CONTENTS Folk Life in Sweden 1871 by AH
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(ISSN 0275-9314) CONTENTS Folk Life in Sweden 1871 65 by A.H Guernsey Mathias Bernard Pederson Found 85 by Elisabeth Thorsell Finding Surprising Ties to Halland Swedes 87 by Carl O. Helstrom, Jr. Using the Demographic Database for S. Sweden 96 by Dean Wood Old Issue Revisited 109 fry Carol J. Bern Swenson Center Serendipity 114 by Jill Seaholm The Poor Y ou Always Have with You 124 by Elisabeth Thorsell Genealogical Queries 126 Vol. XXIII June 2003 No. 2 Copyright ©2003 (ISSN 0275-9314) Swedish American Genealogist Publisher: Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center Augustana College Rock Island, IL 61201-2296 Telephone: 309-794-7204 Fax: 309-794-7443 E-mail: [email protected] Web address: http://www.augustana.edu/administration/swenson/ Editor: Harold L. Bern, Jr. 2341 E. Lynnwood Dr., Longview, WA 98632 E-mail: [email protected] Editor Emeritus: Nils William Olsson, Ph.D., F.A.S.G., Winter Park, FL Contributing Editor: Peter Stebbins Craig. J.D., F.A.S.G., Washington, D.C. Technical editor: Elisabeth Thorsell, Järfälla, Sweden Editorial Committee: Dag Blanck, Uppsala, Sweden Ronald J. Johnson, Madison, WI Christopher Olsson, Stockton Springs, ME Ted Rosvall, Enasen-Falekvarna. Sweden Priscilla Jönsson Sorknes, Minneapolis, MN Swedish American Genealogist, its publisher, editors, and editorial committee assume neither responsibility nor liability for statements of opinion or fact made by contributors. Correspondence. Please direct editorial correspondence such as manuscripts, queries, book reviews, announcements, and ahnentafeln to the editor in Longview. Correspondence regarding change of address, back issues (price and availa• bility), and advertising should be directed to the publisher in Rock Island. Subscriptions. Subscriptions to the journal are $25.00 per annum and run for the calendar year. Single copies are $8.00 each. Swenson Center Associates are entitled to a special discounted subscription price of $15.00. Direct all sub• scription inquiries to the publisher in Rock Island. In Sweden the subscription price is 200.00 Swedish kronor per year for surface delivery and 250.00 kronor per year for air mail. This subscription fee may be deposited in a postgiro account: 260 10-9, Swedish American Genealogist, c/o Thorsell, Hästskovägen 45, S-177 39 Järfälla, Sweden. 65 Folk-Life in Sweden 1871 A. H. Guernsey Editor's Note: The following article appeared in the January 1871 issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine. It is an interesting and curious commentary on life in rural Sweden during that time period. The article was submitted by Lynn Johnson,* and is reprinted in its entirety in this issue along with the original illustrations. Subtitles have been added to make the original article more readable. The kingdom of Sweden, exclusive of Lapland, has a population about equal to that of the State of New York, and an area nearly four times greater. The distribu• tion of population is quite different. In New York, a third of the population is concentrated in the two great contiguous cities of New York and Brooklyn, and fully an eighth in cities and towns of from 10,000 to 125,000 inhabitants. Nearly half the population are, therefore, residents of towns. The population of Sweden is almost entirely rural. By the census of 1865, out of a population of 4,100,000, there were 3,500,000 living in the country, 600,000 in towns. Stockholm, the capital, has 125,000 inhabitants, about equal to Buffalo. Next comes Gottenburg, with 42,000 about equal to Troy. There are four towns having from 10,000 to 20,000, and five having from 8,000 to 10,000 inhabitants. The whole number of people residing in towns of 6,000 and upward is less than 400,000. The Bönder Of the entire population fully four-fifths are agricultural. Foreign writers usually denominate this class as "peasants;" but this word conveys an erroneous idea of their condition. Their designation in Swedish, Bonde (plural Bönder), is derived from the verb bo, "to reside," and means simply "dwellers." Sometimes the Bonde is the owner of the farm which he cultivates; oftener he holds it on lease from the crown or from other proprietors. These leases are for such long periods, and upon such easy terms, that they are practically equivalent to a freehold. Others are cotters who rent a little plot of ground, and keep a cow or two, a few pigs, sheep, and goats, and perhaps a horse. They work during harvest for their richer neighbors, and their wages, added to the products of their little plots of ground, maintain them in tolerable comfort. Mere day-laborers are almost entirely unknown in the rural districts. Mechanics and artisans are rare except in the