The Old Sideby
by Sandra Johnson Witt
The old Sideby church as it appeared in 1899. The church was built of timber in 1785, repaired in 1822, and renovated in 1901.
The bell tower was built in 1831.
Original photo from 1899 in The Stenbäck Collection of the National Museum of Finland
The People of Sideby Build a Church
The residents of Sideby joined together to accomplish a very difficult but extremely rewarding task in the late 1700s: To build a church of their own. It was not an easy undertaking, but they succeeded in erecting a beautiful little wooden structure that was known as the Sideby Church in 1786.
Emil Norrback, a folk schoolteacher and businessman in Sideby, wrote Sideby kyrka 150 år: Historik till minnesfesten den 11 okt. 1936, a book that presented an overview of the churchs history to commemorate the 150th anniversary of its founding. Norrback dedicated the book to the memory of "our ancestors."
The Church Founders
Norrback described the founding of the church and listed the names of the founders and their wives (15).
It was without doubt rather primitive, but we must remember (aside from the demands of that time, which were very modest compared to the demands of our time) that there were only 17 farmers involved in the building of the church. These men did not build the church from their surplus riches, but from an inner need to have a house of God, a temple of the Lord among them, and a shepherd who would preach the words of God to them and be their teacher. And who were these 17 farmers? An old communion book lists the following names:
Sideby Old Church in the summer 1969. Photo by Lars Axén
In addition to the 17 founders and their wives were many children, tenant farmers, boat pilots, blacksmiths, carpenters, and others, about 204 persons in all.
Most of the lumber that was used to build the church came from the property of the men who founded the church.
Early Clergy, "Klockare" and Church Employees
Sideby parish documents provided the names of members of the clergy (including klockare, vicars, pastors, assistant vicars, and chaplains), parish clerks, other church employees, and the names of many of their wives.
The early church "klockare" (the term is derived from the Swedish word "klocka," which means "bell") were originally church bellringers who performed an important task. In addition to notifying local residents of church services, they rang the church bells to notify parishioners about imminent danger (such as fires) and to summon them when the assistance of the entire parish was needed, as in times of war. This position gradually evolved into one that involved a variety of additional responsibilities, such as directing the choir (cantor), playing the organ, and teaching the children to read and write.
Gunnar Nybond (1984) wrote an interesting article about the numerous duties of the "klockare" that was published in his book Gränsmark: Chronicles of the families and villages in Southern Ostrobothnia. He wrote that the klockare performed a wide variety of duties for the church, especially in the smaller villages. For example, in addition to their traditional duties, additional tasks were frequently assigned to the klockare who held jobs outside of their church-related duties in order to earn additional income. These klockare also prepared the children in their church for future occupations, including shoemakers, tailors, cuppers, village scribes, and auctioneers.
Norrback listed the names of many of the clergy and church employees who were involved with the Sideby Church (34-35):
Several other men served the parish in various positions for short periods of time in order to replace church officers who were on temporary leave of absence due to illness, vacation or other reasons. Filip Selenius and Johan Bränn were temporary cantors. Karl Lennart Hohenthal took the organists position for several months during the church organists temporary leave of absence.
The Project to Build the Sideby Church
In a book that he wrote about the history of the Sideby parish, Bror Åkerblom described several events surrounding the founding of the Sideby church that provide insight into many of the communal aspects of church life in Sideby in the 1700s and 1800s (1975, 173-174):
The project to build the Sideby church had a modest beginning. According to Emil Norrback, the 17 farmers engaged in a friendly competition, judging by the enormous logs that were used to build the chapel church. They named the church "Unity" to express their pleasure about their consensus regarding this venture, the most important project ever undertaken in the village.
Although the willful and somewhat egocentric rural nämndeman ("court lay assessor") and farmer (who was also responsible for the distribution of local mail) Matts Simonsson Hanses (b. 1746, d. 1810; wife Beata Eriksdotter, b. 1748) took a reasonable approach when he approved the plans, but caused problems a few years later when he refused to participate in the project to install siding on the chapel. He had been asked to contribute seven 26 planks and thirty-four 4" nails. His argument was the same as before: As a farmer who was responsible for mail distribution, he was exempt from having to participate in the upkeep of the local public buildings.
