u /?5O THE SWEDISH PEOPLE IN NORTHERN MAINE mse c. I a thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement in Honors in History Charlotte Lenentine University of Maine, Orono, Maine May 1950 Errata: Page 75 inadvertently omitted in numbering. Page 96 inadvertently omitted in numbering. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Maps and Illustrations I. Det Utlofvade Landet 1 II. Making a Home in the Forest 22 III. "Let the Heathen Rage" 33 IV. Self-Government and Politics 51 V. "’Twas a Weary Way" 56 VI. "Nigh to the Hearthstone" 68 VII. Graceful Spires 78 VTII. Social Gatherings and Celebrations 86 IX. Early Schools in New Sweden 10h X. Expansion Beyond the Borders 108 XI. A Quarter of a Century 1895 113 XII. The Railroad Brings Prosperity 118 XIII. Religious Activity in Later Years 125 XIV. Education 1895-1950 131 XV. Social and Historical Interests 135 Appendix A An act to promote immigration and facil­ itate the settlement of public lands i Appendix B Lots Received by First Group of Settlers ii Appendix C Expenses for the Board of Immigration 1870 iv THE SWEDISH PEOPLE IN NORTHERN MAINE I Det Utlofvade Lande On July 23, 1870, a band of weary settlers arrived on a hill overlooking their promised land. Stretching before them they saw the verdant hills with cedar lined valleys, almost untouched ex­ cept for a small cluster of new choppings and the beginnings of a half dozen new log houses here in the foreground. These block­ houses were to be their homes and these choppings their fields. Their arrival was the result of the efforts of a small group of men who had been working for a decade to populate the wilderness of northern Maine by the establishment of an agricultural colony from Scandinavia. For years now Maine had been losing her young people, who were leaving their home State to seek the West and its boundless lands and opportunities. Every week the local newspapers contained editorials and letters attempting to persudade a few to remain in Maine. In 1837 Dr. Charles Jackson, State Geologist, made a geolog­ ical survey of the Jtate lands, reporting that the soils of Aroos­ took were rich, excellent for raising grain, and, in general, much better than the soils of the rest of the State. The following year, the Board of Internal Improvements made a survey of Aroos- 1. Dft'uilofvade Landet,(the promised land). 2. Jackson, Charles T., Second Report on the Geology of the State of Maine, Augusta/ 18hd -2 took County, conducted by Dr. Ezekiel Holmes, agriculturist and editor of the Maine Farmer. Both he and Secretary S. L. Goodale, of the Board of Agriculture praised the soil of northern Maine. Secretary Goodale believed that the richness of the soil made up for the cold climate, -which, by the way, he considered to be very healthful. In 1858 a circular was issued from the Land Office stating that many townships were available for settlement, expecially in Aroostook , for fifty cents and acre, for which the settler could give three notes payable in one, two, or three years in labor on the roads. He must also establish residence and within four years have cleared fifteen acres, ten of which were to be sown to grass, and he must 2 have built a comfortable house. Even under these terms the tide was still swinging out. Maine’s population in 1850 had been 583,169. By i860 it had only increased to 628,279. In the following decade it was to decrease to 626,915. Aroostook County alone still had thousands of acres of unsettled land. A few pioneers began clearings in some far-removed northern township with few neighbors except the animals and an occasional 1. Holmes, Ezekiel, Report of an Exploration and Survey of the Territory on the Aroostook River, 1838, Augusta, 183$, p.?5. Goodale. S.L., Second Annual Report of the Maine Board of Agriculture, 1857 > Augusta, 1858, pp. U3-52. 2. Barker, Noah, A Circular from the Land Office, Descriptive of the Public Lands of Maine, 1858, Bangor, 1858, pp. 5-6. 3. Census Statistics of the State of Maine, 1880, Printed by Grder of the Governor and Council, Augusta, 1883, p. 17. -3 hunter or lumberman, but the loneliness and the expanse of wil­ derness frequently drove them out. Many thinking men began to feel that the best way to make good thia loss of population was to attract foreign immigrants to Maine’s unsettled lands. Hon. George F. Talbot wrote Gov­ ernor-elect Israel Washburne in 1861 suggesting that he urge the Legislature to promote a scheme for European immigration. He believed Scandinavians would be best suited to this climate, and Governor Washburn© in his address to the Legislature appealed for action designed to encourage the immigration of "the Norwegians in particular.” * Nothing, however, came of his pleas Three years later the Foreign Immigrant Association, a group of Maine men, through B. F. Tefft, the American Consul at Stock­ holm arranged for the passage of three hundred Swedish laborers and indentured servants• The ship landed in Quebec, and the entire group was lost in the general movement of people, never reaching Maine. The thousands of dollars spent in this venture were wasted. Thus Maine’s first attempt to secure a group of immigrants failed.