page_title: Bishop Hill, Illinois
section_title: After Jansson and today
hierarchical_section_title: Bishop Hill, Illinois / History / After Jansson and today
caption_attribution_description: English: Built in 1848. The sanctuary is on the second floor. Designed to reflect doctrinal ideas of Eric Janson.
context_page_description: Bishop Hill is a village in Henry County, Illinois, United States, along the South Edwards River. The population was 128 at the 2010 census, up from 125 in 2000. It is the home of the Bishop Hill State Historic Site, a park operated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
context_section_description: The Bishop Hill colony underwent a major upheaval in 1850 after the murder of Erik Jansson. Jansson was assassinated by a former colony member, John Root, who was upset with Jansson for interfering with his marriage to one of Jansson's cousins. After their leader's death, the people of Bishop Hill appointed a group of seven trustees to run the affairs of the colony. Among the trustees were Jonas Olsson and Olof Johnson, who would become the primary leaders of the colony as they had been two of Jansson's closest aides. Under these two men and the rest of the trustees, the colony continued to grow and flourish. The workforce was reorganized to become more efficient and more buildings were erected. However, despite Bishop Hill's success, in 1857 financial problems arose in the midst of accusations of mismanagement against Olof Johnson. Johnson had made several large investments, without colony approval, that had turned out to be disastrous. As Bishop Hill headed for financial ruin, colonists voted to end the communal system. In 1861 the formal dissolution of the colony was official, and many of its people would soon be forced to move away.
  The Janssonist emigrants were a significant group of men and women to move from Sweden to the United States.  Letters home from Janssonists to their friends and family, telling of the fertile agricultural land in the interior of North America, stimulated substantial migration for several decades and contributed to the formation of the Swedish-American ethnic community of the American Midwest.
  Descendants of Erik Jansson still lived in the colony until December 20, 2004 when Erik's great-great grandson and Bishop Hill volunteer fireman Theodore Arthur Myhre Sr. died south of the Colony while on a fire service call.  Other known descendants remain in Illinois.
  Surviving buildings built by the Janssonists are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Bishop Hill is interpreted as a living community of Swedish-American heritage. Due to state budget cuts the Bishop Hill State Historic Site was closed for nearly 5 months from December 1, 2008 to April 23, 2009. Today the Site is open Wednesday to Friday during normal business hours.
caption: Colony Church built in 1848.
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