"The Other Swedes"
Smoky Valley Writers on "The Other Swedes"
~ Honoring Them and Their Works ~
Ms. Karen A. Humphrey
~ Chronicling highlights of Swedish Augustana Lutheran Lindsborg and Bethany College society and culture
in the earliest years
Smoky Valley Writers on "The Other Swedes"
~ Honoring Them and Their Works ~
Ms. Karen A. Humphrey
~ Chronicling highlights of Swedish Augustana Lutheran Lindsborg and Bethany College society and culture
in the earliest years
Visiting Lindsborg in 1998, for my annual visit to my farmland and the Swede House ruins, I had the unexpected pleasure and opportunity to hear Ms. Karen A. Humphrey speak to a jampacked Bethany College Pihlblad Union dining room for the annual local gathering of "historical organizations" from Lindsborg and around the Smoky Valley. She spoke fluently and captivatingly about a local subject of key interest to these organizations. Although, I cannot remember the topic of her speech, I was totally pulled in by her storytelling delivery, as was the whole audience, which was my first "real" introduction to Lindsborg and Smoky Valley history by a professional.
2012 Published, 126 Pages
Twenty-two years from that event, the same can be said about her storytelling in her 2012 book: Grace, Faith and the Power of Singing: The Alma Christina Lind Swensson Story. Ms. Humphrey's book is fastmoving, entertaining, enlightening, delightful, historical and so well documented. It is "timeless!"
This is a book that everyone and anyone who is interested in the earliest years of Bethany Church and Bethany College should read, if they have not already, especially college administration, professors and students, to get a real feel of what life was about at the top-level of this prestigious Swedish Augustana Lutheran College, populated with art and music European credentialed professors fresh from Sweden, adding to its equally well qualified growing faculty. And, within this context, we, the readers, travel comfortably and enjoyably learning about Mrs. Rev. Dr. Swensson (as Alma was addressed then) and her life endeavors that would gracefully change the Lindsborg culture, its cultural musical landscape and missionary work forever, thus producing good fruit, of a far reaching impact, nationally and globally!
I see Ms. Humphrey's book as "a gift" that keeps on giving, particularly to the Augustana Lutheran Synod Swedish Americans of Lindsborg that are found at its Bethany Church and Bethany College, and similarly to those found at the Smoky Valley Freemount and Falun-Salemsborg Lutheran Churches, while, yet, more broadly to those others found in former Augustana Lutheran Synod Swedish American churches, all of which had to give up their Swedish Synod identity when merged in 1962 into the Lutheran Church of America, LCA, which in 1986 merged into the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, ELCA, that is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
As a graduate from the University of Minnesota and growing up and living in a central Minnesota gathering place for immigrant Swedes most of her life, Ms. Humphrey sees "Lindsborg, Kansas, as the most Swedish of American communities." This conclusion most certainly would have been arrived at when her husband, Rev. Charles W. Humphrey, was the pastor for the Bethany Lutheran Church from 1998 to 2006.
During his tenure, Ms. Humphrey's tenure would be taken up with a job at Bethany College where she held the position of Vice President of Institutional Advancement with other additional duties, one of which would be coordinating the introduction of the prestigious Pearson Distinguished Professor of Swedish Studies Program. And, another one would be that of overseeing Bethany College's 125th Anniversary Celebration, with the theme "From the Plains to the World," which started October 15, 2005 and would end December 3, 2006.
Ms. Humphrey's heritage is mostly Norwegian, yet her early life experiences were those of being immersed in Swedish culture and history. This was from attending, being baptized and confirmed by Dr. Pastor Emeroy Johnson of Minnesota's Norseland's Scandian Grove Lutheran Church which was founded by Swedish immigrants in 1858. Her pastor would take on the task of chronicling the Minnesota Swedish Immigrant Lutheran Churches and from that, no doubt, her young child interest in local history and Swedish church history would only grow.
This is a book that everyone and anyone who is interested in the earliest years of Bethany Church and Bethany College should read, if they have not already, especially college administration, professors and students, to get a real feel of what life was about at the top-level of this prestigious Swedish Augustana Lutheran College, populated with art and music European credentialed professors fresh from Sweden, adding to its equally well qualified growing faculty. And, within this context, we, the readers, travel comfortably and enjoyably learning about Mrs. Rev. Dr. Swensson (as Alma was addressed then) and her life endeavors that would gracefully change the Lindsborg culture, its cultural musical landscape and missionary work forever, thus producing good fruit, of a far reaching impact, nationally and globally!
