Memories of the Lindberg family

Lennart Anderson, who was born in 1847 and passed away in Westanå (Västanå) in 1914, had strong memories of the Lindberg family, and he passed these memories on  to his children. The whole village missed the Lindbergs, and young people grieved for their friends. They wished that they would come back, but it was not until the year 2005, after 136 years, that Lindberg family members were back again. 

     The Lindbergs, who lived for some twenty years in Westanå, were known as models of conduct and working capacity. The year they left, as well as the year before, yielded poor harvests and poor people were seen along the roads, begging for food. The Lindberg family was among those who could give food away to hungry people.

     Johannes Lindberg was an extremely strong man, thanks to his work as a (black)smith. Also, he was a very courageous man. Moreover, the family was very strict about churchly (religious) matters. They were regular churchgoers, and every Sunday they walked 6,5 miles to the church. They then went by ferry across the river (there wasn’t a bridge across the river until 1940) and on one occasion Johannes saved a small child, who had fallen into the river, from drowning. Most probably he risked his own life in the rapids, for in those days few people could swim.

     Unfortunately, we don’t know where Johannes’s workplace was located. It could have been at the falls of Munkfors, or at any of the ironworks at Ranån in Ransäter that were in operation back then (an upper, a middle and a lower one). Today, however, only the old ironworks in Munkfors can still be seen.

     Last but not least we treasure the memory of the Lindberg family in our small corner of the world because of their generous donation of land to the Westanå school. 

Written by Lennart Lennartson, grandson of Lennart Anderson.

Translation, in an effort to capture the ambience of the Swedish document , by Alf Brorson.