Post by hi224 on Apr 19, 2021 21:54:37 GMT
Looking for Victor
Based on the information provided in the newspaper, I started by tracking down “J. A. Wallqvist” in Skaraborg County. His stated residence of Friel Parish is located here in the heartlands of Western Sweden by the shore of the country's largest lake, Vänern. It was by the late 19th century a small rural community, and still is.
It was easy to find him, in truth. Johan August Wallqvist (1845–1923) was born in a parish not too far from Friel. He eventually became a teacher, providing primary school education to the agrarian populace through the Swedish folkskola system, introduced in 1842. It wasn’t necessarily a well-paid position, but it afforded social status and standing, especially in a rural context. In 1874 Johan August married the likewise local Johanna Andersdotter (1842–1931), and formed a family with her. They would go on to have four children, all born in Friel Parish; Josef Albin (1875–1967), Gerda Charlotta (1880–1907), Elin Davida (1884–1960) ... and Carl Victor.
Carl Victor Wallqvist (alternatively spelled Karl Viktor Wahlqvist, and other variants) was born on the 13th of October 1878, the second oldest of the four children, joining a small but respectable family. Here (no. 18) is his record of birth in the parish archives. The boy, who seems to have gone by “Victor” most of the time, spent his childhood in the Friel schoolhouse, where we find the family listed as living here in the 1890 national census (under the header "Skoltomten").
Here we find the family again, this time in the 1881–1894 Friel household examination rolls. It is in these rolls that we find that Victor left home at the age of sixteen, a few years after finishing the compulsory primary school run by his father Johan August. Maybe he wanted something more than the simple country life offered at Friel. The rolls show us that he moved to "Bohus County, Qvistrum" on the 15th of November 1894, three years prior to his 1897 disappearance.
Kvistrum (previously spelled Qvistrum, among other variants) is located here in the western coastal province Bohuslän, a former inn and fort site by an important bridge crossing over the river Örekilsälven. In the 1890s it belonged to Foss Parish, today it’s administratively a part of Munkedal Municipality, and part of the wider townscape of Munkedal. (It may interest you to know that the 18th century writer Mary Wollstonecraft visited Kvistrum in 1795, as described in her travelogue, finding the inn there absolutely dismal.) The area would have seen much travel, the local court was held there, there a big market held regularly at nearby Saltkällan a few kilometres to the south, and a modern industrial community was growing at Munkedal, formed around the paper mill there. Plus, the ocean was very close with steamboat traffic running from Saltkällan, and the urban centre of Uddevalla wasn’t too far off. I can imagine why Victor Wallqvist might have found it more enticing than his inland village.
So, in late 1894 Victor went to stay on the West Coast. He found work with a merchant by the name of Gustaf Victor Lundberg (1856–1904), and lived at his commercial property called Annedal, which likely was located quite centrally in the Munkedal-Kvistrum area. As shown in this newspaper clipping (Bohusläningen, 1891-11-19, no. 135, p. 2), Mr. Lundberg had acquired the Annedal property, containing a store and brewery, from his predecessor on the spot in 1890. This 1892 trade registry notice (Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning 1892-06-02, no. 126A, p. 1) shows that he requested a permit to maintain a general store, to trade in lamp oils, and also to produce and sell malt-based beverages. Here are the pages of the 1890–1897 Foss Parish household examination rolls which show Annedal. We find G. V. Lundberg at the top, followed by his employees. On row 9 we find the clerk Carl Victor Wallqvist.
About three years after Victor found employment at Annedal, something happened This article was published in the newspaper Bohusläningen on the 6th of March 1897 (no. 28A, p. 2). It reads in translation:
"Disappeared is a young man called K. W. Wahlqvist, hired as a clerk by the merchant Lundberg in Munkedal. Yesterday it had been eight days since he went out to a nearby storage building and did not return from there. Several searches have been undertaken, however without result. For example the Munkedal paper company let drain the water in the river, which leads to the mill. The disappeared has left behind a wallet containing about 30 crowns. Further he still had his wage due from the employer. But he had taken his revolver with him.”
Victor went missing, seemingly cashless --- but with his revolver! Firearms were far common in Sweden then than now. An immediate thought might be suicide, in which case the body should have been found fairly soon. But alas, it wasn’t. Five months later in late July, his father Johan August, still desperate for news of his son’s whereabouts, posted the bounty notice that started off this post. The family must've felt terrible during this whole experience, it is sad to imagine.
"A Mysterious Story"
It would be several months later until an update was made, and boy, what an update. This extensive article was published on the 9th of November 1897 in Bohusläningen (no. 133, p. 3). I have decided to translate it in full, as I believe it’s an intriguing case, but also because I think some of you will find the historical police investigation, court proceedings, and rumour-spreading, of interest. The article reads (with some of my own clarifications) as follows:
The Court at Kvistrum last week continued also throughout the Saturday. Our correspondent reports the following:
A Mysterious Story.
