Background
Tuve Nilsson Hasselquist was born on March 2, 1816, at Hasslaröd, Ousby parish, Skane, Sweden, the son of a prosperous farmer, Nils Tufvasson, by his wife, Lissa Svensdotter.
Tuve Nilsson Hasselquist was born on March 2, 1816, at Hasslaröd, Ousby parish, Skane, Sweden, the son of a prosperous farmer, Nils Tufvasson, by his wife, Lissa Svensdotter.
Tuve was educated in the school at Kristianstad and at Lund University and was ordained into the ministry of the Church of Sweden in 1839.
Tuve Hasselquist served successively as curate in several parishes in the diocese of Lund gained the reputation of preaching sermons that soothed his hearers like a fresh breeze and of chanting like an angel. He was closely associated with, and influenced by, two pastors who were known for their Pietism and free-church tendencies, and throughout his life Hasselquist was an uncompromising critic of the state-church system.
Through a letter from L. P. Esbjorn, the only Swedish Lutheran pastor in the United States at the time, Hasselquist accepted the call to the Swedish Lutheran congregation at Galesburg, IIIinois, having been granted a leave of absence for three years from the State Church. He arrived at Galesburg, October 28, 1852, and with the exception of a visit in the summer of 1870, partly for the purpose of recruiting men for the ministry, he never returned to his native land. He quickly adapted himself to the ways of his adopted country and became a leader in the Synod of Northern Illinois and in the Augustana Synod, serving as president of the latter body from 1860, when it was founded, to 1870, and as president of Augustana College and Theological Seminary from 1863 to 1891.
Through the newpaper Hemlandet, which he founded at Galesburg, January 3, 1855, Hasselquist placed an enduring stamp on Swedish-American Lutheranism. He directed the editorial policies of the paper and of its successor, Augustana, the official synodical organ, until 1889.
As a college president Hasselquist was loved by the students, who consulted with him as with a father and spoke of him as the patriarch of the synod.
Although essentially a man of peace, Hasselquist became more controversial with the passing years and with the increasing opposition to the Augustana Synod. He was a strong believer in centralization, advocating one synod, one college, one paper, and one central government, and his influence was probably decisive in checking the trend toward sectional and conference particularism. He favored the affiliation of the Augustana Synod with the General Council in 1870 and the transition from the use of Swedish to English as speedily as consistent with the obligations to the Swedish immigrants.
Quotations: “The church and state are so interwoven that it is often difficult to distinguish between them. ”
In spite of serious deficiencies as a parliamentarian, Hasselquist's winning personality claimed the respect and admiration of all although some thought he was too “free. ” In the earlier years of his ministry at the Sunday morning service he would appear dressed in a white linen coat, and as he walked to the front of the church he would sing a song in which the congregation joined. In the pulpit he was equally informal, often interrupting his sermon by singing a hymn. He saw no danger to Lutheran doctrine if the liturgy and certain forms were laid aside, although he was more conservative in his declining years.
On May 24, 1852, Hasselquist married Eva Helena Cervin of Kristianstad, a cultured woman of remarkable gifts and fine character, who adapted herself to pioneering as readily as her refined and scholarly husband.