In December 1919, fourteen-year-old Bertha Benson and her brother John, twelve, arrived in New York as stowaways from Sweden, looking for an uncle in Providence. For eleven days the Providence newspapers followed their story, from the news that their uncle was dead to the Swedish families who opened their homes to them. This page tells the story and links to each article.
Arrival
On the night of October 23, 1919, Bertha and John slipped aboard the American freighter Shortsville in the harbor of Gothenburg, Sweden. They had been born in Worcester, Massachusetts, and their mother had taken them to Sweden after their father died. Now she was ill, and the children wanted to go home. The captain, Otis W. Clark, put John to work as a mess boy and gave Bertha his own cabin. The ship docked in New York on Friday, December 19. The Evening World of New York had the story that afternoon (read it here).
The next day the story reached Providence. The children said they had an uncle there, Carl Benson, and the steamship line, which had made them a Christmas present of their passage, promised to find him (December 20). On Monday the Evening Bulletin printed a large photograph of the two (December 22). By then the line had given up the search, and the children had been turned over to the immigration officials at Ellis Island (December 23).
No Uncle Carl
On Christmas Eve the Bulletin reported that Carl Benson had died the previous June 18. His son Ernest, 19, was supporting his invalid mother and three younger children and could not take in his cousins. Their other uncle in Providence, Aaron Calin, would not discuss it, and his wife told the reporter, “Nothing doing. I can’t be bothered with them” (December 24).
The Swedish Community Steps In
Swedish Providence took up the children’s cause. Emil Benson, president of the John Ericsson Auxiliary and no relation, called a mass meeting for Monday night, December 29, at the Swedish Methodist Church on Friendship Street, and every Swedish church and society in the city was asked to send someone (Evening Bulletin, December 27; Providence Journal, December 27).
Meanwhile Ernest Benson went to New York with Hjalmar Janson, a foreman for the Standard Oil Company. With the help of the Rev. A. C. Helander of the Swedish Immigrant Home they found the children, and homes were arranged: John with John Olson of 624 Elmwood Avenue, Providence, and Bertha with Hjalmar Janson in Meshanticut Park, Cranston. The mass meeting was cancelled (December 29). Hjalmar Janson was more than a kind stranger: he was Bertha’s cousin, the son of her father’s half-brother (the research is here).
Coming Home
Bertha was in the hospital at Ellis Island with tonsillitis or a bad cold, and John would not leave without her. He waited at the Swedish Immigrant Home. On December 30 the Journal reported that their American birth had been proved by the records from Worcester and that they would come to Providence within a few days (December 30). Even so, on January 4, 1920, the Boston Post was still reporting that they would be sent back to Sweden unless Worcester could find their birth records (read it here).
The newspapers do not say when they finally arrived, but they did come. Bertha grew up in Rhode Island, and John later lived in Springfield, Massachusetts. Years later, after they had lost touch, the milkman driving past Bertha’s house turned out to be John. Her story continues on her own page.
The People in the Story
- Bertha Albertina and John William Benson
- The stowaways, born in Worcester in 1905 and 1907
- John Peter and Selma Benson
- Their parents, both born in Sweden. The father, a painter, died at Worcester on February 26, 1915; the papers called him Peter.
- Captain Otis W. Clark
- Master of the freighter Shortsville, France and Canada Line
- F. F. Potter
- Marine superintendent of the steamship line, who gave the children their passage as a Christmas gift
- Carl (Charles Ernest) Benson
- Their father’s brother, born Carl Ernst Wilhelm in 1863, a painter in Providence, who died June 18, 1919
- Ernest A. Benson
- Carl’s son, 19, of 86 Corinth Street, a clerk in a broker’s office, who arranged their release
- Aaron (Aron Bengtson) and Emma Calin
- Their father’s brother and his wife, of 241 Ohio Avenue, Providence
- Emil Benson
- President of the John Ericsson Auxiliary, no relation, who organized help
- Hjalmar Janson
- Bertha’s cousin, of Meshanticut Park, Cranston, who gave her a home
- John Olson
- Of 624 Elmwood Avenue, Providence, who gave John a home
- Rev. A. C. Helander
- Of the Swedish Immigrant Home, 5 Water Street, New York
- Byron H. Uhl
- Deputy Immigration Commissioner at Ellis Island; the papers misspelled his name as Uhle
What the papers got wrong
The reporters had only what two children told them, and the stories do not always agree.
- Their ages. Every story made Bertha 15 and John 13, except the headline of December 20, which made them 13 and 11. By their birth records they were 14 and 12.
- When their father died. Most stories say about four years earlier, and the Boston Post says 1915. His death certificate gives February 26, 1915. The two stories of December 27, which say “about a year ago,” are wrong.
- Their father’s name. The papers call him Peter Benson. His full name was John Peter Benson; in Sweden he was Jöns Peter, and in Worcester he registered Bertha’s birth as John Bengtson.
- Aaron Calin, a half-uncle? His wife said so, but the Swedish records show he was a full brother of the children’s father. See the December 24 story.
- The birth records. The Journal said on December 30 that they had been found; the Boston Post said on January 4 that they had not. They may well have been hard to find: Bertha’s was registered under the name Bengtson, with her first name left blank.