As was reported at the time in this newspaper, Carl Victor Wallqvist, a clerk in service with the merchant G. V. Lundberg at Annedal, late in the evening of the 25th of February left the shop without later in any way letting himself be heard from. Extensive searches were undertaken; among other things the Munkedal Canal, where the corpse of a some year ago missing person from Lysekil had been found, was drained; but without result. Nor could any person in the area provide any information. Where had he then gone?
It was seen as unlikely that he had run off. The harshest of bad weather was prevailing at the time and he had left the shop in his everyday clothes without any outerwear. He had with both his employer as well with his colleague by the counter, J. A. Ohlander, as far as was known, lived in good harmony. The cash register was untouched, and nothing had been taken out in advance from his wages, nor was he thought to be in possession of any notable sum of money at the time of his disappearance.
That the disappeared had committed suicide appeared equally unlikely, as in that case the corpse should have been found sooner or later. Therefore remained solely the assumption that he had been disposed off through the action of another person. Admittedly the circumstance that W. was commonly liked and did not have any enemies spoke against this, but on the other hand rumours told of other circumstances which could make such an assumption more plausible.
When it was further added, that shortly after the event a stated person put on offer at an especially low price a watch --- according to rumours bearing the initials of W.'s name --- a revolver and a pair of boots, also said to have some resemblance to those W. had worn at the time of his disappearance, the story was completed.
It was spoken off that a certain well had been filled in with rocks, that a compost pile had been left untouched over the summer while the owner instead had bought fertilizer for the rye crop, and so on. The prior was seen as hiding evidence for the cause of W.'s disappearance, the latter possibly his corpse itself.
As these rumours took a gradually more decided character and the story had otherwise been constructed in such a way that it carried a certain air of plausibility, the local police authorities were eventually drawn to act. At Annedal there were two wells; one had a depth of 15 ells [ = c. 8.9 metres] and intended for the water supply of the nearby brewery, the other was a sewage well and had a depth of only 2 ells [ = c. 1.2 metres]. Both were examined --- the prior was drained entirely, the latter, which at the time of W.'s disappearance had been frozen to the bottom, was only searched through with a boat hook. Nothing was found. And a third or filled-in well was not found anywhere.
However, on the 18th of last October, the royal sheriff E. Sundberg held a police hearing at the merchant L.'s property of Annedal, to which had been called a large number of people, among them the farm labourer Johan Karlsson from Skredsvik, who according to the rumours had done the deal with the watch, the revolver and the boots. When he during the hearing was asked what the case was, Karlsson initially explained that he neither had owned nor put up for sale any such items during 1897. When however it was verified by other present person that such had been the case, he changed his first claim, and admitted, that he had owned a good silver watch, which he had gotten from a so-called skojare [ = lit. "trickster", "rogue", "swindler", etc --- also a slur for Romani people, "gypsies"]. Further he admitted that had owned a pair of large boots, which he had been given by his mother, who had acquired them at Munkedal. He had traded these boots for a revolver from the aforementioned skojare, which he had then traded to his brother. This had occurred after he had moved from Annedal, where he had had employment at the time of W.'s disappearance.
Due to these contradictory statements as well as other information that surfaced during the hearing, new investigations were scheduled for the hundred court at Kvistrum on Saturday the 6th of November, and the labourer Johan Karlsson was legally mandated to appear there. The hearing took its beginning at around 12 o'clock noon, and was led by the Extraordinary Court of Appeal clerk Albert Mellin. It seems much was expected of this hearing, based on the number of attendees --- surely around 200 people were in the audience --- who already before the proceedings began filled the courtroom. No less than 15 people were duly summoned; all were heard without the swearing of oaths. These told as follows:
The labourer Johan Karlsson: That he in the evening of the 25th of February had returned home at around half past 5 or 6 o'clock after carrying out errands in the area. When he was unbridling the horse Wallqvist had come down into the stable, but left soon after. K. had then gone inside to drink coffee, but a while later returned to the stable to feed the horse. When he later returned, the people inside had begun to wonder about W.'s long absence, for which reason K. in the company of the clerk Ohlander had gone out to search for him. This search had however been without result, for which reason they returned thinking that W. possibly had gone to visit a person named Spångberg. The harshest of bad weather prevailed during the evening.
