New Light on the Erik Janssonists' Emigration, 1845-1854

NEW LIGHT ON T H E ERIK JANSSONISTS'
EMIGRATION, 1845-1854
E R I K W I K ÉN
JOURNEYS D U R I N G 1845
In September 1845, Olof Olsson of Kingsta, Söderala, departed
from Gävle on the ship N e p t u n u s ( S P A N Y , 68, n. 26) to lay the
groundwork for the Janssonists' purchase of land.1 Alderman
Henschen of Uppsala, who had provided the sect with petitions
to the courts, noted in his cashbook on 11 September 1845 that
he had gotten Olsson an English dictionary for his t r i p . 2 From
New York, on 31 December 1845, Olsson wrote home to his
mother and others in the family: "The 15th of December, . . .
we landed in Jesus' name in the new land after not having had
our feet on solid ground for 3 months and 3 days. . . . " 3 His
letter deals primarily with the religious life of Olof Hedström's
circle in N ew York.
Late i n October 1845, a small group of Janssonists left
Söderhamn on the ship Ceres.4 Between 13 and 23 October,
passports to America were issued in Gävleborgs län to the miller
Jonas Malmgren of Bollnäs, Lars Larsson of Malvik, Alfta, his
wife Anna Lena Hedström and daughter Margareta,5 to Sophia
Carolina Schön, and two farmhands, seven persons in all. These
people were most l i k e ly all of this particular group, since in 1845
no passports to A m e r i c a were issued i n Kopparbergs or
Västmanlands län, the other two areas of strong Janssonist
a c t i v i t y . 6 The ship foundered near Öregrund soon after its
departure, but the passengers and crew were rescued.7 These
Janssonists had to postpone their journey until the next year.8
E R I K JANSSON'S J O U R N E Y 9
There is a largely neglected primary source on the journey of
E r i k Jansson and his group, a letter by Carl Gustaf
Blombergsson, the book printer of the sect. Blombergsson came
to New York on the ship K i n g O s c a r on 11 July 1846 ( S P A N Y , 71,
n. 35) and remained there for some time. In a letter dated New
York, 4 November 1846, and published (under the signature
221
C.G.B.) in the Swedish newspaper H e l s i on 3 April 1847, he
reported on the various groups that had made the crossing. He
began with two arrivals prior to his own: " E a r l y in June Erik
Jansson, his family, and others, 8 persons, arrived on a paquet
ship from [Le] Havre, and then Jonas of Norrbyn and Jonas of
Hede[n] from the same place." The only person who seems to
have noticed this information on the route of travel is Harald
Wieselgren i n his article on Erik Jansson in the old edition of
S v e n s k t b i o g r a f i s k t l e x i k o n . 1 0
In 1880 Eric Johnson, E r i k Jansson's son, gave their itinerary
as follows: " f r om there [Norway] to Copenhagen, where he went
aboard the ship that took him to New York in the spring of
1846."1 1 Subsequently, it has often been stated that the journey
had gone from Christiania v i a Copenhagen, K i e l , Hamburg,
H u l l , and Liverpool, and that the group arrived in New York in
June 1846.12
On p. 119 of W h e a t F l o u r M e s s i a h , Paul Elmen mentions
Jansson's arrival in New York as occurring in June 1846—and on
p. 120, as late March or early A p r i l . The latter time is wholly
incorrect. In a letter to Henschen dated "North America," 10
February 1847, Erik Jansson himself gave exact information:
". . . I was at Lindjogården [in Malung] . . . and . . . on 23
March [1846] left the above-mentioned house."1 3 That April,
Swedish newspapers reported the rumor that he had fled to
N o r w a y . 1 4 In his above-mentioned letter, E r i k Jansson
continued: ". . . now I have forsworn myself from Sweden and
every other European power and dominion, and d id this eight
months ago and now have c i v i l rights here." Eight months—that
is the exact period between an arrival i n June, 1846, and
February, 1847.
It is evident that Blombergsson's almost contemporaneous
report on the route of the journey has much greater value as a
source than the later accounts of E r i c Johnson and others. At the
time of the crossing, E r i c Johnson was hardly eight years old, and
his statement that they had gone via H u l l and Liverpool was
probably influenced by the knowledge of what later became a
common route.
Despite a systematic inquiry, however, it has not been
possible to identify E r i k Jansson and those i n his group on the
available passenger lists of the ships that arrived in New York
early in June 1846. On 3 June, the ship O t h e l l o arrived from Le
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Havre; and among its passengers were two Swedes ( S P A N Y , 70;
there unidentified): André Ronden, age 29, male, farmer;
Jonsson Rondennen, age 29, male, farmer. One is tempted to
identify these two as members of E r i k Jansson's group. But in
that case, where are the other six? It is more probable that the
two enigmatic Swedes on the O t h e l l o were Jonas of Norrbyn and
Jonas of Hede[n], both from Söderala and both of whom
Bombergsson mentioned as also having come from L e H a v r e . 1 5
During the 1840s, extensive navigation took place between Le
Havre and Norway, as is evident in the Le Havre
Swedish-Norwegian consul's annual lists of the Norwegian ships
that had docked there.1 6 In 1846 they numbered about 200.
These Norwegian ships were frequently said to be transporting
emigrants; according to the consul's report, there were 841 of
them in 1843 and about 900 in 1846. The forty-seven
Dalecarlians who on 27 August 1846 arrived at New York from
Le Havre on the ship John H o l l a n d ( S P A N Y , 84-86) had in all
probability come to Le Havre via Norway. From this major port,
there were at the time frequent connections to the United States.
Between 6 A p r i l and 3 June 1846 alone, twenty ships of different
nationalities sailed with emigrants from L e Havre to New York.
T H E JANSSONIST SHIPS, 1846-1854: PASSENGER LISTS
Blombergsson's account of the coming of the various
Janssonist ships to New York in 1846 after his own arrival is
extremely accurate and corresponds with the information in
Then Jon Olsson and 160 per- (15 September, SPANY,
S P A N Y :
14 days later 19 more Dale­carlians
on a Norwegian
brig from Christiania.
Then came 46 friends from
Västmanland and Dalecarlia
on a Norwegian brig from
Stockholm,
and then 47 Dalecarlians
on a paquet from Havre.
(John H o l l a n d , 27
August, S P A N Y , 84)
( P a t r i a , l August,
S P A N Y , 80)
( T r i c o l o r , 25 July,
SPANY, 80)
sons on the brig C h a r l o t t a ;
Hedin and 150 persons on
the ship W i l h e l m i n a from
Gefle;
(21 September, S P A N Y,
98)
86)
223
the Norwegian brig A g d e r
with 45,
the ship S o l i d e with 160,
and finally 50 persons, who
(28 September, S P A NY
106)
(14 October, S P A N Y,
108)
sailed from Stockholm on the
brig C a r o l i n a . Their ship
foundered off the French coast;
but the people were rescued
by a French fisherman and
were sent by the French
government here to New York. (24 October, S P A N Y,
This meticulous account undeniably strengthens the
c r e d i b i l i t y of Blombergsson's report on the route of Erik
Jansson's journey.
Blombergsson continues:
Still are missing, all the
same, three ships, namely:
the B e t t y C a t h a r i n a from
Söderhamn with 65, (Shipwrecked)
the brig F r i t z from
Blombergsson describes his task in New York as follows:
Here I have been alone, guarding our friends from all the
deceptions in vogue, and my success has been so great that
among all the immigrants who have landed, no one has been
as free from deception as our friends; therefore even here I
have been a stumbling-block for many, and many have
wanted to be r id of me. The transportation agents considered
that I had deprived them of a profit of 12,000 r i k s d a l e r .
With regard to the crossings of the Dalecarlians on the T r i c o l o r
and the John H o l l a n d , apparently no descriptions were
preserved. O n the other hand, a Chicago correspondent, " E . , " for
the periodical H a r b i n g e r , published by the Utopian Brook Farm
community in Massachusetts, speaks in a letter dated Chicago,
12 September 1846, of the arrival a few days earlier in Chicago of
some sixty-five Dalecarlians, followers of E r i k Jansson.1 7 The
group here referred to must have consisted of those persons from
118)
Stockholm with 114, (9 December, S P A N Y,
120)
( N e w Y o r k , 20 March
1847, S P A N Y , 134)
and a ship from Gefle with
about 120 passengers.
224
Dalarna who arrived in N ew York on the T r i c o l o r on 25 July, the
P a t r i a on 21 August, and the John H o l l a n d on 27 August; the
latter had evidently made a fast trip from New York to Chicago.
The nineteen Dalecarlians who came on the T r i c o l o r to New
York on 25 July can very well have reached Chicago by 1
September, but not those who came on the P a t r i a on 1 August or
on the John H o l l a n d on 27 August. There is perhaps cause to
question the dating of the letter.
With regard to the crossing of the C h a r l o t t a , there are a
number of testimonies. On 18 July 1846, a Stockholm
correspondent to Jönköpings-Bladet described in great detail the
ship's appointments and departure from the Swedish capital. A
letter from Copenhagen, reported i n the newspaper B a r o m e t e rn
(Kalmar) on 5 August 1846, stated that " M r s . H . " (Mrs.
Hellgren-Holmberg, S P A N Y , 87, n. 35), who had sailed on the
C h a r l o t t a in order to visit her daughter residing i n America
( S P A N Y , 61, n. 67), was assisting the captain with care of the sick
on board.1 8 Reference to this same person is presumably made in
a highly critical letter, written by a passenger on the C h a r l o t t a in
New York on 16 September 1846, thus immediately after arrival,
and published i n abridgement in the Stockholm newspaper
A f t o n b l a d e t on 7 November 1846. It says that the fanatical
Janssonist leader (Jonas Olsson) would not allow the sick people
in his group to take any medication: " I n the beginning medicine
sometimes had to be stolen, sometimes had to be forced into
them, otherwise many others certainly would also have perished,
but finally it came to the point that the leader himself had to ask
for medicine for his c h i l d . " In a letter dated Chicago, 19 October
1846, Anders Larsson of Torstuna ( S P A N Y , 92, n. 69) described
his crossing and the fourteen-day trip to Chicago. Both in this
letter and in a subsequent one of 28 December 1846, he referred
to his diary of the trip—a document, alas, that presumably has
been l o s t . 1 9 Finally, there are accounts from two of the C h a r l o t t a
passengers who are not included on the list in SPANY—the letter
of E r i k Jansson Myrén of Torstuna dated N e w York, 28
September 1846,2 0 and that of Britta Gustafsdotter of Los dated
New York, 5 November 1846, and published in the Swedish
newspaper N o r r l a n d s - P o s t e n on 27 April 1847. Both of these
people broke with the sect in N ew York. Myrén returned home
the next year; and in the Torstuna parish records (A-Book), it was
noted on 9 November 1847 that he had furnished a written
225
explanation of his forswearing E r i k Jansson's doctrine. Myrén is
also said to have kept a diary during his trip, a document Anders
Larsson claimed to have in his possession.21
An anonymous letter dated Victoria, 20 July 1847, and printed
in Gävle as a brochure, has been shown by Gun Andersson
probably to have been written for the most part by a passenger on
the W i l h e l m i n a , Jonas Nilsson Hällström of Alfta ( S P A N Y , 105, n.
