CONTACT+
SOME REVIEWING REMARKS
on
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
"SWEDES"
[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
* * *
The idea stage occurred in 2005, the embryo stage in 2011,
the first publishing in 2015, the major work finished in December 2023 with final work in December 2024.
* * *
SOME REVIEWING REMARKS
on
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
"SWEDES"
[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
* * *
The idea stage occurred in 2005, the embryo stage in 2011,
the first publishing in 2015, the major work finished in December 2023 with final work in December 2024.
* * *
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FOR PARTICIPANTS AND VIEWERS
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FOR PARTICIPANTS AND VIEWERS
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, to those who have participated in the development of Swedes: TheWayTheyWere (SWEDES), no matter how small it may have been, I want to thank you very much, for your part in growing this historical website. Like myself, many of you are last-living-link descendants to this history. Also, for those who have provided helpful encouraging words and guidance during this time, I am most grateful to all of you! SWEDES would not have developed like it has, if not for your participation! As well, the sections on your relatives or friends certainly would not have been so numerous had they not been supported by you. I am grateful also for positive comments early on from Lindsborg native Bethany College graduate former Minneapolis' American Swedish Institute president/CEO Bruce Karstadt and later from former Minnesota Historical Society director/CEO D. Stephen Elliott, and former Bethany College Vice President of Institutional Advancement and 2024 Swedish American Historical Society of Chicago, Illinois, board member Ms. Karen A. Humphrey, as well as from past Bethany College presidents or interim presidents: Dr. Robert Vogel, Dr. William Jones, Dr. Elizabeth Mauch, and Dr. Steve Eckman; and from Lindsborg Mayor Clark Shultz on February 13, 2025.
Tusen tack till ALLA!!
Thank you so much to EVERYONE!!
Tusen tack till ALLA!!
Thank you so much to EVERYONE!!
LOOKING BACK
>>>>> A One-Time Shot
SWEDES was a one-time shot to capture and compile as much information as possible on Lindsborg and Bethany College located in Central Kansas in the Swedish and Swedish American Smoky Valley region during the era of the 1860 Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod to 1962 and beyond. Working without an editor, I have done my very best to present easy to understand information and have attempted to provide the relevant documentation throughout the more than 335 sections of SWEDES. Starting in 2011, the major work was completed in December of 2023, with final work in December 2024. Yet, tweaking continues. Other Swedes should have been included as were other sections but were not due to time constraints. To mitigate this some, you may see this label for a few sections: – "Celebrated Without Content." Also, a section listing RECOGNIZING "Other Swedes" and "Other Sections" has been added.
SWEDES has been a most difficult project to end. However, the time has finally come now, and I am very grateful for what has been accomplished in 13 years.
SWEDES was a one-time shot to capture and compile as much information as possible on Lindsborg and Bethany College located in Central Kansas in the Swedish and Swedish American Smoky Valley region during the era of the 1860 Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod to 1962 and beyond. Working without an editor, I have done my very best to present easy to understand information and have attempted to provide the relevant documentation throughout the more than 335 sections of SWEDES. Starting in 2011, the major work was completed in December of 2023, with final work in December 2024. Yet, tweaking continues. Other Swedes should have been included as were other sections but were not due to time constraints. To mitigate this some, you may see this label for a few sections: – "Celebrated Without Content." Also, a section listing RECOGNIZING "Other Swedes" and "Other Sections" has been added.
SWEDES has been a most difficult project to end. However, the time has finally come now, and I am very grateful for what has been accomplished in 13 years.
>>>>> The Work
Looking back on the development of SWEDES, the "idea stage" began in 2005, during the yearlong celebration of Bethany College's 125th Anniversary, when a select group of 21 matted and framed black and white enlarged images of one hundred-year-old Bethany College photographs by artist Lydia Sohlberg Deere (1874-1943) were being shown at the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery.
From early events following that showing with the ongoing realization that aspects of the foundational history of these Swedish American Smoky Valley communities and of Bethany College were being forgotten or set aside, in spite of early efforts to keep these alive by college professors, individuals, historical organizations and members of the McPherson County Old Mill Museum was a "wakeup call." Additional concerns dealing with Swedish foundational heritage preservation issues coupled with an ongoing concern that we might lose Bethany College was the impetus to start SWEDES. The "embryo stage" of this website began in 2011 which led to its "birth stage" in 2015 when it was first published.
>>>>> The Motto and Mission of "Swedes: TheWayTheyWere" (SWEDES)
This motto and mission of SWEDES is found at the end of each section of "Swedes: TheWayTheyWere."
It is "restoring lost local histories - reconnecting past to present."
Looking back on the development of SWEDES, the "idea stage" began in 2005, during the yearlong celebration of Bethany College's 125th Anniversary, when a select group of 21 matted and framed black and white enlarged images of one hundred-year-old Bethany College photographs by artist Lydia Sohlberg Deere (1874-1943) were being shown at the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery.
