Catharina Magdalena Berg 1806-1888

Early life 1806-1822

Catharina Magdalena, known as "Kaisa Lena"[Note 1], was born 23 September 1806 near the village of Hammarby, Ofvansjö parish, Gävleborg[1]. She was the firstborn child of Anna Larsdotter and her husband Anders Andersson, a dagkarl (day labourer) at Hammarby Bruk, a large ironworks employing many people in the local area. She appears to have been named after her two grandmothers - her father's mother Carin (another diminuitive of Catharina) Persdotter and her mother's mother Magdalena Hansdotter.

Caisa Lena's family lived in housing on the grounds of Hammarby Bruk itself, along with many other workers' families[2]. It would have been a noisy, smoke-filled environment, with machinery and furnaces running both day and night, only pausing on Sundays[3]. Kaisa Lena had three younger siblings, Anders (b.1809), Lars (b.1811) and Petter (b.1814). Her maternal grandparents were also part of the household, her grandfather apparently working at the Bruk until his death in 1809 at the age of 68, and both grandparents having lived their entire lives on the grounds. The ironworks had existed since 1659[4], and Kaisa Lena's mother's family had been there for generations.

There was as yet no compulsory schooling in Sweden, but working class communities were often served by charitable elementary schools[5]. This appears to have been the case for the forty or so young children then living at the ironworks. One of these children, Anders Uppström, three months older than Kaisa Lena and also the child of a day labourer, would catch the attention of his tutors. The Bruk's co-owner, Thore Petre, would eventually pay for his further education, and he would go on to become a celebrated philologist[6]. His story was however exceptional, and it was presumably expected that Kaisa Lena and most of her classmates would grow up to live and work at the Bruk as their parents had done before them.

The family nevertheless appeared to have some pride. At some point during Kaisa Lena's childhood her father abandoned his traditional patronymic and adopted the surname "Berg". Kaisa Lena and her siblings would also go by this name for the rest of their lives. Berg means mountain, so perhaps refers to Anders having a tall, muscular physique, something which no doubt would have made him well-equipped for his job. It was however sadly not enough to save him from the hazards of industrial squalor. He died of Typhus in December 1815[7], aged just 34. The disease, which was rife in Europe during the 1810s, is spread by lice and thrives in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions. It typically begins with fever, followed by a rash which spreads across the body, and can lead to delirium and coma in its final stages[8]. We can only imagine how it must have impacted nine-year-old Kaisa Lena to witness her father dying in this way.

An estate inventory completed following Anders Berg's death indicates that the family's possessions consisted of basic household goods - a few cups, a copper kettle, some iron cookware, a set of clothes for each family member. Soft furnishings included a single down pillow, and one pair of curtains. Only one bed is mentioned. They were clearly not living in abject poverty, but there were no luxury items. The estate totalled 380 riksdaler[9]. For comparison, the average land value for a typically-sized farm in 1818 was 1,500 riksdaler[29].

Little can be said about the years immediately following Kaisa Lena's father's death. Her mother did not remarry, and the family may have survived on the charity of neighbours and relatives. Kaisa Lena, being the eldest, presumably supported her mother in raising the smaller children. The only known event from this period is that she and her siblings were vaccinated against smallpox following the introduction of compulsory innoculation for children in 1816[10][11].

Young adulthood

The financial struggles of Kaisa Lena's family no doubt pressured her into seeking employment as soon as she was able. She did not have to go far to find it. In 1822 or 1823, she became a maid in the household of Thore Petre, who co-owned the Bruk along with his father[14] and had a house on the premises. She was one of six maids, all of them women below the age of 30 and most of them having grown up at the bruk, working under the supervision of the hushållerska (housekeeper). There were no male household staff. Petre had recently married, to a woman thirteen years his junior and only a month older than Kaisa Lena[12]. The couple would have four children during Kaisa Lena's time working there[13].

The Petres were popular locally. Thore was a patron of a local charity school, and funded the construction of country roads. In the 1830s he would be elected to the Riksdag (Swedish parliament) with a large majority following the enfranchisement of local mill workers. As a politican, he became well-known for his liberal reformist positions[14]. From his devotion to the education and representation of the working class, we can probably safely assume that he was not a bad master to work for.

Kaisa Lena worked for the Petre household until 1828. In this year she returned briefly to live with her family. Her three brothers still lived at home with their mother, with the eldest Anders now working as a day labourer in the Bruk[15].

