The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1904-06-17
the LAST Of Ole
BULLS COLONY
August Swanson Was the Last
Survivor Of Norwegian
Pioneers.
lived LIFE OF q HERMIT
he Was a Bosom Friend of the Famous
Violinist and One of the Few Who
Remained Loyal to Their
Leader.
lived LIFE OF q HERMIT

From the Philadelphia Record: Bach
of the recent death from starvation and
exposure of the old hermit. August
Swanson, lies a story such as one
might find in an old BOOK hidde away
In a pioneers garnet. The story has
to do with the pathetic tale of Ole
Bull n his colony of Norwegians.
whose history is such an Interesting
chapter in the archives of Potter coun-
ty, Pa.
Two woodsmen, & for a short cut
out of the Kettle creek region. had cut
across a virgin forest region, and in
the very midst of this his shack" was
found. The woodsmen ran across the
track of a catamount. deep in the ra-
vine. 1t was a fresh track-so fresh,
indeed. that the soft, ragged edges of
the claws print had not yet settled
down. The men determined to follow
the tracks. and had gon hardly a
fourth of q mile when they almost
stumbled upon a bark and a log
shack" half hidden under a ledge of
rocks, and when the men pushed open
the door of the hovel they found the
shriveled, frozen form OF old August
Swanson. lying in front of a pile of
stones rudely constructed into a fire
place. He had apparently been dead
for several days, for the wood mice had
gnawcd his ears and fingers, and the
halt open eyes, peering from out the
bony sockets, looked almost nutely APP
pealing for help. The old man had
broken his board bed to pieces and
burned it up. Half u chair lay nearby.
and a little pile of White ashes on a
big fiat stone Showed where the last
spark glimmered and then went out.
leaving the sick and helpless man to
die.
The woodsmen determined that he
should be given decent burial. They had
heard the story of the old hermit who
lived somewhere in the trackless wildS
Of the Kettle creek region, and they
concluded that this must be the man.
One of the men remained on guard
While the other trudged five miles away
to the village of New Bergen, where-the
news of the discovery vas announced
A coffin was secured, and that evening
the body was laid in a grave dug near
his "%dugout" IL suitably marked.
Next spring the place will be further
and more substantially identified.
Old Swanson was one of the original
colony of N~orwegians who came II
the wilds of Potter county under the
Leadership of Ole Bull, the famous vio-
linist, and there began digging ami
%chopping and hewing out a settlement.
In the first few months they built log
houses and called the two villages Ole
ona and New Bergen. Swanson was a
leader. He was a bosom friend of Ole
Bull, and when at the end of the first
year all their fond hopes were dashed
to the ground by the discovery that
whose title was swept from their grasp,
and realized the fact that they We're
facing starvation, Swanson was not one
Of the men who Joined in the cry of
treachery against Ole Bull. The lat.
ter, even then, was on a tour of the cit
inc-no rr,t~~ man ~ 1yifl Lio yiNli- 10
keep the colonists from want. For
months was one of the few
colonists who remained loyal to their
leader, and when, The next spring, near
ly all the Norwegians went out into
Michigan TO r~ecolonize, Swanson de-
clared that he was going to remain in.
the Potter county forests.
There was one interval OF ten years.
that Swanson was not seen by anybody.
Then, n day, looking the wild man
that he was. he came to the little store
at New Bergen and begged some
clothes. After that for several years
he made almost monthly visits to the
little settlements; but at last months
ran into years, and seven of these
passed before he again am out into
civilization. The people in that sec
ton would have believed that he had
died had it not been for the fact that
occasionally hunters would report hay
ing seen him.
Invariably the old man asked for
matches. and once. when accosted by
woodslnen, asked for an AK, saying that
he had Worn his almost to the hilt in
the years that he had used it. The
woodsmen gave him an AK and he dis
appeared in the woods, clluckling like.
a boy over u new toy. He subsisted on
nuts, roots and the meat of wild ami
mails, which he trapped and shared.
Occasionally he would creep up to i.
farmhouse in an out-of-the-way dis
trict and there beg for a ham or some
salt meat. He always Shove the train
ing of a gentleman, and had about him
a reflection of the quaint manner of
Ole Bull.