Irene Barsokevitz Vasenius - God's Handmaiden in ... - Genfamily.org

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Fields/2223/missions/ikidzu/IreneBarsokevitzVasenius.html
Irene Barsokevitz Vasenius - God’s Handmaiden in Africa
By
Irene Vasenius Collings
Irene Barsokevitz was about to truly live her faith for it would be written of her, “She was a
genuine handmaid of the Lord who devoted herself entirely to the service of the Gospel.”[1][1] [1]
She clutched the guardrail as she watched the coastline disappear as the clipper ship sailed away
from Finland. There were so many emotions tumbling through her heart. Guiltily she wondered how the
family would survive without her. Her mother had died that summer. She brushed a chestnut curl from
where the wind had blown it onto her face. She would miss her seven brothers and their families,
especially Emil she had taken care of his son for ten years after his mother had died. Her father had
died about that time, too. She missed hearing him lead the local band. Only her name was no longer
Barsokevitz for on October 19, 1909, she had married the slim, gentle man who stood at her side. But
this honeymoon voyage was much more for they were sailing for Germany to join others and then to
Asmara, Eritrea, Africa, to become medical missionaries.
Not surprisingly she had been attracted to a clipper captain, for her maternal grandfather had
been one. Fredrick had taken Swedish navigation courses for 1st mate from 1899-1900.[1] [2] He worked
up the ranks to become a clipper ship captain.
While dating they had attended motivating sermons by Pastor L. R. Conradi[1] [3] and converted
to the Seventh-Day-Adventist faith. Frederick felt he could not do his duty as captain[1] [4] of the clipper
ship if they arrived in a port on the Sabbath.[1] [5] So after much prayer and discussion he decided to go
to the United States of America to attend George Washington University, Medical College where he
received a medical degree in 1909. Shortly after returning to Finland, Irene and Fredrick were married
and now were on their way to join staff for a potential string of missions.
In Asmara the other missionaries included L. R. Conradi, mission director; Pastor Anol
Grundset, mission superintendent; Valdemar E. Toppenberg, a Danish nurse; J. Persson, mission
worker; and E. N. Lindegren, mission worker. Irene worked to learn the native languages as Fredrick
contacted the authorities to obtain permission to erect other stations. But, unfortunately, Fredrick’s
numerous attempts to acquire permission for the establishment of medical work in other parts of Ethiopia
were in vain. The authorities suggested buying a place in or near Asmara, so they purchased an old

Italian homestead one mile south of that town. Conradi had thought that the medical approach would
open doors in Ethiopia, but for now that door was closed.
Mission appropriations were small and strictly limited, and so Doctor Vasenius and Pastor
Grundset worked on the scaffold with the rest of the staff until the mission compound, consisting of two
houses, a school building, workshop; stable and good well had been completed. Even the stones for
foundations and walls were quarried by them.
Irene now had a new project for their son, Aarne Elias Vasenius, arrived on September 27, 1910.
The first post card is written to her niece and the second has their child pictured.
In 1911[1] [6] the Vasenius’ were transferred to a mission located on a high hill which could be
seen from Lake Victoria “a circuit of mission station that had recently been opened in the area of Musoma
on Lake Victoria. Doctor Vasenius is listed as being at Ikizu[1] [7] , where a school had been started, part
of the time, and at Buseqwe, part of the time. The latter is about half way between Ikizu and Musoma. In
1912 Doctor Vasenius gave more than 800 treatments to the sick in Buseqwe District, but health care
was clearly not their principal work. "...We have pathetic cases of women coming to our missions to give
birth to perhaps their sixth or seventh or even ninth child, not one of the previous ones being alive....
