Category: Soldiers

I always want to know who the soldiers were, where they came from and how their life were, before it ended on the battlefields. I seldom give up. This case is not an exception.

I was looking through some lists from the American National Archive, some lists of those who fell in the great war and never came home again. I am looking through the documents about the soldiers from different states, in this case Wisconsin.

I know that I won’t find many soldiers that I don’t already have in my database, but there are other things to learn from these lists, such as finding those Swedish born soldiers who were brought home to America and reburied in a new American Cemetery, or in another local cemetery.

I look for Scandinavian names, and I can see a lot of Swedish, Norwegian and also some Finnish names, and this gives me a good picture over where the immigrants lived, in what county, in what state, and learn from where the different groups settled.

In this case I found the name Fred Orquist, and “quist” gives me a clue that this might be a Swedish born soldier, or a soldier from a Swedish family, born in America.

I searched for more information about Fred on Ancestry, but that gave me quite few results,. I managed to find some notes from Veterans Administration Master Index, that gave me some date of birth, and date of death. The date of death was the same as in the list over dead soldiers from Wisconsin. Now I also had some other dates to look for.

I also find a photo of his headstone, from “Findagrave”, and also the document over his present burial on Arlington American Cemetery in Virginia. On the card it says “White European, Died in France”

I decided to stay on Ancestry and search for Swedish versions of his surname. This is when I use my earlier experience.

Could it be Örquist? No, no more result from that. Maybe Årquist? No, not at all. I start to take away information, to find more clues, but no result.

I tried Öquist. without the “R”. Ah, another hit, here I get his draft document, and in this case it says Fred Oquist. The date of birth is also the same. This must be the same soldier as Fred Orquist. When did they put in the extra “R”?

Fred Oquist was from Sweden, but from where in Sweden? “Hökenso”? Hm, can it be “Hökensås” a place quite near to where I live today?

I decided to look in the Swedish Archives, but Fred is not a common name in Sweden at that time, not now either, so Fred must a nickname from something else, more Swedish like.

I know from earlier that Fred has been “Fredrik”, “Gottfrid” or “Enfrid” before, but this time I use only the surname, “Öquist”, to search for more clues. It gives me a quite long list as it seems to have been a quite common surname at that time.

I decided to take the chance to search for “Fredrik”, and also use the date of birth, December 22nd, 1891. I don’t use “Fredrik Öquist”, as it seldom comes up with both name and surname in those cases, as they mostly only had the name in the church books, and the surname on the row of the father or mother.

I get several hits, and then something suddenly caught my eye. I saw the name of a farm, “Håkansö”. Could this be “Hökenso”?

On one row I find an individual whose name was Fredrik August, born December 22nd, 1891, in Piteå parish, Norrbotten county, on the farm of Håkansö. Could Fredrik August Öquist be “Fred Orquist”?

Yes, most likely Fred Orquist was Fredrik August Öquist from Håkansö. The name on the list of Wisconsin dead soldiers, has now become an known individual.

Fredrik August Öquist is noted in the church books to have left Sweden in 1910, but I went back to Ancestry and used the real name, and found passenger lists from 1907, when he went over to North America. I can read a weak note in the church book, that he is in Kalix, and that correlates with the destination in the passenger list, Nederkalix.

He first went to Chicago, via Copenhagen, and later ended up in Sandstone, Minnesota, where he lived when he was drafted.

Fred went over to France in February 1918, and as his Next of Kin, he gave his friend’s wife, as his friend, Archibald R Mix, also were on the ship. Fred seems to have been in the States alone, without any relatives. Fred belonged to Company “G”, 127th Infantry Regiment.

Fred seems to have been involved in heavy fighting around the area of Juvigny in France, when he was killed in action. Fred was buried in the field among other Americans who also fell in the region. He seems to have been moved directly from his first grave to the site he has now on Arlington Cemetery, and I find that quite unusual.

Maybe that was a common thing, but I think it was more common that the soldiers were moved to the larger American cemeteries in France, and then moved to another locations, depending on what their relatives wanted.

On his casualty card we can also see his friend’s wife’s name, Mrs A. R. Mix, the same as on the passenger list.

“I now know who you were, Fred Orquist. I really wonder how you were as a person, and what you did in North America, except working as a Concrete Labourer. Maybe I will find out more about you, but most of all I want you to rest in peace.”

