Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - III. The Arrival of my Father and Brother—Journey to Illinois—Work on a Railroad—The Ague—Doctor Ober—Religious Impressions—The Arrival of my Mother, Sister and her Husband—A Burning Railroad Train—We go to Minnesota—Our Experience as Wood Choppers and Pioneers
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4.2
4.2 Story of an Emigrant.
the nucleus of the First Swedish Baptist Church of America,
I became a member of their society before spring and would
probably have continued a member of this denomination, if
circumstances which were beyond my control, had not
brought me to other fields of action and other surroundings.
This winter passed in a very pleasant manner. In the
afternoon I attended an English school, and in the evening I
gave instructions in English to other young men and women.
The friendship of Dr. Ober and his wife never failed, and
many years afterwards I was a welcome guest at their home
in La Crosse, Wis., to which place they had moved from
Moline. Both of them now slumber under the sod, but their
many good deeds shall live for ever.
M y father was much pleased with the great west, and he
wrote back to the rest of our family in Sweden to come to
this country the next summer, and in May I started to meet
t lem in Boston. As there were no railroads to Moline, I took
a steamboat to Galena, and thence the stage-coach to
Free-port, and from there to Chicago by rail.
The vessel carrying my mother and the party with her
was three monthsonthe ocean, and there was great scarcity
of provisions on board. The ship at last arrived, in the
month of Jul v, and a couple of days later the whole party,
consisting of about two hundred, took the train for the west,
1 volunteering as their guide and interpreter. All went well
until about one hundred miles east of Chicago, when the
baggage car attached to our train in front caught fire.
It was thought best to try to reach a station, and the
burning train sped on at the rate of sixty miles an hour.
The scene was a frightful one, the cars crammed full of
frightened emigrants, the flames hissing like serpents from
car to car, windows cracking, people screaming, and women
fainting, all at the same time looking to me, who was not
yet twenty years of age, for protection and deliverance.
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