USA > Illinois > Henry County > Bishop Hill > A history of Bishop Hill, Illinois : also biographical sketches of many early pioneers in Illinois, 100 years > Part 11
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There had been carlier Scandinavian settlements on the eastern shores of this continent in New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania, but the spirit of adventure had not taken very strong possession of those settlers, and their descendants are still occupying portions of these States. A Scandinavian settle- ment is also claimed to have been made as early as the tenth century on the coast of what is now the State of Rhode Island, but the exact location has been somewhat surrourded in mystery and founded on tradition.
But Prof. Horsford, of Rhode Island, has discovered what he considers conclusive evidences of the site of their city, by the unearthing of its foundations, and has caused to be erected there a monument to commemorate the settlement. The city was called Norembega (presumably on account of the northern origin of its founders, and being probably in the same land discovered by Leif Ericson and called Vinland-the land of wine-on account of the profusion of wild grapes found grow- ing there). We intend that posterity shall not be left in doubt as to the settlement of this place, and have met today to dedicate a memorial tablet, to remain for ages as a reminder of the event.
Imagine, if you can, the condition of these people at the time of their settlement here; the trials they endured, the hard- ships they suffered-starvation and pestilence on every hand; settling down in the wilderness and marshes, full of malaria and miasma, in the bleak September days, when the sun was daily wending its way to the Southward, and gloomy winter coming on; with no means of subsistence except principally wild game, with which the country at that time abounded; with the nearest towns fifty to seventy-five miles distant, and to which periodical journeys had to be made for supplies, with horses and oxen as the motive power; with no habitation except tents and sod houses in which to pass the winter-surely the greatest wonder is that any one remains to tell the tale.
Then, as now, money was necessary for the carrying on
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of any enterprise, and among these people were found a few men of means, who converted their all into gold and expended the same freely for the benefit of the masses, even to the extent of paying the debts and passage for such as were unable to do so themselves, so that they could leave their country like honorable men.
Beginning with hoe and mattock to clear the forest and turn the sod for the next season's planting, the work was indeed laborious and would seem almost insurmountable. Yet, little by little, they acquired their land from the Government, and
1 in less than fifteen years, this village practically as it appears today, was built ; for these people were imbued with the thrifty and industrious habits of their northern home, and among them were found architects and mechanics of every class and calling necessary for the successful building up of a frontier settle- ment ; and we have evidences before us on every hand of their industry and architecture. Every brick in these buildings was molded by hand, and every beam, joist, scantling and rafter built into them was hewed and sawed by these brawny men in these forests. Besides these structures that we see here, there were many more that are now obliterated, especially all the mills and dams on the banks of the Edwards. Flouring mills, both steam and water power, flax mills and saw mills, and included in the destruction was that grand obelisk, the chimney on the steam flouring mill, towering over 100 feet heavenward, and which would in all probability have stood for 500 years, and would have been a fitting monument for the admiration of coming generations, and of more memorable value to us than any block of granite we can erect today. But such are the mutations of time, and perhaps in another century some, or all of these remaining buildings will have shared the same fate. But yonder stands a faithful watchman and time keeper, re- maining, which through summer's sun and winter's storm, by night as well as by day, faithfully proclaims another hour gone, never to return. Though not as elaborate in architectural beauty and mechanism as the clock in Strasburg Cathedral, yet at the time of its erection it was quite a curiosity and attracted strangers from all around, and on favorable occasions its clear tones can be heard for miles, and it is not improbable that it will be on duty when the most of us shall have passed away.
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In its most prosperous days this town, had it been enclosed by the Chinese wall, the inhabitants would almost have had within the confines of their own possessions, abundant resources to supply their every want without being dependent upon the outside world. They raised and manufactured into cloth their own wool and flax; made their own implements of every des- cription ; raised wheat and rye and ground the same into flour ; manufactured leather and converted it into boots, shoes, and harnesses; burnt their own lime, raised horses, cattle, hogs and poultry, and their ten horse power sorghum mill was the largest in the northern part of the State, and very few of the necessi- ties of life were obtained elsewhere. Their industrial growth from the beginning was almost phenominal.
