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Hedvig Lovisa1 was from Uppland, close to Uppsala Cathedral and the University.2 She was born in Skyttorp, Uppland 3 in the Tensta4 parish of Sweden on October 12, 1867, a dark year, a time of famine in Sweden.
Just three weeks after Hedvig was born her mother was in the fields digging for half rotten, frost-damaged potatoes. The skies continued to rain incessantly making the harvest all the more difficult. The family managed to survive that year of famine, and the difficult years following.
Hedvig was Jan and Johanna Ersson's third child. Later years saw the birth of three sons and another daughter.
The countryside in the first few years of Hedvig's young life was calm and peaceful. A grove of aspens grew nearby where the children played. Hedvig's mother loved to watch and listen to the quivering leaves of the trees. But when Hedvig was about four years old surveyors came carrying their measuring instruments, and drove their white poles into the dark rich soil.
The peace and quietness that Hedvig and her family had always known was to be destroyed. The railroad was coming. Following the surveyors came hundreds of workmen with crowbars, picks and shoves. They dug, dynamited, leveling the high places and filling the low places of the green land. They cut down the grove of large asps and Hedvig's mother cried.
A wide path was made through the countryside scaring the landscape, cutting farms in two and dividing neighbors. A farmer sometimes had to cross a railroad bed and two iron rails from his house to his barn and cow sheds. Sweden was mechanizing and these farmers could not see the blessing this would bring to Sweden. They could only see what affected them personally, an unwanted iron way, a noisy machine disrupting their solitude. The railroad they saw was no respecter of the quiet, peaceful, virgin land.
But it was not only the railway itself that brought an unwanted intrusion. The railway men were not exactly a blessing either. These men were paid on Saturday. On Sunday many of these railway men or "railers" converted their wages to strong drink for a weekly bout of merrymaking. "Where wine go in, go sense out," an old Swedish proverb says. Much wine and little sense encouraged cursing, foul speech, noise and fighting. This was not the sort of thing small farming communities were used to. Sometimes these railers could be violent. Fearing for their own safety, children and sometimes their parents hid themselves in their homes until the Sunday of drunkenness and fighting was over and the railers nursed their aching heads.
Eventually this railroad line was finished and the railers moved on, but across Jan and Johanna's farm they left behind iron rails on a raised rocky bed. Along the railway the railers built a fence. In revenge Johanna planted a lilac hedge along this fence to block the unsightliness of the tracks and bed. It did nothing though to block the noise of the snorting, shrieking, belching black machine that would pass from time to time.
After the railroad was laid and the workmen had moved on life returned to normal minus one grove of aspen, and plus an occasional disruptive train.
Hedvig's life would have been like those of any other child of a farming family. She would have helped with the chores around the house including the kitchen, helped in the garden, mended clothes and tagged along into town to buy food and other necessities. On Sunday's Hedvig attended church as did most families in Sweden at the time and listened to the priest as he spoke God's word from the pulpit, a wooden box seeming to have grown like a mushroom on the church's wall. Her mind would wander as she followed the artist's black lines on the church's walls and ceilings.5 The artwork painted centuries 6 before in Tensta church was in earth reds and pastel blues.
The church's influence started to have an impact on the young girl. She started to feel that God wanted something from her. He wanted her heart apparently. "His Holy Spirit kept on knocking on my heart's door, at last so hard I could not sleep at night," she later wrote.7 She spoke to her school teacher about God and His intrusions into her mind and heart. The teacher encouraged her to give her life to God, and she did. "At eleven years of age I gave my heart to the Father."8 The school teacher encouraged her in her new found faith. She now became very interested in the Bible stories she had heard all her life. They now seemed to be more important.9 In her Sunday school papers she read about the early missionaries in the Congo of Africa, especially the work of Missionsförbundet (Mission League).10 This caught the interest of the young girl and she dreamed of one day becoming a missionary.
