Travel Reflections of Stockholm
Visited on June 12th & 13th 2014
Our group traveled by coach from the port city of Nynäshamn where the Gotland Ferry had docked to Sweden's capital, Stockholm, a “floating city” built on fourteen islands linked by fifty-four bridges. Looking out from the third floor window of the Ersta Terass restaurant on the southern island of Södermalm, water was the predominate view in all directions with a scattering of pleasure crafts taking advantage of clear weather and sunshine.
Leaving the restaurant after our lunch we found the weather had changed drastically with a strong wind and a cold rain. Small sailing ships were now docked.
Our coach driver Daniel took us on a tour around the city pointing out buildings of importance. The City Hall (Stadshuset), built in 1923 at the water's edge, is one of Stockholm's most iconic buildings and topped with three golden crowns. The City Hall is where the annual prestigious Nobel Banquet is held each December in the Blue Hall with a formal ball held afterward in the Golden Hall.
By the time we reached the Hotel Zinkensdamm for our final two nights, the rainstorm had passed. There was time before Thursday night group dinner for Lennie and I to walk to the boutiques in the narrow winding cobble-stoned streets of Old Town (or Gamla Stan) which dates from the 1200's. The city is pedestrian and bicyclist friendly. A few street scenes on our walk included a flower market.
Mariatorget (or the Maria Square) is a city park constructed in the late 1760's. A central fountain in the park depicts mythology; the Norse storm and weather god of sky and thunder, Thor slaying the sea serpent Jörmungandr.
With the conclusion of our trip approaching, Friday was a free day for the group where we could individually choose sightseeing preferences in the city. With my interest in my family Swedish background, Lennie and I took a morning visit to Skansen, the oldest open air museum in the world, located on Stockholm's Island of Djurgården. On seventy-five acres a living history of Sweden covering five centuries has been recreated with traditional buildings and farmsteads dismantled and reassembled. A Sami Camp with reindeer in the far north to farmsteads in the south are represented. The countryside that is typical of their origins (including livestock and poultry) are included as living history.
You can watch skilled glass-makers create beautiful crystal with traditional tools or visit the Pottery from the early 19th century where ceramic products are created on a clay wheel.
A shoemaker, bookbinder, engraver, saddler, printer and a bakery are a sample of other businesses that can be visited with people working their trade in period dress.
My primary interest in visiting Skansen was my Swedish family history which I covered in my blog post, “Kisa Museum of Emigration.” My great grandmother Ellen Pearson, had migrated to America from Valleberga, Kristianstad in 1870 as a young girl with her parents and siblings.
My great grandfather Andrew Paul Parson was born in Vapnö Parish, Halland June 19th, 1851. Parish records indicate that his parents did not marry until January 5th, 1855. Family records show that his father, Pehr Jonsson, his mother, Johanna Andersdotter, and sister did live out their lives in Vapnö Parish. I found a glimpse at the Skansen Museum of what Andrew Paul's life might have been on a farmstead in Halland before he immigrated to America in 1876.
A Norse Mill from the province of Halland was alongside the pathway to the Oktorp Farmstead, a typical recreated Halland farmstead from the 1870's. It was normal until the mid-19th century for farms to have their own mills for grinding corn into flour in the spring and autumn when there was enough water is the stream to drive the wheel water. The mill was built with oak plants. Underneath the mill would be a horizontal wooden paddle wheel, fitted with a vertical shaft to drive the millstones inside the building.
Since most of the land was for growing crops, there are two long barns for threshing and grain storage at the recreated Halland farmstead which in the 1870's was run by the Lundquist family. Roofs of the buildings are thatched with straw which would be available from the farm's own fields. A brew house, stable and byre are a part of the farmstead. The outbuildings were built with planks slotted between upright posts using knotted planks from nearby broadleaved woods.
The dwelling house was built with interlocking timbers purchased from farther inland. The picket fence encloses a small garden.
