Introduction

Biography

Nils took the name Fryk­man af­ter the re­gion where he grew up, Fryks­dal­en. He was the hus­band of Betty An­der­dot­ter Jons­son.

In 1868, he gra­du­at­ed from the teach­ers’ col­lege in Karl­stad, and went on to teach in Grums, Norr­köp­ing, and Sun­ne. He preached in the church in Sun­ne, and around that time be­gan to write hymns.

Eventually, his texts were print­ed in the ma­ga­zine San­nings­vit­tnet. How­ev­er, Fryk­man’s work was not sanc­tioned by Swe­den’s state church, and al­most led to the loss of his job as a teach­er. Ev­en­tu­al­ly he re­signed his po­si­tion ov­er a con­tro­ver­sy about his child­ren’s bap­tism by an in­de­pend­ent preach­er.

In 1888, he was called to serve as pas­tor in the Ta­ber­na­cle Church in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, and lat­er in Sa­lem, Min­ne­so­ta. Af­ter 18 years, he re­tired to Min­ne­apo­lis.

He al­so served in the North­west Mis­sion As­so­cia­tion of the Co­ve­nant Church, as de­no­mi­na­tion­al vice-chair­man, Mi­nis­te­ri­al Board chair­man, North­west Mi­nis­te­ri­al As­so­cia­tion chair­man, and chair­man of the com­mit­tee to pub­lish the first hym­nal of the Swed­ish-Am­eri­can Co­ve­nant church in 1906.

Works

• Mina Sång­ers His­to­ria (The His­to­ry of My Songs), 1912