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<> Remembering an Augustana Lutheran Synod Legacy Home <>
Their 1907 "Bethany Home"
~ With links to the Swedish King's visit of 1976, and "The Bethany Home Story" of 1986
LNR---September 3, 2020
REWORKING
"On Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020, the Bethany Home Association announced
that it will evolve to the name Bethany Village..."
<> Remembering an Augustana Lutheran Synod Legacy Home <>
Their 1907 "Bethany Home"
~ With links to the Swedish King's visit of 1976, and "The Bethany Home Story" of 1986
LNR---September 3, 2020
REWORKING
"On Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020, the Bethany Home Association announced
that it will evolve to the name Bethany Village..."
>> A brief background of Bethany Home later known as Bethany Home Association
In 1907, Bethany Home was established as a result of the 1860 Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod of North America (aka the Augustana Lutheran Synod) Kansas Conference, held in Marquette, Kansas, ten miles west of Lindsborg.
Following that earliest decision to have a home for the elderly instead of an orphanage, in those first years of the 1900s this Swedish Lutheran founded Bethany Home would grow exponentially. This was due to those first devout Lutheran pioneer Swedes of Lindsborg and of the surrounding smaller communities of the Smoky Valley, where Christian love and concern for the residents were the primary goals, which have certainly continued through the years.
Bethany College graduate of 1952, Bethany Home administrator Mr. Bill Carlson, who held this position for 20 years from 1974-1994 was recognized by the Smoky Valley Historical Association in the Foreword of his 2011 book, "Lindsborg Then and Lindsborg Now," as having ". . . assembled a management team and staff that quite literally brought the Home into the modern age."
>> The name change announcement to Bethany Village of 2020
Due to Mr. Carlson's endeavors and those of other administrators and leaders that followed, including non-Swedes and non-Lutherans, a very fine care facility developed and expanded for seniors, which recently earned the overall encompassing name for this beloved institution of Bethany Village. This name change was under the leadership of Mr. Kris Erickson as Chief Executive Officer and Administrator. The Bethany Village name now represents the following three facilities: For "Independent Living" there are the Cottages, for "Assisted Living," there is the Sunflower Terrace and for "Long Term Care" there is Bethany Home.
Go HERE, for the Lindsborg News Record article of September 3, 2020, titled "Bethany Home Association changes its name to Bethany Village." For more information on today's Lindsborg's Bethany Village, " go HERE to "Home" and HERE to "About Us."
In summary, this fine facility has always been supported by the Lutheran church throughout its history. From its earliest year, it was totally sponsored by the Augustana Lutheran Synod. Fifty-five years later due to a significant merger of many Lutheran Synods in North America, the Home was then sponsored by the 1962 Lutheran Church in America (LCA). Twenty-six years later, in 1988, due to another significant merger, it has been further supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to this day. With the Home's new name of Bethany Village, the website now states that it is "a social ministry of the Central States Synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America."
>> Mr. Bill Carlson with visitor Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf at Bethany Home, 1976
When I worked at Bethany Home as a nurse's aide, (off and on, from the summer of 1976 to the fall of 1978), my time there was not so long after the King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf, had made a personal stop at the Home to visit residents there who had been born in Sweden. This was part of the King's grand tour of the early Swedish American settlements during the American Bicentennial of 1976 when he joined in celebration with Swedish Americans and our President Gerald R. Ford for this great historic event.
Mr. Carlson, who was the Administrator of the Home then, would forty years later in 2016, write a "forty year anniversary" piece about this thrilling Lindsborg and Bethany Home event for the Lindsborg News-Record, which he titled:
Special Visitor to Lindsborg, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, April 17, 1976.
He graciously mailed a copy of his draft of that story on to me which he later said I could share in SWEDES. To read that draft on the Swedish King's visit to Bethany Home, go HERE.
>> Mr. Bill Carlson, Rev. Eugene K. Nelson and others telling the Bethany Home story, 1986
Mr. Carlson was also the Bethany Home Administrator in 1986 as the Home was preparing to celebrate its 75th Anniversary commemorating the year of 1911 when the Home first began to accept residents. In a leadership role, Mr. Carlson joined the Rev. Eugene K. Nelson of the Messiah Lutheran Church, and a Bethany Home Board of Directors member since 1970, who was assigned the task of telling the story of Bethany Home, as editor of the project. That project became this book:
The Bethany Home Story, Lindsborg, Kansas, 1911 – 1986.
Thirty-seven years later, as I write this in 2023, The Bethany Home Story may still be "the only" substantially compiled chronicle on Bethany Home, that brings us its foundational history, giving us a glimpse of those Swedish pioneers and their descendants responsible for planning, organizing and building the Home, spiritually and physically.
