Petter Anders Skutnabb, part 1

Petter Anders Skutnabb was the father of Akseli Skutnabb, an evangelical preacher who is my great grandfather. Pam has written a story on Akseli in her blog http://paminflorida.blogspot.com/2009/03/family-heritage.html. So I thought I'd write something on his father.

Petter Anders Skutnabb, b. June 1st 1829, Skutnabba farm, Pedersöre, Finland; d. January 29 1900, Hämeenlinna, Finland.

Petter's father Jonas was a tenant farmer on the Skutnabba farm in Pedersöre. His brother Jakob owned the farm. Petter decided to look elsewhere for a living and left for the Saimaa canal construction site in 1846 at age 17. The Saimaa canal construction site was by far the biggest in Finland at the time. Expert builders were brought in from Sweden since this was the first construction of its type in the Russian empire. When finished the canal was 58km long and had 28 locks.

Petter worked as an apprentice stone mason and right after the canal was opened in 1856 Petter was promoted to master builder 3rd class.

For the next 4 years he worked on the first railway construction site in Finland between Helsinki and Hämeenlinna.

During his career he took part in and later supervised most of the major canal and bridge works in Finland. First the canals of Sääksmäki, Apia and Valkeakoski, then Lempäälä canal. In the 1880's he supervised the building of the "new" bridge in Tampere. The Hämeensilta of today replaced it in 1929. From Tampere he moved on to Kauttu canal and still later the Vuoksi railroad bridge in Eastern Finland. In 1886 he built a new house in Hämeenlinna. The local paper commented on it as being "quite grand and sturdy".

Petter Skutnabb retired in 1889 at the age of 60. He lived in Hämeenlinna until his death in January 1900 of a stroke.

Family: Petter married Lovisa Simonsdotter Sandström (b. 29.10.1831, d. 30.07.1907), probably in 1859. They had seven children.Two of his sons had quite a tragic life, I'll try writing about them later.