The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Tim Krohn

November 15, 2009

Letter begins retelling of immigrant’s tragic story

By Tim Krohn

The letter came to The Free Press in June 1986 from Southampton, United Kingdom, and was published as a letter to the editor. John Hughes was looking for information on a distant ancestor, Susie Wallace. All he knew is she had emigrated from Wales to Mankato in the early 1900s.

It was with some surprise that a few days later J.W. Owen appeared in the newsroom announcing Wallace was his mother.

Over the years, J.W. Owen’s son, Richard Owen, and Hughes have put together their complex family tree and filled in the information about Susie’s fascinating, if tragic, life.

“It was an interesting story,” said Owen, 68, who has lived in the Twin Cities since leaving Mankato in 1960.

Susannah Wallace was born in Mankato in December 1886 to parents who had just emigrated from Wales.

Her mother, Mary, died weeks later and her father, Alexander, returned the baby to Wales to be cared for by a well-to-do step-grandmother who lived in Plas Penmynydd, a historic house that still stands today. The expansive home was the birthplace of Owen Tudor, the grandfather of King Henry VII of England.

The working farm featured a full staff of servants, and Susie attended an exclusive private school. She would spend her first 17 years in the rich English lifestyle.

In 1904 her father asked her to return to Mankato, and she left Liverpool on a steam ship to New York, traveled by train to Chicago and ultimately to Mankato. She wrote letters to her adopted family — a family she’d never see again — telling of seeing the Barnum & Bailey Circus in Mankato, her homesickness and her struggle with learning the new phrases and terms in America.

For the next 11 years she lived with her father on Branson Street, and at age 28 she married an immigrant Welshman, a railroad engineer who had grown up not far from her earlier home in Wales.

In 1916 Susie had twins, a boy and a girl named Jean and Mary. The young family had a good income and nice home in Mankato and another child was on the way a year later.

But in a tragic similarity to her young mother’s demise, Susie, age 30, died in March of 1917 from complications of the pregnancy.

A young Owen had little contact with his grandfather Llewelyn (Susie’s husband) but as an adult got to know him well.

“He was a gifted, interesting man. He worked as an engineer until age 70, retiring in 1955.”

Owen has many hours of tape recordings from his grandfather, explaining the rich family history that goes back to Scottish and Welsh roots. The recordings also contain information about his grandmother.

“Her and my grandfather, it was a romantic story,” Owen said.



Tim Krohn is a Free Press staff writer. He can be contacted at 344-6383 or by e-mail at tkrohn@mankatofreepress.com.

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