SWEDES: TheWayTheyWere
  • Home
    • The Bethany Artist & the Bethany Scientist: Lydia & Emil >
      • ​"First Swedish Agricultural Company" Lindsborg Founders, 1868 >
        • Swedish Pastor Olof Olsson Immigrating to Lindsborg 1869, June 27th Arrival >
          • Church and Lindsborg Founder Pastor Olsson, 1869 - 1876 >
            • ​"He Gave God Glory" The Story of Olof Olsson, ​1841 - 1900
      • Their "Bethany Lutheran Church" 1869 >
        • Their "Augustana Lutheran Synod," 1860 - 1962 >
          • The Augustana Heritage Association, 2000 - 2016
        • Their "Augustana Women's Missionary Society," 1892
      • Their "Bethany Lutheran Home" Since 1907
      • Their Lindsborg's "First" Swedish Smoky Valley Community Chronicle 1909 and Their "Second" 1919 >
        • "Pioneer Swedish-American Culture in Central Kansas," 1965 >
          • "The Smoky Valley in The After Years," 1969
      • Their 1920s Coronado Heights Photographs and their Smoky Valley Historical Association (SVHA)
      • Their 1936 1873 Swedish Homestead, "The Old Deere Farm," The Peter J. Larson Farm, etc. >
        • Their 1873 Swede House
        • A Smoky Valley Swedish Virtual Memorial - ​"Dedicated to the Memory of the Smoky Valley Swedish Settlements" >
          • Recognizing & Thanking >
            • - Claude Koehn -- The Before and After
      • Their 1940 Deere Home >
        • Emil's and Nina's 1961 Thunderbird
      • 1943, After Lydia--The Building of the Lindsborg Hospital
    • Their Bethany College Handel's "Messiah" Performances, 1882 on... >
      • "Messiah" Performers, Venues & Audiences, Press and Broadcasts
    • Their Bethany College 1899 Swedish Artists' Midwest Art Exhibition
    • Their Bethany College 1902 "Terrible Swedes," Coach Bennie Owen, Their 1903 "Rockar Stockar"
    • Their Bethany College 1904 St. Louis World's Fair Swedish Pavilion
    • Their Bethany College Anniversary Celebrations: 15, 20, 25, 100 years >
      • Their Celebrating 15 Years of Bethany College, 1881-1896. The First Bethany Annual, 1895-96
      • Their Celebrating 20 Years of Bethany College, 1881-1901. The "Forget-Me-Not," 1902 >
        • The King of Sweden's Emissary, 1901
        • Yale University's Bethany Club
      • Their Celebrating 25 Years of Bethany College, 1881-1906, "Souvenir of Lindsborg and Bethany College"
      • Their Celebrating 100 Years of Bethany College, 1881-1981, "The Centennial of Bethany College"
    • Their "I WAS THERE" Coin ~ Bethany College Celebration, 1902
    • Their Bethany College's 1937 Introduction to New Sweden, founded in 1638 >
      • Deere's Introduction to New Sweden
    • Their friend, Emory Lindquist, and his 1975 "Bethany in Kansas, the history of a college" >
      • Their friend, Emory Lindquist, and his 1953, "Smoky Valley People, A History of Lindsborg, Kansas"
    • Their friend, Leon Lungstrom, and his 1990 "History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas"
  • Swedish Immigration Story, 1854
    • "The Story of the Old Spoon" by Ingrid Anderson Sohlberg & Daughter Lydia Sohlberg Deere, 1937
    • Who They Left Behind
    • From Sweden with Love Collections >
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Kosta Portraits, 1867 >
        • The Swedish Sohlberg Kosta Glass
        • The Swedish Sohlberg Letters
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Royal Gold Thread Embroidery Sampler (c1890s)
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Post Cards (c1890s)
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Magazines, (c1940s)
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Books, 1819/1886 to 1899
      • The Swedish Sohlberg Albums, late 19th early 20th centuries
      • The Swedish Deere Coins -- 1801-1929
    • Lydia Sohlberg Deere's 1927 "Lindsborg Swedish Club's" Handwork >
      • Lydia's Signatured Black Book of Her Handwritten Sewing Instructions >
        • Nina Sohlberg's Child's Sewing "Little Dots" PICTURE BOOK >
          • The Lindsborg Swedish Club's "Allers Monster-Tidnings" magazine, 1940
  • Artist Lydia Sohlberg Deere
    • Lydia's Lindsborg Photography, 1900-1925 >
      • The Hats
      • The Smoky River
      • The Smoky Hill Bluffs
      • Coronado Heights -- One Winter's Day
      • In and Around Lindsborg
      • Sohlberg House with Parents >
        • Our Sohlberg Home and Neighbor Alma Luise Olson
      • Sohlberg House with Emil 1916 to 1920 >
        • Lydia's Travels with Deere 1916 - 1930s >
          • Lydia's California Photographs for Painting
          • Lydia's Palm Springs Pictorial Magazine, 1938-1939
          • Lydia's California Pressed Wild Flowers, c1930
      • "LYDIA'S WORLD" Photography Exhibitions in Lindsborg, 2005 - 2011
    • Lydia's Art, 1919-1938 >
      • Lydia's Art: The Kansas Collection >
        • The Sketches
      • Lydia's Art: The Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico Collection >
        • The Sketches
      • Lydia's Art: The California Collection >
        • The Sketches
    • Lydia's Art Professor Sven Birger Sandzén, 1871-1954 >
