Peter Wieselgren

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Wieselgren

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. "An Immigrant's American Odyssey: A biography of Ernst Skarstedt" by Emory Lindquist, p. 1.

"It was true that the well-known Dean Wieselgren in Västerstad wanted to abolish brännvin altogether, and that in un-Christian hatred he persecuted his colleagues who only enjoyed their legal rights. Wieselgren in his blindness wanted to rob the peasants of their lawful trade; if they were not permitted to distill their grain to brännvin, the agriculture of the country would in a short time be ruined and the farmers impoverished." From "THE EMIGRANTS" by Vilhelm Moberg, pps. 71-7227. PETER WIESELGREN. CE:s recommendations 1846 9/10: 1) the school principal C. Berling , 2) the dean P. Ahnfelt, 3) the city assistant vicar C. A. Sylvan. At the inquiry day 1846 6/28 a 4th probationary preacher was called the dean O. P. Theander. This was a request from the parish and on 8/5 the CE gave its consent. The election was held in that same year on 11/8. 1)84 3/10, city + 7 19/48 country votes, 2) 4 4/10 + 0, 3) 0, 4) 401 57/70 + 31 17/960. A Royal Letter of 2/19 1947 : extra candidate the dean Peter Wieselgren. Peter Wieselgren was born on the farm Spånhult in Vislanda parish, Kronoberg's county in the year 1800 10/1. He was the son to farmer Jonas Jonsson and his wife Elin Ingemarsdotter. He entered the school in Växjö 1811 9/5 and he took at that time the name Wieselgren. High School exam 1816. During the summers of 1817-19 he had a situation and worked among others for the dean S. J. Collin in Osby. In the year 1820 9/27 he started to study at the university (joined the Student Society of Småland on 10/4). Worked the summers of 1821 and 1822 at Löberäd, where he put in order the De la Gardie archives. Oral defense pro ex. 1821 6/6 ("Sacri Hebraeorum codicis loci, qui gentium Arabicarum mentionem faciuint, in examen vocati", under chairmanship of pres. H. Reuterdahl). Oral defense pro gr. 1823 6/1 ("Deliciae bibliothecae De la Gardianae in Löberöd" under chairmanship of pres. A. O. Lindfors, author was P.W.). Master of Arts 1823 6/20. Assistant professor in History of Literature 1824 2/12. Assistant master in Aesthetics that same year 5/9, appointed to be the head of the aesthetics professorship during A. Liedbeck's seat in the Riksdag 1828-29. Pro tempore librarian at the Academy Library 1828 3/26. Appointed to be the librarian 1829/8/27. Authorized representative for the custodian of National Monuments when traveling in the south of Sweden and he became entitled to the same rights and obligations as the permanent custodian 1829. Assistant academy librarian 1830 1/22, from December that year occasional duties. (See below). Curator for the Student Society of Småland 1833 3/2 - 10/16 and he became its honorary member 1834. Pastoral examination 1832. ( pres."De claustris Svio-Gothicis" 11/28 and 12/19). After an invitation by his excellency J.De la Gardie Wieselgren. gave a probationary sermon on 1833 2/16 and became vicar in Västerstad and 0. on 2/27 that same year and he received CE:s letter of attorney that same day. Gave a sermon 5/1 that same year in order to receive a year of grace. 1834 5/1 he became a dean. 1834 12/10 he was among those chosen to be candidates for the professorship in pastoral-divinity at the University of Uppsala and also to the Kalsenianska professorship at the same university. He was also called to give a probationary sermon at the Pastor- primarius office as the situation there had become vacant. He became a doctor of theology (divinity) in Uppsala 1844 10/15. The doctor's degree was confered on him 1845 6/14. He was a candidate for a professorship in pastoral-divinity in Lund 18846. He placed 2nd on the nominating list as bishop in Växjö 1847. He became a vicar in Hälsingborg and its neighboring parish 1847 2/19 and he entered upon his duties there on 5/1 1848. The induction was done 1848 5/7. He then became a dean in Göteborg 1857 3/31. And he was a rural dean for the South district 1857-61. In 1874 on 6/3 he was given an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree. He was a member of several learned societies (See Promotion program 1874). LNO 1848, KNO 1866. In 1863 he received Svenska Akademins ( The Swedish Academy) Karl Johan's prize. He died in Gothenburg 1877 10/10. Doctor P. Fjellstedt gave the funeral sermons on 10/13 that same year.

