Barthelsons in NYC

The Swedish side of my family has always been very mysterious to me. I never knew any of the folks who emigrated, nor any of the first generation born in the U.S. My dad's paternal grandparents were Gustav Alfred Westerlund and Johanna Charlotta Barthelson, both of whom arrived in New York in the early 1880s. As I've had a chance to burrow back through the records, I've been finding that they were not the only members of their families to emigrate. My focus in this posting are a few of the Barthelsons who came to and stayed in the New York City area.

My great grandmother, Lottie, was born on 27 December, 1861 in Svedvi, Västmanland, Sweden. Her mother, Catharina Charlotta Barthelson, was unmarried at the time, and Lottie's father is not recorded in the parish archive's record of her birth.(To try to minimize confusion arising from the fact that mother and daughter shared, and seemed to have used the names Charlotta and Lottie, I will refer to my great grandmother as Lottie, and to her mother as Catharina.) Lottie's marriage license claims that her father's name was Oscar Barthelson; so far I've not found anyone by that name, other than a boy who died very young. Catharina actually did not live in Svedvi, but in the city of Vasterås, about 10 miles (16 km) east. At that time Catharina was living with her brother, Carl Victor. Catharina and Carl's father, Per, had died in 1858, and their mother had remarried and lived in Svedvi. Catharina gave birth to Lottie while visiting her mother in Svedvi. Carl Victor will figure in this blog in the future, but I'll have to leave that just as a teaser for now.

It appears that Catharina emigrated to the U.S. on 26 May, 1882, leaving from Stockholm. It's not clear to me if Lottie travelled with her on the same ship, but later census records give the daughter's date of arrival in New York as 1881 (1900 census), 1882 (1920 census) or 1883 (1930 census). In 1888 Catharina married Hermann Maleus Eugen Rundström, ten years her junior. Hermann's occupation in 1888 is given as “detective”, “agent” in the 1890 city directory, “editor” in the New York census of 1892, and in the 1900 national census it's “special policeman.” Catharina and Hermann lived in Brooklyn: in 1888 at 56 Pacific Street and in 1900 at 189 West Ninth Street. Interestingly, in the 1892 census Herman Rundstrom is listed, followed by “Lottie Rundstrom” (= Catharina); then there's a 43 year old waiter from Sweden named Oswald Silverson, and two young girls, Annie Rundstrom (aged 12) and Sarah Rundstrom (aged 8). The names in this census are are just listed and aren't explicitly broken down into families or households, but I would guess the recorder was taking names sequentially so that Oswald, Annie and Sarah are living with Hermann and Catharina. I have no idea who Oswald is or if he has any importance to the family; perhaps he was just a boarder. The marriage with Catharina was Hermann's second, so I presume that Annie and Sarah were his daughters by the previous marriage. I know very little about Hermann's life in Stockholm, so that's a job for the future. Hermann passed away from a stroke at the relatively young age of 51 on 4 July, 1906. The place of death is cited as 298 Clinton Drive, and his occupation at that point as “janitor.” He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Brooklyn/Queens.

In an earlier blog I described how later, in 1915, Catharina was committed to the New York City Home for the Aged and Infirm, Brooklyn Division. She doesn't appear in the 1920 census, and I searched in vain for records from the home itself. What I did stumble across, however, was disturbing. It is the death certificate for Charlotte Runstrom, giving the date of death as 25 November, 1915. The certificate wasn't issued in Brookly, though, but in Manhattan at the City Home Hospital. It seems that just a few months after entering the Brooklyn home for the aged, she died of “asphyxiation by submersion in the river.” I've had no success in scouring the newspapers for any account of the accident (or something else?). Was there a police report filed? On the document the coroner states that an inquiry is pending. Actually, I just noticed that little tidbit in writing up this blog, so I'm just starting to see if a report was actually ever produced. So her death remains a mystery for the time being. Catharina was also buried in Evergreen Cemetery. When we visited there earlier this summer I had no idea that there were any other family interments to investigate. I suppose I'll just have to go back.

So, my great great grandmother, Catharina Charlotta Barthelson has a tragic accident and dies in the river. On the scale of bad news, though, I'm afraid that's not the worst story to tell. Let's move on to consider that of other brother, not Carl Victor yet, but Johan August Barthelson.

Perhaps I should stop here and give you an outline of this part of the family, so that we can keep track of who's who. Here are the basic facts as I've been able to reconstruct them. I begin with Per Barthelson and list the next two generations. The plus sign (+) is placed before spouses or unmarried "partner," the numbers indicate the generation (first, second, and third). The names of persons in this blog posting are highlighted.

