Family Portraits - Sepia Saturday 694

This portrait of  my great grandfather Samuel, born 1835, is the only one of him that exists. The sign he is holding says "Lord, increase our faith". Back in childhood I always wondered why, and I can't recall anyone ever explaining. (Possibly they did not know either.) He was a farmer and a merchant; not a clergyman. However (thanks to research done by one of my dad's cousins), much later I learned that Samuel was involved in the founding of a local free church in 1884. Then he was 49 years old, which seems to fit with this photo.

Back then, he was still married to his first wife, Anna Sophia. She died in 1894. (There is no photo of her.) Together they had 9 children, born between 1866-84. Two died in childhood, and another (at age 31) in 1899, before my own grandmother was born.

In 1898, Samuel got remarried to my great grandmother, Selma (born 1861);  she also a widow, with a young daughter. There is no wedding photo or other portrait of Samuel and Selma together either.

This photo of Selma is probably from her first marriage - or even earlier. Her first husband was younger than her; but died when their daughter Hildur was only two years old.

Together, Samuel and Selma got two more children: my grandmother Sally (born 1900) and her brother Nils (born 1902). Samuel died in 1907 (72 years old) and then Selma was a widow again, now with three young children. She did not get married again, but remained living on the farm with her step-son Carl (single), who had taken over the running of the farm already around 1903/4.  

In the census of 1910, two separate households are listed for the farm: Selma and her children (probably at the time living in a separate cottage) counted as one family; and Carl, his brother Gustaf (recently returned from eight years in America) and their sister Ester (housekeeping for them) as another. Later on, it seems that Carl, his stepmother and her children all lived together in the farmhouse, though. 

Selma (born 1861) and her sister Ida (born 1865). Not sure which year, but my guess is c. 1917. 

Ida and her husband Gustav  in 1908
(the year actually printed on the photo!)

 

My grandmother Sally (born 1900) and her half-sister Hildur (born 1892 in Selma's first marriage). Same studio background as in the photo of Selma and Ida. Could be from the same occasion.

Hildur, Selma and Sally, around the same time as well. (Compare Hildur's bow tie here to the one Ida is wearing in the first portrait.)

Another studio portrait of Sally and Hildur
 - a few years later, I think.

Sally's half sisters on her father's side, Ester (born 1876) and Gerda (born 1881). Must be from before Gerda emigrated to America - 1902 or earlier.

Ester, a bit later in life (year unknown)

▲Gerda with a friend, from Chicago (1902-1910)▼
LEFT: Gerda to the right - RIGHT: Gerda to the left

Gerda returned to Sweden in 1910/11, but soon went abroad again.

Gerda in Lyon, France, 1913 (or 15?)

Hildur, Gerda and Sally. My guess is that this was taken on Gerda's return from France in 1919 - after the end of WWII.

Gustaf, born 1878, also emigrated to America in 1902, and returned in 1910. The portrait above is from Port Allegany, probably 1903. The photo below is one I just recently found and realised that it must be Gustaf to the right. It's printed on American postcard paper (but not written on) so I'm guessing that it must be from his later years in America. I don't know who the other two men are.

Once back in Sweden, Gustaf did not go abroad again. He helped out on the family farm for a while; then moved away to work elsewhere in Sweden (also with farm work); then returned again to help out at the family farm - and took over when his older brother Carl died in 1928. But I think the farm was sold after Sally, Nils and Hildur all got married and moved away - to do with distribution of inheritance.

Carl, Selma, Hildur and Sally 

Hildur, Selma and Sally, probably summer 1930

Nils, Sally and Selma

("when big hats were the fashion")

Linking to Sepia Saturday 694 - Portraits

Sepia Saturday 187: The Old Book/“Postillan”

I’ve not had much time on the computer the past couple of weeks and actually almost missed this Sepia Saturday. But when I saw that it was about Family Bibles (or similar) I decided just had to put in a post, even if a little late; because I had intended to do one on this theme soon anyway!

