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 5
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The examination of the first public school, took place March 15, 1872, after a session of four months. The scholars had made wonderful progress in learning our language. Many could speak and read English well, and some had made considerable advance in writing. These school privileges were highly prized. Some of the scholars came to school five miles through the woods, slipping over the snow on skidor - Swedish snow-shoes.
Two steam mills were erected and put in operation in the spring of 1872, and a large quantity of shin- gles and some boards were sawed.
The Swedes early became experts in manufacturing
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ORATION BY HION. W. W. THOMAS, JR.
shaved shingles by hand. It was soon admitted by Aroostook traders that the Swedish shingles were the best made in the county. Shopping in New Sweden was almost exclusively barter. Bunches of shaved shingles were the currency which the Swedes carried to the stores of the American traders, and with which they bought their goods.
The last mile of our main road was turnpiked in 1872, giving the colony a good turnpike to Caribou. Branch roads were improved.
In the matter of government, New Sweden pre- sented an anomaly. It was an unorganized township, occupied by foreigners, furthermore, no legal organi- zation could be effected for years, for there was not an American citizen resident in the township, through whom the first step toward organization could be taken. The first two years of the colony I found time to personally settle all disputes between the colonists, organize the labor on roads and buildings, and arrange all matters of general concern.
As the colony increased, it became impossible for one man to attend to all the details of this work. A committee of ten was therefore instituted to assist me. Nine of this committee were elected by the colonists, the pastor was the tenth, ex officio. Three went out of office every six months, and their places were filled at a general election. New Sweden was also divided into nine highway districts, and each one of this committee had charge of the roads in his own district. This decemvirate satisfactorily managed all the municipal affairs of the colony until New Sweden was legally organized into a plantation.
80
THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.
Many and strange were the experiences of life in these woods in the early days.
One evening Svensson came running up to my office in the Capitol, crying out, " My daughter is lost."
His daughter Christine was a little girl, twelve years old, well known and loved in the colony. He had taken her with him in the morning to a new chopping where he was at work, three miles into the woods toward the Madawaska River. At noon he had sent her to a woodland spring to draw water for their dinner, but she did not return. Becoming alarmed, he hurried to the spring. There were the tracks of her feet in the moist earth, but the girl was nowhere to be seen. He hallooed and received no answer, and then searched the woods in vain till nightfall.
I at once sent out a messenger on each road in the township, warning the men to meet at the Capitol next morning at sunrise. Over fifty came, bringing with them all the dogs and all the guns in the colony. We followed Svensson to his clearing, formed a line north and south along the Madawaska road, and at a signal, advanced into the woods, moving west. Each man was to keep in line with and in sight of his next neighbor. Thus the men advanced through the forest for hours, shouting and firing guns. But there came no answer.
At noon two guns were fired in quick succession. This was the preconcerted signal. The girl was found. She was standing in the bottom of a dense cedar swamp, on all sides the trunks of fallen trees
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ORATION BY HON. W. W. THOMAS, JR.
were piled up in inextricable confusion. How the child ever got in there was a mystery. She still held the pail, half full of water, in her hand. But she had clasped the bail so tightly in her terror, that her finger nails had cut into the palm of her hand, and blood was dripping from her fingers into the water in the pail.
"Why where have you been ?" joyfully asked the Swedes.
" I don't know," she murmured in a broken voice.
" What have you been doing ?"
" I don't know."
" Where did you pass the night ?"
" There hasn't been any night," she cried with a wild glare. She was mad. The terrors of that long night alone in the woods had taken away her reason. She was taken home, tenderly nursed, and after a period of sickness, was fully restored to health of mind and body. She then said, that she went to the spring, filled her pail with water, and was just starting back through the woods, when suddenly she saw in the path before her, a bear and a cub. She turned and ran for life. When she dared to look around, she found the bear was not following her. She then tried to walk around to the clearing, where her father was. She kept on and on, crying for her father, till it grew dark, then she recollected no more.
The government of the United States recognized this colony at an early day, by establishing a post- office here, and appointing Capt. N. P. Clasé post- master. The road to Caribou was subsequently made
82
THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.
a post route, and, weekly paid postal service com- menced July 1, 1873. Sven S. Landin, one of the colonists, was mail carrier, although, when pressed with work on his farm, his wife not unfrequently walked with the mail to Caribou and back again, a distance of sixteen and a half miles.
