John and Emma Carlson

Johann Karlsson and Emma Nilsdotter led modest country lives in Sweden before they immigrated to
Canada in 1887 and 1893 respectively. As with many Swedish immigrants at this time they anglicized
their names to John Carlson and Emma Nelson endeavouring to fit into the predominantly British
establishment.
Emma found work as a housemaid/cook for a medical doctor on Robson Street in Vancouver and John
worked as a bridge builder for the Canadian Pacific Railway in the Kootenays. Although they came from
the same village of Kinnared, Halland, they became reacquainted in Canada and were married in Greenwood BC in 1903. They lived in an outfitted CPR rail car that travelled between the east and west Kootenays where Emma was the cook for the CPR crew and John a foreman on the line. After their son Ernest was born they settled in Greenwood in 1909 where they built their first Canadian home and where daughter Elsie was born. With the closure of the Canada Copper Company smelter in 1917 they moved to Vancouver where John found work with the Pacific Great Eastern Railway and as a carpenter for Britannia Mines at Britannia Beach. John built a house for the family on 49th Avenue near Fraser street where Ernest and Elsie enjoyed city life. Elsie and her girlfriends would often board the Union Steamship boat in downtown Vancouver for an evening of dancing at the pavilion on Bowen Island. Emma’s house was
always open to friends, relatives and other Swedes for a good meal and lively conversation – perhaps in Swedish although John discouraged Swedish to be spoken in their home in order to assimilate into the Canadian mosaic. An ironic fact given that later Swedish immigrants have strived to keep their language.
With the depression years in the early 1930’s, Emma and John ventured in a new direction of farming
and living off the land on Sumas Prairie in the Fraser Valley where they purchased seven acres from the
provincial government. This land was a portion of the rich farmland that came into existence by the
drainage of Sumas Lake, an astonishing scheme initiated by earlier settlers in the 1920’s. They had a
cow, a flock of chickens and an extensive vegetable garden. Depression time brought hungry transient
men to their door where they were always provided with food in return for a little work on the farm.
Daughter Elsie, a fashionable young city girl, was not happy to leave the city behind but during the
depression she had little options. She soon found employment as a secretary at a local nursery, and
shortly thereafter married and had two daughters. Son Ernest had ventured off on his own and
eventually married and settled in Powell River to raise their five children. After John died in 1952, Emma
moved with her daughter Elsie and family to Agassiz where she died at age 96.
John and Emma immigrated to Canada to provide a better living for themselves. In doing so they
contributed to the early construction and settlement of this country. Descendants of John and Emma
are proud to have their Swedish heritage as a part of their lives today in Canada.
Karen Craig, granddaughter 2024