Swan M. Carlson. Saline County lost one of its most capable citizens and one of its best known pioneers in the death of the late Swan M. Carlson, who had come to the vicinity of the present Town of Falun more than forty-five years ago and had become successful and prominent in that locality long before the accidental death which took him from his family and friends.
Mr. Carlson was born in Christala Parish in Sweden December 31, 1850, a son of Carl M. and Anna (Erickson) Carlson. In 1869 the Carlson family immigrated to America. Carl Carlson took up a timber claim near the present Town of Falun in Saline County, and by his hard work in developing that claim he contributed something of value to the permanent prosperity of the county. Carl Carlson was born in Sweden in 1819 and died at Smolan, Kansas, in 1897. His wife was born in 1821 and died at Smolan, Kansas, in 1891. Of their five children, four sons and one daughter, two are now deceased.
The late Swan Carlson was only nineteen years of age when he came to America. In the meantime he had acquired his early education in his native tongue, and he found himself among friends and fellow countrymen in Kansas. He soon found work during the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, and for nine years was engaged chiefly in railroad labor. In the meantime, at the age of twenty-one, he took a homestead two miles north of the present Town of Falun. That farm was his place of residence the rest of his life.
Many residents of Saline County recall the tragic end of Mr. Carlson. He was driving a hay rake when the horse ran away, and in falling his skull was fractured, resulting in his death August 7, 1916. In forty-five years he had acquired all those things which men of ambition most desire. He had bought land from time to time until he was owner of 2,040 acres in a single body. This land was well improved and constituted an immense and valuable farm. In fact Mr. Carlson was one of the largest land owners in Saline County at the time of his death.
Mr. Carlson was always devoted and active in his connection with the Swedish Lutheran Church at Salemsburg, Kansas. He was married March 20, 1879, at Falun, Kansas, to Miss Allida Christina Nelson. Her father, Nelse P. Swanson was a native of Sweden, where Mrs. Carlson was also born August 8, 1856. She came to America in 1875. Mr. and Mrs. Carlson had eight children, five sons and three daughters. Effie, who was born August 30, 1880, and died September 22, 1882; Elmer, born December 2, 1883; Titus, who was born May 24, 1885, married November 22, 1916, Miss Marie Strobeck, who was born May 24, 1892, at Smolan, Kansas, daughter of Stephen and Louise Strobeck, natives of Sweden, her father being now deceased and her mother living at Smolan; Sylvia, who was born January 25, 1887, is now the wife of Emanuel Hedquist of Smolan and had one child, Raymond; Ollie, born November 10, 1889, now the wife of Julius Burnison of Marquette, Kansas, and is the mother of two children; Herbin, born June 22, 1891; Egun, born January 18, 1893; and Walter, born December 10, 1895.