Occasionally the mothers come (back) to show their child, and a great portion of them give their hearts
to God."[1] [8]
Irene taught the natives how to cook and clean. While her specific duties have not been
documented it is known she loved children, so probably taught school. She had a fine singing voice and
so conceivably led the singing and taught the hymns to the natives. Whether or not she trained as a
nurse or merely functioned as one is not clear, but some accounts[1] [9] (including family history) refer to
her as one. Irene, known for always being jolly and cheerful[1] [10] “was a proper female servant of the
Lord who devoted herself to evangelic gospel service"[1] [11]
One of the patients was a pregnant woman married to an East Indian trader. The husband paid
for the delivery and medical services with an African gray parrot. Irene loved her new pet. Fredrick
clipped its wings so that the bird could fly around but not escape back into the jungle. They named the
parrot, Polly, who learned to mimic the human voice perfectly. When people sat down to eat she said,
"Our kind, heavenly father," in Doctor Vasenius' voice. She called, "Doktor," like the German or Dutch
man who came to play chess or checkers.

Another one of their neighbors, a British Army officer ordered a gramophone. But upon arrival
the officer told Fredrick he didn't like it. As Fredrick looked over the gramophone he remembered hearing
Irene’s father leading the band. Irene loved music. So Fredrick looked at it decided to purchase it. The
next time the soldier came to the mission Doctor F. W. Vasenius offered to play some music on it. The
officer stammered and turned red-faced. When the gramophone played beautifully the doctor explained
that he had merely taken the packing out.
The doctor successfully treated his son's malaria, a coworker’s dysentery, and the Vasenius' had
a second child in 1912, a girl they named Oune.
Pastor Conradi visited this mission, “Another eight hours’ march brought us to Kidzu, on
December 15, (1912)…Four years ago the work was started in this field, and though we had some
adversities at first, yet the work has recently developed well…They have a good dwelling-house finished,
and the school is also under roof. They have about one hundred fifty students, of who one fourth are
girls…Dr. Vasenius thus far finds that the natives are rather shy in securing medical aid, especially if they
have to pay something in return. But gradually they are learning the advantage of a Christian doctor
over the heathen medicine-men. On account of heavy rains we were unable to start before three in the
afternoon of the seventeenth. Our path descended into a great plain, traversed by several rivers. In the
distance we could see the range of hills … and game of all sorts.” [1] [12]
Frederick told his wife how much he loved her during a rainstorm when they stood under a
tree.[1] [13] Unfortunately, very shortly, Irene and Oune would be buried under that tree. For on January
22, 1913, both Irene and her baby, Oune, died of a virulent form of malaria known as Blackwater Fever.
“The meeting was darkened by the death of a nurse, who had died of Blackwater fever,”[1][1] [14]
stunned the 4 th annual meeting of the Victoria-Nyanza Mission Field. “Unfortunately we had to mourn the
loss of Sister Vasenius, the wife of Doctor Vasenius. She had been in Africa since 1909 and died in 1913
in Ikidzu.”[1] [15]
Fredrick tried valiantly to carry on without his beloved wife. He would take his two year old son
with him on his tours. Aarne remembers going around to villages with his father and asking the children,
“What’s this, what’s this,” to learn the terms of things in the tribal language.
The following summer, in August 1914, world events changed everything for Britain declared war
on Germany, and Germany declared war on Russia, France, and Belgium. The war even affected Ikidzu
for the German district officer moved his headquarters and archives to the mission, claiming there was

more room. As the Brits advanced in Tanganyika most of the SDA missions were looted and destroyed.
The British forces made landings on the shores of Lake Victoria, to rout out the Germans. When
Toppenberg arrived at Ikidzu the doctor and German official were preparing to retreat to the south.[1] [16]
Doctor Vasenius chose to serve with the British since his native Finland was a duchy of Russia. He
became a 1st Lieutenant in the British Army in charge of a military hospital in Bukoba, British territory,
from 1916-1918 [1] [17] and placed Aarne with a Dutch Nanny in South Africa for the remainder of the
conflict. And then, on the 11 th hour, of the 11 th day of the 11 th month, in 1918, the signing of the
Armistice brought the Great War to an end.
Doctor Vasenius decided not to return to Finland since his son would have to attend school there
on the Sabbath. A tramp steamer took them to America where they would settle in Chisholm, Minnesota.