From early events following that showing with the ongoing realization that aspects of the foundational history of these Swedish American Smoky Valley communities and of Bethany College were being forgotten or set aside, in spite of early efforts to keep these alive by college professors, individuals, historical organizations and members of the McPherson County Old Mill Museum was a "wakeup call." Additional concerns dealing with Swedish foundational heritage preservation issues coupled with an ongoing concern that we might lose Bethany College was the impetus to start SWEDES. The "embryo stage" of this website began in 2011 which led to its "birth stage" in 2015 when it was first published.
>>>>> The Motto and Mission of "Swedes: TheWayTheyWere" (SWEDES)
This motto and mission of SWEDES is found at the end of each section of "Swedes: TheWayTheyWere."
It is "restoring lost local histories - reconnecting past to present."
>>>>> The Lindsborg Estate: Emil and Lydia
Yet, if it had not been for the last part of the 1996 distribution from the Sohlberg Deere Estate, a Swedish and Kansas Smoky Valley Lindsborg estate, containing a wealth of historical information, art, photographs, artifacts, and farmland with the ruins of what remained of a Swedish-built stone farmhouse, Swede House, there would have been no foundation for a website. This belonged to my American-born Swedish great-granduncle Dr. Emil O. Deere (1877-1966) whose family roots where from Madelplana Västergötland and Drängsered, Halland, and my American-born Swedish great-grandaunt Mrs. Lydia Sohlberg Deere (1873-1943) whose family roots were from Jönköping, Kosta, and Stockholm.
Emil was already a student at Kansas State Agricultural College in Manhattan in 1899 when he transferred to Bethany College in that same year at the invitation of the college founder, Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson, a good friend of Emil's father in Moline, Illinois, just east of Rock Island, Illinois, home of Augustana Lutheran College from where the Reverend received his A. M. degree. For more than 50 some years, Emil, as a science professor of Biology and Geology, would also keep the fires burning for the College with the many top-level administrative duties to which he was appointed during his career there. For 58 years, he was the curator of the very fine 1882 Bethany College Museum containing the natural history and pioneer history collections of which were moved through his direction to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum in 1966, because their former home of Old Main was to be razed in 1968. Deere was a charter member and board vice president of the 1919 Lindsborg Historical Society (today's 1963 Smoky Valley Historical Association), the members of which referred to him in the development of Coronado Heights because of his study of geology there for his master's degree 1907 thesis "Geology of Study in the Area of the Smoky Valley Buttes." This most valuable document was in Deere's archive box at the McPherson County Old Mill Museum for decades, but was reported misplaced on June 22, 2022, from the now new Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum. Dr. Emil O. Deere witnessed the naming of Coronado Heights in May of 1920 by charter member and friend William Hagstrom.
Lydia, a young woman with a fresh McPherson, Kansas, McPherson College Commerce Degree arrived in neighboring Lindsborg in 1900 to open up a Millinery Shop. This led to her interest in photography. Her role at Bethany College was to become the Dean of Women and Matron of the Ladies Dormitory, Lane Hart Hall, from 1906-1913, while teaching needlepoint, and when receiving the Bethany Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts in 1923, she would be found teaching art courses in the summer occasionally. Still standing today, her lasting contribution to Bethany College with the Class of 1917 was the gift of the Gateway to Bethany College at Olsson and North First Streets. This was made possible as a result of her founding the Bethany College Association in 1912 for the purpose of beautifying the campus grounds. Yet, her main role was to be a support to her busy scientist husband Emil for the rest of her life after their 1916 marriage, which included her desire to receive the Bachelor Degree in Science in 1925.
Yet, if it had not been for the last part of the 1996 distribution from the Sohlberg Deere Estate, a Swedish and Kansas Smoky Valley Lindsborg estate, containing a wealth of historical information, art, photographs, artifacts, and farmland with the ruins of what remained of a Swedish-built stone farmhouse, Swede House, there would have been no foundation for a website. This belonged to my American-born Swedish great-granduncle Dr. Emil O. Deere (1877-1966) whose family roots where from Madelplana Västergötland and Drängsered, Halland, and my American-born Swedish great-grandaunt Mrs. Lydia Sohlberg Deere (1873-1943) whose family roots were from Jönköping, Kosta, and Stockholm.