When asked where Karlsson had come into possession of the watch, the boots and the revolver, he stated that he had gotten the boots from his mother, who in turn had bought them from the wife Amalia Andersson in Munkedal. The watch he had borrowed from a person called Alfred Rosenqvist, on whose behalf he had been asked to sell it for the price of 29 to 30 crowns. The revolver he had traded from the same person, who in return had received the boots. He had later traded the revolver to his brother, who later through another trade had returned it to Rosenqvist, who now hence possessed both the boots, the watch and the revolver.
When asked why he had given contradictory statements during the police hearing, he replied that he hadn't remembered better than such. The watch, the revolver and the boots, which had been brought along by Alfred Rosenqvist, who also had been summoned to be heard in the matter, were now shown to the court.
Aug[ust] Fredriksson at [the croft] Bäcken under Saltkällan told that Karlsson had offered the items shown to the court for sale to his sons. He had forbidden the deal, as he due to the cheap price was uncertain in what way K. had come to possess the items.
The prior witness' sons Johan, Alfred and Frans recognized the presented objects as being the same as those they had been offered to buy. Regarding the watch they were certain that it had not been equipped with a shackle mount, as had been the stated case with the watch W. had with him at the time of his disappearance.
The store clerk J. A. Ohlander: that W. had been peaceful and proper and also carried out his obligations, for which reason he got alon well with both the witness himself, their employer, and the housekeeper, who had later moved to Västergötland. W. had admittedly had a shifting mood, but had not expressed any tendency towards dissatisfaction with life nor shown any apparent change during the time immediately prior to his disappearance. He had however several times asked the witness about the closest road to Norway as well as about the distance to the railway stations at Mon and Kornsjö.
On the evening of the 25th of February he had left the store without saying anything about where he was going. He had been dressed in his regular clothes and carried his watch and revolver. The to the court presented objects showed several differences with those owned by W. and were therefore not the same. The witness did not know if W. at the time of his disappearance had any money due, as W. kept his own notes of his business with their employer. Nor had he (as one witness at the police hearing had claimed to have heard from O.) left behind a wallet with a smaller sum of money stored in it.
In the evening after W.'s disappearance he [Ohlander] had gone with the labourer [Karlsson] to search for him, as it was seen as unusual that he, who otherwise did not tend to go out in the evenings, had gone out in such bad weather and stayed away for so long. When he had not been found, O. had thought he had gone to visit someone in the neighbourhood. Other than this he knew nothing of the reason for [W.'s] disappearance, nor where he currently was.
The merchant G. V. Lundberg was asked if he knew of any relationship between the disappeared and the housekeeper. At this he replied that they had always lived in the best of understanding; he did not know of any other relationship. She had travelled back to her home, as one of her brothers had passed away, and remained behind for longer than intended due to an inheritance dispute, but was due to return to service.
W. had managed his position to full satisfaction and had gotten along well with his colleague in the store as well as shown himself to be satisfied with both the wages as well as other conditions. As he had been sober and proper as well as calm and peacefully, he surely had no enemies. That W. had a somewhat alternating mood, was seen as being caused by poor health. The witness however thought that [W.] had shown himself to be happy and elated immediately prior to his disappearance.
When W. had gone out and not returned, the witness had thought he had gone to help the labourer pump up water to the brewery, which he and the others tended to assist with. When he had not returned, searches had been undertaken, and all the places where he was thought to have possibly perished were examined; as such the entire upper part of the Munkedal Canal had been drained. At Annedal were two wells, of which the brewery well had been drained and examined; to undertake the same measure with the sewage well was not seen as necessary, as it had been frozen to the bottom at the time of W.'s disappearance. The watch, the revolver and the boots, which had been presented, could not be recognized by the witness as those owned by W.
Anna Katarina Gustafsson from Skogeröd in Skredsvik (mother of the labourer Johan Karlsson) presented a certificate from the wife Amalia Andersson in Munkedal showing that she had sold the previously mentioned boots to her for 50 öre. The cheap price was due to personal friendship as well as other reasons.
Alfred Rosenqvist from Bäve Parish stated regarding the deal with the watch that he had borrowed it to Johan Karlsson, who was supposed to sell the same on his behalf for 25 crowns (not 29 to 30 as K. had stated). Regarding the revolver and the boots R.'s statement matched had Karlsson had said about them. The deals had taken place while R. for some time resided in Skredsvik. All of the items were now in his possesssion.
The labourer Joh[anne]s Nilsson in Munkedal knew that nothing other than good relations had been had between the employees of the merchant Lundberg. To begin with he had, like everyone else, believed that W. had run off to Norway; now, however, the witness did not know what to think due to the circulating rumours. He had however not heard anything said about the matter which he thought to be plausible, and did not think W. had been killed through the actions of others. (The persecutor did not believe he had drowned.)
