July 28, 1941 (Monday)

SVEN ERICKSON, AGED 82, DIES

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Beautiful day very

hot. Temperatures in the

90s —

Good shower of rain

would be very acceptable.

Ironed this evening.

Sven Erickson aged

82 yrs died at his

home yesterday.

Men setting over oats

shocks so they could

dry better.

Expect threshers to-morrow.

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Sven Erickson was born in 1859 in Sweden. He immigrated to the United States in 1888. It seems that most of his siblings and his parents soon followed. They all, somehow, ended up living in Bowne Center.

"During the 1880s alone, some 330,000 persons left Sweden for the United States, the peak year being 1887 with over 46,000 registered emigrants. The pace of immigration remained high after 1890 and by 1910, the U.S. Census recorded over 665,000 Swedish-born persons in the United States." (Dr. Dag Blanck, "Swedish Immigration to North America," augustana.edu)

By 1921, when Sven applied for a United States passport, he was a naturalized U.S. citizen. According to his passport application, Sven intended to travel to Sweden to visit family.

A photo attached to his passport shows him with a woman. I am not sure who the woman in the photo is. I haven't been able to find any records to indicate that Sven ever married. For a moment I thought it might be his mother but she passed away ten years earlier.

Although he may never have married, he lived in a home filled with people. Several census records show that Sven lived in the same dwelling as his parents, siblings, their spouses, and nieces and nephews.

At the time of his death, Sven resided across the street from one of his nephews.

Sven Erickson was a respected member of the community. His death was noted several times in the July 31, 1941 edition of the Lowell Ledger. He is buried in the cemetery at Bowne Center.