Elna Sjunesdotter 1839-1894 and Johan Jansen Ahlin 1827-1908 later known as Eleanor Johnson and John Allen

Elna Sjunesdatter 1839-1894 and

Johan Jansen Ahlin  1827-1908 

We don’t know much about Johan Jansen Ahlin as he didn’t write about himself and we haven’t been able to find anything written by his children.  But we do know a few things from historical documents and from the orally transmitted memories of his granddaughter, Myrth Allen Hassell.

 He was born in 1827 in Simtuna Parish, Vastmanland, Sweden and in his early years he lived on his maternal grandfather’s farm, Eknäsbo, according to the Husförslängd (farm census). Eknäsbo was and still is in the town of Simtuna.

“Bo” is Swedish for estate or property, and the farms of Eknasbo and Markusbo, the latter where his father grew up, are still productive farms that stand next to each other on a country road in Simtuna.

When he was 5 he lived with his parents on Borstbo, also in Simtuna and when he was 15 he lived on Phersbo/Säfva in Altuna

 When he was 33 he was living on Sjöbo/Fröstuna  (There’s a town called Sjöbo, the researcher notes “Altuna, Sjöbo is part of Frostuna”, but there is also a farm called Sjöbo about 4 km north of Eknäsbo as the crow flies so the exact location is ambiguous.)

 When he was 34 he was working as a crofter (tenant farmer) “at Sjöbo” and he married his first wife, Sara Christina Pehrsdotter in Altuna.  The record says "commune" which often indicates that the marriage was performed at home.  The year was 1861.  It was her second marriage.

 He was still living at “Altuna, Sjöbo/ Fröstuna”, along with his parents, when he, his wife and his parents were baptized in 1861 (5 months after his wedding) and also when they all emigrated when he was 36 years old, in 1863.

They traveled on the ship John J. Boyd which arrived in New York on May 29, 1863.  They are listed on the passenger list of that ship which sailed from Liverpool on April 30, 1863.  No record has been found of the death of Sara Christina (known as “Stina”).  Family tradition is that she died at sea, but that hasn’t been confirmed.  Johan’s mother, Brita Kaisa Larsdotter, also died before reaching the Salt Lake valley.  A Santaquin history at the Family History Library states that she was buried at Winter Quarters, Iowa.

We know a few things about Johan’s life in Santaquin, Utah as well.   He lived on and farmed a piece of ground at the Y in the road where the main street in Santaquin meets the highway that goes to Eureka. He supported his family with honey (he was a beekeeper) and fruit production, and, when his orchard grew up, sold peaches and apricots.  And the church records from the ward there spell his last name as “Ahleen”, which gives you an idea of how he might have pronounced it.

He married Elna Sjunesdotter, whose name was Americanized to Eleanor Johnson after she arrived in Utah from Sweden.  After she died he married a woman named Caroline Pehrson Bjorkman (b. Dec. 1834 in Åksted, Östergotland, Sweden), who was the widow of John August Bjorkman.

We know even less about Elna than we do about Johan, but we do know that she was born on 28 May 1839 in Sjostorp, Malmo, Sweden.

Elna’s mother (Karna Märtensdotter) was born in Södervidinge, Malmohus, Sweden in 1800 and lived on the family farm with her parents until 1824

Karna Märtensdotter and Sjune Jönsson were married in Södervidinge Dec. 12, 1825.  Sjune was listed as a servant in Lund and Karna was listed as a farm servant in Södervidinge.

The new family must have lived in Lund after that as their daughter, Ingrid (Elna’s older sister) was born there on May 4, 1827.  In that birth record, Sjune is listed as a “miller”.  Karna subsequently gave birth to five little boys there, each of whom died in infancy.  A sixth son, Marten, was born there in May of 1837.  Some researchers say he was born in Lund, according to census records.  Others, that he was born in Sjorstorp, but it’s clear that by the time he was christened in November of that year, the family had moved to Sjöstorp village in Dalby parish, Malmöhus County.

Elna’s birth record has not been found.  There was a church fire in 1883 that destroyed many records and it is thought that this may be why.  We do have that information, however, written down by Elna’s husband in his “Temple Record Book” where he wrote down the temple ordinances performed by him and his wife.  She was two years younger than her brother, Marten, and twelve years younger than her sister, Ingrid.  She was baptized in Sweden in April of 1857, when she was 18 years old by an elder with the last name of “Clarson” but we don’t know the location.

