November 2022 – Augusta's Journey

Cecilia’s Album: Louise Wener (Nordwall) – A Childhood at Svartsjö Kungsgård

Louise Wener wrote the following poem for Cecilia in January of 1844.

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(I am grateful for the translation from German to Swedish by Walter Fischer, Cecilia’s relative)

Oh! vilken önskan skall jag i din
vänskapsbok skriva?
Se, med fem ord står den här:
Väninna, var lycklig i ditt liv.

Oh! what wish should I give you
in your memory book?
Look, it is here in five words:
Friend! Have a happy life.

Who was Louise Wener? How did Louise and Cecilia know each other and where did they meet on that last day of January 1844?

A quick search and I find a great candidate – Louise Wener, born March 4, 1828, and thus the same age as Cecilia. She was born and raised in a parish close to Stockholm. This is her story.

Emilie Louise Wener

Louise was born in Sånga parish, on the island of Färingsö or Svartsjölandet in lake Mälaren outside Stockholm. Her father, Herman Wener (b. 1788), was a wholesale merchant who leased a royal farm – Svartsjö Kungsladugård. Svartsjö is one of the oldest royal estates in Sweden dating back to the 1400s. Royal estates supplied the King with food and supplies. Besides the royal farm, there is also a magnificent royal castle nearby – Svartsjö Castle, built in 1730.

Louise’s childhood

The Wener family was large. Louise’s mother, Henrietta Dorothea Emilia Kiegel (b. 1800 in Estonia) gave birth to her first child, Herman, at the age of 15. Louise was the 6^th child out of 8.

Living on a farm and having a kitchen garden would have been a lot better than living in Stockholm. There would have been fresh air and plenty of space for the kids. Did Louise and her sisters venture out to the parks around the castle? Nobody lived in the castle anymore, except for a few families who maintained the gardens.

Svartsjö Castle. Drawing, 1874. It looks pretty abandoned. Source: Kungl. Konsthögskolan.

Many years later, the castle would be converted into a prison.

Svartsjö Castle has recently been restored to its original state and is open to the public.

Louise marries Premier Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, P. Theodor Nordwall

It took quite some time to find a record of Louise and Theodor’s marriage. There was no announcement in the daily newspaper. But in the census records, I found that they had a daughter born in 1858. From that, I guessed they married in 1857 and decided to search church records in Stockholm. I eventually found the couple’s marriage bans in Skeppsholmen parish (the parish for members of the royal navy). The wedding, however, took place in Louise’s home parish, Sånga, on November 10, 1857.

In 1859, the family lived in Klara parish, in a familiar house. The address was Mäster Samuelsgatan 52 in block Blåman (This is where another friend, Lotten Westman, had lived back in the 1840s.)

The family happily announced the birth of their children in the daily newspaper. But then there were also some sad death announcements.

Louise gave birth to 5 children:

1858: Anna Lovisa Ulrika
1860: Carl Eric Theodor
1864: Per Richard (died in a shooting accident in 1885 at the age of 21)
1867: Gustaf Brynolf (died from pneumonia in 1868 at the age of 8 months)
1870: Theodora Catharina Emilia (died from kidney disease following scarlet fever in 1872 at the age of 18 months)

The birth and death announcements for two of their children, Gustaf and Theodora. Source: KB.SE digitized newspapers.

Louise’s husband Theodor died in 1870, 4 months before little Theodora was born.

Louise Nordwall’s Commission Office

Starting in 1876, Louise put ads in the papers about work opportunities for women – cooks, housekeepers, nannies, and milkmaids. It read like a staffing agency. She called her service Louise Nordwall’s Commission Office (kommissionskontor).

Louise seemed to have had a fulfilled life. Her oldest daughter, Anna, married a doctor, Olof Immanuel Carlander, and had 5 children. Her oldest son, Carl Erik Theodor became a wholesale merchant like his father.

Maybe the poem she wrote to Cecilia when they were teenagers reflected her outlook on life – to be happy.

Oh! what wish should I give you
in your memory book?
Look, it is here in five words:
Friend! Have a happy life.

Louise died on July 8, 1917, at the age of 91! She was buried in the same grave as her husband and her two children, Per Richard and little Theodora. Next time I am at Djurgården in Stockholm, I will visit their grave, number 205, at Galärvarvskyrkogården.

Cecilia’s Album: Aurora Sophia af Wetterstedt – A Riddle to be Solved

It was quite common for friends to sign a memory card with just initials, or to leave out a few letters in the name. This card was signed A….re W……dt on the 16^th of June. I assume it was given to Cecilia in June 1844 when she was about to leave Stockholm. But who was A….re W……dt?

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Among your friends I will write a name,
Which you surely would have forgotten
If not this leaf should recall in thy mind
The friend that once loved you so much

Aurora Sophia af Wetterstedt

So who was A….re W……dt? The first name would most likely be Aurore or Aurora. In the 1800s, using different spellings for your name was common. I search for last names in various registers in Stockholm and there are a few that start with W and ends with dt. But the best fit is an Aurora af Wetterstedt who was born in Jacob parish on March 19, 1829.

Her father was nobleman Johan Erik af Wetterstedt (1784-1863), an army officer who in 1853 became the postal inspector in Malmö. Her mother was Sofia Vilhelmina Wickman (1809-1845), the daughter of the bishop in Västerås.

Aurora had a younger sister, Anna Ingeborg Erika (1834-1898). She would marry a wholesale merchant, Adolf Peyron (1823-1907), who also served as the Belgian consul in Stockholm. Anna was an artist and had several children.

Anna Ingeborg Erika af Wetterstedt (Peyron). Aurora’s younger sister. Source: Riddarhuset.

