[1] Palmqvist was born in Pilabo, Norra Solberga parish, Jönköping County, in 1805 to Sven Larsson, a churchwarden, and Helena Nilsdotter.

[2] The children were raised in a Pietist environment and visited influential revivalist preachers such as Pehr Nyman [sv], Peter Lorenz Sellergren, and Jacob Otto Hoof.

He studied in Stockholm to become an organist and teacher; while there he met the influential Scottish Wesleyan Methodist preacher George Scott, who lived and preached in Sweden from 1830–1842.

[4] Since the Conventicle Act prohibited religious gatherings outside of those of the Church of Sweden, Palmqvist began to hold temperance meetings at which he preached, causing controversy and forcing him to leave his teaching job in 1850.

[6] Palmqvist soon became a key figure in the revivalist läsare (Reader) movement in the province of Närke and an early temperance activist.