Like most loves of young children, this love of God began to wane after a few years, especially after Hedvig changed both school and teacher. Her old teacher had been a support to the child's childlike faith. The new teacher was not a Christian and Hedvig's zeal for God began to lessen. It had been Hedvig's habit to say her prayers every night before falling asleep. With increasing disinterest in God she wondered one night if she could possibly go to sleep without praying at all, and decided give it a test. One evening she did not pray before going to bed. "After that I had no urge to pray day or night and the result was that I soon lost life in Christ."11
This lasted for some time. She still went to church as was expected of her by her family, but the former love of God seemed to have died. As she started growing toward womanhood, however, her interest in God and religious things started, somehow, to grow again in her heart. In 1885 at the age of seventeen she again took God seriously. This time her enthusiasm for God did not flag. She wanted to give her life to Him in some way, perhaps by helping others. She thought first of becoming a midwife, but the Lutheran priest in the local church in the town of Tensta talked to her about becoming a teacher. She agreed. She first took some lessons from him toward that goal.12 The priest then helped arrange for her to take her entrance exams. She would need to take these exams, and if she passed, to attend the teacher's seminary 13 in Uppsala a town the main heathen center of Sweden in viking times, and the ancient home of the Swedish kings.
The time had come to leave her parents' home. It was a tearful parting. They wished her good luck. Her future depended upon the upcoming exams. On September 1, 1886 Hedvig woke and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. What was this day going to bring she wondered?
Forty-nine prospective students applied to enter the seminary. There was room for only three. The three scoring the highest on the tests would be allowed into the school. The forty-nine were tested on a variety of subjects. Later they all met together to hear the results. Hedvig's heart was beating fast as the names were read of those who were allowed into the teacher's seminary. Her name was called out. She was accepted.
Classes started the very next day.
Hedvig completed her coursework the following year in 1887, and with "fear and trembling" began her assigned teaching position at the little grammar school of Lyan Alunda near Uppsala.14 Though a small school off the beaten track, Hedvig was happy to serve God wherever he put her. This was not the Congo, but for Hedvig it was her little mission field.
Hedvig had been brought up in the Lutheran church. She had thought this was sufficient to be a good Christian. During this first year of teaching Hedvig began to wonder if this indeed was enough. A Bible painting had become the center of attraction in Uppsala in 1888. It showed [Jesus and others being baptized in the River Jordan.] This painting made a deep impression on Hedvig. She thought that perhaps she too should become baptized.
The Lutheran Church of Sweden was against such a thing. Children were baptized when they were infants. This was enough. To be re-baptized was wrong and even sacrilegious according to the Lutheran officials. On the other hand some people were saying that a true Christian, besides giving their life fully to God must also be baptized like the first Christians in ancient Palestine. Baptizing an infant was wrong the thought because infants cannot make a committed choice to follow Jesus, and to be baptized. They said that a person should be baptized only after making a conscious decision to follow God. She heard many discussions about the matter. It was a subject hotly debated in Sweden. But Hedvig did not make a decision one way or the other on the matter.
As time went on she felt very unhappy and did not know why. One day after teaching at school she hurried home to her room in tears. She went down on her knees calling out to God, "What do you want me to do?" A mild inner voice seemed to answer her, "Being I have done so much for you would you not want to do something for me and be baptized?"
In the days that followed she studied her bible and became more convinced from the bible that this was the thing to do. It was a difficult decision and could have big repercussions. A person who was re-baptized was going against the teachings of the state church in Sweden. Any person working for the state or municipality could loose one's job for such a bold and radical act. As a teacher she worked for the state. Being baptized may mean she would loose her teaching position. It would not be proper for a person who had been re-baptized to be teaching children her superiors might think. Hedvig also had invitations to go to the Zulu tribe of Africa as a missionary for the YWCA.This too was impossible if she become a Baptist. 15
In the spring of 1889 two young people were to be baptized in Uppsala. She went and watched as the pastor helped immerse them completely in the water and up again as a sign of their new life in Christ. This was the first baptism through complete water immersion Hedvig had witnessed. This event had a big effect on Hedvig. From then on it was only a question of when and not a question of if she should be bapized, and become a member of this radical baptized fellowship.
