CONSTRUCTING COMMUNITIES The establishment and demographic development of sawmill communities in the Sundsvall district, 1850-1890 Maria Bergman Institutionen för idé och samhällsstudier 901 87 Umeå Umeå 2009 1 Report no. 31 from the Demographic Data Base, Umeå university Copyright©Maria Bergman ISBN: 978-91-7459-034-0 ISSN: 0349-5132 Cover illustration: Family, Gustafsberg sawmill 1922, SCA Bildarkiv Print: Print & Media, Umeå University Compositor: Berit Eriksson, Demographic Data Base, Umeå University Umeå, Sweden 2010 2 Till minne av min farfar Frans Bergman 3 Table of contents Acknowledgements 10 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 12 1:1 Aim 13 1:2 Structure and questions 13 1:3 Previous research 16 The Swedish sawmills 17 - The sawmill communities 17 - Settlement and residency 18 - Husbands and wives 19 - Friends and neighbours 21 Migration 22 - Migration during 19th century Sweden 22 - Recruitment and migration 25 - Migrant types 27 - The sawmills and local agricultural populations 28 Family and kinship 30 - A weakened family? 30 - Family and kin 31 - Kinship networks 32 - Kinship and migration 35 1:4 Theoretical framework and defi nitions 36 Defi ning community 36 Defi ning the sawmill community 37 Defi ning the sawmill population 41 Relationship between employees and employers 43 Defi ning area, site and community 45 1:5 Geographic defi nitions and parishes 45 1:6 Sources and methods 47 The digitised church registers 49 Methodological concerns regarding the data 49 The 1879 lists and the sawmill strike 53 The origin of the 1879 lists 55 Methodological concerns regarding the 1879 lists 57 4 - Criteria of inclusion and exclusion 58 - The issue of names 58 - Inconsistencies with dates and actual presence 60 Chapter 2 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SAWMILL INDUSTRY 62 2:1 The emergence of the sawmill industry 64 Sweden at the beginning of the 19th century 64 Industrial prerequisites 64 Geographical prerequisites for the sawmill industry 67 2:2 Steam power vs. water power 70 Steam powered sawmills in the Sundsvall district 72 2:3 Production and export 73 2:4 The sawmill owners 76 Industrialists and power 77 Management and relationships 78 A small circle – family and networks 80 2:5 Conclusions 82 Chapter 3 THE SAWMILL COMMUNITIES 84 3:1 Creating communities 85 The sawmill communities physical structure 88 The workers residences 91 3:2 Social structures 94 Social change and the popular movements 95 Doctrines – similarities and differences 96 3:3 The industry and working conditions 100 A seasonal character 100 Employment 101 Women at the sawmills 103 Child labour 105 Working hours 107 Benefi ts 109 Wages 110 Controlling wages 112 3:4 Conclusions 113 Chapter 4 POPULATION DEVELOPMENT 115 4:1 Population development in Västernorrland during the 19th century 116 5 Population developments in the Sundsvall district 117 4:2 Population development in sawmill areas 119 Development of sawmill populations in Skön parish 121 Development of sawmill populations in Alnö parish 122 Development of sawmill populations in Njurunda and Tuna parishes 125 4:3 Infl uencing aspects 126 Population proximity 126 - Community construction and population 128 Year of construction 129 Industrial expansion and population development 132 - Skön parish 132 - Njurunda and Tuna parishes 133 - Alnö parish 134 - Community construction and expansions 135 4:4 Population development and sawmill communities in Alnö 136 4:5 Population development when the sawmill closed 138 4:6 Conclusions 140 Chapter 5 MIGRATION 142 5:1 Migration in the Sundsvall district 143 In- and out-migration according to parish 144 Migration to and from sawmill areas 147 Single and group migration 150 5:2 Internal parish migration 153 Internal parish migration according to parish 155 Geographical background 157 Internal parish migration to and from sawmill areas 159 Village to village migration and relocation 161 5:3 Migratory hesitations 163 Migratory barriers 164 The question of a barrier 168 5:4 Conclusions 170 Chapter 6 RESIDENCY AND REGISTRATION 172 6:1 The de jure and de facto populations 173 Workers included and identifi ed 175 Church registration according to the 1879 lists 175 6 Identifi ed workers with unoffi cial presence 176 Identifi ed workers with unoffi cial presence and residency 178 Unidentifi ed workers with unoffi cial presence 179 6:2 The importance of residency 180 De facto residency among the workers 180 A home of one’s own 181 Assets 1879 183 6:3 Becoming settled 185 Time spent at the sawmills 185 6:4 Conclusions 189 Chapter 7 DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURES 191 7:1 A male-dominated community? 