“Extra staff sergeant” Nils Petter Larsson Öquist lived with his wife Maria Jacobsdotter and their nine children in Gamla Staden, Nederluleå, which was in Northern Sweden just below the Arctic Circle.
One day Nils went out on his boat with three of his six sons, Carl Jacob (18) Johan Gustaf (12), Nils Petter (13) on the Kalix river near where they lived. They were rowing to some of the skerries (small rocky uninhabited islands) in search of birch bark to bring home. It was a famously cold river that contained areas of dangerous rapids.
The boat overturned and everyone was thrown into the frigid water. Nils and his two sons Johan and Carl drowned but the thirteen year old son, Nils Petter, managed to save himself by swimming to an uninhabited island.
He survived for several days by eating berries sick with grief as the reality of the death of his father and two brothers washed over him. He saw some wild goats on the island and tried to catch one for milk or meat but he was unsuccessful.
He swam out to the first boat that came by, but it was occupied by females only and they rowed right past him because they thought he was Russian, “who could be very dangerous on board”
With the next boat that came by he had better luck.
Hanging onto the side of the boat, he was questioned by those on board who were very suspicious as to why he was in the river. He had to prove that he was who he said he was. When he mentioned the names of all the people in the nearby town of Luleå, he was helped on board and rowed to shore.
In 1819, Nils married Maria Rutstrom and together they had eight children. The youngest was Lars Ulrik, the father of Hedley Ö and grandfather of Lilian Ö Kyle.
Information for this story was taken from records uncovered by Simeon Oquist.
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