SWEDES: TheWayTheyWere
  • Home
    • The Bethany Artist & the Bethany Scientist: Lydia & Emil >
      • Their 1869 Swedish Lutheran Galesburg Colony and Olsson Colony Smoky Valley Arrivals, ~ With a Galesburg account by Mr. Holmquist >
        • Their Värmland Swedes ~ The "First Swedish Agricultural Company" Lindsborg Founders, 1868, ~ An account by Dr. Lindquist >
          • Swedish Pastor Olof Olsson Emigrating to Lindsborg 1869, June 27th Arrival ~ An account by Dr. Lindquist >
            • Bethany Lutheran Church and Lindsborg Founder Pastor Olsson, 1869 - 1876 ~ An account by Dr..Lindquist
      • Their 1869 "Bethany Lutheran Church" ~ Accounts by Dr. Lindquist and Mr. Carlson >
        • ​Their 1860-1962 "Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Synod" ~ Gaining and losing its Swedish identity >
          • The 1860 Formation of the Augustana Synod ~ An Account by Mr. Holmquist
          • Their 1892 "Augustana Women's Missionary Society" ~ An account by Ms. Humphrey
          • The 2000 - 2016 "Augustana Heritage Association"
      • Their 1907 "Bethany Lutheran Home" ~ Accounts by Bethany Home Writers >
        • 1976 Lindsborg’s Bethany Home’s Swedish King's Visit ~ An account by Mr. Carlson's
      • Their 1909 and 1919 Swedish Smoky Valley Community Chronicles ~ Compiled and written by Bethany Lutheran Church Rev. Dr. Alfred Bergin, members and others >
        • 1909 translated to "Pioneer Swedish-American Culture in Central Kansas," 1965 ~ By Mrs. Bergin Billdt
        • 1919 translated to "The Smoky Valley in The After Years," 1969 ~ By Mrs. Bergin Billdt & Mrs. Jaderborg
      • Their 1910 Messiah Lutheran Church conducting services in English ~ An account by Dr. Lindquist >
        • ~ An account on the Messiah Lutheran Church formation from Rev. Dr. Alfred Bergin's 1909 ​"Pioneer Swedish-American Culture of Central Kansas"
      • Their 1919 Lindsborg Historical Society's "Coronado Heights" ~ Emil's 1907 thesis and Lydia's photographs >
        • The ​1919 formation of the "Lindsborg Historical Society" ~ The Smoky Hills' "Smoky Hill" christened "Coronado Heights" May 8, 1924 >
          • Lindsborg's Coronado Heights History ~ Three accounts by Mrs. Jaderborg >
            • Coronado and Bethany College Museum" History ~ An account from Dr. Lungstrom
      • Their 1916 Sohlberg House ​ ~ 322 North First [College] Street ~After their honeymoon
      • Their 1920 Old Main Apartments of Bethany College ~ Living on campus with the students for 20 years
      • Their 1940 Deere Home to 1943 ​~ 344 North First [College] Street ~ With new occupants after Lydia
      • Their 1936 1873 Swedish Homestead," "Our Peaceful Acres" >
        • Their 1873 Swede House ~ A close twin of Founder Rev. Olof Olsson's stone house >
          • Peaceful Acres Smoky Valley descendant friends and helpers ~ Honoring them and remembering them
      • 1943, after Lydia, Emil's part in the building of the Lindsborg Community Hospital ~ An account by Dr. Lungstrom
    • Their “1882 on . . .” Bethany College Handel’s “Messiah" Performances” >
      • "Messiah" Performers, Venues & Audiences, Press and Broadcasts >
        • Special 20th Century "Messiah" Performances
      • Handel's "Messiah" & Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" ~ Described for viewers unfamiliar with these oratorios
    • Their “1899 on . . .” Bethany College “Swedish Artists’ Midwest Art Exhibition” ​~ An account by the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery
    • Their “1902 on . . .” Bethany College ‘Terrible Swedes,’ Their “1903 on” ‘Rockar Stockar’ ~ An account by Dr. Lindquist
    • Their “1904 on . . .” Bethany College St. Louis World's Fair “Swedish Pavilion”
    • Their "1895 to 1981" 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 "1937" Bethany College's Introduction to New Sweden ~ Founded in 1638 >
      • Deere's Introduction to New Sweden
  • 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
  • Artist Lydia Sohlberg Deere
    • Lydia's Lindsborg Photography, 1900-1925 >
      • The Hats
      • The Smoky River
      • The Smoky Hills >
        • 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 as Bethany College Lane Hart Hall Dean of Women, 1906 - 1913 >
      • Lydia's Signatured Black Book of Her Handwritten Sewing Instructions >
        • Nina Sohlberg's Child's Sewing "Little Dots" PICTURE BOOK
      • Lydia Sohlberg Deere's 1927 "Lindsborg Swedish Club's" Handwork >
        • The Lindsborg Swedish Club's "Allers Monster-Tidnings" magazine, 1940
    • 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 "Palm Springs Magazine " 1938-39
    • 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" and "Reviews" .. 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 & 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 "Field Trips"
      • 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 ~ An account by Dr. Lindquist >
        • Swensson's "Bethany Lutheran Church" and the "Augustana Lutheran Synod"
