Saskatchewan eHealth Genealogy Index
Death Record Number: 1298
Last Name: SWANSON
First Name: ABRAHAM D
Sex: M
Death Date (yyyy/mm/dd) 1912/ 5/ 10
Place of Death:
Abraham David Swanson is buried in the St. Ambrose Cemetery located near Swanson, Saskatchewan. His headstone records the same date as the death record and gives his age at 30 years 6 months, placing his birth around November 1881. Abraham is the only Swanson in the cemetery. According to his son Roy, Abraham died of illness.
If that birthdate is correct, Abraham was around 17 when his son Selmer was born in Minnesota in 1898. Abraham’s wife Theolene Moen was born in 1873, so she was around 25 when Selmer was born.
According to an unverified version of the family tree, Abraham and Theolene were born in Houston township in south-eastern Minnesota.
Abraham had at least two sisters, Ida and Isabel, according to the postcard from Turtle River and an unidentified photo.
Abraham founded the town of Swanson. The town had a post office by 1907, and the birth of Abraham and Theolene’s fourth son Grant is recorded for that same year. Information on the St. Ambrose Cemetery website says Abraham Swanson “homesteaded in this area in 1905 and founded the town of Swanson.”
Abraham and Theolene had five sons:
Selmer 1898-1985, born in Minnesota
Telford 1902– 1989, full name Addison Telford, born “out of state”
Clarence 1904 ?–1943 ?
Grant (called Richard on his birth record) 1907-1966, born in Swanson
Roy (called Russel on his birth certificate) 1910–1996 (my father), born in Swanson
Abraham put down his occupation as farmer on Roy’s birth certificate.
Southeast Minnesota
The Houston, Minnesota, region was the birthplace of both Abraham and his wife Theolene Moen, according to the unverified family tree. In the 1950s and 60s our family and others from the Swanson side would go to Spring Grove to get together with a bunch of relatives from Spring Grove. I only saw those relatives once a year for a few years.
Houston was incorporated in 1874. The community was named after Sam Houston, first president of the Republic of Texas. In 1852, William McSpadden platted the original site of the Village of Houston. McSpadden had served under Sam Houston in the Mexican–American War. Pioneers followed him into the area and by 1854 there were stores and a school among the approximately 40 buildings in the settlement.
A post office has been in operation at Spring Grove since 1855. The community was named for a spring and a grove near the original town site. On the town website it’s claimed that Spring Grove is the first Norwegian settlement in Minnesota.
Swanson, Saskatchewan
Abraham founded the town of Swanson, Saskatchewan, Canada. The hamlet is located southwest of Saskatoon along Highway 45 along the Canadian National Railway.
Homestead Records from the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan
No dates are given in the on-line finding aids.
Sections NW30 and NE30 – Township 31 – Range 8 – W3 (west of the Third Meridian, 106° west, near Moose Jaw and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan)
Swanson, Abraham D. : NW 30-31-08-W3
Swanson, Abraham D. : NE 30-31-08-W3
Statement of coordinates (cartographic): ca. 51.6925, ca. -107.1377
Intersection of Highway 45 and Township Rd. 315
Selmer and Clarence also have homestead records but not nearby.
