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The Bethany Artist & the Bethany Scientist: Lydia & Emil
Lindsborg was their home and Bethany College was their life!
<> Passing on Their Legacy Inheritance <>
What they left behind:
- Hers were the art work, the late 19th century and early 20th century Bethany College photographs, the Swedish and Scandinavian handiwork, the Bethany Campus Association first landscape projects, and, with the Class of 1917, "The Gateway" to Bethany;
- His were his association with, and service to Bethany College for 67 years (1899 - 1966), his 58 years developing the Bethany College Museum, his part in today's 1903 Bethany College Cheer of "Rockar Stockar" which he translated, and much more;*
- Theirs were the Swedish Collections, the Swedish Homestead, the Deere Home, and, most importantly, "their love" for Bethany College and her students.
Newlyweds, 1916
Wedding Photographs of Lydia Sohlberg and Emil O. Deere
by Lindsborg photographer Bror Gustaf Gröndal
by Lindsborg photographer Bror Gustaf Gröndal
At 43, my great grandaunt Lydia (1873-1943) married my great granduncle Emil, 39, (1877-1966) on August 9, 1916, in San Jose, California where her cousin Dr. H. C. Vetterling lived and gave her away. Honeymooning in the San Francisco Bay Area, the couple enjoyed touring the universities of Stanford and Berkeley, and what remained of the 1915 San Francisco World's Fair, also called the Panama Pacific International Exposition, and other sights the area had to offer.
- Their 3 homes in Lindsborg -
1916-1943
click on them for captions
They did not have children, but what they did share together was a great love for the College, its student body, its founding church, and its community, and to these, in their individual ways as well as jointly, they devoted their time and energy. This was to be their family and the many subjects of Lydia's photographs. They were Swedish Augustana Lutheran Christians.
~ A Wedding Anniversary Photograph ~
by photographer Bror Gustaf Gröndal
by photographer Bror Gustaf Gröndal
Lydia's Gateway to Bethany College with the Class of 1917
by photographer Lydia Sohlberg Deere, 1917
by photographer Lydia Sohlberg Deere, 1917
Gateway to Bethany
2011
Emil, Lindsborg, and Bethany
Affectionately and respectfully, in Lindsborg and at Bethany, many referred to my Uncle and greeted him as Pop Deere!
Emil was a fixture of Bethany College for 67 years, serving in a variety of top level administrative and academic positions. He was "the source" from whom all generations of the Bethany College family could come regarding the history of the inner workings of the College. He was seen then as the link connecting Bethany's past to her present. Emil's unusually long relationship with the College began with its founding father, Swedish American Rev. Dr. Carl A. Swensson, who called on him through his father Charles Deere to come to Bethany in 1899. (Swensson was a close personal friend of Charles Deere from the early Moline and Rock Island Augustana Illinois days when Emil's father was working for John Deere as a foreman at his Plow Company. This was the time that Emil's father's surname of Olsson was changed to Deere as offered by his boss John Deere.)
Emil was destined then to become colleague and friend to the founder of Bethany College and to its first seven (7) Swedish American presidents covering a period from 1899 to 1966! He was recognized by Bethany College for his lifetime service when the men's dormitory, Deere Hall, was named to honor him in 1957. Other honors included: Class of 1948: Upsala College of East Orange, New Jersey, The Doctor of Laws Degree; May 1955: Honored as Bethany College Professor Emeritus of Biology; May 1955: Honored as Kansas Association of College Deans “Dean Emeritus." From Bethany College, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1902 and a Master of Arts Degree in 1907 -- his Master's thesis was titled, Geology of Study in the Area of the Smoky Valley Buttes; from the University of Chicago, he earned a Master of Science Degree in 1911; and, then, had spent several summers there working on his PhD. which was nearly finished, but was not, due to the various ongoing pressing needs of the College.
It seems that my Uncle Emil was more or less behind the scenes keeping the Bethany College "home-fires burning" during his career there.
Emil was a fixture of Bethany College for 67 years, serving in a variety of top level administrative and academic positions. He was "the source" from whom all generations of the Bethany College family could come regarding the history of the inner workings of the College. He was seen then as the link connecting Bethany's past to her present. Emil's unusually long relationship with the College began with its founding father, Swedish American Rev. Dr. Carl A. Swensson, who called on him through his father Charles Deere to come to Bethany in 1899. (Swensson was a close personal friend of Charles Deere from the early Moline and Rock Island Augustana Illinois days when Emil's father was working for John Deere as a foreman at his Plow Company. This was the time that Emil's father's surname of Olsson was changed to Deere as offered by his boss John Deere.)