But what happened to Aurora? I start by going backwards. I search for her obituary in the digitized Swedish newspapers. She died in Malmö on November 29, 1871, at the age of 42. She never married.

But what about her life? Portraits? Pictures? Mentions in contemporary diaries? Church records? Membership in the Innocence society?

I find nothing. Only her grave in Malmö, which had now been returned to the parish as no relatives had stepped forward to take over its care (burial rights holder). In Sweden, graves are not private property that can be bought. Instead, a person has the right to a grave for 25 years. After this time, a relative can apply to be a burial rights holder for the grave and pay a fee for its upkeep. If no one steps forward, the grave will be returned to the cemetery and can be reused. It is all specified in the Swedish Burial Act.

All I know is that she probably moved with her father to Malmö and died young.

And then, I am also just assuming that she was the girl who wrote the poem for Cecilia.

Someday, maybe I will run into her name just by chance.

Cecilia’s Album: Mathilde Biel (Nordenfelt) and Elise Biel (Edman) – Two dear sisters

The start of summer vacation in 1844 was bittersweet for the girls in Edgren’s school. The school was closing, and decisions had to be made for the fall semester. The girls who had been boarding with the Edgren family, like our Augusta, had to look for new lodgings if they were to continue their schooling in Stockholm. Some girls would not come back in the fall, like Cecilia. Mademoiselle Frigel, one of the teachers, was offering girls a place to stay and she would also continue teaching the girls.

When Cecilia left Stockholm, several of her classmates wrote poems or made drawings for her memory album. Many poems were copied from other books. These are the poems Mathilde and Elise gave Cecilia.

Skall dig vänners minne fågna,
Deras trohet glädja dig;
Skall du åt dem stunden egna,
Skänk ett ögonblick åt mig!

Bland vänners antal tecknar sig,
Den i din framtid du visst glömde,
Om detta blad ej minnet gömde,
Af den som evigt älskar Dig.

I decided to not translate these poems. They simply convey a message of friendship.

Mathilde and Elise Biel

Mathilda (Mathilde) Carolina Sofia and Emilia Elisabeth (Elise) were sisters. Mathilde was born in 1830 and Elise in 1832. They also had an older brother, Fredrik August, born in 1829, and a younger brother, Carl Axel Hugo, born in 1833. Their father, Christian Friedrich Biel, was a German-born, wholesale merchant. Their mother was Augusta Mathilda Hasselström, born in Jacob parish in 1803. She was the daughter of krigsrådet Lars Adam Hasselström (A krigsråd was one of four civilian members of the Royal War Council. The other three members of the council were military leaders). The Biel family lived in a stately house at Skeppsbron 36.

Their house (Skeppsbron 36) is the one that is cut off on the right side of the large brick customs house (Ferdinand Tollin, 1841)

Christian Friedrich Biel and his business partner, Johan Albert Kantzow, owned one of the largest export and import firms in Stockholm, Kantzow & Biel. The company was a major exporter of iron to the US, and the first private Swedish firm to trade directly with China (link below). From their house, they had a great view of the ships arriving and departing Stockholm

The view from Skeppsbron (Johan Fredrik Julin, 1840-1849)

In August of 1839, Christian Friedrich Biel suddenly died. The girls’ mother was now a widow at age 36. She had four young children to care for. She decided that the two girls, aged 8 and 10, should attend a boarding school and she chose Edgren’s school in Klara parish. Mathilde and Elise moved in with the Edgren family in 1840 and lived there through 1843. When Edgren’s school closed in 1844, Mathilde and Elise moved in with Mademoiselle Frigel, who continued teaching the girls from Edgren’s school. The two girls lived with Mademoiselle Frigel through 1847.

The rest of the family had in December 1840 moved to Kungsholmen, Garvargatan 8. In 1847, the girls’ mother died. She was only 44 years old. The cause of death was listed in church records as “wasting” (Swedish: tärande).

So what happened to Mathilde and Elise later in life?

Mathilde Biel

Mathilde, or Matilda, married nobleman Olof Nordenfelt in 1852. Olof was born in 1826 at Björneborg in the province of Värmland. When his father died, he inherited the estate and its ironworks. He became chamberlain at the royal court in 1860 and a member of parliament in 1867.

They had 9 children:

Olof 1853,
Cecilia 1854
Matilda 1855
Sofia 1857
Johan 1859
Hugo 1862
Hjalmar 1864
Carl 1866
Ingeborg 1872.

Mathilde died in 1888 at the age of 57.

Elise Biel

Emilia Elisabeth (Elise) Edman, born Biel. Photograph by Robert Roesler. Privately owned.

Elise, or Elisabet, married Victor Edman in 1850. Victor was born in 1813 in Stockholm and this was his second marriage. His first wife had died following the birth of their second son. In 1850, he was an adjutant to the crown prince. Between 1856 and 1870, the family lived at Svanå in the province of Västmanland. Victor was the majority shareholder and manager of the Svanå ironworks.

In 1870, the family moved to Stockholm. They bought a house in the same block as where Elise and her sister had lived with Mrs. Edgren! The house was just around the corner from Mrs. Edgren’s school. They also rented a small farm, Edeby on the island of Lovön.

In 1875, Elise and Victor celebrated their 25^th wedding anniversary and Victor surprised Elise with a gold bracelet consisting of seven linked medallions, each containing a photograph. The photographs were portraits of Victor, in the middle, and his six children – two from his first marriage and four from his marriage with Elise. In 2017, the bracelet was gifted to the Nordic Museum in Stockholm by Victor’s great-great-grandson and namesake.

Elise died in 1907 at the age of 75.

Sources:

Portraits are from www.ridarhuset.se

https://www.adelsvapen.com/genealogi/Nordenfeldt_nr_1662

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327177341_Swedish-Portuguese_trade_and_Swedish_consular_service_1700-1800