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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Stoky of an Emigrant.
and my father got them the second day. The lower part of
the shanty in which we boarded was used for dining-room
and kitchen, the upper for sleeping on the floor. The shanty
was as shaky as the ague, which came regularly every other
day. Fate had so arranged it that seventeen of us had the
chills one day, and seventeen the next day. Hoffman and
his wife fortunately also had the chills alternate days, so
that there was always one to attend to the cooking.
Some may doubt it, but it is a solemn fact, that when
seventeen ate dinner below, the shaking of those upstairs
sometimes shook the house until we could hear the plates
rattling on the table.
During my healthy da}’s I stood on the bottom of Rock
River from seven o’clock in the morning until seven at night,
throwing wet sand with a shovel onto a platform above,
from which it was again thrown to another, and from there
to terra firma. The most disagreeable part of the business
was that one-quarter of each shovcl-full came back 011 the
head of the operator.
After a coule of weeks the company’s paymaster came
along, and upon settling my board bill and deducting for the
shaking days, I made the discovery that I was able to earn
only fifteen ecnts net per week in building railroad bridges.
Being half dead bv this time from ’over work and sickness,
we decided to see if we could strike an easier job, and, if
possible, a better climate. We happened to meet a farmer by
the name of Peterson, with whom we rode to a place near
Moline, where my father tended to me during my illness.
When he was not occupied with this lie chopped cord wood
from dry old trees. I also tried to assist him in this, but
found my strength gone.
Among the Swedes living in Moline at that time was a
ailor, Johnson by name, a good kind-hearted man who,
together with his wife, was always readv to aid his needy
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