Alf Brorson of Torsby, Sweden, in his book published in Swedish, Vägen Till Lindsborg (The Road to Lindsborg) states, "these Swedish emigrants coming to America and to the Lindsborg area were not the very poor indigents but had some financial means to assist in settling the Smoky Valley."
-- Bill Carlson's 2011 Lindsborg Then and Lindsborg Now, page 63
-- Bill Carlson's 2011 Lindsborg Then and Lindsborg Now, page 63
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
[A SWEDISH AMERICAN SMOKY VALLEY STUDY]
An online compilation of history from Lindsborg Citizens, Smoky Valley Neighbors and Bethany College Alumni A virtual archive of the rich Smoky Valley Swedish history and culture that began in the late 1860s
encompassing the era of the 1860 Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod to 1962 and beyond
[A SWEDISH AMERICAN SMOKY VALLEY STUDY]
An online compilation of history from Lindsborg Citizens, Smoky Valley Neighbors and Bethany College Alumni A virtual archive of the rich Smoky Valley Swedish history and culture that began in the late 1860s
encompassing the era of the 1860 Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod to 1962 and beyond
Dear Viewers:
In the midst of the beautiful Smoky Valley located on the Central Plains of Kansas was established the little Swedish American city of Lindsborg in 1869 by a group of 35 pietistic Lutheran Christian families, numbering 110.** Arriving in June of that year were these Swedish emigrants 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 Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod. The Pastor was educated at the Swedish universities of Stockholm and Uppsala, and spent a year in the Missionary Institute at Leipzig, Germany. (He would one day become a prominent Swedish American Lutheran clergyman of the Swedish 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 Freemount, 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. From these would come future Swedish farmers responsible for producing thousands of acres of wheat and milo in the years to come.
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 foundational 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, the year of Lindsborg's founding. However, the Bethany Lutheran Church gave birth, through some of its former members to the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant Church in 1878, and to the Messiah Lutheran Church, in 1908, the first English speaking church in Lindsborg. There were also two significant non-Lutheran denominations that were established in Lindsborg, most notably, the Swedish Methodist Episcopal Church of 1876 and the Swedish Baptist Church of 1892. All these churches have played major Christian roles in Lindsborg and continue to do so.
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 Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson's 1897 638-page 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."
In the midst of the beautiful Smoky Valley located on the Central Plains of Kansas was established the little Swedish American city of Lindsborg in 1869 by a group of 35 pietistic Lutheran Christian families, numbering 110.** Arriving in June of that year were these Swedish emigrants 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 Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod. The Pastor was educated at the Swedish universities of Stockholm and Uppsala, and spent a year in the Missionary Institute at Leipzig, Germany. (He would one day become a prominent Swedish American Lutheran clergyman of the Swedish 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 Freemount, 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. From these would come future Swedish farmers responsible for producing thousands of acres of wheat and milo in the years to come.
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 foundational 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, the year of Lindsborg's founding. However, the Bethany Lutheran Church gave birth, through some of its former members to the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant Church in 1878, and to the Messiah Lutheran Church, in 1908, the first English speaking church in Lindsborg. There were also two significant non-Lutheran denominations that were established in Lindsborg, most notably, the Swedish Methodist Episcopal Church of 1876 and the Swedish Baptist Church of 1892. All these churches have played major Christian roles in Lindsborg and continue to do so.
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 Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson's 1897 638-page 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
This SWEDES photograph of Lindsborg taken from Coronado Heights is dedicated to Chris Abercrombie!
~ an incredible historian of Swedish Smoky Valley history ~
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* the written content of which was a masterpiece composed by Association president, researcher, 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. Gathering other pertinent information also sent me off to Sweden in 2016 and 2017 from where I also traced my family history. (*Unfortunately, due to unresolved technical issues, it was replaced in October of 2024.)
In addition to the use of the Smoky Valley Writers' works, this Swedish American online historical narrative consists of information from entities and individuals and the use 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. They were Bethany College science professor Dr. Emil O. Deere (1877-1966) and his wife, Lindsborg businesswoman, college Ladies Hall Principal Matron and instructor in needlework and art, artist Lydia Sohlberg Deere (1874-1943) -- my great-granduncle and great-grandaunt, respectively.
They brought me face-to-face with their Swedishness and their Augustana Lutheranism. 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 2,609 in 1960.