The gardener Eriksson, Munkedal, had admittedly heard the rumours that W. had been disposed of, but not where the corpse in such case could be located. On his own part the witness could not provide the slightest of information.
A. E. Mattsson in Önnebacka had not noticed anything unusual or suspicious, even though he lived very close by.
Carl Andersson in Önnebacka had at around half past 6 o'clock in the evening of the 25th of February been in the store, where W. had served him. [W.] had shown himself to be downhearted and had stated: "It'd be best if I'd leave it all; I had intended to wait until spring, but I can't." The witness had perceived this statement has an expression of displeasure with [W.'s] colleague in the store. When the witness asked about this, the rely had been that the employer "might be surly every now and then, but it didn't matter much”.
J. A. Ohlander stated that he could not remember that he had ever said any harsh words to his colleague. [W.] had fulfilled his obligations and between the two of them there had always been a good relationship.
Amanda Zachariasson, who kept her business in L.'s store, had noticed that W. had lost weight recently as well as shown himself to be downhearted. She had once asked him of the reason for this, and he had replied: "It'd be better if I went and drowned myself." When she asked why, he had answered: "Because I'm little." The witness was asked if she believed that the intention had been that he felt slighted [ / underprivileged], or if the statement had arisen from his short stature. She could not answer this. As far as she knew, there had always been a good relationship between him and the other people in the household. The witness had on the same evening as W. disappeared heard a shot be fired, which she perceived to have come from the country road near Lundberg's store.
The other people interviewed at the hearing had nothing to add. At the police hearings had a person, Carl Pettersson in Munkedal, stated that he, when discussing people who travel to Norway, had been asked by W. how far it could be to the railway stations at Mon and Kornsjö, regarding which the witness had told him. As such nothing further had been found which gave clarity to the matter, the hearing was ended. Until further notice the investigations will be paused, provided that no new leads arise.”
An extensive investigation, but our man --- or boy rather, being aged only eighteen in early 1897 --- still nowhere to be found. Despite several interesting leads, a dead end. And in fact, nothing was ever further published in the newspapers on the case.
And that might have been that, if not for the strict recording keeping of the era.
The Prodigal Son Returns
I previously showed you the 1890-1896 household examination rolls. Here are the following 1896–1907 rolls. We find familiar faces, like Mr. Lundberg (who we learn closed up his show and moved away only a year later, November 1898), the labourer Johan August Karlsson (1874–1957) and the clerk Johan Adolf Ohlander (1872–?, possibly emigrated to America later). Notably, we find our protagonist, the clerk Carl Victor Wallqvist, down on row 7 once again.
There's no date of death note, no comment about his strange disappearance. Instead, the parish priest has simply noted that he formally moved away from Annedal on the 3rd of June 1898. The records of Foss Parish which take note of people moving in and out of the area further confirms this departure here (right page, no. 29) without much comment. Destination: Friel, Skaraborg County.
And it is indeed to Friel he went. Here we find him in the 1900 national census, taken three years after his 1897 disappearance, living again with his parents and three siblings at the schoolhouse in Friel. He lived there for another decade at least, as shown here in the 1910 census. Eventually, he moved to another rural Western Swedish parish, Västra Tunhem.
What happened to Victor in 1897? I honestly have no idea. The, perhaps, most likely option is that he made a run for the Norwegian border, a common destination for people seeking to escape their lives at the time – Norway and Sweden were in a personal union at the time under a common king, but maintained independent domestic governance from one another. But in most such cases, the parish priest eventually finds out, and documents the stay in Norway. Someone would surely have known, someone would surely have seen him.
Did the teenager really head on foot to the important border railway station at Mon as he seems to have considered, over fifty kilometres as the crow flies to the north-east, without much money and without outerwear but with a revolver, in poor weather conditions, and make it over the national border without permits from his employer and parish vicar (as usually required at the time)? Or did he find another way to do it, or even spend time --- nearly a year at the very least --- hidden somewhere locally?
Honestly, I'm just happy to have found a disappearance which certainly at first glance indicated a fatal end, but eventually ended on a happier note.
Anyhow. Here is Victor's entry in the national database of deaths, showing his passing on the 15th of August 1933, aged fifty-four. He was unmarried. All in all, what would appear to be a fairly uneventful life in an agrarian milieu, other than the strange 1897 disappearance, mirrored by those of his three siblings (none of which ever married either, I might add).
At least it would be, if not for a final twist. I took the time to look up the original record of Victor’s death, noted in the Västra Tunhem archives. Here is a screenshot. To my great surprise, I find the death of “Carl Victor Wallqvist, boatswain on the S. S. Valencia” (not to be confused with another more famous ship of the same name). Cause of death: “Drowning”. Location of death: “The Mediterranean between Almeria and Malaga in Spain”. Further: "Buried in Velez Malaga".
