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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IS 4.2 Story of an Emigrant.
As soon as possible I placed reliable men as guards at the
doors to prevent the people from rushing out and crowding
each other off the platform. The train did not reach the
station but had to be stopped 011 the open prairie, where w e
all were helped out of the cars with no accident of any kind
except every particle of baggage, saving only what the
passengers had in their seats with them, was burnt. In due
time another train brought us to Chicago, where the
railroad company immediately offered to pay all losses as soon
as lists of the property destroyed could be made out
and properly verified. I undertook to do all that work
without the aid of consul, lawyer or clerk, collecting nearly
twenty thousand dollars, for old trunks, spinning-wheels,
copper kettles, etc. Having lost nothing myself, I of course
received nothing, and as the Company did not consider it
their duty to pay me for my trouble, one of the emigrants
suggested that they should chip in to compensate me for the
valuable services I had rendered. Accordingly the hat was
passed, the collection realizing the magnificent sum of two
dollars and sixty cents, which was paid me for being
theirin-terpreter during the long journey, and for collecting that large
sum ofmoney without litigation or delay. Nolawyer, consul
or agent would have been satisfied with less than five hundred
dollars, but I can truthfully say that I never raised a word
of complaint, but freely forgaA^e the people on account of
their ignorance. Many of them I also served afterwards on
o
the way to Moline and Minnesota. In due time our partv
arrived in Moline, where my parents bought a small piece
of property with the money brought from Sweden.
Minnesota was then a territory but little known ; }^et we
had heard of its beautiful lakes, forests, prairies and
salubrious climate. Quite a number of our company had
decided to hunt up a place for a Swedish settlement where land
could be had cheap. It was finally agreed that a few of us
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