In addition to the use of the Smoky Valley Writers' works, this Swedish American online historical narrative consists of information from entities and individuals and the use 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. They were Bethany College science professor Dr. Emil O. Deere (1877-1966) and his wife, Lindsborg businesswoman, college Ladies Hall Principal Matron and instructor in needlework and art, artist Lydia Sohlberg Deere (1874-1943) -- my great-granduncle and great-grandaunt, respectively.
They brought me face-to-face with their Swedishness and their Augustana Lutheranism. 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 2,609 in 1960.
Not only is SWEDES about these relatives, it finishes, most importantly, with listing their friends, their contemporaries, as well as their descendants, under "The Other Swedes" section, which attempts to provide "Their Legacy Listings" including their works. This listing is a way to honor and remember these individuals, to "Celebrate Them," 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. Approximately 80% of SWEDES is dedicated to them.
For these SWEDES are the rock-like foundational infrastructure upon which modern Lindsborg and Bethany College rests and exist. So, to these Swedes along with their Swedish American descendants (my contemporaries, the last-living-links to this history) and to my Aunt Lydia and Uncle Emil that Swedes: TheWayTheyWere is dedicated as well as to the memory of their Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod/Church (1860-1962.)
The 2011 SWEDES was first published on the eve of Lindsborg's 75th Svensk Hyllningsfest on October 8, 2015.
Through the gift of marvelous technology, SWEDES has been able to memorialize the Bethany College and the Lindsborg with her Smoky Valley neighboring communities, and their Lutheran Swedes of yesteryear representing the 1860 Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod era, primarily. (That Swedish Lutheran identity would be lost eventually with the formation of the Lutheran Church in America in 1962 and further with the 1988 formation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.)
Let us now begin our journey back to the end of the 19th century moving into the 20th, to the lives lived in this special Smoky Valley Kansas Swedish community of "brick" main streets with its special Swedish College when the ties to Sweden and to the Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod churches were at their purest and strongest and the mother language was spoken daily everywhere, especially at those chiming bell 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.
Njuta av (Enjoy),
Fran Cochran, July 6, 2023
Great grandniece of Dr. Emil O. Deere and Mrs. Lydia Sohlberg Deere
At home in the San Francisco Bay Area since May 1968
1962-1968 Lindsborg resident, 1968 Bethany College graduate, 1996-2011 Lindsborg farmland owner
2011-2024 Research writer website designer of Swedes: TheWayTheyWere (SWEDES)
A compiler of historical Swedish American information from Kansas Smoky Valley writers and other sources
2015 Research writer website designer of SwedishAmericana
A list compiler of, with LINKS to, Swedish American institutions, organizations, establishments and Swedish Studies
For more information, please go to CONTACTS.
For these SWEDES are the rock-like foundational infrastructure upon which modern Lindsborg and Bethany College rests and exist. So, to these Swedes along with their Swedish American descendants (my contemporaries, the last-living-links to this history) and to my Aunt Lydia and Uncle Emil that Swedes: TheWayTheyWere is dedicated as well as to the memory of their Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod/Church (1860-1962.)
The 2011 SWEDES was first published on the eve of Lindsborg's 75th Svensk Hyllningsfest on October 8, 2015.
Through the gift of marvelous technology, SWEDES has been able to memorialize the Bethany College and the Lindsborg with her Smoky Valley neighboring communities, and their Lutheran Swedes of yesteryear representing the 1860 Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod era, primarily. (That Swedish Lutheran identity would be lost eventually with the formation of the Lutheran Church in America in 1962 and further with the 1988 formation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.)
Let us now begin our journey back to the end of the 19th century moving into the 20th, to the lives lived in this special Smoky Valley Kansas Swedish community of "brick" main streets with its special Swedish College when the ties to Sweden and to the Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod churches were at their purest and strongest and the mother language was spoken daily everywhere, especially at those chiming bell 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.
Njuta av (Enjoy),
Fran Cochran, July 6, 2023
Great grandniece of Dr. Emil O. Deere and Mrs. Lydia Sohlberg Deere
At home in the San Francisco Bay Area since May 1968
1962-1968 Lindsborg resident, 1968 Bethany College graduate, 1996-2011 Lindsborg farmland owner
2011-2024 Research writer website designer of Swedes: TheWayTheyWere (SWEDES)
A compiler of historical Swedish American information from Kansas Smoky Valley writers and other sources
2015 Research writer website designer of SwedishAmericana
A list compiler of, with LINKS to, Swedish American institutions, organizations, establishments and Swedish Studies
For more information, please go to CONTACTS.
