"The Other Swedes"
~ Celebrating Them ~
~ The Smoky Valley Writers ~
Mr. Chris A. Abercrombie
~ President of the Smoky Valley Historical Association, creator of the Website and Vår Historia --the newsletter and much more as
a historian, writer, researcher, interviewer, video producer and collector
~ Celebrating Them ~
~ The Smoky Valley Writers ~
Mr. Chris A. Abercrombie
~ President of the Smoky Valley Historical Association, creator of the Website and Vår Historia --the newsletter and much more as
a historian, writer, researcher, interviewer, video producer and collector
Mr. Chris Abercrombie
(1949-2017)
Chris left us before my desired appointment to interview him. His brother, James, said that on top of all of his papers was my most recent email concerning a “virtual museum” that I wanted to discuss with him along with the interview which would have involved his work, projects and dreams concerning local history and of his collection of labeled artifacts important to Lindsborg, Bethany College and the Smoky Valley area, which some say is extensive.
His very large home collection would have presented a smorgasbord of subjects to write about. I wished only that someone could have really interviewed this modern historian on the Swedish Smoky Valley's past.
Chris was a very interesting person who contributed many wonderful articles throughout his lifetime, usually with illustrations to the Lindsborg News-Record as former owner and editor John Marshall recalls, stating that his articles were "engaging, important, and well written."
Mr. Marshall mentioned that he recalled one among many of his stories that of his grandmother Ebba Fornberg, a strong-willed banker in the 1930s who saved the Lindsborg Farmers State Bank during the depression. "How she did it was one of many classic pegs of history, on which Chris hung more than a few great stories," so he remarked.
Some major contributions of Chris's to the Smoky Valley were:
1) Recording stories from the Swedish immigrant descendants
Going over to Bethany Home for the Aged as it was called in the 1970s, and recording the stories from these Swedish immigrants. All of those recordings, he told me, were stored at the McPherson County Old Mill Museum, today's Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum.
2) Producing YouTube videos on the Swedes in Lindsborg, at Bethany College and neighbors in the Smoky Valley
Later, making available to the world, were his production of YouTube videos about Lindsborg, Bethany College and the Smoky Valley people -- highlighting notable persons -- interviewing them, and showing events and traditions of their times.
There was a time from approximately 2006 to 2016 when I counted around 65 videos that he produced and made accessible through YouTube. That number has been reduced to around 38. Some of these are found within SWEDES. To view the videos which remain, click on his name: Chris Abercrombie, and then press Videos on the left corner.
For Bethany College history, the most outstanding video of Chris's is HERE for The 2006 Abercrombie interview with Ken Sjogren on Bethany's challenging times, 1960s to early 70s.
3) Creating the 2013 Smoky Valley Historical Association website.
This was Chris Abercrombie's masterpiece for the SVHA, and its FIRST WEBSITE.
On October 5, 2024, on Facebook, it announced that a new website is under construction HERE.
4) Raising funds for the Coronado Project
Chris worked tirelessly on this project. He writes in the March 31st, 2016 edition of Var Historia: Ground Breaking Cermony. March 26, 2016 saw the official groundbreaking and contract signing of the much anticipated renovation project on the castle and restroom to Coronado Heights. he drainage and road will happen during phrase two after this current work is completed.
2016 marks the 80th anniversary of the current WPA building structure and 475th anniversary of Francisco Vazquez de Coronado traveling to this area look for gold, or quivera as it was called by the Spaniards. More can be read on the image below of that issue of Vår Historia
5) Creating Vår Historia -- the Smoky Valley Historical Association Newsletter many years ago.
His very large home collection would have presented a smorgasbord of subjects to write about. I wished only that someone could have really interviewed this modern historian on the Swedish Smoky Valley's past.
Chris was a very interesting person who contributed many wonderful articles throughout his lifetime, usually with illustrations to the Lindsborg News-Record as former owner and editor John Marshall recalls, stating that his articles were "engaging, important, and well written."
Mr. Marshall mentioned that he recalled one among many of his stories that of his grandmother Ebba Fornberg, a strong-willed banker in the 1930s who saved the Lindsborg Farmers State Bank during the depression. "How she did it was one of many classic pegs of history, on which Chris hung more than a few great stories," so he remarked.
Some major contributions of Chris's to the Smoky Valley were:
1) Recording stories from the Swedish immigrant descendants
Going over to Bethany Home for the Aged as it was called in the 1970s, and recording the stories from these Swedish immigrants. All of those recordings, he told me, were stored at the McPherson County Old Mill Museum, today's Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum.
2) Producing YouTube videos on the Swedes in Lindsborg, at Bethany College and neighbors in the Smoky Valley
Later, making available to the world, were his production of YouTube videos about Lindsborg, Bethany College and the Smoky Valley people -- highlighting notable persons -- interviewing them, and showing events and traditions of their times.
There was a time from approximately 2006 to 2016 when I counted around 65 videos that he produced and made accessible through YouTube. That number has been reduced to around 38. Some of these are found within SWEDES. To view the videos which remain, click on his name: Chris Abercrombie, and then press Videos on the left corner.
For Bethany College history, the most outstanding video of Chris's is HERE for The 2006 Abercrombie interview with Ken Sjogren on Bethany's challenging times, 1960s to early 70s.
3) Creating the 2013 Smoky Valley Historical Association website.
This was Chris Abercrombie's masterpiece for the SVHA, and its FIRST WEBSITE.
On October 5, 2024, on Facebook, it announced that a new website is under construction HERE.
4) Raising funds for the Coronado Project
Chris worked tirelessly on this project. He writes in the March 31st, 2016 edition of Var Historia: Ground Breaking Cermony. March 26, 2016 saw the official groundbreaking and contract signing of the much anticipated renovation project on the castle and restroom to Coronado Heights. he drainage and road will happen during phrase two after this current work is completed.
2016 marks the 80th anniversary of the current WPA building structure and 475th anniversary of Francisco Vazquez de Coronado traveling to this area look for gold, or quivera as it was called by the Spaniards. More can be read on the image below of that issue of Vår Historia
5) Creating Vår Historia -- the Smoky Valley Historical Association Newsletter many years ago.
This photograph is the SWEDES photograph.
Chris proclaimed it historical because it shows the original grain elevators.
Today you will see one or two modern grain elevators.
This SWEDES photograph is dedicated to Chris!
* * *
"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 © since October 8, 2015 to Current Year
as indicated on main menu sections of
www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. 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 © since October 8, 2015 to Current Year
as indicated on main menu sections of
www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.