The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1890-08-09

Gt viz OSlOiIICc III NVAsllpulus u 1aN1Ses
First Swedish Settlement in America.
Continued from last weekly
In the decade beginning with 1868, the
number OF Swedes arriving in ports of the
United States suddenly increased to more
n year. In 1880 there came to US in round
numbers 10000 Swedes, in 1881, $4,000,
and in 1882 the Swedish immigration Gull
minated with a grand total of 64,607 souls.
Think of it! What a grand army of labor,
more than 10000 strong, more than a reg
iment a week, that in the brief compass
OF a single year, sailed over the ocean to
our shores, from Old Sweden alone, to
help subdue our forests, reclaim our wild
lands, open our mines, build our cities and
railroads, and in every way develop the
vast resources of our own broad land.
1878 Sweden took her place, as the third
power i'll the world, in the number of i'm
migrants sent to our republic, and this po-
sition she has maintained up to and in
Guiding 1886. For nine successive years,
there have arrived among us more cmi-
grants from Sweden than from France,
or Italy, or Austria, or Russia, or any 9TH
er realm on earth, save only the British
empire and Germany. For the eight years
r,,ro 1CSn A> 1907 :,nlr:,o C,ro7o,, .o,,{
us the magnificent total of 311,249 of her
stalwart Sons and fair daughters-en aver
age of nearly 10000 a year. When wo re-
fleet that the entire population of Old
Sweden has at no period reached 100000,
the Swedish exodus to the United States
during the last quarter of q century be-
NJ phenomenal, even in the wonderful
history Of American immigration.
Should this marvellous immigration con-
tinue-and all signs indicate that it will
the day will surely come when the United
States will contain more citizens of Swcd-
ish descent han Sweden herself; and we
will be not only the newer but the greater
Sweden, as we have already become the
greater England.
What states does this vast stream Of
Swedish emigrants enrich with its food?
1t is an interesting fact, that, with few e1-
ceptions, as the French in Canada, emf
grants from Europe take up the same rela-
tive position in America they occupied on
~, nr,4:.o,lo e AIn.- l:,Al T., fonI kLn,o
seem to be certain fixed isothermal lines
between whose parallels the emigrants
from the Old World are guided to their
homes in the New. Thus the Germans
from the center of Europe settle in Penn
s%ylvania, Ohio, and other middle states;
the French and Spanish from Southern Eu-
rope and the shore of the Mediterranean,
make their homes in Louisiana, Florida
and along the dulf of Mexico; while tho
Scandinavian from tho wooded North fell
the forests and build their log cabins
throughout our entire northern range of
states, from Maine to Oregon.
Here, standing midway the continent is
one Of this northern wooded range-the
young, great, growing state Of Minnesota,
the empire state of the new Northwest.
Guided here perhaps by the north star in
your escutcheon, OF your good friend Col.
Mattson, and finding a soil, climate and
nature similar to their loved fa%therland,
the fair-haired, blue-eyed children of the
North nave cast in their lot with you, and
here they have made the desert to "~rejoice
and blossom as the rose." Including all
persons of Swedish descent, Minnesota
reckons to day nearly 2OO,O0OSwedes with
in her borders, and as a Scandinavian state
she stands easily first in the Union. Min
nesota is. in fact, if not in name, the new
Sweden of to day, and here, in the midst
of this great Swedish element of our land,
in this magnificent temple dedicated to
the triumphs of industry, on this spot,
which though a bowling wilderness for two
hundred years afterthe Swedes first landed
on the banks of the Delaware is now the
site of the twin metropolis of the great
Northwest teeming with the life and activ-
ity of nearly half a million souls-here, l
say, it is + fitting and proper that we should
celebrate, as we do this day, the quarter
millenial anniversary of the founding of
the first new Sweden in America. 10
Wherever, in this broad land, the Swedes
fl their habitations, whether it be among
the forests of Minnesota or Michigan or
on the prairies of Illinois or Iowa; every
where they are noted for their honesty and
industry, their economy and thrift. Our
Swedish settlers live within their means,
buy no faster than they can pay, and do
not run in debt. No other foreign race
learn our language SO quickly, or speak it
80 correctly and free from foreign accent,
and none, ! think, so speedily embrace our
American ideas, and become so thoroughly
assimilated with us, and so completely
A~mericanized. Our Swedish felow-citizens
do NOT try to subvert our institutions.
There are no Swedish anarchists, Or dyna-
mite bomb throwers. Order-loving, as
well as ~iberty-loying, G~od-fearing andlaw
abiding, the Swede seeks to know the law
& 1. ~ . ri I4 NJ Vr---N M >--ax