Scandinavian American. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1945-1958, 1948-07-01

he proved he could act as a gen.
eral utility repairman. Through
the influence of an American girl
whom he married, he later became
successfully Sunday School class
leader, exhorter and finally a IL
censed preacher. In 1885 he was
sent to the Catskills where for
ten years he rode a circuit. What
he lacked in smooth English ac-
cent, he more than made up by
his vigor in preaching and re-
ligious fervor.
Brother Arrives
| His brother Jonas came to
America and he, too, became a
Methodist preacher. Jonas He'd
strom went to Illinois in 1888, and
while continuing to practice his
trade as blacksmith on weekdays,
he also kept up his preaching on
Sundays. In Victoria, Knox Coun-
ty, he built himself little house
which for few years served as a
base and home for the incoming
Swedish immigrants. Here on De-
cember Is, 1916, Jonas Hedstrom
preached his first sermon in Swed-
ish to an audience of five in a
little log cabin at Victoria, Hi
nois. That was the first religious
service in Swedish in the Middle
West.
The Hedstrom brothers did more
than preach the Gospel, however.
In New York, the older one met
all the incoming immigrant ships
and after distributing Bibles do
mated by the American Bible Soci-
ETY., he would invite the new ar
rivals to consult about their flu
ture plans. AS most of them We're
farmers, bent on buying some of
the new land that could then be
had for a dollar and quarter to
two dollars per acre, he naturally
would recommend the rich prairies
of western Illinois. He would di-
rect them to his brother in Vic
toria, who would be helpful both
in religious matters and in finding
suitable land Ga combination of
religion and real estate promotion
that was then quite common
Compared to the barren acres
found by the Pilgrims on the rock
bound shores of New England, this
was a veritable. land of Goshen
the black loan worth more than
/ the gold of California. The earliest
Swedish settlements in Minnesota
were offspring of those in Iowa
and Illinois. The first guide post
to the Middle West, however, was
here in New York.
jamestown Furniture Center
The other episode which also
took place almost exactly a hun
! dred years ago was equally ro-
mantle and, like the first one,
demonstrates both the hospitality
of the Americans and the staying
| power of the SWedes. 1t led, more
ever, to the foundation of flour
ishing industrial Swedish commun-
| ity within the borders of our own
state. l refer, of course, to James
town, New York, the great furni-
ture center of the East. The chanc-
es are that the chairs you sit on
and the beds on which you slept
last night were made in James
town. Of its population of around
$4,000, about 70 percent are of
Swedish descent.
The original Swedish settlers of
the area sailed from Sweden in
1916 on board three-masted
schooner bound for New York with
cargo of iron. They were headed
for Iowa, where the year before a
group from the same neighbor-
hood had founded a new commun-
ity. OF jamestown, New York,
which was then a small village,
they had never heard.
After journey of nearly three
months (which now takes less than
10 hours by air and days by
boat they reached New York on
August 5, 1916. The group con-
tinued westward via the Hudson