REVIEW.
A few weeks ago I made a short visit to Vasa, our first home in
Minnesota. The occasion was the eighty-seventh birthday of my mother,
who still lives near the old homestead.[7] With spirited horses I drove
in company with a son and a grandson over the same road which was first
marked out by our simple ox wagon thirty-eight years before.
[Footnote 7: Since dead.]
What a change! The former wilderness changed into smiling fields dressed
in the purest green of early summer, and along the whole road are fine
homes, nearly all of which belong to Swedish-Americans, who commenced
their career as poor immigrants like myself, or to their children, most
of whom are to the manor-born.
We stop twelve miles from Red Wing close to our old farm, at a little
cottage surrounded by tall trees. There, by the window, sits
greatgrandma, watching eagerly for someone whom she knows always spends
that day with her.
Close to the quiet home stands the large Lutheran church, one of the
finest country churches in America, and to the peaceful cemetery
surrounding it we all soon make a pilgrimage to scatter flowers on the
graves where my good father and sister, my wife's parents, sister, and
many other near relatives have found a resting place. The little
cemetery is clothed in a flowery carpet of nature's own garb, and
studded with several hundred marble monuments with inscriptions that
testify to the Swedish ancestry of those who rest under them.
[Illustration: SWEDISH CHURCH IN VASA.]
From this place, which is the most elevated point in Vasa, the
surrounding country affords a picture of such rural peace and beauty,
that even a stranger must involuntarily pause to wonder and admire; how
much more, then, I, who was the first white man that trod this ground!
Below, toward the south, we see the wooded valley, watered by a little
creek from Willard's spring, where we came near perishing that cold
January night in 1854; at the head of the valley, the hill where we
built the first log cabin; immediately beyond this hill the hospitable
home of my wife's parents, from which I brought my young bride to our
own happy little home, which stood on another hill near the same spring,
and of which a part still remains; here, just below the church, is the
field I first plowed; over there in the grove where we cut logs and
fencing material, stands now the orphan home, established by Rev. E.
Norelius; and on the other side the road is his handsome residence and
garden, but he himself sits inside, frail and suffering on account of
the hardships of the first few years.
Close by are the post-office, two stores, a blacksmith shop, a
school-house, two smaller churches, one Methodist and one Baptist, and
several other public and private buildings, and a few miles farther
north, near the Cannon river, are two railroads, running from the
Mississippi westward, connecting with other roads which span the
continent, and only terminate on the shores of the Pacific ocean.
All around, so far as the eye can see, are green fields, grazing herds
of cattle, planted and natural groves, comfortable buildings, and great
white-painted school-houses. Not a hill, not a valley or a grove but
they call forth touching recollections, some mingled with sorrow and
pain, but by far the most bright and cheerful; for here I spent the
first hopeful years of my manhood; here we lived, the first Swedes in
Minnesota, in a circle of innocent and faithful friends; here I won the
wife who tenderly and faithfully has shared the vicissitudes of life
with me, in sorrow and in joy ever the same; here those of my countrymen
who followed me when I was yet but a youth, have acquired independence,
happiness, and such esteem that the settlement of Vasa has a reputation
among the communities of the state which reflects honor upon the memory
of the great king whose name it bears.
But this picture of development, culture and progress is not confined to
this settlement, for countless other Scandinavian settlements in the
west and northwest have made as great progress within a comparatively
short time.
On my arrival in 1852 the Mississippi river was the north-western
boundary line of civilization with the exception of the state of Iowa,
which then had only a small population. Since that time twelve new
states further west have been peopled and admitted into the Union. There
was no railroad west of Chicago; now the immense distance between the
Mississippi and the Pacific ocean is spanned by four giant railroads,
while more than a hundred trunk and branch lines intersect the country
in all directions, and lakes and rivers are navigated by hundreds of
steamers, which compete with the railroads in carrying the products of
the West to the Atlantic, whence they are distributed over the whole
civilized world.
Hundreds of cities that did not exist, even by name, have since sprung
up as if by magic, and some of them have already become renowned
throughout the world for their industry, commerce and culture. Among
them are Minneapolis and St. Paul, already intertwining their arms
around each other in an embrace that will soon unite them into one. The
former did not exist when I first gazed on St. Anthony falls, which now
furnishes motive power for its magnificent mills and factories, and the
latter was a town of about two thousand inhabitants. Their combined
population is now one-third of a million. St. Paul contains a large
number of Scandinavians, but Minneapolis seems to be their favorite
city, the Swedes alone numbering over forty thousand. They have many
churches, private schools, academies and other institutions of learning.
[Illustration: FLOUR MILLS IN MINNEAPOLIS.]
