Mr Johan Svensson

Mr Johan Svensson, 74, was born 17 May 1837. He was a farmer from Reftele, Småland Sweden. A daughter Mrs John A. Larson lived at 165 Chatham St. New Haven, Connecticut and he had two sons, one of whom, Johan Ekström from Effington Rut, South Dakota travelled to Sweden to collect his father when his wife Brita Lisa Börjesdotter died on 2 February 1912 at the age of 74.

Ekström wrote to his father and to his sister and it was decided that he would go to Sweden and bring his father back to the USA. He had few relatives in Sweden (a neice Mathilda Holm lived in Reftele), the closest relatives were living in USA. Ekström had a hard time persuading his father to leave Reftele, he did not want to go, but the son thought it was a pity to leave him alone in Sweden. When they started out Svensson was crying.

They boarded the Titanic at Southampton as third class passengers. Both men died in the sinking, their bodies were never recovered.

References
Claes-Göran Wetterholm (1988, 1996, 1999) Titanic. Prisma, Stockholm. ISBN 91 518 3644 0

Acknowledgements
Leif Snellman, Finland