    It is impossible to here  give a complete biography of P.W. or even an account of his in many respected epoch-making achievements in many different fields.  This time period will be limited to only include the dealing with P.W's activity as a parish vicar.  His contribution to the temperance movement and the home mission and so on will only be hinted at.  The same is also true when it comes to P.W's enormous and extensive production of writings. Only the most important works written during the above mentioned time period will be mentioned here.  It has, however, been considered appropriate to include as much as possible of P.W.'s early years at the University in Lund, as one here is confronted in a remarkably striking way by all the sides of P.W's complicated personality that later came to determine all of his growth.  Here we also meet all his successes and his set-backs that also to a great extent formed his character.  For more information one can read all that has been written about P.W. and 'then first of all Th. Freeman's big and well documented biography. (1950) (1)  From this book essential parts has been taken for this writing. 	P.W. came from an old farmer family;  on his mother's side members of the family had been owners of the farm Spånhult in Vislanda since the end of the 16th century.  The father, who earlier had worked as a builder and had among other places helped to build the Östraby bishop's estate in Växjö, took over the farm through marriage. He shall, according to P.W's own statement, have distinguished himself by being very broad minded for his time.  The religiousness in his home was set by his grandfather on his mother's side.  This man had been influenced by the well-known revivalist Anders Elfving's pietistical preaching.  P.W. himself has in his biography about Elfving also certified how important this man's preaching was even for him.  Since P.W. very early showed an exceptional aptitude for studies, the vicar in the parish the dean E. P. Hyltenius persuaded the father to let his son go on to higher education, despite economical hardship. To start with P.W. received the first instruction from Hyltenius himself.  Later he studied under the assistant vicar J. Malmberg in Blädinge before in the fall of 1811 he was admitted to the high school in Växjö.  The cost for the education was financed partly through an allowance from home, but for the greatest part by the earnings P.W. himself made by being a private tutor, (when he was 11 years old he already instructed the children of the assistant vicar Malmberg. )  He also received a scholarship.  Among his teachers, Jonas Sandell, who during P.W's last year in high school was collega scholæ in Växjö, came to play a vital role in P.W's development.  This man also came to bring him out of the religious crisis that he and a school-fellow had fallen into after confrontation with the anti-Christian rationalism, for which Napoleon was said to be the most eminent figure, and even with the rationalism within the church, that sometimes was being preached from the pulpit in the cathedral.  Through Sandell P.W. came to experience further influence from the religious revival.  Especially from Peter Lorenz Sellergren P.W. came  to experience still more influence. This man became an older friend to P.W. and with a never failing watchfulness he quite frequently gave criticism and he followed the young man's progress. The situation that P.W. received during the fall of 1817 by the dean S. J. Collin in Osby also came to play a big role in his life.  Here he became acquainted with a cultural and literary polished environment in the spirit of the Age of Enlightenment. 

    In 1820 P.W. graduated from the high school in Växjö with high marks.  In the fall of that same year he started his academical studies at the University in Lund, and there he joined the Student Society of Småland.  Here he immediately came into contact with its inspector, professor A. O. Lindfors, who from the very beginning embraced the gifted and hardworking student with the best of benevolence and during P.W's time in Lund never let any opportunity slip away to support his interest.  Even with the professor in Aesthetics, the university librarian Anders Lidbeck, P.W. very early on came into close and friendly relationship with, and also in this man he found an effective supporter when he later tried to win academical promotions.  In his studies P.-W. devoted most of his time to the history of Sweden and according he read everything he found and could lay his hands on. It is likely that there did not exist anything important that had been written in this subject that he had not read or at least glanced through.  Furthermore, in addition to this, P.W. also acquired a remarkable knowledge of languages and as he himself said "en uhyre mangd sprak" ( an awful heap of languages).  He himself mentions Hebrew, Phoenician, Persian, Greek, Latin, Italian, Portuguese, French, German, Icelandic, Danish and Russian.  He was especially interested in the classical languages and his admiration for Tegner as an academy teacher was great - as was his admiration for Tegner as a poet, even if he did not like him as a person he tried to defend the sides in Tegner's personality, that to him seemed repellent.  Tegner, however, would have liked to make P.W. his assistant professor in Greek.  Already in June 1821 P.W. defended his thesis about Arabian Philosophy pro ex. under the chairmanship of H. Reuterdahl.  His interest in Swedish and Nordic history ,however, remained dominant and together with his literary impulses from the Romantic Movement, especially in the Goetic form, came to form his continued scholarly achievements.  

