Contacts
Closing Remarks
Closing Remarks
Dear Viewers,
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere (SWEDES) was in its idea stage in 2005 during Bethany College's 125th Anniversary when a select group of 27 matted and framed black and white enlarged images of one hundred-year-old Bethany College photographs taken by my great grandaunt, photographer and artist Lydia Sohlberg Deere, were being shown at the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery. From events following that showing, with the saddening and shocking realization that a lot of our foundational College history was being forgotten, coupled with the ongoing concerns that many have regarding Lindsborg Swedish cultural heritage and historical sustainability issues, an embryo stage of SWEDES developed in 2011, leading to its birth stage in 2015 when it was first published.
SWEDES has worked out to be the last part of handling and dispersing of pieces from a Swedish and Kansas Smoky Valley Swedish American historical Lindsborg estate from Dr. Emil O. Deere and Mrs. Lydia Sohlberg Deere that was inherited in 1996. Later on, what occurred organically was the creation of this Swedish American website that is primarily on the foundational and developmental years of Bethany College and Lindsborg, beginning with a group of Lutheran Värmland Swedes led by Pastor Olof Olsson who emigrated there in 1869, just a few months after the Lutheran Swedes of the Illinois Galesburg Colonization Company, many of whom were Dalarna and Småland Swedes, who established the communities of Freemount and Salemsborg. In that year, they established same-name Lutheran churches that became part of the 1860 Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America. This Augustana Synod would later accept as one of its Lutheran schools the 1881 Bethany Academy (later named Bethany College) founded by Rev. Carl Aaron Swensson. Following his early death of 1904, reminiscent of this great leader, the College in 1906 adopted its "first" official seal, that of "the Lamb" and "the slanted Cross" with the sacred words: "Domini Domino" - "Of the Lord, for the Lord."*
Through my inheritance research and that of reading and scanning through many books and writings of the Smoky Valley Writers on these Swedes, SWEDES has attempted to provide one with an overall view of this most unique rural well-preserved Swedish American Lutheran Lindsborg, "Little Sweden," and Bethany College. Thus, SWEDES has highlighted the earliest years of the Lutheran Augustana Synod and its Smoky Valley churches and the pastors; the College, its museum and leaders and professors; the arts and the artists; some of the nationally and internationally known Lindsborg Messiah Chorus performances and conductors, and other important cultural and historical events as well as bringing recognition through their legacy listings of a few of the many notable Swedish, non-Swedish, and Swedish American persons from those years. These were the pioneers and those that followed who were initially responsible for the thriving community that Lindsborg continues to be. However, much of this success is due to their descendants, the "caretakers," the "last-living-links" connected or associated to these Swedes which are also included in the legacy listings found in the site's "The Other Swedes." For they have been carefully and lovingly preserving, promoting and carrying-on aspects of the Swedish cultural heritage, the handicrafts and traditions that so reflect the earliest years of Lindsborg and her neighboring Swedish communities.
One such example of preservation endeavors shared in SWEDES, is important enough to mention again here. It is on the short-lived, but impactful, 1986 Lindsborg "Swedish-American Folklife Institute of Central Kansas," that distinguished itself by having such a significant national and international reach with its various programs, exhibitions, workshops and classes, due to the awards of two National Endowments for the Arts Folklife Grants; and significantly the Institute arranged with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Folklife Festival of 1992 the Thomas N. Holmquist’s family Smoky Valley farm "Kansas Agriculture and Swedish Culture" entry. The thanks for the establishment of this Institute goes to rural ethnic grassroot Swedish American descendants, the late, Dr. Miss Greta Swenson, and Mark and Mardel Esping, Bethany College 1968 graduates with master's degrees, professionals, field experienced and last-living-links to this history, to this perishing way of Swedish American life in the Smoky Valley. Their Institute (with the beginning of its Swedish-American Heritage Center) operated for over a bountiful decade, planting good seeds into the rich Swedish American cultural landscape of Kansas, and it would have continued had the needed support been available. Thus, due to a lack of funding, the Institute can be found only at its website HERE. Yet, its cultural sustainability endeavors live on as it is still "in the business of preservation of all forms of folklife" of Swedish America in the Smoky Valley and beyond.
