davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Portland daily press., 1895-06-26

ingenuity soon transformed every log
cabin into home.
For myself it was q pleasure to share
the tolls and the privations of our new
settlers Every day I was among them
from morn till eve. On foot or on horse
back L visited them all, even the most
remote, and cheered all at their labors !:
and every night I lay down in my lo@
house tired but happy, for every day I
had beheld something done; something
tangible accomplished Oh the soil Of
Maine.
August 18th the first child was born in
the town. q good sized boy baby, born to
Korno, wife of Nils Person. He is with
us today, young man and a voter He
reioices in the name of William Widgery
Thomas PERSON. and in the constitu-
tional fact, that he is eligible to the office
of President of the United States.
Sunday afternoon August 81, occurred
the first wedding. l then united in mar
riage ions Person to Hannah Persdotter.
The ceremony was conducted in the
Swedish language, but according to
American FORMS In the evening was a
wedding dinner at the Persons All
the spoons were of solid silver; heir
looms from old Sweden.
Thus within one month from the arriv-
al of the colony, it experienced the three
great events in the life of man-birth
marriage, death.
Between August 10 and 20 nearly all the
choppings were fred On some, good
burns were obtained, and nothing. but
The Portland daily press., 1895-06-26

was afterward distributed by lot among
The members of the group The division
OF farms was thus left entirely to chance,
and yet friends and neighbors were kept
together
The drawing took place Monday af-
ternoon, July 25. With but two excep
tlons every one was satisfied and those
exchanging with each other. When this
exchange was affected, every Swede was
convinced that just the right lot had
fallen to him, and was enabled to find
something or other about his possession
Which in his eye made 1t superior to all
others So surely does ownership beget
contentment
commenced the great work of converting
forest into a home, and that work has
gone happily on, without haste and with
out rest, to this day.
Much remained to be done by the State.
The Swedes, too, must be supplied with
food till they could harvest their first
crop. To put them in the way of earning
their living by their labor was a natural
suggestion. | therefore at once set the
Swedes at work telling trees, cutting out
roads, and building houses, allowing
them one dollar day for their labor,
payable in provisions, tools, etc. The
prices of these necessaries were determined
Dy adding to the frSt cost The expense OF
transportation, plus ten per cent for
breakage and leakage.
Capt. N. P. Clase, a Swede who spoke
our language, and could keep accounts in
single entry in English, was then placed
in charge of the storehouse. He opened
an account with every SETTLER charging
each with all goods received from the
store. Every Swedish working party was
placed under a foreman, who kept in a
book furnished him the time of each
man. These time-books were handed in
once a week to Capt. Clase, and the men
credited with their work at the rate of
one dollar day. The Swedes thus did
the work which the state would other
wise have been compelled to hire other
laborers to do, and were paid in the very
provisions which otherwise the State
would have been compelled to give them.
By this arrangement also, all jealousy
was avoided with regard to tho distribu-
tion of rations; and in their consumption
the rigid Swedish economy was always
exercised, which could hardly have been
the case if food had fallen to them like
mamma, without measure or price.
All through summer and fall there was
busy work in this wilderness. The prim-
eval American forest rang from morn till
eve with the blows of the Swedish axe
The prattle of Swedish children and the
song of Swedish mothers made unwonted
The Portland daily press., 1895-06-26

the trunks and larger branches of the
trees LETT unconsumed on the ground; the
fire merely flashed over others, leaving
behind the whole tangled mass of branch
es, trunks, and twigs to fret the settler.
From this time forward till snow fell
every Swede that could be spared from the
public works was busily engaged from
sunrise to sunset with axe and brand on
his clearing, "junking," piling, and
burning the logs-clearing the land for
crop. New Sweden became a landmark
for twenty miles around. From her hills
arose ''pillar of cloud by day" and "a
pillar of fire by night. -
By September Is large patches of land
were successfully burnt off and cleared,
and the Swedes commenced sowing an
acre or half-acre each with winter wheat
or rye. Sixteen acres in all were sowed
with rye and four with wheat.
Meanwhile the colony steadily in
creased. Now and then Swedish i'm
migrant dropped in, took up lot, re-
ceived an axe and went to work. Septem-
ber IA, detachment of twelve arrived
and October 81, twenty more followed
direct from Sweden. There were two
more births, and ON November 5, sad
died my horse, rode through the woods
and stumps to the. West Chopping, and
fficiated at he second marriage, uniting
The Portland daily press., 1895-06-26

