USA > Maine > Aroostook County > New Sweden > The Story of New Sweden as told at the quarter centennial celebration of the founding of the Swedish colony in the woods of Maine, June 25, 1895 > Part 2
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It is an interesting fact also, that with few excep- tions, as the French in Canada, immigrants from Europe take up the same relative position in America they occupied in the continent of their birth. In fact there seem to be certain fixed isothermal lines between whose parallels the immigrants from the Old World are guided to their homes in the New. Thus the Ger- mans from the center of Europe settle in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and our other middle states ; the French and Spanish from Southern Europe and the shores of the Mediterranean, make their homes in Louisiana, Florida, and all along the Gulf of Mexico; while the Swedes from the wooded north, fell the forests and build their log-cabins in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Wash- ington, Oregon -in our northern range of states - the Pine Tree state forms one of this northern, wooded range - Swedish immigration flows naturally to us.
And no better immigrants than the Swedes ever landed on American shores. Honest and industrious, law-abiding and God-fearing, polite and brave, hospit- able and generous, of the same old northern stock as
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THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.
ourselves, no foreign-speaking immigrants learn our language more quickly, and none become more speed- ily Americanized or make better citizens of our great Republic.
Did Maine need immigration ? Yes ; surely.
Maine is a state of great, but largely undeveloped, resources. Our seacoast, indented all over with har- bors, invites the commerce of the globe ; our rivers offer sufficient power to run the factories of the nation, while our quarries can supply the world with building material. In the northwestern portion of our state also, there was and still is a wilderness domain, whereon is scarce a settler, larger in area than the state of Massachusetts, covered with a stately forest of valuable trees, possessing a soil of unusual depth and fertility, and watered by plentiful streams.
Yet, notwithstanding all these advantages, the cen- sus of 1870 revealed the startling fact that while the United States as a whole had increased over seven and a half millions in population in the previous decade, our own State of Maine had paused and gone back- ward. In 1870, Maine numbered one thousand three hundred and sixty-four less inhabitants than she did ten years before. With the single exception of our neighboring state of New Hampshire, Maine was the only state in the Union that had retrograded in popu- lation from 1860 to 1870.
Was this a momentary halt in our advance, or was it the beginning of our decline ? This was a moment- ous question ; for states, like men, cannot stand still, they must grow or decay.
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ORATION BY HON. W. W. THOMAS, JR.
That immigration of some sort was a necessity, and that Scandinavian immigration would be the best for us, I think was quite generally admitted. Indeed the general subject of Scandinavian immigration had been briefly presented to the attention of the Legislature as early as 1861, by Gov. Washburn in his annual mes- sage. But how could Scandinavian immigrants be procured ? And how could they be retained within our borders, if once we succeed in inducing them to come among us? These were unsolved problems, and the doubters were many.
Our own sons and daughters, to the manner born, were deserting Maine for the West. Would not our Scandinavians, provided we succeeded in getting them, do the same, and settle among the great masses of their countrymen already established in the western states ?
Again one attempt to procure Swedish immigrants for Maine had already been tried, and had ended in complete failure. A company of Maine men, incorpor- ated as the " Foreign Emigrant Association of Maine," had recruited, in 1864, some three hundred Swedish laborers and servants in Sweden and paid their passage across the Atlantic. These immigrants landed at Que- bec, where they all, with one accord, disappeared. Not one of them ever arrived in Maine; and the asso- ciation dissolved with a loss of many thousand dollars.
With the exception of a few scattered Swedes that had from time to time drifted into our seaboard cities and towns - less than one hundred in all - there were no Swedes in Maine.
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THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.
Such was the condition of Maine, and such was the condition of the immigration problem on my return from Sweden to my native state at the close of 1865.
The conviction had gradually forced itself upon me, that it would be impossible to attract or retain any considerable number of individual Swedes within the limits of our state, until we first procured and firmly established somewhere upon the soil of Maine a colony of picked Swedish immigrants.
Such a colony with its churches and schools, its Swedish pastors and its Swedish homes, its Swedish customs and holidays and festivities, it seemed to me, would constitute a nucleus around which the Swedish immigration of the future would gather, a central point whose attractive force would ever hold the scattered Swedes, who went out to service, or settled elsewhere in Maine, within the borders of our state.
But how could such a colony be procured, and how could it be established ?