On October 14, 1873, Ransom Norton Esq., clerk of courts for Aroostook County, visited the colony for the purpose of affording the Swedes an opportunity of taking the first step toward naturalization. On that day one hundred and thirty-three men came forward and publicly renounced all allegiance to the " King of Sweden and Norway, the Goths and the Vandals," and declared their intention of becoming American citizens.
In the fall of 1873, the condition of the colony was excellent. The little settlement of fifty had increased to six hundred, and outside of New Sweden there were as many more Swedes located in our state, drawn to us by our Swedish colony. The settlement of New Sweden had outgrown the township of that name and spread over the adjoining sections of Wood- land, Caribou and Perham. The trees on 2200 acres had been felled. 1500 acres of this were cleared in a thorough and superior manner, of which 400 acres were laid down to grass.
The crops had promised abundance, but an untimely frost that followed the great gale of August 27, pinched the late grain and nipped the potatoes. Still a fair crop was harvested. 130 houses, and nearly as many barns and hovels had been built. The colonists
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ORATION BY HON. W. W. THOMAS, JR.
owned 22 horses, 14 oxen, 100 cows, 40 calves, 33 sheep and 125 swine.
The schools were in a flourishing condition. Such an advance had been made in English, that most of the children above ten years of age, could read and write our language tolerably, and speak it well. An American visiting the colony had no need of an in- terpreter, for every child that talked at all, could speak English.
I then felt that all the conditions of the plan on which this experiment was made, had been fulfilled. The colony had been recruited in Sweden, trans- planted to Maine. fast rooted in our soil, and made self-sustaining. The experiment was an experiment no longer. New Sweden was successfully founded, the stream of Swedish immigration was successfully started. The infant colony was now strong enough to go alone.
On Sunday forenoon, October 19, 1873, I met the Swedes at the Capitol. Nearly all the settlers, men, women and children were there. I recounted the history of the colony, since the first adventurous little band had met together in old Sweden, spoke such words of friendly counsel as the occasion suggested and justified, and then took leave of the colony I had recruited in the Old World and founded in the New.
In my annual report, at the close of 1873, I recom- mended that all special State aid to New Sweden should cease. I further took pleasure in recommend- ing that the office of commissioner of immgration, which I held, be abolished, since the accomplishment of
84
THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.
the undertaking rendered the office no longer neces- sary ; and thus laid down the work, which for four years had occupied the better portion of my life and endeavor.
But though my official connection with New Sweden ceased with 1873, this colony has never ceased, and never will cease so long as life remains, to occupy a large portion of my heart, my thoughts and my prayers.
And New Sweden has ever continued to meet the fondest anticipations of her friends. Her career from the beginning to this day has been one of constant and unbroken growth, development and progress. She has never taken a step backward, she has never made a halt in her onward march. Her story forms an unique chapter in the history of Maine. That story I would love to fully recount to you step by step on this festal day when New Sweden celebrates her triumphs.
I would fain speak to you of the organization of the township into a plantation in 1876, and of its munici- pal and political life ; of our grand decennial celebra- tion here in 1880, in which three thousand persons, Swedes and Americans, took part; of the dedication of the first Swedish Evangelical Lutheran church of Maine on the same day ; of the rise and progress of the Baptist, the Mission and the Advent societies and the building and dedication of their houses of worship; of the deep religious life of the colony ; of our schools and the thorough work they have accomplished, of the building of our roads and bridges; the establishment
FIRST SWEDISH EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH OF MAINE AT NEW SWEDEN.
86
THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.
of mills and factories; how year after year the forest has been felled, and choppings full of blackened stumps transformed into smooth fields of waving grain ; how the log cabins have been replaced with substantial two-story frame houses, great barns built, fruitful orchards and gardens set out, and bountiful crops raised; how the Swedes have come to pos- sess excellent breeds of horses and cattle ; how the steer teams with rope harness have disappeared, and how the Swedes drive to-day as good horses as can be found in Aroostook County ; how the good repute of our Swedish fellow citizens has risen and risen, until the only question now asked by an American shop keeper is " Are you a Swede ? If so you may buy on credit anything and everything you want."
All this and much more I would love to recite in detail to you, but the sun of this long summer's day would set before the half could be told. I must, how- ever, crave your indulgence to make brief mention of two marked characteristics of our Swedish brethren.