1. Per Barthelson (1814-1858)
   +Ingeborg Jansdotter (?-?) [never married]
   2. Lars Persson Barthelson (1835-1866)
      +Brita Stina Lundell (1833-1897)
      3. Anna Larsdotter (1856-1857)
      3. Per August Barthelson (1858-?)
      3. Ingeborg Maria Barthelson (1859-1892)
      3. Carl Victor Barthelson (1862-?)
      3. Anna Louisa Barthelson (1864-?)
      3. Christina Charlotta Barthelson (1864-1869)
   +Kjerstin Persdotter (1814-1888) [name also cited as Christina]
   2. Johan August Barthelson (1841-1914)
      +Christina Mathilda Wahlström (1836-1883)
      3. Alma Fredrika Barthelson (1864-?)
      +Emma Gustafva Pettersson (1860-1940) (2nd wife)
      3. Emma Vilma Augusta Barthelson (1892-?)
      3. Harold Carl Barthelson (1895-1944)
   2. Catharina Charlotta Barthelson (1843-1915)
      +Oscar ????
      3. Johanna Charlotta Barthelson (1861-1922)
      +Hermann Maleus Eugen Rundström (1854-1906)
   2. Per Oscar Barthelson (1847-1849)
   2. Carl Victor Barthelson (1849-?)
      +Anna Christina Eriksson (1840-1922)
      3. Anna Christina Barthelson (1872-1872)
      3. Elin Maria Barthelson (1872-1872)
      3. Victor Emanuel Barthelson (1873-?)
      3. Carl Johan Barthelson (1875-?)
      3. Anna Viktoria Barthelson (1877-1877)
      3. Herman Mathias Barthelson (1879-?)

So back to Johan August. As you can see from the tree, Johan had a wife and child in Sweden. However, his wife Christina died of uterine cancer in 1883, and three years later his only daughter Alma was married. That same year Johan emigrated to America, to New York where his sister Catharina already lived. There he remarried, to another Swedish emigre named Emma Gustafva Pettersson. Togther they had two children, Emma and Harold.

While my story here has been presented in chronological order, that's not how it came to me. It would be far, far too confusing to try to lead you through that maze, even if I could remember every step along the way. But I actually came across Johan long before I had any idea of his relationship to me, and I'd tossed those records aside as not being relevant to the search. Part of the problem with tracing him in America is the inconsistent anglicization of his name: sometimes he was in the records as John, sometimes as August, and of course the last name was spelled in a lot of different ways. But just as my initial encounter with him in America was discarded because I didn't identify him correctly, that's is just what happened that lead to his untimely demise.

Here's the story, as reported on the front pages of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and several other newspapers in the city. It seems that the Barthelson family had come upon hard times around 1913. Johan was getting on in age (he was in his seventies at the time), and so on August 14, 1913 his wife arranged to have him live in the Swedish Augustana Home for the Aged in Brooklyn. He was a resident, not committed to the institution, so he was free to come and go as he pleased. Well, on the night of 15 December, 1913 he so pleased. He left the home, telling the staff that he was going to spend the night with his brother who lived in Manhattan. He never arrived.

Aside: Who was this brother? He is not named in the papers, but it was said that he lived on West 26th Street. I've gone through all of the households on that street in the 1915 New York census, just a year after all this came down. No sign of anyone that I recognize. It could be that the papers simply got the facts wrong: maybe it wasn't his brother, but his wife's. Maybe it was a brother from some sort of fraternal society. Maybe they got the address wrong. But if it was a brother, then the only candidate I have is Carl Victor Barthelson. This is the second tease: I sure hope I'll have a story to tell you about him very soon. (End of aside.)

On December 20 Mrs. Barthelson was told that her husband had left the home and not returned, and she began the search for him. The family told the police at the local Bath Beach station, and a general alarm was issued on December 22. Johan's daughter twice visited the Kings County hospitals, asking if someone with his name or general description had been admitted. Results? Nothing. It was only on January 15 that Mrs. Barthelson was contacted by a worker that there was a body in the morgue that might be her husband. Of course, it was.

According to the Daily Eagle: "Evidently he had wandered about for three days without food or shelter, for at 3:25 on the morning of December 19 he was picked up in a dazed condition, with a broken arm at Third avenue and Ninth street, by Patrolman Thomas Maloney of the 145th Precinct. An ambulance from the Methodist Episcopal Hospital removed him to the Kings County Hospital. He gave his name as August Dotelson, of 135 Nelson street. This happened on Friday, and the alarm was not sent out until Monday." Apparently the name that Johan gave to the staff and that they recorded changed through time, from August Berchelseon to Dotelson, to Dalase. He gave his home address with the correct street name, but incorrect number. Through all of this, no connection was made by either the police or the hospital staff that a missing 74-year old man named Barthelson might actually be the same as the 74-year old man named Berchelson in the hospital. To top it off, quoting the Daily Eagle's story of the trip to the morgue: "'We went to view it.'said Mrs. Barthelson, 'and it was he. There, on a tag attached to his sleeve, his name was written "August Barthelson."' Yet for nearly a month he lay there in the hospital while the police of the city had his description. He gave his first name correctly and his last name only slight wrong. He had the name of the street correct, too, although the house number was incorrect. And yet no one, out of the many through whose hands this case passed, was able to see any possible connection between this poor unidentified sufferer and the August Barthelson named in the general alarm sent out nearly a month previously." Johan August Barthelson was buried in Evergreens Cemetery.

Three police officers were charged with neglect of duty as a result of this fiasco. It also resulted in a reform of procedures to facilitate communications between hospitals and the police in regard to missing persons. How, you may ask, can I connect this story of August Barthelson in Brooklyn with Johan August Barthelson from Karlstad? The age is the same; both were butchers by profession; there is a census record of John Barthelson with wife Emma and son Harold; and that same record has them living next door to Hermann and Lottie Rundström in Brooklyn; finally, the death certificate cites his parents as Pierre Barthelson (= Per) and Christiana (= Christina). These and a few more similar little tidbits, I think, are pretty good evidence that the men are, in fact, one and the same person