Hasselquist was born in Hasslaröd (present
Osby Municipality,
Skåne County) in Sweden, to Nils Tufvesson and Sissa Svensdotter. The local parish priest convinced the father to send his son for further education, so he studied at a school in Kristianstad as a teenager, taking the surname Hasselquist. including
Schartauanism, as well as the growing
temperance movement and
Peter Wieselgren's preaching. Hasselquist was ordained as a minister in the
Church of Sweden by Bishop Faxe in
Lund in 1839. He served as assistant pastor at several different churches in Skåne over the following thirteen years, becoming a
revivalist and critical of the state church. He was known for his zeal and also spoke on the temperance issue together with Wieselgren. Hasselquist was thus called from
Åkarp Church, in Skåne, Sweden in late 1851, as well as pastor
Erland Carlsson. On May 24, 1852, he married Eva Helena Cervin. He initially served as a pastor in Galesburg. The first years were difficult: he and his wife shared a meager shanty with an argumentative couple and the congregation, more
Congregationalist than Lutheran, was torn by differences in beliefs as the Swedish immigrants were divided among Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, and the former
Janssonists. He helped the growing church raise funds for a church building and after some time ended up as the leader of four congregations. During this time, he also performed missionary work, traveling as far as New York and founding congregations. He also published as well as
Augustana, the Augustana Synod's newspaper. Due to the demands of his work, he divested himself of his printing supplies, leading to the founding of the
Swedish Lutheran Publication Society as a publishing house for Swedish-language books, hymnals and other Lutheran publications. Through his publishing work, however, he "came to lead the political opinion among the Swedish immigrants" – many joined the
Republican Party – and he advocated for the
abolition of slavery. In 1863, Hasselquist became the second president of
Augustana College in
Paxton, Illinois. He strove to solidify the place of the college in the life of its church. He also helped financially support the education of
Johannes Telleen there, who would later play an important role in the denomination. In 1875, under Hasselquist's leadership, Augustana College was moved to
Rock Island, Illinois, which was a more central location among the growing number of Augustana Synod congregations. Hasselquist continued to function as the president of Augustana College until 1891, the year of his death. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of divinity by
Muhlenberg College and received the
Order of the Polar Star from the King of Sweden. ==Notes==