[Charles Henrickson]

I guess Chicago was a popular destination for Scandinavians in the early 1900s.

Yes, it was. At that time, Chicago had more Swedes than any city in the world next to Stockholm, I think.

My grandfather, Karl Henriksson, came over as a young man in 1902, his name was changed to Charles Henrickson (I'm named after him), and he settled in Chicago. He was a house painter. They say that the Swedes built Chicago.

When I go up to Chicago, I like to stop in Andersonville (the Swedish shopping district on the north side) and get some Swedish food to take back to St. Louis (a Swede-deficient city).

Everyone thinks of Minneapolis as the Swedish capital of America, but there are just as many (if not more) Swedes in the Chicago area.

[brianl703]

I somehow thought there are a lot Swedes in the Chicago area. I guess the Germans got to name most of the streets in the Chicago area, though. I was in Hanover, PA a few weeks ago and I would have thought I was in a Chicago suburb from the street names.