Based on the information provided in the newspaper, I started by tracking down “J. A. Wallqvist” in Skaraborg County. His stated residence of Friel Parish is located here in the heartlands of Western Sweden by the shore of the country's largest lake, Vänern. It was by the late 19th century a small rural community, and still is.
It was easy to find him, in truth. Johan August Wallqvist (1845–1923) was born in a parish not too far from Friel. He eventually became a teacher, providing primary school education to the agrarian populace through the Swedish folkskola system, introduced in 1842. It wasn’t necessarily a well-paid position, but it afforded social status and standing, especially in a rural context. In 1874 Johan August married the likewise local Johanna Andersdotter (1842–1931), and formed a family with her. They would go on to have four children, all born in Friel Parish; Josef Albin (1875–1967), Gerda Charlotta (1880–1907), Elin Davida (1884–1960) ... and Carl Victor.
Carl Victor Wallqvist (alternatively spelled Karl Viktor Wahlqvist, and other variants) was born on the 13th of October 1878, the second oldest of the four children, joining a small but respectable family. Here (no. 18) is his record of birth in the parish archives. The boy, who seems to have gone by “Victor” most of the time, spent his childhood in the Friel schoolhouse, where we find the family listed as living here in the 1890 national census (under the header "Skoltomten").
Here we find the family again, this time in the 1881–1894 Friel household examination rolls. It is in these rolls that we find that Victor left home at the age of sixteen, a few years after finishing the compulsory primary school run by his father Johan August. Maybe he wanted something more than the simple country life offered at Friel. The rolls show us that he moved to "Bohus County, Qvistrum" on the 15th of November 1894, three years prior to his 1897 disappearance.
Kvistrum (previously spelled Qvistrum, among other variants) is located here in the western coastal province Bohuslän, a former inn and fort site by an important bridge crossing over the river Örekilsälven. In the 1890s it belonged to Foss Parish, today it’s administratively a part of Munkedal Municipality, and part of the wider townscape of Munkedal. (It may interest you to know that the 18th century writer Mary Wollstonecraft visited Kvistrum in 1795, as described in her travelogue, finding the inn there absolutely dismal.) The area would have seen much travel, the local court was held there, there a big market held regularly at nearby Saltkällan a few kilometres to the south, and a modern industrial community was growing at Munkedal, formed around the paper mill there. Plus, the ocean was very close with steamboat traffic running from Saltkällan, and the urban centre of Uddevalla wasn’t too far off. I can imagine why Victor Wallqvist might have found it more enticing than his inland village.
So, in late 1894 Victor went to stay on the West Coast. He found work with a merchant by the name of Gustaf Victor Lundberg (1856–1904), and lived at his commercial property called Annedal, which likely was located quite centrally in the Munkedal-Kvistrum area. As shown in this newspaper clipping (Bohusläningen, 1891-11-19, no. 135, p. 2), Mr. Lundberg had acquired the Annedal property, containing a store and brewery, from his predecessor on the spot in 1890. This 1892 trade registry notice (Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning 1892-06-02, no. 126A, p. 1) shows that he requested a permit to maintain a general store, to trade in lamp oils, and also to produce and sell malt-based beverages. Here are the pages of the 1890–1897 Foss Parish household examination rolls which show Annedal. We find G. V. Lundberg at the top, followed by his employees. On row 9 we find the clerk Carl Victor Wallqvist.
About three years after Victor found employment at Annedal, something happened This article was published in the newspaper Bohusläningen on the 6th of March 1897 (no. 28A, p. 2). It reads in translation:
"Disappeared is a young man called K. W. Wahlqvist, hired as a clerk by the merchant Lundberg in Munkedal. Yesterday it had been eight days since he went out to a nearby storage building and did not return from there. Several searches have been undertaken, however without result. For example the Munkedal paper company let drain the water in the river, which leads to the mill. The disappeared has left behind a wallet containing about 30 crowns. Further he still had his wage due from the employer. But he had taken his revolver with him.”
Victor went missing, seemingly cashless --- but with his revolver! Firearms were far common in Sweden then than now. An immediate thought might be suicide, in which case the body should have been found fairly soon. But alas, it wasn’t. Five months later in late July, his father Johan August, still desperate for news of his son’s whereabouts, posted the bounty notice that started off this post. The family must've felt terrible during this whole experience, it is sad to imagine.
"A Mysterious Story"
It would be several months later until an update was made, and boy, what an update. This extensive article was published on the 9th of November 1897 in Bohusläningen (no. 133, p. 3). I have decided to translate it in full, as I believe it’s an intriguing case, but also because I think some of you will find the historical police investigation, court proceedings, and rumour-spreading, of interest. The article reads (with some of my own clarifications) as follows:
The Court at Kvistrum last week continued also throughout the Saturday. Our correspondent reports the following:
A Mysterious Story.
