USA > Minnesota > Goodhue County > History of Goodhue County, Minnesota > Part 38
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"Having sold my horse to buy bread, I had to foot it between Red Wing, Vasa and other places. This caused me some hard- ships. On New Year's day. 1857, I had early service in the school- house at Vasa. that is to say. at 5 o'clock in the morning. As the weather was fine and mild, I determined to walk to Cannon Falls and preach in the afternoon. There was no direct road to the Falls at that time, but we were obliged to go around by White Rock, then cross the Belle creek, and over the prairie. I started afoot after breakfast; the sun shone brightly, the weather was mild, but the snow was very deep and there was no track. By the time I got to Belle Creek the weather had changed entirely. A high cold wind commenced to blow, and very soon a bitter snow storm was raging in my face. It was with the greatest difficulty I got over the prairie into the bush. There were no houses on the road. My scanty clothing, which had become wet by dragging myself through the snow, now began to grow stiff with the cold. I laid myself down under the first bush I reached, entirely exhausted, with little hope of ever rising any more. Yet, after some hours a little strength returned, and by the greatest exertion I finally reached Cannon Falls in the evening, but my ears and nose, hands and feet were frozen, and I could not speak for a good while. After having thawed out and taken some food I was able to hold service at night, and on the following day I returned to Red Wing.
"Up to November, 1858, I continued to serve the congrega- tions at Red Wing and Vasa, besides making missionary tours to other parts of the state. For fear of making too long a sketch. I will not go into details. At Vasa nothing of special note took place. The question of determining where the future church should be located was up in 1857-58, but without any results. The congregation continued to increase, and numbered 130 com- munieants in the fall of 1858, and in several respects I was permitted to see some fruits of my labors. My salary was to be about $200 a year from each of the two congregations, but as the times were very hard during these years, and all being new settlers and struggling for their life, I did not receive the full
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amount. Thus at the annual business meeting at Vasa, June 25, 1858, there was $100 back on my first year's salary, and no prospects ever to pay it. My whole salary from both congrega- tions from June 25 to November 1, 1858, amounted to $75 in cash and a few sacks of spoiled corn and one barrel of beans. It was probably the best the poor people could do, and, thank God, I did not starve, though it was somewhat pinching. From the beginning of the congregation to November, 1858, the fol- lowing persons were officers: Deacons, Swen Jacobson, S. J. Willard. Ola Olson, Sr., Johan Sundell, Jacob Robertson, S. P. Peterson, Carl Johnson, Peter Johnson, John Bergdahl, T. G. Pearson and Nils Swenson; trustees, Peter Nilson, Carl Carlson, Olof Peterson, T. G. Pearson. Swen Jacobson; pro-singer, Nils Person; sexton, Jon Bergdahl. Olof Paulson. A change in the pastoral relation now took place. What caused it. and the history of the congregation during my disconnection with it, from Novem- ber 1. 1858, to September 1, 1861. I will now briefly relate.
"In the fall of 1857 I started a paper at Red Wing by the name of 'Minnesota Posten.' It was designed as a family paper, treating of political as well as religious matters, besides contain- ing general news and other matter. I still think that some good in various ways was accomplished by that paper, although I had to regret that I ever tried my hand at politics. For some time I was suspected of having considerable political influence among the Swedes of Goodhue county; but to tell the truth, I never was a politician, though at various times I have discussed general moral principles of right and wrong, touching politics, but I have never taken any part in political managements, canenses or meetings, nor have I ever preached politics. I have never sought after any political office in my life. It is true I was elected county auditor in 1858, but this was done while I was away on a journey to Illinois, and I knew nothing about it before I came home. ] did not accept the office and Mr. Going was appointed in my stead. But to return to my paper. It was published only twice a month, but the burden of editing a paper of that kind, together with the already crushing load of pastoral and missionary work which rested on me, was rather too much for me. My health broke down, and in the spring of 1857, I had a severe hemorrhage of my lungs. After having carried on the paper for one year-and the year 1857 was the hardest one in the history of Minnesota-it was proposed to unite it with 'Hem- landet,' the Swedish paper published at Galesburg, Ill., and that the united paper be moved to Chicago. In the meantime I had been appointed as an agent to solicit funds in the East for a Scandinavian professorship in the Illinois State University. I accepted the appointment, and removed with my family to Chi-
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cago. As the times, however, were too unpropitions, my agency was dropped, and I was instead elected editor of 'Hemlandet' and another religious monthly. After one year I relinquished the edi- torship and served a Swedish congregation at Attica, Ind., one year. I was then appointed traveling missionary for the state of Minnesota, and removed to St. Paul. In that capacity I continued up to September, 1861.
