The Swedish Satchel

Fredrik Ortegren, age nineteen, arrived from Sweden in New York in 1903, carrying the leather satchel his loving father had made for this trip. The story of Fredrik’s life begins in rural Sweden, far north of Stockholm. The lifestyle there at the end of the century conveys the warmth of the family with six children, the father often traveling north to barter with fur trappers for desired fox, lynx, and mink furs, mainstays of the Ortegren furrier business.

The Swedish monetary depression at ...