    Of vital importance for P.W's future was the connection between the young student and his Excellency Jacob De la Gardie at Löberöd that Lindfors brought about.  De la Gardie had turned to Lindfors in order to get directed to a student, who was suited to help put in order the extensive hand-written manuscript collection at Löberöd.  According to P.W's own statement he was forced by Lindfors to take this assignment just at the time when every hour for him was extremely valuable as he was studying for the next degree for his next promotion.  This so called forced upon assignment, that was carried out, the first part of it, during the summers of 1821 and 1822, however, gave P.W. not only an influential patron and personal friend in De la Gardie, but in addition it also gave material for the disposition pro gradu, that he in June 1823 with himself as the author, ventilated during Lindfor's presidium, "Deliciae bibliothecae De la Gardianae in Löberöd".  

    When in Lund P.W. immediately came to join the group of students who crowded around Schartau and at the same time he was influenced by dean Hylander's Hernhutian colored piety, a double influence, that as a result  brought on frictions.  At the same time he even maintained the relationship with Sandell and Sellergren and especially from the first mentioned received much fatherly advice, which gives evidence of Sandell's true judgment of merits and weaknesses in his younger friend's character, as when he, for example, on one occasion warned him about "a certain shallow and religious loquacity", for sure not a quite unwarranted warning.  Also from Sellergren P.W. received some words of warning, mainly alluding to his association with literary circles in Lund and Stockholm.  

    Among his fellow comrades P.W. became a very close friend to P. G. Ahnfelt and Anders Sandberg, the latter later became a vicar in Madesjö and in the city of Kalmar. P.W. also had contacts with Thomander. The bond between these two and even so between P.W. and the two first mentioned comrades was first of all their common interest to the temperance movement, which found in P.W. a fervent and enthusiastic advocate already during his high school years in Växjö, when he together with a group of schoolmates founded a society in 1819.  He has later labeled this as the very first temperance society in Sweden.  Together with  Ahnfelt as with Thomander he had common literary interests.  During his time in Lund P.W. also had a good friend in H.Reuterdahl.  The divergence that later came about, was caused according to P.W's own understanding by the criticism he had directed towards one of the Christmas calendar for children published by Reuterdahl  .  But basically there were so many fundamental disparities of opinions in many essential matters, among others when it came to church politics, and also their personalities were quite different, so it is comprehensible that they went separate ways.  The one among the friends, who became a lifelong friend and who was closest to P.W. was undoubtedly Ahnfelt.  In their younger years they met through their common interest for the missionary vocation, and it grew so strong that both of them intended to dedicate their lives for this vocation and go to Japan.  Their plans were warded off by interventions by their families and even from higher quarters.  However, the lingering interest in missions remained with P.W. and it came later to be directed towards the home missions, that in him got an energetic and vigorous champion. ---

    During a stay of longer duration in Stockholm and Uppsala in the beginning of the summer of 1823 P.W. obtained admittance to the literary circles in the capital which was brought about by De la Gardie.  Here he made acquaintances with C. J. L. Almqvist and C. A. Nicander.  He also received admittance into Iduna-förbundet (-association).  At that same time he also made his literary debut with his two collections of poems. "Minnessanger ur Warend" (Memory songs from Warend) and "Starkodds sanger" (Sarkodd's songs) (both of them published in 1824) P.W. also gained admittance into this society through De la Gardie and through the chancellor of the Academy, Lars von Engeström.  These new acquaintances and connections there gave him employment as a private tutor in admiral C. J. Wirsen's house.  P.W's infatuation for one of the daughters and the jilted hopes contributed for sure to a high degree to the instability that is so characteristic of P.W. during his years in Lund.  

