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Hedlund Family

In 1878, Ole Nilsson  took a ship from Sweden to the United States. It took 21 days. He was the son of Ola Nilsson and Kjerstina Nilsdotter.  He worked in Michigan for awhile, and later removed to Minnesota. He saw that there were many families named Nilsson, so he changed his last name to Hedlund, after a factory in Sweden. There he met Mathilda Johnson who had came over from Sweden in 1882. They married in 1885 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They had 3 children here, Alma born 1886, Arthur born 1888, and Oscar born 1891. The depression hit the cities pretty hard, so they moved to Boyceville, Dunn, Wisconsin, in 1894, where Ole had a brother Sven (Swan) Hedlund who was living there, and they lived with him for 6 months. They then bought a farm in Tiffany. There came 4 more children, Carl born 1894, Wilfred born 1897, Martin born 1899, and Clarence born 1903, all in Boyceville.. All the boys were big in fishing and hunting, but out of all the children, Clarence was the only one to go through high school, and on to become an Insurance man.

Alma, the only daughter married  Andrew Herman Johnson in 1906. Arthur married Mable Whistler in 1913, Oscar married Alice Everson in 1927, Carl married Nellie Talmege in 1924, Wilfred married May Alger, then Ethelyn Kellogg 1922, Martin married Edna Kellogg in 1921, and Clarence married Laura "Marian" Whistler in 1925.

The family were very prominant in the area, and members of the Trinity Lutheran Church.  They helped build the first school in Boyceville, they owned and ran the Hedlund Manufacturing Building, which invented the "Barn Cleaner". This brought alot of business to Boyceville from the farmers. They had all helped each other build there own homes in town. Later Oscar and Carl moved to Washington. Alot of family still remain in Boyceville and surrounding areas.

by Grt Granddaughter Jaimee Hedlund