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Name: LOVEN, Sven August
Birth Date: 25 Sep 1879 Dalby, Skane, Sweden
Death Date: 10 Sep 1961 Sweden
First Date: 1922
Profession: Saw mill
Area: Kitale
Married: 1. In Stockholm 13 Sep 1905 Ebba Marta Wilhelmina Printzkold b. 14 June 1881 Stockholm, d. 10 June 1963 Stockholm; 2. 7 Feb 1928 Karin Hilma Elisabeth Geijer b. 27 Feb 1903 Goteborg, d. 14 Dec 1990 Danderyd, Stockholm
Children: Sten Sven Otto (18 Apr 1907-1988); Erik Olof (10 Mar 1909-1942); Signe Maria (29 Dec 1910-1999); Ian Eberhard (25 Dec 1912-1999); Ebba Elisabeth (13 Nov 1914-2010); Peder Henric (3 June 1917-1966)
Author: Around Mount Elgon with White Friends and Blacks, 1921
Book Reference: Trans Nzoia Scrap Book
General Information:
Mount Elgon Saw Mill - In about 1910 Odin Sunde set up a saw mill on the Rongai River which flows down the North-East slope of Mount Elgon. His home-made water wheel drove the circular saw and the rawhide belt was regularly chewed up by hyenas at night. His Post Office was Soy, 45 miles away, and all timber had to be moved the 120 miles to railhead at Londiani by ox-wagons without benefit of roads or bridges.
In 1922, with a loan from Henry Mitford-Barberton and in partnership with Sven Lovan and Petter Axelsson, Odin established a new mill further north near the Chepchoine River. In 1927 Edward Josselyn, late works manager of Arthur Ransome & Co., bought out Loven and Axelsson and two years later with Leigh Norman as third partner yet another mill with up-to-date equipment was built near the Kwoitobbos River.
Two of Odin's sons, Odin and Arthur, were by then helping in the family business, and in 1930 Mount Elgon Saw Mills was registered in Uganda. The following year Leigh Norman left the mill and bought a farm near Endebess which he called 'Dunmillin'.
When his friends enquired as to the origin of this unusual name, he would only look at them with a twinkle in his very blue eye and we have been left to speculate ever since!
In 1934 Edward Josselyn became the sole owner of what was by now a limited liability company, and his son Dick came out from England to learn the trade, which was a fortunate arrangement as Edward died that same year while on a business trip to Rhodesia. Since then the Mill has been run by his wife and son, but in 1937 'Tub' Roberts joined the firm as manager and in true tradition married the boss's daughter Mary.