This month marks 130 years since my grandfather was born.
Rikard Severin Källman was born October 3 1887 in the foundry town of Grytgol, Sweden. He was the fourth child of seven born to a poor wire factory worker. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was ten. At 18 he worked his way to Gothenburg where he boarded the boat "Ariosto" to travel to Hull, England. At Hull he boarded the train packed with other immigrants which took him to the Liverpool wharf. His older sister Sarona, who had gone to America in 1904, had bought him a steerage ticket on the "Ivernia", destination America. Life must have been pretty hard for him in Sweden because he never returned and I don't think he ever looked back. Maybe the only positive thing a poor and dirty town of foundries and wire factories gave him was black smith skills. Those same skills he had heard were welcome in the large growing industrial cities of America. Cities like Chicago.
my paternal grandfather
Rikard Severin Källman
b: 03 October 1887 Grytgol, Hällestad, Östergötland, Sweden
d: 28 August 1968 Chicago, Cook, Illinois, USA
His eyes were the lightest blue....just like my Dad.
