AEMI

84 AEMI JOURNAL 2015
its impact on the other diverse cultures
must have been significant enough to
reverberate to this day.
Between 1839 and 1852 Head Pastor
Zandt recruited from Finland three
Evangelical Lutheran pastors to serve
the Russian American Company’s
sparsely populated Lutherans, who
were scattered throughout this by area
huge Evangelical Lutheran parish:
Russian America’s Finnish Evangelical
Lutheran Pastors
Uno Cygnaeus, 1839-1845. The Finlander
Aaron Sjöström who had arrived
on the Company ship Baikal from Ajan
to Sitka in 1839 on August 24 (Enckell
1996:40) was 1840 on May 1 appointed/ordered
to serve as Cygnaeus’
initial valet, and did so up to November
of 1841 (Enckell 1996:47). Sjöström is
fully identified, although his place and
year of death is yet unknown. Who
then replaced Sjöström as the pastor’s
valet from end of November 1841 up to
Cygnaeus’ departure in May of 1845 is
yet unknown (Enckell 1996:35-47,48).
Pastor Cygnaeus is fully identified and
his years in Russian America are well
documented in the profusion of letters
(from where my quotes are taken) Cygnaeus
sent out of Sitka, nowadays preserved
at Finland’s National Archives.
Gabriel Plathán, June 1845-November
1852 (Luther 2000:495-496) that is
he worked out of Sitka two years longer
than his predecessor. Of Pastor Plathan’s
valets the following is known: 1847 November
2 his third valet, an unidentified
drunkard, was as unsatisfactory as the
two preceding ones (unknown if none
or all three were Finlander). He was replaced
December 30 by a Russian Mushnik
with a reputation of being quiet and
agreeable. In the fall of 1847 this Mushnik
had arrived from Ajan, and according
to investigation, hadn’t yet adopted
those Sitka ways (Enckell1996:23,48).
Pastor Plathán departed Sitka 1853 December
8 onboard the Company ship
Cezarewich, Captain Berend Jorjan, a
Danish Citizen and a Hamburg resident.
Onboard was also his Navigator 1:
Carl Johann Ofterdinger also a Danish
citizen, as well as the Finlander, Navigator
Wilhelm Severin Tengström, as documented
into his professional records
preserved at the Åbo Regional Archives.
Plathán is fully identified, and his
years in Russian America are relatively
well documented as he recorded them at
Sitka into four thin note books, all of
them preserved at Åbo Akademi University
Library’s manuscript department.
Georg Gustaf Winter, November
1853-1865 April 14 (Enckell 1996:48.
Luther:481-482). Nothing is yet known
of the person(s) who served as Pastor
Winter’s valet. Winter’s stay at Sitka is
the longest one, but details of his life
there are least known. Less than a handful
of letters addressed to his college Uno
Cygnaeus sent from Sitka are preserved
at Finland’s National Archives.
All three pastors are documented to
have made several pastoral journeys to
the Company’s far-flung operating sites,
and on these pastoral journeys they have
been accompanied by their own valet
and their parish sexton-organist.
The first to serve as organist was the
St. Petersburg based Balt Andreas Höppner/Hoeppener:
1839-1843 (Pierce
1990:192. Enckell 1996:39. Grinëv
209:123) arrived 1839 August 24 to