[ii][1] Frend und Leid published in Hamburg 1918 p 18 Translation by Russell Staples, SDA mission
director
[ii][2] Who’s Who Among Finnish Americans, Fitchburg, MA 1949
[ii][3] Staples, Russell, Letter to author “Pastor L. Condi was the primary leader of the (SDA) church in
Europe, with headquarters in Hamburg. He was possessed of vigorous missionary spirit and in the early
years of the 20 th century inspired the rapidly growing churches in Germany and Scandinavia, including
Finland to be involved with missionary work. For the greater part the Germans went to German colonial
territories, including Tanganyika and Scandinavians went to countries in the Middle East. They planned
to commence work in Ethiopia, which they expected would be shortly opened for missionary service.”
[ii][4] Family members disagree whether Fredrick was a captain or navigator
[ii][5] Family oral history
[ii][6] Who’s Who Among Finnish Americans, Fitchburg, MA 1949
[ii][7] Ikizu is also spelled Kidzu in the literature
[ii][8] Pfeiffer, Baldur, editor, Seventh-day Adventist Contributions to East Africa, 1903-1983 Verlag
Peter Lang, Frankfurt, Germany page 82
[ii][9] Heinz, Daniel, and Richard Ludwig Conradi; Missionari die Siebentien-Tegs—Adventism in Europe,
Frankfurt au Main, Verlag Peter Lang 1986 page 72 Translation by Father Ron Stolcis
[ii][10] Told to Aarne and Fern Vasenius on a visit to Finland, by Vera Barsokevitz, Irene’s niece
[ii][11]Frend und Leid published in Hamburg 1918 page 18 Translation by Father Ron Stolcis
[ii][12] Conradi, L. R. THE ADVENT REVIEW AND SABBATH HERALD, THE WORLD WIDE FIELD, “German
Victoria Nyanza Mission, April 10, 1913

[ii][13] Story told to Grace Vasenius by her father-in-law, Dr. Vasenius
[ii][14] Heinz, Daniel, and Richard Ludwig Conradi; Missionari die Siebentien-Tegs—Adventism in Europe
, Frankfurt au Main, Verlag Peter Lang 1986 page 72 Translation by Father Ron Stolcis
[ii][15] Toppenberg, V. E., s, wrote numerous articles for the Mission Field published in Germany, This
1913 article was a report of the 4 th yearly meeting of the Victoria –Nyanza Mission Field. Translation by
Father Ron Stolcis
[ii][16] Toppenberg, Valdemar E., Africa Has My Heart, Pacific Press Publishing Association, Mountain
View, California 1958 p.62-68
[ii][17] Who’s Who Among Finnish Americans, Fitchburg , MA 1949
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Fields/2223/missions/ikidzu/FrederickWalterVasenius.html
Frederick Walter Vasenius
Provided by: Kit Collings
My grandfather, Frederick Walter Vasenius was born on Nov. 3, 1873, Tuusula, Finland to Maria Fredrika
(Skogster) and Albert Fredrick Vasenius. His grandfather once had a large estate, which nowadays is
divided among numerous children grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Vasenius attended elementary schools in Helsinki and took a navigation course for 1st mate (Swedish),
Helsinki, 1899-1900. He worked up the ranks to become a clipper ship captain. How he met Irene
Barsokevitz and the two of them were converted to Seventh Day Adventism is lost to history. Frederick
felt he could not do his duty as captain of the Clipper ship if they came to port on the Sabbath. Perhaps
because he had functioned as the ship's doctor (usually the duty of the captain) he decided to come to
America to attend George Washington University, Medical College where he received a medical degree.
Dr. Vasenius returned to Helsinki where he married Irene Barsokevitz on October 10, 1909. They sailed
for Africa landing at Asmara, Eritrea, with plans to be medical missionaries.
Vera (her niece) told my folks that Irene sold tickets in the railway station in Helsinki. She also said she
had chestnut brown, curly hair, greenish brown eyes, a beautiful singing voice, was jolly and cheerful.
Anna-Lisa wrote that her sister had liked children and used to buy things for her.
While this account was not written by Vasenius, but one of the missionaries who arrived at about the
same time and worked with them at the mission pens it. "The slow ship on which we traveled took the
better part of a week to reach Massaua, a seaport said to be the hottest on earth. Many subsequent visits
to this spot have convinced me that it lives up to its reputation. Stores and offices in Red Sea ports are
open only in the early morning and late afternoon. >From ten or eleven o'clock until three or four the
dazzling white streets, hot with quivering air, are deserted. One wonders how Europeans can live in heat
like that: but houses in the hot coastal lowlands are usually built of heat-resisting materials, such as
concrete or masonry.
