The National Trust for Historic Preservation defines sense of place as:

Those things that add up to a feeling that a community is a special place, distinct from anywhere else.

We don’t know of any “thing” that contributes more to a sense of place than the people who live there and the stories they share. In 2009, when Cynthia Beeman, then-board member of the Texas Oral History Association, presented us with the Mary Faye Barnes Award for Excellence in Community History Projects, she said:

The value of oral history cannot be understated. The unique perspectives provided by oral interviews and memories enrich the documented history of our communities and engender a sense of pride and a sense of place that make each neighborhood and community unique.

What we discovered when we interviewed older neighbors is that many of them have knowledge of their heritage—including ancestors who had emigrated from Germany, Sweden, and Austria—and good stories to share with us about it.

LOUISE COOKE was born in California. She told us how her mother moved there from Philadelphia after emigrating from Germany:

My mother came to the United States by herself when she was 17. She couldn’t speak English and wasn’t well educated, but she was sure brave. The stories she could tell! She was so faithful to her family. She never had much money but always sent $10 or $15 to them every month. She never got to go back to Germany, though.

She came over and worked three years, because she believed everybody became rich in America. She was going to make money and go back. She bought her trunk, and World War I broke out, and they wouldn’t let her go. She lived in Philadelphia and had a friend who was from the same hometown in Germany. Her friend decided to move to California. Mother said she’d go, too, since she already had her trunk, and that’s how they ended up there.

JOHN CARLSON was born in 1923 and grew up on a farm south of Georgetown, Texas. His maternal and paternal grandparents all came from Sweden. He told us of his maternal grandmother, Augusta Peterson, who was a midwife:

You talk about an avid straitlaced lady religiously. If she wasn’t workin’ she was readin’ the bible or sittin’ in a rockin’ chair singin’ hymns. Years later, one of my neighbors told me, ‘You know, your grandmother delivered me. She lived right across the field from us.’

John then told us what Swedish traditions his family kept after they emigrated:

Eating! Swedes eat more than anybody in the world—five times a day. They’d eat all day long. My mom cooked all of those meals for 11 people when we worked on the farm. I don’t know how she ever did it. Most of the Swedes were real good cooks. If you haven’t been to a smorgasbord, you don’t know what eating is.

Christmas was very big in the Swedish tradition, too. And, country revivals in a tent, with a funeral home fan to keep you air-conditioned!

John worked for the post office with Kay Ramsey’s father, GLADSTONE SWENSON. His and his wife’s ancestors also were Swedish. Gladstone was from a large family, worked on the farm near Manor, and went to a country school. John said:

He came up the hard way, as a lot of us did.

We interviewed Louise Cooke on January 25, 2009; we interviewed John and Judy Carlson on September 5, 2009. DVDs of their videotaped interviews are at the Austin History Center.

“Sense of Place, Part 2,” next time on Voices of the Violet Crown!