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| Apothecary Carl Gustaf Sundius, Kisa The agitator from Kisa, who influenced the emigration from northern Småland and Östergötland
The apothecary Carl Gustaf Sundius and Peter Cassel were those two who precipitated the emigration from the Kisa area. Here we will try to give a picture of Carl Gustaf Sundius and his influence on the emigration from northern Småland and Östergötland. Carl Gustaf Sundius was born in 1783 in Malmö, where his father was a hospital administrator. His family roots go however back to Östergötland and Sund´s parish in Ydre municipality. His great grandfather was born there in 1662 and Sundius´s grandfather was a vicar in Asby parish in the same municipality. Sundius learnt the apothecary´s trade in Germany. In 1820 he acquired his own apothecary´s shop in Copenhagen. Some years later he returned to Sweden. During the severe cholera epidemic of 1834 Sundius was in Vadstena and distinguished himself by his courage and helpfulness. Afterwards he moved to Kisa. By a royal decree of September the 23rd 1835, Sundius was granted the privilege of the apothecary shop in Kisa however with the addition that he was not allowed to release the shop to someone else. In Kisa there are examples of his willingness to help the “humble man in society”. Sundius had taken up the liberal ideas with enthusiasm in Germany and dreamt of America as the “Land of Freedom”. In Germany the emigration had started already by the 1820s. In Sweden it was officially prohibited to emigrate up to 1840. In one letter to his son Adolp, Sundius writes in 1853: (…) “AS LONG AS I LIVE, MY THOUGHTS TURN JOYFULLY TO FREE AND HAPPY AMERICA. EUROPE MUST THANK EMIGRATION TO THAT LAND FOR ITS EXISTENCE. WITHOUT THAT SAFETY VALVE FOR OVERPOPULATION, OUR PART OF THE WORLD WOULD HAVE GONE UNDER SEVERAL DECADES AGO”.(…) A contemporary inhabitant from the Kinda area, the church organist Johan Fredrik Törnvall, describes him as a “political apothecary”. Törnvall continues: “Apothecary Sundius was so devoted to politics and eager to improve society through its enlightenment that he not infrequently neglected or forgot all else. He was a most fiery, well-meaning man”.
During the 1840s the other important man in the early emigration from Kisa appears on the scene, Peter Cassel. This man Cassel was influenced by the apothecary Sundius´s speech of freedom. At the same time this man Cassel had probably taken part of a correspondence from an earlier emigrant to America, who praised the new country. By this time it has also been permitted to emigrate from Sweden. Cassel succeeded with Sundius´s help to find money for tickets to America for himself and his family. Together with some more inhabitants from the Kinda area this group in the year 1845 made the first organized emigration to America. Cassel´s letters home to Sundius and to other people were later spread in the Östgöta Correspondenten and in other ways and gradually they influenced the whole emigration from the area. Thus the emigration from Kisa started. Apothecary Sundius ran from the year 1846 an emigrant agency besides his apothecary shop in Kisa. He was married twice and had a total of twelwe children. He died in the year 1858, 71 years old.
Below, under Related articles, we have chosen some extracts from one of his letters to his son Adolph in 1853. In this “Political Testament” Sundius wants to describe his view on the state of things in Sweden and Europe and to show why people begin to consider emigration to America as a way out. Conclusion of the letter to his son in 1853 (…) “in order to take measures that can promote your own, your wife´s and children´s welfare in the future, which will in its store hold more than awkward difficulties for the Europeans.You do not need to be far-seeing to realize that scenes soon appear in our part of the world that will be ghastly. Streams of blood and with them accompanying sorrows and misery will soil and visit this Europe full of vice. If the end of this spectacle shall bring forth free enlightened and orderly societies, or if all this successful that we do not have at the time being, will fail to come, and Europe shall out of a revengeful punishment be shrouded in barbarism and the spirit of darkness by means of the Russian knout or the mob rule, only God knows".(…) (…)"May God protect You, your Wife and your Children! May He convey to Your spirit a warm feeling for everything noble, good and useful! And let that happen to You that is the most suitable for Your earthly and eternal welfare! This does your faithful father wish You. Waldemarsvik, November 20, 27, 28, 1853". Source: Letters written by aporthecary Sundius in 1849(50) and in 1853. The archives of local history/The collection of emigrant letters/File Sundius The Museum of Emigration – A guide Peter Cassel & Iowa´s New Sweden The background to Peter Cassel´s emigration – Curt von Wachenfeldt Copy: Ing-Marie Wallin Translation: Gunnel Asp
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