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   This little history is written at the beginning of the transition stage of a people. This transition is the passing over of those who are of Swedish origin into a completed Americanization. This process began when the first immigrant set foot on American soil and has been going on ever since. It may seem slow -- altogether too slow -- but the fault lies largely with those Americans whose forebears came here a few generations back. They have not been willing to receive the descendants of the Norsemen except as strangers; and the latter, a quiet people, but capable of deep feelings, have clung to their language and traditions longer on account of it.

    The Swedes have brought with them the treasures of an older nation. These treasures they now offer the country of their adoption. But the treasures are not gold nor precious stones. The treasures of the Swedish people are mostly the treasures of religion, song, poetry, and myth.

    The ancient mythology of the North is a more chaste god-lore than that of Rome and Greece, and the Sagas and fairy tales of Sweden carry as great a charm as do ever those of Spain or Arabia.

    But the religious treasures are the most important. The Swedes have always maintained that religion should not only be in the "wife's name," but that it should belong to the whole family. With that end in view, there has always been a church established wherever they have been numerous enough to maintain an organization.

    The story within these covers depicts the struggles and trials of one of these organizations, The Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Fridhem congregation of Funk, Nebraska. With the exception of the Statistics, which were gathered and tabulated by R. T. Erickson, all of the English section has been written, or translated, by B. E. Bengtson, who was elected secretary of the "Jubilee Committee," which was appointed at the annual meeting for the purpose of writing a history and to make arrangements for a fortieth anniversary festival sometime during the year 1919.

B. E. BENGTSON,            
Secretary of the Committee.      

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HE SWEDES who first immigrated to America, with few exceptions, were from the peasant and working classes. Their lot in the old country, under the oppression of the nobility, was a hard one. Therefore, when the fame of the Great Republic beyond the seas reached the land of the North, many longing eyes were turned in this direction. It required only a little pressure to bring relief in the form of migration. This was applied when religious persecution was added to that which the lower classes already had to endure. It came about thus: The State Church, which had sunk into a lethargy that bordered on spiritual death, was shaken in its very foundations by a religious revival that made its appearance among the common people of Sweden during the middle of the last century. Lay preachers gathered large and anxious audiences all over the land, and everywhere thoughts of the soul's salvation were uppermost in the minds of men. Although the conducting of these meetings was punishable under the old Conventicle Law of 1726, which penalized the holding of religious meetings by any but regularly ordained ministers of the gospel, the movement grew and threatened to assume the proportions of an upheaval. The people, hungering for the consolation of religion, dared not assemble for regular service, for in such instance an officer of the law was likely to appear, break up the meeting, and arrest the leaders. Therefore, when they assembled, they read passages from the Bible and from some book of sermons, sang the new songs and prayed. The ruling classes were, except in rare cases, unaffected, and by these

and by the scoffers, in the "rank and die," the penitents were hated, reviled, slandered, calumniated and sneeringly called läsare (readers). The majority of the clergy in the State Church were skeptical of any good from the movement. They feared its revolutionary character, yet found themselves powerless to stem the tide. Some of them adopted drastic measures in dealing with the situation, even going to the extreme of passing by such as were known to them as being läsare, when administering the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

    In 1856 the leaders in the movement, together with other Christians, thinking men from both the clergy and the laity, organized a society called The Evangelical National Institute. This was a home, foreign and immigrant society, and Sweden at that time was a fitting field for its activities. The religious movement then in the country was beginning to assume an aspect never intended and was beginning to become erratic in some of the northern provinces, hence this society put itself into the field for the purpose of giving it the proper direction. Colporteurs were sent out who preached to the people and peddled religious tracts and books. This tended greatly to relieve the situation and to quiet the minds of the bewildered common people. But one of the consequences of the wandering nature of the movement was that many refused to be considered as members of the State Church. These organized religious societies of their own, which, while they existed in contravention of state law, were tolerated on account of the growing unpopularity of the Conventicle Law. This odious and mossgrown piece of legislation was repealed in 1857. But it had worked its harm, and the thousands who had organized for themselves and were at the same time compelled to pay communicant fees in the State Church, and those who remained loyal in the faith of their fathers, all felt the heavy yoke that was lying on their necks.

    Thus we see, there were two great causes that prompted the common people to leave the country: Oppression by the nobility, and religious persecution. Consequently, when the stream of migration started westward, it was not more to be stemmed than the spiritual breeze that was going over the land could be stilled. Where were they going, these thousands? Into the wilderness of this vast continent in the West, to build homes in the hunting grounds of the Indians, and into the territory of the buffalo, the bear and the wolf, there to worship God in freedom, according to the dictates of their own conscience. It was the same old

story of intolerance over again, only in different guise and in another quarter of the globe.

    Many young ministers followed their countrymen into voluntary exile. The first to go were L. P. Esbjörn, T. N. Hasselquist, O. C. T. Andrén and Jonas Swensson. They had recognized the movement as a spiritual manifestation, a Pentecostal flame, fanned to life by the breath of God. Having arrived here, they went to work at once, gathering the scattered settlers, preaching, organizing and adding to their own force of workers, so that when the Augustana Synod was organized, in 1860, there were twelve Swedish ministers present and five candidates for ordination.

   Into the Augustana Synod all of the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran congregations of America and a number of English congregations have, from time to time, been admitted and formed into one great religious body with common interests.

 

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© 2002 for the NEGenWeb Project by Pam Rietsch, Ted & Carole Miller.