USA > Minnesota > Goodhue County > History of Goodhue county, including a sketch of the territory and state of Minnesota > Part 45
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VASA.
This township was named in honor of Gustavus Vasa, king of Sweden, more generally known as Gustavus I, the Christian king, and the founder of the Lutheran Church. It was first settled in 1853, by a company of Swedes, of whom Hans Mattson, S. J. Willard, Peter Green, Charles Roos, Gustaf Kempe and others were of the number.
The township was organized in 1858, at which time the following officers were elected : (First named, chairman.) Supervisors, Charles Himmelman, Charles Charleson, Nils Peterson; clerk, Swante John Willard; assessor, Nils Swanson; collector, John Sundell ; overseer of
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the poor, Matts Mattson; constables, Nils Johnson, Erick Anderson ; justices of the peace, T. Granvill Person, Franklin Morrison ; overseers of roads, Swan P. Peterson, Gustus Carlson, William F. Fessenden.
Previous to this time, all the appointments had been by the Governor, and no reliable record was kept Swante John Willard and Charles Himmelman were justices of the peace, however. Since the date of the organization, the following persons have held the office of chairman of the board of supervisors, and town clerks :
Chairman supervisors : 1858, Charles Himmelman ; 1859, Wm. F. Fessenden ; 1860, 1861 and 1862, T. G. Pearson; 1863, A. P. Wilson ; 1864, Lars Mattson ; 1865, A. G. Anderson ; 1866, John Hakanson ; 1867, 1868 and 1869, A. G. Anderson.
Town Clerks : 1858, Swante J. Willard; 1859, John Norelius ; 1860, S. J. Willard ; 1861 and 1862, A. B. Lester ; 1863, Chas. Himmelman ; 1864 and 1865, John Wickey ; 1866, 1867 and 1868, T. G. Pearson ; 1869, J. W. Peterson.
In 1861 Swante John Willard was appointed superintendent of common schools for the town of Vasa, and in 1864 was elected county auditor, re-elected in 1866, and again in 1868. T. G. Pearson held the office of county commissioner from 1866 till 1869.
For the following interesting historical sketch of the township, its religious and educational struggles, trials and conquests, and finally its growth and development from its primitive days of feebleness up to the present time, we are indebted to the Rev. E. Norelius.
EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, AT VASA.
BY E. NORELIUS.
The honor of having first directed the influx of the Swedish immigra- tion into Goodhue county, belongs to Col. Hans Mattson. He was a young man with a military education, from Sweden, and had spent some time in Moline, Illinois, after his arrival in this country. The fol- lowing is gathered from an article written by him and published in " Hemlandel," a Swedish paper, then at Galesburg, now at Chicago. The article was written in the early part of 1856. Mr. Mattson says :
" In the month of September, 1853, I started (from Moline) with a small company of immigrants for Minnesota, in order to find a place where we could commence a colony. Having arrived at St. Paul, Min- nesota, some of our party took a contract for some work, while I, together with four others, started out to find a place for our future
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home. We were directed to Red Wing, which, a short time before, had been laid out as a village. We were told that good land could be had in the neighborhood. We went on board a steamboat and made direct- ly for that place. When we landed there we found the whole bank, where the town now stands, covered with Indian tepees, but we did not see more than four dwelling houses to prove to us that people of our race lived there. Soon we met several Americans, who received us with much hospitality, and when they learned the object of our visit, they got us a team and a man who was acquainted in the wilderness to go with us and show us the land. The following day we started out, but we did not feel satisfied before we got upon the prairie, now known. as the Vasa settlement. On this prairie we found the best of soil and we saw good oak timber in all directions. Now we had seen enough, and we went immediately back to St. Paul, in order to make ourselves ready to move to our new place.
" It was in the month of October, and we expected a cold winter. As we considered it impossible at so late a season to build houses comfortable enough for the women and children, all those who had families resolved to stop at St. Paul over the winter. In company with two other men we returned to make claims for all of us. When we for the second time returned to Vasa prairie, we were provided with a tent, a stove, some provision and some winter tools. After hav- ing pitched our tent on the bank of a big creek (now Belle Creek) in a clump of trees and arranged our romantic camp, we went out to recon- noitre the land round about and took several claims. Thereupon we went about to build a house where we could live during the approach- ing winter. Some weeks after two families of our party came down from St. Paul to stay, and during the following summer (1854) we num- bered ten families. Many Swedes also settled at Red Wing. Now (in the winter 1856) there are over one hundred Swedes in Vasa, and we have reason to believe that this number will be doubled during the coming summer.