As of January 1, 2022, the hope was that SWEDES would cease to be a growing website. While looking for a secure nesting place for it, so that it can live on for posterity and into perpetuity, for this year it will be in the last stages of becoming a finished narrative, a well-documented piece, as accurate as possible, of a slice of Kansas Swedish Smoky Valley history. Thus, it can act as a virtual "memorial," where one can visit online "to remember these Swedes" and "to learn of them, and from them." In short, it can become a place of learning for educational, reference and research purposes for the Smoky Valley communities: for their leaders and citizens; for their children and students; for the teachers at the Smoky Valley Public Schools; for the Bethany College administration, faculty, students, and alumni; and for members of the Smoky Valley Historical Association, the Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum, the American Scandinavian Association of the Great Plains and other like Swedish, cultural, and historical organizations, societies and clubs.
"Swedish American Smoky Valley Studies" could even be a curriculum developed jointly by these Swedish American communities, because they are both "too" important locally, nationally and to Sweden, not to have such a studies program on their Swedish emigration history and their American cultural heritage development. This, in time, would enable identifying cultural heritage aspects being lost, to then be rescued and restored by them.
With that being said, what is so noticeably missing in this SWEDES I, this Swedish American Lutheran tale of the Kansas Smoky Valley, then is a SWEDES II, to honor and to remember the Galesburg Colony of Swedes, their descendants and others connected to that colony which established the communities of Salemsborg and Freemount. That website should certainly be based on Mr. Thomas N. Holmquist's 1994 Pioneer Cross, Swedish Settlements Along the Smoky Hill Bluffs. A 1976 Bethany College graduate, family man, farmer, educator, historian, author, 4th generation descendant and a last-living link to that history, his narrative more than fills the void of telling the Swedish Smoky Valley Galesburg Colony story! In itself Pioneer Cross can certainly be looked upon as a "literary memorial" to these pioneer Swedes. Moreover, in real time, it brings you face-to-face with their memorial, the "White Cross," embedded high in a Smoky Hills' bluff above the valley floor created of white painted stones that was established there in 1941 by a Mr. Carl G. Linholm, on the land offered by a Mr. Oberg of nearby Assaria, Kansas. Many years ago, I saw that memorial. It was a spiritually beautiful emotional scene that I experienced for a moment in a moving car on a country road from a far distance!
Mr. Holmquist's Pioneer Cross classic is as ever important to those settlements as fourth Swedish American Bethany College president Dr. Emory Lindquist's Smoky Valley People classic is to that of the Lindsborg settlement, as these narratives both point to "The Cross," "That Cross," which led these Lutheran Swedes to emigrate to the Kansas Smoky Valley in the first place.
Two statements of Dr. Lindquist's Smoky Valley People in which I and my Swedish American Lindsborg contemporaries totally agree upon are these, "The central factor in writing this volume is my genuine conviction that Bethany College and Lindsborg present distinctive values that are truly meaningful for individuals and society. I do not believe that this unique combination of cultural and spiritual values in a friendly small town setting can be readily duplicated." **
This is "the way they were," and SWEDES has now recorded that.
For suggestions on traveling through SWEDES, through those earlier histories of Lindsborg and Bethany College, go HERE to find the "Table of Contents" "The Outline Online" and instructions.
Medan du tittar tillbaka och tittar upp för riktning framåt tillsammans,
(While looking back, and looking up, for direction, moving forward together,)
Fran Cochran -- May 1, 2022
Just one descendant of many, near or afar, watching over this Swedish American living legacy
Research writer website designer of SwedesTheWayTheyWere & SwedishAmericana
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere (SWEDES) was in its idea stage in 2005 during Bethany College's 125th Anniversary when a select group of 27 matted and framed black and white enlarged images of one hundred-year-old Bethany College photographs taken by my great grandaunt, photographer and artist Lydia Sohlberg Deere, were being shown at the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery. From events following that showing, with the saddening and shocking realization that a lot of our foundational College history was being forgotten, coupled with the ongoing concerns that many have regarding Lindsborg Swedish cultural heritage and historical sustainability issues, an embryo stage of SWEDES developed in 2011, leading to its birth stage in 2015 when it was first published.