Actually one of the things that kept me away from the computer last week was that my brother and I were going through books in the house that belonged to our parents (and before them, to my paternal grandparents). Among them were some that we managed to sell to a second-hand bookshop, but also some that in spite of their age are considered to have no monetary value.

As we’re getting closer to actually selling the house soon, we now have to make final decisions about many objects that we’ve been hesitating about. I remember finding this book two years ago and deciding to settle for just taking photos of the notes on the inside of the covers…

But that was before I’d found the postcard collection and other notes and photos that gave me more interesting keys to the family history.

So at long last, I ended up taking the heavy old book home with me after all.

It’s not a Bible but a selection of sermons by Martin Luther, printed in 1861. In Swedish known as Luther’s Postilla.

 

It was given to (or possibly bought by) my great-grandfather Samuel and his first wife Anna Sophia in connection with their marriage in 1866. Samuel was 31 years old at the time and his wife 28.

Tillhör
S. Emanuelsson & Anna Sophia Emanuelsson
Herre Led Oss i Din Sanning, för Ditt Namns Skuld.

Belongs to
S. Emanuelsson & Anna Sophia Emanuelsson
Lord, Lead Us in Thy Truth for Thy Name’s Sake

1866 den 27de Januari Blefvo vi förenade till äkta makar härpå Jorden. O trofaste Jesus, behåll oss alltid i din kärlek, att vi till sist för evigt får fira Bröllop med dig i Himmelen.

In 1866 on 27th January we were united as husband and wife here on Earth. Oh faithful Jesus, keep us always in Thy love, that in the end we may celebrate the eternal Wedding with Thee in Heaven .

As far as I’ve been able to discover, there is no note made in the Postilla of the death of Anna Sophia in 1894, or of Samuel’s second marriage to my great-grandmother Selma in 1898. But all the birthdays of his children are listed on the inside of the back cover, including the two youngest born to him by Selma:

No death dates are entered, even for the children who died young. Hanna Elisabeth, born in 1874, died in 1882 at age 8. And Anna Sophia’s youngest daughter, born in 1884 and named after herself, died on Christmas Eve 1893 at age 9(½). The mother herself died four months later, aged 57.

Samuel’s second oldest daughter Olivia also died (in 1899, at age 31) before my grandmother was born .

Samuel got remarried in December 1898 (at age 63) to Selma (37), a widow with an 8 year old daughter (Hildur). My grandmother Sally was born just over a year later (February 1901), and her brother Nils in August 1902. They were a whole generation (37-38 years) younger than their oldest half-sister Emma!

Samuel died in 1907 (when my grandmother was 7 years old). Selma did not get married again but stayed on the farm with her children and Samuel’s oldest son Carl (who never married). Carl died in 1928. In 1930, the farm was sold and all three of Selma’s children (Hildur, Sally and Nils) got married. The rest of her life until her death in 1943, Selma lived mainly with my grandparents – who built the original house, which my brother and I are now in the process of emptying of its last contents before we sell it. (After my grandmother’s death the house remained in our family as summer cottage for a number of years; and then my parents built an extension and moved in there permanently and lived there the rest of their lives.)

So that’s how the Postilla ended up with me. It has been kept in the same house since 1930 when that house was built.

I’m not sure how much anyone ever read it after Samuel died (I think I can safely say that I will never be reading more than maybe a few sentences here and there from it). But evidently, at some point in time, it was considered useful for other purposes as well:

I wonder if there is a way to determine when (and by whom) in the past it was used for pressing flowers in? Samuel or Anna Sophia back in the late 1800s? Selma in the early 1900s? My grandmother or my father in the 1940s?

Sepia Saturday: Postal Service of the Past

These postcards were printed by the Swedish Postal Service in 1969, but depict a postal coach from the first part of the 1880s. This kind of coach also carried passengers.

