~ ...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 *
--Bill Carlson / Alf Brorson *
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ A Slice of Swedish Americana ~
Dear Viewers:
In the midst of the beautiful Smoky Valley located on the Great Plains of Kansas was established the little Swedish city of Lindsborg in 1869 by a group of 35 pietistic Christian families, numbering 110.** These Swedish immigrants from the Värmland region, part of a larger group, were lead by Pastor Olof Olsson (1841-1900), who was born in Karlskoga. In that same year, the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Bethany Church (today known as Bethany Lutheran Church) was founded by this twenty-eight (28) year old 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 and the third president of the Swedish Augustana Evangelical Lutheran College in Rock Island, Illinois.
The First Swedish Land Company 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 the Swedes who were immigrating from Sweden. This resulted in scattered Swedish settlements throughout the Kansas Smoky Valley, including Pastor Olsson's group and the settlement of the Galesburg Company Swedes from Illinois. All members of the First Swedish Land Company were required to be believing Christians adhering to the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
The name of Lindsborg, its first syllable of "Linds," was derived from the surnames of nine men, three of whom held important positions in the First Swedish Land Company. Their surnames were Lind, Lindgren and Lindahl. The second syllable "borg" translated means "castle," and I have read it also means "city" or "fortified place."
In 1881, on October 15th, this farming community with a population of 700, became the home of Bethany Academy, later known as Bethany Lutheran College, founded by the dynamic twenty-five (25) year old 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, in Swedish American Lutheran circles around the country, and with the immediate beginnings of what would be a fine college museum, Bethany College was to become a cultural mecca of education drawing many to its superb music and art programs, culminating with its nationally and internationally known annual Easter Holy Week performances of the prominent German-British Baroque composer George Frideric Handel's Messiah, and, in time, giving 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 fresh from Paris in 1894, European taught artist Sandzén, born in Blidsberg, Sweden, would 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 and would be again in 1940. These two Swedish gentlemen would be two of fourteen (14) such Lindsborg residents of the Bethany College family (of which I have so far discovered) 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 not only in the Bethany Lutheran denomination governed by the Augustana Lutheran Synod, but as well in other Swedish and English protestant nominations.
In those beginning years, a phrase from The Spur by Howard Lincoln so aptly described this little Swedish Kansas city, in the following way: "Lindsborg - Where Culture and Agriculture Meet." ***
With the passage of time, the Lindsborg of Kansas became known as "Little Sweden." 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."
In the midst of the beautiful Smoky Valley located on the Great Plains of Kansas was established the little Swedish city of Lindsborg in 1869 by a group of 35 pietistic Christian families, numbering 110.** These Swedish immigrants from the Värmland region, part of a larger group, were lead by Pastor Olof Olsson (1841-1900), who was born in Karlskoga. In that same year, the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Bethany Church (today known as Bethany Lutheran Church) was founded by this twenty-eight (28) year old 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 and the third president of the Swedish Augustana Evangelical Lutheran College in Rock Island, Illinois.
The First Swedish Land Company 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 the Swedes who were immigrating from Sweden. This resulted in scattered Swedish settlements throughout the Kansas Smoky Valley, including Pastor Olsson's group and the settlement of the Galesburg Company Swedes from Illinois. All members of the First Swedish Land Company were required to be believing Christians adhering to the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
The name of Lindsborg, its first syllable of "Linds," was derived from the surnames of nine men, three of whom held important positions in the First Swedish Land Company. Their surnames were Lind, Lindgren and Lindahl. The second syllable "borg" translated means "castle," and I have read it also means "city" or "fortified place."
In 1881, on October 15th, this farming community with a population of 700, became the home of Bethany Academy, later known as Bethany Lutheran College, founded by the dynamic twenty-five (25) year old 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, in Swedish American Lutheran circles around the country, and with the immediate beginnings of what would be a fine college museum, Bethany College was to become a cultural mecca of education drawing many to its superb music and art programs, culminating with its nationally and internationally known annual Easter Holy Week performances of the prominent German-British Baroque composer George Frideric Handel's Messiah, and, in time, giving 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 fresh from Paris in 1894, European taught artist Sandzén, born in Blidsberg, Sweden, would 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 and would be again in 1940. These two Swedish gentlemen would be two of fourteen (14) such Lindsborg residents of the Bethany College family (of which I have so far discovered) 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 not only in the Bethany Lutheran denomination governed by the Augustana Lutheran Synod, but as well in other Swedish and English protestant nominations.
In those beginning years, a phrase from The Spur by Howard Lincoln so aptly described this little Swedish Kansas city, in the following way: "Lindsborg - Where Culture and Agriculture Meet." ***
With the passage of time, the Lindsborg of Kansas became known as "Little Sweden." 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
viewed from Coronado Heights, named for Spanish Explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado thought to have explored this area in 1541.>
viewed from Coronado Heights, named for Spanish Explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado thought to have explored this area in 1541.>
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 story 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. But, most importantly, this experience introduced me to their Lindsborg and Bethany Swedish friends, to "The Other Swedes," to their contemporaries, and to the events of their times, roughly from the end of the 19th century to the mid twentieth century when the population grew from 466 residents in 1880 to 2,383 in 1950.