As was reported at the time in this newspaper, Carl Victor Wallqvist, a clerk in service with the merchant G. V. Lundberg at Annedal, late in the evening of the 25th of February left the shop without later in any way letting himself be heard from. Extensive searches were undertaken; among other things the Munkedal Canal, where the corpse of a some year ago missing person from Lysekil had been found, was drained; but without result. Nor could any person in the area provide any information. Where had he then gone?
It was seen as unlikely that he had run off. The harshest of bad weather was prevailing at the time and he had left the shop in his everyday clothes without any outerwear. He had with both his employer as well with his colleague by the counter, J. A. Ohlander, as far as was known, lived in good harmony. The cash register was untouched, and nothing had been taken out in advance from his wages, nor was he thought to be in possession of any notable sum of money at the time of his disappearance.
That the disappeared had committed suicide appeared equally unlikely, as in that case the corpse should have been found sooner or later. Therefore remained solely the assumption that he had been disposed off through the action of another person. Admittedly the circumstance that W. was commonly liked and did not have any enemies spoke against this, but on the other hand rumours told of other circumstances which could make such an assumption more plausible.
When it was further added, that shortly after the event a stated person put on offer at an especially low price a watch --- according to rumours bearing the initials of W.'s name --- a revolver and a pair of boots, also said to have some resemblance to those W. had worn at the time of his disappearance, the story was completed.
It was spoken off that a certain well had been filled in with rocks, that a compost pile had been left untouched over the summer while the owner instead had bought fertilizer for the rye crop, and so on. The prior was seen as hiding evidence for the cause of W.'s disappearance, the latter possibly his corpse itself.
As these rumours took a gradually more decided character and the story had otherwise been constructed in such a way that it carried a certain air of plausibility, the local police authorities were eventually drawn to act. At Annedal there were two wells; one had a depth of 15 ells [ = c. 8.9 metres] and intended for the water supply of the nearby brewery, the other was a sewage well and had a depth of only 2 ells [ = c. 1.2 metres]. Both were examined --- the prior was drained entirely, the latter, which at the time of W.'s disappearance had been frozen to the bottom, was only searched through with a boat hook. Nothing was found. And a third or filled-in well was not found anywhere.
However, on the 18th of last October, the royal sheriff E. Sundberg held a police hearing at the merchant L.'s property of Annedal, to which had been called a large number of people, among them the farm labourer Johan Karlsson from Skredsvik, who according to the rumours had done the deal with the watch, the revolver and the boots. When he during the hearing was asked what the case was, Karlsson initially explained that he neither had owned nor put up for sale any such items during 1897. When however it was verified by other present person that such had been the case, he changed his first claim, and admitted, that he had owned a good silver watch, which he had gotten from a so-called skojare [ = lit. "trickster", "rogue", "swindler", etc --- also a slur for Romani people, "gypsies"]. Further he admitted that had owned a pair of large boots, which he had been given by his mother, who had acquired them at Munkedal. He had traded these boots for a revolver from the aforementioned skojare, which he had then traded to his brother. This had occurred after he had moved from Annedal, where he had had employment at the time of W.'s disappearance.
Due to these contradictory statements as well as other information that surfaced during the hearing, new investigations were scheduled for the hundred court at Kvistrum on Saturday the 6th of November, and the labourer Johan Karlsson was legally mandated to appear there. The hearing took its beginning at around 12 o'clock noon, and was led by the Extraordinary Court of Appeal clerk Albert Mellin. It seems much was expected of this hearing, based on the number of attendees --- surely around 200 people were in the audience --- who already before the proceedings began filled the courtroom. No less than 15 people were duly summoned; all were heard without the swearing of oaths. These told as follows:
The labourer Johan Karlsson: That he in the evening of the 25th of February had returned home at around half past 5 or 6 o'clock after carrying out errands in the area. When he was unbridling the horse Wallqvist had come down into the stable, but left soon after. K. had then gone inside to drink coffee, but a while later returned to the stable to feed the horse. When he later returned, the people inside had begun to wonder about W.'s long absence, for which reason K. in the company of the clerk Ohlander had gone out to search for him. This search had however been without result, for which reason they returned thinking that W. possibly had gone to visit a person named Spångberg. The harshest of bad weather prevailed during the evening.