towns. Every Bonde can perform the work required for building and furnishing his house, and carrying on his farm, even to shoeing his horse. There are, however, itinerant tailors and shoemakers, who go about from farm to farm, and rarely have settled homes of their own. ' Lynn Johnson resides at 80 Roan Place, Woodside, CA 94062. E-mail at <[email protected]> 66 Swedish American Genealogist 2003:2 The Forest Hut. Sometimes the dwellings of the Bönder stand alone; but quite as often a few are grouped together into little hamlets. The dwellings of the better class are built much alike. Sometimes the barns and cattle-houses are detached; oftener they form three sides of a quadrangle, the dwelling-house constituting the fourth side. They are universally built of squared logs, the ends notched into each other, the interstices being filled in with moss. The roofs are usually of boards, covered over with layers of birch bark or turf. Roofs of tiles or thatch are rare. Glass windows of good size are universal. The dwelling-house consists mainly of one room, used by the whole family for sitting, working, eating, and sleeping. Upon one side is a huge fire-place, and around the walls are wooden settees, which, on opening, form beds for the family. In a recess, usually provided with curtains, is the bed of the master and mistress of the family. The floor is strewn with twigs of spruce, pine, or juniper. It often happens that the beds are insufficient for the accommodation of the family and guests or chance travelers; in that case bundles of straw are laid on the floor, upon which the occupants sleep, dressed in their ordinary clothing. On Christmas night all the family must sleep in one room; the children upon the straw-covered floor, to commemorate the fact that the child Jesus made his advent into the world upon a bed of straw. This bed on the floor is hence denominated Syskon-säng or "brother-and-sister-bed." In the chimney is a slide which is closed when the wood has been burned to coals so that no smoke is Folk-life in Sweden 1871 67 produced; combustion then goes on slowly, and all the heat of the fire is thrown into the room. Opening into the main apartment is a smaller one, nominally a spare bedchamber; but it is seldom used for that purpose, and serves mainly as a wardrobe for the Sunday finery of the family. Another small room is used as a kitchen. The food of the people is abundant and nutritive, though, according to our ideas, rather coarse. The staple dish is a "brose" of rye or oat meal and milk. The meal is also made into thin loaves, with a hole in the middle. These, strung upon horizontal poles, are suspended from the rafters. Potatoes are the usual vegetable. Milk, butter, and cheese are abundant. Meat is much more common than is usual among peasantry of other European countries; but it is usually salted; the com• mon people, indeed, have an aversion to fresh meat of any kind. The Political Life of the Swedish Bonde Several circumstances combine to produce the peculiar form of the social life of the Swedish Bonde. Until within a few years they constituted one of the four estates of the realm: Nobles, Clergy, Burghers, and Bönder. The representatives of the Bönder used to sit in Parliament and appear at royal entertainments dressed in the homespun garments of their order. Now, however, there is no political distinction between the orders. There are about 3,000 "noble" families, who own about an eighth of the land of the kingdom but their nobility of itself gives them no special prerogatives, although, as a matter of fact, most of the civil and military offices are filled by them. The burghers have now only this advantage over the Sleeping Accomodations. 68 Swedish American Genealogist 2003:2 Bönder, that 10,000 inhabitants of a town are entitled to a representative in the Lower House of Parliament, while 40,000 are required in the country. The clergy have no separate political representation. The Parliament consists of two Houses. The members of the Upper House, 119 in number, are chosen by the provincial assemblies and municipal corporations. They must be thirty-five years of age, have landed property of the value of $22,500, or an income of $1100; they are elected for nine years, and receive no pay. Practically, the members of the Upper House must mainly belong to the nobility. The Lower House consists of 185 members, chosen for three years. Every Swede of the age of twenty-one, having real estate of the value of $280 or an income of $225, is eligible. The delegates receive their traveling expenses and a salary of $335 for each session of four months. The cultivators of the soil have to pay seven-ninths of the taxes, keep the roads in repair, and maintain the Indelta or national militia, numbering 35,000 men.