Adolph Ersson
Adolph or Adolf Allan Ersson (1890-?) was born in Karlskrona, Blekinge, Sweden on 25 July 1890. Image courtesy of the Northwest Room, Everett Public Library.
A profile in the Industrial Worker says that Adolph Allan Ersson was born on 25 July 1890, the second of six children, and his tinsmith father died when Adolph was eleven. He and his older brother found work, starting at four o’clock in the morning until ten or eleven at night. When Adolph was fourteen, he went to work in a bakery, and at fifteen, he became a sailor and migrated to Australia, where he joined the Federated Firemen’s and Seamen’s Union. He then found work on land. The Industrial Worker reported that Adolph was took part in the great streetcar strike in Brisbane in 1911, but it appears the event may be the January 1912 Brisbane general strike (“Adolph Ersson”).
In 1912, Adolph arrived in San Francisco. He worked and traveled, joining the IWW in Denver on 10 May 1914. In December 1915, he was arrested in Oakland, California, and charged in police court with burglary. Then he was arrested after the shoot-out at the Everett City Dock in 1916.
The master class made an I.W.W. of me by driving me from pillar to post, and is making I.W.W.’s every day in the same way.
—Adolph Ersson
After he was released from jail on 8 May 1917, Adolph was a resident alien and living in Arlington, Washington. On 5 June 1917, he filled out his World War I draft registration card. He claimed exemption from the draft, saying, “Do not believe in killing fellow workers.” The News Tribune of Tacoma reported that Ersson was one of thirty-five men rousted by local police and military officers at the Commerce Street IWW hall. They were forced to kiss the American flag and sing the national anthem while IWW literature and office records were burned in the street (“Ashes of Departed Man Seized in Raid; Flag Salutes Forced”). Everyone in the IWW hall was searched and those with registration cards and no IWW card were released. The rest were taken to jail: J.W. Bennington, Roy Johnson, D. Bradley, Mike Mooney, John Werauch, O.R. Tucker, Edwin J. Goodwin, and Adolph Ersson (“Tacoma I.W.W. Hall is Raided; Men Kiss Flag”).
This number was reduced to two women and four men held under $5,000 bail each on the charge if “enticing, persuading and procuring members of the United States military forces to be disloyal to their superior officers and desert from the services of the United States.” Those six were D.R. Tucker, Mrs. Tucker, L. Maroney, Mr. and Mrs. Sam Jones, and Adolph Ersson (“Charged with Urging Men to Desert Army”).
Adolph’s name appears on an index to alien crewmen who were discharged or who deserted, which suggests he was deported (“Index to Alien Crewmen Who Were Discharged or Who Deserted, 1917-1957”). By 1920, he was living in Brännkyrka, Stockholm, Sweden (“Sweden, Household Examination Books, 1880-1930”).