    But at the same time as P.W. moved in the exalted circles in Stockholm and devoted his time to the literary circles, he did not neglect to ensure himself admission to the religious circles in the city. Here he was brought even more face to face with the Herrnhutism.  Their thinking gave Christ a human form and that offended P.W.  Here in the capital he also met the very influential Swedenborgianism.  Their denial of the Trinity called him to make a protest.  His contacts with the revivalistic movement in the capital let him understand the influence of the Conventicle Act in quite another way than before and became the incitement for his publication "Hvilken ar Sveriges regigion?"  ("What religion does Sweden have?") )Published 1827)  In this publication he demonstrates the irreconcilable views between the confessions of the church and the regulations of the State.  At the same time this publication contains an inlay in the battle against the Swedenborgianism.  This is the first time that P.W. throws himself into the churchly debate. 

    After that, P.W. had earned his M.A., his aim was first of all to receive an academical career.(2)  1824 he became an assistant professor in history of literature and already that same year he became an assistant master of aesthetics.  This last mentioned  appointment was a deviation from the earlier ruling order, according to this old rule the adjunct position in aesthetics was combined with the position as vice librarian at the University Library.  This adjunct position had been vacant during the last 8 years.  In 1828, however, they went back to the old order after that P. W. had received Lidbeck's strong recommendation and became appointed to an unestablished position as vice librarian and went ahead of the amanuensis at the library.  One year later the librarian position at the university became vacant because of the death of Lidbeck.  A reorganization was contemplated when it came to several positions at the university and so during a long time this position was left without any permanent holder and P.W. was after a remarkable academical plotting was appointed to hold the position until further notice.  About the same time, in January 1830, P.W. received an advancement and became a permanent vice librarian.  The years that P.W., with long leaves of absence, worked as a librarian at the university can hardly be labeled as happy years.  He threw himself enthusiastically into the assignments, battered the academical consistory and chancellorship with letters and memorandums and did unquestionably a great deal in order to bring the collections in order.  He especially devoted his time to the handwritten collection.  However, he time after time met with opposition from the academical authorities, who among other things found themselves impelled to comment upon P.W's tendency to go outside the university when it came to gain supporters for his wishes to improve the library and for his undeniable self-willed actions.  The opposition from the consistory, the trying working conditions within the library, the premises which had been considered as unhealthy by P.W. himself several times (among other things there was no way of heating the place) and also his failing health, to a considerable extent due to an unreasonable work load and working pace, made P.W. think about leaving the academy and this thought grew stronger.  Already by the beginning of 1832 he sent an application to Kalmar in hope to receive the post as a senior master in theology.  He did not receive the position.  Later that same year, however, a chance to a clerical promotion presented itself when the situation as vicar in Västerstad and Östraby became vacant.  De la Gardie,who was the owner of this patronage, immediately took advantage of this opportunity to support P.W's wish to leave Lund and he offered him the position.  P.W. accepted with enthusiasm.  The formal nomination came in Febr. 1833. and after he had finished his work at the library P.W. could take up his duties in the parish.  In March that same year P.W. had married Mathilda Rosenquist, daughter of the steward at Löberöd.  

    A giant workload met P.W. in Västerstad.  In a letter to De la Gardie in October 1833 he writes that he "is toiling with the parish catechetical meetings and other things like a prisoner at Marstrand."(3)  One month after he entered into the duties as a vicar he wrote in a letter to his young friend Gustaf Andersson (later to become a principal at the High school in Helsingborg) and gave his first impressions of his new sphere of activity and the new tasks.  "Now I am a vicar in the country.  You can not imagine what it is to sink from "People" down to --- no, no word.  People can not read Swedish, but they can drink, steal, kill--- ugh!  Until now I have met only one person in the congregation who can read so that he can understand what he has read.  At times I have felt pressed down by despair --- my time (year) is so busy that I do not even have the time to eat a decent meal.  On Sundays I work about 8-9 hours and by God's grace I have the strength."  In Oct. the following year he is complaining about his " very weak health and the amount of work"(4)  

