Galgbacken, Levar

This stone was previously found at Levar's nearby execution site. The stone was moved here when the Bothnia Line was to be built. One of the last times it was used was December 11, 1844 when the farmhand Peter Olofsson from Nordsjö was beheaded. Read below what had happened.

Notice for Dorotea Johanna's death in the church register (Nordmaling F: 2 (1818-1882) Picture 46):

charcoal Eric Gustaf Svensson's Daughter, Dorothea Johanna, murdered by Drängen Peter Olofsson born in Djupsjö, but for the year tax written in Nordsjö

Tyko Lundkvist writes in his book Of rice and root (pages 28-29):

The deed on Storänget

To Lögdeå village belongs a farm, which is called Storänget. It is located by the bay between Rönnholm and Kronörn. Here came in the 1770s a working school student, named Erik Forsberg b. 1730.

We shall here describe an event which occurred on Sunday, September 8, 1844, and which was certainly talked about for a long time. The young farmer Erik Gustaf Svensson from Bergsjö and his wife Anna Magdalena, Johan Asmundsson's daughter from Hyngelsböle, who was a foster daughter of Jonas Forsberg b. 1787, a grandson of the first Forsberg, lived as Turku residents at Storänget at this time.

This Sunday, the wife was to be taken to church after her son Erik Olof's happy birth in July. The two spouses and foster mother Anna Dorotea and the eldest daughter Anna Erika therefore rowed across the bay to the church. The old benefactor Jonas Forsberg and a one and a half year old girl Dorotea Johanna and the newborn boy, as well as two young girls, stayed at home.

Forsberg had prepared to go on a fishing trip but was hindered by some acquaintances from the mill came and visited and stayed until 5 o'clock at em. Then the old man went out into the boat and took one of the maids with him to help with rowing. At home, only a 17-year-old maid and the two small children remained.

The people of Storänget had a few years earlier had a farm boy named Per Olsson from Nordsjö. Now he suddenly came across the forest to visit. After inquiring about the master people, he attacked the maid with a wooden pipe and hit her so hard in the head that she fell but got up and ran out to the lake to see if any rowers could be seen who could help her. It was a quarter of a mile to the nearest farm.

But Per Olsson caught up with the girl and hit her repeatedly in the head so that she bled profusely. When she then fell to the ground, he stepped on her chest, so that she lost her senses. Then he pulled her up to the cottage "probably because if the spark of life were to sparkle again, it would really go out", It says in a newspaper report. Now the children began to cry, and in annoyance at this he smashed the head of the girl with his wooden pipe. Then he went loose on the boy in the cradle and hit him so hard that the blood penetrated through the ear canal.

Now he could move on to the planned theft and after taking what he coveted, he dragged the maid into the room, where there was a bed with down clothes and on the walls hung cotton dresses and other flammable goods. After throwing two fires into the bed, he took the stolen goods and left, believing that the fire would wipe out all traces of what had happened.

However, the girl regained her senses and managed to put out the fires and then crawled on the floors to the room where the little one was lying and screaming. She managed to put him in her lap. In this position and bleeding, she was found almost helpless, when the farm people returned. The young man was losing his mind in shock but "was sustained on the precipice of the abyss of despair by the consolation grounds of religion”. She was the sister of the famous reader Jakob Jansen in Hyngelsböle.

Since the maid could tell about what happened, sheriff Nils Nolund could already on Monday evening arrest the killer near Sunnansjö on the way to his brother in Salberg, where he was also written. Per Olsson had also previously been punished for theft and this time received 40 pairs of rods. He was strong and robust, 33 years old. At first he denied everything, but when he heard that the maid was alive and testified about the incident, he found it too good to admit, and he was sentenced to the loss of his life. His request for mercy was rejected.

December 11 of the same year was the day of execution. He was allowed to take a prisoner ride from Umeå to Nordmaling's district jail. From there he sent word to the maid in Storänge and asked to see her. When she showed up, he asked her for forgiveness and gave her a Bible and a small devotional book, which he bought for what he had saved during his imprisonment.

Kl. 11 in the morning Per Olsson was beheaded on Levar's gallows hill. He went to meet his death with Christian submission, "however, learns manifested in his actions a certain unconscious concern”. According to another statement, he must have sung several hymns in a beautiful and clear voice during the journey from Vallen to Levar.

This was probably the last time the car went on Levar's gallows hill.