When asked where Karlsson had come into possession of the watch, the boots and the revolver, he stated that he had gotten the boots from his mother, who in turn had bought them from the wife Amalia Andersson in Munkedal. The watch he had borrowed from a person called Alfred Rosenqvist, on whose behalf he had been asked to sell it for the price of 29 to 30 crowns. The revolver he had traded from the same person, who in return had received the boots. He had later traded the revolver to his brother, who later through another trade had returned it to Rosenqvist, who now hence possessed both the boots, the watch and the revolver.
When asked why he had given contradictory statements during the police hearing, he replied that he hadn't remembered better than such. The watch, the revolver and the boots, which had been brought along by Alfred Rosenqvist, who also had been summoned to be heard in the matter, were now shown to the court.
Aug[ust] Fredriksson at [the croft] Bäcken under Saltkällan told that Karlsson had offered the items shown to the court for sale to his sons. He had forbidden the deal, as he due to the cheap price was uncertain in what way K. had come to possess the items.
The prior witness' sons Johan, Alfred and Frans recognized the presented objects as being the same as those they had been offered to buy. Regarding the watch they were certain that it had not been equipped with a shackle mount, as had been the stated case with the watch W. had with him at the time of his disappearance.
The store clerk J. A. Ohlander: that W. had been peaceful and proper and also carried out his obligations, for which reason he got alon well with both the witness himself, their employer, and the housekeeper, who had later moved to Västergötland. W. had admittedly had a shifting mood, but had not expressed any tendency towards dissatisfaction with life nor shown any apparent change during the time immediately prior to his disappearance. He had however several times asked the witness about the closest road to Norway as well as about the distance to the railway stations at Mon and Kornsjö.
On the evening of the 25th of February he had left the store without saying anything about where he was going. He had been dressed in his regular clothes and carried his watch and revolver. The to the court presented objects showed several differences with those owned by W. and were therefore not the same. The witness did not know if W. at the time of his disappearance had any money due, as W. kept his own notes of his business with their employer. Nor had he (as one witness at the police hearing had claimed to have heard from O.) left behind a wallet with a smaller sum of money stored in it.
In the evening after W.'s disappearance he [Ohlander] had gone with the labourer [Karlsson] to search for him, as it was seen as unusual that he, who otherwise did not tend to go out in the evenings, had gone out in such bad weather and stayed away for so long. When he had not been found, O. had thought he had gone to visit someone in the neighbourhood. Other than this he knew nothing of the reason for [W.'s] disappearance, nor where he currently was.
The merchant G. V. Lundberg was asked if he knew of any relationship between the disappeared and the housekeeper. At this he replied that they had always lived in the best of understanding; he did not know of any other relationship. She had travelled back to her home, as one of her brothers had passed away, and remained behind for longer than intended due to an inheritance dispute, but was due to return to service.
W. had managed his position to full satisfaction and had gotten along well with his colleague in the store as well as shown himself to be satisfied with both the wages as well as other conditions. As he had been sober and proper as well as calm and peacefully, he surely had no enemies. That W. had a somewhat alternating mood, was seen as being caused by poor health. The witness however thought that [W.] had shown himself to be happy and elated immediately prior to his disappearance.
When W. had gone out and not returned, the witness had thought he had gone to help the labourer pump up water to the brewery, which he and the others tended to assist with. When he had not returned, searches had been undertaken, and all the places where he was thought to have possibly perished were examined; as such the entire upper part of the Munkedal Canal had been drained. At Annedal were two wells, of which the brewery well had been drained and examined; to undertake the same measure with the sewage well was not seen as necessary, as it had been frozen to the bottom at the time of W.'s disappearance. The watch, the revolver and the boots, which had been presented, could not be recognized by the witness as those owned by W.
Anna Katarina Gustafsson from Skogeröd in Skredsvik (mother of the labourer Johan Karlsson) presented a certificate from the wife Amalia Andersson in Munkedal showing that she had sold the previously mentioned boots to her for 50 öre. The cheap price was due to personal friendship as well as other reasons.
Alfred Rosenqvist from Bäve Parish stated regarding the deal with the watch that he had borrowed it to Johan Karlsson, who was supposed to sell the same on his behalf for 25 crowns (not 29 to 30 as K. had stated). Regarding the revolver and the boots R.'s statement matched had Karlsson had said about them. The deals had taken place while R. for some time resided in Skredsvik. All of the items were now in his possesssion.
The labourer Joh[anne]s Nilsson in Munkedal knew that nothing other than good relations had been had between the employees of the merchant Lundberg. To begin with he had, like everyone else, believed that W. had run off to Norway; now, however, the witness did not know what to think due to the circulating rumours. He had however not heard anything said about the matter which he thought to be plausible, and did not think W. had been killed through the actions of others. (The persecutor did not believe he had drowned.)
The gardener Eriksson, Munkedal, had admittedly heard the rumours that W. had been disposed of, but not where the corpse in such case could be located. On his own part the witness could not provide the slightest of information.
