Helsingland, Sweden

Helsingland is a predominantly wooded area where agriculture is only possible in the valleys of Ljusnan and Voxnaalven. The farmers in the area became wealthy from the cultivation and processing of flax, and provided themselves with fabulous wooden houses, sometimes referred to as "bondesslott", or peasant palaces.

Fishing has long provided the economic basis for the coastal regions. Soderhamn was originally a small fishing village, and today is a center for the logging industry. Between Solderhamn and Hudiksvall, in the town of Enanger, the Gamla kyrkan has two wooden triptychs carved by the craftsman Haaken Gullesson. He ran a workshop in the 16th century and supplied most churches in the area with furnishings, e.g., in Njutangen, Halsingtuna and Forsa. Hudiksvall is the oldest city in Halsingland. It served as a trading center for the people of Norrland and was granted a town charter in 1528 to better control the merchants. The city was burned to the ground by the Russians in 1721.

My grandmother, Hilma Kristine Lostrom, was born on November 16, 1879, in Helsingtuna, Gavleborgs, Sweden  see family tree. Her father, Olof Reinhold Lostrom/Logstrom, was a logger and her mother, Marta Persdotter, a housewife. Kristine was the second oldest of 8 children: Peter Reinhold, born 1877, Kristine, Elizabeth Katherine (Lizzy), born 1882, Robert Gustav, born 1884, Edwin Olaf, born 1887, Albin Erick, born 1893, George Otto, born 1895, and Martha Hedvig, born 1899. Albin Erick and Martha Hedvig both died in the 1918 influenza epidemic, which took over a million lives worldwide. Martha had been visiting her family and was returning to her husband when she contracted the flu on the train.

Christine moved with her family to the U.S. in 1892. Her father made the journey to the U.S. in about 1888, along with his sisters, Augusta Dorothea Lostrom and Joanna Lovisa Lostrom, probable to join O.R.'s brother, Gustaf Robert Lostrom, who had made the trip in 1881. Kristine's brother, Peter, travelled to the U.S. at the young age of 14 to join his father. Then in 1892, the rest of the family made the trip.

The family settled in the Atwater area of Minnesota. The area resembled their home in Sweden, exhibiting the same beautiful lakes and large stands of trees.

Christine could both read and write. The rate of illiteracy was relatively low in Sweden at that time thanks to the Lutheran Church. The Elementary School Act of 1842 educated the youth of Sweden who were to emigrate to the new world after reading newspapers, popular books and pamphlets inviting them to make the move. Christine's father and brothers worked in the logging industry, a skill they had learned in Sweden. They were also carpenters.

Christine and Ole B. Olson met, fell in love, and were married on December 2, 1897. They started their married life on the Olson farm at Atwater, Minnesota, where their first four children were born. Then in 1905 they made the trek to Saskatchewan, where they again took up farming. The remainder of their 12 children were born and grew up in rural Saskatchewan.

To read an account of Christine's life on the prairies, read  Grandmothers, which is an account of the trials and tribulations of pioneer women of that time.