40).2 2 From Chicago Anders Larsson related in a letter of 19
October 1846, ". . . today the passengers on the ship
W i l h e l m i n a from Gefle arrived. The ship carried 118 passengers
of whom twenty-one children and seven adults have d i e d . " 2 3
On the journey of the Agder, an anonymous Janssonist wrote in
a letter dated 9 February 1847 and published in the Swedish
newspaper U p s a l a on 25 May 1847:
Our crossing of the great ocean on the Norwegian brig
A g d e r commanded by Captain Bie proceeded fortunately
according to the word of the Lord. O n 26 September 1846 we
a r r i v e d in N ew York after a three-month trip from
Stockholm. We had to disembark i n Denmark and Norway,
and at the latter place we stayed for nearly a week.
In a letter dated Bishop H i l l , 20 April 1847, and published in the
Stockholm newspaper P o s t - och i n r i k e s t i d n i n g on 4 February
1848, Jöns Ersson of Nora, another passenger on the A g d er
( S P A N Y , 107, n. 52), said that during the Norwegian stopover
some of the emigrants had regretted their decisions and returned
home. It is possible that an anonymous letter from the beginning
of 1847 was written by a passenger on the Agder, namely, the
Norwegian-born doctor Paoli ( S P A N Y , 106, n. 4 8 ) . 2 4 This letter is
the most detailed account of a crossing on a Janssonist ship. The
author himself was not in any way an adherent of the sect. He
also mentioned that five emigrants had abandoned the ship
already in Helsingør.
The most detailed account of the wreck of the C a r o l i n a is a
letter of 27 October 1846 written by the Swedish-Norwegian
consul in N ew York, C . Edvard H a b i c h t . 2 5 The ship foundered in
a hurricane off Newfoundland on 19 September, but the
passengers and crew were rescued by the fishing vessel D e ux
A u g u s t e s from the French island of St. Pierre off the southern
coast of Newfoundland. The French governor on the island then
fitted out the transport brig V i g i l a n c e , which arrived in N ew York
with the survivors on 24 October 1846 ( S P A N Y , 118). Habicht
226
even stated that two daughters of the shoemaker Pehr Jonsson
Blom of Alfta, Martha and Carin ( S P A N Y , 119, n. 21), had
perished during the sea voyage. A n d on St. Pierre, according to
Habicht, two more persons died: the widow Beata Andersdotter
( S P A N Y , 119, no. 20) and the girl Brita Olsdotter ( S P A N Y , 121, n.
28). Those involved in the rescue operation were rewarded by
the Swedish government: the captain of the fishing vessel was
made a knight of the Vasa Order, each of the crewmen got a sum
of money, and the doctor and harbormaster on St. Pierre received
the medal Illis q u o r u m . 2 6
The B e t t y C a t h a r i n a (Captain Rönning) never got to port: it
was lost at sea without any survivors. In the church books of
Gävleborgs län it is occasionally stated, for example for Mo
parish, that certain persons perished with the B e t t y C a t h a r i n a .
Among them were Blombergsson's wife, Sofia Magdalena Frisk,
and the couple's four children. On 12 September 1847, when
there was no longer any hope for the ship, there was held in
Gävle a memorial service for the crew, who were from that city,
and for a fourteen-year-old local girl among the passengers.27
F r om a woman passenger on the F r i t z , there is a very
i n t e r e s t i n g letter dated N e w York, 11 January 1847, and
anonymously p u b l i s h e d i n the Swedish newspaper S t o ra
K o p p a r b e r g s läns n y a t i d n i n g on 6 May 1847. The writer, who
must be Brita Helena Nystrand ( S P A N Y , 127, n. 70), was highly
critical of the Janssonists. During the crossing she had cared for
some of the sick on the Sabbath and therefore neglected her
morning prayers. For this she was censured by the religious
leaders: " B y the words which then were said to me, I clearly saw
that Christian love was lacking there." The upshot was that she
broke with the sect on their arrival in New York. About the
Janssonists she continued: " N o w during the winter they cannot
travel into the interior but rather have rented a house outside of
New York itself."
After the F r i t z arrived on 9 December 1846 and the S o p h i a ,
a Gävle-based ship of which Blombergsson evidently was not
aware, came to port on 7 January 1847 ( S P A N Y , 128), twenty of
both these ships' passengers dared to undertake the trip inland
during the winter, while the majority stayed in N ew York for the
season. Blombergsson, who by this time certainly had learned
some English, escorted the group. They arrived in Bishop H i l l in
mid-February, 1847.28
227
The E d l a arrived on 6 March 1847 ( S P A N Y , 132) and the
A u g u s t a , on 8 March 1847 ( S P A N Y , 132). The crossing on the
A u g u s t a was described in a letter written by Olof Andersson of
Fallet, Nora ( S P A N Y , 135, n. 43):
. . . since 7 December, when we left Gothenburg, we have
not had any winter. Several times before Christmas some
snow d id fall, but it melted as soon as it came down and we
seldom needed anything other than life-jackets when we
were up on deck, and in our cabins it was so warm that we
often had to have the doors open and after the twentieth day
they began to go barefoot, and even I did this, from 21
January to 21 February I only wore a vest and summer
pants. . . . O n N ew Year's Eve we made our beds on the b ig
top deck with an oiled sailcloth over us and it was so warm
that we only needed a quilt at n i g h t . 2 9
The passengers joined the other Janssonists who were
spendin g the winter i n N e w York. Olof Andersson
continued:
Here we rent two buildings, four floors, and seldom have
the doors shut at night, and within the premises we have the
yards filled but nothing has been lost, and next to where we
live is a church that we can use when we want to.
The N e w Y o r k left Gävle on 17 October 1846. On the change of
domicile list (B-Book) for Åmot parish in Gävleborgs län, it is
recorded that two local Janssonists, mother and son, regreted
their decision soon after the ship's departure: "The captain
nobly gave them the opportunity to disembark, after which they
immediately returned to their home district." At length, the ship
arrived i n N ew York severely delayed on 20 March 1847, after
having lain for some time at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in
E n g l a n d for repairs. On 14 December 1846 the local
Swedish-Norwegian vice-consul reported to the Consulate
General in London that these passengers were not experiencing
any need and were well provided with money; four persons had
died at sea and a c h i ld i n C o w e s . 3 0
Upon their arrival in New York, these Janssonists also joined
forces with the others spending the winter there. One of these
passengers, Otto Stenberg ( S P A N Y , 147, n. 14), wrote a detailed
letter dated N e w York, 23 May 1847, and p u b l i s h e d in
Söderhamn as a brochure.3 1 He told about their crossing and
especially about the conditions among those who were spending
228
B e l o w decks o n a n e m i g r a n t vessel i n t h e s a i l i n g - s h i p e r a . ( C o u r t e s y o f t h e
E m i g r a n t I n s t i t u t e , Växjö.)
the winter in N ew Y o r k . 3 2 Stenberg and his wife became sharply
critical and broke with the sect. "The entire congregation set out
for Illinois at the end of A p r i l [1847]," Otto Stenberg s a i d . 3 3 And
Anders Larsson wrote in detail about the group in a letter dated
Chicago, 9 July 1847:
The last group, or those who had assembled in New York
from five ships [ F r i t z , S o p h i a , E d l a , A u g u s t a , N e w Y o r k]
carrying emigrants from Sweden, altogether over 400, had
come to N ew York, some in December, some in January, and
some in March. A large number died in N ew York, and many
have stayed there; the rest numbered about 364 upon
departure from New York. Some died, and others turned
back during the trip. But the remainder, around 340, came to
Bishop H i l l on 4 June.34
We know about the Janssonist ship O r e s t thanks to a letter
229
dated Chicago, 27 March 1848, by Victor Witting, a member of
the crew.3 5 On the other hand, there is no passenger list in
S P A N Y . Witting's letter reads:
On 6 August last fall in Stockholm I went aboard, together
with a large group of E r i c Janssonists3 6 led by Joh. Johnsson,
the brig O r e s t , commanded by Capt. Lindström, in order to
sail to New York, and on 16 October [1847] we anchored on
the American shore. From the Swedes there we learned that
things were worse than poor i n the Swedish colony of
Bishop H i l l in Illinois. Over 300 persons had died in a short
time from lack of proper care and just as many had deserted.
Certainly we did not fully and firmly believe this, but got
discouraged all the same; I was at a loss as to what I should
do and many a time I have later regretted that I d id not stay
in New York.
Witting thus journeyed into the interior and got to Chicago:
"Here the statements of the New York Swedes about the poor
conditions in Bishop H i l l were confirmed, for which reason I
remained here on the advice of two local Swedes." The leader of
the group on the O r e s t was Jonas Jonsson of Hamre, Forsa. In
Gävle on 21 June 1847, he received a passport for himself and his
family. His wife Brita Johansdotter and two children went in
advance with this passport on the E l i z e ( S P A N Y , 149, n. 26a;
273), while Jonas Jonsson himself got a new passport in
Stockholm on 29 June 1847.3 7 He died in Bishop H i l l quite soon
after his arrival there.38
The journey on the C o n d o r in 1850 was described in great
detail by Erik Olsson of Sälja, Nora ( S P A N Y , 262, n. 24), in a
letter dated Bishop H i l l , 31 May 1851:
We came on 16 [September 1850] to England after
c r u i s i n g i n headwinds and went through the E n g l i sh
Channel i n one and a half days with good winds. . . . On
the 18th we set out on the great ocean . . . most of the time
we had poor winds; for three days it was so utterly calm that
you hardly could see where the sails would turn; then we
had relatively good weather for two days and then calm once
more for eight days and it got so warm that we hardly could
go on deck, but then we had good winds, the farther west we
came the speedier we could travel, until we were so close
that the captain did not dare go any further but rather
dropped anchor for the night until it was daylight. . . . We
arrived with horses and wagons in Bishop H i l l eight days
before Christmas.3 9
230
On 1 October 1854, the C a r o l i n a , the last Janssonist ship, left
Gävle with 101 emigrants, most of them from Nora p a r i s h . 4 0 E r ik
Ersson of Stalbo, Nora, wrote in a letter dated Bishop H i l l , 10
January 1855: "Over the entire ocean, we had fantastically
beautiful and warm weather, so that we were on deck for days at
a time in our shirt sleeves and barefoot all the way until we got to
the American coast."4 1 They went ashore in New York on 18
December. Another Nora native, Lars Ersson, described the
ensuing trip, which now no longer went via the Erie Canal:
On the evening of 21 [December] we boarded a steamship
in New York and sailed for several hours, and then we went
inland on the railroad, and it was rather pleasant to travel in
this fashion. There were sometimes forty cars being pulled
by a steam engine, and it a l l went like a b i rd flying through
the air. Stoves had been set up in the cars, and splendidly
painted benches to sit on as if in church.4 2
They arrived in Bishop H i l l on the fourth day of Christmas.
On p. 106 of W h e a t F l o u r M e s s i a h , Paul Elmen refers to the
N o r r l a n d as a Janssonist ship. The N o r r l a n d was, however, one
of the coastal vessels that sailed the Gulf of Bothnia between
Stockholm and Haparanda. It is mentioned several times in
connection with the Janssonists simply because for reasons of
convenience many took it from Hudiksvall and Söderhamn to the
America ships i n Gävle or Stockholm instead of enduring the
laborious journey by land.