* * *
Traveling Through Swedes
Section by Section
Traveling Through Swedes
Section by Section
Click on the TABLE OF CONTENTS below.
| swedes_table_of_contents_4_15_25.pdf |
For a very brief summary of the Contents of SWEDES, go to the end of this section to "To Begin SWEDES."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
For a glimpse of those yesteryears continue scrolling down.
For a glimpse of those yesteryears continue scrolling down.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
<< The First Official Seal of Bethany College >>
In remembrance of these Lindsborg Swedes, are the words of Bethany College's first official seal of 1906,
"Domini, Domino," "Of the Lord, for the Lord,"
In remembrance of these Lindsborg Swedes, are the words of Bethany College's first official seal of 1906,
"Domini, Domino," "Of the Lord, for the Lord,"
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Bethany College's Official Seal was decided upon in 1906 due to the far-reaching influence of its founder Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson. The sacred and powerful symbols of the Seal are "the Lamb" and behind it "the slanted Cross." These identify "the most intimate aspects of Christian faith and life" as written by Dr. Emory Lindquist in his 1953 Smoky Valley People, page 248. Beneath the Lamb and Cross symbols is written "Domini, Domino" - Latin for "Of the Lord, for the Lord." Lindquist continues, "The College Seal furnishes its own eloquent testimony as to the purposes and aims of Bethany College."
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Bethany College's Official Seal was decided upon in 1906 due to the far-reaching influence of its founder Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson. The sacred and powerful symbols of the Seal are "the Lamb" and behind it "the slanted Cross." These identify "the most intimate aspects of Christian faith and life" as written by Dr. Emory Lindquist in his 1953 Smoky Valley People, page 248. Beneath the Lamb and Cross symbols is written "Domini, Domino" - Latin for "Of the Lord, for the Lord." Lindquist continues, "The College Seal furnishes its own eloquent testimony as to the purposes and aims of Bethany College."
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" . . . no equal in the West for Bethany’s Music and Art Programs! "
THE "CAN DO" SPIRIT OF A SWENSSON AD FOR HIS DEAR BETHANY
Source: Annual 1895-1896
* * *
CARL AARON SWENSSON
1857 - 1904
(Born near Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania of Swedish parents from Småland, Sweden)
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
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.)
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
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 "
Source: "The Smoky Valley in the After Years," Plate III, across from page 29.
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!
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!
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
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
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 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 2014
Click on their pictures (found in Deere's Bethany College annuals) to learn of their Swedish honors. Click HERE to learn more.
Rows
1 -- Swensson 1901, Sandzén 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 2014
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"
The Bethany College "Terrible Swedes"
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 demolished.
- 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
Source: Sohlberg Papers. It is also on page 10 of "Bethany in Kansas, A history of a college."
Then, this was the "first" Bethany College building named the Bethany Academy in 1882.
It was at the very heart of the Bethany College beginnings.
It was at the very heart of the Bethany College beginnings.
Bethany Academy was chartered by the State of Kansas in September 1882 in a celebration with this building.
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.
In 1969, it was moved to the from the Bethany College campus to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum Heritage Park. Erected in front of it was the Bethany Academy sign which was removed in 2013.
For the rest of this story, on Bethany College's most important building, go HERE.
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.
In 1969, it was moved to the from the Bethany College campus to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum Heritage Park. Erected in front of it was the Bethany Academy sign which was removed in 2013.
For the rest of this story, on Bethany College's most important building, go HERE.
Photograph in 2011
Photography in 2011
Photographs in 2022
- May 21, 1891 -
Eric Glad, J.A. Westerlund, Ernst F. Pihlblad, Julius Lincoln
became
"the first" Bethany Academy baccalaureate degree graduates.
Eric Glad, J.A. Westerlund, Ernst F. Pihlblad, Julius Lincoln
became
"the first" Bethany Academy baccalaureate degree graduates.
Source: "Bethany in Kansas" page 21
Bethany Academy
Third Class Commencement, 1894
Source: Courtesy of the Augustana College Archives
* * *
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 - 1968
1887 SWEDISH MOTIF
- On OLD MAIN walls behind the 1968 Business Club meeting when I was president -
Today, these Swedish motifs would have been saved and preserved.
Source: 1968 Bethanian. I am in front row, 3rd from right, and Professor Clara Tow is to my left.
* * *
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.