SWEDES has worked out to be the last part of handling and dispersing of pieces from a Swedish and Kansas Smoky Valley Swedish American historical Lindsborg estate from Dr. Emil O. Deere and Mrs. Lydia Sohlberg Deere that was inherited in 1996. Later on, what occurred organically was the creation of this Swedish American website that is primarily on the foundational and developmental years of Bethany College and Lindsborg, beginning with a group of Lutheran Värmland Swedes led by Pastor Olof Olsson who emigrated there in 1869, just a few months after the Lutheran Swedes of the Illinois Galesburg Colonization Company, many of whom were Dalarna and Småland Swedes, who established the communities of Freemount and Salemsborg. In that year, they established same-name Lutheran churches that became part of the 1860 Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America. This Augustana Synod would later accept as one of its Lutheran schools the 1881 Bethany Academy (later named Bethany College) founded by Rev. Carl Aaron Swensson. Following his early death of 1904, reminiscent of this great leader, the College in 1906 adopted its "first" official seal, that of "the Lamb" and "the slanted Cross" with the sacred words: "Domini Domino" - "Of the Lord, for the Lord."*
Through my inheritance research and that of reading and scanning through many books and writings of the Smoky Valley Writers on these Swedes, SWEDES has attempted to provide one with an overall view of this most unique rural well-preserved Swedish American Lutheran Lindsborg, "Little Sweden," and Bethany College. Thus, SWEDES has highlighted the earliest years of the Lutheran Augustana Synod and its Smoky Valley churches and the pastors; the College, its museum and leaders and professors; the arts and the artists; some of the nationally and internationally known Lindsborg Messiah Chorus performances and conductors, and other important cultural and historical events as well as bringing recognition through their legacy listings of a few of the many notable Swedish, non-Swedish, and Swedish American persons from those years. These were the pioneers and those that followed who were initially responsible for the thriving community that Lindsborg continues to be. However, much of this success is due to their descendants, the "caretakers," the "last-living-links" connected or associated to these Swedes which are also included in the legacy listings found in the site's "The Other Swedes." For they have been carefully and lovingly preserving, promoting and carrying-on aspects of the Swedish cultural heritage, the handicrafts and traditions that so reflect the earliest years of Lindsborg and her neighboring Swedish communities.
One such example of preservation endeavors shared in SWEDES, is important enough to mention again here. It is on the short-lived, but impactful, 1986 Lindsborg "Swedish-American Folklife Institute of Central Kansas," that distinguished itself by having such a significant national and international reach with its various programs, exhibitions, workshops and classes, due to the awards of two National Endowments for the Arts Folklife Grants; and significantly the Institute arranged with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Folklife Festival of 1992 the Thomas N. Holmquist’s family Smoky Valley farm "Kansas Agriculture and Swedish Culture" entry. The thanks for the establishment of this Institute goes to rural ethnic grassroot Swedish American descendants, the late, Dr. Miss Greta Swenson, and Mark and Mardel Esping, Bethany College 1968 graduates with master's degrees, professionals, field experienced and last-living-links to this history, to this perishing way of Swedish American life in the Smoky Valley. Their Institute (with the beginning of its Swedish-American Heritage Center) operated for over a bountiful decade, planting good seeds into the rich Swedish American cultural landscape of Kansas, and it would have continued had the needed support been available. Thus, due to a lack of funding, the Institute can be found only at its website HERE. Yet, its cultural sustainability endeavors live on as it is still "in the business of preservation of all forms of folklife" of Swedish America in the Smoky Valley and beyond.
