    
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Administrative
Information
Scope and Content Note
Biographical Information
Lineage
Selected Search Terms
Partial Interview Transcript
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Information
Resources
Robert A. L. Mortvedt Library
Pacific
Lutheran University
Tacoma, WASHINGTON 98447
Phone: (253) 535-7586 E-mail: archives@plu.edu
New Land
New Lives Oral History Collection
Emil Lundbeck
A Guide to His Oral History Interview |
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Administrative
Information
Creator:
Lundbeck, Emil
Collection Nr: t138
File Content:
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3 file folders
5 photographs
1 sound cassette
0 compact discs
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Processing Information:
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The
interview was conducted using a cassette recorder. A research
copy was also prepared from the original. To further preserve
the content of the interview, it is now being transferred
to compact disc. We deliberately did not transcribe the
entire interview because we want the researchers to listen
to the interviewee's own voice. The transcription index
highlights important aspects of the interview and the
tape counter numbers noted on the Partial Interview
Transcription are meant as approximate finding guides
and refer to the location of a subject on the cassette/CD.
Interviewed
by Inger Nygaard Carr
Transcribed by Mary Sue Gee, Julie Peterson and Becky
Husby
Encoded by Kerstin Ringdahl & Amity Smetzler
Recording Quality: Good
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Restrictions:
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The
collection is available for research.
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Preferred Citation:
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[Collection
Number, Collection Title]
New Land New Lives Oral History Collection
Scandinavian Immigrant Experience Collection
Robert A.L. Mortvedt Library
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma,WA 98447
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The
interview was conducted with Emil Lundbeck on February 5, 1982
in Tacoma, Washington. This interview contains information on
personal background, employment, emigration, family, Swedish
organizations, and Swedish heritage. The interview also provides
a newspaper clipping and photographs of Emil's first boat (1929),
Emil salmon fishing (1929-1930), Emil's last boat (1947), and
Emil and his wife Linnea at the time of the interview. The interview
was conducted in English. See also the interviews with Emil
Lundbeck's sister, Nannie Whitman (SPEC T166), and Emil's wife,
Anna Linnea Lundbeck (SPEC T139).
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Emil
Lundbeck was born on October 3, 1904 in Siknäs, Kalix, Sweden.
Emil's father Anders was a shoemaker in the village while his
mother Anna Matilda Jackström was a housewife. The Lundbeck
family, which included twelve children, grew their own food
on their small farm. Emil attended school for four years and
then began working in the woods at age 11. He learned about
the Lutheran church in school and was confirmed at the age of
14. His family enthusiastically took part in the traditional
Christmas festivities that included decorating, baking, and
giving gifts. The "old timers" scared the children with their
troll stories. Emil turned from logging to sailing when he was
17 years old. In 1925, he briefly joined the service. He had
a difficult time finding work, so he decided to move to America
as one brother and one sister had done. Emil had to write to
the King of Sweden to get permission to immigrate to the U.S.
He left aboard the "Stockholm" in 1927 when he was 22 years
old and settled in Tacoma. Emil found work in logging camps
but soon bought his own boat in order to support himself by
fishing. In 1933, Emil moved to San Francisco to find a better
job, but he returned to Seattle shortly thereafter, finding
employment as a longshoreman. The following year, Emil married
Anna Linnea Beck, Linnea to her friends, whom he met at the
Old Swedish Club. They had one son named Floyd in 1936. Emil
suffered a serious accident in 1939 when he was loading steel;
the metal slipped and punctured his heart and scarred his lungs.
He could not work for three years. After mostly recovering,
Emil returned to fishing and had his own boat built in 1947.
In 1952, Emil and Linnea moved to Tacoma after Emil sold his
boat. He bought a share of North Pacific Plywood, where he worked
until he crushed his hand in another debilitating accident.
Emil returned to Sweden once in 1956 and continues to maintain
the language and the traditions in America. His wife cooks traditional
Scandinavian food, and Emil belongs to Valhalla.
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Full Name: |
Emil Lundbeck
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Father: |
Anders Lundbeck
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Mother: |
Anna Lundbeck
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Brothers and Sisters: |
Robert Lundbeck
Nanny Whitman
Petrus Lundbeck
Einar Lundbeck
Mina Öman
Maja Johanson
Nisse Lundbeck
Ruth Agelund
Mina Lundbeck
Gerda Lundbeck
Gust Lundbeck
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Spouse: |
Anna Linnea Lundbeck
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Children: |
Floyd Lundbeck
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This collection is indexed under the following headings
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Personal Names |
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Lundbeck, Emil
Lundbeck, Anders
Whitman, Nannie
Lundbeck, Floyd
Lundbeck, Linnea
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Family Names |
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Lundbeck family
Beck family
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Geographical Names |
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Siknäs (Sweden)
Töre (Sweden)
Tacoma (Wash.)
Seattle (Wash.)
San Francisco (Calif.)
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Subjects |
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Sweden -- Emigration and immigration
Christmas - Sweden
Ocean travel
Valhalla Lodge (Tacoma, Wash.)