height One stalk of rye, which meas
ured myself, was seven feet and five
inches tall. A man stepping into any of
our winter rye fields in August, disap-
peared as completely from view as though
he were lost in the depths of the forest
Many heads of wheat and rye were over
eight inches in length. Harvest time
came early Winter rye was ripe and cut
by the middle of August; wheat, barley
and oats early in September
Three thousand bushels of grain in all
We're threshed out, of which twelve hun.
dred were wheat one thousand barley,
and the remainder principally rye and
oats Wheat averaged twenty, and yielded
up to twenty five, and rye averaged
thirty-f and yielded up to forty y-two
bushels to the acre. The season was late
and wet, and much of the wheat was
nipped by the rust. In an ordinary year
a maximum yield of forty bushels of
wheat to the acre has been attained
An unusually heavy frost the middle of
September, which prevailed throughout
New England, killed the potato tops and
stopped all further growth of the potatoes,
diminishing the yield one-third Three
hundred bushels to the acre of those earli-
est planted We're nevertheless obtained,
and five thousand bushels of potatoes,
secured besides several hundred bushels
The Portland daily press., 1895-06-26
NEW SCHOOL HOUSE.

This problem had gradually worked
out in my own mind, and had arrived at
definite practical plan. My plan was
this:
1. Send commissioner of the State of
Maine to Sweden.
2. Let him there recruit a colony of
young Swedish farmers-picked men
with their wives and children. No one,
however, was to be taken unless he could
pay his own passage and that of his fam
lily to Maine.
3. A Swedish pastor should accompany
the colony, that religion might lend her
powerful aid in binding the colonists
together.
4. Let the commissioner lead the col
ony in a body, all together, at one time,
and aboard one ship, from Sweden to
America. Thus would they be made ac-
quainted with one another. Thus also
would they have leader to follow and
be prevented from going astray.
5. Let the commissioner take the
Swedes into our northern forests, locate
them on Township No. 10, Range 3, west
of the east line Of the State, give every
head of a family one hundred acres of
woodland for farm, and do whatever
else might be necessary to root this Swe-
dish colony firmly in the soil of Maine.
Then all State aid was to cease for it
was confidently expected when once the
colony was fast rooted in our soil, it
would thrive and grow of Itself, and
throughout the future draw to Maine,
The Portland daily press., 1895-06-26

Maine any wild horses or cocodiles. This
ignorance is not to be wondered at, for
what had Maine ever done prior to 1870 to
make herself known in Sweden.
Neither was the colony recruited with
out opposition. Capital and privilege al
ways strive to prevent the exodus of labor !;
and sometimes are reckless as to the
means they use. 1t is sufficient however,
to state that all opposition was silenced
or avoided.
And so the colonists, recruited from
nearly every Province of Sweden, were
quickly and successfully brought together
at Gothenburg, and at noon of Saturday,
June 25th, 1870, just forty days from my
landing in Sweden, I sailed away from
Gothenburg with the first Swedish colony
of Maine.
Our passage over the North Sea was
tempestuous. We crossed England by
rail, and after a pleasant voyage over the
Atlantic, landed ON this Continent at
Halifax.
Thence our route was across Nova
Scotia, over the Bay of Fundy, and I'D
the St. John river. At Fredericton
steamboat navigation ceased on account
of low water; but l chartered two fiat
boats, placed the colonists on board and
at five O'Clock next morning they were en-
route again, towed up river by horses
Six days were consumed in toiling up
stream to Tobique Landing The journey
is now accomplished by railroad in as
many hours.
The Portland daily press., 1895-06-26