"When I left in November, 1858, the congregations at Red Wing and Vasa called the Rev. J. P. C. Boreen, who had recently come from Sweden, to supply my place for one year. At the end of that time he was elected, in 1859, permanent pastor at Red Wing, but at Vasa he was called only a vice-pastor, or supply, because the congregation had hopes I would return. During this time some few families separated from the church at'Vasa and organized the Methodist Episcopal and Baptist congregations. Considerable trouble and some bad feeling also arose in the congregation with reference to the question of a new location for a church, which was in contemplation. Many meetings for this purpose were held, and the question was earnestly dis- cussed, but resulted in no definite termination. The old log house continued to be used for the meetings, but was, of course, altogether insufficient to hold so large a congregation. In June, 1861, the number of communicants was 143. The inconveniences were, therefore, very great, and the necessity for a church was very pressing. Mr. Boreen was no doubt a good, earnest and well-meaning man. He afterwards removed to Stockholm, Pepin county, Minnesota, where he served a congregation, and died there March 22. 1865. He was buried at Vasa. In September, 1861, I was recalled to the pastorate at Red Wing and Vasa. I immediately removed to Red Wing, where I resided up to Jan- uary, 1870, and entered upon the discharge of my duties. In order to bring the question of a location of the church to a close, a meeting was called September 7, 1861, at Vasa, when a committee of eleven was appointed, consisting of such persons as lived round the whole settlement and furthest away from its center, and this committee was authorized to decide upon a place for the church, and by its decision the congregation was to abide. The committee soon after met and decided upon the location where the present brick church now stands, viz., the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 15, town- ship 112. In order to secure the location, the committee had first to buy eighty acres of Dr. Whitmore, of Wabasha, for the sum of $320. The congregation bought forty aeres and the other forty was sold to a private person. Now the place was decided upon, at a meeting called October 12 it was resolved to go to work and build a church. It was to be built of frame, 60x38 feet.
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Soon, however, a number of families in the southern part of the settlement were dissatisfied with the location, and some other things relating to the building of a church, and withdrew them- selves from the congregation. They even organized themselves into a new congregation and talked of building a church by themselves. The congregation paid no attention to this new movement, but went to work and built a small church on the beautiful hill where it had been decided upon. But in view of so many families having withdrawn themselves, the dimensions were ent down to 40x26, with a small sacristy. In June, 1862, it was so far finished that the Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Synod of North America could hold its annual meeting there-an occasion of historical note. The movement of the seceders fell to the ground, and by and by most of them returned to the old congregation.
"We were now in the times of the great Civil War, and the minds of the people were occupied with the all-absorbing theme. It was not a time favorable to the growth of spirituality and the peaceful development of the kingdom of God; the times were too exciting for that. Nevertheless, the grace of mercy in caring for the sick and wounded, and the people, was during that time awakened in the congregation as never before. Not a few of its members went to the war, and many never returned. In num- bers and material wealth the congregation continued to grow during the war. At its close it had 314 communicants. On this account the church soon became too small for the congre- gation. At the annual meeting of 1865 it was proposed to move the church building from the top of the hill to the east side of the lot, put a stone basement under it, and to make prepara- tions for erecting a larger church. This proposition was adopted and the church was removed during the summer. In the fol- lowing fall and winter the basement was occupied by the Con- gregational school and by the Orphan Home, then in its incip- iency. In regard to the erection of a new church, there were many deliberations from December. 1865, to January 2, 1867. It was then resolved by the congregation that I should take the whole matter in my own hands-solicit subscriptions and direct the work from beginning to end. During the winter and spring I had some $8,000 subscribed towards the new buildings, and during the summer Messrs. J. Paulson and J. Wisley made 350,000 bricks. My health failing again, I had to ask permission for one year, from November, 1867, to recruit; and leaving the pas- toral work to my assistant, and the erection of the church to its trustees and a building committee, I went to Sweden on the beginning of 1868. The foundation to the new church was laid in the summer of 1868, and the church was put up in 1869.