Emil was already a student at Kansas State Agricultural College in Manhattan in 1899 when he transferred to Bethany College in that same year at the invitation of the college founder, Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson, a good friend of Emil's father in Moline, Illinois, just east of Rock Island, Illinois, home of Augustana Lutheran College from where the Reverend received his A. M. degree. For more than 50 some years, Emil, as a science professor of Biology and Geology, would also keep the fires burning for the College with the many top-level administrative duties to which he was appointed during his career there. For 58 years, he was the curator of the very fine 1882 Bethany College Museum containing the natural history and pioneer history collections of which were moved through his direction to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum in 1966, because their former home of Old Main was to be razed in 1968. Deere was a charter member and board vice president of the 1919 Lindsborg Historical Society (today's 1963 Smoky Valley Historical Association), the members of which referred to him in the development of Coronado Heights because of his study of geology there for his master's degree 1907 thesis "Geology of Study in the Area of the Smoky Valley Buttes." This most valuable document was in Deere's archive box at the McPherson County Old Mill Museum for decades, but was reported misplaced on June 22, 2022, from the now new Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum. Dr. Emil O. Deere witnessed the naming of Coronado Heights in May of 1920 by charter member and friend William Hagstrom.
Lydia, a young woman with a fresh McPherson, Kansas, McPherson College Commerce Degree arrived in neighboring Lindsborg in 1900 to open up a Millinery Shop. This led to her interest in photography. Her role at Bethany College was to become the Dean of Women and Matron of the Ladies Dormitory, Lane Hart Hall, from 1906-1913, while teaching needlepoint, and when receiving the Bethany Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts in 1923, she would be found teaching art courses in the summer occasionally. Still standing today, her lasting contribution to Bethany College with the Class of 1917 was the gift of the Gateway to Bethany College at Olsson and North First Streets. This was made possible as a result of her founding the Bethany College Association in 1912 for the purpose of beautifying the campus grounds. Yet, her main role was to be a support to her busy scientist husband Emil for the rest of her life after their 1916 marriage, which included her desire to receive the Bachelor Degree in Science in 1925.
A SWEDISH AMERICAN SMOKY VALLEY STUDY
In time Swedes: TheWayTheyWere (SWEDES) was to become my Swedish American Smoky Valley study. Unknowingly, I was to be following in the footsteps of many other last-living-links to this foundational history in their efforts to restore it, preserve it and promote it, as were the founding fathers engaged in such similar activities.
Following are a few of the subjects I studied during the period from 2011 to 2023 that are part of the website that turned into an archive-like chronicle on the Swedish and Swedish American Smoky Valley people in Kansas that is accessible online for all to study.
>>>>> Studying the written works of the Smoky Valley Writers
SWEDES began naturally in providing some information and photographs on the earliest history of the 1869 Swedish Lutheran Lindsborg and her 1881 Swedish Lutheran Bethany College during the era of my relatives and their contemporaries of whom many sections are about which was to expand exponentially to the more than 335 sections that it became. This was as a result of the Covid 19 Pandemic of 2020 preventing my return to work, the effects of which were to provide four more years for researching and highlighting some of the Smoky Valley Writers "works" on "The Other Swedes" which was to enlarge and enriched the contents of this website immensely.
Rev. Dr. Alfred Bergin, third pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church, was responsible for recording, compiling, and writing the first two history books, the chronicles, on these Swedes. These were published in Swedish in 1909 and 1919, and were translated to English and published in 1965 and 1969 respectively, by his daughter Mrs. Ruth Bergin Billdt and Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg. These books, no doubt, would be referred to time and time again for the creation of the Smoky Valley Writers books.
Thus, to follow the Bergin chronicles would be the 5 Dr. Emory K. Lindquist's books published from 1953 to 1993, the Lindsborg News-Record articles of Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg beginning in 1960s resulting in 5 "Little Books," Mr. A. John Pearson writings beginning in 1970; and the books of Dr. Leon G. Lungstrom in 1990, Mr. Thomas N. Holmquist in 1994, Mr. Bill Carlson in 2011, Ms. Karen A. Humphrey in 2012, Mrs. Margaret Dahlquist Eddy's beautiful photography book in 2013, and finally Mr. Kenneth Sjogren in 2019, all of which I reviewed. (It should be noted that there are certainly other Smoky Valley writers who wrote on similar or different subjects, of course.)
Thus, through the reviewing and reading of these mentioned Smoky Valley Writers works and of those books and other items from the Sohlberg Deere Estate, SWEDES has attempted to provide one with an overall view of this most unique rural well-preserved Swedish and Swedish American Lutheran Lindsborg, "Little Sweden, U.S.A.," and Bethany College, where first Swedish life on the prairie began for many in dugouts.
>>>>> Studying the Swedish Smoky Valley colonies, their leaders and the 1860 Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod
SWEDES has therefore highlighted the Smoky Valley 1869 Värmland Sweden Colony and the 1869 Lindsborg and Bethany Lutheran Church founder Rev. Olof Olsson. It has touched lightly on Lindsborg's neighbors, the 1869 Swedes from the Illinois Galesburg Colonization Company and their leaders such as Rev. Anders Wilhelm (A.W.) Dahlsten and lay pastor Rev. C. J. Brodin who settled Freemount and Salemsborg and their namesake Lutheran churches also founded in 1869. It is important to note here that Rev. Wilhelm and Lindsborg's Värmland Colony leader Rev. Olsson were Lutheran theology classmates in Sweden. These churches were to become part of the 1860 Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod.