These people have always been true to their adopted country and its flag, and while the rumble of approaching war was heard in the council chambers of the nation, a company of soldiers was formed and put in training' under the military leadership of one of their number, and with their flint-lock muskets they met at regular intervals to perfect themselves in the manual of arms, and the whole town assumed a military aspect; and after Fort Sumter was fired upon and it became necessary for volunteers to take the field in defense of the Union, no braver set of men ever faced rebel shot and shell than that small company that enlisted from your town; how well they were drilled is attested by younder silk banner, now almost fallen into shreds, for which trophy the entire Regiment the Fifty-seventh Illinois Volunteers contested in a competitive drill, and Company D carried off the prize. Taking part in the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, siege and battle of Corinth, Vicksburg, and many other engagements; sharing in that vic- torious march of the intrepid Sherman, which has been immor- talized in song, 'From Atlanta to the Sea." Participating in the grand review at Washington, they had then earned their full share of martial glory. Some of them failed to return, and many a father and mother, wife and child, sweetheart, sister and brother, looked in vain for the return of their loved ones; they lie buried today on Southern battlefields, with no token to mark their last resting place, while their memory is ever kept sacred by kindred and friends on each recurring Memorial Day, by crowning with garlands that arch dedicated to the
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memory of The Unknown Dead. Some of them are still with us, but their number is growing less as year by year rolls round, and by the end of another decade, very few of the old soldiers, or old settlers will remain.
Your town today is provided with educational, religious, social, fraternal and benevolent organizations to such an ex- tent that I doubt if another town of its size in the State of Illinois can equal it. First of all you have the public school, the foundation of all American educational institutions. You have churches and Sunday schools, Epworth and Junior Leagues, a Chautauqua Circle, Modern Woodmen, Home Forum, Select Knights and United Workmen, each and all doing good in their respective fields; and then you have a Voluntary Donative Society to look after the interests of the worthy poor.
In these days of steam and electric travel, telegraph and long distance telephone; when you can cross the Atlantic in less than six days; can travel between New York City and Chicago in twenty-four hours; can send a continuous message over 27,000 miles completely encircling the globe in less than twenty minutes, it would seem as if time and space had been annihilated, and it seems almost incredible to look back upon the last fifty years and see all the industrial, mechanical and scientific improvements that have been made on every hand since the first settlers set foot upon this soil. More material progress has been made in the world in the fifty years last past, than in any other two hundred, yes-four hundred years of its previous history.
And now my friends and fellow citizens, having come to- gether on this beautiful September day-one of Nature's grand- est and most glorious holidays-from all over this broad land, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of this romantic place, and for the renewing of "acquaintance almost forgot," I hope and trust that we shall all enjoy ourselves and feel the better for having met friends of long ago, and as time rolls around in its ceaseless whirl, may we ever refer to this day as one of happiness and joy, ever to be remembered. Again I thank you.
Address-Captain Eric Johnson, League City, Texas Fellow Colonists and Invited Friends :
We are met today to celebrate and commemorate the found-
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ing and first settlement of Bishop Hill Colony. These gray haired veterans-the survivors of the original colonists-need no address to remind them of the past-to them it is a living reality-they know all about it, and much more than I will be able to tell in the short time allotted to me. But the greater portion of this audience are their descendants, friends and neighbors who possess only a fragmentary knowledge of the past history of these colonists. It is principally them that I will address on this occasion.
That my hearers may fully appreciate the standpoint from which I view the past as well as the present, I will state that I firmly believe there is an overruling Providence that shapes the destinies of nations, peoples, and the individual as well.
Sacred and profane history, both ancient and modern, bear testimony to the fact that the exodus of people and nations have exercised great influence upon the religious, moral and material advancement of the human race.