I found the postcards above when going through my dad’s desk. Besides his interest in stamps, these cards may have been of special interest to him as his grandfather Samuel (while also being a farmer) used to drive a postal coach (no doubt of a simpler model) between the railway station and the country store in a smaller village. According to family stories, that's where, as 60+ year old widower and father of nine (two of whom had died at a young age), Samuel, in the late 1890's, met his second wife – my great-grandmother Selma (then a young widow with one small child). (See photos of them both in the sidebar.)

This black-and-white photo I found among some of my grandfather’s (Gustaf T.) photos that I sorted through a couple of months ago. He was a journalist and photographer and among the photos left behind by him, not all are family-related – and with some it is hard to determine whether they are or not! (Those that I thought were not I gave away to the local history society.)

The building in this photo is the railway station at Fristad (in the province of Västergötland, Sweden). It is the village where my dad grew up, and his parents and grandparents before him. This station house was built in 1900 (the same year my grandmother Sally was born) but my guess (from clothes etc) is that this photo is from the late 20's or early 30's – and might well have been taken by my grandfather.

The post office was also in the station house at first, I'm not sure for how long. Anyway this photo seems to be of the postmen and postcoach drivers delivering the post around the village and surrounding countryside.

My great-grandfather Samuel retired from farming in 1903, and his oldest son Carl took over the task of driving the post as well as the running of the farm. (I know this from an article that my father's cousin once wrote for the local history society's annual magazine.) Carl died in 1928. His younger brother Gustaf ran the farm at the end until it was sold in 1930; if he also took over driving the post I’m not sure. I think that it might possibly be him on the carriage to the right in this photo (not wearing uniform).

Either way, the photo shows a time when postal service was taken seriously!

Linking to Sepia Saturday 182

De två vykorten med postdiligensen gavs ut av Posten 1969, men föreställer en postdiligens från 1800-talet, sedan 1900-talets början i Postmuseets ägo. Diligensen användes för befordran av både post och passagerare.

Jag hittade vykorten när jag gick igenom min pappas skrivbord. Förutom att han samlade frimärken, så kan de här korten kanske ha varit av speciellt intresse för honom med tanke på att hans morfar Samuel på 1890-talet brukade köra posttransport mellan järnvägsstationen och lanthandeln i Nitta. Enligt familjehistorierna var det där som han, som änkling i dryga 60-årsåldern (och far till nio barn, av vilka två dött i barnaåren) träffade sin andra hustru, Selma – då ung soldatänka med en liten dotter. (Tillsammans fick de ytterligare två barn, min farmor Sally och hennes bror Nils.)

Det svart-vita fotografiet fann jag bland foton efterlämnade från min farfar. Han var journalist och fotograf med hembygdsintresse, och det är inte givet att alla foton har direkt anknytning till vår egen släkt eller nära vänner. En del gruppbilder och okända porträtt har därför lämnats vidare till hembygdsföreningen. Den här bilden fanns två kopior av och jag behöll en. Byggnaden är stationshuset i Fristad, byggt 1900. Det innehöll till en början även postkontoret (hur länge vet jag inte). Av kläder mm att döma gissar jag att det här kortet snarare är från sent 1920-tal eller tidigt 30-tal. Det kan mycket väl ha varit min farfar som var fotografen.

Samuel överlät 1903 Storegården till sin äldste son Carl, som också tog över postkörningarna. Carl dog 1928. Jag tror han var sjuklig ett tag innan dess. Fram till att gården såldes 1930 var det brodern Gustaf som tog över där. Jag vet inte om han även tog över postkörningarna. Om han gjorde det, så skulle det kunna vara han på vagnen till höger i bild (i vanliga kläder, inte postuniform). Det känns som om det är något välbekant över silhuetten… Men säker är jag inte.

Hur som helst är det ett intressant foto som förtjänar sin plats i den här bloggen (som ju till stor del bygger på vykort som skickades med post i 1900-talets början).

