May 2007

Volume 6, No. 2

History Center Friends to Celebrate 150th Anniversary of Scandia Church

Scandia Church as it is today on the campus of Bethel University in Arden Hills, Minn.

At noon on July 6, 2007, those interested in the historical beginnings of the Baptist General Conference are invited to gather at Bethel Seminary in Arden Hills to celebrate the anniversary of the 150 year-old Scandia Church. A picnic lunch will be served at the seminary Student Center and on the lawn, weather permitting. Cost is $8, and reservations can be made with Mary Nordell by calling 651.635.8066 or emailing mary-nordell@bethel.edu.

Truett Lawson, district executive minister of the Minnesota Baptist Conference, will relate the story of the Scandia Church and its struggles to survive, and how the historic building was finally moved to the Bethel Seminary campus in 1973.

Other guests at the anniversary celebration will include Tim and Patti Olson, who renovated the church in 1983 to restore it as much as possible to its original state. Tours of the building will be available.

Old Church Building Recalls Tough Beginnings

The small white church standing on a hill overlooking Bethel Seminary represents 150 years of Minnesota Baptist Conference effort, often in the face of extreme difficulties. Nine immigrants from Sweden, led by F.O. Nilsson, began meeting in 1855 in the small log hut that Andrew Peterson had built for himself. There, a handful of Baptists could worship God free of the requirements of the State Church of Sweden (Lutheran). In the early days, problems the Scandia Church parishioners faced ranged from religious oppression to attacks by Indians, scourges of grasshoppers, tornadoes, severe poverty, and rampant common disease.

In 1857, Peterson and the others began work on a 20’x26’ log church. The building that grew from that beginning now stands, a century and a half later, on Bethel’s campus as a reminder and tribute to those who planted the seeds of what became the Minnesota Baptist Conference.

The barn from the Peterson farm still exists in the Carver County (Scandia) area. It carries such great significance in the history of those who emigrated from the homeland that a group of four men from Sweden came in 2006 to repair the barn roof and keep the building standing. In fact, the Andrew Peterson Society in Ostergotland, Sweden, is a group devoted to maintaining the Peterson farm and its significance in the saga of Swedish emigration to the United States. The Peterson property and barn have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976.

Peterson Diaries Basis for Famous Novels and Movies

Andrew and Elsa Peterson around the time of their marriage in 1858.

Andrew Peterson was born in Sweden in 1818, the oldest of eight children in a peasant family of tenant farmers. It was a time of hunger and starvation in Sweden, but Andrew learned reading and writing from the Lutheran priest who was responsible for teaching children of the parish.

Andrew kept careful diaries from 1850, the year he left Sweden, until his death in 1898. The famous Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg used the diaries extensively while writing several best-selling novels between 1951 and 1961 about Swedish emigration to the United States. His novels have been named the best Swedish novels of the 20th century, and were the basis for two noted films—The Emigrants and The New Land. The former was nominated for an American Academy Award.

Moberg discovered the diaries in the Minnesota Historical Society archives where they had been deposited by the Petersons’ children. Moberg, who spent five years researching his novels, said the 10 ledger books of Andrew Peterson’s were his most important discovery. They were written in the colorful peasant language once used in the province of Ostergotland, Sweden. Peterson, unlike most peasant emigrants of his time, was literate, and his concise entries about life as a pioneer farmer and church worker paint a remarkable picture of a bygone era and the beginnings of Baptist General Conference churches. The story of his life is the subject of another book, Andrew Peterson and the Scandia Story, written by Josephine Mihelic and published in 1984.

Fertile Minnesota Fields Attract Swedish Settlers

Peterson was 32 years old and unmarried when he and his sister came to the United States in 1850, responding to the glowing (and often exaggerated) accounts of life in the “new country.” He first settled in Iowa, where he was baptized in Village Creek, and then was encouraged to come to Minnesota by Andrew Bergquist, F.O. Nilsson, and others who told him the Minnesota land was fertile and settlers could make a claim for 160 acres.

Peterson, with seven other families, came to Clearwater Lake in 1855, where they started a small settlement they named Scandia. Roads in the area were largely undeveloped then—consisting of only wagon trails. Storms and blizzards made long treks very difficult. F.O. Nilsson once walked 60 miles in two days without food or water.

The group met in the Peterson’s small log home to organize the Scandia Baptist Church. The first baptism at Scandia Church took place on February 17, 1856, in Clearwater Lake. Members had to cut a hole through the ice to make the ceremony possible! Deciding to build a meeting house near the lake for worship, Peterson and the others began construction of a 20’x 24’ log building in April and by July 1857 it was complete enough for use. On July 12, F.O. Nilsson preached his first sermon in the new building.

