My father
Algot Stanley Nystrom was born on February 10, 1903 in Marinette, Wisconsin. He was the second oldest child of Hulda and Albin Nyström.

His father, Albin Nyström, was born on March 2, 1879 in Askersund, Sweden to Olaf Nyström and Anna Sophia Carlson (Nyström). My dad thought his father emigrated to the U.S. around 1898. He settled in Marinette, Wisconsin, which is a lot like his native Sweden. I don't know whether he came with members of his family or not.

His mother, Hulda Maria Eckman, was born in 1877 in Norrland, northern Sweden, near Lapland. My dad thought she emigrated to the United States about the same time as her future husband, whom she didn't meet until she settled in Wisconsin. I don't know whether she came alone or with family members.

Albin and Hulda got married in 1900. Their first child, Hjalmer Milton, was born in July of 1901. Then came my father, his sisters Helen, Lillian and Evelyn and the baby of the family, Leonard; six children in all.

Hulda's father lived with Hulda and Albin from the time they got married until his death in 1933 (?). He had his own room and was ... (TBC).

Marinette was a predominantly Swedish community, where the Nystrom family attended church services in Swedish. In the first years of school, Stanley's brother, Milton, who only spoke Swedish, had to have a Norwegian classmate interpret (translate) for him.

My father attended North Park College (today North Park University) in Chicago, Illinois around 1924-5. After "a couple of years" he transferred to the University of Chicago, where he got his bachelor of science degree. I don't know what he majored in. He went to graduate school at Northwestern University taking classes in business administration. I don't believe he completed graduate school, as I've never heard of his having an advanced degree. During or after graduate school he was hired as a trainer and consultant by Western Electric, which developed and manufactured telephone equipment for the Bell Telephone Company. At some point he followed in his father's footsteps, not only becoming a carpenter, but building houses with his dad. I suspect that was before my dad got married.

I think the Nystroms moved to Chicago, maybe after Milton and Stanley had left Marinette to go to college. All of the children graduated from high school in Wisconsin except for Leonard, who graduated from Hollywood High in Hollywood, California. The family had moved to California, but I don't know whether any of the children besides Leonard were still living at home at the time. I believe my father moved to California after the rest of the family had moved there. That was probably in the 1930's.  He met my mother in Los Angeles, where they got married on July 4, 1942. They moved to Oakland a couple months later. Milton and his wife Lindy lived in nearby San Leandro, and Leonard and his wife Helen living in Northern California, too.

Milton had majored in chemistry in college and had a foundry in San Leandro called Nystrom Foundry, I think. His wife Lindy did bookkeeping for the company. I remember driving by there a few times when I was in high school. I think it was on San Leandro Boulevard. They had one daughter, Karen.

Leonard became a house painter. I didn't know until recently that he had ever lived in Northern California. As far as I knew, he and his family always lived in Southern California after their move to the West Coast from Wisconsin (or Chicago). They had one daughter, Diane.

Helen married a Norwegian named Stanley Davis. They owned a grocery store in Modesto for a while. I remember our family visiting them there once when I was very little, maybe 5 years old. But they lived in Hayward most of the time that I knew them. Uncle Stanley, who was born in Norway, often got razzed by my Swedish relatives for being Norwegian. He had studied to become a dentist, but I think he may have had a health reason for not taking up the profession. They had 2 daughters, Virginia (Ginny) and Marilyn.

Lillian married Carl Carlson, another Swede. He was a house painter. They lived in Los Angeles for a while and had 3 sons: Glenn, Ted and Ron. Later I think they moved to somewhere else in Southern California. My sister Linda and I think Carl died before Lillian.

