Hedvig Elina Wieselgren

Ernst Skarstedt's ancestry on his mother's side is traced directly to Peter Wieselgren who was born in 1800, the second son of Jonas Jonsson and Elin Ingemarsdotter. Peter chose the name Wieselgren because the family had connections with the Wiesel family of Vislanda in Småland. The Wieselgren family traced its antecedents to Simon i Ryd who lived in Västra Torsås, Småland, during the latter part of the seventeenth century, and who was married to Ingegerd Månsdotter. Peter Wieselgren married Mathilda Catharina Rosenquist in 1833. Hedvig Elina, the fourth Wieselgren child, who was Ernst Skarstedt's mother, was born in 1839. Pastor C. W. Skarstedt and Hedvig Elina Wieselgren were married at Göteborg in 1856. Dr. Peter Wieselgren, Ernst's grandfather, was a famous theologian, author, evangelical churchman, and leader of the Swedish national movement against the use of alcohol. Shortly after the Reverend C. W. Skarstedt and Hedvig Elina Wieselgren were married in 1856, the couple began life at Solberga in Bohuslän, where the husband was kyrkoherde (rector) for Solberga, Jörlanda, and Hålta congregations. When C. W. Skarstedt proposed to Hedvig Wieselgren in September 1854, he had prepared a closely-written, eight-page document in which he professed great love for the attractive prospective bride and great hopes for the future. Hedvig replied in the affirmative in a cordial letter of eight sentences. The groom was forty-one and the bride was seventeen at the time of their marriage. Solberga was an isolated area ten miles northwest of the medieval city of Kungälv and twenty-five miles distant from Göteborg. No railroad communication had yet reached the Solberga and Kungälv area when the Skarstedts arrived there in 1856. The region was not heavily wooded although groves of pine and spruce, together with clumps of birch trees, produced variety in the rather rugged landscape from which loomed huge outcroppings of gray rock ledges. The terrain around Solberga evens out somewhat gradually from the rough coastline of Hakeford only a few miles to the west, which in turn, becomes a part of the Skagerack and eventually the North Sea. The terrain contributed undoubtedly to the absence of dense forests, but the long tradition of grazing flocks of sheep had been a decisive factor in the destruction of plants and the sprouts of trees. The lack of extensive tillable land made raising sheep almost inevitable although rye, oats, and other crops were grown in modest amounts. Moreover, Solberga residents supplemented the daily larder by fishing in nearby lakes or on more distant voyages to the North Sea, and by hunting wild game. The Skarstedts lived in the Solberga prästgård (parsonage), which was located on a hill approximately one mile from Solberga church and village. Only the spire of Solberga church can be seen from the prästgård, separated as it is by a high ridge of gray rock. The house was a large, two-story, wooden structure with a thatched roof. It was in this house that Ernst Teofil Skarstedt was born April 14, 1857. The Reverend Skarsted's "Annotationsbok" (notebook) records that on April 18, he paid thirty-six riksmynt (currency) for the services of two midwives, Mamsell Schinkler, from Ucklum and Fru Bengtsson, from Göteborg, who were present at Ernst's birth. When Ernst was brought to Solberga church for baptism, according to the rites of the State Church of Sweden shortly after his birth, this important ceremony was performed at the baptismal font that had been in the church since the twelfth century. Near the front of the church was a model of a ship which had been placed there in the 1820s by a grateful Solberga seaman whose life had been miraculously saved in a shipwreck that claimed the lives of most of his companions. The altar before which Ernst's father performed the liturgy of the service had been built in the seventeenth century, the same century which had provided the pulpit from which his father preached with such excellence and humor that his reputation spread from the isolated parish in Bohuslän to a wide area. The parishioners respected Kyrkoherde Carl Wilhelm Skarstedt although he told them that "Min sol skall inte bärgas in Solberga," (My sun shall not set in Solberga) which is not quite so pointed as the original, which links, "sol" (sun) with the "Sol" in Solberga, the name of the parish, and "bärga, " which means "to go down." Ernst early showed unusual talent, which a proud and grateful mother commented upon in her letters. In January 1859, Hedvig Skarstedt wrote from Solberga to her brother Harald Wieselgren: "We now have another new room upstairs. It is a children's room. These rooms are so pleasant and high. You should see how Ernst can run and play and enjoy himself. I constantly live in the happy hope that he shall be such a joyous child as you were. He can say 'momo' and 'moffa' instead of 'mormor' (grandmother) and 'morfar' (grandfather), and he is trying now to say 'morbror' (uncle)." In February she recorded in her diary that "when the door rattled, Ernst cried out, 'pappa' and when