A wedding that lasted eight days

Anders and Britta were married at Västergården on January 6, 1857 and the wedding
lasted  eight days. Britta moved to Björnås where Anders worked as a farm hand
and this is where their first son Oskar was born. Later on they moved to Skarpes
a cottage situated next to Skallsjö old church, and this is where their second son
Alfred was born. At this time Britta worked as a housemaid and Anders as a coachman
at Floda Manor.

In 1859 the family moved to Lilla Björnås -Floget- where they for some time were
neighbors with Anders's brother Petter who was the last one to do farming at Stora
Björnås. Petter later moved to Tvärsjödal. Anders now worked as a foreman at Floda
and earned 75 öre a day during the winter and 1 krona during the summer. He also had
the right to cattle food for one cow.

Anders's son August says in one of his books that "all of the driving - and farming
implements were made by my father. He was a carpenter and a mason, and moreover -
- what else not?" Britta did some sewing  for her family and also for others and this way
she earned some extra money. August says about her in his book that "work just flowed
out of her hands. One evening my father made a fuss about having such bad mittens in
the cold weather. The following morning my mother woke him up with a cup of coffee,
threw him a couple of new mittens that she had knitted during the night and said laughing:
' Now make a fuss about mittens!' He could hardly believe his eyes."
 

You had to be your own physician

Anders and Britta were both joyful and humorous people and "lived each day with
composure". Every crofter or farmer most likely had to, at one time or another,  face a
situation that seemed completely impossible. This was for instance the case when Anders
and Britta's son August just about  had his index finger cut off during play. Only a small
strip of skin held it together. Britta cleaned the wound and Anders carved a few small
sticks. Then he spat some snuff in the wound, pressed the finger parts together, made a
splitting and applied a bandage to the best of his knowledge. After a while the finger had
healed and there was only a slight scarring reminding of the incident.

It has been  said that Britta probably was "the more vivacious" one of the two. Anders
said to Britta once:" Look now, don't you 'turn' like that on the children!" He probably
thought that she had been nagging too much on the children. Maybe she was right in
doing so because a man called Axel at Tvärsjödal said " Us boys here at Tvärsjödal
aren't too  troublesome, but the Flogetboys - they're really some tough guys when it
comes to fighting!"

When all children, except Gottfrid, had left home Anders and Britta moved to a place
they called Björkelund, which was in Slätthult, Stenkullen.  They did farming and at
the same time opened up a small market garden.

Anders died of cancer February 27, 1907 at Björkelund and Britta died a few years
later in 1913, presumably  of old age.

Anders and Britta's children

Anders and Britta's son Oskar got married in 1882 to Anna Kristina Jonasdotter from
Ryggebol skattegård . Oskar moved in at Ryggebol.

Alfred  got married in 1885 to Hulda Charlotta Börjesson. They lived at Sannegården
on Hising Island in Göteborg. Out there Alfred had no forest and thus he changed his
last name to Utanskog   (i.e.Noforest).

Svante August  traveled for the first time as a missionary to Kongo in Africa in 1892
where he then worked for 40 years. He took the name Flodén and was generally
called "Tata Flodén". He was married three times - his first two wives died in Africa,
and  had four children of whom only one reached maturity. He wrote quite a bit of
poetry and also published a couple of books on his years in Africa.

Karl Albin  got married in 1892 to Elfrida (Frida) Frohm from Gubbagården at
Ryggebol. They leased  Bortre Maden, belonging to Nääs. In 1906 it was decided that
one would tear down Maden and build something new. The new Maden was built more
or less in the same spot as the old one. Later on in 1925 Albin, Frida and one of their
sons, Arnold,  moved to Åstebo.

Hedvig Sofia (Gerda)  got married in 1890 to  the carpenter Johan Adolf Flodin from
Nääs. They lived at Lilla Björnås/Floget for many years, then moved on to Stenkullen,
and then finally built themselves a house in Hultafors.  Hedvig Sofia changed her name
to Gerda Sofia and was called Gerda.

Gottfrid, Anders and Britta's youngest son, got married in 1901 to Emma Eriksson
from Kvarnkärr. They stayed on for a long time at Björkelund where Gottfrid was
a gardener but later moved to  Framnäs in Norsesund/Hemsjö.
 

Fr left: Gottfrid Andersson, Albin Andersson, S A Flodén, Alfred Utanskog, Oskar Andersson, sitting: Emma Andersson, Frida Andersson, Hildur Flodén, Gerda Flodin and Anna Kristina Andersson. Picture from  1942.

Anders's son out of wedlock

Janne Andersson was born out of wedlock in 1852 and grew up with his mother at
Loppetorp. He was generally called "Bottna-Janne" since he lived at Botten as an
adult. He did days work at Floda Manor. Janne was married to Matilda from Botten.
They raised 12 children together in the cottage.
 

Sources:
      "200 år av min historia...", unpublished paper 1993, Åsa Broman.
       Livet på Floda säteri kring sekelskiftet. skrift nr 4, 1976. Skallsjö Hembygds- och
       Fornminnesförening.