T H E STENBERG (STONEBERG) F A M I LY
Olof Stenberg, who in 1845 had moved from Stenbo in Forsa,
Gävleborgs län, to Klockargården in Österunda, Västmanlands
län, left the latter place i n 1846 and got a passport to America in
Västerås on 19 June for himself, his wife C e c i l i a Larsdotter, and
two children—Jonas, born 10 July 1843 and Margaretha Johanna,
born 14 March 1846.4 3 In 1846 the following people left Forsa:
Olof Stenberg's mother, C e c i l i a Olsdotter,4 4 his brother, Anders
Jonsson, and his sister-in-law, Margta Larsdotter. These people
got passports in Gävle on 5 June. His sister Sigrid Jonsdotter had
also departed. Members of the family remaining in Sweden for
the time being were O l o f s father Jonas Olsson and the latter's
son Jonas.
Olof Stenberg's wife and their two children can be found
among the passengers of 1846 on the C h a r l o t t a as Christina
231
Larsdotter, age 27 (with what for the passenger lists is a not
unusual misidentification of her first name), Jonas Larsson, age 3,
and Margaretha Johanna, age Vz ( S P A N Y , 96; there unidentified,
but the unique combination of first names Margaretha Johanna
and the correct indication of the children's ages assures an
identification). Among the passengers on the C h a r l o t t a was also
Olof Stenberg's sister-in-law, Margta Larsdotter ( S P A N Y , 91, n.
65). On the other hand, the other family members who emigrated
in 1846 are not on the C h a r l o t t a ' s passenger list or on any other
available one from 1846. It is readily admitted, however, that
occasional omissions do occur on the passenger lists. This has
been shown above in the case of E r i k Jansson Myrén and Britta
Gustafsdotter and the C h a r l o t t a . My supposition is that O l o f s
mother C e c i l i a Olsdotter of Stenbo and her three children
Anders, Olof, and Sigrid had also come on the C h a r l o t t a but for
some reason were not included on its passenger list. In any case
both of the brothers Anders Jonsson4 5 and Olof Jonsson wrote in
a letter that they had arrived in Bishop H i l l on 14 October
1846,4 6 which is entirely reasonable in light of the arrival of the
C h a r l o t t a in New York on 15 September. After a wordy
exposition on the ideal conditions in the colony, they concluded
their letter with greetings from "Mother, Sigri and Marta and
Cesilja." This corresponds perfectly with their mother Cecilia
Olsdotter, their sister S i g r i d , 4 7 Olof Stenberg's wife Cecilia
Larsdotter, and her sister Margta Larsdotter.
In 1850 the remaining members of the family emigrated from
Stenbo in Forsa, that is, the father Jonas Olsson—now a widower
after his wife had died in America—his son Jonas, now married,
and the latter's wife, Anna Larsdotter.4 8 They got passports in
Gävle on 10 June 1850. Jonas Olsson hired the schooner P r i m u s ,
which with a cargo of iron and a group of emigrants left
Hudiksvall on 22 June.
We are well informed about their crossing from a letter written
by one of the emigrants, Per Ersson Högman from Hög,
Gävleborgs län, dated Milwaukee, 21 December 1850, and
published in the Swedish newspaper H u d i k s w a l l s w e c k o b l a d on
8, 15, and 22 March 1851: "We left Hudikswall on 22 June and
came to Helsingör on 3 July; from here we departed on the 4th
and came to New York on 19 S e p t e m b e r . " 4 9 Because of
dissatisfaction with Jonas Olsson and the Janssonists, Högman
and several others broke with the group. " F r om there, from New
232
York, on the 25th, we took a steamship to Albany and from there
on the 26th, the railroad to Buffalo." In Buffalo Högman and his
friends joined up with Olof Stenberg and the latter's group from
the A e o l u s (see below), who had come via the Erie Canal.
Together with these people, they continued the journey by boat,
during which time increasing criticism was also directed against
Olof Stenberg. Högman's sharply critical letter resulted in a
number of people from Hassela, who had planned to emigrate in
1851, refraining from doing s o . 5 0 Högman's wife was among the
many who died i n Milwaukee. H e himself returned to Sweden
already in 1851.51
About Jonas Olsson, E r i k Olsson (the painter Olof Krans'
father) wrote in a letter dated Bishop H i l l , 31 May 1851:
A short time ago Stenberg's father left us, he fared
according to his own righteousness and bought a stone
house in a town, Moline, and intended to live there on his
wealth, and listened to those creedal servants, namely,
Hedström and Esbjörn, yet he found nothing but falseness in
their doctrine, for he knew the Scriptures. He d id not get any
peace until he returned to this town. He saw it as his duty to
sign over his wealth to a congregation that gives sustenance
to widows and fatherless children, and he has now married a
young girl of Zion's daughters.52
In a letter to a cousin in Forsa dated Bishop H i l l , 23 February
1854, Olof Stenberg conveyed greetings from "Anders, Jonas,
Sigrid, C e c i l i a , Anna, M a r t h a . " 5 3 That is, all of the family
members then in Bishop H i l l : Olof's siblings Anders, Jonas, and
Sigrid, as well as the three Larsdotter sisters, O l o f s wife C e c i l ia
Larsdotter, Jonas' wife Anna Larsdotter, and Margta Larsdotter.
On the other hand, no mention was made of O l o f s father, who
probably had died by that time, nor of Anders' wife Lovisa
Andersdotter; she was, of course, from Österunda and had only
come into the family in America and thus was unknown in Forsa.
O L O F STENBERG A N D O L O F JONSSON'S JOURNEY
TO S W E D E N , 1849-1850
In May 1849, Olof Jonsson Stenberg and Olof Jonsson
(Jansson) of Söderala were sent from Bishop H i l l to Sweden.54
They were furnished with powers of attorney i n order to claim
property and estates that i n part could have passed to Janssonists
in America after the death of Swedish relatives, in part could
233
E r i k Janssonists at h o m e i n B i s h o p H i l l . ( C o u r t e s y o f B i s h o p H i l l H e r i t a ge
A s s o c i a t i o n . )
have been left by those who perished when the B e t t y C a t h a r i n a
went down a few years earlier. At the police station in Stockholm
they had their American passports authorized for further travel
i n l a n d , 5 5 and on 7 August they arrived in Hälsingland.5 6 The
reaction of the press to their coming was negative; warnings of
their purposes were made. In the official records of various
district courts in Hälsingland and Gästrikland during the fall of
1849 and the spring of 1850, there are proceedings of numerous
cases of inheritance in which they were involved. The sum these
delegates succeeded i n collecting is said to have amounted to
$6,000.5 7 In a long letter to the editor of the newspaper H e l s i on 8
March 1850, Olof Jonsson of Söderala took the opportunity to
polemicize against anti-Janssonist sentiments in a brochure
recently published in Söderhamn by Daniel Londberg, N y t t h r ef
från A m e r i k a o m E r i k Jansarnes tillstånd derstädes (New letter
234
from America on the conditions of the Erik Janssonists in that
place). O n 12 A p r i l he r e c e i v ed a caustic reply from the
publisher of the brochure in the same newspaper.
The two delegates took separate routes for their journeys
home. Olof Jonsson of Söderala got a passport to America in
Stockholm on 11 May 1850 and travelled via Germany and
England.5 8 He is identical with the Ole Jansson who arrived in
New York on 29 June 1850 on the H e l e n a S l o m a n from Hamburg
( S P A N Y , 210; there unidentified). O n 8 June 1850, Olof Stenberg
sailed with a large group of emigrants from Söderhamn on the
A e o l u s and arrived in N ew York on 17 September ( S P A N Y,
236).5 9 Per Ersson Högman, who at the same time had come to
New York on the P r i m u s (see above), joined Olof Stenberg's
group during the journey inland and in his above-mentioned
letter was h i g h l y c r i t i c a l of Stenberg's treatment of the
emigrants. The group was also strongly decimated by cholera in
Milwaukee; according to Högman, of the original 158 emigrants
only seventy-three remained when the sickness had passed.
(Translated by R A Y M O N D JARVI)
NOTES
1 All references to Nils William Olsson, S w e d i s h P a s s e n g e r A r r i v a l s i n N e w
Y o r k , 1 8 2 0 - 1 8 5 0 (Chicago, 1967), are given in the text with the abbreviation
SPANY.
2 Henrik Gladh, L a r s W i l h e l m H e n s c h e n o c h religionsfrihets-frågan till 1 8 53
(Uppsala & Stockholm, 1953), 190, n. 7.
3 The original of this letter is deposited at the Bishop Hill Heritage
Association; a translation of it was published by Wesley M. Westerberg,
"Document: 'Letter of Olof Olsson,'" S w e d i s h P i o n e e r H i s t o r i c a l Q u a r t e r l y , 23,
(1972), 61—70. Olsson wrote the same day and also on 16 February 1846 from
New York to Henschen. Neither of these letters is preserved in the Henschen
Collection in Uppsala University Library, but both were mentioned in a letter in
that collection of 1 March 1848 from a Swedish clergyman, Anders Sandberg,
who had them on loan.
4 The date of the Ceres' departure is incorrectly given as May 1846 in Paul
Elmen's W h e a t F l o u r M e s s i a h : E r i c Jansson of B i s h o p H i l l (Carbondale &
Edwardsville, 111., 1976), 103.
5 Anna Lena Hedström was a half sister of the well-known Carl Magnus Flack;
their mother, Greta Lisa Bergman, had first been married Hedström, and later
Flack. It is possible that a letter sent home by Flack, who had emigrated in 1843
(SPANY, 55, n. 18), motivated the Larsson family's departure, the first in the
series of migrations from Alfta. See Kjell Söderberg, D e n första
m a s s u t v a n d r i n g e n : E n s t u d i e a v befolkningsrörlighet och e m i g r a t i o n utgående
från A l f t a socken i Hälsingland 1 8 4 6 — 1 8 9 5 , Umeå Studies in the Humanities, 39
(Umeå & Stockholm, 1981).
6 Elmen (25) speaks about a large group of Janssonists who sailed from Gävle
on 14 October 1845 ( s i c ) . This is a misunderstanding. What is indicated is the
235
group that a r r i v e d in New York on 14 October 1846 on the Gävle-based ship
S o l i d e ( S P A N Y , 108).
7 The most detailed account of the shipwreck is found in G e f l e b o r g s Läns
T i d n i n g , 5 November 1845.
8 The Larsson family arrived in New York on the P a t r i a on 20 August 1846
( S P A N Y , 83, n. 6); they had spent the previous winter at the home of Anders
Andersson in Torstuna and got a new passport in Västerås on 23 May 1846, at
which time it was noted in the official record that their previous passport had
been lost. Jonas Malmgren arrived, now with his family, on the W i l h e l m i n a on 21
September 1846 ( S P A N Y , 103, n. 27); soon after their arrival in Bishop Hill, Jonas
Malmgren's wife Anna Catharina Qvarnström gave birth on 27 December 1846 to
a daughter, Maria, the first child born in the colony. Sophia Carolina Schön
arrived on the A g d e r on 28 September 1846 (SPANY, 109, n. 62).
9 Erik Jansson was born in Biskopskulla, Uppland, on 21 December 1808, not
on 19 December, the date always given, even on his tombstone in the Bishop Hill
Cemetery. The only person who, to my knowledge, had checked the
Biskopskulla birth and baptismal book (C-Book) and who gives the correct date
is—not unexpectedly—Nils William Olsson, "Immigrant Artifacts as Aids to
Genealogical Research," S w e d i s h A m e r i c a n G e n e a l o g i s t , 1 (1981), 23.