On 19 October 1828 Kaisa Lena married 27-year-old Jonas Olsson Sundberg, a miller and machinist living in the nearby village of Åsen, about 6 kilometers north of Hammarby. Despite the distance, Åsen was also part of Ofvansjö parish, so they had probably met each other through the church congregation. The engagement had perhaps lasted several years as they waited for Jonas to become fully qualified and able to support a family - he had until recently been working as a labourer. At the wedding, the giftoman (a legal representative for the bride giving consent for her to be married) was Kaisa Lena's mother, with a note saying she was supported by a Hammarby master smith named Anders Ekengren[16][Note 3]..

Sköldnora Qvarn 1829-1832

It is not clear where Kaisa Lena and Jonas lived in the months immediately following their marriage, or if they even lived together at all. According to the household survey, Kaisa Lena was still in Hammarby until at least the beginning of 1829. However at some point no later than September of that year[Note 2] she and Jonas moved some 65 kilometers southwards to Sköldnora Qvarn (mill), a flour mill in the parish of Fresta, Uppland Province (now within Stockholm County), where Jonas had secured a job as miller[17]. Sköldnora was (and still is) a royal estate, owned by the Swedish crown[18], and was then the residency of a wholesaler and minor aristocrat by the name of Isak Wilhelm af Uhr. The af Uhr family also owned land in Ovansjö, upon which Jonas's grandfather had worked as miller and Jonas had worked as a miller's labourer, so it was presumably due to these connections that Jonas had been selected for the role at Sköldnora.

This move was something of a turnaround for Kaisa Lena. Only a year earlier she had been working as a household servant. Now she and Jonas had a servant of their own, a young woman called Lena Catharina Danielsdotter. Also living with them was a mill labourer named Jan Jansson Åslund, who was also from Ovansjö, and possibly a former a former workmate of Jonas's.

The mill and its surroundings were the setting for, of all things, a gothic crime novella written by Carl Jonas Love Almqvist in 1838 titled Skällnora Qvarn (Skällnora being an older spelling of Sköldnora). Almqvist describes the mill house as having black shutters, a constant sound of millstones grinding, and several men working in it covered in flour. However a note at the end states that the mill has changed considerably since the (presumably fictional) events related. Inspired by the works of Edgar Allen Poe, the story tells of a young servant woman who is pressured into committing perjury by a villainous farmer. It culminates with an elaborate murder attempt in which she is tied to a log that is being run through a sawmill blade, only to be saved at the last second by the deus ex machina of a raven dropping a woodchip and jamming the machinery[19].

Kaisa Lena and Jonas's time at the mill was probably somewhat less dramatic than the events described in Almqvist's novella, although not without tragedy. Their first child was born there in September 1829 and named Carl Johan. Neither of these given names appears in either Kaisa Lena's or Jonas's immediate families. Instead, the baby was probably named after the then king of Sweden, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, who ruled as Carl Johan. The king, a former general in Napoleon's army with no prior connections to Scandinavia, was nonetheless quite a popular figure amongst his subjects. Sadly the child named after him did not live long, dying at 17 months in February 1831. His cause of death was stated to be "frossa", meaning chills, and thus probably referring to the shivering symptoms of an illness such as flu or malaria.

The couple's second child was born in August 1831, and was named Johan Olof. The name Johan was perhaps chosen as a tribute to their departed firstborn, whereas Olof was the name of Jonas's father. Unlike his elder brother, Johan Olof did survive his infancy.

Around this time it appears that the family's two employees - Jan Åslund and Lena Danielsdotter had become rather close, as evidenced by Lena becoming pregnant. They married at Fresta on 1 April 1832[20], probably only doing so when Lena's pregnancy became too obvious to hide, since their child would be born in July. The couple seem to have remained part of Kaisa Lena and Jonas's household however, although with Lena now being a mother it is unsurprising that the family appear to have taken on a new maid in late 1831. She was fourteen-year-old Lotta Kesselberg, who had been born and grown up on the estate, being the illegitimate daughter of a servant at Sköldnora.

Jonas's tenure at Sköldnora was coming to an end, and he, Kaisa Lena, their child Johan Olof, and their employees departed the parish in late spring or early summer of 1832[Note 4].

Hästberga 1832-1841

Kaisa Lena's new home was at Hästberga in the parish of Orkesta, about nine kilometers northeast of Sköldnora, and just south of the tiny village of Orkesta. Once again Jonas was working as the local miller. Unlike the Sköldnora estate with its manor house, there seems to have been little to Hästberga besides the mill and housing for the miller's family and mill workers.