The first exodus on record is where God commanded Abram to depart from Haran in these words: "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land I will show thee." The second is the great exodus of the Israelites from the land of Egypt. These two events were the preliminary steps in God's plan for the redemption of the human race.
May the 3rd, 1607, was planted the first successful Eng- lish settlement within the borders of these United States. It was made by the chevaliers of England, men and women of wealth and standing who came to the new world to embrace the enlarged field here offered to increase their wealth and power. From it sprang the civilization of the Southern States.
December 15, 1620, on Plymouth Rock, was laid the founda- tion of another civilization of men and women who fled from religious persecution to a land where they hoped to enjoy the blessings of religious freedom.
Fifty-one years ago these old Bishop Hill Colonists were living in their respective homes, in mountain dells, or in beau- tiful valleys, where meandered sparkling brooks and rivers, or on the borders of enchanting lakes where interchanging groves of pine and birch enhanced the scenic beauty. A patriotic love
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of native country, the ties of kindred and childhood scenes, and associations held them in strong attachment to the native heath. No common or transitory emotion could have induced them to sever ties so dear and so sacred, and receive them to turn their backs upon native land, old time friends and kindred and embark upon a voyage, months in duration, fraught with dangers now unknown.
In order to receive a full conception and appreciation of the causes that led to the exodus, we must go back several years in the history of these people to find the true cause.
History teaches that whenever and wherever church and state are united, true Christianity suffers and the church loses its spiritual power and becomes a mere dead formality. Sweden and its established church became no exception. The church had lost its spirituality, and its priests had become mere guide boards preaching perfunctory and formal sermons, which told the people the way to go without the least attempt to set an example of piety or purity in daily life.
In the thirties and early forties there passed through the provinces of northern Sweden a wave of religious awakening among the peasantry. It was not brought about through the agency of any revivalists. It seemed spontaneous, displaying a longing aspiration of the soul of earnest men and women, for the bread of eternal life and a desire to lead a life of de- voted piety. They associated themselves together in groups without any formal organization, met here and there in private homes for the reading of the Scriptures and devotional exer- cise. Hence, they received the name of Lasare (readers).
How fitting it is that on this occasion we have the pleasure of having among us one of the leading pioneers in this religious movement, and perhaps the only living representative either in Sweden or America, of these original "lasare," who participated in this religious awakening before 1830, in the person of our revered and honored colonist, Rev. J. Olson, who, at the ripe age of nearly 94 years, has been spared to grace this commem- oration of the results of the labors of early manhood. Nearly all of the leading colonists were identified with this religious awakening.
It is with delicacy that I must passingly refer to the part
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taken by my own father in this religious movement. Perhaps the over enthusiastic admirers of him may ascribe to him a greater share in the origin and growth of this movement that culminated in the emigration to America and the settlement of the Bishop Hill Colony than rightfully belongs to him.
When Eric Janson felt impelled by his religious zeal to visit Helsingland, he came to a field that had already been well cultivated. This venerable friend of ours and his able co-laborers had sown the seed and prepared the way for what followed. He came to friends who gladly received him. The reinforcement thus received and the impetus thus given to this religious movement by the fiery zeal and burning eloquence of the new co-laborer that had come among them, increased the number of converts and adherents to an extent that it alarmed the clergy of the established church. Measures of repression were deemed necessary, and forthwith commenced a persecu- tion that eventually became so bitter and unrelenting that the adherents of the new faith became convinced that unless they relinquished their religious convictions, the government of their native land was powerless to protect them in their property or their lives. It was then, and not until then, that their longing eyes were directed to the great Republic of the West.
Thus in 1845 Rev. Olof Olson, brother of this venerable hero, and father of Hon. J. W. Olson, was selected as a trusted agent to select their new home in the New World.