In the months that followed she thought and planned for her baptism. She heard of a day in the not too distant future when a group16 of people would be baptized. She decided to be among that group. The "momentous, wonderful day" came on November 30, 1889.17 The young man who baptized twenty-two year old Hedvig, and the others in the small Baptist Chapel in Alunda known as 'Foghammas,'44 was the prospective pastor18 Johan Alfred Rinell who had come to Alunda to preach.
Retribution was quick. Only three days after she became a member of the Baptist church she was compelled to leave her teaching position, a severe rebuke for the step she had taken.45 Hedvig would have remained a member of the Lutheran church, a membership that one could not give up. So as a Baptist she held dual church membership. Email from Lally Rinell to LJH, January 1, 2008.To be a Baptist was unknown in that locality. As a teacher she was expected to teach according to Luther's catechism. Baptists were heretical,19 just as Lutherans had been heretical when Sweden was still a Roman Catholic nation. Though she did not have prospects for another job, she left with a peaceful heart believing she had done the right thing.
Without employment Hedvig returned home. She stayed with her parents for a few months, taking care of her brothers and sisters who were sick with the influenza. Sooner or later she would have to find other work to make a living or at least find a husband.
Seventy-two years earlier in October of 1817 Johan Petter Johnsson was born 27 in Harstad parish, a neighboring parish to Rinna. We do not know anything about his early life though we know that in 1849 when Johan Petter was about twenty-three years old he moved to the farm of Krokebo 21 in the southern part of Rinna near Östergötland. Rinna was a largely woodland, and a land of small farms.28 At Krokebo he started to farm.
One day Johan Petter met a woman from the farm of Kimme, ten miles away from Krokebo. Her name was Greta Andersson. She was born at Kimme on 17 April 1825. One thing led to another and Johan Petter and Greta got married in 1855 when Johan Petter was about thirty-eight years old and Greta thirty. Greta, naturally, joined Johan Petter at his Krokebo farm, a farm settled among the gentle rolling hills of birch, pine,22 and farmland of Rinna parish. Their church was a few minutes away by horse.23 Its white walls 24 turned a soft gold in color when the day grew old and the sun was setting behind the trees. The church bells rang out the hour 25 for the Sunday morning meeting as the Johansson family, and the rest of the congregation, walked or rode their horses or wagons along the winding dirt roads.
The church members tethered their horses outside the low stone wall surrounding the church, climbed down from their horse, buggy or cart and walked the short distance through the graveyard up to the church doors. The stone markers carved with family names had bitter sweet meaning for these people, for most had family members buried here. Walking through the door of the bell tower standing dead center, they took their assigned seats in the church. Like their ancestors the Johansson family was honest, pious, and good. Their place in their white country church 26 was seldom vacant, if they were in good health.
Two years after their marriage their first child, Matilda was born on Saturday, 5 September 1857. Seven years later in 1864, coincidently also on 5 September [or the date is incorrect], another daughter was added to the family. Her name was Johanna Maria.
Eventually, another daughter and two sons were added to the family. The youngest son of whom this story is told was Johan Alfred, born Tuesday, November 27, 1866 at Krokebo, Rinna in Östergötland when Johan Petter was forty-nine years old and Greta forty-one. Johan Petter loved his son, and his son loved his father. In growing up Johan could not remember ever being spanked by his father. His father's eye contact was enough to communicate his wishes. When his father spoke, there was no doubt as to what he wanted. It was said by others that Johan Petter was a good gentle man and a good father and a steadfast mate.
Sweden had been Lutheran since the 1500's. During the 1800's new religious ideas gained a foothold in Sweden. As Johan Petter and Greta's children grew up, some started following these news faiths considered by many in Sweden to be heretical.