        • Swensson's Bethany's Beginnings: "The Bethany Academy of 1882"
        • Olsson's Influence, the Swenssons,' the Musicians' and Singers,' "Messiah," 1882 on … >
          • Thure Olof Jaderborg ~ One Lindsborg "Messiah" Commitment from 1901-1954
        • Swensson's Swedish Artists of the 1890s
        • Swensson's "Bethany College Museum," 1882 - 1966
      • In Memorium**Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson, 1904 ~ An account by Dr. Lindquist
    • Deere's Rev. Dr. Ernst F. Pihlblad, 1873-1943 ~ An account by Dr. Lindquist >
      • In Memoriam**Dr. Ernst F. Pihlblad, 1943
      • Rev. Dr. Pihlblad on Bethany College, 1904 - 1941
    • 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 Deere's Library ~ What remains of 2,000 books -- pending project
  • "The Other Swedes"
    • Honoring Them and Remembering Them ~ The Smoky Valley Writers >
      • A suggestion to individuals and entities in charge of these books ~ ​Digitalize for posterity and perpetuity
      • Rev. Bror Carlsson and Mr. Alf Brorson from Sweden ~ Tracing Värmland's Rev. Olof Olsson's church life in Sweden and in Swedish America with the Augustana Lutheran Synod >
        • ​"He Gave God Glory" "The Story of Olof Olsson, ​" 1841 - 1900 ~ By Rev. Bror Carlsson
      • Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson ~ Author of countless Swedish & English publications, newspapers articles & books for local, national & European readers
      • Bethany Church, Bethany College, Augustana Synod Writers ​~ Remembering Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson and Rev. Dr. Ernst Frederick Pihlblad
      • Rev. Dr. Alfred Bergin ​~ Compiling foundational Swedish Smoky Valley Augustana Lutheran settlements' histories and more
      • Dr. Emory K. Lindquist ~ Chronicling Swedish Augustana Lutheran Lindsborg and Bethany College from their earliest years >
        • ​1953, "Smoky Valley People, A History of Lindsborg, Kansas" ~ The Words of Dr. Lindquist and Contents & Illustrations
        • 1975 "Bethany in Kansas, the history of a college" ~ The Words of Dr. Lindquist >
          • "Bethany in Kansas" PART I ~ Contents & Illustrations
          • "Bethany in Kansas" PART II ~ Contents & Illustrations
        • 1984 "Hagbard Brase, Beloved Music Master" ~ The Words of Dr. Lindquist >
          • "Hagbard Brase" ~ Contents and Illustrations
      • Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg [Selma Lind] ​ ~ Chronicling the Lindsborg of her day, its early histories, its early citizens >
        • 1965 "Lindsborg On Record" ~ Contents & Illustrations
        • 1967 "Living in Lindsborg and Other Possibilities" ~ Contents & Illustrations
        • 1973 "Talk About Lindsborg" ~ Contents & Illustrations
        • 1976 "Why Lindsborg?" ~ Contents & Illustrations >
          • 1975 Why Lindsborg ~ For the King of Sweden
        • ​1990 "Two Reprints" ~ Contents & Illustrations Lists
      • Mr. Thomas N. Holmquist ~ Chronicling Lindsborg's neighbors, the Galesburg Swedes of Salemsborg and Freemount, with a personal connection, 1868
      • Mr. Bill Carlson ~ Chronicling Lindsborg's earliest and later histories, with a personal connection, 1867
      • Ms. Karen A. Humphrey ~ Chronicling highlights of Swedish Augustana Lutheran Lindsborg and Bethany College culture in the earliest years >
        • 2012 "Grace, Faith and the Power of Singing: The Alma Christina Lind Swensson Story" ~The Words of Ms. Humphrey
        • "Grace, Faith and the Power of Singing" ~ Contents & Illustrations
      • Mr. A. John Pearson ~ Chronicling the Bethany College Presidents from 1882 to 1983
      • Mr. Kenneth Sjogren ~ Chronicling the Bethany College Presidents from 1941 to 2016
      • Mr. Chris Abercrombie ~ Remembering him as "The Historian," the SVHA president and his body of work
      • Rev. Eugene K. Nelson and the Bethany Home Writers ~ Chronicling the "only known" Smoky Valley story on Bethany Home since 1907
      • Smoky Valley Historical Association Members ~ Chronicling 1993 " Where Did They Live? " "Early Residences of Lindsborg, Kansas"
    • Honoring Them and Remembering Them \\// >
      • Mrs. Alma Christina Lind Swensson ~ Remembering her as Mrs. Rev. Dr. Swensson, the "First Lady" of Lindsborg, organizer of the "Messiah Chorus" and much more ~ From ​Ms. Humphrey's Book
      • ​Samuel Thorstenberg ~ Remembering him as the "earliest" internationally acclaimed Bethany College "Messiah Chorus" conductor
      • Dr. Hagbard Brase ~ Remembering him as the second "earliest" internationally acclaimed Bethany College "Messiah Chorus" conductor
      • B.G. Gröndal ~ Remembering him and his photography in the earliest years of Lindsborg and Bethany College >
        • B.G. Gröndal ~ Accounts by Mr. Abercrombie and Mrs. Jaderborg with LINK to Mrs. Eddy, B.G.'s granddaughter's book review
      • International "NY Times" Correspondent Miss Alma Luise Olson ~ Remembering her as "First Honored American Woman by Sweden" ~ An account by ​Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg* >
