Hans Mattson
was born in Sweden in 1832. After serving
in the Swedish Army he emigrated to the United States.
In his autobiography, Reminiscences: The
Story of an Emigrant (1892),
Mattson tells how he arrived in 1851 and travelled from New
York to Buffalo by rail, took the lake boat to Toledo, where he
caught a train to Chicago. After a short
stay in the city he went by canal to LaSelle and then by wagon to
Galesburg. Now out of money, Mattson worked as a railroad labourer
for a $1 a day. After two years Mattson had saved enough money to
buy land in Minnesota.
Mattson was a strong opponent of slavery
and during the Civil War became a colonel
in the 3rd Regiment of the Union Army.
After the war Mattson he worked as a farmer, newspaper editor, and
a land agent for several railroad companies. He was director of the
Minnesota state immigration office before serving as Secretary of
State of Minnesota (1870-72). Hans Mattson, who was U.S. Consul General
in Calcutta (1881-1883), died in 1893.
(1)
Hans Mattson, Reminiscences: The
Story of an Emigrant (1892)
We put our little emigrant trunk in father's old cart, and with
many tears and the breaking of tender heart-strings we bade farewell
to our brothers and sisters. Mother went with us as far as to the
churchyard, so that we could say that she had followed us to the grave.
When we were a little past the farm called Branslan, I turned to take
a final look at our village, Norrback, and I felt as if my heart was
being torn from my bosom. When we passed the dear old church, my soul
was again stirred to its depths as I recalled that it was here I had
been baptized and confirmed and had taken part in the worship, and
now I would most likely never see it again.
(2)
Hans Mattson, Reminiscences: The Story
of an Emigrant (1892)
Looking back to those days, I see the little cabin, often with
a sod roof, single room used for domestic purposes, sometimes crowded
almost to suffocation by hospitable entertainments to newcomers; or
the poor immigrant just landed from a steamer, in his short jacket
and other outlandish costume, perhaps seated on a wooden box, with
his wife and a large group of children around him, and wondering how
he shall be able to raise enough means to get himself ten or twenty
miles into the country.
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