My Genealogy Hound

JOHN M. DAHLSTROM, one of the earliest settlers of Phelps county, Nebr., is a native of Sweden and was born in 1844. His father, Carl Carlson, was born in the same country in 1798, was a well-to-do carpenter and died in 1878, universally recognized as a good christian. The mother of our subject, Anna Carlson, was married in 1843 and bore her husband two children — John M., our subject, and Alexander, who died at the age of four years.

John M. Dahlstrom came to America in 1868, and for two years worked on a farm in Henry county, Ill., after which he rented a place, which he farmed for five years, coming next to Nebraska and locating on section 12, township 5, range 15, Kearney county, and thence coming to Phelps county, where he now resides, on section 23, township 7, range 19 west, he being the first settler on the divide.

When Mr. Dahlstrom came to Nebraska he had cash and personal property valued at $2,000, having been induced to come by land agents of Illinois who were sending out a colony of ten families. This colony, of course, encountered all the perils and unpleasant circumstances attendant upon the settlement of a new country, besides the extra infliction of the grasshopper plague and hail and drought. During the noted Easter storm of 1873, two families, comprising eighteen persons, were sheltered in Mr. Dahlstrom’s cellar for a number of days; devastation prevailed all over the surrounding country. Corn had to be hauled from Riverton, sixty-five miles away, as well, also, from Kansas; there were no broken roads across the prairie, and on one occasion our subject traveled twenty-six miles, guided by the wind; seed, wheat and corn, as well as eatables, had all to be brought from a distance, and this condition of things lasted for six years. Many of the colonists became disheartened and left, but Mr. Dahlstrom had faith in the future of the county and stood fast, and it was owing to his steadfastness that the settlement finally succeeded.

The marriage of Mr. Dahlstrom took place in 1870, and by his wife, Mary, he is the father of ten children, viz.- — Charles; Almeda (deceased); Elmer; Almeda; Freddie, Melvin, Harry and Freddie (all four deceased); Hannah and Josie.

Mr. Dahlstrom is a self-made man, having begun for himself at the age of fourteen years. He is now the owner of four hundred and eighty acres of choice land well improved and stocked with thorough-bred cattle and horses. In politics he is a republican, and in religious matters he, with his wife, affiliates with the Free church. He has served as an assessor for a number years, school treasurer, and for two years justice of the peace. His standing in the community is in the front rank.