" Instead of a wilderness, we no behold large fields and comfortable houses. For two years and a half ago seldom any other sound but that of the wild animals, especially the wolves could be heard ; now the axe of the colonist can be heard in almost every grove of timber, and the ox driver's 'gee who haw, on the road between every house and the woods ; and instead of America's red aborigines whom we saw when we came here, we have now seen a number of nearly 100 Swedes gathered in one place to hear the preaching of the gospel. At such an occasion, when the Rev. E. Norelius, of Indiana, conducted the service, a
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Lutheran church was organized, and the settlement received the name of Vasa, in memory of the great hero, Gustaf Vasa, who liberated our Fatherland (Sweden) from foreign despotism, and brought about the establishment there of the Lutheran faith. The name seems to be very well chosen, as the Swedes at Vasa strive to imitate the great Gustaf and his coadjutors. Before our place was known among the Americans by the name of the ' Swede Praire,' 'Mattson's Settlement' and also ' White Rock,' from a big rock of white sandstone, something similar in form to a small old church in the old country, situated in the southern part of the town."
From the time of Mr. Mattson's account, as above, up to 1860, a large number of Swedes arrived, partly from Sweden direct and partly from older States in the Union, and filled up not only the town of Vasa, but also parts of surrounding townships, such as Leon, Cannon Falls, Belle Creek, Goodhue, Featherstone, Burnside and Welch. Quite a number settled in Red Wing, from the beginning of the Swedish immigration to Goodhue county. The most of them were of the Lutheran profession, at least nominally.
The organization of the Swedish Lutheran churches of Red Wing and Vasa stood in connection with a missionary tour to Minnesota, which I made in 1855, in the months of August and September, I at that time being pastor of several Swedish churches in Tippicanoe and surround- ing counties of Indiana. From my diary kept at the time, I may here transcribe some items :
1855, August 31. Landed at Red Wing at 12 o'clock at night; took lodging at a miserable hotel ; tried to sleep, but could not for the mos- quitoes. September 1, made an attempt to scale Barn Bluff before sun- rise, but was re-called by the breakfast bell. I made some inquiries to find out if there were any Swedes, but I obtained no information. After awhile I met with a Swedish servant girl, who told me that there was quite a number of them in Red Wing, and gave me directions how to find them. After having spoken to several of them and explained the object of my visit, I proposed to hold a service in the evening if a place could be had. They told me that the Presbyterians had a meeting- house-a shanty-in the burgh, and that we possibly might get it. I then went to the Presbyterian minister (Rev. Mr. Hancock ) introduced myself, and asked for permission to use his chapel, to which he con- sented, provided I would preach the sound gospel. In the evening.I had about one hundred hearers, many among whom, no doubt, were hard cases. One poor fellow told me that " the old devil may run after preachers, but he would not." However, not a few seemed to be edified and desired me to hold as many services as my time would permit.
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THE HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY.
Sept. 2d, the Lord's Day, I remained at Red Wing, and preached in the afternoon in the Presbyterian chapel, the house being full; and making a new appointment for Monday night, I got a horse and a guide in the evening, and went out to Vasa, word having been sent before for divine service in the forenoon on Monday. We went up the Spring Creek Valley and got over the prairies to Mr. Carl Carlson after dark. Carlson lived in a log house, a little to the northeast from the present brick church. I was hospitably entertained at his house, and on the following morning I was to hold service there, Sept. 3. Almost every soul in the settlement came together at Mr. Carlson's. No Swedish minister had visited them before in their new home. After the service, it was proposed to organize a congregation, and the following resolu- tions were discussed and adopted :
1. That we, here at present assembled, hereby unite ourselves to a congregation, under the name of "The Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church, of Vasa."