New Sweden is a colony of churchgoers. Nearly every adult Swede is a church-member and nearly all the colonists, old and young, attend public religious services every Sunday the whole year round. And while praising the Lord within their comfortable churches, they do not allow their horses to freeze out- side. The Swedes do not forget that " a merciful man is merciful to his beast." In the rear of every Swed- ish church you will see a long, low log hovel or stable. The openings between the logs are all tightly chincked up, and here, even in the coldest days of winter, the
·
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ORATION BY HON. W. W. THOMAS, JR.
horses stand in the long double rows of stalls, blanketed, comfortable and steaming with warmth, while their owners worship God with clear consciences in His temple hard by.
I rejoice also to state that New Sweden is and always has been a temperance colony. There was never a
BAPTIST CHURCH IN NEW SWEDEN.
rum shop in the settlement, and strong drink has ever been as good as unknown throughout this com- munity. The Swedes have devoted the fruits of their labors to improving their farms, increasing their stock, and rendering their homes more comfortable and beautiful. They have never squandered their health or wealth in rum.
88
THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.
Time will now only permit me to speak briefly of the status of New Sweden to-day, and of some of the results which this Swedish colony has achieved on American soil.
New Sweden has already celebrated this twenty-fifth year of her existence by becoming incorporated as a
FOTO ENGIO
L. P. LARSON. FIRST SELECTMAN OF NEW SWEDEN.
town, on the twenty-ninth day of January last, and taking her place as a full fledged municipality among her sister towns in Maine.
The town of New Sweden numbers to-day seven hundred and seventeen inhabitants, but these figures
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ORATION BY HON. W. W. THOMAS, JR.
represent less than one half of the Swedish settlement which lies round about us. The colony soon outgrew the boundaries of this township and spread over the adjacent portions of Woodland, Caribou and Perham, lying to the southward. Later our Swedish pioneers penetrated into the forest to the west and north, and have there made permanent settlements.
On June 1, 1892, the Swedes organized Township No. 15, Range 4, lying west of New Sweden, into a plantation, and named it " Westmanland " from one of the provinces of the Old Country ; and on March 23, of this year, Township No. 16, Range 3, adjoining New Sweden on the north, was legally organized as " Stockholm," thus perpetuating the name of the beautiful capital of Sweden in our own state.
New Sweden therefore, does not come solitary and alone to this quarter-centennial jubilee. She comes leading by the hand two fair daughters, Westmanland and Stockholm. Aye ! more. She comes leading her sons and daughters by hundreds from the adjoining American towns of Woodland, Caribou and Perham.
And there is one son New Sweden leads with pecu- liar pride to this feast. John Hedman, a Swedish lad, reared on this township, graduates this year with high honors at Colby University, Waterville, Maine .* Surely our Swedes have not forgotten that they are the countrymen of Linnæus and Swedenborg, of Geijer and Tegner and Victor Rydberg. Surely among the blackened stumps of their forest clearings, our Swedish pioneers have looked up to something higher and nobler than mere material prosperity.
* John Hedman (1896), is instructor in modern languages at Colby University.
7
90
THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.
MAINE'S SWEDISH COLONY
is situated to-day on seven different but adjoining towns, forming thus one compact settlement, which numbers no less than one thousand four hundred and fifty-two Swedes, divided as follows :
New Sweden, (town)
717
Woodland,
279
Caribou,
103
Perham,
79
Westmanland,
109
Stockholm,
157
No. 16, Range 4,
8
Total,
1452
Nearly thirty times the little band of pilgrims that entered these woods twenty-five years ago. An in- crease of over 2,800 per cent.
The following statistics embrace the entire Swedish settlement - the Greater New Sweden:
MARRIAGES, BIRTHS AND DEATHS.
From the date of the settlement to the present day there have been celebrated 102 marriages, 481 babies have been born, and 140 individuals have died. In the last number are included many who died in Port- land, Augusta, Boston and other places, but are interred in the New Sweden cemetery. Yet even
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ORATION BY HON. W. W. THOMAS, JR.
with these deaths included, the births out-number the deaths in the ratio 3.43 to 1. Is anything further wanted to prove the vigor of the Swedish race, and the healthfulness of the climate of Maine ?
CLEARINGS.
