excerpts from: blacklandprairie.org web site:

IV. Preserving Our Blackland Prairie History

The communities of New Sweden, Lund, Kimbro, Manda, Carlson, Rosehill, and Schiller were settled predominately by Swedes, but Danes and Germans also helped settle the area shortly after the Civil War.  Swen Magnus Swenson, from the parish of Barkeryd, Jönköping lan, in the province of Småland, Sweden, shepherded the immigration of the Swedes.  He began his pioneering days in the Republic of Texas in 1836. Swenson was good friends with Sam Houston.  In 1839 he began investing in property in Travis County when he learned the Texas capital would be moved to Austin.  By 1860 he owned 128,000 in Travis County, including 12 square city blocks concentrated along Congress Avenue.  A 400 acre cotton plantation on the Colorado River known as Govalle (good grazing) became his family home.  Many Swedish immigrants worked on this plantation to pay back the loan of their passage.       

            Before the civil war, S.M. Swenson, a union sympathizer, released his slaves and left Texas escaping personal harm in order to protect his family who remained at Govalle.  His uncle, Swante Palm, continued his operations in Texas. Swenson first fled to Mexico, then moved to other land he owned in Louisiana.  By 1866 he relocated to New York to administer his business, which now included banking.  Swenson later established one of the largest cattle ranches in the state near Stamford, Texas.

S.M. Swenson went back to Sweden to visit, shared his success stories, and after the end of the Civil War, 100 men and women left Barkeryd Parish in 1867 for Texas.  As more Swedes immigrated to Texas, they sought cheaper land.  New Sweden was the first new colony to be settled in 1873 and the communities of Manor, Lund, Manda, and Kimbro quickly followed. 

The King of Sweden visited in 1988 to celebrate the heritage and contributions Swedes have made to central Texas.  Each August Barkeryd Parish in Småland, Sweden has a Texas festival to celebrate their connection and dedication to the Swedish communities in our area.  Over one half of all their sons and daughters immigrated to central Texas. 

The Swedes also made strong urban contributions to the state of Texas and the city of Austin.  Here are a few to ponder.  You may visit S.M. Swenson’s original cabin in Zilker Park.  S.M. Swenson was instrumental in the creation of the Colt 45 pistol and his work is featured in the Texas Memorial Museum. Swante Palm left what was at the time one of the most extensive personal libraries in America at the time to the University of Texas and the Palm School bears his name.  And for Deep Eddy Pool, we have the Charles Johnson family to thank. The Seaholm Power Plant honors a family from the Lund community.  Austin-Bergstrom International Airport was named after the first Travis County resident killed in WWII.  A beautiful Swedish homestead was built on the Colorado River close to the family brick making operations. That home is now the VFW post on Town Lake.   Swedish carpenters and other construction experts helped build the Texas capitol, and in 1888 Gustave Johnson raised the Lady Liberty statue to the top.

And Swedes have made many contributions to the University of Texas.  A Swedish geologist, Dr. J. A. Udden, was instrumental in building the university into the rich institution it is today.  He came to Texas in 1890 and became affiliated with the bureau of economic geography at the university.  It was through his exploration that oil was discovered on land belonging to the school.  And the University of Texas has a Swedish Chair in the Germanic Studies Department supported by the good works and donations of many Swedes who want to preserve the language and local history.

All our city cousins mentioned above were either kin to residents of or actually came from our rural area of northeast Travis County.  Now, after framing the history of connections to Austin and other parts of Travis County, we want to share specific areas of our local, rural history in northeast Travis County that must be preserved. Nowhere in the area that surrounds Austin is a community so steeped in history as the Blacklands of northeast Travis County.

There remain only a handful of historic schoolhouses in Travis County.  We are lucky to have two of them, one at Kimbro and one at Manda. The school house at Kimbro, Texas has been restored by the Anderson family, and they are currently living in the school. The home in the schoolhouse has been opened to the community for various events and meetings.  Visitors can see where the children worked at the blackboard and can quickly visualize the past.  It is easy to stand in the schoolhouse and feel pride in both the early educators and their pupils, our ancestors, who studied to learn not only a new language, but new history, and a new way of life.

Currently 31 Blackland farms in operations have been identified as being over 100 years old and more will be added to this inventory.  One of these farms has been in the Johnson family since 1880 and is now owned by Jamie Estes and his family.  Jamie is always glad to show and talk about his sizeable collection of antique tractors.

Historic churches and cemeteries dot the countryside: This includes Bethlehem Lutheran Church at Lund and the Lund Cemetery, the New Sweden Lutheran Church and Cemetery, the Schiller Cemetery, the Manda Methodist Cemetery, Rosehill Cemetery, and the historically designated Kimbro Cemetery.  Many of these have been painted by famous artists and also featured in films.

One of the best known of the historical churches is the New Sweden Lutheran Church.  Standing in the midst of the Blackland Prairie surrounded by the sea of green made by the growing crops of maize and corn in the spring is this church.  Its 104 foot copper steeple points toward the heavens, beckoning the people of the community and beyond to come and worship God.  The New Sweden congregation has celebrated 126 years of serving the New Sweden community and the surrounding area as a place to worship God and have fellowship with others. 

Members share this story:  Founded by Swedish immigrants who felt the need to establish a church soon after they settled on the Blackland Prairie in the 1870s, New Sweden Church continues to meet the needs of a more diverse population who wish to practice their religious faith.  The congregation has been served by a long line of faithful pastors and members.

