Victor Colson and Hannah Hanson

“They were born in Ödeshög and the ten came to America.”

A FAMILY HISTORY BLOG BY LAVERNA COLSON SMITH

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LaVerna Colson Smith

The Journey Begins -Illinois to Nebraska

Four Swedish immigrants began their westward journey from Moline, Illinois on April 22, 1866. Their destination, at the time, was Monona County, Iowa, in western Iowa near the Missouri River.

The Prairie Road

The party left Moline in an outfitted lumber wagon drawn by a team of horses with two colts tied to the back of the wagon. John P. Anderson followed along in a wagon full of goods. They took along provisions for three weeks.

The party ferried across the Mississippi River from Illinois and entered Iowa at Davenport. From there, they traveled to Iowa City and next, Boone, where they forded the Des Moines River. The next stop was Denison and then on to Onawa in Monona County, their original destination. (Monona County borders the Missouri River and is located a few miles north of Council Bluffs, Iowa.) Upon stopping in Onawa, they heard of a timber claim located in nearby Sloan. They took up this claim and arrived in Sloan, Iowa on May 10, 1866. The claim included a cow and a horse and had already been planted with crops. Out of the sugar cane they pressed 150 gallons of sorghum which they sold for $1 a gallon. A tidy sum.

This temporary settlement was timely as Hannah gave birth to her second son, Frank Dimmic, on October 25, 1866. Unbelievably, Hannah had been pregnant while traveling in a lumber wagon across the state of Iowa. From the accounts available, it is not clear if there was a cabin on the property or if they simply used their wagons as a temporary home.

The above is a photo of the beautiful tall grass prairie in Iowa as well as the prairie chicken, plentiful at the time of western migration.

Filing Homestead Claims in Burt County, Nebraska

While settling into their timber claim in Iowa, the party heard about homesteads for 160 acres in Nebraska where only 40 acre sites were available in Iowa. John P. Anderson volunteered to to travel to Burt County, Nebraska where John Oak showed him the land which would soon be turned into farms from virgin prairie. Victor Colson, along with his new acquaintances, Andrew Young, Erick Erickson and Andrew Johnson drove by horseback from Sloan, Iowa to Omaha, Nebraska, a distance of some 80 miles. They ferried over the Missouri River into Omaha and met up with John P Anderson and Mr. Oak in the land office. In this small office, they began filing their claims on some of the best, if not the best, farm land in the state of Nebraska.

Next Blog: The Homesteaders -1867 – Victor Colson and Hannah Hanson