I’m attending an all-day Swedish genealogy conference today at the Denver Public Library. During lunch break, I went upstairs to see Great-Grandpa Hanson!
Some months ago, I came across a reference to a book called “Fifty years: the Swedish Evangelical Mission Association of Nebraska, 1886-1936”. Whenever I come across books like this, I look them up on WorldCat.org to see if there’s a local copy. This one happens to be available in Denver, so I saved it on my “Things to Check Out” list.
This nifty little volume is a goldmine of information about the early Mission (Covenant) churches in Nebraska. I’ve come to realize more and more what a central role many of my relatives played in the development of Swedish churches, both Mission and Lutheran, in Nebraska.
Mentioned in the book were:
- Fred Mostrom. He was my great-great-uncle, married to Ida Martinson. Ida was a sister to my great-grandmother Hulda Martinson. Fred served as Treasurer of the Mission Association from 1927-1935.
- John Holmquist. John was married to Amanda Rudeen, Gust Rudeen’s first cousin (this is the “Uncle Carl” side of the family). John was a charter member of the Bethlehem Covenant Church in Waverly.
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E.C. Hanson, Church Chairman E.C. Hanson. Edward was my great-grandfather, and was, at the time of the book’s printing, chairman of the Ceresco Covenant Church. He’s pictured alongside Mrs. P. F. Mostrom (was she Fred’s mother? I’m not sure), a Charter Member of the Ceresco Church. Nice that they give a shout-out to a woman!
With my iPad, I was able to take pictures of about 50 pages out of the book. I’ll be interested in reading in more detail – I got the impression that many Covenant Churches in Colorado were founded as missionary outreach of the Nebraska churches.