2. That we, as a Christian body in general and as evangelical Lutheran in particular, acknowledge that the Holy Scriptures (the canonical books,) as the word of God, is the only one sufficient rule for our faith and practice, and that we adopt not only the three oldest symbols (the Apostolical, the Nicene and the Athanasian,) but also the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, such as it is understood and developed in the other symbolical books of our Lutheran Church, as a short but true summary of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity.
3. Treats of the discipline.
4. Treats of the pastor's qualifications and duties.
5. That three deacons be elected. Swen Jacobson, S. J. Willard and Ola Olson, sen., were elected as such.
6. That this congregation is willing to unite with the Swedish Lutheran congregation at Red Wing, when a church there shall be organized, in supporting a pastor, who can serve both congregations until other arrangements may be made.
The following persons handed in their names as members of the con- gregation :
Carl Carlson, wife and four children; Ola Olson, sen., widower, and four children ; John Bergdahl, widower, and one child ; Samuel Johnson wife and one child; Gustaf Carlson, wife and three children; Erik Anderson, wife and two children; S. J. Willard, wife and one child; Jonas Gustafson, wife and one child; Nils Peterson and wife; Peter Nilson, wife and four children; Nils Westerson, wife and four children ; August Johnson, single; Peter Johnson, wife and one child; Swen
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Jacobson and wife; Anders Nilson, wife and two children; Swen Swenson, wife and three children ; Swen Olson, wife and one child; Benzt Anderson and wife; Ola Swenson, single; Sizuild Andersdoter, single; Matts Mattson and two sons; M. Flodquist, single; Gustaf Peterson, single; Carl Peterson, single; Olof Peterson, wife and one child; Nicklas Peterson and wife; Bonde Olson, single ; Nils Eklund, single; Benzt Kilberg, single; Peter Wedin, single; Carl Roos, wife and two children ; A. G. Kempe. In all, eighty-seven persons.
It was now the great desire of the congregation to secure a pastor. On the same occasion three children were baptized, viz., Maria, born at Vasa, August 21, 1855, daughter of Samuel Johnson and his wife Stina Lisa ; Salma Adelaide, born October 15, 1853, daughter of S. J. Willard and wife Anna; John Wilhelm, born on Good Friday, 1855, son of Peter Johnson and wife Carolina. The meeting was closed by singing and prayer.
In the afternoon I went to Red Wing and preached in the evening, organized a congregation and baptized two children.
Three weeks after that time, when I returned from an extended tour to St. Paul, Stillwater, Marine and Chisago county, divine service was held at Vasa in Nils Peterson's new log house, which is still standing opposite to Mr. N. P. Molmberg's place. It was the 21st of September, in the midst of the equinoctial storms, the rain was pouring down, and I was suffering badly from the fever and ague, which I had brought with me from Indiana. A young man had taken me out from Red Wing in a lumber wagon hitched to a pair of horses, a great institu- tion in those days. The Lord's supper was also to be celebrated at this occasion, the first in the history of the congregation at Vasa. After having preached the sermon, or just at its end, I had a very bad attack of the chills and had to go to bed, the people in the meanwhile patiently waiting till the spell was over, after which I got up and administered the communion. On the 24th of September I bade the good people of Vasa farewell, and was exceedingly glad to find an ox team to take me down to Red Wing.
Soon after I had left, or on the 30th of September, a meeting was held by the congregation at Vasa for the object of electing a pastor. It was then unanimously resolved to extend a call to me. The sum of $200 was guaranteed as salary for the first year, with the expectation that the congregation at Red Wing, which desired to participate in the call, would contribute a like amount.
With a view that most of my parishoners in Indiana, who owned no land there, would go along with me to Minnesota and settle there, I
29
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accepted the call and moved to Goodhue county in the spring of 1856. I was in my twenty-third year, and had been married nearly one year. I knew that a life full of hardships was before us, but I had made up my mind beforehand, with the help of God, to conquer or die. I told my excellent young wife that we should have to swim or else to sink, and she consented to do her part.
