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Johannes was born in 1867. He passed away in 1944. Johannes Ericsson was born in Stockholm, Sweden 9 of October 1867. He died on 24 of May 1944 at his home Preston Point Road East Fremantle aged 77 (as Jack/John Erickson)
His father thought to be named Eric Larsson was (family legend says) a wealthy ship builder (in the Stockholm area) and it was planned that Johannes was to be sent to the shipyards to learn how to manage them when his father retired. Tragically his parents died in 1871 when he was four and he and his older sister Eva Larssonsdotter went to live with his uncle Lars Larsson. Eva later changed her surname to Larsen or Larson. The uncle was reputed to have had a girls’ academy in Uppsala, the university town in central Sweden where Eva later became a teacher. Johannes disliked the strict Calvinistic discipline of the Lutheran Church his uncle espoused. When he was twelve-year-old he was caught climbing a wall to peep into the girls’ dormitory and sent to the shipyards, by now managed by another uncle where he was paid the same wages as the apprentices and which he resented as well as often having to work on a Sunday. He and some other disgruntled apprentices ‘ran away to sea’. Why exactly is not known but a factor may have been an accident in the shipyard one Sunday in which another apprentice was badly injured in his haste to finish work. On his voyage from Sweden, sixteen-year-old Johannes was shipwrecked of the coast of Denmark and was cared for by a Danish couple who then found him work on another ship. He wanted to hide his identity and signed on claiming to be an eighteen-year-old Norwegian. One of his hobbies in the long hours at sea was making miniature ships in bottles, quite an intricate task which intrigued his grandchildren who wanted to know how a fully rigged ship could go down the narrow neck of the bottle. Of course, the trick was for the masts to lie flat on the hull and be pulled up by attached strings once inside. The bottle and his white tussore-silk suit are in the collection of the Western Australian Museum.
Working in the Merchant Navy in England he had sailed around the world four times on the Crown of England before being involved in the great strike of 1890 when the seamen went on strike for freedom of contract and recognition of unionism. By this time, he had been working for the Adelaide Steamship Company for several years. Those who were involved were sacked. Johannes name does not appear in the court proceedings, but it seems he vowed never to sail again, instead worked in South Australia on the Oonadatta Railway that was completed in 1891. He had of course met Chrissie which was possibly a factor in leaving the sea. They were of similar ages. He was at least 22 and she 20.
Johannes came to Western Australia the next year 1892 hoping to make his fortune on the newly discovered goldfields that were the wonder of a world that was at the time experiencing a great depression. Disembarking at Albany he took the train to York, the furthest out railways went at that stage and then joined men heading for Southern Cross.
In Coolgardie the makeshift post office was a tent with the postman calling out names and addresses as he held letters aloft. There were two John/Jack Ericssons in Coolgardie. There were mix-ups with letters, so Johannes changed the spelling of his name to Erickson to avoid the other man getting his sweetheart Christina’s letters. However, the other Jack Ericsson had had the same idea causing more confusion but eventually added Karl his other Christian name, to his correspondence and became Charlie to avoid the confusion that was occurring.
While in Coolgardie Jack caught typhoid and was in the makeshift tent hospital where they thought he had died so put him on the dead cart. However next morning when the doctor came to certify the dead a nurse accompanying him noticed an eyelid flicker, rescued him from the dead cart and miraculously he recovered. Meanwhile thinking he was dead his partners divided the proceeds and left. He had to start again. He prospected and worked in Kununalling, Ularring, White Feather, Niagara, Flack Flag where his partners were Bill Reardon and his nephew, and eventually Broad Arrow. It was probably at the Niagara that he had some success and sailed for Adelaide to marry Christina who with her long blond plaits reminded him of his sister in Sweden. Christina had been waiting patiently for seven years.
After their wedding in the Methodist chapel in Rosewater Port Adelaide in 1898 Johannes persuaded Christina to wait in Adelaide (presumably with the Udens) until he had enough money for a good house. After two years she was tired of waiting. She had saved her fare, so she packed her grand trousseau – enough linen to last for some years and got on a boat to surprise him. He was surprised but not pleasantly as the house at Black Flag was not ready.
John and Christina had five children Eric, Doris, Albert, Sydney and Jessie who died as a baby.
Sources
- He was my grandfather. Private family history. D. Erickson