From Tobique the journey was con
tlnued in five large wagons. The Swed-
isn Immigrant caravan wound over the
nils, and at ten o'clock ON the morning
OF July 22d reached the iron post that
marks the boundary between Canada and
the United States.
AS we crossed the line and entered the
United States, we unfurled the American
nag from the foremost wagon, and the
citizens of Fort Fairfield greeted us
with salute of cannon from the beauti-
ful valley below And the good people
OF Fort Fairfield did more than fire a
salute: They gave us generous banquet
In the town hall; and cheered and
refreshed, we continued on our way
of the Aroostook.
AS the immigrant train halted on a
hilltop pointed out the lofty ridges of
this town, blue with distance rising
against the sky. "Det utlofvade Landet. :"
The promised Land-cry the Swedes and
cheer goes along the line At the village
OF Caribou we were received with band
of music, and entertained with bounti-
full supper in Arnold S Hall, where also
the colonists passed the night.
Next morning the Swedish immigrant
train was early in motion, accompanied
by many citizens of tho vicinity. We soon
passed beyond the last clearing of the
American pioneer and entered the deep
woods. The long line of wagons slowly
wound its way among the stumps of the
newly cut wood road, and penetrated a
forest which now for the first time was
opened for the abode of man
At twelve O'Clock, noon, of Saturday,
July %, 1870, just four months from the
passage of the act authorizing this enter
prise, and four weeks from the departure
of the immigrants from Sweden, the first
Swedish colony of our state arrived at its
new home on Township No. Is, Range 5,
in the wilds of Maine We called the spot
New Sweden, name at once comem-
orative of the past and auspicious of the
future. Here in behalf of the State of
Maine bade a welcome and God speed to
these far travellers, our future citizens,
and here at the southwest corner of the
cross roads, within short distance of
where we now sit, under camp of bark
and by the side of rill of pure spring
water, 'Swedes and Americans broke
bread together, and the colonists ate their
first meal on this township in the shadow
Of the forest primeval
While [ was absent in Sweden recruit
ing the colony, the Board of Immigra-
tlon had been making preparations for
it's reception on this side the Atlantic.
As soon as it appeared from my letters
that my mission was success, and that
| would surely lead Swedish colony TO
The Portland daily press., 1895-06-26

trees on s2OO acres had been telled. 1900
acres of these 'choppings" were cleared in
thorough and superior manner, Of
which 400 acres were laid down to grass.
130 houses and nearly as many barns and
novels had been built The colonists
owned % horses, IA oxen, 100 COWS, 40
calves, 33 sheep and 1875 swine.
The schools were in a fourishing con-
dition. Such an advance had been made
in English, that most of the children
above ten years of age could read and
write our language tolerably, and speak
it we'll An American visiting the colony
had no need of an interpreter, for every
child that talked at all, could speak Eng
lish.
l then felt that all the conditions of the
plan on which this experiment. was made,
had been fulfilled The colony
had been recruited in Sweden, transplant
ed to Maine, fast rooted in our soil, and
made self-sustaining. The experiment
was an experiment. no longer New
Sweden was successfully founded, the
stream of Swedish immigration was sue
cessfully started The infant colony was
now strong enough to go alone.
On Sunday forenoon, October 19, 1878,
| met the Swedes at the CAPITOL Nearly
the whole colony, men, women and chill
dren, were there. I recounted the history
of the colony, since the first adventurous
little band had met together in old Swed-
en-, spoke such words of friendly counsel
as the occasion suggested and justified,
and then took leave of the colony I had
recruited in the Old World and TO; nded
in the New.
In my annual report, at the close of
1878, I recommended that all special aid
to New Sweden should cease I further
took pleasure in recommending that the
office | held be abolished, since the accom-
plishment of the undertaking rendered
the office no longer necessary and thus
laid down the work, which for four years
had occupied the better portion of my
life and endeavor.
But though my official connection with
New Sweden ceased with 1873, this colony
has never ceased, and never will cease so
long as life remains, to occupy large
portion of my heart, my thoughts and my
prayers And New Sweden has ever con-
tinued to meet the fondest anticipations
of it's friends Its course from the begin
ming to this day has been one of constant
and unbroken growth, development and
progress Its story forms an unique and
interesting chapter in the history of
Maine. That story I would love to re-
count to you step by step on this festal
day when New Sweden celebrates her
triumphs.
I would fain speak to you of the organ
ization of the township into Plantation
in 1876, and of its municipal
and political life of our grand
| decennial celebration here in 1880,
The Portland daily press., 1895-06-26