On the 25th day of May, 1856, on the first Sunday after Trinity Sunday, I preached my introductory sermon at Vasa in Mr. Peter Wilson's new log house, which was filled to overflowing. My sermon was on the text for the day, treating of the rich man and Lazarus, and I tried to tell my new parishioners that it was better for them to be truly pious with poverty and go to heaven with Lazarus, than to be ungodly with riches and go to hell with the rich man. I told them plainly that my object in coming here was to preach and teach the pure gospel of Jesus Christ, and by a steady, earnest, and patient work, to build up a Christian congregation ; not by periodical extraordinary efforts and occasional high steam, but by a diligent and faithful instruction in the word of God. And I also assured them that the true prosperity of a community necessarily must rest upon the pure principles of the gospel.
Looking back now upon these twenty-two years, we have witnessed many movements and changes, but I have had no occasion to regret or change my standpoint which I took from the first, and I modestly think that my labor, under God's blessing, has not been altogether in vain.
There was one circumstance connected with that text and sermon which I can never forget, and which perplexed me not a little at the time, and might have led to great mischief if my object had not been understood to be wholly unintended. For it so happened that the old gentleman, Mr. Peter Wilson, at whose house I preached and stayed for some time, was known by the sobriquet, " the rich man," on account of being a man with means, of which fact I was perfectly ignorant. No trouble, however, followed, and I was always on the best terms with the old gentleman and his estimable wife as long as they lived. I buried both of them many years ago, and they have long rested in their graves. Peace to their ashes !
For several weeks we lived at Peter Nilson's, in the same room in which I preached. Our whole property consisted of a bedstead of the rope bottom kind, a plain, square table, an old bureau, an old cooking stove and some few books. Bacon and flour were high at Red Wing, and it cost $4 to bring a sack of flour and a ham home to Vasa.
In the spring of 1856 a log house, designed for a school and meeting
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THE HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY.
house, had been put up on Mr. Willard's farm, but it was not completed at the time when I arrived, and it took the whole summer to get it in order for winter use. However we used it for divine service during the summer after the floor had been put in.
On the 22nd day of June, 1856, a business meeting of the congrega- tion was held, when a constitution for the church was adopted, the principles of which are still in force, although considerably developed in 1857, and then again in 1870. The question as to the location for a church and graveyard was also brought up. Mr. Willard proposed to donate ten acres of land to the congregation for this purpose round about the school house, a short distance to the south east from the present brick church, and the offer was thankfully accepted. As Mr. Willard had the misfortune to lose his land, the congregation could not secure a deed to the property, and consequently could not use his offer. A number of dead were buried there, and the school house was occupied as a meeting house up to 1862. This locality is on Mr. A. P. Freeman's farm.
On the sixth day of July, 1856, a meeting was held for the election of three trustees, and the following named persons were duly elected, viz .: Peter Nilson, for the term of one year ; Carl Carlson, for the term of two years; and Olof Peterson, for the term of three years. A cer- tificate of incorporation of the trustees of the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church of Vasa, was made out the same day, duly acknowl- edged on the 13th of July, before Mr. Willard, being then a justice of the peace, and filed for record on the 17th of July, 1856, and recorded in First Book, Rel. Societies, pages 9 and 10, by J. M. Hancock, register of deeds.
From that time the congregation may be said to be fully organized. My object now will be to show something of its development during the subsequent twenty-two years of its existence. My own history is so much interwoven with that of the congregation at Vasa, (not to mention that of Red Wing and other places in this county,) that I cannot well relate the one without having to touch the other. And I hope, therefore, that the reference to myself will not be looked upon as too egotistical.
After having lived for several weeks at Mr. Peter Nilson's, we moved to a place in the neighborhood of White Rock, on Belle Creek, the place now owned by Jon Monson and widow Abram Peterson. I bought the improvements on a quarter section from old Mrs. Bockman, for $130, proved up the claim, and paid the government price the follow- ing winter. When I bought the claim there was a small log hut on it, 8x10 feet in size, with a flat sod roof, without any floor. This was to be
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our kitchen department. I got some common lumber at Red Wing, at a high price, and put up an addition to the hut-a shanty 12x16 feet- intended for a parlor, sitting-room, bed-room, &c., all in one. We moved in when three sides were up, without roof or floor, without doors and windows. Well do I remember the first night in that house, if house it was. We made our bed on the ground on a pile of shavings and hay, with the blue sky above us. I had filled the mattress with new cut grass, and, unintentionally, put in with it a small snake. No wonder, then, that in the morning, when my wife made up the bed, she caught hold of the dead snake in the mattress ! By and by the roof and ceiling were made, consisting of sheeting; the floor was laid of common lumber, and the carpet put on; the walls were papered, and-then we had a nice, clean, cozy house to live in. The only incon- veniences we had were when it stormed and rained, for the carpet then stood like a bellows, and the rain came pouring down through both roof and ceiling, On such occasions we used an umbrella. It was only a little odd to sleep under an umbrella in the house. In the middle of September we had a visit of the well known Reverend Doctor Passa- vant, of Pittsburg, Pa., who stayed with us one night. He had a dream. In his nocturnal imaginations he thought he lay under the bottom of a lake, and somehow a hole had been made in the bottom. And no won- der, for it rained that night.
