In the 15th and 16th centuries and during the first half of the 17th century, the Hahkiala village was feoffed to several different persons, most of whom have come from well-known families in the Finnish history. The three, and later six farms of the Hahkiala village have accounted for a minor part of these feoffs. The feoffees have not resided in the village.
The first recorded mentions of Hahkiala date back to the 15th century. Some sources mention even the names of some peasants who cultivated the village's farms. The names of the farm owners can still be found, at least to a large extent, in the records of the National Archives (Riksarkivet) in Stockholm.
The most extensive and probably rather reliable account of Hahkiala has been written by the then Chancellor of Justice Axel Charpentier. It was published in 1922 in the publication series entitled Herrgårdar i Finland ("Manors in Finland").
During the latter part of the 15th century and throughout the 16th century, the Hahkiala farms were feoffed to the Tawast family, of whom a person called Gertrud Jaakobintytär has been mentioned in the records in the middle oft he 16th century. After her, King Johan III of Sweden gave three houses in the Hahkiala village, in addition to a few other farms at Hauho, as a freehold estate to Arvid Henrikinpoika Tawast, who had distinguished himself in the wars against Russia. Duke Karl, later on King Karl IX, however, had him executed in 1599. This was, because Arvid Henrikinpoika had fought with King Sigismund against Duke Karl, which cost him his life during the power struggle and the final stages of the Cudgel War. A total of around fifty Finnish noblemen were then put to death and the feoff was returned to the Crown.
Arvid Henrikinpoika’s widow, Margareta Maununtytär from Kurjala, was allowed to keep her inherited portion of the feoff. In 1602, the Hahkiala village was given to commissioner Adam Skreffare, later on the Raasepori district court judge. King Gustav II Adolf returned Hahkiala to Margareta Maununtytär in 1614, who died shortly afterwards and the landed property was again taken back by the Crown.
In 1618, the justice at the Turku court of appeal, cavalry captain Olof Dufva was given a freehold estate which included three farms in the village of Hahkiala. In addition, he was given the freehold estates of Ajoranta, Tuittula and Eteläinen. When he died in 1632, the shares of the farms were transferred to his widow Kristina Wildeman, who held them until 1638. She died in 1651. That same year, Hahkiala was given as a land grand to Toussaint Charpentier, who came from Normandy and had served the Swedish army with distinction in the Thirty Years‘ War. (A draft from an article by Risto Lampinen, M.Sc. (Agr.and For.))
The Hahkiala of the Charpentier Family
When Toussaint Charpentier came to Hahkiala, the farms were cultivated by peasants or they were untenanted. At that time, abandoned farms were a common phenomenon. Towards the end of the 16th century, climate in these latitudes became considerably colder and the cold period, which is called the minor ice age, lasted until the beginning of the 18th century. During that period, summers were short, wet and cold, whwreas winters snowy and hard. The cultivated fields yielded meagre crops of poor quality. Farmers were forced to abandon their farms by their weakened or non-existent tax-paying ability. Tax burden was heavy owing to continuous warfare. In addition to taxes, Finland, the eastern "province" of Sweden, had to give more men to war than the mother country. Instable times and carelessness caused the ownership of Hahkiala by the Charpentier family to be established as late as the end of the 17th century. It was finally ratified in 1765 by appointment of entailed estate.
Between 1730 and 1782, the Hahkiala estate was owned by Charles Robert Charpentier, who died lieutenant-general in 1782. In addition to his military career, he seems to have been a determined and able estate owner who expanded the Hahkiala estate area considerably through purchases of neighbouring estates.
During his ownership, the Hahkiala estate was at its largest. Claes Robert Charpentier also had a new manor built together with several other buildings. The manor and other outbuildings constructed for Toussaint Charpentier had been destroyed in a fire in 1694, which had left the buildings of the estate insufficient.
Claes Robert Charpentier also effected Hahkiala to be made an entailed estate in 1765. But he never married, which meant that he had no direct heirs. Owing to his distinguished military service, however, King Gustav III allowed the estate to be bequethed to Claes Robert Charpentier’s nephew, Carl Fredrik L'Eclair and raised him to nobility, and also gave him the right to use the name Charpentier. Ever since the days of the general, the family had no difficulty in producing direct heirs.