This I discovered when I read Mr. Thomas N. Holmquist's 1994 classic, Pioneer Cross, Swedish Settlements Along the Smoky Hill Bluffs. Mr. Holmquist's book, the "first" of its kind, memorializes those devout Swedes of the Cross who established the Salemsborg Lutheran Church and the Freemount Lutheran Church whose first 1869 Smoky Valley Christmas was celebrated in an earthen dugout, with the warmth and light of the candled Swedish ljuskröna, "the Swedish symbol of the light of Jesus Christ coming into the world."* This was these SWEDES' Light that led them to the end of their journey. * Mr. Holmquist's 1994 Pioneer Cross, page 98.
It is very clear, now, that so much more could have been written about these two fine Swedish communities in addition to the even smaller populated Swedish neighbors of Smolan, Falun, Assaria, Marquette, New Gottland and several others. Thus, it can certainly be concluded that Mr. Holmquist's Pioneer Cross is as ever important to the Freemount and Salemsborg Swedish descendants as fourth Bethany College president Dr. Emory Lindquist's Smoky Valley People, A History of Lindsborg, Kansas is to Lindsborg's Swedish descendants! It is significant to note that both these classics point to the "Cross" which led these Lutheran Swedes to emigrate to the Kansas Smoky Valley in the first place.
(Note: To follow the 1860 Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod's sponsorship of the above-mentioned Smoky Valley churches was its sponsorship of Lindsborg's 1881 Bethany College. Note also the Synod's sponsorship of Bethany's sister colleges: The 1860 Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois; the 1862 Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota; the 1883 Lutheran Academy in Wahoo, Nebraska; and the 1893-1995 Upsala College in East Orange, New Jersey).
>>>>> Studying Bethany College, the Swedish presidents and professors, the museum, the buildings, and events
SWEDES has highlighted the first four Swedish Lutheran presidents: Dr. Edward J. Nelander, Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson, Rev. Dr. Ernst F. Pihlblad, and Dr. Emory K. Lindquist, yet has concentrated on the exceptional leader and dynamic institution's founder and second president Dr. Swensson whose college during his tenure had interesting strong ties to Yale University. SWEDES has therefore, celebrated he and his lovely wife Alma Christina Lind. The Swenssons were a God-loving, God-fearing, Bible-believing dynamic couple who were responsible for establishing the "Lindsborg Messiah Tradition." In their day, they would be numbered among Swedish America's most important leaders, as this is written by author Ms. Karen A. Humphrey in her hard-to-put-down book on Mrs. Swensson.
Following are a few of the subjects I studied during the period from 2011 to 2023 that are part of the website that turned into an archive-like chronicle on the Swedish and Swedish American Smoky Valley people in Kansas that is accessible online for all to study.
>>>>> Studying the written works of the Smoky Valley Writers
SWEDES began naturally in providing some information and photographs on the earliest history of the 1869 Swedish Lutheran Lindsborg and her 1881 Swedish Lutheran Bethany College during the era of my relatives and their contemporaries of whom many sections are about which was to expand exponentially to the more than 335 sections that it became. This was as a result of the Covid 19 Pandemic of 2020 preventing my return to work, the effects of which were to provide four more years for researching and highlighting some of the Smoky Valley Writers "works" on "The Other Swedes" which was to enlarge and enriched the contents of this website immensely.
Rev. Dr. Alfred Bergin, third pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church, was responsible for recording, compiling, and writing the first two history books, the chronicles, on these Swedes. These were published in Swedish in 1909 and 1919, and were translated to English and published in 1965 and 1969 respectively, by his daughter Mrs. Ruth Bergin Billdt and Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg. These books, no doubt, would be referred to time and time again for the creation of the Smoky Valley Writers books.
Thus, to follow the Bergin chronicles would be the 5 Dr. Emory K. Lindquist's books published from 1953 to 1993, the Lindsborg News-Record articles of Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg beginning in 1960s resulting in 5 "Little Books," Mr. A. John Pearson writings beginning in 1970; and the books of Dr. Leon G. Lungstrom in 1990, Mr. Thomas N. Holmquist in 1994, Mr. Bill Carlson in 2011, Ms. Karen A. Humphrey in 2012, Mrs. Margaret Dahlquist Eddy's beautiful photography book in 2013, and finally Mr. Kenneth Sjogren in 2019, all of which I reviewed. (It should be noted that there are certainly other Smoky Valley writers who wrote on similar or different subjects, of course.)
Thus, through the reviewing and reading of these mentioned Smoky Valley Writers works and of those books and other items from the Sohlberg Deere Estate, SWEDES has attempted to provide one with an overall view of this most unique rural well-preserved Swedish and Swedish American Lutheran Lindsborg, "Little Sweden, U.S.A.," and Bethany College, where first Swedish life on the prairie began for many in dugouts.