      • Lydia's Assignments for Professor Sandzén >
        • Students of Sandzén 2019 Exhibition
        • Bethany Home ~ Celebrating Artist Birger Sandzén through His Students' Paintings
    • Lydia's Art Professor Birger Sandzén's "Art Exhibitions" ... 1893-1940 >
      • Lydia's Art Professor Sandzén's Exhibition at the Babcock Gallery in New York, 1922
    • Lydia's Sandzén's Body of Work Reviewed by N.Y.C, 1984 "American Impressionism," author William H. Gerdts
    • Lydia's and Sandzén's Swedish Artist Friend Charles Edward Hallberg, 1855-1940
    • Lydia's and Sandzén's Swedish Artist Friend Oscar Brousse Jacobson, 1882-1966
    • Lydia’s Sohlberg Family Connection to Sandzén, 1880-1894-1993
  • Scientist Emil O. Deere
    • Deere's & Lydia's Bethany -- Lydia's Photography, 1906-1925 >
      • Bethany College "Campus from Above"
      • Bethany College "The Gateway" 1917 and "Bethany Campus Association" 1912
      • Bethany College "College Street," today's "North First Street"
      • Bethany College "Campus Life"
      • "Bethany College's Earliest Buildings" >
        • Bethany College "​Ladies Dormitory" / "Lane Hart Hall" 1883 - 1899 - 1983
        • Bethany College "Old Main" 1887-1968 >
          • Lydia's and Emil's Old Main Apartments, 1920 to 1940
          • Deere's Bethany College Classes in Old Main
        • Bethany College "Messiah Auditorium" / "Ling Auditorium" / "Ling Gymnasium" 1895 - 1946
        • Bethany College "Swedish Pavilion" 1904
        • Bethany College "​Carnegie Library" / "Bethany Library" 1908 - 1980
        • Bethany College "​Bethany Academy" 1882 -- Swensson's Bethany's Beginnings
    • Deere's 1959 Interview on Rev. Dr. Carl A. Swensson (On YouTube) >
      • Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson, 1857-1904 >
        • Swensson's "Bethany Lutheran Church" and the "Augustana Lutheran Synod"
        • Swensson's Bethany's Beginnings: "The Bethany Academy of 1882"
        • Swensson's Musicians' and Singers' "Messiah", 1882 on ... >
          • Thure Olof Jaderborg
        • Swensson's Swedish Artists of the 1890s
        • Swensson's "Bethany College Museum," 1882 - 1966
      • In Memorium**Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson, 1904
    • Deere's Rev. Dr. Ernst F. Pihlblad, 1873-1943 >
      • In Memoriam**Dr. Ernst F. Pihlblad, 1943
      • Rev. Dr. Pihlblad on Bethany College, 1904 - 1941
    • Deere's Swensson's "Bethany College Museum" 1882 - 1966 >
      • Bethany College Museum Collections' New Location,1966 >
        • Articles on the Bethany College Museum Collections Move of 1966
    • Deere's Bethany College Field Trips -- Lydia's Photography, 1906-1925 >
      • Deere's Swensson's Bethany College Museum Collections >
        • Cliff Dwellers' Pottery Collection
        • Fossils Collection, "The Find"
        • Taxidermy Collection
    • Deere's Dr. Leon Lungstrom on the "Bethany College Museum"
    • Deere's Dr. Leon Lungstrom on "Three Pioneer Scientists of Swedish Descent"
    • Deere's Smithsonian Institution's Souvenir, 1904
    • Deere's 1940 Presidential Address to the Kansas Academy of Science
    • Deere's 1955 Letter to President Eisenhower re Tuttle Creek
    • Deere's Service, 1901-1966 >
      • Deere's Education & Degrees
  • "The Other Swedes"
    • Honoring them and their works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . \\/ >
      • Mrs. Alma Christina Lind Swensson ~ Remembering her as Mrs. Rev. Dr. Swensson, the First Lady of Lindsborg
      • Photographer B.G. Gröndal ~ Remembering him for visually documenting Lindsborg and Bethany College in their earliest days
      • Miss Alma Luise Olson ~ Remembering her as "First Honored American Woman by Sweden" by Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg >
        • Remembering Miss Alma Luise Olson and her most extraordinary life at home and abroad by Ms. Karen A. Humphrey
      • Artist Birger Sandzén ~ Remembering him for "sharing his art with the world," starting "first" at Lindsborg's Bethany College >
        • Dr. & Dr. Mrs. Charles Greenough III ~ Remembering them for their gift of the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery
      • Dr. William Holwerda ~Remembering him as "Doc Bill," his bedside manner and selfless contributions >
        • Dr. William Holwerda ~ Remembering him as "Svensk Hyllningsfest" founder
      • Artist Lester Raymer ~ Remembering him as the renown virtuoso artist and "behind the scenes" community supporter
      • Dr. Arvin W. Hahn ​​~ Remembering him for saving Bethany College from going under!​ >
        • Dr. Arvin W. Hahn (1923-2017) ~ Remembering him handing me my Bethany College Diploma on Sunday, May 26,1968
      • Dr. ​Elmer Copley ~ Remembering Bethany College's Oratorio Society Conductor who carried on "that" "Messiah" traditional excellence for 26 years, taking it to new levels >
        • Dr. Elmer Copley ~ Remembering him as the “Messiah” conductor for the Bethany College "Swedish King’s" performance, 1976 >
          • Dr. Elmer Copley ~ Remembering him as the "Messiah" conductor for the Bethany College "Centennial Celebration” performance, 1981
      • Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg ~ Remembering her as the founder of the "Lindsborg Swedish Folk Dancers"
      • Mr. & Mrs. Hilding Jaderborg ~ Remembering them and their “Swedish Crafts Shop” – 65 years and 50 trips to Sweden
      • The Swedish Lindsborg Builders ~ Remembering them for the lovely homes they built
      • Dr. Greta Swenson and Mr. & Mrs. Mark Esping ~ Honoring them for founding Lindsborg's “first” "Swedish-American Folklife Institute of Central Kansas." 1986 >
        • Recognizing their Folklife Institute's "Swedish-American Heritage Center," 1996
      • Ms. Rebecca Copley ~ Honoring her as Bethany College's “first” graduate to become an International Opera Singer
      • Mr. Bruce Karstadt ~ Honoring him as a Bethany College graduate for heading up a major national Swedish American institution
      • Mrs. Becky Anderson ~ Honoring her as Bethany College's “first” woman graduate to become mayor of "Little Sweden" USA
      • Dr. Mark Lucas ~ Messiah conductor bringing the Lindsborg “Oberammergau of the Plains" to a "new" world stage
    • The Smoky Valley Writers on "The Other Swedes" ​ ~ Their Swedish American Legacy Collection >
      • Mr. Bror Carlsson and Mr. Alf Brorson from Sweden ~ Chronicling Founder Pastor Olof Olsson's missionary journey to Lindsborg from Värmland, Sweden
      • Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson ~ An author of countless Swedish & English publications, newspapers, articles and books ...
      • Bethany Church, Bethany College, Augustana Synod Writers ​~ Remembering Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson and Rev. Dr. Ernst Frederick Pihlblad
      • Mrs. Margaret Dahlquist Eddy ~ Providing the only known history on Lindsborg and Bethany College's earliest Swedish photographer, B.G. Gröndal
      • Rev. Dr. Alfred Bergin ​~ Compiling foundational Swedish Smoky Valley Augustana Lutheran settlements' histories and more
      • Dr. Emory Lindquist ~ Chronicling Swedish Augustana Lutheran Lindsborg and Bethany College
      • Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg [Selma Lind] ​ ~ Chronicling the Lindsborg of her day, its early histories, and more
      • Dr. Leon Lungstrom ~ Chronicling college professors and providing the "only known written" account on the Bethany College Museum
      • Ms. Karen A. Humphrey ~ Chronicling highlights of Swedish Augustana Lutheran Lindsborg and Bethany College society and culture in the earliest years
      • Mr. A. John Pearson & Mr. Kenneth Sjogren ~ Chronicling the Bethany College Presidents
      • Mr. Bill Carlson ~ Chronicling Lindsborg's earliest and later histories with a personal connection
      • Mr. Chris Abercrombie ~ Remembering him as the "historian," the SVHA president and his body of work
      • Mr. Thomas N. Holmquist ~ Chronicling key Swedish Augustana Lutheran Smoky Valley settlements other than Lindsborg
      • Rev. Eugene K. Nelson and the Bethany Home Writers ~ Chronicling the "only known written" story on the beginnings of Bethany Home
      • Smoky Valley Historical Association Members ~ Researchers, compilers and writers of " Where Did They Live? "
    • ​Smoky Valley History Research Writers Website Designers ~ Their Swedish American Legacy Websites
    • Bethany College Swedish Knights and Honored Ladies ~ Their Royal Swedish Legacy Listings
    • His Majesty, Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden ~ Honoring him in Lindsborg and at Bethany College, 1976 >
      • Mr. Bill Carlson's Lindsborg's Bethany Home & the Swedish King's Visit
  • Contacts
    • For Lindsborg, 1869, CONTACT Today >
      • 2020 Christmas in Lindsborg ~ 'Welcome to Annandag Jul Worship from Sunnemo & Lindsborg"
      • 2020 Christmas in LIndsborg ~ the Ljuskröna and Apple Tree Exhibit" online presentation
    • ​For Bethany College, 1881, CONTACT Today
    • Closing Remarks & Traveling through SWEDES >
      • SWEDES' Swedish American Legacy Photographs >
        • ​Lydia's Lindsborg's Photography​, ​1900 - 1925
        • Lydia's Bethany's Photography, ​1906 - 1925
" ...these Swedish immigrants coming to America were not the very poor or indigent, but had some financial means to assist settling in this new country "
                                                                                                                                                                                                                      --Bill Carlson / Alf  Brorson  *
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
<>  The Swedish American Living Legacy of Lindsborg, Kansas, and Bethany College  <>
Dear Viewers:
​
In the midst of the beautiful Smoky Valley located on the Great Plains of Kansas was established the little Swedish American city of Lindsborg in 1869 by a group of 35 pietistic Christian families, numbering 110.**  Arriving in June of that year were these Swedish immigrants from the Värmland region
, part of a larger group, which were lead by Pastor Olof Olsson (1841-1900) who was born in Karlskoga, Sweden. 