Ever mindful of their place in a larger community, the members of New Sweden have served God and their community, as well as looking to the needs of others in different places of the world.  In the late 1940s the ladies of the church sponsored a project known as “The Lord’s Acre,” entering a spiritual partnership with God. The yield from that acre, given to the Lord’s work reminds us that we are only stewards of the earth that provides the world with food and clothing. The congregation decided to sponsor a refugee family from Germany in 1956.  The church brought them to the community, provided a home and helped them find work, so that they too could prosper.  New Sweden Lutheran Church continues to support the various needs of our congregation, our community and our world. 

As a very important part of our community and history, the church has handed down through generations the many traditions of its Swedish heritage.  Although there are many people from other cultures who are now members, they too enjoy carrying on that sense of service and tradition and are dedicated to preserving our church and our community.  As a member stated at one of our anniversary celebrations, “a church history is an ongoing account, of an ever changing and ever moving body of people, who not only look back over the past accomplishments but also look to the future and the challenges that lie ahead.”  We do have challenges that lie ahead in our church and its community.  In remembering the early pioneers and those who came after, who dedicated their lives to the service of God and community, we have to bow our heads, clasp our hands, and simply say, “Thank you, God.”

Texas is second only to Minnesota in historical markers dedicated to Swedish history, not a bad record since  only one-sixth of the total Swedish immigrant population came to Texas.  There are already six historical markers on the prairie:  1) New Sweden Lutheran Church, 2) Bethlehem Lutheran Church and Cemetery, 3) Manda, 4) Kimbro Cemetery,  5) the Willow Ranch School, and 6) the Carlson community.

Travis County landowner Peter Carr Wells (1856-1913) donated a plot of land to the Willow Ranch School District in 1894.  Four years later a school was constructed.  Most of the students who attended were children of Swedish immigrants.  Some sharecropped Wells Ranch.  It was here that they learned basic skills, as well as Texas history, geography, art etc.  They also participated in Interscholastic League.  A second room was added in 1906.  The school was the gathering place for the community and the community club.  In 1938 the school closed and the students were transferred to Kimbro School.

Families living in that area were the Andersons, Blombergs, Berglunds, Christiansons, Forsdahls, Johnsons, Linds, Lundgrens, Morrells and Swansons to name a few.  Some of the teachers who taught at Willow Ranch were Mary Abrahamson, Elise Aronson, Dora Christianson, Clara Danstrom, Vivian Forsam, Esther Gustafson, Ora Lundgren, Dottie Rolf and Mrs. Otto Seems.

In 1897 the Kimbro Evangelical Free Church was deeded one acre of land by Nils Torn and wife Kjersti to become a building site for the newly organized congregation.  Of this one acre, approximately one-fourth was dedicated for a cemetery:  Kimbro Cemetery.

The community of Kimbro, named after pioneer land owner Lemuel Kimbro, was settled in the 1870s by Swedish, Danish and German immigrants.  Most of the residents were cotton farmers and at its height the community boasted homes, farms, the Evangelical Free Church of Kimbro, a school, a cotton gin, and two general stores.  The school closed in 1947 when the nearby Manda Consolidated School District was formed, and the church building was moved to Elgin, Texas in 1954.

Many of Kimbro’s early settlers are buried in the Kimbro Cemetery; some of their descendants still own property and live in the community.  The earliest graves recorded are that of Bernhard Swenson (5-26-1903) and of an infant girl born to August and Emilie Lind (the exact burial date in 1903 unknown).  The cemetery received a Texas Historical Marker in 1991.  In 2001 the Evangelical Free Church Cemeteries Association (Kimbro and Decker Cemeteries) was established to insure the cemeteries’ continued care and upkeep.

And another area surrounded with history and well worth visiting is the Lund community and cemetery.  The Lund community is located five miles northwest of Elgin.  The community of Lund and its neighbor, Type, marked the extreme edge of the Swedish settlement in central Texas.

Despite initial hardships, the Lund colony flourished, as few of the smaller satellite settlements were to do.  One of the reasons for its success was the large number of experienced farmers who came to the area.  Per Sjoholm bought land at Lund in 1889.  He and his son Gustaf Seaholm were among the earliest settlers.  They learned the art of faming in Texas and prospered as farmers.  Gustaf Seaholm named the community Lund after a city close to his home in the southern province of Skane, Sweden.

The first school was built in 1894 and was called Pleasant Hill.  Drinking water for the school was carried from the John Fosdahl farm and the schoolboys cut wood used to heat the building.  In 1899, a two-room building was erected and the name of the school was changed to Lund.

The Swedish Evangelical Bethlehem Church was established in January 1897.  Peter V. Nelson gave one acre of land next to the church for a community cemetery.  There are several monuments in the cemetery that date back to the 1800s.  A granite monument for Carl Johan Goranson, made of Swedish granite and sent over from Sweden, marks the date 1903.

We would love to share even more history, and we plan to do just that in future publications.  Our sincere hope is that you enjoyed a glimpse into the lives of our ancestors and years gone by on our beloved Blackland Prairie of northeast Travis County.

"God made this land for people; no more land will be made. We must honor, cherish and preserve our farms, ranches, crops, livestock, wildlife, historical places and the peaceful country living. We shall not let this way of life or the American dream die. We are, you know, proud Americans and Texans."

In Memory of David Samuelson, Past President -BPCCA