Vetlanda

Great-great-grandfather's fence

We spent five nights in Vetlanda, a city southwest of Stockholm where my grandmother Lillian Marie Theodora Carlson was born in 1882. He father John Peter Carlson brought the family to America the next year. She and some of her cousins had written a history of the family and the move to America as part of their contribution to the Bicentennial celebration in 1976. The book included maps, photographs, memories, and an extensive family tree so we had plenty to work with as we searched for the places where Grandma and her Swedish relatives lived, worked, and went to church. The photographs were mostly of places long since torn down as new buildings replaced them and the town grew up around the old farm. We were able to find the church in Vetlanda and the stone wall built by my great-great grandfather, Carl Johan Johansson. The only other remaining artifact may have been a root cellar nearby.

Root cellars

Vetlanda today is a small city of about 13,000. We stayed for five nights in an older hotel, now a Best Western, right in the center of town. It was not busy. On two of those nights we were the only visitors. The chef was on vacation so the kitchen was closed.They did have two special nights. Every Wednesday, the all-you-can-eat shrimp feed fills the dining room. Saturday is disco night. We enjoyed the shrimp feed, but skipped the disco beat. Our room was well-insulated from the sound, but not from the heat wave engulfing Scandinavia for most of our trip. Our room temperature never dipped below 80 even when the outside air dropped to about 60.

Too early for ice cream

I don't know what to say about these. They stayed at our hotel.
The men drove off in the cars, the women followed later.

We did enjoy spending the evenings with a bottle of wine on the hotel’s outdoor deck overlooking the town square, not that there was much going on. At least it was cooler and more comfortable than our room. We did see a few people stop at the ice cream truck on the square. Otherwise the only ‘excitement’ came when old American cars drove by with their speakers blaring 80s and 90s music. I guess that is Vetlanda’s cruising culture. Old American cars are popular in Sweden and Finland. We saw at least 20 on this trip and half of those were in Vetlanda.

The highlight of our time in town was the church. We visited it it on our first evening arriving just as the weekly summer organ concert was to begin. The German guest organists, Hartwig Barte-Hanssen, has played major concert venues all over Europe and the US. He played several short pieces and his own symphony, “Summer in Sweden.”

Note the amazing pictures on the walls

We spent just a few minutes enjoying the beautiful interior frescos by Ludwig Frid, and only had time for a couple of pictures. We expected to make a more extensive visit later in the week, but the door was locked every other time we stopped by.

Interesting rune stones on the church property

Park like area that used to be family farmland

We did have plenty of time to wander the surrounding cemetery and admire the stone fence built by Carl Johan. The church is now surrounded by parkland where the family used to live and my great grandfather managed the farm and attached tavern. Grandfather John Peter Carlson was convinced to move to America by his younger brother Sven who had emigrated in 1867. Sven returned for a visit in 1882 and convinced his older brother that he would do very well in America. It may be that John’s concerns about the impact of the tavern on his sons also played a role in his decision to emigrate. Unfortunately, he never felt like the move to America had improved his life and never forgave Sven for convincing him to move. They seldom spoke during their later years.