The decision having been made to emigrate, measures were at once taken to carry it into effect, but at the very threshold they were confronted with a "condition"-an all important problem had to be solved. Two years or more of unrelenting persecution had cemented them together into Christian bond of brotherly and sisterly love that was as strong as the religious faith in which they lived and breathed. But comparatively few were blessed with means, as the believers came from the peasantry and laborers in mines and factories, and the many were with- out sufficient means to defray the expenses of the long journey. It was this trying emergency that those who were possessed of means sold their worldly possessions of both real and personal property, placing the proceeds thereof in a common fund. Thus all who were of one faith were enabled to emigrate.
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Tell me not that mere human persuasiveness, or a mere religiousenthusiasm could have persuaded so many to sell and divide the same with their fellow men. Here was presented a practical object, lesson of the divine injunction, "love thy neighbor as thyself."
In Dalcarlia, where nature reigns supreme in her august grandeur and solemnity and scenic beauty, lives a race of people celebrated in history for their heroic deeds of valor and un- conquerable love of liberty and independence, and on more than one occasion have they saved the nation from a foreign yoke, when the rest had tamely submitted thereto. From this province came the most noted example of this self sacrificing love to fellow men. One of the wealthiest farmers of this province, one L. G. Larson, who sold his real and personal property at great sacrifice, with which he chartered a ship and gave to all his believing neighbors who were poor and unable to pay, a free passage over the ocean and clear through to their destination, and after arriving turned over into the com- mon fund the remainder for the purchase of land and the necessities of life. His contribution to the common fund was over 24,000 crowns. Others followed in 10,000, 8,000 and les- ser amounts.
When our Colonists had arrived in their new home one necessity pressed so closely upon another, that even had no pre- arranged plan been in existence, circumstances plainly indicated each successive step.
Habitations had to be provided for each successive install- ment of new arrivals. Food must be procured, provisions made for the future in the purchase of lands, horses, cattle, farm implements and seed. To have turned all loose to shift for themselves in a comparative wilderness, meant want and starva- tion to many, and in direct variance with the self-sacrificing brotherly love that brought them over, vea, it would have been heartless cruelty. Besides the religious zeal that had induced these Colonists to forsake fatherland and sever ties that were dear and sacred still burned with unabated glow upon their hearts' altar.
While singing praises of thanksgiving to their Heavenly Father for deliverance from religious persecution, and with gratitude glowing in their hearts that they were now in a land
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where they could worship God according to the dictates of their conscience, they went earnestly and cheerfully to work to fell the timber from which to build shelter for their families, to break the virgin soil and sow the seed that would bring forth the sustenance of life. They brought to the task before them an earnestness of purpose, strong and sinewy muscle, hardened and used to laborious work, on every hand and at every step they had to encounter and overcome trying and harrassing dif- ficulties. The necessarily crowded condition in which they had to live, the then malarious climate soon made teir bones ache, followed by the burning fever of ague attacks, stole gradually away the inherent muscular strength brought from the father- land. Yet, at times an insufficiency of food would try their spirit of endurance. Death came at frequent intervals to seek many a dear and precious victim, but under all their spirits were undaunted, their faith undimmed and the brotherly and sisterly love burned as brightly as ever. Peace and happiness reigned within our borders.
Then came the Asiatic scourge of 1849 which in a few weeks swept into the grave over one hundred of the very flower the Colonists sending mourning into every family, but no sooner had the besom of death passed away then those remaining re- turned to the work of building up their new home and laying the foundation of future prosperity.
But the Colonists had still other ordeals and trials to endure.
Although a community founded upon the principles of peace and good will to all men, enemies arose on the outside who spoke all manner of evil against the Colonists, representing the community as a menace to the peace of the state. This the more readily receiven credence among outsiders who knew the Colony only from evil reports, because of the excitement caused in this part of the state by the then recent expulsion of the Mormons from Nauvoo.
Here was a colony of foreigners, speaking an unknown tongue, living so different from the rest of the world that suspicions were easily aroused.
