Selmar Torvald Swenson

Contributed  by: Searchers of our Past

Selmar Torvald Swenson, who was born the same year the city of Breckenridge celebrated its birth in 1876 was buried at Swensondale cemetery, where his parents are buried.

Mr. Swenson, born of Swedish immigrants to Minnesota, came to Bosque county in Texas by covered wagon in 1877 and moved on to Stephens County in 1879, where he has lived since. Always known as S.T. Swenson, he was raised in a log cabin, but helped his parents build the storied white mansion 12 miles southeast of Breckenridge in 1907.

With his two sisters, Alma and Clara, he lived there until 1945 when he and his wife, the former Annie Lee Brazelton whom he married in 1931, moved into Breckenridge. He continued to supervise ranching and oil interests on the 8,000 acre ranch. Both his sisters continue to live at the ranch.

Mr. Swenson's early life was one of hardship, suffering the privations of the pioneer days as he and his family struggled to make a living with their sheep. Peter Swenson, S.T.'s father, and his uncle, Nils, bought 100 acres near Little Cedar Creek, and the family moved into the cabin which had a roof, no floor, one window, three doors, no chimney. Christina Swenson cook meals for the family over a fire in the yard, using a heavy iron skillet which had come from Minnesota with them. She covered the windows from the Texas northers with sheep skin rugs brought from Norway.

As a boy of seven, S.T. tended the sheep, often many miles from home, and when a school house was finally opened, he and his sisters walked six miles round trip to attend a little one room school, held in an abandoned log cabin. Mr. Swenson continued to attend school whenever he could, often walking 12 miles into Breckenridge to attend school. He became a school teacher as a young man, and taught school in several Stephens County schools.

The family home, started in 1907, was built as Peter Swenson remembered the elegant white mansions in Minnesota. Fine yellow pine lumber from Houston was sent to Ranger on the train, then met with wagons pulled by horses and mules. Sometimes there would be two or three teams of mules pulling the wagon loads of lumber over the rough paths to the Swenson Ranch.

Carpenters were employed at $1.50 per day plus room and board. The "boss" carpenter received $2.50 a day, a day being from sun-up to sun-down. The house stands today as the Swenson family visualized it. At least 35 windows face out over green pastures and rolling hills in all directions. The rooms are large with lofty ceilings, the halls are wide and spacious. Gables jut out at odd angles and three chimneys reach toward the skies. A veranda with railing fronts the south and east.

Oil was discovered on the ranch when the big boom hit Stephens County, S.T. organized his own oil company, the Swensondale OIl Company. A small town of that name emerged to accommodate all the employees.

Mr. Swenson ran a successful telephone company. In recent years, he and his sisters left $50,000 for a proposed Stephens County museum, which is still in organizational form.
  

Last Update Monday, 07-May-2018 17:55:41 CDT

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