The oldest son, August, was the first to experience a spiritual conversion at the age of eighteen about the year 1879. He became a warm Christian at a time when being a Christian was nothing to be proud of. After his conversion he organized a Sunday School in a neighboring village. He was the first in his family who had dreams of becoming a "reader."29 It was not long after that August's sisters, and mother and father also became what they considered to be true Christians.30 Though his little brother at this time had not made a commitment to God he had his own ideas about religion. At only twelve years Johan defended Baptist doctrine among his school friends, especially concerning baptism. Johan believed that only a person who consciously accepted Jesus as his lord and savior should be baptized. This was a brave thing to do among his friends. It would have put him in the minority. Almost everyone was Lutheran in those days. The Baptists and their beliefs were radical. The Johanssons though seemed to be a tolerant family, and their children chose their religion as they saw fit.
Johan like any boy brought up on the farm had his own responsibilities in helping out. Quite possibly the farm would one day belong to him, and his brother [or would it have gone to his older brother by default?]. However, when still a teenager he no longer had any interest in farming. Instead he wanted to become in his own words "an educated man," a reader 92 In British English a 'reader' British : is "one who reads lectures or expounds subjects to students" according to Webster's dictionary. at the very least. It was not easy for Johan get his father's permission to find a teacher to tutor him. He would need a tutor so that he could pass the necessary exams to be admitted in school.31 Johan's father gave in and Johan found a teacher in the person of the town's priest Anton Erikson who had confirmed him the year before.32 Lessons taught were often His first lesson was, "The Patience to Wait"33 a lesson he would need in coming months and years. He studied hard under the tutelage of Anton Erickson.
The following summer Johan received information about Vadstena 34 Elementary School. He and his family decided he should start at the school in the fall. Soon the time to depart had come. His father gave Johan fatherly advice35 before sending him off. We do not know what fatherly advice Johan Petter gave, but this was the first time Johan Alfred would be away from his parents' home, so whatever advice he gave him would, hopefully, help him on his way.36
Though it seemed he was to realize his plans to became an educated man young Johan felt that something was missing in his life. It was difficult to put his finger on what exactly it was, but thought that it seemed his spiritual life was not going so well. He but this in the back of his mind for now. A more immediate concern was upon him. The time to take his exams arrived. He passed the test in his first year level, and wanted to start school in the fall. He studied hard during that time and was given permission to go to forth class. He was asked what he was going to do when he grew up. He could not give them a straight answer. He wanted to become a priest or a lieutenant in the military 37, but both of these occupations were nothing that his parents or sisters or brother encouraged. "The Lord's thoughts and ideas are not only our own" he thought.38
In the summer of 1883 Johan's older brother August became seriously ill. His remaining days on earth were numbered, and perhaps he sensed it because he decided to talk to his younger brother about God. We do not know what was said, but his brother's words had a strong effect on Johan. Johan promised his dying brother that he would give his life to God so that he could later meet his brother in heaven. Soon afterward August "went to his eternal home" at the early age of 21 years.39 August's spiritual influence would live on in his family and have dramatic effect.
As his sibling grew, Johan's oldest sister oldest 40 sister, Augusta, married church warden Gustav Swenson and remained in the Lutheran Church of Sweden. His sister Matilda became one of the heretical Baptists and married into a Baptist family.41 His third sister, Hanna, along with her family became members of the Covenant Mission.42
With his brother gone Johan acted as was befitting of a good son. His parents needed him on the farm. His dreams of becoming a priest or a Lieutenant went out the window.43 That fall on Sunday, September 30, 1883 at sixteen years of age Johan, with some struggle, made good on his promise to his dying brother and became a Christian.44 This was his "soul's birthday" he called it. He took to his new faith with enthusiasm.
Johan Alfred began soon after his conversion to work in his brother's Sunday School at Gärdslätt's Mission chapel.45 Soon the number of kids attending grew from twenty-four to sixty and then seventy. The mission had to divide the Sunday School to accommodate all the kids.
