William Östman
(Erik Wilhelm ÖSTMAN)
If you are Swedish and have ended up
here by way of an Internet search, welcome.
This page is dedicated to an old Swedish sea captain whose story is
slowly being unraveled. This information
was collected over the past 16 years and has come from many people. If you can add anything new to this mystery,
please drop me a line here. I am particularly interested in getting a
better photo of the Swedish Bark Charlotta shown
farther down the page.
“Uncle” Bill Ostman played a significant role
in the lives of other families in Muscogee.
He was born near Stockholm, Sweden 16 Nov 1839,
the year after Samuel Morse gave a public demonstration of the
telegraph. Perhaps Uncle Bill was best
characterized by Herman Merritt who knew him before his death in 1916. Herman’s story about Uncle Bill is here.
Bill was born Erik Wilhelm Östman 16 Nov 1839 in Lohärad,
Stockholm, Sweden. He was the 9th
of ten children of Karl Fredrik Östman and Beata Dorotea Ek. Here are their children.
i.
Beata Katarina ÖSTMAN born 13 Nov 1822 in Harbo,
Vastmanland, Sweden. Died 1893 in Ånstaberg,
Skepptuna. She married in 1859.
ii.
Lars Johan ÖSTMAN Kyrkoherde (Minister) born 19 Feb
1825 in Harbo, Vastmanland,
Sweden. Died in Funbo. He married in 1867. He also
married in 1858.
iii.
Karolina Dorotea ÖSTMAN born 3 Dec 1826 in Harbo, Vastmanland, Sweden.
iv.
Karl Ludvig ÖSTMAN
Förvaltare (Bailiff) born 3
Mar 1829 in Harbo, Vastmanland,
Sweden. Died in Rungarn, Bladåker.
v.
Fredrika Emilia ÖSTMAN born 5 Aug 1831 in Harbo, Vastmanland, Sweden. Died in Åbö,
Husby-Långhundra. She married in 1868.
vi.
Fredrik Daniel ÖSTMAN born 22
Jul 1834 in Loharad, Stockholm, Sweden. Died 1834 in Lohärad.
vii.
Kristina Lovisa ÖSTMAN born 30 Sep 1835 in Lohärad,
Stockholm, Sweden. Died 1860 in Lohärad.
viii.
Otto Fredrik Daniel ÖSTMAN Adjunkt (Curate) born 27 Aug 1837
in Lohärad, Stockholm, Sweden. Died in Hudiksvall.
ix.
Erik Wilhelm ÖSTMAN Sjöman (Seaman) born 16 Nov 1839
in Lohärad, Stockholm, Sweden. Died 3 Aug 1916 in
Muscogee, Florida, USA.
x.
Per Gotthilf ÖSTMAN born 10 Jan 1842 in Lohärad,
Stockholm, Sweden. Died 1842 in Lohärad.
I have no record of Bill after his
birth until about 1866 when there is this entry in Swedish records:
In GID 2529.2.37400
[Stockholm] Lohärad AI:16 HFL 1866-1870 page 1, Eric Wilhelm ÖSTMAN
has received a certificate for going to navigation school in Gävle.
Two years later he was the master of
the Swedish Bark Charlotta.
Name: E.W. Östman
Date of birth: 1839
Parish of birth: Lohärad
Residence (parish): Lohärad
Occupation: Befälhavare
(commander, chief)
Date and place of sign on: 07/18/1868
in Hudiksvall
Ship:
Name: Charlotta
(Bark)
Port of registry: Hudiksvall
Destination: London
Weight (nyläster):
209 (metric tons)
Shipowner: J.A. Jennische
Captain: E.W. Östman
This is the Charlotta as she looked in 1915.
In 1877 Bill moved
to Gävle, Sweden and served on the Swedish ship Ran
twice per Swedish records.
1: "Styrman"
(~first mate) on the ship Ran from Gävle 1877-06-13
to Gävle 1877-08-04.
2: "Styrman"
(~first mate) on the ship Ran from Gävle 1877-08-13
to London 1877-09-27.
It must have been some time after this
that Bill met Oran Merritt with whom he lived on and off in Muscogee from at
least 1900 until his death in 1916.
Bill immigrated to the US in 1881 and
was naturalized by 1899 when he bought land from the Bureau of Land
Management. This is also the year Kate
and Oran were married and so matches the story Herman Merritt wrote about the
two sailing together until Oran met Kate.