>>>>> Studying the Swedish Smoky Valley colonies, their leaders and the 1860 Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod
SWEDES has therefore highlighted the Smoky Valley 1869 Värmland Sweden Colony and the 1869 Lindsborg and Bethany Lutheran Church founder Rev. Olof Olsson. It has touched lightly on Lindsborg's neighbors, the 1869 Swedes from the Illinois Galesburg Colonization Company and their leaders such as Rev. Anders Wilhelm (A.W.) Dahlsten and lay pastor Rev. C. J. Brodin who settled Freemount and Salemsborg and their namesake Lutheran churches also founded in 1869. It is important to note here that Rev. Wilhelm and Lindsborg's Värmland Colony leader Rev. Olsson were Lutheran theology classmates in Sweden. These churches were to become part of the 1860 Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod.
This I discovered when I read Mr. Thomas N. Holmquist's 1994 classic, Pioneer Cross, Swedish Settlements Along the Smoky Hill Bluffs. Mr. Holmquist's book, the "first" of its kind, memorializes those devout Swedes of the Cross who established the Salemsborg Lutheran Church and the Freemount Lutheran Church whose first 1869 Smoky Valley Christmas was celebrated in an earthen dugout, with the warmth and light of the candled Swedish ljuskröna, "the Swedish symbol of the light of Jesus Christ coming into the world."* This was these SWEDES' Light that led them to the end of their journey. * Mr. Holmquist's 1994 Pioneer Cross, page 98.
It is very clear, now, that so much more could have been written about these two fine Swedish communities in addition to the even smaller populated Swedish neighbors of Smolan, Falun, Assaria, Marquette, New Gottland and several others. Thus, it can certainly be concluded that Mr. Holmquist's Pioneer Cross is as ever important to the Freemount and Salemsborg Swedish descendants as fourth Bethany College president Dr. Emory Lindquist's Smoky Valley People, A History of Lindsborg, Kansas is to Lindsborg's Swedish descendants! It is significant to note that both these classics point to the "Cross" which led these Lutheran Swedes to emigrate to the Kansas Smoky Valley in the first place.
(Note: To follow the 1860 Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod's sponsorship of the above-mentioned Smoky Valley churches was its sponsorship of Lindsborg's 1881 Bethany College. Note also the Synod's sponsorship of Bethany's sister colleges: The 1860 Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois; the 1862 Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota; the 1883 Lutheran Academy in Wahoo, Nebraska; and the 1893-1995 Upsala College in East Orange, New Jersey).
>>>>> Studying Bethany College, the Swedish presidents and professors, the museum, the buildings, and events
SWEDES has highlighted the first four Swedish Lutheran presidents: Dr. Edward J. Nelander, Rev. Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson, Rev. Dr. Ernst F. Pihlblad, and Dr. Emory K. Lindquist, yet has concentrated on the exceptional leader and dynamic institution's founder and second president Dr. Swensson whose college during his tenure had interesting strong ties to Yale University. SWEDES has therefore, celebrated he and his lovely wife Alma Christina Lind. The Swenssons were a God-loving, God-fearing, Bible-believing dynamic couple who were responsible for establishing the "Lindsborg Messiah Tradition." In their day, they would be numbered among Swedish America's most important leaders, as this is written by author Ms. Karen A. Humphrey in her hard-to-put-down book on Mrs. Swensson.
BETHANY COLLEGE MUSIC -- Remembering 2 great Swedish and 1 great Scottish conductor, a Messiah historian
These Messiah performances during Holy Easter Week were the beginning of what was to turn out to be, for a long "Camelot" season, one of the most desired cultural experiences to attend and to perform in, in America. With a chorus growth, at one time, of more than 500, and the hosting of renown European opera soloist and musicians and those from USA metropolitan cities to perform, the draw of thousands of patrons by the train loads to the Smoky Valley's Lindsborg, was nothing short of a phenomenon. This was something to behold and to talk about and write about for generations to come.
During the Bethany College Swensson and Pihlblad era are highlighted those Swedish-born professor musicians and renowned conductors such as Mr. Samuel Thorstenberg and Dr. Hagbard Brase and their nationally and internationally known Bethany College Oratorio Society performances. Decades later, conductor Dr. Elmer Copley, a historian of the Lindsborg Bethany Messiah performances was to produce magnificent performances for nearly 30 years. His last was the 1989 PBS televised Holy Easter Week "American Easter." The preceding PBS production in 1981 produced 25 million viewers! Dr. Copley's scholarly treatise on the Lindsborg Bethany College Messiah Festival history he titled "Messiah on the Plains, 1882-1976, A History of The Bethany Oratorio Society." This is a most valuable and cherished document found in the archives of Bethany College.
Today, the chorus and audience are much smaller, but the Messiah continues to be performed with excellence and reverence as it has since 1882, not missing a year.