1 0 S v e n s k t b i o g r a f i s k t l e x i k o n (Örebro, 1863-1864), V, 344.
1 1 Eric Johnson and C. F. Peterson, eds., S v e n s k a r n e i I l l i n o i s : H i s t o r i s ka
a n t e c k n i n g a r (Chicago, 1880), 26.
1 2 See, for example, Ernst W. Olson, H i s t o r y o f t h e Swedes of I l l i n o i s , 2 vols.
(Chicago, 1908), I, 223.
1 3 This letter is in the Henschen Collection in Uppsala University Library. It is
signed, "Erik Jahnsson."
1 4 T i d n i n g för F a h l u Län och S t a d , 9 April 1846. Elmen's statement on p. 97
that Erik Jansson had gone through Älvdalen can be misunderstood. What is
indicated here is not Älvdalen p a r i s h , Dalarna, but rather Älvdals härad in the
valley of Klarälven, Värmland, which must be crossed on the way from Malung to
Norway.
1 5 Jonas of Norrbyn was born in Söderala on 27 September 1821. He was the
son of Jon Jonsson and Carin Svensdotter and the brother of Anna Jonsdotter
( S P A N Y , 109, n. 70) and of Carin Jonsdotter (SPANY, 109, n. 71). He left Söderala
without a certificate of change of domicile. Who Jonas of Heden was, it has not
been possible to determine.
1 6 Riksarkivet, Stockholm: Kommerskollegium, Konsulernas skeppslistor.
1 7 T h e H a r b i n g e r , III: 17 (3 Oct. 1846); Elmen, 135-36. An anonymous Swede
in America sent this letter to N a j a d e n (Karlskrona), which published a Swedish
translation of it. Elmen (122) misunderstood the reference to the group's t o lk
(interpreter), making it a personal name, Tolk.
1 8 "Mrs. H . " is not, as Elmen indicates (105), Mrs. Hebbe who sailed on the
A g d e r ( S P A N Y , 109, n. 63).
*9 Albin Widén, När S v e n s k - A m e r i k a g r u n d a d e s (Borås, 1961), 62-69, 72.
2 0 Widén, 56-59. An English translation of this letter has been published in H.
Arnold Barton, L e t t e r s f r o m t h e P r o m i s e d L a n d : Swedes in A m e r i c a 1 8 4 0 - 1 9 14
(Minneapolis; University of Minnesota Press, 1975), 35-38.
2 1 Widén, 78.
2 2 Tillståndet hos de A m e r i k a n s k a u t w a n d r a n d e E r i k - J a n s a r n e s a m t P r o f e t e ns
bedrägerier, s k i l d r a d e i b r e f från en u t w a n d r a r e (Gefle, 1847); Gun Andersson,
"Ett amerikabrev till Alfta från 1847: Vem skrev?" Hälsingerunor (1978), 5-7; in
English, "An America Letter to Alfta in 1847: Who Wrote l t ? " S w e d i s h P i o n e er
H i s t o r i c a l Q u a r t e r l y , 31 (1980), 231-41. Formerly, this letter has usually been
ascribed to Pehr Jonsson Blom, who sailed on the C a r o l i n a ( S P A N Y , 119, n. 21).
This person, however, only added a few short postscripts to Hällström's letter.
236
2 3 Widén, 69.
2 4 The letter was published in Theodor Schytte, Vägledning för
e m i g r a n t e r . . . . M e d e t t b i h a n g o m de år 1 8 4 7 u t v a n d r a d e E r i k Janssons
anhängares s o r g l i g a öde (Stockholm, 1849), 40-46.
2 5 Riksarkivet, Stockholm. Habicht's letter is attached to a dispatch to the
foreign minister by the Swedish-Norwegian chargé d'affaires, Adam
Løvenskiold, dated 31 October 1846.
2 8 Riksarkivet, Stockholm. Foreign minister to the legation in Paris, 1847.
2 7 G e f l e b o r g s läns t i d n i n g , 15 September 1847.
2 8 George Swank, B i s h o p H i l l : S h o w c a s e o f S w e d i s h H i s t o r y (5th ed., rev.,
Galva, 111., 1978), 13. Swank also provides a list of these emigrants recorded,
however, long afterwards.
2 9 Vårt h e m b y g d , Skriftserie utg. av Hembygdens förlag, Östervåla, 5
(Östervåla, 1981), 405-06.
3 0 Riksarkivet, Stockholm. The vice-consul's letter is attached to the consul
general's report of 15 December 1846 to the Kommerskollegium.
3 1 O[tto] S[tenberg], E r i k - J a n s i s m e n i N o r d a m e r i k a e l l e r B e s k r i f n i n g o m E r i k
Jansarnes tillstånd derstädes, s a m t r e s a n d i t med s k e p p e t N e w Y o r k . B r e f från
en a f u t w a n d r a r n e (Söderhamn, 1847).
3 2 The mate, Ljungberg, who served as an interpreter for those spending the
winter in New York (Widén, 35), was not the colporteur A. M. Ljungberg
indicated by Elmen on p. 120, but rather Nils Johan Ljungberg. The latter came
to New York in December 1846, while his family arrived on the N e w Y o r k
( S P A N Y , 137, n. 52). The Ljungberg family later settled in Galesburg, 111. (Olson,
I, 283).
3 3 Johnson and Peterson (33) give an exact date, 26 April.
3 4 Widén, 30. An English translation has been published by John E. Norton
under the title " ' . . . For it flows with Milk and Honey': Two Immigrant Letters
about Bishop H i l l , " S w e d i s h P i o n e e r H i s t o r i c a l Q u a r t e r l y , 24, (1973), 168-79.
Jöns Ersson of Nora ( S P A N Y , 107, n. 52) also mentioned the arrival of this group
in a letter published in P o s t - och i n r i k e s t i d n i n g on 5 February 1848: " . . . the last
group that stopped here this past Friday evening [according to Anders Larsson, 4
June 1847 was a Friday], numbering 400 persons." Jöns Ersson's letter is, of
course, dated 1 June 1847, but certain details indicate that it was completed
somewhat later. Entirely different dates for the inland trip of this group of
Janssonists are found in Johan Edvard Lilljeholm, P i o n e e r i n g A d v e n t u r e s i n
A m e r i c a (Rock Island, 111., 1962), 13-18; but these dates have as little credibility
as his statement that this group of Janssonists spent the winter living on canal
boats.
3 5 This letter was published anonymously in the Malmö newspaper
Snällposten on 29 May 1848, but its writer undoubtedly was Witting. See also
Victor Witting's M i n n e n från m i t t l i f (Worcester, Mass., 1902), 63-64.
3 6 Witting (64) gives their number as about thirty persons, but in Gävle during
1847 passports to America were issued to only some fifteen persons who cannot
be traced to other Janssonist ships. In Västerås and Falun during 1847, no
passports that can be identified with Janssonists were issued.
3 7 Stockholms Stadsarkiv: Passport Journal, 1847.
3 8 According to Erik Ersson of Vitterarv, Delsbo (SPANY, 149, n. 24) in a letter
dated Victoria, 27 March 1848, and published, in G e f l e D a g b l a d on 14 April 1970.
It is wrongly identified in the title of the article as a letter from Bishop Hill.
3 9 Vår h e m b y g d , 5, 411-19.
4 0 Vår h e m b y g d , 4, 276-78.
4 1 Vår h e m b y g d , 6, 574-76.
4 3 Vår h e m b y g d , 6, 577-79.
237
4 3 Olofs wife Cecilia Larsdotter was born at Utnäs, Forsa, on 14 October 1819.
She was a daughter of the farmer Lars Ersson and Margta Olsdotter.
4 4 Cecilia Olsdotter was born at Tövsätter, Forsa, on 13 November 1794. She
was a daughter of the farmer Olof Olsson and Cecilia Andersdotter.
4 5 See Johnson and Peterson, 312, for information on Anders Stenberg, born on
30 November 1822. In America he married Lovisa Andersdotter, born at Norra
Bångsbo, Österunda, on 8 March 1826. She was a daughter of Anders Andersson
and Ulrika Dahlgren and the sister of Maria Charlotta Andersdotter ( S P A N Y , 81,
n. 4) and of Ulrika Andersdotter, who eventually took her mother's surname
Dahlgren (SPANY, 83, n. 11; there incorrectly identified).
4 6 The letter dated "Biscopskulla 9 febr. 1847" initially was only mentioned in
H u d i k s w a l l s w e c k o b l a d on 15 July 1847 and then published in the 17 July
edition of the newspaper.
4 7 Sigrid Stenberg was one of the Stenberg twins born on 7 December 1820.
4 8 Jonas Olsson was born at Stenbo, Forsa, on 26 April 1793; his parents were
Olof Olsson and Sigrid Jonsdotter. His son Jonas was the other Stenberg twin
born on 7 December 1820, and the latter's wife Anna Larsdotter was born on 24
May 1824.
4 9 Elmen (107) incorrectly cites the date of the arrival of the P r i m u s as 20 July
1850. This ship's passenger list is missing in S P A N Y .
5 0 According to a letter by Per Andersson (Joris-Pelle) of Hassela ( S P A N Y , 251,
n. 57) to Eric Norelius, dated Chisago Co., 1 January 1852; an English translation
of this document was published in Emeroy Johnson's "Per Andersson's Letters
from Chisago Lake," S w e d i s h P i o n e e r H i s t o r i c a l Q u a r t e r l y , 24, (1973), 11-14.
5 1 H u d i k s w a l l s w e c k o b l a d , 12 July 1851, and Per Andersson's letter of 1
January 1852 (see n. 50).
5 2 Vår h e m b y g d , 5, 418. See also Eric Norelius, D e s v e n s k a l u t e r s ka
församlingarnas och s v e n s k a r n e s h i s t o r i a i A m e r i k a , 2 vols. (Rock Island, 111.,
1890, 1916), I, 47-49, and Olson, I, 287-89. The woman Jonas Olsson married in
April 1851 was Karin Jonsdotter, born in Veda, Forsa, 24 Dec. 1819, a daughter of
Jonas Michelsson and Karin Johansdotter; the couple had a son, Isak. (Emil
Eriksson, in Hälsinglands t i d n i n g , 17 May 1980 and H u d i k s v a l l s - t i d n i n g e n , 19
May 1980.)
5 3 Widén gives E s s e l i a , but this is surely an incorrect reading. Unfortunately,
Widén renders several names incorrectly: on p. 66, K r o k instead of K r a k (Kraak,
SPANY, 59, n. 43, and 151, n. 43); on p. 77 H a n s Norbäck instead of
Hammarbäck; and on p. 98 T h o r f e l t instead of T h o r s e l l ( S P A N Y , 67, n. 19 and 86,
n. 29).
5 4 Anders Larsson in a letter dated Chicago, 1 July 1849; see Widén, 95. Elmen
(145) incorrectly states that the two travelers were Stenberg and the tailor Nils
Hedin.
5 5 Stockholms Stadsarkiv: Polissekreteraren, D II a.
5 6 H u d i k s w a l l s w e c k o b l a d , 11 August 1849; H e l s i , 17 August 1849.
5 7 Johnson and Peterson, 41.
5 8 Stockholms Stadsarkiv: Passport Journal, 1850.
5 9 Norelius, I, 29. Here it is incorrectly stated that the A e o l u s sailed from
Sundsvall.