This problem I had gradually worked out in my own mind, and had arrived at a definite, practical plan. My plan was this: -
1. Send a commissioner of the State of Maine to Sweden.
2. Let him there recruit a colony of young Swedish farmers - picked men - with their wives and children. No one, however, was to be taken unless he could pay his own passage and that of his family to Maine.
3. A Swedish pastor should accompany the colony, that religion might lend her powerful aid in binding the colonists together.
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ORATION BY HON. W. W. THOMAS. JR.
4. Let the commissioner lead the colony in a body, all together, at one time, and aboard one ship, from Sweden to America. Thus would they be made acquainted with one another. Thus, also, would they have a leader to follow and be prevented from going astray.
5. Let the commissioner take the Swedes into our northern forests, locate them on Township Number 15, Range 3, west of the east line of the state, give every head of a family one hundred acres of woodland for a farm, and do whatever else might be necessary to root this Swedish colony firmly in the soil of Maine.
Then all State aid was to cease, for it was confidently expected when once the colony was fast rooted in our soil it would thrive and grow of itself, and throughout the future draw to Maine our fair portion of the Swedish immigration to the United States.
Such was my plan. I had a strong and abiding faith that it could be accomplished. Immediately on my return from Sweden I began, and for four years I continued, to preach the faith that was in me, both in our legislative halls and among our people. At last my colleagues, Hon. Parker P. Burleigh and Hon. William Small, commissioners on the settlement of the public lands of Maine, united with me in recom- mending my plan of immigration in our official report to the Legislature of 1870. Gov. Chamberlain, one of the earliest and most constant friends of Scandinavian immigration, warmly advocated the measure. Col. James M. Stone, chairman of the committee on immi- gration, placed the merits of the plan before the
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THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.
House of Representatives in an eloquent speech. The friends of the enterprise throughout the state rallied to its support, and on March 23, 1870, an act was passed authorizing my plan of Swedish immigra- tion to be tried.
The act established a Board of Immigration, con- sisting of the governor, land agent and secretary of state. On March 25, two days after the passage of the act, the Board appointed me commissioner of immigration. The fate of my plan was thus placed in my own hands.
Having successfully arranged all preliminaries, I sailed from America, April 30, and landed at Gothen- burg, Sweden, on the sixteenth of May. It was a bright spring morning when I set foot once more on Swedish soil, but brighter than the dawn was the opportunity now open to me to accomplish an under- taking, which for years had been the dream of my life, for the good of my native state.
A head office was at once established at Gothen- burg. Notices, advertisements and circulars describ- ing our state and the proposed immigration, were scattered broadcast over the country. Agents were employed to canvass the northern provinces, and as soon as the ball was fairly in motion, I left the office at Gothenburg in charge of a trusty agent, Capt. G. W. Schröder, and traveled extensively in the interior of Sweden, distributing documents and talking with the people in the villages, at their homes, by the roadside, and wherever or whenever I met them. Familiar with the Swedish language and people I was enabled
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ORATION BY HON. W. W. THOMAS, JR.
to preach a crusade to Maine. But the crusade was a peaceful one, its weapons were those of husbandry, and its object to recover the fertile lands of our state from the dominion of the forest.
To induce the right class of people to pay their way to settle among us seemed indeed the most diffi- cult part of the whole immigration enterprise. I therefore deemed it expedient to take this point for granted ; and in all advertisements, conversations and addresses, to dwell rather on the fact that, as only a limited number of families could be taken, none would be accepted unless they brought with them the highest testimonials as to character and proficiency in their callings.
The problem which was thus taken for granted soon began to solve itself. Recruits for Maine began to appear. All bore certificates of character under the hand and seal of the pastor of their district, and all who had worked for others brought recommendations from their employers. These credentials, however, were not considered infallible, some applicants were refused in spite of them, and no one was accepted unless it appeared clear that he would make a thrifty citizen of our good state of Maine. In this way a little colony of picked men with their wives and children, was quickly gathered together. The details of the movement, the arguments used, the objections met, the multitude of questions about our state asked and answered, would fill a volume. I was repeatedly asked if Maine were one of the United States. One inquirer wished to know if Maine lay alongside Texas,
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THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.
while another seeker after truth wrote, asking if there were to be found in Maine any wild horses or crocodiles This ignorance is not to be wondered at, for what had Maine ever done prior to 1870 to make herself known in Sweden.