factory. None of all these emigrants
settled in Maine; all passed by our state
and Went to build up and make strong
and great the states of the West and
Northwest.
And yet no state or territory in the
Union is better adapted by nature to be-
come the home of Swedes, than the
northern wooded State of Maine. Here
and in the Northland the same noun
tains rear their affairs to heaven the same
woodland lakes reflect the twinkling
stars the same forests clothe the hill
Sides the same swift rivers rush leaping
TO the sea; the same deep harbors notch
the coast and the same islands by the
thousand, guard the shores.
And no better immigrants than the
Swedes ever landed on American shores.
Honest and industrious, law abiding and
God-fearing, polite and brave, hospitable
and generous, of the same old Northern
stock as ourselves, no foreign speaking
immigrants learn our language more
quickly, and none become more speedily
Americanized or make better citizens,
of our great Republic
And did Maine need immigration? Yes,
surely. In the northwestern portion of our
state there was and still is a vast wilder
ness domain larger than the great state of
Massachusetts, whereon is scarce settler
The census of 1870 too showed that Maine
had paused and gone backward IN popula-
ton In 1870 Maine numbered 1854 less
The Portland daily press., 1895-06-26

less than one hundred in all-there were
no Swedes in Maine
Such was the condition of Maine, and
such was the condition of the immigra-
tion problem on my return from Sweden
to my native State et the close of 1865
The conv1Stion had gradually forced
itself upon NE that it would be impos-
sible to attract or retain any considerable
number of individual Swedes within the
limits of our State, until we first pro-
cured and firmly established somewhere
upon the soil of Maine colony of picked
Swedish immigrants.
Such a colony with it's churches and
schools, its Swedish pastors and it's Swe-
dish homes, it's Swedish customs and
holidays and festivities, it seemed to me
would constitute nucleus around which
the Swedish immigration of the fnture
would gather, and central point whose
attractive focre would ever hold the scat
tered Swedes, who went out to service
or settled elsewhere in Maine, within the
borders of our State.
But how could such colony be pro-
cured, and how could it be established?
The Portland daily press., 1895-06-26
Down river, two miles beyond Carl

Down river, two miles beyond Carl
bou. -
Two miles beyond Caribou was ten
miles from New Sweden. So this good
wife had walked twenty miles; ten miles
out. and ten miles home with four pigs
on her back, smiling all the way, to think
what nice pigs they were.
Another wife, when her husband was
sick, with her own hands, felled some
cedar trees, sawed them up into butts
and rifted out and shaved these butts
into shingles, one bunch of which she
carried three miles through the woods
on her back to barter at the corner store
here for necessaries for her husband
By such toll was this wilderness settled
But that bunch of shingles has become
apart of the history of Maine. 1t occu-
pies today an honored place in the Capitol
at Augusta, and Maine poetess has
rendered it immortal in her verse
In the fall of 1873 the condition of the
colony was excellent. The little settle
ment of fifty had increased to six hun
dred, and outside of New Sweden there
were as many more Swedes located in our
State, drawn to us by our Swedish colony.
The settlGmen of New Sweden had out
grown the township of that name and
spread over the adjoining sections of
Woodland, Caribou and Perham. The
The Portland daily press., 1895-06-26
LUTHERAN CHURCH.
These were unanswered questions.

These were unanswered questions.
: Our own sons and daughters, to the
manner born, were deserting Maine for
the West. Would not our Scadinavians do
the same, and settle among the great
masses of their countrymen already es-
tablished in the western states?
Again one attempt to procure Swedish
immigrants for Maine had already been
tried, and had ended in complete failure
A company of Maine men incorporated
as the . Foreign Emigrant Association of
Maine" had recruited in 1864 some three
hundred Swedish laborers and servants in
Sweden and paid their passage across the
Atlantic. These Immigrants landed at
Quebec, where they all, with one accord
disappeared. Not one of them ever ar
rived in Maine; and the Association. dis
solved with loss of many thousand dol
lars.
With the exception of few scattered
Swedes that had from time to time drift
ed into our sea board cities and towns
The Portland daily press., 1895-06-26
NEW SWEDEN.
Celebration OF It's Twenty
Fifth Anniversary.
GRAFTON BY HON. WILLIAM
WIDGERY THOMAS, JR.
Story Of the Founding Is Told by
the Founder.
REMARKABLE PROGRESS IN A
QUARTER OF A CENTURY.