192 Number of sawmill workers 192 Occupational titles within the sawmill communities 193 Registered males 195 Registered females 199 Registered children 200 7:2 Sawmill workers and age 202 Age according to the 1879 lists 203 7:3 Marital status among the sawmill populations 205 Marital status 1879 207 7:4 Family and household size 208 Children born 208 Household size 1879 210 7:5 Conclusions 212 Chapter 8 FAMILY AND KINSHIP 214 8:1 Reconstructing kinship networks 215 The linking process and network structure 217 Defi ning kinship networks 218 Identifi ed relationships 218 8:2 Kinship networks in the sawmill communities 220 Kin-connected workers 220 Kinship networks 221 Kinship relationships 223 Start of kin relationships 225 Kinship relationships through male or female kin 227 7 8:3 Marriage in the sawmill communities 229 Marriage 229 Partner selection and kin 230 Partner selection at Svartvik 232 - The Tolf family 232 - The Hägglund family 235 8:4 Recruitment to the industries 237 Kin recruitment 238 Kin recruitment between sawmills 241 - The Wivägg and Bångfeldt families 241 Kinship between sawmill communities 244 8:5 Conclusions 246 Chapter 9 THE ESTABLISHMENT AND DEMOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF SAWMILL COMMUNITIES IN A 19TH CENTURY SWEDISH RURAL DISTRICT 248 9:1 The construction of community 248 Population development 249 Migration 250 Residency 252 Demographic structures 253 Family and kinship 254 9:2 Creating a sense of community 255 The social environment 255 The importance of residency 257 The importance of family and kinship 258 The sawmill communities in the Sundsvall district 259 SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 261 LISTS OF FIGURES, TABLES, MAPS AND PICTURES 272 LIST OF PARISHES IN THE SUNDSVALL DISTRICT 277 IDENTIFIED KINSHIP RELATIONSHIPS 278 LIST OF SWEDISH WORDS: Explanations 279 Reports from the Demographic Data Base 281 8 Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Umeå University Abstract This dissertation studies the establishment and demographic development of the sawmill communities that emerged in the Sundsvall district during the latter half of the 19th cen- tury. The intention is to highlight the importance of the sawmill communities and their resident populations by discussing community construction from a demographic perspec- tive as well as socially and symbolically. Based on church registers, this is a longitudinal study that includes information from 31 individual sawmill communities. This study has shown that the establishment and demographic development of the saw- mill communities was not an instant process that necessarily followed the construction of the sawmill industries. The prerequisites of the geographical locations and year of establishment infl uenced population development, but the speed and size of the settlements were indivi- dual to each mill site. More prosperous times for the industry during the 1870s resulted in that migration increased consequently leading to quickly populated communities and larger registered core populations in residence. Migration to the sawmill communities from within the parishes was infrequent and the geographical backgrounds revealed that an extremely small proportion of the populations had been born within the district, implying a migratory hesitation among locally born. The sawmill populations were male-dominated due to the large groups of temporary workers inhabiting the communities, although, adult males barely made up one-third of the registe- red populations. The largest demographic group was children aged 0-14 years. The strong presence of children and high proportions of married individuals suggests that the sawmill communities were family dominated. Long-time settled families had usually formed kinship networks with other residents. This dissertation concludes that while time was important for the development of the sawmill communities, so were the registered populations residing in these communities. Residency would have been key in claiming belonging to the sawmill communities and to be considered as a real sawmill worker. Residency, family and kin therefore contributed to the construction of community structures, geographically, socially and symbolically. Keywords Sawmill, sawmill worker, Sundsvall, 19th century, community, population development, migration, internal parish migration, barriers, residency, demographic structure, family, kinship networks. Language: English ISSN: 0349-5132 ISBN: 978-91-7459-034-0 Number of Pages: 282 9 Acknowledgements History has always fascinated me. I grew up with a 13th century church ruin just around the corner and with my grandfather’s stories of his life and the generation before him. My vivid imagination saw mystery in these stories which resulted in an endless tirade of questions. My grandfather just smiled, he had fi nally found the cap- tivated audience he so long had wished for. As I grew older I became driven to know more, to do my own research. Although, if anyone would have told me ten years ago, when I fi rst came to Umeå, that I would end up writing a dissertation in history, I doubt I would have believed them. Still, here I am, the journey has come to an end and the result has been transformed into a book. It is a tangible evidence of 4,5 years of my life. The road from thought to fi nished product has been long, even though I some- time feel as though it all began yesterday. These years have been an interesting ex- perience. It has been educational and tough, not to say stressful.