Selma and Samuel (my great-grandparents)

Min farmors föräldrar / My p.grandmother’s parents.

Samuel Emanuelsson, 27.2.1835 - 15.2.1907
Selma Alvida Pettersdotter, 16.8.1861 - 17.3.1941
m. 10.12.1898 (second marriage for both of them)

Detta är de porträtt av farmor Sallys föräldrar som brukade stå på skåpet i vardagsrummet. Så vitt jag vet, så är det det enda fotot som existerar av Samuel (som dog när Sally var 7 år).

När jag var liten undrade jag alltid varför denne förfader satt och höll i en skylt med budskapet “Herre föröka oss tron”, men jag tror aldrig jag fick något riktigt svar på det. Först nu när jag går igenom gamla familjepapper, så hittar jag också en artikel skriven om Samuel av pappas kusin Sten, som bl.a. upplyser om att Samuel år 1884 var med om att grunda Borgstena missionsförsamling. (Se noteringar till vykort 1.1 - Fristads missionshus.)

Min gissning nu är att fotot är taget i det sammanhanget, då han i början var vice ordförande i församlingen. I så fall bör Samuel på fotot vara i 50-årsåldern, vilket jag tycker verkar stämma bättre än om det skulle varit taget kring 1898 då han (63 år gammal) gifte om sig med Selma. (Hans första hustru Anna Sofia, som fött honom nio barn, dog 1894.)

När jag söker på frasen “O herre försöka oss tron” som jag vet finns i något av evangelierna (Lukas 17:5 - Och apostlarna sade till Herren: »Föröka vår tro.») finner jag på en sida från EFS, att den också förekommer i en sång av Lina Sandell: “O Herre, föröka, föröka oss tron, att otron ej måtte förlama vår hand, när vi satt den till plogen.”

Det ungdomliga porträttet av Selma är troligen också från före hennes äktenskap med Samuel. Selma var 30 år fyllda när hon 21.11.1891 ingick sitt första äktenskap och gifte sig med den nio år yngre soldaten Alfred Lundgren (f. 5.8.1870). Han dog tre år senare (1894, endast 24 år gammal) och lämnade henne som änka med en tvåårig dotter (Hildur). När hon gifte om sig med Samuel var Selma alltså 37, han 63.

Tillsammans fick Samuel och Selma ytterligare två barn:
Sally Maria 3.2.1900 – 27.2. 1979 (min farmor)
och Nils Helmer 17.8.1902 – 1.5.1971

Selmas äktenskap med Samuel varade drygt åtta år. Samuel dog 19o7, när Sally nyss fyllt 7 och Nils var 4½ (och Hildur snart 15).

Selma på äldre dar finns med på en hel del foton i farmors album, men här är ett favoritporträtt som också fanns med bland de inramade fotona. Troligen är hon här runt 75 eller äldre. På foton som jag kan datera till sent 1920-tal bär hon inte glasögon. På ett kort där min pappa är 7-8 år, gör hon det. (Detektivarbete!)

 

In English

As far as I know, the portrait of my great-grandfather Samuel (1835-1907) is the only one of him that exists. The sign he is holding in his hand is a Bible quote and also part of a line from a Swedish hymn: “Lord, increase our faith.” (Luke 17:5)

It always seemed a little odd to me, this photo of the stern-looking ancestor holding those words in his hand when having his portrait taken. But of course back in childhood, I did not really consider when the photograph was taken, and how rare it was in those days to have one’s portrait taken at all.

Now, weighing all the facts that I have managed to gather so far, my guess is that the photo was probably taken around 1884, when Samuel was involved in the founding of a new free mission covenant church. (Compare this post about the first postcard in Gustav’s album.) This was a big thing back then since it involved disassociating oneself from the Lutheran state church and being excluded from (and excluding oneself from) taking part in communion there.