The area of land cleared on each lot in the colony varies with the strength, skill and circumstances of the settlers, and the length of time since their arrival. The earlier colonists have of course, larger " felled pieces " on their lots than the later comers; and the few, who were fortunate enough to bring with them the means of hiring help, have made more rapid pro- gress in clearing their farms of the forest, than the great majority who have been compelled to rely exclu- sively on the labor of their own hands. Scarcely any of the Swedes, however, have cleared less than twenty. five acres, most have cleared from thirty to fifty acres, some from fifty to seventy-five, while a few, who have acquired more than one lot, are the happy owners of broad clearings of more than one hundred acres in extent.
The Swedes have cleared their land in a superior manner, all the old soggy logs being unearthed, smaller stumps uprooted, and the larger knolls lev- eled. In most of the earlier clearings, the stumps have been entirely removed, and the fields plowed as smoothly as in our oldest settlements.
In the aggregate, these Swedes have cleared and put into grass or crops 7,630 acres of land, that twenty- five years ago was covered with a gigantic forest.
92
THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.
BUILDINGS.
The colonists have erected :
1 Capitol.
4 Churches.
3 Parsonages.
7 School houses.
2 Starch factories.
5 Shingle mills (these mills also have rotary saws, planers, sticking and clapboard machines.)
305 Dwelling houses.
362 Barns and hovels.
689 Buildings in all.
ROADS.
71 miles of road have been built, of which 46 miles are turnpiked and in excellent condition.
LIVE STOCK.
Our Swedish settlers now own :
468 horses,
worth,
42,950
287 colts, under 3 years old,
"
5,810
27 oxen,
66
810
479 cows,
66
14,250
313 other neat cattle,
66
2,504
497 sheep,
66
1,485
150 lambs,
300
117 swine,
66
936
6000 poultry,
66
3,000
Total value,
$72,045
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ORATION BY HON. W. W. THOMAS, JR.
CROPS.
In 1894 the Swedish colonists harvested :
Hay, 1500 tons,
worth, $ 15,000
Wheat, 3616 bushels,
66
2,905
Rye, 4,215 bushels,
3,086
Oats, 60,000 bushels,
23,920
Buckwheat, 3,445 bushels,
66
1,469
Potatoes, 117,950 barrels, 66
117,950
Total value,
$164,330
DAIRY.
In 1894 the dairy product of the colony amounted to 30,000 pounds of butter, worth, 5,000 pounds of cheese 66
$6,000
500
Total value,
$6,500
WOOL.
In 1894 the colonists clipped 2,500 pounds of wool, worth,
$500
EGGS.
The egg product of 1894 amounted to 24,000 dozen, worth, $2,400
TOTAL VALUE OF FARM PRODUCT FOR 1894.
Crops,
$164,330
Dairy,
6,500
Wool,
500
Eggs,
2,400
Total, $173,730
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THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.
FACTORIES AND MILLS.
Product of factories and mills for 1894 :
190 tons starch, worth,
$11,720
21.500,000 feet, shingles, 66
39,750
2,200,000 feet, long lumber, 66
17,600
Total value,
$69,070
VALUE OF SWEDISH BUILDINGS, CLEARINGS, TOOLS
AND STOCK.
Churches, parsonages and schools,
$ 12,500
Factories and mills,
25,500
Farm buildings,
200,450
7,630 acres of cleared land, at $20 per acre, (cost of clearing), 152,600
Farming implements and machinery, 65,800
Live stock,
72,045
Total,
$528,895
Value of farm products for 1894,
$173,730
Value, factory and mill products, 1894,
69,070
Grand total,
$771,695
And all this has been created where not the worth of a dollar was produced twenty-five years ago.
These figures alone are eloquent. They need no eulogy. They speak for themselves. They tell the story of difficulties surmounted, of results accomplished, of work well done. But, my countrymen, those of you who have never lived in the backwoods, can have no
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ORATION BY HION. W. W. THOMAS, JR.
adequate conception of the vast labor and toil under- gone in this wilderness to create the results I have enumerated, and which you see all around you. A settler's first years in the woods are a continual fight, hand to hand with savage nature, for existence. It is pleasant for us to-day to look out upon these broad fields, green with the growing crops, but do we know, can we calculate, how many blows of the ax, how many drops of sweat have been expended in turning each one of these seven thousand six hundred acres of cleared land, from forest to farm ?
The story of New Sweden has no parallel in New England since the United States became a Nation. This Swedish settlement is the only successful agri- cultural colony founded with foreigners from over the ocean in New England since the Revolutionary war, and surely in all America there is no agricultural set- tlement, so young as ours, that surpasses our model colony in progress and prosperity.