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D. C. Hill, of Red Wing, was the architect and contractor for the work. In the early summer of the next year the church was finished and consecrated. Its dimensions are : Length, 118 feet ; width, 50 feet; side walls, 22 feet high. A parsonage was also erected late in the season of 1869. The whole cost of the new church and parsonage as completed amounted to $31,065.22. The gentlemen to whom belongs the credit of having collected and disbursed the greatest part of this sum is Hon. J. W. Peterson, who in 1870 became treasurer of the congregation. With the beginning of the year 1868 the pastorate of Red Wing and Vasa was divided. I then resigned the former and retained the latter; but I did not remove to Vasa before January, 1870. Among the early assistant pastors were: Rev. P. A. Cedarstrom, from 1867 to 1870; Rev. J. Magny, from 1870 to 1871; Rev. A. Anderson, from 1872 to 1873. From 1873, on account of my many duties as president of the synod, I withdrew from the active duties of my pastoral office in the congregation, and the Rev. P. J. Sward, formerly missionary among the seamen at Constantipole, Turkey. and more recently at Baltimore, was elected vice-pastor. Up to 1860 the congregation belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Northern Illinois. Since that time it has belonged to the Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod of North America."
Since 1878 following ministers have had charge of the Swe- dish Evangelical Lutheran church, of Vasa: Rev. T. J. Sward, 1878-1886; Rev. E. Norelius, 1886-1888 ; Rev. J. Fremling, 1889- 1901; Rev. E. Norelius, 1901-1906: Rev. Bernhard Modin, from March, 1906, to present time. Rev. Dr. Norelius has served this congregation in all about 25 years. Living for many years on his own farm, a stone's throw from the church, Dr. Norelius has on several occasions been a happy refuge to whom the eon- gregation has gone whenever a vacancy in the ministry has occurred. This, to a great extent, accounts for the five terms of office which he has served this congregation since its organ- ization in 1855.
A member of the Swedish Lutheran Church of America (The Augustana Synod), Vasa congregation supports, partly, several educational and charitable institutions. home and foreign missions, ete., to the amount of about $1,000 a year. The average annual expense for the last three years has been about $5,700. During these years the congregation has installed a new two-manual pipe organ at a price of $2,300, and several valuable improvements have been made on the church property. The Vasa church con- sists at present of 1,050 members, of whom 750 are communicants. There are about 260 families belonging to the church. The present value of the church property is $27.800.
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Every summer, during May and June, seven teachers are em- ployed in different parts of the congregation for the instruction of the children, the main branches of study being the elements of the Christian religion, according to the doctrine of the Lu- theran church, and also the Swedish language and literature.
Now, considering the whole history of the Vasa church, it certainly has been a great source of much good, spiritual and material, not only to this community and Goodhne county, but also to the great commonwealth of Minnesota, which most of the Swedish people seem to prefer to any other state in the Union.
Rev. Bernhard Modin, the present pastor of the Vasa church, was born near Stockholm, Sweden, August 20, 1863. He arrived in this country when nineteen years of age, is a graduate of Angustana College, Rock Island. Ill., and also of the Theological Seminary at the same place. He was ordained minister in the Lutheran church in 1895. As pastor he has served the Swedish Lutheran Church of America, first at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, (1895- 1896), and then the Swedish Lutheran church. Bethesda church, of Page county, Iowa (1896-1906). He took charge of the Lu- theran church, of Vasa. in March. 1906. During these years as pastor he has also held several important positions of trust. Thus he was a member of the executive committee of the Iowa conference for several years, and secretary of the same con- ference about six years. At present he is president of the board of directors of the Vasa Orphan Home. a charitable institution. supported by the Swedish Entheran Minnesota Conference.
