Swedish Colony

You think you know about the US Civil War? Did you know that Abraham Lincoln and Civil War General Joshua Chamberlain were responsible for the Swedish settlement in Aroostook County?

With no budget to fund the colonization of this region of Northern Maine, the State had a big challenge. William Widgery Thomas, Jr., the state official credited with bringing Swedish settlers to the area needed to develop a great strategy. Mr. Thomas first became acquainted with the country of Sweden when commissioned by Abraham Lincoln to become the US Ambassador to Sweden during the US Civil War. He fell in love with the culture and people and soon learned the language and customs. After the Civil War, and back in the State of Maine, Thomas became aware that the state needed his help again. Maine was losing population to the push of settlers going west and with the Aroostook Bloodless War and obvious need to settle the north was evident. Thomas petitioned then Governor Joshua Chamberlain to allow him to travel to Sweden and recruit settlers to come to the area.

Thomas solicited for settlers from Sweden but he needed an angle to entice them. Therefore he asked that any person interested apply and if found to be of sound character, possessing useful skills, and able to pay for their own passage to the United States would be accepted into this program. All successful applicants were promised 100 acres of land with a cabin already built on it.

"On Midsommer's Eve, June 23, the colony of 22 men, 11 women and 18 children gathered with Thomas and their friends and relatives for a farewell party in the Baptist Hall. They sailed with Thomas on June 25 to Hull, then by rail to Liverpool, and then sailed to Halifax, arriving on July 13. They ascended the St. John River by steamer to Fredericton, where they transferred to horse-drawn tow-boats to Tobique Landing (now Perth-Andover).

"When the first Swedish colonists arrived Saturday July 23, 1870, (sooner than the State expected), they found only six log cabins ready of the twenty-five that the State had planned…The colonists promptly went to work, clearing land and building homes, as well as building roads for the state … for which they were paid one dollar per day in credit at the Colony's storehouse. It was already late in the year, but two acres of turnips were planted and harvested by November, and 16 acres of winter wheat and rye were planted."

Click here for more info.