Despite having accompanied Kaisa Lena's family to Orkesta, their employees Jan and Lena did not stay for long, as Jan had now found a position as a miller in his own right. At the same time Kaisa Lena and Jonas expanded their household with another maid (in addition to Stina Lotta), and Jonas took on two new labourers. The turnover in their employees was quite fast, and neither Stina Lotta nor these newcomers would stay more than two years[21]. The increase in staff, double the number they had had in Sköldnora, suggests they were making a lot more money at the new mill.

In March 1834 Kaisa Lena's third child was born and named Anna Greta, with Anna being Kaisa Lena's mother's name, and Margareta being the middle name of Jonas's mother. In July that year Kaisa Lena and Jonas travelled back to Ofvansjö parish, where they acted as official witnesses at the baptism of her brother Anders's second daughter. This is the only explicit indication I can find that Kaisa Lena remained in touch with her family back home. The child was named Catharina Helena, presumably in reference to Kaisa Lena's own name.

Kaisa Lena's fourth child was born in March 1836 and named Sofia Magdalena. She of course shared a middle name with her mother, but the name Sofia was new to the family. It was the 10th most popular girl's name in Sweden in the 1830s, and rising in popularity[22], probably popularized by Sophia Albertina, a member of the old Swedish royal family who had died in 1829.

In the Autumn of 1838 an outbreak of rödsot - scarlet fever - swept through the region, causing several deaths in Orkesta parish[23]. Kaisa Lena's family was not spared. Scarlet fever typically affects children aged 5 to 15[24], so it seems likely seven-year-old Johan Olof also became ill, but it was four-and-a-half-year-old Anna Greta who succumbed to the disease, dying on 11 October.

In October 1839 Kaisa Lena gave birth to fraternal twins. They were named Oskar Vilhelm and Brita Vilhelmina. The name Oskar would have been in honour of Prince Oskar, the then heir apparent to the Swedish throne. Brita was Jonas's mother's name. The name Vilhelm and its feminine counterpart Vilhelmina had neither royal nor family precedents, although like Sofia both names were then increasing in popularity[Note 5]. Only one of the twins would survive infancy, as Oskar died at four months following a respiratory illness.

At some point during 1841 Kaisa Lena and her family would move out of their home in Hästberga. This would be the last time in her life that Kaisa Lena moved house.

Yttergårde 1841-1853

The family's next home was just a few hundred metres from their last, a small farm plot named Yttergårde which lay just to the west of Orkesta village, and adjoined the parish church[25]. Initially Jonas appears to have continued running the mill at Hästberga, but his occupation was now occasionally listed on records as master builder instead of miller. It appears they now had two male labourers, who presumably worked on the farmland, and a maid, all of whom lived in a separate building. Jonas is occasionally marked on household surveys as arrendator - "leaseholder", so they did not own this property, and it is not clear whether the labourers and maid were employed by them or by the landowner[26].

The first child born at this new home was named Charlotta Catharina and born in 1842. Charlotta was yet another new name for the family that was then becoming common in Sweden, probably after the Swedish King's granddaughter Princess Eugenie, whose first given name was Charlotta.

At some point in the early 1840s Jonas gave up milling enitrely, and he was now described as master builder and church warden. The latter position indicates that the family were presumably heavily involved in Orkesta's church congregation.

Kaisa Lena's eighth child was born in 1844 and named Eugenia Christina. Eugenia would have been another reference to the aforementioned Princess, whereas Christina was the name of one of Jonas's sisters.

In November 1847 Kaisa Lena gave birth to another set of twins. They were named Johanna and Albertina, making them the only two children in the family to receive only one given name each. Several members of Jonas's family travelled from Gävleborg to act as official witnesses - his brother Olof for Johanna and sister Stina and her husband Matts for Albertina. Sadly neither twin lived very long, Johanna dying after just nine days, and Albertina after seven weeks. Kaisa Lena, now in her early 40s, would have no further children. Of her ten children, only five had survived early childhood.

In April 1853, Jonas suffered a stroke and died at the age of fifty-one.

Widowhood 1853-1888

Following her husband's death Kaisa Lena remained in Yttergårde with the children. They were probably able to survive for some time on Jonas's estate, which totalled over 2000 riksdaler. There continued to be one or two male labourers living on the land, and another maid from 1854 to 1860, although once again it is not clear who employed them or what capacity they worked in. Kaisa Lena herself was now referred to on household surveys as the leaseholder[27], apparently having inherited the arrangement her husband had had with the landowner.

