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IV.
Preserving Our Blackland
Prairie History
The communities of New
Sweden, Lund, Kimbro, Manda, Carlson, Rosehill, and Schiller
were settled predominately by Swedes, but Danes and Germans
also helped settle the area shortly after the Civil War.
Swen Magnus Swenson, from the parish of
Barkeryd, Jönköping lan, in the province of Småland, Sweden,
shepherded the immigration of the Swedes.
He began his pioneering days in the Republic of Texas
in 1836. Swenson was good friends with Sam Houston.
In 1839 he began investing in property in Travis County
when he learned the Texas capital would be moved to Austin.
By 1860 he owned 128,000 in Travis County, including
12 square city blocks concentrated along Congress Avenue.
A 400 acre cotton plantation on the Colorado River
known as Govalle (good grazing) became his family home. Many Swedish immigrants worked on this plantation
to pay back the loan of their passage.
Before the
civil war, S.M. Swenson, a union sympathizer, released his
slaves and left Texas escaping personal harm in order to protect
his family who remained at Govalle.
His uncle, Swante Palm, continued his operations in
Texas. Swenson first fled to Mexico, then moved to other land
he owned in Louisiana. By
1866 he relocated to New York to administer his business,
which now included banking.
Swenson later established one of the largest cattle
ranches in the state near Stamford, Texas.
S.M. Swenson went back to Sweden to visit, shared his success
stories, and after the end of the Civil War, 100 men and women
left Barkeryd Parish in 1867 for Texas.
As more Swedes immigrated to Texas, they sought cheaper
land. New
Sweden was the first new colony to be settled in 1873
and the communities of Manor, Lund, Manda, and Kimbro quickly
followed.
The King of Sweden visited in 1988 to celebrate the heritage
and contributions Swedes have made to central Texas. Eac August Barkeryd Parish in Småland, Sweden
has a Texas festival to celebrate their connection and dedication
to the Swedish communities in our area.
Over one half of all their sons and daughters immigrated
to central Texas.
The Swedes also made
strong urban contributions to the state of Texas and the city
of Austin. Here are a few to ponder. You may visit
S.M. Swenson’s original cabin in Zilker Park. S.M. Swenson was instrumental in the creation of the Colt 45 pistol
and his work is featured in the Texas Memorial Museum. Swante Palm left what was at the time
one of the most extensive personal libraries in America at
the time to the University of Texas and the Palm School bears
his name. And for Deep
Eddy Pool, we have the Charles Johnson family to thank.
The Seaholm Power Plant honors a family from
the Lund community. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport
was named after the first Travis County resident killed in
WWII. A beautiful Swedish homestead was built on
the Colorado River close to the family brick making operations.
That home is now the VFW
post on Town Lake. Swedish
carpenters and other construction experts helped build the
Texas capitol, and in 1888 Gustave Johnson raised the Lady
Liberty statue to the top.
And Swedes have made many contributions to the University of Texas. A Swedish
geologist, Dr. J. A. Udden, was instrumental in building
the university into the rich institution it is today.
He came to Texas in 1890 and became affiliated with
the bureau of economic geography at the university.
It was through his exploration that oil was
discovered on land belonging to the school. And the University of Texas has a Swedish Chair in the Germanic Studies Department supported by the
good works and donations of many Swedes who want to preserve
the language and local history.
All our city cousins
mentioned above were either kin to residents of or actually
came from our rural area of northeast Travis County. Now, after framing the history
of connections to Austin and other parts of Travis County,
we want to share specific areas of our local,
rural history in northeast Travis County that
must be preserved. Nowhere
in the area that surrounds Austin is a community so steeped
in history as the Blacklands of northeast Travis County.
There remain only a handful
of historic schoolhouses in Travis County. We
are lucky to have two of them, one at Kimbro and one at Manda.
The schoolhouse at Kimbro, Texas has been restored by the
Anderson family, and they are currently living in the school.
The home in the schoolhouse has been opened to the community
for various events and meetings. Visitors can see where the children worked at the blackboard and
can quickly visualize the past.
It is easy to stand in the schoolhouse and feel pride
in both the early educators and their pupils, our ancestors,
who studied to learn not only a new language, but new history,
and a new way of life.
Currently 31 Blackland
farms in operations have been identified as being over 100
years old and more will be added to this
inventory. One of
these farms has been in the Johnson family since 1880 and
is now owned by Jamie Estes and his family. Jamie is always glad to show and talk about
his sizeable collection of antique tractors.
Historic churches and
cemeteries dot the countryside: This includes Bethlehem Lutheran Church at Lund and the Lund
Cemetery, the New Sweden Lutheran Church and Cemetery, the
Schiller Cemetery, the Manda Methodist Cemetery, Rosehill
Cemetery, and the historically designated Kimbro Cemetery.
Many of these have
been painted by famous artists and also featured in films.
One of the best known of the historical churches is the New Sweden Lutheran Church. Standing in the midst of the Blackland
Prairie surrounded by the sea of green made by the growing
crops of maize and corn in the spring is this church.
Its 104 foot copper steeple points toward the heavens,
beckoning the people of the community and beyond to come and
worship God. The New
Sweden congregation has celebrated 126 years of serving the
New Sweden community and the surrounding area as a place to
worship God and have fellowship with others.
Members share this story:
Founded by Swedish immigrants who felt the need to
establish a church soon after they settled on the Blackland
Prairie in the 1870s, New Sweden Church continues to meet
the needs of a more diverse population who wish to practice
their religious faith. The
congregation has been served by a long line of faithful pastors
and members.