I see Ms. Humphrey's book as "a gift" that keeps on giving, particularly to the Augustana Lutheran Synod Swedish Americans of Lindsborg that are found at its Bethany Church and Bethany College, and similarly to those found at the Smoky Valley Freemount and Falun-Salemsborg Lutheran Churches, while, yet, more broadly to those others found in former Augustana Lutheran Synod Swedish American churches, all of which had to give up their Swedish Synod identity when merged in 1962 into the Lutheran Church of America, LCA, which in 1986 merged into the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, ELCA, that is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
As a graduate from the University of Minnesota and growing up and living in a central Minnesota gathering place for immigrant Swedes most of her life, Ms. Humphrey sees "Lindsborg, Kansas, as the most Swedish of American communities." This conclusion most certainly would have been arrived at when her husband, Rev. Charles W. Humphrey, was the pastor for the Bethany Lutheran Church from 1998 to 2006.
During his tenure, Ms. Humphrey's tenure would be taken up with a job at Bethany College where she held the position of Vice President of Institutional Advancement with other additional duties, one of which would be coordinating the introduction of the prestigious Pearson Distinguished Professor of Swedish Studies Program. And, another one would be that of overseeing Bethany College's 125th Anniversary Celebration, with the theme "From the Plains to the World," which started October 15, 2005 and would end December 3, 2006.
Ms. Humphrey's heritage is mostly Norwegian, yet her early life experiences were those of being immersed in Swedish culture and history. This was from attending, being baptized and confirmed by Dr. Pastor Emeroy Johnson of Minnesota's Norseland's Scandian Grove Lutheran Church which was founded by Swedish immigrants in 1858. Her pastor would take on the task of chronicling the Minnesota Swedish Immigrant Lutheran Churches and from that, no doubt, her young child interest in local history and Swedish church history would only grow.
If her husband had not been called to pastor at the Bethany Lutheran Church, her book would not have been written. But he was, and years later this book was born in 2012. To have an idea of Ms. Humphrey's wonderful writing style, and to learn a little about her subject, Mrs. Alma Christina Lind Swensson, the following is presented in her informative "Introduction:"
"For eight years, I walked in the footsteps of Alma Christina Lind Swensson in Lindsborg, Kansas, where she lived 60 years of her life. I, too, was the wife of the pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church, and I always believed I was one of the inheritors of the great work Alma accomplished for the church, the college, and the community. My husband was called to be the pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church in 1998. The church was founded by Swedish immigrant pastor Olof Olsson in 1869, and was served by Pastor Carl Aaron Swensson from 1879 to 1904. My own work in Lindsborg was for Bethany College, founded by Swensson in the sacristy of Bethany Lutheran Church in 1881.
"Carl Aaron Swensson's name and image are everywhere – there is a plaster bust of him in every college building and one in the church, too, and an Italian marble statue is the centerpiece of the college campus. Carl was president of the Kansas Conference of Augustana Lutheran Synod, served in the Kansas State House of Representatives, a member of the speakers bureau for McKinley and Roosevelt, the editor of several newspapers, wrote opinion pieces, devotional books, and toured Sweden twice in the 1890s. When he came home he published a doorstop of a volume about his experiences, travelogues of his journeys that were widely read throughout Sweden and Swedish America. He wrote in superlatives--in glowing terms to attract people to his community and capture his vision. He was a gifted orator, one who could take in his audience, convince farmers suffering from drought, depression, grasshoppers, low prices, and devastating wind storms that "tomorrow would be better" -- "i morgan blir det battre"--and help them see a future that they could never have imagined.
"Carl Aaron Swensson was called “The Colossus of the Plains." One of our neighbors, who was 92 and had lived in the community all her life, told the story of a class of Sunday school children in Lindsborg who were learning the creation story from Genesis. The kind teacher asked her eager students, 'Who created the heavens and earth?' A little boy raised his hand and said, 'Why, it was Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson!'
"At Bethany Lutheran Church and Bethany College, there are also portraits of a calm, serene woman, her white hair softly arranged to reveal a high forehead. She wears a black dress with a jewel neckline, a jacket with silk lapels, and a black velvet ribbon encircling her neck. Her metal rim glasses are round and bridge a rather broad nose. There are slight dimples as she smiles. This is Alma Christina Lind Swensson-- Mrs. Rev. Dr. Swensson, as she was called. She was the church organist and choir director for 40 years, and over the winter of 1881 and 1882 taught a choir of farmers, shopkeepers and homemakers, still speaking Swedish, the words and music of Handel's glorious oratorio, the Messiah. She herself sang the soprano solos when the Messiah was presented for the first time on March 28, 1882. Alma also served on the music faculty of Bethany College. She gave birth to two daughters and raise them in the public eye of the parsonage. She kept house, welcomed guests, and kept things going while Carl was on his many, many travels. And later in her life, after Carl’s untimely death, she touched the world.