The story begins under the HOME section entitled, The Bethany Artist & the Bethany Scientist: Lydia & Emil, summarizing their lives as a couple and from there their story continues with across and dropdown sections including information about their homes, their travels, their Swedish homestead, their Coronado Heights' project photographs; to the dropdown sections on their Bethany Lutheran Church and Augustana Lutheran Synod, their renown Messiah performances, their Artists' Midwest Art Exhibition, their "Terrible Swedes", their 1904 St. Louis World's Fair Swedish Pavilion, their 1909 and 1919 Rev. Alfred Bergin's Swedish Smoky Valley Books and Ruth Billdt, their Bethany College Anniversary Celebrations, their friend, Emory Lindquist, and his "Bethany in Kansas, the history of a college" and their friend, Leon Lungstrom and his "History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas."
From the HOME section across, Swedes grows exponentially from detailing the A.G. Sohlberg Swedish immigration experience, highlighting the Ulric Sohlberg family left behind and their Swedish collections and to the details of Lydia's and Emil's lives lived individually, to their careers at Swedish Bethany College, to the Swedish persons they knew.
Throughout Swedes, more than anything, are found early pieces of information, stories and anecdotes of their Swedish college, and of a few of the college and cultural activities of their times, while documenting these times intermittently with Lydia's "black and white" photographs. Swedes finishes, most importantly, with recognizing and honoring their friends, their contemporaries, the other Swedes in Lindsborg and at Bethany College, under the last section page: "The Other Swedes."
Thus, it is also appropriate, therefore, as I feel their proud Kansas Smoky Valley descendants would certainly agree, to dedicate Swedes: TheWayTheyWere "to their Swedes" as well as to mine, Lydia Sohlberg Deere (1873-1943) and Emil Olof Deere (1877-1966), with the hope that other online stories of these other Swedes will one day be shared by their descendants and others because there is just so much more to know!
Finally, and personally, to my parents, Gene Cochran and Lois (Sohlberg Fry) Cochran, I give my greatest gratitude for sending me to [Swedish American] Bethany College in 1964 and for showing me the value of my Swedish legacy found in Lindsborg, Kansas which were mere steps to lead to many future steps in making this Swedish American website possible.
Now begin your journey back in time 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!
To help you navigate Swedes, go HERE first. To see a map of Lindsborg, go HERE.
Njuta av (Enjoy),
Fran Cochran
Kansas Smoky Valley Swedish American 5th generation Lindsborg resident (1962-1968)
Lindsborg Rural High School & Bethany College Graduate (1964 & 1968)
Great grandniece of Swedish Americans' Lydia Sohlberg Deere and Emil O. Deere
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 story 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. But, most importantly, this experience introduced me to their Lindsborg and Bethany Swedish friends, to "The Other Swedes," to their contemporaries, and to the events of their times, roughly from the end of the 19th century to the mid twentieth century when the population grew from 466 residents in 1880 to 2,383 in 1950.
The story begins under the HOME section entitled, The Bethany Artist & the Bethany Scientist: Lydia & Emil, summarizing their lives as a couple and from there their story continues with across and dropdown sections including information about their homes, their travels, their Swedish homestead, their Coronado Heights' project photographs; to the dropdown sections on their Bethany Lutheran Church and Augustana Lutheran Synod, their renown Messiah performances, their Artists' Midwest Art Exhibition, their "Terrible Swedes", their 1904 St. Louis World's Fair Swedish Pavilion, their 1909 and 1919 Rev. Alfred Bergin's Swedish Smoky Valley Books and Ruth Billdt, their Bethany College Anniversary Celebrations, their friend, Emory Lindquist, and his "Bethany in Kansas, the history of a college" and their friend, Leon Lungstrom and his "History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas."
From the HOME section across, Swedes grows exponentially from detailing the A.G. Sohlberg Swedish immigration experience, highlighting the Ulric Sohlberg family left behind and their Swedish collections and to the details of Lydia's and Emil's lives lived individually, to their careers at Swedish Bethany College, to the Swedish persons they knew.
Throughout Swedes, more than anything, are found early pieces of information, stories and anecdotes of their Swedish college, and of a few of the college and cultural activities of their times, while documenting these times intermittently with Lydia's "black and white" photographs. Swedes finishes, most importantly, with recognizing and honoring their friends, their contemporaries, the other Swedes in Lindsborg and at Bethany College, under the last section page: "The Other Swedes."
Thus, it is also appropriate, therefore, as I feel their proud Kansas Smoky Valley descendants would certainly agree, to dedicate Swedes: TheWayTheyWere "to their Swedes" as well as to mine, Lydia Sohlberg Deere (1873-1943) and Emil Olof Deere (1877-1966), with the hope that other online stories of these other Swedes will one day be shared by their descendants and others because there is just so much more to know!
Finally, and personally, to my parents, Gene Cochran and Lois (Sohlberg Fry) Cochran, I give my greatest gratitude for sending me to [Swedish American] Bethany College in 1964 and for showing me the value of my Swedish legacy found in Lindsborg, Kansas which were mere steps to lead to many future steps in making this Swedish American website possible.