She traveled to America alone, in 1866, the year she turned 27, without other family members, on the ship “Humbolt” and then traveled by wagon train to Utah.  Church records show that she was re-baptized on the 18^th of November 1866 in Salt Lake City (re-baptism being a common practice in Utah back then) and again in Santaquin on July 8, 1887.  About a year after her arrival in Utah she and Johan (John) were sealed by Wilford Woodruff on Nov 10, 1867 when she was 6 months pregnant with her first child.   We do not have a marriage date for them.  She raised her children and lived a quiet life, unable to read and write English.  The census records list both her and her husband as “illiterate”.  She died in Santaquin in 1894 at the age of 54, when her son John August (Jack), our ancestor, was 25 years old.   

John Ellis 1828-1901

I have available John Ellis's autobiography, written for his son, John Gregory Ellis and annotated and with a map of the Matlock, Derbyshire area where he grew up.  If you wish to have a copy please leave a comment about why you'd like a copy with an email address so that I can send an electronic copy to you.  It's about 10 pages in entirety, so too big to post here.

Thomas Wand 1847-1923

Thomas’s Early Life Leading Up to His Marriage

To tell the story of Thomas Wand’s life, we must first look at the autobiography of James Finlayson.  James Finlayson was a member of the Glasgow, Scotland Conference of the church (ordained a teacher and a priest there in 1851 and 1853 respectively).  He married a 56 year old widow, Jane Wand (nee Malcolm), a woman many years his senior, in Glasgow on 13 Aug 1852.  The marriage was performed by Elder Robert Campbell.  She had a number of grown children; one was a 32-year old son, Andrew Wand, who was born in 1820.

There was a marriage in Glasgow, Lanark, Scotland on 15 Sep 1846 between an Andrew Wand and Cecilia Brown Ramsay.  It is thought that this Andrew is the above mentioned son of Jane Malcolm Wand.

James Finlayson’s autobiography notes that Jane’s son, Andrew, died of consumption on the 21st of June 1853, that Andrew’s wife had died of consumption in 1850 and that they left a young son, “about 6 years old”, named Thomas whom James and his wife, Jane, immediately adopted. 

James, Jane, Jane's youngest son William Wand (age about 18), and our Thomas “about 9 years old” emigrated to the United States from Liverpool and arrived in New York, 18 February 1855.  James was a millwright and from 1855 to 1857 moved his family around as he found work in New York City, Hoboken N.J., Detroit Michigan and St. Louis Missouri.   It was in St. Louis that Jane died on the 3^rd of February, 1858.  At this point William, an adult, must have gone off to start his own life.  (Perhaps he was the William Wand who died in St. Louis in 1903.   That might be interesting to research.)  According to James’s autobiography,  James Finlayson and Thomas Wand boarded at various places in St. Louis and James also did work in neighboring Illinois following Jane's death before the two of them moved to Florence Nebraska on the 26^th of May, 1859 and departed from there a month later to emigrate to Utah.  In James’ words, “I again went to work for Mr. Raith and Coy Summerfield, Illinios, on Feb. 16^th fixing the engine and flouring mill until April the 22^nd when I finished and started to work the engine and mill, after which I returned to St. Louis to prepare to take my ddeparture for Utah which I did on the 18^th of May accompanied by Mrs. Alexander and two daughters, Mary and Sarah also Thomas Wand.”

Other Thomas Wands

At this point there is a matter that needs some explanation in order to prevent confusion.  Jane Malcolm, as I had mentioned, was a widow with many children when she married James Finlayson. Her husband, Thomas Wand, a joiner by profession, died sometime between the 1841 and 1851 census.  Her third child and oldest son was Andrew Wand, father of the young orphaned Thomas who accompanied James and Jane Finlayson when they sailed to America in 1855.  Her eighth child, and fourth son was born 17 May 1832 in Dollar, Perthshire, Scotland and named “Thomas Wand” after his father.  And this Thomas Wand also emigrated from Scotland to America.  He undertook his journey in 1854.  Unlike the Finlaysons, his ship landed in New Orleans where he took a steamer first to St. Louis where he worked for a while then traveled to Chicago where he worked for before moving to Kankakee, Illinois in the spring of 1856.   He was a tailor by profession.  In the fall of 1856 he moved 95 miles south of Chicago to Onarga, Iroquois County, Illinois, which lies about 225 miles northwest of St. Louis.  There he worked as a tailor for a little over a year and then, in 1858, established a merchant-tailoring business.  In October 1857, while this Thomas was in Onarga, James, Jane and young Thomas Wand arrived in St. Louis and Jane died there on the 3^rd of February 1858.  So, in 1858-59 there are two Thomas Wands, uncle and nephew, living within 250 miles of each other.  The younger Thomas Wand stayed with James in St. Louis.  James’s biography specifically mentions living at three different addresses in St. Louis with young Thomas before the two of them departed for Florence, Nebraska and then on to Utah.

