USA > Illinois > Henry County > Bishop Hill > A history of Bishop Hill, Illinois : also biographical sketches of many early pioneers in Illinois, 100 years > Part 12
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fluence for good, religiously, morally, and politically, like its prototype, the pilgrims of Plymouth Rock fame.
Nor could I close without paying a passing tribute to the dead. The Allwise Father of us called you to your eternal rest before you were permitted to see the realization of your hopes and aspirations. But your unselfish sacrifice upon the altar of religious devotion and faith will live till time is no more, in the hearts of your descendants, being a heavenly inspiration to spur them on to live lives that shall make them worthy descendants of so illustrious parentage.
Now a word to the descendants of these old Colonists who may question the wisdom of their parents in sacrificing their all for the good of the many, if any such there be. This unselfish sacrifice of your parents was made through the noblest impulse of the human heart. It made it possible for one thousand souls to be transplanted to this land of religious freedom, where they and their descendants have become the heirs of a full citizenship in the best and freest government under the sun. Can you behold this lovely place with its hallowed associations and its happy homes, without exultant emotions that the act of your parents made it possible to exist ? Is it not also a fact, with a very few exceptions, that the surviving heroes and their descendants who thus sacrificed their all have been blessed four-fold in their worldly possessions? Then where is the man or woman who would exchange his or her citizenship of this great Republic for one in our native land ?
The skeptic mind will, perhaps, question my position taken at the outset that the hand of God was ever in the exodus of these Colonists; that the cause for which this sacrifice was made came to naught. Fellowman, remember that we judge human events from the limited vision of human eyes. For hundreds of years the exodus of Abram seemed barren of results. For forty years the meanderings of the Israelites in the wilderness, to human eves, appeared an aimless wandering in the desert. The results of the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rack have not even today reached their culmination point in the influence upon the civilization of this grand Republic. Who can foretell what God, in His infinite wisdom, meant by shaping the destiny of our Bishop Hill Colony forefathers? Still, it has been far from barren of results.
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Mrs. Charlotte L. Root
Peter Wickblom
Hon. Jonas W. Olson
John Root
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Historians of great research and erudition, claim that the English speaking people owe a great part of their indomitable energy and aggressiveness to the Scandinavian blood flowing in their veins, and the cosmopolitan race now in its formative stage in the United States needed a new infusion of the same blood. Until the emigration of these Colonists in 1846, very few Swedes found their way to the shores of this great Republic, except now and then a struggling sailor who deserted his ship upon touching American shore. The commotion caused by the religious persecution and the subsequent emigration attracted attention to America, and thereby the Colonists became the pioneers of the immgration that swelled in volume with each succeeding year, until 1,500,000 Swedes have landed in these United States. They and their descendants have materially assisted in developing the resources of the great west, and are today exerting an influence that is felt for the good in the religious, moral and political advancement of our common country.
This exodus also conferred a great blessing upon Father- land. It paved the way for the religious liberty that Sweden enjoys today, and it put a new religious life into even the estab- lished church.
In conclusion, we, who are yet among the living, have a sacred and exalted inheritance. Let us not lower the high ideal of Christian and brotherly love so strikingly exemplified in the early trials and experiences of these Colonists. Let no act of ours dim the luster of the glory of the past. Especially may the rising generation in whose hands will soon repose the future welfare and reputation of Bishop Hill, see to it that it will continue to be the nursery from which will be sent out to battle with the ups and downs of life, men and women of noble and exalted characters that will be a blessing to the world. May our cherished and beloved Bishop Hill be as worthy of its one hundredth anniversary as it was of its fiftieth.
IIon. Jonas W. Olson
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow Citizens of Bishop Hill, and Visiting Friends :
It is with peculiar emotions that I greet this magnificent audience, assembled here to commemorate the Fiftieth Anni-
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versary of the founding of Bishop Hill. I assure you that I esteem it a privilege and a great honor to be permitted to address this vast assemblage upon this commemorative occasion, though I feel that the duty has been better performed by others who have preceded me, and that there are still others who, on account of long connection with the Colonoy and personal knowledge of facts and incidents in its history, would be much better able to perform the task allotted to me.