Emil was destined then to become colleague and friend to the founder of Bethany College and to its first seven (7) Swedish American presidents covering a period from 1899 to 1966! He was recognized by Bethany College for his lifetime service when the men's dormitory, Deere Hall, was named to honor him in 1957. Other honors included: Class of 1948: Upsala College of East Orange, New Jersey, The Doctor of Laws Degree; May 1955: Honored as Bethany College Professor Emeritus of Biology; May 1955: Honored as Kansas Association of College Deans “Dean Emeritus." From Bethany College, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1902 and a Master of Arts Degree in 1907 -- his Master's thesis was titled, Geology of Study in the Area of the Smoky Valley Buttes; from the University of Chicago, he earned a Master of Science Degree in 1911; and, then, had spent several summers there working on his PhD. which was nearly finished, but was not, due to the various ongoing pressing needs of the College.
It seems that my Uncle Emil was more or less behind the scenes keeping the Bethany College "home-fires burning" during his career there.
MY LAST LIVING LINK TO FOUNDATIONAL BETHANY COLLEGE HISTORY
With my Uncle Emil, looking at my dad, Gene Cochran, Yosemite, 1950
- After Lydia -
Emil, Nina, Lois, Frances and Melinda
- Living in Lindsborg in the 1960s -
I did not know my Aunt Lydia who died in 1943, but I did know my Uncle Emil. He and my grandmother Nina Sohlberg Fry, his and Lydia's niece, who she had photographed as a child with her friends in Lindsborg, at Bethany College and at Coronado Heights, lived in the Deere home on College and Olsson Streets (today 344 North First Street) at the south entrance to Bethany College, "The Gateway," of which Lydia had played a major role in its 1917 construction.
In the early 1960s due to a family emergency in our home-state California, my mother, Lois Fry Cochran who was polio wheelchair bound, and my sister, Melinda Cochran, and I were to move to Lindsborg, Kansas, where we were to eventually live at Sohlberg House. In 1904, this house had been the retirement home of my great great Swedish grandparents, pioneers Anders and Ingrid Sohlberg, who arrived in McPherson, Kansas, in 1880, to live and work there, after sojourning first (from their Sweden journey in 1854) in the Swedish community of Chicago, from where they traveled onward, sojourning in Swedish settlements found in Wisconsin and Minnesota).
From Anders and Ingrid came four generations, and, of those, thirteen (13) family members graduated from Bethany College -- the first, George Sohlberg, in May 1884 when Bethany was an Academy and I was the last in May of 1968, "the day after" of which Old Main (the largest and tallest building west of the Mississippi River when built in 1887 designed by Swedish renowned architect L.G. Hallberg from Chicago), was razed.
In the early 1960s due to a family emergency in our home-state California, my mother, Lois Fry Cochran who was polio wheelchair bound, and my sister, Melinda Cochran, and I were to move to Lindsborg, Kansas, where we were to eventually live at Sohlberg House. In 1904, this house had been the retirement home of my great great Swedish grandparents, pioneers Anders and Ingrid Sohlberg, who arrived in McPherson, Kansas, in 1880, to live and work there, after sojourning first (from their Sweden journey in 1854) in the Swedish community of Chicago, from where they traveled onward, sojourning in Swedish settlements found in Wisconsin and Minnesota).
From Anders and Ingrid came four generations, and, of those, thirteen (13) family members graduated from Bethany College -- the first, George Sohlberg, in May 1884 when Bethany was an Academy and I was the last in May of 1968, "the day after" of which Old Main (the largest and tallest building west of the Mississippi River when built in 1887 designed by Swedish renowned architect L.G. Hallberg from Chicago), was razed.
At the Deere home
1964
Melinda Cochran, Nina Sohlberg Fry, Lois Fry Cochran, Emil Deere, Frances Cochran with Lydia Sohlberg Deere's paintings in the background
Sohlberg House was three houses south of the Deere home at 322 North First Street. In 1916 Sohlberg House was the first home that Emil and Lydia lived in as newlyweds for three years. When our family lived there, we visited Grandmother Nina and Uncle Emil frequently at the Deere home that Lydia lovingly designed and was built for her and Emil in 1940, that she was only able to enjoy until 1943 due to her death from shingles. With my uncle Emil's death in January of 1966, my grandmother did not want to be alone, so I moved from Sohlberg House to the Deere home, and my Uncle Emil's bedroom became mine. For more on the Deere home, go Here.
