Around Swedish America in 548 Days - Day 61

Day 61 - Isanti

One mile east of State Highway 65 on County Road 43 north of Isanti and a little over four miles south of Cambridge is the North Isanti Baptist Church, 2248 NE 313th Avenue (763-689-3576), which was the site of Tamarack Church, the first Swedish Baptist congregation in Isanti County. The founders were from Halsingland. Outside the present building, which is the third sanctuary, is a stone monument with this inscription: “Impelled by devotion to God and a desire to worship together in their new land, fourteen Swedish pioneers met at the Olof Eastlund home June 17, 1860, to organize what became known as the 'Baptistförsamlingen i Cambridge' (Baptist Church in Cambridge)... . The congregation's first church building, 'Tamarackyrkan,' was dedicated at the predawn 'Julotta' service on Christmas morning 1870. The Tamarack church was a well-known landmark in Isanti County until it was torn down about 1910.”

The present church has an attractive Heritage Room that includes stained-glass windows, pulpit and pulpit chairs, and a communion table from the 1910 sanctuary. In the church's entrance area is a display case of early photographs and old books, some written in Swedish.

South of the church is the North Isanti Baptist Cemetery, which includes some of the oldest graves in Isanti County. In the southwest corner are buried several early ministers, including Olof Bodien (1837—1912) and his wife, Margareeta (1861—1928). Reverend Bodien was pastor of First Swedish Baptist (now Bethlehem Baptist) Church in Minneapolis who helped to establish Swedish Hospital. His gravestone contains a lengthy Swedish inscription. Reverend Olof Engberg and his wife, Sarah, are buried nearby. The gravestone notes that Engberg was a leader in early Baptist work and promoter of education in Sweden and pastor and preacher in Isanti County for twenty-four years.

South Isanti Baptist Church, 3367 NE County Road 5 (763-444-5860), six and one-half miles southeast of Cambridge, is another old Isanti County congregation housed in a white-clapboard, Gothic-style church. In the town of Isanti is the Elim Baptist Church, 114 N. Dahlin Avenue (763-444-9221).

The large, round Linden Barn is a unique historical landmark. Olof Linden, who arrived from Sweden in 1874, constructed the barn forty years later often- inch concrete blocks with four-inch tile facing the inside. The barn is 2.6 miles east of State Highway 65 near the south side of County Road 19 and is visible only from the nearby gravel road.

At the intersection of State Highway 6 and County Road 56, nine miles north of East Bethel and a short distance south of Isanti, is the Erickson Farmstead, first developed by Otto Erickson, who with his family came to Isanti County in 1868 from Hudiksvall, Halsingland. His son, Edward Erickson, replaced the original farm buildings with the present ones when his farming operations prospered. The farm features a large, three-story, yellow-and-white-painted frame farmhouse, constructed in 1915, and a number of outbuildings painted red, built between 1915 and 1930. The farmstead, now privately owned, is associated with Isanti County's important potato-growing industry.