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Contents:
The mission of the BGC History Center is to gather, conserve, and interpret documents and artifacts pertaining to the ongoing as well as the earlier history of institutional and individual constituents of the Baptist General Conference and Bethel College & Seminary.
You can get reacquainted with your roots in your BGC church and/or with those who made possible your spiritual heritage at Bethel. You can also have a part in preserving that heritage for your children, grandchildren, and generations to come. Some of us have explored our "roots" in Europe, but we know little about our spiritual roots in the United States. We hope you will be helped by these newsletters and the resources of the history center of the BGC and Bethel College & Seminary. This newsletter is designed to give you a taste of the resources available in the BGC History Center.
Where Is the History Center? Temporarily, it is located on the second floor of the Carl Lundquist Seminary Library on the Bethel campus in St. Paul. In the years ahead, we hope the history center will be located in its own building. Sketches from the Life of an Early Colporteur: A. G. Sandblom by Andrew Larson Sandblom was not really his name. His real name was Johanson (Johnson), but there were so many Johnsons when he arrived in the United States that when he applied for citizenship, he chose the name Sandblom. The "Sand" was from his family home in Sweden (Sandbacken). The "Blom" was for the name of his parish in Sweden. This changing of names by immigrants from Sweden was very common.
A. G. Sandblom first served as a pastor in Soudan, Minn., but soon he was invited by a wealthy Christian farmer in Albert Lea to begin a ministry in Northwest Minnesota as a colporteur, selling and distributing Bibles and Christian literature. On October 10, 1902, he left Albert Lea in a wagon and headed for Mankato, Willmar, and Alexandria. When the snows of December came, the wagon could go no further. Sandblom left the wagon and horses and continued on the train. He sold Bibles and preached in many settlements on the Iron Range. When spring came, he headed back to get his horse and wagon and continued his ministry until 1904. By then he was married and had a child, and the family had moved to the West Coast where he worked among Scandinavians until his death in 1956. Sandblom wrote a 90-page autobiography in Swedish that was later translated into English by his daughter, Edna West. His autobiography is available in the history center at Bethel Seminary. Isanti County, Minnesota:Where the Swedes Went by Jonathan Larson A century ago, the county with the most Swedish Baptist churches was Isanti County in Minnesota.
The history of Swedish Baptist churches in Minnesota began in the farm home of Olaf and Lovisa Eastlund on June 17, 1860, when 14 believers formed the Baptist Church of Cambridge. By 1873, that church had begun a "daughter church" at Fish Lake. Soon the village of Cambridge was expanding toward the north. In 1888, the original church gave 36 members and its name to a new church in the growing part of Cambridge. The remaining church, now called Isanti Baptist, decided to move southeast of town. The move meant increased horse and buggy travel for many members, so in 1893, 71 members withdrew to form the North Isanti Church; the remaining members formed the South Isanti Church. In 1922, a Swedish Free Mission church joined the BGC and became Elim Baptist. Today, North Isanti Church is located just south of Cambridge, South Isanti Church is located northeast of Isanti, and First Baptist Church is really the third Baptist church established in the area! Today there are eight Baptist churches in Isanti County with Swedish rootsincluding Stanchfield (1866), Spring Vale (1886), Country Roads (formerly Oxford), and Dalbo.
Visiting Scholar Finds Treasuresby Richard Turnwall For three days in October 2001, the BGC History Center opened its doors to David Bundy, an Indianapolis church historian. Bundy is neither Baptist nor Swedish. So why did he come? Bundy was studying the missionary enterprise of the 18th and 19th centuries. He had found a disproportionate number of missionaries from Scandinavia in both China and Latin America, and he wondered why. Further study showed the vigor of the movement we now call pietism, a lay-centered focus on the work and gifts of the Holy Spirit, on personal holiness, and on aggressive evangelism. This movement had taken root among many Christians in various denominations. Continuing his research, Bundy taught himself to read Swedish and came to the history center to study periodicals and books. He found an unexpected treasure trove of materials. Swedish Baptist pioneers were clearly among the pietists. According to Bundy, J. A. Edgren, founder of Bethel College & Seminary, was deeply committed to the pietistic pattern of Christian living. Bundy confirmed that the early tradition of Conference Baptists is that of free church pietism. Early Missionaries Bring The "Lost Book"by Virgil Olson
Part of the mythology of the Kachins, an animistic tribe in northern Burma, was that they had once received a book from God, which included stories of creation, death, resurrection, and even a flood. Tradition said that after receiving the parchment book, the men making the long journey back to Kachin land became hungry and ate the book. The Kachins also believed that some day a foreigner would come and give them back the lost book. In 1890, Ola Hanson, a recent graduate of Bethel Seminary, and his wife, Minnie, went to Burma. Learning about the "lost book," Hanson knew he had to translate the Bible into Kachin. With a love and gift for languages, he collected a list of 25,000 Kachin words, edited them into a dictionary, and gave the Kachins a written language. Hanson began translating the New Testament into Kachin, followed by the Old Testament. Finally, after 36 years, on August 11, 1926, the final chapter of Malachi was completed. The Kachins had their "lost book." It followed their mythology, but contained a message they needed to hear. Today, about 70,000 Kachins are followers of that book, the Bible.
Poet Signe Peterson A BGC Treasure
The poems of Signe Peterson are among the treasures of the BGC History Center. Peterson, besides being a poet, was the grandmother of G. W. Carlson, a current professor of history at Bethel College. Born in Vãrmland, Sweden, in 1890, Peterson came to America alone at the age of 21. She worked many menial jobs in Canada and the U.S., but her passion was poetry, written first in Swedish and later in English. Scores of her poems appeared in various Swedish publications between 1912 and 1950. In 1918, she came to St. Paul where she studied English at Bethel and worked as a cook for seminary students. Poetry was an outlet for her feelings of loneliness and alienation. In 1920, she married Rev. E. B. Peterson, a widower with three children. He became pastor of Fish Lake Baptist Church in Minnesota. When the church made the transition from services in Swedish to services in English, she pastored the Swedish-speaking members of the congregation. Among her 230 published poems is "Today," which appeared in the Svenska Standaret and the Kerkhoven Banner.
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What
Does This Mean for You?
In
this area, near Cambridge, nearly every child in every rural school
had a Swedish surname and spoke Swedish. Even in 1952, there were
ten BGC churches within 15 miles of Cambridge.
