Jan Jakob Johannesson DAHLGREN

   Another name for Jan was Jacob DAHLGREN.

  Birth Notes:

on a tenant farm named Dalen

  Noted events in his life were:

• Immigration: from Sweden, 18 May 1865, America.

• Immigration: from America, 7 Sep 1868, Norway.

• Immigration: from ?, 1869, America. from 1900 census

• Census: Providence > District 131, 1880, Lac qui Parle County, MN. line 22

88 91 Dahlgreen Jacob 32 Sweden
--- Emma 25 wife Sweden

[page 2 of 5]

• Census: Providence > District 126, 1900, Lac qui Parle County, MN. line 47

7 7 Dalhgren Jacob 53
--- Emma 44
--- August 10
--- Oscar 17
--- Selma 15
--- Minni 13
--- Arthur 10
--- Hanna 7
--- Anna 3

[page 1 of 11]

• Biography: Compendium of History and Biography of Central and Northern Minnesota, 1904, MN. JACOB DAHLGREN.
Jacob Dahlgren, whose portrait appears on another page, is one of the old homesteaders whose nerve, endurance and hard work did so much to reclaim western Minnesota, and make it seem what it is, a noble part of a splendid state. For almost thirty years he has been a resident of Lac-qui-parle county, and his push and persistence as a tiller of the soil won for him a well earned competence, and put him well in advance of the farmers in this section.

Mr. Dahlgren was born in Sweden in 1847, on a farm in the province of Dolsland [D a lsland]. His father was a farmer who came to this country in 1868, and his family followed him the next year. He was an old settler in Lac-qui-parle county, and died in 1899 in the home of his son Jacob.

Jacob Dahlgren was the third member in a family of nine children, and was reared to manhood in the home of his parents. He learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed for a time in Minneapolis and at Red Wing. In 1877 he took a homestead in section 24, of the township of Providence, and immediately began its improvement. His first home was a claim shanty 10 by 12 feet, and for several years he did all his work with oxen. In the winter of 1880-81 he ground wheat for flour in a coffee mill, and used burnt wheat for coffee. For fuel he burned hay, and has vivid memories of the trials and hardships of terrible cold and long continued snow.

Mr. Dahlgren was married in 1879 to Miss Emily Johnson, a Swedish compatriot, her father having been a farmer in Sweden where she was born. To this singularly fortunate union have come seven children: Carl August, Oscar, Selma, Minnie, Arthur, Hannah and Annie. The Dahlgrens lost their house and all its contents by fire in 1885. The grain crops have been destroyed by hail, and the misfortunes incident to pioneer days in Minnesota have all been experienced by them. But their courage was unshaken, and they now reap the reward of industry and endurance in a farm consisting of a half section of the best farming land in the world, with over two hundred acres under the plow. Lac-qui-parle river runs across this farm and furnishes abundant water privileges of every kind. The buildings are noticeably good, the grove is neat and attractive, and the entire plant well worthy of high commendation.

Mr. Dahlgren has done quite a good deal of carpenter work since coming into this county, and has ever been ready to turn his trade to the accommodation of his friends and neighbors. In politics he is a Republican, and took an active interest in the organization of Providence township.

The remoteness of the market in pioneer days may be illustrated by the fact that Mr. Dahlgren had to haul his first lumber from Benson, fifty miles away. Then the pioneer went ahead of the railroad; of late years the railroad has gone ahead of the pioneers, and called for the coming of the settler. Compare the "American invasion of Canada" with the settlement of Minnesota and note how vast the change.

From: Compendium of History and Biography of Central and Northern Minnesota (Chicago, Geo. A. Ogle & Co., 1904), pages 438-41.

• Cemetery: Providence Valley Cemetery, Dawson, 1904, Lac qui Parle County, MN. Nov. 8, 1847 - Aug. 7, 1904

Jan married Emily JOHNSON on 8 Nov 1879 in Lac qui Parle County, MN.¹ (Emily JOHNSON was born on 19 Jun 1854 in Sweden and died on 6 Apr 1939 in Lac qui Parle County, MN.)