The Life & Dream of John Anton Wennström

John and Kerttu Wennström with daughter. Photo courtesy of the Wennstrom Family.

by Nancy Nygård

An interview with his daughter, Joan Wennstrom Bennett and input from his son, John Dennis Wennstrom.

John was born on March 24, 1916, in Salis, Hammarland, Åland. He was born out of wedlock to Erika Ingeborg Holmström. Soon after John’s birth, his mother emigrated to America leaving John to be raised by various members of her family. It was a difficult childhood moving from one family to another. He went to school for about eight years. He was a very bright student. When his family wanted him to quit school and begin work, it is rumored that the schoolmaster saw John’s potential, and offered to pay for his continuing education. The family refused the offer, so John ended up working as a cabin boy for the Erikson Shipping Companies of Mariehamn, Åland, one of the last sail-powered fleets in Europe. Later, he worked on a fox farm; he didn’t like either job. Working on the water caused sea sickness and labor on the fox farm was dirty and difficult–he felt sorry for the animals who were ultimately killed for their fur.

In the meantime, John’s mother had married in America. Her husband’s surname was “Wennström”. He had no children of his own and was willing to sponsor his stepson to come to America if John would take his family name. So, in 1936, John immigrated to New York using the surname of Wennström. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, on January 15, 1937, his mother died of pneumonia complicated by alcoholism. John had not yet learned to speak English. In later years, John referred to that period as the darkest time in his life, even harder than the time he later spent in a foxhole during WWII.

However, John was disciplined and resilient. He learned to speak English, he found a job in a factory, and joined several Scandinavian-American organizations in Brooklyn, New York. Then, at a dance sponsored by one of these groups, he met Kerttu Elina Johnson. She was a Finnish-speaking Finn born in ‘Finntown’ Brooklyn. John didn’t speak Finnish and Kerttu didn’t speak Swedish, so they spoke to each other in English. They married in 1941, only a few months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the start of WWII. They started a family; two children, Joan Irene born on September 15, 1942, and John Dennis born on March 21, 1947. Because John’s mother died before he married, his children never met their farmor. However, they did enjoy a long-lasting relationship with her younger sister,

Anna Seralia Holmström Nelson (June 23, 1904–January 17, 2002). Anna had also emigrated from Åland, settled in Connecticut, and stepped into the role as substitute grandmother for Joan and young John.

John’s wife, Kerttu Johnson Wennström, was a kind, caring woman. She had a way of bringing out the positive. She and John were excellent folk dancers and Kerttu fondly reminisced that she was asked to dance at an event in the New York World’s Fair in 1939. Unfortunately, Kerttu died of ovarian cancer on November 1, 1976; she was fifty-six years old.

John was a handsome, athletic, charismatic man. Daughter Joan remembers seeing a picture of her father as a trim, strong gymnast. He was a consummate reader and made a point of reading Swedish daily so that he wouldn’t forget his native language. He never returned to formal schooling but was a lifetime learner, particularly interested in the history of Sweden and the lives of famous Swedes like Linnaeus and Alfred Nobel.

During World War II, John served in the 100th (Century) Division of the Army Corps of Engineers as an enlisted man, rising to the rank of staff sergeant. In November 1944, the Century Division fought the German Winter Line in the Vosges Mountains, part of the southwestern line of the Battle of the Bulge. In December 1944, the Division took the offensive in the vicinity of Bitche, France. John never forgot the bitterly cold Christmas he spent in a foxhole with fellow soldiers that year. By March 1945, the 100th Infantry Division crossed the Rhine and marched onto Stuttgart Germany. When John died forty-five years later, he still had a 100th Division card in his wallet. It read, “Sons of Bitche.” At the time of his death, he was president of the veteran’s association for the 100th Division.

John was a talented speaker with frequent speaking requests. Joan remembers being in awe of him the first time she heard him give a speech about great Swedish leaders. He assumed many leadership roles throughout his life and was always effective. As a young adult he was elected president of an amateur Swedish gymnastic society. Later, he worked with the Boy Scouts of America in Brooklyn and Westchester, New York, as a scoutmaster and as Commissioner of the Orawampum District. He was a member of the American Lutheran Church—Augustana Synod, a board member for Mt. Tremper Lutheran Camp, and also for the Church of Sweden in New York (Svenska Kyrkan or Swedish Seamen’s Church) on East 48th Street just off Fifth Avenue. He was active in the Vasa Club, the Swedish American Club. For a time, he was the President of the New York State District of the Vasa Clubs of America and the Åland Society of New York.