The first conference of Swedish Baptists took place in the new little church in September 1858, with four churches participating—Scandia, Houston, Chisago Lake, and Wastedo; they called themselves the Minnesota Scandinavian Baptist Conference. In 1885, the word “Swedish” was substituted for “Scandinavian,” a title retained until 1944 when it became known as the Minnesota Baptist Conference.

The little Scandia Church had several pastors in the early days. Besides F.O. Nilsson, others included Andrew Norelius, John Anderson, John Erickson, and John Peterson. An anonymous poem describes these early Swedish Baptist preachers:

The preachers we had long ago,
Were not so fine and grand.
They took “degrees” at hauling logs
And clearing up the land.
But when one of them arose to preach
I tell you, we could smell
The fragrant flower of heaven
And the stifling smoke of hell.

The small, struggling church performed many functions—new immigrants met to sing as well as to learn the English language and how to solve problems in their new land. Disagreements among members about property claims, cattle, etc., were often negotiated by the church.

Church Building Reconstructed in 1875

Scandia Church following a tornado in 1904.

In 1875, the church building was disassembled and reconstructed a few feet to the east; siding was attached, a new floor was laid, and new windows and a door were installed. In 1889, the interior was refurbished, but in 1904 a tornado severely damaged the structure, necessitating repairs. Eventually, an entry and tower were added as well as a heating plant and electricity, but there was never an indoor toilet in the church. After the building was moved to the Bethel campus in 1973, a window was built into the siding on one corner to reveal the original logs underneath.

When Andrew Peterson was 40, he married 23-year-old Elsa Engeman, also a Swedish immigrant, who lived in a nearby settlement with her widowed mother. Elsa, like most Swedish women of her day, was illiterate. The Petersons had nine children, but only two of the nine married and those two had no children, leaving Elsa and Andrew without descendants. The Petersons and all nine of their children are buried in the Scandia cemetery.

Peterson Honored as Horticulturalist

Andrew and Elsa Peterson and their children worked hard on the farmland on which he had made a claim, where they developed several Minnesota-hardy apples. Andrew was made a life member of the Minnesota Horticultural Society in 1888, 10 years before his death.

The family remained active in the church that began in their log shanty and in the small log church that Peterson helped build. For 13 years, he was responsible for all the clerical work for the church, and also served as a deacon. Very civic minded, he served on the district school board, was a member of the township board, took on the role of a road supervisor, and performed other civic duties. He kept careful records of supplies borrowed, lent, or traded.

In the 1850s when the first Swedish Baptist churches began in Minnesota, it was still the “Wild West.” Though a diligent worker, Peterson was often ill, a serious hardship since doctors were scarce and conditions primitive in those days.

The Andrew Peterson home in Scandia, Minn., 1885.

Scandia Church Pre-Dates Minnesota as a State

Scandia Church on its way to the Bethel campus in 1973.

The Scandia Church was founded before Minnesota became a state in 1858. For those who know little about the history of Minnesota, a brief explanation: The first Europeans in the area were the French, who arrived in the 1650s. The French flag flew over Minnesota until about 1803, when the English took over the area and held the land until about 1818. Minnesota became a territory in 1849, shortly before Peterson and Nilsson began their work of evangelism and church planting. Thus, the history and culture of an entire region is intertwined in the story of a little white church.

Picture Party Helps Identify Archives Pix

Thirty volunteers gathered at Bethel Seminary on the morning of March 23 to help archivist Diana Magnuson identify photos that had been given to the archives but were not labeled or dated.

More than 150 photos were laid out (with magnifying glasses and sheets of paper) on tables for volunteers to examine. Most photos were from 1900-1965 and included single individuals or groups. The volunteers often helped each other—some remembering one person in a group, others identifying the occasion or other people in the photo. The volunteers were able to supply at least some information about a majority of the photos.

After a few hours of memory explorations, the group enjoyed a box lunch together in the seminary coffee shop.

Archivist Magnuson urges people who donate old and valuable photos to provide as much identification as possible, including dates and occasion of the photo.

Plan a Future Gift to Preserve the Past

When you plan your will, it shows what you value in life. Of course, it will reflect your concern for family and loved ones.

It can also show your desire to preserve the stories of faith that make up the history of the Baptist General Conference and Bethel University. A gift in your will to the Baptist General Conference History Center will help preserve the stories of your church, favorite events, respected pastors, teachers, and missionaries to inform and inspire generations to come.

If you desire assistance in writing into your will an appropriate gift to the History Center, contact Jim Spickelmier at 651.635.8054.

Steering Committee of the Friends of the Baptist General Conference History Center

Richard Turnwall, Chair; Diana Magnuson, Archivist; Alvera Mickelsen, Editor, Trailmarkers; Richard Burton; G.William Carlson; Jonathan Larson; Dwaine Lind; Marv Lindstedt; Mary Jo Monson; Virgil Olson; James Spickelmier; Flossie Winquist