August Hjalmar Ericsson

Ericcson, August Hjalmar. (Vesträs, Sweden, June 2, 1873--November 9, 1936, Littleton, New Hampshire). He came to the United States as a young sailor in 1891. He worked at various jobs in southern Maine until his conversion in 1898. He studied his Bible while driving a bakery wagon, and began preaching in one-room schools around Biddeford and Kennebunk, Maine. On October 4, 1899, he married Lydia May West by whom he had three children. On the day following his wedding, he was ordained in Westbrook, Maine, as an Advent Christian minister. He held pastorates in that denomination at Oxford, Maine, 1899-1902; Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, 1901-1908; Whitman, Massachusetts, 1908-1915; Littleton, New Hampshire, 1915 until his death, also preaching on Sunday afternoons in nearby Whitefield and Easton. In Littleton, he was the boyhood pastor of the undersigned.

Entirely self-educated at first, he commuted from Whitman to Boston and received a B.A. and B.D. degree from his denomination's New England School of Theology. Then, by correspondence, he received a B. Sacred Lit. from Iowa Christian College and an M.A. from Potomac University. Within his denomination, he was known as an intellectual preacher. In Littleton, he was a leader in ecumenical affairs. He was a popular speaker at campmeetings in New England and in California. For many years he was president of the N.H. Conference of his denomination.

Early in his ministry he began writing hymns which were set to music by his fellow ministers. He wrote a number of articles for denominational papers and for some years was editor of the Blessed Hope Adult Sunday School Quarterly.

--Leonard Ellinwood, with the assistance of Ada Ericsson Whiting (daughter), via correspondence held in the DNAH Archives.