Although my father, Olof Olson, came here in 1845, one year in advance of the Colony, and after exploring several states selected its present location, and it might appear from this fact, that I should have some personal knowledge of its affairs, and it was, as I understood, for this reason, in part, at least, that I was chosen as one to address you today. Yet, I am sorry to have to say that my own personal knowledge of events that transpired are extremely limited, as you will readily understand when I say to you that my parents, sister, brother and grandmother all died when I was only about three years of age, and I was, within three or four years later, taken away from the Colony, and have never returned to live here since.
All I know of my own knowledge is confined to a few youthful recollections that appear as a dream of infancy. I did not even know my own birthday, my own age, or the birthdays of my parents, sister and brother until I received the letter I hold in my hand, which I have recently received from Rev. Olof Norlin, the present pastor of the church at Soderala, Sweden.
The letter is written in the Swedish language and is a per- sonal letter in answer to some inquiries I had addressed to the writer, but as I believe it will of interest to some of the original Colonists from Soderala I will take the liberty to read it in the language in which it is written.
(Mr. Olson here reads the letter in Swedish.)
I will only translate and give in English so much of this letter as refers to the birth of my parents, sister and brother, myself and my aunt.
"Your father, Olof Olson, from Kingsta, No. 5, was born in Soderala May 16th, 1807; your mother, Anna Maria West- man, was born in Soderala, April 6th, 1809. Their children were, daughter, Beata, born in Soderala, December 22nd, 1836; son, Olof, born in Soderala, December 15th, 1838; son, Jonas W.,
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born in Soderala, June 30th, 1843; your aunt, your mother's half-sister, Katrina Wilhelmina Petronalla Skoglund, was born in Soderala, July 16th, 1828."
Until I received the above letter, July 7th, the date given to me by my aunt from her recollection, was supposed to be my birthday, and had been celebrated as such by my children.
From what I have said, you will readily perceive that my knowledge of Sweden and of events connected with the Colony is mostly confined to what I have learned from tradition, through statements of surviving members, and through histori- cal sketches and writings of others.
It appears that my father and his brother, Rev. Jonas Olson, that aged patriarch who still survives, and at the advanced age of 94, though too feeble to address us is with us today, had for some years prior to their emigration been engaged in a religious movement in Sweden whose adherents were known by the name of Lasare (Readers or Devotionalists), because they assembled in their private houses to hold their devotional meetings and read their Bibles assiduously in their homes.
The Devotionalists were a sober, industrious and pious people who abstained from drinking, dancing, and other things deemed "worldly pleasures," which was tolerated among the adherents of the Established Church. Some of them discouraged the use of all devotional literature except the Bible, saying "that the best human writings are full of error and only tend to dis- tract from the word of God."
According to Mikkelson's History the religious revival in Sweden which culminated in the emigration of the Colony, dates from the year 1842 when Eric Janson was introduced by Jonas Olson to the Devotionalists of Helsingland.
From this time Janson became the recognized leader in religious revivals and his teachings became known as Jansonism.
I quote from Mikkelson's Monograph :
"Jansonism and the form which it ultimately assumed was largely determined by the attitude of the established church. Eric Janson did not at first display separate tendencies. He merely preached against rationalism and dead orthodoxy which was prevalent in the Swedish Church. He advocated a return to the simpilicity and earnestness of primitive Christianity. He traveled from parish to parish conducting revival meetings. The
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number of his adherents was soon estimated from 1,500 to 4,000. The clergy (of the established State Church) became alarmed of a strong religious sentiment over which they had no control, and the import of which they did not understand. They regarded the Jansonists as a new sect holding doctrines that were sub- versive of the existing church organizations. In order to regain their lost power they denounced Janson from the pulpit. They attempted to refute his heresies in regard to devotional litera- ture and the doctrine of sanctification. But Janson was gifted with a matchless power of debate, besides being well versed in Scriptures, and whenever it came to a battle of words was almost certain to come off victorious. The Jansonites were refused ad- mission to the Lord's Supper. Eric Janson retaliated by saying there could be no faith without persecution; that there was no saving power in the sermon of an unconverted minister; and forbade any of his followers to worship in the established church, holding his conventicles (religious meetings) at the time of the regular church service.