The other Thomas (uncle, b. 1832) remained in Onarga., married a woman named Mary Fickle on the 27^th of September 1859 (less than a month after James and young Thomas arrived in Salt Lake) and raised three children in Onarga named Andrew Wand, Mary Wand, and Thomas C. Wand.  He later served as mayor there and was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Onarga.  The date of his marriage makes it improbable  that he is the Thomas Wand that accompanied James Finlayson to Florence, Nebraska and then on to Utah.

And finally, there was another Thomas Wand in St. Louis in 1871,  born in 1852, who married a woman named Margarite Guigie there in 1871.  This is also not the Thomas Wand who moved to Utah as this Thomas is not only too young but he also remained in St. Louis for decades, showing up in the subsequent censuses with his wife and children at least through 1900 while our Thomas Wand, born in 1847/48 showed up in censuses in Utah.

The Journey to Utah

While in Florence, Nebraska, on June 1^st, 1859,  James Finlayson married Mary Ada Alexander, whom he had met and known in St. Louis, and he, his new wife, her mother and sister, and young Thomas Wand (now about age 12) travelled together, arriving in Salt Lake on the 29^th of August, 1859.  After this there is no further mention of Thomas Wand in James Finlayson’s autobiography.   However, Margaret Finlayson Maxwell’s biography of James, “James Finlayson, Man of Destiny”, mentions that Thomas Wand was with the family when they rented a home from a Brother Wells in the Seventeenth Ward, northwest of the Temple Block for $6.00 a month and also was with them later that year when they relocated to Sugarhouse where James had contracted to assist in the construction of a nail factory and later to install the machinery for a paper mill.  In the spring of 1862 the family, which by then included a two year old son and an anticipated second son due that summer, moved to Payson where James worked as a millwright and cabinetmaker the rest of his life. 

By 1862 Thomas Wand would have been 15 years of age.  It is unknown whether or not he traveled to Payson with the family.  If he did, he likely did not stay with them long as he was near the age when a young man, especially one with no biological connection to the family with whom he lived, would be inclined, in that era, to start to work and live an adult life.

Thomas’s Later Life and Marriages

Thomas Wand shows up again, eighteen years later in the 1880 census.  There is listed Thomas Wand, age 32, single, a sign painter, living in Star Precinct, Beaver County 140 miles south of Payson, with his birth location listed as Scotland.  

Subsequent to the 1880 census Thomas moved north to the small town of Yost, on the Utah-Idaho border, possibly due to a painting contract, where in 1886, he married the widow, Katherine Schneider and became the stepfather to her young children. The  wedding took place on October 24, 1886 in Yost, Utah when he was 38 years of age.  His bride, Katherine (or Catherina or Catherine) Diamon Schneider (aka Katherine Diamond) was 35.  Catherine had been born in Frankfurt, Prussia on January 15, 1851, was the widow of John Schneider (1827-1884) and at the time of her marriage to Thomas had four living children; Ekbert (1872-1960), Mary Louise (1879-1906), Viola (1881-1907), and William, (1882-1962).  Two other of her sons had died previously at young ages.  Thomas and Katherine subsequently had two sons there together:  Thomas Webster Wand, born October 30, 1887 in George Creek, Idaho (which is what the town was called on the Idaho side of the border), and Scott S. Wand born December 10, 1889 in Yost, Utah.   The family subsequently settled in Logan in time for the 1900 census.  By the time the census was taken the only child from Catherine’s first marriage who was still living in the household was fifteen-year-old Viola. 

It may be that Thomas and Katherine also had a daughter who died young in Logan as there is an unmarked, undated grave listed in the Logan City Cemetery records for a person named "Catherina S.  or Catherine Wand" which at least one researcher has tentatively dated as late 19th century or early 20th.  It is separate from the plot where Thomas's wife, Katherine was later buried. But more research will need to be done to determine whether or not this Catherina was Thomas's child.