The first of Kaisa Lena's children to fly the nest was eldest daughter Sofia Magdalena, who departed in 1856 for the neighbouring parish of Markim. She cannot be found on household surveys for that parish but it seems likely that, like her mother before her, she took on a service job to help support the family. She would return two years later having married. She and her husband, a labourer named Lars Magnus Österberg, would move into another house on the land at Yttergårde. Kaisa Lena's first grandchild would be born to them in 1860, and named Sophia Eugenia Leontina. Soon after this, they would depart again for another nearby parish, Täby.

In 1859 second daughter Brita Vilhelmina would marry a young farmer named Gustaf Eriksson. She would stay quite close, with Gustaf's farm being at Viggeby on the opposite side of Orkesta village. The following year eldest child Johan Olof married Johanna Eliasson. They would live at one of the other dwellings at Yttergårde, probably the one that Sofia Magdalena's family had recently vacated, until 1862 when Johan Olof acquired his own farm elsewhere in the parish.

Little seems to have changed for Kaisa Lena through the early 1860s, as she remained at Yttergårde while her two youngest children grew to young adulthood. In 1865 Charlotta Catharina departed to work as a maid for the priest of Vidbo parish, about 10 kilometers north of Orkesta. In 1868 Eugenia Christina married a dairy labourer named Magnus Eriksson, and moved with him to Lovö, several kilometers to the west.

In 1870, Kaisa Lena would have received the news from Hammarby that her mother had died, at the age of 91. Kaisa Lena and middle brother Lars were by now the only surviving siblings from the family, with eldest brother Anders having died of a fever in 1845, and youngest Petter of a stroke in 1859. All three brothers had remained in Hammarby.

For the most part, Kaisa Lena lived alone for the rest of her life, in the house she had once shared with Jonas and their children. Charlotta Catharina returned to live with her for a few years from 1869 to 1872, before departing again to work for another parish priest in Norrby. She would later go on to work for the bishop of Uppsala. Most of Kaisa Lena's children did not go so far afield however. Brita Vilhelmina was the closest, having settled with her husband and children back at Yttergårde in 1868, probably in the same house they had occupied a few years earlier. Johan Olof was a few kilometers away in Vallentuna, while Sofia Magdalena was in Stockholm city.

In 1874 Johan Olof died at the age of 43, from the painful swelling condition now known as edema. As he did not live far away, and the progression of his illness would have been slow enough that his relatives could have been notified in time, it is quite plausible that Kaisa Lena was able to be with him when he passed. It cannot have been easy for her to see another of her children die before her, and she would likely have been reminded of the deaths of the other men in her family - her father and two brothers - who also died of illnesses in their 30s or 40s.

In 1885 Kaisa Lena became a great-grandmother, when her granddaughter Alma (daughter of Brita Vilhelmina) gave birth to her first child, Agnes. In the same year her second youngest daughter Charlotta Catharina returned to Yttergårde, where she lived with Brita Vilhelmina's family. It was probably a great comfort for Kaisa Lena to have two of her three surviving children so close by in her final years. That house, presuambly adjoining or a short walk from her own, was also home to Brita Vilhelmina's four younger children. In total Kaisa Lena would have thirteen surviving grandchildren and two great-grandchildren by the time of her death.

Kaisa Lena died at Yttergårde on 18 February 1888, at the age of eighty-one. The cause of death was given as simply "ålderdomssvaghet", meaning infirmity of old age[28].