The three Scandinavian nationalities agree pretty well in our good
state, and have united their efforts in several enterprises of some
magnitude. In Minneapolis there are several banks and other monetary
institutions owned and controlled by them, not to mention hundreds of
other important commercial and manufacturing establishments due to the
enterprise of our countrymen. Having gradually learned the language
and the ways of this country, a surprisingly large number of the
Scandinavians who began their career as common laborers have engaged
successfully in business on their own account, and many have devoted
themselves to professions demanding a higher education, which is greatly
facilitated by a number of excellent academies and colleges established
and supported by them in several of the western states. A great number
of county offices are filled by the Scandinavian-Americans; in our
legislature there are generally from thirty to forty members of that
nationality; many of them have occupied positions of the highest trust
and honor as officers of the state and of the United States, and no one
can deny the fact that they have universally proved themselves fully
equal in ability and trust-worthiness to the native born.
But it is not only in Minneapolis or in Minnesota, but throughout the
whole country that the Scandinavians have gained such a good name, that
in all the recent agitation against foreign emigrants, not one voice has
been heard against them. They learn the English language well and
quickly, and assimilate readily with the native American element, which
is natural enough considering that they are to a very large extent of
the same blood and ancestry as the English people, and that the English
language is borrowed to no small extent from the Scandinavian.
Americans often express astonishment at the ease and correctness with
which the Scandinavian immigrants acquire the English language. A little
study of philology will readily account for it. If we take, for
instance, the names of household goods, domestic animals, and other
things appertaining to the common incidents of plain every-day life, we
find the English words almost identical with the Scandinavian terms,
only varying in the form of spelling or perhaps pronunciation, as those
are apt to change with time and locality. For example: English--ox, cow,
swine, cat, hound, rat, mouse, hen, goose, chicken; Swedish--oxe, ko,
svin, katt, hund, rotta, mus, hoena, gas, kyckling. Of implements:
English--wagon, plow, harrow, spade, axe, knife, kettle, pot, pan, cup;
Swedish--wagn, plog, harf, spada, yxa, knif, kittel, potta, panna, kopp.
Or the part of our own bodies, such as: English--hair, skin, eyes, nose,
ears, mouth, lips, teeth, shoulders, arm, hand, finger, nail, foot, toe,
etc.; Swedish--har, skinn, oegon, naesa, oeron, mun, laepp, tand, skuldra,
arm, hand, finger, nagel, fot, and ta. Or of the occupations of the
common people, such as: English--spin, weave, cook, sow, sew;
Swedish--spinna, vaefva, koka, sa, sy, etc. In this connection it may not
be out of place to quote one of England's most eminent authors and
scholars, Edward Bulwer Lytton, who says:
"A magnificent race of men were those war sons of the old North, whom
our popular histories, so superficial in their accounts of this age,
include in the common name of the 'Danes.'
"They replunged into barbarism the nations over which they swept; but
from the barbarism they reproduced the noblest element of
civilization. Swede, Norwegian and Dane, differing in some minor
points, when closely examined, had yet one common character viewed at
a distance. They had the same prodigious energy, the same passion for
freedom, individual and civil, the same splendid errors in the thirst
for fame and the point of honor, and above all, as a main cause of
civilization, they were wonderfully pliant and malleable in their
adventures with the people they overran.
"At that time, A.D. 1055, these Northmen, under the common name of
Danes, were peaceably settled in no less than fifteen counties in
England; their nobles abounded in towns and cities beyond the
boundaries of those counties, which bore the distinct appellation of
Danelagh. They were numerous in London, in the precincts of which they
had their own burial-place, to the chief municipal court of which they
gave their own appellation--the Husting."
It is, of course, impossible to ascertain the exact number of
Scandinavians and their descendants in this country, but we can come
very near it by studying the statistics of the United States treasury
department, a recent report from which gives the number of emigrants
during the last seventy years from Sweden and Norway as 943,330, and
from Denmark as 146,237, or a total since the year 1820 of 1,089,567;
while the same report gives the number during the same period from
Germany as 4,551,719; Ireland, 3,501,683; England, 1,460,054; English
Colonies, 1,029,083; Austria-Hungaria, 464,435; Italy, 414,513; France,
370,162; Russia, 356,353; Scotland, 329,192; Switzerland, 174,333.
When we take into consideration the numerous Swedish colonies that
settled in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the seventeenth
century, and their descendants, together with the descendants of
Scandinavian emigrants of the last seventy years, I think it is safe to
estimate the total population of Scandinavian descent at over four
millions, or fully one-sixteenth of the entire population of the United
States. The very fact that the nationality assimilates so readily with
the native American element causes it to be lost sight of; and it should
be so, for the only desirable immigrants to this country are those who
cease to be foreigners, and merge right into the American nation. Such
are certainly the Scandinavians. They do not bring over any grievances
from the mother country to correct or avenge, and there are no
Clan-na-Gael, no Mafia societies among them, nor are there any
anarchists or revolutionists. They come here to build homes for
themselves and their children; they are contented and grateful for the
privileges of American citizenship, and make themselves worthy of it by
pushing into the front rank in the onward march of education,
philanthropy and religion, as well as in material progress.