In that same year in August, the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Bethany Church (today known as Bethany Church), to become a member of the Augustana Lutheran Synod, was founded
by this twenty-eight-year-old
(28) pastor who was educated at the Swedish universities of Stockholm and Upsala, and spent a year in the Missionary Institute at Leipzig, Germany.  (Olsson would one day become a prominent Swedish American Lutheran clergyman of the Augustana Lutheran Synod and third president of the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran College in Rock Island, Illinois, serving from 1891 to 1899.)

The First Swedish Agricultural Company which was organized in Chicago in 1868 purchased 13,160 acres of Kansas land in Saline and McPherson counties from the Union Pacific Railroad for the purpose of providing homesteads to these Värmland Swedes who by the Company mandate were required to be believing Christians adhering to the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.  

Already settling a few months earlier in these two counties on parcels of the 14,800 acres purchased from the Salina National Land Company, a subsidiary of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, were the Dalarna and
Småland Swedes belonging to the Illinois Galesburg Colonization Company who were also Lutheran Christians, pastored by 1861 graduate of the first class of Chicago's Augustana Seminary Rev. Anders Wilhelm (A.W.) Dahlsten, was made possible by the "search for land" committee, composed of president Olof Thorstenberg, secretary John P. Stromquist, John Rodell, Gustaf Johnson, and William Johnson.***

Thus was the beginning of the confluence of scattered Swedish Lutheran settlements throughout the Kansas Smoky Valley.