^ 1. Elwell, Edward H., Aroostook with Some Account of the Excursions Thither of the Editors of Maine in the Years 1B$8 and 1878, and of the Colony of Swedes, Portland, 1878, p. 39. Journal of the House of" Representatives of the State of Maine, 1861, Augusta, iB5i,"p/“i6.----------- ----- ------------------12-------- 2. Oration of Willi a® Widgery Thomas, Jr., in Celebration of Decennial Anniversary of the Founding of New Sweden, Maine, July 23, 1880, Published under direction of Andrew Wiren, Nils Olsson, and N. P. Clase, Committee on Publication, Portland, 1881. Reprinted as New Sweden Decennial 1870-1880, Marie Valborg Malmquist, Stoneham, Massachusetts, 1931, p. 13. Such was the situation when William Widgery Thomas, Jr., of Portland returned home from Sweden. He had been one of thirty war consuls sent abroad by President Lincoln to encourage immigration under the Homestead Act. His years of service in Gothenburg had taught him to appreciate the Swedish people and their sturdy industriousness.- Arriving here he threw himself into the move to increase Maine’s population by immigration. He was convinced that a group of strong* thrifty Swedes would make valuable citizens for the State of MaineA His scheme was to offer free land, of whichsmall acreage would be cleared and a log cabin built for each family, to a small group of settlers who would pay their own passage here. He would have an agent go to select about twenty-five families and a Prot­ estant minister. The agent would bring them here early enough for preparations to be made for the rigorous Maine winter. He felt that, without further inducement, this colony would serve as a nucleus for a large settlement by drawing to it large numbers of their fellow countrymen. It was his belief* that immigrants would have come before this had they realized that Maine was a good place to settle, and that there was fertile land available. 1. Oration of Viliam Widgery Thomas, Jr. in The Story of New Sweden as told at the Quarter Centennial Celebration of the founding of the Swedish Colony in the Woods of Maine, June 2$, ’5 I8$%, Edited by Stanley J. Estes, Portland, 1896, pp. 26, 33. Reports of the Board and Commissioner of Immigration, 1870, Augusta, 1871, p. 3. 2. Thomas, Decennial, p. lh. Joshua L. Chamberlain was among those men interested in this project. In his gubernatorial address in 1868 he reit­ erated the plea for a State sponsored move to populate the State. "It is well known that great numbers of Swedes ...would gladly come to us. I venture that it would be a profitable investment if the State were to pay the first expenses of such a colony, who by their hardy and frugal habits, and their familiarity with the climate of this latitude, would find themselves at home in Maine.... Again, nothing was accomplished. The following year, Governor Chamberlain, having been re- \ elected, again urged the appointment of a committe to investigate the proposal and to draw up a feasible plan. January 13, a Joint Special Committee on Scandinavian Inmigration was named. George 0. Cary from the Senate and Orrin McFadden from the House were the chairmen. Other members included Representatives Carleton of Camden, Bigelow of Clinton, Twitchell of Portland, Dunning of Bangor, and Teague of Iyndon. 2 Their report emphasized the fact that Sweden and Norway were located nearer the Arctic Circle than was Maine, and:that because of the late season and poor soil, agriculture there was very backward. The inhabitants were forced to earn their living by lumbering, mining shipbuilding, and trading. Despite the scarcity of labor, wages in those countries were very low, the men receiving seventy-five cents 1. Journal of the House 1868, p. 31 2. Ibid., pp. 31, h9. Documents Printed by Order of the Legislature of the State of Maine 186$, Augusta. 1869. -6 to three dollars per month and the women less than half that much. Educationally, however, these Scandinavians were outstanding; ’’not 1 one in a thousand Swedes is unable to read and write.” Stressing another of Thomas’s arguments the committee stated that Swedith immigration to the United States had increased from 2000 a year in 1862 to 10,000 in 1865. Under the Homestead Act this immigration was drawn from the East to the West for Europeans considered all New England as old and thickly settled.