Poukey / Puke Family Letters
Contributed by: Stefan Puke, src #47
This is a translation of a letter that Alfred Poukey wrote to his brothers (Linus Puke) son
Carl Emil Puke in (his nephew)
December 28th 1890
Organ-player and Schoolteacher
Mr Carl Puke
Krogsered, Hallands County
Drengsered Sweden
Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company
Peoria Illinois dec 28th 1890
My dear Carl
Thank you for your loveley letter witch I have waited for for a while, finally it has arrived and I am glad over it. Linus (Carl´s father) has written and answered it from me and says
" Carl sent me your letter to answer" I was surprised when I got the letter but the answer from another place and I wondered what I had written but I have forgot the subject and my mind stood still as an unsolved riddle. Now I have solved it you sent the letter to see it and of course not answered it and you forgot the address. Mystery solved.
As the saying says You can´t wait to long for something good.
Your letter is much welcome more than you can ever know, because soon you stand alone as descendant in Sweden after soon 500 years of our family and hundreds of years has gone without finding tracks of some new kid on the old genealogy tree witch has grown, turned green and carried tasty fruit and left the halfed dry branch shelter for the storm and shaddow for the sun´s heat. Therefore I´m very happy to find out that you have taken your first step on your path how the future can be. (In 1889 Carl Emil got his first child Anna Ingeborg Cecilia Puke) You know that I held my boy´s in school as long as I could until I didn´t have any money left and my own future looked bad.
Axel & Hjalmar studied in 10½ year and I don´t mension the two youngest Haqvin and Alma.
Axel got great knowledge and was good in language, he was young and strong he had a great future here on this great workingfield whitch is good for someone with great energy.
His will is gone the knowledge became rusty as buried iron,he became the heavy worker . he must with heavy and hard work earn his daily bread for dig and chop he must. By the way he is a decent person very calm and don´t do anything wrong all that I had to remark was that he is to lazy to practice his knowledge and capacity I told him so but he wouldn´t belive me. He wanted to go his own way.
He got married and after two years his wife died and left him with a 13 month´s child and a child only 2 days old in poverty. Now he know that his lamp has burnt-out in the middle of darkness as Salomon says. Haqvin is with his and so is Alma. None of the other is or has been married more than Axel but Alma is going to marry a photographer. They all call themselves Arons because Puke is not pronounceable in English because they don´t have u and e is not pronounced.
Their addresses is Cumberland Wisconsin.
However Hjalmar has worked in a drugstore since he came over here. He is now working in a little town Waupun Wiscinsin but maybe he moves . He has in this contry taken 1 class pharmacist examination he work a lot and he is popular his future is in brilliant colour´s if nothing unexpected comes out.
I have lived on a farm in North western for nine years 9000 km ??? from here. It was to cold and bad future so I moved here to Peoria Illinois this spring I work with all kind of things and the days go bye. I have worked some time at the railroad (Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company)
Here live´s brother Carl and his wife and five of his boy´s who are married and have families, one boy and one girl the youngest unmarried.
Two of the boy`s are dead the other´s are fine. Peoria is not seen as a big town but there is big buisness.
It´s over 10 km long and 7,5 km broad has almost 60 big and small churhes some of the churches are very big and magnificent and expencive most of them are Catholic.
The Swedes has 2 small churches.
The inhabitant´s in the city is 45000 but I think that is an old count, there are more people.
The racees are yellow ,white and black and al speak english.
The town has electric light´s and streetcar´s which goes parallel through town 7 eng. miles on every other block.
11 railroads comes in from different direction´s here is the largest distillery´s ,sugar refinery, beer brewery's, engineering (manufacturing) industry and many other witch I can´t describe. A big spectacle of beautiful shop´s witch I don´t describe because my description should for a not trained eye be a strange unsolved mystery.
The surroundings of the town are beautiful on one side there is an river that have steamboat communication (I can go on board a boat here and come to Sweden).
On the other side there is a mountain with the most beautiful tree´s, here is the most beautiful houses and palacees with a wiew over the town, the river and the landscape.
Enough with that, because in this contry there are a lot of wonderful things but also the contrary.
Here is extreme wealth but also the contrary to this because were you can find the biggest wealth you also can find the biggest poverty. Here in America it is harder now for a immigrant to get wealthy than it was before. 1000 yes 1000 has regret their journey to this contry, but many has also found happines. Here is a big school for inexperienced people, but the stuck-up farm-hand and his kind of people here comes to mind things that make his mind stand still as the sun i Ajalunds valley. Unskilled i language unskilled about working methods alone among other people no money the courage falls the eyes are pouring and then comes homesickness and all becomes dark Yes this happeneds a lot.
You writes about the indians but those disturbances are a long way from here. If the indian don´t be in his red skin he eithr be hanged or shoot without hearing what he has to say ??????????
From Anna I can say hello and tell you that she is my wife. Erick is big and slow to read and write he only knows English, he has been working at a cigar factory a couple of month´s. Now I don´t know anything more to write. Excuse me for a incoherent letter. I seldom writes and for the 10 years I ´ve been here and heard the english language I have lost so much of the swedish language that I feel like a stranger when I look what I wrote.
May health and cheerful days come to you and your family you the son the Scandinavia who can live and see your home contry. Yes the place were your cradle stood Yes were your youth has gone with happy memories and your smiling sun has shined your every year with the future sparkling colours. Yes freedom and blessing on you and your house and over all that build in Scandinavia in that is my warmest and kindest regards to you and your wife and your little Ingeborg from me and my wife and children and remain your faithful uncle who´s eye dim´s by a tear.