On February 20, 1869, the Lindsborg name had been adopted at the meeting of the First Swedish Agricultural Company in Chicago.  The name of Lindsborg, its first syllable of "Linds," was derived from the surnames of First Swedish Agricultural Company  members such as  Lindell, Lindh, Lindgren, Lindey and Lindberg.  The second syllable of the name "borg" translated means "city" or "fortified place." 

In 1881, on October 15th,  this farming community with a population of 700, became the home of Bethany Lutheran Academy, later known as Bethany Lutheran College, founded by the dynamic twenty-four-year-old
(24) Swedish American second pastor of the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Bethany Church, Carl Aaron Swensson (1857-1904).

Due to Swensson's faith, vision, leadership, eye and ear for talent, and "can do" spirit; and with the immediate beginnings of what would become a fine college museum, Bethany College was to be a cultural mecca of education.  It would draw many to its superb music and art programs, culminating with the nationally and internationally known annual Easter Holy Week performances of the prominent German-British Baroque composer George Frideric Handel's Messiah and, in time, the College would give birth to an art movement created by Swedish artist college professor Birger Sandzén (1871-1954) whose works would grace the walls of Sweden's major art galleries, and would be regionally and nationally acclaimed and specifically desired by Swedish American and Swedish art lovers to this day.

Traveling to Bethany College fresh from Paris in 1894, at twenty-three, European taught artist Sven Birger Sandzén and student of renown Sweden's artist Anders Zorn, he was destined to establish in his teaching techniques, "a contagious love for art and its understanding" within this rural community that continues today.  The year after Sandzén’s arrival, in the first Bethany Annual (the yearbook of that day), Swensson's ad, succinctly, powerfully and with great zeal, describes the disciplines of the College and notes that there was "no equal in the West for Bethany’s Music and Art Programs! "

In 1901, Swensson
received the order of the "Knights of the North Star" from King Oscar II (1829-1907) of Sweden, as a result of his many contributions and promoting Swedish life through the church, the college, and beyond Lindsborg.  Sandzén was also knighted by the Swedish Crown that same year of 1901 and would be again in 1940.  These two Swedish gentlemen would be two (2) of fourteen (14) such Lindsborg residents of the Bethany College family to be honored in such a way by the Swedish Crown!

Driving those pioneer and post-pioneer years of the Swedish Kansas Smoky Valley Lindsborg and its surrounding Swedish enclaves, however, was the unmovable foundation of a Christian faith found in the Bethany Lutheran Church, the Salemsborg Lutheran Church, and the Freemount Lutheran Church --  
all of which belonged to the Augustana Lutheran Synod, and all which were founded when Lindsborg was founded in 1869, 150 years ago!   Three decades later, in 1908,  the first English speaking Lutheran church in Lindsborg was founded as the Messiah Lutheran Church.  Yet, to these early Lutheran congregations, also, other smaller denominations soon settled in Lindsborg -- the Swedish Baptist Church, Swedish Methodist Church, Swedish Mission Church, Free Mission Church and English Methodist Church. 

Lindsborg, as well as all Swedish American communities in the United States, in 1937, was called to task
in establishing a $750,000 endowment for Philadelphia’s American Swedish Historical Museum for the 1938 300th Anniversary of the founding of New Sweden in North America.  As these Swedes were addressed then, in an instructional brochure, as the "Sons and Daughters of a People that Helped Lay the Foundations of the Republic," they too were hard at work to ensure that this great museum's life would go on into perpetuity! 

Somewhere in the early 1960's, the Lindsborg of Kansas became known as "Little Sweden, U.S.A."  Earlier, it may be that Lindsborg was referred to as "Little Swedish Lindsborg," so described in Swensson's 1897 book, Again in Sweden, in the first chapter, "Off for Sweden," in the second paragraph where Swensson writes:  "But as of yet, I am still in, little, Swedish Lindsborg, in faraway Kansas." 


" Lindsborg - Where Culture and Agriculture Meet "  
- a
phrase from The Spur by Howard Lincoln who so aptly described this little Swedish Kansas city -
****
Viewed from Coronado Heights, named for Spanish Explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, thought to have explored this area in 1541
Picture

Thus, this is the historical background for Swedes: TheWayTheyWere, aka Swedes, the information of which I gratefully gathered from the works of the "Smoky Valley Writers," while making periodic visits to the Smoky Valley Historical Association website, www.smokyvalleyhistory.org, the written content of which was composed by Association president, writer and historian, the late Chris Abercrombie (1949-2017), who, in addition, continued making available valuable and countless YouTube presentations concerning Lindsborg, Bethany College and Coronado Heights history.