Notes

1. She appears with this diminuitive form (sometimes spelled Caisa Lena) on household surveys up until her marriage in 1828, after which she is consistently recorded under her full name of Catharina Magdalena. It seems clear then that Kaisa Lena is what she was called by her immediate family, and by her employers during her years as a servant in the Petre household. The change to her full name after 1828 was perhaps seen as more befitting for a married woman, although it should also be noted that the household surveys were getting increasingly formal and the use of diminuitives on them was becoming infrequent, even for children. Whether she continued to be called Kaisa Lena by her relatives is impossible to tell, but for consistency I have used that name for her throughout this biography.
2. The household survey for Fresta is missing for the year 1829. However the survey for the following year does state that they moved to the parish in 1829. They cannot have moved later than September since their first child was born there that month.
3. The giftoman was usually the bride's father, but in his absence could be the mother, an older male relative, or a friend of the family. Even though there was no legal requirement for the giftoman to be a man it may have been seen as more appropriate, and since Kaisa Lena had no older siblings or surviving uncles, Anders Ekengren was presumably seen as the most appropriate local man in a position of integrity who knew Kaisa Lena. Alternatively (or perhaps additionally) the Ekengrens may have been literally financially supporting Kaisa Lena's mother in her widowhood. Notably Anna Larsdotter is not even mentioned by name on the marriage record, described as "dagkarl Anders Bergs Enka" ("Day labourer Anders Berg's widow").
4. This is assuming they moved at the same time as their employees. Jan and Lena married in Fresta on 1 April and their child was born in Orkesta on 8 July, giving us a three-month window in which they could have moved. The move definitely took place in 1832, as this is recorded on the household survey.
5. As per www.nordicnames.de, Wilhelm (as it was more commonly spelled at the time) does not appear in the top 50 most popular Swedish boys' names from 1800 to 1839. In the 1840s it appears at 47th place, and in the 1850s it rises to 38th place. Wilhelmina does not enter the top 50 until the 1860s, when it appears in 42nd place[22]. Possible influences on this trend may have been Willem I (reigned 1815-1840) of the reinstated Dutch monarchy, William IV of England (reigned 1830-1837) and the heir apparent to the kingdom of Prussia, Wilhelm (born 1797; ascended throne 1861).

References

1. Födelse- och dopbok, Ofvansjö, 1801-1822; Landsarkivet
2. Husförhörlängd, Ofvansjö, 1801-07 AI:8A, Landsarkivet; p68
3. Rydén, Göran (1998): Skill and Technical Change in the Swedish Iron Industry, 1750-1860, published in Technology and Culture, Vol.39, No.3; p400
4. Hammarby Bruk, Länsmuseet Gävleborg; accessed 14 Dec 2023
5. Sjögren, Åsa Karlsson; Larsson, Esbjörn and Rimm, Stefan (2018): Agents and subjects: schooling and conceptions of citizenship in early nineteenth-century Sweden, in History of Education 48:3; p304
6. Westrin, Johan Theodor and Meijer, Bernhard (1892): Nordisk familjebok; p1448
7. Död- och begraveningsbok, Ofvansjö, 1741-1829; Landsarkivet
8. Angelakis, Bechah; Bechah, Yassina and Raoult, Didier (2016): The History of Epidemic Typhus, published in Clinical Microbiology Vol 4 Iss 4, American Society for Microbiology
9. Bouppteckning Anders Andersson, Arkiv Digital
10. Husförhörlängd, Ofvansjö, 1820-1825 AI:11A, Landsarkivet; p115
11. Sköld, Peter (1996) From Inoculation to Vaccination: Smallpox in Sweden in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Population Studies, 50:2, p247-262
12. Husförhörlängd, Ofvansjö, 1820-1825 AI:11A, Landsarkivet; p95
13. Husförhörlängd, Ofvansjö, 1826-1830 AI:11A, Landsarkivet; p84
14. Svenskt biografisk handlexicon (1906); p281
15. Husförhörlängd, Ofvansjö, 1826-1830 AI:11A, Landsarkivet; p117
16. Lysnings och Vigselbok, Ofvansjö, 1825-1861; Landsarkivet
17. Husförhörlängd, Fresta, 1830-1835; Landsarkivet; p75
18. Westrin & Meijer (1892); p1337
19. Almqvist, Carl Jonas Love (1838) Skällnora Qvarn; Stockholm
20. Fortekning på Wigde, Födde och Döde, Fresta, 1825-1861; Landsarkivet
21. Husförhörlängd, Orkesta, 1831-1835; Landsarkivet; p44
22. Swedish Name Statistics, www.nordicnames.de; accessed 25 Oct 2023
23. Årkesta Kyrkobok, 1791-1850; Landsarkivet
24. Scarlet Fever: All You Need to Know, Center for Disease Prevention and Control, accessed 3 March 2024
25. Vallentuna Kommun, accessed 23 June 2024
26. Husförhörlängd, Orkesta, 1841-1845; p40
27. Husförhörlängd, Orkesta, 1856-1860; p26
28. Dödbok för Orkesta annex
29. Nyström, Lars & Hallberg, Erik (2018): Two Parallel Systems: the political economy of enclosures and open fields on the plains of Västergötland, Western Sweden, 1805-1865, Historia Agraria No.76; p85-122

To go back to the Westerberg-Eriksson tree, click here