"There are snippets of Alma‘s life story here and there in the published histories of Lindsborg, Bethany College, and Bethany Church. In this volume, I hope to stitch together a whole story of her life."
"For eight years, I walked in the footsteps of Alma Christina Lind Swensson in Lindsborg, Kansas, where she lived 60 years of her life. I, too, was the wife of the pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church, and I always believed I was one of the inheritors of the great work Alma accomplished for the church, the college, and the community. My husband was called to be the pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church in 1998. The church was founded by Swedish immigrant pastor Olof Olsson in 1869, and was served by Pastor Carl Aaron Swensson from 1879 to 1904. My own work in Lindsborg was for Bethany College, founded by Swensson in the sacristy of Bethany Lutheran Church in 1881.
"Carl Aaron Swensson's name and image are everywhere – there is a plaster bust of him in every college building and one in the church, too, and an Italian marble statue is the centerpiece of the college campus. Carl was president of the Kansas Conference of Augustana Lutheran Synod, served in the Kansas State House of Representatives, a member of the speakers bureau for McKinley and Roosevelt, the editor of several newspapers, wrote opinion pieces, devotional books, and toured Sweden twice in the 1890s. When he came home he published a doorstop of a volume about his experiences, travelogues of his journeys that were widely read throughout Sweden and Swedish America. He wrote in superlatives--in glowing terms to attract people to his community and capture his vision. He was a gifted orator, one who could take in his audience, convince farmers suffering from drought, depression, grasshoppers, low prices, and devastating wind storms that "tomorrow would be better" -- "i morgan blir det battre"--and help them see a future that they could never have imagined.
"Carl Aaron Swensson was called “The Colossus of the Plains." One of our neighbors, who was 92 and had lived in the community all her life, told the story of a class of Sunday school children in Lindsborg who were learning the creation story from Genesis. The kind teacher asked her eager students, 'Who created the heavens and earth?' A little boy raised his hand and said, 'Why, it was Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson!'
"At Bethany Lutheran Church and Bethany College, there are also portraits of a calm, serene woman, her white hair softly arranged to reveal a high forehead. She wears a black dress with a jewel neckline, a jacket with silk lapels, and a black velvet ribbon encircling her neck. Her metal rim glasses are round and bridge a rather broad nose. There are slight dimples as she smiles. This is Alma Christina Lind Swensson-- Mrs. Rev. Dr. Swensson, as she was called. She was the church organist and choir director for 40 years, and over the winter of 1881 and 1882 taught a choir of farmers, shopkeepers and homemakers, still speaking Swedish, the words and music of Handel's glorious oratorio, the Messiah. She herself sang the soprano solos when the Messiah was presented for the first time on March 28, 1882. Alma also served on the music faculty of Bethany College. She gave birth to two daughters and raise them in the public eye of the parsonage. She kept house, welcomed guests, and kept things going while Carl was on his many, many travels. And later in her life, after Carl’s untimely death, she touched the world.
"There are snippets of Alma‘s life story here and there in the published histories of Lindsborg, Bethany College, and Bethany Church. In this volume, I hope to stitch together a whole story of her life."
In 2006, Karen and her husband returned to Minnesota when she was appointed to the staff of the Minnesota Historical Society in Saint Paul where she had served on the Board of Directors for 25 years and was the first woman to be President of the Society (1996-1998). Karen also served on the board and was President of the Norwegian American Historical Association, the archive of the Norwegian Immigration to America housed at the Rolvaag Library at Saint Olaf College, Northfield. However, somewhere and somehow in the busyness of her life between Lindsborg and Minnesota, the research and the writing about Swedish Lindsborg's "First Lady,"* Mrs. Alma Christina Lind Swensson, was destined to be accomplished and then published in 2012 by Lutheran University Press, An imprint of 1517 Media.
Go HERE to Mrs. Alma Christina Lind Swensson ~ Remembering her as Mrs. Rev. Dr. Swensson, the First Lady of Lindsborg.
(Ms. Humphrey's book can be found at amazon.com.)
* "First Lady" has become my other name for Mrs. Swensson after learning all about her in Ms. Humphrey's book.
Go HERE to Mrs. Alma Christina Lind Swensson ~ Remembering her as Mrs. Rev. Dr. Swensson, the First Lady of Lindsborg.
(Ms. Humphrey's book can be found at amazon.com.)
* "First Lady" has become my other name for Mrs. Swensson after learning all about her in Ms. Humphrey's book.
* * *
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.
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.