Ever mindful of their place in a larger community, the members
of New Sweden have served God and their community, as well
as looking to the needs of others in different places of the
world. In the late 1940s the ladies of the church
sponsored a project known as “The Lord’s Acre,” entering a
spiritual partnership with God. The yield from that acre,
given to the Lord’s work reminds us that we are only stewards
of the earth that provides the world with food and clothing.
The congregation decided to sponsor a refugee family from
Germany in 1956. The
church brought them to the community, provided a home and
helped them find work, so that they too could prosper.
New Sweden Lutheran Church continues to support the
various needs of our congregation, our community and our world.
As a very important part of our community and history, the
church has handed down through generations the many traditions
of its Swedish heritage.
Although there are many people from other cultures
who are now members, they too enjoy carrying on that sense
of service and tradition and are dedicated to preserving our
church and our community.
As a member stated at one of our anniversary celebrations,
“a church history is an ongoing account, of an ever changing
and ever moving body of people, who not only look back over
the past accomplishments but also look to the future and the
challenges that lie ahead.”
We do have challenges that lie ahead in our church
and its community. In
remembering the early pioneers and those who came after, who
dedicated their lives to the service of God and community,
we have to bow our heads, clasp our hands, and simply say,
“Thank you, God.”
Texas is second only
to Minnesota in historical markers dedicated to Swedish history, not a bad record since only one-sixth of the total Swedish immigrant
population came to Texas.
There are already six historical markers on the prairie: 1) New Sweden Lutheran Church, 2) Bethlehem Lutheran Church and
Cemetery, 3) Manda, 4) Kimbro Cemetery,
5) the Willow Ranch School, and 6) the Carlson community.
Travis County landowner Peter Carr Wells (1856-1913) donated
a plot of land to the Willow
Ranch School District in 1894. Four
years later a school was constructed.
Most of the students who attended were children of
Swedish immigrants. Some sharecropped Wells Ranch. It was here that they learned basic skills,
as well as Texas history, geography, art etc.
They also participated in Interscholastic League. A second room was added in 1906. The school was the gathering place for the
community and the community club.
In 1938 the school closed and the students were transferred
to Kimbro School.
Families living in that area were the Andersons, Blombergs,
Berglunds, Christiansons, Forsdahls, Johnsons, Linds, Lundgrens,
Morrells and Swansons to name a few.
Some of the teachers who taught at Willow Ranch were
Mary Abrahamson, Elise Aronson, Dora Christianson, Clara Danstrom,
Vivian Forsam, Esther Gustafson, Ora Lundgren, Dottie Rolf
and Mrs. Otto Seems.
In 1897 the Kimbro Evangelical Free Church was deeded one acre
of land by Nils Torn and wife Kjersti to become a building
site for the newly organized congregation. Of
this one acre, approximately one-fourth was dedicated for
a cemetery: Kimbro
Cemetery.
The community of Kimbro, named after pioneer land owner Lemuel
Kimbro, was settled in the 1870s by Swedish, Danish and German
immigrants. Most of
the residents were cotton farmers and at its height the community
boasted homes, farms, the Evangelical Free Church of Kimbro,
a school, a cotton gin, and two general stores.
The school closed in 1947 when the nearby Manda Consolidated
School District was formed, and the church building was moved
to Elgin, Texas in 1954.
Many of Kimbro’s early settlers are buried in the Kimbro Cemetery;
some of their descendants still own property and live in the
community. The earliest
graves recorded are that of Bernhard Swenson (5-26-1903) and
of an infant girl born to August and Emilie Lind (the exact
burial date in 1903 unknown). The cemetery received a Texas Historical Marker
in 1991. In 2001 the
Evangelical Free Church Cemeteries Association (Kimbro and
Decker Cemeteries) was established to insure the cemeteries’
continued care and upkeep.
And another area surrounded with history and well worth visiting
is the Lund community
and cemetery. The
Lund community is located five miles northwest of Elgin.
The community of Lund and its neighbor, Type, marked
the extreme edge of the Swedish settlement in central Texas.
Despite initial hardships, the Lund colony flourished, as few
of the smaller satellite settlements were to do. One of the reasons for its success was the large number of experienced
farmers who came to the area.
Per Sjoholm bought land at Lund in 1889. He and his son Gustaf Seaholm were among the earliest settlers. They learned the art of faming in Texas and
prospered as farmers. Gustaf
Seaholm named the community Lund after a city close to his
home in the southern province of Skane, Sweden.
The first school was built in 1894 and was called Pleasant Hill. Drinking water for the school was carried from
the John Fosdahl farm and the schoolboys cut wood used to
heat the building. In
1899, a two-room building was erected and the name of the
school was changed to Lund.
The Swedish Evangelical
Bethlehem Church was established in January 1897. Peter V. Nelson gave one acre of land next to the church for a community
cemetery. There are
several monuments in the cemetery that date back to the 1800s.
A granite monument for Carl Johan Goranson, made of
Swedish granite and sent over from Sweden, marks the date
1903.
We would love to share even more history, and we plan to do
just that in future publications.
Our sincere hope is that you enjoyed a glimpse into
the lives of our ancestors and years gone by on our beloved
Blackland Prairie of
northeast Travis County.
"God made this
land for people; no more land will be made. We must honor,
cherish and preserve our farms, ranches, crops, livestock,
wildlife, historical places and the peaceful country living.
We shall not let this way of life or the American dream die.
We are, you know, proud Americans and Texans."
In Memory of David Samuelson, Past President -BPCCA
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