The
partial interview transcription highlights important aspects
of the interview. Numbers on the left may be used as guides
to important subjects. Two numbers separated by a slash indicate
that the first number is for cassette and the second for CD.
005/01 FAMILY BACKGROUND: Hildur Anna Maria Larson, born February
12, 1896 in Edsdalen, Sweden close to the Norwegian border in
the south.
042 Mother's name was Matilda Bryntesdotter and father was Johan
August Magnusson. He was a farmer; Mother wasn't so well, and
she was in the house and did weaving--fabric for clothes. They
raised their own flax for linen. Mother would work with the
fibers spinning a linen thread and then weaving cloth, sheets,
pillow cases--all that. Hildur still has some of these items.
083 There were five children in the family but one sister died
three hours after Mother. Oldest was Hedvig Kristina, then Hilmer
Mauritz, Hildur, Hilda Olivia and Helga Elisabeth who died.
109/02 The paternal grandmother lived nearby in a little house
and Hilda, the younger sister, stayed with her after school.
The youngest sister and brother were with her when she died
in 1912 or 1913. These grandparents were farmers.
Morfar [the maternal grandfather] was married a second time
and had a bigger farm with trees and fruit. They lived a little
ways from Hildur but visited often. During one visit when she
was 10 years old in 1906, there was an earthquake. They could
feel the house move. She remembers where she stood and how she
hung on. The church, Edskyrka, was cracked by the earthquake.
159 Farfar [paternal grandfather] died long ago; farmor [paternal
grandmother] had to raise four young children [two boys and
two girls] by herself. "I loved her. She was the best", because
she helped raise Hildur's family also. Hildur's father's name
was Magnus Johansson, and his father was Johannes Magnusson.
By Hildur's time, the girls took the father's last name, Johansson,
not Magnusdotter.
199/03 EMIGRATION: Hildur emigrated alone in 1927 coming from
Stockholm on the Stavangerfjord to New York. She was seasick
for most of the trip, but kept a log in Norwegian. "S. S. Stavangerfjord.
Utdrag av logbok, Reise Nummer 78. Fra Oslo via Stavanger, Bergen,
Halifax til New York, 1927, og skipet gikk den 13. september
ankom New York den 22. September". The trip took nine days and
six hours.
245 One American citizen on the boat was let off the first day,
and the emigrants followed the next day with no problems. The
customs people asked the same questions the officials had in
Stockholm. Hildur was going to her "mannlig venn" [fiance, boyfriend].
But she couldn't say that; only married women could do that.
Whatever she told those officials, she repeated it to the American
customs people: "Because they told me there, they won't let
me go until he comes and picks me up". Hildur felt that if he
didn't pick her up that would be fine; she could always go back
to Sweden. Her cabin mate had a room in Brooklyn and Hildur
could have stayed there until her boyfriend picked her up. But
it wasn't necessary; she just got on the train in New York for
Seattle.
290/04 In preparation for the trip Hildur got her passport marked
valuables like silver. Unless silver was monogrammed, you had
to pay duty on it. There was a traveler's aid on the train who
knew Scandinavian and watched out for the girls, "so no one
would come kidnap us. Lots of girls there. And some of them
were real dumb too; they went out in the city". Hildur was older
[31], knew better, and could take care of herself.
328 Hildur wanted to say good-by to her entire family in Dals
Län, her sister in Stockholm and the brother in Fredriksberg.
After that, the train continued to Oslo where she boarded the
Stavangerfjord. In Oslo, she had two aunts [father's sisters].
She had stayed and taken care of one of the aunts with arthritis
for eight and a half years. The other aunt had lived in New
York for 19 years before coming home to take care of the arthritic
sister. Both were in Oslo when Hildur emigrated. She stayed
with them a few days. Her boyfriend had sent the ticket.