"The narrow-gauge railway from Massaua to Asmara is a marvel of modern engineering. The track spans
deep ravines and threads its way along narrow ledges where chasms drop off several thousand feet to
the valley below. At the time I arrived in Massaua, the railway had been completed to Nefasit, where
passengers ate lunch in the albergo before continuing on the journey in a charabanc drawn by several
teams of strong mules. There were relay stations on the narrow, dusty roads, where fresh teams were
exchanged for the tired animals.

"I found the air becoming cooler as we climbed to higher altitudes, and before long we put on all the
clothes we had with us. Banks of clouds rolled down the mountainsides like a misty waterfall. When we
reached the top of the plateau, the clouds disappeared, and we soon found ourselves in sunny Asmara,
where I was welcomed by Pastor Anol Grundset, who had arrived with his family some months earlier.
Two other workers, Missionaries E. N. Lindegren and J. Persson were at the station to greet
me, I shared temporary lodgings with our mission direction, L. R. Conradi, and Dr. and Mrs. F. W.
Vasenius, during the special committee meetings in which the mission work was organized and planned."
The director of their group, "Pastor L. Conradi was the primary leader of the (SDA) church in Europe, with
headquarters in Hamburg. He was possessed of a vigorous missionary spirit and in the early years of the
20th century inspired the rapidly growing churches in Germany and Scandinavia, including Finland to be
involved with missionary work. For the greater part the Germans went to German colonial territories,
including Tanganyika, and Scandinavians went to countries in the Middle East. They planned to
commence work in Ethiopia, which they expected would be shortly opened from missionary service. This
is where your grandparents entered into the picture."
"Settling near Asmara, the missionaries allocated much time to the native language. Only after several
contacts with the Italian governor in 1909, permission for the erections of a station was obtained. All
attempts by the Finnish physician Dr. Vasenius to acquire permission for the establishment of medical
work in Aksum, Adua, Harrar, Djibouti, or other parts of Ethiopia were in vain." Vasenius may have been
the choice to negotiate because of his education or because of his experience as a captain where he
learned nine or ten European languages.
Irene wrote her niece from Asmara, Eritrea, on August 3, 1910. While the postcard is written in Swedish,
undoubtedly it tells of her pregnancy. A son, Aarne Elias Vasenius, was born to them on September 27,
1910.
"The Italian authorities did not grant our request, suggesting instead that we buy a place in or near
Asmara. The committee purchased two farms located near one of the main highways leading to the city
from the south. Since our mission appropriations were small and strictly limited, we set to work doing
everything ourselves. Our energetic superintendent, Pastor Grundset, and Dr, Vasenius worked on the
scaffold with the rest of us until the mission compound, consisting of two dwellings, a school building,
workshop, stables and good well had been completed. Even the stones for foundations and walls were
quarried by us. ...In spite of all my care to boil the milk-sometimes all over the stove-I came down with a
severe attack of dysentery, which weakened me so I could scarcely crawl out of bed. Dr. Vasenius had
gone on a tour, and, since I was absent from work, my friends thought I had gone with the doctor. When
he returned and heard that I had not been seen for some days, he called and found me weak and
emaciated from dysentery. With his good care I was soon on my feet again."
"The promise entry into Ethiopia being delayed, they were transferred to Tanganyika to a circuit of
mission stations that had recently been opened in the area of Musoma on Lake Victoria. They probably
traveled by boat to Mombasa, and thence by rail and road to Musoma. Dr. Vasenius is listed as being at
Ikizu, where a school had been started, part of the time, and at Buseqwe, part of the time. The latter is
about half way between Ikizu and Musoma.
"The mission was provided with a schooner to ply on the lake. Manuscripts were prepared for a
dictionary, a hymn book, the four Gospels, and for primers in the various districts."