One of the two church wardens (after 1809 their number was reduced to one), Matts Eriksson Hanses of one of the Hinders homesteads (b.1755, d. 1813, wife Margareta Mattsdotter, b. 1755 Tjöck, d. 1830) was forced to take the lay assessor to [his own] court in order to resolve the issue. The rural court ruled that Matts Simonsson Hanses had to participate in the siding project.
A few years later, the two Matts Hanses, the lay assessor and the churchwarden, were joined by Chaplain Matz Linzell to direct the drive to enlarge the parish to include the villages of Uttermossa, Härkmeri, Vestervik, Skaftung, and Ömossa. The Åbo Chapter appointed a pastor from Ilmola, Erik Johan Frosterus, to arrange a parish meeting in Lappfjärd to discuss the proposition. The Åbo Chapter authorities ruled on May 31, 1809 that only Skaftung, Ömossa, and Vestervik could be incorporated into the Sideby Parish.
The early church klockare must have been very busy. One of the first churchwardens was Matts Simonsson Lassfolk (b. 1753, d. 1833, wife Lisa Carlsdotter, b. 1754). The parson was Isac Fonselius (b. 1761, d. 1809; wife Catharina Christina Estlander, b. 1766, d. 1811), who had been previously appointed assistant parson in 1787 without a regular ballot. We do not know why the Sideby parishioners decided to hire Fonselius. Was he engaged to Lappvik pastor Jakob Estlanders daughter at the time? They were married on September 24, 1789. In 1795 Pastor Fonselius and his wife left Sideby and moved to Pyhäjoki in northern Ostrobothnia. Their decision to leave could have been motivated by their discontent with the meager annual salary - 12 barrels of grain (one barrel is equivalent to about 40 gallons), four barrels of mixed salted fish, and seven lispund (one lispund equals 8.5 kg) of butter, in addition to whatever the 12 tenant farmers and other persons in the village could afford to donate.
The parsonages first parish clerk and his successor were also churchwardens until 1860; a separate warden position had not yet been established. It appears that the parish clerk had many duties, including using an instrument known as a wake-up pole (kyrkstöten) to wake people who had fallen asleep during the sermon.
Åkerblom documented many other similar incidents related to the church in the chapter about the early religious life in Sideby.
The Sideby Church Bell Tower
Lars Pettersson described the history of the Sideby parish and the Sideby church in his series of books about the history of Swedish Ostrobothnia. The Sideby bell tower was erected in 1831 next to the church, probably under the direction of the well-known church builder Henrik Kuorikoski, who was assisted by his son Erik. The bell tower was designed by C. L. Engel and A. W. Arppe.
The Bell Tower Photo by Gunnar Bäckman
Wooden Man-at-Alms. Since the 1600s hundreds of carved wooden figures of old men have been placed outside churches in Ostrobothnia. They were called poor old men or "Fattiggubbe." They stood with a hand over their heart or their hands stretched out for alms, imploring the parish to remember the disadvantaged. In the 1700s and 1800s it was customary for people to put money in an opening in the statues chest as alms for the poor. Each parish distributed the money to those who they considered the neediest. A biblical passage on the statue moved even the hardest heart: "He who gives to the poor shall want for nothing."
Norrback described the wooden "Fattiggubbe" statue that stands beside the Bell Tower (26):
The Fattiggubbe by the Sideby Bell Tower
As early as 1806 generous Sideby Church visitors could place coins into a tinplate collection tray for the poor. In 1849 the church purchased a real "pauper" from Johan Henrik Appelö. The pauper figure - a work of art that was placed on the southern wall of the bell tower - has stood on one leg, defenseless and watching passersby night and day for 87 years. In addition to the ravages of time, he has had to endure generations of small boys who have treated him disrespectfully, intoxicated persons who boxed his ears and church thieves who plundered him in 1865, taking his last kopeck. After being repaired, he stretched his hand out humbly, hoping that someone would donate a coin now and then. In 1933 he was placed in a clinic, where he was completely refurbished to his current condition.
