Ninth Generation

72. Reverend Johan Edwin SAHLEN was born on 7 April 1872 in Krokstorp, Hössna, Älvsborg län (Väster Götaland), Sweden.³⁵ He died on 18 January 1946 at the age of 73 in Texas. Edwin left a six-page autobiography. He was born a farmer's son. His notes mention that his father's forebears had been farmers for generations, his grandfather on his mother's side was a contractor who built churches, and his grandmother's family were a line of priests and preachers. He had a teacher named Sahlen who tried to convince Edwin's father to let him attend high school, but his father refused and intended to raise his sons as farmers. Edwin later took the name, Sahlen, in honor of this teacher, when he found Rockford, IL, too filled with Johnsons, Petersons, Nelsons, and Larsons.

Edwin mentioned that at age 17 he got "America Fever." A friend loaned him money to pay for the passage. He emigrated from Sweden to the U.S., leaving Krokstorp on May 9, 1890. He arrived in New York on 30 May 1890 and took a train to Rockford, Illinois, arriving 2 June 1890. He settled initially in Rockford, Illinois, renting a room from the Bjornbergs who were also from Hossna. Through a friend he found work in a furniture factory for 75 cents a day.

On the Swedish emigration list and in Swedish Church records, he is called Johan Edvin Johansson. He emigrated with Rebecka Sofia Johansdotter, born December 24, 1862, in Timmele, who was also living at Krokstorp; and two children: Sven Oskar Björnberg born September 9, 1884, in Hössna, and Ebba Lovisa Björnberg, born September 2, 1888, in Hössna, both of whom were also living at Krokstorp and are listed on the same page of the Household Examination book AI:11, p. 30, with Johan Johansson's family. Johan Wilhelm Björnberg had moved to Krokstorp, where he became a quarter owner, on November 3, 1883, and died February 15, 1888. He and Rebecka married September 6, 1884. Had the Björnberg parents emigrated at an earlier date, and were Rebecka and her children going to America to live with relatives? Or were their children adopted by the Bjornbergs in Rockford? Anna-Lena said Gustaf Björnberg born 29 October 1878 and married Selma Justina Svantesdotter b. 20 June 1858 in Timmele and emigrated 22 March 1889 from Björstorp, a few months before Edwin. They settled in Rockford and had a foster daughter Elsa Maria b. 15 September 1891 in Hallefors. (The only Sven Bjornberg I can find was born in 1871 and arrived in New York from Gothenberg on the Bothnia in 1893. The only other Bjornbergs I can find are Sofia Bjornberg, 57 in the 1920 Census, and her daughter, Ebba L, 29, living in Rockford, Winnebago Co., IL. These almost match with Sofia Johansdotter (name probably changed to Johnson or her husband's name) and Ebba Lovisa above. In 1920, Sofia and Ebba were living at 174 4th Avenue with the Oscar and Alma Johnson family, their three daughters, and Axel Beck, who was a boarder there. Ebba was a stenographer. No employment is mentioned for Sofia.)

It appears that Edvin took Rebecka and the children to Rockford, IL, where there was a Gustav Bjornberg living.

After his family emigrated to Pontiac, R.I. in 1891, he joined them at their insistence. His notes say he lived there 11 years, working mostly in the cotton mills and on a truck farm. In Rockford, he was brought to Christ. Back in Rhode Island, he felt an inner calling to prepare for the ministry.

He returned to Illinois in 1893 and entered the Swedish Theological Seminary in Evanston. Edwin didn't complete the course of study due to poor health and at the invitation of a student friend went to Texas where the winters were milder.. He went into the ministry and served first in Waco, Texas, in 1904, then El Campo, Texas, then Swede Plain, Neb., 1909-1912, then Ong and Shickley, Kansas, 1912-16, then Scandia and Wayne, Kansas, 1916-19. From 1919 to 1924 he was district superintendent of the Western district and served as pastor in Lincoln, Nebraska. He later returned to Texas, where his wife's family lived, and went into partnership with his wife's father in the Gustafson Lumber Company in Crosby, Texas, from 1928 to 1934. He built a 4-unit apartment, a feed store, and a chicken house. By 1944 he had retired for good.

In the 1920 Census, the family is listed as living at 620 18th Street, Lancaster, Nebraska. Edwin was listed as a minister.

In the 1930 Census, he is listed as living in Precinct 3, Harris, Texas, with his wife and children. According to the Census record, he arrived in the United States in 1890, married when he was 32 years old, and is listed as a proprietor.

His grandson, Richard C. Sahlen, said that his father told him Johan Edwin changed his name to Sahlen because he was tired of getting his mail mixed up with other Johnsons or Johnssons in Rockford, IL. Also, he supposedly came to America to avoid serving in the Swedish army.

I (Dick Sahlen) don't have many clues to Edwin Sahlen's personality. I do recall my father indicating that he was very strict and discipline was handled with a length of heavy electrical wire across the backside. However, Rev. Sahlen could supposedly be very emotionally drained after conducting funerals. My dad (Carl) indicated that by the time he was 14, his father would drag him along to funerals so that my dad would be available to drive Edwin home in their Ford Model T. When my father started school, Edwin announced that the family would begin speaking English in their home, although he would continue to serve his parishioners in Swedish. I think you also made some reference to some ancestors have been lumbermen. My dad did tell me that my grandfather would, at times take work in a sawmill to supplement his earnings as a pastor.