A little later a number of our friends from Indiana came up, and for some weeks we were no less than twenty-one persons, and the weather was at the time very ugly. Houses were yet scarce. Our neighbors were in no better condition, and some a great deal worse off than our- selves. My friend and neighbor, J. Robertson, first used a big loom for a house ; then he dug himself down in the ground, till he got a small log cabin put up. Mr. T. G. Pearson, our nearest neighbor, was busy putting up a solid log house that summer ; in the meantime he lived in the same primitive way we did.
My time was divided between Red Wing and Vasa and other places, and my duties often called me away from home. On this account it was a trying time for my wife, especially as the Indians were occasionally passing by. In the fall the prairie fire threatened to burn down our house, while I was away, my wife having to fight for dear life. We continued to live in our frail house until the 4th of November, when we moved to Red Wing, in a snow storm.
I now return to the congregation and my pastoral work. As soon as I got to be a little "fixed," I bought a horse and a rickety old wagon ; most of my trips, however, were made on horseback or a-foot, as roads were poor and far between.
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THE HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY.
During the summer I made pretty thorough canvass of the whole set- tlement. People were pouring in very fast and settled down on the unoccupied land. On the 8th of November I could report to a special meeting of the congregation that the church numbered 185 members, of whom 101 were communicants. At the same meeting it was deter- mined to establish a Congregational school, and on the 15th of Novem- ber it was opened. Mr. J. Engberg, now of a book firm in Chicago, was the first teacher, with a monthly salary of $35. Ever since that time the school has been a fixed institution in the congregation, and has done much good for the religious instruction of the children. The fol- lowing persons have been teachers in succession, viz .: Miss Lovisa Peterson, Miss Jane Nilson, Mr. L. Anderson, Mr. A. M. Lundin, Mr. S. Westendahl, Mrs. A. Anderson and the present teacher, Mr. P. Lind- holm. The monthly salary has been from $15 to $50.
The winter of 1856 and '57 was a long and a cold one, and the snow was very deep. One Sunday morning, when I went from Red Wing to preach at Vasa, I stuck fast in a snowdrift, just as I got up on the prai- rie, and I had to return. I learned afterwards that only three persons ventured out to meeting that day. It was a very cold day, and showed their warm religious disposition, by grumbling over the non-appearance of the preacher. This, however, was the only appointment I missed that winter.
Having sold my horse to buy bread, I had to foot it between Red Wing and Vasa and other places. This caused me some hardships. On New Year's day, 1857, I had early service in the schoolhouse at Vasa- that is to say, at five o'clock in the morning. As the weather was fine and mild, I determined to walk to Cannon Falls and preach in the after- noon. There was no direct road to the Falls at that time, but we were obliged to go round by White Rock, then cross the Belle Creek and over the prairie, by what is now Mr. G. M. Englund's place. I started afoot after breakfast; the sun shone brightly, the weather was mild, but the snow was very deep and no track. By the time I got down to Belle Creek the weather had changed entirely. A high, cold wind com- menced to blow, and very soon a bitter snow storm was blowing 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 by 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
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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 congregations 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 deter- mining where the future church should be located was up in 1857-1858, but without any results. The congregation continued to increase, and numbered 130 communicants in the fall of 1858, and in several respects I was permitted to see some fruits of my labor. 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 amount. Thus at the annual business meeting at Vasa on the 25th of June, 1858, there were $100 back on my first year's salary, and no prospects ever to pay it. My whole salary of both congregations, from June 25th to the 1st of November, 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 some- what pinching.
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