Johan Alfred was moving further away from the state Lutheran church. Much of the problem had to do with beliefs held by the state church. The Lutherans believed that a person became a Christian upon being baptized into the church. The Lutherans therefore baptized infants. The Baptists as mentioned believed one only became a Christian when one made a conscience decision to do so. Baptism into the church would then follow as a public proclamation of having chosen to follow God. There was probably another reason for Johan not being happy with the state church. Like most institutionalized churches anywhere in the world, the state church sometimes lacked vitality and life, at least it seems in his area. For a person who had taken God seriously and was excited about their faith, the state church may have seemed stifling. He was not happy with the church. He was not happy with having to take Sacraments 46 in the church.
At age twelve he had made it be known that he was sympathetic with the baptist views of the Bible. Now he spoke out even more. From childhood he had understood that only the one who had consciously accepted Jesus should be baptized as it seemed clearly to say in the Bible. Now the time had come for Johan to follow his own convictions.
In 1884 at seventeen years of age Johan joined the local baptist church. On August 2 together with his next to the oldest sister, Mathilda, Johan was baptized in the Lake Långens. 93 Could be the name is L¥ngen. I could not find a L¥ngens lake, but there is a Lake L¥ngen. LJH. 10/2008. A wind was blowing that day as he and his sister were baptized among the waves of the lake. A large number of people had come to see the event. Perhaps among them was his former teacher Anton Erikson. If he was not there he would no doubt hear of the baptism. In choosing to be baptized Johan's actions had now followed after his heart because his heart had long ago left the Lutheran church. Now the break with the state church was complete.47
Johan continued to attend the Baptist church and to teach Sunday School. After a few years of this he decided he wanted to become a preacher and tell others about Jesus who was crucified for them. On Whit-Monday at Lilla Marken in Hogsta parish [socken] he began to preach from the text 2 Corinthians 5:1-4. He was only nineteen years of age. He also took the time to study with ????48 to improve his preaching skills. förständars
In the fall he became Rinna's Baptist church "forstandars [förständar?]"49 He then had to give up teaching in the Sunday School for lack of time, but he had found what he considered his ideal spot in life. "I was a priest [as in the Lutheran church] though [I] had taken a shortcut".50
He continued to preach in Rinna church for two years until the fall of 1888. He decided to go on to seminary to be educated as a minister. But he would have to leave his small town and to the big city of Stockholm to attend the second class of the recently founded Bethel Theological Seminary.51 The day of departure had arrived. Johan and his father with his long silver white locks 52 traveled together to the port town of Vadstena so Johan could catch the steamship to Stockholm. He stood with Johan. It was difficult for his father to see him leave. "God be with you," his father said as they parted.53 Of course it was also difficult for Johan to leave his father. And it was difficult to leave his home parish. The lakes, rivers, small churches and the people of Rinna were a part of him. Later he wrote sentimentally of his home,
There [in his parish of ?] sparkles the clear waters of the lake Vettern, Motala River, Göta Canal, bays of Östersjön, the beautiful lakes of Sommen and Rinna, Lake Tåkern with its thousand kinds of birds. The Omberg mountain stands on guard. On the plains grow harvests in all their glory. Here lived a happy and well off people. Churches and chapels raise their structures and steeples. The holy Birgitta founded in ancient times a nunnery in Vadstena.
He would not live for any length of time in his home again. This was a year of life-changing events. He was leaving his country home and his family, and moving to the big city.
[NOTE: The following quoted material may be introduced in this chapter or another chapter. [Not necessarily quoted, but the idea].
During the last decade of Qian Long's sixty-year reign, 1736-96, the 'missionary awakening' in Europe, which had dozed fitfully for a century, suddenly returned to life. It was the product of the 'evangelical movement', itself the product of the great turning to God we have seen in connection with the Pietists, Quakers, Methodists and others. Strongest in the English-speaking countries it spread to Scandinavia, Holland, Germany and Switzerland. Its emphasis was on the individual experience of meeting with Christ, and responsibility for leading others into the same kind of experience, into knowing him. It also expressed itself in love and concern or needy people of all kinds, socially and physically as well as spiritually. From it arose orphanages, care for offenders against the law, opposition to slave-trading and slave-owning, justice for those suffering oppressive conditions in factories, charities, reforms and good deeds of many kinds, including a wave of action to take the gospel to all deprived of it.
