Joseph Swanson, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Joseph Swanson
JOSEPH SWANSON, merchant, was born in 1826, in Sweden. He is one of twelve children born to Eric and Mary Swanson, both natives of Sweden. When twenty-three years of age, Joseph left home, where he had been clerking in his father's store, and came to the United States and settled in Boston, where he remained a year and a half, engaged in coopering; he then went to New Bedford, Mass., and after a year he joined a whaling vessel, and was on the ocean for twelve years, mostly in the Pacific, leaving the Arctic Ocean in August and going South to the Sandwich Island, New Zealand, Australia, African coast, etc. He was in the Atlantic the first two years; he made two Arctic Ocean trips, and then returned to New Bedford, and went to Sweden, on a three weeks' visit there and in other countries bordering on the Northern waters; he then came back to New Bedford and started for California, remaining in San Francisco for about fifteen months, when he came to Porter P. O. and started his store, and dwelling, a large, fine frame, in which he has a stock of dry goods, groceries, boots and shoes, hardware, etc., worth about $1,000, with a good trade. He has always been a Republican; he is a man of extensive experience and travel, and one of our leading business men. He was married, in 1865, to Johannah Pillman, a native of Sweden. They have five children - Gust, Charley, John, Ida, and Emily.
Source: Goodspeed, Weston A., and Charles Blanchard. 1882. Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana: Historical and Biographical, Illustrated. Chicago, Illinois: F. A. Battey & Company. 771 p.
Page(s) in Source: 312
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Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook