Axel and Amanda Bergdahl
My great-great grandfather, Axel Bergdahl came from Sweden sometime in the 1890s. He came from a small town called Armas Jarvi, which was in the arctic circle, about 2 miles from the Finnish border. His older brother inherited the family farm, subsequently kicking Axel off the property, which left Axel with nowhere to live and no means of earning an income. He decided his best option was to travel to the United States to find a job and opportunity. He left sometime later along with his three elder sisters, at the young age of seventeen. They packed all their things and left, coming into the country through Ellis Island. Axel went north from there, all the way to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, following the footsteps of other Swedish immigrants. We’re not sure what happened to the sisters after that, but presumably, they went with Axel to the Upper Peninsula. The UP had a high population of Swedish immigrants, since the cold conditions there were similar to Sweden’s climate. In the UP, Axel looked for work. In the UP, there were three main jobs to pick from: farming, logging, and mining. Mining was incredibly dangerous and didn’t pay very well, so Axel avoided the mines and sometime soon after he arrived, he became a logger. We’re not sure exactly when, but probably a few years after he arrived in the Upper Peninsula, he met my great-great grandmother, Amanda Tornberg. My great grandfather, William Bergdahl, was born in 1900. Sometime before his kids grew up, Axel managed to start a successful logging business. Axel passed ownership of the business on to his sons when they reached adulthood. Not tied down to his business anymore, Axel started work as a cattle farmer soon after passing down the family business. He was successful in his life in the United States, but he never returned to Sweden and stayed in the Upper Peninsula for the rest of his life.