"As the influence of Janson increased, so also the number and hostility of his enemies. His followers were subjected to abuse and insult of the rabble. Their meetings were disturbed, their houses pelted with stones, and their persons assaulted. But thy praised the Lord who tried their faith by allowing them to be persecuted. They marched along the highways at night, and sang spiritual hymns, or gathered in front of the parsonages to pray for the conversion of their unregenerate pastors.
"In June, 1844, an event took place which gave the op- ponents of the new heresy an opportunity of adopting severe legal measures. Already since 1840 Eric Janson had witnessed against the abuse of devotional literature. The human writings of Luther, Arndt, Scriver and Nohrborg had usurped the place of the Bible. These new idols had stole away the hearts of the people. They must be destroyed.
"The burning of the books took place June 11. A great concourse of people from the country assembled on a farm near Tranberg. An immense bonfire was made of books, pamphlets, tracts-everything except the Bible, the hymn book and cate- chism (especially everything advocating, or excusing the union of Church and State). Amidst the singing of hymns and great
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spiritual exaltation, the assemblage watched the burning and destruction of the 'Harlot of Babylon.'
"The embers of the fire had hardly died, before the news spread to every quarter of Sweden. Two days later Janson was arrested and brought before the Court in Gefle. After a pre- liminary trial he was transferred to Westeras. He was finally released to await a new trial but was not allowed to return to Helsingland. In the meantime delegations of his adherents had visited the King and had been promised a hearing of their grievances before the proper authorities. Upon his release, Jan- son himself sought admission to the King, and was so graciously received that he wrote back to his friends 'I have triumphed at Court.' In September, 1844, he was summoned to appear before the Court at Westeras. In his defense he stated that the Church had abused its trust ; that it had fallen from the true faith ; that its servants were mere worldlings; and that he had a call from God to restore the true faith and show sinners the way to salva- tion. He was released.
"In the meantime the ardor of his adherents in Helsingland had not abated. Jansonism was being preached in every quarter. The re-appearance of the leader gave new impetus to the move- ment. His enemies had not been able to do him injury. The King and the highest secular authorities in the realm, it was claimed, were his sympathizers. It was only the hierarchy of the Estab- lished Church that sought his destruction. Full amnesty might soon be expected; the abominable machinations of the Church would be thwarted; the dawn of religious freedom was not far distant. So thought his confident followers. His journey through Helsingland was one continued ovation. Everywhere the people flocked to the conventicles. In some parishes the churches re- mained almost empty.
"October 28, 1844, the second crusade against the religious books took place; this time in Soderala Parish. Janson was im- mediately arrested and was again released to await a new trial. Through the zeal of the inferior clergy he was arrested six times ; three times released by royal orders; he was transferred from one court to another, but it is claimed he never received a thorough impartial investigation or fair trial. His followers were subjected to the same sort of treatment.
"The ancient and obsolete law against conventicles, adopted
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in 1726 against Hallean pietists and other heretics, was revived in all its severity.
"Jonas Olson and his younger brother, Olof Olson, were made to pay heavy fines for holding conventieles, or religious meetings without authority or consent of the established church. They were summoned before the House of Bishops in Upsala to answer for their religious opinions."
It is related to me that the last time that Olof Olson, my father, was convicted, was for holding a religious meeting, at which he read to those assembled, the 11th Chapter of St. Luke, including the Lord's Prayer, at which he concluded his ex- hortation with the following quotation :
"'For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come.
" 'Nor heights, nor depths, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' "
(The speaker also gave the above quotation in the Swedish language. )
I am informed, but how accurate the information is I do not know, that according to the ancient and obsolete statute under which these prosecutions were carried on, the final penalty in case of a further conviction would have been banish- ment and that to avoid being exiled he concluded to voluntarily leave the country and go to America in order that he might take his family along.