238

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NEW LIGHT ON T H E ERIK JANSSONISTS'
EMIGRATION, 1845-1854
E R I K W I K ÉN
JOURNEYS D U R I N G 1845
In September 1845, Olof Olsson of Kingsta, Söderala, departed
from Gävle on the ship N e p t u n u s ( S P A N Y , 68, n. 26) to lay the
groundwork for the Janssonists' purchase of land.1 Alderman
Henschen of Uppsala, who had provided the sect with petitions
to the courts, noted in his cashbook on 11 September 1845 that
he had gotten Olsson an English dictionary for his t r i p . 2 From
New York, on 31 December 1845, Olsson wrote home to his
mother and others in the family: "The 15th of December, . . .
we landed in Jesus' name in the new land after not having had
our feet on solid ground for 3 months and 3 days. . . . " 3 His
letter deals primarily with the religious life of Olof Hedström's
circle in N ew York.
Late i n October 1845, a small group of Janssonists left
Söderhamn on the ship Ceres.4 Between 13 and 23 October,
passports to America were issued in Gävleborgs län to the miller
Jonas Malmgren of Bollnäs, Lars Larsson of Malvik, Alfta, his
wife Anna Lena Hedström and daughter Margareta,5 to Sophia
Carolina Schön, and two farmhands, seven persons in all. These
people were most l i k e ly all of this particular group, since in 1845
no passports to A m e r i c a were issued i n Kopparbergs or
Västmanlands län, the other two areas of strong Janssonist
a c t i v i t y . 6 The ship foundered near Öregrund soon after its
departure, but the passengers and crew were rescued.7 These
Janssonists had to postpone their journey until the next year.8
E R I K JANSSON'S J O U R N E Y 9
There is a largely neglected primary source on the journey of
E r i k Jansson and his group, a letter by Carl Gustaf
Blombergsson, the book printer of the sect. Blombergsson came
to New York on the ship K i n g O s c a r on 11 July 1846 ( S P A N Y , 71,
n. 35) and remained there for some time. In a letter dated New
York, 4 November 1846, and published (under the signature
221
C.G.B.) in the Swedish newspaper H e l s i on 3 April 1847, he
reported on the various groups that had made the crossing. He
began with two arrivals prior to his own: " E a r l y in June Erik
Jansson, his family, and others, 8 persons, arrived on a paquet
ship from [Le] Havre, and then Jonas of Norrbyn and Jonas of
Hede[n] from the same place." The only person who seems to
have noticed this information on the route of travel is Harald
Wieselgren i n his article on Erik Jansson in the old edition of
S v e n s k t b i o g r a f i s k t l e x i k o n . 1 0
In 1880 Eric Johnson, E r i k Jansson's son, gave their itinerary
as follows: " f r om there [Norway] to Copenhagen, where he went
aboard the ship that took him to New York in the spring of
1846."1 1 Subsequently, it has often been stated that the journey
had gone from Christiania v i a Copenhagen, K i e l , Hamburg,
H u l l , and Liverpool, and that the group arrived in New York in
June 1846.12
On p. 119 of W h e a t F l o u r M e s s i a h , Paul Elmen mentions
Jansson's arrival in New York as occurring in June 1846—and on
p. 120, as late March or early A p r i l . The latter time is wholly
incorrect. In a letter to Henschen dated "North America," 10
February 1847, Erik Jansson himself gave exact information:
". . . I was at Lindjogården [in Malung] . . . and . . . on 23
March [1846] left the above-mentioned house."1 3 That April,
Swedish newspapers reported the rumor that he had fled to
N o r w a y . 1 4 In his above-mentioned letter, E r i k Jansson
continued: ". . . now I have forsworn myself from Sweden and
every other European power and dominion, and d id this eight
months ago and now have c i v i l rights here." Eight months—that
is the exact period between an arrival i n June, 1846, and
February, 1847.
It is evident that Blombergsson's almost contemporaneous
report on the route of the journey has much greater value as a
source than the later accounts of E r i c Johnson and others. At the
time of the crossing, E r i c Johnson was hardly eight years old, and
his statement that they had gone via H u l l and Liverpool was
probably influenced by the knowledge of what later became a
common route.
Despite a systematic inquiry, however, it has not been
possible to identify E r i k Jansson and those i n his group on the
available passenger lists of the ships that arrived in New York
early in June 1846. On 3 June, the ship O t h e l l o arrived from Le
222
Havre; and among its passengers were two Swedes ( S P A N Y , 70;
there unidentified): André Ronden, age 29, male, farmer;
Jonsson Rondennen, age 29, male, farmer. One is tempted to
identify these two as members of E r i k Jansson's group. But in
that case, where are the other six? It is more probable that the
two enigmatic Swedes on the O t h e l l o were Jonas of Norrbyn and
Jonas of Hede[n], both from Söderala and both of whom
Bombergsson mentioned as also having come from L e H a v r e . 1 5
During the 1840s, extensive navigation took place between Le
Havre and Norway, as is evident in the Le Havre
Swedish-Norwegian consul's annual lists of the Norwegian ships
that had docked there.1 6 In 1846 they numbered about 200.
These Norwegian ships were frequently said to be transporting
emigrants; according to the consul's report, there were 841 of
them in 1843 and about 900 in 1846. The forty-seven
Dalecarlians who on 27 August 1846 arrived at New York from
Le Havre on the ship John H o l l a n d ( S P A N Y , 84-86) had in all
probability come to Le Havre via Norway. From this major port,
there were at the time frequent connections to the United States.
Between 6 A p r i l and 3 June 1846 alone, twenty ships of different
nationalities sailed with emigrants from L e Havre to New York.
T H E JANSSONIST SHIPS, 1846-1854: PASSENGER LISTS
Blombergsson's account of the coming of the various
Janssonist ships to New York in 1846 after his own arrival is
extremely accurate and corresponds with the information in
Then Jon Olsson and 160 per- (15 September, SPANY,
S P A N Y :
14 days later 19 more Dale­carlians
on a Norwegian
brig from Christiania.
Then came 46 friends from
Västmanland and Dalecarlia
on a Norwegian brig from
Stockholm,
and then 47 Dalecarlians
on a paquet from Havre.
(John H o l l a n d , 27
August, S P A N Y , 84)
( P a t r i a , l August,
S P A N Y , 80)
( T r i c o l o r , 25 July,
SPANY, 80)
sons on the brig C h a r l o t t a ;
Hedin and 150 persons on
the ship W i l h e l m i n a from
Gefle;
(21 September, S P A N Y,
98)
86)
223
the Norwegian brig A g d e r
with 45,
the ship S o l i d e with 160,
and finally 50 persons, who
(28 September, S P A NY
106)
(14 October, S P A N Y,
108)
sailed from Stockholm on the
brig C a r o l i n a . Their ship
foundered off the French coast;
but the people were rescued
by a French fisherman and
were sent by the French
government here to New York. (24 October, S P A N Y,
This meticulous account undeniably strengthens the
c r e d i b i l i t y of Blombergsson's report on the route of Erik
Jansson's journey.
Blombergsson continues:
Still are missing, all the
same, three ships, namely:
the B e t t y C a t h a r i n a from
Söderhamn with 65, (Shipwrecked)
the brig F r i t z from
Blombergsson describes his task in New York as follows:
Here I have been alone, guarding our friends from all the
deceptions in vogue, and my success has been so great that
among all the immigrants who have landed, no one has been
as free from deception as our friends; therefore even here I
have been a stumbling-block for many, and many have
wanted to be r id of me. The transportation agents considered
that I had deprived them of a profit of 12,000 r i k s d a l e r .
With regard to the crossings of the Dalecarlians on the T r i c o l o r
and the John H o l l a n d , apparently no descriptions were
preserved. O n the other hand, a Chicago correspondent, " E . , " for
the periodical H a r b i n g e r , published by the Utopian Brook Farm
community in Massachusetts, speaks in a letter dated Chicago,
12 September 1846, of the arrival a few days earlier in Chicago of
some sixty-five Dalecarlians, followers of E r i k Jansson.1 7 The
group here referred to must have consisted of those persons from
118)
Stockholm with 114, (9 December, S P A N Y,
120)
( N e w Y o r k , 20 March
1847, S P A N Y , 134)
and a ship from Gefle with
about 120 passengers.
224
Dalarna who arrived in N ew York on the T r i c o l o r on 25 July, the
P a t r i a on 21 August, and the John H o l l a n d on 27 August; the
latter had evidently made a fast trip from New York to Chicago.
The nineteen Dalecarlians who came on the T r i c o l o r to New
York on 25 July can very well have reached Chicago by 1
September, but not those who came on the P a t r i a on 1 August or
on the John H o l l a n d on 27 August. There is perhaps cause to
question the dating of the letter.
With regard to the crossing of the C h a r l o t t a , there are a
number of testimonies. On 18 July 1846, a Stockholm
correspondent to Jönköpings-Bladet described in great detail the
ship's appointments and departure from the Swedish capital. A
letter from Copenhagen, reported i n the newspaper B a r o m e t e rn
(Kalmar) on 5 August 1846, stated that " M r s . H . " (Mrs.
Hellgren-Holmberg, S P A N Y , 87, n. 35), who had sailed on the
C h a r l o t t a in order to visit her daughter residing i n America
( S P A N Y , 61, n. 67), was assisting the captain with care of the sick
on board.1 8 Reference to this same person is presumably made in
a highly critical letter, written by a passenger on the C h a r l o t t a in
New York on 16 September 1846, thus immediately after arrival,
and published i n abridgement in the Stockholm newspaper
A f t o n b l a d e t on 7 November 1846. It says that the fanatical
Janssonist leader (Jonas Olsson) would not allow the sick people
in his group to take any medication: " I n the beginning medicine
sometimes had to be stolen, sometimes had to be forced into
them, otherwise many others certainly would also have perished,
but finally it came to the point that the leader himself had to ask
for medicine for his c h i l d . " In a letter dated Chicago, 19 October
1846, Anders Larsson of Torstuna ( S P A N Y , 92, n. 69) described
his crossing and the fourteen-day trip to Chicago. Both in this
letter and in a subsequent one of 28 December 1846, he referred
to his diary of the trip—a document, alas, that presumably has
been l o s t . 1 9 Finally, there are accounts from two of the C h a r l o t t a
passengers who are not included on the list in SPANY—the letter
of E r i k Jansson Myrén of Torstuna dated N e w York, 28
September 1846,2 0 and that of Britta Gustafsdotter of Los dated
New York, 5 November 1846, and published in the Swedish
newspaper N o r r l a n d s - P o s t e n on 27 April 1847. Both of these
people broke with the sect in N ew York. Myrén returned home
the next year; and in the Torstuna parish records (A-Book), it was
noted on 9 November 1847 that he had furnished a written
225
explanation of his forswearing E r i k Jansson's doctrine. Myrén is
also said to have kept a diary during his trip, a document Anders
Larsson claimed to have in his possession.21
An anonymous letter dated Victoria, 20 July 1847, and printed
in Gävle as a brochure, has been shown by Gun Andersson
probably to have been written for the most part by a passenger on
the W i l h e l m i n a , Jonas Nilsson Hällström of Alfta ( S P A N Y , 105, n.