Carl Fredrik Charpentier married Margareta Blomcreutz and they had 20 children, 16 of whom outlived their parents. Providing for such a big family required plenty of money. Therefore the hahkiala estate soon reduced in size during the ownership of Carl Fredrik Charpentier. The subsequent owner families also had plenty of children.
Great changes took place in Finland in the 19th century. After Sweden had lost the war, Finland was incorporated into Russia in 1809. In the 1820s, the so-called Old-Finland, which comprised the area from the Kymijoki River to the Ladoga-Karelia, was incorporated into Finland by paying Government tax money for the feoffs of the area. The Finnish national spirit and the idea of Finnish nationality were booming.
But the circumstances were gloomy. The war had taken a heavy toll on the Finnish population, which was also taxed by the plague in the 1830s and the famine in the 1860s. There is evidence that Hyvikkälä was moved to its current location from the Hyvikkälä lake shore at the beginning of the 19th century. On the highest spot of the lake shore under the buildings of that time is a graveyard, which dates from the 11th and 12th centuries. Nowadays the area is protected.
In 1882, the Hahkiala manor house was taken over by Gustaf Robert Alfred Charpentier, who became a senator later on. He was obviously a very advanced farmer, who carried out a thorough modernisation of cultivation of the farm. Acricultural methods were adopted from Thaer and Liebing, whose ideas have laid the foundation of modern cultivation. Work was mechanised by the introduction of new machines. Ayrshire was chosen for cattle breed. New construction of the estate included a cowhouse, barn, dairy, granary and greenhouses, brick works and sawmill. Houses were built for workers, a school for tenant farmers’ children and an ole people’s home.
During the senator’s ownership, the level of Lake Hyvikkälä was lowered by digging a channel nowadays called Kaivanto-oja. Thereby a new lake called Kirrinen was formed in addition to the lake Hyvikkälä which is now overgrowing. The lowering of the water level generated new arable land which was badly needed by the hahkiala farm and the Tuittula farm in particular. Senator Charpentier’s son, Axel Fredrik Charpentier inherited the estate after his father died in 1914. He was the first Chancellor of Justice of Independent Finland in 1918-1927. He had the current manor built during 1915-1917. At the same time, the outbuildings around the manor were transferred to Hyvikkälä.
The manor was designed by architect Karl Lindahl who designed many buildings for Hahkiala at the beginning of the 20th century. A large parkland designed by garden architect Paul Olsson was built around the manor. It is one of the few works of Olsson which still exists today.
The parkland comprises of around four hectacres of land and it was very impressive in its baroque style richness. The number of ornamental plants is estimated to have totalled around 5000. There were for example some 700 gillyflowers and 600 roses. It seems that the outward bloom of the estate was at its height in the 1920s and 1930s.
Chancellor of Justice Charpentier died in 1949. The entailed estate act had been abrogated in 1930. As a result, the estate was divided among the heirs in 1950 for the first time in its history. At first, the divided estate was cultivated for the benefit of the heirs by doctor Claes Axel Gustav Charpentier. When this system proved unsuccessful, he started to cultivate the Kelkkanen farm, which was later on renamed Itä-Hahkiala. The Länsi-Hahkiala farm was cultivated by his sister’s, Malin Helm’s husband, Gunnar Hernberg, who later became honorary mining counsellor and president of Suomen Sokeri Oy. On his initiative, the farms of Länsi-Hahkiala, Kukkaishovi and a few land properties of the heirs were sold to Kaupan Maataloussäätiö foundation in 1963.
There is no reliable information available about the Hahkiala estate at the time when it was taken over by the Charpentier family, or about the area at its biggest. It has been said that originally, the estate comprised around 6000 hectactes of land, and that the area totalled 8000 hectacres at the biggest.
As early as in senator Charpentier’s time, before the crofting act, initiatives were made in order to arrange for the ownership of landed property by the estate’s tenant farmers. They were implemented by Axel Fredrik Charpentier in 1914-1918. The pieces of land belonging to the Hyvikkälä farm were formed into 20 farms, of which 11 were former tenant or leased farms. Around 600 hectacres ofland were used for this purpose. Until the 1930s, the Hahkiala estate area still totalled 2239 hectacres, of which 215 hectacres were arable land and 1683 hectacres forest land. There were 26 horses, 99 cows and 55 pigs on the farm. (A draft from an article by Risto Lampinen, M.Sc. (Agr. and For.))