356/05 MEETING HUSBAND IN NORWAY: Hildur met her husband in
Oslo when she worked with her aunt. One day in 1922-3, Hildur,
her sister, and her friend were eating ice cream, listening
to music and having a good time at an outdoor cafe in Oslo.
Three fellows wanted to share the table. The girlfriend had
gone to school with them, so she introduced the fellows and
"assured them there was plenty of room for three more".
He was in the last month of business school in Oslo. Then he
returned home to Strand looking for work. Not many jobs were
available, so he stayed one year with a brother and helped build
his house. Came back to Oslo for a two week vacation and stayed
at Hildur's aunt's place while he looked for work. Not finding
any, he finally went home saying "I'll go to America". Hildur
said "Go ahead. But I didn't think he meant it". They continued
to correspond, and he left for America from Bergen.
409 She felt sad when she left Oslo. Hildur's sister had come
to Oslo to care for the two aunts. So she and the aunt [who
lived in America] accompanied her to the boat, said good-bye,
and waved. "I waved back, and there I was. I'd been saying good-bye
all along from Stockholm, but that was the worst".
422 She didn't stay overnight in New York but got right on the
train. The traveler's aid [a man] took Hildur out to a restaurant.
After she ate, she had sandwiches made up for herself and some
friends on the train and bought some fruit, postcards in Norwegian,
and stamps. This was in St. Paul or some place between New York
and Seattle. She also sent a telegram to her boyfriend in Hoquiam
stating that she'd arrive a certain day, and he was to meet
her. She got up early that day, got dressed, and had breakfast.
When she looked up and out the window, they were in Seattle
and "I saw him walking" with another boy whose brothers were
on the same train.
466/06 "When I saw him, I run out of the train, of course. And
the porter, he come after me to see what happened". The porter
was a tall, Negro man and she hadn't seen black people before.
Hildur was wearing a brown suit and lost a button when she hopped
off the train, but took time to pick it up before she met him.
Then he and the other boy came on board.
MARRIAGE IN AMERICA: The traveler's aid said they had to notify
him within 24 hours that they were married. So they continued
on the train to Hoquiam. On September 30, 1927, they went to
a Swedish pastor [Hilen ?] in Aberdeen, and he performed the
ceremony in Swedish, and "I cried". They had their golden wedding
two years ago. The pastor's daughter played the organ at the
wedding, and they had coffee after with the witnesses. This
girl's fiance lived in Stockholm and she was going there to
marry him.
SETTLING IN: Her husband could speak English. He had lived up
in the woods at first, as did most of the Norwegians. These
were hard times, and he got work for awhile at the sawmill.
In 1930, the first child, Judith was born. They moved to Tacoma
on New Year's Eve in 1933. There was a bad flood in Hoquiam;
motorboats were in the streets and could tie up to the tops
of tents. Someone drove them up here leaving most of the furniture
behind. They lived on Ainsworth at first because husband had
a cousin across the street. After that they had a little house
where Edgar was born in 1935.
551/07 To do the shopping in Tacoma, Hildur pointed. In Hoquiam
there were so many Norwegians, Swedes, and Swedish-Finns--something
she'd never heard of before. There were all kinds of stores
where Swedish was spoken, so she had very little problems there
with the language.
564 Her wedding dress was black silk with a pleated white silk
front which she brought with her. She didn't bring any heavy
clothes, including a good wool coat, because they said she didn't
need any. "I about froze the first winter". She bought a big
trunk in Oslo, packed it and traveled with it across the world.
Still has the trunk.
585 There was so much rain in Hoquiam; she didn't like that
nearly as well as Tacoma. Tacoma was a larger city, which was
familiar to her and reminded her of Oslo and Stockholm. Swedish
friends [Mrs. Atterberg?] from Tacoma visited her in Hoquiam.
And Hildur took the bus between Tacoma and Seattle to visit
her friends. Once when her husband was out of town, she and
the children traveled and stayed in Seattle with a friend.
620/08 Her husband became a citizen around 1941-2. He worked
up in the woods until the fall of 1939 until the strike hit.