Although not finished, Swedes was first published on the eve of Lindsborg's 75th Svensk Hyllningsfest on October 8, 2015.  This Swedish American online historical narrative consists of many collections composed of my research findings, photographs, images, and texts from, and about, the Swedish American Lindsborg relatives I have come to know well through the estate they left behind.  This brought me face-to-face with their Swedishness, with tracing my family back to Sweden and traveling there in 2016 and 2017.  Yet, most importantly, this experience introduced me to their Lindsborg and Bethany Swedish friends, to "The Other Swedes," to their contemporaries, and to the events and activities of their times, taking place at the end of the 19th century and moving into the mid twentieth century-- a span of time when the population of Lindsborg grew from 700 in 1881 to 2,383 in 1950.

To begin Swedes, start under the HOME section entitled, The Bethany Artist & the Bethany Scientist: Lydia & Emil, which briefly profiles the couple and their strong connection to Bethany College, while introducing other Sohlberg Deere family members.  Under this section are those subsections that summarize the founding of Lindsborg and the Bethany Lutheran Church with its Augustana Lutheran Synod, and continues to other subsections on the earliest books recording the settlements of the Swedes and expands to the founding of Bethany College which introduces Lydia and Emil and their contemporaries. Showcased, also, is their 1920's Coronado Heights' photograph project;  their 1873 Swedish homestead and its 2020 virtual memorial; their annual renown Messiah performances beginning in 1882 with their annual artists' Midwest Art Exhibitions beginning in 1899; their 1902 "Terrible Swedes;" their 1904 St. Louis World's Fair Swedish Pavilion; their Bethany College Anniversary Celebrations of 1896, 1901, 1906 and 1981; their 1937 introduction to New Sweden; their friends -- Emory Lindquist with his 1953 "Smoky Valley People, A History of Lindsborg, Kansas and his 1975 "Bethany in Kansas, the history of a college;" and Leon Lungstrom with his 1990 "History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas."  It finishes up with their Deere Home and the 1961 Thunderbird; and, after Lydia, with Emil's campaigning work and preparation for the building of the first Lindsborg Hospital.

From the HOME section across, Swedes grows exponentially -- from detailing the A.G. Sohlberg Swedish immigration experiences to highlighting the Kosta and Stockholm Ulric Sohlberg family's Swedish Kosta Glass collection, the Kosta Portraits, the Nina Sohlberg Swedish Gold Thread Embroidery Sampler; to the Lindsborg and Bethany College endeavors of Lydia's and Emil's lives from showcasing the activities and events of their times; to visually showcasing favorite Lindsborg and Coronado Heights venues, and the Bethany College Museum, its campus, buildings, and student activities through Lydia's photography; to showcasing their contemporaries, especially Artist Birger Sandzén and his work through Lydia's main section, and College Presidents' Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson and Rev. Dr. Ernst F. Pihlblad, through Emil's main section.

Swedes finishes, most importantly, with listing Emil's and Lydia's friends, their contemporaries, as well as "others" decades later, to today, under the last section, "The Other Swedes" which attempts to provide "Their Legacy Listings" including their works.  This listing is Swedes' way to remember, recognize, and honor these individuals, many of whom have been forgotten, or are in danger of being forgotten, by showcasing them and their works online, for posterity and perpetuity.  Thus, Swedes has been able to restore, to some degree, some lost or forgotten local histories and histories in danger of being lost or forgotten, and to connect those past histories to present modern day times, for Lindsborg, for Bethany College and for the Smoky Valley at large.

These Swedes are the rock-like infrastructure upon which modern Lindsborg and Bethany College exist.  It is to these other Swedes, along with their Swedish American descendants (my contemporaries) and my great grandaunt Lydia Sohlberg Deere and great granduncle Emil Olof Deere, to whom Swedes: TheWayTheyWere is dedicated, and for whom it is written.

Now, begin your journey back to the end of the 19th Century moving into the 20th, to lives lived in this special Kansas Swedish community of "brick" main streets with its special Swedish College when the ties to Sweden were at their purest and strongest and the mother language was spoken daily everywhere, especially at church services and related gatherings, at the Lindsborg bakery tables and in the Swedish clubs where Swedish coffee, made with a raw egg, pancakes and delicacies were being served in true Swedish Lutheran hospitality.

