August Sigfrid Lundgren

  • Born:  May 6, 1891. Österänge, Österlövsta, Uppland, Sweden. 
  • Emigrated: 1910   
  • Death: May 4, 1915, St. Paul, MN. 
August S. Lundgren was born in 1891 in Österänge, Österlövsta parish in Uppland, Sweden, to Karl Olof Lundgren and Anna Britta Jansdotter. 

​At the age of thirteen, he learned to play nyckelharpa from his grandfather, Johan (Johannes) Lundgren, (born 1823) a player from Österänge.  In 1907 Johan Lundgren, at 85 years of age, competed in the fiddler's gathering at Vigelsbo and received special recognition for his playing of an old walking tune. Through his grandfather, August inherited a musical tradition rooted in the dance tunes and community life of rural Uppland. 

In 1910, at nineteen years old, August worked as a sailor and left Sweden with his sights set on Minnesota, USA.

August worked in the construction trades and a boarded a room on Reaney Ave. and then on Winnipeg Ave. in St. Paul, near the city’s railroad yards.  Sadly he developed a fever just a few days shy of his twenty-fourth birthday.  August passed away on May 4, 1915, at Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul.  The Rev. Carl E. Benson, traveled from the Swedish Lutheran Church in Stillwater, MN to conduct his funeral. August was buried at Oakland Cemetery.

While there is no evidence he carried a nyckelharpa with him to America, he carried the musical world he had grown up in, shaped by nyckelharpa tradition. 
Credit  and thanks to Per-Ulf Allmo, Sweden for discovery of this musician and research support.   
Music Links
​Here are nyckelharpa tunes from the area of Österlövsta