Personakt Antavla

Jonas Persson Westrum

Blev 84 år.

Far:Per Persson Qvick (1821 - 1852)
Mor:Brita Persdotter (1813 - 1888)

Född:1851-04-16 Tranberg, Alfta (X).
Död:1935-07-27 Sac County, Iowa, USA.John immigrated to the US in 1867. He was a farmer. He married Anna Swanson on October 22, 1876 at the Swedish Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois. They were the parents of Amelia, Wesley, Arthur, Esther, Frank, Frederick, and Mable.

History of Sac County, Iowa - The life history of some men contains enough interesting incidents to make a novel of several hundred pages in length. The history of some men who are living in Sac county would make a very readable romance. Given a small boy of fourteen years, with twenty-five cents in his pocket, with no knowledge of the English language, a total stranger in a strange land, but a boy with a clear brain and sound body, and with such a foundation a good novelist would make a story which would rival "David Copperfield" or "John Halifax," (two masterpieces of English fiction). The life history here presented is that of John Westrom, a native of Sweden and now a retired farmer of Lake View, Iowa.

John Westrom was born April 16, 1851, in Altsochen, Sweden, in the state of Jarrlebordslen. He is the son of Peter and Breta Westrom. Peter Westrom and wife were the parents of four children : Peter, of Lake View, Iowa; Olaf, of Stratford, Iowa; John, whose life history furnishes the theme for this narrative, and Eric, who died at the age of sixteen years. The father of these children died in 1852, leaving his widow with four young children.

John Westrom receixed a meager education in the land of his birth and when fourteen years of age joined a colony of two hundred people of his country, who came to America together, led by Reverend Belman. The second chapter of the interesting history of John Westrom opens when he landed in New York with twenty-five cents in his pocket. His history from that time to the year 1914 has been full of incidents, many of which are thrilling in character. He has arisen from absolute poverty to a place where he is now easily worth seventy-five thousand dollars, and yet some people wonder why America is called the Land of Opportunity.

After landing in New York, John Westrom went with the rest of the colony to Illinois and located first at Galva, in Henry county, that state, where he worked at the tailor's trade for a year. His father had been a tailor and that was the only trade he knew sufficiently well at which he might obtain employment. After working at the tailor's trade for a year he began to work on a farm, and after a year of farm labor he began to work on the railroad. Thrift and economy were his watchwords from the beginning, because the young lad wanted to save enough money as soon as possible to bring his mother to this country with him.

By 1867, only two years after he had landed here with twenty-fixe cents in his pocket, he had saved sufficient money to pay his mother's passage to Illinois. He and his mother then went to Chicago, where he worked for a wholesale grocery concern at No. 41 Wabash avenue, for the next nine years. Before he quit work in Chicago he had come to Sac county and bought eighty acres in Wall Lake township in 1877.

In the spring of 1881 he permanently located on his farm and from that time forward has ranked as one of the prosperous farmers of Sac county. He now owns two hundred and eighty acres in Wall Lake township. The various additions to his land holdings are as follows : His first eighty acres cost him eleven dollars an acre; the second twenty, fifteen dollars an acre; the third one hundred, thirty-one dollars an acre, and his final purchase of fifty acres cost fifty dollars an acre. The two hundred and eighty acres is now easily worth two hundred and twenty-five dollars an acre and is one of the best farms in the state of Iowa today. It is needless to say in this connection that he has been a successful farmer, for his standing today bears witness to the fact.

Mr. Westrom was married in 1876 to Anna C. Swanson, a native of Sweden and a resident of Chicago at the time of their marriage. To this union have been born seven children : Wesley, a farmer of Canada ; Arthur C, who is now on his father's farm; Frank S. a farmer of Canada; Fred S., a farmer and coal operator of Alberta, Canada; Mrs. C. M. Butterfield, of Wetron, Alberta, Canada: Mrs. James Crawford, of Clear Lake, South Dakota, and Mabel, the wife of Rick Keck, of Sandy Point, Texas. Mr. Westrom owns one hundred and sixty acres in Alberta, Canada, and lived there one year.

One of the most interesting chapters of Mr. Westrom's life historv is concerned with his trip to the Klondike region in 1898. This trip of six months contains more exciting experiences than falls to the lot of an ordinary man, and the historian regrets that he cannot do justice to this exciting chapter in the history of Mr. Westrom. He left Sac county in 1898 with five other men, and to this small company were added three more in Oregon. They met disaster before they reached Alaska, being shipwrecked on their way from Oregon and having to put in at Port Townsend for repairs. After reaching Alaska they had a terrible experience in making their way into the headwaters of Copper rier.

They prospected for three hundred and fifty miles and for three mouths slept on the snow every night. At one time they were snowed in with seven feet of snow and for seven days were in a perilous condition on the side of a mountain, not knowing any hour but that the next would be their last. At one time they saw the famous "red snow," which they came across on the top of a mountain. They climbed glaciers, scaled mountains, piled through snow drifts and yet lived to tell the tale. Mr. Westrom returned to Lake View after being gone six months, well satisfied to live the remainder of his days in Lake View, where glaciers come not and raging rivers are never seen. It is interesting to note here that Mr. Westrom has decided that his next vacation will be spent in Texas.

In politics, Mr. Westrom is a Republican, but he has always been content to serve as a private in the ranks of his party, never having been an aspirant for any public office. He and his family are members of the Congregational church and are interested in the increased usefulness of that church in their community. In 1906 Mr. Westrom moved to Lake View, where he purchased a residence, which he has since rebuilt and made it into a comfortable and convenient home. He is now taking life easy and is enjoying the fruits of his many years of hard work. Such is the life history of the poor immigrant boy of fourteen with twenty-five cents in his pocket, but with a heart which has never riuailed (?)and a hand never turned from honest labor.
 

Sambo med Annie Charlotte Swanson (1849 - 1944)


Personhistoria

ÅrtalÅlderHändelse
1851 Födelse 1851-04-16 Tranberg, Alfta (X)
1852 1 år Fadern Per Persson Qvick dör 1852-07-09 Wiströms, Tranberg, Alfta (X)
1863 12 år Brodern Erik Persson dör 1863-06-13 Tranberg, Alfta (X)
1888 36 år Modern Brita Persdotter dör 1888-01-07 Wall Lake, Sac County, Iowa, USA
1923 72 år Brodern Per Persson Westrum dör 1923-04-16 Wall Lake, Sac County, Iowa, USA
1926 74 år Brodern Olof Persson Westrum dör 1926-03-12 Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa, USA
1935 84 år Död 1935-07-27 Sac County, Iowa, USA