Neither was the colony recruited without opposi- tion. Capital and privilege always strive to prevent the exodus of labor, and sometimes are reckless as to the means they use. It is sufficient, however, to state that all opposition was silenced or avoided.
On June 23, the colonists, who had been recruited from nearly every province of Sweden, were assembled at Gothenburg; and on the evening of that day - midsummer's eve, a Swedish festival - I invited them and their friends to a collation at the Baptist Hall in that city. Over two hundred persons were present, and after coffee and cake had been served, according to Swedish custom, addresses were made by S. A. Hedlund, Esq., member of the Swedish parliament, our agent, Capt. Schröder, one of the leaders of the Baptist movement in Sweden, and myself. The exercises were concluded by a prayer from Pastor Trouvé. At this meeting the colonists were brought together and made acquainted, their purpose quickened and invigor- ated, and from that hour the bonds of common inter- est and destiny have bound all the individuals into a community. Such a knowledge of Maine and its resources was also imparted by the speakers, that the very friends who before had sought to persuade the colonists not to desert their fatherland, exclaimed " Ah, if I could only go too !"
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ORATION BY HON. W. W. THOMAS, JR.
In August, 1637, the Swedish ship of war Kalmar Nyckel, accompanied by a smaller vessel, the Fogel Grip, set sail from Gothenburg for America, with a Swedish colony on board, which founded the first New Sweden in the New World, on the banks of the Delaware. Two hundred and thirty-three years later, at noon of Saturday, June 25, and just forty days after my landing in Sweden, I sailed from the same Gothenburg in the steamship Orlando, with the first Swedish colonists of Maine. 1182955
A heavy northwest gale, during the prevalence of which the immigrants were compelled to keep below while the hatches were battened down over their heads, rendered our passage over the North Sea very disagreeable, and so retarded our progress that we did not reach the port of Hull till Monday evening, June 27. The next day we crossed England by rail to Liverpool. Here was an unavoidable delay of three days. On Saturday, July 2, we sailed in the good steamship City of Antwerp of the Inman line, for America.
The passage over the ocean was a pleasant one, and on Wednesday, July 13, we landed at Halifax. The good people of this city fought shy of us. Swedish immigration was as novel in Nova Scotia as in Maine. No hotel or boarding-house would receive us, and our colony was forced to pass its first night on this continent in a large vacant warehouse kindly placed at our disposal by the Messrs. Seaton, the agents of the Inman steamships. Next day we con- tinued our journey across the peninsula of Nova
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THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.
Scotia and over the Bay of Fundy to the city of St. John.
July 15, we ascended the St. John River to Freder- icton by steamer. Here steam navigation ceased on account of low water; but two river flatboats were chartered, the colony and their baggage placed on board, and at five o'clock next morning, our colony was en route again. Each boat was towed up river by two horses. The boats frequently grounded and the progress up stream was slow and toilsome, but the weather was fine and the colonists caught fish fron the river and picked berries along the banks.
Near Florenceville the first misfortune befell us. Here, on Tuesday, July 19, died Hilma C. Clasé, infant daughter of Capt. Nicholas P. Clasé, aged nine months. Her little body was properly embalmed, placed in a quickly constructed coffin, and brought on with the colony. " We cannot leave our little one by the way," said the sorrow-stricken parents, " we will carry her through to our new home."
On the afternoon of Thursday, July 21, the flat- boats reached Tobique Landing. Six days had been spent in towing up from Fredericton. The journey is now accomplished by railroad in as many hours. All along our route from Halifax to Tobique the inhabi- tants came out very generally to see the new comers, and there was an universal expression of regret, that so fine a body of immigrants should pass through the Provinces instead of settling there. At Tobique the colonists debarked and were met by Hon. Parker P. Burleigh, land agent and member of the Board of
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ORATION BY HON. W. W. THOMAS, JR.
Immigration. We obtained lodgings for the colony on the hay in Mr. Tibbit's barn, and Mr. Burleigh and I driving round from house to house, buying a loaf of bread here, a loaf there, a cheese in another place, and milk wherever it could be procured, got together supplies sufficient for supper and breakfast.
