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‘A Marvelous Family’

104-Year-Old City Native Recalls Years Of Fond Memories

"I had a marvelous family, a sister and two brothers, a wonderful home," said 104-year-old Evelyn Sundholm of Jamestown. "I was the youngest of four and I was a spoiled brat."

She was born to William and Judith Swanson at their Swede Hill home on Feb. 24, 1917. Swanson delivered mail in the factory district three times daily.

"When it was cold, many families had soup and coffee for him," said his daughter.

He worked from the former Brooklyn Square post office. Later, the letter carrier received a promotion to Civil Service examiner.

For a period of time, young Evelyn stayed with a neighbor while her mother worked at Hall's Worsted Mill on Harrison Street. She vividly remembers the toys and activities of her childhood.

"I had lots of dolls. One Christmas I got a beautiful doll carriage. We had lots of tea sets and had tea parties, indoors and outdoors."

She had a playroom off of the back porch of her parents' house where the tea parties were held during the colder months.

"I had a scooter and I thought they were great. We played hopscotch and stone school. We always had a good time," she says. "My father built the house on a double lot so we had a lot of room to play. In the winter he'd get the hose out and make an ice rink in the side yard. I had sleepovers at friend's and at home."

She walked to Sunday school at a church on Chandler Street.

"There wasn't much money and my mother doled out pennies and nickels to each of us to put in the offering plate."

The young girl always looked forward her family and neighboring families Sunday evening walks to a nearby woods where they built a fire and roasted hot dogs and ate the food the women had prepared.

"A great thing was to throw potatoes into the fire and boy, how good they tasted," she said with a smile. "You had to make your own entertainment."

The centenarian tells about taking a path over "path hill" and the how they walked to attend the circus in Falconer.

"It was a long walk and we thought nothing of it."

She enjoyed going shopping with friends.

"Sometimes we would work in a store. I worked in a dress shop all day and got a dollar."

She remembers going to the Roosevelt Theater on the corner of Harrison and South Main Streets and the occasional souvenir glass she was given, which "was a big deal back then."

She attended Willard Street Elementary School, Jefferson Junior High and Jamestown High School from where she graduated in 1936. In either her Junior or Senior year, she met George Sundholm at a young people's meeting at the First Congregational Church.

After high school she got a job managing Ormond Hosiery Shop in the Hotel Jamestown Building.

"I made $12 per week and had to dress nicely."

She had enrolled in the home economics program at Cornell University, but decided to get married instead. Her father said it would be cheaper for him so he bought a new car for her."

They were married on April 9, 1938, in her parents' home on Eagle Street with a reception at a tea room in Lakewood.

"It was hard times when we got married. Everyone got married at home," she recalls.

The cost of rent was $30 when they married. Bread was 5 cents, a pound of coffee was 15 cents, milk was 12 cents per quart and butter was not over 15 cents per pound.

For many years, George was a salesman for Quality Cash Grocery Stores. He earned $60 per week and had to furnish the vehicle to make his rounds. When the business was sold, he went to work for William R. Arbuckle, a specialty house that sold everything from toys to electrical items. After they closed, he worked for a brief time at Inter-Royal where he was in charge of customer service.

The Sundholms bought a house with a big backyard in the old neighborhood on Swede Hill, where they remained for many years.

"There were always kids playing in the yard. A few windows got broken, but that didn't matter. George would fix them when he got home."

Mrs. Sundholm stayed home with their children. After the children graduated from high school, she took a job as a cafeteria manager at Rogers School which she held for 18 years.

"We both got new cars on the same day every three years at Lundgren Chevrolet. We always had Chevy's until the last few, which were Buicks," she said. "I drove 70 years and never had an accident and was never stopped by a policeman."

The couple left their house and moved to an apartment in the Edgewood Community on the Lutheran campus in March of 1987 where Mrs. Sundholm still resides. She is the oldest person on the campus.

Although she had to downsize when she moved to her apartment, she wisely kept several pieces from her former home to remind her of the collections and special keepsakes she had cherished throughout her lifetime.

The first thing that catches the eye of the visitor to her home is a display of 17 assorted porcelain birds. In her kitchen, she displays 15 or 20 of the blue and white Bing and Grondahl dated plates she kept from her collection of 40-50 plates. A tiny tin colander hangs on a wall in the same room. The piece has special meaning, as it was placed in her Christmas stocking by her mother when she was 8 or 10 years old. After Mrs. Sundholm's children, neighbor kids and the children of her children played with it, she decided to rescue it and use it for draining single servings of vegetables for herself.

Special furniture pieces were saved as well, such as the beautiful mirrored corner china cabinet her father handcrafted in his attic workshop. Her granddaughter now has the buffet, hutch, table and six chairs that completed the set. In the opposite corner of the dining room is a small walnut oval table with decorative legs. This lovely piece was rescued by her father when he found it in pieces in a bushel basket on a porch on Harrison Street. When he asked the resident what his plans were, he was told it was going to be discarded. Another of her father's saves, which she possesses, is a chair from the 1800s that was in his neighbor's backyard. He removed many layers of paint to reveal a beautiful wooden piece.

She can still hear her father calling down to her from his workshop saying, "Evelyn, bring me up the glue."

She values the three-tier round table her parents received as a wedding gift in 1908 and proudly displays it in her living room. Two bedrooms hold other special pieces, such as the bed and dresser her father made for her and a round child-size oak table made before she was born.

"We had our tea parties on it. We all used it."

Her husband's side of the family is represented in a wooden chair with a caned seat and a marble top table, both from his grandmother's house in Busti.

The pristine condition of the antique pieces is quite surprising after one hundred and more years of use.

"I've always been fussy," is the elderly woman's comment about the condition of the heirlooms.

George passed away on May 11, 1994, after 56 years of marriage. At this point, his wife made the decision to fill her time volunteering at the Lutheran Home.

"Best years of my life! I had the most wonderful programs. I brought in all kinds of speakers and musical programs. We'd have sing-a-longs," the spunky woman said. "That was the greatest life I could get into at that point. I retired when I turned 90."

The avid reader's friends, Sue and Doug Seamans, keep her supplied with fiction, non-fiction, historical and mystery books from the Falconer Library.

"I encourage people to read."

In the past, she was a Red Hatter, a committee woman and catered private parties. She is a member of the Salvation Army Church.

She feels it is necessary to walk to remain mobile and is looking forward to warm weather, allowing her to walk outside.

Her son, John C Sundholm, lives near New York City, is a retired Lt. Colonel with the U.S. Air Force and a retired horticulturalist. Her daughter, Linda Glover, is retired from teaching junior high students and lives in California. Five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren round out her family.