Evelyn married Carlton Anderson, yet another Swede. He was an insurance agent, I think for Hartford. They and their 3 sons Don, Ken and Bob, lived in Glendale in Southern Calfornia. They were fairly wealthy: They had a swimming pool, a boat and I think a plane, too. I remember being out in the boat with them once and Linda remembers going water skiing with Ken at Lake Tahoe. I think someone from my family went up with Uncle Carlton in his plane. Or maybe he just had a pilot's license and rented a plane. Or maybe he didn't have a pilot's license and hired a plane and pilot. Or maybe they went up with him in a friend's plane. Maybe someone in my family or his remembers. One thing I remember about Uncle Carlton was that he liked his toast very dark, which he called "burnt". He died early on, probably in the 1960's.
 
 

During World War II, my father worked as a carpenter at the Oakland Naval Shipyard. That is, until President Roosevelt announced that all employees in government jobs would be frozen in those jobs until the end of the war. Not wanting to be stuck in any particular job, my dad sent a telegram before midnight of the day the freeze was announced submitting his resignation from the shipyard. After resigning from the shipyard, Dad got a job for $1.42 an hour working at Gall Furniture in Oakland. Even back then that wasn't much money. But I guess my parents managed somehow, even with a child - my oldest sister, Linda, was born in April of 1943.

Oakland Shipyard, May 1940 Sailor unknown

Dad began making toys, perhaps while he was still working for Gall. Mom tells how, pregnant with their second child, Shirley, she would take the toys to stores to try and sell them. They didn't make much of a living that way. After the war, Dad and Mom moved to Hayward where they opened a furniture store they named Nystrom Furniture Company. At first they sold furniture that Dad made. Later, after industry had retooled from a wartime to a peacetime economy, they sold furniture they bought from furniture wholesalers, like the Furniture Mart in San Francisco =>

Photo: Hulda Nystrom The San Francisco Furniture Mart Market between 9th & 10th streets February, 2002

I was born in Samuel Merritt Hospital in Oakland, but grew up in Hayward, attending Burbank Elementary School, Winton Junior High and Sunset High, which has been the Hayward Adult School for perhaps the past 20 years.

It wasn't until I went to college in Washington (Whitman College in Walla Walla) that I lived somewhere other than California, other than Hayward and other than Meekland Avenue "between" the furniture store: In front of the house, where the front lawn used to be, was the store's entrance/front display room. Behind the house were 6 more display rooms where the garage and back yard once were.

Aunt Helen worked for my parents in the furniture store selling furniture, measuring for draperies and doing some accounting. I remember during this time that Uncle Stanley was a bill collector for the Jewel Tea company, which sold goods from its trucks that would deliver orders to people's doors on an every-other-week basis. Or maybe he collected for Standard Brands, which had a similar truck delivery business, and it was one of my school friend's parents who worked for or bought from Jewel Tea.

Grandma Nystrom died in the mid- to late 1950's when I was in the second grade. She laid herself down for a nap in her home one afternoon and never woke up. As I recall, that was in Pasadena or El Segundo, but Shirley remembers it as Eagle Rock, which she's not sure whether it's a district or a town.

Uncle Milton died of a heart attack in January of 1963, the same year John F. Kennedy was killed. I always thought Uncle Milton looked a little like JFK, his hair style at least. I recently got a picture of Uncle Milton from my mother, which I'll add to this page once I've scanned it.

Grandpa Nystrom died on September 14, 1965 at the age of 86 in Inglewood, California, where he had lived with his second wife, Judith. He had 13 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. I had just started high school when he died.

Aunt Helen died of cancer, I think in the 1970's. Uncle Stanely died a few years after her.

Dad and Mom retired in 1980, the year I got my M.A. from Universität Heidelberg in West Germany, which I attended from 1971-1980. They sold the house I grew up in and bought a mobile home in South Hayward. On April 15, 1986, my father died of a heart attack at the age of 83. He had 3 grandchildren. His surviving sisters and younger brother have all since died. Luckily my sister Linda and I interviewed Dad on audio tape about his life about 6 years before his death. I will have more material to add to this site as soon as I can process the information in those tapes. I also hope to get more information from some of our cousins.

Food

Swedish meatballs A Christmas specialty that I didn't like that much. And then there are the "Swedish meatballs"!