Friday morning, July 22, teams were provided for the Swedes and their baggage, and at eight o'clock the Swedish immigrant train started for Maine and the United States. The teams were furnished by and under the charge of Mr. Joseph Fisher of Fort Fair- field. Mr. Burleigh and I drove ahead in a wagon, then came a covered carriage, drawn by four horses. This contained the women and children. Next were two three-horse teams with the men, followed by a couple of two-horse teams containing the baggage. So we wound over the hills and at ten o'clock reached the iron post that marks the boundary be- tween the dominions of the queen and the United States.
Beneath us lay the broad valley of the Aroostook. The river glistened in the sun and the white houses of Fort Fairfield shone brightly among the green fields along the river bank. As we crossed the line and entered the United States, the American flag was unfurled from the foremost carriage, and we were greeted with a salute of cannon from the village of Fort Fairfield. Mr. Burleigh stepped from the wagon and in an appropriate speech welcomed the colony to Aroostook County, Maine, and the United States. I translated the speech and the train moved on. Cheers
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THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.
waving of handkerchiefs, and every demonstration of enthusiasm greeted us on our way.
Shortly after crossing the line an incident occurred which showed of what stuff the Swedes are made. In ascending a hill the horses attached to one of the immigrant wagons became balky, backed the wagon into the ditch and upset it, tipping out the load of baggage. The Swedes instantly sprang from the carriages in which they were riding, unhitched the horses, righted the wagon, and in scarcely more time than it takes to tell it, reloaded their ton and a half of baggage and then ran the wagon by hand to the top of the hill. This was the first act of the Swedes in Maine.
At noon we reached the Town Hall at Fort Fairfield. A gun announced our arrival. Here a halt was made. A multitude of people received us. The Swedes got out of the wagons and clustered together by themselves, a little shy in the presence of so many strangers. The assembly was called to order by A. C. Cary, Esq., and a meeting organized by the choice of Hon. Isaac Hacker as chairman. Mr. Hacker after some perti- nent remarks introduced Judge William Small, who welcomed the Swedish immigrants in a judicious, elaborate and eloquent address. He was followed by the Rev. Daniel Stickney of Presque Isle in a stirring and telling speech. The remarks of these gentlemen were then given to the Swedes in their own tongue by myself, after which at the request of the Swedes I expressed their gratitude at the unexpected and gener- ous hospitality of the citizens of Aroostook. The
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ORATION BY HON. W. W. THOMAS, JR.
Swedes were then invited to a sumptuous collation in the Town Hall. The tables groaned with good things. There were salmon, green peas, baked beans, pies, pudding, cake, raspberries, coffee, and all in profusion.
At two o'clock the Swedes resumed their journey, gladdened by the welcome and strengthened by the repast so generously given them by the good people of Fort Fairfield. The procession passed up the fer- tile valley of the Aroostook - the stars and stripes still waved " at the fore." Many citizens followed in wagons. Along the route every one turned out to get a good look at the new comers. A Swedish youth of twenty struck up an acquaintance with an Ameri- can young man of about the same age. It mattered not that the Yankee did not speak a word of Swedish, nor the Swede a word of English, they chattered away at each other, made signs, nodded and laughed as heartily as though they understood it all. Then they picked leaves, decorated each other with leafy gar- lands, and putting their arms around one another marched along at the head of the procession, singing away in the greatest good fellowship, as good friends as though they had known each other for a lifetime, and perfectly regardless of the little fact that neither of them could speak a word the other could under- stand. Youth and fraternity were to them a common language and overleaped the confusion of tongues.
As the immigrant train halted on a hilltop, I pointed out the distant ridges of this township rising against the sky. " Det utlofvade Landet" - " The prom- ised land " - shout the Swedes, and a cheer goes
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THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.
along the line. Late in the afternoon we reached the bridge over the Aroostook River. A salute of cannon announced our approach. Here we were met by a concourse of five hundred people with a fine brass band of sixteen pieces, and escorted into the picturesque village of Caribou. Hon. John S. Arnold delivered an address of welcome, and the citizens invited us to a bountiful supper in Arnold's hall, where also the settlers passed the night. At this supper one of the good ladies of Caribou happened to wait upon our worthy land agent, and getting from him a reply in a language she understood, was over- joyed and exclaimed, " Why, you speak very good English for a Swede !"