Go HERE to Rev. Eugene K. Nelson and the Bethany Home Writers~ Chronicling the beginnings of the Bethany Home of 1907 to 1986.
In 1907, Bethany Home was established as a result of the 1860 Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod of North America (aka the Augustana Lutheran Synod) Kansas Conference, held in Marquette, Kansas, ten miles west of Lindsborg.
Following that earliest decision to have a home for the elderly instead of an orphanage, in those first years of the 1900s this Swedish Lutheran founded Bethany Home would grow exponentially. This was due to those first devout Lutheran pioneer Swedes of Lindsborg and of the surrounding smaller communities of the Smoky Valley, where Christian love and concern for the residents were the primary goals, which have certainly continued through the years.
Bethany College graduate of 1952, Bethany Home administrator Mr. Bill Carlson, who held this position for 20 years from 1974-1994 was recognized by the Smoky Valley Historical Association in the Foreword of his 2011 book, "Lindsborg Then and Lindsborg Now," as having ". . . assembled a management team and staff that quite literally brought the Home into the modern age."
>> The name change announcement to Bethany Village of 2020
Due to Mr. Carlson's endeavors and those of other administrators and leaders that followed, including non-Swedes and non-Lutherans, a very fine care facility developed and expanded for seniors, which recently earned the overall encompassing name for this beloved institution of Bethany Village. This name change was under the leadership of Mr. Kris Erickson as Chief Executive Officer and Administrator. The Bethany Village name now represents the following three facilities: For "Independent Living" there are the Cottages, for "Assisted Living," there is the Sunflower Terrace and for "Long Term Care" there is Bethany Home.
Go HERE, for the Lindsborg News Record article of September 3, 2020, titled "Bethany Home Association changes its name to Bethany Village." For more information on today's Lindsborg's Bethany Village, " go HERE to "Home" and HERE to "About Us."
In summary, this fine facility has always been supported by the Lutheran church throughout its history. From its earliest year, it was totally sponsored by the Augustana Lutheran Synod. Fifty-five years later due to a significant merger of many Lutheran Synods in North America, the Home was then sponsored by the 1962 Lutheran Church in America (LCA). Twenty-six years later, in 1988, due to another significant merger, it has been further supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to this day. With the Home's new name of Bethany Village, the website now states that it is "a social ministry of the Central States Synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America."
>> Mr. Bill Carlson with visitor Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf at Bethany Home, 1976
When I worked at Bethany Home as a nurse's aide, (off and on, from the summer of 1976 to the fall of 1978), my time there was not so long after the King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf, had made a personal stop at the Home to visit residents there who had been born in Sweden. This was part of the King's grand tour of the early Swedish American settlements during the American Bicentennial of 1976 when he joined in celebration with Swedish Americans and our President Gerald R. Ford for this great historic event.
Mr. Carlson, who was the Administrator of the Home then, would forty years later in 2016, write a "forty year anniversary" piece about this thrilling Lindsborg and Bethany Home event for the Lindsborg News-Record, which he titled:
Special Visitor to Lindsborg, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, April 17, 1976.
He graciously mailed a copy of his draft of that story on to me which he later said I could share in SWEDES. To read that draft on the Swedish King's visit to Bethany Home, go HERE.
>> Mr. Bill Carlson, Rev. Eugene K. Nelson and others telling the Bethany Home story, 1986
Mr. Carlson was also the Bethany Home Administrator in 1986 as the Home was preparing to celebrate its 75th Anniversary commemorating the year of 1911 when the Home first began to accept residents. In a leadership role, Mr. Carlson joined the Rev. Eugene K. Nelson of the Messiah Lutheran Church, and a Bethany Home Board of Directors member since 1970, who was assigned the task of telling the story of Bethany Home, as editor of the project. That project became this book:
The Bethany Home Story, Lindsborg, Kansas, 1911 – 1986.
Thirty-seven years later, as I write this in 2023, The Bethany Home Story may still be "the only" substantially compiled chronicle on Bethany Home, that brings us its foundational history, giving us a glimpse of those Swedish pioneers and their descendants responsible for planning, organizing and building the Home, spiritually and physically.
Go HERE to Rev. Eugene K. Nelson and the Bethany Home Writers~ Chronicling the beginnings of the Bethany Home of 1907 to 1986.
----------------------------------------
Published 1986, 65 pages
Published 1986, 65 pages
Grateful thanks to Bethany Home for the gift of this most historical book of 1986, to be used in SWEDES, 2018.
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1907 gave birth to the "idea" of a Home
1911 realized the idea with the Home's "first" residents
1907 gave birth to the "idea" of a Home
1911 realized the idea with the Home's "first" residents
"The Bethany Home Story," page 1
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"Let Us Remember Them"
* * *
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