John fostered many of his own values in his children’s lives. This included pride of their Swedish heritage. As a family, they participated in Swedish folk dances in New York and stayed connected with his Holmström family in Hammarland. They were loyal members of Salem Lutheran Church in Bay Ridge Brooklyn, and then Trinity Lutheran Church in White Plains, New York. Both congregations were part of the old Augustana Synod.

John’s maternal grandfather married twice. He had six children with his first wife and fifteen more with his second. John kept in contact with at least six Holmström families who immigrated to the United States, including those in Boston, Massachusetts and Galveston, Texas. John, Kerttu, and their children traveled to Åland in 1961, the 25th Anniversary of his emigration to America. Since then, his daughter Joan and son John have made several return trips. One of Joan’s cherished possessions is a historic, hand loomed Åland folk dress given to her by her cousin Elvi Gottberg. The family connection to their Åland Island heritage is strong.

In 1978, two years after Kerttu’s passing, John remarried. His second wife, Karin Johnson Vasquez, was a native Ålander, so John and she shared many common past experiences. Trips to Åland continued. John purchased a small house in Geta, eligible for land ownership because of his Åland nativity.

John Anton Holmström Wennström died of a heart attack at the age of seventy-three on April 29, 1989. He left behind his two children and five grandchildren: John Frank Bennett, Daniel Edgerton Bennett, Mark Bradford Bennett, Erik Wennstrom, and Laura Wennstrom. He was cremated and portions of his remains are buried in Ardsley, New York next to his first wife, Kerttu; the remainder are buried in the church yard in Geta, Åland next to his second wife Karin. He always said his heart was torn between his two countries.

Through his contacts with emigrants from Åland, John believed there was a need for an Åland emigrant institute, possibly patterned after the emigrant institute in Växjö, Småland, Sweden. The Åland Emigrant Institute could act as a contact link among Ålanders who had left seeking better opportunities in other countries and serve as a means for the thousands of their descendants to keep in touch with their heritage from any point around the globe. During his several journeys back to his homeland, John expressed the need for an Emigrant Institute—unfortunately, he passed before seeing it a reality. However, thanks to the effort of his second wife, Karin Wennström, John’s dream came to fruition. Karin tapped Sea Captain Göte Sundberg on his shoulder and asked, “What happened to the idea of an emigrant institute?” That was the impetus needed to get the ball rolling. The Åland Island Emigrant Institute looks up to John Wennström as its initiator, and in its initial stage of development at the Society Åland of New York as its encouraging supporter and generous benefactor.

Joan Irene Wennstrom Bennett

It is not surprising that John’s daughter, Joan, is also a life-time learner. After attending Upsala College in East Orange, New Jersey, Joan earned advanced degrees from the University of Chicago. She is a fungal geneticist who has held prominent education roles. She served on the biology faculty of Tulane University for thirty-five years and is currently a Distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Biology at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She has been awarded Honorary Doctor of Science Degrees from Upsala College in New Jersey, and Bethany College in West Virginia. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2005, and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021.

Joan also followed her father’s leadership path as a leader. After Joan joined the Rutgers faculty, she was appointed Associate Vice President to establish an Office for the Promotion of Women in Science, Engineering & Mathematics, which promotes gender and racial equity in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering. She is a past president of the American Society for Microbiology and of the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology.

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John Dennis Wennstrom

Son, John Dennis Wennstrom actively embraced his Scandinavian heritage being active in a Vasa Jr. Club while growing up in New York. He was also a member of their folk dancing team. The group performed annually at Lucia Fest and at the 1964–65 New York World’s Fair. He graduated from Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, where he was a member of the Swedish Folk Dancing Team. He taught the dances that he had learned growing up. Later, young John served as Chairman of the Valhalla Lodge of the Vasa Club in Las Vegas, Nevada. At his daughter’s wedding, the father/ daughter dance was a Schottische. Later when his son Erik got married, together they performed the Ox Dance to entertain the wedding party.

This August, Joan and John will take part in the ‘Welcome Home’ celebration in Åland which honors their father’s role in founding the Åland Emigration Center. We hope to hear more about the ‘Welcome Home’ celebration sometime after they return.

Footnote: Joan has been a member of SFHS since early 2000. SFHS held a raffle in conjunction with reaching out to potential Swedish Finn members. For each name and address submitted as a possible new member, you had a chance to win the prize. The prize was a pair of round-trip tickets to Finland! And who won? Our own Joan Wennstrom Bennett! She celebrated her tenth wedding anniversary with her husband, David Lorenz Peterson, in Helsingfors and then took the ferry to Mariehamn where they met with Eva Meyer, who gave them a personal tour of the Åland Emigrant Institute. Again, Joan says “thank-you!”

Photos courtesy of the Wennstrom Family