Next morning the Swedish immigrant train was early in motion accompanied by some hundred and fifty citizens of the vicinity. One farmer along the route put out tubs of cold water for our refresh- ment. I thanked him for this. " Oh, never mind," he replied, " all I wanted was to stop the Swedes long enough to get a good look at them." We soon passed beyond the last clearing of the American pioneer and entered the deep woods. Our long line of wagons slowly wound its way among the stumps of the newly- cut wood road, and penetrated a forest which now for the first time was opened for the abode of man.
At twelve o'clock, noon, of Saturday, July 23, 1870, just four months from the passage of the act author- izing this enterprise, and four weeks from the depart- ure of the immigrants from Sweden, the first Swedish colony of our state arrived at its new home in the
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ORATION BY HON. W. W. THOMAS, JR.
wilds of Maine. As the waggon train stopped in the woods, a little south of where the Swedish capitol now stands, the Swedes instinctively drew together in a little group around me, and here in the shadow of the forest primeval we devoutly thanked God, who had led us safely on our long journey, and fervently prayed for His blessing and guidance in the great work that lay before us. Here too I baptised the township
" NEW SWEDEN,"
a name at once commemorative of the past and auspi- cious of the future. Here in behalf of the State of Maine I bade a welcome and Godspeed to these far travelers, our future citizens, and here at the south- west corner of the cross roads, under a camp of bark and by the side of a rill of pure spring water, Swedes and Americans broke bread together, and the colonists ate their first meal on the township, where they were to hew themselves homes out of the forest.
All around us was an unbroken wilderness. A gigantie forest covered all the land, stretching away over hill and dale as far as the eye could reach. In these vast northern woods, the blows of settler's ax had never resounded, through their branches the smoke from settler's cabin had never curled. Here roamed the moose, and prowled the bear, and here the silence of midnight was broken by the hooting of the arctic owl.
One thousand years ago the great Scandinavian sea- king Rollo sailed out from the Northland with a fleet of viking ships. Landing on the coast of France, he 4
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THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.
subjugated one of her fairest provinces. Here the Northmen settled, and from them the province is called to this day Normandy.
Eight hundred years later the descendants of these Northmen, speaking French, sailed from Normandy to this continent and settled Acadia. When driven from their homes by the British fleet, a detachment of Acadians came up the St. John River and settled on the interval, where now stands the city of Fredericton.
Expelled from their homes a second time by the English, they followed up the St. John to Grand Falls. British ships cannot sail up these falls, said they, so a hundred years ago they built their cottages above the falls, along the fertile valley of the upper St. John, some twenty miles north of New Sweden. There to-day dwell thousands of Acadian French.
Twenty-five years ago, a little company of Swedes sailed forth from the same Scandinavia, whence issued Rollo and his vikings, and settled New Sweden.
So these two branches of Scandinavian stock, sepa- rated in the ninth century, are now brought together again after the lapse of a thousand years, and dwell side by side in the woods of Maine.
There are few better towns in Maine for agricul- tural purposes than New Sweden. On every hand the land rolls up into gentle hard-wood ridges, covered with a stately growth of maple, birch, beech, and ash. In every valley between these ridges flows a brook, and along its banks grow the spruce, fir, and cedar. The soil is a rich, light loam, overlying a hard layer
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ORATION BY HON. W. W. THOMAS, JR.
of clay, which in turn rests upon a ledge of rotten slate, with perpendicular rift. The ledge seldom crops out, and the land is remarkably free from stones.
New Sweden lies in latitude 47º north, about the same latitude as the city of Quebec. The boundaries of this township were run by J. Norris, Esq., in 1859. It was then designated as Township No. 15, Range 3, west of the east line of the state, which name it bore for eleven years, until the advent of the Swedes. Subsequently the township was set apart by the State for settlement, and in 1861 the best part of the town was run out into lots for settlers. These lots contained about one hundred and sixty acres each. The State surveying party consisted of Hon. B. F. Cutter, of Standish, surveyor; A. P. Files, Esq., of Gorham, chain- man ; Hon. L. C. Flint, of Abbot, explorer, and three assistants. The work was commenced the last of August, 1861, and finished October 22, of the same year. This surveying party found a cedar tree marked by J. Norris in 1859 as the southeast corner of the town, and the lotting of the town was begun at a cedar post standing two links southwest of this cedar tree, which post was marked "T. No. 15, R. 3, Lot 144, B. F. Cutter, 1861, 2" (the latter character being Cutter's private mark).
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