A. E. Mattsson in Önnebacka had not noticed anything unusual or suspicious, even though he lived very close by.
Carl Andersson in Önnebacka had at around half past 6 o'clock in the evening of the 25th of February been in the store, where W. had served him. [W.] had shown himself to be downhearted and had stated: "It'd be best if I'd leave it all; I had intended to wait until spring, but I can't." The witness had perceived this statement has an expression of displeasure with [W.'s] colleague in the store. When the witness asked about this, the rely had been that the employer "might be surly every now and then, but it didn't matter much”.
J. A. Ohlander stated that he could not remember that he had ever said any harsh words to his colleague. [W.] had fulfilled his obligations and between the two of them there had always been a good relationship.
Amanda Zachariasson, who kept her business in L.'s store, had noticed that W. had lost weight recently as well as shown himself to be downhearted. She had once asked him of the reason for this, and he had replied: "It'd be better if I went and drowned myself." When she asked why, he had answered: "Because I'm little." The witness was asked if she believed that the intention had been that he felt slighted [ / underprivileged], or if the statement had arisen from his short stature. She could not answer this. As far as she knew, there had always been a good relationship between him and the other people in the household. The witness had on the same evening as W. disappeared heard a shot be fired, which she perceived to have come from the country road near Lundberg's store.
The other people interviewed at the hearing had nothing to add. At the police hearings had a person, Carl Pettersson in Munkedal, stated that he, when discussing people who travel to Norway, had been asked by W. how far it could be to the railway stations at Mon and Kornsjö, regarding which the witness had told him. As such nothing further had been found which gave clarity to the matter, the hearing was ended. Until further notice the investigations will be paused, provided that no new leads arise.”
An extensive investigation, but our man --- or boy rather, being aged only eighteen in early 1897 --- still nowhere to be found. Despite several interesting leads, a dead end. And in fact, nothing was ever further published in the newspapers on the case.
And that might have been that, if not for the strict recording keeping of the era.
The Prodigal Son Returns
I previously showed you the 1890-1896 household examination rolls. Here are the following 1896–1907 rolls. We find familiar faces, like Mr. Lundberg (who we learn closed up his show and moved away only a year later, November 1898), the labourer Johan August Karlsson (1874–1957) and the clerk Johan Adolf Ohlander (1872–?, possibly emigrated to America later). Notably, we find our protagonist, the clerk Carl Victor Wallqvist, down on row 7 once again.
There's no date of death note, no comment about his strange disappearance. Instead, the parish priest has simply noted that he formally moved away from Annedal on the 3rd of June 1898. The records of Foss Parish which take note of people moving in and out of the area further confirms this departure here (right page, no. 29) without much comment. Destination: Friel, Skaraborg County.
And it is indeed to Friel he went. Here we find him in the 1900 national census, taken three years after his 1897 disappearance, living again with his parents and three siblings at the schoolhouse in Friel. He lived there for another decade at least, as shown here in the 1910 census. Eventually, he moved to another rural Western Swedish parish, Västra Tunhem.
What happened to Victor in 1897? I honestly have no idea. The, perhaps, most likely option is that he made a run for the Norwegian border, a common destination for people seeking to escape their lives at the time – Norway and Sweden were in a personal union at the time under a common king, but maintained independent domestic governance from one another. But in most such cases, the parish priest eventually finds out, and documents the stay in Norway. Someone would surely have known, someone would surely have seen him.
Did the teenager really head on foot to the important border railway station at Mon as he seems to have considered, over fifty kilometres as the crow flies to the north-east, without much money and without outerwear but with a revolver, in poor weather conditions, and make it over the national border without permits from his employer and parish vicar (as usually required at the time)? Or did he find another way to do it, or even spend time --- nearly a year at the very least --- hidden somewhere locally?
Honestly, I'm just happy to have found a disappearance which certainly at first glance indicated a fatal end, but eventually ended on a happier note.
Anyhow. Here is Victor's entry in the national database of deaths, showing his passing on the 15th of August 1933, aged fifty-four. He was unmarried. All in all, what would appear to be a fairly uneventful life in an agrarian milieu, other than the strange 1897 disappearance, mirrored by those of his three siblings (none of which ever married either, I might add).
At least it would be, if not for a final twist. I took the time to look up the original record of Victor’s death, noted in the Västra Tunhem archives. Here is a screenshot. To my great surprise, I find the death of “Carl Victor Wallqvist, boatswain on the S. S. Valencia” (not to be confused with another more famous ship of the same name). Cause of death: “Drowning”. Location of death: “The Mediterranean between Almeria and Malaga in Spain”. Further: "Buried in Velez Malaga".