I have a letter that my Aunt Alice wrote in March, 1980 to my mother, that provides a few more insights:
"Noreen, you will never understand, just how much I appreciated, not only your letter, but the enclosure of something I have wanted to know -- since I was 14 years old, when we left Stromsburg, Nebr. Harper, the girls and my friends, since I married Harper, have not been able to understand, when I have said, "The first 19 years of my life are but a dream." Why? Because all the friends I learned to know as Preacher's Kids and almost 9; I have never had any contact with or known, who the girls married, or anything. So your letter brought me the names of people with whom both Carl and I enjoyed in our early teens. Our stay in Stromsburg was some different than the other 8 places, since we weren't the Preacher's Kids of that town; because Papa (Edwin) was a District Superintendent of the Swedish Methodist Church and didn't have a pastorate. Carl and I were with mostly the same group of friends of that little town and this list of his Class of '24 will give me a chance to catch up with a portion of my life." Source: Dick Sahlen, e-mail, 17 Oct 2009.

Dick Sahlen previously found a couple of reference to my grandfather and grandmother in SWEDISH CHURCHES IN AMERICA and here is an excerpt:

Swedish Methodist Church, El Campo, Texas:

. . . of the large group, only El Campo remains. Here a congregation was founded by six people on May 8, 1892, land was secured in the town and a church and parsonage was built in 1894. The parsonage was remodeled and enlarged in 1906 during Pastor Edwin Sahlen?s tenure. The church was badly damaged in a storm which hit the area in 1909, but was repaired and improved soon thereafter. The property is worth $5,000.

This congregation has probably more than any other in the conference been hindered in its growth and development by its members constantly moving away from the area. The membership is currently around fifty, and an equal number in the Sunday school. Twenty five belong to the Youth Organization, and two women?s societies work for home and foreign missionary work. The following pastors have served this church: John Ovall, Nov. 1891-Dec. 1894; J. F. Sarner, Dec. 1894-Dec. 1897; Aug. Wallin, Dec. 1897-Dec. 1900; Nels Nelson, Dec. 1900 to his death a few months later; C. J. Rosenquist, June 1902- Sept. 1903; F. A. Lundberg during the summer of 1904; Edwin Sahlen, Sept. 1904-Sept. 1909; Carl Fromen, Jan. 1910-May 1917; at this time E. J. Anderson took charge of the congregation.

From the original Victoria circle, two young men served for a short time within the church after having completed their training at the Seminary in Evanston, 111. These were C. E. Wohlander who died during his time in Hutto, and C. J. Rosenquist, who is the pastor of the Lutheran Congregation in the same town. (C. J. Rosenquist was Edwin's friend at the Swedish Theological Seminary who suggested to Edwin to move to Texas.)

References: Born 1872-04-07 in Krokstorp, Hössna (P).
Moved 1890-05-09 from Krokstorp, Hössna (P) to Norra Amerika.
Se Krokstorp: Hössna AI:10 (1870-1878) Bild 32 / sid 27 (AID: v43934.b32.s27, NAD:
SE/GLA/13256)
Se Krokstorp: Hössna AI:11 (1878-1891) Bild 34 / sid 30 (AID: v43935.b34.s30, NAD:
SE/GLA/13256)
Flagga: Emigrant.

Reverend Johan Edwin SAHLEN and Anna C. GUSTAFSON were married on 27 December 1905 in Texas. Anna C. GUSTAFSON, daughter of Carl August GUSTAFSON and Mathilda CARLSON, was born on 22 May 1883 in Bohus, Sweden. She died on 14 February 1956 at the age of 72 in Texas. According to the 1930 Census, she came to the United States in 1889 and was not naturalized as of 1930. She married when she was 20 years old.

I (Dick Sahlen) also have few clues about my grandmother Anna Sahlen's personality. I know that in a good natured way, my mother was not popular with her sisters-in-law because she was Anna's favorite, even though the others live closer, saw her more often, and did more for her. My mother seemed to take it as a personal challenge to find some way to establish good rapport with someone that others found "difficult to warm up to". As a kid, I saw my mother work her magic on a grouchy old guy who ran little refreshment shack along the community golf course in Evanston. No one could stand the guy, and yet my mother gradually got him to the point where he would greet her with a smile and save her the best of the "lost balls" that he had recovered and sold from his little shack. Back to my the relationship between my grandmother and mother -- my grandmother even confided to my mother that she had begged Edwin to drive to another town to buy contraceptives and he refused to do say, believing that it would be totally improper for a preacher to do so, since children were a gift from God. (I guess the Methodists weren't exactly in the liberal wing of the Protestant Church at that point in time.) Dick Sahlen, e-mail, 17 Oct 2009.

Reverend Johan Edwin SAHLEN and Anna C. GUSTAFSON had the following children: