Colas Grenier

Of all the many wokers who came to Sweden from Wallonia the charcoal burners were the most common. Huge quantities of charcoal were needed for the smithys and the blast furnaces. There was a need for skilled burners. It's almost hard to imagine the number of trees that had to be felled to make charcoal and tar, and to keep blast furnaces burning. Timber was also used as a means of blasting the rocks when mining. They heated up the rock and then poured cold water on it to cause cracks. A primitive way that was used before they were confident enough to use powder.

In addition there had been extensive clearing of land for agricultural purposes. It is true that Sweden was a country with lots of forests but there certainly wasn't enough knowledge to maintain the growth of these. They never thought they would run out of trees but this happened in certain areas in mid Sweden.

The charcoal burners didn't have as easy a time as the smiths and the blast furnace workers when arriving in Sweden. They didn't get a piece of land or accomodation in the works village but were instead forced to go out and settle in the rural villages, sometimes in remote places. There they had to adjust to the foreign habits as soon as possible in order to avoid harrassment from the people. The Swedish country folk were quite simply hostile to immigrants!

In my family I have a charcoal burner from Wallonia who seems to have gone staight to the works villages. His sons worked in the iron production and I don't really know if Colas himself was ever out in the Swedish forests making charcoal!

Colas Grenier (later called Clas Garneij) arrived in the town of Norrköping, south of the capital Stockholm, in the year 1633. He later moved to Lövsta bruk in the province of Uppland, later to Åkerby bruk, Österlövsta also in Uppland, where he died in 1664. We don't have any further information about him, but he was married to Maria Dubois. She died in 1705 in the village of Njurunda, 105 years old! It is probable that she moved in with her daughter Maria who was married to the parish smith Jon Nilsson in Njurunda village, province of Ångermanland.

Colas and Maria had another daughter, Cathlin, who was married to the smith Mickel Larsson from Åkerby Bruk. She died in 1729.
The three sons were Hybert Garneij, born 1636, blast furnace master at Åkerby, later at Galtström in Ångermanland (Died 1717), Frans, born 1638, blast furnace master at Bovallen, Gunnilbo, near Skinnskatteberg in the province of Västmanland, later Västerbyhyttan, Söderbärke in the province of Dalarna, (Died there in 1717), and Johan, hammersmith at Galtströms bruk (Died before 1701).