Now begin your journey back in time 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!
To help you navigate Swedes, go HERE first. To see a map of Lindsborg, go HERE.
Njuta av (Enjoy),
Fran Cochran
Kansas Smoky Valley Swedish American 5th generation Lindsborg resident (1962-1968)
Lindsborg Rural High School & Bethany College Graduate (1964 & 1968)
Great grandniece of Swedish Americans' Lydia Sohlberg Deere and Emil O. Deere
* * *
Background
Photographs & Information
Swedish Founder and First (1st) Pastor of the
Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Bethany Church
and
Founder of Lindsborg, Kansas
Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Bethany Church
and
Founder of Lindsborg, Kansas
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For a Swedish immigration story on Pastor Olsson in 1869 when Lindsborg was founded, go HERE.
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For a Swedish immigration story on Pastor Olsson in 1869 when Lindsborg was founded, go HERE.
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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 -
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
* NOTE THAT ON THESE POST CARDS THE SWEDISH SPELLING OF VӒRMLAND IS " VERMLAND"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SINCE OCTOBER 31, 1991
THE VӒRMLAND CITY OF "MUNKFORS" AND THE KANSAS CITY OF "LINDSBORG" HAVE BEEN "SWEDISH SISTER CITIES"
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SINCE OCTOBER 31, 1991
THE VӒRMLAND CITY OF "MUNKFORS" AND THE KANSAS CITY OF "LINDSBORG" HAVE BEEN "SWEDISH SISTER CITIES"
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* * *
CARL AARON SWENSSON
1857 - 1904
(Born in Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania of Swedish parents from Smaland, 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
THE "CAN DO" SPIRIT OF A SWENSSON AD FOR HIS DEAR BETHANY
Source: Annual 1895-1896
* * *
~ 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 "
* * *
The Other Churches of Lindsborg Then
The Other Churches of Lindsborg Then
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 G. N. Malm. 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!
Source: 1969, "The Smoky Valley in The After Years" by Ruth Billdt & Elizabeth Jaderborg: PLATE IX, after page 44
* * *
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 Were These
Bethany College
"Swedish Knights and Honored Ladies"
Below are the pictures arranged as to the years these Swedes received honor for their many Swedish American endeavors from the Swedish Crown. Note that Sandzén was knighted twice in 1901 and 1940, and is listed just one time.
Rows
1 -- Swensson 1901, Sandzén 1901 and 1940, Pihlblad 1920, Olson 1940, Brase 1947, Greenough 1963
2 -- A.W. Lindquist 1976, E.K. Lindquist 1976, Hahn 1976, Ristuben 1990, Sandzén-Greenough 1991, Karstadt 2010
Click on their pictures to learn of their Swedish honors. Then click HERE to learn more about them under "The Other Swedes" page, and about their information and photograph sources.
Rows
1 -- Swensson 1901, Sandzén 1901 and 1940, Pihlblad 1920, Olson 1940, Brase 1947, Greenough 1963
2 -- A.W. Lindquist 1976, E.K. Lindquist 1976, Hahn 1976, Ristuben 1990, Sandzén-Greenough 1991, Karstadt 2010
Click on their pictures to learn of their Swedish honors. Then click HERE to learn more about them under "The Other Swedes" page, and about their information and photograph sources.
Recently discovered Lindsborg Bethany Swedish Knights to be added in time:
First professor at Bethany and founder of the Bethany College Museum, Dr. Johan August Udden, would be knighted in 1911 after he left Bethany; and Lindsborg native Dr. Rev. Julius Lincoln, 1891 Bethany graduate, former assistant pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church, would also be knighted after he left Lindsborg in 1930.
* * *
Some Were These
The Bethany College "Terrible Swedes"
Some Were These
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 13 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
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 very "heart" of the College -
- May 21, 1891 -
Eric Glad, J.A. Westerlund, Ernst F. Pihlblad, Julius Lincoln
became
"the first" Bethany College baccalaureate degree graduates
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 - 1968
1887 SWEDISH MOTIF
- On OLD MAIN walls behind the 1968 Business Club meeting -
Source: 1968 Bethanian
1904
Swedish Pavilion Gift from Sweden to Lindsborg's Bethany College
Swedish Pavilion Gift from Sweden to Lindsborg's Bethany College
Source: Bror G. Gröndal Photographer
* * *
1976
- THE KING OF SWEDEN IN LINDSBORG -
Source: The Bethany Magazine, Spring Issue 1976, Editor A. John Pearson, Assistant Estred Johnson Schwantes.
Cover photo by Jim Turner.
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.
- Munkfors, Värmland, Sweden "Sister City" of Lindsborg, Kansas, U.S.A. -
- Since October 31, 1991 -
(due to the initial efforts and foresight of Mayor Don Anderson, who held this office from 1989 to 2001)
- for more information click below -
Sohlberg Post Card
* 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."
*** 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.
* 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."
*** 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.
Copyright © 2019 www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
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 © 2019 www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