At the moment I have limited my research database to contain those Swedish born soldiers who fought and fell in the Great War and are buried or commemorated on memorials along the Western Front in Belgium and France.

I will now extend the research to also connect those Swedish born soldiers who fought and fell in the war and are buried in other countries.

In this small article I will mention those soldiers who were involved in the sinking of SS Tuscania on February 5th, 1918.

On 24 January 1918, Tuscania departed Hoboken, New Jersey, with 384 crew members and 2,013 United States Army personnel aboard. On the morning of 5 February 1918, she turned south for the North Channel en route Liverpool. The German submarine UB-77 sighted Tuscania′s convoy during the day, and stalked it until early evening. Under the cover of darkness around 6:40 pm, the submarine’s commanding officer, Korvettenkapitän Wilhelm Meyer, ordered two torpedoes fired at Tuscania. The second of these struck home, sending her to the bottom of the Irish Sea within about four hours. Tuscania sank nearly three years to the day after her maiden voyage as a passenger liner. About 210 of the troops and crew were lost, while many others were rescued by the Royal Navy destroyers Mosquito and Pigeon.Some of the U.S. Troops were rescued by an Irish fishing boat as well. (from Wikipedia)

Onboard the ship, on his way to France, to join the war with the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), were George Nelson Bjork (George Björk). He was born in Bäcke parish in Västra Götaland county in Sweden, June 13th, 1892.

The family left Sweden for Norway in March 5th, 1897, and stayed there at least until his father, the soldier and later on the corporal, August Björk, died in Norway in 1908. His father is also mentioned once as August Nilsson Björk, and that may be the reason that George is called George Nelson Bjork.

George was drafted for the American Army on June 5th, 1917, and left New York on January 24th, 1918, together with his unit, the 6th Battalion in the 20th Engineers, AEF. In the passenger list his nine years older brother, Victor Nelson, but also a note that Victor doesn’t have Nelson as his real surname. It should probably have been Bjork as well.

Around 11 days later the ship SS Tuscania is hit by torpedoes from a German submarine.

The wreck of Tuscania lies today between Scotland’s Islay and Northern Ireland′s Rathlin Island, about 7 nautical miles (13 km) north of Rathlin lighthouse, at roughly 55°22′N 6°13′W at a depth of 100 m (330 ft). (Wikipedia)

George died during the attack, but his body was found and initially buried at Kilnaughton Cemetery, Port Ellen Islay Argyll, Scotland. It was later moved to the Arlington American cemetery in Virginia, USA. His mother, Sofie Bjork (Sofia Pettersdotter Björk) was informed, as mention Next of Kin on his casualty card.

Sofia lived with her son Anton in Montana at the time of George’s death, and she applied for Naturalisation in 1912, after have emigrated from Norway via England and Canada, before ending up in the USA.

Another Swede survived

Onboard the ship was also the Swedish born soldier Carl M Anderson (Karl Martin Andersson). He survived the sinking of the ship and was later on engaged in the war in France, but later died from disease (Tuberculosis Pulmonary) in a field hospital in Le Mans, France, on April 15th, 1919.

He was later moved to the American Arlington Cemetery in Virginia.

Carl was born on January 15th, 1894, in Asker parish, Örebro, Sweden. He was raised by his parents, his mother Hilma Carolina Nilsson and his father Per Adolf Andersson. His mother died already in 1897, and his father was the remarried to Alma Maria Nilsson.

It has been hard to find the correct information about Carl M Anderson, but I know that he lived in Barren, Wisconsin, when he was drafted to the American Army on June 5th, 1917.

His Aunt, Mrs Ernest Nelson (her husband) is mentioned on his casualty card, and he was working with his uncle, Ernest Nelson. His family may have stayed in Sweden.

I will put in Carl into my research as he participated on the battlefield in France together with the American units, but I will put George into a side project as he never reached the battlefield in France. As for now I will keep those separated.

Although my main purpose with my research is to commemorate all the Swedish born soldiers who joined the different armies in different countries after they have emigrated from Sweden, to fight in WW1, so I might change the focus to include all of them, even if they never reached the battlefields.

That will also include those who became ill and died of disease in England, before they went over to France, and are buried in England.

They did their service, and for that they will be remembered.

Links:

Wikipedia

Western Front Association