Author: Lotta K.

Anders Svensson Hedberg

Anders Hedberg, laborer, died in Falköping on Sept. 21, 1875. He was 64.

The estimated total value of his belongings was 90 kronor, around $10.

The estate inventory states that his daughter Maria Christina’s whereabouts were “unknown”.

Christina and her family had emigrated in 1870, and in 1875 they were living in Cedar Township, Jefferson Co., Iowa.

Johanna

The first time Johanna moved away from her family to work was in 1862. She was 18 years old. She moved to Slättäng, in Sandhem southeast of Falköping. Two roads met in Slättäng and there had been a local court and an inn there for a long time. It seems Johanna was a maid at the inn. We can’t know for sure what kind of work she did, but likely household jobs like cleaning and/or kitchen work. She gave birth to a daughter, Augusta Olivia, on Feb. 13, 1864. The little girl died in May the same year.

My grandfather Karl Adolf was born in Falköping in 1871, and his sister Elma Georgina in Stora Malm in 1875. Johanna moved around Falköping several times with her father and younger sister Ada during those years. I haven’t been able to trace all her moves. Even tho Elma is noted as having been born in Stora Malm some distance away I haven’t been able to find Johanna in that parish.

Former staff lodgings at Horns säteri, Överenhörna.

After Johanna’s father Anders died in September of 1875 Johanna and her two children moved to Horns säteri, in Överenhörna. That’s where Johanna met Josef Larsson Kratz, who she would later marry.

More accomplished researchers would probably not give up before they’d been able to trace Johanna’s every step across Sweden. For one thing, there might be clues as to who Karl Adolf’s and Elma’s fathers were in the household records. I’ve decided to let the mystery be, for now.

Josef Larsson Kratz, soldier

My great grandmother Johanna married in 1878. She was 33. By then she had given birth to four children. One girl, Augusta Olivia, had died as an infant in 1864. My grandfather Karl Adolf was 7, his half sister Elma Georgina was 3. Hulda Josefina, who’s father was Johanna’s new husband Josef Larsson Kratz, was a few months old.

Starting when she was a teenager Johanna had worked as a maid in many places. Johanna and Josef met when they were both working at a large farm in Sörmland. Josef was 20 years old, and in the fall of 1878 he became a soldier. He was given a small croft, Löfnäs soldattorp, close to lake Mälaren outside of Mariefred. Everyone moved.

The remains of Löfnäs soldattorp, Toresund, Sörmland. The second Mrs. Kratz lived here until the 1930s.

Josef Kratz was the last soldier at Löfnäs. My father’s older sister, who was born in 1907 and knew her father, Karl Adolf, well, said that soldier Kratz was “not kind”.

Dagny Wentzel, teacher

Ada Hedberg’s daughter Dagny Gunhild was born on Feb. 5, 1886 in Göteborg. She was number four of seven siblings.

Dagny was a teacher, and she also helped create programs that brought inner city kids into the countryside for long summer vacations.

As a young woman Dagny became a member of Göteborgs Kvinnliga Diskussionsklubb (The Göteborg Female Discussion Club), and in 1932 she was elected to the board of the Göteborg branch of Svenska Kvinnors Vänsterförbund. These organizations were founded in the 1910s, and their initial mission was to work for women’s right to vote. They continue to work for gender equality, women’s rights, and peace, to the present day.

In December of 1928 Dagny gave a talk to introduce the topic for the night at Göteborgs Kvinnliga Diskussionsklubb, “Should the same retirement age be applied to male and female public employees?”.

Dagny was also an active member of national organizations for teachers.

Dagny never married. She died at 88, on July 7, 1974. Since 1925 she had owned a house at Storängsgatan in Änggården. Her mother, Ada, lived with her.

In 1951 the city of Göteborg honored Dagny with a medal for her contributions as an educator.

Last name, Haller

Signe Emilia Båf married Johan August Pettersson Haller on Dec. 3, 1912. Their son Bengt Arnold was born in Göteborg on May 24, 1915. He died on Dec. 17, 1923, from the measles. He was 8.

Johan August died in Örebro on Oct. 2, 1946. He was 65.

Signe died in Göteborg on May 25, 1965. She was 86.

Signe Emilia, prison warden

Ada Hedberg’s oldest child was her daughter Signe Emilia. Signe was born on July 13, 1878. Her parents had married the same year, at 23 and 24 years old. Ada’s husband worked for the railroad in Falköping, and when Signe was born they lived in the railway station.

The family moved to Göteborg in 1883.

On Dec. 12, 1900, when Signe was 22 years old and she had six younger siblings, she moved out of her parents’ home. Her new address, entered in abbreviated form in the household record, was the old women’s prison in Gullbergsbro, Göteborg. She was employed as a warden, and the job came with lodgings.

                        Spinnhuset, Gullbergsbro, c. 1898. (Göteborgs stadsmuseum.)

There was more than one prison in Göteborg at the time, and this particular one held the most severely sentenced female convicts from all over the country. The women inmates had been sentenced to four years or more of forced labor. The majority of them had been found guilty of murdering a child.

In 1909 the prison was closed and the inmates transferred to institutions in two other cities. Signe chose to follow those of the inmates who ended up at the women’s prison in Landskrona. Signe worked as a warden there until she married in 1912.

Letchworth village, Thiells, NY.

On Sept. 15, 1915, Alice M. Boov married William N. Kemp in Spring Valley, Rockland Co., NY. Alice used her mother’s maiden name for the records, and her parents are listed as Ada Hedberg and Alfred F. Boov. William is a ‘laborer’, and Alice’s is ‘doing housework’. They live in Thiells, NY.  It’s a first marriage for both of them.

A volume of ‘Documents of the Senate of the State of New York’ published in early 1916 includes The Seventh Annual Report of the Board of Managers of Letchworth Village. In it, Alice’s name appears:

At least during 1915, maybe longer, Alice Boov has worked as Matron of Cottage C, at Letchworth Village in Thiells, NY.

Created by William Pryor Letchworth, Letchworth Village was, according to an article in Hudson Valley Magazine, “a self-contained and self-sustaining village of small cottages on a working farm, which would allow residents a more humane and productive lifestyle under the care of the leading researchers and physicians of the day.”

The patients “were grouped into three then medically accepted but now cringeworthy types of “feeble-mindedness” – “idiot,” “imbecile,” and “moron” – based on IQ. According to their abilities, they helped farm, plow, care for animals, cook, sew, and clean, and were provided vocational training in carpentry, shoe repair, welding, and other useful skills.”

There are horror stories about this place. The patients were used as guinea pigs for the polio vaccine and in other clinical trials. The facility was closed in 1996, and the photos of the buildings are haunting. Online you will find information about tours of the abandoned asylum, as well as of a nearby cemetery with “graves about the size of a child.”

Alice Maria Bååv

Alice Maria Bååv, Ada’s daughter, Cintra’s older sister, and my grandfather’s first cousin, left Göteborg for Hull on the S/S Runo on March 17, 1913. From Hull she took the train to Liverpool, and then she left for New York from there.

Alice arrived in Ellis Island on March 30, 1913 onboard the Celtic of Liverpool. She was 5 feet and 7 inches tall, had a fair complexion, brown hair, and blue eyes. She gave the address of a friend, Ingeborg Olsson: 33, W. 12th St., NYC. The old notes are hard to read, but she seems to have had $75 with her. She was of good mental and physical health. She was 25 years old.

From where Alice’s family were living in Bangatan, Göteborg, they could have taken a short walk to the quay, and seen Runo sail away. They lived so close they would have heard and smelled the ocean everyday, before and after Alice left.