Färdig Family Genealogy ....................................................... 136 Sources ............................................................................................ 145 Authors ............................................................................................ 147 6 Dalslands Kanal Dalslands Kanal Dalslands Kanal Map from 1897 showing the location of the Branterud farm homestead on the narrow peninsula in the middle of Lake Råvarpen along Dalslands Kanal, with Tisselskog to the north, Ramdalen to the west, and Buterud to the south. 7 Preface This is the history of a small 19th century subsistence farm and its people at Branterud in Tisselskog in rural Dalsland, Sweden. It chronicles the origins and fates of the Färdig family from the late 1700s through the present, documenting the hardships of the times and their struggle for success and survival. The story traces the family origins in Ånimskog and follows the deployment of Magnus Pettersson Färdig as a tenement soldier to Stora Liane, Skållerud, in 1822, and then his establishment between 1822 and 1833 of a small subsistence homestead at Branterud on Lake Råvarpen in Tisselskog, where the family moved in 1849 and lived and struggled for three generations until 1928, with several family members emigrating to America to seek a better life. Ownership of the homestead passed from Magnus Pettersson Färdig to one of his sons, Gustaf Magnusson, in 1858, and eventual- ly to one of Gustaf’s sons, Olof Gustafsson Färdig, in 1914, before gradually falling into decline and ultimately deserted upon Olof’s death in 1928. The farm and its surrounding cultural landscape then lay deserted, partially isolated, and largely unchanged until the early 21st century. The farm and its hardships shaped the family destiny, leading four of Gustaf’s sons—Martin, Emanuel, Anders, and Olof—to emigrate to America in search of a better life, beginning in the late 1800s. The twin sons Anders and Olof, born in 1874, emigrated separately. Anders headed out in 1896, working first in the timber industry in Wisconsin, changing his name to Andrew, and then settled and married in Chicago, working as a pattern-maker and foreman. Olof followed his twin to America later, in 1902 via Canada, but ended up in Washington with his older brother Emanuel, where he worked as a carpenter. Both Andrew and Olof became naturalized American citizens, and Andrew never returned to Sweden, becoming a well-respected 8 community and church leader and the patriarch of a large and suc- cessful Färdig family in the USA with many descendants. Olof, on the other hand, was forced by his brothers in America to return to Sweden in 1914 when their father Gustaf and younger sister Nanny both died suddenly, and the Branterud farm and their mother and developmentally delayed younger brother Karl needed a caretaker. Olof returned to Sweden in poor health and with some apparent resentment, as noted in family letters from the time, with no interest in carrying on as a subsistence farmer. Instead, he allowed the farm to gradually deteriorate and fail over the ensuing 14 years, becoming destitute and in increasingly poor health, and died in 1928, only 54 years, having gradually sold off all the farm animals and most of the farm equipment in order to raise some meager subsistence income. After Olof’s death the homestead passed out of the family’s own- ership and became abandoned, with various subsequent owners using the isolated land in a limited way. Over the 80 years from 1928 to 2008 the old fields lay fallow and untouched, except for some limited haying by a neighbor between 1928 and 1947 and spruce plantings on the old agricultural fields in 1947, when the old crumbling tim- ber houses were also dismantled and sold as firewood. Some timber harvesting in the woodlands on the property occurred in the 1970s, but no disturbance of the old farmstead and its agricultural fields. As such, the farmlands and homestead have remained untouched and unchanged since approximately 1900—a culturally important 115 year-old surviving agricultural landscape from the mid- to late 1800s. The story of Branterud as chronicled here has emerged only recently, after Anders Rhodin purchased the property in 2008 and began researching the history of its prior inhabitants and the farm itself. This research received major inspiration and impetus from the discovery in 2009 of an old oil painting from 1929 depicting the farm in the more open landscape of the time. Through internet research by Anders about the Färdig family in the USA, fortuitous connections were made with Diane Budd Färdig via ancestry.com and we began exchanging information about the family and farm. Diane has provided most of the original family materials, including old letters and photographs, as well as having written much of the ensuing story. Anders has complemented with Swedish materials and added substantially to the text, as well as providing