In the 1910 Muscogee Census he was listed as naturalized and a
self-employed carpenter. The thought
occurred to us that perhaps he was called Uncle because he married one of
Kate's aunts. But he was listed as
single in the 1910 census - not divorced or widowed.
Swedish Emigration Records 1783-1951
William Ostman
born c1839 Male
Origin - Amerika
Destination - Pensacola
Sept. 14, 1888
Port of Departure: Göteborg
Database Emil Hamn
In 1899 Bill Ostman purchased land
from the US along the Styx River in Baldwin County, AL (not far from Muscogee)
as shown below.
Patentee Name:
OSTMAN, WILLIAM
Authority: May
20, 1862: Homestead Entry (12 Stat. 392)
Signature
Date: 8/14/1899
Metes/Bounds:
N Legal Land Descriptions
Section
|
Township/Range
|
Meridian
|
Acres
|
Counties |
|
8 |
4-S/4-E N |
St Stephens
|
160.35 |
Baldwin |
We know Bill was in Muscogee, or at
least knew the Merritts, by 1901 since he is mentioned in a 1901 letter as
having been invited to their daughter Minnie’s wedding. He was living with the Merritts in 1908
(received Christmas card – see below), 1910 (Federal census), and 1916 when he
died. During this time he made several trips back to Sweden but always returned
to Muscogee. On one of those trips he
brought back brooch watches for all of the girls. Oran’s and Kate’s granddaughter, Edie Bowman
Avant, still had hers when she died in 2000.
I have never figured out Bill's
relation to either Kate or Orrin. Jack Merritt, however, had this old Christmas
card to Bill from his brother living in Hudiksvall,
Sweden.
The initials on the card look like Tk or Fk but the F in Florida
looks just like the first letter of the initials, thus, making it Fk. The only sibling
with both an F and a K in their name is Otto Fredrik Daniel ÖSTMAN, Bill’s older brother who would have been 71 at the
time.
Våra hjärtlig aste väl
äns kningar till jul och ny år för
du vi sig alla.
Shown below in order are the words I can
decipher and their possible translation:
· våra our
· hjärtlig hearty,
cordial, heartfelt
· aste most
· väl well
· ans care or äns ???
·
kningar appointments – probably an archaic
version meaning furniture or equipment or good things.
· till at
· jul Christmas
· och and
· ny new
· år year
· för for
· du you
· vi we or
ni you
· sig oneself, himself, herself, itself,
themselves
· alla everyone
This probably translates roughly to:
Our hearty well wishes at Christmas and New Year for you from all of us.
There are, however, obviously problems
with this translation. If anyone can
more accurately translate this, please send me your translation and I will post
it here.
This is a photograph from Arthur
Merritt’s collection. These five
children are obviously some connection to Bill.
The photo was made in Hudiksvall, Sweden and we already know from the Christmas
card that Bill’s brother, Fredrik, lived there and was in contact with Bill in
the US. It would seem, then, to be a
good hypothesis that these are Fredrik’s children. In fact the Swedish Census data list supports
this:
1890 Swedish Census:
Östman, Otto Fredrik
Daniel 1837 F
Frisk, Fanny Helena Elisabeth 1852
M
(Barn), Karl Edvard
Harald 1873
Ch
(Barn), Ingegerd
Ida Elisabeth 1876 Ch
(Barn), Nils Fredrik Edvin 1877
Ch
(Barn), Anna Astrid 1879 Ch
1900 Swedish Census:
Östman, Otto Fredrik
Daniel 1837 Father
Frisk, Fanny Helena Elisabet 1852 Mother
(Barn), Gerda
Maria 1874 Child
(Barn), Ingegärd
Ida Elisabet 1876 Child
(Barn), Nils Fredrik Edvin 1877
Child
(Barn), Anna Astrid 1879 Child
(Barn), Viola Helena 1883 Child
The photo shows the four eldest children
to be two boys and two girls just as shown in the census records. The fifth, and youngest, child might be Viola
Helena born after 1880. If this is the
correct family, Viola’s age appears to be about two in the photo placing it as
having been made about 1885. If any
visitor recognizes this photo, contact me here. I have a much larger version that I will be
happy to send you if you want it.
Here is a
photo of Uncle Bill Ostman himself.
