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Note: Emma Berglund Soderlund
Emma Berglund was born January 9, 1879 in Bergsj�, H�lsingland, Sweden. She was the eighth of nine children and the youngest daughter of four girls of Hans Berglund and his wife Barbro Johansdotter Liden. Her father was a tailor and a very strict man when dealing with his children. Emma was not allowed to go near her father's sewing machine or any of his other tools as a child. Emma was a gregarious, fun-loving girl in Sweden and loved to dance. She had many friends and acquaintances in town, many of them lasting into her later life in America. She had a younger brother, Erik, who she was quite close to.
Some of Emma's mother's relatives had closed the Atlantic to travel to America in the 1860's. Emma corresponded with the Liden family in Isanti, Minnesota, for some time. One day in the spring of 1903, when Emma was 24 years old, a letter arrived from Johan Liden asking Emma if she would like to come to America and spend the summer on the Liden farm. Emma was thrilled at the chance to take a trip and see the new world. Her experiences in Sweden were quite limited; she had never seen a banana until she arrived in America. Johan, or John as he was known in Isanti, paid Emma's travel expense to come to visit them. She arrived in Isanti after a long voyage on which she danced and had a wonderful time traveling to visit relatives whom she had never seen. The weather was warm because it was just before the Fourth of July. She had never experienced weather as warm as this before.
Emma spent a few months on the Linden (as it was known in the area) farm. It was a very modern farm, having a round barn to make cow milking more efficient. In Isanti, the mail was delivered to the mailbox down the road from the Linden's farmhouse. She and a couple of the other girls would go out to fetch the mail and lay in the tall grass along the road and enjoy watching the clouds drift overhead. The first summer in Isanti was quite enjoyable. The fields were full of the major local crop of potatoes because the soil in Isanti is very sandy and good for root crops such as potatoes. There was always the farm work to do, but being with her relatives was good.
When she came, Emma had every intention of returning home to Sweden at the end of the summer, but as the time passed, she decided to remain in the United States for a little longer. She spoke only Swedish and that was the language spoken in the home of the Lindens also. When she decided to stay, she moved to Minneapolis and found work as a domestic in the home of a Jewish businessman. The lady of the house befriended Emma and gradually taught her the basics of English.
After leaving the employ of her first job in the big city, Emma found other work doing the same duties as she had in her first job. She was a big girl, and very strong and had now fear of hard work.
Eventually, in late 1904 or early 1905, Emma found employment with another Swedish emigrant family, the Soderlunds, doing the housework and cooking for them. The Soderlund mother had become blinded because of a botched eye operation and was unable to perform most of her duties around the house. The Soderlunds had a young son, Anton, who took a liking to Emma. Before not too long, Anton and Emma were married in October 1905.
The following October the couple had there first child, Melvin. The birth of Melvin was soon followed by the birth of another child who was born dead. The attending physician took the dead fetus and put it into the wood-burning stove. The sight of that crass deed never left Emma. Clarence was born in August 1908 and Clara came along in January 1910, the day after Emma's birthday.
When Emma left home that summer of 1903, she had planned on returning later that same year. Because she liked America she decided to remain a little longer in the New World. She learned the new language and found a home with people she liked. Time moved on and she found a new husband and had a child. Then one night in the fall of 1908 she had a peculiar dream about the old country and dreamed of her mother coming to her in that dream. Her mother was dressed all in black and she came to say good-bye to Emma. A day or two later Emma received a telegram from Sweden. Emma's mother had passed away the very night that Emma had her dream!
In 1912, Emma's brother Erik and his wife Hannah came to America with their new child Emma Margreta (Gertie). The two families decided to go to Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada to find work. They moved up north in 1913 and found the conditions in Canada difficult. The stay in Canada lasted for only about one year and they all returned to Minneapolis once again. Emma took in laundry to help out with the family finances. Eventually she found work as a waitress at the downtown Minneapolis YMCA restaurant.
Emma found English a difficult language to master because she had come to America later in life. Her Swedish accent remained with her all her life. She practiced English by reading to her children when they were growing up. Many times she did not know the correct pronunciation of the English words and she pronounced them the way they were spelled, much as she had done when using her native Swedish. On one occasion when Melvin was in the first or second grade he found it necessary to defend his mother's English. The story they were reading in school referred to the "horizon" which Emma had pronounced "hor-a-zun". Melvin explained that Momma said it was "hor-a-zun" and all the other children laughed at him.