The 1900 the census again shows Thomas Wand but this time living in Logan, married with his wife, two sons Thomas W. and Scott and a step-daughter, Viola, still working as a painter, with Scottish-born parents but this time his birth location is changed to St. Louis, MO, the city where he spent two years of his childhood before emigrating to Utah.

This fudging on birthplace at the turn of the century was not that uncommon.  Between 1850 and 1906 immigration and naturalization laws became more bureaucratic and complicated and expensive.  Many immigrants who had come to the United States as young people in the earlier era where immigration laws were simpler found, as the century progressed, that the process of naturalization had become increasingly complicated and difficult to document, involving finding and producing records from the state in which they had disembarked and documenting residency in each place where they had lived over the previous decades, a complicated and expensive and not always successful process considering the means of communication and the vagaries of record keeping.   So many, knowing that records were hard and expensive to verify, and not wanting to go through the long legal process involved, simply began to cite the first place they remember living in the U.S. as their birthplace when the census takers asked.  And, as long as they never needed a passport, there were usually no further complications regarding the issue.

Thomas and his wife moved to Salt Lake City around 1906 and then to Hyrum, Utah by 1911 according to reports in the newspaper, The Logan Republican.  When Thomas Wand died in Logan, Utah in 1923, he was a widower.  He had been married twice.  His first wife, Katherine, died of heart failure at the age of 54 on October 13, 1905 in Logan, leaving Thomas with their two sons, then ages 15 and almost 17.  Viola had married and moved away in 1902.   He subsequently married another widow, Mary Eleanor Plant Williams on January 22, 1906, in Logan.  He was 57 years old.  She was 54.   She was born April 11, 1852 in England and was the widow of William Williams Jr. (b. 1827) who had died and been buried in Hyrum four years earlier.  She was the mother of eleven children ranging in age from 14 to 37 when she married Thomas. 

Sixteen years after this marriage the 1920 census shows Thomas, with his wife, Mary, still living together in Logan.  Thomas and Mary Eleanor (aka. Mary Ellen) continued their lives together until she died about three years later in Logan, on September 27, 1923, at the age of 71.  She was buried near her first husband, William, in Hyrum, Utah.  Thomas did not survive her long.  He died November 1, 1923.  He was 73 years old.  The cause of his death was listed as “senility”.

Thomas had supported his family for many years in his chosen occupation while he was physically able.  His death certificate lists his occupation as “painter, retired”. 

It is interesting that this is about all his death certificate states about him.  His birth date is listed as “unknown” as are his place of birth, the names of his parents, and their birthplaces.  The only further information on the document is his race, his marital state (widowed), his gender and his place of residence. 

 Much of what we know about his early life might have been completely lost if his step-grandfather, James Finlayson, hadn't taken the time to write his own brief autobiography before he died in 1908. 

News Items from the Newspaper, the Logan Republican, That Mention Thomas Wand or His Family Members


Logan Republican, March 19, 1904  “Of the dozen who were before Justice Cardon Wednesday afternoon on a charge of gambling, only one, Thomas Wand was fined.  He was convicted of running a gaming room and was fined $35.00.”

Logan Republican, February 1, 1905    “The sign writing "The Little Tycoon," to be given soon by the MusicDepartment of the Agricultural College Is attracting considerable favorable comment. The figures on the billboards were painted by Herbert M.Stoops, the A. C.'s. cartoonist. Theyare nothing short of excellent and rolled great credit on the young man's artistic sense. The lettering, built along the Japanese style, was done Tom Wand, of the Preston, Pyper Co., and in its way is as artistic as the figures. The whole makes a combination that, attracts general attention and proves a surperb ad for the show.”

March 25, 1905  Thomas Wand is listed as a member of the “Commercial Club” and one of the men of that club who volunteered to be a part of the Decorating Committee for that year’s June 9 and 10 Celebration in Logan.

July 15, 1905   Thomas Wand is listed as having received $3.00 for his services as a judge of elections in the Annual Statement of the Receipts and Disbursements by the Board of Education of Logan City.

October 14, 1905  “Mrs. Wand, wife of Thomas Wand of the Logan First ward died yesterday at 12:30 p.m., the result of dropsy and heart trouble.” 

