Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-07-06
N0BLEMAN TRAMP
WAS A MURDERER.
Story of Count Cronhjeim of Sweden,
Who Died in Pennsylvania
Poorhouse.

Details of the story of Count Alfred
Robert Cronhjeim of Stockholm have
just come to light in Hartford, Conn, in
bundle of documents and afidayits re-
ceiyed from Judge Huselius of Sweden,
who few months ago made that city
his headquarters in his search through
the country for his missing countryman.
| 1t has been ascertained that the count,
reduced to the condition of a tramp, had
died unknown and uncared for in poor
| house in Pennsylvania nearly five years
| before fortune was left to him. The
aoeuments disclose also the fact that the
| unfortunate tramp was a murdered. His
| death occurred in the Lehigh county
almshouse at Wescoesville, Pa, May y,
1902
Rev. Lars Peter Ahlquist, pastor for
| ten years of the Swedish Lutheran
| church at Portland, Conn, gave the au-
! thorltles their first clues to work upon,
! when, the search for the count was begun
IN order that the fortune might be turned
| over to him. In his story of his ac-
quaintance with the count the Swedish
| minister told of his first meeting with
| him when in 1872 he served as chaplain
of the church at Warberg castle, then
| used as a<prison. Count Cr0nhjeim had
| been sentenced to penal servitude for life
for the murder of his grandmother.
When Cronhjeim came to this country
in 1878, after his sentence had been COM
| muted, he wrote at once to Mr.. AhlQuist.
and the two kept up a correspondence
| until Cronhjeim finally called to see the
minister at Portland in 1882. After
| that every year he would pay a short
| visit to his friend. In 1884, becoming
| discouraged, he began tramping the coun-
| try. and from that time till his death
| drifted from place to place.
| As years went by the clergyman no.
ticed that the count grew poorer and
| poorer. He paid his last visit TO him
| in 1901.
To one Hartford woman Cronhjeim is
supposed to have told his story. She
was Mrs. Christina Olsson a widow,
whom he sought soon after he landed in
| this country. He was stranger to
| her, but she, recognizing his title, took
| him in and for three months he was a
member of her household.
He then told her that he was born in
| 1910. He attended good schools and
later served in the Swedish army and
in the Danish army in the war of 'u4,
where he was taken prisoner. When he
returned home his grandmother, who he
said was very wicked woman, became
angry with him and in a fight he killed
her, unintentionally, he contended.
After staying in Hartford for a short
| time Cronhjeim became restless and
| finally left to wander about the country.
| Occasionally he would return for short
stays, but he paid her his last visit in
| 1900.
From Connecticut Cronhjeim appar-
emily wandered through New York to
| Pennsylvania. In 1902 he visited John
| Good of Catasauqua, Pa, and then went
to the farm of O. f. Swenson, just out
! of the town. He remained there for a
| few days, when he was taken i'll with
pneumonia.
When it became known that he was
very i'll he was removed to the almshOuse
! for treatment and died on the day that
| he was received there. No one claimed
| the body and it was sent to the Anatom-
| ical Board of the State of Pennsylvania,
and used for scientific purposes.