"In 1909, among the first resident missionaries in Eritrea (now Ethiopia) were two medically trained
person, V. E. Toppenberg, a nurse, and Dr. F. W. Vasenius, a physician from Finland. They established
the first S.D.A. mission station in Ethiopia on an old Italian homestead one mile out of Asmara, but there
is no record of their medical work. They both later transferred to the Victoria Nyanza Field (Tanganyika)
and it is recorded in 1912 that Dr. Vasenius gave more than 800 treatment to the sick in Buseqwe
District, but health care was not clearly not their principal work.... We have pathetic cases of women
coming to our missions to give birth to perhaps their sixth or seventh or even ninth child, not one of the
previous ones being alive.... Occasionally the mothers come (back) to show their child, and a great
portion of them give their hearts to God." Tanganyika was German East Africa.
But not all of Dr. Vasenius' patients were downtrodden. One woman was married to an East Indian
trader. The husband paid for the delivery and medical services with an African gray parrot. They named
the parrot, Polly who learned to mimic the human voice perfectly. When people sat down to eat she said,
"Our kind, heavenly father," in Dr. Vasenius' voice. She called, "Doktor," like the German who came to
play chess or checkers.

Another one of their neighbors was a British officer who had a gramophone sent to him. He told the
doctor he didn't like it and after looking at it Fredrick decided to buy it from him. The next time the
officer came to the mission Dr. F. Vasenius offered to play some music on it. The officer stammered and
turned red-faced. When the gramophone played beautifully the doctor explained that he had taken the
packing out.
One day a group of excited natives arrived to request Dr. Vasenius help to bag a man-eating leopard.
Whether Vasenius did not take off the safety or the gun bearer was slow to give him the rifle is not
known. At any rate the leopard charged and clawed the doctor's face. He went back to the mission and
sewed up the cuts with the help of a mirror and a kerosene lantern. Vasenius built a microscope even
grinding the lenses that is still being used in the mission in the 1960's-perhaps they still are. The doctor
successfully treated his son's malaria and the Vasenius' had a second child in 1912, a girl they named
Oune. She died a few months after she was born and was buried under a favorite tree at Ikizu. Frederick
had told Irene how much he loved her during a rainstorm when they stood under that tree. Also Irene
developed Black Water Fever and died the same day as her daughter, January 22, 1913, and was buried
next to her daughter.
World War I was heating up and while the natives had raided the mission from time to time, now there
was a new threat. "Missionaries experienced major difficulties during the 1914-1918 war and were moved
from place to place." "When the British forces advanced into Tanganyika in 1914 ...most of the SDA
missions in Lake Province were looted and destroyed." Reportedly the mission where Dr. Vasenius lived
was the worst hit.
"The German district officer moved his headquarters and archives to the Ikizu Mission, where there was
more room... When the British forces made landings on the shores of Lake Victoria, they seriously
threatened the German positions.... With the exception of Dr. Vasenius in Ikizu, we (Toppenbergs) were
the only missionary family left to look after a dozen mission stations... We (Toppenbergs) arrived and
visited with the doctor and the German official as they prepared to leave.... Finally we told Dr. Vasenius
that unless further dangers appeared, we felt that we should return to our station. Therefore the next
morning before the German officers and the doctor were ready to start out on their retreat south, we
turned back in the opposite direction."
How he ended up with the Brit's instead of serving with the Germans is unknown. But he became a 1st
Lieutenant in the British Army in charge of a military hospital in Bukoba, British territory, from 1916-
1918. During that time Aarne was placed with a Dutch Nanny in South Africa. One of his playmates was
Ian Smith who became prime minister of Rhodesia. After the war was over Dr. Vasenius was in service
for the South African Government. He did not want to go back to Finland because his son would have to
go to school there on the Sabbath. Finally, in the spring of 1919 he found a tramp streamer that would
take them to America. If they could not stay there, the ship would take them on to Europe.
The crossing was difficult for Aarne who did not have his sea legs and "fed the fishes" as they teased him
when he threw up over the side rail.
Dr. Vasenius would remarry and have two more sons and practice medicine in Chisholm, MN. Just after
Vasenius bought a ticket to go and visit family in Helsinki he went out to shovel snow and had a heart
attack. He died several days later on April 23, 1956