Daily activities of the farm were observed from wood gathering to dying yarn with nettle in an outdoor kettle over heat.
The living room in the residence was from the mid-18th century and the oldest room in the house. It was located in the lower part of the dwelling and this was where the family would eat, sleep and carry on everyday tasks. In the cold winter weather the poultry was often let in here.
The taller buildings to either side of the living room contain the weaving rooms, store rooms and summertime bedrooms.
For centuries nature has been an inspiration to the Swedish people. Even in this modest farm home the natural world can be seen in the designs engraved in the home's woodwork, furniture and the stories that are weaved as designs into tapestries.
Our afternoon excursion was a change in era and technology with a visit to the Ericsson Globe arena, one of Stockholm's modern landmarks that opened in 1989 as the world's largest spherical building. The Globe arena is a popular venue for music concerts and sports events. The Sky View, as the experience is named, debuted in 2010 with two spherical enclosed gondolas that travel along parallel tracks on the exterior side of the globe, transporting passengers to the top of the arena. From 425 feet (130 meters) above sea level you can have an unobstructed view of the entire city from the Globe's location on Stockholm's southern edge. We managed to travel to the top of the globe before heavy rain drops against the gondola window panes blurred our vision of a cloudy view of Stockholm.
Saturday afternoon we flew out of Stockholm to the States. The lakes below were shimmering from the reflection of the late afternoon sun. Shortly the clusters of towns and farmsteads of Sweden disappeared as we crossed over the high ice caped mountain peaks of Norway.
Eight hours later I glimpsed the sunset haze of New York City with skyscrapers and steel wire suspension bridges crossing over rivers. It was a different landscape than the one my great grandfather Andrew Paul Parson would have experienced as a 25 year old young man in May of 1876. Without family he traveled across the waters from Europe on the Norwegian ship Str. Goethe, landing in New York on June 9th, 1876. It was a short stay he had in the city. He continued his journey west towards America’s heartland where he settled in the Swedish community of Galva, Illinois in Henry County. His sister Johanna Petronella Pehrsdotter also came to America in the 1870's. She married John A. Johnson who had immigrated to America in 1881. John and Johnna first settled in Wilcox, Pennsylvania for six years with three children born in Erie, PA. In 1887 they settled in Kewanee, Illinois (Henry County) where four additional children were born. They established a business; a tea and coffee shop in Kewanee.
Coal mining was a major industry in and around Galva. Many Swedish immigrants, including Andrew Paul, were employed in the mines in the winter time and worked on farms during the summer months. Eventually he did purchase a 240 acre farm located a short distance from Atkinson, Illinois (Henry County) and later increased his holdings with an additional 100 acres. Marriage to Ellen Pearson (my middle name namesake), gave him a family of seven sons and two daughters (Julia Subina, my grandmother), who were first generation Americans. My great grandfather obtained citizenship in his adopted country November 8th,1892. He was a contributing member of the community, serving as a highway overseer in Galva Township in 1897. Living in Geneseo, not far from where he had married 60 years earlier, he died at the age of 90. Ellen followed him in death in April 1942, eight months later.
The possessions of emigrants are displayed in our local museums honoring the journey of new beginnings. Stories are written in books of conflict and triumph; songs are sung of love and hardship. We search our memories to recall the names of faces in family albums, black and white photos dulled from age. In attics and basements we find boxes of handwritten letters on brittle yellowed paper sometimes in a language foreign to us and at the bottom of the box, old newspaper clippings of events and an obituary that reviews a life in a single column. A final short sentence is etched above a name in a weathered gravestones in the old family cemetery.
We may travel, research and read the fragments of our ancestor's lives that eventually piece together a story. It is when we return to our individual beginning that we are encouraged; strengthened by the knowledge of the past that binds us in the present to our family and community.
Photos by Deborah Ellen McMillin.
Genealogy of family provided by George F. Perkins.