For a brief preview, SCROLL down. 

To continue, 
go HERE to learn of the last-living-links through whom the foundational history of this website could only have been created from which the histories of Lindsborg and Bethany College could emerge. 
​

Njuta av (Enjoy),
Fran Cochran -- January 10, 2021
   Just one "caretaker" of many, watching over this Swedish American living legacy
 
*    *    *
" . . . no equal in the West for Bethany’s Music and Art Programs! "
THE "CAN DO" SPIRIT OF A SWENSSON AD FOR HIS DEAR BETHANY
Picture
Source: Annual 1895-1896
*   *   *

CARL AARON SWENSSON
1857 - 1904
(Born near Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania
of Swedish parents from Småland, Sweden)
Founder & Second President of Bethany Lutheran College
Second (2nd) Swedish Pastor of the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Bethany Church

OLOF OLSSON
1841 - 1900
(Born in Karlskoga, Värmland)
Ordained at Uppsala Cathedral, Uppsula, Sweden, December 15, 1863
Swedish Founder and First Pastor of the
Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Bethany Church

who officially led the first Swedish party from Värmland to settle in Lindsborg, Kansas.
(He would become the third President of the Swedish Evangelical Augustana Lutheran College.)

*       *       *
~ the little Swedish city, its Swedish church and its Swedish college evolved together ~
Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Bethany Church
Founded 1869
(1874 original building, 1880 building expansion)
Then and Now


Alfred Bergin
1866 - 1942
(Born in
Västergötland, Sweden)

Third (3rd) Swedish Pastor for the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Bethany Church for 38 Years
First (1st) Swedish Historian of Lindsborg and Smoky Valley
- destined as church leader with members to compile and write about Lindsborg and the Smoky Valley from the very beginning -
- publishing in 1909 & 1919 respectively
" Lindsborg, Bidrag Till Svenskarnas och Den Lutherska Kyrkans Historia i Smoky Hill River Dalen "
&

" Lindsborg Efter Femtio Ӓr "
Picture

In its beginnings, the Bethany Lutheran Church worship services were conducted in Swedish, and then, in time, additional English services were introduced, eventually giving way to all English services.  However, before that time in 1908, an all English language Lutheran church was founded due to the initial efforts of Malm Gustav Nathaniel (G.N.) Malm (1869 - 1928).  The church, located on the Bethany College campus, was named the Messiah Lutheran Church.

*   *   *
Messiah Lutheran Church
Founded 1908
Located on the Bethany College Campus

Provided needed English worship services to non-Swede Bethany students and faculty, and Lindsborg residents!

Picture
Source: 1969, "The Smoky Valley in The After Years" by Ruth Billdt & Elizabeth Jaderborg: PLATE IX, after page 44
*   *   *
The Other Churches of Lindsborg Then


*   *   *
Some of "The Other Swedes" Were These
Supporting Swedish American Presidential Candidate Honorable John A. Johnson Governor of Minnesota
Messiah Easter Week 1908

Photographed by Lydia Sohlberg Deere at Sohlberg House
Picture

Some of "The Other Swedes" Were These
Bethany College
"Swedish Knights and Honored Ladies"
Below are their pictures arranged as to the years these Swedes received honor from the Swedish Crown for their many Swedish American endeavors.

Rows
1 --  
Swensson 1901, Sandzén 1901 and 1940, Udden 1911, Pihlblad 1920, Lincoln 1930
2 --  
Olson 1940, Brase 1947, Greenough 1963, A.W. Lindquist 1976, E.K. Lindquist 1976 
3 --   Hahn 1976, Ristuben 1990, Sandzén-Greenough 1991, Karstadt 2010

​Click on their pictures to learn of their Swedish honors.  Click HERE to learn more.

Some of "The Other Swedes" Were These
The Bethany College "Terrible Swedes"
Picture
Source: Near page 198 of Emory Lindquists' 1953 Smoky Valley People

- In "their day," this was their Bethany College -
Photography by Lydia Sohlberg Deere
And so it was with my own Swedish American family that 14 family members of 4 generations graduated from Bethany College.  George Gustaf Sohlberg was the first to graduate in May of 1884 with Bethany's first graduating class when it was an Academy.   I was the last Sohlberg to graduate in May of 1968, the day after which Swensson's wonderful Old Main building was to be torn down.

