King County WA Archives Photo Group.....Swanson Sibling 1945
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Stephanie Mannion Wrightson swrightson51@gmail.com October 18, 2008, 1:35 am

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Photo Circa 1945.  Left to right:  Siblings, Carl Gustav SWANSON (1880-1955), 
Augusta "Gussie" SWANSON FRIEND (1875-1965), and Matilda "Tilda" SWANSON 
BECKER (1868-1951).  All immigrated from Kristianstad County, Sweden and ended 
up in Washington State, but in different years.  Tilda came to the U.S. first 
in 1885 and, in 1887, married Louis BECKER (1863-1918) who also immigrated 
from Sweden about 1882.  They moved to Issaquah, King, WA and had four 
children.  The BECKERs ran Hotel Stockholm, a boarding house in Issaquah.  
Gussie followed Tilda in 1889.  She met and, in 1897, married Charles William 
FRIEND (1871-1942) whose family was living in Issaquah at that time (Charles' 
father, John FRIEND, owned the Royal Hotel in Issaquah).  In 1900, Gussie and 
Charles were living in Gilman, King, WA with their two oldest sons.  
Subsequently, they moved to Tono, Thurston, WA (a mining town - now, a ghost 
town - that Charles helped establish on behalf of the The Union Pacific Coal 
Company), had three more children, and, then, settled in Centralia, Lewis, 
WA.  Carl followed Tilda and Gussie in 1897.  The least is known about Carl.  
He never married and is found living in Tilda's Issaquah hotel during the 1930 
census with his occupation listed as laborer/odd jobs.  All of the siblings 
were born "SVENSSON" which means "the son of Sven."  SWANSON was the 
Americanization of SVENSSON.  Their parents were Sven TUFVESSON and Petronella 
BENGTSDOTTER.  One brother, Per SVENSSON, stayed in Sweden. 

Additional Comments:
Matilda and Louis BECKER are listed as a "historic family" on the Issaquah 
Press website:  "THE BECKER FAMILY - Louis and Mathilda BECKER were a part of 
Issaquah's boom days before the turn of the century. Louie and Tilda, as they 
were known, were both born in Sweden but immigrated to the United States 
separately. They met and married back East, and moved to Issaquah as a young 
couple sometime before 1890.  They found a town poised for an economic 
explosion based on coal mining and logging. The forward-thinking couple built 
a modern boarding house for the town's hard-working bachelors, and christened 
it "Hotel Stockholm" in memory of their homeland. Tilda's cooking was a big 
hit with the hungry workmen, and all members of the family were kept busy in 
the hotel. Even after Louie's death, Tilda kept the operation going until her 
retirement in the 1920s. She then settled into a big house on Bush Street, 
where other younger family members had built homes.  The couple had one son, 
Elmer, who never married, and three daughters-Lil Becker ENBERG, Blanche 
Becker HOYE and Myrtle Becker MCQUADE. Although the family surname has faded 
away, many of Louie and Tilda's grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-
great-grandchildren still live in the Issaquah area."    

The FRIEND family:  From a chapter of an unknown book:  "Ch XVII, Tono, The 
Farthest West Development" that mentions the arrival of Charles FRIEND in June 
1907.  It states that he was sent there by The Union Pacific Coal Company to 
develop a mine they owned at the Tono site.  When Charles arrived the mine 
was "but a mere prospect hole, known locally as the Hannaford Big Scam..." 
with a dilapidated cook shack and farm house belonging to a homesteader named 
Sumner 35 yrs before.  "...FRIEND was so struck with the new camp, with its 
picturesque setting of lush, green hills, that in August he sent for his wife 
and three children."  By fall, there were eight families in the new frame 
houses.  "Housekeeping was not easy work for these first brave wives."  Bad 
and muddy roads delayed supplies, the one well was often out of commission, 
and rats were numerous.  "  There was an influx of workers after the railroad 
was built one year later, "...and in a short time the village had grown into a 
sizeable town."  "...Tono in its heyday was probably one of the most 
attractive mining towns that was ever constructed in the west." 

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