The Andersons of Langbro Pursued the American Dream: “Go West, young man!” Axel Ludwig Anderson and Anna Nilsdotter; photo courtesy Jeanne Rollberg by Jeanne Rollberg "A.L. ANDERSON, one of the prosperous husbandmen of Klickitat County, belongs to that great body of foreign-born population without whom the industrial and natural resources of the United States would be in their infancy. He is a native of the kingdom of Sweden, born November 10, 1845.” Thus a State of Washington historian described Axel Ludwig Anderson in a book published in 1893 in Chicago. Two of Axel’s Anderson’s brothers likewise left Sweden in the 1860s and 1870s after seven siblings and their parents, Pehr and Christina Ericsson Andersson, had died. Hilder Yngve Anderson, born July 17, 1848, and Oscar Reinhold Anderson, born April 1, 1850, struck out for America at a time when the United States was advertising opportunities in railroading and farming to Scandinavians seeking adventure and prosperity. From the ...

By Janet O'Conor Camarata   Between 1900 and 1915, 3 million Italians immigrated to America becoming the largest nationality of “new immigrants” during the late 19th and early 20th century. They were mostly artisans and peasants. Many were unable to read, write or speak English and were listed as “laborers” on passenger lists. The migration included representatives of all the regions of Italy, primarily from the Mezzogiorno region of Italy-- southern Italy including the “boot” of Italy and the Islands of Sicily and Sardinia. Alfonso and Antonina (Pastorello) Aronica with their children and grandchild are one such family. Santa Caterina Villarmosa, Caltinasetta Province, Sicily, Italy, 1920 The Aronicas are an example of “chain migration,” a simple concept where early immigrants are known to be more likely to move to a new country or community if people they know already live there. And in turn with each new immigrant, they also are more likely to move where people they now...

Part II—Fire Spreads Death in Franklin Mine By MaryLynn Strickland By 1894 the miners of Franklin were working side by side—people who had migrated from Pennsylvania and Ohio, immigrants from Wales and England, single young Italian men hoping to earn enough money to bring their families to the US and black miners who had been “imported” from the mid-West in 1891.   Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper articles in 1894 related stories of miners striking throughout the United States.  Miners in Roslyn, Washington, had become divided over a wage reduction.  The August 18 paper reported that black miners had accepted the reduction; white miners were holding out and there was talk of moving black miners from Franklin to Roslyn.  Other news of the world dominated the front page of each issue. Picture property of Black Diamond Museum, permission granted for this purpose But “Stifled by Smoke” was the headline on the front page of the August 25, 1894, is...

By Michele Norton Mattoon Grandma worked on the railroad. No, that’s not a typo. Grandma worked on the railroad. No, not a cushy desk job! My grandmother, Mary Grady, of Ravensdale, Washington, at age 40, went to work on an all-woman railroad section gang and worked eight hours a day doing back-breaking manual labor. Women do all the jobs men do now, but that wasn’t the case in 1942. In fact, it was such a big deal that The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Pathé and Time Magazine all came to town to report on it.  First, let me tell you a little about Grandma. Born Marija Bele in Slovenia in 1902, Grandma lived on and worked the fields (haying) at the family farm in her small community. Our family has always said we were from “good peasant stock” and I think Grandma’s beginnings prove that. After marrying and immigrating to America in September 1922 at age 20, Grandma arrived in Hobart, Washington. Her husband had settled there the year before. Alone, and not knowing a word of...

Part I—The Rest of the Story By MaryLynn Strickland A couple of miles east of Black Diamond is the town of Franklin, now a ghost town but once the site of the Oregon Improvement Company’s mine.  Inhabitants were made up of immigrants mostly Welsh, English, Irish, Italian and Scots.  Other European immigrants included Swedes, Poles and Austrians.  When the Seattle to Walla Walla Railroad was extended to Franklin, coal was shipped to San Francisco and the operations grew. Picture property of Black Diamond Museum, permission granted for use in this purpose. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 18, 1891, described Franklin thus: Franklin is blessed with one of the most beautiful sites in Washington, though it is the last place a real estate man would choose for a townsite.  It clings to the steep side of a mountain which rises precipitously from the right bank of the raging, roaring, tumbling Green river (sic).  The main part of the town is so high up t...