    P.W. immediately attacked the social evils in the parish, especially the drinking problems and in the beginning he came into very tense relations with many people.  On one of the very first Sundays it came to a scene in the church.  At the same time P.W. worked against the system that the crofters had to work for the property owners.  He meant that the obligations " to work by the day" by the crofters and tenant farmers was the main reason for the poverty among the population.  Even here his actions offended many.  P.W's eagerness to get to the root of all evil became trying even for the otherwise favorably disposed towards P.W. De la Gardie.  The relations between P.W. and De la Gardie became quite strained for some time. (It had affected De la Gardie quite deeply when an article written by P.W. had said that the destitution of the parishioners was proof of how De la Gardie carried on a regular extortion of those, who were depending on him.)  And in a letter of 1833 12/18 to De la Gardie P.W. goes so far as to declare that he is going to leave Västerstad.  The good relationship between the two seems, however, soon to be restored.  In order to impel the activity of the parishioners themselves within the work of the church P.W. resorted to appointing many of them under the law to the prescribed parish council.  Something that otherwise only was found in the cities.  Only a few month after his entrance upon office he drew up an instruction for the parish council.  It could rightly be called a manifesto.  Another way P.W. used to change his parish to the better was to improve the educational system, an interest which he had in common with De la Gardie.  But also here he met some resistance from the parishers.  Adding to the hardships in Västerstad was also P.W's own delicate health and his young wife also suffered from ill health supposedly as a consequence of the disrepair in which the vicarage was in when the young couple first moved there and also her frequent pregnancies during the first few years.  But in spite of all oppositions P.W. gained great results during his 15 years of work in the parish.  Results, that were almost astonishing.  And even  if it is a portrait written by a friend, Ahnfelt's  description in his "Studentminnen" (Student memories) of P.W's achievements can undoubtedly be valid.  "The civilization of the area was accomplished by P.W's work.  When he received Västerstad, its inhabitants were hardly people; when he left Västerstad it was a flourishing parish."(5)

    It was obviously never P.W's own idea to stay and become a "country vicar" in Västerstad.  The following year after he had moved there he was placed on the nominating list as he wanted to become a professor of pastoral theology in Uppsala.  And two years later he was on the list for the Kalsenian professorship there.  In 1841 he was called to give a probationary sermon for the pastor primarius-office in Stockholm, in 1846 he was placed on the nominating list for the professorship in pastoral theology in Lund and the next year he came in second to the bishop's throne in Växjö.  That same year he put in an application as extra candidate for the vicar ministry in Helsingborg.  Rector C. Berling placed first on the list. P. G. Ahnfelt placed second . The latter has in his "Studentminnen" told, that he took the opportunity to call on the King in this matter during the King's visit to Lund.  P.W. and I went together to His Majesty and at the same time we put in an application for an audience with the King.  P.W. had already put in an application as extra candidate for the same pastorate as for which I already had received a nomination.  But this our competing position towards each other did not have the slightest effect on our good old relationship with each other."  The parish had as a 4th candidate called Dean O. P. Theander, who also at the election received an overwhelming majority of the votes. The people in the city counted for sure that he was the one who would be appointed.  But on 1847 2/19  P.W. received a Royal Letter of appointment.  