Potatis Korv Christmas potato sausage that I didn't like at all! Swedish Christmas traditions page with recipe for Potatis Korv

Music
I remember my father singing maybe a verse or two of Gubben Noah - Old Man Noah, but other than that, I don't know much about Swedish music. Here are two examples I found on the Internet:
 

Folk music group Atra performs traditional music, dance and song

Nyköpingshus Spelmansgille (Nyköping Folk Musicians' Society)

More information about traditional Swedish music

Language

My father grew up speaking Swedish. I remember his saying the following words and phrases to us kids as we were growing up:

Tack så mycket - Thank you very much (Thanks "so much")
Varsågod - You're welcome

Sov gått - Sleep well

Mormor - materal grandmother (mother's mother)
Morfar - maternal grandfather (mother's father)<
Farmor - paternal grandmother (father's mother)<
Farfar - paternal grandfather (father's father)<

Jultid - Yuletide, Christmas time

To find out more about the Swedish language, see the online Swedish dictionary at
The Swedish Schoolnet

Handicrafts

Red Dala Horse (Dalahäst) I always thought they were ugly

"Ålderstrappan" - Age Ladder My parents bought this wall hanging in Pasadena, CA

Swedish games

Kubb (pronounced "koob") is a traditional Swedish game from Viking days played outdoors - because Kubb means "throwing logs". I wonder if it's like chess because the big tower or stick in the middle is called the king. Try playing the online version.

Swedish lore

Thor, god of thunder   Viking Gods * Thundergods

Viking Vasa ship Sank on maiden voyage, 1628

Christmas traditions
Below are two traditional things about how Christmas is celebrated in Sweden and among some Swedish-Americans.
 

Swedish Angel Candle Chimes "Once an exclusive tradition of the royal families of Sweden ... heat from the candles starts the angels dancing and the dangling chimes strike the bells as they spin around" (From the Vermont Country Store)  This traditional Swedish Christmas decoration is about 12" tall and has 4" candles.	Sankta Lucia "The custom of a young girl dressed in white with candles on her head serving coffee and sweet rolls on December 13th has a complicated background, more fiction than fact. Its origin is from 16th century Germany but it combines elements of the medieval custom of celebrating before a fast." (From the University of Missouri-Kansas City Instructional Materials Center)
I was always fascinated by our candle chimes when I was a child. We only used them at Christmas, as I recall.	Celebrating Santa Lucia was not one of my family traditions, but it is typical of Swedish Christmas customs.

More information about Swedish Christmas traditions:
Christmas in Sweden Jeanne Pasero
Swedish Christmas traditions - with recipes

Famous Swedes

Alfred Nobel Inventor of dynamite in 1866 Left his wealth to pay for the Nobel Prize

Greta Garbo 1905-90 Born & buried in Stockholm Famous Hollywood actress

Swedish Massage

http://www.mamashealth.com/massage/sweed.asp
http://www.amritafitness.ch/massage (image)
http://www.amtamassage.org/journal/genuine.html
 

Highlights of Swedish and Swedish American History
The Vikings (800-1050 A.D.) worshipped the gods Odin and Thor. Our word Thursday comes from the Swedish word "Torsdag" (Thor's day)

QUEEN MARINETTE: Spirit of Survival on the Great Lakes Frontier, by Beverly Hayward Johnson. Historical biography of the life of Marinette Chevalier, a French and Native American woman who lived near the mouth of the Menominee River during the early 1800's. An intelligent, competent and respected businesswoman, for whom the city Marinette, Wisconsin is named.

A Swedish Girl's Journey

Swedish emigration to the US

Swedish emigration to Wisconsin

Religion

Historically, Sweden had a state religion, or church, called Svenska kyrkan (the Church of Sweden). The Church of Sweden is Lutheran, a branch of Christian Protestantism. In 2000, however, it ceased being the state church.
 

Svenska kyrkan (Church of Sweden) Coat of Arms

National Association of Congregational Christian Churches

There were Lutherans in my father's family, but my parents were Congregationalists, another branch of Protestantism.
 

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Last updated: May 28, 2004