The Anna Cemetery
The parishioners deliberated about where a new cemetery should be located in the 1880s (Åkerblom, 190).
Three proposals for different locations were considered. Consensus was not reached until the surveyor who had been hired indicated that none of the proposals was suitable for various reasons. He suggested another location for the cemetery at the Teir homestead just southeast of the Kil bay. After parish representatives met with the church assembly on August 2, 1885 and May 23, 1886, 3 acres of land were purchased for the cemetery and a road was drawn straight from the middle of the Kil ridge. The regional Ecclesiastical Office ratified the decision on January 20, 1887, and the cemetery was opened on July 10, 1887. Two days later, the shoemakers wife Anna Greta Högback (b. 1824; wife of Abraham Gustavsson Pundars, b. 1821, d. 1899) was the first person to be buried there. It was named the "Anna Cemetery" in her honor. Since then, the churchwardens and caretakers have carefully attended to the cemetery.
Anna was the great granddaughter of two of the founders of the Sideby church, Mats Thomasson Högback/Högbacka (1727-1804) and Johan Johansson Lassfolk (1748-1819). Her husband Abraham Gustavsson Pundars was the great grandson of another founder, Mats Matsson Appelö (1738-1809).
My great grandfather Johan Jakob Gustafsson Bäckman (born in Siiro, Storå in 1846; died in Sideby in 1933) is buried in the Anna Cemetery. His first wife (and my great grandmother) was Wendla Sofia Abrahamsdr Högback (1847-1896), the daughter of Anna Greta Johansdotter Högback and Abraham Gustavsson Pundars.
Johan Jakob Bäckmans grave
The construction of the Sideby Bell tower in 1831 coincided with the beginning of the shipbuilding rush in Sideby during the 1800s, when more than 150 sailing vessels were built. The imposing bell tower served as a signal that there were many skillful carpenters in Sideby. The 75-alns tall bell tower was also a navigation marker for seafarers for many years.
"Our Local Church - 1786-1936"
Axel Emil Teir, a teacher in Sideby, expressed his profound feelings about the Sideby Church in his verse titled "Our Local Church, 1786-1936" that appeared at the beginning of Norrbacks book:
God bless thee, our gentle church,
And the organ hymns
Carried on the wings of prayer we
Our God himself descends here
God bless thee, our dear church
God bless those who have trodden
God bless those from our ancient past,
They early worshipped Christ
But alas, God dwelled far from them:
To Närpes too the way
Despite the peoples love for Gods
A hundred years of toil
On the highest point of the Rosåsbacken
What love builds in our world
God bless them, the few
God bless us, that we, oh
God, be able to administer the
Unborn generations, who walk here
Epilogue from Norrbacks History of the Sideby Church
The epilogue to Norrbacks book that was written to commemorate the founding of the Sideby church indicates how deeply he felt about this project (45):
This history was composed in a somewhat hasty manner and was not intended in any way to be a completely exhaustive or scholarly treatment of the primary information. The intention was merely to present in a somewhat abbreviated form some facts that portray an image of how our Sideby parish began and how it has continued to develop around its spiritual center the church throughout the last 150 years.
The church and the clergy have strongly influenced the general cultural evolution within their sphere of interest. They have also had an enduring impact on the social and communal life from which present and future generations will greatly benefit. Although these benefits may be difficult to discern more than a century later, they continue to be evident.
If I have succeeded in presenting a somewhat comprehensive picture of how an inner need caused our forefathers to struggle to build their own chapel and how their descendants continued to make sacrifices for their ancestors with reverence in order to manage and even improve their legacy and their inheritance, I must conclude that my work was worthwhile.
As long as the congregation members remain true to their traditions, stand fast to their ideals and their God, and as long as they fulfill Gods fourth commandment, they shall continue to prosper.
The Old Sideby Church Burns Down
On the night of November 25, 1969 the old wooden church that was built in Sideby in 1786 was destroyed by fire. The people of Sideby were dismayed about the destruction of their beautiful chapel. According to Åkerblom, by the time the alarm sounded, it was too late to save the church. Instead, the people had to concentrate on saving the bell tower, which they did.