I again quote from Mikkelson's Monograph as follows:
"In 1845 he (Eric Janson) sent Olof Olson to America to examine the country and fix up a suitable location for the com- munity. This was before modern Swedish emigration to the New World. America was then a name almost unknown to the peasants of Helsingland.
"In New York Olof Olson made the acquaintance of the Rev. Olof Hedstrom who is known as the founder of the Swedish Methodist Church in America. Hedstrom was stationed as a missionary among Scandinavian seamen in New York. He held services in a dismantled vessel (known as the "Bethel Ship") a part of which was fitted up for the reception of Olof Olson's
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family, consisting of a wife and two children, who remained there during the winter of 1845-6."
It will be noticed that there were only two children. The third, your humble speaker, who had been stricken with paral- ysis from which he never recovered, and which left him a cripple for life, was so sick at the time that it was not expected he could live, and being too ill to take along on such a journey, I was left to the care of my grandmother and my aunt, Catherina Wilhelmina Petronella Skoglund, to be brought over later with the Colony in case I should survive.
"Under the influence of Hedstrom, Olof Olson joined the Methodist communion, and presently proceeded on his way to Victoria, Knox County, Illinois, where he was hospitably re- ceived by Hedstrom's brother, Rev. Jonas Hedstrom. After a prospecting tour through Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, Olof Olson wrote back to Sweden confirming previous favorable reports of the country, and recommending Illinois as the future place of settlement."
In this connection I have been informed by my aged uncle, Rev. Jonas Olson, that my father's first letter from America to him, came in care of the pastor of the Established Church at the Paris of Soderala, Sweden, who requested him to take a seat between himself and his wife and read the letter to them, which he did, but was considerably embarrassed when he came to that part of the letter wherein my father said that when they came to emigrate they should not worry about "Prestbetyg" (pastor's letter of recommendation), because the situation was understood and their persecution known here, and as there was no Estab- lished Church or Priestly aristocracy in America, the pocrer the "Presbetyg" the more cordial and hearty woold be their welcome.
In July, 1846, Olof Olson was joined by Eric Janson, and together they fixed upon Henry County as the place to locate the settlement, my father having already purchased forty acres of land in Red Oak Grove, but a short distance west of here, which to this day is known as "Olson's field."
In the fall of the same year came the Jonas Olson party, among whom was my grandfather and aunt, who brought me over. I am told that the day previous to our arrival my mother had died. She had not yet been buried, and I do not know
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whether I remember seeing her or not; it seems to me that I have a sort of a dazed, hazy recollection of being ushered into the presence of some one dead, but whether I then knew that I was . looking upon the face of my mother, knowing that it was cold in death, I do not know and cannot tell. If at the time of her death she knew that I was on the way, and so very near, that if her life could only have been spared another day she would have been permitted to see her unfortunate child once more, if only to greet him with a last parting glance expressive of what no tongue can describe-a mother's love. I can imagine that as that sainted mother closed her eyes to the last sad scenes on earth, in her unspeakable anguish her last thoughts were prob- ably to wonder what would become of her poor crippled boy. My father, sister, brother and grandmother all died only a few days later, and it seems so passing strange that of the entire family I should have been the only one to survive and be allowed the privilege of participating in the celebration of this Fiftieth Anniversary of the founding of Bishop Hill. The feelings that overwhelm me make me almost wish that the doctrine of the Spiritualists might be true. If disembodied spirits were per- mitted to look down upon the scenes of earth, it might be a consolaton to that sainted mother to know that her then seeming- ly unfortunate child is thus honored, and that the people in this world with whom his lot has fallen have been kind to him.
It is said that "While the orthodox devotionalists of Helsingland consisted chiefly of independent farmers and artisans, the Jansonists also included in their number a large proportion of miners, factory hands and poor people."
Many of these were unable to defray their expenses of a long journey, some were actually in debt, but their debts were paid and all admitted on terms of equality with those who were well-to-do, if not in affluent circumstances, some contributing as high as 24,000 kroner in gold.
They based their reasons for communism purely on serip- tural grounds. "Their reading in the main being limited to one book, but in that book they found that the first Christian church took care of the poor and that material goods had been held in common." This action on the part of the wealthy members of the Colony certainly attested their sincerity.