Rev. Eric Norelius, D. D., president of the Augustana Synod of the Swedish Lutheran church, was born in Helsingland, Sweden, in 1833. He came to America in 1850, graduated from the Capitol University of Columbus, Ohio, in 1855; entered the ministry and was ordained in 1856. and then came to Minnesota, where he has since continued to labor, with short interims. The complete story of his early labors is told in an article by himself. which appears in this volume. The dozen congregations he organized in log huts in the fifties have become a conference numbering about 400 congregations and 75,000 members. In 1857 he established the first Swedish newspaper in Minnesota, which led the way to the number published today. In 1862 he founded a high school for the conference at Red Wing, which he nursed and tended with much care. It was moved to Carver and then to St. Peter and is today the Gustavus Adolphus College, known far and wide. In 1865 he founded the Vasa Orphan's Home. Dr. Norelius is author of several very important works of the Swedish-Americans of America and the development of the Swe- dish church, also biographies of several of the leading Swedish- Americans. In January, 1903, Dr. Norelius was knighted by King
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Oscar of Sweden and Norway, being named as a Knight of the North Star Order.
Swante J. Willard related some years ago the following inci- dents : "After our arrival from Sweden we came to Moline, Ill. From thence, on a trip up the Mississippi to St. Paul, our boat made a stop at Red Wing. The singular formation of Barn bluff attracted our attention. I then knew not even the name of the place. I said to our company that I would like to settle there, on account of its singular beauty and attractiveness. I then for the first time saw Indians. At St. Paul I met Peter Green and Abraham Peterson, who had been in the country about a year. I learned soon after that a committee of our countrymen, having visited Red Wing and vicinity, strongly recommended the place as a desirable one for settlement. I came with my family in the fall of 1853. Leaving my family in Red Wing, I went with Matt- son to Spring creek valley, thence on to where Roos and Kemp had started to build but had not finished their house. They were camping in a tent near by. Mattson and I stopped over night with them. We heard the most hideous music of prairie wolves. Mr. Kemp, being of rather nervous temperament. was disturbed by their-close proximity. Several times he awakened Mr. Roos and whispered. 'Roos, Roos, they are trying to dig under the tent.' Mr. Roos, being a good deal of a stoic, finally blurted out, "Let the wolves howl; they have not worked as hard as I have during the day, or they would be willing to quit and be quiet.' The next morning I seleeted and marked off my claim. As the new settlers could not carry surveying instruments, it was customary to pace out the lines and distances, which almost invariably resulted in large quarter-sections. I was somewhat surprised to find by the government survey the next year that the claim I had paced off for my quarter-section held land enough for about two more. But foreigners have a faculty of profiting from the examples of others, and we have observed that our American friends selected those who were capable of taking long strides to do their measuring.
"Mattson and I engaged the following winter to chop wood for Mr. Freeborn. It was a new life for us to be out in the forest. Our house was a shanty 10x12, and combined sleeping apartments, dining hall, parlor and kitchen, circumstances eom- mon to all in those days. We were contented with a great deal less than is now deemed necessary. During our stay at this place Indians often visited us, but we were seldom annoyed or fright- ened by their presence. Their canoes were often moored on the river near us. One day Mattson and I resolved to try our skill in one, but like many a bark on the financial sea, it upset a few rods from the shore, and as we succeeded in reaching dry land, we
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coneluded to leave the Indian to paddle his own canoe. We left the wood chopping early in March, 1854, and moved out to our claims. Having built our house of logs, we moved in and con- sidered ourselves established as regular farmers. After a few weeks' labor our provisions which we had brought with us gave out and Mr. Mattson went to Red Wing to procure more. No steamboat having yet come up the river that spring, he found that scarcity prevailed in town. There were no provisions for sale, and Mattson remained in town waiting for the arrival of a boat. During his absence on this occasion I and my little family experienced the hardest privations of our lives. For nine days we had only white beans, excepting one day I shot a few black- birds. Before our stock of beans was exhausted Mattson returned with provisions. During that year several more families arrived in Vasa. Carl Carlson. Gustaf Carlson, Peter Nelson. Nels Peter- son, Erick Erickson and Samuel Johnson.