no one was there he was so sad." In April, she wrote about him before he had reached his second birthday: "Ernst is beginning to speak several words and I hope he will soon learn how to express himself like a little man. He can already say several English words." As spring days arrived, mother and son were out-of-doors and she wrote early in May: "Saturday Ernst walked with me almost to the country road and pulled his little wagon. He looked so unbelievably sweet!" But there were some normal problems as recorded three days later: "In the evening Ernst pulled Conrad in his little wagon which was so sweet to see. When Ernst could not pull Conrad longer, he became so angry that I had to spank him, poor child. I hope it will be good for him." There were happy days, when little Ernst hid from his mother who joined in the fun of trying to find him, and when he called her "Fru mamma," after hearing a household worker call her "Fru," but there were some anxious moments, too, when Ernst's little hand was squeezed in a dresser drawer or when an eye became red and sore. In October, Hedvig Elina was especially pleased because Ernst was enthusiastically riding his hobby horse, which was a good replica of a small horse. There was a feeling of great expectation but also of uncertainty during much of 1859 when the Reverend C. W. Skarstedt was being considered for an important theological position at Lund University. He had served as a docent (assistant professor) in theology at Lund from 1848-1856. In March 1859, Mrs. Skarstedt wrote to her friend Mary Lindberg that "Soon it will be decided. I wonder how it will turn out. Oh, if we could go there that would be wonderful." In November, good news reached the Solberga prästgård. A message came at midnight in a telegram sent to Göteborg from Lund stating that C. W. Skarstedt had been elected as an adjunkt (associate professor) in theology at Lund. There was, however, profound regret among the parishioners. A few days later Mrs. Skarstedt wrote to her friend Mary: "All day long a long stream of people have been here. They cry and in other ways express their sorrow." Although there was rejoicing about the call to Lund, there was great anxiety at the same time within the Skarstedt family circle. The situation is described in detail by Hedvig on November 13: "Ernst began to cough and become feverish. His condition worsened so that he could hardly breathe ... I prayed to God that He would help if this was His will. We were afraid that Ernst would not live until Carl came home. A messenger was sent immediately to the doctor, but he did not come. I found a remedy for the throat infection in Rosenstein and with Jesus' help we succeeded in making Ernst vomit. He began to improve. When Carl returned the worst was over." The distraught but grateful mother reported that Doctor Ullman came the next day and gave Ernst some medicine. For the next several days, Ernst was given kräkvin (wine for vomiting) from which he became very weak. The mother observed: "Ernst is so good as he lies so patiently for three days in his bed without asking to get up. He continued to improve and in a week, the crisis was over." There were busy days in the Skarstedt household as the family made preparations for leaving Solberga for Lund. On November 30, Hedvig wrote in her diary: "Finished packing and left for Lund. Many farmers stood crying by the edge of the road as we drove away. It was so hard to leave." An interesting insight into the attitude and spirit of Ernst's mother is found in her response to moving to Lund, and in it is revealed a quality that is quite characteristic of her son Ernst. In contemplating the differences in life between an isolated rural parish and a famous university city, she wrote: "I at least plan to live there as I have lived here within the small world of my own family, since I think that is the most pleasant way to live, especially if one also has a few close friends to be associated with, who cast their bright sunshine around us. I am not interested in entering Lund's social world." Ernst was not yet three years old when his parents and the rest of the family moved from Solberga in Bohuslän, to Lund in Skåne, a productive area of southern Sweden, where they first took up residence on Fiskaregatan in that old and famous university town. A dark cloud of sadness settled over the household in December 1863, when following an illness of several months, Mrs. Skarstedt died. Ernst recorded his feeling on that day, December 28, as he later recalled: "Mamma died. I was terribly scared of her corpse. I cried when Papa brought me there. During Mamma's illness, I sat with her and read. Farbror Anderson, a teacher in the school and former rektor (principal), was here when she died. We sat in the children's room. Mamma lay in the front room. Papa and Farbror Anderson came in crying." Ernst, at six, was the oldest of the children. His two brothers were Conrad, four, and Waldemar, two.

Source: Emory Lindquist, "An Immigrant's American Odyssey, A Biography of Ernst Skarstedt", (Augustana Historical Society), pages 1-5.