One illustration, among many that might be given, is found in the report
of a late conference of the Swedish Lutheran Church, from which it
appears that they have now in Minnesota alone two hundred and forty-five
parishes, with one hundred and seventy-nine churches, valued at over six
hundred thousand dollars, and all paid for. The Norwegian Lutheran
Church would undoubtedly show equal if not better results, though I
cannot give the exact figures.
It is a great mistake which some make, to think that it is only for
their brawn and muscle that the Northmen have become a valuable
acquisition to the American population; on the contrary, they have done
and are doing as much as any other nationality within the domain of mind
and heart. Not to speak of the early discovery of America by the
Scandinavians five hundred years before the time of Columbus, they can
look back with proud satisfaction on the part they have taken in all
respects to make this great republic what it is to-day.
The early Swedish colonists in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey
worked as hard for liberty and independence as the English did in New
England and in the South. There were no tories among them, and when the
continental congress stood wavering equal in the balance for and against
the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, it was a Swede, John
Morton (Mortenson), of the old Delaware stock, who gave the casting vote
of Pennsylvania in favor of the sacred document.
When nearly a century later the great rebellion burst upon the land, a
gallant descendant of the Swedes, Gen. Robert Anderson, met its first
shock at Fort Sumter, and, during the bitter struggle of four years
which followed, the Scandinavian-Americans were as true and loyal to
their adopted country as their native-born neighbors, giving their
unanimous support to the cause of the Union and fighting valiantly for
it; nor should it be forgotten that it was the Swede John Ericson, who,
by his inventive genius, saved the navy and the great seaports of the
United States, and that it was another Swede by descent, Admiral
Dahlgren, who furnished the model for the finest guns of our artillery.
Surely love of freedom, valor, genius, patriotism and religious fervor
was not planted in America by the seeds brought over in the Mayflower
alone.
Yes, it is verily true that the Scandinavian immigrants, from the early
colonists of 1638 to the present time, have furnished strong hands,
clear heads and loyal hearts to the republic. They have caused the
wilderness to blossom like the rose; they have planted schools and
churches on the hills and in the valleys; they have honestly and ably
administered the public affairs of town, county and state; they have
helped to make wise laws for their respective commonwealths and in the
halls of congress; they have, with honor and ability, represented their
adopted country abroad; they have sanctified the American soil by their
blood, shed in freedom's cause on the battle-fields of the revolution
and the civil war; and though proud of their Scandinavian ancestry, they
love America and American institutions as deeply and as truly as do the
descendants of the Pilgrims, the starry emblem of liberty meaning as
much to them as to any other citizen.
Therefore, the Scandinavian-American feels a certain sense of ownership
in the glorious heritage of American soil, with its rivers, lakes,
mountains, valleys, woods and prairies, and in all its noble
institutions; and he feels that the blessings which he enjoys are not
his by favor or sufferance, but by right; by moral as well as civil
right. For he took possession of the wilderness, endured the hardships
of the pioneer, contributed his full share toward the grand results
accomplished, and is in mind and heart a true and loyal American
citizen.
THE END.
Transcriber's Amendments:
Page 1: immemmorial amended to immemorial
Page 1: Skane amended to Skane
Pages 2, 3: Onnestad amended to Oennestad
Page 7: amusments amended to amusements
Page 14: doller amended to dollar
Page 24: acquaintenances amended to acquaintances
Page 38: begining amended to beginning
Page 47: neigh-hood amended to neighborhood
Page 106: added "be" to "can more easily be imagined"
Page 140: Amerian amended to American
Page 154: Pharoah amended to Pharaoh
Page 159: acknowlege amended to acknowledge
Page 166: fetes amended to fetes
Page 168: punka amended to punkah
Page 187: Wesdnesday amended to Wednesday
Page 194: astromical amended to astronomical
Page 197: embroideried amended to embroidered
Page 200: hundred amended to hundreds
Page 210: acknoweldged amended to acknowledged
Page 214: surburbs amended to suburbs
Page 217: degraged amended to degraded
Page 237: Fete amended to Fete
Page 256: methodist amended to Methodist
Page 256: magnificient amended to magnificent
Page 256: fete amended to fete
Page 257: bible amended to Bible
Page 260: begger amended to beggar
Page 264: ANNADABAI amended to ANNANDABAI
Page 266: conntry amended to country
Page 272: of of amended to of
Page 275: bible amended to Bible
Page 279: of of amended to of