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Johanna's Uncle Eric Helsten
who paid her way to USA and
found her work and was upset
with her sudden departure from
Gaylodsville for New York City.
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So, who was Uno Kempff that the family was so concerned with?
With the great Swedish research skills of Malin Klangeryd, we know a little something about Kempff and his misdeeds. There are some gaps, but here is what we know about him.
His full name was Knut Uno Kempff. He was born 8 September 1826 in Örebro.
He was married 27 October 1854 to Johanna Lovisa Juberg (sometimes called Sophia Lovisa) (born 10 March 1827 in Saint Lars parish, Linköping county). They had three children who each died at a young age:
1. Anders Gustaf Uno (born 9 June 1855 in Nyköping – died 31 March of croup in Almbro, Gällersta)
2. Knut Frithiof (born 13 December 1856 in Vaksala – died 17 April 1863 of scarlet fever in Almbro, Gällersta)
3. Unus Alfred Louis (born 12 January 1861 in Gällersta parish – died 4 April 1863 of scarlet fever on Almbro, Gällersta).
Uno Kempff and his wife Sofia (Johanna) Lovisa Juberg are twenty-five years older than our Johanna Caroline Hellsten — they are old enough to be her parents!
How did they meet? Did they know each other in Sweden?
Malin has constructed a timeline of what she knows about Uno Kempff’s whereabouts from various official records:
• 1826 born in Örebro
• 1854-1855, living lat first city block farm nr 66-68 in Nyköping’s west parish. Uno works as a merchant.
• 1854 Uno married Johanna/Sofia Lovisa Juberg
• 1855, son born in Nyköping
• 1856, son born in Vaksala
• 1860: living in Vaksala parish
• 1861, son born in Gällersta
• 1860-21 May1869: living in Almbro (Gällersta parish, Örebro County)
• 21 May 1869 – in Stockholm
• 17 April 1874-: departure from Göteborg to Hull, England on the ship Orlando. Destination New York
• 1880 -1882: living Västergötland 5 i Maria Magdalena parish in Stockholm, working as shop assistant. Living alone
• 12 August 1882: Departure to America through Hull, England
There is a gap here in the above timeline from 1869 to 1874 when Uno Kempff leaves for New York City. The family was worried that he was already in New York City.
Uno Kempff leaves for NYC twice, once in 1874 and then in 1882. When did he return? What was he doing in NYC and Sweden that might concern Johanna C Hellsten’s family.
… and Johanna Hellsten's timeline while growing up with her parents:
• 1851, born in Nikolai parish, Örebro
• 1856 – 15 June 1863: living at plot no. 100 (Örebro, North Nikolai parish)
• 15 June 1863 – 15 November 1867: living at Norra Bro 6 (Gällersta parish)
• 15 November 1867 – 27 March 1868: living at Almbro (Gällersta parish)
• 22 April 1868, Johanna arrives in New York.
Johanna officially moves 3.5 Km with her family to Almbro (Gällersta parish, Örebro County) on 15 November 1867, the day after she returned her travel document allowing her to go to North America. She first got her travel paperwork a week before and had the travel money from Uncle Eric already there being held by aunt Lovis.
Already living in Almbro when the Hellsten family arrived, was Uno Kempff and his wife. It was close enough that the families might have known each other already. Her family ran a general store before her father went bankrupt, maybe Kempff's family had been customers.
Was her abrupt delay of travel because she had met Kempff when her family planned their move? Was Kempff going to be the spring traveling companion she would have that her father Carl mentioned in his letter of February 1868? I’m not sure we’ll ever know the answer to that question.
Malin Klangeryd found this 1861 local newspaper coverage:
http://magasin.kb.se:8080/searchinterface/page.jsp?id=kb:212466&recordNumber=10&totalRecordNumber=11
"Severe sentence. Norrlands-Posten [Norrlands newspaper] from Gefle [Gävle] says: grain traider Uno Kempff, which prosecution by the court last year, for deceit and fraud in trade, aroused great attention, and whom by the Municipal Court was sentenced to compensate claimants and witnesses, and to one and a half years in prison, has recently got his sentence by the Court of Appeal; the verdict is not less than four months in prison - a true warning for those who feel tempted to walk in Kempff's footsteps”
We should add this to the Uno Kempff timeline above,
• 1861, a stay in prison at hard labor and also financial restitution for his deceit and fraud in trade as a grain trader.
When Carl and his wife Johanna Sparr moved to Almbro, did they know the history of Kempff from the early 1860s? Or, did they just become friends with someone who was a friendly neighbor or colleague?
Kempff has served time for forgery and fraud!
Our Johanna Hellsten would NOT have been in the same town as Kempff was when he got caught using deceit and fraud with his grain clients. Besides, she would have been a young child at that time. Her parents might not even have known what Kempff's 1861 history of what was probably a friendly neighbor or businessman.
But there’s even more to tell about our charming Kempff.
©2015, Erica Dakin Voolich
The link to this blog is http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2015/05/uno-kempff-family-scandal-or-family.html
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