Elsie Axelina and Anna Aurora Dahlgren

Bruno and Emma’s two daughters and son, Elsie, Anna and Alexander, survived to adulthood.   Elsie and Anna’s stories are the topics for this week’s blog:

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When I was a young girl my Aunt Elsie, William Dahlgren’s sister, would visit and tell family stories.  The story of her father’s sisters Anna and Elsie – her namesake – always touched me deeply.  She told of her father's parents, Bruno and Emma Dahlgren, losing most of their children through sickness and the remaining children taken to live in a New York orphanage.   I imagined all kinds of scenarios about the two girls, my great-aunts, and wondered what had happened to them.  This is what we know today:

ELSIE AXELINA DAHLGREN

Bruno and Emma’s second daughter was born 21 February 1895 in Southington, Hartford, Connecticut.  Sometime between 1895 and 1900 the family moved back to Brooklyn, New York and in 1902 Emma died giving birth to their eighth child.  Bruno decided Pennsylvania would be a healthier climate for his remaining children and moved to Bradford, Pennsylvania.  (There is a large Swedish community that gathered close to Bradford in the adjacent town, Jamestown, New York, during this time.) 

Shortly after arriving in Bradford, Ethel, the youngest daughter died from meningitis and was buried in Oakhill Cemetery.  Looking for a better situation for his daughters, Bruno took Elsie and her sister back to New York and placed them in the Kallman Orphanage for Swedish Children. 

New York City Fed Census 1905 listing Elsie and Anna Dahlgren as residents at Kallman's Orphanage.

1905 Census Link:  
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-267-11816-158183-79?cc=1463113

The Kallman Orphanage was opened during a time when the streets of  New York were overrun with orphaned children. Philanthropic groups galvanized people across the U.S. to take in children using the now famous  Orphan Trains.   In New York City,  Gustaf Kallman, a young man from Sweden, saw the same horrific situation among the children from Swedish immigrants. He felt divinely called to help the children of the Swedish population who were not only without parents, but could not speak English.

Kallman's Swedish Children's Orphanage circa 1910.

Kallman's Orphanage History Link:

http://www.kallmanhome.org/Some%20History.htm

Shortly after being placed in the orphanage, Anna was adopted.  Elsie was left behind, living out her young life at Kallman’s  separated from her father, brother and sister.  We know very little about her life from this point.  She probably worked in New York and then returned to live near her brother and father in Bradford.  This picture of Alexander with his first wife, Hilda, and their two sons, Francis and Robert include young Elsie in her twenties.

Hilda Dahlgren and her two sons Francis and Robert, Elsie Dahlgren, Alexander Dahlgren

Elsie passed away from tuberculosis at the Stonywold Sanitorium for Single Women near New York City.   Her sister, Anna Aurora Dahlgren Jansen, took her body back to Brooklyn for burial.  According to my father's autobiography,  Alexander remained very close to Elsie.    "The  death of Elsie hit Alexander the hardest as he had helped her to go through secretarial school;   and had high hopes for her.” (1)  Elsie's place of burial in New York City is unknown at this time.
  

Stonywold Sanitorium

Stonywold Sanatorium History Link:
http://localwiki.net/hsl/Stony_Wold_Sanatorium

Brief obituary for Elsie Dahlgren posted by her sister, Anna A. Janson.

Alexander later named his third daughter after his sister, Elsie.  As a child my father would tell me about his dad and the terrible fear that came over him whenever the children became sick.  I specifically remember a story about his sister Elsie that is recounted in his personal history:

 “ It was the winter of ’34 that was the back breaker…as again illness struck everyone in the family in one form or another.  The more seriously effected was Elsie who developed diphtheria…and would miss most of the (school year).  As usual illness in the family would hit Dad very hard and in the case of Elsie he was most upset as he had seen so many of his family die from (similar diseases).  When Elsie survived he was so relieved that he made her a fur coat and adopted her as his pet.” (2)

1. William Dahlgren’s Personal History, William Dahlgren, pg:8.
2. William Dahlgren’s Personal History, William Dahlgren, pg:38.

by, Lisa Dahlgren

ANNA AURORA DAHLGREN JANSON ALHOUSE

Anna was born in Southington, Connecticut on the 21 Dec 1896 to Bruno and Emma (Johnson) Dahlgren.  She was just six years old when she lost her mother and 8 years old when she lost her younger sister, Ethel.  After the loss of her sister, Bruno, her father, felt he could no longer care for his children and put Anna and her older sister Elsie in the Kallman Scandinavian Orphanage in Brooklyn, New York in 1904.

Anna was adopted a year later by a well to do Swedish couple, Charles and Hilda Janson.  The Jansons worked as furriers and had a shop on 261 5^th Avenue in Manhattan where they also lived. Anna was well loved and taken care of by the Jansons.   Anna missed her sister, Elsie.  Even in her older years Anna would get upset when speaking about Elsie and that she was not adopted with her.  Elsie and Anna kept in touch throughout their lives.

Anna met and fell in love with William Alhouse, the son of German immigrants, Mathais and Anna (Gerkin) Alhouse.  The Jansons did not approve of William at first because he had been previously married and had a young daughter, Arlene, who his parents were helping to raise.  Anna married William anyway.  They eloped and were married in Manhattan, NY on 8 May 1924.  Anna and William first settled down in Jamaica, Queens, NY where their first son William George Alhouse, Jr was born on 10 Jun 1925. 

Anna Aurora  and  William Alhouse

Anna’s adopted father, Charles Janson, passed away on 23 Nov 1927 at which time her adopted mother moved in with Anna and her family.  Anna would take care of Hilda until Hilda’s death.  Bill Alhouse, Jr said he remembered Hilda and Anna speaking in Swedish together especially when they did not want him to understand their conversation.  Bill learned Swedish from hearing his mother and grandmother converse, but he never let them know he understood a word they spoke! Anna and William had their second son in 16 Apr 1935 in New York.  Hilda passed away about 1937.   The family later moved to Stamford, Connecticut.

William Alhouse, Sr. worked as an importer/exporter of chocolate for the Nestles company. He traveled out of country with his work to Belize, Bermuda, Bahamas, and Puerto Rico.  William passed away on 8 May 1962.  Sometime after her husband’s death, Anna moved to California to live close to her oldest son, Bill.   Anna had the opportunity to travel to Sweden once, and she was delighted to have the chance to walk along the streets of Stockholm and to be in the land of her family. There are not many pictures of Anna because she was almost always the person behind the camera taking pictures of everyone else.

Anna passed away in Los Altos, California on 17 Nov 1985. 

by, Paula Dahlgren