    The appointment caused of course an enormous astonishment in the city.  In a letter to the Danish author and politician Carl Ploug in May 1847 O. P. Sturzen- Becker, editor for "Oresunds Posten" and during the following years P.W's most bitter adversary writes:  "The whole city is desperate over P.W's appointment as vicar here instead of Theander, a very gallant man, who the city wanted and to whom the King had given his promise last summer.(6)   the following year when P.W.took up his duties it did not take long before Sturzen- Becker started an extraordinarily caustic attack in his newspaper.  On 12/12 he writes : "The Mr. Doctor and Dean Wieselgren arrived here this spring given to the parish of Helsingborg as a surprise gift by Royal favor and surrounded by an aureole, which he had won long ago for his exceptional torrent of words and his extensive encyclopedian book-learning.  Here he immediately started some kind of reformatory work in several directions, he seems to have already at an earlier time arrived at the idea that his new district of action was a thorough Sodom and Gomorrah.  With an unprecedented rigor, not to say: fanaticism, he let the punishing rod brandish over poor Helsingborg --- which for sure in more than one respect is one of the most exemplary communities in Sweden --- and at the same time all forces were used here to speed up the introduction and spreading of the "Frommleri" , which now once and for all may be in Mr. P.W's taste , but not so when it comes to the majority of the citizens of this city.  It is well known how this "ardour" has already brought about many by no means gratifying fruits here."  He criticized P.W's sermons as being in the "modern style", in which one "among other things can obtain information about many facts and things in the Christian doctrine and moral conceptions, which --- in particular seem not to be suited for the pulpit."  And he says that he is trying to, in time, if possible put a stop to Zeiotism and a --  we will only call it an eccentricity, that has shown itself to have gone dangerously astray and to no true advantage of the community" and he ends with this declaration: "our position to the Mr. and Doctor and Dean W. from this moment on will become a different one than the one we until now have had."  Sturzen-Becker also continued his attacks against P.W. and often in the form of a joke, by no means always a clever one, further by publications of notices and letters to the editor on account of different measures and actions taken by P.W., that sometimes indisputably left too much the stamp of P.W's enthusiasm and his craving for actions and that "sometimes enticed him to tactlessness and indiscretions."  Reasons for attacks Sturzen-Becker found among other things in this episode, which took place one Sunday at Ramlösa Hälsobrun (Spa), where P.W. had appeared and given a forceful moral sermon and he also attacked P.W. for his strong engagement in the creation of and organization of a Home Mission, which he had intended to start with the support of the King.  To do this P.W. had enjoyed quite a long leave of duty in 1850.(7)  The attacks can be said to have reached the climax with the series of articles, that Sturzen-Becker published in the spring of 1849 under the heading "Bref a la Demoustier till Dr. Wieselgren" and in particular by an infamous blow that he published in the beginning of October that same year.  The latter one, which was no doubt the one that affected P.W. the most, was indirect in so far as that it was his firstborn son who was the target of this attack.  This son should according to the news-item have been surprised by the parish clerk and organist in the act of playing cards together with some friends during the church service. This of course caused a great scandal and brought about an interrogation in the presence of the school board.  Sharp polemics against Sturzen-Becker came from "Helsingborgsposten". This paper defended P.W. in most cases.  In a letter to P.W. Gustaf Andersson takes up this embarrassing situation and he comments in the following way: "The falsehood story in "Oresundsposten" was the most shabby thing I have read in Swedish print until now.  If the story had been true --- and things like that can happen to a child once without that child being depraved --- , it still is as heinous to reveal such a thing in a news paper. Fortunately enough the story was totally groundless, as I had believed from the very beginning."  Andersson also gives an account of the extra ordinarily strong reaction in Lund in P.W's favor that the event had brought about.  How hard P.W. had taken this attack was made very clear in a later undated letter to Andersson.  In this letter he writes that Sturzen-Becker is a man, who "persecutes my children even in their cradle."  This episode was related in order to describe the kind of persecution that P.W. was exposed to and also to exemplify the polemics that were used at this time by the Church's hostile front towards the church.  In the name of the truth it should also be pointed out that the newly won freedom of speech to a large extent was taken advantage of in a rather unpleasing way also within the church party.  The remarks, that were aimed towards P.W. because of his lack of regard of other people's feeling in his attacks against people even from the pulpit, have for sure not been without their justification. --- P.W., however, was not without defenders and especially as has been said earlier the news paper "Helsingsborgsposten" , which stood close to the circles around P.W. and for some time included P. G. Andersson among its staff members.  In December 1848 "Nyare Helsingborgsposten" as it was called, after a suspension, contained a vigorous refutation of "Oresundsposten's" articles during that same month. As time went by the direct personal attacks towards P.W. decreased and the collaboration within the parish council, in which Sturzen- Becker was a member, seems to have been fairly free of frictions. P.W's efforts within the Scandinavian movement are always mentioned with respect --- when it came to this item P.W. and Sturzen-Becker were absolutely of the same opinion --- and the latter also attests to P.W's helpfulness more privately when he needs to turn to the church archives or to P.W's private collections for his studies of the history of culture.  P.W. and Sturzen-Becker also had a common interest when it came to adult educational activities.  During his stay in Lund shortly before his entrance into his office in Helsingborg P.W. had been the driving force behind the start of the study circle there.  In Helsingborg Sturzen-Becker had taken a similar initiative and P.W. came very soon to be brought in as a lecturer in this lively study circle.  The reconciliation was later made complete after P.W. during his time in Gothenburg had taken an active part and assisted at a fund raising drive for his former antagonist.