. . . . It was not a movement of Churches, the denominations as represented by their leaders, but of small groups of individuals in each section of the wider Church agreeing together that something must be done, and doing it. Some were recognized by their denominational leaders, others remained independent but with the full approval and support of their Churches. 54
[Reason this quote is important is that Johan Alfred and Hedvig are no doubt products of this great awakening or missionary awakening. Their emphasis on individual experience and physically and spiritual concern for others was the same. The difference was, however, that they left their church, the Lutheran church of Sweden to follow their convictions.]
2. Her father, Jan Ersson, may have been a descendant of the rector Magni Petri, one of the 23 priests who sat in the counsel of the Uppsala resolution of 5 March 1593 which ushered in Protestantism and Lutheranism into Sweden. [However, Anni (Hermansson) Halabi says that this was unlikely, and there may be a confusion here as to whom he is decended.] Her mother, Joanna Sjöberg, may have been descendant of Swedes and of Walloons of southern Belgium who had emigrated to Sweden to work the mines of Dannemora. Both of these possibilities must be researched.
3. The Ersson family first lived on a farm "under" Vattholma. They moved to Skyttorp where they lived and farmed for 30 years. Lalli believes that Skyttorp was a village in Vattholma.
6. Check on this Len. Also, verify that these paintings were indeed visible when Hedvig was a child and not paintings that have been more recently uncovered.
15. Though the YWCA is technically interdenominational, in Sweden the YWCA was made up of Lutherans. Jill mentiones here that I need more of a lead up on her becoming a baptist - what lead up to it etc.
16. I'm assuming here that she heard of a day coming up where a group would be baptized. It could have been that she approached someone first and a day was set and others joined, but we do not know.
20. Johan Alfred said after mentioning his mother's name, hvilka äro ägare af nyssnämnda egendom, which roughly translates "who gloriously owns that which was just named." Don't know what Johan means here.
21. According to Hans Fransson , a writer living not far from the old farm Krokebo still stands but is now a vacation"stuga" [March 2000].
24. White wall is an assumption on my part. The walls were white in 1992 when I visited the church. LJH. NOTE: In an earlier version of the this book I noted that Johan Petter was 'farm-owner' of Krokebo. I may have gotten this information from official Swedish records, but am not positive that I did. This needs to be verified. LJH.
25. I'm assuming the church had bells and they did ring out on Sunday. This needs to be verified. LJH
26. Bell tower with steeple is the first part of the church as one enters. Graveyard surrounds the church. A stone wall surrounds the graveyard. No village in the area, just scattered farms.
27. Born 26 of October 1817 according to Johan Alfred's diary, Jag är född i Krokebo, page 115. But according to Hans Fransson who check official records, Johan Petter was born 26 September.
28. Information on where Greta was from and the birthdates of the family members was provided by the writer, Hans Fransson. Note, I am not sure how Östergötland relates to Rinna and Harstad. Krokebo was, apparently, the name of the farm itself.
30. Don't know when the family became Christians in relation to their brother Johan who became a Christian in 1883.
31. Not sure what the sequence is here. Johan got permission, possibly from his father, to get a teacher. This may have been the same teacher from whom he was learning to preach.
32. I'm assuming here that father's confirmation and baptism was essentially the same thing. Am I right? Or would he have been confirmed by the Lutheran priest?
36. Apparently this was a boarding school. Check to see how far away Vadstena is from Rinne. How old Johan would have been at this time?
39. Johan Alfred's diary, Jag är född i Krokebo, says his brother died at 22 years of age, page 115.
40. Len, find out where all the children fit in relation to one another. This sentence should begin "Angers'".
44. In his diary, Jag är född i Krokebo, Johan mention that he became a Christian at age 13 or 14. Could be that years later he couldn't quite remember how old he was when he became a Christian.
45. Info on his brother starting the Sunday School comes from "in Remembrance of Rev. J. A. Rinell, The Standard, September, 27, 1941. [page 140 collected articles].
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