"In the summer of 1856 we ran a breaking team. I managed the plow. with Frank Carlson for driver. We were breaking for a man in Spring Creek Valley, who, on acount of his anxiety to have us plow deep, used to follow the plow and weigh down the beam. One day we turned up a large snake. over six feet long, which was evidently as much disturbed as we were and in trying to escape chose as a retreat the pants of our employer, who, fearfully frightened. yelled, kicked and almost fainted. I jerked the snake out and killed it. If my team could not appreciate the snake's appearance. I could and did."
Colonel Hans Mattson writes in his early recollections: "In the spring of 1853. I left Moline, Illinois, for Boston, to meet my mother and sister. They were to leave Sweden about the same time on a sailing ship carrying some 200 emigrants. The ship was three months on the ocean and there was a great scarcity of provisions before landing. The ship at last arrived in the month of July; and a couple of days later the whole party took the cars for the west, I volunteering as their gnide and inter- preter. All went well until about 100 miles east of Chicago, when . the baggage car attached to our train in front, caught fire. It was thought best to try to reach a station, and the burning rain sped on at the rate of sixty miles an hour. The scene was a frightful one, the cars filled with frightened emigrants, the flames hissing like serpents from ear to ear, windows cracking, people screaming and women fainting ; all at the same time looking to me for protection and deliverance. As soon as possible, I placed men as gnards at the door to prevent the people from rushing out and crowding each other off the platform. The train did not reach a station, but had to be stopped on the open prairie, where all were helped out of the cars, without accident except that every
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particle of baggage except what the passengers had in their seats with them, was burnt. In due time another train brought us to Chicago, where the railroad company immediately offered to pay all losses, as soon as lists of the property destroyed could be made out and properly verified. I did all the work without the aid of counsel, lawyer or clerk, collecting nearly $20,000 for old trunks, spinning wheels, copper kettles, etc. Having lost nothing myself, I, of course, received nothing, and as the company did not con- sider it their duty to pay me for my trouble, one of the emigrants suggested that they should do something. The hat was passed around and the collection realized the magnificent sum of $2.60, which was paid me for being their interpreter during that long journey and for collecting that large sum of money. But I raised no complaint. In due time my own family and friends arrived at Moline. Minnesota was then a territory but little known; yet we had heard of its beautiful lakes, forests and prai- ries. There were many of the party who decided to find a place for a Swedish settlement where lands could be had cheap, Mr. Willard and myself among them. And it was finally agreed that a few of us should go to Minnesota and select a suitable place. Being the only one of the party who could speak the English language. I naturally became the leader of the explorers. My father went with us and so did Mr. Willard and his wife, my sister, the whole party taking deck passage on a Mississippi steamer, arriving at St. Paul during the month of August. St. Paul was then a town of a few hundred inhabitants. There we found Henry Russell, Johan Tidland and a few other Swedish pioneers. We learned that near Red Wing, places could be found with both timber and prairie, and an abundance of good water. After looking in various places we finally decided on the present town of Vasa, about twelve miles west of Red Wing. Claims were staked out on Belle creek, north of White Rock, near where a large brick church now stands.
After selecting this land, my father returned to Ililmois. T went with the other explorers to St. Paul. where a council was held in which our whole party participated. and it was decided that three of us, Messrs. Roos, Kemp and myself. should proceed to our claims that fall and do such work as we could until the others could join us in the following spring. Red Wing was an old missionary station, containing only half a dozen American families, among them Rev. J. W. Hancock, who had been some years a missionary among the Indians. William Freeborn. Dr. W. W. Sweney, H. L. Bevans, John Day, and Calvin Potter were the other settlers. There were also two Swedes, Peter Green and Nels Nelson ; also a Norwegian named Peterson. On the river about between Main street and the levee was a large Indian camp
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