Historic Homes and Businesses in Carver - Carver County Historical ...

over that business. Emanuel and Christine Swanson are buried in East Union Church
Cemetery in Dahlgren Township.
Swanson‟s successor, C. A. Walquist, was born on July 31, 1884 in Essunga Parish,
Västergotland, Sweden and immigrated to the United States in 1904. He took up the
blacksmith trade and was known to be skilled in shoeing horses. As early as 1908,
perhaps first as a renter, and certainly by 1911 as an owner, he was the working
proprietor of the blacksmith shop once owned by Emanuel Swanson. On June 12, 1908
he married Esther Olivia Almquist (born 1886) in Dahlgren‟s East Union Church. The
same year the couple became members of the Swedish congregation of Salem Lutheran
Church in Carver. By 1911 C. (Charles/Carl) A. Walquist‟s blacksmith shop was located
in the center two-story portion of the building, with a wagon shop located in the eastern
one-story wing and a painting area located in the western one-story wing. Walquist
owned the house and ran a successful blacksmithing business, providing the family
enough income to purchase a large new touring car around 1920. Walquist ran the
blacksmith shop until October 1920 when tragedy devastated the family.
On Sunday, October 3, 1920 C. A.Walquist drove his wife and two daughters in their
new touring sedan to St. Paul for a visit to his brother, William. On Sunday evening the
family was on their way home, making their way eastbound on University Avenue at
LaSalle near the Midway Bridge between St. Paul and Minneapolis. Shortly after 8 p.m.
their touring car collided nearly head on with a westbound streetcar. The four Walquist
family members were rushed to two area hospitals. C. A. Walquist, who had been
driving, and his 9-year-old daughter Olivia, seated behind him, both died shortly after the
accident. Esther Walquist and 15-year old daughter Angeline were badly hurt, but
survived.
When word of the accident reached Carver it cast a shadow of gloom over the whole
town. When the Walquist funerals were held the following Friday afternoon, all of the
Carver businesses closed. The funeral for Charles and daughter Olivia took place in the
family home at 1:30 p. m., after which everyone proceeded to the Carver Presbyterian
Church (today called the Church by the River) for another service, with burials taking
place in the West Union Church Cemetery in Hancock Township. The funeral procession
was said to be the largest in memory in Carver. Six high school boys carried Olivia‟s
casket, while six of Olivia‟s female classmates followed dressed in white. Carver
businessmen provided a broken-wheel flower arrangement, testifying to Charles‟
blacksmith trade, and many members of the Carver County Blacksmith Association
attended.
After the accident, widow Esther Walquist was forced to sell both the house and
blacksmith shop. In 1921-22 the property title for both was transferred to blacksmith
August Morose and his wife Mary, whose father Frank Plackner had been Carver‟s
Justice of the Peace, Carver Constable, ferryman, and saloon owner at 404 Broadway in
Carver. August Morose had earlier had been engaged in farming. August Morose (born
1891) continued to run the blacksmith shop at least until 1928, and perhaps much longer,
though then it seems to have been doing automobile repair work as well. The blacksmith