By David Taylor / Managing Editor
Swede descendants took their turn to share their rich heritage in the area at the continuing series on Crosby’s settlers hosted by the Crosby Historical Society on Saturday, Feb. 8. Hosted at the Brethren Church on the corner of First and Church Street, approximately 70-plus registered for the popular event.
According to their charter and by-laws, the organization is required to host a minimum of four public meetings every year of an educational nature. Last fall, more than 90 attended the meeting on Czech heritage.
Many of the speakers at the two heritage meetings were teary-eyed as they remembered their ancestors and talked fondly about them. Their stories were fascinating.
“This is very important to me and the others here today,” said Donna Davenport, chairman of the Crosby Historical Society. She also had an unexpected surprise when her cousin came to the meeting.
“I haven’t seen him in seven years,” she said. “He lives in St. Augustine now.”
The two cousins grew up together playing constantly at the Swanson store since their two fathers worked together.
“Out of all of my cousins, I think we’re the closest,” she said.
Just feet away from Davenport was yet another special moment at the event.
“I look over and I see this family reunion going on right here with the Lindstroms,” she said excitedly. “They didn’t even know half of their family was here and so they’re reuniting here. This is really, really neat and fun.”
The back of the Brethren Parish Life Center gym was lined with tables decorated by relatives who had brought the rare artifacts, photos, and even some clothes from their ancestors.
One by one, Swede settlers stood to tell their story and heritage of coming to Crosby and how their ancestors made their way to the new country.
“Everybody kind of learned there’s a lot of stuff about each other and how uniquely we are tied together from our ancestors,” Davenport said.
Special speakers included Sara West, from the Harris County Library system; Dee Ann Denson Rook; Ellen Peterson Beck; Donna Swanson Davenport; Anita Runneberg Evans (last living relative of the Runnebergs); and Eric Lindstrom.
Many of the roads in Crosby still bear the names of those early settlers including Lindstrom, Runneburg (Runneberg), Nelson, Reidland, Wahl, Kenning, and Miller-Wilson.
The Swedes settled in Crosby in the late 1800s beating the Czechs by about three years.
“We had a few families, but when they moved in, they overtook us, but we were first,” Davenport smiled.
Dee Ann Denson Rook told about her relative from Sweden, Lars Nelson (1842-1923) and his wife Martha “Mattie” Roos (1849-1936) from Denmark. When he was 20 years old, Lars left home and went to Denmark for four years. During that time, he met the love of his life in Mattie and the two wanted to get married.
“We don’t know exactly why but there was a dispute between Denmark and Germany at the time and couldn’t get married,” Rook said. She said they speculated it was religious since he was a Christian and she was of Jewish faith.
Nothing would impede Lars, and they decided to take a ship and get married somewhere else. They had a choice of Australia or America, and they took the ship to the United States.
They originally came in through Delaware in 1874 and later moved to Manson, Iowa where they settled with another 15 Swede families.
“They formed a Swedish Baptist Church where Lars became the pastor,” Beck said.
He heard about cheap land in Texas and the warmer weather was enticing so he convinced several other Swede families, including the Reidlands, to move south and they settled in Crosby in 1896.
The Nelson edition in Crosby is the area behind where the high school was on Runneberg back in that day on the corner of Pecan Street.
“He farmed cotton and dammed up the gully to irrigate from that turned into a nice pond. There’s a record of people coming from town to swim there,” she said.
Lars also had a livery stable where he would rent out buggies, horses and such.
He also had a hotel or boarding house and would encourage people to come to Crosby.
There are more stories that feature the entrepreneurship of the Swedes found in the Crosby Historical Society Museum. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays and private weekday appointments by calling Davenport at 281-731-7010.
Evergreen Cemetery was established in 1899 for the Swedes only originally, but in1999 the cemetery was open to all ethnic groups. All lots have been sold.
The April meeting topic of the Society will be on the birth and life of the Crosby-Huffman Chamber of Commerce hosted by veteran chamber member Susan Armstrong. A date has yet to be announced.
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