Tufve Nilsson Hasselquist was born in Sweden. He emigrated to the United States and in 1855 he established the religious journal, Hemlandet. Four years later he founded the Swedish Publication Society in Chicago and supplied Lutheran churches with religious works and school textbooks in the Swedish language.

Hasselquist was active in the campaign against slavery and was partly responsible for an estimated 4,000 Swedes fighting in the Union Army during the Civil War.