BETHANY COLLEGE ART -- Remembering the Swedish foundational artists and their works
As well, SWEDES has highlighted those gifted Swedish-born European taught artists such as Olof Grafström and Carl Gustafson Lotavé who would pass their talents of art on to their Bethany College students for a while and moved on with the exception of the renowned-to-be Swedish artist Dr. Sven Birger Sandzén who made Lindsborg his home and would teach at this Swedish American college only. Yet, he would travel to the metropolitan cities of America, Europe and Sweden to promote his art at their exhibitions. At 51, Sandzén's 1922 Babcock Gallery exhibition in New York City was quite exceptional! (It was Sandzén, Lotavé and G. N. Malm who founded the 1899 Midwest Art Exhibition that has continued annually since then located at the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery in 1957. They were "altar art" artist as well.)
Together, Lindsborg's foundational history reflects her great European cultural tradition of "sacred music" as well as sacred "altar art," all of which further reflect the 1860 Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod Smoky Valley people's devotion to the Cross.
BETHANY COLLEGE MUSEUM -- Remembering the Swedish foundational scientist professor curators
Swensson's Bethany College Natural History Museum was founded by the first college professor Swedish-born curator Dr. Johan August Udden in 1882. In 1926 it was to expand into a pioneer history museum as well. The 1966 move of most of these collections of this Bethany College Natural History and Pioneer History Museum to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum was planned by the last curator Dr. Emil O. Deere holding that position for 58 years. Most of the pioneer collections have survived of which Dr. Deere had donated 900 items, but parts of the natural history collections have not, unfortunately.
Before the College Museum's home at Old Main was razed with the rest of the building in May of 1968, historian and author Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg noted that the Bethany College Musuem was recognized for containing one of the most valuable collections in the State of Kansas.* Added to that, Bethany College Alumni of 1912 Mr. Carl Swenson at the 1966 eulogy for Dr. Emil O. Deere, the curator of the Museum from 1908 to 1966, gave credit to him for the museum's success as "having no peer among the mid-western Liberal Arts colleges."** When its collections of 5,000 items were moved to join the 500 items at the McPherson County Old Mill Museum in the summer of 1966, the curator Tib Anderson felt the museum was well on its way to becoming, in his words: "one of the finest museums of its kind in the Midwest."*** And it certainly was for over a decade and possibly into the 1980s.
Yet, over time, the College Museum was destined to become a forgotten museum with its collections at the Old Mill Museum. Although the founder of the Natural History Museum, in 1882, Professor August Udden had been recognized with a small writeup and photo place in a showcase. Even now with new ownership on August 1, 2021, and a new name as the Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum, there is yet to be a recognition of the other Bethany College Swedish pioneer curators' college collections which produced a solid foundation from which the Museum would grow. These Swedish curators were Jacob Westlund, Dr. J. E. Welin, Dr. Emil O. Deere, as well as Biology professor and taxidermists Dr. Leon George Lungstrom. Additionally, there is not a file on this fine museum, nor on any of these professors except for Deere as an email of December 2018 from the Bethany College Director of Wallerstedt Learning Center Archivist reported.
SWEDES remembers and celebrates these College Swedes for setting a firm foundation under the Lindsborg museum of today due to the Bethany College Natural History and Pioneer collections donations to it in 1966 when it was the McPherson County Old Mill Museum.
* Mrs. Jaderborg's 1967 Living in Lindsborg and Other Possibilities, last paragraph, page 21
** Dr. Lungstrom's 1990 "History of Natural Science and Mathematics at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas,
page 168, second to last sentence of Carl Swenson '1912 of his 1966 eulogy.
*** 1966 Autumn "Bethany Magazine" article "Old Dobbin Moves," page 3, last paragraph
THE BUILDINGS THAT WERE BETHANY COLLEGE
For to celebrate these "Bethany College Buildings," is to remember the "Bethany Family" of their era and their foundational importance to future Bethany College generations.
Without plaques on the campus identifying the locations of these buildings, most of the buildings that are gone have been forgotten on the Bethany College campus. SWEDES has provided foundational information on this buildings and their former location using the Bethany Campus Walk section to understand the Campus of long ago. These buildings were the Bethany Academy and the Swedish Pavilion located at the Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum, and Lane Hart Hall, Old Main, Ling Auditorium, Carnegie Library, and Deere Hall.
>>>>> Studying Lindsborg and Bethany College Swedish and Swedish American significant events
Some of those were 1) Bethany College's 5 eventful anniversary celebrations from 1895 to 1981, noting the 1902, "the of age" gold coin that had to be designed by Dr. Carl Aaron Swensson who still can be recognized as the greatest promoter of his institution; 2) ROCKAR! STOCKAR! and Benny Owen football coaching 3 year running victory 3) the town and the college joining Swedish America in 1937 to establish a $750,000 endowment for Philadelphia's American Swedish Historical Museum for the 1938 300th Anniversary of the founding of New Sweden in America, 4) the period from 1901 to 2014 of enjoying the celebrity of 14 Smoky Valley Swedes who had been knighted or honored by 4 Swedish kings plus those already mentioned internationally known Holy Easter and Palm Sunday Messiah performance days.