About 1,100 were found willing to leave their native land
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with all the endearments of home and kindred, to escape perse- cution and secure religious freedom. The final parting is thus described :
"The emigrants gathered in Goteborg, Soderhamn and Stockholm, but by far the greatest number sailed from Gefle."
Galva was intended to be a namesake of this latter city, but the tongue of our American friends was too thick to pro- nounce Gefle, and so it was corrupted to Galva.)
The first vessel set sail from Gefle in the summer of 1846. For weeks previous to the departure of the vessel vehicles of every description came trundling into the seaboard city of Gefle. From a distance of over a hundred miles pedestrians came travel-stained and footsore. A feverish excitement reigned. No one wanted to be left behind. It was a sad parting. Families were torn asunder, children left their parents, husbands left their wives, the mother left her infant in the cradle. It was the flower of the youth that went, principally young men and women be- tween the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five. Their friends never expected to see them again."
Knowing that many of you, like myself, are descendants of the Colonists, yet know nothing of the Fatherland, except as it is described by others, I shall take the liberty to repeat to you a description from one of the world's most famous descriptive travelers, Paul B. Du Chaillu, as given by him after he had lived in Sweden and Norway many years, and traveled more ex- tensively perhaps than any other man ever traveled in that country. I also repeat it that we may be better able to appre- ciate the sacrifices the members of the Bishop Hill Colony made when they were practically driven into exile from such a land :
"There is a beautiful country far away toward the icy North. It is a glorious land; with snowy, bold, and magnificent mountains; deep, narrow, and well-wooded valleys; bleak pla- teaux and slopes; wild ravines; clear and picturesque lakes ; immense forests of birch, pine, and fir trees, the solitude of which seems to soothe the restless spirit of man; large and superb glaciers, unrivalled elsewhere in Europe for size; arms of the sea, called fjords, of extreme beauty, reaching far inland in the midst of grand scenery ; numberless rivulets, whose crys- tal waters vary in shade and color or the rays of the sun strike
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upon them on their journey toward the ocean, tumbling in countless cascades and rapids, filling the air with the music of their fall; rivers and streams which, in their hurried course from the heights above to the chasm below, plunge in grand water-falls, so beautiful, white, and chaste, that the beholder never tires of looking at them; they appear like an enchanting vision before him, in the reality of which he can hardly believe. Contrasted with these are immense areas of desolate and barren land and rocks, often covered with boulders which in many places are piled here and there in thick masses, and moorlands, all so dreary that they impress the stranger with a feeling of loneliness from which he tries in vain to escape. There are also many exquisite sylvan landscapes, so quiet, so picturesque, by the sea and lakes, by the hills and the mountainsides, by the rivers and in the glades, that one delights to linger among them. Large and small tracts of cultivated land or fruitful glens, and valleys bounded by woods or rocks, with farm-houses and cot- tages, around which fair haired children play, present a striking picture of contentment. Such are the characteristic features of the peninsula of Scandinavia, surrounded almost everywhere by a wild and austere coast. Nature in Norway is far bolder and majestic than in Sweden; but certain parts of the coast along the Baltic present charming views of rural landscape.
"From the last days of May to the end of July, in the northern part of this land, the sun shines day and night upon its mountains, fjords, rivers, lakes, forests, valleys, towns, vil- lages, hamlets, fields, and farms; and thus Sweden and Nor- way may be called "The Land of the Midnight Sun." During this period of continuous daylight the stars are never seen, the moon appears pale, and sheds no light upon the earth. Summer is short, giving just time enough for the wild-flowers to grow, to bloom, and to fade away, and barely time for the husbandman to collect his harvest, which, however, is some- times nipped by a summer frost. A few weeks after the mid- night sun has passed, the hours of sunshine shorten rapidly, and by the middle of August the air becomes chilly and the nights cooler, although during the day the sun is warm. Then the grass turns yellow, the leaves change their color, and wither, and fall; the swallows and other migrating birds fly toward the south; twilight becomes once more; the stars, one by one,
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