According to an article written by an cousin of my dad’s (also grandson to Samuel) in 2007, church records show that Samuel and his first wife used to take part of the communion in the Church regularly three times a year until the mid 1870’s; then they stopped. This is explained when Samuel instead appears as vice-chairman of the new mission covenant church.

This photo would then be showing Samuel at the age of around 50, which seems about right, and makes more sense to me than assuming it to be taken around the time of his second marriage in 1898 (when he was 63).

Things were very different around 90 years later, in the early 1970’s, when I myself of my own volition in my teens joined a mission covenant church. Since then I’ve also been member of a couple of other kinds of free churches while still also retaining membership in the Church of Sweden. Which, by the way, since the year 2000 is no longer a state church either!

Selma’s portrait is probably also from before her marriage to Samuel, although she was 26 years younger than him.

When Selma was 30, she first got married to a young soldier of only 21, Alfred Lundgren. He died only three years later, leaving Selma a widow with a 2-year-old daughter (Hildur); the same year as Samuel’s first wife, who had born him nine children, also died. Four years later, they got married again to each other, and then had two more children: My grandmother Sally (born 1900) and her brother Nils (1902). But the marriage did not last more than just over eight years, since in 1907, Samuel died too. By then, his eldest son Carl had already formally taken over the farm though; and Selma and her children stayed on there too, for another 23 years. (Carl, by the way, was born the same year as Selma’s first husband!)

In the photo of Selma in her old age she is probably 75 or more (she lived to be nearly 80). In photos that I can date to the late 1920’s, she is not wearing glasses. In photos from when my father is around 7 or 8, she is wearing them. (Detective work, this is!)

---

PS. Additional googling tells me that the bow tie and the beard probably support early dating of the Samuel photo as well!

 

Family photos

G.001-1 Fristads Missionshus 1901

Det allra första vykortet i Gustafs vykortsalbum är från 1901 och visar Fristads Missionshus. / The very first postcard in Gustaf’s postcard album is from 1901 and shows the Mission Covenant Chapel at Fristad.

 

 

‘BREFKORT’ – POSTCARD

Poststämplat¹/postmarked: Odensberg 1901
Till/to: Herr Gustaf Ekman, Odensberg²
Avsändare/sender: Gustaf (?)

¹Den andra poststämpeln på vykortet kan jag inte uttyda.
Portot ser ut att ha varit 5 öre.

²Odensberg ligger i Falköpings kommun.
Odensberg is a locality near Falköping, Västergötland.

 

Den handskrivna texten på framsidan har delvis suddats ut, men kortet verkar ha sänts som julhälsning från en annan Gustaf.

The writing on the front of the card is smudged, but it seems to have been sent as a Christmas greeting, from another Gustaf.

♥ ♥ ♥

Missionskyrkan i Fristad idag (foto från deras hemsida 2012):
The modern Mission Covenant Church at Fristad:

Svenska Missionskyrkan är ett svenskt nyevangeliskt, reformert trossamfund grundat 1878, fram till 2003 kallat Svenska Missionsförbundet.

The Mission Covenant Church of Sweden  was founded in 1878.  It is a Swedish Reformed free church with its origins in the Lutheran Church of Sweden. As a movement they have roots in Pietism and the spiritual awakenings of the nineteenth century.

When Swedish Covenanters emigrated to the United States and Canada in the last half of the nineteenth century they formed the Evangelical Covenant Church.

♥ ♥ ♥

År 1884 var Gustafs far (min farmors far) Samuel Emanuelsson, med om att bilda missionsförsamlingen i Borgstena (där familjen bodde under åren 1867-1897). I denna församling var Samuel till att börja med vice ordförande. Han var också söndagsskollärare. (Uppgiften hämtad från en artikel i Fristadsbygden 2007  skriven av Sten Emanuelsson, sonson till Samuel och Selma.)

In 1884, Gustaf’s father Samuel was involved in founding a mission covenant church in the village where he and his family then lived – Borgstena (not far from Fristad). Samuel was vice chairman in the beginning, and Sunday School teacher.