Emma always had many friends. She belonged to the H�lsing Forebundet, made up of a group of immigrants from the Swedish province of H�lsingland. She helped organize the first Svenskarnasdag celebration at Minnehaha Falls in the mid-1930's. Emma had a wonderful sense of humor, sometimes it bordered on the slapstick. One one occasion she and Anton had some other couples over to their house for a friendly game of cards. Emma bought some cigar loads and that evening passed out loaded cigars to her men guests. When they exploded, the men were all very upset and she had a good laugh. She loved to dance even in her old age.
Emma always dreamed of returning to Sweden someday and spoke of it often. One morning in March 1951, Anton remained home from work because he was experiencing a sore shoulder and arm. He thought it was work related and he had strained himself whole moving heavy material at work. Emma and Anton had a leisurely breakfast that morning and discussed their life together. Anton must have had a premonition of disaster because the conversation turned to what Emma would do if and when he died. Anton told her that if something were to happen to him, she would finally be able to return to Sweden for a visit. After breakfast Anton went into the living room and sat on the couch. Emma was washing the breakfast dishes when she heard a strange noise in the living room. She went in and found Anton unconscious on the couch. She called her son Melvin and her daughter Clara and summoned the fire department for aid. When the rescue squad arrived they found Anton dead.
Emma's life after Anton's passing was marked with little change. She continued to live in the same house, but moved to the upper duplex apartment. Her daughter Clara and son-in-law Karl moved from the upper floor to the main floor. She continued to entertain, but not on such a large scale.
In the winter of 1953, Emma and her sister in law Lina, decided to finally take that long-postponed trip to Sweden. The made plans and finally in May 1954, she and Lina took passage on a steamship to the old country. They spent the summer there. Emma spent most of her time in Sweden with her older sister, Anna, who was ailing, while Anna's family took their vacation. After her return to Minneapolis, Emma spoke often of her trip and the memories it revived of her youth in Sweden.
When her lodge had their annual Christmas party, usually in January, she always invited all her children and grandchildren. Everyone in the family looked forward to her gatherings. The family enjoyed Christmas and Thanksgiving feasts nearly every year at Emma's. Her cooking was always hearty and wonderful. She baked nearly every week and would fill an old-fashioned washtub boiler with her Swedish limpa bread. When she passed out cookies, her own sons would get first choice and they usually got one or two more than the grandchildren. Her house always smelled of allspice or some other Swedish seasoning herb. She often made "sill bitar" or pickled herring and it tasted wonderful. At Christmas time her house smelled of "karv" a form of headcheese, which she would make annually.
It was always a treat to go to Grandma's house for her Swedish meatball dinner. Her cooking was renowned in the family. Most years she would cook a Thanksgiving meal for her family consisting of her children and grandchildren. Her house was always filled with those she loved at holiday time. All of her grandchildren looked forward to those days they could spend at Grandma's house and the stories of the "Old Country" she used to tell them. In her later hears everyone would call her grandma, even the neighbor children whom she would welcome into her house for cookies or other treats.
Emma never lost her Swedish accent. Emma spoke English very well, but always with her own peculiar pronunciations. She loved to sing and had her own guitar, which she had purchased many years before. She played cards and loved poker. She especially liked to play Chinese checkers, which she called "the game". Emma was a large woman, about 5 feet 8 inches tall, which was very tall for a lady of her generation. Her hair was dark in her youth but changed to gray as she approached sixty years of age. She had large strong hands and was never afraid of work. Emma continued to attend her H�lsing lodge after Anton died and enjoyed visiting with her old friends.
About two or three years after Anton's death, Clara and Karl bought a duplex and invited Emma to live with them. It was about at that time that Karl developed Parkinson's disease and became housebound. Clara went to work every day but Emma stayed home and did the housework and laundry and took care of Karl. Emma's health gradually declined and she became more feeble. Eventually Alzheimer's disease overtook her and she became unable to care for herself. She fell and broke her hip in early April 1973. Clara was unable to care for her mother so Emma went to a nursing home in northeast Minneapolis where she died April 7, 1973. She was buried in Crystal Lake Cemetery in Minneapolis, alongside her husband Anton.
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