Gustaf Knut Sten

Also went by the name Knute Stone  
  • Born:  1886 Österbybruk, Uppland, Sweden. 
  • Emigrated: 1911. Settled in South Dakota: Brookfield, McCook County.
  • Death:   1974. Salem, McCook County, South Dakota. 
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Top photo of Knut Stone, courtesy Per-Ulf Allmo, Sweden,

​Photo of Knut's nyckelharpa at the National Music Museum in Vermillion South Dakota.  (Arne B. Larson Collection, 1979) 
Authors note:   The nyckelharpa photo looks upside down.  A kontrabasharpa and silvebasharpa must be hung with "eyes" up.   It is consider bad luck to hang it any other way.  
Knut Gustaf Sten was born on January 9, 1886, in Österbybruk, Uppsala, Sweden, a community steeped in nyckelharpa tradition.  He grew up in Gimo, and later in life, he moved to the Roslagen parish of Harg, another vibrant nyckelharpa region. 

As a young man of 17, he moved to Sandviken in Gävle for five years to work at the ironworks, moving and loading steel pipes for rail transport.  He stayed with a family named "Kjellberg."  Gustaf Albert Kjellberg,  younger brother of another nyckelharpa playing Nordic Newcomer, Axel Kjellberg also lived in Sandviken during this time and it is fun to imagine they were somehow connected.  
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Seeking new horizons, Knut crossed the Atlantic in 1911 with only a few possessions, including his kontrabasharpa-style nyckelharpa. He arrived in New York via Kristiania (Oslo) and continued on to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he worked as a lumberjack and harvested ice during a bitterly cold winter. When a friend told him of work in South Dakota for $25 a month, Knut hopped a train to Salem, SD and rode a full day by horse to reach the remote farm where he was hired.  He made his home for many years in the backyard chicken coop.

He soon met Hilda Anderson (1886–1974), daughter of Swedish homesteader Anders Gustaf Anderson, one of the early settlers of Brookfield Township in McCook County, South Dakota. Knut and Hilda married and built their own farmhouse and barn on the northeast quarter of the Anderson family’s claim, one mile south of the Swedish farming community of Center. In 1920, the couple adopted Hilda’s niece, Dorothy Hanson.

Knute farmed this land for decades. In 1947, he retired and auctioned off the farm, but kept his nyckelharpa. In 1955, at the age of 70, he and Hilda moved to the town of Salem .  

Later in life Knute's great-nephew tape-recorded and transcribed an oral history interview titled, "Med två dollar och en nyckelharpa" (With two dollars and a nyckelharpa") 

In 1958, Knut made a lasting contribution to Swedish-American cultural heritage by donating his nyckelharpa to what would become the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota. The instrument is now part of their vast collection, a testament to his deep connection to his homeland’s musical traditions and his desire to share them with future generations.
Credit to Per-Ulf Allmo, Sweden, Keith Engstrom USA, and to the National Music Museum in Vermillion SD  for providing valuable information for this story.  
Photo of Knut Stone, courtesy of family.  Used with permission 
​Photo of Knut's nyckelharpa, bow and case at the National Music Museum in Vermillion South Dakota.  Taken and used with permmission. 
FUN FACTS: 
  • The nyckelharpa has a strong unbroken tradition of playing in Uppland, particularly in the area around Österbybruk and Harg, the communities where Knute lived.   
Music Links
​Here are nyckelharpa tunes from the areas of Österbybruk and Harg where Knute lived while in Sweden