Saturday, June 26:
We were excited to meet Margareta and Lars in front
of the Hotel
Eggers in Göteborg just before 11 a.m. We began the two hour
drive east to Habo on the shores of Lake Vättern. This part of Sweden
reminded me of northern Wisconsin or Minnesota, with lots of
spruce-pine forest.
We stopped in Bottnaryd along the way to see a
beautiful old church
built in 1663-1667.
Bottnaryd Church
Margareta and Bobbie at Bottnaryd
Church
We ate lunch in a cafeteria in Habo, on a terrace overlooking Lake Vättern. Lake Vättern is a big, deep, cold lake, the second biggest lake in Sweden. It has high, forested hills along the shore that look like Mississippi River bluffs. Margareta said she thought August and Albertina settled along the Mississippi River because of its similarity to Lake Vättern. That made sense to me.
We then drove north a few miles to Haga, the
home of my Great Great
Grandparents Sven Magnus Blomqvist and Johanna Hakansdotter. Their
daughter Albertina was my Great Grandmother, and their son Karl Fredrik
was Margareta’s Grandfather. Haga was built by Sven Magnus in
1861. He and Johanna lived there until they died in 1902 and 1917
respectively.
Haga with Bobbie in
side
yard
Margareta, Lars, & Bobbie at Haga
Haga means "pasture". Haga is just north of
Fagerhult on a narrow gravel road. This was once the main road
along the west shore of Lake Vättern.
Haga with Lake Vättern in the
distance.
Sven Magnus was a shoemaker. One room of Haga was the shoe shop, and had a door to the outside for customers to enter. The shoe making equipment is moved to the woodshed now.
Haga front door Shoe Shop entrance
Haga has been well maintained, though little changed
from the time
Johanna died in 1917. There were two spinning wheels in the
upstairs hall. We slept in a bedroom with a view of Lake Vättern out
the window. There was a writing desk in the bedroom that had many old
letters, cards, and photos in it. Among them were three letters
written
by Albertina from America back to her parents in Sweden in the 1890’s.
Spinning Wheels, Upstairs
Hall
Writing
Desk
Haga has only been used as a summer vacation home since 1930. It’s currently owned by Margareta’s brother Tage. Unfortunately, Tage was just getting over a serious illness, and could not come to visit us from his home in Stockholm.
Margareta took us on a hike through the woods to a rocky hilltop
where there was a great view of Lake Vättern and Visingsö,
the historic island in
the middle. A past Blomqvist had carved his initials in the rocks here.
Someone had built a wooden table and bench.