40).2 2 From Chicago Anders Larsson related in a letter of 19
October 1846, ". . . today the passengers on the ship
W i l h e l m i n a from Gefle arrived. The ship carried 118 passengers
of whom twenty-one children and seven adults have d i e d . " 2 3
On the journey of the Agder, an anonymous Janssonist wrote in
a letter dated 9 February 1847 and published in the Swedish
newspaper U p s a l a on 25 May 1847:
Our crossing of the great ocean on the Norwegian brig
A g d e r commanded by Captain Bie proceeded fortunately
according to the word of the Lord. O n 26 September 1846 we
a r r i v e d in N ew York after a three-month trip from
Stockholm. We had to disembark i n Denmark and Norway,
and at the latter place we stayed for nearly a week.
In a letter dated Bishop H i l l , 20 April 1847, and published in the
Stockholm newspaper P o s t - och i n r i k e s t i d n i n g on 4 February
1848, Jöns Ersson of Nora, another passenger on the A g d er
( S P A N Y , 107, n. 52), said that during the Norwegian stopover
some of the emigrants had regretted their decisions and returned
home. It is possible that an anonymous letter from the beginning
of 1847 was written by a passenger on the Agder, namely, the
Norwegian-born doctor Paoli ( S P A N Y , 106, n. 4 8 ) . 2 4 This letter is
the most detailed account of a crossing on a Janssonist ship. The
author himself was not in any way an adherent of the sect. He
also mentioned that five emigrants had abandoned the ship
already in Helsingør.
The most detailed account of the wreck of the C a r o l i n a is a
letter of 27 October 1846 written by the Swedish-Norwegian
consul in N ew York, C . Edvard H a b i c h t . 2 5 The ship foundered in
a hurricane off Newfoundland on 19 September, but the
passengers and crew were rescued by the fishing vessel D e ux
A u g u s t e s from the French island of St. Pierre off the southern
coast of Newfoundland. The French governor on the island then
fitted out the transport brig V i g i l a n c e , which arrived in N ew York
with the survivors on 24 October 1846 ( S P A N Y , 118). Habicht
226
even stated that two daughters of the shoemaker Pehr Jonsson
Blom of Alfta, Martha and Carin ( S P A N Y , 119, n. 21), had
perished during the sea voyage. A n d on St. Pierre, according to
Habicht, two more persons died: the widow Beata Andersdotter
( S P A N Y , 119, no. 20) and the girl Brita Olsdotter ( S P A N Y , 121, n.
28). Those involved in the rescue operation were rewarded by
the Swedish government: the captain of the fishing vessel was
made a knight of the Vasa Order, each of the crewmen got a sum
of money, and the doctor and harbormaster on St. Pierre received
the medal Illis q u o r u m . 2 6
The B e t t y C a t h a r i n a (Captain Rönning) never got to port: it
was lost at sea without any survivors. In the church books of
Gävleborgs län it is occasionally stated, for example for Mo
parish, that certain persons perished with the B e t t y C a t h a r i n a .
Among them were Blombergsson's wife, Sofia Magdalena Frisk,
and the couple's four children. On 12 September 1847, when
there was no longer any hope for the ship, there was held in
Gävle a memorial service for the crew, who were from that city,
and for a fourteen-year-old local girl among the passengers.27
F r om a woman passenger on the F r i t z , there is a very
i n t e r e s t i n g letter dated N e w York, 11 January 1847, and
anonymously p u b l i s h e d i n the Swedish newspaper S t o ra
K o p p a r b e r g s läns n y a t i d n i n g on 6 May 1847. The writer, who
must be Brita Helena Nystrand ( S P A N Y , 127, n. 70), was highly
critical of the Janssonists. During the crossing she had cared for
some of the sick on the Sabbath and therefore neglected her
morning prayers. For this she was censured by the religious
leaders: " B y the words which then were said to me, I clearly saw
that Christian love was lacking there." The upshot was that she
broke with the sect on their arrival in New York. About the
Janssonists she continued: " N o w during the winter they cannot
travel into the interior but rather have rented a house outside of
New York itself."
After the F r i t z arrived on 9 December 1846 and the S o p h i a ,
a Gävle-based ship of which Blombergsson evidently was not
aware, came to port on 7 January 1847 ( S P A N Y , 128), twenty of
both these ships' passengers dared to undertake the trip inland
during the winter, while the majority stayed in N ew York for the
season. Blombergsson, who by this time certainly had learned
some English, escorted the group. They arrived in Bishop H i l l in
mid-February, 1847.28
227
The E d l a arrived on 6 March 1847 ( S P A N Y , 132) and the
A u g u s t a , on 8 March 1847 ( S P A N Y , 132). The crossing on the
A u g u s t a was described in a letter written by Olof Andersson of
Fallet, Nora ( S P A N Y , 135, n. 43):
. . . since 7 December, when we left Gothenburg, we have
not had any winter. Several times before Christmas some
snow d id fall, but it melted as soon as it came down and we
seldom needed anything other than life-jackets when we
were up on deck, and in our cabins it was so warm that we
often had to have the doors open and after the twentieth day
they began to go barefoot, and even I did this, from 21
January to 21 February I only wore a vest and summer
pants. . . . O n N ew Year's Eve we made our beds on the b ig
top deck with an oiled sailcloth over us and it was so warm
that we only needed a quilt at n i g h t . 2 9
The passengers joined the other Janssonists who were
spendin g the winter i n N e w York. Olof Andersson
continued:
Here we rent two buildings, four floors, and seldom have
the doors shut at night, and within the premises we have the
yards filled but nothing has been lost, and next to where we
live is a church that we can use when we want to.
The N e w Y o r k left Gävle on 17 October 1846. On the change of
domicile list (B-Book) for Åmot parish in Gävleborgs län, it is
recorded that two local Janssonists, mother and son, regreted
their decision soon after the ship's departure: "The captain
nobly gave them the opportunity to disembark, after which they
immediately returned to their home district." At length, the ship
arrived i n N ew York severely delayed on 20 March 1847, after
having lain for some time at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in
E n g l a n d for repairs. On 14 December 1846 the local
Swedish-Norwegian vice-consul reported to the Consulate
General in London that these passengers were not experiencing
any need and were well provided with money; four persons had
died at sea and a c h i ld i n C o w e s . 3 0
Upon their arrival in New York, these Janssonists also joined
forces with the others spending the winter there. One of these
passengers, Otto Stenberg ( S P A N Y , 147, n. 14), wrote a detailed
letter dated N e w York, 23 May 1847, and p u b l i s h e d in
Söderhamn as a brochure.3 1 He told about their crossing and
especially about the conditions among those who were spending
228
B e l o w decks o n a n e m i g r a n t vessel i n t h e s a i l i n g - s h i p e r a . ( C o u r t e s y o f t h e
E m i g r a n t I n s t i t u t e , Växjö.)
the winter in N ew Y o r k . 3 2 Stenberg and his wife became sharply
critical and broke with the sect. "The entire congregation set out
for Illinois at the end of A p r i l [1847]," Otto Stenberg s a i d . 3 3 And
Anders Larsson wrote in detail about the group in a letter dated
Chicago, 9 July 1847:
The last group, or those who had assembled in New York
from five ships [ F r i t z , S o p h i a , E d l a , A u g u s t a , N e w Y o r k]
carrying emigrants from Sweden, altogether over 400, had
come to N ew York, some in December, some in January, and
some in March. A large number died in N ew York, and many
have stayed there; the rest numbered about 364 upon
departure from New York. Some died, and others turned
back during the trip. But the remainder, around 340, came to
Bishop H i l l on 4 June.34
We know about the Janssonist ship O r e s t thanks to a letter
229
dated Chicago, 27 March 1848, by Victor Witting, a member of
the crew.3 5 On the other hand, there is no passenger list in
S P A N Y . Witting's letter reads:
On 6 August last fall in Stockholm I went aboard, together
with a large group of E r i c Janssonists3 6 led by Joh. Johnsson,
the brig O r e s t , commanded by Capt. Lindström, in order to
sail to New York, and on 16 October [1847] we anchored on
the American shore. From the Swedes there we learned that
things were worse than poor i n the Swedish colony of
Bishop H i l l in Illinois. Over 300 persons had died in a short
time from lack of proper care and just as many had deserted.
Certainly we did not fully and firmly believe this, but got
discouraged all the same; I was at a loss as to what I should
do and many a time I have later regretted that I d id not stay
in New York.
Witting thus journeyed into the interior and got to Chicago:
"Here the statements of the New York Swedes about the poor
conditions in Bishop H i l l were confirmed, for which reason I
remained here on the advice of two local Swedes." The leader of
the group on the O r e s t was Jonas Jonsson of Hamre, Forsa. In
Gävle on 21 June 1847, he received a passport for himself and his
family. His wife Brita Johansdotter and two children went in
advance with this passport on the E l i z e ( S P A N Y , 149, n. 26a;
273), while Jonas Jonsson himself got a new passport in
Stockholm on 29 June 1847.3 7 He died in Bishop H i l l quite soon
after his arrival there.38
The journey on the C o n d o r in 1850 was described in great
detail by Erik Olsson of Sälja, Nora ( S P A N Y , 262, n. 24), in a
letter dated Bishop H i l l , 31 May 1851:
We came on 16 [September 1850] to England after
c r u i s i n g i n headwinds and went through the E n g l i sh
Channel i n one and a half days with good winds. . . . On
the 18th we set out on the great ocean . . . most of the time
we had poor winds; for three days it was so utterly calm that
you hardly could see where the sails would turn; then we
had relatively good weather for two days and then calm once
more for eight days and it got so warm that we hardly could
go on deck, but then we had good winds, the farther west we
came the speedier we could travel, until we were so close
that the captain did not dare go any further but rather
dropped anchor for the night until it was daylight. . . . We
arrived with horses and wagons in Bishop H i l l eight days
before Christmas.3 9
230
On 1 October 1854, the C a r o l i n a , the last Janssonist ship, left
Gävle with 101 emigrants, most of them from Nora p a r i s h . 4 0 E r ik
Ersson of Stalbo, Nora, wrote in a letter dated Bishop H i l l , 10
January 1855: "Over the entire ocean, we had fantastically
beautiful and warm weather, so that we were on deck for days at
a time in our shirt sleeves and barefoot all the way until we got to
the American coast."4 1 They went ashore in New York on 18
December. Another Nora native, Lars Ersson, described the
ensuing trip, which now no longer went via the Erie Canal:
On the evening of 21 [December] we boarded a steamship
in New York and sailed for several hours, and then we went
inland on the railroad, and it was rather pleasant to travel in
this fashion. There were sometimes forty cars being pulled
by a steam engine, and it a l l went like a b i rd flying through
the air. Stoves had been set up in the cars, and splendidly
painted benches to sit on as if in church.4 2
They arrived in Bishop H i l l on the fourth day of Christmas.
On p. 106 of W h e a t F l o u r M e s s i a h , Paul Elmen refers to the
N o r r l a n d as a Janssonist ship. The N o r r l a n d was, however, one
of the coastal vessels that sailed the Gulf of Bothnia between
Stockholm and Haparanda. It is mentioned several times in
connection with the Janssonists simply because for reasons of
convenience many took it from Hudiksvall and Söderhamn to the
America ships i n Gävle or Stockholm instead of enduring the
laborious journey by land.