>>>>> Studying Lindsborg, Freemount, Salemsborg, their Lutheran Churches, cultural traditions and handcrafts
Due to the 1869 Swedish Augustana Lutheran Synod churches in Lindsborg, Freemount, and Salemsborg, the relationship between Lindsborg and Bethany College founded in 1881 was always very strong since the college was sponsored by the 1860 Augustana Lutheran Synod as were the churches.
These Swedish pioneers and the settlers through their faith and prayers were responsible for the thriving community that Lindsborg was during and beyond this Augustana era, many of whom attended Bethany College. This has continued with their descendants who, corporately or individually, have been carefully and lovingly restoring, preserving, promoting and carrying-on aspects of their Swedish cultural heritage, the handcrafts and traditions that so reflect the earliest years of these communities. Thus, they were able, early on and today, to maintain many of those pieces of Lindsborg's and Bethany College's truest Swedish cultural identity, and to be recognized for it.
1908 marked the first Swedish festival in this community that gave way to the Dutchman Dr. William Holwerda's 1941 first Svensk Hyllningsfest, a Swedish Pioneer October festival. It continues on, during odd numbered years that is currently scheduled for 2025. This "IS" the event that continues on a regular basis to promote, restore and preserve the unique Swedishness of Lindsborg! Hence, Swedish dance groups of various ages emerged early on in Lindsborg foundational history which eventually included the 1964 Lindsborg Swedish Folk Dancers founded by Mrs. Elizabeth Jaderborg that still dance today and perform their dances within the United States annually, and, as international Lindsborg ambassadors, perform them in Sweden every 4 years.
Like other Swedish American communities in the United States and around the world, the traditional Christmas Saint Lucia ceremony and the Jullota Lutheran Church Service are celebrated as well as Midsummer's Day in June by these Swedes.
>>>>> Studying the 1970s Swedes from Sweden when they visited Lindsborg and Bethany
The 1970s brought many Swedish visitors to Lindsborg and Bethany College that included the King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf in 1976, the Swedish Emigrant Institute staff from Växjö, Småland, for collecting emigration stories in 1977, and a Swedish documentary film crew from Stockholm for a week in 1978.
They were all so keen on the Swedish and Swedish American Lindsborg and Bethany College then, since so many more last-living-links to this foundational Swedish history were still living.
>>>>> Studying the Lindsborg Swedish-American Folklife Institute of Central Kansas and their Swedish guests
With blessings from the "Grants from the National Endowments of the Arts," 1986 was of a most important year that notes last-living-links Swedish descendants establishing in Lindsborg the first and only Swedish-American Folklife Institute of Central Kansas which for a successful decade was "in the business of preserving all forms of folklife."
This found the back-and-forth travel of Swedish scholars traveling to Lindsborg and to Bethany College, and, in return, the Institute leaders, Mark and Mardel Esping, traveling throughout Sweden, sharing the Swedish American culture and traditions of the Smoky Valley Swedes. Having the Swedish-American Folklife Institute of Central Kansas located in Lindsborg reflected its most enduring foundational history as a little Swedish capital of the Smoky Valley people.
Locally, the lack of understanding that significance may have brought an end specifically to potential Swedish American cultural research and educational/academic growth for Lindsborg, Salemsborg, Freemount, Smolan, Falun, Assaria, Marquette, New Gottland and several other Swedish American Smoky Valley communities, and for Bethany College. Fortunately, the Institute's information continues online with its HISTORY and its research and study of Swedish and Swedish American SMOKY VALLEY FOLK ART. The "Swedish-American Heritage Center of 1998" showed such potential for what could have been as noted HERE.
>>>>> Bethany College Pearson Distinguished Professorship of Swedish Studies
Yet, on the heels of that, beginning in 1998, blessed by the generous benefactor Gerald “Bud” Pearson was the Pearson Distinguished Professorship of Swedish Studies at Bethany, totally connecting Lindsborg to the Sweden of today lasting until 2015!
LOOKING AHEAD
Although the community of those last-living-links to the foundational history of Bethany College, Lindsborg and surrounding communities may be dwindling, individually and corporately they are participating in their own Swedish American Smoky Valley studies for cultural conservation purposes. But what happens when they are gone?
After traveling through over a hundred years of Smoky Valley history for over a decade, it is true that I am now more concerned about the fate of this foundational history than before. The reason why is because there is just so much of it! There is too much to expect that the Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum could handle all of it.
The discoveries made make me want to delve deeper into each one. This study, my study, is just the tip of the iceberg for further studies by others. As a former teacher and understanding the importance of “foundational” history, especially after travel to over 70 countries, I have felt it was very important to emphasize the ongoing education of the College's and Lindsborg's incredible history, as I have also been influenced by many of the past Smoky Valley Writers, most of them educators and many who have traveled abroad, who in their works, as well, subtly expressed their concerns.
