Alamosa County CO Archives Biographies.....Swanson, Frederick William May 6, 1847 - ?
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Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net February 27, 2006, 9:04 am

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     Ignoring the advantages of an advanced education that were open to him, and

because of the independence and self-reliance of his spirit beginning to make

his own way in the world at the age of fourteen, Frederick W. Swanson, of

Alamosa, has had an interesting career, has tried his hand at several pursuits

and has become familiar with American institutions and the aspirations and

tendencies of the people by contact with them in a number of different places

and lines of activity.  He was born at Gottenborg, Sweden, on May 6, 1847, and

is the son of Andrew and Sophia Swanson, also natives of that country.  The

father, who was a wholesale grocer, died on December 22, 1850, and the mother in

1889.  Two of their children are living, Mrs. John Hillberg, now living in Rhode

Island, and Frederick.  A daughter named Virginia, who was born on May 9, 1849,

died in 1854.  The parents were members of the Lutheran church.  Mr. Swanson

learned his trade as a lithographer in his native land, and worked at it there

for a time, then went to sea, and while on the water learned ship carpentering.

 In 1866 he came to the United States, and until the fall of 1868 he worked at

carpentering in Chicago.  He then moved to Topeka, Kansas, where he worked as a

carpenter in the service of the government for a time, and afterward passed

eight months hunting buffalo to supply meat to the forts and military posts of

the frontier.  During this time he had considerable trouble with predatory

Indians who stole his meat, horses and other belongings.  In 1870 he returned to

Topeka, and after a short stay there, came to Colorado, locating at Denver. 

After devoting six months to carpenter work in that city, he moved into the San

Juan country, which at that time had no white settlers, and devoted a

considerable time to prospecting and mining, making some good finds but never

realizing much from them.  He did, however, have a rich harvest of privations

and hardships in this wilderness, but he was nerved to meet them and enduring

them as a necessary part of his discipline and experience.  In 1872 he helped to

survey the Del Norte townsite, and in the spring of 1873 moved to Pueblo, where

he worked at his trade as a carpenter and builder until the spring of 1877, also

conducting a dairy during the greater part of the time.  His next locations were

at Lake City and Capital City, where he remained until November, 1877,

freighting, mining and carpentering at those places and at Garland, where he

helped to build the smelter in the fall of 1877.  In February, 1878, he located

at Alamosa, one of the six first men in the town, and he is now the only one of

the six remaining there. There were no buildings in the town when he came, and

the mechanical forces were few and in great demand.  Mr. Swanson made by hand

the first sash and flooring used there and helped to build the first hotel at

the place, which was used for the postoffice, for a saloon and for various other

purposes as well as a hostelry for the accommodation of the public.  He clerked

in this hotel and also carried on a general store until the spring of 1880, then

moved to Cornwall, where he opened another store and devoted some of his time to

mining.  He built a toll road through Summitville which proved a disastrous

venture, and his mining schemes also all failed, so he went broke and was

obliged to begin life again.  From 1880 to 1885 he also operated stage and

freighting lines between Cornwall, Alamosa and Summitville, and in the year last

named returned to Alamosa to live.  From then until 1898 he was variously

employed, then opened a store which he conducted until 1901, at the same time

running an extensive real estate business. The latter proved to be a line well

suited to his capacities and fruitful in good opportunities for profit, and

since 1901 he has devoted his energies almost exclusively to it, the fire

insurance industry and ranching.  In his insurance work he represents the

Connecticut, the Home, the Seva, the New Zealand and the Alliance companies, and

does an excellent business for each.  He is also interested in the Costilla &

Excelsior Dutch Company’s enterprise and owns thirty acres of the Alamosa

townsite.  His ranch property consists of one ranch of three hundred and twenty

acres and one of one hundred and sixty. Both are well supplied with water and

improved with good buildings and fences, and they yield him good returns for his

labor in general ranching and the stock industry.  But it is in real estate

transactions that he finds the most congenial occupation and his best field for

industry.  In this he has built up an extensive business and been very

successful.  He is known as a man of excellent judgment in this line, and of

great energy and resourcefulness. Serving as the president of the Building &

Loan Association, he has abundant opportunity to push his own business and help

his fellows to good chances for securing homes and making profitable

investments.  In the public life of the community he takes an active and

serviceable interest.  He has been one of the town trustees since 1891, and his

administration of the office has been highly beneficial to the town.  He is at

this time also county coroner.  In Freemasonry he has taken the thirty-second

degree and filled all the chairs in his lodge, chapter and auxiliary

organization of the Order of the Eastern Star.  On August 22, 1872, he was

married to Miss Clara Olesen, of Sweden.  They have one living child, their

daughter  Hilda, now Mrs. Glen Griffin, of Alamosa.  Their son William, who was

born in 1878 and died in 1887, was the first white boy born in Alamosa.    

Additional Comments:
From Progressive Men of Western Colorado.  Chicago:  A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/alamosa/bios/swanson198gbs.txt

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