Swedish club (Seattle, Wash.)
Church attendance -- Sweden
North Pacific Plywood (Tacoma, Wash.)
Railroad travel
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Occupations |
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Logging -- Sweden
Fishing -- Washington (State)
Farming -- Sweden
Stevedores (Tacoma, Wash.)
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Genre/Form |
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Oral history
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Institution |
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Pacific Lutheran University. Scandinavian Immigrant Experience
Collection
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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.
006 Emil Lundbeck born October 3, 1904 in Siknäs, Kalix, Sweden.
This is in Norrbotten, Sweden. Six Swedish miles from the Finnish
border. Close to Luleå.
026 PARENTS: Anders Lundbeck and Anna Matilda Jackström (?).
Father was a shoemaker in the village. Mother was a housewife.
They had a small farm, 3-4 cows, horse, and some sheep. Grew
their own food. Bought sugar, coffee, some flour. Made barley
flour with barley grown on the farm. Used this for making bread.
050 Spent a week in the fall baking bread. Crisp bread like
flatbröd. Baked in a big oven. This oven was in a special building
called a bakstuga.
064 BROTHERS & SISTERS: Robert was in the U.S. for 10 years.
Did fishing in the U.S. then returned in 1933 and settled on
a farm with his family. Nanny Whitman came to the U.S. in 1923.
She now lives in Port Angeles. Her husband worked for the plywood
plant there. She has 3 boys.
086 Petrus, has a small farm and has done fishing on the Baltic
Sea close to his home. Fished for salmon, sik, made caviar from
this. Einar lives on the homeplace in Sweden. Has 2 boys and
1 girl. Mina, married and worked at a grocery story in Norway.
Never had children.
115 Maja, lives in Dalarna, Sundborn outside Falun. They have
had a grocery store most of their married life. Another sister
died when she was 21. Gerda was another sister. Gustav died
in the service. Nisse lives in Jenten (?), is married with no
children. He is a foreman in a logging operation. Ruth, the
youngest, had 9 children.
132 GRANDPARENTS: Does not remember them on either side. They
passed away before Emil was born. Dad's parents were farmers.
Mother's father was a carpenter in a sawmill.
144 Name Lundbeck does not mean anything particular. Many Lundbecks
in the U.S.
158 CHILDHOOD HOME: A big house for all the children. Not many
rooms. The kitchen was as big as the rest of the house. Slept
in a husrum.
174 ENTERTAINMENT: Children played together. Made their own
toys. Father made balls out of leather from the shoe shop. Stuffed
them with horsehair.
192 SCHOOL: Went to school for 4 years, then went to work in
the woods cutting wood, age 11. Helped on the farm cutting hay.
Emil went with his brother Petrus, age 15, to the woods.
212 Confirmed when he was 14 years old, 1918. Had instruction
for this. Went away from home. Church far away so never went
except at Christmas time.
225 Had places where people gathered and listened to preachers
who passed through town. Lutherans, Baptists, and others. This
was a bönhus.
240 Parents did not go to church all the time but they were
religious people. Went straight from the Bible. Read the Bible
at home.
251 Had religious training at school, 1 hour a day. Learned
right from wrong. Was Lutheran teaching because this was a state
church.
261 CHRISTMAS: Lots of baking, preparation, butchering. Christmas
Eve had packages for each other. They hid the presents until
Christmas Eve when they threw them in the door. Had a Christmas
tree.
276 CHRISTMAS EVE: Food was a little richer than usual. No special
foods. Coffeebread was a treat on Christmas.
293 CHURCH: Big deal on Christmas Day early in the morning.
Everyone came in the sleighs. Some kids skied to church.
313 Heard stories of trolls from the old timers. Scared the
children. Got away from belief in trolls early.
327 Stayed in the woods during the winters from age 11 until
he came to the U.S. doing logging work. In summer he worked
for the government doing different things, sorting timber.
337 Sailing began when he was 17 for 3-4 summers. Had sailing
vessels, sailed to Luleå.
348 1925 went into the service. This was compulsory. Did not
stay long, 6 months. Went up to Boden, 40 miles away from home.
Took basic training. Paid 50 cents a day for this, 5 kronor
every 10 days.
373 Money Emil made when he was a child went to his father and
family. He had some spending money, not much. The children were
expected to work and hand over the money earned to parents.
406 In 1926 he worked for the government. Was getting hard to
find jobs in Sweden. Was preparing to come to the U.S. Brother
and sister were already there.
423 Had to write to the King of Sweden to get permission to
emigrate to U.S. Emil was not sad about leaving Sweden. Was
excited for the adventure.
441 Left Sweden when Emil was 22.5. Left March 1927. Landed
in Tacoma April 3. Went to Stockholm where he received a physical
exam before he headed out.
470 Sailed from Göteborg on the Stockholm, an old boat. Last
trip the Stockholm made as a passenger ship. They sold it to
Japan as a whaler.