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 -
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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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
Source: 1894 Algot E. Strand's "Fosterländska Minnen"
Source: picclick.co.uk
1904
Swedish Pavilion Gift from Sweden to Lindsborg's Bethany College
Source: Sohlberg Deere Papers. Postcard by Photographer Bror G. Gröndal
* * *
To begin SWEDES
To begin SWEDES
start under the "Home" section HERE for The Bethany Artist & the Bethany Scientist: Lydia & Emil, which briefly profiles the couple and their strong connection to Bethany College.
This section divides into 2 subsections and expands substantially.
Going "down" the "Home" section are sections on "Bethany College" that include: The 1882 Bethany Academy and the college of today's most important "first and most cherished building" relocated in 1969 to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum; the 1882-1966 Bethany College Natural Science History and Pioneer Swedish History Museum's collections also at the above museum ; the 1882 on . . . Messiah Performances; the 1899 Swedish Midwest Art Exhibition; the 1902 Terrible Swedes and the 1903 "Rockar! Stockar!" college yell; the 1904 Swedish Pavilion of the St. Louis World's Fair; the "1895 to 1981" college anniversary celebrations of 15, 20, 25 and 100 years; and the 1937 college introduction to the 1638 New Sweden project.
From there still in the "Home" section, go up to the right and down are sections on "Lindsborg" that include: The arrival of the Galesburg and Värmland Colonies of 1869, the founding of Lindsborg and the Bethany Lutheran Church in 1969 with their connection to the Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod of 1860; the founding of the 1879 Swedish Mission Church and that of the 1910 Messiah Lutheran Church; the founding of the 1907 Bethany Lutheran Home; the 1909 and 1919 writing and compiling of first Swedish historical books and their translation in 1965 and 1969 respectively to English; the 1919 founding of the Lindsborg Historical Society and the beginnings of the 1920's project with photos, the Deere's 1873 1916 Swedish homestead, their Lindsborg homes, and Emil's campaigning for a Lindsborg hospital after the passing of Lydia.
From this "Home" section across, SWEDES grows exponentially: In the Immigration section, 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 Lydia and Emil sections highlighting their Lindsborg and Bethany College endeavors 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 family friend 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 continues onto the largest section, "The Other Swedes" and concludes with the "Contacts" section.
This section divides into 2 subsections and expands substantially.
Going "down" the "Home" section are sections on "Bethany College" that include: The 1882 Bethany Academy and the college of today's most important "first and most cherished building" relocated in 1969 to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum; the 1882-1966 Bethany College Natural Science History and Pioneer Swedish History Museum's collections also at the above museum ; the 1882 on . . . Messiah Performances; the 1899 Swedish Midwest Art Exhibition; the 1902 Terrible Swedes and the 1903 "Rockar! Stockar!" college yell; the 1904 Swedish Pavilion of the St. Louis World's Fair; the "1895 to 1981" college anniversary celebrations of 15, 20, 25 and 100 years; and the 1937 college introduction to the 1638 New Sweden project.
From there still in the "Home" section, go up to the right and down are sections on "Lindsborg" that include: The arrival of the Galesburg and Värmland Colonies of 1869, the founding of Lindsborg and the Bethany Lutheran Church in 1969 with their connection to the Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod of 1860; the founding of the 1879 Swedish Mission Church and that of the 1910 Messiah Lutheran Church; the founding of the 1907 Bethany Lutheran Home; the 1909 and 1919 writing and compiling of first Swedish historical books and their translation in 1965 and 1969 respectively to English; the 1919 founding of the Lindsborg Historical Society and the beginnings of the 1920's project with photos, the Deere's 1873 1916 Swedish homestead, their Lindsborg homes, and Emil's campaigning for a Lindsborg hospital after the passing of Lydia.
From this "Home" section across, SWEDES grows exponentially: In the Immigration section, 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 Lydia and Emil sections highlighting their Lindsborg and Bethany College endeavors 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 family friend 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 continues onto the largest section, "The Other Swedes" and concludes with the "Contacts" section.
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REFERENCES:
* Bill Carlson, from his 2010 book, Lindsborg Then and Lindsborg Now, page 63.
* 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.
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REFERENCES:
* Bill Carlson, from his 2010 book, Lindsborg Then and Lindsborg Now, page 63.
* 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.
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* * *
"Let Us Celebrate 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.
Copyright © from October 8, 2015 to 2025.
All rights reserved.
"Let Us Celebrate 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.
Copyright © from October 8, 2015 to 2025.
All rights reserved.