T H E STENBERG (STONEBERG) F A M I LY
Olof Stenberg, who in 1845 had moved from Stenbo in Forsa,
Gävleborgs län, to Klockargården in Österunda, Västmanlands
län, left the latter place i n 1846 and got a passport to America in
Västerås on 19 June for himself, his wife C e c i l i a Larsdotter, and
two children—Jonas, born 10 July 1843 and Margaretha Johanna,
born 14 March 1846.4 3 In 1846 the following people left Forsa:
Olof Stenberg's mother, C e c i l i a Olsdotter,4 4 his brother, Anders
Jonsson, and his sister-in-law, Margta Larsdotter. These people
got passports in Gävle on 5 June. His sister Sigrid Jonsdotter had
also departed. Members of the family remaining in Sweden for
the time being were O l o f s father Jonas Olsson and the latter's
son Jonas.
Olof Stenberg's wife and their two children can be found
among the passengers of 1846 on the C h a r l o t t a as Christina
231
Larsdotter, age 27 (with what for the passenger lists is a not
unusual misidentification of her first name), Jonas Larsson, age 3,
and Margaretha Johanna, age Vz ( S P A N Y , 96; there unidentified,
but the unique combination of first names Margaretha Johanna
and the correct indication of the children's ages assures an
identification). Among the passengers on the C h a r l o t t a was also
Olof Stenberg's sister-in-law, Margta Larsdotter ( S P A N Y , 91, n.
65). On the other hand, the other family members who emigrated
in 1846 are not on the C h a r l o t t a ' s passenger list or on any other
available one from 1846. It is readily admitted, however, that
occasional omissions do occur on the passenger lists. This has
been shown above in the case of E r i k Jansson Myrén and Britta
Gustafsdotter and the C h a r l o t t a . My supposition is that O l o f s
mother C e c i l i a Olsdotter of Stenbo and her three children
Anders, Olof, and Sigrid had also come on the C h a r l o t t a but for
some reason were not included on its passenger list. In any case
both of the brothers Anders Jonsson4 5 and Olof Jonsson wrote in
a letter that they had arrived in Bishop H i l l on 14 October
1846,4 6 which is entirely reasonable in light of the arrival of the
C h a r l o t t a in New York on 15 September. After a wordy
exposition on the ideal conditions in the colony, they concluded
their letter with greetings from "Mother, Sigri and Marta and
Cesilja." This corresponds perfectly with their mother Cecilia
Olsdotter, their sister S i g r i d , 4 7 Olof Stenberg's wife Cecilia
Larsdotter, and her sister Margta Larsdotter.
In 1850 the remaining members of the family emigrated from
Stenbo in Forsa, that is, the father Jonas Olsson—now a widower
after his wife had died in America—his son Jonas, now married,
and the latter's wife, Anna Larsdotter.4 8 They got passports in
Gävle on 10 June 1850. Jonas Olsson hired the schooner P r i m u s ,
which with a cargo of iron and a group of emigrants left
Hudiksvall on 22 June.
We are well informed about their crossing from a letter written
by one of the emigrants, Per Ersson Högman from Hög,
Gävleborgs län, dated Milwaukee, 21 December 1850, and
published in the Swedish newspaper H u d i k s w a l l s w e c k o b l a d on
8, 15, and 22 March 1851: "We left Hudikswall on 22 June and
came to Helsingör on 3 July; from here we departed on the 4th
and came to New York on 19 S e p t e m b e r . " 4 9 Because of
dissatisfaction with Jonas Olsson and the Janssonists, Högman
and several others broke with the group. " F r om there, from New
232
York, on the 25th, we took a steamship to Albany and from there
on the 26th, the railroad to Buffalo." In Buffalo Högman and his
friends joined up with Olof Stenberg and the latter's group from
the A e o l u s (see below), who had come via the Erie Canal.
Together with these people, they continued the journey by boat,
during which time increasing criticism was also directed against
Olof Stenberg. Högman's sharply critical letter resulted in a
number of people from Hassela, who had planned to emigrate in
1851, refraining from doing s o . 5 0 Högman's wife was among the
many who died i n Milwaukee. H e himself returned to Sweden
already in 1851.51
About Jonas Olsson, E r i k Olsson (the painter Olof Krans'
father) wrote in a letter dated Bishop H i l l , 31 May 1851:
A short time ago Stenberg's father left us, he fared
according to his own righteousness and bought a stone
house in a town, Moline, and intended to live there on his
wealth, and listened to those creedal servants, namely,
Hedström and Esbjörn, yet he found nothing but falseness in
their doctrine, for he knew the Scriptures. He d id not get any
peace until he returned to this town. He saw it as his duty to
sign over his wealth to a congregation that gives sustenance
to widows and fatherless children, and he has now married a
young girl of Zion's daughters.52
In a letter to a cousin in Forsa dated Bishop H i l l , 23 February
1854, Olof Stenberg conveyed greetings from "Anders, Jonas,
Sigrid, C e c i l i a , Anna, M a r t h a . " 5 3 That is, all of the family
members then in Bishop H i l l : Olof's siblings Anders, Jonas, and
Sigrid, as well as the three Larsdotter sisters, O l o f s wife C e c i l ia
Larsdotter, Jonas' wife Anna Larsdotter, and Margta Larsdotter.
On the other hand, no mention was made of O l o f s father, who
probably had died by that time, nor of Anders' wife Lovisa
Andersdotter; she was, of course, from Österunda and had only
come into the family in America and thus was unknown in Forsa.
O L O F STENBERG A N D O L O F JONSSON'S JOURNEY
TO S W E D E N , 1849-1850
In May 1849, Olof Jonsson Stenberg and Olof Jonsson
(Jansson) of Söderala were sent from Bishop H i l l to Sweden.54
They were furnished with powers of attorney i n order to claim
property and estates that i n part could have passed to Janssonists
in America after the death of Swedish relatives, in part could
233
E r i k Janssonists at h o m e i n B i s h o p H i l l . ( C o u r t e s y o f B i s h o p H i l l H e r i t a ge
A s s o c i a t i o n . )
have been left by those who perished when the B e t t y C a t h a r i n a
went down a few years earlier. At the police station in Stockholm
they had their American passports authorized for further travel
i n l a n d , 5 5 and on 7 August they arrived in Hälsingland.5 6 The
reaction of the press to their coming was negative; warnings of
their purposes were made. In the official records of various
district courts in Hälsingland and Gästrikland during the fall of
1849 and the spring of 1850, there are proceedings of numerous
cases of inheritance in which they were involved. The sum these
delegates succeeded i n collecting is said to have amounted to
$6,000.5 7 In a long letter to the editor of the newspaper H e l s i on 8
March 1850, Olof Jonsson of Söderala took the opportunity to
polemicize against anti-Janssonist sentiments in a brochure
recently published in Söderhamn by Daniel Londberg, N y t t h r ef
från A m e r i k a o m E r i k Jansarnes tillstånd derstädes (New letter
234
from America on the conditions of the Erik Janssonists in that
place). O n 12 A p r i l he r e c e i v ed a caustic reply from the
publisher of the brochure in the same newspaper.
The two delegates took separate routes for their journeys
home. Olof Jonsson of Söderala got a passport to America in
Stockholm on 11 May 1850 and travelled via Germany and
England.5 8 He is identical with the Ole Jansson who arrived in
New York on 29 June 1850 on the H e l e n a S l o m a n from Hamburg
( S P A N Y , 210; there unidentified). O n 8 June 1850, Olof Stenberg
sailed with a large group of emigrants from Söderhamn on the
A e o l u s and arrived in N ew York on 17 September ( S P A N Y,
236).5 9 Per Ersson Högman, who at the same time had come to
New York on the P r i m u s (see above), joined Olof Stenberg's
group during the journey inland and in his above-mentioned
letter was h i g h l y c r i t i c a l of Stenberg's treatment of the
emigrants. The group was also strongly decimated by cholera in
Milwaukee; according to Högman, of the original 158 emigrants
only seventy-three remained when the sickness had passed.
(Translated by R A Y M O N D JARVI)
NOTES
1 All references to Nils William Olsson, S w e d i s h P a s s e n g e r A r r i v a l s i n N e w
Y o r k , 1 8 2 0 - 1 8 5 0 (Chicago, 1967), are given in the text with the abbreviation
SPANY.
2 Henrik Gladh, L a r s W i l h e l m H e n s c h e n o c h religionsfrihets-frågan till 1 8 53
(Uppsala & Stockholm, 1953), 190, n. 7.
3 The original of this letter is deposited at the Bishop Hill Heritage
Association; a translation of it was published by Wesley M. Westerberg,
"Document: 'Letter of Olof Olsson,'" S w e d i s h P i o n e e r H i s t o r i c a l Q u a r t e r l y , 23,
(1972), 61—70. Olsson wrote the same day and also on 16 February 1846 from
New York to Henschen. Neither of these letters is preserved in the Henschen
Collection in Uppsala University Library, but both were mentioned in a letter in
that collection of 1 March 1848 from a Swedish clergyman, Anders Sandberg,
who had them on loan.
4 The date of the Ceres' departure is incorrectly given as May 1846 in Paul
Elmen's W h e a t F l o u r M e s s i a h : E r i c Jansson of B i s h o p H i l l (Carbondale &
Edwardsville, 111., 1976), 103.
5 Anna Lena Hedström was a half sister of the well-known Carl Magnus Flack;
their mother, Greta Lisa Bergman, had first been married Hedström, and later
Flack. It is possible that a letter sent home by Flack, who had emigrated in 1843
(SPANY, 55, n. 18), motivated the Larsson family's departure, the first in the
series of migrations from Alfta. See Kjell Söderberg, D e n första
m a s s u t v a n d r i n g e n : E n s t u d i e a v befolkningsrörlighet och e m i g r a t i o n utgående
från A l f t a socken i Hälsingland 1 8 4 6 — 1 8 9 5 , Umeå Studies in the Humanities, 39
(Umeå & Stockholm, 1981).
6 Elmen (25) speaks about a large group of Janssonists who sailed from Gävle
on 14 October 1845 ( s i c ) . This is a misunderstanding. What is indicated is the
235
group that a r r i v e d in New York on 14 October 1846 on the Gävle-based ship
S o l i d e ( S P A N Y , 108).
7 The most detailed account of the shipwreck is found in G e f l e b o r g s Läns
T i d n i n g , 5 November 1845.
8 The Larsson family arrived in New York on the P a t r i a on 20 August 1846
( S P A N Y , 83, n. 6); they had spent the previous winter at the home of Anders
Andersson in Torstuna and got a new passport in Västerås on 23 May 1846, at
which time it was noted in the official record that their previous passport had
been lost. Jonas Malmgren arrived, now with his family, on the W i l h e l m i n a on 21
September 1846 ( S P A N Y , 103, n. 27); soon after their arrival in Bishop Hill, Jonas
Malmgren's wife Anna Catharina Qvarnström gave birth on 27 December 1846 to
a daughter, Maria, the first child born in the colony. Sophia Carolina Schön
arrived on the A g d e r on 28 September 1846 (SPANY, 109, n. 62).
9 Erik Jansson was born in Biskopskulla, Uppland, on 21 December 1808, not
on 19 December, the date always given, even on his tombstone in the Bishop Hill
Cemetery. The only person who, to my knowledge, had checked the
Biskopskulla birth and baptismal book (C-Book) and who gives the correct date
is—not unexpectedly—Nils William Olsson, "Immigrant Artifacts as Aids to
Genealogical Research," S w e d i s h A m e r i c a n G e n e a l o g i s t , 1 (1981), 23.
