104 Year-Old Mystery Disappearance of Erik Ulrikson from Silverhill
Thursday, July 9, 2009

     Can you picture a family member saying words like, "Will you look for him? Any news! What happened to Grandpa?" It was words like that which brought Paul and Emily Nadeau to Silverhill last week.

     Granddaughter Anna Evelyn (Ulrikson) Nadeau convinced her son Paul to search for her long-lost grandfather, Erik Ulrikson, from Ishpeming, Michigan, who had found work in Silverhill. The family lost all contact with Erik after 1906. Paul's mother (Anna) Evelyn (Ulrickson) Nadeau does not use her first name, going by Evelyn Nadeau.

     The man being sought was Paul Nadeau's great grandfather. The great grandfather was one of the early Swedes in the community. Silverhill, Alabama, was the "Swedish Colony" back in those early years. Erik Ulrikson had emigrated from Bergen, Norway, at the time that Norway was still part of Sweden. He ended up in Ishpeming, Michigan, working as a lumberjack, and having a wife and children. The early Swedes that came to Silverhill were partially motivated by the boom and bust economic times of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Times were tough in Michigan. No work! Erik Ulrikson heard about work in Silverhill and he headed for the Swedish Colony.

     Great grandson Paul Nadeau, and wife Emily, recently searched for his lost great grandfather, Erik Ulrikson, from Ishpeming, Michigan, who had found work in Silverhill a hundred years ago. The family lost all contact with Erik after 1906. The Nadeaus spent a day in Silverhill researching local archives for news of Erik. The only information they found was in the archives of the museum of Zion Lutheran Church in Silverhill.

     By 1905 Ulrikson was established in Silverhill, family still up in Ishpeming. Zion Lutheran Church was organized in December of 1905 and church history revealed that Erik Ulrikson was one of the charter members of "Swedish Lutheran Zion Church." In fact, Ulrikson was appointed as custodian by the original membership, responsible for set up of the church and Sunday school, probably on the upper floor of the old Silverhill school house. A brief review of local history shows that the Silverhill community was doing well in 1905 and 1906 until that great unnamed hurricane which devastated the Gulf area. There was mass destruction and survivors of the hurricane left Baldwin County in droves. Of the fifteen original 1905 charter members of Zion Lutheran Church, you could count those left in the Lutheran fellowship on one hand four years later, based on the 1910 census.

     Moreover, the Ulrikson family never knew what happened to Erik Ulrikson. A couple years ago, Ulrikson's granddaughter Anna Evelyn (Ulrikson) Nadeau convinced her son Paul to try to figure out what happened to the family patriarch. Paul and wife Emily Nadeau were in Silverhill in early July researching what archival data survived from the early days of Silverhill. In the case of Zion, much of the church's history was obscured by hurricane destruction with only sketchy history of Zion from 1906 to about 1913 remaining. What we do know is that many people were displaced by the unnamed very-destructive hurricane of 1906. There is no record of Ulrikson in the church after 1906. The Nadeaus did a little cemetery research while in Silverhill and discovered that there are 25 unnamed burials in Silverhill Cemetery! Ulrikson's name is not on the log of cemetery interments.

     The mystery remains, because there are no definitive data. Did Erik Ulrikson die in the storm of 1906? Is he buried in Silverhill? Was Erik a survivor that left after the 1906 storm for parts unknown? If so, why didn't he contact his family after 1906? There appears to be little way of resolving what happened to him. Perhaps someone in Central or South Baldwin might have some idea.