December 9, 1905,     Messrs. Pyper, Wand and Phelps have done an artistic piece of work In the establishment of Baldwln &Harton on Center street. It is second to none In Logan.”

August 8, 1906   The family of Thomas Wand went to Salt Lake city yesterday to join Mr. Wand who has contracted for work there.

Logan Republican, August 28, 1907    “Mrs. Thos. Wand came from Salt Lake on Saturday night to spend a few days in Logan and Hyrum”

September 7, 1907  “Wm. Schneider, the man who beat up J.W. Harry a few weeks, “got his” a day or two ago, a couple of the Wand boys pounding his head, face and back into a jelly.  [William Schneider was the name of Thomas’s step son and therefore this Wm Schneider may well have been the stepbrother of the two Wand boys.]  The Wand boys were fined and in default were sent to jail.  Schneider, on a later day, struck another fellow and was also fined.  Geo. Johnson in attempting to separate the contestants was accidentally struck with a timber in the hands of a Mrs. Peterson.  There’s more to it but we didn’t get it.”

November 20, 1907

Sheriffs Sale.

In the District court, Cache county, Utah.

James Quayle, James W. Quayle and Joseph E, Cowley, doing business under the nameof James Quayle & Co., Plaintiffs.

vs

Thomas Wand and Mary E. Williams Wand,

Defendants.

To be sold at Sheriff's sale on the 11th day of December, 1907, at the front door of the court house in Logan, Cache County Utah at 12 o'clock noon of said day as the property of the defendant Mary E. Williams Wand, the following described real estate in Cache county Utah, to wit--

Beginning at a point 8 rods south of the northwest corner of lot 4, Block 13, Plat "A'', Hyrum city survey, thence south 12 rods,  thence east 13 rods 1 ¼  feet, thence north 12 rods; thence west 13 rods 1M foot to the place of beginning,

T. H. Smith

Sheriff Cache County, Utah,

J.G. Walters, Attorney

December 11, 1907   Mrs. Thomas Wand came to Logan Sunday night to visit her children.

June 17, 1908   “Trial Calendar for June Term” lists “Thomas Wand and Mary E. W. Wand vs. James W. Quayle and T.H. Smith, July 16, 10 a.m.

July 18, 1908   “Mrs. Thomas W. Wand is up from Salt Lake visiting in Logan and Hyrum.  Her son Leslie Williams of THE REPUBLICAN went to Hyrum Wednesday to visit with her.”

May 6, 1911   “Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Wand have returned back to Hyrum after a short stay in Shoshone, Idaho.  Mr. Wand has been working at the northern town.”

October 21, 1913   Hyrum Oct 18 news   Mr. Thomas Wand our local painter has made a big difference in the looks of things on Main street. He has been painting the town “red.”

April 12, 1917   Mrs. Thomas Wand of Hyrum spent her sixty-fifth birthday at the residence of her son, Mr. Clem Williams, in Logan, Wednesday.

May 1, 1917    Mr. Thomas Wand of Hyrum spent Monday in Logan.  Mr. Wand is taking treatment from one of the local chiropractors.

January 1, 1918   Mrs. Thomas Wand and daughter Alice Anderson, of Hyrum, were in Logan yesterday visiting with relatives.  It will be interesting to the friends of Mrs. Wand to know that her health is better than it has been for years.

 

Bibliography

Beckwith, H.H., History of Iroquois County together with Historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources Chicago, H. H. Hill Co., 1880, p. 626

Cache County Death Records

Finlayson, James, “Autobiography of James Finlayson, born 16 October 1830”

Finlayson, James, “The Story of My Life”, published in Cleon Huish Moore & Vida Hill Family History(s) , http://www.dwmoore.com/pdf/Cleon_Vida%20History.pdf, possession of David W. Moore.

Glasgow Conference Church Records, FHL British Film, 104152, item 2

Glasgow, Lanark, Scotland census records, 1841 and 1851

Kern, J.W., Past and Present of Iroquois County, Chicago, The S.J. Clark Publishing Company, 1907, pp 266-269  available at http://www.archive.org/details/pastpresentofiro00kern

Maxwell, Margaret Finlayson, James Finlayson, Man of Destiny, 1962

Old Parish Records, Marriage Records, Glasgow 1846

Utah Census Records, 1880, 1900 and 1920

Western States Marriage Records, BYU-I Special Collections, http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/westernStates/search.cfm