Finding Your Roots - A Defiance Connection to Maggie Gyllenhaal, Actress

 

In one of the episodes of "Finding Your Roots," on PBS, the family tree of Maggie Gyllenhaal was investigated.  

How surprising it was to hear Defiance, Ohio, mentioned!

It seems her great-great-grandfather, Swain Nelson, immigrated to America from southern Sweden in 1852 with his cousin, Olaf Benson.

In Sweden, Swain worked as an apprentice gardener on the estate of Count Wachtmeier, and that continued to be his occupation.

He spent just a few years, 1852 - 1855, in Defiance, working several jobs, as he described, and then he moved on to Chicago.

There he found great success in designing landscaping - such as the Graceland Cemetery, Lincoln Park and the Lake Shore Drive.  He actually lived later in Glenview, Illinois where the Gyllenhaal family planted for awhile.

                                                  

                                                 Swain Nelson

It makes one wonder who or what drew him to Defiance?

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