He was born in Sweden and naturalized as a U.S. citizen, certificate #255583, on December 4, 1912. The family lived at 1002 Mechanic St., Galveston, Texas at the time. Harry was the only child, then. Anton was recorded as having a tattoo, A.H.S., on his left hand. He was 5'9" tall with blue eyes and brown hair.
For many years Anton was captain of the dredge boat, "Velasco." He was known as "Skipper."
Anton was severely injured in the Texas City explosion of April 16, 1947. The family did not find him for some time, though his sons were looking in every hospital and makeshift morgue around. A neighbor saw him unconscious in St. Mary's hospital in Galveston. The neighbor penciled a note on a torn piece of brown paper grocery sack and tucked the note in Anton's screen door. Till the note was found at 11:00 P.M. that night, the family did not know if Anton was alive or dead. They feared the worst, since he was known to have been on the ship next to the one that exploded. Apparently, he was found under a pile of debris hours after the explosion and taken to the Galveston hospital. Anton recovered, but he was never really the same after that. He was 66 years old at the time of the explosion.
Anton came to Galveston as an immigrant and landed a day or two after the 1900 hurricane that killed thousands of people. He could not speak English. He and all able-bodied men were put in work crews to gather up the dead and start the clean up of the town. He was very afraid he would be shot while working as he could not speak English. There were looters, and people would shoot suspected looters on sight!
Anton and Ida were both named Hokanson and were both born in Brantevik, Sweden. They lived within 2 miles of each other, but they were not related and apparently never met while they lived in Sweden! In Sweden the last names, Hakansson and Hakansdotter used to indicate that the person was the son or daughter of a person with the given name of "Hakan." Only a generation before Anton and Ida were born (or possibly during their own generation) did it become customary to pass down a surname instead of each person being known as Anton, Hakan's son (Hokanson), for instance. So the original person in each family line to adopt the surname Hokanson (Americanized) was the son of a man with the given name of Hakan.
Anton's father was a merchantman and died at sea when Anton was young. His ship went down during a regular cargo run hauling timber from Sweden to Bremen, Germany. Though the Swedish archives give the date of death as October 29, 1881, Anton's son, William Leonard Hokanson, does not know how they could have an exact date, though he does say that Anton was about two years old when his father was lost at sea.
Anton's siblings were Martin (who immigrated to Galveston, Texas), and Nils, Lars, and Inga, who apparently stayed in Sweden. Martin and his children, Nils, Adolph, Victor, Carl, Elizabeth, and Ellen, are listed in this database, as are the other siblings.
Anton once mentioned to his son, William Leonard Hokanson, that his family had moved to Sweden from Germany a couple of generations back from him.
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Last Update 02/09/2005
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