479 BOAT TRIP: Not very pleasant. Not much room, food not that
great. Dining room was in the stern of the boat. 200 passengers
on the boat. Some entertainment. Rough seas. Emil tells about
one passenger who lost lots of weight on the trip, sick the
whole way. Landed in Halifax where some people got off, then
they went to N.Y. Trip cost about $325-335.
556 Had to have $30 when you came to America. Did not go through
Ellis Island. 1926 that was closed down. Were checked before
they left Sweden.
574 FIRST IMPRESSIONS: in New York: saw Statue of Liberty, had
heard of this. Could not see much of N.Y. because you went immediately
from the boat to the railway depot.
608 TRAIN: Coal fired train. Hard to communicated because he
did not know the language. Ate lots of fruit. Train was dirty
from the coal. Went right to Tacoma.
659 Met by a friend in Tacoma. Sister was in this area.
SIDE II
010 Stayed with people named Swaleson when he arrived. They
were from the same place he was from in Sweden. The husband
worked at Point Defiance sawmill and got Emil a job the first
week. He made $3.20 a day for 8 hours. Changed to another job
where he made $4.20 for 8 hours.
030 Buying things in the U.S. was much cheaper than in Sweden.
032 Worked at lumber company until July 4th. Brother came up
from California and they worked in the national park (?) together.
Stayed in camps.
039 Bunkhouse burned. Emil lost everything he had. No insurance
to cover this. They moved up to a play house for the summer.
053 Did piling of lumber and loading cars. Made about $6 a day
for 10 hours. There was good food in the camp.
068 1927 started dreaming of having a boat. Bought one the next
spring. He borrowed money from friends to buy this. Cost $4,000.
34 ft. boat.
084 Went fishing for salmon up near Vancouver Island. Sold it
up by the Island. Made pretty good money.
095 DEPRESSION: Nice to have a boat, many people had nothing.
Fish sold for 2 cents a pound for White King and 8 cents a pound
for mulkersham (?), 5 cents a pound for silver. Did fishing
until 1933. Brother went back to Sweden.
110 Emil went to San Francisco looking for work. Did not find
anything so came back to Seattle. Did odd jobs in Seattle area.
113 Got on as a longshoreman. Stored away cargo. Worked for
Pacific Steel.
125 Sold their boat in 1933 for $1,200 during the depression.
129 Longshoring paid about 95 cents an hour in 1934. Longshoreman's
Strike- 1934. This was about wages and conditions. They were
worked to death. Strike lasted for over 3 months. They were
on the picket line everyday.
165 Talks about when he threw the cop off the horse.
179 Worked hard after the strike. They worked night and day.
Gradually changes came about. Greater job security. The union
of workers started as a result of this, CIO Union. Wages gradually
went up.
214 Emil had a bad accident in 1939. When he was loading steel,
something slipped and punctured his heard and scarred his lungs.
Was off work for 3 years. Paid about $125 from his federal insurance.
Was in Providence Hospital in Seattle.
234 Describes what happened in some detail. He recovered quite
well, was well cared for. Was 65% disabled but went back to
work fishing for a few years. In 1947 he had a boat built in
Tacoma.
272 Emil worked with many ethnic groups. All were good workers.
Lots of blacks showed up after the war. Many Seattle people
did not want them there. The blacks were looking for trouble.
299 Married in 1934. Knew his wife form the old country. She
came to Seattle in 1930. They met at the Old Swedish Club. Emil
joined the Swedish Club. Good to be around other Swedes. 1952
moved to Tacoma.
328 Belongs to Valhalla, men's club in Tacoma. Joined to be
amongst Scandinavian people. Still is active. Many old timers
are gone. Younger people are participating. The club is over
90 years old.
359 Learned English by someone talking the language.
361 CITIZENSHIP: 1936 in Seattle. Had to be here 5 years to
become a citizen. Went to night school a few nights a week to
study.
377 Oskar Hall was Emil's partner on the new boat. Emil sold
the boat to him in 1952. Emil was tired of the ocean, he was
always gone.
389 Bought share of North Pacific Plywood. Got work here gluing
veneer together. Got his hand caught in the press, crushed his
hand.
420 Lives on Social Security now and some savings from fishing.
438 Wife's name is Anna Linnea Beck. Married in Seattle at the
Justice of the Peace.
448 Have one son Floyd who works at Puget Sound Plywood Co.
He married Doreen Botten from Camano Island. They have 2 boys,
John and Jeff.
469 CHURCH: Has not been very active. Son and family go to the
Baptist.
475 TRIPS TO SWEDEN: Homeplace had changed, roads. People were
different from when Emil grew up.
512 Homeplace still there, but the house has been torn down
and a new one built. Children talk back to the parents now in
Sweden.
540 Everything is more modern in Sweden. They now have electric
light in the village where Emil grew up. Lots of automobiles
today.
560 Emil's town is now a tourist town. People are attracted
to the sandy beaches. It is right on the Baltic Sea.
586 Swedish language maintained in the home. Emil speaks a few
minutes of Swedish. Emil's son learned Swedish when he was young
and started school.
634 Get together with family members off and on.
644 Wife cooks Scandinavian food. Eat lots of fish. Emil still
likes sportfishing.
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