Then he began work in Tacoma. She never became a citizen because
she didn't plan to stay. She made plans with a friend to take
English at Jason Lee School, but then Edgar came and she didn't
have the time. But her friend did. She and her husband were
editors of the Western Viking. Hildur wrote some poems for the
paper; some in Swedish and some in English.
660 Hildur hadn't learned much about America from her aunt in
Oslo, because Hildur was in Stockholm when this aunt was in
New York. The aunt had wanted Hildur to come to New York many
times and years ago starting when Hildur was 12. Before Hildur
went to Oslo, she worked two years in a hospital in Stockholm
as she wanted to be a nurse. But she was too young to start
training. Then she changed her mind and just worked there [Ebenezer
? Hospital], and loved it. Sister Sofia, the head deaconess,
had a nephew in New York. While visiting him, she had been invited
to Hildur's aunt's house [Martin and Maria Lauritson ?] in Brooklyn.
"The world was small".
709/09 When Judith started school, Hildur decided to stay in
the United States. "You find out by and by that things don't
go the way you think".
SIDE II
057/10 Hildur and husband spoke Norwegian in the home, so Judith
spoke it very well when she began grammar school at Stanley.
When they moved, the children attended Jefferson.
095 CHURCH AND ORGANIZATIONS: Belonged to the Norwegian Lutheran
Church--Emmanuel--on Stevens. Then they moved to 16th and K
to a better house and to be closer to the bus and her husband's
work at General Hardwood. The children started Sunday School
in Our Saviors on G St. Then they transferred to Central Lutheran
by Stadium. On their golden anniversary they received a telegram
from President Carter and his wife.
162/11 Her husband belonged to the Sons of Norway; she joined
too, but didn't go very often because of the children. She belonged
to the Ladies Aid in church. She could speak Scandinavian with
friends on K St. She didn't want to learn English, so she read
mainly books and magazines from Sweden. A magazine salesman
came to the house one day, and she explained why she didn't
read any English magazines. He replied "How do you expect to
learn if you don't try? I got so angry I started to learn--just
started to read". She learned by reading children's books and
then reading them out loud to her children. She still receives
and reads the Svenska Journalen but it takes so long to reach
America nowdays.
218 Hildur never returned to Sweden for a visit but her son,
Edgar, has. He visited his father's family in Norway. His wife,
Betty, has a Swedish background, so they also visited her family
in Jamtlands lan. Betty and Hildur speak Swedish to one another
and the children.
245/12 TRADITIONS: They didn't have nissen in Sweden. "When
you got something, you know where you got it from and you said
thank you many times". They had a juletre with candles [levande
ljus]. The first tree in Hoquiam was decorated with white cotton,
tinsel, and candles and there were three silk flags on top--Norwegian,
Swedish, and American. Hildur made sylte and rullepoelse herself.
But lutefisk was the Christmas Eve meal with risengrynsgroet
for dessert. Hildur didn't care for lutefisk, but made it for
the others.
322/13 MEDICAL CARE: The first baby was born at home with a
doctor's help. She had a friend stay with her, and another one
and her husband were godparents for Judith.
344 HILDUR'S POETRY: Hildur has written poetry for many years
and for various occasions. Some poems have been published in
the Tacoma News Tribune and the Western Viking.
355 The first one is in English and was written on August 19,
1956.
367 The next is in Norwegian and was written in May 1945 in
honor of Judith's confirmation.
411/14 A Norwegian poem about autumn was written in October
1937.
438 One about a chestnut tree was published in the TNT on July
23, 1955.
462 "Min far" was written in honor of her father when a friend
requested a poem for the newspaper for Father's Day. Hildur's
mother died when she was six, so Father and Grandmother raised
them until she was eleven years old. Then, her father died.
516/15 Many family members like to write poetry. Hildur finishes
the interview by reading another poem in Swedish based on Isaiah
1:8-10.
549 End of tape.
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