At Bethany College during my freshman and sophomore years (1964-1966), my Uncle Emil, although retired from his official college duties several years before, still continued his work as the curator for the Bethany College Museum. Although, I was totally unaware that my uncle's life's work at the museum for 58 years was to be moved off campus in 1966, I would visit him many times at the museum, and later join him at the Pihlblad Memorial Union's cafeteria for supper which was always a treat as I was living at home in Sohlberg House and not on campus.
He was in the throes of making final preparations for the disassembling of the Museum which was established a year after the founding of Bethany in 1882, and moving its "Natural History Collection" of 5,000 artifacts that included the "Taxidermy Collection" and his "Pioneer Swedish Life Collection" of 900 artifacts to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum which only had around 500 artifacts. The move that was scheduled for the summer of 1966 would not be witnessed by my uncle due to his death in January of 1966; and the reason for the move was that of the impending historical 1968 razing of Old Main, the current location of the Museum, which "was" Bethany College when it was first erected in 1887.
He was in the throes of making final preparations for the disassembling of the Museum which was established a year after the founding of Bethany in 1882, and moving its "Natural History Collection" of 5,000 artifacts that included the "Taxidermy Collection" and his "Pioneer Swedish Life Collection" of 900 artifacts to the McPherson County Old Mill Museum which only had around 500 artifacts. The move that was scheduled for the summer of 1966 would not be witnessed by my uncle due to his death in January of 1966; and the reason for the move was that of the impending historical 1968 razing of Old Main, the current location of the Museum, which "was" Bethany College when it was first erected in 1887.
Bethany College's Kenneth Sjogren Capturing College History from Dr. Deere
Last-Living-Links to Bethany College's Foundational History
Last-Living-Links to Bethany College's Foundational History
It was in 1965 that I was visiting my uncle and grandmother in the Deere home when Bethany College Director of Public Relations and Alumni Affairs Kenneth Sjogren (1935-2022), with a tape recorder in hand, came to interview my uncle about the history of the College. I remember that day clearly, yet not at all understanding Emil's significance to the College then. At 89 years of age, he was the College's "last-living-link" to the founder of Bethany College and its earliest history, so it was important to grasp onto any additional information from him before it was too late.
The day that Mr. Sjogren came to visit my uncle, I was a teenager living in my own world. Like most teenagers, then and now, I was not at all interested in capturing any history! I had no understanding of why this was so important. Now with a lifetime of living, working and traveling the world behind me, I can finally say that "I understand;" and I can certainly see myself as a "last-living-link" to all of that early college history through my Uncle Emil. Not only am I a last-living-link to this history, so are my contemporaries, the descendants of those friends and contemporaries of Emil's and Lydia's.
The late Mr. Sjogren, himself, was certainly a "last-living-link" to the College history of his time to the date of his passing on March 21, 2022. He knew so well the importance of capturing Bethany College history, so he set out to capture some of what he experienced there, responsibly and thoughtfully in his 2019 book, "6 Decades with Twelve Bethany College Presidents." Information on Mr. Sjogren and his book can be found HERE.
The late Mr. Sjogren, himself, was certainly a "last-living-link" to the College history of his time to the date of his passing on March 21, 2022. He knew so well the importance of capturing Bethany College history, so he set out to capture some of what he experienced there, responsibly and thoughtfully in his 2019 book, "6 Decades with Twelve Bethany College Presidents." Information on Mr. Sjogren and his book can be found HERE.
GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY FOR DEERE HALL
with
Dr. Emil O. Deere and Bethany College Student Body President Kenneth Sjogren looking on
with
Dr. Emil O. Deere and Bethany College Student Body President Kenneth Sjogren looking on
Left to right: Rev. Stanley Swanson, Rev. George Wahlin, Dr. Emil O. Deere, Bethany College President Dr. Robert Mortverdt and Student Body President Kenneth Sjogren
- Deere Hall -
1957 - 2015
By Photographer Dale Hoag
For directions in how to begin your initial journey back to these histories, first go HERE to Closing Remarks which will have a link for the Traveling through SWEDES ~ the Table of Contents ~ the Outline Online.
Uncle Emil's 1916 photograph of Aunt Lydia
"looking back"
as she walks toward Old Main with the Swedish Pavilion on her right
"looking back"
as she walks toward Old Main with the Swedish Pavilion on her right
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Let Us Look Back and Remember Them
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- Bethany College -
Source: A Bethany College gift to the Class of 1968.
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Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
reconnecting past to present
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All color photography throughout Swedes: The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated.
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