McPherson County, Kansas Newspaper Articles

HIGHEST TEMPERATURES

The highest temperature Tuesday was 100 degrees, and there was very little breeze. Four heat prostrations were reported, none fatal. A number of horses died on the street. The prospect is for continued hot weather. The highest official temperatures in the United States Tuesday were reported from Kansas. Hays City, 104, Fort Scott and McPherson 103 degrees. (Newark Advocate, July 3, 1901, Kansas City, Submitted by Linda D.)

Transcribed by Christine Walters

HALF OF GROUP OF SWEDES NEVER REACHED LINDSBORG

Half of the Swedish immigrants who set out for Lindsborg in 1869 never did arrive, according to new information uncovered by Dr. Emory Lindquist, president of Bethany college here. Part of the group settled in Missouri instead of Kansas, according to an article by Dr. Lindquist which appeared in the Missouri Historical Review.

When the party of 250 arrived at Glasgow Scotland, it was learned the Atlantic voyage would have to be made in two ships. Passengers with the Rev. Olof Olsson, leader of the movement, successfully made their way to Lindsborg. Immigrants in the other ship were met in Chicago by a labor recruiting agent for the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. He had been sent there from Bucklin, MO., by another Swede, N.S. Ornsdorf.

The immigrants worked for the railroad during the summer months, feeling that extra money earned would assist them in establishing permanent residence at Lindsborg. The request for temporary stay was approved by Rev. Olsson. But Missouri became home to the Swedes, and they never left.

In writing of the separation, Mr. Olsson said, "What has been for me the most disturbing experience is that the majority of my party stayed in Missouri where they bought railroad land and paid $10 an acre. Here (Lindsborg) they could have acquired the most beautiful land without wooded arses to be cleared at the rate of $20 for 160 acres."

He held "greedy land agents" responsible for the break in his group. Olsson said land dealers "fooled" his people to make purchases and spread rumors of Indian massacres in Kansas. Indians had killed about 134 settlers in Lincoln county KS, the same month the Swedes sailed from their native land.

Though disappointed Rev. Ollson maintained close correspondence with his friends in Missouri. He sent Carl Walleen, a laymen with the original party, to conduct church services and Bible classes there. The Swedes in Missouri organized a Lutheran congregation and built a church eight miles north of Bucklin.

Bucklin Swedes have not retained their Old World traditions as their fellow immigrants in the Smoky Valley. But some bonds of common origin still remain. According to Dr. Lindquist, "The visitor to the area in Baker and Bucklin townships, once settled so extensively by Swedes, observes marks of identification with the past. Mail boxes still carry such names as Olson, Benson and Larson.

The homes still maintain the traditional hospitality, including the never present coffee pot, rolls and other Swedish delicacies. At Christmas time, some families serve tut-fisk and potaliskorf, Swedish is seldom spoken even by the few children of the pioneers who remain, and the English used is typical of the people in the surrounding area. The new generation knows only a few words of the language that was heard in the two while churches or as neighbors meet on narrow roads to discuss the crops or events as recorded in "Augustana" or "Hemlandet." The older generation will respond in Swedish when addressed in that language.

As is true among Swedish-Americans generally with pioneer antecedents, the language is unique and quaint, with accent and vocabulary belong to the 1860's and 1870's and identified with a province. There has been practically no immigration from Sweden to Bucklin since pioneer times and now continuous connection with the homeland.

The history of the Swedes in the picturesque countryside of Linn county exists almost entirely in the temple of memory of an older generation. Some aspects of that history will be transmitted as an oral tradition to succeeding generations.

Unknown and unrecorded is the toil and hardship, times of loneliness in a new country far from relatives and friends, the uncertainty of the morrow. But these people from Sweden saw in America what they called in their language, "Framtidlandet," the land of the future. And foremost of them it was what it seemed to be. They have shared in the life of a nation which gave them freedom and opportunity, and for it, they and their children's children have always been grateful."

Dr. Lindquist wrote.. "The college president received several letters a year ago which led to his discovery of a separation in the original group. The letters were written by Olsson and his wife to relatives in Sweden, and told of their disappointments when the immigrants remained in Missouri".

Dr. Linquist, upon visiting Bucklin MO recently, definitely established that part of Olsson's followers remained here. Residents in the Missouri and Kansas towns probably have more in common than many next door neighbors. (The Salina Journal, February 11, 1951, submitted by Christine Walters)