Gafsele

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Gafsele is a small Swedish village now in Åsele Municipality, which belongs to the province of Lapland in northern Sweden.

Nils Anderson became Åsele's first settler in 1674. He came from Finland, to escape the war between Sweden and Russia. He chose to settle in Gafsele, and for that was awarded a 10 year tax redemption provided he stayed and made a settlement. He brought his wife Brita and a cow. At first times were hard, but they got help from the Sami people. Eventually they established a farm with a few cows and had four daughters.

One problem emerged when a fresh wood cut came floating down the river showing that there was another settlement north of Nils. He got angry and hunted the new settler up to Vilhelmina, 100 km away. There he was allowed to settle.

Another problem was when Brita was accused of being a heathen. She had gone around the fields and prayed for good harvest in a non-Christian way. This was a serious offence and could lead to the death sentence, but Brita and Nils talked their way out of this.

With four daughters and four sons-in-law, the village grew. Its heyday was in the 1950s with a lot of small farmers, but today only two remain, Kurt Norlin and Lars Enfeldt, and most other people work in the forest or are pensioners.