Alfred Puke
Write fast my address is Peoria Illinois North America
I will send you photograpfs in the future.
I´m 52 years old and have used spectacles for many years.
This is a translation of a letter that Alfred Poukey wrote to his brothers (Linus Puke) son
Carl Emil Puke in
April 5th 1905
My dear nephew Carl and your family
Thanks for the letter at february 28th It came after 5 weeks journey and the letter was postmarked at 9 different postoffices.
The Americans didn´t understand what name it was when there stood two names Puke Poukey.
I´m glad to hear from you and now I will write a lot and I hope you understand because I write seldom and I have lost the most of the swedish .
I have been in America for 24 years- 9 years in Minnesota-15 here in Peoria. We are all well and feel at home .
My first wife died died many years ago I saw her last time in Joenkoeping and I saw Alma 3½ years ago since I left Joenkoeping she lives now i Peoria has been married for 11 years has one son that is 10 years old. Her name is Mrs Johnstone, her husband is an American.
Erick is 29 years and married to an American girl he has two sweet girls that comes often to grandfather and grandmother.
We have two younger girls Hilma och Esther the oldest one married 6 mounths ago her name is Johnson. Esther is with a swedish family all in Peoria.
Hjalmar my oldest son is a pharmacist, married and have two children in Cumberland Wisconsin 800 eng miles from here. His buissnes goes so and so -it´s a small town.
Axel lives there married 23 years ago, a year after that his wife died and left 2 small boys the youngest 5 days- they have grown up now.
Haqvin lives 80 miles from there to the north-28 miles from Dulut has a shop and earns a lot is married to a norwegian has a son 9 years.
My brother Carl died 2 years ago 79 years old he had 10 children all married but half of them are dead of (Exidena at railroad ????) but grandchildren there is a lot of but noone has the surname Puke, just me and my oldest son Hjalmar.
Carls childrens surname is Gustafson and mine is Arons. You have a aunt Sofie that is alive lives in Liviston 40 miles from Peoria.
One of Carl children are rich the rest works for the day. 2 grandchildren are rich married but I don´t know them because they don´t know me.
I have my own home outside of Peoria witch my son Haqvin has helped me with it´s more worth than the russian emperors crown and all of his palaces
Peoria is after Chicago the biggest city in Illinois the poulation is about 100000 here you find many of the largest destilation factorys and many other factorys dozen´s of railroads comes in as the round map shows and their is a lot of traffic whith steamboats on the river that goes to the sea. You write that it have happened a lot in Sweden since I left it and it´s true We have knowledge of what happens in Sweden and also the world here we have a lot of paipers here and it´s amazing what happens inthe afternoon i Stockholm, Petersburg, London, Berlin, Paris, Rom, Japan and China that can we read the next morning.
You write that their is changes in the military system in Sweden I know it well and I have cried a lot over the madness over a body and soul ´s deadly profession witch have ruined and ruined the poor Sweden as the most dangerous cancer and it´s not worth more than a rutten lingonberry or how much has this snobbery bring into Sweden for the last 100 years, but all the taxes been payed under these years to have these body and soul ´s deadly profession.. If they had used this on agriculture instead the whole of Sweden had been a garden from south to the north.
What have these military been learning ? Present arms, walk in step, walk in straight lines and the worst of all is you must listen to a telling-off fron a lieutenant snob who stands in front of you and make a lot of fuss as a bridled chicken which is about to crow for the first time but he can´t.
Has the Boerwar not learned the worlds military a lesson ? boer are no military and generals is not over 30000 against a trainedarmy of 275000. The Boer held against them over 2 years until the Boer not were more than 6000 but England got 125000 dead and wounded
When Englands army should make a attack at the few Boers that were well hidden behind things, they had to keep in step and gave the order (word of command) `Halt'
Closing the ranks and finally load, aim and finallythe command fire should come. But it didn´t come because bullets from the Boer had already killed the commandant and more than half of the company was lieing on eachother dead. In the confusion some rushed back and only a few alive but they had not seen any Boer..
Japan gives another example. The russians should scare the to death the 1:st day and Kuruptkin should in a week dictate the peace agreement for Japan.
You speak about Norway. They don´t know what´s best for themselves , they foment by political aristocrates with help from russia and they think it ´s gainful for them. Only the russians get an icefree harbour and the land they want but let him in and you are about to feel the whip and then they come to the Swedish boarder and beg for help but that will be to late. Shooting-clubs in every parish all over Sweden is recommendable and enough good weapons and ammunition and rewards for good shooting .
The crown prince to come is engaged to be married in England we knew at once even that some paipers thought it should be mis Rosewelt it hadn´t been so bad she is a wealthy girl and beautiful and good manners. In rank Rosevelt stands over any king, emperor because he is elected by the people and rule over a powerful country it´s over 100 million people is and will be the most powerful country in the world.
There is no compulsory military service and only a few soldiers to help the police if they need it.
All the other shall stay at their work there is no time for present arms, walk in step, walk in straight lines and salut an incompetent snob.
A king is born to be a king even if he is stupid as a mule or an idiot , but if it is so here he can not be our head of State.
Now I have written a little bit of everything you can se how I have learned here.
Many in Sweden sees the Emmigrants from Sweden as an insult but they don´t see why here is somethings why.
You shall say hi to your mother from Anna, Erik and me.
I will write sometimes and even send paipers.
If you write just write on the outside of the envelope:
Mr Alfred Poukey
603 Fishgate street
Peoria Illinois
U.S.ABACK- Peoria County, IL Genealogy Trails