Swan Turnblad

Turnblad was the manager of the Svenska Amerikanska Posten, a Swedish language newspaper in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Turnblad was born Sven Johan Olofsson in Tubbemåla, Vislanda, Kronoberg County, Småland, Sweden, in 1860.

The family settled in Vasa Township, Goodhue County, Minnesota, where there was already a sizable community of Swedish immigrants.

Turnblad had the Minneapolis firm of Boehme and Cordella design a Châteauesque-style 33-room mansion for him, his wife, and their daughter.

After Turnblad's wife died in 1929, he and his daughter moved into the apartment full-time and turned their former home into a museum.