        • ​​Miss Alma Luise Olson ~ Remembering her and the extraordinary life she led at home and abroad ~ An account 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 -- pending
      • William Holwerda, M.D. ~ Remembering him as "Doc Bill," a city father and loving citizen, by Dr. Leon Lungstrom and Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg >
        • "Svensk Hyllningsfest" ​ ~ Remembering Dr. William Holwerda as a founder and "the key" organizer in 1941
        • Dr. William Holwerda ~ Remembering their family doctor and Messiah Lutheran Church tributes to him by Dr. Leon Lungstrom
      • Artist Lester Raymer ~ Remembering him as the renowned 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 ~ Remembering him handing me my Bethany College Diploma on Sunday, May 26, 1968
      • Dr. ​& Mrs. Elmer Copley ~ Remembering them and their 29 years of dedication to that Bethany College "Messiah" tradition of excellence >
        • 1976 Dr. Elmer Copley ~ Remembering him as the “Messiah” conductor for the Bethany College "Swedish King’s," Carl XVI Gustaf's, performance >
          • 1981 Dr. Elmer Copley ~ Remembering him as the "Messiah" conductor for the Bethany College "Centennial Celebration" performance >
            • 1986 Dr. Elmer Copley ~ Remembering him as the televised "American Easter" conductor of the Bethany College Oratorio Society Holy Easter Week
      • Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg ~ Remembering her as the founder of the 1963 "Lindsborg Swedish Folk Dancers" ~ An account by Mr. Chris Abercrombie
      • Mr. & Mrs. Hilding Jaderborg ~ Remembering them and their “Swedish Crafts Shop” of 65 years and 50 trips to Sweden
      • The Swedish Lindsborg Builders ~ Remembering them for the lovely homes they built
      • Mr. Chris Abercrombie ~ Remembering him for "first" shining an international light on Lindsborg and Bethany College, via YouTube
      • Dr. Greta Swenson and Mr. & Mrs. Mark Esping ~ Remembering them for founding Lindsborg's “first” "Swedish-American Folklife Institute of Central Kansas," 1986 >
        • Remembering their Lindsborg's Folklife Institute's "Swedish-American Heritage Center," 1996
      • Mr. Claude Koehn ~ Remembering him as restorer and preservationist of Smoky Valley stone farmhouses and other stone structures
      • Ms. Rebecca Copley ~ Remembering her as Bethany College's “first” graduate to become an International Concert & Opera Soprano >
        • Ms. Copley's "International Concert and Opera Soprano" ​~ The REVIEWS
      • Mr. Bruce Karstadt ~ Honoring him as a Bethany College graduate for heading up a major national Swedish American institution
      • Dr. Mark Lucas ~ Messiah conductor bringing the Lindsborg “Oberammergau of the Plains" to a "new" world audience
    • 1894-1962 Bethany College Graduates in Augustana Lutheran Synod World Mission Work ~ An account by Dr. Emory K. Lindquist
    • 1901-2014 The ​Bethany College Swedish Knights and Ladies ~ Honored by the Kings of Sweden
    • 1961-2021 ​"McPherson County Old Mill Museum" leaders ~ Moving forward in August 2021 as "The Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum"
    • 1971 -2020 "American Scandinavian Association of the Great Plains" leaders ~ Providing cultural history and heritage programs with meaningful links to Sweden and Swedish America
    • 1976 His Majesty the King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf's Visit to Lindsborg April 17th >
      • The Lindsborg & Bethany College "Swedes" ~ Honored by the King of Sweden, June 6, 1976
    • 1977​ Swedish Emigrant Institute Staff from Växjö, Småland Visits Lindsborg October 16-18
    • 1978 Swedish Documen- tary Film Crew Visits Lindsborg October 2-9 >
      • "Lindsborg News-Record" Clippings of 1978 Swedish Film Crew Visit
    • 1992 - 2020 ​Honoring Them and Remembering Them ~ Their ​Smoky Valley History Research Writers Website Designers
  • Contacts
    • For 1869 Lindsborg CONTACT Today >
      • "A Time to Remember" 1882 - 1988
    • ​For 1881 Bethany College CONTACT Today >
      • "Bethany Campus Walk” ~ Remembering the buildings and the "Bethany Family" of their era, 1882 - 2015
      • Their "I WAS THERE" Coin ~ Bethany College 21st Year Celebration, 1902
    • For 1957 Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery CONTACT Today >
      • Sandzén: "Ecstasy of Color" ~ PBS Doucmentary ~ Aired 6/11/21
    • Closing Remarks >
      • Traveling through SWEDES ​~ The Table of Contents ~ The "Outline" "Online"
      • SWEDES' Swedish American Legacy Photographs >
        • ​Lydia's Lindsborg Photography​, ​1900 - 1925 >
          • Lydia's Bethany College Photography, ​1906 - 1925
    • Kansas Smoky Valley Swedish People's Memorial, 2009 ~ The virtual one >
      • In real time, the real 1941 memorial, the "Pioneer Cross" ​~ Created by Messrs. Lindholm and Oberg
" ...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  *
​"Let Us Remember Them"
​