Thus it can be seen how easy it was to incite the mobs that visited the colony during the winter of 1849 and '50. But thanks to the friendship and timely help of our nearest American neighbors who had come in closer contact with the
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Colonists, and had learned to appreciate them at their real worth, they arose as a wall of fire between us and our enemies, convincing the leaders of the mobs that they had been deceived as to the true character of the Colonists, and that we were good and desirable neighbors. Foremost among these, outside de- fenders, were Philip Mauk, John Piatt, Thomas Maxwell and Richard Mascall, and the Colonists and their descendants owe these men a deep debt of gratitude for the timely help in the hour of need.
Then in May, 1850, came the untimely death of the one who had been looked up to as the leader, which cast a temporary gloom and depression upon the Colonists.
The Colonists, however, undaunted in their courage, in- spired by a devotion to the faith that bound them together in the bonds of Christian brotherhood, and had brought them across the wide waters to their new home, bent renewed energy to the work, and by degrees they overcame every difficulty and soon entered upon an era of prosperity.
Their landed possessions, the acreage under cultivation, the horses, cattle, swine, sheep, farming implements and other personal property increased year by year, and kind Providence blessed them with abundant harvests until finally the Bishop Hill Colony waxed strong and even wealthy, and the outside world pointed no longer the finger of scorn but of admiration.
But worldly prosperity does not always bring in its train unalloyed happiness.
Gradually that former Christian brotherly love commenced to cool off, the unity and oneness in religious faith began to waver. To sum it up in a few words the communistic life that had been born of the noblest impulses of the human heart and of pressing necessities, and had been a blessed bridge over an otherwise impassable chasm, had outlived its necessity and usefulness.
True it is that the moment the Colonists began to turn their thoughts towards a separation and individualization, the latent selfishness implanted in every human breast, that during the years of communistic life had been held in subjection, was now fanned into a flame, and hot and bitter at times, became the contests in our councils, until an amiable plan of division could be devised.
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Fortunately, however, today, we old Colonists can all join in this festivity as perfect friends, and as brothers and sisters of one common household once more. Time has healed every sore, assuaged every disappointment, and we can each one of us take an unprejudiced and unbiased retrospective view of the past, and sincerely and truthfully acknowledge in our hearts that our then opponents were not always in the wrong, nor were we always in the right.
The time allotted me does not permit any further tracing of the growth and development of the Bishop Hill Colony, but fortunately what remains to be noticed is within the ken of all present, besides it will be the appropriate task for the historian of a future celebration. Suffice it to say that in the length and breadth of our great Republic, there is not a happier nor more prosperous community than Bishop Hill.
I cannot close my address without paying a well merited compliment to the founders of Bishop Hill for their happy selection of location. I have traversed thirty-seven states of this Union, together with a part of the Canadas, having passed through and visited numberless places of noted and acknowl- edged romantic and beautiful location, still I can truthfully say that for romantic and enchanting beauty of location, lacking those superlative adjuncts of scenic beauty-the combination of ". untain dale reflected in the bosom of a mirror-clear lake- no town or city surpasses our own dear Bishop Hill.
Last but not least this exodus of the Colonists garnered from the provinces of Dalkarlia, Helsingland and Westmanland, ncted in Swedish history for the home of a race of people with an unconquerable love of liberty, inherent purity of character, and unswerving loyalty to pure and noble principles, the best and choicest of their sons and daughters, transplanted them into the virgin soil of the fairest and choicest portion of the garden spot of the United States, and into the free and unpolluted air of the land of freedom, laying the foundation of a community thus specially selected, based upon self-sacrificing Christian and brotherly love to fellow man, tried and purified in the fiery furnace of persecution, privations and sufferings, that baffle all descriptions, which, as a natural sequence, has left its in- d.' : le stamp of character upon the existing community, which through decades and centuries to come will exert a mighty in-
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