And the good effects of the founding of New Sweden are not confined to this colony or this vicinity. As early as 1871 Swedish artisans and skilled workmen, drawn to Maine by New Sweden, began to find work in the slate quarries of Piscataquis county, in the great tanneries and saw-mills of Penobscot, and in the stores and workshops of Portland, Bangor, Augusta, Pitts- field, Monson, Houlton, Presque Isle, Fort Fairfield, Caribou, and other cities and towns. Since the found- ing of the colony the Swedish girls have ever fur- nished needed and valuable help in our families in all sections of the state. Some Swedish immigrants,
96
THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.
who came to us in independent circumstances, pur- chased improved farms in Presque Isle, Fort Fairfield, Limestone, and other towns; while many Swedes with less means settled on abandoned farms in Cumberland, York and our other older counties. These deserted homesteads have been placed by the Swedes in a high state of cultivation ; indeed Swedish immigration is proving to be the happy solution of the " abandoned farms " question in Maine.
The United States census of 1890, returned a Swed- ish population in every county in Maine except Frank- lin, and gave the total number of Swedes in our state, including children born in this country of Swedish parents, at 2,546.
To-day there are in Maine more than 3,000 Swedes as the direct result of the Swedish immigration enter- prise.
Furthermore the good accomplished by New Sweden is not limited by the boundaries of our state. Skilled workmen from New Sweden early obtained employ- ment in the mills, factories and workshops of Boston, Worcester, Lowell, Fall River, Springfield and Brock- ton in Massachusetts; Manchester and Concord in New Hampshire; Rutland and Bennington in Ver- mont ; Providence and Pawtucket in Rhode Island ; New Haven, Hartford, Bridgeport and Waterbury in Connecticut, and in other manufacturing centers all over New England. And each little band as it settled down, formed a fresh nucleus, around which have continually gathered new throngs of Swedish immi- grants.
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ORATION BY HON. W. W. THOMAS, JR.
Thus the overflow from New Sweden has reached and benefited all our sister states. In fact the estab- lishment of this little colony of Swedes in the woods of Maine twenty-five years ago turned a rill from the stream of Swedish immigration, which before all flowed west, upon New England, and added a fresh element of good, northern blood to every New England state.
And Swedish immigration has benefited Maine in other ways besides the direct addition of several thou- sand Swedes to our population.
The best part of this fertile town, where we are now assembled, was run out into lots in 1861. For nine years Maine offered these lots to settlers. The offer was made under our settling laws, which did not require the payment of a dollar, only the performance of a certain amount of road labor and other settling duties, which made the lot virtually a gift from the State to · the settler. Yet not a lot was taken up. Until the advent of the Swedes no one was found willing to accept his choice of the lots in this town as a gift, pro- vided he was required to make his home upon it.
The opinion of many in this vicinity upon the wis- dom of the Swedes in settling here was pointedly expressed by a good citizen of Caribou. Walking out of the woods with him, in July 1870, a few days after the arrival of the first colony, I expatiated, no doubt with enthusiasm, upon the magnificent results which to my mind must flow from the enterprise. The gentleman listened to me patiently till I had finished, then turning squarely upon me in the road, he said :
98
THE STORY OF NEW SWEDEN.
" Mr. Thomas, you may say what you like, but I don't suppose there are bottles enough in that colony to hold the tears those poor, deluded creatures will shed before their first year is out."
And not only was New Sweden without a settler on the morning of July 23, 1870, but several of the lots in the northern portion of Woodland plantation, which had years before been taken up by settlers, and on which clearings had been made, houses built, and crops raised, were now deserted by their owners, the houses with windows and doors boarded up, and the clearings
BUILDINGS OF ALFRED ANDERSON IN 1895.
commencing to grow up again to forest. Such was the condition of the last clearings the Swedish colony passed through on its way into the woods. These clearings are now settled by Swedes and smile with abundant harvests.
The American pioneer who abandoned the clearing nearest New Sweden was happily with us at our decen- nial celebration in 1880, and joined in the festivities with wondering eyes. Mr. George F. Turner then told me of his attempt to settle in these woods. He came from Augusta in the spring of 1861, and took up lot No. 7, in Woodland. Here he built a house and barn, and cleared thirty-five acres of land. But there
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