After traveling through over a hundred years of Smoky Valley history for over a decade, it is true that I am now more concerned about the fate of this foundational history than before. The reason why is because there is just so much of it! There is too much to expect that the Lindsborg Old Mill and Swedish Heritage Museum could handle all of it.
The discoveries made make me want to delve deeper into each one. This study, my study, is just the tip of the iceberg for further studies by others. As a former teacher and understanding the importance of “foundational” history, especially after travel to over 70 countries, I have felt it was very important to emphasize the ongoing education of the College's and Lindsborg's incredible history, as I have also been influenced by many of the past Smoky Valley Writers, most of them educators and many who have traveled abroad, who in their works, as well, subtly expressed their concerns.
>>>>> A Swedish American Smoky Valley Institute for Kansas Smoky Valley Studies
Since Lindsborg's Swedish-American Folklife Institute of Central Kansas, there certainly have been wishes that it was still located in Little Sweden, and there must be some thoughts and conversations that some kind of an "institute" is really needed now more than ever before, for studying the Kansas Smoky Valley Swedish history, culture, and traditions in order to protect these, preserve these, promote these and restore these where needed. If the community is educated about this need and understands it, it will rise to the occasion as it always has in past decades for such other cultural needs to address such issues -- the "town and the gown,"* Lindsborg and Bethany, moving forward together for future generations. Discourse on such Swedish American issues has always been a part of this Swedish American community's identity!
* An expression from one of Dr. Emory K. Lindquist's books.
* An expression from one of Dr. Emory K. Lindquist's books.
>>>>> Teaching Swedes: TheWayTheyWere and using the "Table of Contents" for guidance
For those who would like to teach something from SWEDES, go to the "Table of Contents," the "Online Outline." It is "the key" from which teachers and professors can easily find topics for their own lesson plans and syllabuses, and heads of cultural organizations can develop programs, events, and exhibitions. Teaching some of these topics could help ensure that aspects of the history and culture of this unique and very special Swedish American Smoky Valley community would live on for future generations.
CONCLUDING
What does conservation mean for our Swedish heritage, or any heritage?
What does conservation mean for our Swedish heritage, or any heritage?
When I receive my Lindsborg, Kansas, Swedish American inheritance, the Lindsborg estate, in 1996, I had no clue of what conservation was. Portraits from Sweden needed restoration immediately so I made a call to some authority in Washinton D.C. who then referred me to a Stanford University professor nearby. In turn, I was referred to a gentleman who was in the business of restoring paintings. It was from him, I picked up a brochure and in it were these words on CONSEVATION by Phillip Ward. These made lasting impressions on how to handle this wonderful Swedish American inheritance which has finally brought me to the end of this journey!
"The Nature of Conservation: A Race Against Time"
" Our Heritage is all that we know of ourselves:
What we preserve of it, our only record.
That record is our beacon in the darkness of time;
the light that guides our steps.
Conservation is the means by which we preserve it.
...It is a commitment not to the past, but to the future."
" Our Heritage is all that we know of ourselves:
What we preserve of it, our only record.
That record is our beacon in the darkness of time;
the light that guides our steps.
Conservation is the means by which we preserve it.
...It is a commitment not to the past, but to the future."
SWEDES finishes with:
The 1941 Smoky Valley "Pioneer Cross Memorial" ~ By Mr. Thomas N. Holmquist HERE.
The Smoky Valley Swedish People's Virtual Memorial HERE.
-"Dedicated to the Memory of the Smoky Valley Swedish Settlements
December 30, 2024
The 1941 Smoky Valley "Pioneer Cross Memorial" ~ By Mr. Thomas N. Holmquist HERE.
The Smoky Valley Swedish People's Virtual Memorial HERE.
-"Dedicated to the Memory of the Smoky Valley Swedish Settlements
December 30, 2024
-------Through the Years-------
When time allows, SWEDES will continue to be tweaked and edited.
The "Table of Contents" will be updated accordingly and dated.
For the "Table of Contents," "Traveling through SWEDES" "The Outline Online," go below to the Download File.
The "Table of Contents" will be updated accordingly and dated.
For the "Table of Contents," "Traveling through SWEDES" "The Outline Online," go below to the Download File.
| swedes_table_of_contents_4_15_25.pdf |
Fran Cochran -- April 15, 2025 -- updated
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
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
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
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
Please go to CONTACTS, for more information.
February 2025
An "Old Main" Brick
Dr. Emil O. Deere
1877-1966
Mrs. Lydia Sohlberg Deere
1873-1943
1873-1943
The ruins of Lydia"s and Emil's 1873 farmhouse, Swede House, purchased in 1936 when it was a functioning farm.
* * *
"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
swedesthewaytheywere.org.
All rights reserved.