    A few month after that P.W. entered upon his duties in Helsingborg.  Bernhard Cronholm, the editor for "Snellposten" says that "from several directions I have heard that you are going to wear yourself out completely in Helsingborg."(9)  It is also true that P.W. with his customary energy or rather with his intensity had set out to take care of all the many official responsibilities, which also had to be put into his daily agenda together with all the work that had to do with the work for the temperance movement, the Homeland Mission and so on.  Among the things that had been handed down to posterity and can be seen is the completion of the extensive restoration of the Maria Church.  It had been started by his predecessor.  He did put a lot of care and interest in this work.  In July 1851, he made a report to Gustaf Andersson saying that everything was near its completion, all but the altar piece, the altar rails and the pulpit, but that he counted on that with the help of "private ardour" these details would soon also be in place.  "Then", he writes "we will have a church that will not have many of the same standing."

    When P.W. in 1857 left Helsingborg in order to enter upon the post as dean in Gothenburg the resistance he had met in the parish had for the most part come to an end even if "Öresundsposten" true to its habit continued to deliver some ironical commentaries to the homage and congratulations and proof of appreciation of his devoted work that others had bestowed upon him.

    This picture of P.W. and his activities during his years in Lund, Västerstad and Helsingborg would of course not be complete at all without mentioning his restless writing and publishing activities, which is of such considerable proportions, that it is almost inconceivable to understand, that time and strength could suffice for this work, when he also at the same time did his work as an university man, parish clergyman, advocate for temperance, and the driving force for the Homeland Mission.  Here can only be mentioned a few of the most widespread works in these production, for the rest you are referred to Elof Tegner's bibliography.  Besides the already earlier mentioned dissertations about the archives at Löberöd, P.W also managed to publish a long row of dissertations in many different subjects during his time in Lund.  In 1830 he among other things wrote about a collection of handwritten papers at the University. He also wrote the history of this collection. Further more he also wrote and published in that same year the foreword to his edition of A. Lidbeck's "Remarks regarding subjects in the Psychology" (1830)  In 1833 volume 1 of "Sveriges skona litteratur" (Belles lettres of Sweden) was published, dealing with churchly writings.  Among other publications may be mentioned "Ny Smalands beskrifning" volume 1-3, 1845-47 (New description of Småland) and the first volume of the many writings about temperance "Hvad skall man saga om detta nykterhetsvasen ifall man annars tror Guds ord?" (What can one say about this temperance movement, if one otherwise believes in the words of God?) 1837. (Supplementary volumes 1-7 came out 1837 - 39.)  Finally one ought to mention that in 1836 he began collaboration for "Biographiskt lexikon ofver namnkunnige svenske man" (Biographical dictionary about famous Swedish men), in which P.W., according to his own words, (in his own included autobiography) wrote more than 200 biographicals.   Printed writings: see "Biographical dictionary" book 20 (1852) pages 279-83.  "Svenskt biografiskt lexikon ",N.f.,10 (1907), page 619.  M.Weibull & E. Tegner, "Lunds universitets historia 1668-1868" (The history of Lund's University 1668- 1868") book 2 (1868) pages 445-47.  S.Pettersson, "Matrikel ofver Göteborg's stifts presterskap" ( Roll of clergymen in the diocese of Gothenburg",(1876) pages 6-10. (1) T.Freeman, "Peter Wieselgren.   En konturteckning i 1800-talsmiljo" ( Peter Wieselgren.  An outline drawing in the milieu of the 19th century" 1950. (2)  When it comes to P.W"s years at the University see K.Gierow's, "Biblioteksmannen P.W." ("The librarian P.W.") and "Fran Småland och Hellas.  Studier tillagnade Bror Olsson" ("Fran Småland and Hellas. Studies dedicated to Bror Olsson") 1959. (3)  "En sydsvensk kulturkrets. Rektor Gustaf Anderssons brevvaxling 1832-1862 i urval utgiven av B.Moller" ( "A cultural circle. Headmaster Gustaf Andersson's correspondence 1832-1862.  Selected and published by B.Moller", 2 (1940). (4)  P.W's letters to J. De la Gardie are included in the De la Gardie collections at LUB. (6)  R. Sturzen-Becker "Oskar Patrick Sturzen-Beckers" 1 (1911 ) , page 120. Lunds Stifts Herdaminne: Hälsingborg: Volume 8

Biografi https://arkivkopia.se/bok/runeberg-wieselgren

Peter (Per) Wieselgren, f. Jonasson.

Född på Spånhult i Småland, död i Göteborg, var en svensk präst, nykterhetsförkämpe, litteratur kultur och personhistoriker.

Länk:

• https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Wieselgren
• https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96straby_kyrka