1 0 S v e n s k t b i o g r a f i s k t l e x i k o n (Örebro, 1863-1864), V, 344.
1 1 Eric Johnson and C. F. Peterson, eds., S v e n s k a r n e i I l l i n o i s : H i s t o r i s ka
a n t e c k n i n g a r (Chicago, 1880), 26.
1 2 See, for example, Ernst W. Olson, H i s t o r y o f t h e Swedes of I l l i n o i s , 2 vols.
(Chicago, 1908), I, 223.
1 3 This letter is in the Henschen Collection in Uppsala University Library. It is
signed, "Erik Jahnsson."
1 4 T i d n i n g för F a h l u Län och S t a d , 9 April 1846. Elmen's statement on p. 97
that Erik Jansson had gone through Älvdalen can be misunderstood. What is
indicated here is not Älvdalen p a r i s h , Dalarna, but rather Älvdals härad in the
valley of Klarälven, Värmland, which must be crossed on the way from Malung to
Norway.
1 5 Jonas of Norrbyn was born in Söderala on 27 September 1821. He was the
son of Jon Jonsson and Carin Svensdotter and the brother of Anna Jonsdotter
( S P A N Y , 109, n. 70) and of Carin Jonsdotter (SPANY, 109, n. 71). He left Söderala
without a certificate of change of domicile. Who Jonas of Heden was, it has not
been possible to determine.
1 6 Riksarkivet, Stockholm: Kommerskollegium, Konsulernas skeppslistor.
1 7 T h e H a r b i n g e r , III: 17 (3 Oct. 1846); Elmen, 135-36. An anonymous Swede
in America sent this letter to N a j a d e n (Karlskrona), which published a Swedish
translation of it. Elmen (122) misunderstood the reference to the group's t o lk
(interpreter), making it a personal name, Tolk.
1 8 "Mrs. H . " is not, as Elmen indicates (105), Mrs. Hebbe who sailed on the
A g d e r ( S P A N Y , 109, n. 63).
*9 Albin Widén, När S v e n s k - A m e r i k a g r u n d a d e s (Borås, 1961), 62-69, 72.
2 0 Widén, 56-59. An English translation of this letter has been published in H.
Arnold Barton, L e t t e r s f r o m t h e P r o m i s e d L a n d : Swedes in A m e r i c a 1 8 4 0 - 1 9 14
(Minneapolis; University of Minnesota Press, 1975), 35-38.
2 1 Widén, 78.
2 2 Tillståndet hos de A m e r i k a n s k a u t w a n d r a n d e E r i k - J a n s a r n e s a m t P r o f e t e ns
bedrägerier, s k i l d r a d e i b r e f från en u t w a n d r a r e (Gefle, 1847); Gun Andersson,
"Ett amerikabrev till Alfta från 1847: Vem skrev?" Hälsingerunor (1978), 5-7; in
English, "An America Letter to Alfta in 1847: Who Wrote l t ? " S w e d i s h P i o n e er
H i s t o r i c a l Q u a r t e r l y , 31 (1980), 231-41. Formerly, this letter has usually been
ascribed to Pehr Jonsson Blom, who sailed on the C a r o l i n a ( S P A N Y , 119, n. 21).
This person, however, only added a few short postscripts to Hällström's letter.
236
2 3 Widén, 69.
2 4 The letter was published in Theodor Schytte, Vägledning för
e m i g r a n t e r . . . . M e d e t t b i h a n g o m de år 1 8 4 7 u t v a n d r a d e E r i k Janssons
anhängares s o r g l i g a öde (Stockholm, 1849), 40-46.
2 5 Riksarkivet, Stockholm. Habicht's letter is attached to a dispatch to the
foreign minister by the Swedish-Norwegian chargé d'affaires, Adam
Løvenskiold, dated 31 October 1846.
2 8 Riksarkivet, Stockholm. Foreign minister to the legation in Paris, 1847.
2 7 G e f l e b o r g s läns t i d n i n g , 15 September 1847.
2 8 George Swank, B i s h o p H i l l : S h o w c a s e o f S w e d i s h H i s t o r y (5th ed., rev.,
Galva, 111., 1978), 13. Swank also provides a list of these emigrants recorded,
however, long afterwards.
2 9 Vårt h e m b y g d , Skriftserie utg. av Hembygdens förlag, Östervåla, 5
(Östervåla, 1981), 405-06.
3 0 Riksarkivet, Stockholm. The vice-consul's letter is attached to the consul
general's report of 15 December 1846 to the Kommerskollegium.
3 1 O[tto] S[tenberg], E r i k - J a n s i s m e n i N o r d a m e r i k a e l l e r B e s k r i f n i n g o m E r i k
Jansarnes tillstånd derstädes, s a m t r e s a n d i t med s k e p p e t N e w Y o r k . B r e f från
en a f u t w a n d r a r n e (Söderhamn, 1847).
3 2 The mate, Ljungberg, who served as an interpreter for those spending the
winter in New York (Widén, 35), was not the colporteur A. M. Ljungberg
indicated by Elmen on p. 120, but rather Nils Johan Ljungberg. The latter came
to New York in December 1846, while his family arrived on the N e w Y o r k
( S P A N Y , 137, n. 52). The Ljungberg family later settled in Galesburg, 111. (Olson,
I, 283).
3 3 Johnson and Peterson (33) give an exact date, 26 April.
3 4 Widén, 30. An English translation has been published by John E. Norton
under the title " ' . . . For it flows with Milk and Honey': Two Immigrant Letters
about Bishop H i l l , " S w e d i s h P i o n e e r H i s t o r i c a l Q u a r t e r l y , 24, (1973), 168-79.
Jöns Ersson of Nora ( S P A N Y , 107, n. 52) also mentioned the arrival of this group
in a letter published in P o s t - och i n r i k e s t i d n i n g on 5 February 1848: " . . . the last
group that stopped here this past Friday evening [according to Anders Larsson, 4
June 1847 was a Friday], numbering 400 persons." Jöns Ersson's letter is, of
course, dated 1 June 1847, but certain details indicate that it was completed
somewhat later. Entirely different dates for the inland trip of this group of
Janssonists are found in Johan Edvard Lilljeholm, P i o n e e r i n g A d v e n t u r e s i n
A m e r i c a (Rock Island, 111., 1962), 13-18; but these dates have as little credibility
as his statement that this group of Janssonists spent the winter living on canal
boats.
3 5 This letter was published anonymously in the Malmö newspaper
Snällposten on 29 May 1848, but its writer undoubtedly was Witting. See also
Victor Witting's M i n n e n från m i t t l i f (Worcester, Mass., 1902), 63-64.
3 6 Witting (64) gives their number as about thirty persons, but in Gävle during
1847 passports to America were issued to only some fifteen persons who cannot
be traced to other Janssonist ships. In Västerås and Falun during 1847, no
passports that can be identified with Janssonists were issued.
3 7 Stockholms Stadsarkiv: Passport Journal, 1847.
3 8 According to Erik Ersson of Vitterarv, Delsbo (SPANY, 149, n. 24) in a letter
dated Victoria, 27 March 1848, and published, in G e f l e D a g b l a d on 14 April 1970.
It is wrongly identified in the title of the article as a letter from Bishop Hill.
3 9 Vår h e m b y g d , 5, 411-19.
4 0 Vår h e m b y g d , 4, 276-78.
4 1 Vår h e m b y g d , 6, 574-76.
4 3 Vår h e m b y g d , 6, 577-79.
237
4 3 Olofs wife Cecilia Larsdotter was born at Utnäs, Forsa, on 14 October 1819.
She was a daughter of the farmer Lars Ersson and Margta Olsdotter.
4 4 Cecilia Olsdotter was born at Tövsätter, Forsa, on 13 November 1794. She
was a daughter of the farmer Olof Olsson and Cecilia Andersdotter.
4 5 See Johnson and Peterson, 312, for information on Anders Stenberg, born on
30 November 1822. In America he married Lovisa Andersdotter, born at Norra
Bångsbo, Österunda, on 8 March 1826. She was a daughter of Anders Andersson
and Ulrika Dahlgren and the sister of Maria Charlotta Andersdotter ( S P A N Y , 81,
n. 4) and of Ulrika Andersdotter, who eventually took her mother's surname
Dahlgren (SPANY, 83, n. 11; there incorrectly identified).
4 6 The letter dated "Biscopskulla 9 febr. 1847" initially was only mentioned in
H u d i k s w a l l s w e c k o b l a d on 15 July 1847 and then published in the 17 July
edition of the newspaper.
4 7 Sigrid Stenberg was one of the Stenberg twins born on 7 December 1820.
4 8 Jonas Olsson was born at Stenbo, Forsa, on 26 April 1793; his parents were
Olof Olsson and Sigrid Jonsdotter. His son Jonas was the other Stenberg twin
born on 7 December 1820, and the latter's wife Anna Larsdotter was born on 24
May 1824.
4 9 Elmen (107) incorrectly cites the date of the arrival of the P r i m u s as 20 July
1850. This ship's passenger list is missing in S P A N Y .
5 0 According to a letter by Per Andersson (Joris-Pelle) of Hassela ( S P A N Y , 251,
n. 57) to Eric Norelius, dated Chisago Co., 1 January 1852; an English translation
of this document was published in Emeroy Johnson's "Per Andersson's Letters
from Chisago Lake," S w e d i s h P i o n e e r H i s t o r i c a l Q u a r t e r l y , 24, (1973), 11-14.
5 1 H u d i k s w a l l s w e c k o b l a d , 12 July 1851, and Per Andersson's letter of 1
January 1852 (see n. 50).
5 2 Vår h e m b y g d , 5, 418. See also Eric Norelius, D e s v e n s k a l u t e r s ka
församlingarnas och s v e n s k a r n e s h i s t o r i a i A m e r i k a , 2 vols. (Rock Island, 111.,
1890, 1916), I, 47-49, and Olson, I, 287-89. The woman Jonas Olsson married in
April 1851 was Karin Jonsdotter, born in Veda, Forsa, 24 Dec. 1819, a daughter of
Jonas Michelsson and Karin Johansdotter; the couple had a son, Isak. (Emil
Eriksson, in Hälsinglands t i d n i n g , 17 May 1980 and H u d i k s v a l l s - t i d n i n g e n , 19
May 1980.)
5 3 Widén gives E s s e l i a , but this is surely an incorrect reading. Unfortunately,
Widén renders several names incorrectly: on p. 66, K r o k instead of K r a k (Kraak,
SPANY, 59, n. 43, and 151, n. 43); on p. 77 H a n s Norbäck instead of
Hammarbäck; and on p. 98 T h o r f e l t instead of T h o r s e l l ( S P A N Y , 67, n. 19 and 86,
n. 29).
5 4 Anders Larsson in a letter dated Chicago, 1 July 1849; see Widén, 95. Elmen
(145) incorrectly states that the two travelers were Stenberg and the tailor Nils
Hedin.
5 5 Stockholms Stadsarkiv: Polissekreteraren, D II a.
5 6 H u d i k s w a l l s w e c k o b l a d , 11 August 1849; H e l s i , 17 August 1849.
5 7 Johnson and Peterson, 41.
5 8 Stockholms Stadsarkiv: Passport Journal, 1850.
5 9 Norelius, I, 29. Here it is incorrectly stated that the A e o l u s sailed from
Sundsvall.
238