Fine Farms and Buildings Where Were
Forests and Log Cabins-Early Hard
ships-Industry and Thrift of the
Colonists-Se1f Denial and Enterprise
of the Swedish Women.
At the celebration of the Quarter Cen
tennial of New Sweden, an account of
which appears in another column, the
address of the day by Hon. William
Widgery Thomas, Jr., was as follows:
Twenty-Five years ago this very day
there sailed away from the shores of
Sweden little colony of fifty-one Swedes.
This adventurous band then left home
and country, and faced the perils of a
voyage of four thousand miles, and the
hardships and tolls of making new home
in the wilderness of strange land with
out so much as the scratch of pen by
way of contract or obligation, but with
simple faith in the honor and hospitality
of Maine.
The colony was composed of twenty two
men, eleven women, and eighteen chill
dren All the men were farmers; in ad-
dition, some were skilled in trades and
professions; there being among them a
lay pastor, civil engineer, a blacksmith,
two carpenters, a basket maker, a wheel
wright, a baker, a tailor, and a wooden
shoe maker. The women were neat and
industrious, tidy housewives, and dill
gent workers at the spinning wheel and
loom. All were tall and stalwart, with
blue eyes, blonde hair, and cheerful, hon
est faces; there was not physical defect
or blemish among them, and it was not
without strong feelings of state pride
that l looked upon them as they were
mustered on the deck of the steamship
"Orlando", and anticipated what great
results might flow from this little begin
ming for the good of our beloved Common
wealth.
Seven years prior to this time, early in
1858, I had first set foot in Sweden,-s
there by President Lincoln as one of the
thirty "War Consuls'' of the United
States.
During three years residence in Swed-
en- had acquired the Swedish language; !;
had become familiar with the history,
habits and customs of the people, and
had learned to know, respect and admire
the manner of men and women they Were
I had beheld also the thousands of sturdy
Swedish emigrants, that every year sailed
away from Swedish ports for America,
to help subdue the forests, and open up
the prairies of our own broad land /
had done whatever lay in my power to
augment this emigration, and had seen
with qualification the number of Swedish
emigrants increase by thousands during
my sojourn in the Northland.
But there was one fact connected with
this emigration, that to me-a son of the
Pine Tree State-was anything but salts
The Portland daily press., 1895-06-26

They bought, however, no faster than
they could pay. If Swede could not
afford a span Of horses he bought only
one; if he could not afford a horse, he
beyond his purse, he got steer, and if a
steer was more than he could afford, he
placed rope harness on his only COW,
and worked around with her till he could
do better.
Americans driving in laughed at these
nondescript teams, but all the while the
Swedes were teaching us a lesson-to live
withie our means.
The Portland daily press., 1895-06-26
i'm which sOOO persons. swedes and Ameri

in which 5000 persons, Swedes and Ameri-
cans, took part; of the dedication of the
First Swedish Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Maine on the same day; of the
rise and progress of the Baptist, the Mis-
sion, the Advent and other Congregations,
Houses of Worship; of the deep religious
life of the colony; of our schools and the
thorough work they have accomplished,
of the building of our roads and bridges;
the establishment of mills and factories
how year after year the forest has been
felled, and 'choppings" full of blackened
stumps transformed into smooth fields of
waving grain; how the log cabins have
been replaced with substantial two story
frame houses, great barns built fruitful
orchards and gardens set out, and boun-
tiful crops raised how the Swedes have
The Portland daily press., 1895-06-26
Continued on Sixth Page,

Some time ago I was troubled with
an attack of rheumatism I used Cham
berlain's Pain Balm and was completely
cured I have since advised many of my
friends and customers to try the remedy
and all speak highly of it. SIMON
GOLDBAUM, San Luis Rey, Cal. For
sale by Landers & Babbidge, Druggists
and G. B. Woodman, Westbrook.
The Portland daily press., 1895-06-26

LOG HOUSE BUILT BY THE STATE.
Inhabitants than she did ten years before
With the single exception of our neigh
was the only state in the Union that had
retrograded in population from 1860 to
1870.
Was this a momentary halt in our ad-
vance, or was it the beginning of our de-
cline? This was a momentous question !;
for states, like men, cannot stand still,
they must grow or decay. 81
The Portland daily press., 1895-06-26

of beets, turnips and other roots.
Throughout the years 1879 and 1S73
New Sweden continued under my person
al supervision. Throughout those years
also it continued to grow and prosper.
Time, however, will not permit me to
follow its history in detail I cannot,
however, refrain from mentioning some
customs and incidents which 1 consider
characteristic
AS soon as the earth could be made to
produce grass or fodder the Swedes be-
gan to provide themselves with CATTLE
horses, sheep and swine.