2024 #52Ancestors, Week 15: School Days

Interior of Swedish School House, circa 1877

As mentioned in a previous post, my great grandmother's sister, Cecilia Ingrid (Wedberg) Hendrickson was kind enough to leave behind a handwritten account of her earlier years.  I have done my best to accurately transcribe and, in some cases, annotate it. What follows is Cecilia's description of a fire that burned a Swedish school house - and much of Baskemölla, Sweden.

One day, [my parents] accompanied Captain Flink to see him off on one of his sea journeys and while at Simrisham, Sweden, saw that a great fire had broken out at Baskemölla. It started in the school house above our home. Being a windy day, it spread fast and before long the village was on fire. The people ran to the Baltic Sea to keep out of flying debris and from getting burned. Our maid, Kristiana Lovedall, was concerned about saving belongings. Our clerk came up from our store and asked if she had all the children. At that time, sister Annie was asleep in one of the beds that the fire had already reached in a room, but he grabbed her in time. Nelly and I became frightened and ran on stocking feet to Vik where some people knew who we were and said in Swedish, “Deta ar Wedberg’s barn.”  Tillie was the first to come and say that the school was on fire. We were having dinner or brunch, which consisted of salt pork and eggs.

Our parents saw the fire from the city. Father jumped into his buggy leaving Mother. He drove so fast the wheels flew off and he jumped on the horse. He reached his home in time to pull a dresser and desk of valuable papers and money. He rushed in just as the walls caved in. As he was coming out, women had pails of water which they threw on him. I have a little drawer which was in that desk. The orchard – also some stock were lying dead on the ground.

Finally, Mother reached the outskirts of town where friends came to meet her saying, “Mary, you need not hurry. All yours is gone.” It was indeed sad, for people who had lost all they had in those days had little insurance and most – none.

Father, being a contractor, had more than he could handle.  He had to build the town and a beautiful home for ourselves.

A few notes of clarification/annotation:  

1. I am uncertain as to whether or not the schoolhouse adjoined the Wedberg home. Perhaps their home was simply the next building down from the school house.  Descriptions of Swedish communities suggest buildings were close together and constructed from highly flammable materials.

2. “Deta ar Wedberg’s barn" translates to "These are Wedberg children."

3. Although I am not a fan of using Wikipedia for research purposes, I did find this very useful information in the Baskemölla entry: 

 “Three large fires, 1889, 1894 and 1913, destroyed almost the entire community. In 1889 the fire began in the schoolhouse and then spread rapidly due to the strong wind from the sea. 37 houses and 5 farms burned down, and some 50 families became homeless in a few hours. The housing issue was initially difficult to solve, but many surrounding villages came up with help so that the families received temporary housing."  Based on the mention of the strong winds in Cecilia's account and the fact that her family was no longer in Sweden by 1894, the event described was clearly the 1889 fire. Oddly enough, outside of the Wikipedia entry and Great Aunt Cecilia's anecdotal evidence, I can find no other mention of the fire.

4.  When Cecilia noted her father had to build the town, that was not an exaggeration. The same Wikipedia article identifies him by name saying, "In 1890 it was decided to build a new, larger school building. Builder and tradesman Christian Wedberg, a resident of the community, made a bid of SEK 5,000, which was accepted. The new school housed halls for high school and junior school as well as a teacher's residence to the east."  Later in Cecilia's account, she indicates that the construction did not progress as her father wanted, so in 1891, he began planning his family's immigration to the United States.

All because of a school house...