Bengta Arvidsdotter Lantz, 1838-1880
Headstone GPS Coordinates: Burial location is unknown.
Birth: 20 April 1838, Kattarp, Laholms landsförsamling, Halland, Sweden
Death: 4 April 1880, Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington
Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Richard Lantz
American Revolutionary War Patriots*: None
Bengta Arvidsdotter Lantz was born on April 20, 1838, in Kattarp, Laholms landsförsamling, Halland, Sweden, to Arvid Bengtsson and Johanna Svensdotter. She was one of seven children.
In the 1865 Swedish census, Bengta was twenty-seven years old and living next door to her parents, who were residing in the household of Pål Bengtsson and Anna Aeridsdotter. Bengta was working for them as a maid. The census lists Bengta and her parents as Baptists.
On November 6, 1865, Bengta moved approximately thirty-five miles to Traryd in Kronoberg County, where she may have met Johan Lorentz Danielsson, later known as John Lantz.
On September 10, 1866, Bengta gave birth to an illegitimate daughter with Johan Lorentz Danielsson. A record from early 1870 noted that Johan—by then called John—was a soldier and Bengta was a maid. The same record stated that the pastor of Laholms Church had announced their intention to marry on three consecutive Sundays and that the couple planned to emigrate to America in 1870. Tragically, before they left Sweden, their daughter died at the age of three on April 27, 1870, in Kronoberg. The record also noted that the child was unbaptized.
Less than a month after their daughter’s death, on May 13, 1870, John and Bengta left Sweden and sailed to North America. On the emigration record, they were listed as an engaged couple, indicating that they did not marry in Sweden. To date, no marriage record for them has been found in the United States.
In April 1872, their son Richard Lantz was born. It is unclear whether he was born in Oregon or Washington. In 1875, Bengta and John had a daughter named Sarah. The Washington Territory census lists Sarah as being born in Oregon, while the 1880 U.S. Federal census lists her birthplace as Washington. She was also described in the census as “Deaf. Blind. Idiotic.” In 1878, Bengta gave birth to another daughter, Mary, who was listed in the 1880 census as “blind.”
By 1878, the Lantz family was living at Miami Beach, where John worked as a fisherman. That year, tragedy struck again when their six-year-old son Richard drowned on August 20. Jacob Hauptly recorded the incident in his diary:
1878, August 22, Thursday.
“The little boy (6 years & 4 mo. old) of John Lantz was drowned last night. I held an inquest on him this morning. Verdict – accidental drowning. I was busy all day going round with subscription to raise money to pay burying expenses and to give the balance to the mother of the boy. Husband a no account. I collected about $55.”
1878, August 23, Friday.
“I was busy arranging for burial of the corpse (Richard Lantz drowned). We had the funeral after supper, quite a turnout.”
1878, August 26, Monday.
“I paid Mrs. Lantz $35.50 and gave Maggie Davis $12 to make some clothes for Lantz’s children. Kept out $5 for making the coffin.”
Approximately two years later, on April 4, 1880, Bengta died at the age of forty-one. Jacob Hauptly noted in his diary on April 6, “Mrs. Lantz was buried at 4 p.m.” Her death was also reported in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer on April 9, 1880: “Mrs. Lantz, wife of John Lantz, a fisherman in Seabeck, died there on Sunday last.”
In Fred Just’s book Seabeck and the Surrounding Area and Fredi Perry’s Tide’s Out, Table’s Set, Bengta is listed simply as “Mrs. Lantz” in the Seabeck Cemetery burial list. The SCRP research team is pleased to have uncovered additional records that reveal Mrs. Lantz’s full name and her origin story.
The exact burial locations of Bengta and her son Richard within Seabeck Cemetery are unknown, and there are no records indicating that grave markers were ever present.