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 led by Pastor Olof Olsson (1841-1900) who was born in Karlskoga, Sweden. 

In that same year in August, the 
twenty-eight-year-old 
(28) Pastor Olsson founded the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Bethany Church (today known as Bethany Church) which, in turn, became a member of the Augustana Lutheran Synod.  The Pastor was educated at the Swedish universities of Stockholm and Upsala, and spent a year in the Missionary Institute at Leipzig, Germany.  (He 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 of McPherson County 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 Swedes belonging to the Illinois Galesburg Colonization Company who were also Lutheran Christians many of whom were from the Dalarna and Småland provinces of Sweden who had immigrated to America earlier on.  They were pastored by 1861 graduate of the first class of Chicago's Augustana Seminary Rev. Anders Wilhelm (A.W.) Dahlsten, their Colony leader.  Their Swedish settlements-to-be, Salemsborg and Freemont, were 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, in 1869, was the confluence of these scattered Swedish Lutheran settlements in this part of the Kansas Smoky Valley, forming the settlements of Lindsborg, Salemsborg, Freemount, Smolan, Falun and other Swedish hamlets.

On February 20, 1869, the Lindsborg name had been adopted by the Värmland Swedes at the meeting of the First Swedish Agricultural Company.  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) who had become an ordained minister on June 22, 1879, of the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Augustana Synod.

