The Bishop Hill Colony: A Religious Communistic Settlement in Henry County, Illinois

Michael Andrew Mikkelsen

Jan. 1892 · Johns Hopkins Press

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"The author does not find it necessary to make any apology for the appearance of this little contribution to the history of the Scandinavian settlements in the Northwest. The Bishop Hill Colony will always occupy a prominent place in any history of the State of Illinois. It was founded when Chicago was but an overgrown village, and when there was not a single city worthy of the name in the State. It brought 1100 able-bodied immigrants into the county of Henry when the entre population of the county was only four tims that number. It put large quantities of ready money into circulation at a time when business was largely conducted by barter and when the principal medium of exchange was the skins of fur-bearing animals. It inaugurated that mighty tide of Swedish immigration which has flooded the State of Illinois and the entire Northwest with prosperous Swedish homesteads and flourishing villages. ... Yet, in spite of its importance for the early industries of the State, the Bishop Hill Colony was primarily a religious society. The history of the Jansonists before their emigration belongs to the ecclesiastical history of Sweden. What they sought in the New World was not wealth, but freedom to worship God afther their own manner. They held views which were repugnant to the Church of Sweden. It was the realization of these views which they sought in the New World. Of the character of these views, as well as the result of the experiment, the reader of this historical sketch will be able to judge for himself."--Preface, pages 5-6