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Return to Westerholm Family
Map of the five houses on lot #119 and data about them from a fire insurance letter from 1862.
#1 The yellow house was built in 1828 with seven rooms. (A living room, three bedrooms, a kitchen, and an entrance room, plus a room in the attic.)
#2 The red house was built in 1834 with four rooms, three storage rooms and one for wood storage.
#3 A stable with a room for cattle and another for manure, built in 1844.
#4 A domed cellar, with a grey stone floor, an apartment above, built of wood and painted red, built in 1806.
#5 House built in 1812 with three room, two bedrooms and one entrance room. The house was built attached to the main building. Part of the garden was surrounded by a red painted fence.
On the map the little red house across the street was painted red, and the Westerholm house was painted yellow. The small alley behind the yellow house is now named Christinegatan. Brunnsgatan does not exist any more.
My great grandfather Hans West was born 20 July 1825 on the West farm #5 in Vöra, in the village of Rekipeldo (today Rejpelt). Hans' parents were Eric Johansson West (1788-1874), owner of the farm, and Brita Hansdotter Israels (1791-1871). West farm had been cultivated by both Erics' father, grandfather, and great grandfather Johan Mattson (born in Lestijarvi ca. 1700 and married into the family of the farm). For unknown reasons, the home was lost in about 1839. My mother Irma often said that "He who agrees to guarantee a loan, agrees to sorrow," considering the family home.
Hans, his four adult siblings, Lisa, Anna, Greta and Erik left Vöra. Lovisa and Anders, who were younger, stayed with the parents. Having first stayed in the neighboring farm of Peth, they became tenant farmers at Isamäki in Tuckur.
Hans' older brother Erik, born in 1823, arrived in Christchurch in New Zealand about 1854, after the helmsman's examination in Finland. According to the Naturalization Records, Erik West was the first person from Finland settling permanently on the land. When he died in 1899, he left his wife and children behind.
Hans West moved to Vasa 6 November 1839 and came as an indentured painting servant to Jakobstad in 1841, where he took the name of Westerholm. He worked as a servant for the painter Benjamin Töhlgren. When Benjamin died 8 March 1849, Hans took over his master's business and on 25 April of the same year, the justice department of Jakobstad awarded him the title of master painter.
Hans married 22 June 1849 Brita Katarina Andersdotter Rudnäs, born in Kronoby 15 February 1827. During the difficult years of 1867 and 1868 with hunger and epidemic raging in the country, my grandfather Karl Gustaf Westerholm was born 30 October 1867. He was the youngest of 13 children, of whom nine died young. Ten months later, Brita died from typhus 27 August 1868.
In the family bible, Hans wrote "She died young, leaving a loved husband and four children. She joined the blessed children who had died before her to live happily in heaven."
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