As of January 1, 2022, the hope was that SWEDES would cease to be a growing website. While looking for a secure nesting place for it, so that it can live on for posterity and into perpetuity, for this year it will be in the last stages of becoming a finished narrative, a well-documented piece, as accurate as possible, of a slice of Kansas Swedish Smoky Valley history. Thus, it can act as a virtual "memorial," where one can visit online "to remember these Swedes" and "to learn of them, and from them." In short, it can become a place of learning for educational, reference and research purposes for the Smoky Valley communities: for their leaders and citizens; for their children and students; for the teachers at the Smoky Valley Public Schools; for the Bethany College administration, faculty, students, and alumni; and for members of the Smoky Valley Historical Association, the Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum, the American Scandinavian Association of the Great Plains and other like Swedish, cultural, and historical organizations, societies and clubs.
"Swedish American Smoky Valley Studies" could even be a curriculum developed jointly by these Swedish American communities, because they are both "too" important locally, nationally and to Sweden, not to have such a studies program on their Swedish emigration history and their American cultural heritage development. This, in time, would enable identifying cultural heritage aspects being lost, to then be rescued and restored by them.
With that being said, what is so noticeably missing in this SWEDES I, this Swedish American Lutheran tale of the Kansas Smoky Valley, then is a SWEDES II, to honor and to remember the Galesburg Colony of Swedes, their descendants and others connected to that colony which established the communities of Salemsborg and Freemount. That website should certainly be based on Mr. Thomas N. Holmquist's 1994 Pioneer Cross, Swedish Settlements Along the Smoky Hill Bluffs. A 1976 Bethany College graduate, family man, farmer, educator, historian, author, 4th generation descendant and a last-living link to that history, his narrative more than fills the void of telling the Swedish Smoky Valley Galesburg Colony story! In itself Pioneer Cross can certainly be looked upon as a "literary memorial" to these pioneer Swedes. Moreover, in real time, it brings you face-to-face with their memorial, the "White Cross," embedded high in a Smoky Hills' bluff above the valley floor created of white painted stones that was established there in 1941 by a Mr. Carl G. Linholm, on the land offered by a Mr. Oberg of nearby Assaria, Kansas. Many years ago, I saw that memorial. It was a spiritually beautiful emotional scene that I experienced for a moment in a moving car on a country road from a far distance!
Mr. Holmquist's Pioneer Cross classic is as ever important to those settlements as fourth Swedish American Bethany College president Dr. Emory Lindquist's Smoky Valley People classic is to that of the Lindsborg settlement, as these narratives both point to "The Cross," "That Cross," which led these Lutheran Swedes to emigrate to the Kansas Smoky Valley in the first place.
Two statements of Dr. Lindquist's Smoky Valley People in which I and my Swedish American Lindsborg contemporaries totally agree upon are these, "The central factor in writing this volume is my genuine conviction that Bethany College and Lindsborg present distinctive values that are truly meaningful for individuals and society. I do not believe that this unique combination of cultural and spiritual values in a friendly small town setting can be readily duplicated." **
This is "the way they were," and SWEDES has now recorded that.
For suggestions on traveling through SWEDES, through those earlier histories of Lindsborg and Bethany College, go HERE to find the "Table of Contents" "The Outline Online" and instructions.
Medan du tittar tillbaka och tittar upp för riktning framåt tillsammans,
(While looking back, and looking up, for direction, moving forward together,)
Fran Cochran -- May 1, 2022
Just one descendant of many, near or afar, watching over this Swedish American living legacy
Research writer website designer of SwedesTheWayTheyWere & SwedishAmericana
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T H E K A N S A S S M O K Y V A L L E Y S W E D I S H P E O P L E' S M E M O R I A L
- For more on this virtual "Memorial," go HERE -
T H E K A N S A S S M O K Y V A L L E Y S W E D I S H P E O P L E' S M E M O R I A L
- For more on this virtual "Memorial," go HERE -
*Fourth Bethany College Swedish American President Dr. Emory K. Lindquist's 1953 Smoky Valley People, page 248
** Ibid: Preface, page viii
** Ibid: Preface, page viii
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"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.
Copyright © since October 8, 2015 to Current Year
as indicated on main menu sections of
www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