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 become a fine 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 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, from the period of time beginning in 1901 to 2014.

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 their Augustana Lutheran Synod churches: Bethany Lutheran Church, the Salemsborg Lutheran Church, and the Freemount Lutheran Church,
 all of which were founded in 1869, over 150 years ago.   Nearly four decades later, in 1908, the first English speaking Lutheran church -- a breakoff of the Bethany Lutheran Church -- was founded as the Messiah Lutheran Church.  Yet, to these early Lutheran congregations, also, other denominations were being established in Lindsborg such as the Swedish Methodist Episcopal Church of 1876, the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant Church of 1878-- a breakoff of the Bethany Lutheran Church****, and the Swedish Baptist Church of 1892. 

Lindsborg as well as all Swedish American communities in the United States, in 1937 were 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 time, 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 Deere Home, the 1961 Thunderbird; and, after Lydia passed with Emil's campaigning work and preparation for the first Lindsborg Hospital.  Then follows 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; and their 1937 introduction to New Sweden.

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 honor and remember these individuals, many of whom who may have been forgotten, are in danger of being forgotten or who have never been learned of, by showcasing them and their works online, for posterity and perpetuity. 

Through the gift of marvelous technology, SWEDES has been able to memorialize the Bethany College and the Lindsborg and their Swedes of yesterday who were the rock-like infrastructure upon which modern Lindsborg and Bethany College exist. So it is to them 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, let us remember them!

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 and to the Lutheran Church, the Augustana Lutheran Synod, 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.


To continue, go HERE to learn of the last-living-links through whom the foundational history of this website could only have been created. 
​

Njuta av (Enjoy),
Fran Cochran -- January 10, 2021
Just one descendant of many, near or afar, watching over this Swedish American living legacy

​

*      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."

**** Bill Carlson, from his 2010 book, Lindsborg Then and Lindsborg Now, page 29.
***** 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.
*     *     *    *    *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

​~ Let Us Remember Them ~
*    *    *     *     *     *     *
" . . . 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
Source:

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 Ladies"
​Honored by the Kings of Sweden

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 (found in Deere's Bethany College annuals) 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)
​---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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: Sohlberg Deere Papers. Postcard by Photographer Bror G. Gröndal
​To start SWEDES, go HERE.
*     *     * 
​
​~ Let Us Remember Them ~
*     *     * 

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.
Copyright © 2022 www.swedesthewaytheywere.org.  All rights reserved.
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