Two church members wrote a poem titled "Our Church" to express the communitys sadness over the loss of the church (Åkerblom, 1975, 200):
Märta Nordman Lindell wrote the following stanza:
A church in the village
We are used to seeing;
A village without a church
has nothing to give.
You served us all,
both large and small,
now shattered like sheep
- indeed, how can we go on?
Gunnel Skogman Storsjö wrote the following stanza:
We have truly loved you
but not enough.
A love that is lost
is valued the most.
Now you are speaking to us
- invisible - yet so powerful.
Now we can perceive
where the root is attached.
Nybond reminisced about his childhood memories of the old Sideby church, especially at Christmas, after the church burned down. He wrote the following about the "Christmas Church" in 1980:
Many personal memories are associated with the unpretentious old parish church: Childhood church attendance, confirmations, weddings, visits from the bishop, and funerals. Allow me to pause to describe my personal journey to the Christmas church almost 60 years ago.
Children who lived far away from the church - especially if there were many children in their family - were not often able to attend the early Christmas service. Nevertheless, they wanted to experience the inviting church with the service that seemed almost mystical. From Hedback we could see westward over the horizon at least 10 kilometers. On mild and quiet summer evenings we heard the ringing of the church bells through the forests.
This article can be read in full at the following website: http://sydaby.eget.net/eng/nybond/jul.htm
The Altar in the Old Church. Photo by Lars Axén 1969
The New Church in Sideby
In Sideby sockens historia, Åkerblom describes the building of the new church in Sideby, a modern sanctuary that was built on the site of the old Sideby church, constructed of white tile and wood. It was designed by the architect Erik Kråkström and consecrated on June 3, 1972. Kråkström wanted to introduce a new style for the Ostrobothnian church-building tradition with this church. His design for the new sanctuary utilized the hereditary elements of the local shipbuilding tradition along with the local handicrafts of Sideby.
Memories of the Old Sideby Church
The old Sideby church was an integral part of the lives of many of the residents of Sideby for almost 200 years, many of whom were intimately involved in the day-to-day church activities and aware of the responsibilities that were related to church and religious life in Sideby.
The old wooden Sideby church was not an architectural masterpiece. It was an unpretentious parish church that was built by 17 farmers using their limited resources, including timber that they brought from their own property in the 1780s.
Although it was a modest and simple structure, the old church in Sideby represented much more to the people who were part of the church than just a church building. The Sideby church was a very special place that provided solace to its members in difficult times, a place where they experienced happiness in good times, and a place where they could congregate with the other persons who were meaningful in their lives.
I would like to gratefully acknowledge the contributions of several people who assisted me with the research for and preparation of this article about the old church in Sideby, the parish where my grandfather Johan Vicktor Johansson Bäckman (1881-1960) was born and lived before he immigrated to Florida in the early 1900s.
I became interested in this topic about a year ago when Carlton Appelo, a fourth cousin, once removed, whose father immigrated to Washington State from Sideby, sent me a book written by Emil Norrback in 1937 that commemorated the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Sideby church.
Researching the founding of the old church in Sideby was very meaningful to me personally in many ways. Imagine my surprise to learn that three of the 17 founders Mats Matsson Appelö (1738-1809), Mats Thomasson Jossfolk Högback/Högbacka (1727-1804), and Johan Johansson Lassfolk (1748-1819) were my fifth great grandfathers. The Anna Cemetery in Sideby was named after Anna Greta Johansdotter Högback/Högbacka (b. 1824, d. 1887; married to Abraham Gustavsson Pundars, 1821-1899), who was the first person buried there. She was my second great grandmother.
I appreciate the courtesy to use the unique photographs by Lars Axén taken by him in the summer 1969 and the photographs sent to me by Gunnar Bäckman, my second cousin, and the photograph provided by Henrik Teir.
Webdesign & unsigned photographs ©2005 Staffan Storteir
This view of the western part of the Anna Cemetery shows some of the late 19th century graves in the cemetery.
Published by Staffan Storteir