Tilla Pauline (Johanson) Lindhe was born on June 10, 1891 in Rognan, Saltdal (Nordland?), in northern Norway; the closest large town was Bodø. She was the youngest of seven children by Johan and Kristine Johanson; Tilla's father died when she was two years old, and the maternal grandfather helped her mother raise the children. Before she emigrated, Tilla did housework in her community, and she left Norway from Bodø in 1922; she was thirty years old and traveled alone. She landed in Brooklyn and took the train to Tacoma, WA, arriving there on April 1. She stayed with a cousin in Tacoma for a few days and started working right away; she did housework for this family for less than a year and then went to Alaska with a friend and worked in a fish cannery kitchen. She met her husband, Henry Lindhe, who was a main cook in the cannery kitchen, and they married; Henry was from a small community outside Göteborg, Sweden and had emigrated several years earlier. Tilla went to Alaska with his husband and continued to work in the kitchen until Henry found a job in Seattle after two summers in Alaska; Tilla did not work outside the home after they returned to Tacoma. She and Henry had no children. She belongs to Gloria Dei Church and Daughters of Norway, and she has visited Norway six times.
Lineage
Full Name: Tilla Pauline Lindhe. Maiden Name: Tilla Pauline Johanson. Father: Johan Johanson. Mother: Kristine Johanson. Brothers and Sisters: Leonard ? Johanson, Johan Johanson, Andrew [Andreas] Johanson, Johanna Johanson, Gjertine Johanson. Spouse: Henry Lindhe.
From the guide to the Tilla Johanson Lindhe Oral History Interview, 1979, (Robert A.L. Mortvedt Library Scandinavian Immigrant Experience Collection Archives and Special Collections Department)