- May 1884 -
Anton S. Anderson, Otto Hawkinson, John Welin, George G. Sohlberg, Victor Swanson 
became
"the first" Bethany Academy Graduates
commencement exercises taking place at Bethany Church
Picture
Source: Photo from the Sohlberg Papers, but can also be seen on page 10 of Bethany in Kansas



Then, this was their Bethany College
Bethany's "First Building" of 1882
-  The Bethany Academy building was at the very heart of the Bethany College beginnings -
Bethany was chartered by the State of Kansas in September 1882
It was dedicated by Founder Carl Aaron Swensson with Augustana Synod leaders presiding on October 4, 1882
It was adopted as "the child" of the Augustana Synod in 1884 at the Kansas Conference at Mariadahl Lutheran Church
 

​- Today located at the McPherson County Old Mill Museum Heritage Park. -​

- ​The Bethany Academy sign was removed in 2013 and it is identified as 1879 Lindsborg's "First School House" -

- May 21, 1891 -
 Eric Glad, J.A. Westerlund, Ernst F. Pihlblad, Julius Lincoln
became
"the first" Bethany College baccalaureate degree graduates

Picture
Source: "Bethany in Kansas" page 21

*   *   *
and

this was, and still is, their
1903 Swedish college cheer


ROCKAR!  STOCKAR!
THOR OCH HANS BOCKAR!
KöR  IGENOM!    KöR  IGENOM!
TJU!   TJU!   TJU!
BETHANIA


*   *   *

OLD MAIN
1887 - 1968


1887 SWEDISH MOTIF
- On OLD MAIN walls behind the 1968 Business Club meeting when I was president -
In today's Lindsborg these Swedish motifs would have been saved and preserved.
Picture
Source: 1968 Bethanian

*   *   *
1976
- THE KING OF SWEDEN IN LINDSBORG - 
These pioneer Swedes could have never dreamed (although Bethany College Founder Dr. Rev. Carl Aaron Swensson might have) that the King of Sweden would visit their little Swedish Lindsborg and its college.  Yet, in 1976, that is just what happened on April 17th when King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden visited Bethany and Lindsborg.
Picture
Source: The Bethany Magazine, Spring Issue 1976, Editor A. John Pearson, Assistant Estred Johnson Schwantes. Cover photo by Jim Turner.


V Ӓ R M L A N D       S W E D E N
- The region from where Pastor Olsson's group of Evangelical Lutheran Swedes immigrated to Lindsborg -
Picture
Source: Sohlberg Post Card
* NOTE THAT ON THESE POST CARDS THE SWEDISH SPELLING OF VӒRMLAND IS " VERMLAND"

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SINCE OCTOBER 31, 1991
THE VӒRMLAND CITY OF "MUNKFORS" AND THE KANSAS CITY OF "LINDSBORG" HAVE BEEN "SWEDISH SISTER CITIES"

(Due to the initial efforts and foresight of Mayor Don Anderson, who held this office from 1989 to 2001)
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To find maps on Värmland, Sweden, go HERE

 V Ӓ R M L A N D     C O S T U M E S
Picture
Source: 1894 Algot E. Strand's "Fosterländska Minnen"
Picture
Source: picclick.co.uk

​1904

Swedish Pavilion Gift from Sweden to Lindsborg's Bethany College
Picture
Source: Bror G. Gröndal Photographer
​To start SWEDES, go HERE.

*   Bill Carlson, from his 2010 book, Lindsborg Then and Lindsborg Now, page 21-22.
*  Alf Brorson is an author, journalist and retired teacher from Torsby, Sweden whose column, A Sweden Letter, appears periodically in the Lindsborg News Record.
** Source: Fourth Swedish American Bethany College President Emory Lindquist's 1953 book, Smoky Valley People, page 14, Chapter II, "The Coming of the Swedes."

*** Source:  Thomas N. Holmquist's 1994 book, Pioneer Cross, Swedish Settlements Along the Smoky Hill Bluffs, Chapter 3, "The Search for Land."
**** Taken from page 164 of Ruth Billdt's 1965 Pioneer Swedish-American Culture in Central Kansas, a translation of the 1909 "LINDSBORG, Bidrag Till Svenskarnas och Den Lutherska Kyrkans Historia i Smoky Hill River Dalen" by her father, Dr. Rev. Alfred Bergin of Bethany Lutheran Church.
*     *     * 
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
reconnecting past to present
*     *     * 

All color photography throughout Swedes:  The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated, or obviously concluded it is not.

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